Chapter Text
The command center was packed to overflowing and sweltering with the body heat of so many excited beings. Even though the environmental controls had been cranked up to deal with it and attempts had been made to get non-essential personnel to leave, none of it seemed to have worked, and so Leia had simply rolled up her sleeves and unzipped the top of her suit and dealt with it. She couldn't blame the Resistance for wanting to see this particular op through, for seeing their heroes in action. Stars, she'd been in that position once with all eyes on her, and now she was just the one in charge of all of it.
At the moment though, her eyes were on her twin brother. Luke had returned from his island exile with Rey, had commenced training her after some cajoling, and now had sent her off into the galaxy as a Jedi, the first since... well. But there was more to his current mood than just that, of course, and Leia didn't even have to use her limited understanding of the Force to reach out to his mind. She could feel the worry rolling off him like a palpable thing. So she reached out with her hand instead, resting it on his gloved prosthetic.
“She'll be all right,” Leia told him. “This isn't her Cloud City. She's flourished, she's ready, you said it yourself.”
“I know I did, but can you blame me for not being sure?”
“If anyone should have faith in Rey it's you.” She turned back to the holo-map of the First Order base, watching the three dots that had detached from the main group of Resistance fighters and made their way deep into the interior. “Besides, Luke, she's hardly alone.”
*
The base shook as the Resistance pilots strafed it again and Poe ducked, chunks of rock from the ceiling hitting his shoulders as he watched the corridor for approaching stormtroopers, his blaster at the ready. Ideally he'd be outside in his X-Wing, but the General had tapped him as primary pilot for this mission, and so here he was on the ground waiting for Rey to finish her technological magic with the servers in the First Order's base. With any luck they'd get the location of Snoke's bolt-hole and could end the First Order for good.
Finn had come too, and Poe looked over at him now. “How you doin' over there, buddy?” he asked. This wasn't Finn's first outing as an official member of the Resistance, but it was his first time with boots on the ground at a First Order installation since Starkiller Base, and Poe had listened to him talk quietly about nightmares enough times since he'd woken from his medical coma to know how much it all still ate at him inside.
Hell, it ate at Poe inside. The thought of someone so full of light and life as Finn alone in bed in the dark, left to deal with his own demons...
“I'd be better if someone hurried up,” Finn yelled over his shoulder. He was only half-joking.
Rey's annoyed grunt made Poe grin, even as another squad of stormtroopers came barreling around into the corridor and opened fire. “I'm going as fast as I can!” Rey shouted back over the blaster fire. “Do you want this done quick or do you want it done right?”
“Just go faster, please!” Finn put his blaster to his shoulder and began taking shots, making each one deliberate. Troopers – ones he might have known once – fell to the polished floor one after the other.
Poe glanced back at Rey to check on her. A year and a half of Jedi training and proper nutrition had made her move with a fluid grace and a fearsome power, but she remained her practical self, preferring to work something out with her hands and her mind before relying on her Jedi abilities. This was her first time out as a Jedi, and her lightsaber glinted on her hip as her fingers flew across the keys of the terminal, loading all the data she could get her hands on to a datadisk for analysis.
“Are you going to help me or ogle her?” Finn hissed, and Poe tore his eyes away from the ripple of strong muscles under Rey's sleeves to fire at the troopers in the corridor, taking out one that had stepped out of cover to make their own shot.
Their earpieces crackled. “Bad news,” Testor said. “Kylo Ren's shuttle just dropped out of hyperspace. Cut right through our lines and made for the planet, telemetry indicates he's headed your way. Better finish up and get out.”
“Rey!” Finn yelled. “We're out of time!”
A few more frenzied clicks and Rey shouted “Got it Let's go!” as soon as the last trooper fell. She came up between them, shoving the disk into a pouch on her belt and charging straight down the corridor into the next group of attackers, her lightsaber igniting in her hand.
“Oh man, this never stops being cool,” Poe heard Finn murmur.
Rey had told them both about her first battle with the lightsaber, about how awkward it had felt to be using a weapon that was so deadly but had almost no weight to it. Now she seemed to handle it with practiced ease, and the blade hummed through the air as she plowed through the stormtroopers and cleared the way for the two of them to race after her through the base, heading toward their exit. If Kylo Ren was here, it was no place they wanted to be.
*
The holoprojector flared to life as his shuttle landed.
“Kill the pilot and the traitor,” Snoke told him. “Bring her to me.”
Behind his mask, Kylo Ren set his jaw. “It will be done, Supreme Leader,” he replied.
“Do not fail me again. I need not tell you of the consequences.”
Lightsaber in hand, he was off the ship before the ramp had fully lowered. This time, nothing would stop him.
*
An aide handed Leia a slip of flimsi. “From the freighter just out-system waiting for our strike team, General,” she said quietly.
When Leia read it her reaction was enough to make Luke jerk his head away from the projection they'd been watching, reaching out to rest his flesh hand on top of hers. “What is it?”
“Ben,” she whispered. “My son is there.”
*
They were a turn away from the doors when Rey halted mid-stride, her face going pale. Finn and Poe stopped too, looking back at her.
“What's wrong?” Finn asked, reaching out for her. Rey's eyes were far away though, and only slowly came back to the present.
“Finn,” she whispered, digging out the datadisk and pressing it into his palm. “You take this and keep it safe. Both of you get to the ship, get out the back way – through those vents we used. Come back for me.”
Something in the way she said that chilled both men to the bone. Poe leaned in. “What are you going to do?”
“He's here, he's waiting. For me, but he'll kill you two without a thought.” Rey gave them both a smile that was shaky but true. “I won't let you put yourselves in danger, not when our mission's on the line. That intel is more valuable than me. Go on, I'll be fine, I've done this before.”
She turned and ran, and after a moment's notice Finn and Poe took off in the opposite direction, heading to their entry point in the installation's air circulation system. Finn looked back though just in time to see her disappear into the entry corridor, his stride faltering.
“Hey,” Poe said, reaching out to grab Finn's shoulder. “She'll be fine, our girl. She's strong. But we gotta get to the ship and come get her fast.”
Finn swallowed. “Yeah. Yeah, she'll be fine,” he repeated, and together the two of them ran.
*
As she approached the door Rey slowed to a jog, then to a walk, until she was stopped and staring at the back of the huge blast doors, hoping that she was wrong and knowing that she wasn't. Kylo Ren, to her awakened Force senses, was like a roiling stormcloud in a clear sky, lightning crackling hot and angry around it. Rey had been in storms, and sometimes the only way out of them was through.
Thumbing the door controls, she took the first step into the tempest.
He was there, hooded and masked, his lightsaber sparking against the bright sunlight and the fires raging across the compound courtyard. Fear rose in her at the memory of their last fight but she tamped it down, keeping her lightsaber in hand as she stepped forward into the light.
“You got it to work again,” she said, tilting her chin at his lightsaber. “Did you solve the power regulation issue?”
“Stalling won't save you, scavenger.”
“I'm not a scavenger anymore.”
Kylo Ren laughed, the mask making it sound tinny and mechanical. “Right,” he said, dark humor lacing his words. “You think you're a Jedi now. But I've seen your mind, you'll never be more than a desert rat.”
Rey ignited her lightsaber then, circling around Ren, sizing him up. “And I've seen your mind too, remember? I've seen your fears. I've grown, but you never will.”
“Is that what you think?” Ren snapped his blade up into a mock salute. “Shall we test it?”
He lunged forward and Rey blocked him, just barely getting her lightsaber up in time. She'd been confident when talking to Poe and Finn – she'd seen the worry in their eyes and it had made her ache – but now as she ground her teeth and pushed back, she was faced with the fact that the last time she'd taken on Kylo Ren he had been injured and distracted. Now he was fresh and focused, and utterly relentless. His strikes came hard and fast and pushed her back and back until they were under the eaves of the building she'd come out of, and she found herself silently calling out to Finn and Poe even though they couldn't hear her in the Force.
*
The small ship they'd taken in was waiting right where they'd left it. The Falcon had been too large and noticeable, and three one-man fighters had a better chance of being spotted than one small, fast ship.
Also, the Resistance no longer had ships to spare. There was that.
In the narrow cockpit Finn saw BB-8 start, then turn its domed head toward the control panel. A door popped open on the side of the craft when they were barely feet away. Poe threw himself into the ship and was up the steps to the controls. From below Finn could see his hands flying, priming the engines for takeoff. “We gotta hurry back for Rey!” he said. “This isn't gonna be smooth – hang on to something, Finn!”
Groping for one of the handholds, Finn clung to it as the ship rose up into the air. He didn't mind that the tilt of the ship was too much even for the inertial dampeners, and his feet skidded on the metal floor. For Rey, it was all worth it. “We're on our way!” he said into their commlink. “Less than a min—ugh!”
The ship jerked as Poe went evasive, the green flash of turbolasers filling the small cabin. “We're gonna be a few minutes!” he picked up. “They've got gun placements hiding in the forest, but we'll get there as fast as we can!”
“Just hang on,” Finn said quietly. Poe threw him a look over his shoulder and grinned.
“It'll be all right,” he repeated, before yanking the ship over hard and diving below another volley of blasts. Finn hung on by the door controls. When they got there, he was pretty sure they wouldn't have much time to get Rey aboard.
*
Her muscles strained as she dug her heels in against Ren's latest strike, gritting her teeth as she pushed back against him, throwing him back with a combination of her own strength and a push with the Force. She didn't give him a chance to get his balance back before pressing her momentary advantage, her saber flashing out and back, testing his defenses and bringing all the ferocity she'd learned in the desert to bear on him.
It was frustrating, and disheartening; Rey felt sweat beading up on her back from the combination of mental and physical exertion, while Ren didn't seem to even be breathing hard. At least, she couldn't hear it through his mask. Who knew what the truth of him was?
“You're weak,” he hissed as she danced around him, jabbing and striking and parrying. “But you could be strong. I can sense it in you!”
“You think that's going to work better this time?” she retorted through clenched teeth. He blocked her strike easily and their lightsabers met again, the blades crackling where they made contact. It was... exhilarating, in a way. She seemed to know his next move just as soon as he knew what she was going to do, so for all that he'd had a lifetime with his abilities, they were evenly matched.
“Skywalker won't let you reach your full potential! He's holding you back!”
“You're lying!” She kicked him in the knee and he groaned and went down, but was still able to block her attacks even as he struggled to his feet. His blade flashed, now dangerously close to her midsection, and Rey was forced to retreat. Kylo Ren got back onto his feet but didn't attack right away, staying and watching her with his blade humming at his side.
“You feel it,” he said softly. “You feel the well of power. You've barely begun to tap into it. Join with me and I can show you how strong you can become!”
*
Poe banked hard, bringing the transport almost parallel to the ground as they came back. “There!” he said, pointing ahead to where they could see glowing beams of light, red and blue crashing against each other. “There she is! Get ready!”
Finn slapped the door controls and hung on to one of the grips, throwing his arm up against the dust that billowed in as Poe swooped low in approach, swinging their transport so that the open door was close to the fighters. Through the grit Finn could see shapes and lights flashing against each other, each strike flaring like a star gone nova. “Ready!” he shouted. “Do whatever you're gonna do!”
Up above, Poe gripped the turbolaser controls tightly. He was a good shot – a great shot – but that was Rey out there, and he'd never...
He took a breath, exhaled partway, and took the shot.
*
“Your friends—“ Kylo Ren swung his lightsaber, a heavy double-handed strike that had her stumbling, coughing dust kicked up by the transport's repulsors, “They can't save you, they won't a second time, you're coming with me—“
Heat and light ignited the air, and Rey was thrown to the ground, her lightsaber deactivating as it left her hand. Rock and debris fell around her, and she stayed curled up on the ground until it stopped.
“Rey! Rey!”
“Finn!” She got to her feet, saw the silvery glint of her lightsaber and called it to her hand, clipping it back to her belt. “I'm here, I'm fine.”
He came jogging out of the settling dust, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “C'mon, we need to get off planet—“
“Wait, I think...” Rey stretched, casting around, searching for... ah, there, a dark-clothed form crumpled against some supply crates. Based on the way his robes were smoking and obviously singed, he'd been very close to the turbolaser blast. She shrugged off Finn's arm and stumbled over, reaching past the layers of cloth and the metal mask to press two fingers against his throat. His pulse was a little weak but didn't seem in risk of fading anytime soon – he'd just been knocked out.
Why is this important? Rey thought, staring down at the black and silver mask. Why is it so important for me to take him away from here?
“What are you doing?” Finn yelled. “We gotta go, just leave him—“
She hear Poe muttering agreement in her ear in far less polite terms and waved Finn over, ignoring their combined protests. “We've got to get him to the Resistance,” she said.
“Are you insane?” Finn shouted. “Did that blast scramble your brain, Rey, this is Kylo Ren we're talking about—“
“I know! Look, I can't explain why, it's just...” she cast about for the right word, then pressed her finger to her ear so Poe could hear too. “It feels right.”
Finn watched her for a moment, then set his jaw and nodded. “I understand. But I'm not happy about it.”
Rey grabbed one of Kylo Ren's arms and slung it over her shoulder, using the Force to help until Finn gingerly took the other arm and she could call his lightsaber to her hand and tuck it into her belt. Together they half-carried half-dragged the unconscious man over to the transport with Poe yelling in their ears the whole way.
“What are you—“ Poe flung his headset down and stuck his head into the crew compartment as soon as they were aboard. “What do you think you're doing, bringing him on board? And don't say it feels right again!”
“What else am I supposed to say?” Rey shouted back at him. They stared at each other for a minute before she ran a hand over her head.
“I'm sorry,” she said. “I can't imagine how hard this is for you both. But I think... I have the feeling that we're going to need him.”
Finn was digging in the transport's medkit and paused, looking up at Poe. “She's got a point,” he said. “We've got the datadisk. What if there's information on it that only a senior officer can access? Kylo Ren has all those codes. Taking him could mean the end of the First Order.”
Poe ran a hand over his face. “What if he wakes up?”
Finn had dived back into the kit, coming back up with a hypo, which he fitted with a bottle and pressed to Kylo Ren's neck. There was the hiss of air and a soft groan from their new prisoner as he slipped deeper into unconsciousness. “He won't,” Finn said. “Unless he uses the Force to wake himself up, which...” he trailed off, looking at Rey, who shrugged. “Nope. Not gonna wake up.”
They felt pressure against the soles of their feet as Poe took off, heading back to rendezvous with the freighter that would take them home. “Thank you, Finn,” Rey said quietly. “I can watch him by myself, if you're not comfortable.”
“Don't take this the wrong way, Rey, but I'm really not.” He rested his hand on her shoulder for a moment, giving it a little squeeze. Then he climbed up to join Poe in the cockpit, and Rey was left to take up a vigil beside Kylo Ren, her lightsaber in hand, watching him.
What binds us together? she thought. Luke had taught her enough for her to know the pull, but she could not understand it, as she understood so little. The more she learned, the less clear things seemed to be.
“I hope you don't make me regret this,” she told the unconscious Ren, as they passed through the atmosphere into the blackness of space.
*
“They did what?”
Luke glanced over at his sister. Leia had a headset pressed to her ear and looked a combination of shocked and angry. He suspected it had something to do with the way Rey was now broadcasting her emotions on a wide band in the Force. Confusion, anger, something else...
“How could they—what happened? No, no, don't tell me, I'll get it again at their debriefing. Is he—they did. That's all right then. Make sure he stays that way until he gets here and we can do this properly. But make sure that those three nerf herders know they'll report to me first thing. General Organa out.”
She put the headset back on the console and leaned on it heavily, her head bowed. Luke got up from where he'd been absently working on cleaning some dust out of Artoo's circuits and went to her. “What is it?”
“Your apprentice,” she said, though the way she eyed him made him know she meant the other word, “Has done something that is so foolish...” Leia sat, staring up at him, through him, for so long that Luke felt he had to reach out and take her hand to bring her back.
“What is it? What's happened?”
“My son,” she whispered. “They're bringing him home.”
*
As soon as the transport landed they were greeted with a medical team. For Poe it was uncomfortably familiar, but with Finn standing beside him he could just look to the side and know that everything was all right. Or at least, as all right as it was going to be with Kylo Ren, now unmasked and with a steady drip of sedative drugs in his hand, being taken off to Medical.
It had been jarring for him to see the mask removed. Rey had reached under the lip of the metal helmet, pressed some button that released it. Beneath the mask was... a man. Poe had looked down into that face, the face of the man who had tortured him and sifted through his mind until he'd gotten what he wanted, and seen nothing more than a man.
But despite that, this man had left his dirty fingerprints all over the three of them. Rey sat on one of the narrow benches in the transport, staring down at Ren's lightsaber in her hands. His helmet rested beside her, and Poe moved it so he could sit close.
“You did the right thing,” he said quietly. “It's just... still hard for me.”
“I know. I'm sorry for putting you in that position, Poe.”
Finn came and sat on her other side, and she leaned on his shoulder, her fingers still playing with the lightsaber. Her knee bumped into Poe's, and he reached over and put his arm around her. “You made the right call,” he said. “Or at least, the best call. Let's hope the General agrees with us.”
“The General wants you to explain yourselves before she makes that kind of decision.”
They all scrambled to their feet. At the foot of the ramp, General Organa stood with her arms crossed and her mouth set in a firm line. Luke Skywalker stood beside her, but he was only watching Rey with worry creases on his brow.
“So,” General Organa said, staring between them. “Whose idea was this?”
Rey spoke without hesitation. “Mine, General.”
For a moment there was a curious softness to the General's features when she looked at Rey. “Why?”
“It... it felt right, General. I can't say why it did. But I think we're going to need him.”
“Rey,” Luke asked gently. “Do you think it was the Force?” Rey nodded hesitantly, and Skywalker and the General shared a look. Rey sat up straighter.
“It was right,” she said stubbornly, tilting her chin up just a little.
“We're not questioning you,” Luke said gently, then caught a look from his sister. “Well—I'm not, anyway. You showed great compassion for Kylo Ren. That's a trait any Jedi should have.”
“And he may prove to have valuable information, right?” Finn spoke up. “He was above all the other officers, close to the Supreme—to Snoke. He's got to know what the First Order's been up to.”
“Intel is the whole reason we went on this mission,” Poe added. “Now we've got a source. And...” he trailed off, wanting to talk about what they all knew but not wanting to be the first to say it.
Luckily, General Organa caught their meaning. “I'm not mad,” she told them. “It was unexpected, but not unwelcome. Mission debrief is at 1700 for all personnel, and you three in particular I expect reports from by tomorrow morning. Is that understood?”
“Yes ma'am,” they chorused.
“Good. Go get yourselves in order.”
She left, but Luke gestured to Rey. “I'd like to talk with you.”
Rey glanced back at them over her shoulder but left with her teacher, and Finn and Poe were left with Ren's helmet, the ship, and the feeling of being on the brink.
*
“What do you mean, 'He was taken'?”
There were not many occasions for General Aldus Hux to feel fear. He was a son of the Empire, heir to that storied legacy... and clenching his fists to keep from shaking in front of the Supreme Leader. Weakness was not something he could show right now.
“Our base on Belsavis was raided by Resistance fighters—“
“Belsavis, where our main communications relay is for that sector?”
“...yes, Supreme Leader.” General Hux waited a moment for the slight twirling hand gesture that meant Snoke would allow him to continue. “They attacked from the air, but it was a ruse, cover for a strike team to make their way into the installation, to the data center. Our information is preliminary pending analysis, but initial reports put the Force user Rey on site, accompanied by FN-2187 and pilot Poe Dameron.”
“These people are annoying me more and more,” Snoke rumbled. “But none of this answers my question.”
“Kylo Ren insisted on going to the base himself to subdue the Resistance and capture or kill the strike team members. We have confirmation that he landed, and his pilots say that he engaged the girl shortly thereafter, but the Resistance transport carrying the team appeared on the scene and fired its turbolasers, and when the debris and dust cleared, neither ship nor fighters were to be seen. The troopers on board the shuttle searched the area, but could not find Kylo Ren.”
Snoke's hologram pounded the arm of the chair. Through the hyperwave connection, Hux could almost feel the reverberations, even though this was actually happening thousands of light-years away. He kept himself from flinching, at least. That would have been an unforgivable sin.
“We are calculating their return vector now, Supreme Leader, but the Resistance has grown extremely canny since the destruction of the Hosnian system, and our own forces are just now falling into a coherent enough command after Starkiller Base. But I will send probes out to possible systems and monitor their reports personally.”
“I sense that Kylo Ren is not in immediate danger,” Snoke said, and General Hux continued to keep his face carefully neutral. Snoke's political ideologies were beyond reproach, but this mystical nonsense held little interest for him. “But his presence is clouded, obscured by other powers around him. Search carefully, General. I will not have him in the hands of the enemy for too long.”
“It will be done, Supreme Leader.” Hux bowed as the hologram faded away.
You're more trouble than you're worth, Ren, he thought.