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“Ben…I saw your future. Just the shape of it, but solid and clear…” Rey sais to him into the turbolift. Her gaze piercing directly into his soul. “You won’t bow in front of Snoke. You’ll turn. I’ll help you” she whispers indeed, eyes locked with his “I saw it!”. In that moment, he wishes he could have a little more time to be alone in her company. For an instant, the wildest part of himself suggests him to simply bend forward and kiss her on the mouth, but his frightened soul doesn’t dare to give in such a desire. He knows that Rey must be afraid of his master and much more important, after their last connection through the force, he think he knows what he is doing.
He knows where everything that is about to happen, will lead them in the next future. Because the force itself showed it to him. He doesn’t know why she looks as much confident as him about that, but he feels he can trust the force for once. She could have easily mistook her vision of their future.
In the end, she knows nothing about the force, or at least, not as much as him. Skywalker didn’t train her for real. And anyway the future is never so easy to read, even for an expert force user as him. This last reason is the one that gives to Kylo his confidence about their situation. Because, while Rey had seen an hypothetic future, he had seen her past. And the past wasn’t something that could may change or something she could easily escape from.
So when he whispers something back at her in the turbolift, there is no doubt that Kylo is truly convinced of the rightness of his own words.
“I saw something too. Your past. And because of what I saw, I know that when the moment will come…you will be the one to turn”.
When she looks back at him in confusion, Kylo can’t keep quiet anymore. He needs to tell her, how much she belongs to his side, how right had been her decision to come to him after leaving Skywalker alone in wherever corner of the galaxy he must be hiding right now. When she answers with a quizzical glare in his direction, Kylo finally adds: “Rey. I saw who your parents are”. He says it in a whisper, the images of the vision still playing behind his eyelids.
Then he can hear her breath stopping for a long moment and now he knows he has her complete attention, because Rey is looking back at him with her wide eyes and a glint of hope and bewilderment burning like fire upon her face. But then the doors of the turbolift slides open and he can only escort her forward into Snoke’s throne room. Kylo knows that right now she will probably be confused and scared, but in the end she will understand. There is no doubt about it. Because it is finally clear to him why the force had connected them in the first place.
She was supposed to stay at his side. He only has to be patient and let her acknowledge about that. The Supreme Leader is wise. He is sure that he will understand the situation…And when he’ll finally allow him to train her, she will be with him, as it should have been since the first time they met.
…………………………………………….
When Snoke confess to be the one that created their connection, Kylo immediately knows that he is lying. There is no way he could have done so. He is not powerful enough. Maybe with his help, the connection had become stronger, otherwise…it doesn’t make any sense. Kylo think about his words while watching his cruel master interacting with Rey. Snoke’s horrible face is too near to her frightened young face and Kylo can feel his blood boiling into his veins.
He immediately finds himself not sure anymore about where the encounter with Snoke will may lead. When he hears Rey crying in pain under Snoke’s grasp a rush of pure panic washes through him, hitting him like a punch in the gut. Then he helplessly has to witness at her torture. This wasn’t supposed to go this way, not at all… Kylo tries to think about something, anything that could may help him to save her, but he knows his master enough well to be sure that if Snoke will sentence her to die, Rey won’t go away from the throne room walking on her own legs.
Now his panics leaves place for his anger. But even all his strength won’t be sufficient to stop him, even if he pushed himself to his limits. Kylo aldready knows that. So, for a long moment Kylo feels lost. It’s only when he sees his lightsaber moving in circles onto the floor that an idea finally hits his mind, the rest is history…
…………………………………..
Kylo looks horrified at the unmoving corpse of his master. He still can’t believe at his eyes. Snoke is dead by his hand. Skywalker’s lightsaber had cut him into two halves. The dead bodies of the pretorian guards, lays scattered around the room while the smell of sweat and burned flash is filling the air all around them. Rey stands on her feet only a few meters away from him. Kylo takes in a gulp of hair, trying to balance himself while the inner voice into his mind is screaming that he is finally free.
Maybe Rey was right about the future, indeed. Maybe it was like this that everything was supposed to start. Maybe they were both right about what they have seen. In the same moment he thinks so a thrill passes through his whole body. She will be at his side because it is where she truly belongs, he thinks. But then Rey yells something at him, her voice desperate and urgent.
“The fleet! Order them to stop firing! There is still time to save the fleet!”
She wants him to save the rebel scum and Kylo can’t think about anything more wrong to do in this moment. They are finally free, why she don’t understand so? But then her pleading eyes became full of tears when he tries to explain to her that it is finally over.
“It’s time to let the old things die…”
Probably he should feel compassion for her, but in this moment, the sight of her crumpled face is only capable to enrage him. Why is she so stubborn? Why does she still cares about those who will never understand her? They will only use her for her power…And he can’t allow her to waste her life for them. Not anymore. He does understand. He is the one who knows what it will be safe for her. He won’t allow her to waste her life as it’s been for him in the last decade. But Rey now is looking at him differently. The intimate connection he has felt only moments before is slipping away from his fingers like desert sand, and Rey with it. Another rush of panic catches him.
“No, no! You are still holding on! Let go!” he screams, feeling exasperated by her foolish need to follow a path that won’t ever lead her to the life she deserves. He already knows even too well what she had to to endure during her miserable life on Jakku. The time has come for him to help her to go on with her life.
It’s then that he changes his mind. Before he would have talked to her about what the vision had shown him. But now that his former master wasn’t alive anymore, now that they were finally free, what she truly needs is to let the past die. That’s why he lies to her. Only then and only because he thinks she doesn’t need to carry the burden of her past like it’s been for him during his whole life. They will start together with a new life…
“You come from nothing…you are nothing” the words slips out of his mouth before he can properly formulate a less miserable sentence. But what he really means to underline is what comes next “…But not to me”.
Kylo has never had the occasion to express his feelings properly. Her family wasn’t exactly a perfect example in this matter. But he does care about her right now, as much as he hadn’t for anyone in a very long time. That’s why he wants to spare her the agony of her true origins…
When she finally rises her arm, slowly reaching for his hand, he find himself enraptured. He is not breathing. His eyes locked upon her face and then following the motion of her gesture… When she tries to sole the lightsaber from his belt, instead of taking his hand, it’s only the rage mixed to his desperation that prevents him to let her take the weapon for herself. He instantly feels betrayed and foolish to have let his guard down. To have hoped, even for a moment, that he could have been not alone anymore…
The lightsaber smashes in two and the world becomes dark.
When he wakes up and Hux tells him about the girl’s escape, he considers for a while that she may have finished him while he was still asleep. But he is far away from feeling grateful about it. The pain in his hearth is too much. The sense of betrayal is devouring him from the inside. Rey is gone. The Resistance was the main cause of her choice to leave… He has to detroy them once and for all. Otherwise he won’t be able to start again with his new life. The past must die. His chains must be broken once and for all.
“It’s time to finish this…”