Chapter Text
Rey’s mind raced, grappling with the chilling possibility that this was some cruel scheme concocted by Kylo Ren, driven by his twisted fixation on her since their fateful meeting on Starkiller Base. It felt impossible that someone as ruthless and devoid of empathy as he could suddenly wish to join forces through a marriage contract. To her, Kylo was a figure bathed in darkness, radiating power and intent on watching the Resistance crumble, much like his former master, Snoke. What could he possibly gain from such an alliance?
“I understand it’s a lot to take in,” Leia said gently, her voice steady, carefully laced with concern as she observed the uncertainty shadowing Rey’s face.
“It’s more than just overwhelming,” Rey replied, her movements brisk and anxious as she paced the confines of the small room. “This is a critical matter that could determine the fate of the Resistance. Ren is fully aware of the influential role you and your brother Skywalker played during Lord Vader’s reign, and he now grasps the significance of my position in serving you.”
Leia reached out and took Rey’s hands in her own, holding them tightly as if to transfer her strength. “I know you’re worried, and we would be foolish not to be. Ren has shown us time and again the depths of his ruthlessness as Supreme Leader. But I fear that if we choose to oppose him, we may face even darker threats ahead for our cause.”
“Are you actually suggesting that I go through with his plan?” Rey asked, concern etched on her face.
Leia replied, “I have managed to secure a secret meeting between the two of you to discuss the terms further.” However, noticing Rey’s panicked expression as she took in the bustling Resistance members around them, Leia quickly added, “But not here. That would be too risky, and I don’t want to give Ren the satisfaction of discovering the location of our base—no matter how much he would love that. He has agreed to meet you somewhere discreet.”
“Where?”
“The planet Chandrila. Do you know it?” Leia asked.
Rey hesitated, unsure about voicing her thoughts on Leia’s choice of meeting place, given its questionable history with galactic alliances. But she finally found her voice and said, “I do. After the first rebellion’s success, it became the world that founded the New Republic and the new Galactic Senate.”
“No one else knows where you’re going, not even Finn and Poe. For their own safety, they must remain in the dark.”
Rey’s voice dropped to a whisper, her eyes signaling that she was slowly accepting her fate. “It’s better that way. Once they discover I’m about to marry the most despised man in the galaxy, how long before they see me as their enemy too?”
Leia placed a comforting hand on Rey’s shoulder, her expression both serious and empathetic. “In time, they’ll come to understand your reasons. They won’t judge you for the choices you’ve made.”
Rey turned to face Leia, her heart racing as fear flickered in her eyes. “What did you tell them by the way?”
“Just that you’re on a reconnaissance trip for the Resistance, and a long one at that,” Leia replied with a deep, weary sigh that suggested the weight of her words. “They believe you’ll be journeying far into the unknown regions of the galaxy, seeking out anyone who might still ignite that spark of hope in these dark times.”
“And they believed it?”
“Of course not, but I could hardly reveal the truth, now could I?”
“When do I leave?” Rey inquired, recognizing the futility of arguing with someone so formidable.
“Tomorrow morning. The earlier, the better,” Leia replied.
“I suppose I should spend what remains of my last night enjoying the warmth this place has afforded me,” Rey remarked, taking in the lush greenery of Ajan Kloss for what she knew would be the final time. “I imagine my new home will be vastly different—cold, impersonal, and certainly unwelcoming.”
“Regardless of how you feel, Ren has assured me that no harm will come to you under his command.”
Rey scoffed sharply. “I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he threw me into the nearest holding cell the moment I stepped aboard his ship. He’s already interrogated me once—what’s to stop him from doing it again?”
“Because you are his wife, that’s the difference,” Leia replied firmly. “You are not his enemy, but his equal in all things. In time, I’m certain he will see that.”
“I think you’ll find we have profound differences, General. One is that I care deeply for my friends and for the cause we are fighting so hard to achieve. Ren could never comprehend the meaning of loyalty or the resolve to keep hope alive when he is so determined to extinguish it.”
“Perhaps, then, you might both learn something from each other and find common ground,” Leia suggested. “This marriage, however doomed you believe it to be, does not have to remain that way. Sometimes, people can surprise you when you least expect it.”
“But, I—”
“Rey, there you are!” Finn’s voice rang out as he’d just spotted a lifesaver in a storm. Rey instantly straightened, attempting to look as though she and General Leia had been deep in a strategic discussion about her upcoming reconnaissance mission. Unfortunately, keeping a calm, collected expression was nearly impossible as Finn bounded over. “Poe and I were just trying to figure out why the Falcon’s compressor was acting up and, well… Chewie thinks we may have accidentally fried it during our escape.”
“You did WHAT to my ship?!” Rey’s jaw dropped like a malfunctioning hangar door. “Finn, I’ve told you and Poe a million times that light-speed skipping puts extra stress on the compressor! You can’t do that!”
“I know, I know,” Finn said, throwing up his hands in surrender. “But there were at least twenty of Ren’s TIE Fighters on our tail, and we had to improvise!”
“There are *guns* on that ship, you know?” Rey said, pressing her fingers to the bridge of her nose like she could massage away the chaos. “They’re there for a reason.”
“But Poe was the one who—”
“Hey! I told you not to tell her!” Poe cut in, storming up behind Finn with the grace of a man who’d just walked through a beehive. “Look, Rey, the ship is fine.”
“My ship is currently surrounded by people *putting out a fire,*” Rey shot back, gesturing to the crowd of Resistance members wielding fire extinguishers like parade batons. “I’ve warned you a million times—don’t overwork the compressor!”
“We escaped, didn’t we?” Poe countered. “And that ship’s been due for repairs since before I met it.”
“Why I ever left you in charge of my ship while I’ve been in training is beyond me,” Rey grumbled, yanking a spare fire extinguisher from a nearby box and stomping toward the Falcon, which was still enthusiastically on fire.
“Well, if you weren’t off doing all this Jedi training, maybe we wouldn’t have needed to light-skip! We need you out there, not here!”
“Poe, you know I want to be out there with you and Finn, but Leia says I… I still need more training—”
“Yes,” Leia interjected, cutting off the argument. “But these repairs can’t wait any longer. Rey will be heading out on a reconnaissance mission herself tomorrow morning in the Outer Rim.”
“Wait, what?” Finn and Poe blurted out in unison.
“The Resistance needs more than just a handful of people with ships and weapons,” Rey said quietly, hoping they couldn’t see through her lies. It hurt to think this might be the last time she would see—or argue with—the two people closest to her. “We need anyone willing to listen and join the cause to help us fight.”
“But you’re a Jedi,” Poe pointed out, glancing at General Leia for support. “Sure, you’re still in training, but I’ve seen what you can do.”
“I can’t defeat the First Order on my own, Poe, and you know that,” Rey replied sharply. “If we’re going to have any chance of stopping Ren and the First Order, we need to reach every corner of the galaxy where hope still exists.”
“Alright… so when do we leave?”
“I leave tomorrow morning,” Rey said, and when she noticed the puzzled looks on both Poe’s and Finn’s faces, she added softly, “Alone.”
“What do you mean, alone?” Finn asked, his voice edged with panic.
“If I can get to the people in the Outer Rim and give them even a shred of hope, then I have to try,” Rey explained.
“But why do you have to go alone?” Finn pressed, suspicion in his eyes. He shot Leia a look that made it clear he suspected both women were hiding something. “We’ve always gone with you on missions like this. What’s changed?”
“I’ve asked Rey to handle this for me personally, and she agreed to do so,” Leia cut in, her tone wry. “Ever since that day when I was launched into the great cosmic beyond like a human cannonball, I haven’t been feeling my best. So rather than risk another impromptu zero-gravity adventure, I figured Rey could take this one on for me.”
Finn observed Rey and General Leia with a cautious expression, choosing to withhold any further comments on the subject. He reasoned that, should the matter hold significance, Rey would confide in him privately, beyond the General’s earshot. Despite this rationale, a deep sense of apprehension weighed upon him, certain that Poe would echo his misgivings. The prospect of Rey embarking on any endeavor without support was far too perilous, especially given Ren’s relentless fixation on pursuing her.
“General,” Poe cut in smoothly, “pardon the interruption, but if you’re shipping Rey off to the Outer Rim, it’s only sensible for Finn and me to tag along—purely to prevent her from accidentally reducing half the sector to space dust, of course.”
“I can handle myself, Poe—”
“Never said you couldn’t, Rey,” Poe replied, sounding calm. “But Ren isn’t exactly the friendliest person in the galaxy. Or did we forget what he almost did to this amazing fighter pilot?” He pointed to himself, making Rey roll her eyes hard enough almost to see her own skull. Poe clearly thought a lot of himself; Rey had assumed it was just a short crush. “Ren is clever and ruthless. He probably spends his free time making PowerPoint slides like ‘101 Ways to Ruin Someone’s Day.’ What if this mission is just a big trap to get to you?”
“Then it’s a trap, Poe,” Rey said with a shrug that could’ve earned Han Solo’s nod of approval. “If the dice fall that way, I’m ready to roll—whether it ends in victory or a spectacularly tragic demise.”
“And the First Order will be throwing a parade over your grave,” Poe countered, frustration fizzing to the surface. “Ren’s the type who plays with his food first. You’re the mouse, he’s the cat, and we both know how that story ends—minus any complimentary cheese platter. We can’t just let you skip off to the galaxy’s edge without proper backup!”
“Fortunately for you, it’s not your call, Poe!” Rey snapped.
“You’re impossible,” Poe said with a half-laugh, wagging a finger at her. “Impossible and reckless, I might add.”
“Oh, really?!” Rey shot back. “Shall I bring up the dreadnaught fiasco? You know—the one where your ‘ingenious’ plan cost us nearly half our bombers—”
“Ingenious is exactly right,” Poe interrupted. “Sure, it looked questionable at the time, but it got us the results we needed!”
“All right, break it up!” Leia snapped, wedging herself between them like a seasoned peacekeeper at a droid market sale. “You two are carrying on like a couple of nerf-herders in a pen full of angry banthas!”
“Well, that’s one way to put it,” Poe muttered, grudgingly admitting the General had a point. Regaining his composure, he added more seriously, “But sending Rey out alone is like tossing her into a pit of Leonids while she’s holding a glowing sign that says, ‘All You Can Eat!’”
Rey arched a brow, arms folded, her voice laced with mockery. “I’m honestly shocked you even know what a Leonid is, Poe.”
“You know what? Forget it—I’ve changed my mind. Let’s just speed up her departure,” Poe grumbled to Finn, shooting Rey a look balanced perfectly between tragic theater and cartoon catastrophe.
“Now, now, Poe,” Finn chuckled, barely containing his laughter as he gave his friend a hearty thump on the back. “Let’s not go saying something we’ll regret. Besides, who else is going to keep you so endlessly entertained?”
“My own personal stand-up act on demand is enough, I think,” Poe shot back dryly. “She’s utterly insufferable.”
“Yes, I’m insufferable until I’m dragging your sorry hide out of trouble, which, if memory serves,” Rey began ticking off with exaggerated precision on her fingers, “is more times than I can count.”
“Do you really have to do that?” Poe asked with a hint of sarcasm.
“Do what? Speak the truth?”
“Ugh,” Poe groaned before turning and walking off.
“I’m sure he’ll be fine once he cools down,” said Finn, though he looked apprehensive about the matter. “But, he does have a point--I’m just saying,” he quickly added when he noticed Leia was about to say something. “Ren will never stop until he knows you’re dead.”
“Maybe he’s not actually trying to kill me, Finn,” Rey said, wincing as the mortifying image of his last tragically awkward proposal barged uninvited into her thoughts.
“What else would it be, Rey? A marriage proposal?”
Leia and Rey locked eyes for a beat before dissolving into a perfectly timed duet of awkward laughter. This kind teetered somewhere between genuine amusement and sheer desperation to plug the gaping hole of silence.
“What?” Finn asked, glancing between the two with a baffled expression. “That’s not *that* outrageous, is it?”
“Utterly ludicrous,” Rey replied with a laugh so forced it practically squeaked. “Ren’s about as fit for marriage as a Teedo on Takodona trying to peddle fizzy drinks instead of spare parts.”
“The point is,” Leia interjected, shooting Rey a dark glance, urging her not to say anything more, “to stop both Ren and the First Order from winning this war, we need every hand, every weapon, and every last bit of belief the galaxy still holds.”
“But we’ve already tried that,” Finn replied with exasperation. “On Crait, we reached out to anyone who would hear us, and what happened? No one came. So what makes you think sending Rey to the farthest reaches of the galaxy will change anything?”
“As long as hope remains, people will listen, and they will come.”
“Rey, please, let us come with you,” Finn urged, brushing off Leia’s comment, and he gripped Rey’s shoulders and gave them a firm, reassuring squeeze. “We can help—me, Poe, Chewie, even Rose. You don’t have to face this alone.”
“I couldn’t live with myself if any of you got hurt, Finn, or worse...”
“But—”
“Come on, Finn, there’s still so much left to do, and there will be plenty of time for final goodbyes,” Leia said, giving him a gentle nudge on the shoulder as she guided him away.
Rey tried to steady her emotions, but the sudden, crushing weight of the Force pressed down on her, thick and unyielding, while dark shadows crept into the corners of her vision. Of all the moments in the galaxy, why did he have to appear now?
“You’ve got some nerve showing up here,” she muttered through gritted teeth, her anger growing with every step she felt him take closer from behind.
“I’m not sure what you’re getting at,” Ren said evenly. "I was in the middle of an important meeting when you suddenly decided to reopen our bond.”
“I don’t want to talk to you,” Rey snapped.
“And yet here you are, looking rather vulnerable. For all the Resistance knows, you might just be having a conversation with an imaginary friend.”