The Balance

A New Feeling

         "Rey?" Rose asked, attempting to sit up on her makeshift bed.
         Rey felt her cheeks become heated.  Once again, the tightness in her throat became less suffocating.
         "Yes?" She murmured, her voice still rough with grief.
           "Thank you," Rose replied, her eyes tearing up, "for everything. Today you resparked the flame of the resistance. We were doomed. Finn tried to give himself up. I....I'm so sorry," she wiped the tears from her cheeks and laughed apologetically.
          Sitting near Rose's feet, Rey couldn't help but let her emotions overwhelm her too.
        "No, thank you. You saved Finn. You are the kind of person this resistance needs," she firmly stated.
         The two stared at each other with eyes full of hope.  Their eyes beaming with this emotion, they couldn't help but be reminded  that no matter how bleak the circumstances were, resistance heroes were born out of nobodies like them. 
      Rose suddenly had a resonating thought.
       "I'm sorry if this may sound strange, but though we have just met, I can't help but feel as if you're like a new sister, one I've never met. We have taken care of each other, though we didn't know the other existed," her face became maroon, "Yeah, that was kind of weird."
      "No...I think I get it.  I like the sound of that, sisters," Rey laughed.
        Across the room, Leia caught her attention, beckoning Rey toward her and Poe.
      "Well, see you sister," she stood and waved a farewell to a grinning Rose.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
        Kylo Ren's eyes burned and his throat clenched, but his pride carried the largest burden. The girl, Rey, had torn it to shreds, and his former master, Luke, had stomped on the remains.
Though the two people who had ever truly controlled him were forever gone, he could not help but feel as useless as he did with them alive.
Perhaps it was her, Rey, that caused this weakness. He could not refrain from replaying their last encounter on repeat in his mind.
On the floor, he reached for his father's dice. The anger that a piece of metal could unleash was remarkable.
A familiar sound filled his ears, and he looked up, to see her. Rey. The one that had not only torn his pride, but also broken
his heart. Abandoned him.  The rage crecendoed within him.
She didn't see him for a moment, but when she did, her eyes made him feel something foreign. They made him feel remorse, regret, sorrow, yet she didn't contain any of those things. He couldn't help but begin to feel that she might have been...right?
The fear, anger, and grief reflected in those eyes were far more prominent than he had ever seen before. More than with her parents. More than with Han Solo.
Maybe that was it.
Maybe it was because he could see that she cared about him too.
That was why he began to decompose inside.
And when that door closed between them, that was when he saw her future for the second time.
He saw pain.
He saw sorrow.
He saw grief.
He saw regret.
But worst of all, he didn't see himself.
Again and again, this vision etched itself to Kylo's mind, and though he had gone through so much pain in his life before, this hurt, a new hurt, was more than he could handle.
Others had hurt his brain, but Rey had broken his heart.
She would pay.