•LEGACY - A Reylo Story•

EPISODE XXVI - NOW I UNDERSTAND...

Bound in a chair reminiscent of the one Kylo Ren questioned her in on the Starkiller base, Rey's heart pounds as Snoke enters the room. She can't see him yet, but she feels his presence-it's dark, and humming with power.

"So, the scavenger girl. The Force user." His voice is smooth, almost inviting. Nothing like she expected.

"What do you want with me?" she demands.

Snoke appears in her sight now. Tall and imposing, he looks as if his face has caved in over the weight of hundreds of years of evil. Rey tries to recoil, but she can't. Lightheaded, she struggles to keep her face as blank as possible.

"You're afraid," Snoke states.

Dammit.

"Good. Fear is the path to the Dark Side."

"Don't you have Kylo Ren for that?" she spits. "You don't need me."

Snoke shakes his head. "Oh, but I do. Your power is stronger. You're more committed. You won't waver, when you turn."

"Good luck with that."

Snoke's palm rests on her forehead, and pain shoots through Rey. His grin grows wider as her grimace grows deeper.

"I need helpers," Snoke says abruptly. "The Force is so immense, so powerful. Choosing only the Light-you're limiting yourself."

"Isn't it the same if you choose the Dark Side?"

"You've already chosen the Light. If you choose the Dark now, you will become more powerful than you can imagine. Imagine, that little girl who was powerless to find her mother, having all the knowledge in the universe at her disposal-"

"That's not going to work," Rey hisses.

Snoke sighs and raises his hands. Her restraints snap off.

"Get up." It's not a request.

Rubbing her wrists, Rey staggers out of the chair.

"Come with me."

She can't resist. He leads her down a hallway. "Where is your lightsaber?"

"I lost it."

"You gave it to Kylo Ren is what you mean. We'll have to get it back. That's a good lightsaber, a stable one with so much history... used on the side of the Light, and the Dark." He opens the door to a room made of black marble. Pillars rise towards a domed ceiling, a ceiling flecked with crystals that look like stars.

But they're not stars.

"Is this where you trained Kylo Ren?" Rey asks, glancing around. It's majestic, but the cavernous appearance gives it a hollow feeling. Her voice echoes. Ren... Ren... Ren...

"This is where you'll train."

"No." She faces him. "I won't."

"Is that your answer then?"

"Yes?" Is he actually listening? And then she can't move. She's frozen in place, and the same awful panic claws its way through her. Let me go, let me go, move, move move! she screams at herself, more panicked because she knows it's pointless.

You can't fight him.

Snoke approaches her, hands roving up and down her body, never quite touching. "I feel it. Your power-Kylo Ren's pales in comparison. Rey Kenobi, you are-brave too, and resourceful-and-" His hands pause over her abdomen, and he begins to laugh. It's a horrible, bloody, ghastly sound.

He waves his hand, and she can breathe, can move. Gasping, Rey grasps her knees. "You've already invested so many years in Kylo Ren. Why start over?"

"Rey Kenobi. Let's not play games. I can see far more about you than you even know."

He knows. About Ben. Despair latches onto her.

"Did you really think I couldn't sense these things through the Force? These, you see, are the types of things the Dark Side can show you."

"Leave me alone."

"All right." Snoke withdraws, startling Rey. He opens the room's door, and two stormtroopers swoop in to grab her arms. "Now I understand."

Understand what? Rey wonders.

"You'll have time to decide. Approximately seven and a half months, I'd say."

So long? Rey blinks, disconcerted.

"Since it appears you don't know yet," Snoke says as he approaches the door. "Let me be the first to break the happy news to you." He faces her, a hollow grin on his face. "You're carrying Kylo Ren's child, Rey Kenobi."