He cannot see daylight from his cell, but Ben can tell when nighttime comes. The footsteps in the hallway vanish, and voices stop calling to each other.
R2 still blips and whirs next to him as he tries to sleep. Ben closes his eyes and, for a moment, think's he's fallen into a dream.
I should have known you'd flee back to your mother and her puny resistance.
Not a dream. Ben sits bolt upright.
Has she forgiven you for killing Han Solo? She might say it, but she really hasn't, and you know it.
How are you in my head? he demands, whipping around to survey every inch of the cell.
I'm nowhere near you. But we two, we're bound by our dark deeds. You don't really think you can ever erase the Dark, do you? You couldn't even erase the Light.
Where's Rey?
With me. She's stubborn.
Where are you?
Aboard my ship. Which you already know. I see-Ben's brain begins to unfurl, and he struggles to block Snoke. Luke Skywalker is no help to you. Do not forget: you chose this. You chose to leave.
Sweat drips down his back. He feels as if an inferno is raging inside his mind. Why her?
You don't expect me to answer, Kylo Ren, and I won't be answering.
He shakes his head wildly. My name is Ben.
Is it now? Snoke laughs. Ben's skull feels as if it's threatening to fly apart and he clutches it. R2 squeaks in concern.
I do have important news for you. About Rey.
Don't hurt her, he pleads, breath coming in quick gasps.
I won't. Not yet. I'll even let you see her.
The pain in his head explodes, and Ben drops to the floor, but he sees her, he sees Rey, clutching a bucket and vomiting.
She's sick!
Because of you, Snoke taunts.
R2 bleeps hysterically, zooming towards the cell door and tapping out some kind of signal.
Snoke laughs again. She's pregnant, Kylo Ren.
And then Snoke vanishes, and he has his mind back, but it doesn't matter because his own mind takes Snoke's last statement and replays it over and over. She's pregnant, Kylo Ren. She's pregnant.
Rey is pregnant.
With my child.
What have I done?
Ben can only imagine the plans Snoke has for Rey, for their baby. It's what you are made of. The Dark, and the Light. He shakes his head. He can't... he can't... This can't happen. He should never have touched Rey, let her touch him... but he did, and he loves her, and fear like he's never known grips him.
A child?
He can't be a father. He has no idea how. Does Rey know how to be a mother? She can't. And yet it's happening, and because of him, Snoke's hold over both of them has tightened.
What have I done?
I'm so sorry, Rey, he cries in his mind even though he knows Snoke won't let her hear it. I'm so sorry. Does she blame him, is she furious at him for putting her in this position?
Ben imagines his mother's reaction, Luke's. Now when he finally has the chance to make things right, he's screwed everything up. Again. For Rey... for the Resistance, even, because Snoke is ecstatic, this he knows.
And for his child
For the first time, he wonders what the parents of the stormtroopers Hux took from birth feel when their children are stolen from them and bred to slaughter and be slaughtered for the First Order.
Not my child. He can't let that happen. His father's grandchild... grandson, or granddaughter...
I'm so sorry, Rey.
He punches himself, punches and kicks the cot. R2 shrieks.
Ben whirls around. "R2," he pleads. "I need to talk to my mother. And Luke. Right now."
YOU ARE READING
•LEGACY - A Reylo Story•
Fanfiction*WRITTEN PRE-TROS, POST TLJ* When a ship crashes near the Resistance base, Finn and Poe are shocked to discover Kylo Ren. What does he want? And where is Rey? And as for Kylo, he must decide how much he can trust them with what he knows about Snoke...
