Force Destiny

Insidious Snoke

Kylo tried to settle the churning in his stomach, the nausea he felt whenever he saw the traitor. He had made the mistake of sparing his life twice, and all it had brought him was misery. The next time, Kylo would end that distraction permanently. Rey would hate him for it, but what did it matter? Rey hated him no matter what he did, and he shouldn't care if she hated him.

He didn't fear losing Rey to the traitor – at least, not from the thoughts he had seen regarding their friendship. She had regarded the young man much as she had regarded Han Solo. They were the first people in her life that had been kind to her. The traitor had done terrible things for the First Order, had lied to her, had almost abandoned her, yet she forgave him. Her friendship with the traitor had given Kylo the foolish hope that maybe she could see beyond what he had done as well.

He still carried a deep hatred for the traitor, but it had little to do with Rey. It never had. He was everything Kylo was and yet everything Kylo could never be. Kylo had witnessed moments of FN-2187's follies and victories during his years in cadet training and missions for the Order. Kylo found himself irritated with the trooper more often than not. "Eight-Seven" was the one to interrupt an important meeting with Hux by releasing a creature from the surface of the planet GUHL-J03870 on the Finalizer. Though Kylo had to admit that, at the time, he found the trooper's hijinks entertaining, if only because it irritated Hux. Kylo even played along with Eight-Seven's charade of impersonating Phasma to remove that creature from the ship. He forgave the young man for forgetting he was Force-sensitive. Though he easily recognized in the Force that he was not the third member of their triumvirate command, Kylo was intrigued to see how far the trooper would continue. It was his mistake for not understanding the insubordination for what it was.

There was something about him that reminded Kylo of himself, perhaps before the Order, when he was wide-eyed and naïve to the truth of the galaxy. Regardless of his reasoning, he wasn't one to remember stormtrooper's names, but he remembered FN-2187.

Kylo was surprised to see the trooper on Taunul, struggling to complete his mission. The boy was lost, and Kylo sensed the depth of his conflict when he skimmed the thoughts in his mind. His friend had been killed in front of him, and he was questioning whether his ideals aligned with the Order's. It was enough to have the younger man held for treason; hell, he could have redirected the beam of plasma at the trooper, and they'd have been none the wiser – but something gave Kylo pause.

Eight-Seven's thoughts centered on his abandonment by his parents, whom he was too young even to remember when was sent away. Though his parents had not abandoned him, he had been taken; Finn had been told they had willingly handed him to the First Order. Kylo knew from his file that his family had been killed, but he also knew it was the habit of the officers in charge of the stormtrooper programs to lie to the children about the circumstances of their arrival. It would not have engendered much trust if the Order told the children the truth – the Order abducted them from their parents, often murdering the families to cut any loose ends. Kylo never agreed with the program, but that had been Hux's responsibility, not his.

Perhaps that was why – when he sensed the trooper's thoughts of neglect and abandonment by his parents as he questioned the propaganda of the Order that had been thrust upon him despite his own beliefs – Kylo understood him, as he knew that struggle all too well before he had found the Order. He sensed how the death of his friend had derailed the young man, and Kylo remembered the day he had promised himself he would forget.

Just as Kylo had struggled, Eight-Seven was at war with himself over who he was and who he was expected to be. Kylo sensed the young man's disillusionment, as he remembered his own, but he also felt the trooper's loyalty. He believed FN-2187 would make the decision Kylo hadn't had the chance to make at the Jedi temple. Kylo believed he would stay. Perhaps it was for Eight-Seven, or perhaps more for himself, but he let him go.