Force Destiny

Truth in Lies

When the Force connected them during his fiery Force-outburst, Rey was still furious at him for abandoning their bond and continually shutting her out. Yes, she had doubted him, but he was their enemy; he had admitted to keeping vital secrets from her. He had given her no reason to trust him. He had chosen to become Supreme Leader rather than save her friends. What was she supposed to think? The truth was, he thought he could turn her. When she wouldn't join him, he tried to kill her. When she wouldn't accept him as the Supreme Leader, he shut her out. If he wanted to be evil, she shouldn't care, even if part of her did. He had chosen his path. She did care, however, if he died. Not for herself, but for his mother.

Rey had never seen a fire-storm before, but she did understand the feeling of losing control. With ten blasters pointed at his head and an entire room reduced to embers by winds of fire, Kylo clearly had lost it, and she tried to help him the only way she knew how. Using the bond to learn how to sever his mind from consciousness, she intervened to prevent the wrath of his general. And she would have gone back to ignoring him if she hadn't accidentally witnessed a memory in the chaotic seconds before he lost consciousness.

She hadn't meant to access it; in her inexperience with the skill, she had pushed through his mind – through his memories – to sever the connection. In the darkest reaches, just before the last thread of consciousness, she found memories of uncountable deaths by his hand. She saw Snoke, she saw Han, and she saw her memory of her parents flying away on her ship.

Only, it wasn't her memory; it was different. Just as she had seen in her nightmares, she heard herself scream as she watched the ship fly away. Her memory usually ended with her vision growing red. But this memory continued further than she remembered, as a bright white light exploded across her vision. When it died away, small pieces of the ship were falling to the ground like meteors. Young Rey was screaming, but this scream was different – this was a cry of mourning. Before the memory could finish, she had severed the final thread, and Kylo had collapsed in unconsciousness.

Rey, however, had not slept since.

To possess that complete memory, Kylo had either seen her parents' death in his vision in the hut, or he'd been there. Either way, he had lied to her. Kylo had told her they were buried in the desert on Jakku. Why had he never told her that the ship exploded? That voice inside told her the answer to that question was of unimaginable consequence. Rey knew her bondmate; if he had purposefully omitted that detail, it was deliberate. The only question was, who or what was he protecting?

Pacing the corridors, she found the dark place in her mind that was their bond. And waited. She knew he was awakening, because she felt his energy strengthen in her mind. With a mental nudge against that energy, she was pulled back to the destruction of that receiving hall. When she appeared, he had barely pushed himself up from where he lay on the dais, his hands shackled in binders. She stood silent, watching him. She didn't care what he did to the bond, as long as he waited until after she received her answers.

Before he could sever the connection, she spoke those five life-altering words: "What happened to my parents?" Instead of the anger and resentment she had felt in him when he severed their connections, she sensed an overwhelming fear flood the bond. It was all the confirmation she needed; he knew there was more to the strange memory. He was hiding something.

"Ben, you can shut me out, you can never speak to me again. But I'm not leaving until you tell me the truth," she demanded, though she could feel an unease growing inside her. A little voice told her she didn't want to know. She refused to listen; she had come this far, and he held the key. "I saw your memories. I saw their ship exploding. That's not what I remember."