Star Wars 'What If?': The Force Awakens

Chapter X

Rey wakes up, disoriented. She opens her eyes slowly and moves her head left and right too see where she is, looking at a place she has never seen before. Rey tried to move her body but something is holding her back. She is in an angled and upright restraining rig, trying to remember what had happened before she went unconscious.

When her vision is fully recovered, she looks over and she was startled to see a dark figure. It was none other than Kylo Ren himself. He has his mask in place, kneeling in front of her, looking at her. She wondered how long had he watched her sleep? But it wasn't important right now.

"Where am I?", she asked, suddenly. Kylo Ren was still looking at her as he answered after a long beat. "You're my guest", he simply replied. Hearing his answer sounds ridiculous to her but she knew Kylo Ren was known for his sharp attitude. It's another way of saying he has such a sarcastic attitude. "You? Treat your guests like this?", Rey said. Her tone almost  sounds like as if she's mocking him. 

"No", the dark figure responded. "Usually we just terminate them, or obliterate them", he said with certain tone. Rey flinched. The sudden fear of him had return. She wanted anything but to die from being executed.  She immediately thought about the fate of her friends and family. "Where are the others?", she said staring at him as if warning him not to try and lie to her despite her fear. "You mean the murderers, traitors, and thieves you call friends? You'll be relieved to hear that I have no idea". 

Rey had no idea what he was talking about. Her friends were no traitors and thieves. Let alone murderers. She wanted to question more about her friends but she was still too exhausted. Maybe it's because she used all the might she had to break out of Kylo's probing and his force freezing. She feels drained.

As curious as Rey is, she studies him. She still fears him but something about him just awakened something inside her. A sense of familiarity, of hope. Nevertheless, she still doubts that this is truly Ben Solo, her closest friend at Luke's Jedi Academy. A part of her wanted to believe it, to trust her instincts but a part of her is convinced that there's only Kylo Ren there. 

Rey really wanted him to pay for everything he'd done. The destruction of Tehar Village, tormenting and slaughtering innocent people, and so much worst. "You still want to kill me", he sensed what she's thinking. Without hesitation Rey opened her mouth. "That happens when you've been hunted by a creature in a mask".

Kylo Ren freezes and considers her. He looks at her necklace once more as he reaches up, unlatches, and removes his mask. This was the moment Rey had been waiting for. She's in denial with herself. To proof to herself that the man inside that dark apparatus was just some ugly creature and not her old friend. The second she saw his alluring face, Rey reacts with a  astonished look in her face. It takes a moment before she regains her own mask of defiance. It is true. It is Ben Solo.

"Ben...it is you...", she whispered, still trying to accept it. "That name has no longer meaning to me", he replied. He looks rather conflicted and unsure of himself than terrifying as Rey thought he would've look like even without the mask. He looks vulnerable. He's a young man struggling to look up to his legacy, struggling to find his true self. Rey wondered why would he revealed his face to her. He'd never taken it off on his battles. At least, not that she know of. "To your family, of course it does", Rey answered him, softly, trying to deny his words. There was a long pause. "You'd be wise not to gaze at me that way, Rey. You seem like you didn't see it coming, of what I'll become", he said with a sharp tone, completely ignoring her opinion. She heard the hurt there. "I didn't....I didn't think-" Rey paused. " I thought you were happy"

The interrogation room became silent for a while before Kylo gives her a harsh gaze and decided to shift away from their current conversation. "I don't see you have a lightsaber with you. Aren't you a jedi?", he asked, remembering the last time they met was when Luke's academy had been destroyed. She was still wielding her lightsaber then, fought his Knights,  and almost died in the process. "I'm not", she shortly replied. This has just got interesting, he thought to himself. His curiousness toward her had immediately enlarged. "So you left the order? Just like someone--"