So, I lied. I said I wouldn't be returning to this fandom anytime soon, but the new movie has inspired me to do so. Watching that was an unexpected pleasure, and I found that my impression of Kylo Ren as an emo, whiny Darth Vader wanna-be has improved drastically (I mean, it could hardly have been worse). So, this was rattling around in the crevice that holds my brain cells, and I could hardly go off to bed without writing it all out, hence…here it is. My take on Kylo Ren's offering of his hand. Hope you enjoy :)

Spoilers for Episode VIII: The Last Jedi. And here's the thing – I can't remember the exact words the characters said in the movie, so I shall just substitute its essence. Apologies for the inaccuracy.

A Little Droplet of Hope

He reached out his hand to her, amidst the fiery background, the falling debris. Reached out, like a man parched and dehydrated in a burning desert, for that little droplet of water, for that little droplet of hope. Take my hand, he pleaded desperately, longingly. Do not leave me alone.

Too long had he wandered in the Dark, alone and miserable. Sustained only by his fleeting flights of fancy – for hope, never to be answered, for the imagined approval of a grandfather he had never met, a grandfather who had long since passed away. Misery built on anguish, anguish bled into doubt, doubt fed upon misery – it was an endless cycle, a loop that threatened an unceasing circle of infinity.

The presence of his parents had not helped; they brought only memories of better days long gone, never to return and an ever-present, soul-crushing guilt. When his fiery red lightsaber had stabbed through Han Solo, all he felt was numbness. Numbness, followed by a sense of vast, overarching relief. The man who sired him, snuffed out from the universe, as one would a candle whose flame was no longer needed.

Then when he had detected his mother's presence, on the bridge of that starship, with the vast expanse of space between them, he had not dared to pull the trigger. For to do so meant that he would henceforth be truly alone in this boundless, immeasurably large galaxy. Yet his mother was like the burning sun in the deepest, darkest night – too bright to follow, too radiant to behold, too hot to approach.

But now he had found another. This woman, born of the pettiest junk traders, sold off for a paltry handful of credits, who had, against all odds, trained in the Force. Who was strong in the Force. Strong enough to hold her own when battling against him on Starkiller Base, strong enough to defeat several members of the Supreme Leader's Praetorian Guards. Strong, powerful and immensely attractive.

When he had touched her mind through the Force, he had felt an intense connection to the woman. Snoke had called her stubborn refusal to give up a very Jedi trait; to him, this fiery determination was but another aspect of her intriguing personality.

He felt her sympathy for him as easily as her rage – and fanned it into flames as easily too. So trusting, innocent, so naive...a part of him gloated, even as a smaller, hidden part of him luxuriated in the positive emotions – emotions he had not felt since even before his fall to the Dark side, for of course the Jedi were taught to let go of all emotions.

Were she to join him...such power, such potential, such mesmerizing emotions...surely they could achieve anything that they set their minds to. Together.

Were she to refuse him…it did not bear thinking about…that downward spiral into the deepest abyss of Darkness…a bleak, dark road of no return. He had been rejected once by his master and uncle, Jedi Master Luke Skywalker, someone who was supposed to have compassion for all. The man had tried to kill him in his sleep, as one would slaughter a wild, untameable beast. If this woman, if she refused him once more…what hope did he have left?

And so, lonely, desperate and seeking comfort wherever he could, Kylo Ren offered his black gloved hand and waited.

It was a universal truth that when a woman found a man dark, mysterious and tormented, and felt a need to investigate, it was the beginning of love.

Staring into the soulful, conflicted eyes of Ben Solo, Rey found it difficult to refute that statement. True, she was not in love with him…yet. But he intrigued, puzzled and challenged her, as no other man in her life did.

Finn was…safe. She could predict how he would react most of the time. Ben Solo, Kylo Ren was something else altogether.

She had thought him a monster when he had murdered Han Solo, the only man who had acted fatherly towards her. Yet when she had learnt that Jedi Master Luke Skywalker had almost murdered him, Rey had felt protective and defensive on Ben's behalf.

And when they had partnered with each other to take down Snoke, and in fighting the guards thereafter, it had felt natural, instinctive for them to stand back-to-back. Natural for them to fall into a smooth, cooperative rhythm, natural for them to fight by each other instead of with each other. It had been two of them against many, yet they had won.

Ben Solo, the first person in the galaxy who had given a damn about the identity of her parents, had cared enough to point out what she had already known deep down inside – that she was the daughter of nobodies. And miracle of miracles, he did not care. For Rey, who had grown up on tales of the legendary exploits of his parents, of his uncle, of the illustrious Skywalker family, that meant the world.

For that one shining moment when Rey had thought that Ben Solo would see the light, she had felt hope, as strong and powerful as the crashing waves against the cliff at Ahch-To. When realization dawned that he was not returning with her to the Republic, disappointment, crushing and bitter, had coursed through her.

Then he had made that offer. Forget the past, join me, he said. Join me, and together we can rule the galaxy. His outstretched, black-gloved hand seemed to beckon to Rey from across an abyss. In that one moment, Rey realised that distance loomed between them. If she did not close the gap here and now, she would lose Ben Solo – Kylo Ren – now and forever more. Hope dangled, by the tiniest thread, between them. In between, a little droplet hung precariously.

Somewhere, the universe trembled as fate, or the Force, as the case may be, lay in the balance. Or perhaps it was the ship that trembled. No matter. That droplet had fallen and formed a ripple. As Rey stared up into those dark, dark eyes of Kylo Ren, she made her decision. A decision which consequences would ripple through the entire galaxy.

General Hux looked as if he would go into an apoplectic fit. He took in the corpse lying in three separate pieces – head on the floor, torso on the throne and severed arm somewhere on the dais. Then his eyes narrowed as he focused on the sight before him - that of Kylo Ren and the female Rebel scum, hand in hand.

"What happened?" He demanded, his tone accusatory. Internally, his mind was whirring. Supreme Leader Snoke was dead. The throne was empty. Did that mean -?

"We killed Snoke," Kylo Ren replied flatly. "The Supreme Leader has died." Before Hux could plot his next steps, he was irked by Kylo Ren's arrogance in his attempt to give orders.

Rey watched as the interplay between the two men with narrowed eyes. She was not interested in power struggles, but she had felt a flash of hostility from Hux – anyone who tried to hurt Kylo raised her hackles, and she had no love lost for the general of the First Order. But she had every confidence in Kylo's abilities to deal with a petty general with no Force abilities whatsoever and what appeared to be delusions of grandeur.

Sure enough, Kylo soon had Hux in a Force-choke. Now his face was really turning reddish-purple. "Long live the Supreme Leader!" Hux managed to gasp out in a show of surrender.

Smart man, Rey thought idly. That was soon underscored when, as soon as Kylo released him and he managed to catch his breath, he turned to Rey with a straight face and said, "Long live the Empress!"

Rey did not deign to respond. Turning to Kylo, her breath caught. His attention was not on Hux either. Instead, he was staring at her with those dark, intense eyes of his...

"Rey. Would you be my Empress?"

And that's that. Hope you all enjoyed Episode VIII as much as I did! Off to bed now...