Ben's offer hung through the air, sharper than any blade and heavier than the responsibility on Rey's shoulders.

To Rey, everything hurt, the pain seeping from every nerve in her body— a cruel parting gift of Snoke's torture. He currently lay in pieces just next to her, scattered from his throne, and Rey struggled to keep herself calm every time she breathed in and smelt his burnt corpse.

Rey couldn't imagine the situation becoming worse. After all; she was alive, Snoke was dead, and the Praetorian guard wasn't able to fight her and Ben off. The war would end, Ben would come home, and Rey would reunite with everyone in the Resistance. The thought soothed her.

And then she saw Ben staring at the throne. She had known. The second she had turned and saw that he looked only at the throne, not at her, Rey was aware of what would come. Ben held out his hand for her— an offer, a plea. Rule with him, be at his side, turn to the dark.

The pain ripping through Rey at this betrayal stung more than the burns covering her body.

"Please don't do this, Ben. Please don't go this way." Begging, barely audible. Rey had felt— seen— the Light in him. It had solidified in his eyes as he was to execute her. She knew that he was not too far gone, that this war was not lost, that Ben Solo lived inside of Kylo Ren.

His hand was outstretched, illuminated by the fires around the room. Rey wanted the slap his hand away, to knock him unconscious as he had done to her so long ago, to force some sense into him somehow.

Rey had seen his future, and she knew that he would return to the Light, that he would be redeemed. But how?

Tears continued to run down her face as Ben tore open Rey's wound over her parents. She couldn't remember their faces, couldn't remember their names, but she could remember being left alone, feeling small, and knowing that she was worth so much more.

"You're nothing. But not to me," Ben said, his hand still out, waiting for Rey to take it. He wore his gloves, and for a moment Rey remembered the feeling of his bare skin. How warm and real he had been once he stripped himself of Kylo Ren.

He had done it for her.

And Rey knew what she had to do. The future laid as clear as the moment they touched— she could see her path and plan. It scared her, but she knew it was right, and she knew that it was what must be done to save the Light, the Resistance, the Galaxy, and Ben Solo. The future was in front of her, presented as Ben's hand.

May the Force be with me.

Rey didn't know what to feel or what she should have felt, and she closed her eyes, letting everything wash over her. Another tear rolled down her cheek. Guilt, love, fear, security, hate, responsibility all hit her at once, and she tightened her grasp on Ben's hand for fear that her knees might give out.

I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, forgive me.

No one could hear her. Not Finn, not Luke, not Leia. Not even Ben, who gripped her hand like it was a lifeline. Rey supposed that it was, but he didn't know in what way. She wondered: If Ben were to drown, would he take her down with him?

Rey took a deep, shuddering breath. Now was not the time to think of failure. She could not look behind her, or she wouldn't be able to do what she needed.

Let the past die.

When Rey opened her eyes, Ben stared at her in wonder. He stared at her like she would slip away, like she was still just a projection of the Force. It was not the expression of Kylo Ren— it was Ben through and through, and Rey's resolve strengthened, because he was still there, and this plan of her's could work.

Ben stepped forward, cautiously, as if waiting for Rey to take a step back. When she held her ground, Ben wrapped his arms over her shoulders and pulled her into a surprisingly gentle embrace. Rey put her arms around his back, and, despite her resolve, felt herself crying again.

She could do this. Somehow.

Her crying startled Ben, who awkwardly rubbed circles on her back. Rey could appreciate the gesture, but in the back of her mind, she understood that he hadn't been this intimate with anyone in who knows how long. For a fleeting second, Rey felt guilty, because Ben actually trusted her.

She would be his downfall.

Ben's offer to rule had been an offer to become his equal, to command the galaxy by his side. Rey saw the power and influence she would hold over the First Order, all in Ben's eyes when he had offered it to her.

The only way to dismantle the First Order would be from the inside. Rey could do it— cause enough problems, stir enough conflict, end the stability of the Order. She could make it so that the First Order would be too unstable to slaughter the Resistance. With enough time to regroup and reorganize, the Resistance could stand a fighting chance, especially if Rey was the one pulling their enemy's strings.

It could work.

So Rey offered her apologies to her friends and Leia, hoping that somehow they would know what she was doing. She offered apologies to Luke, knowing that if word of her joining Ben made its way to back to him, he would blame himself. She offered apologies to Ben, for what she would have to do to save him from the Dark.

She offered apologies to herself, for whatever was about to happen, whatever she would have to do to the galaxy to save it.

Fear ran through her veins at the idea of her future, but Rey felt safe with Ben holding her. She wished that, for just a heartbeat, she could forget where she really was and what was really happening and savor the feeling of an embrace— of Ben Solo's embrace.

But, Ben pulled his arms back, and Rey followed suit. The two of them faced each other, and Rey watched Ben smile. It wasn't a wide smile, and if she wasn't looking closely at his face, she might not have even noticed a change. It was there, though, and in spite of herself, Rey felt the corners of her lips lifting, too.

Maybe it was because she actually didn't feel alone.

The ship shook, and Rey and Ben grabbed onto each other for balance as a boom tore through the air, louder than anything Rey had heard before. It seemed to go down into her bones and shake her to the core.

"What was that?" Rey asked, and she and Ben moved to the viewing glass surrounding the room. Rey's stomach dropped.

Half of the ship was gone, with all of the surrounding Star Destroyers torn in half. A brilliant white light was dying by the time Rey looked closely, and instead fire was emerging from the ship. She turned her head to the left and saw that there was no one shooting at the Resistance as they fled.

"We should be fine. The ship is so massive that something like that won't destroy us," Ben said, not taking his eyes off the destruction.

"We have to leave here before we lose any more of the ship," Rey said, surprising herself with how easily she slipped into saying 'we'.

"With a hit like that, we can't make the jump to Lightspeed. We'd be torn apart," Ben said.

"Evacuate?" Rey suggested. She couldn't imagine how many people were on the ship, but there had to be enough transports to get everyone off.

Ben said nothing and instead continued looking at the chaos spreading.

Rey opened her mouth to force Ben to answer when the elevator opened. Rey turned at the sound of footsteps and met eyes with a pale man entering the room with his hand on his blaster. When Rey looked at Ben out of the corner of her eye, annoyance was plainly written across his face.

"What the hell is this?!" the man yelled, storming to Snoke's corpse. He stared at it for a moment before nudging Snoke's torso with his boot. In spite of how funny Rey thought that was, she didn't dare react.

"There's been a change in leadership," Ben said, straightening his back.

"Did you kill the Supreme Leader?" the man demanded. Then he noticed Rey, standing at Ben's side. His expression morphed from anger to confusion.

"No. He was like this when we found him," Ben said, completely sincere, and Rey briefly considered that she might die in this room due to Ben's terrible explanation. After all, the man was quickly drawing his blaster, his face contorted in rage.

"You killed—!" the man started, but then he began choking, fell to his knees, and reached desperately for his throat. At the same time, Rey pulled his blaster across the room and into her waiting hand. The Force in the room gravitated to her and Ben so easily. She looked at Ben and saw his absolute calm. It frightened her how easily he could slip into the Dark.

"General Hux," Ben said, "are you suggesting that I'm lying?"

Hux choked an answer that Rey couldn't understand, and she wanted to tell Ben to let him go. She had blood on her hands— First Order blood, at that. But this, watching torture, watching a man choke just enough to cause pain but not kill him, was too much.

This was to be her life, now. So, she steeled her back and tried to look like she would have also choked Hux if given the chance.

"No," Hux gasped, and Ben relaxed his grip. Rey could see it in the way Hux sunk closer to the floor. "We have no Supreme Leader, Ren. The First Order is over."

Not yet, Rey thought.

Ben walked forward, his eyes set on Hux. Everything about him in that moment set Rey on high alert— it was a jolt back to the reality that he was not Ben Solo, the man who she had opened her soul to on a cold, rainy night when she had never felt more lost. The man in front of her was dangerous, cruel, and Dark. She watched Kylo Ren stalk up to Hux and stare him down.

"You have two Supreme Leaders, General," Ben said, his hand tightening every so slightly. A chill ran down her spine.

He meant her.

"The girl—?" Hux choked out.

"Rey," she said, surprising herself with her own voice. Based on Hux's reaction, she surprised him, too. Compared to Ben's, her own voice sounded small. It sounded weak.

If Rey were to make the Galaxy believe she was in charge of the First Order, she would need to sell it.

She took slow, heavy steps toward Ben and Hux, glaring at Hux as she did so. There was fear in his eyes, yes, but something else. Something she couldn't place, and that made her uneasy. But, Rey swallowed her nerves and kept her face unreadable.

"Rey," she repeated. She took a final step, standing next to Ben and looking down on Hux. He gave her a mute snarl, and she simply looked bored.

"Supreme Leader Rey," Rey said before Hux could open his mouth to speak.

The title felt wrong to hear attached to her own name, but there was a certain power that seemed to ooze from it. As Rey's spine straightened, her stomach sank.

No turning back now.

Hux made a noise of indignation, and Rey flicked her finger down, pulling only a small bit of the Force to herself, to force Hux to bow close to the floor. She felt disgusted, she really did. This wasn't her.

Supreme Leader Rey wasn't her, but to save the galaxy, she would have to let it be.

Ben was staring at her with a glow in his eyes that she had seen that night in the hut. Rey met his eyes and refused to look away.

I'm sorry, but I will save you, even if you hate me for it.

Rey let up her hold on Hux, and Ben released his grip. Hux forced himself up on his hands and looked at them standing there, staring unflinching at each other, and managed, "Long live the Supreme Leaders."

Rey looked on as he made his way to his feet, rubbing his throat.

"All commanding officers and their personnel should evacuate," Ben said, finally looking at Hux. "The ship can follow us to a base for repairs."

"Will we follow the Resistance to Crait?" Hux said as he pulled himself to his feet, staring only at Rey for this.

"There's no point," Rey said. If she failed here, all was lost. "They don't have the numbers or the resources to survive for very much longer."

"Then why not go after them?" Hux countered.

"Why waste our resources doing it? We just lost how many ships? How many men?" Rey said. How many had the Resistance just lost? Was Finn okay? Leia? What the First Order had suffered today was nothing in comparison.

Hux narrowed his eyes, but nodded. Rey did not like him, not at all. He turned on his heel and cast one final glance at Snoke before marching to the elevator. Before Rey and Ben followed, they shared a look that Rey was unable to decipher.

Rey took one last glance through the viewing glass to watch the Resistance flee to safety. Tears stung the back of her eyes, but she held them back. At least for today, she had saved them, and that was no reason to cry. She'd come back to them. Somehow. Someday.

Run run run run

She stepped into the elevator, and as the doors shut her in with two of the most powerful men in the First Order, Ben held out the Skywalker lightsaber. Rey smiled at him and took it from his hand.

All this time, and she had forgotten that he even held it.

A/N: I'm back.

After I finished Colorblind, I knew I'd be back eventually with a new Reylo fic... and then The Last Jedi happened. So, here I am, ready to write again.

This time, my best friend and editor Kat is back to editing and I'm so so so thankful. Right now, I'm guessing that there could be thirty-three chapters, but once I get further into the plans, I might change that.

Thank you all for reading this chapter, I hope you'd like to stay for this story!

(PS: Ben's talent for excuses is on Leia's level of claiming 'I'm on a diplomatic mission' five minutes after Vader watched her leave)