"Why didn't you kill me?"

Rey froze as she gasped and held her breath. The connection had come on so quickly she didn't have time to block it as she had done since the battle of Crait one month ago.

The clothes she was riffling through in the store house on the abandoned base fell to the floor. She was mercifully alone, having gone on her own to scope out some of the old buildings to see if anything was worth salvaging.

His voice was dark and low and angry.

But more than anger, she felt his hurt coursing into her. She could feel his eyes boring holes into her neck.

"Answer me," came the dangerous whisper of the Supreme Leader of the First Order.

Rey gathered herself and slowly turned to face him. She was not afraid of Ben Solo's wrath, nor did she hate him.

He was wearing new robes, regal and high collared, black and armored, befitting a galactic ruler. She met his storming dark eyes. His posture was tense, everything about his swirling emotions screamed pain and betrayal.

"Why didn't you kill ME?" She asked smoothly, turning the tables on him.

Kylo Ren blinked in surprise not expecting this. She pushed on.

"When Snoke told you to kill me, why did you save me? Why did you kill your master if you weren't going to come with me?"

Kylo growled and spun around, smashing something she could not see and grasping onto what may have been a desk, willing himself not to explode further.

Sentiment, he thought. Foolish sentiment that will be the death of both of us.

"You should have killed me," he boomed instead, "It will be your doom," it was not so much a threat as it was a fear. The words sounded forced as he continued looking away from her.

Rey, surprised and terrified of what she was reading from his emotions, approached the dark angry figure cautiously, slowly.

"I didn't want to kill you," she said taking another step, "And you didn't want to kill me."

"You said I'd stand with you. I DID. I stood with you in that throne room and I would do it again. But not for the First Order or the dark side," two more steps and her hand is reaching out, instinctively wanting to touch him.

She felt his conflict pick up in intensity, his breathing was shallow, his knuckles white from gripping whatever surface he was holding onto, and there was something small but felt suspiciously like…. hope?

"You're free now. You don't need to do anyone's bidding but your own. Is this really what you want?"

Her outstretched finger reached to stroke his cloaked elbow, but he pushed away and striding purposely in the other direction.

"What if it is?" he whispers.

Rey takes a moment to consider this, then steals herself, drawing herself up to her full height.

"Then I'll stop you."

The cloaked figure is silent a moment and then… he chuckles. Kylo turns to face her again, dark humor on his lips.

"That doesn't sound like I'm very free then does it?"

He walks toward her now, closing the distance in a few strides, easily towering over her, daring her to over power him.

"You can't destroy me," he crooned deeply, his eyes hard felt like they were peering into her soul.

Rey tried to steady her breath, quell her body's puzzling reaction to the warmth of his huge body looming over her.

"No… I'm going to save you."

Shock, confusion, fear and that fleeting sense of hope he tries to suppress fly through their connection. His eyes soften, his eyebrows furrow almost as if in concern.

"You'll die first…" he says with soft desperation, not as a promise but a warning.

"Your parents, Luke, Snoke, they all failed you… I wont," she declared with the same determination as when she had spoke these words to Luke on Ach-to.

Her words and the blinding light of her resolve made him more terrified than anything else.

He backs away, eyes wide and mind raging,

"Fool," he says. And then he's gone.