Chapter 1: Coming Clean

Rey Skywalker opened up the cabinet and gathered some cups and plates. Shutting the door, she took a deep breath. There was no point in beating around the bush anymore. She must say what she needed to say, if for no other reason than for closure. To finally put the war to rest. Behind her, she felt a Force essence brush up against hers in concern, and she quickly moved to block her thoughts. She could only let the truth out when the time was right for her, and she must speak it.

"What is it? Are you all right?"

Rey turned around and smiled weakly, tenderly at her best friend, Finn. Ever since he had told her that he was Force sensitive, she had known that keeping secrets from him would be infinitely more difficult from now on - hence the reason she had decided to bump up her tell-all session on the calendar.

"Yes. I'm... I'm glad you're here. And Poe, too."

Finn scanned his eyes around the abode. "It's a nice place you got here." He chuckled. "At the very least, it isn't in the desert. I thought you were never gonna leave Tatooine."

Rey giggled. "Naboo is very nice. The Queen has been so incredibly kind to me, putting me up here." The happiness in her face receded way too quickly, and Finn noticed, but before he could ask again about her well-being, she took his hand. "Shall we fetch Poe? I need to talk to you - both of you."

The pair of friends walked down the hall to a little corner office, where Poe had shut himself up since arriving early that morning. The door was ajar, and through the crack, Finn and Rey could see the Co-General commandeering Rey's desk, perusing a file with reading glasses pushed down to the bridge of his nose.

Finn rapped his knuckle on the wood purposefully. "Enter," Poe clipped without looking up.

Rey bustled in, a forced smile on her face. "Enough, enough, enough! Come on, have some drinks with us."

Poe smiled wanly as he set his files aside. "I'm sorry to be bringing work with me on vacation, Rey, but this couldn't wait."

"It can wait for one night," Rey chided, holding out her hands to him. "Now, come on!"

She guided the men back into the spacious kitchen. Pouring the drinks freely, she tried not to let her hands shake. Behind her, she could hear Finn whispering to his colleague, "She said she needs to talk to us..."

Turning back around, Rey smiled yet again, the expression still so fake it was making her dimples hurt. Passing around the cups, she clutched her own tightly and took a seat, exhaling deeply. At last, she raised her eyes to Finn:

"Finny? Do you remember your family - your real family?"

Frowning in bemusement, Finn answered, "Hardly anything at all, really. I was taken into the Stormtrooper Corps when I was very young."

"What do you remember?"

He shrugged. "Just... images, really. Feelings."

"Tell me."

Finn rubbed his temple persistently as he tried to bring those extremely faint memories back. "My mother was very doting... We lived on... a farm. There were really tall grasses..." His voice trailed off. "Why are you asking me this?"

"I have very few memories of my parents," Rey murmured. "I barely knew them. I was in Unkar Plutt's care by the time I was six years old."

"But you remember your parents?" Finn persisted.

Rey sighed and stood, beginning to pace. "Some memories are clearer now..." She spun to face the boys. "I have a story to tell you."

"Yeah?" Poe raised his mug to his lips. "What's it about?"

"Well... it's kind of about a scavenger. And kind of about a Sith. But mostly it's about the Emperor... Do you remember when we were on Pasaana, and we found Ochie's ship and the Sith dagger?"

Poe and Finn nodded.

"That ship was the same one I remember leaving me on Jakku when I was a little girl. My parents did sell me to Unkar Plutt, but to protect me. Hide me."

"Hide you from who?" Finn demanded.

"I'm getting to that. Some time later, Ochie found my parents and his stolen ship and demanded to know where I was. When they wouldn't give me up, he killed them... with this." Pulling the Sith dagger out of a drawer, she held it up. Poe's face shattered.

"Oh, Rey..."

"There's more. It won't be easy for you to hear it, but you must. Ochie had to have my parents killed, almost as much as he wanted me dead, because he was ordered to do so. My parents and I... though we lived a simple life, we were still important, because of Darth Sidious."

"Whoa, whoa, back up - what does this have to do with Darth Sidious?" Finn asked.

Rey gazed at Finn sadly. "He's my grandfather."

Finn's entire expression churned. "Your grandfather?" The idea of Rey being related in any way to the Emperor was horrific.

Rey nodded. "He feared my power, and wanted me eliminated. My father was Palpatine's son, and didn't want to have anything to do with him, or for me to fall into his clutches. So he hid us away."

"How did you find all this out? Was it a Force vision? When you touched the dagger?" Poe wanted to know.

Rey shook her head. Now came the hardest part. "Do you remember when we were on that First Order flagship rescuing Chewie? You guys swooped in on the Falcon to rescue me?"

Again, Finn and Poe nodded.

"Well... right before that, Kylo Ren told me the truth about my parents."

"But why should you believe him?" Finn leapt out of his seat. "He wanted nothing but to see you harmed!"

Rey stared at Finn heartbreakingly. "Why? Because... he was my lover. My husband."

Dead silence. Finn and Poe were gaping at Rey in horror. Somehow, Finn's dark skin was rapidly turning purple. "When the hell did this happen?" he spluttered.

Rey took a shuddering breath. "Over a year ago, when Kylo Ren captured me on Takodana, he interrogated me about BB8. As he did, I fought back with the Force, and the Force built a... connection between us. After I left for Luke on the island, we continued to see each other."

"Uh... how?" Poe inquired. His eyes were in that earliest stage of becoming glazed over, as if the story for him was becoming difficult to follow.

"A Force Bond," Rey explained. "They're extremely rare, but it allowed Kylo and I to see each other and speak across lightyears. Overtime, I got to see who he really was - Ben Solo. A scared, lonely boy who had been failed by nearly everyone around him."

"And what happened?" Finn demanded.

Rey's smile turned heartsick. "I fell in love. We fell in love. And I loved Ben Solo enough that I thought I could save him. So I went to him aboard the Supremacy to turn him back to the Light. His master, Snoke, tortured me, but Ben killed him to save me. But then, when I asked him to come away with me..." Her voice choked up, and she blinked back tears. "He couldn't do it. Kylo Ren still had a hold on him." Rey let out a shaky breath. "Leaving him on the Supremacy was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. Yet even after Crait, the Bond remained. We continued to see each other."

"For a whole year?" Poe gawped, his voice taking on a hard edge. "You kept all this from us? Even apparently your wedding?"

Rey shook her head. "There was never a wedding, in a classical sense. And most of the time we saw each other in that year, we traded a lot of hurt and anger. Nevertheless, the Force married us. And our Bond only continued to grow stronger, until it became something rarer still: a Force Dyad - a connection as strong and as intimate as life itself. Ben and I are two people who were one."

She continued: "Then, in those final 16 hours, Kylo Ren kept hunting me. But his motivations were Ben's - I believe he wanted me with him to save me from Palpatine. When I went to confront the Emperor on Exogol, Ben came back to the Light. He came to save me. He fought and killed the Knights of Ren for me, and the Emperor tried to drain our life forces, our Dyad, from us, to rejuvenate himself. Palpatine cast Ben into a pit, before torturing me until I... I died."

"I knew it!" Finn leapt to his feet, overturning his chair. "I felt you die in the Force..."

"Sssh! Don't interrupt," Poe snapped.

"Well," Rey went on. "Ben must have climbed out of the pit, because suddenly, I woke up, and... I was there. In his arms." At this, her expression turned positively lovesick, dreamy. "I kissed him... and he kissed me back. He held me so tightly, and then..." The tears flowed freely and she broke down. "He died! He... he gave his life force to bring me back! Why did he have to die?"

For a long time, there was silence, broken only by Rey's cries. She buried her face in her hands and wept. The sobs she let out were shuddering, and absolutely anguished. Poe and Finn were standing, staring at her with their mouths open in disbelief. The entire tale sounded so absurd. And yet...

Rey's sobs soon died down into sniffles. "Sometimes, I... I want to die too."

"Don't you say that!" Finn's voice sounded pained, strangled.

"That doesn't make it a-any less true!" Rey blubbered. "I'm here, alone, on this beautiful planet. B-but nothing is beautiful without my Ben!" She began crying harder anew.

Just then, there was a knock at the door. Poe rushed to answer it, finding his girlfriend, Zorri Bliss, standing on the stoop, mask off.

"Hey."

"Hi."

The couple kissed lightly, Rey looking on with a trace of envy. And Zorri noticed.

"What are you staring at, Jedi?" the bounty hunter bristled. "You ogling my man?" Zorri looked like she would whip out her blasters and start shooting depending on how Rey answered.

Despite her red eyes, Rey glowered. "Of course not! Frankly, Zorri, your boyfriend is not my type."

Poe frowned. "Gee, thanks." Zorri whacked him on the arm.

"Excuse me," Rey got out in a squeak before fleeing to the front stoop outside. Zorri watched her go, still scowling. She relaxed only slightly when Poe touched her arm.

"Honey, don't take it so hard with Rey. She's been through more than you know. Why not patch things up a bit, huh? It's the least you can do."

"But I came to be with you..." Zorri whined.

"And we'll have plenty of time for that. Just do this? For me?"

Zorri sighed. She and Rey had never gotten along, ever since Kijimi. But for Poe... "Oh, all right. But I don't know what good it'll do. What's up with her?"

Poe draped his arm around her. "Well, it's like this, see..."