He clenched his fist.

He had been doing that quite a lot.

Ben Solo stood, understanding what had just happened…he had lost his chance of snuffing out the Resistance permanently.

He had lost his chance of killing, once and for all, Luke Skywalker.

He had become the Supreme Leader, but he wondered now…

What was he ruling?

He turned, leaving the cavern, and going back to the ship that had taken him to this blood icy planet.

He hated that this happened…that he had been fooled by Skywalker.

Again.

"Don't speak. Take me back," he snarled, boarding the fighter.

Fooled…

He was a fool.

And he was most fooled by anyone ever caring. No one did.

It was better this way.

He almost believed that.

The Dreadnought was gone…his fleet depleted. And he was referring to himself as Ben in his private thoughts.

Just like she did…

It had been wonderful, seeing Finn. She was looking out into the darkness, thinking that though there had to be some path to success, she was damned if she could see it.

Rey swallowed. It was unlikely that the Resistance would be able to mount any formidable army if no one answered a distress call. The fact that they were utterly alone in all of this was disconcerting.

And her thoughts drifted to the last time something like this crossed her mind. She had told Ben that he wasn't alone.

She held herself. She wanted a family…that was what, if she was honest, she wanted more than anything.

And how right he had been, though she was loathe to admit it.

She was looking for their replacement, and she was looking once more in Leia, for her mother.

A solitary tear fell down her cheek, and she resented it, for she had cried so much lately.

Rey turned away, desperate for solitude.

She was beginning to understand that most of what she had learned from Han…Luke…was that there was so much grey in the galaxy, that almost nothing was as it seemed.

And that, she thought, was both comforting, and insufferable.

No ships.

No friendly planets.

Nothing.

Nothing but a fleet and some withered soldiers.

A muted fleet at that.

Ben was sitting with his head in his hands, fresh from the retreat of the blood stained planet. He was attempting to weigh his options.

Overtake a small planet.

Inhabit a deserted one.

…for he would need to figure out something.

He felt like a failure; the same way he had felt before. Before his parents sent him away to be trained, for why else would they not want him around?

He hadn't been excited the way the other trainees had been. He had been sad to leave his home. His mother had loved him, he felt that.

His father…

A scowl crept along his face.

Han Solo hadn't been around enough to even know him, let alone love him.

And if Ben knew anything, it was that love was not indiscriminately bestowed. It was earned.

Except with Leia. She loved him.

And he had spared her. He couldn't do it…and he didn't feel weak the way he thought he might've…he felt good about that.

Something he hadn't felt in some time.

And something he had felt on more than one occasion as of late.

Ben closed his eyes, and thought of hers as she closed the hatch.

There was no hatred there. No contempt. No …

She held a quiet resolve and a soft understanding.

He opened his eyes, and knew that they would be meeting again, though he was unsure when, the future was closed to him.

Rey laid on her back in the ship's bunks. She was on the top bunk, staring at the ceiling of it. Neither the First Order nor the Resistance were in any shape to fight right now.

Though the Resistance was decidedly worse off…they had a dozen people on a ship heading to the outer rim.

Hardly much of a Resistance.

Rey thought about what they could possibly do to stave off the First Order, and if anyone really cared.

She closed her eyes…

The salt air brushed her cheek softly. She was high atop a precipice, looking out into circumbinary sky…the suns appearing to almost touch one another in the distance.

"I'm sorry," she said aloud.

"What for?"

Rey turned to see Luke there, smiling at her. "For your sacrifice. I hope it wasn't in vain."

"Don't make it so, then," and he walked toward her.

"How?"

"I think that you know."

She began to shake her head…"I don't. I'm nobody…Ben even said so…"

"I didn't say that."

She whirled around to see him there, looking at her. "You did. And I agreed with you."

"Then you weren't listening. I said, you were nobody to everyone but me."

"You were trying to get me to join you."

"And why would I do that, hm?" he advanced.

"To use me," she spat.

"And?" he stopped about a foot in front of her.

"And…" her visage betrayed confusion.

"Oh, you are naive…." he said unkindly.

"What…?"

…and he disappeared.

She was alone, and Ahch-to's sky was dark.

"Luke!" she cried. "Ben?" she said softly…looking all around her.

…and her eyes opened.

Rey was awake in the quiet ship…she swallowed, and swung her legs over and climbed down. She made her way to the ship's center and looked out of the window.

There were light years between them.

…and he was still there, in her mind.

She wondered if he'd stay there.

And if she wanted him to leave.