( There's some enjoyment to be found in watching Rey work out an impossible problem without skimming the surface of her thoughts to watch the process so absolutely. He watches her mouth compress into a thin line, her eyes go steely. Kylo waits for her to bottom out on an answer, keeping his knees bent and his feet planted firmly on the ground, his mind just as firmly shuttered against potential invasion. He doesn't place as much faith in her friends as she does, namely in Organa and Skywalker, considering what he's done to them. He has as much interest in asking for pardon as he assumes they will have in giving it. The destruction of Skywalker's entire academy notwithstanding, he stood across from a man they both loved and cherished, and he struck him down in an effort to make the final leap across a gaping maw of darkness, used it to extinguish what light remained in him with hopeful, desperate urgency. Killed Han Solo for his own gain.
It won't matter to them whether or not it worked absolutely. The cold, bright meltwater that washed over both Rey and him in the cavernous tunnels of his own mind will hold little sway with them when he is so focused on eliminating it at whatever cost. They see what's left of the boy in him as something to be encouraged, breathed into and ignited; Kylo sees it as a cancer, gaining more ground despite the heavy boot that he keeps pressed to its neck, trying so hard to extinguish it, ripping himself apart in the process. Skywalker and Organa may understand the conflict, given their sensitivity and Skywalker's own brush with the darkness in the past. Rey, Kylo knows just looking at her under the fluorescent wash from above them, would stand in his corner out of all of them, given what she's seen, what they have seen of each other.
He's almost taken aback to stumble upon the realization that he's actually considering and weighing the possibilities and then just as quickly disgusted with himself. Kylo Ren is no traitor, no matter what illusion he presents in order to get himself out of here, no matter what he saw of himself when he flooded into Rey's mind on Yaga Minor, lingering in the far reaches of his thoughts like a distant, half-remembered nightmare.
Rey provides him an opportunity to stop his train of thought by finally opening her mouth and speaking to him, though he finds himself unable to answer right away. She's remarkably astute for someone who more or less just realized she could use the Force five minutes ago, and it's her assessment of Snoke that gives him pause, that thrills something within him in an unexpected way. It's the closest thing to a compliment that he's received in quite some time. Though it's nothing that hasn't occurred to him before, the recognition of his own power has always come with the understanding that the Supreme Leader has taught him so much and still has more for him to learn, that only he could guide Kylo in his quest to achieve what someone far greater and far more powerful had been unable to finish. )
You tricked me into being brought here. Let's not get that part twisted. ( There is thinly veiled annoyance in his tone, but not outright anger, forcing himself to control that black mass that twists within him unless he would like to let it get the better of him. Something else Snoke had taught him following his fall on Starkiller. Anger was made to be controlled, not to control. His hands fold over themselves, mindful of his burns, and he leans forward more over his knees, balancing there while regarding her from under his brow. ) You can't speak for the entirety of the Resistance. It's a nice thought to think that they might let bygones be bygones were I to change my mind and find merit in what you're saying, but the reality isn't that simple. You're asking me to trade one leash for another. ( Kylo pauses, pressing his mouth into a thin line. ) According to you, I'm not even holding my own.
( He falls silent for a long moment, twisting one hand around the other in a way that stretches and shifts the skin unpleasantly and makes him grimace. In one swift motion, he stands, approaching the glass that separates them once more although he doesn't hover as close to it as he had previously. He starts to say something, mouth open and rounded around a thought, then thinks better of it and collapses his lips over a syllable, shuts his mind down so completely that he's confident that, were she to open a channel and reach for his mind, all she would find is the same black vacuum that he had been greeted with before their encounter here on Corellia. )
Even if what you're suggesting can be done, you said it yourself: the Supreme Leader is powerful. And I have told you before that you overestimate your own abilities in thinking you can confront him head-on and win. He will come for me eventually, Rey, and he will come for the Resistance, and he will come for you. That is the rest that you're so adamant in saying comes after. ( Another step toward the glass, mind blank but eyes wide open. ) What actually are you suggesting? A unified front? Meditation and focus and peace? How do you plan for us to keep him at bay?
every time i think i'm not gonna write a novel, i write a novel -__-
It won't matter to them whether or not it worked absolutely. The cold, bright meltwater that washed over both Rey and him in the cavernous tunnels of his own mind will hold little sway with them when he is so focused on eliminating it at whatever cost. They see what's left of the boy in him as something to be encouraged, breathed into and ignited; Kylo sees it as a cancer, gaining more ground despite the heavy boot that he keeps pressed to its neck, trying so hard to extinguish it, ripping himself apart in the process. Skywalker and Organa may understand the conflict, given their sensitivity and Skywalker's own brush with the darkness in the past. Rey, Kylo knows just looking at her under the fluorescent wash from above them, would stand in his corner out of all of them, given what she's seen, what they have seen of each other.
He's almost taken aback to stumble upon the realization that he's actually considering and weighing the possibilities and then just as quickly disgusted with himself. Kylo Ren is no traitor, no matter what illusion he presents in order to get himself out of here, no matter what he saw of himself when he flooded into Rey's mind on Yaga Minor, lingering in the far reaches of his thoughts like a distant, half-remembered nightmare.
Rey provides him an opportunity to stop his train of thought by finally opening her mouth and speaking to him, though he finds himself unable to answer right away. She's remarkably astute for someone who more or less just realized she could use the Force five minutes ago, and it's her assessment of Snoke that gives him pause, that thrills something within him in an unexpected way. It's the closest thing to a compliment that he's received in quite some time. Though it's nothing that hasn't occurred to him before, the recognition of his own power has always come with the understanding that the Supreme Leader has taught him so much and still has more for him to learn, that only he could guide Kylo in his quest to achieve what someone far greater and far more powerful had been unable to finish. )
You tricked me into being brought here. Let's not get that part twisted. ( There is thinly veiled annoyance in his tone, but not outright anger, forcing himself to control that black mass that twists within him unless he would like to let it get the better of him. Something else Snoke had taught him following his fall on Starkiller. Anger was made to be controlled, not to control. His hands fold over themselves, mindful of his burns, and he leans forward more over his knees, balancing there while regarding her from under his brow. ) You can't speak for the entirety of the Resistance. It's a nice thought to think that they might let bygones be bygones were I to change my mind and find merit in what you're saying, but the reality isn't that simple. You're asking me to trade one leash for another. ( Kylo pauses, pressing his mouth into a thin line. ) According to you, I'm not even holding my own.
( He falls silent for a long moment, twisting one hand around the other in a way that stretches and shifts the skin unpleasantly and makes him grimace. In one swift motion, he stands, approaching the glass that separates them once more although he doesn't hover as close to it as he had previously. He starts to say something, mouth open and rounded around a thought, then thinks better of it and collapses his lips over a syllable, shuts his mind down so completely that he's confident that, were she to open a channel and reach for his mind, all she would find is the same black vacuum that he had been greeted with before their encounter here on Corellia. )
Even if what you're suggesting can be done, you said it yourself: the Supreme Leader is powerful. And I have told you before that you overestimate your own abilities in thinking you can confront him head-on and win. He will come for me eventually, Rey, and he will come for the Resistance, and he will come for you. That is the rest that you're so adamant in saying comes after. ( Another step toward the glass, mind blank but eyes wide open. ) What actually are you suggesting? A unified front? Meditation and focus and peace? How do you plan for us to keep him at bay?