( His gloves, Kylo realizes, are still caught up in the fierce strength of his grip, and by degrees he releases the pressure in his hand to let blood pound back into his fingertips, tossing leather to the side and smoothing his hands over the rounded points of his knees. The bite of his burns is less extreme, tempered by adrenaline and distraction - and, he suspects but doesn't examine, some sort of influence that Organa does not even realize she is exerting - and they become less twin focal points of razor-fine, precise rage and more throbbing reminders of the failure that he has suffered today. They're reminders of the inevitable: that Snoke is not far beyond the veil that he uses to mask himself, that beyond the fortress of this room, this base, the Supreme Leader waits for him with cold patience. )

So he's using you.

( His voice is calm, conversational, and Kylo says it mostly to needle her for her previous backlash against him - he could look for what her favorite color was and dig it out of her head if he really wanted to - and although he can feel Skywalker looking at him, the conversation is his and Rey's alone.

Kylo might say it just to grate on her nerves, but the fact remains that it could easily be construed as truthful. She might not see it the way that he does, but at the end of the day that's what she is as much as he has been: a tool, a cog in the machine, an extension of her master's arm to reach the depths that he cannot. It doesn't matter whether or not her goals work in tandem with Skywalker's, just as it doesn't matter whether or not Kylo's ambitions meet Snoke's goals stride for stride. That Skywalker recognizes the connection that has formed between them - long suspected and now made concrete by the admission of a man more knowledgeable than Kylo himself, he can admit that much - says enough on its own merit. Their bond is exploitable, malleable, and he sees it plainly for what it is in their eyes, the same way that he could distinguish it in Snoke's. And his own. It's not so different from what they were able to show each other on Yaga Minor, but it has a different flavor and cadence from what he tasted and felt thrumming through his veins and down the back of his throat.

He cuts the head from any whiplash anger she might snap out with at the suggestion he makes by leaning forward toward her somewhat, voice low between them but hardly low enough to discourage or prohibit anyone from hearing him. Kylo knows that isn't a luxury just as much as the luxury of having time to make a decision regarding this whole endeavor wasn't back on the command shuttle. )

Two sides, same coin. I told you before I understood the workings of a bond. ( He does not meet her eyes when he inclines toward her but looks instead at the shadows of mud still worked into the creases of her hands. The weight of the risk that she is actively and voluntarily taking catches him off guard somewhat in that moment. Opening herself to him and vice versa in order to eradicate Snoke leaves her open to him potentially without an expiration date, to having something monstrous in her head. He looks up, meeting brown eyes in the sea of her face, and holds. ) Why else would I let you try?

( The fact remains that he would not allow any of the other Force capable individuals in the room close enough to even consider it. It's a damning and frustrating actualization but no less true for all the contempt it inspires. He exhales slowly, through his nose, and leans back away from her, already feeling the beginning disintegration of the defenses he has constructed in his own mind in an effort to keep himself walled away, whether by Skywalker and Organa's shouldering of the burden or his own exhaustion finding root and digging in. Kylo flexes his hands on his knees and sits up straight. )

You should be aware, meditation is not my strongest card. ( His voice becomes somewhat mocking. ) I've been told I lack adequate focus.