Meet Me in the Grey (Reylo fanfiction) (COMPLETED)

Chapter 31: Love and Hate

A note from your humble author: This is the climax of our story folks. Hope your butts can handle one more ride!  

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Rey darted her eyes around the large holochamber. The only way in or out appeared to be through the doors she entered, and he was watching.

"Run if you like, you won't get far. I can crush you where you stand," gloated Snoke's hologram.

After the terrible pain she had just experienced she dared not move. She knew he would keep her trapped under his watchful eye until Ben came for her, then he would torture her to death in front of Ben. Try as she might, she could not stifle her anger at that realization.

"Yes...he will come, and he will watch you die. I will make you suffer more than any other before. I spent years cultivating that boy, nurturing the seed of darkness within him, only to have you ruin everything. I would have forgiven him, you know, after the first time he went to you. I punished him...yes, but I would have let him live. I wanted him alive. The darkness was still strong with him, as it had once been strong with Vader. Such an asset is not to be thrown away lightly. He could have ruled the galaxy beside me...a worthy apprentice...but it is not too late for him."

She glared up the flickering blue hologram. "You're a fool if you think he'd ever come back to you, after all that you've done to him...after all that you've taken from him! You tortured and manipulated a child! You deceived him into killing Luke's padawans. You forced him to murder his own father! And for harming me, he will show you no mercy!"

"Such a pity. There was a time when one as strong in the force as yourself would have been quite valuable to me alive...but as it is...you are more valuable to me dead. No. I want you dead. I want to see you suffer, and I want him to see you suffer for what you have both done...but he will not die. Once you are dead, the bond between you will be forever severed, and I will wipe his memories of you, as if you had never existed to him. I will take back what is mine. He belongs to the dark."

She clenched her fists and prayed to the force that Ben would not find her.

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Luke Skywalker and Ben approached Finn that night and asked to speak with him alone.

"I'm going too! I smell action!" argued Poe, who knew a rescue mission for Rey would be imminent. Poe and Finn had been outside discussing what the Resistance's next move should be after they had put Yibya to bed for the night.

"Very well," relented Luke.

Luke and Ben led Poe and Finn to an empty office, on their way, Ben heard footsteps following them.

"I'll be right in," said Ben, as he turned back to meet the follower. Luke nodded that he understood and escorted Finn and Poe into the office.

"Rando?" he asked, as he friend approached.

"I saw you guys heading for a private meeting. I know you're going for Rey, I want to help," he explained.

Ben could sense that Rando had a great need to prove himself after having lost control in the assault on Takodana. He also knew that he worried for Rey.

"I don't know if that's a good idea. It's very likely we may be going up against Snoke himself...and Aldo Ren is sure to be there. Vengeance may be too much of a temptation for you right now. You're still very untrained in the force. It's too dangerous."

Ben could feel Rando tensing up, but eventually he sighed, and he detected a surprising sense of peace and acceptance from his friend.

"You're right. I'd love to kill Aldo Ren, and I know you warned me about vengeance. And I felt the darkness when they took Jess from me, but I swear to you, Ben, I will set my feelings aside. I want to fight! I want to fight for the right reasons! I want to fight because this war needs to stop...the First Order needs to be stopped, or there will be more people like Jessika, like my father, like what they did to you and my mother. It needs to stop! I know I'm not yet a Jedi...or even a Grey Jedi, but I'm not helpless either, and I know the risks. I give you my word as a Calrissian, I will fight for the right reasons."