Her callous and cold reception was to be expected. Harsh words did not make Ben flinch. Rey had made clear her feelings and her thoughts on him, and which side she chose in the grand conflict between First Order and Resistance. Snoke's vision of galactic domination was not his vision, but one he had gone along with as obedient apprentice. (And how did that work out for Snoke?). What would Ben Solo do with a galaxy? Ben wanted freedom, he wanted them to be free. They could have left it all, the light and dark, the First Order and Resistance, all of it. But despite having nothing to do with any of it, Rey had chosen to tie herself down and cling on. It doesn't have to be like this, he thinks, and it's countered by the biting voices in the back of his head, whispering, growling, cutting. (She's weak. You're pathetic. Kill her). Whittling him down, like bugs buzzing around inside his skull and wiggling between the cracks of his brain. Shut up. Shut up. Shut up! Snoke was dead, why were they still talking? To hell with the FIrst Order but if he could leverage the armies of Hux to finally silence the voices, to earn his freedom, to destroy this abominable legacy. Worked for him. Being Supreme Leader had its perks.
There was an odd twitch, a shudder, in Ben's core that expressed as a flinch of his fingers. The creeping cold of darkness sliding down his spine, like icy fingers between his shoulder blades. But it settled and instead he stiffly shrugged, shoulders up towards his ears and hands loose at his sides. He didn't understand it either. It was too much of a coincidence that they would come to this same planet, the same cavern, and on the same solar cycle, and hour, no less. The will of the force, binding them together. Yet, his reaction was muted, keeping his thoughts to himself. Guilty, he supposed, of whatever she was angry at him about now. She had every right to hate him, to be irritated, but Ben still gave no ground. Only tracked her movement along the shore. Close enough that he could, finally, feel the warm emanation of her through the force. Settling and calm, from hind brain to the moment, where he could feel the cavernous chill on his skin and the purity of the air. Rey so easily joined the chorus of the crystals and Ben felt out of tune, discordant and misplaced. Like he always had been. An ink stain on the bright light of his family. (She would be a better daughter than you were a son).
"If there's another reason to be here, I'd love to hear it," Ben quipped. He met her gaze, for a simmering, searing moment; her eyes were like blue steel, and Ben could only bear them for a second. He glanced away, jaw working, and his thumb running over the pads of his fingers. "No, I came here for the view."
He stopped himself before he freely admitted to her that his light saber was broken. Never mind telling the girl that was supposed to be his enemy, who had already torn a scar across his face - the stitches of which had only just come out - that he was unarmed. However, if she was here, no doubt to find a kyber crystal too, then that meant she did not have a light saber either. Luke's saber, or rather, Anakin's, had been destroyed in the throne room. And he didn't even see a blaster on her person.
The Supreme Leader and the Last Jedi, alone in a cavern on a remote planet, systems and systems away from the war. And neither of them were carrying a weapon. What a farce.
And they were looking for materials to make a new weapon for themselves. They would be prudent to prevent the other from succeeding here and that would accomplish nothing besides wasting both of their time. Rey and Ben could kill each other in this hole in ground, and obtain nothing, or endeavor to get out of here as soon as possible. A moratorium on the war.
So, Ben reached for the saber hilt on his belt and turned it over in his hands before showing her. It appeared as normal, but if he attempted to turn on it would turn burning hot in his hands, and the blade would be frayed, spitting dangerous plasma. It would kill him as soon as anyone else, right now. Something he had to actively conceal from the First Order. Hux would salivate like a rabid dog to learn that Kylo Ren was especially vulnerable right now.
"The crystal has cracked, further," Ben elaborated. It had always been cracked and unstable since he corrupted it six years ago. But now it was threatening to sheer on its cleavage. "I must find a replacement or a crystal to synthesize with it to repair the damage."
He eyed her, glancing her way again to where she knelt by the water. Ben returned his saber to his belt.
"Has my mother told you what you're looking for?" He asked, almost contemptuously. There was no other way for Rey to know where, or how, to look for a Kyber Crystal. Ben didn't know what emotion he felt, knowing his mother was training Rey. That Luke had trained her too. It felt as though his family had moved on from him. Rightfully so, and yet instead of untangling himself, he had tangled himself with Rey and Rey was tangled with them. "I can show you."
