( 》。❂ @lightconflict. )
it had been HUX's plan . a proposition for peace , power , prosperity in an age of warfare. what BETTER way to impose themselves upon the resistance than to show that the first order had made them docile , bent to their will and aligned to their cause ?
rey could not find fault in his logic , but it still rankled to be examined like breeding stock. a supreme leader that would be pressed for a partner and an heir in ways that snoke had escaped, and simply because she was a WOMAN. a woman that held significant influence, that had come from nothing and built herself into something . many feared her for legacy for it — the others despised her. they could not hide this disdain in their minds, on their faces, when ordered around by the scavenger rat they still saw as her reflection .
she should be PLEASED. soon, she would have everything she had wanted. CONTROL over the galaxy that had forgotten her, shunned her, neglected her. POWER to ensure no others could harm her. the SECURITY of an alliance. A FAMILY in the form of a husband. BEN .
BEN.
BUT HE HAD NOT agreed to join her of his own free will. she had stood before the severed body of her master, pleading and broken, and he had denied her that. he had told her she was not ALONE , and then abandoned her as all the others had. BEN SOLO was no better than the parents that had discarded her like trash. and now she would be reminded of his betrayal each day, twisting the knife DEEPER .
he had no choice in the matter, and she was tired. a bone-deep exhaustion. she had never been, would never be, anyone's first choice.
it was a surprise that general organa had agreed to part with her precious son at all. she was not a woman easily COWED. if they had not been opposition, rey would have RESPECTED that fire . but, as it stood, the princess was a thorn in their sides, making demands. as she had reminded REY, they had convened to compromise, not to surrender.
the MATCH had been made. they would be wed, a ceremony broadcast throughout the galaxy, to signify a new era . the knowledge was churning a hole in her gut, even as she sought out ben. he could not escape her here, now that she was not reaching across galaxies to reinstate their BOND. here, she was flesh and blood in the resistance's base, rather than a projection created out of star matter and dust .
a door hissed open, announcing her arrival. THERE, she could make out ben's shape. a bitterness pinched at the corners of her MOUTH, openly displeased. ❝ you can't hide from me forever, ❞ came her DRAWL, edged with affront. he was HERS, something darker whispered inside of her. he would not escape it this time, even if they were destined to be trapped in MISERY together. ❝ husband . ❞ a sour lilt, still injured by his abandonment, and disguising it with an outlet of IRRITATION .
