With the suppression of Ben, Kylo was used to turning off his emotions, as he had done it successfully for six years. He felt like a robot as he returned to the ship, flew from Exegol, and back into the emptiness of space. He put the ship on autopilot and instantly, his eyes flew to where he tossed the discarded lightsaber. He stared at it, imagining her small, sleek fingers wrapped around it, and it took seconds for him to recognize tears filling his eyes. So maybe it wasn't as easy to suppress his emotions.

"What is wrong with you?" he snapped at himself, grabbing his knees. He wanted to hurt himself. Allowing himself to feel the pain hurt more than any physical pain could. His heart ached. He wanted to grab it, he wanted a hug, he wanted her hug.

He couldn't say why he switched on Cyra. He didn't know what happened in his mind. He saw those ships, those thousands of Star Destroyers, each equipped with planet killing devices, and everything he agreed on with Cyra had to be scrapped. Even if they did kill Palpatine, they wouldn't make it out alive, not with those ships working against them. They hadn't planned for a change in the scenario because they made the mistake of thinking it was going to be cut and dry... He should have known. He should have moved faster to enter her mind and beg her to stand down.

She could have told Palpatine they both planned to kill him, but she didn't. She called herself to take all of his wrath, because she was the outlier, the one they didn't plan for. Even after he let her down, she still saved him. He let her down. He promised to her they were going to kill him and he let her down. That was her last memory, her last feeling--betrayal by the man who told her he wanted to marry her.

Ben grabbed the lightsaber and threw it at the wall. He ignited his own lightsaber and slashed through the back of the ship, slashing, screaming, crying. She was gone. It was his fault. Luke and his mother, Cyra, Rey-- they were all right. She was gone and it was his fault.

But he could only allow himself to grieve for a few moments before something inside of him pushed him to console himself. If he allowed himself to feel more than a sliver of what came over him, she would never get justice. He had to push away his grief until it was over. Until the war was over, until Palpatine was dead. Ben knew that Palpatine would die, if it was the last thing he did, but he knew more than anything else that with Cyra gone, his time as Supreme Leader was over.

He had half a plan by the time he returned to the Finalizer. He needed his mask at once. Cyra's death reverted him back to a place of wanting to hide from the world, but hiding especially the thoughts on his face around the ship. He could not let anyone know of his plan and he could not trust his facial expressions to maintain objectiveness, not when he spent a year with her trying to remember how to smile again...

He ordered someone to engineer his mask back together, and he ordered another to gather the Knights of Ren, wherever they were. They hadn't been used on a mission in quite a few years, due to Ren's rise in power, but now, he wanted their aid to locate Rey. The faster he could get to her, the faster this would be over.

Ben returned to their corridor. He avoided their room and instead went into the chamber where the Vader helmet was located. He wanted to connect with his grandfather again, this time, as Ben. He hoped the presence of his grandfather would connect as Anakin and not Vader, show him guidance, support, when he needed it the most.

Instead, he found Rey. His eyes shot open when he felt her presence behind him. He turned, seeing the white chamber no more, but the familiar blurred surrounding around her. She looked comfortable now, in their connection. No longer scared, but annoyed by their continuous meeting.

Ben nodded at her as a subtle greeting. "Palpatine wants you dead."

She looked unimpressed. "Serving another master?"

"No, I have other plans," he said immediately. He remembered he did not have his mask and turned, trying to calm himself before she recognized his shift in thought. He turned once more, his face flat. "I offered you my hand once. You wanted to take it. Why didn't you?"

"You could have killed me," she challenged. "Why didn't you?"

Ben nodded. Fair. But he needed to get to the point. "You can't hide, Rey. Not from me."

"I see through the cracks in your mask. You're haunted. You can't stop seeing what you did to your father--" suddenly, Rey paused. Her eyes widened as she looked from his chest, his heart, and to his eyes. Ben tried to block her from his mind, but it wasn't as easy as blocking Cyra. The connection he and Rey held was different in its entirety than the bond he held with Cyra. "You can't stop seeing..."

Ben didn't want to think about it. He tried to change the subject. "Do you still count the days since your parents left?"

Rey was trying to fight her way into his mind. Her eyes were fearful. "Why isn't she with you? Where is she?"

"Do you care?" he snapped. "The last time you saw her, she was a pawn to you, anyway."

"I can't feel her," whispered Rey, her head shaking. She no longer was trying to enter Ben's mind, but reaching out with the Force to find the familiar feeling Cyra emitted.

"You won't," mumbled Ben, dejectedly.

Rey's eyes turned fast. "Did you do this? Did you kill her?!" she yelled.

"No," he snapped, furious that she would believe he could have a hand in her murder. He directed the conversation back to her, unwilling to divulge about Cyra. "Such pain in you. Such anger. I don't want to have to kill you. I'm going to find you and when I offer you my hand again, you'll take it."

"We'll see," Rey snarled.

Ben stepped closer to her and ripped the beaded necklace from her neck. The minute it fell from her neck, their Force connection ceased. He cast a look at Vader's mask, but ultimately left, and took the necklace to have it analyzed.

By the time he gathered his mask and the Knights of Ren, the crewmates informed him the necklace originated from Pasaana. Ben ordered the Knights of Ren to depart immediately. He returned to the ship he flew to Exegol to gather the lightsaber and the Wayfinder before he departed, too, the old lightsaber hidden under his cloak and the Wayfinder tucked safely in his pocket.

When he arrived to the planet, the Knights of Ren alerted him Rey was not alone. Finn, the pilot, the Wookie, and the droid were with her and on the run from a festival they were spotted at. The Troopers after them were unsuccessful.

"I'll do it," snapped Ben, feigning his anger.

He used the Knights solely to spot and contain the Resistance, but he wanted Rey to himself. Palpatine's cryptic words suggested an unfortunate reality for Rey that only he and Palpatine knew now. He supposed he could have searched his feelings to confirm its truth, though he knew physically challenging her could have the same effect and alert her to the truth behind her parentage. She was not nobody--a fact that was no longer true, but only thought to be, from a forced perspective. She did have a place in this story, solely by her bloodline.

Ben felt her when he closed in on the desert plane. He saw a ship in the distance, its engines flicking blue trying and failing to start. As he closed in on it, he saw her small figure, and the ignition of her blue lightsaber.

He continued on. She began to run away from him, he continued to press on, and he watched with interest as she flipped over the ship. He knew he did not hit her. But she had sliced through the side of his ship, causing it to lose a wing mid-air and slide, flightless, to the ground.

Ben punched the panel, forcing the cockpit to open. Ensuring he still had the lightsaber and the Wayfinder on him, he jumped from the burning ship, and started to walk towards where Rey landed.

She was no longer focused on him, he realized quickly. Her feet were planted in the ground, her hand in the air. He raised his eyes and noticed a First Order transport ship in the air, Rey bending the Force around it, and trying to pull it back to the surface.

Ben could feel no one of importance on the ship. He was familiar with how her normal Resistance fighters felt in the Force and he felt nothing. Nonetheless, this proved to be another test to her potential power, and he raised his hand, pulling the ship towards him.

He briefly remembered what occurred the last time they Force pulled an object. He wondered how she repaired Luke's broken lightsaber, but it mattered not. He assumed his mother had something to do with it, with Rey's newfound comfort in her lightsaber and in the Force.

He didn't truly want the transport. He wanted to make her angry. He wanted to enrage her, make her feel less than in her power, and let her show herself who she is. It was the only way. She needed to see what she could do to know that she could end this all and kill Palpatine.

Her frustrated scream reached even how far away he stood from her. Seconds later, lightning shot from her fingertips and into the sky, into the transport, causing it to explode. Rey jerked her body to knock her arm from the sky, unaware completely of what just happened, staring wide eyed at the exploded ship now falling from the ground.

"Chewie!" she shrieked.

"No!" yelled another, by the ship. Finn.

The ship fell between where Ben and Rey stood. Through the smoke, he could not see her any longer, but it did not matter. The damage was done.