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[text]

[outer_space]

[ He's alive—that's the heart of it. Kylo Ren can ignore the man, but his sense of him in the Force never entirely fades.

He should have killed him. With every passing second, his failure becomes more inexcusable.

Go away, he wants to snap. He considers not answering at all, or lying, but he's not going to let someone as insignificant as Han Solo make a liar of him. In the end, he writes only one word: ] Why?

Re: [text]

[imahologram]

Call it curiosity.

[Leia's not tipping her hand until she has to.

Kylo can probably guess what event led to the question--or maybe he can't, nearly two months after it happened. Who knows? He isn't all that forthcoming about...well, just about anything, in her experience.]

[text]

[outer_space]

You'll find out eventually.

[ Unless she offers something in return, that's all he intends to say. ]

Re: [text]

[imahologram]

[There are half a dozen questions on the tip of her tongue, but one sticks out more than the rest. You find out eventually, he says, not he finds out.]

Introducing myself to you was a waste of time, wasn't it?

[text]

[outer_space]

[ Something in the way she says it—maybe it's knowing what a grave offense wasting time is to her—inspires a whisper of regret. ]

I thought it might be worthwhile to make your acquaintance anew.

Re: [text]

[imahologram]

How do I know you?

[It's worth a try, anyway.]

[text]

[outer_space]

We're adversaries.

[ How could he have thought this was anything but inevitable? ]

[imahologram]

Why?

[outer_space]

[ A flood of words, before he can stop himself: ]

You're treasonous and spiteful. You sow discontent and struggle blindly against any authority that isn't your own.

Because you've always feared true power.

[imahologram]

[Any goodwill she might have felt for Kylo before is rapidly fading. Treasonous? Spiteful?]

That's a lot of bantha fodder. I fight any authority that subjugates the galaxy, and I don't do it BLINDLY.

And if true power means throwing unsuspecting men around without explanation, I think I'll be fine without it.

[outer_space]

[ There's so much he wants to say to that--I could have, I have done worse--but the way she cycles back to Han Solo reminds him that she's still intent on prying an answer from him. ]

Do you.

Which of us knows the future?

[imahologram]

[It's an answer that bites into her, but if she lets Ren see that, she's lost. Gritting her teeth, she fires back.]

You expect me to trust the word of an "adversary" who won't even tell me when he's from?

Why don't we start with the facts? THEN you can editorialize.

[The Empire thinks I'm blindly fighting them, too. That doesn't make them right.]

[outer_space]

You seem to have forgotten I'm under no obligation to tell you anything.

[imahologram]

No, you aren't.

But if we're going to have this conversation, let's have it honestly. We're both stuck on this ship for the foreseeable future. There's no reason to give each other the runaround.

[outer_space]

[ A fresh anger as he reads her words: he's been honest, and met with nothing but evasions from her. ]

Are you sure you're equal to the task?

I warn you, I will hold you at your word.

[imahologram]

I doubt you're going to beat me in this arena.

Now, let's try this again. What do you have against Han Solo?

[outer_space]

What concern is it of yours?

[imahologram]

When people I care about are beaten by strangers, I want to know why. Strange, I know.

[outer_space]

He didn't want to know why.

Does he know you're asking?

[imahologram]

He wanted to get away from you. I can't imagine why.

[She wants to bristle at the question, but she's promised honesty, and she's not going to break her word to Ren.]

I don't tell him everything I do, no.

[outer_space]

I'd ask if this is an attempt to play peacemaker, but I know you.

Keep him away from me.

[imahologram]

That goes without saying.

You still haven't answered my question.

[outer_space]

Remind me what it was.

[imahologram]

A third time?

You're not a stupid man, Kylo Ren. You know what the question is.

[outer_space]

You seem to enjoy repeating it.

[ But he's stalling. He knows it, she knows it.

It's an impossible question. Han Solo shouldn't register to Kylo Ren. Another smuggler, someone of no account.

What he has against Han Solo is that for a moment he, Kylo Ren, admitted the possibility of something else.

The fact that he's still shaken by it. ]

The man is nothing. He's debris, like that ship of his.