[ she softens, as if she were expecting some impact that never came. honestly, what he says, it makes sense. she's just pushing herself into something that she couldn't succeed at pushing luke into. but it needs to be done. the resistance needs hope.

how does she just shrug that responsibility off?

more to the point, why doesn't responsibility feel like the right word? rey frowns a little, looking down at her hands. no, keith's right. or he's close enough to right to make her think. there's something in there that …

ah. she's been so conflicted, split down the middle, feeling like she has competing loyalties to her friends and to ben. like she needs to justify that what she's doing is just the mission she was sent on. tying to that, in a way, is feeding her own conflict about it. so — ]

I'm not just doing it because Luke wouldn't. [ admitting that makes her chest feel a little bit lighter. and she feels heartened that keith is obviously just trying to talk it through with her, help her, not judge her, like poe had. ] I asked Luke to teach me. These abilities that I have, I don't understand them. He refused. He told me that there should be no more Jedi.

I'm alone, Keith. [ when she meets his gaze again, the tears in her eyes are more pronounced. that's the part that scares her. that, and the awareness that keith might just hold this against her most of all. it's terribly selfish, and it puts a lot of expectations on ben. ] But I don't have to be.