SPOILERS FOR TLJ KIDDOS

“He’ll never hurt me,” spits Rey from her knees, glaring at Tatara. “And I’ll never join Aogiri.”

“Oh really?” Tatara sighs, closing. “I can already feel his decision. He’s shown his kagune. He’s swinging it towards you.” 

Tatara’s eyes pop open as Ben’s rinkaku cuts into his abdomen instead. He falls to the ground.

Rey leaps back to her feet as Tatara’s guards swarm them. “Ben!” 

Ben unfurls a seventh tentacle to his rinkaku and beheads seven of the guards at once. Rey fires Rc shards from her ukaku, narrowly saving Ben from the bikaku of another guard.

When all the guards lie at their feet, Rey wants noting more than to lie down and rest. But they can’t. “CCG’s landing on Rushima. We need to get out of here.”

Ben, however, stares at Tatara’s thrown.

“Ben?” Rey demands.

Entranced, Ben steps towards the throne. “We could lead Aogiri. We could change the world, Rey.”

“No, Ben, please,” begs Rey. Her stomach sinks. This can’t be happening. She risked everything to get to Rushima before CCG, for him, for him. “There’s life outside Aogiri. Come to Re.”

“No!” Ben spits. “We can still be somebody. Rey, listen: I saw who your parents are. They’re nobody. You know that. You’ve always known.”

Tears spill down Rey’s cheeks. “Ben, stop.”

“You’re nothing,” Ben whispers. “But not to me. We’ll turn Aogiri into a new path for ghouls and humans, as only we one-eyed ghouls can.”

“No,” Rey says. “We can’t save Aogiri’s reputation. We can rebuild anew once we return to Re.”

“No!” he begs. “Come with me, Rey.”

An explosion rocks the island and Tatara’s throne room. The roof crumbles, knocking Ben unconscious.

When he awakens, Rey is gone and CCG is closing in. He can’t scream out lest they hear, but – but – the one other one-eyed ghoul, the one who could understand him, the one he loves, has just left him to die.

And now a part of Ben wants to die, too.