Chapter 1


Amara tapped her foot anxiously as she leaned against her X-Wing. It had been thirty minutes. Surely thirty minutes was enough time for Poe to find the map and come back, right?

Apparently not.

Amara would have left her post to go check on him but he told her not to leave unless it was an emergency. What warrants an emergency? What if he was in an emergency and she had no idea?

Amara kicked the sand at her feet. She was the one who volunteered to come on this mission in the first place. General Leia Organa had insisted that Poe not go on this mission alone and Amara, whose muscle were aching for adventure after being holed up in the Rebel Command Center for days on end, had volunteered to escort him to Jakku. It had taken some convincing on her part for Leia to let her go but even more for Poe to agree to the arrangement.

"Absolutely not," he had said. "I'm not going to let you risk your life just to make sure I land safely!"

"Poe," Amara said rolling her eyes. "If the First Order shows up then you're going to need backup."

"Then I'll call in backup."

"No, I'll call in backup. The only thing you need to worry about is getting the map."

"General Organa," Poe turned to the former princess. "You can't honestly be considering this."

The General thought for a minute.

"Well, I certainly don't enjoy the idea of losing two of our best soldiers in one go… but Amara makes a good argument."

"Ha!" Amara barked at Poe, jabbing a finger into his chest mockingly.

"With all due respect, General," Poe started, ignoring Amara entirely, "I don't need a babysitter. I can handle this trip by myself."

Leia only smiled at him.

But once the two pilots had arrived on Jakku, Poe had been the one babysitting Amara. He had instructed her that she was not to leave the X-Wings unless she was dying, in danger of dying, or dead. When she pointed out that leaving her post would be virtually impossible in the event of her death, he simply walked off. Thus, the mission had commenced and she had been left behind to do nothing. For nearly a half an hour.

She was debating her loyalty to the agreement and had only just pushed off from the side of her aircraft to go find him when a loud whirring noise descended upon the village. She didn't have to look at the black ship to know who had arrived.

A shot of adrenalin zapped through her body and she hurriedly she jumped into her ship.

"We have a situation," she said into the old radio. "The First Order is here and we need backup immedia-"

Shards of glass shattered against Amara's neck and the ship rocked with the force of an explosion.

"Shit!" She yelled, noting the burst window behind her and the trickles of blood trailing down her neck. "I can't fly this piece of junk!"

Amara turned in her seat to see that Stormtroopers were dealing out significant amounts of damage to her and Poe's X-Wings. Realizing that if they were going to have any chance of getting off this godforsaken desert planet then she'd have to start fighting back, she leapt from her ship and unholstered her blaster. She had barely taken out one Stormtrooper when another blew out the engine to Poe's X-Wing.

"Dammit!" She huddled behind her own smoking aircraft to catch her breath.

I guess we'll just have to hold out hope that the rebels are on their way to rescue us...

Us... Poe!

Where was Poe? He never came back, even before the Stormtroopers arrived! Shooting down the last of the Stormtroopers headed her way, Amara picked herself up from the sand with the intention of finding Poe, but she didn't have to look far. Sprinting in her direction was Poe and BB-8, his small spherical droid companion.

"Poe! Where have you been?" Amara scolded, skidding to his side. He quickly grabbed her hand and swept her away in the direction of their vehicles.

"No time to talk!" He said, clearly out of breath. "I've got the map but we've got to get out of here! Now!"

Amara pulled back on his hand to slow him down. "The X-Wings are busted! I called in reinforcements but I don't know if they received the transmission or not."

"You've got to be kidding me," Poe sighed, looking around desperately. A blaster shot zoomed past their heads and they ducked swiftly.

"What do we do?" Amara asked.

After a moment of thought, Poe perked up. "BB-8," he said before turning to the droid. "BB, you need to take this map and get as far away from here as possible, got it?"

The droid beeped in protest as Poe inserted a small disk into one of its slots.

"Look, I know it's not ideal but it's the only option we have right now." Another shot skimmed above them and the heavy steps of Stormtroopers drew nearer. "Please, BB. I'll come back for you, I promise." The droid hesitated only for a moment and then rolled off into the desert at an impressive speed.

"Come on," Amara said once the droid was out of sight. "Let's get out of here."

The two of them sprinted along the outskirts of the village and were careful to keep to the shadows. The troopers had lit nearly every building on fire and some were still wielding flamethrowers. It seemed that the members of the First Order were rallying the villagers in the center of the little town. Those who had tried to escape could be seen dead at the edge of the village.

An impressive silence swept over the area as the ramp to one of the large aircrafts slid out onto the sand. At first Amara and Poe had continued to inch around the village upon seeing that the ship was only spilling out with more Stormtroopers but after a second glance Amara dug her heels in deep.

It was him.

His towering frame was dressed in all black with a hood covering half of his dark looming figure and quick strides were rather intimidating, but his helmet was definitely one of his most menacing qualities. The metallic mask gave him the look of a machine and the black holes where his eyes were buried seemed to command death and destruction.

It was Kylo Ren.

Master of the Knights of Ren and Co-commander of the First Order.

Someone who didn't know him personally wouldn't realize it at first, but Amara knew that beneath that mask was a man she once knew as Ben Solo.

Poe had stopped to look as well but was quicker to snap out of his reverie than Amara was.

"Amara," he whispered anxiously. "Amara, we've got to go."

She nodded slightly but couldn't seem to unglue her eyes from the black clad man who had once held a special place in her heart. Maybe still did.

"Where is Lor San Tekka?" Kylo Ren asked, his deep voice gravelly beneath his mask.

Two Stormtroopers pulled an elderly man from the crowd and threw him down at their commander's feet. Kylo Ren crouched to meet him at eye level.

"Where is the map?" He demanded.

"I don't know what you're talking about." The man said, though he sounded less than convincing.

"Don't lie to me," Kylo growled, his gloved hand reaching up in front of the man's face. As his fingers twitched the man cried out in pain.

"You'll... never... find it," Tekka said between gasps.

Kylo's fingers twisted again, though this time only a twinge of discomfort graced Tekka's face.

"Amara," Poe tugged on his friend's arm again in attempt to pry her from the scene but she was enthralled. She couldn't bring herself to look away, even though every atom in her body screamed for her to leave with Poe.

She watched as Kylo Ren illuminated his lightsaber, lifting it high above his head before swinging it down sharply on the old man. No sooner had Poe leapt forward and fired his blaster in Kylo's direction. But Kylo was quicker than expected and had snapped up to catch the blaster fire in mid-air with an incredible show of the control he had over the Force.

Amara clamped a hand tightly over her mouth as she watched her friend struggle against invisible restraints. Kylo was holding him there with surprising ease while Poe could only blink and twitch under the force-hold. It was a tense moment. No one moved. No one blinked or breathed. The blue blast Poe had fired still hung in the air like a jagged light between Kylo and Poe, illuminating the sand around them and nearly revealing Amara's horror stricken face.

Stormtroopers quickly jumped up to grab Poe and shoved him to his knees next to where Lor San Tekka now laid dead. Amara's blood pumped through her veins in double time and the loud pounding of her heart blocked out what Poe and Kylo were saying, but could tell from the Dark Jedi's body language that Poe wasn't cooperating.

Amara was paralyzed in fear.

She didn't want to believe that Kylo Ren, Ben, would murder Poe like he had so ruthlessly slaughtered Lor San Tekka. But as she watched him knock the pilot unconscious something broke inside of her and she let out a primal scream.

A hundred heads turned to her in surprise. She had jumped up from her crouching position and had gone into full on battle mode, shooting down at least five Stormtroopers as they ran in her direction. Her vengeance was short lived, however, because Kylo Ren had locked her in place with his force vice-grip. She whimpered and struggled as hard as she could to release her frozen muscles but to no avail. She was trapped.

Kylo Ren stalked towards her slowly, like a predator waiting for the right time to strike. Amara wanted to scream as he drew closer. Wanted to yell profane things his direction and kick him in the stomach. But she couldn't, and tears of frustration pricked her eyes as he stopped only a foot away from her.

If there was any sign of recognition crossing his face, Amara couldn't see it behind his mask.

Maybe he doesn't remember me…

But that was unlikely. It may have been nearly five years since their last encounter but she had been the most consistent person in his life when they were growing up. Surely the Dark Side hadn't completely wiped his memory.

She didn't have time to think on it further as Kylo swept his gloved hand swiftly over her face and she was tumbled into darkness.


A/N: Helloooooo! Thanks for reading! Please leave a review if you feel like this story should continue. I have plenty of plans for Kylo and Mara up ahead but it doesn't hurt to get some motivation from you guys so, comment away! Constructive criticism is preferred over ruthless bashing of my work :)

Thanks again! xoxo