And so continues part two of my Renegade Series. I hope you all enjoy, I know I have enjoyed writing for Eris again. Let me know what you guys think, and as always thank you so very much for reading.

He was battered and scarred. Humiliated. He'd let the girl defeat him, a girl who'd never even held a lightsaber. He was weak. Snoke reminded him constantly of his failure, poisoning his mind.

Walking into his room the door snapped shut behind him and he hurled his helmet at the wall. The dim room was filled only with his ragged breathing, and all his shortcomings.

This was the time people cowered and ran, they were afraid of him. They were right to fear him.

He was stilled by a familiar flutter in his right ear and he turned seeing her long form in the shadows as she leaned against the wall. It was foolish of her to have come to him.

"I'm gonna be honest," she said knowing she shouldn't, not when he was like this, "I kinda wish you died." Before she got out the last syllable his cupped hand was level with her throat cutting her off.

She didn't gasp or claw at her neck trying in vain to remove the hand that wasn't there. She remained tall and proud staring him down as he crept closer holding her to the wall. The tip of his nose brushed her cheek as he stood over her looking down at her wide eyes hearing the soft strangled sound of her trying to breathe. His fearless bounty hunter. He should've let her die all those years ago.

His gaze fell to her still chest where he almost gently pulled at the chain tucked beneath her shirt to find she still wore the ring he'd pulled off her dead husband.

She was gasping now, her chest giving a little jolt as her starved lungs tried to find air. With wet eyes she blinked up at him refusing to beg. This wasn't the first time he choked her and it wouldn't be the last, but he always let her go before it got to this point.

He wanted it to hurt. And he watched her mouth open for air he wouldn't let her have feeling her body trembling against him. He stood against her forcing her head back so that his eyes were directly above hers, and hers were bulging now. She was dying.

Cold air filled her burning lungs and she heaved catching her breath feeling her chest press into his each time it expanded.

"You betrayed me."

His voice was a soft low whisper. Sad. "I betrayed the First Order, it wasn't personal."

"It was to me."

She wasn't good at this. Not with him, not with him this close where she could feel the way he ached. And see those pleading eyes. "I can't fix that."

Her honesty was something he'd always appreciated about her, more so knowing she was only this honest with him. She was the hardest person he'd ever tried to read but she'd eventually let him and he'd mapped the inner recesses of her mind. Her thought patterns were simple – survival – once he understood that he learned to read her freely. And he could see two far away faces in the back of her mind, feeling their hands touching her in a way she'd been craving. Softly he spoke: "you care for these people more than me."

A breath passed between them, and something else neither would spare the time to consider. "I'm here, aren't I?"

"Why?" he demanded, his dark eyes flashing as he pressed closer. "Why did you come back?" They shared small, fleeting, moments before she pulled away – this time she'd pulled against him. It would've been easier if she'd stayed with the Resistance instead of chancing him killing her out of spite. "Why do you always come back?"

Her response was simple. "Why do you let me?" But it left them standing a breath apart in the shadows they both felt better suited them, looking at each other with words they refused to say.

.^.

A few quiet moments and he escorted her back to the bridge. Her coloring drew many disquieted glances as they watched the strange pair walking almost in synch with her a couple steps behind him.

Hux frowned at the sight of her finding her skin sickening. She'd turned their own weapons against them, she was a traitor. He'd thought finally Ren would see the poisonous hussy for what she was, and yet there she walked tall and proud at his side. He pardoned her, again.

"General," was Kylo's simple greeting. But beneath his voice Hux heard the threat.

He smiled but his nose curled and it looked more a sneer. "I'll brief 501 on her next assignment."

"See to it she isn't harmed," he warned before stalking off.

Displeasure was clear on his pale face as he turned to the Viderian woman. A distinctly proud race bent to the Empire's will by greed, though the human in her was strikingly evident in her features. She watched him closely with her strange eyes, the familiarity they shared festered in him like a sore.

"Try to kill me," she offered, her voice quiet as it passed through barely parted lips. "I won't tell. You know I like it to hurt."

That sneering smile again, the one that looked like he'd carved it with a knife. She followed him down the hall keeping up with his brisk pace, and she paused in the doorway before taking a breath and stepped over the threshold hearing the door lock behind her. It was that kind of briefing.

The door remained closed for a great many long, loud, minutes before it opened and they both stepped out a little worse-for-wear than when they'd entered. The assignment was simple: infiltrate Canto Bight, seduce a very crafty seller who'd made a hefty profit selling the wrong secrets, and kill him. Simple. Except for the heavily guarded city and the heavily guarded man. Many had tried killing him, none succeeded.

Hux knew she'd come back, like the parasite she was she always did. He planned to relish every ache, pain, and bruise left on her by the end of it.

Eris knew this and accepted it, it's how they operated. She'd come back without a single hair out of place and she'd grin as his face darkened with hatred. They'd been playing this game almost six years now, one of these days they were gonna kill her.

She marched back to the ship she'd commandeered with a faint smile pulling at the corners of her mouth. Her sole purpose in coming was to get rid of the target on her back. She'd complete this assignment and maybe the next, after that she might cut ties and run. She might even find Rey.

Her smile grew if only by a fraction as she climbed into the ship and charted a course for Canto Bight.