Han secured the charge beneath a low bearing beam with a magnetic thunk before turning to finish what he hoped would be, for the last time, the annihilation of the First Order. But, for all the years that turned him grey he knew that this was an impossible dream. Inside the Power Chamber the brimming might of the Starkiller was palpable, the room's monstrous depth and width only sought to exaggerate this fact. It seemed to swallow the presence whole pulling anyone to its edges. And it had, on some occasions forced many trooper's thoughts to play with the idea of plunging into the deep. And that is where Han's eyes wandered now, dancing along the edge where a flat bridge bisected the seemingly ever expanding gorge.
A lone figure advanced across the promenade head bowed in focused determination, his boots making a staccato beat that echoed like a beacon. The shadows from the soaring structures casted an obsidian shroud across his masked face, but it didn't take Han long to know. Like a TIE Fighter exploding in an inferno before him. The thoughts sprayed his mind like flying debris igniting the memories that were for so long abandoned. Scattered pieces of atomic moments blazed in his mind's eye: The knowing smile that once spread across his face as Ben had peered fearfully out of the cockpit window the stars smearing across the sky as they hurdled through space at lightspeed. The panic when his only son came down with a vicious strain of the Corellian flu. He remembered it well for the sleep deprived night haunted him still and his quiet esteem for Leia extended past any admiration for any hero he had now or ever. He reminisced, his chest tightening with emotion at their collective relief when Ben awoke with only a few harmless sniffles and a quiet strength buzzing behind those caramel eyes. Even then he had predicted that Ben would become a champion of sorts, Han ground his teeth realizing with regret that his premonition had come true.
"Ben!", the name burst forth from Han's lips before he could desert the field of fazed thoughts. The unfamiliar name echoed through the atmosphere and assailed Kylo Ren who was drifting to the far end of the bridge progressively. But then he was halted. Turned as a man called out of term, a rigid soldier prepared to squelch any impropriety. If you were a bystander it would have been easy to assume he sensed Han's presence, for he didn't so much as blink. Just then, Finn and Rey threw open a hatch above launching a beam of blessed light on the scene below. Rey, upon stepping onto the platform sensed the tension suspended in the air and faltered back halting under the protective shadow of the hatch lid. Finn stumbled in after her only looking up just as Rey's shoulders froze and her hands formed fists of unadulterated wrath. Finn attained then that he had reached out instinctively grabbing her arm. All at once, he remembered the last few times he had tried to save her and how she had protested it with both hands. He was ready to snatch his hand back when he realized that she hadn't reprimanded him, not even an annoyed look or warning smack; little by little he could feel her muscles go slack until it nearly rested in his grasp. He didn't know whether to laugh out of unbelief or stare it seemed that Rey had transformed before his eyes, he decided. He barely knew her yet in the few weeks of the most harrowing time of their lives they had been brought together like two trees who's roots wrapped around each other, there was a naturalness he felt around her.
Looking over the metal rail down at the stand-off below, Finn felt worry trickle down his spine as the man that had brought them all together, the guiding hand of whatever this had turned into, stood halted on the walkway. It dawned on Finn all at once that Han had saved him from certain doom, more than twice Finn thought rubbing the spot where the Raif had clung so vehemently. He owed him a debt of gratitude for sure, whether he would have time to repay the favor was beyond him. An icy thought festered in Finn's mind, maybe this would be the last moment he'd have. Shifting from foot to foot uncomfortably Finn glanced at the towering balefire burning with obvious irritation 5 yards from Han. Against his efforts, the departed stormtrooper's courage buckled under Kylo Ren's yielding supremacy giving way to cursed fear in its purest form. Finn was surprised at how easy it had been for him to accept and carry out the barbaric charges of the First Order. How empowering it had felt to stand on this side of a torpedo blaster and fire into a forest below, fully aware of the countless species whose lives were being mercilessly stolen. The way he felt, now more than ever, as he watched the weatherworn star wanderer make his way to the thin bridge that he stood maybe indefinitely in front of the business end of a First Order ship-mounted gun. For a brief moment Kylo Ren's helmet glistened in the sudden catch of sunlight and Han's breath caught in his throat. Had it been that long, their son once an unassuming albeit cautious child now a man, now a monster?
Stepping timidly, Han burned from the battle that warred within him one that was just as timeless as the ones illustrated in the Jedi stories of old. At one end anger raged slashing with crimson red at the visage, Snoke's perverse smile looming over the assassin he had created, the boy he had stolen. The strikes did not cease, they grew into a roar smashing down on the opponent from every side. Yet, the tranquil warrior stood immune to the wild display of arrogance, jabbing in return with amazing accuracy at its opponent's unprotected middle. The swipes were steady and sure, cocky even, knowing full well that its righteousness had already won the fight. Han recognized this lucid warrior it crouched in the depths of his conscious mind and waited for his tired avowal. His pride in Ben finally released to battle-Han sucked in sharply-released at this divide where he ached for rage to triumph. What was true he could not deny the growing pride that flowed from his lonely heart would like many of his predictions come lucidly true.
"Han Solo. I've been waiting for this day for a long time." The words came out in a smooth retort so distant that something in Han cringed. "Take off that mask. You don't need it", Han commanded. "What do you think you'll see if I do?" Kylo Ren's voice forced through the apparatus resounded in a rhythmic mechanical modulation that made it just that much more apparent that Ben was gone or at least fatally lost. Silence rested defiantly between them and then with a hiss of air Kylo unlocked his mask and let it drop to the ground. Han jolted as the strident bang of the helmet ricocheted off of the metal bridge and screamed in his ears, but nothing was as jolting as the face of his son that glowered back at him.
"Your son is gone. He was weak and foolish, like his father. So I destroyed him," the clipped tone of his voice struck Han across his countenance and it must have shown because for a second he could see a wave of sorryness wash over Kylo's face only for a split second until with a flicker of those fiercesome eyes he abandoned. Han briskly closed the distance between them done with the lies that kept his son bound to the insanity of the Order. In Han's state no one could tell him that meeting Kylo out on that bridge was foolishness, the only company his mind kept was Snoke shutting Ben down with a single swipe of his hand and Ben dying alone drowning in his own regrets.
Han's lip quivered with fury the limp he wore spoke of a life decayed by space travel, but fulfilled within him some rare form of, reckless abandon that bolstered him now. But, Kylo Ren was to fear no man, not even his father the man who survived the reign of that infamous dictator, not even the man who had begat Darth Vader's end. Kylo Ren's eyes surged with a mix of misdirected vengeance he squared his shoulders preparing for a physical battle that would never come.
Somewhere in the depths of the mint of charcoal colored support beams and service panels standing at an astonishing height a perceptive Chewie cocked his head to the side in study. He had been gawking at the spectacle for some time now deciding against following his friend on to the fluky bridge to face a troublesome battle. Nodding his head he settled on being a look out just in case some unwanted stormtroopers made the mistake of interrupting them. Besides, Chewie figured he had better advantage where he was, which was evidenced by the Wookie's gaping mouth and razor sharp attention trained on Han's every move. However, upon failing to interpret the odd dance occurring in front of him, Chewie stepped forward into a steady spotlight defaulting to one of his most dependable tactics. He patted his bowcaster assertively persuading his racing heart that regardless of what went down he would act without hesitation. A secretive low groan puttered from his hairy muzzle concluding on the matter.
"That's what Snoke wants you to believe, but it's not true." Han rasped "My son is alive", he added furrowing his brow at the foreign expression and how it left a bitter taste on his tongue. "No, the Supreme Leader is wise!" Kylo almost whined. Yet, passion billowed in Han's chest and he invaded the cloud of pretense now pooling around Kylo Ren's image siphoning any reverence he had demanded so many times before. "Snoke is using you for your power. When he gets what he wants, he'll crush you-you know it." Han nearly shouted at the irony of it all and the extent of his son's naiveté. Concern etched itself across his rugged face as he searched Ben's eyes for a sign of life, but all he saw was a stubbornness that saw to it that Ben was outfitted with the most restrictive binds imaginable impervious even to a father's say. And then one restraint seemed to break, "It's too late." Kylo admitted distending his jaw a bit at his duplicity a tempered cobalt blue cascaded across Kylo's features pouring over his heavy nose and blending each freckle and blemish only to reveal what had been clear to Han before.
Such a tension permeated the air that it was becoming exceedingly difficult to breath,he unconsciously tugged at his leather collar. Though, so far, the toxic air hadn't rendered Han blind to the truth that painted itself in Kylo's puckered brow. The defiance that sent his tears retreating from the edge and his words which became curt and definite when he felt his point wasn't being acknowledged.
With a somber yet knowing grimace he let the thought materialize "like father, like son."
Tears magnified the handicap in Kylo's soul molding his eyes like the deep hue of Aabajian nectar. In some twisted way he wouldn't let the tears fall maybe that was it, Han surmised, maybe in some contorted way Kylo's only normal was located right on the cusp of control and release. "I'm being torn apart. I want to be free of this pain." Kylo's once commanding voice turned childlike in the now uncivilly short space between him and Han. There was nowhere to turn to disguise the insecurity oozing out of every pore, still he continued "I know what I have to do, but I don't know if I have the strength to do it. Will you help me?" Han's spirit cried out to his child "Yes. Anything."
He barely noticed Kylo unholstering his lightsaber and extending it towards him, because his cry for help was drowning out his reality. "Papa", Ben had said once at 6 "I don't know what to do we don't have enough Eil-lee-nin sweet flies to feed the Ewoks!" Ben said mispronouncing the name Eilnian for the billionth time that day. Han smiled and rumpled his jet black curls around those audacious ears, "We're not having the Ewoks over for dinner tonight what's with the extra grub?" Han said teasing him suspiciously, Leia looked over her shoulder at them from a workstation in the corner adding "I think Ben wants to tell us something." Prompting Ben to slow down and start from the beginning "No, they aren't coming over I'm going to them!" Ben had exclaimed a little too loudly his frustration burning little pink patches in his cheeks. "Ben-" Leia started, but Han knew all too well what he needed, descending to his level Han sat back on his haunches and flashed that disarming half smile that made the corner of his nose crease a bit "So you're bringing the food to them? They would have already had dinner by now. They eat pretty early don't ya think?" Ben looked confused for a moment "No, they wouldn't!" The frustration returned, but this time with a note of pleading in it, Han had grabbed his little hands in his and steadied him with a friendly click of his tongue "Why not, Ben?" "You and Ma said that the Ewoks were starving!"
It had taken Han a beat to understand this flustered child, but then his misunderstanding turned to surprised cognition, he rubbed his face and looked back at the already risen Leia. They looked at each other and realized that their increasingly precocious 6 year old had stolen their code phrase from the past mission. In a moment of innocence they began laughing hysterically tickled by the little spy that must have had them surveilled when they had chosen that funny little phrase, within the confines of their buried sand bunker no less. Ben, upon viewing his parent's mirth could only guess that they didn't hear him right, he huffed and puffed and then finally when their laughter subsided Ben offered his basket overflowing with snacks had asked "So, will you help me?"
That among other memories made everything in reality move in slow motion. Another memory of Ben leaving for reassignment dazed him, he evoked the image of his 10 year old son packing his bags furiously, convinced that day, that he was beginning a career in some furtive mission under some esteemed force. Little did he know that he was being sent away due to his unshakeable grievances. In four years those little fists had tightened and it would seem he was constantly searching for someone whom he could clamp those fists around. To add to his disposition, Ben had picked up on his research of the Jedi counsel, finding more flaws than qualities. Han began noticing the sideways looks he would give Leia after another fight had erupted about what Yoda's true intentions were when he was teaching Uncle Luke about the true power of the force. Leia had dropped to the ground that morning, quietly sobbing in the moonlight of their temporary hut. Han remembered how his stomach rolled as he quickly wrapped her in an embrace. She had bowed her head he knew more from shame than from submissiveness and whispered "We could run to Tatooine and send a courier droid to Luke, telling him to-", but Han knew that even perusing the idea would make the hollow ache of their hearts grow.
Ben had pushed his gear through the door of their hut standing up finally a few yards away from the bulky supply ship that housed so many other furloughed younglings. Leia clutched Han's arm with desperate sorrow willing herself to continue the façade they agreed would help Ben leave none the wiser. Han for the first time looked completely unsure, his body shaking with barely concealed remorse as his first son crossed the dusty pathway that led to their abode for the last time. A man with a peculiar appearance graced the entrance of the oblong ship and shouted above the drone of the engines "We are taking off soon, say your goodbyes and come aboard!" He stared at them curiously and then eyed Ben before awkwardly turning into the ship's loading bay. "Don't do it," was all Leia could breathe into Han's chest as the tears sprang forth. Ben had turned to them and with that fragmented smile that made his eyes twinkle he had shouted "Pa, Ma will you help me with these?"
Han was thrusted back into the moment between him and Ben, realizing all at once that he was clutching the lightsaber with all the control he couldn't muster when he had sent him away. Ben's eyes were slowly shuddered by the dying of the light that once streamed through the clouds so zealously. Every particle that danced above them suddenly halted, curiously waiting for what would come from a meeting of a father weakened by his love for his son and a son empowered by his condemnation of his father. Just as Han willed his frozen muscles to snatch the danged thing, the stream of light divulging Ben's manner snapped behind the clouds. However, right before they did in that brief exchange, Han saw another light snuffed out. It was the one that had inhabited Ben's eyes all those times he pled for help and he knew that Ben had sealed his fate. Maybe, even before he had approached him, but even with the terror to come Han felt at peace. Holding so firmly to his heart that if he was to die he would much rather die knowing his son was still alive.
Suddenly, a flash of light melded around him striking Ben across the right side of his face. The mania in Ben's eyes turned them to a reddish amber, the bright light soared across his body and an echo of a lightsaber slashing the metal grates below their feet made his eardrums expire in the infinite blaze pouring in around them. Following the crawl that were the events passing before him, Han felt a whoosh of air run down his spine like the inferno that bursts from the shafts on a freighter ship. His legs appeared in front of him splayed like someone had taken a rug out from under him. Ben's mouth formed a scream, his eyes were replete with the horror of failure under Snoke. The look on his face made Han cry out in anguish, but before he could a black wall shot up in his vision and the Power Chamber withdrew from sight.
Rey gripped the metal rail, her knuckles white with torment. Her face screwed up into a twisted mess of pain. "Noooo!" She bawled the tears falling like bullets into the abyss below, the veins in her neck protruded the grief washing over her like she had been buried in the blistering snow whipping around outside. Finn dropped to his knees beside her his eyes erupted with tears shocked at the drama bleeding out upon the millieu. He glanced up at Rey who was too terribly lost in her own emotions to notice the blatant beam of sunlight amongst the obsidian architecture. A liquid lightsaber bent around Kylo in a holocaust of perdition. Finn heard the halting wail of the dreaded commander as his body was flung wayward only to be cut off by his back slamming against the flat bridge with such violence one could see his hair fly up around him.
The scene was so farcical that Finn just about shielded his eyes. Rey's face in her hands, her tears washed her cheeks and the front of her robe turning it a dark beige. "Rey, look!" Finn exclaimed shaking her arm vigorously trying to wake her from her grief. Rey's arms shot down from her face her eyes were stormy, stirring with rage so electric Finn didn't know how to finish. "What!" She shouted tearing away from the rail to face Finn. "Look! Someone's attacking Kylo" , he yelled pointing at the figure that danced in and out of the shadows avoiding the sudden halos of artificial light raining down from the beams far above their heads. Rey's eyes widened "Who's that?!" She screamed over the mounting discord which belied her usually calm sensibility in the face of peril. It was hard to read her, Finn searched desperately for a way down but before he could secure one Rey had swung her legs over the edge and dropped to the platform below. "Girl, what are you doing?" Finn yelled into the dark unable to see her clearly. As she descended on the platform Chewie wrenched forward hollering at the top of his lungs alerting Rey of the coming danger. Rey searched Chewie's face to find any kind of divergence in his escape plan, but his saddened eyes and beseeching wails told her otherwise. The oscillator will blow at any point now.
Her eyes creased and then she gave in, viewing one last time Han's silenced image laying under the barrage of metal pillars and Kylo's unconscious body being dragged like a Bothan rug down the promenade to the opening at the other side. After crawling out of an opening on the side of the Power Chamber, well the opening ruptured by Chewie on the side of the Power Chamber the group stumbled onto the snow swallowed ground and ran towards the coordinates Chewie had of the Millennium Falcon. Running full tilt through the snowy forest, blanketed branches and still rocks scraped and gouged at their flesh deepening the wounds that were freshly made. Rey's tears mixed with the salt of her sweat that dripped down her face. The snow sprayed her exposed legs and forced her to lock into the goal ahead: to find the Millennium and get out of there.
She shut her eyes letting what lie beyond the lacerating tempest be silenced in her mind. She felt the weight on her feet lift as she swam above the ground below. Instead of running through some forsaken forest she was back home in Jakku rubbing a metal part purposefully with a steel scrub. She dipped the part in the water and scrubbed the crevices with all she had. Looking up she saw a figure in a hooded robe shining a curious orb. Slowly making circles on the object as if he wanted no restitution for his discovery. Rey slowed a bit watching him, almost willing him to hurry as an alien underling stalked closely by. "What you seek is not here," the cloaked person said confidently. Rey touched her face trying to make sense of it. "Who are you?" She set her salvaged object onto the low table. A brief pause allowed Rey to keep an eye on the alien who seemed to drift farther away as he came closer nigh. But, her eyes snapped back to the thing across from her when he said "You are not bound to Jakku, Rey" his constant care for the orb unceasingly hypnotic. "But, my father he said he would return" Rey's voice quickened with worry and against her inner strength her eyes pinched with tears.
At once, Maz's voice mixed with his as he instructed her "You know what to do Rey, don't let your hope muddle your reality." The orb began to drift forward and a whirring noise sprinkled the air. The hooded man unveiled himself slowly until the smooth voice vanished in the countenance staring back at her. His wide mouth snapped shut in a fixed frown challenging her, it was Kylo Ren. Horror washed over her and the bright day began to swirl into a raging storm. "You've known all along, Rey." Kylo's ghostly voice traveled toward her like a Chiilak swimming casually in the depths of the Misnorian glaciers. The shelter ripped from the top of the cleaning station as a supply ship hailed down from the heaving atmosphere. Rey held onto the table so that she wouldn't be sucked up along with the rising sands. "Daddy! Pa pa! Mama..." She heard children screaming in terror as the ship hovered just 10 feet above her. Wrenching back she tore at the dry sand trying to avoid the rouge object.
It began to tip sideways spinning slightly as the hatch began to lower. Rey clenched her temples stunned at the spectacle unraveling before her. Kylo Ren lay on his back his hand raised in defense as the monstrous ship careened towards him. Regardless, of his defenses his attention was latched on her even through the mini sand tornado working itself up between them. "Please Rey! Help me!" Kylo lurched toward her twisting his garb like an impatient youngling. Rey screamed and as she did her body seized backwards tumbling head over heels into a sphere of flashing control panels and the hushing sound of compressors malfunctioning. "Rey!" A bloody howl sounded somewhere in her periphery her sight shifted and then disgust turned her pale at the blue beam an illumination that she held with both hands pointing directly into Finn's back.
Standing on the lowered entrance door of the Millennium Falcon the snow washed into the main holding area over the frozen deck plates peacefully. She became viciously aware of the threat of the furry brown hand clamped down on her shoulders and the whimpering spilling from Finn's mouth. Almost, immediately she dropped the weapon and fell back into Chewie's chest completely exhausted from the unknown. Her and Finn were carried onto the ship, Finn completely unconscious from the pain and her half-conscious disheveled from the vision.
General Hux mute with dejection stood trembling before the holographic image crookedly bent over his semimineral throne. His sunken eyes swirled with voltaic irritation as he leaned forward languishly listening to Hux's sorry complaints. Suddenly, an earthen reverberation rippled underneath the stoney floor. The cave swayed like a common chalice of milk knocked over by an excited child. General Hux thrown forward by the eruption fell on all fours, it would have been just as well that he remain there for what he had to say next was going to require a great deal of capitulation. However, that was never to happen it went against his very essence and all that he knew to be true. He would never allow anyone to bring him lower than his station commanded. He'd done a great many things to secure it he wouldn't let the daftness of some capricious overlord steal that security away. "The fuel cells have ruptured. The collapse of the planet has begun" General Hux informed brusquely. Snoke's intense contemplation broke the otherwise cavernous echo ringing against the stalactites.
With a steady swelling from the depths of his gaunt form, he growled, "Leave the base at once and come to me with Kylo Ren." His sibilation drifted down like a heavy curtain dropping from the ceiling of a play. Hux straightened balking at the orders he smoothed his coat in a consecutive short motion that made a snap as he stood combatively at attention.
"Are you waiting for me to dismiss you General or are you defying my orders." Snoke rescinded sitting tall in his chair. Hux was not intimidated by his threat, yet his body refused to cease its shaking. His gloved hands clapped together resting at his waist in a protective hold. Hux gulped slowly and closed his eyes to stabilize his breathing "Kylo Ren has been taken Supreme Leader, he was attacked and carried away", his voice trailed off leaving his customary professionalism a little less intact.
"Carried away!" Snoke's derision punctured the air, somewhere on the underbelly of the sphere almost simultaneously the crust of the ice planet tore from its face exposing the mantle. "Your orders are the same General. I will not repeat myself." Snoke dissipated into thin air just as Hux's ambitions. The contrived den bellowed as it's structure was compromised, Hux turned sharply his boots scuffing the floor as he fled to escape the imploding polar globe. Hux hastened through the orderless halls, stormtroopers had discarded their helmets which were strewn across the walkway blocking many exit ports. Hux's steps stuttered as he stumbled upon a forsaken F-11D blaster rifle, he snatched up the white and black weapon and turned it here and there inspecting it slightly. He felt the weight of it in his hand and mourned for awhile the empire he had worked so hard to build, one that, no thanks to Kylo Ren, was snuffed out before it ever began. Hux turned down a hallway that was littered with stormtrooper suits spiritlessly burning from the spray of sundered quintessence. Or as the First Order had named it "dark energy", Hux knew that when others referred to the advancements of the First Order it was he that the credit was due and it had been he that suggested the energy be honed from gaseous cosmos.
One stormtrooper's helmet was blown clean from his suit and Hux nervously glanced at the face that was left behind. A young man of about 20 with shiny chestnut hair lay in a twisted heap his mouth gaping open, the rest of his face and body engulfed by crimson flames rolling as the icy air pouring out of the cavity warred with the conflagration. Hux raised his arms to shield himself from the elements and starve the tang of scorching flesh rising in his nostrils. Tempting as it maybe for some to stay and lament the spectacle plastered to the armored floor there were more pressing issues at hand ones that would have to trump such wasteful actions. Furthermore, these boys, these people had taken an oath that they would sacrifice their lives for the furtherance of the First Order, circumstances such as these were to be expected Hux reminded himself.
He hurdled over tangled stormtroopers his mind racing with the state of his good work in disarray. How could pure limitless power be wiped out by a hapless cluster of Resistance cur? His face turned a maddening coral red as he imagined the smirks of those smug pilots blasting into hyperspace. Just the thought made Hux's eyes grow wild with fury, he practically shattered a chest plate as he tramped towards the main hanging bay. He lifted his foot unconsciously and then dug his heel into it vengefully creating a crater. Thrashing his restrictive overcoat from his shoulders he heaved it into the air where it dropped like a bomb to the ground. He climbed the auxiliary shafts which were dusted with ashes made of disintegrated persons. A lone TIE Fighter sat at the top of the station brackets. Inspecting the ground over the lip of the sequence Hux regarded for the first time that the pathway of jettisoned stormtroopers preceded the hallway directly to the hanging bay and running at random all the way in. Not too random that Hux couldn't see that the trail led to the graduation of steps he was currently climbing.
Lurching forward he scaled the stairs and finally with a despondent sigh he crossed the access bridge and flung open the top dropping into the interior below. He scrambled for the control panel only to have been beaten by a frantic stormtrooper displaying a severe desperation to survive. Hux looked into the expressionless eyeguard of the young trooper, the soldier flew back as habit warranted. But, the previous events had leveled the playing field; with the force of the superweapon turned on them it was becoming painfully clear that the once syncopated troops were adopting a new order: every man for himself. For a second the stormtrooper reached for the engagement panel trying to appear conciliatory hoping against hope that General Hux would grace him with a joint escape. General Hux's eyes pulsed with indecision wondering if maybe bringing a stormtrooper along would compromise the mission, spreading the idea that whoever nabbed Kylo Ren would be strong enough to keep the First Order from rising amid the ashes. Then again, Hux figured restlessly turning knobs and scowling over his shoulder at the shrunken Stormtrooper, who cared about the repair of Kylo Ren's notoriety.
He had obliterated that when he welcomed the enemy in by becoming lost in his own dealings with that girl. Even though, his disgust for Ren grew with every passing second. He was anything but unscrupulous when it came to the business between him and Supreme Leader Snoke. Glancing sideways Hux could see the face of his ameteur partner materialize on the helmet of the soldier. He envisioned Kylo Ren aimlessly staring out of the glass as if he could make it by without lifting a finger, his ridiculous suit with its superfluous folds and creases that didn't speak to anything military much less anything a respectable commander of the First Order's expanding fleet would wear. That blasted lightsaber sat hinged to his waist in an attempt to mimick the overlord who perished before him. General Hux's jaw snapped shut unconsciously grinding the thought to dust. The control panel had buzzed to life and the engines were rumbling within the core of the TIE fighter. A gust of cobalt fire shot out of the hallway down below, it was now or never.
But, Hux was transfixed to his thoughts ruminating over the shortcomings of his subordinate, his vision splashed with red "And now" he thought "He was being sent on a scavenger hunt to find the loathsome invalid after he, with all the power of the First Order behind him and Snoke trained to his every move, was captured like a loaf stolen by a Pastilian thief!" The tension was rising and the stormtrooper feared for his life, Hux suddenly ripped his frenzied gaze from the control panel and scorched the trooper with a blistering rage.
"Gen-General, Sir I will continue to perform my duties like before if you wou-would" the stormtrooper stuttered, winning no sympathy from Hux who's self-control suddenly expired "you are a worthless excuse for a leader, the very thing you were asked to protect is collapsing underneath you and your not even here to accept your aberration, your doom!" Hux rose in the pilot seat at an alarming speed and lunged for the stormtrooper who shrieked at his combustion. Thinking fast the stormtrooper unholstered his SE-44C pistol pointing it at the man who once held his entire past, his entire future in his gloved hand. The barrel of the pistol shook madly as the stormtrooper warred with the sin he was about to commit. Hux bucked like some wild Minorian beast spooked by a sudden burst of wind, landing on the control panel and scrambling the readings that had pasted themselves on the glass ahead. The TIE fighter died signaling that liftoff was not as tangible as it had been a few minutes before. Hux was beside himself with rage taking out every frustration on the trembling stormtrooper before him. Sweeping his boot up he disengaged the pistol from the stormtrooper's fist and buried the toe of his boot into his stomach."Oof!" The soldier gawfed crumbling in between the co-pilot's chair and the wall.
Hux towered over him his chin trembling as spittle dripped down to his flawless vestments. "Please" the soldier shouted lifting a damaged glove dripping with crimson blood. Hux's lips billowed like the shredded flag of the First Order did in the raving wind. Without another thought he seized the retired pistol and aimed at the soldier's heart, or at least at the place on the breastplate where it should be located. "It's me FN-2199" the officer screamed tearing his helmet off and revealing his face "I fought the Resistance at Takodana!" His pleading only fueled the fire burning bright in Hux's eyes. With one punitive zap the protest ended and Hux punched the excelerator with both hands. With a second thought Hux hooked his hands up under the trooper's suit heaving him up in the air, using his head as a ramming mechanism he thrusted the hatch open. Before he dispensed of the body he peered one last time into the eyes of the trooper and was shocked when he recognized him from the base.
He was the one who had volunteered to accompany the attack force to bring in the bandits who had fled with the coveted BB-8. His volunteerism had been so sincere Hux had turned from the controls to spy the enthusiastic trooper, feeling with some relief a little faith grow in the efforts of the First Order. Maybe, even the structure Kylo Ren had rendered most effective...but if his time under Kylo Ren's rule had taught him anything it was to cast aside that which threatened non production. Hux's arms trembled under the dead weight, "We must begin again." Hux whispered to no one in particular as he hefted the body over the hull letting it slide over the starfighter's curvature and drop into the sea of molten rock below. Slamming the lid down Hux's breath came out in forced puffs, for his breath had been held in his chest and the shock had locked it shut. Methodically engaging the system Hux's mind finally was wiped blank and his unblinking countenance was calm. However, his soul blackened a little in the atmosphere of that abject TIE fighter and there was nothing he could do to rub out the smut. Zooming towards a barricade of swirling ice and flying molten metal Hux vowed to find Kylo and finish what Snoke started.
The hysteria rose, medical droids rolled in and out ardently, and Rey sapped of strength and sound mind, fell into a deep slumber. As the Millennium Falcon pealed toward D'Qar hauling with it merited celebration and disparaging news, Rey awoke. What roused her from her remedial serenity was the slurred trills of a saddened Wookie. Rey turned her head slowly on the massive pillow that appeared to encase her and spied Chewie slumped over in the crescent lounge chair, his wooly paw covering his face in mourning. Her eyes glistened with tears considering for the first time that although she had lost a good friend, Chewie had lost a lifetime companion. Yet, she still thought back to the time he offered her a position in his, up til then, close-knit duo and coveted with every cell in her body that she had said "yes." She had been restful up until this collision of emotions wracked her already worn body with a reverberation that compelled her to clench the sheets on the medical table. Tears spilled from her eyes leaving little trails on either side of her dull gaze. A few quick swipes to the eyes later, she was decidedly finished feeling sad. All that caused, she reflected, was more pain and even more heartache. Truth be told, this perilous endeavor was why she found herself neurotically combing over her life and why her friend lay unconscious on the bed beside her. It was time, she determined, that she and The Resistance expel this victimization and fight for freedom instead of fighting to defend themselves like a couple of (star wars insect insert here) on the desert floor. Replacing that sorrow with a hungry vengeance, she willed it to burden the death of Han, the attempt at the destruction of the universe and the total annihilation of five planets once brimming with organic life. She knew in the days to come, even within the years that The Resistance would be fully functional and completely necessary they would need to acquire some level of hardiness. And who else to blaze the trail then a lone desert crawler who had to pillage every day of her life just for sustenance? Reaching instinctively for her staff she felt her arms go heavy and drop to the bed. Not before getting some proper rest, she thought and her eyes fluttered shut.
The swarm of fighter pilots accrued into a crowd as they gathered to welcome the rest of their commandos. The cacophony of clicks, snorts, grunts, and squeals consumed the arriving crew as they drew closer. No one could deny the victory that they shared despite those they had lost. There was an unspoken agreement that against it all the fighters who sacrificed their lives in the attack would be forever consecrated in history as true ambassadors of justice. Nearby, a group of fighter pilots embraced spilling tears of relief over each other's shoulders. They perused sentiments old and new, Rey turned giving privacy to those precious moments before the news was shared that their longtime leader was trapped on a disintegrating death sphere. For all she knew he could still be alive waiting for them to save him. The hero of the First Order's second wave defeat searched the crowd for the widowed General, seeing only a vision of Han sliding against the grated promenade and being reduced to a crumpled heap back in the Power Chamber.
The scene flashed across her mind at light speed, then idly as if combing for some suppressed element. Rey wanted, needed something that could comfort Leia when the time came to tell her about Han. But, the vision did nothing to offer her any surety. The reality was wherever he was, his being alive was just as doubtful as his safety. She feared the worst. That he was ensnared boundless light years away, on some forgotten moon and was being tortured this very moment. She could imagine the terror like an endless tunnel drowning him in the grief that he was not only alone, but forsaken by his only son. In the dark maze of Rey's thoughts one memory glowed like debris from a supernova ejected into space. There was that sheathed defender, and that glare of judicious alabaster light that seemed to arc around and even through Kylo Ren. Whatever became of him? How many times had he thrown Kylo Ren to the floor before leaving? What was the use of him swooping in to capture the overlord then and not before when he had been hidden by the forests of Takodana? Surely, rescuing Han was but a meer by-product of his attack.
Rey ducked under a TIE Fighter and grazed her fingers over the underbelly where a blast had scorched it pretty bad. It was still warm to the touch. Rey's hope dissolved however, the little merriment that she had watching the celebration dissolved as well, she felt plighted to reveal the truth after the battle the fact that a greater war was brewing. How else could this battle be crystallized as a true triumph when they won only to lose. As for Rey's heart, its desire was to send her leaping and shouting into the fray letting the burden of the lost and of the impending adventure, slip through her fingers like sand.
Just then, she caught sight of the top of a head traveling calmly through the densely packed crowd. The spruce braids adorned her head like a crown, salty yet perfectly fawn. Clearing a path, her sobered demeanor left a path of curious pilots. Rey closed the gap between them, first with restraint hoping to keep some semblance of dignity. Then when her face came into view emotions rushed in and she hastened to embrace her. Leia clutched Rey's frock cooly, Rey rested her chin on the low shoulder of the great Leia Organa. She could hear a still, soft murmur; it was Leia speaking some sort of phrase repeatedly, she had been trying to say something to her as they hugged. Finally, Rey heard her say "I knew, I knew." With broken heart and every ounce of volition she obtained on Jakku Rey squeezed the tears letting them run one last time for sorrow's sake.
Relinquishing Rey from her grasp Leia straightened and seemed to draw strength from this stranger. They stood there for a moment emitting little signals that were best to be concealed under the seclusion of their shared knowledge. But, they knew that this exchange would have to find its end at this juncture, for the greater procession of peace had to be obtained.
Inside the Resistance Base a crowd of Officers along with Poe huddled around the console which was dull with inactivity. Temporarily disoriented by the prospect of their first mission, they figured the whereabouts of the missing coordinates to Luke; which were neither clear nor certain, even with the many heads being used in the process. Poe propped his damaged helmet on his hips curved under in exhaustion which beheld him now. A man in a saddle brown uniform with golden curls walked around the console discussing in short his theory of where the missing piece was. Consequentially, he would only make it halfway around the table before turning back and standing before the crowd furnished with newfound thoughts.
Somewhere in the back, a preen English accent could be heard correcting someone. Rey followed it knowing that she had nothing substantial to add to the conversation that was buzzing a few feet away from her. Weaving in between the hallway consoles and pilots chewing on breadroot fritters shooting the breeze, Rey took in the atmosphere around her. Most of the soldiers, pilots and officers were beginning to settle in, but there was a musty sense of unrest that made Rey feel that everyone was still quite rigid. Rey smiled courteously excusing herself as she brushed past them, the conversing droid came into view as she rounded the corner. C-3P0 stood berating BB-8, gesticulating all the more frantically as BB-8 rolled back and forth expressing his frustration.
"What is going on with you two?" Rey pretend parented. C-3P0 turned and began explaining what had occurred fervently whipping his shiny gold arm up and down to portray the list of things BB-8 could add to his etiquette program. All the while BB-8 rolled and beeped interrupting C-3P0 time and time again only to make him start back at the beginning. Rey stifled a grin and tried to commiserate with C-3P0 as much as she could, but the whole thing was simply comical. When C-3P0 finally finished muttering some indecencies in Ubese, Rey hunched down and shot the spunky droid a curious look right into his photoreceptor. Instantly, BB-8 straightened or straightened as much as a spherical droid could and became riveted to her gaze. "Do you have something to tell us?", she finally spoke the droid reacting with some very low slurred beeps and deep whirring that couldn't be overheard by C-3P0 about a meter and some change above. Rey at first didn't quite get the message, besides she hadn't ever had the chance to really study the specific language of this droid, but she had learned its unique body language and was surprised to find that this one displayed more human emotion than even some droids with humanistic programming.
If anything she could tell when BB-8 had some pertinent information, as the whole journey had hinged on some very time-sensitive matters that only BB-8 could dispel. Leaning her forearm on her knee she leaned forward and pressed her palm to the curvature of his head endearingly wiping the dust from his lens. Suddenly, a wave of cognition riddled her spirit and BB-8's now calm transmissions blended together into an intelligible pattern that sounded like garbled droid data. Yet, it interpreted itself into English right before Rey's eyes. She could not believe what she was hearing she fell back on her haunches and covered her mouth in shock leaving her other hand still resting on the droid's head. BB-8 finished leaving Rey in a stupor. Nervous energy streamed through her veins. Or was it the power Maz told her she held back in Takodana? Was she being prompted by it now? Rey dropped to her knees and studied BB-8's distinct expressions, it didn't take the force to know he was trying to affirm her interpretation.
C-3P0 who had become strangely silent was staring reflectively out of one of the portholes on the cragged vine laced wall. Sunbeams rained in presumptuously spraying the metallic floor and lighting the deadened consoles nearby. These years the resistance could not make sense of their indirection ambling around desolate planets like the one they were on now only to have the missing puzzle piece be in the first place they should have looked. Rey rose and as she did she was filled with a determination that had hid itself after the battle in the Power Chamber. The phrase BB-8 had corresponded swirled around in her mind and she realized she had some good news to tell Leia. Maybe this way whatever horrors were to come would be easier to receive. For now however, she would have to keep Han dead until she knew otherwise. This very moment commanded her leadership and focus and with this new information The Resistance might be able to obtain what they had been looking for all this time. Rey crossed her arms and squared her jaw looking down at the round orb, "Did you say Coruscant?"
A serial shooting pain shot through his backside rattling his unconsciousness. Though, it wouldn't be the first time such a sting had licked him. "Put your weight on your back foot!" A tired Luke sputtered again for the 15th time that hour. Kylo Ren remembered it like it was yesterday, Uncle Luke pacing in front of him as he practiced his morning warm-ups that blasted pacing. That day especially, Luke was in such a sour state he started counting how many times he had growled at a missed step, furrowed brow...balled fist, he'd counted 47. Ben reset and squared his shoulders holding the training saber out towards the practice dummy filled with mystery contusions and lacerations.
Behind it was Uncle Luke rotating his pointed finger signaling for Ben to commence the reset chant "Subject: Imperialist Person, Jedi Trainee: Ben Solo, Jedi Master: Luke Skywalker, Weapon: Lightsaber, Mission: Attack," Ben muttered under his breath, stubbornly awaiting his uncle's routine scolding. Uncle Luke stopped his pacing but didn't look up, "Don't make me come over there, Ben," Luke pointed straight at him, boiling his blood even more. He had thrown the toy saber to the ground in defiance and shouted "I'm done playing these games I wanna go home!" His heart had pounded so loud he had wanted to bury his hand into his chest and squeeze it in his hand.
For an old guy, Luke proved to be pretty quick, but Ben had constantly been caught off guard by the graying man, now was no exception as he glided forward and placed himself in between himself and the dummy. His eyes were stern, but protective all the same. In part that was what had made Ben trust in his training. Even though it was their first meeting. But, the sugary sweet stories of the great Jedi Counsel and the fantastical narratives of the Jedi master before him began to eclipse the light that used to shine in his eyes.
"You aren't going home. This is where you'll be until you complete your training" Luke said lifting his head and peering at him with knowing eyes. "I don't even think Yoda trained you like this" He boldly sounded off peering back at him with a chilly stare. Luke's shoulders fell slowly and he straightened his back, all this turning a bold wielder into a shaky 10 year old. Luke assumed his battle stance and tightened his lips setting ablaze his eyes like the dying light of his lightsaber. Kylo Ren revived the monologue that had flickered in his mind "Left, right and over, keep moving. Wait, he'll see it coming. Right, right and then left."
But, the embarrassment that had driven toward him and splintered his thoughts-as well as his training saber-was enough to make him wince even now. Luke had brought the saber down and about his head from ear to ear causing his balance to be compromised. A flurry of heavy taupe robe disappeared behind him before he could swipe once. Indecision had flooded his mind, as it shouldn't have, Kylo quickly regretted. Uncle Luke had plucked the wooden saber from his hand and batted him back with it. Trying to steady himself he swung his arms wildly and for a brief moment he thought he might be able to gain some ground. Unfortunately, the boot that curled around his ankle forced him to flip backwards and onto his stomach. He had tasted the bitter earth, vengefully plotting his escape, until a red hot flame zipped across his bottom and his childish screams interrupted the wild scheme. "It's Master Yoda to you."
As the command echoed in his ears, Kylo Ren slowly became aware of himself. He noticed first that his mouth was overflown with blood and his chapped lips were caked in the dried plasma sealing his mouth shut in a ruby line. The eyelids that were once peeled back at his father were swollen and the eyes beneath the inflamed flesh felt as though they had been staring straight into the sun. A constant pressure on his throat made his hands spring to his collar where it was tugged tight across his Adam's apple. Someone was dragging him and from the little rivets and intense raking he knew he was being dragged across the walkway. His head pounded and his back ached the question of fighting back seemed to float further and further away with each agonizing minute, he pronounced that he would save his strength until that privilege was awarded him. The searing pain washed him like an arctic bath making him shiver even in his tightly wrapped vestiges. With each passing wave the collar around his throat seemed to deepen and he felt, at one point that it would go clean through his neck. All he could do was listen to the light jogging of his imbued captor.
The sound of his unceasing stride made Kylo Ren's heart quicken in his chest, Kylo Ren sensed his surroundings change a wash of light reflected on his closed lids and then he was thrown into some sort of containment mechanism. A metal click and a loud hiss later Kylo felt his forearms being clenched by restraints. Whoever was detaining him worked with a fury that seemed to grow increasingly incensed by his presence, there was a personal element to the way he snapped the leg restraints a little too enthusiastically and how eagerly he snatched the gloves from his hands. Kylo Ren felt a thumb shoved into his mouth and run from left to right, he could taste the leather of a glove and bitter iron of crusted blood on his tongue. Almost immediately an oxygen mask was wrenched over his head and snapped to his jaw and gas streamed into his mouth and nose so rapidly that it seemed to be overfilling, seeping into his brain. Or was that the effects of the contents of the gas? Was he being poisoned? His eyes rolled back in his head crawling away from the aspect of something impending. His head nodded to the side easily and his legs went slack, no longer supporting his body which now hung uncomfortably over the cuffs strapped to his extremities. Between the pain of being stretched against a metal torture chair and the irony of having subjected many insubordinates to one just like it Kylo Ren could only succumb to the terror of surrender. "Release me!" Kylo Ren's mumbled demand wasn't heard. But, inside, a thing petrified with his own intimate volition sparked and his body was corrupted by thoughts so ridiculously recalcitrant that he wondered if it wasn't the effects of the gas seducing his mind.
Kylo Ren found within this confinement an infernal memory that he had cast out the moment it had come into his own, it was of his deferment from his family home or at least when he had realized that it was a deferment and not a promotion. Nagging depression caused him to be sick with worry every night and wake with dread every morning. His only rest from it was in the affirming arms of his own righteous anger. Usually this respite would make itself useful when he was forced to commune with all the other discarded children, who were force fed the incredibly fictitious notion that their parents abandoned them on account of some menacing threat. He labored to fashion some sort of coping mechanism. However, he found sanity in the habitual. Anything that was nothing like the gaggle of gullible younglings who quieted each other's pathetic homesickness with the mantra that was drilled into their skulls from Day 1: "If you are aboard this ship it is because you are loved, protected by those who love you, watched over by the authority who was sent to save you and guided by the hope of a speedy return." Blasphemous, all of it and that is why Kylo Ren would sit at the table at the opposite end of the mess hall, his half-eaten Muilak burger chilling in the small space above his materials and plot his escape.
Day in and day out he would sit at that table and pour his schemes out on the back of some old burlap he tore from his Uncle Luke's knapsack one day during training. So much went into his plan that he would become completely engrossed in it, letting the nonsense fade and the idea of escape materialize in front of him. One day while he was completing a Plan C escape route a mess hall guard had come up behind him and had been peering at his scrawling. After a short moment passed with the man lingering above him, he suddenly recognized the path Ben had drawn up. Reaching over his shoulder he snatched the burlap and wheeled his slight 13 moon old frame around. Kylo Ren remembered swinging straight at the man's gut and missing. The man was older than the other guards and obviously less tolerant of such boldness especially from a child. His bald head glistened in the artificial light above, which highlighted even more his gargantuan size. Ben knew when he'd been had, but he fought common sense in this contest to reach something else. Kylo Ren realized now that he was then deficient of purpose. Kylo Ren returned to the instant when the guard reached across his chest and lifted him from the floor with one hand. The acute burst of pain as his body weight pulled his arm out of its socket. The embarrassment when he cried out like a child and tears splashed his dusty uniform.
All the children had watched as he was led out of the room and to the confinement chamber in the depths of the ship. He had stayed there, he counted a month and three days. They never treated his dislocated shoulder, a guard would come three times a day to release his constraints so he could eat and relieve himself, but otherwise there was complete silence. Kylo Ren shuddered at the hatred that had wracked his bound body, he knew that when he emerged he would never be the same again. But, what was true was that things would never be the same again. He knew that the power that festered inside of his heart was revenge, a beast he had no intention of killing and that one day when night fell on the counterfeit hope of the naive he would release it on them all. Bang, bang, bang. The captor was banging something down onto a table in his periphery he could hear him sliding some controls into place and the machine answering with affirming beeps. The clattering made Kylo Ren's arms instinctively jump in defense. He eventually came to occupy his thoughts with images of force gripping his assailant, the vision slipped in and out of focus though, until he requisitioned it with a rigid seizure of his hand. He could hear the abductor suck in a breath and clutch the table, a partial smile pasted itself pleasingly across Kylo's face. He bared his teeth as he sought to squeeze harder and harder still.
Scornful laughter animated his features which encouraged him all the more to thrash maniacally in his suppression. He twisted back and forth trying to break free, but in between his attempts to escape he would lose strength and recess limply to the side. His laughter guttural and hoarse and frankly not amused made the whole scene all the more crazed. Without warning he inclined that there was a sudden transfer of power like the instantaneous blast of a planet caught in the sights of the Death Star. He would have to find a better analogy, one that didn't remind him of his failure, he noted to himself. His inclination was confirmed when he felt the stranger's hands digging into his windpipe. He gagged and all at once knew his rebellion had been squelched. The ragged breathing was shared in that close space and for an intense moment the two warred, both held on playing a game of top man. Kylo Ren feeling his body shutting down starting from his feet and moving like a snake up his legs yanked forward with one last act of resistance and head butted him. Content with his efforts at retaliation he let himself rest against the back of the torture table. Right before he faded to black a hand came down and knocked the last breath from him.
"I must say, I am glad you invited me on this mission," C-3P0 exerted excitedly as his replacement arm twitched here and there. Rey sat in the front seat of the Millennium Falcon next to a rather distant Wookie. She peered over her shoulder as Chewie pulled the disintegrator and set the ship's mode to autopilot. "Has your arm always twitched like that?" she asked, a friendly smile would have convinced you she was beginning to heal after the chaos of the war. C-3P0 studied her quickly and reported "My arm has been replaced due to some, rather precarious situations. However, I do have an outstanding notice for a tune-up", he added sheepishly. As per usual he was trying to selflessly complain without complaining; being careful not to appear unsatisfied, especially to one he wasn't too familiar with. Rey was no exception, although his input produced readings that built a picture of a very sincere girl, his learning circuitry threatened him with the read out of his last mission. Some solidified grease melted and slid down the inside of his gears. "Princess Leia is very diligent about my upkeep, rest assured." He capped off his say so with a compulsory humph. Rey sighed and looked forward, she wondered if he'd ever warm up to her, she hadn't missed his inspection of her, one that did not seem too pleasing if she might add. "Chewie, could you tell us how close we are to Coruscant?"He growled acceptingly, but took his time pulling the navigational metrics up. Scratching his side his massive paws passed over the controls emptily. "Rrwwwggh," he rumbled culling the coordinates and other appropriate information in front of her pilot's panel. He quickly rested his chin on his balled paw and stared out the cockpit window.
Rey studied him for a minute and then unbuckled her seatbelt, "Alright." she said under her breath as she hurried to the back of the ship with purpose. She could understand why he was so down, but she needed to clear her head for the mission ahead. Between the animal groanings of a grieving Wookie and the skeptical mechanic clicks that C-3PO thought she couldn't hear it was becoming increasingly difficult to envision a successful operation. Rey touched the panels of the ship as she made her way to the hull, dealing with the wiring and cables was second nature to her. If anything it reminded her of home, that forgotten waste planet Jakku. The best idea was to just play along and not think too deeply about home, Rey decided a half smirk spreading across her face. Suddenly, she heard a curious mixture of Wookie and droid chatter. If she wasn't mistaken she recognized a word that Chewie was indignantly trilling through the innards of the ship's cabin.
She hadn't met a whole lot of Wookiees on Jakku she had only heard stories from unsavory folk who hung in the shadows of bedraggled overhangs or smutty bars. Let's just say the inhabitants of Jakku knew how to smear a reputation and Wookiees were not excused. But still Rey had never been the one to believe the bottom feeders. She had done her investigating as per usual and found some old holos that depicted the history of the specie. The culture, the language which were all so reassuring and had caused her to secretly wish in her 8 moon old mind that a Wookiee would adopt her and groom her like in the stories. She wracked her brain for that word, it was so familiar. She was surprised to hear her name, what could they possibly be arguing about? Some part of her had already resigned herself to the idea of earning their trust and being left out of things like this. Another trill broke the atmosphere and trampled the otherwise direct accusations. "She is a stranger, how are we supposed to believe she's not being controlled?" C-3PO nearly yelled in his pert droid English. Chewie bellowed back repeating himself once again. Rey crossed an exposed wire and began twisting them together, what is that word- that word. Rey remembered the scene in the holo where several Wookiees gathered for a marriage ceremony. She smiled involuntarily remembering the vows shared by the couple. How the crowd groomed them when they had been joined and the way they put their foreheads together and called each other family. Family. Rey fumbled for what seemed like a Hoth day and eventually dropped the valve cap she had in her hand. Tears pinched the sides of her eyes when she realized that the word Chewie was using; it was family. And in an instant the wall she had been building fell and she willingly set her tools down and stepped through the rupture.
Kylo Ren had been watching the stranger working feverishly over some sort of system, it was agonizing to watch. And the fumes from the gas he was being supplied with was making him nauseous. The creature had carefully sequestered his lightsaber somewhere on the inside of the containment cell—all he needed to do was locate it- "Do you know what you are doing?" Kylo Ren breathed unaware of how the noxious gas had stolen his ability to raise his voice. The captor moved as if Kylo Ren had said nothing, except for an unnecessary flick of the wrist as he discarded an eroded part. "When I'm released from these bonds you will regret every breath you breathed in my presence!" But he only responded by cocking his head to the side, Kylo Ren knew it was only a matter of time. The blood red cape he wore was wrapped around his body protectively. Futile, Kylo Ren noted it's just hanging off his body. Soon—Kylo Ren thought—soon he would unravel. "Give me your name scum." Kylo demanded. The Crimson Shadow spun around, his mask turned to look at him in disdain as he passed by. As determined as the Crimson Shadow was Kylo Ren felt his trepidation wain. He wasn't sure why, yet he followed his instincts. "There is nowhere you can run where the First Order won't find you!" Kylo Ren craned his neck to watch him, his nerves beginning to jump. "There are troops in every corner of every galaxy, poised to kill you at my command."
Silence.
"I will never break, you know nothing of my power!" His restraints rattled as he lurched forward.
Silence.
Kylo Ren's eyes turned dark and all he could see was an image of his grandfather staring down at him and mocking him as he sealed a burning hut with two effortless slashes a family of Warghuns screaming in terror as their flesh dripped from their bones. He became all too aware of his racing heart, but he refused to let his breathing give away the chaos surging inside him. He dug deep, "I don't know what diseased callhouse your parents conceived you in, but I will return you to your hole with that blasted cape stuffed down your throat." Kylo Ren heard a sudden ignition of a lightsaber and a high-pitched tone that made him nervous. The Crimson Shadow appeared in front of him like fire just as quick as if he had called him to memory. He closed in shaking with rage. I've got him. Kylo Ren thought peering down at him through a set of half-massed eyes. The Crimson Shadow clenched Kylo Ren's arms tightly, almost as if to stall a worse action. But Kylo Ren's confidence remained unshaken, he had seen a bolt fly off the Crimson Shadow's steel fortress and it was just a matter of time before the whole thing buckled. The creature peered at him through the mask. He began to punch Kylo Ren in the crook of his arm over and over and over again. The pummeling was so violent at one point all one could hear was the broken bone clicking against another and the captor's possessed ragged breaths.
Kylo Ren laughed wildly through every blow and finally at the peak of his hysteria, he heard the creature yell "Shut up!" Kylo's body went rigid he stared down at the masked creature with new eyes and the creature peered back. The ominous buzzing of the ship was all that could be heard for a few relentless beats. No, no-Kylo thought-He hadn't yelled, he had wailed and instead of hearing the brass of what he assumed was a vengeful captor he fell sick with the tone that was pitched too high for a man and rung too delicately for a youngling. He was a she.
His incredulous gasp and static features said it all. She knew that his descent into the five stages of grief were not too far behind. It wasn't easy accepting that the assassin who dragged him from his own palace was female. He now tried without success to mask his humiliation. Something many captives had done…right before they met their fate. Another emotion played across his face, one that made her tilt her head back in curiosity. He was sneering at her and smiling? An obvious sign that he skipped denial and had arrived at acceptance. Fine, she thought. A half smile alighted him as he made his mockery very plain. She turned to her workstation, searching for anything to distract. Yet, she could feel his eyes following her from place to place. All of a sudden, her vestments were too tight and the cape that hung from her shoulders weighed them down like anchors. Her confidence was fading fast and she hadn't even commenced phase two of her operation. Granted, this was one of the biggest steals of her career. And honestly, she never really thought she would get this far. But, here she was...and here he is.
"What is your name?" She asked her tone practiced and sure. She stood stock straight in front of her tarnished workstation, an overhead light flickered nervously above. After a few expletives, "You know who I am." Kylo growled, just as he did she held up a hand. He choked on his shock, the gas very clearly leaving him like an exposed nerve ending. He scanned the floor with eyes so protuberant they looked like they would pop out of his head. "Listen well, because I am not going to repeat myself." She clasped her hands and moved forward. "You are captee I-D-0-2, and will respond to your name, or further damage will ensue. Do you understand?" Kylo Ren's eyes rolled from side to side instinctively looking for an exit. She moved forward evenly, Kylo strained forward. Her hands fell at his face where the straps burned into his jaw and twisted the knobs before disappearing behind him. Again, he labored to see what was happening, but to no avail. A warbling noise like a radio transmission started and then a hissing sound. The mask turned a murky green color and the instant fiery sensation made his head shake and his eyes run. Try as he might to contain his suffering the burning only intensified with time. Eventually, he began to whimper which turned into groans that lasted for a few minutes, then he fell silent. "Do you want more?" Her hand lifted to the knob and he flinched, "That's right, that's good what is your name?" The lights quivered, shadows twitched in nearby corners just past his periphery. The unknown beginning to gnaw at his bare nerves. "Unleash me," his voice was hoarse and tired.
Silence.
"You are only making it harder for yourself." He warned, in return she flipped a switch on a mechanism and white gas splashed on his face. He braced himself for the pain, but instead numbness froze his jaw all the way to the base of his neck. But, then his arms and chest began to seize and he found himself fighting for air. "Wait!" He called out.
The general's franticly cold eyes drank in the starless galaxy that was the very outer rim of his home. Every brilliant illumination that had governed the space around every planet before and hugged it tight was completely lost to the outer reaches. Past Mandalore, Yavin and Moraband was an abyss that confounded even the cruelest overlord and kept all living beings millions of parsecs away from its jagged edges. Many a bet was placed to see which brave soul would explore wild space and every primitive creature that inhabited it and returned with his life. But, it was that danger of the unknown—more the unknown than the danger—that compelled Hux. A blank slate. He repeated to no one in particular. A blank slate. The perils of journeying to the outer rim left a cold pallor to his sallow cheeks. A cold sweat like no other seemed to drain him of all his strength. All his power. He clutched the control panels, squeezing the corners of it almost in a test to see how much of his strength really had been taken. The brutality of the outer rim had always been built of rumors. Funny little tales guileful younglings would story, attempting to convince their friends that they had risked their lives in the name of bravery. Though the truth was that its boundless regions had only been happened upon by course less wanderers with nothing to lose and decidedly suicidal dispositions. There was only one who had purposefully took this 12 yottaparsec detour. One might call it suicidal or anything but logical, but it was the one place that Hux could call his own. He did his best thinking out here and with the galaxy in ruins it was the only place that needed him.
He didn't worry about where Kylo Ren had been taken. He knew as soon as the power chamber was scoured and the troopers had reported the nabbing that the element of time was not on his side. Instead, he relied on his Search and Rescue training, if he could remember it. He had nearly slept through it. A wavy band of darkness moved in his periphery. He couldn't help but turn to face it. But it was gone before he had even moved his feet. Hallucinations were also a symptom of such black nothingness. Hux nose twitched in that neurotic way that meant his mind was drifting. A story came to mind of a youngling who touched the surface of the outer rim. He had been snatched before he destroyed himself, but it was evident that it was too late. On his deathbed he had talked wistfully of a symphony shaking the heavens with such glorious music that he had opened the latch to touch it. Hux tugged at his vestments nervously trying to map out the mission against this endless tapestry. There were trillions of planets in the galaxy behind him and many of them too far apart to forage, yet he had to try, because if his mission was abandoned there would be no planet, no galaxy nor reprobate oblivion he could hide where Snoke would not destroy him. His skin crawled with the feeling of being bound by someone else's power. He wrestled his collar open and unsecured his coat. He blinked crazily at the window as a boy betrayed by his father. Disappointed at the lack of direction he was receiving."Please!" Hux breathed rackishly "Give me guidance!" The blinding silence of the outer rim almost mocked him, his lip curled in an instinctively hostile sneer. "Don't you hear me?!" He slammed his fist into the console and it chirped in response. All of a sudden his loneness washed over him like the Salucian Falls and his inhibitions were shattered mercilessly. He snatched a pile of hollos off of a nearby ledge and flung them to the rear of the ship. He kicked a box of spare parts and they slid across the metallic floor emphatically. The quick relief of noise coerced him into this state of impulsivity. He reached for every loose piece of material left on the ship and let his muscles tell them where to go. All the while his recent orders and previous missions slid away to the recesses of his mind. If not, for a moment, he was not a general. Or any man who was burdened with responsibilities too heavy, despite all the training and programs the Empire claimed would prepare him. No he felt like a child released to his tantrum. The room seemed to spin around him or it could have just been him. The vision of the rim passed by quicker and quicker swirling with the mineral-colored panels of the pod. Until, his spinning lodged a sharp piece of tech into his boot and he hit the floor with a thump. He fought back his eye's natural response to tear up, he took note for a moment his pathetic state and was grateful that he was alone. "Um, he-hello?" A voice so faint Hux dismissed it for his own insanity. But, there had been a noise, something that split the stillness. Hux jabbed his ear in the direction of the alleged noise and listened for what seemed a lifetime, the walls seemed like they were inches from his face he could only hear his own labored breathing. "I command you to speak!" Hux finally exclaimed, it was a little while before he heard "Hello?" A curiously small and smoky voice stabbed the air. Eventually, the dark corridor composed a