A/N: This is my first piece I have written, and I'm super nervous about putting it up. Please tell me if there is anything wrong (grammar/spelling wise), or if my character is too perfect or unrelatable. I also have absolutely no clue what to title this story, so any suggestions are VERY welcome. By the way I jammed out to 'What is Love' by Haddaway on repeat during the writing of this, and so there might be a couple of mistakes and random letters everywhere. I do try my best to edit, but sometimes one or two things slip through my fingers. Another thing: this is a Star Wars Kylo Ren x OC slowburn (of sorts). If you don't like this ship, you probably shouldn't be reading this story. I don't want all the reviews to be filled up with 'this ship sucks'. Also, it would be much appreciated if you wouldn't just say things such as 'I don't like this character' (unless you're ranting!), please elaborate a little bit. For example, "I don't like this character because..." so I can work harder to fix things. Phew, that was a long author's note. They usually won't be this long.
Disclaimer: Though I can dream, I absolutely do not own Star Wars. The only thing I 'own' is my OC. I also don't own the Cheshire Cat...
The thief knew she should run. She knew, of all the places in the galaxy, she shouldn't be here. This was a bad decision, but it wasn't hers. The Master had told her to come, and The Master's wishes were her commands. Anyway, this was a dangerous mission, and the thief thrived on danger. She knew her particular set of well-developed skills would come in handy.
The thief was in a tight metal air shaft a sleek, black and white hallway. At every little sound, the thief, called Night by her closer associates and Nightmare to those she was doing business with, felt a little bit of fear rising in her chest. This fear brought out her adrenaline, though, and so she tried to amplify her fear. If Night was caught, she'd probably end up dead. There was no escape from this ship in particular. Night's pitch black, slightly curly hair, which was in a ponytail, started to frizz around her.
Footsteps echoed in the hallway beneath Night. She froze in position, trying to make as little noise as possible. Two figures, clad in white armor, stopped directly beneath Night.
"This is BN-2698 reporting from Wing 23. No sign of a disturbance," One of the figures said into what Night expected was a Comm. A response that Night couldn't understand crackled back through.
"We'll keep checking, ma'am," The same Storm Trooper replied. The two Stormtroopers walked off slowly, looking around as if not really expecting anything. Night almost let out a sigh, but she held it in. That was a close call.
Suddenly, the metal of the air shaft buckled beneath Night's small amount of weight. Night should have factored in the different ages and types of metal used in the air shafts. Apparently, this shaft was older than the others that Night had crawled through. Also, Night was on an intersection between two tunnel-like pieces of the shaft. That place was the weakest point. Night sucked in a breath. This would e tricky, and require a type of precision that Night didn't have. Slowly, Night stretched out her right palm and placed it a couple inches in front of where it had previously been. Slowly, Night let her weight sink in to her palm. The buckled metal seemed to brace itself, but was able to withstand her weight. Night let out her breath. If she could do one hand, she could most likely place the other one. Night placed her left hand about an inch away from her right palm. Carefully, Night balanced out her weight so most of it was evenly spread between her two hands. She picked her knee up and moved it forward. Just a little farther, and Night would be out of the weak section.
The metal groaned and collapsed beneath Night. She shrieked, falling to the floor. Night landed with a thud, and a few pieces of metal fell around her. Night tried to get up, to move, to run, to use her built up adrenaline to get out of the ship of no escape, but she couldn't. It was as if a dark smoke had unknowingly been pressed against Night's mind. She couldn't move, couldn't get up. There was a force holding her in her spot, but it was not very strong, as if whoever (or whatever) was pinning Night to the ground didn't know that it was doing that. Just as soon as it had started, the force disappeared. Night got up, and looked down the hall. She would have to turn her body left, go through the door, get the weapon, and head for the escape route as planned.
Night started to move forward, but a splitting pain in her foot made her stop. There was a small shard of metal from the air duct Night had fallen out of in her left foot. Blood gushed out of around the wound, so Night tried as quickly as she could to rip off a piece of her shirt and wrap it as tightly as she could around her foot. Footsteps began to echo through the hall. There were a lot more Stormtroopers than there two that had passed through earlier. Night had hoped that the first responders to the crash would be the two Stormtroopers from earlier; there were many Troopers headed toward Night now. Night started to sprint full speed down the corridor, trying very hard to ignore the searing pain in her foot. There was a tiny blood trail following her.
As Night ran, she went through the security pad key codes in her head. The Stormtroopers were gaining on Night alarmingly quickly. They were not, however, close enough to fire effectively (A/N Not that they could anyway...). Night had reached the small round door. Her fingers flew over the keypad, punching in the numbers as the Stormtroopers got closer and closer to her, her moment spent typing in the numbers beginning to cost her. Night smashed the security keypad so that there would be no way to get through the door. The Stormtroopers were in firing distance now, but Night was already through the door. As it slid closed, she grinned like the Cheshire Cat. Night's hair, which had fallen out of her ponytail, almost got caught in the door as she whipped around to wave. The millisecond the door closed, Night heard a loud bang and felt the door shudder. If Night had been a fraction of a second slower, the Blaster shot would have killed her. Night chose not to dwell on it, and instead ran to the middle of the room.
The room was quite small and thin, with terrible. There was a door to the back that led out to empty space. That was definitely not an escape option. There were the air duct openings, where Night was supposed to enter. given that Night entered the proper shaft, she could make her escape. The middle shaft was the one where she was supposed to go through to get in and out of the room. The paths that the two shaft entrances on the left and right were unknown to Night. Picking the shaft all the way on her right, Night ran to the opposite side of the room. It was a weapons repair room, where unstable weapons and prototypes were stored. No one worked in that room, which made it easier for Night to locate the weapon she was searching for. The weapon Night was searching for was a long, double-ended stick that, when activated, would paralyze its victim for about twenty minutes. Night didn't know why it was in the room, but she did know that The Master wanted it very badly, so badly he sent his heir to ensure its retrieval. Night snorted to herself. Look at what good that did him, she thought. She carefully picked up the two-foot weapon and put it in the slim bag that had been specially designed for the mission.
As Night was fitting the rod into her pack, sparks erupted from the door. They were trying to break down their own door. Night sprinted to the air vents. She had probably about ten seconds to scramble out of hearing range. Night had just replaced the vent on the front of the right air shaft when the Stormtroopers burst into the room. Night froze in place and slowed down her breathing, as she had done earlier. There were still five seconds left that Night thought she had. She was thankful for her quick work of the room; without it she would be dead.
Night was relieved to see that the first place the Stormtroopers checked was not the vents. The opened all the doors to the cabinets, careful not to touch any of the unstable weapons. They kept shaking their heads. They knew she was in this room, somehow. They kept searching.
To Night's horror, the second place the Stormtroopers checked was the vents. They had some trouble removing the first grate to the vent. A taller Storm Trooper stuck his head inside, checking for any sign that someone had been in there. When the Storm Trooper re-emerged, he shook his head said, "Negative." The small group of Stormtroopers started moving on to the second vent, Night's vent.
Night could have tried to escape, but that would cause noise that would be most definitely be noticed. There was a slim chance that the Stormtroopers wouldn't see her in this vent. Careful not to make any noise, Night pressed herself up against the wall of the vent. The grate clattered to the ground. Again, a Storm Trooper got into the vent. He turned his head to the left. Night could see almost every detail of the Trooper's mask. Slowly, as if sensing her presence, the Storm Trooper turned directly to look into Night's terrified face.
Oh Gods, Night though.