Chapter Two
Inferno
Rey's PoV
All Rey could feel was pain. Her lungs burned like someone had set an impossible fire inside of them, her legs felt like they had been blown off by an explosion, but she knew that the pain was only a reaction. It didn't make sense, from what she recalled. Choked out by Kylo Ren, she thought humorously as her memories restored themselves. A sudden pang of fear shot through her as she realized Finn and Rose had been left behind on the cruiser, that was likely by now either destroyed or abandoned to run out of air and suffocate the refugees that were left. In a sudden burst of adrenaline, she tugged at the restraints tightly bound to her wrists, but she could not get herself free. A worn and hard voice snuck into her mind, booming like a drum inside her brain. It was the voice of Kylo Ren.
"What did he teach you that made you so resilient?" he asked her as her vision began to restore in the darkness. She was strapped to a metal stretcher in an empty room, and Ren crouched to her level, a steely expression on his face. He lifted his hand and tugged at her mind with the Force, trying to siphon he memories off like unwanted grease. She held fast, resisting the pull and plunging her into pain.
"You can't hide it forever, you know," Rey said through gritted teeth. Ren's anger peaked, and he snapped. His lightsaber was swiftly and hastily unhooked from his belt and ignited, filling the room with unstable red light. At that moment, two Stormtroopers casually strolled in, and instantly became collateral damage as Ren quickly and indecisively swung the saber. A pang of fear shot through her as Rey watched the blade catch the first trooper's throat, burning through the pristine white armor and knocking them to the floor in a shower of sparks. The second one was much more fortunate, as he ducked below the blade and crouched below the ground until Ren extinguished the saber.
"Take her to the other," Ren commanded as he stomped out of the room, leaving Rey alone with the surviving trooper and the burning corpse. What other? She thought as she was dragged away.
Poe Dameron had never thought things through thoroughly, and the worst of it was that he knew it would come back to him someday. He had never expected today, however. His memory of the event was fuzzy and blurred, giving him no context into why he was locked in an empty cell in the depths of a Star Destroyer. All he could piece together was that he had been preparing to launch his X-Wing, and there had been a massive explosion. The rest was unreadable. An undefined amount of time had passed since he had been free from the icy metal cuffs eating away at the skin of his wrists, since he had been near a person. His mind began to unwind the events since Crait, from the refugee pickup to the tiny skirmishes, trying to figure out what had gone wrong, and when. Garbled voices emitted from beyond the steely metal door occasionally, but Poe's literally (and metaphorically) bleeding ears couldn't pick up the words. This was exactly why he was shocked nearly to death when the door slid open. A girl with coffee-colored hair and pale skin fell inward, landing on her hands and knees. Her face was familiar, somehow, but the scraps of information in his mind drifted around mindlessly, leaving her name unknown. Muffled speech rang from her mouth as her identity started to reveal itself.
"What did you do to him?" she demanded from the figures in white by the door, trying to break through their defenses. Poe searched his mind farther, addressing the familiarity that she had possessed, but the overall lack of knowledge of his personality. This rang a bell inside his brain, and her name illuminated like a dim lantern in darkness.
Rey.
Memories rushed in like raging rapids, washing away the darkness and giving him a sudden burst of adrenaline. He fought the bands restraining him, causing the metal to cut more into his skin and he stopped dead as the pain flooded in.
"Poe," Rey whispered with pity as she fought the bands on her own, and realized that they were lined with spikes. He did not respond, as his vocal cords felt as if they had been coated in molten durasteel. She fought as his bonds physically for another minute before she quit and fell to her knees, defeated. With any luck, only he would die there.
Rey's PoV
Rey was used to constantly fighting for her survival. Jakku had assured that. But she had never given up. It wasn't typical, especially among the scavengers and junk traders who struggled every day on the obsolete desert world, which was the main reason she wished she had left sooner. That feeling no longer stuck with her. A tiny bit of resilience still existed inside her, and in some way, was overpowering. Before she could protest to her own mind, the Force surrounded her consumed her, eating away at her like the ocean against a rocky shore, one grain of sand at a time. She lashed out without remorse or consent, and for the first time since she had known she was force sensitive, she felt unlimited power, like she could do anything. After the brief moment that feeling lasted, she felt ashamed, thinking of the words her former master had once told her.
"You went straight to the dark."
Luke Skywalker was dead now, and his teachings came along with him as Rey opened her eyes, and immediately jumped back in horror. Flickering orange light illuminated the room like an enormous fireplace, as there was a vicious ring of flames lapping up against the table that Poe had been strapped to. A thousand thoughts ran through her mind as she tried to comprehend what was happening, what had happened, and then it suddenly dawned on her. Rey shifted her gaze to her hands, where the blunt majority of the Force power had been channeled. Whatever had happened, it had been the result of her anger. Without hesitation, she wrenched Poe from his now melted bonds and brought him to the ground where she proceeded to tug him away from the now ever-expanding ball of flame that had completely eradicated the rest of the room. As she freed herself from her own bonds, she realized she was ready. Ready to take on Kylo Ren.
Kylo Ren's PoV
Ren ran the scalpel across his now breached wound, slowly removing the piece of shrapnel that had managed to pierce the bandage he had been wearing since his confrontation on Crait, when he was naïve enough to believe he could strike down the man he had never had the strength to kill when he had better chances, and less conflict. His irrational part of his brain struck down this thought immediately, telling him that he was the Supreme Leader now. It all seemed like a lie. Ren had never seen Snoke's body after he had been severed as the waist by the Skywalker lightsaber, which quickly arose suspicions that nobody else under Ren's command seemed to address. The only thing he did know for certain is that he was not the highest in stature along the chain of command. That presented itself to him the next day after Snoke had been murdered.
"Ren," the voice said inside his mind, echoing along the walls of his skull. The voice, he had deemed, was emitting from an external source. Surprisingly, there was nobody with enough sheer power to bridge his mind with another's left alive, which drove him insane with theories.
"I am not an auditory hallucination. Listen," the voice tormented him, relentlessly picking away at Ren's insecurities.
"Come to the citadel at Corvair. I have something to show you."
The citadel was grimy and cold; the broken stained glass windows a symbol of long-forgotten habitation. A figure stood silently in the rotunda, concealed by a shadowy cloak and an unnatural presence. Ren stood a fair distance away from the figure, fearing exposure.
"Ben Solo," the figure addressed in a raspy tone.
"Ben Solo is dead," Ren interjected with seriousness.
"Ah, I forgot. The man who killed his own leader to take his place and pursue absurd goals is definitely dead."
The exchange ended shortly, Ren's shocked expression saying all that was needed.
"Be careful who you consort with, Supreme Leader."
Finn's PoV
There was apparently some genuine fortune in life, for once or never. Finn had managed to board an escaping transport after Rey had abandoned them, taking an unconscious Rose with him. The rest of the refugees, Leia had pertinently explained, had fled along with her and the bridge crew. Finn sighed with relief upon hearing this, which finally gave some promise to the ideologies of the Resistance and Rebellion. Wherever Rey was, she was hopefully catching up.
