Chapter Two: Attack on Takodana
Kylo Ren walked briskly through the halls of Starkiller base, heading towards the large chamber used for communications with Supreme Leader Snoke. Accompanying him in sneering silence was General Hux, in all his pompous and narcissistic glory, whom the Supreme Leader had also summoned. Not wishing to listen to the insufferable General talk more than he had to, Kylo refused to say anything to him, and the General did likewise.
Upon entering the communications chamber, a comm channel with the Supreme Leader was opened, and almost instantly his dark and menacing form was projected before them. The two young men bowed and then kneeled before the Supreme Leader in reverence, waiting for his permission to speak.
"So," the Supreme Leader began. "Explain what exactly has happened with the droid that possesses the last piece to of the map that will lead us to the infamous Skywalker," Snoke said, knowing full well of their failure, but wanting to hear it as acknowledged by them.
"P-please, Supreme Leader," Hux pleaded, knowing his life could very well be on the line if he could not explain himself, "The droid did manage to escape, with the assistance of the traitorous Stormtrooper and some local from Jakku." General Hux swallowed uncomfortably, "Also, we, uh, we have reason to believe that the ship they are in is heading for the Resistance hideout, and we still do not know where that is, sir."
The Supreme Leader did not look pleased, to say the very least. "You incompetent fools!" he bellowed. "They will find Skywalker! He will return to bring an end to the First Order! We must secure our hold on the galaxy, before the Resistance gets to him!" Snoke's voice was dripping with malice, "General, is this base, Starkiller, operational yet!?"
General Hux's eyes flashed up again, "Y-yes, yes sir. The base is ready to launch its first attack, as soon as we have a target." He said, with an unasked question behind his words.
A cruel smile began to play across Snoke's face. "Good. Prepare for the bases first attack, and make the target the Republic's seat of power, the Hosnian system. When Skywalker comes back, there will be no Republic to save, and the First Order will be the strongest power in the galaxy!"
General Hux smiled and rose, "I'll begin preparations immediately, sir." He said before walking out of the communications chamber.
The Supreme Leader then turned his attention to his student, Kylo Ren. "There has been an awakening Ren. You have felt it. The fugitives will have to stop before reaching the Resistance, and our spies across the galaxy will report when the droid is found. I want you to go and get the droid when that happens."
Kylo looked up at his master's hologram, which stared down at him expectantly. "Of course, my lord. You will have the map to Skywalker," Kylo said reverently, sensing that the Supreme Leader had left something unsaid.
As if on cue, the Supreme Leader spoke once more, "There is something you must know, my pupil. The fugitives escaped with the help of the smuggler Han Solo, your father. You will have to confront him."
Kylo Ren said nothing for several moments, before swallowing the lump that had formed in his throat, "Of course, master. I understand. I will not be seduced." He promised, before being dismissed by the Supreme Leader, and taking his leave of the communications chamber.
Rey stared questioningly at Finn. They were inside Maz Kanata's inn, and Finn had just gone off about how there was no resisting the First Order, that they were merciless and cruel, and the only solution was to get as far away from them as possible. She was pondering how the Resistance fighter could say something that made his organization seem so, well, so pointless, as if they could never succeed. Why does Finn fight for them if he doesn't believe in the Resistance? Rey thought to herself, absolutely puzzled.
She was pulled out of her thoughts though, when she noticed Maz Kanata, the 1000 year old small alien who they were trying to get help from, climb up on the table and start staring intently at Finn. "After you've been alive for so long, you start to see the same eyes in different people," Maz mused, her meaning quite unclear to those looking on. "Your eyes, you have the eyes of someone who is afraid, and who is going to run." She said sagely.
The young man glared at Maz, "You. Don't know a thing about me. You don't know what I've seen. You don't know how evil the First Order is. They'll slaughter everyone who doesn't agree with their ways!" he declared angrily.
Maz slowly sat back down, and sighed. "Those two over there," she said, pointing at two aliens sitting across the room. "They can get you to the Outer Rim, if you truly wish to run."
The Resistance fighter nodded at Maz, stood up, and turned to walk away, offering the loaned blaster to Han before he crossed the room. "Nah kid, you keep it. You'll need it," the smuggler said knowingly, and Finn nodded once more before walking towards the two spacers Maz had pointed out.
"Wait, what, no!" Rey finally said, realizing that Finn truly meant to leave. This just doesn't make any sense! She thought wildly as she walked over to where he was talking to the spacers. "Finn, wait, you can't leave!" Rey exclaimed, interrupting their conversation.
Finn looked over at the aliens, "Don't leave without me." He told them before getting up and pulling Rey aside. "Rey, come with me. I'm heading to the Outer Rim, we can avoid the First Order there." He pleaded.
"But what about BB-8, and the map, and Luke Skywalker, the Jedi Master?!" she exclaimed, "What about your mission? Why are you running away from the Resistance?" She questioned.
"Look, I'm not Resistance, OK, I never was. I lied to you. I'm-, I'm a Stormtrooper. My name is FN-2187, and like all other Stormtroopers, I was taken as an infant from a family that I'll never know, and raised to do only one thing. But I've got nothing to fight for," he admitted to Rey. "But when I saw you for the first time on Jakku. You looked at me like no one ever had. Please, Rey, come with. The First Order will slaughter everyone." Finn pleaded with her.
Rey bit her lip, and looked down. He had lied to her, but it had made sense to do so. She never would've trusted him otherwise. But she was unsure if he could do what he asked of her. Leave their mission unfinished? Their promise to BB-8 unfulfilled? And never go back to Jakku?! No! Rey thought to herself. She had to see this through, and get back to Jakku and wait for her family to come back for her. She looked back up at Finn, and squared her jaw. "Take care of yourself, Finn. Goodbye." She said to him solemnly.
Looking sadly at her, Finn nodded, and picked up his loaned blaster and headed out of the building.
Kylo Ren sat on his bed in his private quarters, with his head in his hands. The Star Destroyer he was aboard, Finalizer, was headed for the planet of Takodana, where First Order spies had reported seeing the BB unit they were pursuing in the company of the infamous smuggler, and two others who fit the descriptions of their fugitives. The Stormtrooper, and the local girl. Meanwhile, General Hux was aboard Starkiller base, and mere hours away from destroying the Republic's seat of power. All of the Supreme Leader's plans were in motion.
Before him was his Grandfather's mask that had survived the great Sith lord's funeral pyre on Endor so many years ago. "Forgive me," Kylo said out loud, speaking to the mask. "I feel it again… The call from the Light. Supreme Leader senses it." He confessed, recalling how the Supreme Leader had told him of how he would have to confront Han Solo, doubting his student had the power to do what needed to be done. "Show me again, the power of the darkness, and I'll let nothing stand in our way. Show me, Grandfather, and I will finish what you started." He promised solemnly, before getting up and heading to his ship to prepare for the attack.
Rey's head bolted up, as she tried to comprehend what she thought she had just heard. That couldn't have been-, but her thoughts were cut off by the same sound. It definitely was what she had thought, the sound of an anguished child crying out for something. She walked around Maz's, not hearing any of the ruckus that normally accompanies such a busy establishment, hearing only that the cry was getting louder. She stood on the landing of a stairway that went down further into the building, below ground she assumed. She cautiously made her way down the stairs.
Clunk-clunk-clunk. She knew BB-8 was following her down there, but she wasn't sure if the droid could also hear the sound of the child's cry, which kept getting louder. Rey walked down a long hallway and entered a side room. The crying was unbearably loud in this room, but she saw no child. There was a chest on the ground that called out to her, and when she knelt down next to it and opened the lid, the crying stopped completely. It was not silent though. The absence of all sound made an oppressive sound itself that drove her to touch the metal object within the chest, that seemed to be calling out to her.
Instantly, Rey's mind was flooded with images and sounds she could barely comprehend. A metal hand, and a droid. A dark man in a mask. Herself, years prior, screaming 'Come back!' at a ship that was abandoning her. Several hooded men, standing around many dead men. And a voice, a man. "Rey…," the voice said, sounding so far away. "COME BACK!" Her own voice screamed again, and Rey felt her back collide with the wall.
She stared around wildly, she was sweating profusely, and already the vision she saw was becoming fuzzy in her mind. Rey didn't know where the alien had come from, but Maz was there, staring at her intently. "What was that!?" Rey half-screamed at Maz.
"I don't know. But I know that the saber," Maz said, pointing at the metal shaft she had touched, "It calls to you. That saber belonged to Luke Skywalker, and to his father before him, and now it wants you to wield it. Go on child, take it." Maz implored.
Rey quickly looked from Maz, to the lightsaber, back to Maz, who sighed and attempted to calm the girl. "I have been around for centuries, and factions rise and fall, but the force has always been there. It flows through you, child. You know that whoever you are waiting for on Jakku is never going to come back. Search your feelings and you will know it to be true. Feel the force move around you, and embrace you, close your eyes and let it calm you. Feel the force, and know, child, that you were meant to have that lightsaber." Maz said reassuringly.
"I am never touching that thing again!" Rey screamed, still terrified of what she had seen in her vision, and she pushed past Maz and ran back up the stairs, out of the inn. She had to get out, she had to leave. She had to get back to Jakku, she couldn't do this. What had she been thinking?! That she could be of any use to the Resistance? Nothing good ever came of getting caught up in the problems of others.
These thoughts continued to race through her head as ran through the thick foliage that had amazed her only hours before. She soon tired and leaned against a tree, and it was then that she noticed that the droid BB-8 had followed her out of Maz Kanata's inn, and out into the forest. "What are you doing? You have to go back. Han will get you to the Resistance! Go, I can't help you anymore!" She argued with the droid who didn't seem to want to leave her alone.
Just then she heard ships passing overhead, and looked up to see several TIE fighters zooming past, with more ships likely carrying Stormtroopers flying in the direction she had just come from. Looking past them, however, she saw something even more disconcerting, five red streaks of light were visible in the sky, all seemingly crashing into something. She couldn't focus on them for too long though, just then something caught her eye, and within her line of sight was a Stormtrooper.
Rey quickly pulled her borrowed blaster out of her sash and fired it in the direction of the Stormtrooper, only to have it click uselessly. The safety had been on, and she had been fumbling with the blaster trying to turn it off, when the Stormtrooper noticed her and started shooting at her. She managed to dodge his fire, and get the safety off at the same time, and fired two shots at him taking the soldier out, before turning on her heel, and running even farther away from the direction of Maz's.
After several minutes of frantic running, something made Rey stop, and she had a creeping feeling she was being hunted. She stopped and ordered BB-8 to go on without her, so she could cover him, reassuring the droid that she could handle the Stormtroopers.
She slowly moved in the direction she had come from, feeling the sensation she had felt earlier grow stronger. She maneuvered into some old ruins for cover, and waited several seconds trying to focus in on that feeling. She closed her eyes, trying to feel it out. North and…. West? Something's out there, getting closer. She thought to herself, not knowing how she could feel it.
Her eyes suddenly snapped open again when she heard it. An electrical whir, and then a crackling in the background. She looked around wildly, losing focus on the feeling she had felt earlier, and unable to pinpoint where her pursuer was. She could her own heartbeat, going wild from the fear and adrenaline. Suddenly, from behind a stacked stone pillar, he stepped out. A dark robed man, hooded, with a mask under the hood.
Rey began to walk backwards away from him, shooting her blaster at him, but none of her shots made contact for some reason. She stumbled a few times, and as he got closer, she realized that the blaster wasn't going to stop him, and she climbed up out of the ruins in a quick maneuver, desperate to get away from him. He jumped up there scaring her, and after shooting at him once more, she felt her blaster knocked out of her hand, and her arm forced behind her.
Rey couldn't move, she could feel her blood rushing through her veins, her skin pulsing where the veins were close to her skin. The hooded man came to stand in front of her, tall and menacing, his lightsaber still humming and crackling in his hands.
"So," the hooded figure said, his voice deep and slightly robotic under the mask. "You are the girl I've heard so much about." He commented, not sounding very impressed to Rey, despite his words. He had moved out of her vision, but she could sense that he was behind her, circling her now.
Rey didn't answer, she didn't know if she could. Just as she was beginning to wonder if he was still behind her, she felt something very, very hot come within an inch of her neck, and she knew his saber was there. "Tell me where the droid is." The hooded figure commanded of her.
"I don't know about any droid." Rey lied to him.
"Don't you?" he questioned, disbelief evident in his voice. Very suddenly, Rey felt a force up against her mind, sifting through her memories. It stopped suddenly over one. "You've seen the map." He whispered, seemingly more to himself than anything. Rey felt the pressure in her mind start to increase, but before it could do what it needed to do, a voice called out to them.
"Lord Ren, the Resistance is attacking from the shore." An approaching Stormtrooper informed the hooded figure. "We haven't located the droid yet." The soldier added.
Rey suddenly felt all of the pressure up against her mind fall away, and heard the crackling saber being sheathed as the heat disappeared from her neck. "There is no need for the droid," the hooded figure said, "We have everything we need." Suddenly, Rey felt her body completely weaken and her knees give in, but before she could slump to the ground, she was scooped up into someone's arms. "Let's go." The hooded figure's voice said, and she realized he was carrying her somewhere, as she felt the vibrations of his voice coming from beneath the plated chest piece that she was being held against. Rey's will slowly diminished, and with it she couldn't keep the effect of the hooded man's power at bay, so she slowly slipped into unconsciousness, completely unaware of where she was going, or where the droid she promised to keep safe was.
A/N: Boom, second chapter, crushing it. But also, Holy feedback batman! 10 reviews, 37 favs, and 95 follows from over 1000 visitors, in like a day! I'm absolutely blown away. This chapter pretty much wraps up everything that is staying the same from the movie, next chapter will mark the beginning of where my story deviates.
In chapter one, I kind of wish I had gone a little more in depth with Rey's point of view, in her scene with Han and Co. escaping the freighter. However, all of us did just see this scene in the movie recently, and she doesn't know about Kylo Ren's existence yet, so I decided to rush through it, since like none of it will be relevant later. Also I'm just unreasonably excited to get past all of this setup and into my story.
Anyways, thank you all so much for your feedback, I'm absolutely flabbergasted, but I also get it, this ship is literally screaming to be written. I started thinking about this ship and story ideas after seeing it for the 1st time Thursday night/Friday morning, and I started writing this after getting home from seeing it a 2nd time Saturday night. I'm seeing it again on Tuesday with my Dad, and I'm going to try and really focus in on Rey and Kylo during their scenes, so I don't screw up their personalities too much!
Also, I'm not going to write this story as Rey and Kylo being cousins, I'll tell you all that much upfront. Luke's lover, Mara Jade from the expanded universe was decanonized, so its not likely that Rey is his daughter, and I also think her being Luke's daughter is too obvious, since most people probably left the theater thinking that, and I don't think they'd write it to be so predictable. Fun fact, it's been decanonized but Mara Jade and Luke had a son named Ben in the Expanded Universe, which is Han and Leia's son's name in the new canon. Who is Rey then? VII left her backstory pretty wide open to speculation. I'm about 90% certain what I'm going to do for her backstory, but you'll just have to wait until the story gets there to find out what I do with it :p