Kylo and Iris walked out of town and down a jungle path. Kylo watched her as she walked in front of him, her long blonde hair waving in the gentle breeze and along with the sway of her hips as she walked. As the sun set the jungle was alive with creatures bustling about. Kylo looked up and noticed two birds fly into a tree and then settle down into a nest and cuddle with each other to go to sleep for the approaching night. Kylo scoffed and looked away from them. Love. He thought to himself. The weakest emotion that exists. The Supreme Leader told me that, so it must be true. He thinks then looks at Iris and notices her slowing down her stride and staring at him curiously. He could tell just by the look on her face that she was looking at his scar. The scar he had gotten from that force sensitive scavenger girl. Rey He thinks about her name and feels his anger starting to grow again, he could have lashed out right then and there if Iris's voice hadn't pulled him back from his dark thoughts. "Where did you get that scar?" She asks him and he sighs.
"It's a long story." Kylo mutters under his breath and looks away from her. "I'd rather not talk about it." He says and Iris nods in acknowledgement.
"We're almost home." She says and Kylo's dark thoughts return and he smirks, knowing that now he's closer to getting a gold mine of information about the Resistance. This girl trusts strangers too much He thinks She is so foolish, just like all those daft weaklings with the Resistance. Soon they both come into a clearing and Kylo Ren stops in his tracks when he gets an overwhelming sense of the force in the area. He looks around, trying to see where it's coming from but all that's there is a dumb tree and a house. Two people come out of it and rush to embrace Iris.
"Oh thank goodness you're home!" The woman Kylo assumed to be Iris's mother exclaims. "You were out so much later than we expected, we thought something might have happened to you."
"Don't worry mom I'm fine." Iris assures her mother and then turns back to Kylo. "I took a bit longer to get the groceries because on my way into town I got distracted by some flowers." She says and pulls out a bouquet she arranged for her mother. "And then I met Ben." She says and gestures to Kylo. "He's traveling to find his family in the Resistance so I said that he could stay with us for awhile."
"Well I'm sure that's fine." Iris's father says and approaches Kylo and holds out his hand for him. It takes Kylo a moment but then he quickly remembers he's supposed to shake it and he does so forcefully, with a firm grip, like his father had taught him to do. He feels a slight pang in his chest at the thought of his father but then quickly pushes it aside. "We're just about to have dinner, why don't you come in?" He offers, and Kylo feels uneasy with all of this kindness he's being shown.
"Thank 's very kind of you." He says softly and Iris's father arches an eyebrow.
"He's very shy isn't he." Her father says and claps his hand on Kylo's shoulder, making him jump at the contact and her father laughs. How dare he touch me and then laugh about it like it's a joke! He exclaims in his head and is about to grab his lightsabre when he hears Iris's laughter and then forgets why he was even searching through his satchel for it in the first place. "My name is Kes and this is my wife Shara." Kes introduces.
"It's nice to meet you Ben." Shara says and Kylo shakes her hand a bit gentler since she looked a bit more fragile than her husband.
Their house was very simple and homey. There were family pictures on the walls, and a big fire place with a sofa in the middle of the room, and then a kitchen where Iris was helping her mother chop up some vegetables. It was a simple, nice family. Or at least it appeared that way, Kylo reminded himself that they were Resistance and that this simple and homey atmosphere was just a facade for their disgusting rebel ways. "I'll take you to Poe's room." Iris's father says to Kylo. "You can sleep there during the night. My name is Kes by the way." He says as he leads Kylo around a corner to where there were bedrooms. Kes opens up one door and lets Kylo step in. "I hope you don't mind." He says.
"No it's perfect." Kylo says honestly as he steps inside and sets his satchel down on Poe's bed.
"That's great!" Kes says. "I'll let you know when it's time for dinner." He says. Kylo smiles at him and then when Kes turns around to leave Kylo's hand shoots out and he grabs Kes's mind forcefully, probing it for any information he may have on the Resistance. Quickly and efficiently Kylo sorted through every thought this man had of Poe, hoping to get information. But sadly he did not find much before his eyes started to water when he saw memories of a young Poe and Kes, doing father-son things like playing catch, going fishing, learning how to fly a plane, all of the things he wished he could do with his father before he was sent away to train with Luke. He let him go and watched him crumple to the ground and he rushed over to his side and leaned over him as Iris and her mother came running over.
"Kes! Honey are you alright?" Shara asks and Iris looks worried as she feels her father over for injuries.
"Ben did you see anything happen?" She asks him and looks at him with a frantic and worried expression. "Did he get hit on the head or something?"
"I-uh...I-no I didn't see anything." Kylo stammers, not sure what to say in this situation. Kes groans and sits up and Kylo offers his hand to help pull him up and Iris and Shara pick him up and support him, and they lead him into the main living room to sit down by the fire.
"i just had the worst headache." Kes says and Iris goes to the kitchen and comes back with a cool towel and a cloth to place on his forehead to cool it down.
"I think he has a fever." She says when she places the cloth on his forehead. "It feels like he's burning up."
"It will go down soon." Kylo assures Shara and Iris.
"How do you know?" Shara asks and Kylo blushes.
"My mother is a doctor. She's dealt with stuff like this before." Kylo explains.
"So what happened to him?" Iris asks.
"He's suffered a heat flash." Kylo explains and Kes groans.
"It has been really hot today." Kes says. "That would explain it." Kylo lets out a breath he didn't know he was holding.
"Well you just rest up now honey, Iris do you mind finishing up dinner while I take care of Kes?" Shara asks and Iris nods.
"Of course. Ben should you help her? You do seem to know a lot about medical stuff." Iris asks him and he blushes again.
"Well I've never actually practiced it." He says and blushes. "Mainly what he needs now is just to rest and I'm sure he'll be fine." He says.
"Then do you mind helping Iris make dinner?" Shara asks as she presses the damp cloth to her husband's forehead. Kylo looks at Iris and decides he could use the time to help gain her trust.
"Not at all." He says and follows Iris into the kitchen. She continued to cut some vegetables and Kylo looked around for something to do. All his meals were brought to him by servants in the First Order. He hadn't been inside a kitchen in a very long time. Iris looks up at him with those dazzling blue eyes and she gently takes his wrist and pulls him over to her. He blushes at the contact as she hands him the knife.
"Can you cut up these vegetables for me?" She asks and he nods and starts to cut them, very poorly and slowly but he tries, in order to maintain his cover. He looks over his shoulder every now and then to see Iris working, and can't help but notice how beautiful she is. Everything about her just looked so pure and innocent. Probably because she's been stuck on this planet her whole life. She doesn't know anything else. Just this simple, worthless life. He almost pitied her for her lack of knowledge of the Universe.
"How long has your family lived here?" Kylo asks as Iris prepares some sort of meat.
"They came to live here about a year before Poe was born. So about 33 years." Iris says and Kylo stops cutting the vegetables.
"That's a long time to spend on one planet." He says and Iris sighs. "You've never been anywhere else?" Iris shakes her head.
"No I haven't been anywhere else. It's safe here on this planet, and with the threat of the First Order, my parents don't want us to go anywhere else. They haven't come to this planet yet. And we won't leave until they do." Iris explains and Kylo nods and continues to horribly cut the vegetables. If only she knew. He thought as she looked over his shoulder to see what a horrible job he was doing at cutting. He looked between her and the vegetables and felt relieved when a smile spread across her radiant face and she laughed. "You're not very good at cutting vegetables are you?" Iris asks him and he blushes and she laughs and takes the knife and tries to correct his mistakes.
"I suppose not." Kylo says and forces a smile to try to seem nice and innocent. It didn't work and it just made Iris look at him funny.
"You're strange." She says thoughtfully and Kylo was about to feel insulted by that but then she continued "I like it." And if he had been drinking something, he would have spit it all out. A beautiful, and innocent and pure girl, likes him?! Clearly she must be joking.
"Really?" He asks and she nods.
"You're different, and I can't wait to hear about all the places you've been. And all the things you've seen." Iris says and then puts the meet in an oven and Kylo's eyes widen when he realizes he'll have to get creative. Next thing he knew he was sitting at a dinner table with Iris's family and they were asking him for those very stories.
"Well it was quite the adventure." Kylo begins as he tells them a childhood story, that was actually true. He wasn't a creative person and couldn't come up with anything else. "I was about eight years old and my dad thought I should learn how to fly our family's ship." He starts and Kes, who was feeling much better starts to laugh.
"Oh boy I can tell where this is going." He says and Iris laughs too, and that makes Kylo smile a bit and push him to continue to tell his story.
"So I get into the pilot's chair and my dad is behind me and he's holding onto the controls as the ship starts to fly. We get up to a good altitude and then he lets go and next thing I know I'm flying the ship on my own. But the thought of it is so terrifying to me, that the moment he says 'You're doing great son!' I start screaming and then the ship nose dives and my dad grabs the controls and tries to pull us back up but I have such a death grip on the controls that he can't move them so he has to hold onto my hands and steer the ship with me like I'm some sort of a puppet, frozen in place while he steers the ship around to try to get us back on course, while I'm seeing my life flash before my eyes, so then I start to fight against my dad and we start doing somersaults and these really sharp turns in the air and then my dad pulls back hard on the controls with me and we crash land in the woods, and he goes to throw up outside while my mom comes running up to us, scolding my dad for being an irresponsible parent and then snuggling me in her arms since I was still shaking and I got to just stay in bed and get whatever I wanted for the rest of the day." He says and Iris was still laughing, which made Kylo genuinely smile a bit more. He learned that he liked her laugh. It was like something that he was dying to hear but he never realized he wanted to.
"Wow so your mom put your dad in time out." Shara said and Kylo smiles.
"Pretty much." He says and everyone at the table laughs. It had been a nice dinner. Everyone was polite and passed him stuff and he passed them food, and he constantly apologized for his lack of cutting ability when it came to the vegetables, but they all forgave him for it. Forgiving, that's something that no one has done for him in awhile.
"Well it's getting late. We should all probably hit the hay." Kes says and Shara agrees and they all stand up and say goodnight to each other, even Kylo and then he goes back into Poe's room and leans up against the door and sighs. Time to get to work. All the light he experienced during the day washed away as he tore the room apart, using his hands and the Force if he could to find any files, information or anything he could about the Resistance. After about an hour of searching he only found little pilot knick knacks and stupid stuff from when he was a kid. He took a little action figure he had of a pilot and in frustration threw it against the wall and took deep breaths to try to control his anger. He didn't want to wake up anyone in the house. But it appeared he didn't need to. Because he looked out the window and saw someone leave the house with a light, and go into the jungle. He put on his boots quickly and went outside to follow the light. Maybe someone was going to a secret Resistance meeting? Or going somewhere where they kept a lot of information. He took his ligthsabre with him and followed the person stealthily as they walked down the path. Much to his dark dismay it was only Iris walking to a clearing and sitting down on a blanket and staring up at the sky. He stared at her form, shining in the starlight and felt himself get pulled into a sort of trance. He felt as if he was being pulled to her and he rose and approached her as she picked up her arm and started to do something with it then heard him approaching and immediately stopped.
"What are you doing out here?" Kylo asks and Iris blushes.
"Nothing. Just staring up at the stars." Iris says and looks at Kylo Ren and then gestures for him to sit down next to her. He does so and she smiles at him. "I liked the story you told at dinner tonight."
"It wasn't anything special." Kylo lies and Iris shakes her head.
"Any time you get to spend with one of your parents is special." She says and Kylo stares at her for a moment and takes in all her beauty, her pale complexion, her soft looking blonde hair, and those blue eyes, full of the starlight. He felt things stirring inside of him that should not be stirring inside of a Sith Lord. She's so beautiful...He thinks. She has the face of an angel... Then he notices a sort of sadness in her expression and realizes that she can see the tears starting to form in his eyes, when he starts to have these light thoughts about his parents and her beauty. He turns away from her suddenly and tries to focus on the darkness. "Ben?" She asks softly, in that sweet melodic voice of hers. "Are you okay?"
"I will be once I'm off of this planet." He says and then quickly runs away from her, and leaves her alone in the night and heads back to the house. She watches him leave and sighs and looks longingly back up at the sky. As he was leaving he felt a tug in his chest and groaned. He kept walking and then realized it was only getting tighter. "What's going on?" He groans. "I haven't felt this, since Snoke told me that the droid with the map to Skywalker was in the hands of my father-" He lets his hand drop from his chest as he remembers the name of the man he talked about in his story at dinner, who tried to teach him to fly the Millennium Falcon when he was eight, and how he failed him. And how he failed him again when he killed him that night on the Starkiller Base, when he fully committed to the dark side and vowed never to go back again. "Han Solo." After saying that name he realized what was happening to him, and he paled and his breathing grew heavy. "Oh no, not again." He mutters under his breath and rubs his chest and realizes what's happening to him. He looks up to the starry sky through the branches in the trees. "Forgive me." He says. "I'm feeling it again. The pull to the Light. But do not fear. I got rid of it once. I'll be able to do it again. I vowed the day I killed my father that I would never go back to the light. The darkness is the only path for me now. There's nothing for me on the light, without my father." He says then looks back down the path to the clearing where Iris was, and something inside him gave him a small flicker of hope that, there may in fact be a reason for him to return to the light. He pushed that thought aside and hurried back to the house.