Chapter 2

She exited the large dark room and had expected Hux to be waiting outside the room, but was greeted by a tall storm trooper in silver. The voice was unexpected and was somewhat feminine "General Hux has returned to the bridge and wishes for me to show you to your quarters. Follow me" she followed the metallic soldier noting that she was as tall as Kylo Ren. Her voice softened "So what is your name?"

"Uhh… Snoke has named me Zannah" She said, still a little shook from the preceding events, it had all happened so fast.

"Well Zannah, I am Captain Phasma. I am the ordering force off all the stormtroopers on this ship" In one movement she turned around and offered a hand. Zannah hesitated for a moment and then realized she should shake the hand. She did so and afterward in the same movement Captain Phasma turned around and briskly continued walking. Not long passed and Phasma spoke again. "That is Kylo Ren's suite and just up here is yours" She motioned to the door adjacent. " After you acquaint yourself you should go see if Ren has awoken"

Zannah entered the room, the interior was similar to the rest of the metallic ship, yet the room contained a bed, entertainment area and an ensuite. At the end of the bed were new attire. Black leather armor with a dark hooded cloak and a black helmet, not too un-similar to kylo's. It had the same emotionless visor but incorporated a gas mask in the lower half. She adorned the attire and walked out of her suite to the medical centre. Not knowing where to go but following the now familiar force presence that Kylo emanated. Through hallways passing storm troopers that she noted glanced back as she passed. They whispered to each other just loud enough for Zannah to hear. They wondered who the new sith was, clad in black, they wondered if she would be a temperamental as with the ships walls as Kylo, laughing as they passed the corner behind her.

After what seemed like hours following the force essence that Kylo emitted she finally came upon the medical centre doors. Entering the double sliding doors, the practitioners avoided the dark figure now walking through to the back rooms. She entered the furthest one, knowing where Ren lay and sat beside him. He felt stronger now that he was in the warmth of a bed with some variety fluids slowly dripping through elevated tubes into his blood stream.

She sat next to him, unsure what Hux and Phasma wanted her to do. Was she to wait here until he awoke? She took her helmet off and sat it on her lap. Looked around and saw a book and started reading. It was about a land far from here, where there were short little men off on adventure to steal gold back from a dragon. She let herself get lost in the novel, hours passed, and she had almost finished the book. Then she noticed him stirring.

He was cold, on ice. He could feel the blood leaving his body and pooling around his torso. He felt limp and his vision was fading until all he saw was black. Spanning darkness before him, was this his death he wondered. Was this it? Then he felt soft hands on his body tracing down his hips and lifting him. Pain shot through his body, but he could not move, he could not say anything. He felt movement around him and then he was still. Being embraced. It soothed him, and he drifted off in the arms of an angel.

He felt pain again and opened his drowsy eyes only to be blinded by white light. As his eyes adjusted to the light, he noticed he was in the medical bay of the Finalizer. He looked around and noticed a girl, clad in black sitting next to him deep, nose deep in a book.

"w… who are you?" he voiced looking deep into her eyes questioningly.

"Ap… uhh… Zannah, I am your new bodyguard" She noticed his soft eyes squint with anger and frustration.

"But I don't need a bodyguard" he attempted to sit up only to clutch his side and lay back down.

"Snoke has ordered it" His anger subsided a little as she voiced the words. "Besides you have met me anyway and bested me in battle, it's not like you will need much help defending yourself… Im just here to get paid."

"Oh… you are the force user I captured on Jakku when I intercepted that resistance pilot… I didn't think they would let you out of that cell after you retorted their offer with a request of payment" his deep voice filled the room with its euphoric hum.

There was silence for a moment.

"So are you getting paid for it?" he wondered.

"Yep" she responded nonchalantly with her nose back into the book.

The two sat in silence for a while, Kylo adjusted to lay so he was facing her. Watching her intently. Looking her up and down, noting that the armour she was now wearing fit her perfectly, showing off her curves and muscles. He wondered if she was the angel who saved him and held him closer than anyone had ever held him before. He remembers her caring hand caressing his cheek. He blushed for a moment, hoping she wouldn't notice. Luckily, she hadn't as she had her full attention on the book. He wondered why she continued to sit beside him, he was awake and well now. Or perhaps this is what it would be like to have a bodyguard. Then he pondered if she would be sleeping in the same room as him. He blushed again but the thought of an attractive woman sleeping in his room but was interrupted by his growling stomach. "I'm so hungry" He expressed. Instantly a nurse entered the room with a plate of warm food and he tried to sit up, the pain in his stomach wound too great. Zannah stood and helped him sit up. She caringly adjusted his pillow before sitting back down to read. He noted that her facial expression changed from cold to caring as she did so. His heart skipped for a second. He thought he was being stupid and it was the drugs making him feel like this.

After his meal he fell straight back asleep. Zannah noticed that his face looked softer while he slept, all the worry, pain and anguish washed away. She had finished the book and asked the nurse if there was another. Luckily the nurse had another three by the same author, this time each longer than the last. She smiled and knew what she would do to pass the time. Kylo woke occasionally, feeling better as between each sleep.

"How are you feeling" she asked softly between chapters.

He looked up at her with drowsy eyes "Much better" he replied. It had been a full day and she had not left his side. "Uhhh... were you the one who saved me?" he asked from under the bed sheets.

"Mhm" she replied softly now onto another chapter and not listening fully.

He lay there again staring at her, she had a soft face, a muscled body about a foot shorter than himself. She had wavy blonde hair that was now let out down to her waist. She had a small scar under her eye. He wondered who she was and where she came from. All he knew was that she was trafficking drugs from the outer rim. He wondered what her old life was like, he wondered if it was a hard life. It must have been considering she had that scar on her face and many others on her hands. He imagined what scars she had under that dark armour and blushed again at the thought of her exposed skin. After hearing that she was indeed his saviour he fantasised about her holding him close like that again. He had never been held by someone other than his family. He had never had physical contact with anyone before, it made him feel warm inside and he wondered if she would ever hold him like that again. He started to like the thought of having a protector, someone to rely on. He laid there with a small smile on his face looking at her with druggy eyes until he fell asleep once more.

Five days had passed, and she had read 14 books, a small library was collecting on the table next to her. Kylo seemed to be healing fast but was not back on his feet yet. She had had chaste naps and a few long sleeps in that chair and gone to eat while Kyle was in deep sleep. From his perspective it appeared she was never gone. She was still unsure what she was to do. If she was to stay there until she was given another order. But as she saw it, she was getting paid thousands of credits to sit and read for now. But that ideal was crushed when Hux entered the room.

"Snoke has asked that you go on a mission to the outer rim. Tatooine. He has word that some of our synthetic Kyber crystals were stolen and are being sold on the black market there. You must go and retrieve them… also he asks for you to strike down the bastard who stole them."

"It will be done" she replied, and he left the room. She looked down at the sleeping Kylo. Their short conversations over the few days she has been present made it obvious that he had a slowly growing crush on her. Even though it may be partly because of the morphine they were pumping into him. She knew the drug caused a euphoria but aside from that she could see the way he stared at her as she would occasionally peek from behind the pages of her book. She did not wish to break his trust by being absent on his wake, so she ripped an empty page from the back of one of the books, scrawled a quick note 'Going on a mission for Snoke -Z' scrunched it up and pushed it into his hand. She looked over his body, he was snuggled with the blankets up around his neck, laying to the side facing her chair. She smiled for a second but remembered that she would be gone for a few days. She folded the page in her book, set it down and left the room for the hanger. A TIE fighter was waiting for her departure, she entered and was off to Tatooine.

A/N; I hope you are enjoying the story so far! sorry that there isn't any smut so far, I want it to have a gradual build rather than jump straight into it. wait for chapter 4 though some semi-smutty things start to occur.