The planet they were on was still unidentifiable: the world was endless forest, tall fir trees that had no clear ending, surrounding an enormous reservoir reaching to a mountainous range in the distance. Like Starkiller Base in appearance, minus a drop of snow and it's violent demeanor, the unknown planet became merely dubbed SB2 in Ren's mind for an easy reference; he liked things to be easy to remember. Ren was back to the simple outfit he wore on the Finalizer with his robes still drying on the pebbles; as the moon began to rise higher and the night grew darker him and his new found rescuer needed to find and warmth with all eyes pointing to the forest.
They picked up their things, both sharing similar loads, and headed into the forest together using only their eyes for light. Ren focused his force powers in case of attack regardless of what might in the forest, all or nothing in the way of threat, but he was visibly shaking and handling it well until the pathway became too dark to see directly ahead. He fell forward.
"Whoa, let's just stop here." They took out their saber and lit up the night, etching a circle into the ground and placing theirs and Ren's baggage down, fumbling around trying to grab wood from wherever they could and throwing it in a pile, setting it alight with the corner of their saber. The crackling of the wood brought Ren to a sitting position and stuck his hands out to grab as much of the heat as he could and throwing on his still soggy robes in an attempt to keep warm.
"You need to take it all off," they gestured as they threw him a coat and trousers from their bag, "I'm going to get more firewood so you don't cringe."
"Wait... where did you get these?" Ren snapped as he flummoxed trying to reach them, failing to catch the clothes directly.
"You find a lot of lost souls here," they replied as they walked away, leaving Ren in solitude.
No thoughts were produced as he slipped off his sodden clothes and exchanged them for the dry, crisp, warm clothes; he wouldn't take off his vest despite the added warmth it gave him, but he wanted to maintain his modesty. The robes were disregarded so much that Ren wanted to burn them in the fire, but he refrained.
"Names?" They returned with too much wood. "I'm Kay."
"Girl?" She nodded. "I'm..." Do I go with my real name or my old name, or a new name altogether? "Solo, call me Solo."
"Solo?" Giggling, she held his hand for the first time to investigate, "you've taken a lot of damage, Solo." He clasped his scar again. "What happened to you? What's the mask for?"
Solo looked down to the fire with great interest, "I was lost, looking for somewhere to run to, then I found here." Kay shook her head.
"I don't believe you."
"Looks like we both have secrets," he laid out his sabers on the ground and pulled hers out to sit next to them. Kay looked to him with a face like she wanted to beg, "I'm no Jedi." He opened his two sabers, the first being the standard model and then he opened the second one, with the cross guard giving Kay a startle, both glowing red.
"I'm no Jedi," he copied. Her eyes widened.
"Looks like we both have secrets," she copied back with a giggle. Solo smiled back and closed the sabers and added them to his bag again.
"You know the force right?" Solo asked, raising his hand to enter her mind.
Her mind enveloped him as he delved into her childhood, seeing her run down streets in a crowded city with her brother, twisting and turning down corners and alleyways to reach the front of a crowd. Kay was twitching and clenching her fists whilst he pursued further, until she slammed back, forcing him out. Solo already knew.
"You do know," he smiled as she wrapped her clothes over tighter.
"Goodnight, Solo," she replied before making a quick escape, Solo didn't follow. He sighed and pushed his hair back over his ears wearing an almost chilling grin: I must delve further.
There he lay staring at the endless trees that shrouded the darkness among him with a faint wind making him turn from time to time. Even the gentlest of breezes startled him as he began to assume that anything or anyone would come through the pines and attack; his powers made him feel on full alert with a reacting jolt if he felt any sense of danger, but it never amounted to anything. Just stay calm.
Eventually he fell into slumber expecting to have another nightmare, but instead he was frolicking through wheat fields threading his fingers through the shoots gazing to the sun as he did so, even feeling the squinting his eyes did when he looked for too long. He looked back to see his father and the Wookiee chasing by and he followed, seeing them dance through gaps and then reaching the Falcon in the distance. Ren stopped and looked back: "Come on Ben!" He never saw his mother.
"I want you back," he heard faint whispers of as he carried on going towards the Falcon, but then he stopped again. Clenching his fists the rain began to pour and his saber was in his hand tightly grasping the hilt with its red embers glowing. Han and Chewie were gone. Ren flinched, he was back in the wheat fields. He ran, zooming past Han and Chewie and pulling himself towards the Falcon when it shut before he could even set foot; the rain returned. Surrounded by corpses melting into the mud as rain continued to hammer Ren stood with Leia and Han cradling each other in fear: "I want you back."
Daylight. The ashes from the fire had flown onto Solo's face and stained most of his clothes, but he didn't care. As he shook himself down he found Kay loading up her gear, "where are you going?"
"To the nearest town. We can figure out transport or something so you can find out where you need to go-" Solo slammed his saber out.
"I'm not going anywhere." Kay was startled, frozen but also shaking afraid to make a single movement.
"Please don't kill me," she began to cry, so did Solo as he went to his knees. "Let me in and I will let you in."
Solo wept, "I don't even know you. I don't even know myself." She raised her hand just like Solo did for her: "no one has given you attention for a long time... have they?" Tears continued to roll, then he seen figures in the distance.
There were five of them, fully equipped with a vast array of weapons and all of them possessing more than one to keep them prepared. As both of them opened their sabers they opened fire, with laser beams deflected and dodged through the fir trees that shook. Solo went forward in full assault as his saber sliced through two of them with ease, then he went low and cut up two of the weapons firing in his direction as they continued to fire. Kay stayed back throwing them back with her force powers and deflecting attacks by waving them away. Then when one came too close for comfort she attacked, killing the third in one clean stroke. Two were left with them both fondling to reach other weapons - Kay took this as an opportunity to slice one across the throat, blood splattered across her clothes, and then a final strike to the chest as he fell. Then there was only one. Solo froze him with the force and walked towards him using his saber as interrogation, Kay looking on as she cleaned her bloody face.
"Who are you?"
Choking with nerves the man spoke, "we're just scouters." Solo inspected his mind, nothing planned, Solo thought.
"Where did you come from?"
"Scaparus Port, we only came out here to look for things to salvage I swear, p-please..."
"Scaparus Port... we're on Arkanis?" He glared at Kay who nodded.
"Scaparus Port is a day's walk from here I'd guess," replied Kay. Solo then pushed his saber right through the man's chest as his cries echoed the forest, birds escaping, and slunk to the floor with only partial grace. Solo and Kay quickly grabbed everything they could from the bodies: guns, food packs, knives, even shoes since Solo was in need of a new pair, and headgear to disguise themselves. Then Solo threw out his robes and boots, minus the helmet, and set it alight with the corner of his saber before closing it up.
"We need to keep a low profile," he uttered, before pushing Kay along and following the path the attackers took. The final sight they took a look at were the jackets, emblazoned with a dirty insignia of the Rebel Alliance and Resistance, with a huge sigh from Solo, who gestured forward as they began to make haste towards the next checkpoint.
