Poe found the ship within a few hours. It was the only sign of civilization for over a hundred miles and was a good eight miles from the nearest speeder docking. There was no trail, but there wouldn't be one no matter how many people trekked from the dock to the crash sight because of the winds shifting the sand. It was nestled in a valley flat land. Two miles from the X-Wing, easy access to it, but with the X-Wing so well camouflaged and hidden in the little alcove one might not notice the connection between the two of them. But Poe did. This was the perfect hide out and escape possibility. This was a den the beast could hide in for years and remain undiscovered. It was only by luck that Poe had discovered him. At first everything was in place like it should have been. There was nothing out of the ordinary to draw attention, strategical. Intelligent. Like Ren. His blood boiled with the thought of even the name. But then he'd begun to notice specific things that bothered him. There was a curtain hanging over the pried open exit ramp. Not just a windbreaker or something to keep the heat in...but some small attempt to make the ship look more like a...home. It was a retired empirical Lambda shuttle. It's been here a while. Decades. Why would the Knight of Ren choose an old abandoned, dilapidated ship to live in? Where was the rationale in that. He was on of the highest ranking members of the First Order even if the Resistance hadn't heard of him in years... he would require a ship of luxury, some real sort of shelter...not this piece of junk. Then he notices the paintings. Bright colored suns and flowers litter d the hull of the ship in what could not be mistaken for anything but a child's scrawl. A very small child. Perhaps he truly had been mistaken and found the wrong ship.
Suddenly, from where Poe lay atop a dune watching through his scopes the curtain to the ramp was thrown to the side and a large man stormed down it. He was in boots and black pants but wore no shirt. He has a dark top knot of hair pulled back from a murderous glare on a sharply angled face. A thick boiling scare ran it's way from his forehead, diagonally across his face and off his jaw to delve into his collar bone all the way down to the right shoulder. Poe had never seen his face before...but the scar was a trade mark. Here was his prey, the deadly predator.
Poe observed him from afar, gauging his weaknesses...and finding that himself overwhelmed by the lack thereof he could identify. Everything in that monster's being hummed of power. Poe had felt the savage ravaging of the man's mental capacity with the force when he'd torn him open slowly, lighting each and every neuron in his brain on fire. He'd seen the beast stop a blaster bolt in mid air, felt the heat of it as he was drug forward to meet the menace. The heat of the blaster was nothing compared to the feeling emanating from the man himself, he'd learned. He didn't need the force to recognize the raw power humming and crackling around the man like lightning. Now looking at him from afar he was unnerved by the sheer amount of mass Kylo Ren possessed. Brute lumbering strength boasted proudly from a body such as this. Across his chest the muscles weren't clearly defined, like across his abdomen, but instead it was smooth and solid like granite. One might almost be able to claim that there wasn't even an abnormal amount of muscle there at all but for the fact that even from this distance Poe could see them twitch and roll like gears in a well oiled machine as the man stalked around the side of the ship and out of sight.
He calmed his breathing and forced Rey's young face before the eye of his mind. She deserved justice. She deserved revenge—and as powerful as he looked now, how terrifying must he have seemed to the girl as he tortured her, and shredded her mind and forced himself upon her. No, he would not back down now. He would kill him. Somehow.
He was finally resolved and back at peace with himself when yet another variable through itself into the equation to shake him up. A small child tore around the other side of the ship and the giant emerged once again taking long, lumbering stride to easily over take the child and yank him off his feet. Poe's stomach lurched and he desperately wiped the sweat from his eyes, anxiety thrumming through him like an overworked engine in a paper hull. Where did the child come from? What was Kylo Ren going to do to him? Poe knew he couldn't do anything yet. If he charged in to save the youngling he'd get them both killed and the Resistance would lose the Knight of Ren again. But what was that monster going to do to the boy? Poe had the strong urge to vomit again but instead reached for his sonar-radar aiming it to pick up what was happening. He could not do anything to stop this either, but like Rey, this child would be avenged for whatever sins where committed him. Poe hands shook uncontrollably and he wiped his brow feverishly.
The first sound that came over the radar was...a laugh. A tiny, bell-like child's giggle and as he peered through his scopes again he caught a glance at the Knight of Ren's face split wide in a...joyous grin. It was so foreign and unearthly Poe was frozen to the spot by confusion.
"Was it you?" The man's voice filtered over the radar. So vastly different than the voice the mask spoke that Poe once again questioned whether this was truly the right place and had to remind himself of the scar and other evidence.
"NO!" The little boy in his arms giggled hysterically pushing at the hands that held him, each one bigger than his chest. As Poe looked at the way the man was holding the child he realized his mistake earlier. The man had not yanked the child off his feet, he'd scooped him up gently as though he was holding the most precious thing on earth.
"Oh really?" Kylo Ren asked in mock harshness as he began to tickle the boy in his arms. The child squealed and squirmed in delight and Poe couldn't get rid of the sick feeling only growing in his gut. Who was this child? "And who do you think is the culprit then? Hmmm? Did I do it? Did your mother?"
"I- don't- know!" He gasped tears of mirth streaming down his round face. "I- Don't- know what you're talking about!"
"This!" The man dropped the child gently but held onto his wrist to keep him from running and picked up the discarded article of clothing on the ground. He slipped it on, a shirt Poe realized and glared at the cackling boy as Poe realized there was a bright yellow sun slapped onto the chest of the garment in paint. "Are you telling me you didn't do this?" He raised an eyebrow and squatted down to the boy's level. The boy shook his head mischievously. "Who did it then?"
"Mama." The little boy snickered.
"I don't think so." The man said pulling the tiny child into this grasp again. Poe's breath hitched. This...this was Kylo Ren's child. He could see it now. The angles in the boy's face so cleverly disguised by baby fat. The thick dark curly hair, even, now that he could see his fact, Kylo Ren's grin that was almost too wide for his face. Who the mother was, Poe had no idea. But this was unmistakably the son of Kylo Ren.
"Was too!" The boy squirmed to no avail. "Mama!" He shrieked, "Mama!"
Suddenly the curtain was thrown back to reveal a cream robed desert woman responding to her child's shrieks. Poe stopped breathing.
"Aha!" She chuckled. "The culprit's been caught!"
"No!" He shook his little curly head. "It wasn't me! It was you!" She pulled another shirt from behind her back and revealed a bright red petaled daisy painted across it's chest.
"Oh was it? And who painted this then?"
"Daddy!" He insisted finally squirming free of his father's hold only to be caught up in his mother's. His mother was older. Seven years ages someone, Poe would know. But she still wore white warps to combat the glaring sun. She still pulled her hair back into three buns of red brown waves. Her eyes still squinted closed when she laughed and her nose still scrunched when she smiled. Her arms and legs were slender but wiry strong and seeing her was like being shot through his already churning stomach. Rey was the mother. Rey was alive. Rey was alive and the mother of Kylo Ren's child. Poe still couldn't manage to breathe. From where he lay on the ledge Poe suddenly was met by a thunderous dark gaze as the Knight of Ren suddenly snapped his attention straight at the dune from which he was watching them. He was well camouflaged and was at a far enough distance human eyes shouldn't have been able to see him...but then again...was Kylo Ren really human? Poe lay frozen to the spot, staring the Knight in the eye in petrified breathlessness as they stared at each other from a distance. Poe could see Kylo Ren had just started reaching for his son and murmuring,
"Rey," When the fourth sun broke the horizon line announcing the new day and a fleet of First Order ships broke the horizon with them. The man's focus was diverted from Poe to face the threat.
"What is it Ky?" Rey frowned and reached forward to grab Kylo Ren's outstretched hand. Poe's stomach churned as how she reacted to him. Gently, concerned...what was it that she called him? Ky? Poe was both disgusted and overjoyed. Confusion was churning in his gut. Had he managed to turn Rey to the dark side? Was she brainwashed? Seduced? Was the First Order here for them? Had she been completing missions for them all along? In secret? What did all of this mean? Rey's voice ripped Poe from his musings repeating, "Ky, talk to me, what's the matter? Are you having a vision? Are you okay?" She knelt down in front of him, holding her now quiet son to her side tightly and cupped the man's face gently.
"Is Daddy dreaming again?" The boy whispered, and Poe could barely make out the words due to the static over the Radar.
"No." Kylo Ren's voice was rough and raw, terrified, Poe realized with a jolt. "They're here."
"Who?" Rey frowned running her hand down his face again, "Deep breaths Ky, you're going to be okay, the vision will pass in a minute...just-"
"No, Rey!" Kylo Ren gripped her wrist and tore his gaze from the Horizon to look her face, his own going bone white. "It's not a vision...They're here. They're here for us."
"Who?" Rey whipped around caging her son to her chest in an instinctively protective way that made Poe's bones ache.
"Resistance." He pointed directly up at the dune that Poe was perched on. "And the First Order." He pointed at the fleet only growing on the horizon line. "It has come." There were tears in the man's voice that shook Poe to his core. Kylo Ren closed his eyes once and when he opened them he was a broken man. Poe knew one when he saw one. Those were the eyes of a shattered man who knew he was going to lose everything. Suddenly Poe understood. Kylo Ren didn't sway Rey. She swayed him. He'd left the First Order. The answer made no logical sense... but Poe felt the validity of it in his soul. He hated the fact that it was true and wanted to believe that it wasn't...but it was painted on the Knight of Ren's face as clear as the bright yellow sun on his shirt. The First Order was not coming to pick them up or check in and refuel. The First Order was here to kill and capture.