((So this is a dormant fic and I wanted to see what would happen if I added another chapter so let's see how it goes! I know it's not very polished but we'll give it a go.))
The General was true to his word. Only a few day cycles after Layna and the pack consented their services; a freighter touched down with several tonnes of meat to last the group for a few days until the next lot arrived. The freighters continued to arrive for weeks and months, bearing their load much to the delight of several hungry Quohr; including the newborn female, Kitani. In agreed exchange; Layna's pack had scoured the planet, extending their search every day until finally, suitable landscape was found and groundwork began on a new base. Also, in an unanticipated move, Layna was made an officer – A tracking officer, the only tracking officer. As promised, she was provided with a new snow suit (far warmer than her old one, not that she would ever admit it), private quarters (though she rarely used them) and a token income to feed herself from the officer's canteen.
She maintained the mystery surrounding her by never removing her mask. It was a privacy issue that the General barely managed to respect and created an air of wariness among her 'fellow' officers. She didn't dress like them, she didn't act like them and she certainly wasn't trained like them but it suited her to be treated like an outcast; she wasn't one of them, why try to be? Her attempts to keep herself set aside were adhered to by the officers and she seemed to be invisible to the Stormtroopers but that didn't stop Hux. He appeared to be determined to see under the mask but so far, she had managed to foil any attempts he made. However, his toils became less and less frequent while he became more frenzied by something else. Mercifully, Layna had good news.
"I have a present for you." The redhead's distraction of late did not go unnoticed; yet Layna was about to relieve him. Trotting along behind him and incapable of keeping step with the rigid stride of the General, he appeared not to hear her. "Hey! You listening to me?" As if a minute, annoying insect were buzzing about his ear; Hux twitched to relieve himself of it but only found the little tracking officer instead.
"When did you get here?! I'm trying to think!" Layna received the swipe of irritation but replied with nothing more than a small, careless tut. He kept walking and while she did her best to keep up, he seemed determined to be alone. Perhaps his tone would change when he heard her present. "Don't you have crystal caves to find?!"
"That's what I'm trying to tell you!" Layna's frustration and glee sparked at once, prompting her to break into run to not only catch up with the General but to cut off his path. "We found them! We found the caves!" Had he not heard her properly? Had her heard her at all? Why wasn't he reacting? Why had he paled to such an alarming shade of white she'd only seen in the purest snow?
"You found them?" The repeat was almost dead but the intensity of the disbelieving stare was very much alive. He took another moment to regain his borderline arrogant demeanour but never broke his eyes from the ivory-clad female. "Where?! Where did you find them?!"
"About fifty miles north of here. We've been exploring a new network since construction on the base began and we found it tucked away in there. It's breath-taking, you should-"
"Come with me."
"Where're we-?"
"Will you stop asking questions?! There's someone you need to meet."
The debriefing room on the new base surpassed that of Starkiller and Finalizer combined. The computers and machines had not yet felt the wrath of a lightsaber and the General would rather keep them unscathed. After all, the expense was not only astronomical but they had been bought with a hesitant second chance and the promise not to fail again. Did the Knight care for such trivial things? He didn't on Starkiller or Finalizer, why would he begin now?
Like an animal tuned to its senses, Kylo Ren was in a similar trance to the one Layna had found the General in. Standing at well over six feet, broad and dark as an Umbara night; he was truly a sight to behold. Supported by the ebony tresses, almost anaemic disposition and sullen broodiness, one would think twice before approaching him for directions. His features looked like they may have been soft and caring once but since had been ironed with a long, ominous scar; a brand of the Dark Side. Eyes of chocolate had probably been carefree and childlike before but now…. They held ferocity, intensity and unmistakable pain. The trauma was fresh and word had most likely spread of what he had done but only he knew what it had done to him. Naturally, he chose to suffer in silence and attempt to smother it in a bid to serve the Dark Side as his grandfather had done.
With the Knight now fully healed, trained and even more bitter than before, Hux found himself in more or less the same position as before Starkiller was destroyed: Ren seeking something but charging it to him. However, Hux had someone doing the probing for him but until she found what they sought, he was prey to Ren's scrutiny. He had waited for months with the grating gaze of the drop-out Jedi dogging his every move while his base grew up around him. Thankfully, he now had a fruitful report for Ren who prowled the new technological centre expectantly.
"Will you just stop and tell me what's going on?!" The voice of a female rang in the corridor and captured the Knight's attention but he didn't adhere to it, not yet. Curious but restrained, he faced the Stormtrooper guarded doorway and waited; she was answered by the General.
"Let me be clear about something!" The hiss was faint but Ren heard it regardless, despite the continuing clip of accompanying footsteps. "You are to be quiet and speak only when spoken to! He is dangerous, he is unpredictable and I cannot protect you from him!"
"I've never asked you for protection and I'm not about to start! And I'm not afraid of your buddy either!"
"You are absolutely insufferable! I am merely-!" The pair were met with already piqued attention from the mass of black robes which caused the two to stop dead in their tracks and Hux in his indignant splutters. For a few dragging seconds, nothing was said but plenty exchanged in analysing eyeing; mostly the Knight on the tracker and vice versa. "Ren." Strained was possibly the best way for Layna to describe Hux's grit when he finally broke the silence; the dislike was obvious. "This is Layna. She's the tracking officer I told you about. The alpha of the-"
"The Quohr. Yes, I noticed the drabs of a pack on my way here." Ren finished with a vague fascination fixated on the masked female before. Naturally, she returned the interest; he knew his beasts.
"I was just telling the General…." Layna chimed sweetly, completely disregarding the instructions given to her en route. Muffled and all as she may have been, the scarred male understood her perfectly; after all, he too had relied on a mask for years. Captured in a way he didn't quite understand, Kylo Ren adjusted himself in such a way that removed the redhead from his scope of vision and so only the white clad officer dominated his focus. "We found the crystal caves this morning. Fifty miles north of here." Engrossment deepened, he physically shifted while she tried not to waver under the increased intensity of that dissecting gaze.
"You….. Found them?"
"That's what I said." A quiet tut came from somewhere nearby but both ignored it, she was far too busy holding her own. And much to Hux's surprise, Ren didn't seem too put out by the borderline disrespect. Abruptly, the younger of the two males shattered his fixation and stepped back with a sweeping gesture to the table behind her. Invitation accepted, Layna stalked past him where a satellite image of the area in question had just materialised. The image manipulated itself by her touch; zooming in, scrolling and focusing until she found what she needed: The entrance to the network where the caves lay. It seemed the data from Tyg's camera had been uploaded in record time as the lights dimmed and the new images caused the padding of reverent footsteps towards the table. Ren arrived at her side, absorbed by the pixels unravelling themselves into a clearer picture and she could have sworn she heard the hitch of a breath as his eyes swept the winking gleams of glowing rock.
"It goes all the way back." She added as a piece of token information as Ren moved away to saunter the perimeter of the table, utterly bewitched by the sight before him; he finally had what he was looking for. "Maybe about a hundred metres worth of tunnel, crystals everywhere and easy to remove." A brief glance at the General found him just as intrigued as Ren. "There could be more-" The spell was broken as he rounded on her with a sweep of a black cloak and a switch in temper that Hux had tried to warn her about.
"More?!" He demanded fiercely with the swift thumping of boots on the immaculate steel floor towards her; but as always, she stood her ground. Even when faced with that daunting scar towering over her and the warm, odourless breath breezing on her face. "Are you sure?!"
"There are other caves in that network we haven't explored yet and more networks besides." Layna explained calmly with her nerve staying intact. "We might find more, we might not. If there's more, this is the first but that doesn't mean we'll stop looking." Gods, he was impossible to read and unpredictable had been an understatement. For a moment, his glare heated her cheeks but she remained unfazed by it, simply let it run its course without backing down. Eventually, he succumbed to peace first and broke the scowl in what Layna assumed was satisfaction with her answer.
"Rest tonight." He told her staunchly, having already turned away from her vicinity and strode to the open and waiting door. "Rest your pack or the ones you choose to bring. We leave at dawn." Like a phantom, he disappeared in a swipe of black material and the whirring of a mechanical door.
"Well…." Layna's ears pricked to the rare sound of the General chuckling which made her pivot in slight disbelief and he too started to sidle towards the door. "I think he likes you."