It was four in the morning and Rey was already dressed and waiting outside of the hangar that contained her Master's command shuttle. The Finalizer was bustling with activity as officers and troops alike made last-minute preparations before their entry into the Ileenium system.

They were really going to do it; she was really going to do it – attack D'Qar.

There would be no turning back after this. Yet, as nervous as Rey was about attacking the Resistance, her mind was also filled with a certain sense of… peace. She was now Rey Ren, a member of the Knights of Ren, apprentice to Kylo Ren, and ally of the First Order. She had a place. She was accepted. She had… whatever this thing was… between her and Kylo Ren and General Hux. Camaraderie? Friendship? Mutual respect?

She shook her head. Whatever it was, it was something special that deserved to be nurtured and acknowledged; it was something that made everything else seem worth it. She'd never had the like before.

Rey lifted one hand to her throat, wincing at the tenderness of the bruises at the touch of her fingertips. Ja'al Ren was someone she could certainly do without, though. His position as a senior Knight limited her responses and reactions to him, but perhaps after yesterday he would back off long enough that she could think of a way to properly handle him. She didn't necessarily like having anyone step in to fight her battles for her, but she had to admit that the General had made quite an entrance.

She pushed herself more firmly back against the corridor wall as a squadron of Stormtroopers jogged by, fully armed and prepared for combat. Her eyes followed them, tracking their movements down the hallway and out of sight. She was still a little leery of the Stormtroopers and their training program after what she'd learned about them from Finn, but as of yet none of them had given her cause to think their lives were terrible. Maybe she just hadn't seen enough of their life on board the ship yet. She was sure there must have been some element of truth to Finn's statements – he had defected as a result, after all – but she had yet to see anything concrete. Perhaps she could ask the General one of these days, when things weren't in such turmoil.

Rey straightened. Coming around the corner was her Master, robe and half-cloak billowing around his striding form. She pushed herself off from the corridor wall and stood at attention as he approached her, zeroing right in on her. He ignored all others as he walked towards her, forcing troops and officers alike to jump out of his path. Rey's lips twitched; they looked rather practiced at the art of avoiding her Master. After seeing him yesterday, in the hall… she could certainly understand. She'd heard the sounds of his rage on her way back to her chambers, but for some reason she was almost… touched by his anger on her behalf. She didn't fully understand it, or why, but she knew that much at least.

Kylo Ren stopped in front of her and gave her a once-over from toes to head. She could not see his eyes, but she could feel them silently assessing her and her readiness. She barely stopped herself from fidgeting with her clothes under his gaze. She was wearing her black training leggings and long undershirt, but had topped the ensemble off with a sleeveless tunic made of what seemed to be the same material as Kylo's robe; the material was thick and would stand up well against a number of different weapons. A leather belt rounded out the ensemble, on which her lightsaber was clipped. On the other side was clipped an expandable quarterstaff, and a thigh holster on her right leg held a blaster pistol. She hadn't exactly been sure which weapons would be appropriate, and so had tracked Asha Ren down in the armory just under an hour ago. The quarterstaff and pistol had been the Knight's idea, and Rey had to admit that she felt comfortable with their use. She had not practiced much with her lightsaber, but she trusted her Master to not leader her into any situation where she could not handle herself with one or the other of her weapons.

"Good, you are prepared adequately," he stated after he had finished raking his eyes over her. Rey shivered with a mixture of pride and that feeling she got every time she saw him in his mask; she wasn't sure she'd ever get used to hearing him speak through the blasted thing. "I have something for you," he added after another moment. He motioned for her to follow him through the hangar doors, across the hangar, and up the ramp into his shuttle. Reaching down for something on one of the jump seats, he directed her to turn around with a twist of his fingers.

Rey felt him crowd behind her, towering over her form as he draped a fold of cloth across the front of her neck and over her shoulders. His gloved hands deftly adjusted the fabric and Rey heard the click of a pin locking in place on each of her shoulders. He gripped her by the shoulders once he was done, but didn't make a move to turn her around. Rey was glad for the emptiness of the vessel, as she could feel her cheeks redden and her breaths were coming quicker. She could feel him behind her, even though there was likely a foot of space between their bodies, and she was overly aware of their only point of contact through her layers of clothes and his gloves.

Rey was the first to break the spell. She turned around but did not step back, looking up into his mask as she lifted her hands up to the fabric on her shoulders. "What is it, Master?" she asked softly, not quite wanting to fully dispel the moment.

He took a few seconds to respond as he slowly lowered his hands back to his sides. "It's a hooded half-cloak, much like mine and the other Knights'," he replied finally. "Go on, pull the hood forward," he instructed.

Rey looked up at him and knew that her expressions were completely clear and open on her face. He had brought her another item to mark her inclusion into the closest thing she had to a family, and that meant more to her than many other things she had experienced in her life. It was a simple gesture – a piece of clothing – but its symbolism was tremendous.

Rey realized that she was frozen in place when the man standing opposite her reached up once again and tugged the hood up and over her hair. He adjusted its fold over her forehead and she shivered as his gloved fingers scraped against her temple. "You haven't trained with a helmet or mask but we can get you one if you so desire," he said as he dropped his hands once more.

She shook her head. "No, sir, I'm more comfortable like this for now," she replied. She was glad that her voice did not shake at least.

"Very well," he nodded. He paused and tilted his head. "One more thing," he said as he turned back to the jump seat. He bent and picked up a small bundle, turning back to Rey and extending the bundle towards her. They were gloves, much like the ones he wore. Black leather, thick but supple, and just the right size for her hands – she discovered as much as she slid them on. She clenched her hands into fists and marveled at how natural they felt over her skin. She knew that they would not interfere with her grip on her weapons, as they moved like they were a second skin, and the palm and underside of the fingers were layered with a secondary material that would prevent her grip from slipping even from sweat or blood.

She glanced up at him from under the edge of her hood. He was watching her intently, holding himself still. "Thank you," she practically whispered. "You don't know what this means–"

Rey was interrupted by the sound of boots tromping up the ramp and into the shuttle. She flicked her eyes up at Kylo once more, but he had already stepped back and was looking at the new arrivals.

Turning slowly, Rey took note of the squad of Stormtroopers and the five Knight trainees who preceded them. She was happy to see that they were all men and women, humans, whom she got along well with, and whom she trusted in combat – at least as far as she could tell during training.

"Get settled in," Kylo greeted them gruffly. "We launch in five minutes." He turned back to Rey and dropped his voice. "You will follow me once we land, Rey. The rest of our group has their own orders, as do the other two squadrons of Stormtroopers accompanying us in their own vessels. We need not concern ourselves with them unless necessary."

"Yes Master," Rey replied, trying to calm her nerves.

"Rey," he stated her name as if it were a sentence all its own.

"Yes?" she looked up into his mask.

"You will do well," was all he said before turning and joining the pilot in the cockpit.

Rey took a deep breath and firmed her shoulders before settling into one of the jump seats, buckling herself in. She would do well. She'd never given anything but her best. Until they landed, however, she'd enjoy the sensations of flying once again; it would serve as a good distraction for her worries of the battle to come, and the part she'd played in making it happen.


Rey and Kylo had avoided any physical combat so far. Once they had landed, he had taken her to a vantage point which afforded them a necessary view of the Resistance base and its defenses. She had an excellent view of the First Order sweeping in and completely taking over the airspace, fighters and shuttles alike quickly dominating her field of vision.

There had been little left to fight. It seemed that the Resistance had interpreted Rey's disappearance correctly as defection, and had finally started to move their base to another planet out of fear of their defense network being compromised. Reports were coming in over Kylo's comm link that there were only approximately four hundred fighters left on the Resistance base, total. There was no sign of General Organa, or any of the upper ranks of the Resistance – it seemed more and more likely that the First Order had come upon the Resistance as they were wrapping up the last details of their move.

It was easy. There would still be fighting for a while yet, but the First Order would be victorious. Rey felt at once relieved and upset – relieved that there were not a lot of Resistance soldiers that would be dying today, and relieved that the First Order would be successful… but upset, as well, on the behalf of the Resistance. She knew it was because of her information on the defenses of the base that the Resistance had lost D'Qar today.

"Rey! Saber at the ready." Her Master's voice intruded on her thoughts, and the sound of his lightsaber crackling into activity was unmistakable. She snapped her hand to her belt, pulling her lightsaber out and activating it on autopilot as her eyes darted around for the danger.

Coming out of the tree line behind them was a group of five Resistance foot soldiers, blasters at the ready.

Three of them were angling towards the First Knight and she and Kylo distanced themselves from each other so as to give themselves more room to fight. Rey readied her saber, two hands firmly gripping the hilt, and stepped back into a preparatory stance in anticipation of being fired upon. Her heartrate had increased and she forced herself to breathe normally. Now was not the time to break; she was strong and would overcome this much like she had overcome so much else in her past.

She could tell the exact moment the two Resistance soldiers realized who she was. Their eyes widened and they took on an even more aggressive stance. The man in front swept his eyes over her body, taking in the style of her clothing with anger. His eyes flicked towards her Master, then back towards her. "So it is true," he growled. Rey realized with a start that she recognized him. She hadn't really interacted with him a whole lot, but she knew him from her brief stint on the base over a month ago – had it really only been a month or so? It felt like far longer…

The man – Peter, she thought he was called – took another step towards her, brandishing his blaster at eye level. "You're the reason we had to bail from this place. You're the reason that so many of our people are dying today. But it's not like you care, huh?"

Rey tensed, affronted. "I needed to find a place for myself in the world, Peter – a place where I belonged. If you only knew what the General did to me–"

"I know what she's done for lots of people," he barked. "It means more than anything she could have done to scum like you!"

Rey was so shocked at the vitriol coming from this man, and the anger radiating off of him, that she was barely able to duck the blaster bolt that was fired straight for her head. She had pushed her hood back from her face to fall over her back earlier in the hour since they'd landed, and she could smell a hint of charred hair coming from the top of her head. That had been close – he wasn't pulling any punches, it seemed.

And why should he? He thought her a traitor to the Resistance. And truly… she was. She had to admit that much, especially now, as she stood here over the smoldering structures of a former Resistance powerhouse, at the side of an enemy who had brought nothing but pain to their people for over a decade, and she herself standing against them, armed.

She supposed she was a traitor. If finding her own path in the world after being rejected by who you thought were the good guys – after being kidnapped from her family by said good guys and spending over a decade on a godforsaken desert planet when they knew exactly where she was the whole time – if all that made her a traitor, then damn it, she'd be a traitor.

It also didn't hurt that these two men were trying to kill her.

Rey could no longer hear any sounds of battle to her left, where her Master was standing. She didn't risk looking towards him, but she could feel that he was alive, at least. Her concentration was taken up wholly by the two men before her, both of whom were now charging at her. She ran to meet them both before they could fire anything more from their blasters. She knew that she didn't have enough training in deflecting them with her lightsaber – technically, she had none in that art – and so she felt it would be prudent to disarm them before they could fire again.

Slicing her saber towards Peter's blaster, she cut it in half before he could pull it back, then kicked him aside and sliced the other man's blaster as well. Before she could reassess the situation, she was set upon from behind by Peter. He kicked her in the back of the leg and she went down with a grunt of pain, only to be punched in the side of the face by the smaller man. Her head whipped around with a crack but she immediately brought it back around and head-butted the man in front of her, straight in the stomach.

He went down with a strangled cry, his breath knocked out of him for the moment. She was quickly set upon by the other man, however, before she could neutralize her original target. Peter was much larger than her, and his hands wrapped tightly around her neck, digging right into the bruises already marring her skin. The pain was double, if not triple, what it would have been on a day where she was fully healed.

Drawing on the Force, Rey roared as she suddenly shoved the man off of her. She couldn't do much on command yet, but moving people off of her was quickly becoming one of her go-to, easy to use skills. Peter flew off of her and hit a tree with a resounding crack, and she stalked towards him, ignoring the other man as he fled into the forest and away from her.

She was fuming with anger, fueled by despair. She couldn't stop and dwell on what had brought her to this point in her life, but neither could she let go of what Peter had said. Her life was better than anything she had ever had before. It may not be perfect, but how dare he make accusations about something that he would never come close to understanding? He had not been kidnapped from his family; he had not been abandoned 'by accident' on a desert planet; he had not been knowingly left there years later when something could have been done about it, finally; he had not been shunned by those whom he had expected to welcome him with open arms; he had not been denied necessary teaching to something essential to his being… and he had not found acceptance in the fold of an organization where he'd never expected to find family or friendship.

He was trying to take that away from her with his words, but she wouldn't let him.

Peter had slid onto the ground in a broken heap by the time she made her way over to him; he wasn't going anywhere. He glared at her defiantly from his prone position, and spat at her as she finally stood over him. She didn't blink. She said nothing. She felt hollow except for a small bundle of anger deep within her heart.

"He'll betray you one of these days, you know," Peter bit out past the pain. "It's in his nature."

Rey frowned at him. "No. He won't." She had to believe her words; there was nothing that she could do at this point except believe them. Everything Kylo Ren had shown her so far had proven her words to be true. She could only believe that they would continue to hold true.

Peter's breaths rattled. "I hope he does, you First Order slut. Then I hope that he dies a painful death at the hands of someone – anyone. As long as he's dead."

Rey's bundle of anger sparked and grew inside of her. "Don't you dare threaten him," she ground out.

Peter only laughed at her words, though the sound quickly morphed into a gurgling noise. Blood frothed from his lips.

Rey wasn't sure if it was the laughter or the blood that caused her to put her saber through his heart.


Kylo met her eyes when she turned back towards him and started walking. She kept them trained on his the entire way back, her shoulders square and her chin held high. He was proud of her. She had stood her ground and comported herself well; he hadn't needed to step in and interfere. He was glad to have had the chance to sit back and watch her fight a real enemy, after he had dispatched his own three opponents. It was her first kill for the First Order; her first kill as a Knight of Ren; her first kill as his apprentice. And it had been someone whom she had once seen as an ally.

It wasn't until she was within twenty feet of him that he realized she had tears streaming down her cheeks.

He stood, silently observing her, until she arrived right in front of him. She stared at him for a moment, then nodded, firming her jaw and hardening her eyes.

He nodded back. No words needed to be said on the topic – not unless she wished. She had done well; done what was necessary. That was all that was needed of her for today. He ignored the tears still flowing over her flushed skin; though his hands twitched with the desire to rub them off of her and give her cause to dry her eyes.

But not now.

"We will make our way into the base proper and assist in tying up any loose ends we might encounter," he said instead.

She nodded and pulled her hood up with the hand that was not carrying her saber hilt. "Let's do it." He felt a surge of renewed pride at the firmness and conviction of her tone, even if he knew that she was pushing her pain to the side to deal with later.

They made their way towards the base's central structures, eyes peeled for any straggler with a gun. Kylo kept his awareness tuned to his surroundings via the Force, as well. It was through said awareness that he sensed a struggle up ahead that –

"That blasted man," Kylo hissed, increasing his pace to just shy of a jog. Rey had to jog to keep up, though, and her hood soon fell back over her shoulders once more as the air currents caught the fabric.

"What is it?" Rey asked, barely winded, from his side.

Kylo glanced sidelong at her. A certain amount of dry humor carried through his mask as he replied to her. "The General has seen fit to join us on the ground and has made himself a lovely target for the remaining Resistance soldiers, as far as I can tell. Which, if he would think properly sometimes, he would have realized before it became a problem – namely, before he even decided to come to the surface."

Kylo had to admit that the General had a good mind for combat strategy, but the man's love for physical combat itself sometimes made him quick to jump the gun. There shouldn't have been a problem joining in the ground operation with this attack, however, if Kylo were honest with himself. Sometimes things seemed like a perfectly acceptable risk, and then you could be blindsided by something you hadn't foreseen.

…Like three dozen Resistance soldiers backed into a corner, fighting for their lives against two dozen Stormtroopers. General Hux was in the thick of things, and Kylo was tempted to sit back and watch the wiry but strong man fend for himself, pistol aimed with deadly accuracy. It would not only teach the man a lesson, but he'd also be able to enjoy the view until it was absolutely necessary to intercede…

"Master? Are we going to help?" Rey's voice was strong but worried as it intruded on his thoughts.

He blinked, then slowly looked at his apprentice's smaller form. Her face was turned up to him, and her worry for the General was readily apparent. Suppressing a twinge of jealousy, he replied evenly. "Yes. Can you climb?"

At her fervent nod and quick grin, he motioned towards the wall that the Resistance fighters had backed themselves against. "We'll climb together, then jump into their midst. You will have to fight to kill, Rey. They will be trying to kill you, and me, and the General. If we're all to make it out of here alive, it's them over us. They made their choice. You made yours." He wasn't sure why he'd added in the life lesson, but he somehow knew she needed it.

She nodded again. "Yes Master," she replied. She said no more, and her expression remained committed – even slightly exhilarated.

They climbed the wall together, quickly and easily, and dropped into the fray. Rey landed and immediately activated her saber, stepping backwards until there was barely a half foot between her back and that of the First Knight's.

He kept his senses partially tuned to Rey's as he fought, reverting to a form which he could use in close quarters with a partner at his back. As much as he liked his typical showy style, he knew when it was not an appropriate choice.

Kylo could feel flashes of anger and pain and sadness from the young woman as she fought, cutting down enemy after enemy – yet she didn't falter. With each person she struck down, it became easier for her; she was no longer broadcasting her emotions as strongly by the sixth, and by the ninth she had become numb. He wasn't quite sure if that was a good thing or not. But he was practical – as long as she didn't dissolve into a sobbing mess on the ground, she remained a strong ally.

A whirl of black shot through the thinning enemy ranks, pistol raised, and Kylo and Rey instinctively angled themselves so that Hux could put his back to theirs as well. He was glad Rey had had the wherewithal to realize who had been barreling towards them – it would not have been amusing to see Hux dead at the wrong end of a lightsaber… or to have to punish or kill his apprentice for the mistake. His mind flinched away from both thoughts as soon as they entered his mind. There was no time for that right now.

Kylo took a step forward and stalked some of the stragglers, lightsaber crackling at his side. They had stopped coming towards him after the press of live bodies had dissipated, and he was keen on taking the fight to them instead. He felt Hux fill in the space he had left behind, back against Rey's, and nodded to himself. The other man was doing what he'd promised earlier that week.

Quickly dispatching the remaining Resistance soldiers in front of him, he turned around to make his way back to the man and woman he'd left behind – but something was wrong. Hux was on the ground, with Rey standing over him, a foot on either side of his hips, brandishing her saber at the only remaining Resistance soldier and snarling. The man she was facing was laughing at her and holding a blaster in his hand – obviously what had caused the smoking ruin in Hux's jacket over his side.

Before Kylo could do anything, he felt the Force surge around him. He watched, stunned, as Rey lifted her empty left hand towards the Resistance soldier. The soldier was lifted off of his feet and he dropped his blaster in favor of grabbing desperately at his throat. "How dare you!" Rey shouted at him as she tightened her fingers. The man turned even redder. "You dare try to take one of the few good things remaining in my life?" Before the man could lose consciousness, she threw him into the wall with the Force. His skull cracked so hard that Kylo was sure he'd be dead within moments, but he wasn't so sure that his apprentice cared at the moment. She had already turned and crouched beside Hux, lightsaber deactivated and clipped to her belt again. Kylo strode forward, standing over them both as he watched the remaining Stormtroopers check for survivors. Most of his attention and concern was directed at the two humans at his feet, however.

So… his Rey had used a Force choke without even thinking about it. She was powerful, indeed, but her volatility had nearly gotten the better of her. She would have to learn how to focus that rage…

"General?" she queried, voice still fierce, angry, and protective. She cleared her throat, her expression softening along with her voice. "General?" she asked again, quieter.

"Call me… Hux," he gasped through the pain. "If I take a shot aimed for you, I think that puts us…" he gritted his teeth, "past formalities. You think?"

Rey swallowed, looking up at Kylo briefly before returning her attention back to the redhead. "…Hux?" Oddly enough, Kylo liked the sound of the man's name on her tongue. He couldn't imagine how he'd feel if she spoke the other man's given name… "Are you going to be alright?" she asked.

Hux breathed deeply through his nose, and grunted midway through his exhale. He was silent a moment as he listened to his comm link – it had activated a split second after she'd finished speaking. He lifted his wrist to his mouth, took another deep breath, and activated the microphone on his link. His voice was clear and authoritative; there was no hint of the pain he was experiencing in his voice. "The day is won! D'Qar is ours. Activate occupation protocols. General Hux out."

As soon as he released his comm link, his eyes rolled back in his head and he promptly passed out.

Before the Stormtroopers could notice, Kylo swooped down and gathered Hux into his arms, mindful of the wound on his side. He wasn't sure where exactly he'd been hit, but it looked like the hip. He held the thinner man much like Hux himself had carried Rey the other night, mainly because it was the easiest method with a wound such as that.

Rey stood up with Kylo, but she stopped him before he could start moving away from the area. "Please, one moment," she asked. Reaching up, she unpinned her half-cloak, gathering the folds of heavy fabric in her hands and then placing them over Hux's upper body. She arranged the hood so that it covered most of the General's face and all of his hair, her hands gentle as she tucked it around the other man's body. The touch of her fingers on Kylo's arms, even through the fabric of his sleeves, was enough to make him quake briefly. He wasn't sure, but he thought he saw her glance up at him sharply after that, but she shook her head and bent back to her work before he could say anything.

Rey finally stepped back and answered his unspoken question. "I figured he wouldn't want his troops or officers to know that he's been injured," she said, and Kylo was struck again by the deep well of caring and light in this slip of a woman. It was much the same as what he'd been thinking, but he hadn't really planned to do anything about it besides carry Hux to his shuttle and bring him to the medical bay once back on the Finalizer. "We can bring him straight to his quarters, right? If the wound isn't too terrible, I mean." It was as if she were echoing his thoughts, at least partially. "He doesn't seem the type to like public treatment, I'd imagine."

He stared at her through his mask for countless seconds until she huffed at him and glared. Finally, he replied, "Yes," and then strode off towards his shuttle. Rey ran into the cockpit on his orders, following his instructions on how to prep the shuttle for takeoff and flight back to the star destroyer. He trusted her skills with piloting enough to get them there in one piece as he focused on assessing the General's injuries where he lay across Kylo's lap. He refused to set him down.

He was silent the entire way back, pondering what, exactly, had occurred down on D'Qar.

Much more than an occupation had begun.