Part II, Chapter III - The Cargo Hangar Incident
[In which Rey is invited to a party, and Kylo Ren sends a message.]
~o0o~
The hours ticked away as Rey waited for Kylo Ren to reappear.
She went into meditation, reached out to Luke through the force and once more tried to contact him, but still in vain. She stared out into the neverending darkness of space, paced the rooms, laid out the parts from her bag on the table and imagined how each would fit into the saberstaff that was coming together so nicely - in her mind, at least.
Two more rations of food were brought by droids as she waited. Those were the only moments where Rey could perceive a weakness in the mechanism that kept her locked up - when the droid came, the inner door would be sealed, then the outer door and the ray shield were opened by her guard to allow the droid access to the small space in between, with the stormtrooper training his blaster on the door throughout it all. If she ever wanted escape, Rey figured, it was at least useful to know that the control pad that raised and deactivated the ray shield outside did not appear to be bio-locked to Kylo Ren, as she had initially suspected. Another useful bit of information.
Anyway, aside from the droids, no one else came for many long hours. Finally, lying on the floor in her training room and staring out into the darkness of space, Rey dropped off to sleep.
"Up, prisoner." A command woke her only a moment later - or so it felt to Rey. Startled and still half-asleep, she scrambled to her feet. The voice that had woken her had not been Kylo Ren's - in front of her stood two strangers holding blasters. They were not wearing stormtrooper uniforms, but pitch-black military garb.
How long had she slept? What time was it? In space, day and night were an artificial concept. The army that manned this travelling fortress probably worked and slept in shifts to be alert at all times.
"Arms front," one of the guards commanded, taking out a pair of cuffs. Rey stepped back with a frown.
"What is this? Who are you?" She demanded.
"We're here on orders of our commanding officer," the other said. Rey had a feeling that something was off, but unprovokedly beating up some soldiers on an errand to take her to Kylo Ren probably would not count as being on her best behaviour. So she begrudgingly agreed to having her arms cuffed in front of her, and to be led outside.
They walked on and on, and - Rey grew more suspicious at this - went down many stairs deeper into the bowels of the Finalizer. Even though she'd spend her life crawling around in downed imperial warships and recognised some familiar structures in the Finalizer, Rey had soon lost all hope of ever finding back to where they had come from.
So, either Kylo Ren had ordered her to be taken directly to the workshop he'd mentioned - that would indeed most likely be located somewhere on the lower decks - or something else was at play. They were passing soldier's quarters now, huge dormitories that bore the individual no peace or privacy. The trio was getting strange looks from passing stormtroopers, but Rey noticed that there appeared to be something like an enmity between the stormtroopers and whatever corps her current guards belonged to. They exchanged suspicious glances, but stayed well out of one another's way.
Deeper and deeper they descended into the Finalizer, until they left behind even the soldier's quarters and instead walked past long, wide corridors with a few sparse, big doors. The cargo hold, Rey realised. There were hardly any people around now.
"So where are we really going?" Rey asked, tired of the charade. "Does Kylo Ren know you're doing this?"
"Quiet, and forward," the man behind her said, and Rey was now seriously considering attempting a mind trick on both of them, when the other man opened a big gate that led to a cargo hangar, and pushed her inside.
Inside the unused hangar, with its scaffolding and empty shelves around the walls, a crowd of soldiers had assembled. There were perhaps fifty or sixty of them, all apparently belonging to the same corps, wearing those plain black military uniforms. They had formed a ring in the centre of the room, and some of them had climbed the scaffolding to get a better view of what was happening inside the makeshift arena. A few turned around to the newcomers, but most of them were fixated on the show. There were shouts, jeers, the sound of punching and one loud voice above the din, as her guards pushed her through the throng of shouting soldiers.
"And now let's hear it for our special guest, lads," the voice shouted, amplified through some loudspeaker device. "From the mists of myth, here she is, the last Jedi!"
A roar went up. Rey looked around shocked and bewildered as she was pushed inside the ring, hands still cuffed together. A pair of fighters were just clearing the venue, and she was now the new centre of attention.
"Wielding magic powers and uncanny fighting skills!" The voice continued and Rey saw now that it belonged to a man high up on a shelf to the side. "All but wiped out a generation ago. Aren't we curious to see the myth in action? Well, are you, boys?"
The soldiers around her started cheering and chanting. Rey got increasingly angry. Who were these men? Was this some kind of unofficial fighting arena? Had she really been taken here on Kylo Ren's orders?
"Now! We need a brave volunteer to fight the Jedi and draw out her powers," the host continued. From his tone it was evident he did not believe in any such powers, or at least not that she personally wielded any. Rey realised that the troops that had been involved on the recent raid on Ahch-To had all been stormtroopers, and this lot probably had only heard rumours about what a Jedi in action could accomplish.
Then again, rumours about her being a Jedi were probably secondary. First and foremost, here was a gang of bored soldiers looking to unwind, and now they had gotten their hands on a prisoner to play with.
"Step forward, lads, don't be shy! Which of you wants to be known as Jedi Slayer?" The host called to an ever-increasing cheering and clapping.
The on-board entertainment leaves much to be desired. Rey pushed her angry thought at Kylo Ren through their bond.
I have no time for you right now, was his disgruntled reply. If you're bored, meditate. It seemed like he really had no idea about any of this, then. Rey had suspected as much - this was not his style; until now he had always preferred to torment her up close and personally.
In her distraction, Rey did not notice the punch that was headed her way until it hit her straight in the jaw. Pain and anger flared up in her.
What are you doing? Kylo Ren inquired, apparently having picked up on the spike in her emotions.
"It seems we have a volunteer! Let's hear it for Cadd!" The host's voice shouted.
Some bastards took me to a- Rey began, but was no longer at leisure to engage in telepathy. Led on by the cheer of his comrades, the first assailant - Cadd, or whatever his name was - attacked again. He was no common street thug, but well-trained military, and she still had her hands cuffed.
Tell me where you are. Kylo Ren's voice rang in her head, but Rey could not reply - she was busy slamming down her hands on the assailant's neck, letting his descending head hit her ascending knee halfway and breaking his nose with a crunch. The man stumbled back to a chorus of laughs, jeers and whistles, but the next one was already upon her.
"And Cadd is out!" The host commented excitedly. "Here comes Brody, going for the tackle and oh! That's gotta hurt! Not gentle with the ladies, are you?"
Rey wheezed and doubled over as the man's elbow hit her in the stomach. Kylo Ren must have picked up on that, too, because he sounded more urgent.
I'm coming to you now. It will be faster if you tell me where you are.
Blindly, Rey grabbed her attacker by his belt and, boosting her strength with the force, flung the man several meters back into the ring of people around them.
A hush went down, and then a roar as the onlookers realised that there really was some supernatural power at play here. Her attacker jumped back up, and Rey grabbed him effortlessly in a force grip. The man gasped as Rey lifted him higher and higher.
"Holy bantha shit guys, she really is a Jedi!" The host shouted among the rising clamour. Rey found herself tackled from behind and lost her control on the force grip. More and more people were rushing in.
Stay calm. They are just grunts, she told herself, collecting her thoughts and her power.
They are vermin to be crushed underfoot. Kill them, kill them all, the beast supplied from deep within her mind, eager to be let off the chains. She ignored it.
Perhaps she could not call herself a Jedi anymore. But she remembered the vast ocean of power within her, just waiting for her to call. She had stood up to even Kylo Ren for a while, drawing on its power - that was what she needed to hold on to, not to the red whisper of the beast.
A liberating force punch sent several soldiers that had been holding on to her flying backwards, and Rey used the split second of freedom to propel herself up and forward with the force. With one single jump, she landed on the second layer of the steel shelves, right next to the host, who gaped at her in disbelief. It wasn't easy to hold on to the scaffolding with her hands cuffed, but she managed. As the first people below scrambled to get up after her, she stared deep into the man's eyes and, her voice laced with the force, said hurriedly:
"You will tell these people to stop attacking and to calm down."
"Stop attacking and calm down," the man said obediently, but due to his addled mind, his voice carried neither conviction nor authority, was barely audible over the din. Despairingly, Rey turned around and repeated the same force-bolstered words to the mob below, but there were too many minds, whipped up in too much of a frenzy. A hand grabbed Rey's ankle and pulled. She kicked at the man with her other leg, but now a second hand was grabbing that, too. Rey's grip on the scaffolding, not secure to begin with, slipped and she fell back into the frenzied throng of people.
Shit, shit, shit, Rey cursed. Hands were grabbing, punches were flying, she did not know how else to help herself other than to pick the nearest assailant, reach towards him with the force and twist. The soldier howled as his arm was bent into an unnatural angle with an audible crunch, but it seemed that in the chaos, that did not impress anyone enough to stay back.
"Leave me alone or I will kill you!" Rey screamed, pushing back the mob with the force again and again to no avail. She did not want to, she found. Yes, she had killed people in battle before, but never bare-handed, never with just the force.
The soldiers had wrestled her to the ground now, pressing down on her, punches and kicks raining down. Someone had sat down on her chest, throttling her. Rey dimly realised that if she did not put a stop to this, and fast, she might actually be killed here - beaten to death here in this forsaken cargo hangar, by a bunch of brutes, after all that had happened. A kick hit her head, and she felt warm blood seep into her hair.
To hell with it. She wrapped the force around the head of the soldier sitting on her chest and twisted. A human's head was surprisingly hard to turn into a direction it did not want to go, and Rey had to put all her power behind it until she felt the bone crack. The pressure around her throat let up, but the sensation of her power snuffing out his lifeforce was one of the most sickening things she had ever felt, and it struck her to the core.
Disgusted at herself, she unleashed another huge force blow that gave her some space, and jumped back to her feet. Stretching out her arms in front, she petrified the first row of assailants before her, but again, those behind tackled her and wrestled her down once more.
Then she heard the familiar sound of two lightsabers igniting.
Men screamed as somewhere near the door, a whirlwind of saber strikes began to rain down and steadily moved towards the center of the ring. Terrified, the soldiers tried to move out of the way but were prevented by those in the back who had not realised what was happening. Victims screamed, limbs flew. It was mayhem. It was a massacre.
Rey stared at the oncoming storm of death in a mixture of awe and horror, and the man on her back hurriedly let go of her to stumble back as one last, huge slash struck down two soldiers in front and Kylo Ren came into view. He took one look at her beaten appearance, another at the man with the twisted neck on the ground, then moved over. With just one motion of his hand, he unlocked her cuffs.
"You still haven't internalised that you can do anything with the force, have you?" He said, shaking his head. He shoved Luke's lightsaber into her hands while he held on to the one built by his grandfather. "Why would you allow these worms to cuff you with such toys? You're a force user. Start thinking like one."
With these words he turned back on the soldiers, who, now that their frenzy was quickly turning into panic, had begun to flee through the open hangar gate. Kylo Ren reached out and slammed it shut. He then advanced on the herd of frightened soldiers, methodically starting to mow them down. Rey stood petrified, feeling his lust for blood, his red-hot anger in the force like a bonfire.
The soldiers were her enemies, not only in theory but in a very real sense, she felt it in every bruise and cut on her body. But this was slaughter, plan and simple. Kylo Ren was going to murder every last one of them.
Stop it, she thought as she reached out towards the hangar gate with the force, felt his hold on it and tried to undo it.
Stay out of this. I am sending a message, he answered curtly, hacking down more people. Rey felt bile rise in her throat. The stench, she realised. Lightsabers instantly cauterized most wounds, so there was not much blood, but the smell of seared flesh and fabric was appalling, revolting. The feeling of life forces being snuffed out around her, death rippling through the force, petrified her.
"Stop it!" She repeated, screaming now. The hangar gate was thrown open at her will, and a last handful of terrified soldiers escaped gratefully to the corridor outside.
They did not get far. Kylo Ren whirled around, and lifted all of them, five people at once, up in the air. Rey looked on horrified as the men screamed. When Kylo Ren broke their spines with a sickening crunch, Rey could almost feel it in her own bones.
Kylo Ren turned around once more to the last soldier that was still alive - though the man appeared to be short of an arm, and nearly mad with fear of the apparition in front of him.
"Go to the General," Kylo Ren said silkily. "And tell him that if he ever interferes with my affairs again, it will be the last thing he does."
The soldier scrambled to get away, and finally, silence fell.
Rey felt all power leave her, her knees were shaking. A few bodies were still twitching and - heavens, the stench of it all. Rey heaved and, with her last wits about her, stumbled out into the corridor, where she dropped Luke's lightsaber and emptied her stomach.
Kylo Ren drew up behind her, collected the saber, gripped her by her arm and pulled her away from the scene.
"This was rather unfortunate," he said, marching her along the corridor.
"Rather unfortunate?" Rey repeated weakly.
"You got caught up in a little feud I have going on with a fellow officer," Kylo Ren explained. "He must have thought it a brilliant idea to have his men steal you away and toy with you a little, just to mess with me. I'm sure you'll agree that it was necessary to send him a very emphatic message never to try that again."
Toy? Rey thought dimly. They would have mobbed me to death. And now there is a hangar full of dead people and I snapped a man's neck- She felt a welcome darkness encroach her senses.
"Are you going to faint again?" Kylo Ren asked, stopping briefly to steady her. "I had not anticipated this, but let it be a lesson to you nevertheless. I saw you killed one of them. One. Had I not come, you would have been torn apart by the rest. Not because you did not have the power. But because you were not prepared to do what was necessary."
Rey's head was swirling and hardly registered how laden with emotion his voice was. When had he taken off his mask? When had he gotten so close again, staring into her soul once more?
"There is too much light in you. Too much weakness, too much hesitation. Let go of that, or it will be the death of you one day."
Rey finally slumped, and Kylo Ren sighed. Of course. Having to carry her was apparently becoming a recurring motif. It still aggravated him to see all that power, all that potential in somebody so unwilling to use it. But then, the girl was naturally inclined to the light side of the force, so really, she could probably not help being so pathetic.
Word of what had happened apparently travelled ahead as he gathered her up and made his way back to the upper decks. Troops of soldiers rushed past him in the other direction - Hux' cadets and stormtroopers alike - making sure to get out of the way as the imposing dark figure strode past, speckled with blood, reeking of death and carrying a beat-up unconscious girl.
He put the girl into her bed - again, he noted dryly - then went back outside and made sure to lock the doors securely. He then turned to the guard, who visibly shrank under his attention.
"What is your denomination, soldier?"
"ZP-4602, sir," the guard replied meekly.
"Why did you allow the prisoner to be taken out of her quarters by guards that should not even have access to this deck?" Kylo Ren inquired silkily, and ZP-4602 knew then he was in trouble. Just a moment after this realisation, he found himself in a force choke.
"Did you not worry for a minute they might have been Resistance agents on a rescue mission?"
"Sir," the hapless stormtrooper croaked. "The order came straight from General Hux. His men had the access code and the authorisation."
The stormtrooper felt the pressure around his neck let up, and took a hungry breath. He was still held in a force grip, however.
"Well done, ZP-4602. You can not be blamed for following orders." Kylo Ren leant in close. "So do take note of mine. No one but me is to enter my apprentice's quarters. If anyone attempts to do so again, even if it is the General himself, alert me instantly. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes, sir." ZP-4602 croaked, and slumped in relief as the menacing figure abruptly drew away and stalked off.
As the Finalizer erupted with frantic activity, gossip and rumour, Kylo Ren made his way back to his own quarters, went to bed and soon drifted off to sleep.
He opened his eyes lazily. He felt - profoundly at peace, perfectly quiet, perfectly calm. He was lying in a bed - not on the Finalizer; some other ship, it seemed - on his side, and curled into him snugly, skin on skin, was- the girl, Rey, fast asleep, breathing calmly. They were both stark naked. He had his arms around her, his face buried in her hair. She had her legs tangled in his. He could feel her slow, steady heartbeat pulse against his arm.
It was a perfect moment.
Kylo Ren woke up once more, in so much shock that he sat up immediately and stared around his room.
Then, anger flowed into him, anger at himself. Sone part of himself evidently was still weak. And if that part sent him such dreams, to mock him, spite him, torment him - he would have to be careful so that the real Rey was not accidentally caught up in them. She had seen his weakness once. It could not happen again.
Realising that he would not be able to go back to sleep for a while, Kylo Ren got dressed again and made his way to Vader's sanctuary, as he was wont to do when insomnia gripped him. Whenever he needed them most, his grandfather's whispers would be there. He did not expect to hear any tonight, but it still calmed him to touch the molten helmet, to be reminded of his mission as he turned it over in his hands.
Ben. A voice seemed whispered near his ear, hardly audible but still too clearly to have been just his imagination. It was not the longed-for, powerful, dark voice of Darth Vader, but something - someone - else.
Kylo Ren whirled around, staring around the empty, silent chamber. A rustling, a rising whisper - and then silence.
Who is this?
He stood still for a whole minute longer, not moving a muscle, listening, watching, reaching out into the force. Then he abruptly put the helmet back on its pedestal and sharply turned to leave.
~o0o~
[to be continued]