The sand between her fingers shifted, fusing into glass which vibrated strangely as it became one continuous, smooth, black plane. The light was gone, as were the bodies and the smell. The low hum of powerful engines and the faint taste of stale recycled air replaced the punishing heat and stench of burning flesh.
Disconcerted for only an instant, Rey realized that she was crouched upon the floor of a large starship, and she knew too that she was not alone.
She could feel his eyes on her. If she turned, she knew he would be there, and though she had set off to find him, she did not want to see him at that moment. More that she did not want him to see her—weak and horrified and retching on the ground.
The silence stretched out for too long. She would have to turn around and confront him.
Rey swiped her hand across her mouth and swallowed thickly. Strange that she could not feel the beat of his life force. Stranger still that he would stand for so long with nothing to say.
She turned her head slowly and found herself staring directly into his eyes.
Kylo Ren stood before a long window, his hands clasped behind him. His demeanor composed, his expression stoic—it was only his eyes which betrayed him.
"What have you done?" Rey rasped, her throat still raw. "Why? Did you think I'd be pleased? Did you think I'd want this?"
He did not react, only continued to watch her with eyes that seemed both to see right through her and examine every detail of her appearance.
"You left me. You've abandoned me in every way and now-"
He turned away abruptly, shifting his attention to the massive hangar the window overlooked. Rey felt as though she had been slapped. She would rather he taunted, or threatened, or even stood there smirking at her—but to ignore her? To pretend as though she didn't exist? After everything that had happened between them, this was more than she could stand.
"Supreme Leader!"
The sharp staccato tap of General Hux's boots followed quick upon his words. Kylo did not turn as he approached.
"The scouting unit has returned from Hoth. They have found no sign of the Resistance base."
"Well… keep looking, General. They are there, I can assure you of that."
"No…" Rey whispered. "No you can't, please!"
"How can you be so certain that—"
"You DARE to question me, General Hux?" Kylo seethed.
Hux's left eye twitched as he pressed his lips together into a thin, firm line. It took him a moment to answer.
"No…Supreme Leader," he said, though even Rey could hear the barely concealed hatred in his voice.
"Good," Kylo commended him. "Now leave me!"
The General stomped away without so much as a glance in Rey's direction. She was invisible to him, and perhaps that was why Kylo had chosen to ignore her.
"Please," she repeated. "Please don't do this. It doesn't have to be this way. Snoke is dead. You destroyed the greatest evil in the galaxy. I don't believe you did it only to replace him. You can come home now… together we could—"
Kylo turned so that she could see his face in profile. His eyes were on the retreating figure of General Hux.
"And General?" he called after the man. "This time I want them wiped out. Every last one of those Resistance scum!"
"I understand, Supreme Leader!"
"NOOO!" she screamed. Kylo Ren turned again to stare out the window.
"REY!"
She blinked, and found herself staring up into Finn's concerned eyes. He had her by the shoulders and was in the process of shaking her as he yelled her name in her face. The remains of the Inflictor smoldered around them as the sun beat down upon the Jakku desert.
"Master Luke!" she gasped. "I have to tell Master Luke!"
"What happened here?" Finn demanded.
"It doesn't matter now! They know where we are! The First Order knows and they've already sent scouts—"
"They're coming here… to Jakku?"
"No! To Hoth! They know the Resistance is on Hoth. They're in danger! We have to warn them!" she insisted, trying to stand up.
"We are prepared in any event," Master Luke said.
He was standing calmly by her side.
"We are NOT prepared! Not for the First Order, we're not. They can't defend themselves. The only thing we can do is run, and they won't even be able to run if they don't get a head start. Please Master Luke—"
"We are prepared in any event, you don't need to worry. You've had another Force vision, haven't you?"
Rey stopped struggling to stand and relaxed against Finn's grip. A Force vision—was that what it was? Is that why he did not speak to her—because she was watching something that had already happened or would possibly happen? It was different than her experience on Hoth or what had happened back at the AT-AT. Those visions were confusing, little more than a series of images that flashed before her eyes—this has been clear, every detail of the encounter. It had seemed so vivid and real.
"I… I think maybe… maybe I have…" she agreed.
"Get her back to the ship," Master Luke ordered.
"So Fa-Lun-Daski runs the stand now?" Rey confirmed.
"Yeah. From what we were able to piece together, the Knights of Ren show up a few days ago, accuse Plutt of breaking some kind of unknown intergalactic law, drag him out to the middle of Niima Outpost and behead him," Finn explained.
"And everyone just… just watched?"
"They killed off his thugs before they even got to him. Honestly, no one seemed to mind very much. I guess one of the knights dragged out Plutt's entire horde of portions and dumped them in the street. That Cerean guy… Fa-loo-whatever? He has to pay them for scrap with actual credits now!"
"Why—"
"Would the Knights of Ren do that?" Finn finished her question. "My guess? Unkar Plutt must have really pissed somebody off."
"And that's why everyone in Niima Outpost hid from us? They were afraid that we'd come to hand out more executions?"
Finn frowned and shook his head.
"Nope. This is where it gets a little strange. No one wanted to talk to us. In fact, a few of them tried to fight us. They know we're with the Resistance—"
"We're the good guys!" she protested.
"Not to them. They were protecting the Knights of Ren. No one gave us any information willingly. Luke had to—"
"But the Knights of Ren and the First Order are… the First Order practically destroyed Niima Outpost!" she argued.
"I know. I was there!" Finn reminded her.
Master Luke sat on the bench behind the holochess board. He leaned back with his eyes closed. He looked to be meditating—or sleeping—Rey could never be sure of which. A deep, aggrieved sigh suggested that he was awake and listening to them.
"The First Order and the Knights of Ren are two separate organizations," he muttered.
"Yes, two separate organizations, both controlled by Kylo Ren—same end game!" she scoffed.
"Not necessarily. You remember Ka'vec. What were the Knights doing on Ka'vec?" he asked calmly.
"Hmmm… let me see if I can remember. Oh, right! They were abducting me!" she snapped.
"Before that!" he growled.
"They were…" she thought back to that day and shuddered. The burning rain, the citizens of Ka'vec running to their ships, and the raiders lying in wait, cutting them down like butchers. It would have been a massacre except for- except for the fact that the Knights of Ren showed up. "They… fought off the Raiders," she realized.
"Ah," Master Luke said, "and like the people of Niima Outpost, how helpful were those brothel workers when it came to providing us information on the Dark Moon or the Knights of Ren?"
Rey drew in a sharp breath. The woman they had searched for had held her at knife-point—taunting her about the time of the Jedi being over. She could almost feel the soft rugs of that room beneath her feet, see the woman's black-lined eyes glaring at her—even smell the… the incense.
The incense which had made her sleepy, made her powers of suggestion weak. She remembered Brick, sitting at the desk in the medbay on Baudere. "Baudere is the only known source of Resurrection Dust in the galaxy… if dried and pressed it can be burned as incense… it makes people hallucinate," he explained. Rey glanced toward Master Luke who nodded as if he knew her thoughts.
"They knew the Knights of Ren," she realized.
"Yes," Master Luke agreed. "And they were loyal to them—would have fought us if it had come to it. I would venture to say, that the Knights may have come to their aid before."
Rey frowned and rubbed her head. What was Kylo Ren doing with the Knights? It seemed to her that he did nothing on a whim. Every step he took, no matter how unconnected it appeared, usually served some far-reaching scheme. What was his agenda this time?
"So…" Finn interrupted her musings, "What you're saying is… the Knights of Ren are like… like… heroes to these people?"
"It would seem that way," Master Luke agreed.
"And that means," Finn continued, "that to these people, we- the Resistance—are the bad guys?"
The answer to his question did not need to be spoken. It hung in the silence around them.
Rey clenched her fist. It was so like him! So, he would try to use his tricks and mind games not only on her, but with the entire galaxy as well!
"Where does that leave the First Order though?" Finn countered. "There's no way anyone can put them in the 'good guys' column. No one is going to suddenly forget that they wiped out the entire Hosnian system!"
"No, certainly not," Master Luke agreed. "In fact, if anything, the First Order becomes more unpopular by the day. Their most recent attacks—in Hutt Space—have sent allies flooding towards the Resistance. Even the old Empire knew to look the other way where the Hutts did their trading. I find it strange that Kylo Ren should act with so little foresight."
Rey thought of Kylo, the way she had seen him in her vision—turned away from her, facing the window, his hands clasped lightly behind his back, and she knew that he never acted without foresight. What was he plotting now?
"All that matters right now, is that the Resistance is safe," she reminded him. "Master Luke, you have to contact the General. She has to know that the First Order are coming to Hoth."
"She knows," he shot back. "The Resistance is safe on Hoth. Trust your master."
Finn glanced towards Master Luke and then quickly away. It happened so fast that it could have been missed, but Rey did not miss it. Finn knew something. Questioning him in front of Master Luke would not allow her to discover what that something was, however, so though she noted it, she did not comment.
"Then we need to get back to Hoth," she decided. "The General needs us there."
"No," Master Luke decided. "There's still more here which we need to understand. The Knights did not come here simply for Plutt."
"What do you mean?" Rey asked, wincing at the defensive tone in her voice.
Master Luke and Finn traded a long, confused look- one that she was meant to see.
"I meant that if you walk down the entry ramp, you'll find yourself in the middle of a massacre. I mean that they searched and destroyed an imperial starship, which is even now, still burning. I mean that there are other reasons that the Knights came to Jakku—"
"You've already figured all of that out!" Rey interrupted her Master. "These were squatters. They made their home in the Inflictor, and they beat and murdered, and did other…. horrible things to the residents of this planet. If the Knights of Ren wanted to look like heroes then what better way to—"
"No," Master Luke countered. "This was different. You saw it in your visions. Plutt was executed cleanly. Without mercy, certainly, but without any emotion. Did you not see what happened out there? This was a massacre. This was an act committed in a berserker rage. This… was personal."
"You think… you think there was something on that ship? I mean, it was an imperial starship—one of the last, right? You think Kylo Ren wanted to get his hands on something in that ship, and when the squatters tried to stop him…" Finn's voice trailed off suggestively.
"Maybe," Master Luke frowned, but he was looking at Rey as he spoke.
Rey glared at the metal grating beneath her feet, determined not to give anything away by mistake. She knew that she should tell them both about what happened to her, and that she suspected Kylo Ren's motive in destroying the squatter settlement likely had something to do with her, but there was no simple way to do that. Besides, Master Luke would likely say that Kylo had done it simply to manipulate her emotions, and Finn… well, Finn would look sad and concerned, and be more worried about her than he already was. What was done was done.
"These squatters were violent people—violent and evil—but not stupid. If there was anything of value on that ship, they'd of salvaged and pawned it years ago," she shrugged. "I think you were right the first time. The Knights of Ren want the people to think of them as heroes. They got rid of Plutt and they got rid of the squatters, and now everyone in Niima Outpost is protecting them—goal accomplished."
"No. They came to Jakku to find… something. I can sense it," Master Luke said and sighed.
"Well, that really narrows it down, doesn't it? So what's the plan, we search the entire planet and try to find what's missing?" Rey scoffed.
"Reeeeey," Finn's tone was warning.
"If you want to find out what the Knights of Ren are really up to, I think there's a better way," she said, leaning forward.
Master Luke raised an eyebrow, a sign that he was curious.
"Right," Rey said, drawing a deep breath. She didn't have a plan yet, just a few thoughts she was still making connections between, and a desperate need to get away from that smoking, body-strewn desert. She made eye contact with Master Luke first and then slowly turned to look at Finn. She hoped they would think that she was taking the time to impress upon them how important what she was about to say way. In reality, she was still trying to form something concrete out of the mass of thoughts tumbling around in her brain. "Back on Ka'vec… the woman that we were trying to find… what was her name?" Rey stalled.
"Amalia," Luke grunted, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Right, right…so this woman… we thought she had found out something about the Dark Moon through her uhhh…. 'work' with a high-ranking First Order officer. It made sense at the time, very few people, even within the First Order knew about the Dark Moon, but while I was there, I noticed something strange—an incense burning in one of the upper rooms. I think… no, I'm pretty sure that it was an incense that came from Baudere. There's only two ways she could have gotten it. The first… black market trade. Brick used to smuggle it out on the resupply ship, and he probably wasn't the only one, but it's rare… very rare stuff. I guess that'd make it pretty expensive, and that did not look like the sort of establishment that has that kind of wealth. So the only other way they could have gotten it—"
"Is if they have a connection with someone on Baudere!" Finn finished, his eyes flashing excitedly.
"Right, and not just anyone. The only people on Baudere who are allowed to leave—to come and go as they please—are the Knights of Ren," she reminded them.
Master Luke nodded thoughtfully.
"So…" she concluded, relieved that a plan had formed as she spoke. "If this woman gets expensive gifts AND was privy to highly classified information, that must mean that she is uhh… VERY close to one of the Knights of Ren. If we find her—"
"We might be able to find out what the Knights of Ren are planning," Finn finished.
"Exactly," Rey agreed, very pleased with herself.
"And you think," Master Luke growled, "that if we go back to Ka'vec, that same woman, will be in the same place, just what—waiting for someone else from the Resistance to come and find her?"
"Maybe not, but it's a starting point, right? Someone will know something! It's better than twiddling our thumbs here, isn't it?" Rey demanded. "Or… we could go back to Hoth and—"
Chewie gave a long cry. Rey turned to see her friend leaning against the wall of the corridor which led to the cockpit. He had been listening silently to most of their conversation.
"What?" Finn asked. "What'd he say?"
"He says he votes for Ka'vec," Rey translated.
"Well if Chewie says so then by all means!" Master Luke snapped. He leaned back again and closed his eyes.
Rey felt a momentary surge of victory. Glancing around at her companions, that feeling was immediately overcome with foreboding. Master Luke, though his eyes were closed, and his head leaned back, held himself stiffly, and she realized that this was the second time in so many hours that he had given in with very little to say. Finn nodded his head, as though assuring himself of something. He did not make eye contact with her, and she recalled the quick glance that had passed between him and Master Luke.
Even Chewie had been uncharacteristically quick to voice an opinion after she brought up Hoth.
She should have demanded to know what was going on, what they were hiding, and she almost did. She opened her mouth angrily, but then… closed it. Just beyond their ship, the desert burned with the remains of the Inflictor, the corpses of its inhabitants strewn for miles. Master Luke had recognized Kylo Ren's rage. He had noticed her reaction to it, and still he had backed off just shy of suggesting that she knew what had caused it.
If they were hiding something from her, then she had to believe that there was a good reason for it. Just as she had a good reason… or perhaps just a decent reason… well… a reason anyway.
