A/N: First off, sorry for the wait! I've been down with a very mean and tenacious flu but I'm hopeful the worst is behind me now (...oh oh, really hope I didn't jinx anything there ;p) Anyways, thanks for the favs/follows, and free tickets to that weird water bubble opera from ROTS for the lovely people who reviewed: thank you! Enjoy~
Hartmannclan - chapter 29 - Jan 29: Only a few chapters left so fingers crossed the suspension won't kill you before I update the last one ;) Whatever you do, don't chew on your toenails, apart from it being pretty gross, I once lost a toe-nail to a surfboard with an attitude and I do NOT recommend the experience...yikes! And great and terrible at the same time huh?...I like that haha Thanks for your review!
maggiejt - chapter 29 - Jan 29: Thank you so much for your review! :D And of course I'm not going to give away any spoilers but as one fancy Jedi once said: 'Your feelings serve you well!' ;)
CHAPTER 30
"It's not much..." Rose remarked tentatively as she pulled away the last bit of tarpaulin.
"It'll do," Finn said in a would-be confident tone, taking a step back to take in the whole of the transport.
Rey couldn't help but grimace skeptically at its anti-climactic reveal. "A G9 Rigger class light-freighter?"
As a scavenger, she was used to looking beyond the battered outsides of ships and machine—even the most pathetic wreck often still contained parts that could be traded for portions. The state of deterioration of the transport before her, however, didn't inspire a lot of confidence.
Rose shook her head, letting out a deep sigh that sounded part exasperated, part wry amusement. Rey wished she could feel the latter but she was far too impatient and worried to allow for it. She needed to leave. Now. Time was a currency she couldn't afford to spend too much of at the moment.
Not that this changed anything about the fact that she needed to fix the junkheap in front of her before she went anywhere...
Rey bit the inside of her mouth, trying to keep panic from flaring up and sending her into full-fledged despair.
Rose shrugged in dogged resignation. She pulled on her stained work gloves and handed another pair to Rey. "Better get started since they won't let us take one of the only two proper ships left..."
She let the end of that sentence trail away on purpose and Rey nodded reluctantly, pushing up the sleeves of the leather jacket that Finn had insisted she borrow. It was this rust-bucket, or nothing. And the latter wasn't an option.
Not now Ben was facing that tribunal...
Repressing another surge of raw fear at that terrible image, Rey forced herself to concentrate on the task ahead. She had to.
For his sake…
(…)
At the start of their work, Rey hadn't thought it possible to beat the ship into such shape that it would be able to take off and actually stay in the air—landing being something to worry about later. She was more than a little surprised, therefore, when not even an hour after they'd set to work, she hovered around the transport, nervously checking for anything they had missed as she pulled off the work gloves.
Rose wiped her forehead, blowing wayward strands out of her face with a few well-aimed puffs of air before nodding in approval. Before Rey could speak—demand—that they leave now they could, Finn prevented her by stumbling back inside the cramped cave the Resistance had been using as a makeshift hanger and storage space. Most of his face was covered with a scarf and he was bent over against the storm raging on across the moon.
"Got the fuel. Should be enough," he said through chattering teeth.
"Good. Then we can leave." Rey was quick to move towards him, driven by her increasing restlessness to leave.
She felt like a caged Vworkka and would even gnaw like one through steel bars, stone, heaven and the stars themselves if they didn't go this instant.
"How are the repairs going—"
Finn started to ask when Rey determinedly took one of the fuel containers from him and headed back to the freighter without a word—her pressing thoughts preventing her from even hearing him.
"Done. It looked in worse shape than it was," Rose answered, adding in a lower tone, "Still. It took time we probably don't have."
"Right," Finn murmured pensively, undoubtedly trying to think of what else to say to that.
His hesitancy did reach Rey's ears, prompting her to momentarily quell her agitated heartbeats urging her to keep moving. She stopped to look back at him.
"Thank you," she said earnestly, elaborating a little awkwardly at the pang of guilt she felt for dragging them into this, "For coming—for helping me when I have no right to expect it."
"We're the Resistance. That's what we do. We help," Finn stated solemnly, meeting her eyes.
Rose nodded, zipping up her overall and stuffing her hands in her pockets in a sort of resolute stubbornness. "Finn's right. That is what we do. By not avoiding today's battle, even if we should lose, it might help win tomorrow's."
"This is bigger than us. We both know that," Finn added, squeezing Rose's shoulder in support. "Most of us still do. I don't pretend to fully know why you came back. To really understand why you even left in the first place. But you did come back. You asked for our help. And we will."
Tears pricking in the corner of her eyes, Rey swallowed down a lump in her throat and simply repeated her gratitude, "Thank you—"
There was a flurry of movement now several people appeared from amid the storm—their boots treading snow inside as they threw back hoods and unwrapped arms around their middles.
"She's ready?" Leia inquired, wringing her cold hands—fingers now free of any rings. The bracelet and beacon were gone too and she had exchanged her stately dress and robe for a drab-colored and loose-fitting jumpsuit. Her long hair was braided and coiled into one bun resting in the nape of her neck.
"All patched up and raring to go," Finn confirmed with a half grin and reverent dip of the head in her direction. "And so are we."
"Well. No time like the present," remarked Leia, taking a lumpy sack from Connix and making for the ramp with her usual decisive step. Rey could see the apprehension and uneasiness etched into the faces of the handful of people that had accompanied Leia to the cave—that would stay behind.
Although she and Rose had thoroughly inspected every inch of the freighter, Rey had raised her own brows at its shoddy appearance not too long ago. Luckily, they didn't have to go far. And if all went according to plan, they could hitch themselves a different, more trustworthy ride soon.
If all went according to plan... Her nerves couldn't refrain from repeating in her head. Rey shook off the sense of trepidation as best she could, jaw flexing as she gnashed her teeth with the effort.
It was high time they left. Ben needed her...
Rey squared her shoulders and followed Rose and Finn who started up the ramp.
"You are sure about this?" Commander D'acy pressed Leia one last time, the wrinkles in her face sagging and her curls drooping on her shoulders.
Leia turned around at the top of the ramp to face the small group, her eyes shining. "I am."
The woman smiled a watery smile, nodding in both understanding and resignation. They wouldn't have stopped Leia from leaving: not Commander D'acy; not the pilot; not Connix; not the old man; not the Togruta; and not even Chewie. Their reluctance to let their leader go was born from genuine concern—not solely their suspicion of the returned traitor who had convinced her to leave.
As was perhaps her wont, Commander D'acy voiced it best for everyone remaining when she said just three words in goodbye, "Be safe, General."
Chewbacca threw his head back and let out a loud, rueful yowl, his fur bristling.
"Hold the fort, Commander. And stay off Chewie's bantha stew," Leia told her, sending a mischievous wink at the Wookie. Then she turned away, calling over her shoulder, "Back before you know it."
Finn had just hit the sensor on the inside of the hatch—the freighter responding with a groan of steel—when the impact of running boots rattled the already moving ramp. Rose quickly reached out and pulled Connix in by the arm; the hatch sealed with a hiss hardly an inch behind her.
"C-Changed... Changed my mind," Connix puffed, clutching her side as she caught her breath, a few blond strands poking out from one of her two buns.
Leia's mouth twitched, the brown around her pupils softening despite the stern line her brows formed. "I thought you might. It felt too heavy for just two disguises."
Connix straightened hurriedly when Leia passed the bulging sack back to her. Cradling it to her stomach—and not daring to grin openly at the good-humored rebuke—her eyes twinkled as she nodded to each in turn before all five headed further inside.
"You better get changed. Rey and I can handle the journey," Leia ordered briskly. Rose, Finn, and Connix immediately made for the only cabin on board as Rey and the General continued on to the cockpit.
They started the engines, let the nav computer plot the right course, and maneuvered out of the cramped cave in silence; neither remarking on those that watched them go or the one person they were heading towards. Its frame shuddering but holding, the freighter burst through the massive clouds. Sleet pelted the viewport, but the instruments guided them safely passed the bulbous, purple peaks of the encircling mountain range.
Not until the craft shot out into space and the stars were streaking past in narrow strips of pale light—coming at them like a barrage of needles that missed the viewport by mere inches—did Rey relax her hands on the controls and chance a look at her companion.
Leia sat leaning back in the co-pilot's chair, one hand tapping absentmindedly on the armrest, the other supporting her chin, index finger rubbing her lips. Slightly afraid to offend—but not knowing what to say—Rey reached out to her through the Force instead.
At first, she met only a slumbering awareness, the Force leaking unconsciously from Leia's mind and feelings into her surroundings. At her tentative perusal, Leia tensed in evident surprise. Then, recognizing the sensation, she tolerated the phantom touch—her rays of light trickling into Rey's own being. There was sorrow to her brightness: a dimming of its radiant warmth.
Briefly closing her eyes, Rey entered the lingering flow of the other woman's thoughts. She saw the red gleam of crystals coating the mining vessel that was the Resistance's closest thing to a headquarters. Saw it grow smaller and smaller until the whirling snow swallowed it from sight—felt the association linked to it.
The day she had fled away in it with what little remained of her movement; leaving behind a brother only just returned to her...
Rey curled her fingers, feeling for support in the many switches on the control panel but coming up empty. Eventually, she opened her eyes again and said, gaze fixed on the ribbons of moving light, "His last thought was for you. But I think you already know that."
Leia nodded in acknowledgement, head dipping to her chest and her hands folding over each other in her lap.
Rey could sense the current of her thoughts, followed it at a respectful distance until the same face swam before her own mind's eye.
Ben...
Ben in Jedi robes, not nearly as tall as he was now; Ben telling her he would be fine; Ben watching her go, his expression lonely and impassive as her shuttle soared over him and the Temple.
"I lost them both that day," Leia said, the words coming from deep within and costing a huge effort to pass over her lips. "Han." Her voice trembled, the Force in her proximity quivering with it. "Ben."
Rey sat still and forlorn in her chair, fingers vigorously pulling out its stuffing through one of its many tears, teeth biting her lower lip even though the sharp pain did nothing to lessen the bone-deep ache spreading through her body.
They were going to save him!
She wanted to say it out loud—shout it. Say something to convince Leia that she would see her son again. That they both would. But when she opened her mouth nothing but her restricted breathing came out. And then there was the sound of footsteps and the others entered the cockpit, clearly commenting on each other's appearances in tones of discomfort, even disgust.
It was a good thing they hadn't put on their caps and helmet yet, for turning around to see two First Order officers and a stormtrooper walk in made Rey move an instinctive hand to the blaster she had picked from the Resistance's modest armory on Yavin eight.
"Thought you'd be used to the sight," Connix remarked, the venom that had seeped into her tone on a similar but lifeless shuttle all but absent. She smirked rather knowingly, eyes flicking to Rey's fingers which were conspicuously close to the trigger.
"I am. Not to the faces though," Rey replied, appreciative of the banter that allowed her to make light of her telling nerves.
"Better?" Rose asked, slapping on her cap and pulling its rim far over her eyes, posture adopting the rigidity of a real officer.
"Not really," Rey admitted with a small smile. Her gaze wandered to Finn who didn't appear to be listening but was fumbling with the helmet in his hands instead.
"You don't have to do this," she said, feeling like she needed to point it out. Again. Just like before, it didn't seem to work.
Finn stopped his fidgeting and looked up, his expression troubled but determined. "No. I do."
She nodded at him, realizing it would be both futile and bordering on disrespectful if she continued to try and dissuade him. Any of them. Instead, she got to her feet, taking a step closer to inspect the plastoid armor which, apart from a few minor dents and barely visible scratches, was in pristine condition.
"How did you—"
"Don't ask," Finn stopped her short, giving her something between an embarrassed eyeroll and a dark frown.
"Alright. I won't," she promised, relieving him of her scrutiny and submitting the other two infiltrators to a survey instead. Both Connix and Rose looked the part. Maybe that was why Rey felt the knot in her stomach tighten.
What if they'd all been born in different systems, under different stars...would the change in constellations have altered their paths? Would Rose and Connix wear those uniforms not to sneak into the heart of the First Order but because they had chosen to do so? And would Finn wear that armor for the first time—
The freighter shuddered as it dropped out of hyperspace, it's white-blue glare replaced by the darker shade of space.
"We're here," Connix announced, voice containing a slight wobble despite her attempt to sound unaffected.
"Korriban..." Leia muttered, and Rey could tell that she too could pick up on the powerful vibrations in the Force.
The strong presence of the dark side...
Rey flung herself back in the chair and swung it around, her hands blindly finding the controls. They were all silent as the transport rattled and clanked when they hit the atmosphere. A few anxious seconds later they cleaved through sickly orange clouds whose numbers hadn't decreased in all those months since Rey had been there last.
They were still as stifling. Still as seemingly impenetrable. Still making her feel hesitant to proceed. And then the clouds spewed them out above the desolate landscape and she had to make several sharp turns to avoid their hull getting scraped open by the razor-sharp peaks. Their rust colored rock looked so crimson in the crescent of the fiery sun that had dipped under the clouds, that they looked like fangs dripping with blood.
"Kind of makes me miss Yavin eight," Leia commented dryly.
"It told you it wasn't a bad place," Finn said, his triumphant grin not quite making it to his lips now the ominous view grew larger and larger but didn't improve in its increasing proximity.
"Are we sure this plan is going to work?" Connix asked the question they were all thinking.
"Nope," Rose said, the word not sounding as blasé as she had intended.
"It's the best we have." Leia's tone made it clear there was no going back and no room for a different idea.
Rey just nodded. Actually being here again on this oppressive planet made her doubts resurface. But Leia was right. It was the best plan they had. The only plan too. If they wanted to get close enough to Ben on Chandrilla, they needed a convincing disguise. She needed a convincing disguise.
After all, they already had the perfect bait...
She exchanged a last look with Leia, wishing in that moment more than ever that things had been different.
But they weren't.
"Approaching coordinates," Connix stated, her eyes shifting between the nav computer and the viewport.
"Bring her down," Rey said curtly, pushing herself out of the chair and moving to the back of the freighter without looking at any of them as she left the cockpit.
She let out a long sigh, one hand hovering close to the ramp's sensor, the other keeping a tight hold on her blaster. Holding her breath, Rey closed her eyes and expanded the Force until it enveloped the freighter; the air it sped through; the canyon it neared. The engines powered down with a whine—the durasteel skeleton of the ship creaking. And still she waited. Waited... Waited...
Now!
Rey slammed her palm against the sensor and the ramp opened with a jarring clank—the wind shaking it violently and clawing at her dress and hair. Wrapping the Force around her, Rey jumped. She rolled her body in a ball to break her fall and ended in a crouch, her soles crunching as they slid over sandblasted slabs of stone—her blaster raised and Force enhanced senses surging with watchful readiness.
Nothing...
Nothing moved but for the freighter veering away from her before circling back and making to land behind her. Heart pounding in her ears in tense anticipation, Rey peered through the canyon. Dust billowed away from the freighter as it touched down—grit and sand scratching her exposed skin.
She didn't sense any immediate danger. Still. The thickness of the dark side made her wary. It was there like a pervasive, decaying smell contaminating the Force; like mud polluting a stream.
Not breaking her concentration, Rey could hear the others exiting and approaching her. "Stay well behind me," she instructed, not looking back as she straightened and started to ease forward, weapon still aimed at the looming pyramid-shape at the end of the canyon.
The entrance to the Sith tomb...
Sincerely hoping they wouldn't have to enter it too deeply—or enter it at all—Rey surreptitiously scanned the walls of rock hemming them in on either side for any sign of an ambush.
Rey stiffened as she thought she spotted man-made holes—staring back at her like dark, angry eyes. No, they weren't eyes, she admonished herself inwardly for her superstitious thought. They were windows. And underneath them there was a crude and crumbling stairway leading to a shuttered door—behind it two pulsing energies in the Force...
"This way," she said, turning left to follow a little used path that made straight for the hiding place. Rey desperately tried to keep her head empty. To not have Ben's image at the front of her mind. To not betray her fear. To not think—period. After all, there was no knowing how the Knights would respond to her coming—to her showing up on their doorstep with the Resistance leader and three would-be First Order soldiers.
That realization made something in the Force shift. For the first time since arriving here she felt strangely comforted by the broiling presence of the dark side.
If need be, she could use it to defeat them...
She felt a chill go through her at the fervid conviction. At the confidence. At the knowledge that she was right. That she could.
"I will go up alone first—" she started to say over her shoulder as she halted and glanced up at the door waiting for her at the end of the zigzagging stairway, but Finn interrupted her.
"We'll all go. Or not at all."
Leia agreed with a proud nod, already having unslung Chewie's bowcaster. Behind her Rose and Connix wordlessly inclined their heads too, their faces tense but focused.
Rey had trouble repressing a sigh. She would have preferred going on her own. They would only be a little bit safer down here if it did come to a fight—but a little safer was a whole lot better than caught in the thick of it...
She gave in, grudgingly, then lifted her boot and placed it on the first step. Half expecting something to happen—for a trap to be triggered with every other step she took—they proceeded slowly but surely up the stairs until they came out on the windswept, rail-less ledge.
Like she had done aboard the freighter, Rey halted in front of the door, closed her eyes and cautiously probed beyond it with the Force. The two steady pulses of energy were still there. She could sense them bristle a little at her feather-light touch, but that didn't morph into alertness—not yet anyway. Holding her breath again she waited one, two, three heartbeats longer, then molded the Force to be an extension of her hand and released it on the door.
The shutter of reused materials offered no resistance whatsoever. At her command it came free and blasted out of the way as if someone had hit it with a sonic rifle from the other side. All but Leia ducked as what had been a door flew over them and down into the canyon. Long before it hit the ground Rey was already moving.
She rushed through the opening, now a gaping hole like a mouth, and found herself in a roughly hewn, empty room. Empty of Knights, that was. There was enough clutter to render the description highly inaccurate otherwise.
There were two sleep couches; a threadbare tapestry covering most of one wall; a table littered with holo and datapads, scrolls and setla lamps—the latter of which illuminated shelf upon shelf full of small statues, books, and an array of things that looked like a wide variety of relics.
Something moved above her and Rey whirled, aiming her blaster at the ceiling, breath catching in her throat. It was only one of dozens of bundles of herbs hung there to dry. They gave of a mellow but exotic kind of smell that mingled with a lingering scent of incense and something far more delicious.
Food...
Rey wrinkled her forehead, confused at the apparent coziness of her find. Then the two pulses in the Force—which she should have kept focusing on—suddenly flared up. Next instant, two people rushed into the room from what she guessed was a rather messy kitchen.
A woman with long, copper curls, a light-pen tucked behind one ear and wearing horn-rimmed glasses that had slid down her nose, froze the moment she spotted Rey. Blinking at her, she wrung a roll of papyrus in her hands so it crinkled in protest. One step behind her, a man with short brown hair that stood out in all directions, also stopped in his tracks—a cooking utensil slipping from his hold and clattering onto the floor.
"Stars!" Rey cursed under her breath, realizing she had led them on a wild bantha chase. She had wasted even more precious time. These people must be assistants, servants even. Not the Kni—
"Empress! W-We...We're sorry for our attire."
The man hastily apologized, both he and the woman at once kneeling before her. Rey frowned, trying to make sense of their behavior when the others entered behind her—Leia's unwavering beat in the light soothing and also bringing clarity with it.
"You're...You're the Knights? Keeva? Keeva and Darius Ren?"
"Yes, my Empress—"
Their heads, having been lowered in reverence, slowly came up to take in the new arrivals. Keeva's eyes grew wide behind her glasses. Both hers and Darius' mouth stayed open as they spotted Leia. Their evident shock may have been because of her resemblance to their Master—or because they recognized her as the leader of the Resistance. Maybe both. Their signatures in the Force didn't betray any hostility, though there was no knowing if the curiosity that Rey sensed was real or a ruse. But before they or Rey could say anything, before they could even move, the single stormtrooper among them broke the silence.
"Rey? You okay? Is this them? Do we fight—" Finn fired off question after question, blaster hopping from one kneeling Knight to the other and back until Rose whacked him around the helmet with her cap to shut him up, mumbling afterwards, "I think she's got this, Mr. Trigger-Happy."
Next to Rose, Connix still visibly hesitated to lower her weapon too. Only Leia confidently slinging the Wookie's bowcaster on her back made the Lieutenant come to a similar decision.
"Something tells me they're not First Order," Keeva stated, the embedded question 'Are you?' clear in her questioning eyes.
Rey swallowed hard, her body tensing and her hands increasing their hold on the blaster, uncomfortably aware that it would be useless if she did have to attack. She gathered the Force around her, poised to fling it at the two figures kneeling at her feet before she felt ready to answer.
"No. They're not. They're the Resistance. I'm neither. Just here to get Be—" She stopped herself, hating how saying his name made her wince in worry and grudgingly amending it to the title the two Knights knew him to wear, "To get the Emperor back."
"Why? What happened?" Keeva instantly asked, her concern evident. Darius looked taken aback too. He slowly rose to his feet, holding out a hand to the other Knight to assist her up.
"How come we always miss out on everything that's going on?" he said to his companion, ignoring Rey for a moment and sounding as if they exchanged similar comments often.
"The dark side doesn't do wonders for Holonet reception, threw our alarms out of whack again too by the looks of things," Keeva replied with a bored sort of sarcasm, hands on her hips as she calmly took in all of their unexpected guests.
"Snow storms tend to keep you out of the loop as well," Leia joined in, tone close to conversational. "But I think we can all make a pretty accurate guess as to what happens to an Emperor unmasked as Snoke's killer."
"So that is true?" Keeva queried, frowning not in surprise but something resembling sorrow.
"Where are they holding him? Ch—"
"Chandrilla." Rey bit out in response before Darius could finish his guess, balling her fists at the thought of Ben trapped in that kriffing Palace without her and the Force seething like a storm around her.
Darius shook his head in apparent disgust. "They should reward him for the favor he's done the galaxy, not arrest him," he said, turning to Keeva next. "Your hunch was right, then."
"It usually is."
"I'm sorry."
Keeva waved off his apology with one hand, the other pushing her glasses back up her nose and pinching its bridge as if quenching the beginnings of a headache. "Don't be. I didn't heed it either, did I?"
She let out a frustrated sigh, then dropped her hand and addressed Rey directly, eyes flashing, "Hux?"
Rey nodded, her stomach clenching at the admission. A part of her was still trying to connect the two people in front of her with the black, forbidding figures she had met here all those months ago.
Keeva stared into her eyes a moment longer, then simply copied the motion when she dipped her own chin to her chest. Forgoing any explanation or any attempt at persuading, she instead said in a clear and unwavering voice, "What can we do?"
"We need a spaceship. A First Order space ship," Rose provided immediately.
"A Command Shuttle would be nice," Finn piped up, his voice no longer scrambled through his helmet now he had taken it off.
"Got one," Darius confirmed instantly, posture all readiness though he looked to Rey as if waiting for her permission.
Rey shuffled her feet uneasily, not wishing to be reminded of her position as Empress; a position she hadn't exactly been able to use to her advantage after all—not when Hux had made it a wedge that had driven her and Ben apart.
That failure could separate them forever...
Instead of addressing the Knight, Rey looked back over her shoulder at the others—hoping they wouldn't see the spike of panic reflected in her eyes. "Go with him. Get that shuttle ready to take off. And see if you can get access to the Holonet or pick up any chatter on the comm system. It would help if we knew how much— How much time there's..." Her voice trailed off powerlessly, the thought replacing it finishing it in her head: If there was still time left...
"There'll be enough," Leia assured her, her light once again piercing through the heavy presence of the dark side. But despite it, there was a sadness in both her tone and eyes; in every line of her face; and in the fierce but tired silhouette of her short, stout form.
Before Rey could say anything, Darius had swept past her and preceded the small group outside. Finn looked back at her on the threshold, giving her a firm, encouraging nod before his expression disappeared beneath his helmet and he was gone too.
"That's not all you need..." Keeva pondered out loud, reminding Rey she had her own part to play. "Empress?"
Rey turned back to face the Knight, though she could hardly recognize her as such. The irony wasn't lost on her now she needed to pray she would be. "I need to be you."
At first, Keeva frowned and didn't say anything. Understanding soon dawned, however, and she took a step back to gauge their similarity in terms of build and height.
"That shouldn't be too hard," she eventually concluded. "Over here."
Rey followed her into the tiny hallway leading to the kitchen as Keeva opened a storage area filled with travel packs, tools and clothes. Across from it was the only remaining door which must lead to a fresher compartment. The simplicity and humble size of the dwelling was yet another mismatch between Rey's imagination and the reality of the two Knights of Ren living on the ancient Sith planet of Korriban.
"They're not freshly laundered but I can't say I remember when I last wore them," Keeva remarked, sounding apologetic and unconcerned at the same time. She held up the black robes so like Ben's when he had hunted her down on Takadona that Rey almost gave in to the urge to run away again.
"Yeah," Keeva agreed in something close to sympathy. "I prefer these too."
She gave her asymmetrical top and baggy cargo pants a meaningful pat, then dropped the robes unceremoniously and snatched up only its first layer again from the pool of exclusively black fabric.
Rey stirred herself in motion—only just biting back an angry, inward reproach at her instinctive apprehension—and quickly shed Finn's leather jacket and her shredded dress. It seemed another lifetime in which she had worn it—in which they had both stared up at Hux's new armada.
When her naive plan to reunite a son and mother had horribly backfired...
She slipped in the first layer of the Knight's robes. Then the next. And the next. Each new one restricting her movements a little more and adding weight to her limbs. But the robes also anchored her better into place. Made her focus more solid. More deliberate. More powerful.
"You don't want us to join you," Keeva said, breaking the purposeful silence as her hands deftly clasped a belt in place. It wasn't phrased as a question, although it could have been. She had simply stated what they both knew was true.
"No. The risks are too high."
"There are no risks too high when it comes to helping our Master."
Rey felt her lips twitch in a smile of appreciation. "Maybe not. But it's better if the two of you stay here. Just in case we... If we don't—"
Her voice broke, she was unable to say that terrible possibility out loud.
"Alright," Keeva conceded unresentfully after a moment, draping a simple cowl over her shoulders and around her neck.
"What...What is that you do here?" Rey asked tentatively, stealing a glance back into the room beyond—the glow of the setla lamp setting fire to a bronze statuette.
"Search for and retrieve Force related artefacts," the Knight explained without following Rey's gaze. She brushed her curls out of her face and straightened, holding two sturdy boots in her hands.
"We make sure they don't fall into the wrong hands," she went on as Rey busied herself with burrowing her feet into the boots, each reaching to just under her knees. "Some of them could be dangerous. Could rekindle wars that shouldn't be."
"Wars between Sith and Jedi?" Rey probed curiously, pausing momentarily in fastening one of the many straps.
Keeva nodded, a cloud briefly passing over her face. "Sith. Jedi. Whatever religion was or is out there intending to turn Force worship into warfare and strife. Whatever organization turns those like us into pawns. Master Kylo gave us this mission years ago, once Snoke had lost his interest in most of the Knights."
"He didn't know what you were doing?"
"I think the fact that we're both still alive is proof enough of that," Keeva quipped wisely, huffing out a wry laugh. "Snoke would have benefitted, of course, from a continued schism between Force users, ensuring that no side or faction grew too large and dominant—that the Jedi wouldn't even return anymore. But Master Kylo managed to keep his orders to us a secret. Well," Another huff, friendlier and amused this time as Keeva shot her a look over the rim of her glasses. "Until now."
"It is safe with me." Rey said quickly, feeling the need to assure the Knight of this.
"I know. Let's hope you will be safe too, Empress. Both of you," she added with meaningful emphasis.
Rey blinked and dropped her gaze; her voice caught in her throat. Keeva didn't require a promise in return, she stood on tiptoes to take something from a small, padded chest. The mere glimpse of the saber in her palm arrested Rey where she stood.
"This should help with that."
Hesitating to take the weapon, Rey continued to stare at it instead. It was strangely delicate in its design: the chrome, subtly curved body an almost matted silver which was shot through with an evasive, indistinct mauve haze. The activation switch and the hilt too contained an elegance that matched the sound it made when Keeva pressed the former and a narrow, perfect shaft of carmine burst out with only the faintest of hums.
"I made it at Skywalker's Temple. Corrupted the Kyber afterwards, of course," Keeva explained, and she said it with something like accepted regret. "It has always served me well, though. Take it."
With another flick of her thumb the saber dissolved and she held it out once again. When Rey still looked uncertain, she added matter-of-factly, "It'll look more convincing than that old blaster."
The Knight had a point. Rey threw the blaster resting in its nest of leather and indigo velvoid a last, skeptical look, before giving in to what she knew was vital to the plan.
Without a ligthsaber she wouldn't stand a chance against Yara and Marrek...
"Okay," she finally said, accepting the saber and attaching it to her belt—its weight both foreign and familiar against her hip. "I will give it back to you. Somehow."
"I don't doubt it," Keeva replied, looking her over and approving the transformation. Rey let out a quick, steadying breath, then reached for the mask on the shelf next to her. She propped it between an arm and her ribs, not wanting to put it on just yet. Although Keeva noticed the avoidance, she didn't make a comment. There wouldn't have been time for one, because at that moment the sounds of footsteps drifted over from the main room.
Darius appeared in the narrow hallway, dusting off his clothes with one hand and ruffling his short hair with the other. "They're all set," he reported, sounding slightly out of breath. "Bit of a sandstorm out there, though."
"Can't be as bad as the ones on Jakku," Rey brushed off the warning, slipping past both of them and casting an expert eye at the orange-tinted sky outside in which negligible vortexes of sand rampaged about.
"Ready then?" Keeva asked seriously.
Rey nodded. "Ready."
She was almost over the threshold when Darius called after her.
"Empress? I feel we should come. If Master Kylo needs help—"
"You already did," Rey simply told him, profile lining up with the distorted door frame for a second, and then she left.
With the cowl raised over her nose and mouth for protection, Rey was quick to find her way down the decrepit stairs and to the canyon. Although buffeted by the wind she was too used to this type of weather to even need to tap into the Force to navigate through it. Soon she could discern the command shuttle parked at the heart of the canyon; halfway to the freighter. With its upturned black wings, it looked like an Avril that had tracked them all the way from Yavin eight.
Rey ran across the remaining stretch of eroded stones and up the sleek ramp. A step away from the top she felt it. A sudden, fragile pull at the thread that still bound them together. The sensation instantly stopped her in her tracks. The mask slipped from her hand, landing with a resounding thunk and rolling down with a melodious clanking.
Black robes whirling around her ankles she swiveled around to find Ben struggling to stay upright. She gasped as if with physical pain at how beaten he looked—how broken.
Whether it was the sandstorm, or the defeat in his eyes a turmoiled brown, but he wouldn't materialize fully. He was opaque one moment—translucent the next.
Rey looked straight at him, heart beating wildly in her chest. A cry of triumph came from the shuttle behind her, followed by a snappish shhhh and then a static riddled, familiar voice rang out over the Holonet: "Kylo Ren. For your crimes against the First Order—for the treason you committed..."
Rey wanted to scream at the voice to stop but she couldn't move, couldn't look away from Ben—from the hollow acceptance in his eyes when Hux said unbearably loud against the howling wind as Ben faded with it: "...you have been sentenced to death."