A/N: A big thanks to SirenBanshee. You are one amazing beta!

xXxXxXx

After the incident, Rey and Thomas' stay was prolonged by two days, mostly so Rey could enjoy herself at the Academy's shop. Now that she could talk freely with the directors, she'd explained her fragmented knowledge that mostly pertained to ships but that she was also fascinated with droids. Much to Kylo's approval, they'd given her one of the private shops, several diagrams, and all the materials she needed to make a small droid that had no other use than to follow someone around and provide companionship. Rey had been ecstatic.

It surprised Kylo how used he'd already become to Rey's presence in the Base. He constantly expected her to show up or comment on something that was happening. The trainees were all starry-eyed now that Kylo had taken over Rey's meditation class, and he was pleasantly surprised at the progress they had already made in so little time. It cemented his belief that Rey was a good teacher. He hoped to involve her a lot when it came to the new Force Academy they were going to build.

On the second day of Rey's absence, Derek interrupted afternoon training with the Knights looking uncharacteristically excited.

"Sir," he exclaimed. "Sir, we've got it."

"Got what?" Kylo asked.

"The code. We've deciphered the code."

All the Knights suddenly stood to attention. The knowledge of the chip in the Base Knights' heads hadn't been kept a secret from them. As they'd all seen their weird behaviour and, by default, considered them their brothers in arms, it felt wrong to hide such a monumental thing. Kylo debated whether or not to question Derek further in private but decided against it.

"What does it do?" he asked.

Derek glanced at the Knights and seemed to shrink in on himself. Kylo glanced around him and sighed.

"Tone down the intensity," he grumbled at them. "You scare fully trained warriors; how's he supposed to explain if you look at him like that?"

His words were followed with sheepish apologies and 'yes, sir's. Derek still seemed a bit uncertain but opened his mouth to continue as Kylo waved at him to do so.

"It's effectively as we feared," he said, putting on his administrator tone. "It takes away self-agency and blocks their memories. And it somehow—this is part of the code we don't fully comprehend yet—causes them to still feel pain and unease without actually feeling it."

"Aware that there's something wrong and that they have to address it, but they don't feel the pain," Rogue semi-questioned, semi-stated. "I had an underground fighter like that once. He claimed that he'd never been able to feel pain. It was his biggest strength and greatest weakness. He didn't get dazed from the pain when he got hit, but he also didn't notice when he broke a rib and punctured his lung." He halted for a moment. "Which is how he died, by the way," he added as an afterthought.

"Only they still feel it," Derek said. "They no longer have the need to respond to it. It's like the chip is telling them it's no big deal and to shrug it off."

"That's…" Shadow started without finishing her sentence.

"Unthinkable," Quicksilver added.

"What about their memories?" Burman asked. "You said it 'blocks' them?"

Derek nodded. "It hasn't erased them. I don't think that's actually feasible. What it does is stop any attempts at memory-retrieval from before they joined the First Order. There's another part of the code that is meant to ingrain in them that anything besides training and knowledge concerning the First Order is irrelevant and to be forgotten. Freya and I think it's meant to erase everything not First Order related from the remaining memories."

"Like what?" Shadow asked, her voice a tad shaky as if she already knew what Kylo himself was thinking as well but refused to believe it.

"The people they knew. Their teachers but, most importantly, any friends they may have made. Also any preferences they have, like what type of food they like best. Anything that doesn't help them to be perfect warriors."

A collective silence fell as they all tried to take that in. The design of the chip was mind blowing, both in its complexity and in its heinousness.

"Can it be taken out?" Kylo eventually asked Derek.

"We think so," Derek said.

"But you're not sure?"

"Neither of us are medics, sir. We haven't found any destructive sequence in case the chip were to be removed, but we don't know if it's medically safe to do so. There's also no way of knowing if the chip's influence is temporary or permanent, or somewhere in between."

"So, they could end up exactly the same even if we take the chip out?" Ember asked.

"Or better," Rogue added. "Or worse."

Kylo sighed. "Was Phasma outside?"

"No, sir, or I would have invited her in."

"Find and update her," Kylo said. "Then tell her to find a medic qualified to look into this. I don't care about how trustworthy they are; their skill is more important."

"Certainly, sir," Derek answered. "I will do so immediately."

He turned and left. When he was halfway to the door, Kylo spoke up again.

"Derek?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good work."

The man ducked his head. "Thank you, sir."

The rest of their training afterwards managed to be both vicious and utterly useless. Dot started firing arrow after arrow at a target in a single-mindedness that was honestly scary but seemingly completely on autopilot. Exactly the same movement over and over again. Quicksilver was going through forms but was constantly sending his 'don't see me' signals over the Force, causing an insistent pressure to Kylo's mind and creating the risk that someone would quite literally run into the rapier he was using. Although Kylo didn't doubt Quicksilver would manage to deflect such an accident. Daze's continued blaster fire wasn't much better than Dot's arrows and Shadow had disappeared completely. Rogue tried egging Ember into a fight while Burman seemed intent on destroying a boxing bag.

Kylo watched them and didn't have the heart to remind them this was supposed to be a training of Force-usage. He understood their need to return to what they knew and retreat to their own minds. The chip's purpose was chilling, to say the least, and, other than Kylo, if its use had started earlier, some of them might have been affected by it too.

He shot out of his contemplations when Ember finally lost her calm.

"I will cut you to itty-bitty pieces, you shit excuse for a man," she exclaimed, pulling her swords and activating them, showing that she meant business.

Rogue cackled a laugh. Kylo shook his head and approached Burman.

"That bag isn't going to survive much longer," he dryly said.

"Sorry, sir."

"Don't apologise; we have more of them," Kylo answered. "Care for a spar? It's been a while since I last went fist to fist."

Burman blinked at him. Kylo was well aware that he seldomly got asked to spar, let alone in close combat, due to his size.

"You think you could touch me?" Kylo incited.

"You think you can hit me hard enough for me to feel it?" Burman countered.

It warmed Kylo's heart that Burman felt comfortable enough around him to throw back such a phrase.

"Only one way to find out," Kylo answered.

xXxXxXx

When Rey and Thomas returned from the Academy, Rey was being followed by a small, one-wheeled droid. The sheer happiness that radiated off of her as she introduced the little droid as Flock was most endearing, as was her giggle when Kylo sunk down on his haunches and very formally greeted the droid. Her giggle turned into full-on laughter when Flock tilted backwards slightly and said, "You, sir, are big."

Kylo habitually glared at it and Flock rolled away a short distance.

"And scary," the little droid added.

Behind him, Phasma coughed away a laugh until the droid rolled up to her and said, "You are shiny, like me."

By then, Rey was dying of laughter. Kylo gave her a glare too, for good measure, then turned to look at Thomas who was gazing at the little droid with something akin to desperation.

"Does it spare anyone?" Kylo asked him.

"No, sir. It doesn't. Although the pilot seemed rather fond of being called 'the conductor of twinkly, twinkly lights'."

"I see," Kylo said.

"Andrea helped me tweak the software a bit," Rey happily announced. "I like her."

"Of course you do," Kylo dryly answered. "She gave you a sass droid."

"It's cute, isn't it? I wanted to give it a little cape too but it would get stuck in its wheel."

The droid rolled up to them, looked at Kylo, tilting its head back and back, shifting its weight until the back of its little head hit the floor. A small alarm went off.

"Too tall! Too tall!" Flock exclaimed.

Snorting with amusement, Rey crouched to push the droid back up. "Alright now," she said. "Wait until you meet the Knights. Shadow is going to love you."

Flock happily zoomed circles around Rey's feet at that before halting at her heels and simply waiting there like a good companion droid. Kylo shook his head at it and turned to Thomas.

"Your wife arrived this morning," he said. "We'll discuss our next steps tomorrow afternoon. Go see her first."

Thomas' face lit up entirely. "Thank you, sir," he exclaimed before rushing off.

"He's a good man," Rey commented.

"He is," Kylo agreed before pulling Rey close with an arm around her waist. "I haven't properly said hello yet," he semi-complained.

"You haven't, indeed."

"Your little droid stole the show."

"Then why don't you amend it?"

Kylo grinned and bent down, pressing his lips to hers.

"Kissy, kissy," Flock said.

Rey broke away from the kiss and looked down. "That," she said, "you are not allowed to say ever again." She then tilted her head in contemplation. "About us," she amended. "No sassy comments about us together."

The droid beeped once, having accepted the command.

"So, what's been happening here while I was away?" Rey then asked Kylo.

He pulled her along to their room where he explained the discovery Derek and Freya had made, causing Rey to stare at him in horror.

"Phasma is working with Derek to find medics with enough credentials to be able to properly evaluate the situation. Efren is helping with screening them, I believe. I told Phasma not to care about the medic's trustworthiness, that their skill is more important, but she's probably still checking."

"Probably," Rey agreed. "Who are you going to risk first?" she then asked. "If the medic thinks it's safe to take the chip out."

Kylo blinked at her, not having expected the question and not having thought about it either.

"I don't know," he answered, thinking. "I believe it would be most logical to start with the one who had it last put in, Sahrsa of Ren. The chip has had the least influence on her mind out of all of them. If it goes awry with her, it will go awry for all of them." He swallowed. "I don't like it," he added. "No matter how we look at it, we will be risking a life."

"But do they have a life now?" Rey questioned.

"There's no way of knowing, now is there?" Kylo said. "Snoke was a monster for doing this."

"He was a monster for many, many reasons."

There was a bout of silence.

"How did the others take it?" Rey eventually asked. "You said Derek found you during Force training?"

Kylo hummed. "Let me show you," he said, before sharing his memory of the Knights right after.

"I see," Rey said.

"It was as good as could be expected," Kylo answered. He pulled Rey closer and stole a kiss. "Enough of the depressing stuff," he said. "What did you think about the Academy?"