Chapter 3: Trades
Dare:
After a long night of contemplation and little rest, I was right back on a shuttle reminiscent of the one I'd been flown in on. Again, I was wedged in between two troopers, only, they were my only guards, along with two at the only exit, and Kylo Ren sitting directly across from me. I was cuffed from behind again, the barrels of two blasters jabbing my still-sore ribs. I could tell that Ren was staring at me from behind the reflection of his black mask.
My accommodations for my stay as prisoner on the Finalizer were nice. A simple room furnished in black and gray with an unfamiliar, but comfortable, bed. Around an hour after being guided there, just when I had thought I would have to rig up my own stitches, a med droid and a medical officer, guided by Ren, came to check my wounds and apply bacta. My entire being was still recovering from the interaction with Snoke so I was hardly able to keep my own thoughts safe, but Ren had the odd decency not to even bother to look. In fact, I sensed something like sympathy from him as the medical officer had checked me over. The doctor lifted my arm to view the blaster wound in my side, and I managed to keep it to a wince even as I wanted to cry out. Finding the damage wasn't worth operation, the droid stitched it up and applied bacta there and to my other wounds.
"You're dismissed." Ren said, as they finished. The doctor looked to him before handing me some pills for the discomfort and quietly leaving.
I looked to Ren as well, who was still in the room. I wondered if Snoke had told him the truth. About who I was. About who I was to him.
"I'm not really in the mood for another interrogation if that's what you're after." I said.
It was the truth. I couldn't handle any more questions, and I was too weak to hold up my defenses. Fear crept into my head as I realized it would be a long time before I felt my thoughts were safe.
"Actually, a bit of advice," He said, stepping closer to where I sat on my bed. I tensed, regarding him with a warning look. "It's better that you don't resist."
I opened my mouth to make a snarky reply but was too struck by the humanity of his words. Suddenly, I felt tapped into the pain he had experienced at the same hands as I just had. My mouth agape, I looked at him with surprise as he walked towards the door.
"A bit of advice for yourself." I said, recovering.
Kylo turned his head to look at me over his shoulder.
"Be careful, you're starting to sound almost human underneath that mask."
The shuttle rocked a bit and I was drawn back to the present. Now it was Ren staring at me through that dark mask, my reflection gazing back at me in the visor as I looked up to meet him. He'd been like this nearly as long as we had been on board. I wondered if he was just as fascinated with me as I was with him.
"You know, you can take a picture and it'll last longer." I quipped.
He held his hand up to stop a troop from punishing me with the butt of a blaster to my wounded side.
They want me healthy then. I thought, careful to keep myself just guarded enough to avoid Ren's reach, but not so much as to exhaust myself.
He had been surprisingly respectful of my headspace, even as he surprisingly didn't seem to have his guard up. His feelings, his thoughts entered my perception over and over, even as I tried to pay them no mind. I wondered if he was always bad at guarding his thoughts, or if I was just good at reading him. I always had been. It was nothing too deep, just a few passing emotions, thoughts on my appearance, wondering where I had learned my skills, and how I had evaded the First Order so long. But nothing about what they were planning, and they were planning something. Still, I thought it ill advised to try to pry the thoughts of plans about me out of him.
Certainly, they weren't letting me go this easy. I wasn't fool enough to believe they wanted me healthy to captain my ship out of their reach. No, Snoke wanted something from me. And after the information I'd fed him last night, I'd wager he wanted it even more.
"What do you know about the whereabouts of Luke Skywalker?" Ren asked, his modulated voice sounding curious.
I huffed a laugh, a cruel smile on my lips.
"Last I heard, him and all his students were long dead." I said, adding. "Well, except one."
I felt anger and pain rise in the man across from me so vivid it could have been my own. What had Luke done to him? How had things gone this way? The way his blood boiled, the way sadness threatened him - I regretted my words, but they were the truth.
"Most all I've heard of Luke Skywalker is myth and legend." I said, a resigned sadness in my voice at the fact.
There was a beep from the front of the aircraft indicating our arrival. The vehicle jolted just slightly as we entered atmo and descended. Somewhere on the barren planet my crew awaited me, hopefully with a half decent plan of action. A few moments later we were touching down and I was being forced to my feet.
With the guards on either side of me urging me forward and Ren behind me, I was forced from the cold, pristine black ship to the bright, barren landscape. Immediately, I was blinded - the dual suns impossibly brighter than the inside of the ship. Hot sand crunched beneath my boots and I already dreaded the particles that would somehow linger in my clothes for days or weeks. As my eyes adjusted, I could make out the Andromeda a few hundred yards off and who appeared to be Ari, Malek, and Ezra with the chest of Kyber.
From the corner of my eye I could see Hux and Phasma followed by storm troopers, approaching the rendezvous point with Ren and I.
Please have a plan. I thought as quietly as possible.
I knew that Snoke wanted me alive, but I wasn't exactly thrilled with the idea of losing another arm to escape. Besides, Ren was known for his temper, and I wasn't sure I was up for the fight. Marching forward, Ren closely behind, I began running plans for escape through my head, as we neared the members of my crew.
They appeared unarmed, as requested, though I doubted they were without defenses. As we came to a stop, Ari, Malek, and Ezra crossed their right arm over their chest, a pirate's salute. I nodded to them, unable to lift my arm to salute back. Around me, I sensed the confusion from our exchange, but, nevertheless, General Hux moved forward, the shiny Captain Phasma by his side for negotiations.
"Have you brought the Kyber?" The general says, moving straight to business.
"Our Captain is released first." Ari says, with unquestioning authority. It would have been well placed relaying orders on the ship, but I was on edge with making demands in such a situation.
Luckily, everyone underestimates a pirate.
"Very well," General Hux states, wiping sweat from his brow and likely hoping to be out of the heat soon. "Ren, guide the Captain to her ship."
My muscles tense as I am urged forward and past my crew to the ramp of the ship. I hope that their plan gets better than this as our metal footsteps echo up the ramp and into the bay of the Andromeda.
An explosion rings out from the clearing not too far away and I startle. Ren and the troopers are distracted for a moment. A string of other detonations go off and I take advantage of the moment to wrench my right arm free of my restraint - albeit with a little pain. My adrenaline kicks in as Ren is temporarily distracted, moving towards the ramp. Turning on the nearest trooper, who is facing away from me, I pull his blaster rifle into a choke hold over his shoulder, finding the trigger and squeezing, taking care of the other trooper. I knock the trooper into the wall twice before he falls to the floor and I am face to face with Kylo Ren and on the business end of a red saber.
Wrenching the blaster rifle from the grip of the trooper, I fire and miss and have to use the rifle to block an attack. Pushing him off of me, I dodge the next lunge only for Ari, Malek, and Ezra to nearly topple us over, Malek pressing something into my hand.
A blocking cuff. If only I can get to him.
I barely dodge twice, reading his moves through the Force, before I can grab his wrist with my mechanical arm, able to squeeze tight enough to get the saber from him before cuffing him – the old relic rendering him unable to access the Force while locked into his arm.
"Look out! Incoming!" Malek yells, as the ramp below us starts to raise just slightly and I realize we're about to be plowed over by a speeder.
Ren rams me into the hull of the ship, still massively strong without the Force to help him and wraps his hands around my throat.
I'm still seeing stars when I push him across the narrow bay and into the opposite wall, just missing the speeder whirring past us as the bay doors close.
"Alright! Get us outta here!" I yell, by throat slightly sore from Ren's crushing grip.
Ezra and Dezna approach and lift him from where he's slumped after my, admittedly too hard, blow from the Force.
"Don't let him out of your sight." I say, rushing towards the cockpit. "What's taking so long?!"
The ship rocks from fire to the shields.
"Sorry!" Malek calls from a tunnel above the cockpit, as she messes with wires. "We're having trouble with the hyper drive system! I can bypass it!"
"Captain," K-9S0 begins from the co-pilot's seat. "That leaves us with a seven percent chance of explosion."
"Do it, Malek!" I call, walking over to Ari who is manipulating us through the outer atmosphere of Tattooine, where other ships are waiting to stop First Order pursuit. "Punch it, Ari."
There's a heavy jolt as we go into hyperdrive and we're safe.
Thank the gods.
***Author's Note***
Bear with me, I write often, but this is my first fanfiction. I appreciate any readers and feel free to PM me with commentary, I only ask that it is constructive!
Some notes on the story, as I may not have made it quite clear. The setting is around six years pre-TFA. Starkiller Base is in the process of being constructed and engineered – hence the Kyber as an idea of how to power this super weapon. Dare's origins will be revealed within a few chapters, but be ready to stay in it for the long run if you want to follow the story. I will post once weekly – either Tuesday's or Wednesdays. Thank you for reading!