I screamed for Ushar, and when he appeared, I gave him my datapad. "Can you get me here?"
He put his hand on my forearm, and a second later, we were standing under the broiling sun in the middle of a desert. He immediately jumped back for Ap'lek. I squinted, my eyes watering with the sting, and looked around, seeing an outpost of tents and crudely erected buildings several yards away. I broke into a full sprint, hearing only the throb of my pulse in my ears, the hot air burning my lungs with every inhale.
I reached the first building along the perimeter, and saw Trugden standing guard. When I reached him, I immediately noticed the blood splattered on him, and saw the trail of it behind him.
"Where is she?" I demanded, panting.
He nodded over his shoulder to a large, military green tent, and I moved toward it, but his strong grip on my arm stopped me.
"Let me go!" I yelled, trying to shake free.
"Kylo, stop, listen to me." He pleaded, and I obeyed.
His face was sympathetic, and it had the hair on the back of my neck standing on end.
"You need to prepare yourself-" he said. "Because it's bad."
My heart dropped. I wrenched away from him and ran inside, flinging the flap open and nearly tripping over the body that lay there. He wasn't the only one. There were maybe half a dozen of them, all men, and all hacked apart. The sharp smell of blood was everywhere, and they hadn't been dead long enough to rot, even in the heat. Whatever had happened to them, happened within the last few minutes.
I stepped over them, moving further inside, and stopped, seeing Vicrul.
He was kneeling, his face and clothes speckled with blood, his blond hair streaked with it. Rage simmered in his hazel eyes, though his face was calm. A curtain was up, sectioning off a room, and when I got closer, when I could see behind that curtain, I saw her seated on a trunk.
She was turned away from me, facing Vicrul, though I could see that she was also covered in specks of blood.
I took a step forward, and she tensed. I saw the bones of her wrist as her too thin hands grip the corner of the truck she was sitting on. Vic gave her a reassuring nod, and she turned her head to look, a soft gasp escaping her when she saw me.
Relief had my knees failing me just as I reached her, and I fell at her feet. Hot tears blurred my vision, falling freely as I fought to breathe. It was her. She was alive. When I looked up, every shred of relief I felt withered and died the second I saw her. Really saw her.
She was so small, so frail. The sharp bones of her shoulders jutted out beneath the fabric of her tunic, and I counted her ribs where it hung down, exposing the middle of her chest. Her hair was unkempt, matted, and filthy. Her eyes were rimmed in red and lined with exhausted rings of deep purple. They were vacant, hollow, shattered, and my heart curdled in horror, anger slowly rising in my chest.
Bruises snaked up her arms, some varying shades of purple, some fading to yellow, and where her neck met her shoulders was blistered and bleeding with what looked like….
Burns.
From the collar.
Everything in me, every part that loved her, that had mourned her absence, screamed for vengeance for every mark on her body. I would find him, and every second of his time left in this existence would be spent begging me to end him.
'Kylo,' Vicrul warned, through the Bond. 'Get it together. This isn't what she needs from you right now.'
I blinked, fresh tears falling that I didn't bother wiping away. He was right.
I swallowed my fury with an audible gulp, and shrugged off my jacket, moving to wrap it around her trembling form, but she flinched, cowering away from me. I stopped, my breath catching as my heart splintered.
I held myself together, shoving my emotions into the back of my mind. For her. I had to be strong for her.
"It's ok, I won't touch you." I promised, my chest feeling bloody and raw. We needed to get her off of this planet and back to Mustafar. She needed a medic.
"We're going to get you home." I told her. "Are you ok flying on the Buzzard with the Knights?"
Her eyes flickered to Vicrul who was still kneeling next to us, then back to me. She gave a small nod.
'Is the ship ready for departure?' I asked Vic.
'Kuruk is just waiting on your order.'
'Give it to him.'
He stood to obey, but Rey gasped, her pleading eyes going wide with panic.
I grabbed his arm, stopping him. "Stay here with her." I said, then looked up at him. "I'll go." Though her reaction stung, I wouldn't do anything to upset her further.
He gave me an apologetic look, and knelt back down at her side.
I looked back at her. I desperately wanted to take her into my arms, to hold her. There was so much I wanted to say to her. It's over, you're safe. I have you back, and I'm never, ever letting you go again. I'm here. I'm here. I'm here.
Instead, I told her what I'd wanted to tell her for three months, and what I should have told her every day since the moment I saw her. "I love you."
She blinked, and her eyes cut to me. There was a bright light, brighter than anything I'd ever seen, and what felt like a battering ram to my chest, then I was on my back, several feet away.
The blow knocked the breath out of me, and I coughed, pushing myself up on my elbows to look at her, to see what had happened.
Rey was standing in front of me in a perfect defensive stance, her hands curled into fists at her sides, her face livid. "I don't know who you are." She said, her voice little more than a shaking, broken whisper. "But my husband would never say that to me."
Force energy crackled, and I stared at her, my mouth hanging open in shock. She'd thrown me back. She'd thrown me back because she didn't believe I was her husband.
Vic was on his feet. "Rey, he's Kylo-" He tried to tell her, reaching for her.
"Don't touch her!" I yelled, but her power reacted, and blasted him back, ripping the side of the tent open. I didn't see where he fell.
My power roiled, responding to the threat, but I shoved it down, smothered it. I'd implode on myself before I let it lash out at her.
The front of the tent was flung open, and Trugden rushed in. "What's going on?" Kuruk came through the rip in the side, his face also tight with concern and before I could tell them no, for them both to get out, Rey's power detonated, light erupting out of her.
I threw my hands up, focusing on containing the blast with my power, then watched with wide eyes, as the trunk behind her crumbled into glittering black ash.
"Go!" I screamed at Trugden. "Get out! Now!"
She let out a panicked whimper as she desperately tried to reign it in, but her trepidation was only fueling the blast.
The sunlight blazed down on her as the tent above and around her devolved into dust.
"Let me help you!" I begged, getting to my knees, then to my feet. She covered her ears with her hands, shaking her head, and she began to cry, the pulse widening with every sob. Her power began to punch through the shield I still held in place, singeing my palms.
I was too focused on her to feel the jump in the Force, to see the darkness that coiled to life around us and I watched her eyes roll into the back of her head, her power abruptly stilling as she went limp.
I lunged, catching her before she could fall into the sand.
Shadows breezed past us to cling to Ushar, who stepped forward to kneel down next to us.
"I'm sorry." He said. "I had to put her out to stop her."
"Can you jump us both to Mustafar?" I asked, and he shook his head. Not both of us. Just one.
I laid her in his arms. "Get her to a medic, stay with her. I'll follow in the Buzzard."
He nodded, and then they were gone.