Disclaimer: Star Wars is the property and creation of Lucas Film and Disney. I own none of the characters and places mentioned in this story.
Special thanks to my beta-reader Chridder (from AO3) for helping me out with this. Also check out her fic Bonded.
Yavin 4, known as a rebel base during the Galactic Civil War, was once a remote planet full of wildlife, but now few traces of it can be found. Even on a planet such as this, the thunderstorms can come out of nowhere when you least expect it.
Rey is playing with a five-year-old girl named Mallie in one of the rooms in her family's residence on Yavin 4. She tries to focus on the activity with her force-sensitive niece in hopes of putting Mallie at ease, so that both of them could forget what happened a few days 's easier said than done. Even now, Rey's is haunted by those moments... the moments when she discovered why Kylo Ren is considered the creature in the mask.
Rey is waiting patiently by the door leading to the communication room where her half-cousin Ken and her second half-cousin Ederlathh are engaged in a holo meeting with Leia Organa. After hours of an excruciating wait, Ken and Ederlathh exit the room, exhaustion etched in their faces.
"Bad news?", Rey asks, a knot forming in her stomach. She doesn't need a reply from them; their eyes offer the answer she seeks.
"We need to gather the rest of the family", Ken looks in her direction, offering a reassuring half-smile.
After Rey and the rest of her family gather in the main living room, Ken tells them about the solution Leia Organa has come up with: stall the First Order… through whatever means necessary.
Rey knew what that meant, of course, and the delicate position Ken was in. Her family needed to give one of their own as a bargaining chip, so if the First Order ever suspected them to be in the cahoots with the Resistance they could torture that poor soul or worse, turn him or her against the family.
This threat over their heads and the fact that Ken's project "Neutral Zone" will likely be controlled on some levels by the First Order helped Rey realize that when push came to shove, she would do anything to protect her family and Ken's dream.
Unfortunately the chain of bad news didn't end with just this. Ederlathh received a message, informing her of an upcoming visit from a representative of the First Order later in the evening.
The weather that night wasn't kind either, full of thunder, bolts of lightening, and rain that soaked to the bone. Rey noted grimly that the planet seemed to know what dark cloud would soon be upon the poor family.
A cold shiver ran down her spine as the doors to the living room pushed open and a dark shadow entered. It was the dark side warrior, Kylo Ren.
Rey didn't expect to see him again so soon. She knows first hand what he it's capable of. She saw him six months ago when she was barely nineteen, killing his own father in cold blood and then hurting her friend, Finn, on Starkiller Base. Fortunately, she had a disguise back then, so Ren doesn't know she was the one who kicked his ass. As far as most are concerned, she's just a non-sensitive scavenger found 4 years ago by a privileged family.
"Lord Ren, to what do we owe the pleasure of this visit?", Ken's confident voice snapped Rey from her musings.
"Spare me the theatrics, Ken Kenobi", Ren replied with mechanical coldness."You know very well what you did. "
"Oh? Can you enlighten me about what exactly I did?" , Ken's tone feigned ignorance.
"You sent some of your troops to help people from Shumari hide the Lost Prince and the Hidden Princess, the ones you know as Fulcrum and Kira Palpatine."
"Still hunting for the seed of Palpatine, I see. Hasn't your master grown tired of this chase?", Ken added with a sigh.
Rey tensed and she knew that her cousin was also worried, even if he feigned ignorance and boredom. She knew Snoke wanted them so that he could turn them to the dark side. Even so, she tried to stay focused on the conversation.
"What I do or not isn't the matter here. You allied yourself with the wrong side and now you will witness the consequences of your actions." , his voice was oddly calm with a subtle tint of anger palpable underneath.
"Lord Ren, I'm afraid you're mistaken about the situation. Those people went on their own, trying to fight a battle they knew they couldn't win. I never gave them the order to go to Shumari."
Ken had played his last card hoping that Kylo Ren will relent and stop asking more questions.
Rey knew this wasn't enough to fool him. He wasn't known as a cunning warrior for nothing.
Her fears were confirmed when Ren's masked visor fixed on her uncle, Tao Kenobi.
"You're originally from Shumari, are you not? How do I know you weren't the one who ordered those people to do what they did?"
"Lord Ren, I'm not a fool. I almost died in a war, I lost my family when I was a teenager at the hands of Darth Vader, and I wouldn't risk losing another family, even at the cost of planet Shumari", his words being calm and gentle.
That's what Rey loved about her uncle. In each desperate situation he always saw the bright side of everything, even in people. She always thought this trait was due to his unwilling apprenticeship under Darth Vader where he learned about patience and finding peace in was the only thing her uncle, Tao, and the father of her cousin's wife, Galen Marek, had in common.
Unfortunately, even her uncle's calm and gentle demeanor wasn't enough to smother the maelstrom of Ren's wrath.
"I see...", he started to say, but his words were halted by the sudden arrival of Mallie, who at the sight of Kylo Ren, stopped dead in her tracks.
Every member of Rey's family became rigid, eyes on the girl quivering in fear.
All except Ederlathh and her aunt ,Cera Kenobi, were force sensitive, but unlike them, Mallie had barely started using her powers and she didn't know how to hide her prowess in the direct presence of another force user. Had she remained hidden, her family would have cloaked her force sensitivity, but right now this wasn't possible.
Before any member of the family could react, their uninvited guest waved his hand in Mallie's direction. Her slumping form would've made contact with cold floor if Rey hadn't raced forward and caught her in her arms.
"How dare you use your powers on a non-sensitive five years old child? Her brain could be all mushed up, right now!", Rey shouted, her words laced with poison, gripping her niece tight in her arms.
"Give me the child" , Ren demanded.
"No!" , was Rey's only answer, her eyes searching for an exit.
"Leave them out..." , Ken started to say before Kylo Ren froze all of them, including Rey.
"I won't leave empty handed. Maybe, the incident from Shumari wasn't the doing of any of you, but even so..." Kylo's booming voice echoed in the room. In a few long strides he was next to Rey still holding Mallie in her arms.
"Allow me to relieve you of this burden", his tone was cold as he towered over Rey.
She watched in desperation as Ren removed Mallie from her arms and exited the room.
Only when Rey heard the door of the house close was she and her family released from their frozen state.
With no moment to waste, Rey ran from the room, snatched a blaster on her way out, and shot out a window in the hallway. She leaped through the opening, a shortcut to the courtyard, racing to the only place Ren's shuttle could be.
She didn't care about the heavy rain pouring over her face making her hair look wild and in disarray. The only thing she could think about was getting her niece back. She didn't even notice when she dropped her blaster.
After running like her life depended on it, out of breath and soaked to the bone, Rey finally saw the shuttle, Ren climbing the ramp.
"Kylo, wait!"
At the sound of her voice, he turned to face her.
""Please, don't take her away! You don't know how it feels like to feel abandoned by your parents, to feel thrown aside by them and I don't want Mallie to grow up believing her parents abandoned her for the sake of a project or to save their own skin!", Rey pours all of her loneliness and childhood into her words.
After speaking, Rey felt the Force hum between them, exuding uncertainty and pain.
She realized the pain she's feeling was not just her own but Ren's as well.
Slowly Ren starts down the ramp while Rey climbed it, both meeting in the middle. Rey stood under Ren's careful scrutiny, waiting for him to make a move.
After moments that seemed like eternity, Ren dipped down his head like he was trying to get eye to eye with her.
"Are you willing to sacrifice your freedom for the sake of your niece, so that she could grow up with her parents?", he asked through the distortion of his mask.
"Yes!" she replied without hesitation.
Then to her utter and complete shock, Kylo outstretched his arms to her to give Mallie. Rey mirrors his action, but the moment she takes back her niece, one of her hands touched one of Kylo's gloved one, a spark of electricity passing between them. Rey broke contact while Ren started climbing the ramp, stopping at the edge.
"Consider it done. The next time we make contact it will be to let you know what will entitle your stay in the First Order."
With these last words, Rey raced down the ramp of the shuttle, hurrying to the house, the engines roaring in the distance.
Rey is brought back to present by the incessant voice of her niece.
"Aunt Rey, are you alright?"
"Yes, Mallie, I am", Rey assures her niece.
But in reality, her insides are churning with anguish and disgust. Earlier that morning a message arrived from the First Order with one single line: "Lady Rey Kenobi will marry the Supreme Leader's apprentice, Kylo Ren."
Author notes:
If you want to find out more details about characters check this story on AO3 (there I have posted the links).
I hope you all liked this first chapter and looking forward to your reviews.