Chapter 1: Will You Promise?
Rey stared in horror as the flaming shards of the transport tumbled out of the sky above Pasanna. Blue sparks from the torrent of electricity still crackled around some of the remains that now settled upon a sandy grave in the desert.
Electricity that she had just watched emanate from her hand, right before her very eyes.
"CHEWIE!" she screamed, voice nearly cracking with how high-pitched it was.
Several hundred yards across from her, Kylo Ren appeared in awe over the power that Rey had wielded. Whether that was coupled by terror or rage over how Rey had just seemingly murdered not only her own ally, but all the Knights of Ren as well, the Jedi could not tell.
The remnants of the transport landing in the dunes kicked up a significant dust cloud, and Rey was reminded intimately of the sandstorms she had encountered on Jakku as a young girl. The tornado of sand rose so high, in fact, that she lost sight of Kylo for a moment.
"REY!" Turning in a shell-shocked daze, Rey spotted Finn and Poe sprinting across the plain towards her, having scrambled down from the high cliff plateau where Ochi's ship was parked. "Rey... Rey, what happened? Where's Chewie? Where's Ren?" Finn slowed out of his hard jog, panting.
Rey didn't answer. Her throat refused to work. In the interim, the dust cloud faded, and the trio peered across the sandy expanse to see...
Kylo Ren, flanked by all six of his Knights and a Chewbacca bound in ion chains, the entire group very much alive.
Poe winced. "Wrong transport."
Slowly, the posse of dark siders and their prisoner strode across the sand towards Rey and her friends. Kylo gave away no indication on his face if he had been aware of the fake-out. If Rey had to guess, probably not - why else would he have grappled in a game of Force tug-of-war to aid the transport's escape with such ardency?
On final approach, the Knights spread out, including the one assigned to guard Chewbacca, so that the posse flanked off the Resistance heroes from every side. Snarling, teeth bared, Poe unholstered the blaster at his hip and powered it up with a whine. Finn copied him. Rey's lightsaber hilt was in her hand, though she left it unignited for now. All she could do was stare into Kylo's eyes - unobscured by his mask. She had never seen such eyes...
As for his expression, Kylo was not smiling, though the muscles in his face were at ease in smug confidence.
"Surrender," he drolled almost calmly. "You are out-flanked on all sides. And I believe you have something that I want."
"You won't get Ochi's ship," Poe growled, though Rey wasn't sure if that was even what Kylo wanted.
"I dare not ask again, for your sake." Kylo sounded almost courteous, but a threatening tone was creeping into his voice.
Poe actually laughed in his face, and for once, Rey wished the daring pilot wasn't so reckless. Glancing to her right, then her left, she watched as one Knight took aim with a crossbow, while another readied a laser lasso.
"For the last time: SURRENDER!"
"DEATH. FIRST!" Poe bellowed.
"Will you promise not to hurt them?!" Rey's cry was piercing, blasted desperately from almost nowhere.
Kylo's brow creased. "What was that?"
"Huh?" Poe actually turned a full ninety degrees to gawp at his friend in bewilderment.
Rey stepped forward, eyes brave. "If I go with you... right now, will you promise not to hurt these men?"
"May I lose my title as Supreme Leader, and never use the Force again," Kylo vowed, dipping his head to her deferentially, almost gentlemanly.
"They must be taken alive and remain with me as we return to your ship," Rey negotiated.
Kylo nodded. "I swear it will be done."
Satisfied, Rey nodded to her friends. "Put down your weapons. They've won this round."
Expressions pained, Poe and Finn reluctantly did as she said, throwing down their blasters and reaching for the sky. The Knights cuffed them immediately, ignoring Rey for the moment as she surrendered her lightsaber and drifted closer to Kylo.
"You told me once that I would take your hand. I couldn't bear to do it unless I knew my friends would be spared." There was something in her eyes that Kylo couldn't quite place, though he could sense a premonition of it in the Force. Was it... love for him?
He dipped his head to her, as a Knight came around to cuff the Jedi too.
"Gently now. We are in the presence of a lady." The Knight grunted as it led Rey away. The Supreme Leader thought he saw Rey blush. Watching the trio guided towards the transport over the next dune, he turned to the Knight at his side, guarding Chewbacca. "Circle back to the grounded ship, capture any droids. Take them to Tatooine, across the Dune Sea and cast them into the Great Pit of Carkoon."
"I swear it will be done," the Knight echoed darkly, sounding almost pleased. Handing off Chewbacca, he lumbered away, as Kylo hauled the Wookie for the distant ship himself.
Chained to the durasteel floor of the transport, side by side, Finn and Poe studied the masked Knight of Ren across from them.
"So... what's with the mask thing? Is it some kind of fashion statement?" Finn attempted to make conversation.
The Knight remained stoically passive, refusing to move a muscle.
"Finn, knock it off," Poe groaned, nursing an ache in his side from when he had been thrown clear of their skiff following the chase with the Jetpack troopers.
"What? Dude shows up wearing the same mask as all his friends, you don't wanna know more?"
At the Knight's immediate left, Rey sat also chained to the floor and in cuffs. Striding back into the hold, Kylo knelt beside her, peering at her straight in the eyes.
Rey cocked her head as she peered at him. Then, a tiny smile appeared on her face. "You kept your word."
Kylo blinked. "Of course. Have I ever lied to you?"
Rey smirked. "No." As he started to rise to his feet, Rey grabbed his hand. "Ben:" and when he turned back, he bestowed on her the same, wide eyes he had shown her in that elevator. "Thank you." Smile wide, Rey's eyes softened, and craning up, she actually pecked Ben on the cheek. Ben gazed at her, lips slightly parted in wonderment, before...
Dipping quickly, he bent and kissed her lips, before he lost his nerve. Stiffening in surprise for only a moment, Rey's bulging eyes quickly fluttered shut as she relaxed into the kiss, holding it for a moment. At last, Ben drew away. Rey couldn't help but smile shyly at him, eyes adoring. While she hadn't been expecting it, she had liked it. Her first kiss - a nice one, at that; she seemed to have forgotten that they were in mixed company.
Across from them, Finn felt goosebumps bubble up along his flesh. "I've got a bad feeling about this..."
"Would one of those feelings happen to include being sick to your stomach?" Poe hissed, making a face so disgusted, his tongue hung almost all the way out of his mouth. "She's a traitor!"
"She is not a traitor to your cause, Dameron!" Ben admonished him sharply, whipping his head to the pilot with a snap. "You would do well to not talk about things you don't understand." Rising out of his squat position, he lumbered for the cockpit.
Poe fixed his eyes on Rey with something resembling horror, stomach clenching in revulsion as he watched her cheeks turning pink. The Jedi bit her lip, her expression caught between a smile and a wince.
"It's complicated."
Finn barked out a laugh at the absurdity. "Oh, do tell!"
"Yes. Do," Poe sneered. "How long have you been sleeping with the enemy?"
"I have not been sleeping with him!" Rey gawked in offense, even as her face bloomed even further red. "That was the first time he's ever kissed me!"
"A likely story," Poe scoffed. "I suppose that's why you had us surrender, then? So you could spend one-on-one time with your little boyfriend?"
Rey leaned across towards him. "I surrendered because we were outmatched and surrounded and it was the only way to save your life!"
"How do you know that?" Finn glared at her. "You think he kept us alive for you?"
"Yes," Rey leaned back, stating it simply. "I do. And he kept his promise, didn't he?"
"Rey, don't be naive," Poe bemoaned, the venom having dropped from his voice. "You can't trust anyone from the First Order!"
"Would I be included in that rather blanket statement?" Finn frowned hard.
"You know what I meant, Finn! And besides, you defected."
Rey glanced between the two of them. "He won't harm you, or Chewie - not as long as he has me."
"You sound so sure," Poe murmured suspiciously, eyes narrowing at her.
Rey shrugged. "I am. He's in love with me, so he won't do anything that would needlessly harm me."
"Are you in love with him?" Finn demanded.
Blinking, Rey's eyes flitted down into her lap. "I... I don't know."
Poe rolled his eyes. "You certainly weren't complaining when he kissed you out of the blue!"
"Yeah, but she kissed him first!" Finn reminded him. "How long has this been going on? Kriff, how could this... affair be going on at all? You haven't seen him since Starkiller! ... Have you?"
The darker man's bones chilled as Rey refused to answer, or even look him in the eye. Before she could do either, the ship shuddered as they were taken hold of by the tractor beam of a Star Destroyer.