Conversations
- Part IX -

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With black robes swirling at his ankles, Kylo sweeps down the corridor with an air of authority as Rey all but breaks into a trot to keep up.

"Can you slow down?" She mutters, catching up to his side for a moment before dropping behind to make way for an oncoming pair of stormtroopers.

"Hold your tongue," the modulated voice commands quietly once they turn into a new corridor. "We're nearly -"

"Sir."

The voice at her back causes Rey to jump in surprise. In the same instant Kylo swings around, fists clenching at his sides as a stormtrooper turns into the corridor. "What is it?"

"Our scouts have located a Corellian freighter on the northern side of the Ridge" The trooper wears an orange pauldron on his shoulder, marking him as someone of rank. Though Rey has no idea of what - only that he defers tp Kylo nonetheless.

"Is there anyone on board?" The modulator masks the tension in Kylo's voice, but Rey can feel it roll off him nonetheless.

"We're not sure, Sir. A salvage crew from Niima Outpost have also found the ship."

Rey sucks in a sharp breath, her body flinching at the news. Kylo steps forward and slightly to one side as if to block her from the attention of the stormtrooper as he replies, "get rid of them. I need that ship."

"Sir?"

"Far be it for me to have to explain it to you, but I will anyway. I The hyperdrive on my TIE is damaged. I need to get off this planet. To do that, I need that freighter, TK-317." With every word dropping like a lead weight, the air of menace in the corridor thickens as Kylo punctuates each sentence by stepping closer to the trooper.

There is a pause, ever so slightly, where Rey senses the old trooper's doubt. And then it's gone. "Very well, Sir."

Kylo gives the soldier a nod and turns on his heel, sweeping Rey alongside him as they continue down the corridor.

"I rigged the Falcon with a few little surprises in case anyone comes along with sticky hands, but if it's Unkar's men, they'll bypass it soon enough." Rey winces at how eery and detached her voice sounds within the helmet. "Will your soldiers be able to stop them?"

"Of course not," Kylo snorts, "they're old. I'm surprised they can move faster than a shuffle. The best they'll do for us is to create a distraction while we take back the Falcon."

"We?" Rey stops in her tracks and waits for Kylo to grudgingly stop and face her. "You're actually leaving with me? On the Falcon?

She can't keep the disbelief from her voice, even with the damn mask. Nor can he hide his derision - not that he'd try - as he replies.

"As I said earlier. I need your help. I've got what I came here for, now it's time for me to leave. Since the real Shira caused me to have to destroy my TIE, that piece of space junk you call a ship is my only exit out of here."

"Okay." Rey pauses, mentally filing his speel about the TIE away for later. "Great. Well, I hope you have a plan to get us aboard the Falcon."

Kylo mutters something indistinguishable and moves on. Rey swallows hard before stepping in beside him. For a moment there, she could have sworn he'd said: "I plan on winging it."

For a moment there, he sounded just like his father.

"Recognise anyone?"

Rey takes the slender black pair of macrobinoculars Kylo offers her and raises them to her eyes; grimacing as they thunk awkwardly against the visor of her borrowed helmet. Feeling sheepish, she hones in on the Falcon. The scene relayed through the magnified lens holds no surprises. "Unkar Plutt's thugs."

Recognisable by the bindings that wrap their faces, four of Unkar's gang circle the ship with an air of wariness she can read even from across the canyon. A slight pan to the left and Rey sees why. "Seems one got too close to my security system."

The body is little more than a mound of charred, smoking rags. Nonplussed, the three remaining men step over it and she watches as one begins gesturing towards the underbelly of the ship. "I think they're figuring a way to bypass it."

"My troopers will reach them first."

"Just how have these cast-offs become your troopers?" It's a question she only half-expects him to answer. Even still, his silence is disappointing.

Lowering the bi-nocs, Rey shifts her attention to the man at her side. With his helmet on, she can't read his face. And though she tries to reach out through the Force to gauge something of what's going on inside his head, he hides behind a wall of mental armouring she lacks the skill to penetrate.

"Fine." She shrugs. "We'll talk about it on the Falcon then."

Slinging the bi-nocs over her head, Rey slides back from the cliff edge and turns away. Moments later she hears a scattering of gravel as Kylo moves to follow. They continue their path, single file, towards the ship. Crouched low least their moving forms show against the skyline.

"Why did you come for me?"

Ahead of him, the girl's back stiffens at his question. Her step falters, and it could be that the length of Shira's gown has caught her foot, but he knows it's his question that's thrown her. He closes the distance between them, hand out ready to steady her. But she catches herself and presses on; picking her way across the rocks as if the gown and the question are barely an encumbrance. "Why do you call these troopers your men?"

He answers with a sharp laugh; the sound coarse and strange and hollow through the modulator. It's a clever counter-question, he'll give her that. "I'll tell you aboard the rust bucket, remember?"

"Right," she says cynically, "as will I."

The girl's pace quickens as she hitches up the heavy black skirt. Shira wasn't the most practical of warriors when it came to dressing, Kylo reflects. Always preferring attire better suited for moving through polished corridors and weapons designed for slipping neatly between the bones of an enemy's ribcage. She only carried her double-bladed saber for the sake of ceremony, and would have done away with the helmet too - but that it served the purpose of covering her disfigurements.

Enemies were so much easier for the Knight to get close enough to plunge a blade into if they thought someone beautiful resided behind the mask.

"There's an old sand-borer tunnel up ahead," Rey calls over her shoulder, interrupting his thoughts, "looks like it'll provide a more direct route to the Falcon."

Without waiting for a reply, the girl veers to her left and makes her way towards a dark opening in the ground.

"How can you be sure of where it'll lead?" Kylo stops at her side as she crouches at the mouth of the tunnel and looks for the best way to drop in.

Standing, she points to a jumble of rocks that look no different to him than any other jumble of rocks throughout the Ridge. "Traps."

"Traps." He repeats, still not understanding where she's going with this.

"Yes!" There's a note of excitement to the girl's voice as she elaborates. "The sand-borers live mainly in the Sinking Fields but they've been known to tunnel through the Ridge; following beneath game trails and breaking to the surface every so often to catch their prey. It's really quite fascinating."

"Fascinating." The flora and fauna of a near-barren sand planet aren't nearly as fascinating for Kylo as it is for Rey, and he shrugs as he moves to pass her, "so by game trails you mean…"

"Thissermounts. And their riders, sometimes," she adds after a pause. "Anchorites trek through here every so often. I guess they trade with the dead-enders - your new stormtrooper friends, that is. They're all game so far as sand-borers are concerned."

Something else in the distance catches her eye. She raises the bi-nocs to her visor and studies a flurry of movement he can just make out at a squint. "But I think it's the ripper-raptors that attracted them to this particular area. I'd say this is their nesting ground."

"Nesting ground." Kylo swings to face her. "For ripper-raptors."

"Uh-huh." Thrusting the macrobinoculars into Kylo's hands, she turns towards the tunnel mouth. "They're normally just carrion eaters, but with fledgelings to feed and little to feed upon… Well, now you know where I may have ended up, had you not sent your men to…"

"Save you?" he offers.

"Hmm." She hesitates, deliberating on whether now is a good time to say thanks, he imagines. "I was going to go with 'capture me', but anyway…" Extracting herself from further conversation, she swings herself down into the opening; fearless of what might be waiting within the tunnel's darkness.

"Well? Would you rather go under or through them?

The words echo up to him as he watches through the bi-nocs as the distant flurry magnifies into clusters of small leather-winged reptiles; their movements fast and fierce as they fight amidst themselves. Larger ones perch nearby, their watchful eyes on their young, and the canyon below.

"I have a bad feeling..." the words trail away with a huff as he tucks the macrobinoculars into an inner pocket of his cloak. Then he drops into the tunnel and allows the Jedi to lead the way.

Rey feels as if she's holding her breath as she walks ahead of Kylo Ren, her pace steady and measured even as her heart races ahead of her.

For a while, it seemed the tunnel veered away from the direction they needed to be heading in, and she felt the weight of his gaze at her back as he silently questioned her; daring her to admit they need to turn back. Now she senses it twist towards the east once more. As if the Falcon is a homing beacon.

"We'll come to an opening soon," she mutters into the gloom, "where the sand-borer broke through into the nesting ground." She's not 100% that this is true, but she's at least 70% sure that it could be.

Kylo holds his tongue. His stride even and purposeful as he remains a step behind. His eyes upon her back, unnerving, as she senses that silent stare.

She wonders if this plan will get them killed. And then she wonders, which plan exactly? The one she's currently executing right now - to run an underground gauntlet in the hope of reaching the Millennium Falcon in one piece? Or the plan that will come next? The one that involves bringing the Supreme Leader of the First Order aboard the Falcon and taking him back to…

No. That's not a train of thought that can be followed right now. If there's one thing she can establish on the spot, it's that planning is clearly not one of her strong points.

"Rey!"

A hand upon her arm swings her sharply around so that she's face to face with Kylo's broad chest. She angles her head upwards, the movement awkward beneath the ridiculous helmet. "What?"

"I said, 'there's movement up ahead', didn't you hear me?"

"Movement?" His words confound her. Even with the benefit of the helmet's night vision, it's almost impossible to see anything down here.

"Switch to thermal sensors." Kylo touches a hand to the side of Rey's helmet. In an instant, his body is lit a fierce blur of orange as her visor display changes from scotopic to thermal-vision.

"Handy." She turns away, scanning the direction they came from before turning back to the one in which they're heading. More orange blurs appear upon her visor's display. Half a dozen shifting forms that take on crude yet familiar shapes. "Ripper-raptors. Of course."

If it were a recent sand-borer tunnel, the creatures probably wouldn't dare to venture into it. Instead, it seems abandoned long enough that the creatures have made it into an extension of their nesting ground. "Well, I have some payback to deal to these creatures, so…" She readies her staff in her hands as she steps forward, "that'll be fun."

"Indeed it will." Kylo steps past, his strides long as the red saber ignites in his hand; its unstable blade crackling with volatile energy and searing the ground as he trails it behind him. "Though to be honest," he adds dryly, "the pursuit of revenge is not the way of the Jedi."

"Oi!" Rey's protest echoes ahead of her. She bites her lip, but it's too late to retract the sound now. The raptors send up a volley of their own sounds as they realise their territory has been breached; squawks and shrieks that set Rey's nerves on edge as an explosion of orange movement flurries across her thermal display.

"Kylo…" She's not afraid of these creatures. Absolutely not. Though the wounds their claws left upon her back and scalp seem to flare with the memory of pain as she steps forward to face them. The long skirt is cumbersome; tangling against her legs and slowing her with its clumsy weight. She longs to tear it at the knee or tie it off at least, but there's no time. An image of herself tripping and falling beneath the horde suddenly comes to mind, and she falters.

"I've got this." Raising his lightsaber in an arcing swing, Kylo slices through the first ripper to reach them. The creature drops to the ground, it's body bisected and neatly cauterised as falls on either side of him.

In the distance, the surge of orange blurs Rey's vision as the action provokes the rest of the beasts into a frenzy. Terror squeezes a cold fist within her gut as she feels the ghost of their wings beating down upon her yet again. Marshalling herself, she steps over the dead one and veers to the left to avoid Kylo's blade as she slams her staff into the next ripper. Satisfied at the crack of a breaking neck, she feels elation start to sing in her veins as she turns towards the next. This time thrusting out her hand and propelling the creature up into the tunnel roof before slamming it sidelong into another.

Beside her, Kylo drives his saber through rippers with his right hand, while using the Force to squeeze the life out of those that haven't yet closed in on his blade with the left. The tunnel reverberates with furious primaeval screams as the creatures strike out with their own weapons - curved talons and double-rowed teeth. Their cries serve as a signal boost, so that on and on they seem to come; throwing themselves upon saber and staff with a vehemence that seems driven more by hatred than hunger

In a brief moment of respite, Rey looks back to see the swath of bodies behind them; the image a sea of orange in her thermo-visioned sight. The carnage sickens her and she stumbles with the realisation that half of the slaughter was doled out by her; knees all but giving out beneath her at horror for what she's done.

"Now is not the time for a rest, scavenger." Kylo's gloved hand clasps her, pulling her back to her feet. Steadying her.

"My name's Rey." A fresh charge of anger surges through her bloodstream, propelling her into action once more as a new wave of ripper-raptors pour into the tunnel.

"That's my girl," she half-think she hears before she charges forward into the fray once more.

"Rose, what do you mean Rey abandoned you and Finn upon Bardotta?"

General Leia Organa-Solo closes her eyes and pinches the bridge of her nose between thumb and forefinger. The young Jedi's behaviour has always erred on the side of impulsive, though it's not entirely difficult to understand. After a lifetime of looking out for and answering to no one but herself, Leia's only surprised the girl didn't drop her comrades off at a habitable planet months ago.

"Well, General, she left us here with no explanation as to why, no idea of when she's coming back, and no means to get off this godsforsaken - "

"Bardotta is a lovely planet once you get used to it." Leia interrupts. "Have you seen their art?"

"I don't want to visit the -

Leia can only imagine the effort it's taken Rose to cut off her tirade and reign herself in. "Look, General, we think she's been searching for Kylo Ren. We think, maybe, she's turned…"

"No." Finn cuts in now, and there's a sudden crackle of static as the comlink is exchanged from one person to the next. "General, I don't believe Rey has betrayed us. But I do believe that she… that somehow she thinks Ren can be…"

"Turned?" Leia finishes softly.

"Yeah. No. I dunno. Maybe."

"Finn, Rose, thank you for informing me of your concerns." Exhausted suddenly, Leia sinks against the backrest of her chair and waves away a few sidelong looks of worry from those around her. "I'll arrange for you to be picked up. Meanwhile, I suggest visiting a gallery."

Reflecting upon what she's learnt, Leia presses whitened knuckles to her lips. So many times, she's tried to reach out to Ben through the Force. So many times she's blamed herself for being too weak, or despaired at him for being too strong; for walling himself off from anyone who might undo the damage wrought by Snoke.

If Ben still exists within the creature now known as Kylo Ren… If her son has formed a bond with Rey… If she can turn him back to the light…

Whether or not she should dare to hope is uncertain. But if Leia knows one thing for sure, it's that if there's anyone left she can trust to bring Ben back, it's the young Jedi.

The sound of blaster fire ricochets down the tunnel, halting Rey and Kylo in their fight against the rippers as the beasts turn towards their new threat. Rey hears Kylo suck in a sharp breath as she looks beyond them, expecting to see the orange forms of the newcomers relaying across her visor. Instead, she sees only the bulky blur of rippers as those that don't fall beneath the gunfire now charge towards it.

"Stormtroopers." Kylo's relief is so strong, Rey can feel it as if it's her own. Relief that back up has come for them - without need of an order. It's a strange thing to him, she senses, that someone might offer their services freely rather than wait for it to be demanded of them.

"How can you be sure?" She counters, "my sensors aren't picking up anyone."

"Their suits are thermo-regulated, he grunts, "they can't be detected wi-"

"Ben?" The spurned name leaves her lips before she can stop it, and she braces herself in preparation of a verbal tirade. But he doesn't care for semantics right now. Instead, he's keeling sideways, right hand clasped to his side. "You're injured!"

"Just a scratch."

Even though the modulator, she can tell he's gritting his teeth.

"Uh-huh." Bracing herself beneath Kylo's weight, Rey pulls his left arm over her shoulders and wraps her right around his waist so that her hand folds over his own, adding pressure to the wound.

"Rippers have a mildly paralyzing toxin in their talons," she manages, staggering as his legs start to give out beneath him; every ounce of her energy now put into stopping them both from slumping to the floor.

"Doesn't sound so terrible." The words slur as Kylo fights to right himself, forcing one leg to take his weight before pushing up again.

"Well, some people have been known to slip into a coma and die if enough of the toxin gets into their bloodstream." She can feel warm fluid seep between her fingers, making her grip against Kylo's own hand slide, and she swallows hard; wishing they were further than just halfway along this damned tunnel.

Kylo says something in reply, but she can't understand his words. Panic surges through her stomach. Damned if she's going to come this far just to lose him now.

Damned if she can actually haul him much further.

Feeling claustrophobic beneath the heavy, archaic helmet, Rey reaches up to unlatch it. The relief of pulling it from her head lasts only a moment before the smell of cauterized flesh from the rippers and the sharp iron smell of blood from Kylo's wound assaults her, causing her to tuck her nose into the crook of her left elbow to drag in a steadying breath.

Kylo's legs buckle beneath him once more as he falls sluggishly against her. Rey staggers at the impact before baring her teeth in a snarl. "Come on, Ben. Get up!"

The commotion of blaster fire down the tunnel seems to have stopped. She glances around, biting her lip as she tries to decide the best course of action before daring to call out, "I need help over here!"

Once the echo of her words fade, all that returns is silence.

"Fine," she mutters, turning her attention back to Kylo. Lowering him to the compacted earthen floor, she looks for the mechanism that unlocks his helmet and carefully removes it, choking back a small gasp at the way in which his eyes are fixed and open - yet thankfully still vibrant and alive.

"Come on." Hooking him under the armpits, Rey grits her teeth against his weight as she strains to drag him along the ground. It's no use. She may as well try to move a mountain. Shuffling so that his head rests on her lap, she touches a hand to his cheek, turning his face gently towards her. "Stay with me, Ben."

For once in her life, she wants him to reject the name. She wants his fury at that three-lettered word to keep him in the fight. And then she remembers the way in which he beat against his wound as they fought on Starkiller Base. And more words come to her mind. Words aimed to cause him pain. Because if there's one thing she remembers well of Kylo Ren, it's that pain makes him fight harder.

"Your mum told me to bring your home. She told me if you renounce your position within the First Order, they'll let you serve under Finn's command. You know Finn - the stormtrooper who escaped? He's come a long way since infantryman and janitor. How do you feel about deferring to him?"

It's all a bunch of lies. Leia has no idea about Rey's self-appointed rescue mission. And Rey has no idea if the Resistance would ever agree to let Kylo do anything except perhaps serve seventeen consecutive life sentences.

"Leia asked Han to bring you home too. Course, he was pretty sure you'd kill him first - and he was right. But he was willing to make that sacrifice. Will to…" Something in her voice gives out and she pauses, swallowing hard and blinking harder. With a quick glance to Kylo, she sees he's managed to roll his eyes towards her, and the fire in his gaze almost makes her flinch. "So maybe that'll be my fate too by the time this mildly inconvenient leg of our journey is over."

"And, do you remember Poe? The guy you tortured? Well, he asked me out." Those words have hit their target if the flare of rage in Kylo's gaze is anything to go by. "I think I might say yes, what do you think?"

Kylo's eyes seem to bulge as if he's fighting to break free of the paralysis with every last bit of his being. A flutter of spasms twitches at the skin beneath his left eye. His efforts give her hope, and she racks her brain for something else.

The scuff of a footstep upon gravel startles her and in an instant, the tunnel is lit with a yellow flare as a glowstick is tossed towards her. The relief lasts for as long as it takes to realise she's discarded Shira's helmet, and too late, she reaches out to snatch it up.

"Hey!" The first approaching stormtrooper trains his blaster upon her. "You're the rebel we captured!"

"Where do you think you're going?" A second trooper chimes. "You don't have authorisation to -"

"Is the Falcon secure?" Rey demands with as much air of authority as she can muster.

The stormtroopers exchange glances, neither choosing to reply. Rey holds her breath as she stares down their barrels. She wonders if she can use the Force to freeze their blaster fire in the air if either decides to shoot. With Kylo half-draped across her lap like a lodestone, she doesn't want to have to find out.

"Tell me," she begins with a wave of her hand, "is that Corellian freighter secure?"

"We have secured the freighter as per our instruction." The first stormtrooper replies after a beat.

"Excellent. Now you will assist me in carrying the Supreme Leader to the ship." It's almost more energy than she can muster right now, to use Force-coercion against these men, and she's not even sure if Supreme Leader is the title they defer to him by. Still, she has to give it a shot. "And then you will let us leave aboard it."

"Please allow us to carry the Supreme Leader," the first trooper steps forward and moves to take Kylo's upper body.

"We hope you enjoy your journey." Says the second, moving to take his feet.

"Wonderful." Rey sighs, rising to follow. Her worried gaze fixed on the wound at Kylo's side. Because it's easier than meeting that paralysed, unblinking stare.

As they draw closer to a tunnel opening where the sunlight pools, the sounds of a new commotion carries in. A rush of voices carries overtop of each other, no one distinguishable from another, until a blaster shot rings out, silencing them all. A chill runs down Rey's spine with the dread of what waits for her on the surface. Too many people to pull a mind trick upon, she suspects.

Pulling Shira's helmet back over her head, she straightens herself and prepares some kind of bluff.

"If a single one of you takes one step further, I'll blast your asses."

Finn stares down at the small group that stands at the bottom of the tunnel mouth. It takes every last effort not to let out a whoop of victory to recognise the body being carried between two stormtroopers as none other than the man who killed Han Solo. The man who is none other than Kylo Ren. And behind him walks a masked woman. One of his weird acolytes, no doubt.

"We'll take that one prisoner," he says to Snap, making sure she can hear. "The dead one, you can throw over a cliff." From the corner of his eye, he sees the woman flinch. "Actually on second thoughts, best we bring him with us. As proof."

"Finn!"

The modulated cry catches him as he moves to step away. Stunned, he turns back towards the woman. "How do you know my name?"

The woman seems hesitant, but slowly she reaches up to remove her helmet. Every last bit of air in the ex-stormtrooper's lungs seems to punch out of him as he recognises the desperate face that stares up at him.

"Finn," Rey begins, "you're not supposed to be here."

"Huh." He drags in a breath. "Yeah, I guess you wouldn't want us knowing you've betrayed the Resistance for him."

Finn can't believe this. Can't believe Rey would do this to them. Dragging a hand through his hair, he turns away for a moment to compose himself before spinning back around again. "Why, Rey? Why!"

A hand falls upon his shoulder. Snap. He shakes it off, ignoring the older pilot's attempt to placate him. "Leia and Han - they trusted you! We all trusted you! And yet here you are -"

"Wearing a disguise, Finn. Just a disguise." The look Rey gives him is incomprehensible; as if she's trying to communicate something that he just can't understand. "Give me a minute." She says at last, and with a final glance towards the prone figure of Kylo Ren, Rey scrambles to climb out of the tunnel opening, cursing beneath her breath as the long gown catches under her feet.

Finn curls his hands into his palms, resisting the innate urge to reach for her hand. To help her. But one look of desperation from her as her fingers clutch at crumbling rock and her face pinches in pain, and he's reaching down to grab her before he can stop himself.

"I can explain this." She mutters, turning to wave forward a stormtrooper.

"You'd better," Finn growls, disgust rising like bile in his mouth as she begins directing soldiers to retrieve the body of Supreme Leader Kylo Ren.

Chapter Endnote: Who else is reeling from The Rise of Skywalker? I took a break from writing Conversations to start churning out a TROS fix-it fic, but the call to finish this chapter compelled me back. Since it's been so long since I updated this fic and my brain needed to tumble into a rabbit hole (or sand borer hole) to escape my post-TROS feelings, I thought it would be fair to allow this chapter to spin into something lengthy with a wee twist or two near the end.

Eh, I say twist or two, because I wasn't planning to render Kylo paralyzed by ripper raptor venom, and then I further surprised myself by having Finn rock up at the end there after Snap was sent to pick him and Rose up from Bardotta. Course, he wouldn't want to desert his friend if he senses she's in trouble, right?! Now... How is she going to convince him she's not a traitor? Man. What a mess. Fortunately, I have a plan! (Pfft, that assurance means NOTHING when you consider the fact that even my own brain throws things into my fics that I'm not expecting. I must be channelling my inner-JJ: make it up on the fly and hope it works out for someone in the end?)