Eris knelt low to the sand watching from a measured distance as The Order arrived blasters at the ready. They easily overtook the small settlement and its miniscule army.
The presence of the Resistance pilot left her formulating a new plan: this was her target, the location she'd given The Order, yet the Resistance made it here first. There was nothing left for Eris she was officially a marked woman and both sides of the war wanted her head. It left her giving a short sneering chuckle at the irony of it all, and that at the root of what went wrong was every decision she'd ever made.
She watched the establishment burn as the stormtroopers set it ablaze, heard distant cries, grit her teeth at seeing her landspeeder get hit with a wall of fire. At least one thing had gone her way, the stormtrooper had paused at it and seen a bag she was known to carry, and knew she'd been there – after they found the pilot they'd assume she was with the Resistance, they wouldn't waste time looking for her on Jakku.
An unseen observer at the ruin she'd caused, she looked on quietly as the dark haired pilot ran from a tent and stopped short at seeing his ship destroyed; he was as stranded as she was. And then he turned to his droid, knelt low beside it like an old friend, and encouraged it to run. She let her gaze follow the BB unit pondering the pilot's decision to stay behind rather than go with it; Lor San Tekka had information The Order wanted, Eris presumed regarding the Resistance in some way, the Resistance had come all this way for Tekka which meant they wanted something from him as well, and now with no way off the planet facing an enemy that far outnumbered his single blaster the pilot had chosen to fight. The droid had the information.
Had The Order not made it clear they wanted the elusive hunter dead she might've had it in mind to retrieve the fleeing droid for them. Instead she simply turned her head as it came to a stop beside her; it rolled back to look up at her familiar face, her lilac skin and violet hair cast in the orange glow of the flames making her appear softer, but she looked back to the settlement to monitor how far the stormtroopers were searching and if they were coming closer. "Get lost," she told it firm and unkind.
BB-8 gave a surprised hum as it inched closer to her. But at a harsh swipe of her foot that clanged against its side making its whole body shake, it scooted back lowering its head submissively.
She knelt beside it putting her face near its sensor so it'd see her hard expression. "Last time I helped you you turned me in," she jerked her head in the direction of where its master still knelt hidden as he watched Kylo Ren. "Stick around and I might decide to return the favor. How much d'you think I'd get for you considering you have the information The Order wants?"
At her bared teeth and flashing eyes BB-8 gave a small shriek of fright and scurried away, rolling as fast as its body would allow. Not daring to look back in case the woman was watching, or running after to catch up.
She did neither, instead as the droid began running again she turned back to the pilot curious of what he'd do. Because really his actions would dictate what happened next and how far away that droid needed to get. If he stayed put until The Order left – and with the death of Lor San Tekka and his information they were in fact leaving – then he and his droid could peacefully resume whatever they were doing with whatever information and The Order would be none the wiser. Which also meant The Order would never have suspected she worked with the Resistance, leaving a chance for her to repair their fragile relationship so she wouldn't have to spend the rest of her life on the run. However, should he stupidly try to fight they'd take him and force him to reveal the information was currently rolling along the sand still on Jakku causing The Order to return and scour the entire planet; neither droid nor Eris would escape. So she waited, kneeling beside a mound of sand not big enough to hide her, because the pilot's actions would tell her her next move.
Part of her wanted him dead to get rid of him and if it saved her the trouble of getting her hands dirty all the better, another part wanted to question him on whether the Resistance now knew her identity so she'd know just how careful she needed to be, but there was a small timid part of her closest to Rey that wished he'd just run.
Only as Kylo Ren's back was to them as he returned to his ship, the pilot in a recklessly brave rush took a shot at Ren. And Kylo Ren with no more effort than if he'd been batting an irritating bug out of his face turned and stopped the blast midair, catching the pilot as well.
Dead. She wanted the pilot dead. Rolling her eyes so hard they might've stuck she muttered, "idiot," and turned away. There was nothing left now, he'd just single-handedly ruined any chance the three had. Four counting Rey – and with The Order on its way Eris wouldn't leave her behind whether or not she had to drag the kid kicking and screaming. Before the sun set the next day Eris knew they'd come back if they hadn't come already; no matter how good a pilot he was it meant nothing to his will, Kylo Ren would break him sooner rather than later and they'd send an army after the droid.
Kylo Ren knew she was on Jakku, he'd felt her familiar pull somewhere to his left but it'd been so weak he hadn't recognized it. But he'd extracted her from the pilot's mind. Days before the pilot had gone to a nearby planet to find an old friend of Lor San Tekka's hoping it'd lead to the man himself. What he found was his source chained to a chair with his head hanging limp and a scorch mark in the center of his chest. Renegade-1, the name the Resistance created for her. The pilot followed the sound of quiet feet and threw himself into the hall blaster raised to find a tall woman stilled in a doorway with the sun lighting her soft purple skin. And he hesitated.
You fool, Kylo thought tracing the soft lines of her hard face the same way the pilot had. She raised her arm and fired a shot so close he heard his hair singe from the heat. He threw himself back giving her enough time to hijack the nearest ship.
His bounty hunter didn't miss she'd let the pilot live. She was weak, but she was his. He'd give the order to apprehend her.
.^.
Poe knew she was on Jakku. He'd scoured the sand around where she crashed looking for her body – her, he'd assumed from the brute and the cruelty following the reputation it'd been a man. He'd gotten the drop on her and he'd hesitated, she'd almost killed him.
But he knew she was wounded and he couldn't bring himself to leave her there to die. Not in pain, not alone. "Don't go far," he called to BB-8 not wanting to lose him.
BB-8 gave a various array of beeps and whirs and Poe turned shining the light in the droid's direction running to his side. "What'd you find, buddy?" he asked observing the sand by his feet. There were two sets of deep prints, he at first thought they might've been from a vehicle but as he followed them he by chance found a shoeprint from a foot that'd stepped too far to the left and wasn't erased by the body they'd been dragging.
Picking up his pace Poe ran following the prints, shining the light further ahead of him so he'd catch sight of them before he came up on them; whether or not he had compassion to spare her he wouldn't give her another chance to shoot him. Only what he found at the end wasn't her body or an ally, he found absolutely nothing. He raised the light around him only briefly already knowing whoever helped Renegade-1 was long gone.
BB-8 rolled to a stop behind Poe watching him kick the sand in frustration at her having escaped again. And the droid couldn't help but voice its opinion on the matter.
Poe turned with furrowed brows not understanding BB-8's sudden defense of the woman. "What do you mean you don't think she's that bad? Did you not see the two guys she killed?"
BB-8 rolled back raising its head to see Poe's unhappy face better and explained in high pitched whistles.
Poe couldn't help the short breathy laugh that escaped him in disbelief. "It doesn't matter that she didn't kill me," he was interrupted as BB-8 beeped at him again. "If she could've killed us then why didn't she?"
The droid was quiet for a few moments sifting through its files, once it found the one it wanted it rolled to Poe's side and let it play.
At the sight of the pale hologram Poe dropped to his knees beside BB-8. "When did you record this?" he asked quietly watching what looked like a Barabel with its scaly skin and fangs. He heard the recorded sound of BB-8's fear as the Barabel came closer, realizing BB-8 had recorded this to give him at least some idea of what'd happened. It saddened Poe to think his droid had thought it'd die, that it'd ever have to fear that, and he placed a hand on its side glad it was still with him. BB-8 beeped at him. "I am watching," Poe said in response.
A short heavy whine sounded on the recording and Poe watched the holographic Barabel fall face first to the floor. Poe leaned forward as a very small figure began appearing as it stepped closer, and as her deadly face began to take on features he sat back not liking what came next. She stopped at a distance, and from the way the recording got larger he knew BB-8 had been the one to move forward – and as Poe had known she raised the blaster aiming it at the innocent droid.
"BB-8?" he recognized his own voice, seeing her look toward the staircase before she turned and ran for the room she'd once been in.
Poe shook his head and said, "see, she was gonna kill you."
Though metallic the sound that came from the droid was no less of a sigh. BB-8 rewound the recording to where she first started to become clear and they watched her stop and wait and then as she aimed her gun at him. Again Poe's voice sounded calling for his droid, and again she turned to the stairs and then ran.
Though this time Poe heard another blast, one he knew killed Lor San Tekka's ally. "What am I missing?" he asked not seeing anything different. Not letting himself when he knew that moments after she'd taken a shot at him and just barely missed.
BB-8 gave several beeps, quite a few were harsh with attitude, and once more the recording was rewound. BB-8 gave a short whistle.
"I am paying attention," Poe said looking once more at the hologram. It was the first time he'd gotten a good look at her, that the Resistance had any evidence to her appearance – they'd been chasing a ghost until now. She had dark brows, contrasting against her lighter skin, a strong jaw, a frowning mouth. The colorless holo did nothing for how vibrantly colored she was. As she stopped away from the droid Poe saw her head tilt slightly to the side, he could see she was thinking – contemplating what to do about the droid. It was obvious what she decided as her arm raised and the blaster was aimed directly at BB-8.
Only BB-8 then stopped the recording and swiveled its head toward its master and beeped again.
At its order to watch closely Poe could only sigh, "okay." He turned to the hologram and stared hard at the woman with her unfriendly face and the clear intent to kill evident by the weapon in hand. And then he saw it, her aim shifted, her arm just barely – imperceptivity – lowered by a fraction.
"BB-8?" And then she looked to the stairs, and at the sound of a person at the top step she ran.
Poe sat back quietly as BB-8 then sped through the rest, and he continued watching. This time he stared at his own back as BB-8 had followed him into the room to find the man dead; and then the camera swiveled as BB-8 turned to look at her, at where she stood against the wall with the blaster held at her side creeping silently along the wall.
The door was heavy that's why he heard her feet as she forced it open, he heard it over the recording too. They raced into the hall and he watched the recording of himself pause at the sight of her nearly glowing the sunlight. BB-8, and his recording, rolled closer to her watching her face. She stared with such fierce intensity at Poe that he saw the slight shift in her gaze to his right before she fired at him.
And then the recording disappeared completely as BB-8 shut it off. Poe was left staring at where the image of her had once been realizing she'd been aiming to miss. "She didn't even try to kill me."
She walked for hours until night turned to day and the sun beat down on her overheated back shortening her raspy breathing. There wasn't a single speeder in all of the outposts and settlements she passed, she was still half a day's walk from the AT-AT and she was down to her last drink of water.
At this rate Eris knew she wouldn't make it to the Niima Outpost before she ran out of water let alone get to Rey before The Order arrived. It was a hopeless effort, one she should've spent trying to find a way off the planet.
Her steps didn't falter, her mind drifted to Rey's warm brown eyes and the freckles scattered over her sweet face. One night when she'd been chained unable to find sleep she'd stood over Rey staring down at her sleeping face, considering killing her. But she had a pointed nose and a soft mouth. Thoughts of the girl echoed in the heavy thud of her heart as she pulled herself forward.
Another hour and beneath her panting she heard a quiet hum somewhere far away. She stopped and searched the area around her thinking it was a vehicle coming up on her, seeing nothing she turned to look at the vast land behind her and again saw nothing. Then she looked up, it was the sound of a ship – crashing, to be precise. Watching it fall closer she wondered what a TIE fighter was doing around Jakku in such a state, craning her neck her head turned following its descent. As it flew overhead blowing the scarf from her head she turned back the way she'd been going and watched it crash almost smack in the middle of her and the Niima Outpost.
She stared at the large hill she hadn't realized she'd been coming upon watching a thin stream of dark smoke start to rise. Somewhere in the cosmos a deity she didn't believe in was screwing with her – she just knew it.
Heaving a long drawn out groan she began her steep climb wondering if the kid was even worth the effort. Already Eris was questioning herself, her actions, things she used to do with no remorse because she favored pragmatism over emotion. But several days ago she'd been questioning an ally of Lor San Tekka's, or rather she asked questions and a Barabel she occasionally knew forced the answers out of him, when she'd heard a solid loud thunk on the wooden stairs in the hall. A few seconds later she heard it again, and then again, and as it got closer to the bottom step she heard a heavy body rolling on the wood before it fell over the short edge to land on the floor. She'd stood in the doorway silently watching the orange and white droid as it moved forward and then stopped seeing a mark on the wall. It lowered its head, raised it, tilted it at an angle, forming an idea of what'd happened with that particular cut on the wall in its funny little metal head. A curious droid, who'd heard of such a thing.
She'd had the chance to blast that little droid twice now and still she didn't. She hadn't seen the point, nor had she the mind to. And even then she blamed that on Rey, even though her having spared the droid was what led her to Rey in the first place.
With a great huff and deep puff she pulled herself over the top of the hill, rewarding herself for the effort by letting her shaky legs give out and fall to her knees to catch her breath. She was at the sinking sands, the TIE fighter had been sucked under she could see the ripples in the deceptive layer of sand from where it'd gone down. It didn't matter who'd been flying it or what she could've found, it was gone now.
Her shoulders slumped with her sigh, the sun now shining fully on her once more. She took another measured sip, really she only wet her lips and licked it up with her dry swollen tongue. Her consolation was that she wasn't far from the outpost, granted it'd be an hour or more of walking – but so far there'd yet to be any more First Order ships, she had that going for her.
Climbing to unsteady feet she charted her path around the sinking sands, catching sight of a smudge set against nothing but orange moving toward the outpost she could just barely make out. Pulling a small scope from her pants she raised it to an eye and saw the back of a person climbing a smaller hill. He had a dark head, she assumed dark skin as well, black pants, and a brown jacket – he was going the same direction she was only he had a greater head start and would reach the outpost in a matter of minutes. She envied him that, though she wondered how he'd gotten his hands on the TIE fighter and if he'd been alone.
Returning the scope to her pocket she began her descent. At the edge of the sinking sands she found the remains of a stormstrooper's armor and she thought back to the figure she'd seen pass this way before her – a renegade stormtrooper, such strange turns her life was taking.
She carried on. It wasn't long before she felt a tremor in the sand, she immediately dropped to her knees and bent forward so that her cheek rested on the ground; they were coming from the west, probably scavengers having seen the crash.
She smiled. Finally luck was on her side, she'd kill anyone for a vehicle. Keeping her body low to the ground she waited for them to come up over the ridge, waited for them to stop. With her white suite and scarf wrapped over her deep purple hair hiding her lighter skin she was easily looked over as she laid on the sand, mistaken for a rock.
There were two of them, but while they might've been shorter than her they were wide and they looked strong. They stopped a short distance away with their backs to her, and she watched them both pull blasters from their belts. She stilled at that and waited, listening; they hadn't spotted her but they'd spotted someone.
"Hey," a male's voice cracked, regaining consciousness enough to see danger but not really understanding it. He watched the figure on the right jolt giving a small grunt, the one on the left turned confused; as the first one fell both man and scavenger saw the knife stuck in its back.
The living scavenger turned raising his blaster but was knocked back by a shoulder slamming into his abdomen. Eris planted a foot on the dead man's back and pulled the knife from his flesh, and still moving with the force it'd taken she turned swinging catching the other in the chest stopping him cold. She stumbled slightly as her body continued moving on her built up momentum but she steadied herself and turned to look at the dazed man still lying on his back.
He was about her age if not a little older, tanned skin dark hair, blood dried on one side of his head a bruise on his cheek, a busted lip. She thought she should recognize him. He was a mess, but he had kind eyes and he gave a small wincing smile as he said a quiet, "thanks."
"Can you fly?" she asked abruptly offering no amount friendliness.
Her stony voice had him blinking around his hazy vision trying to see her better, catching a fleeting glimpse of soft purple skin before she turned. "Yeah," he answered watching her kneel beside the body of the men she'd just killed. He didn't know if he was lucky or unfortunate.
Eris rifled through the belongings of the dead creatures looking for anything they had on them, hoping for more water. She found tools more in line with what Rey looked for, what Rey would know how to use, and shoved what she could in a bag knowing they'd at least make her happy. And then her hands paused, hearing the sound of skin unsticking around a solid object. It was more of a feeling, an awareness to a thought she'd been thinking knowing his face was familiar – this was the pilot, and he still wanted her dead.
"Can you fly, d'you hit your head?" she asked not giving herself away.
Poe opened his mouth to tell her no but she caught him off guard suddenly swinging her leg back knocking the gun from his hand. She charged at him striking him in the center of his stomach knocking the breath out of him and throwing him off his feet. As he landed on his back he felt her settle on his chest with her legs on either side of him. It'd happened so fast, she moved so effective and measured, he didn't quite know what happened to end with her on top of him. All he knew was he was unarmed and she was bent over him pinning him to the ground.
She stared down at his surprised face and reached a hand around her back for the knife she kept sheathed in her belt, planning to imbed it in his skull. And then suddenly a loud harsh sound surrounded them so fully the air seemed to vibrate with it. Eris turned to where the Outpost was located seeing several First Order ships firing at it, none of which were the source of that distinct noise. No, that was a ship, a large ship – one that had Eris rising to her feet at the sight of.
She stepped over the man and followed it slowly as it flew past, digging her heels in the sand to keep from falling over. "Oh kid don't be on there," she said to herself as it flew off, two smaller ships close behind it firing. At the sound of shifting sand she turned back to the dark haired man ready to knock him back again if he tried to grab the blaster. And then it hit her, "your droid," she growled realizing of course the BB unit had found Rey, the only person on the whole damn planet who'd help it. "Dammit." She grabbed the blaster out of the sand, too distracted to notice him tense, and knelt beside him. "Tell you what," she said now not knowing his value and therefore less willing to write him off as unneeded, "you give me what I want I'll go quietly."
He wasn't prepared for her gentle offering. He'd expected the gun to be on him, those blazing eyes to be as cold as they'd been before the ship flew past; her reputation was that of a First Order hired mercenary. But a hard woman with the most desperate eyes wasn't what he expected. "It's a deal," he told her. She surprised him again with the extension of her hand, and a half unguarded smirk curled on his mouth as he took her offer and righted himself finding she was a few inches taller than him. After dusting the sand off his back he looked at her, really looked at her as he hadn't been able to in the few seconds he'd had her cornered;there was a tinge of pink to her lavender skin, her cold eyes seemed to hold a fragment of every color, but they were a little too far apart, her mouth was too full, her slender neck unusually long. He found himself thinking she was very pretty, not beautiful and strange in that her features were so similar to a human that it made every difference stand out, but pretty nonetheless.
Catching him off guard again she brought her foot up and caught him full in the chest knocking him on his ass with the breath knocked out of him. In a matter of a second she was crouched beside him with his collar in her fists jerking his face closer until he felt her nose brush against his.
"Try that again and I'll be my own damn pilot. Ya got that?"
This was the lethal woman he'd imagined her to be, flashing eyes that promised death, no compassion. Yet then, with her so close he could count the colors in her eyes, he remembered he'd held a gun to her first. "Loud and clear," he answered quietly.
She looked at his warm brown eyes searching for any thought he might have of retaliating, any harboring loathing for her that'd have him trying anything. When she saw nothing but his honesty she shoved him back to the ground dropped the blaster in the sand beside him and turned away. She grabbed her bag hoisting it on her shoulder and called back to him; "get off your ass and keep up."