Hey everyone, I deeply apologize for dropping off the face of the Earth for an extra week. No, I haven't decided to abandon this story - I just came across a lot of troubles (legal and personal) that I needed to deal with. With that being said, here's the last chapter of this arc. A new one starts soon. If all goes according to plan, the story will soon be completed (still many chapters to come though).
As always, thanks for reading! Your feedback really matters so if you could leave a review it'd help tremendously :)
"Well, well, well. Look who it is. Kylo Ren's toy."
Rey instantly scrambled her hand to her lightsaber and ignited it.
"My plans were to leave in disguise on this, ah, what's it called? Slaves? Or was it 'Knights'?" Damesh used both of his hands to air-quote the last word. "Can you imagine the disbelief I was in when I saw, through this ship's windshield, a scavenger of all people racing against Mother Nature?"
"You have ruined the lives of thousands! There is no Mother Nature—only your heinous acts of destruction!"
"Nothing matters more to a man than witnessing his own work unveil before his eyes. I had to stay and watch the show. I certainly was not expecting you. Rumors has it that the First Order has a new recruit to their cause. News has been floating all around the HoloNet. You can imagine how pleasantly surprised I was to see that these rumors were certainly true."
Rey's heart sank. The first thought that came to her was the Resistance. If news had spread all throughout the HoloNet, then Leia had to know all the things that had been said about her. But Rey had faith in her. She knew that Leia would choose her own feelings over the word of strangers when it came to Rey's character.
Damesh stayed on the ramp and refused to move to her.
"The evolution of your life could be written in the history books to come. From a lowly scavenger to a Jedi Padawan turned rogue. Quite similar to Anakin Skywalker."
"I did not join the First Order," Rey defended.
"Be that as it may," Damesh refuted, "The entire HoloNet believes it to be true."
Rey snarled. "Fight me outside! Or are you too cowardly?"
Damesh chuckled, and all it did was to further spiral her defensive anger into a darker mood.
"A real Jedi would never behave like this."
"Fight me outside!" she screamed. "Take responsibility for your actions!"
"There is nothing cowardly about the situation I am in. Do you honestly think I'd fight you? You have a double-bladed lightsaber. Those things can cut through anything. I'd be a fool to oblige. Why don't you join me up in the cabin instead? There is plenty of room."
"What makes you think I'll listen to you?"
Damesh chuckled and snapped his fingers. Rey tensed, preparing herself of what to come. But no amount of anticipation could've lead to what she saw next.
A man made his way out, but it wasn't him Rey was focused on—no, it was the person he was grasping by the collar. A sudden coldness swept through her insides when she thought it was Kylo. But it wasn't.
"Here," Damesh said. The man dragged the Knight to plain view and yanked him to his feet. "I take it you know who this is?"
Rey let her anger pause and examined the Knight. She remembered the dark fabric on Deimos and Leo. The last one, Lype, was fuzzier, but she still captured a glance of his attire and helmet. The hostage here had none of the markings that the other helms had.
"N—No," her voice wavered. "I don't."
Damesh guffawed.
"A First Order ally and you don't even know your own comrades!"
"How do you know that's not one of your own men?" Rey retorted. She curled her lip up into a smirk, knowing that what she said next would get under his skin. "I heard you were pretty capable of leaving them behind."
Damesh scowled. "That's up for your conscience to decide."
"And if I don't agree to your demands?"
"Then you don't."
"He's not my comrade."
Damesh chuckled. "Are you sure about that?"
"See if I care!" she growled.
Damesh stared at her but then unexpectedly shrugged. "So be it." He gave a nod to his second, the man who still had the Knight gripped in a deadlock.
The man unsheathed a large broad sword and raised his arm with it in his hand—
"This is your last chance to save his life."
Rey ignored him. She could get through this. It would be the right thing to do. If she got on the ship, then she was as good as dead. She was not allied to the First Order. She was not a part of their plans for intergalactic conquest. There was no reason for her to save the Knight. And yet—
The man thrust forward—
"No!" Rey shouted, reaching out with her hand. The sword stopped. Rey grit her teeth, pouring her concentration onto the sword. She could feel the tug of the man's hand as he struggled to overpower her Force.
Rey guided his hand to turn the sword around. She used fuel from all the countless lives lost today to slowly push the tip of the blade closer to his chest. She could sense the fear emanating from his as he understood what was about to happen.
"Stop or he dies!"
Rey hit a lapse in concentration and involuntarily broke off the Force. The unnamed man's hand dropped and the sword dropped onto the floor of the ship with a loud clatter.
Damesh had his blaster pointed at the Knight. There was no traces of a smile on his face anymore.
"I underestimated you and the fight you had in you. It won't happen again." He pressed the gun under the Knight's helmet, where there was no protection. "I won't ask again. Come or I'll shoot him."
Rey tested the water. She had never learned how to simultaneously use the Force for two things at once. She could either put her focus to the man's sword or put her focus to the blaster, but not both at the same time.
And the chances of stopping the blaster bolt when it only had to travel a hair's length to its target was far beyond her level of expertise. She wasn't even sure if Kylo could do it. To accomplish a feat like that wouldn't just take years of training, but also a sense of premeditativeness.
"Give me your word," Rey said in an undertone. Loose strands of her hair lay draped over her forehead and eyes, covering her expression. "Give me your word and I'll obey," she repeated.
"Of course! I'm a man of my word."
Rey contemplated for another split second but realized it was no use. She kept her lightsaber ignited and slowly walked forward to the hangar. Both of her enemies tensed at her steady pace, but when she clicked off her lightsaber at the foot of the hangar door, they visibly loosened.
"Hand it over."
Rey walked up the ramp into the ship to where they were standing and willingly handed it over. Damesh tucked it into the satchel he was carrying by his side.
"No tricks."
"No tricks," she repeated.
"Good girl," Damesh said.
"And a beautiful one at that," the man added, chuckling.
Rey almost lost control and slaughtered the man right then and there, but she held herself off. The Knight's security mattered more. If her estimates were correct, then this had to be…
"Hands," Damesh commanded.
"This was never part of the deal."
"I changed my mind. If your Knight wants to survive, then it's in your best interest to listen."
Damesh pulled out a pair of binders. They were standard First Order binders. Rey knew because they were an identical copy of the ones the Stormtrooper slapped onto her when she willingly gave herself up.
Rey balled her fists but loosened them. The binders suddenly gave her an idea.
Damesh slapped them onto her wrists, effectively locking them into place.
"That wasn't so hard, was it?" he asked, brushing a few strands of Rey's hair from her face and revealing her look of pure anger.
Rey gathered spit in the back of her throat and spat at him.
Damesh chuckled and wiped her slime off. "Such a feisty one."
The man standing next to him latched one of his hands over Rey's thin arm. It took all the control she had in her to not lose control. His grip was too reminiscent of Unkar Plutt's.
The unnamed man dragged her into the depths of the ship and pushed her none too gently against the wall of the ship. Jarrok was already sitting, slumped over on the side like a loose marionette.
"Sit," the man growled.
Rey did as he asked. The man tsked and Rey obliged, raising her arms together so that he could tighten a makeshift noose dangling from the roof around her wrists.
"Where are you taking us?" Rey asked.
"You'll see," was all he said. And then, he left.
Rey had half a mind to wonder whether Damesh would grace them with his abhorrent presence before they lifted off, but her ponderings were addressed when she felt the uneven shove of the ship as its anchors detached from the dirt ground. If it weren't for the nooses around her and Jarrok's wrists, then they would have been thrown around the ship given their lack of securement.
Rey turned her attention to the slumped man. He was obviously unconscious.
Where was Damesh taking them? There was no doubt that they were enemies, and yet what would he do with them? Rey poured through options and out of all the ones she came up with, there was one that unsettled her the most: slavery. She made a quick list of planets that they could be taken to—Zygerria, Orvax, Lirra, and Jakku. But it wouldn't be that easy. The HoloNet knew who she was. No. They knew her face, but not Jarrok's. They could easily sell him as a slave, but it wouldn't be profitable. He was an active Force-user. There's no way he would submit.
Rey ruminated for a few more minutes as to what they wanted with them, but she couldn't come up with any ideas. She glanced around the ship to see if there was anything she could call over to her, but was presented with the same black sleekness on every First Order ship. First things first, she had to get out of the noose. However, there was nothing sharp for her to cut her hands out.
Then there was the matter of the extra passenger, the reason why she was on this cursed ship in the first place. Jarrok. She peered at the Knight, still in his helmet. For some reason, she had a strange desire to see what he looked like under his helmet, but her hands were in no position to ease it off. A sudden rush overtook her as she realized that she could get all the information from him that she desired. She didn't need her hands to invade his mind. All she needed was her own conscious. It would be easier than cutting down a droid with her lightsaber. Someone who was unconscious could offer no resistance if she were to plunge into their mind. But it would be wrong. It would be an invasion of privacy. But at the same time, there might be something that she could find; something that might help them escape. She juggled the idea.
The Knight next to her shuffled, and she breathed a sigh of relief. She hated to admit it, but if he hadn't recovered consciousness during the time that he had, Rey would have succumbed to her desires and invaded his mind.
"Jarrok," she whispered.
The Knight gave another little stir and Rey whispered to him again, raising her voice as loud as she could without drawing the attention of their enemies in the cockpit.
"Jarrok!"
At her urgent whisper, he came to a jolt.
"S—Sula?"
Rey shook her head, biting her lips to stop her protests. She had a made a promise to keep Jarrok safe and return him to safety. Having already failed one out of her missions, things weren't looking so bright. But now wasn't the time to reflect on it. She would worry later.
"No," Rey whispered. "It's me, Rey."
"Rey?" The Knight lifted his head—still within the helmet—and peered at her. "You're—" he gave a mad cough. Rey turned to the cockpit again, listening intensively whether his cough was heard. "You're Kylo's apprentice."
It wasn't until he mentioned Kylo that Rey even remembered him. Amidst all the chaos, she had completely forgotten about him.
But first things first. She needed to see if Jarrok was okay. And what's more, get them off this ship.
"Yes. Are you okay?"
The Knight groaned and Rey shushed him, jerking her head to the cockpit.
"Damesh," she warned.
As soon as the word left her mouth, she felt a change in the Knight's demeanor. It was as if he began to exude barely-withheld anger.
"I was attacked at the gates by him and half a dozen of his men," he spoke, his voice suddenly icy.
"What happened to the rest of the men?"
Jarrok gave her a look.
"Sorry. Just him and the last of his men, then?"
Jarrok nodded. "It was a close fight. If the Stormtroopers hadn't left, then victory would have surely been ours."
Rey's stomach lurched.
"Lady Rey—"
"Not you too!" she hushed under her breath.
"I sense a sudden shift in your Force nature."
Rey's eyes dropped to the ground. "Not now, Jarrok." How was she going to explain that it was her who was behind all this? If she hadn't asked Kylo to call the Stormtroopers into the city, then Jarrok would've never been captured and Damesh would never have been able to—
"Of course, Lady Rey."
"Where's your lightsaber?"
"Taken. I don't know where it is."
"Please, continue."
"There's not much more. I was distracted by two of his men and lost focus on Damesh." Jarrok grimaced and his head tilted to look at his side. Rey's eyes trailed his movements to see a dark stain that was spread through his fabric, something she had overlooked earlier.
"Maker…you're hurt."
"My right side pocket…there's a blade that they overlooked."
Rey nodded. She couldn't bend her wrists at all, so she was forced to use only her fingers. It was excruciatingly, focusing all of her Force in her index and middle finger, and even harder to wriggle the blade out, but eventually she did it. It floated slowly over to her until it was within range for her to clamp her teeth down on. Opening the blade, she got to work quickly, cutting both her noose and his within a matter of a few minutes.
The two both lowered their arms with a collective sigh. Rey felt a tendril of pride ease into her at her accomplishment, but then her mind refocused on the issue at hand. She peeled his hand off his injury and used her own hands to examine the damage. He gave a pained grunt when she pushed a little too hard.
"Sorry, hold on," Rey said, continuing her examination. Taking enormous care as to not to hurt him again, she gently tore the black fabric covering the wound until a formidable section of his skin was showing. It was easy tearing the coat into smaller strips, given how there was already a hole for her to stick her fingers in.
Jarrok gave a hiss as she did so, but Rey didn't apologize again. Her ears didn't catch it.
The blaster bolt did more than just scrape the surface of his skin. The bolt, directly right of his belly button, had entered from the front of Jarrok's side and out the back, ripping through the contents of his abdomen. On Jakku, she had traded a few portions for anatomy Holovids, but she was far from an expert. However, she knew that the bolt had to have severed through many, many arteries. The only thing that was keeping him alive was the fact that the blaster bolt had also cauterized everything in its path. And that was far worse than bleeding out. Silenced arteries meant no blood to the nearby organs. The organs below his diaphragm, without the nourishment of blood, would slowly necrose until they died. At that point, Jarrok would become nothing more than half a man. He was in for a slow death.
"How's it fare for me, Lady Rey?"
Rey bit the inside of her cheek so hard that she tasted blood.
"You'll be okay," she lied. Why she did, she didn't know. "I need to heal you, though." She had to. She had no idea where Damesh was taking them. The sooner she could heal him, the better. He would serve as a formidable ally in their escape.
"By all means, do it. You don't need my permission for that."
Rey nodded. She honed her ears in at the cockpit, using the Force to eavesdrop on anything they had to say. Luckily, they didn't seem to be suspicious of their cargo in the back.
"Okay," Rey breathed, turning her attention back to Jarrok. "You'll have to stay still."
Jarrok grunted.
Rey placed her hands on his injury and closed her eyes. She felt the Force flow through her as strong, if not stronger, than the first time she learned to channel it with Master Luke. She felt its essence flow through her psyche and invade her top to bottom, from her head to the tips of her toes, much like when she healed Kylo. But this time, there was something off. Something didn't feel right.
Rey gathered the Force in her hands and called it to her, ready to heal Jarrok. She opened her eyes, expecting to see a familiar warmth and glow of green over his injury, only to be presented with nothing.
Rey blinked. Maybe there was something wrong with her meditation. She tried again, this time with her eyes open. A small flicker of green spewed out of her fingertips and contacted Jarrok's skin for the briefest of seconds before it fizzled away into nothingness.
Confused, Rey frowned and tried again, getting the same results. She attempted to call the Force to her once again, but this time she couldn't even get it to oblige. It pushed back against her, waning against her conscious, hesitant to come to her will. Almost as if it was scared of her. As if it wanted to distance itself from her.
"I—I don't know what's happening," Rey stuttered. "It's not working."
There was an enormous bang and then a heavy thrust and Rey found herself sliding off the seat. If they were still restrained by the nooses, then perhaps they would have been alright. Regardless, they weren't. Rey was thrown backwards at the hyperspace jump and would've collided straight into the ship's back wall had it not been for her superb reflexes. She pushed both her hands out—for they were still strapped in the binders—just in time to ease the crash between her back and the wall with the Force, but it still hurt. Jarrok came flying at her a split second later, too weak to support himself up with the Force. Rey pushed out the same hand and tried to slow down his impact with chest as much as possible.
"Oof!"
The two of them crashed onto the floor once the jump had finished. If there was any doubts that she could get them off the ship without drawing heavy attention, it was now gone. She could hear Damesh and the other man shouting at each other. A moment later, there was the sound of thick footsteps approaching them until the two rounded the corner and stopped at the sight of Rey and Jarrok still tangled on the floor. Their eyes flickered to the spot they had left them at and to shredded pieces of rope scattered across the hangar floor.
"I knew you were plotting something," Damesh snarled, pulling out his blaster rifle and aiming it at Rey's animalistic glare.
Rey was on her stomach and she there was nothing she could do as she saw him change his trajectory and aim at Jarrok instead. The Knight shifted uncomfortably, the only sign he gave at the recognition of his fate.
Rey's glare was still plastered on her face, but then she softened her expression, allowing a new emotion of vulnerability to come across her features. She slowly pushed her hands out from under her, moving with a newfound sense of timidity as her hands came out from under her stomach and stretched outward to Damesh in a plea of mercy.
"Please…"
"This is gold!" the man cackled. "Boss, she's begging for mercy."
Damesh waved him off, intently focused on Rey.
Rey serenely smiled a soft, innocent smile at Damesh, ignoring the other man. Damesh's hard gaze softened just a bit. It was enough. Rey's smile abruptly morphed into a smirk and her gaze darkened. Damesh noticed the action too late.
The lightsaber blades erupted from the hilts and one of them pierced Damesh straight through his side. He tilted his head, almost as if he was curious, and looked down at the fatal wound. The lightsaber blade had spewed forth through the satchel by his side and entered him right above his left hipbone and out the other end.
The blaster fell out of his hand and clattered onto the floor, the only sound in the entire ship.
Rey turned her attention to his company. The other man was no luckier. The other blade on the opposite end of the hilt victimized him; because he was shorter than Damesh, the blade pierced through his ribs and into his stomach.
Following her Master in his footsteps, Rey pulled the lightsaber toward her with a small flick of her fingers. The red blades approached her, humming with gratification and pleased at the sacrifices that had taken place.
"You don't know what you've done." In the muted sound of the interior of the ship, Damesh's shaky whisper trembled loudly. "You will regret this."
"I know what I did," Rey answered.
Damesh's comrade had already passed away long before his body was sliced in half. Damesh himself managed to take one last look at Rey, Jarrok, and his former comrade before exuding a heavy breath as the last of his life left him. He fell to the ground, dead.
Rey pushed her hands off the floor of the ship and erected herself.
"Jarrok, we need to get out of here."
The Knight lay frozen, perhaps still absorbing the events that had just proceeded. He wasn't sure whether this was the same Lady Rey he had been told. There was something sinister about the way she just executed their two captors without any remorse. For any of the Knights, accomplishing such a trivial feat was of no difficulty, but for a former Jedi Padawan...for someone who walked down the path of Jedi principles and teachings…it was an entirely different story, one that left an icy tingling of impressed fear rippling throughout his body.
Rey called the lightsaber over to her.
"Give me your wrists," she commanded. Jarrok did as she asked, not wanting to go through the hassle of questioning her.
With her lightsaber still ignited, she brought one of the blades to the binders and slowly, hair-by-hair moved it downward until the binders were burned through the top. They snapped open and Jarrok's hands became free. He accepted the lightsaber from her without saying a word and did the same to Rey's binders until could freely move her arms and hands also.
"Where do you think they jumped to?" Rey asked, shutting off her lightsaber and strapping it to her belt clip.
"I'm uncertain," Jarrok said. He was struck with a sudden bout of unease and his hand dropped to his injured side again. Rey took one look at it and bit her lip.
"Maker, your injury. I completely forgot, with what just happened and all."
"I'll survive, My Lady. For now, we need to land this ship and contact the First Order."
Rey nodded. The two of them ran—well, she ran and Jarrok hobbled behind her—to the cockpit. The ship was on auto-pilot, and Rey took no time to put herself into the pilot's seat and pull up the control panel.
"Auto-pilot's been locked!"
"That's impossible. Let me take a look." Jarrok approached Rey's side, so close that they were almost touching. Rey viewed as he tapped on his holographic keyboard for a few seconds.
"You're right. It has been locked."
"What are the coordinates we're headed towards?"
"Near the Deep Core…the Core Worlds." Jarrok pointed out a flashing icon that Rey took great interest in.
"Coruscant," she muttered.
"I've been locked out of my own system. There's no way to disable the autopilot. At this rate, we'll land within the hour. Platform 3107."
"Does this mean anything to you, Jarrok?"
"No, Lady Rey. My knowledge on Coruscant is strictly limited. This would be more Leo's field than anyone else's, although I highly doubt he is currently there."
"I as well. All I know about it is its period during the Galactic Republic. It's not going to be of much use. Can we land undetected?"
Jarrok shook his head. "No, Lady Rey. If the coordinates have been plugged, then no doubt Damesh would also have taken the liberty to contact the other end of our arrival. There's nothing we can do but wait."
"They don't know that Damesh is dead," Rey continued muttering. She spared a brief look at the bifurcated men behind them. She thought she would feel greater signs of remorse, but she felt nothing for her murders. Perhaps it was because their deeds were justifiable.
"They don't know he's dead," she continued. "I doubt the ship will be received with hostility."
Rey buckled herself in and Jarrok did the same. She glanced at him, worry etched across her face. "I'll—"
"No, Lady Rey. I'll be fine," Jarrok interrupted her.
"But—"
"No."
Rey was taken by surprise. Jarrok obviously knew something she didn't. She knew the degree of damage and during the short time that she got to know the Knight, she knew he wasn't an idiot either. Both of them were aware of how dangerous it was to leave an injury like his unattended to, but why Jarrok was refusing her attempts at healing him while they still had plenty of time before landing was something that she could not answer.
The two of the remained in silence for the rest of the ride. Only until they began breaking through the clouds of Coruscant did Rey start to feel her stomach swimming. She gripped her lightsaber tightly, ready to fight if needed. Although she came into the ship dreary and beaten, her energy had revitalized itself and she was as prepared as she could be.
And she hadn't forgotten her promise to Sula, either. Her first plan after dealing with the mess after they landed was to get Jarrok to a safe place. Somewhere where she could help him, and if not her, others.
She realized with a sudden start that she still didn't know what Jarrok looked like. The Knight had kept his helmet on the whole time, and Rey found that a little odd. Perhaps it was just personal preferences.
The ship jolted to a halt as it completed its descent. Rey could hear a bit of commotion coming from outside the ship walls, but she could see nothing.
Both of the simultaneously unstrapped their seatbelts and got to their feet. Rey contemplated on speaking to Jarrok, but thought better of it and instead guided him to stay put behind her. Jarrok did as she asked, unsteadily shuffling until he was behind her.
Rey ignited her lightsaber and ordered the hangar doors to open. They slid down with a dark hiss. Sunlight poured through and almost blinded Rey—one of her hands went to her eyes while the other flicked on the switch for her staff saber. The familiar red glow offered some peace from the sun's yellow white glow.
Rey crouched down low and emerged from the final steps of the platform and out into the open air. Her eyes first took sight of a familiar emblem engraved on several people's jackets.
Right before she stared into the firm expression of Leia Organa.
Ohhhhh dangg what's uppp