One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. My boots thudded on the tile floor as I paced back and forth in front of the bacta tank holding Vicrul, the steady beep beep beep of the monitors the only sign that he was still with me.
One, two, three. One, two, three.
The ship had drifted into Dagobah's space. They'd recognized my insignia, and brought it into their port. When they'd found Vicrul, they'd recognized him as well, and the fact that they acted so quickly to save him was something I'd forever be indebted for.
One, two, three. One, two, three.
He'd been shot with a slugthrower, not a blaster. They had to do surgery to reset his clavicle and his ribs, and to retrieve the bullet that collapsed his lung and obliterated his shoulder. He also had a skull fracture and a bleed in his brain. If he survived, he'd never fight again.
One, two, three. One, two, three.
Kuruk completely ripped the ship apart looking for anything that could point us in the right direction. The central systems and the cameras had been wiped, as well as the navigation. Trugden went through every transmission, every exchange, cross checked every interaction, only to come back empty handed. I'd had him release an official statement that Vicrul was killed. I did not want who'd done this to know that he was still alive, or that he could recover.
One, two, three. One, two, three.
When Vicrul was taken out of the tank, and put into a bed, I returned to the palace to try to get some rest.
The full weight of Rey's absence hit me as soon as I walked into our bedroom. I'd been so focused on Vicrul that I hadn't been able to process the fact that she wasn't there, but it tore through me as I stared at our empty bed.
Because every sense of her was gone.
I went to the closet, and pushed the door open to find her things were missing. Her gowns, her dresses, her shoes, gone. I stormed out, and down the hall, flinging open the door to the Queens room, and stopped, my heart dropping into my stomach.
It'd been stripped, the bare bed and the dresser against the wall were all that remained.
Like she'd never been here.
I went through the sitting room, into the study, and saw her book had been put back onto the shelf with the others. When I pulled it out, and opened it, a folded piece of cardstock fell at my feet. I bent down to pick it up, my throat tight to the point of pain.
It was a note I'd written her months ago that simply said: You're my favorite.
She was. My favorite eyes to look into, my favorite way to wake up, my favorite end of every day. She was my favorite everything.
And all of her things went missing the day after she was kidnapped. This didn't make sense.
I briefly entertained the thought that she'd left of her own free will, left me, but Vicrul would have stood down if she wanted to go. No, whomever took her had to literally go through Vicrul to be able to drag her off of that ship. But, who? Who would've had the manpower, the know-how? Who would benefit from Rey being off-world?
The click of everything falling together was so loud, I'm sure the rest of the palace heard it. The message that morning, the convenient way out of our contract that we both fell for, the precision and perfection of the attack. It wasn't random space thugs, and Vicrul hadn't been the target. He'd just gotten in the way.
"Kylo." I heard Ushar call and reflexively turned to look at him. His words gave me the first sense of relief I'd had in days. "He's awake."
"Where is the Official?" I asked, and Ushar straightened, his dark eyebrows pulling together.
"In his office."
"Arrest him." I said. "And hold him until I get back."
Ushar didn't ask any questions as he teleported me to Vicrul's side, then disappeared to follow my order.
I sighed when I saw that Vicrul was awake, and coherent enough to be talking to Ap'lek. But, as soon as I stepped toward the foot of his bed, his dull hazel eyes shifted to me, and his face fell, the monitors hooked to him beeping in warning.
Then, I watched the brother I'd been raised with, the soldier I'd held together as I carried him off the battlefield, the man I'd bled for and seen the worst of the galaxy with, the warrior I trusted with my life, crumple.
Heavy, broken sobs erupted out of his chest as he brought a bandaged hand up to cover his face.
"I'm sorry, Ky." He cried, his voice breaking. "I'm so sorry." He moved his hand to look at me, his eyes red and glossy. "I tried. I swear I tried to stop them, I swear."
"I know." I rasped around a growing lump in my throat.
His lip quivered. "You asked me to protect what was more important than your life and I failed." He began to sob again. "I'm so sorry."
I stepped forward, and took his hand in mine, careful of the tunes taped to him. I was immediately thrown into his mind, the ray shield, the tractor beam, telling Rey to lock herself in the cockpit, and of course she didn't listen. Her fighting by his side, the blow to the back of his head that made him stumble back a step. One step, one second, that's all it took, and they were on him. Her blazing hazel eyes as she spat in the face….
Of the Official.
The last thing Vicrul saw was him backhanding her, then turning to him with a pistol aimed.
"Ushar." I barked, and felt the Force shift as he jumped to my side. "Do you have him?"
"Yes." Was his only reply.
I bent down, and pressed my forehead to Vicrul's. "There was nothing more you could've done." I told him, and closed my eyes, taking a breath to steady myself.
"I'm so sorry." He sobbed. "I failed."
I stood upright, and cut my gaze over to Ushar. "Take me to him."
The Official cast an irritated glance up at me when we teleported in front of him.
"Your undertaker of a Knight unlawfully detained me and is holding me prisoner." He huffed.
The memory, Vicrul's memory, was still fresh and raw in my head, and I charged for him, the wards stopping me a safe distance away. "Where is she?" I demanded.
His eyes simmered. "Who?"
"My wife!" I screamed. "Where is she?"
He cocked his head to the side. "Your wife is currently on her way here with her parents, the King and Queen of Cyrilla." He said, a smile slowly spreading across his face. "Contract was signed yesterday."
A chill ran through me. My wife? Cyrilla? Bile coated my throat and I swallowed. "You annulled our marriage." I breathed, the hollow ache in my chest throbbing.
"Your first marriage, yes." The Official drawled.
I snarled, pounding my fists on the near invisible wall of power protecting him. "You tell me where she is or I swear-"
"Kylo, please, save your threats. You know you and your Knights can't touch me." He said, amusement clear in his voice. "You can't use your parlor tricks on me, you can't influence anyone with your mind tricks to harm or persuade me, either."
A shadow darted toward Ushar and whispered into his ear, and he frowned as he considered. "Supreme Leader." He called, and my brows crinkled in confusion.
"I formally resign as your Shadow Guard, and revoke my vow of fealty made to you, hereby forfeiting my title as a Knight of Ren." He took a step forward, his cold eyes locked on the Official. "And, one way or another, you will tell me what you've done with my Queen." It was the voice that had broken countless enemies.
People often made the mistake of assuming that Vicrul was the most powerful Knight, the most brutal, the most ruthless. But, my brother was all heart and hot-temper, he just used them both well. Ushar was the reason the hair on the back of your neck stood on end in an empty room. He was the knife in the darkness.
The Official's face drained of color. "I did what I had to do." He insisted, and looked at me. "You are so enamored with her, you can't see what she's capable of."
"I've always seen what she's capable of." I assured him.
Shadows crept closer, and he turned pleading, panicked eyes to me. "You can't stand there and let him do this. You're a better man than that."
I shook my head. "I never claimed to be a good man."
He screamed as Ushar unleashed himself, his shadows.
It took him less than five minutes to break.