She'd given us the planets in the ring, the dates and times of past, and future drops, and showed me the inside of several ports. I called my allies, waiting for the ship on Zygerria flanked by two dozen of them. We'd arrested the buyers, and freed sixty-three women.

But, Rey hadn't been one of them.

I had three guards in custody, I'd interrogated two of them, but they'd been useless giving me absolutely nothing about her, or Zaugustus, and the third had bit down on a cyanide pill when I'd lost my patience and went into his mind.

The Kings congratulated me on bringing the ring down, but it was one drop in a trafficking empire, and it's Emperor still had my Queen.

I'd returned to Mustafar with my Knights, and thrown myself into preparations, absorbed in the maps of the galaxy and the information we'd gotten from the survivors.

"The next drop is on Dathomir." I told them. "If we leave now, we can be there right before they're scheduled to land."

"Leave now?" Ap'lek echoed. "Ky, you're exhausted. We're exhausted. We can't-"

I slammed my hand down on the button, and the map disappeared. "I'll go myself."

And, I did.

The days blurred together, planets and ports. Pieces of information that I tried to remember through the haze of a hangover, and a dozen tips that I blindly followed, none of them bringing me closer to finding Rey.

I didn't get another blast of her power, and couldn't see her in the minds of any of the victims I saved, or the men I crushed to save them.

When I did finally go home, I was too wary to stand, let alone actually walk. The palace was dark, telling me that it was probably somewhere around midnight. I was able to drag myself out of my silencer, and stumbled through the hangar, toward my office. I remembered, halfway there, that I'd actually destroyed part of my office, and that I'd have to either find somewhere downstairs to go, or somehow make it up to my bedroom.

"Kylo?"

I turned and found Beau, her hair down and her face free of cosmetics, in a tank top and a pair of pajama bottoms. I cursed under my breath.

She came to my side, and grabbed my arm. "Here, let me-"

"I got it." I hissed, jerking away from her. The venom and disgust in my voice didn't deter her.

"Don't be absurd." She snapped. "You can barely stand."

I set my jaw as she took my arm and put it around her shoulders, steadying me against her with her arm around my waist. I let her, because I was entirely sure I couldn't make it to my bedroom without her help.

She grunted under my weight as we began to move forward. "You smell."

Yeah, I did.

I nearly tripped over my own boots, and my shoulder hit the wall as my eyes drooped.

Beau gave me a rough shake. "Oh no you don't. You have to at least help me get you upstairs."

I nodded, and pushed myself up, stumbling again, and she gripped me tighter. "C'mon just a few more steps."

We went past the stairs. "Where are we going?" I asked, fighting to keep my eyes open.

"Servants elevator." She said, and hit the button. "Can't risk the stairs."

I huffed out a humorless laugh. "If I fell and broke my neck, you'd be free of the contract."

The elevator dinged and the doors slid open. "Then I'd have to find a husband who actually wants me." She countered, dragging me inside. I leaned against the steel wall, letting my head rest, and then I felt a warm pressure against my jaw.

I opened my eyes, and found Beau gently shaking me awake. Her eyes were the color of warm milk chocolate as she tugged me upright. "Just a little bit further."

We managed to reach my bedroom door, and she steered me toward my bed, which I fell onto, face first.

I woke up to the fresh hell of another hangover, and drank two-thirds of the scotch in my decanter before a much needed shower. I changed into clean clothes, and went into the kitchen to find something to eat, but found Beau.

She was still in that white tank top, her powder pink pajama bottoms had anime style bunnies on them. Her auburn hair was up in two messy buns on either side of her head, and she hummed along to a song playing out of a small nearby speaker as she flipped a pancake.

The kitchen was an absolute disaster, egg shells and flour littering the counter tops, dirty mixing bowls stacked in the sink, and a dribbled trail of batter on the stove top.

I tried to immediately turn and flee.

"Sit down." She called, not looking over her shoulder.

I halted, and sighed through my nose as I pulled a chair out, and sank into it. She put a mug on the table in front of me, and filled it with coffee from a French press.

"What is this?" I asked, watching her go back to the stove.

"Breakfast." She said simply.

"Well, thank you but no-" I pushed myself up, and had made it halfway there when she turned, and speared me with her furious gaze.

"You are going to sit at this table with me, and you and I are going to have a little chat." She flipped the last pancake onto a plate, and put it in front of me, her russet eyes daring me to move.

I swallowed, and slowly sat back down.

"Eat." She commanded.

"I'd rather you just tell me what it is you need to say so that I can-"

"Eat." She said again, her voice carrying the threat of slow death if I didn't obey.

So, I did, and pushed my empty plate toward the middle of the table when I was done.

She pulled out the chair across from me, and sat down, her own breakfast now cold. "Last night-"

Dread slithered through me. "Did I - did we -?" I didn't remember anything past collapsing onto my bed.

"You are thoroughly repulsed by me." She deadpanned. "A few drinks doesn't change that."

She thought I'd had a few drinks. I would've laughed at her naivete if I didn't find it so infuriating. "I am not repulsed by you." I countered. I just wanted absolutely nothing to do with her. "I'm repulsed by the situation."

"And, that's fair," She said, showing me her palms. "But I didn't ask for this any more than you did."

I looked down, unable to meet her gaze. "I know you didn't."

"So, what's the plan, you disappear for months at a time until the contract is voided, and then send me back home?" She demanded.

"I don't have a plan," I confessed. "I'm not actively avoiding you, I don't even think about you, I'm just trying to find Rey."

She straightened, her eyebrows drawing into a tight line. "You're trying to find...is that her name? Rey?"

I tugged my fingers through my hair, and nodded.

"You've been looking for her this whole time?"

I nodded again.

Her face softened. "You love her, don't you?"

I could almost hear the crack in my chest, laying my heart bare as I nodded a third time.

"And that's why you don't want to be married to me." It wasn't a question, more like all the pieces had clicked together and she finally understood.

"No." I told her. "I don't want to be married to you for the same reason I didn't want to be married to Rey." I swallowed. "Because you don't deserve it."

The line between her eyebrows returned. "What do you mean?"

"You deserve to choose who you're married to. You deserve to choose who you have your wedding night with."

"I thought that she was sold to you, like I was."

"She was, and I thought that I could just wait the contract out. She was so young, and so innocent, and I thought she'd never choose me." My bottom lip started to tremble.

"But, she did?"

I nodded. "She did."

She brought her hands up to cover her face, and I noticed that the purple polish on her fingernails was chipped. She leaned forward, putting her elbows on the table, cupping the sides of her face between her hands, and let out a relieved laugh. "I thought you just hated me."

I shook my head. "I don't-"

My spine prickled, the hair on the back of my neck standing on end as I instantly went on alert. My power flooded my veins, an instinct to an incoming threat, a warning.

I jumped up, flipping the table between us out of the way, and hurled my body over Beau's a second before an explosion rocked the palace. The blast was deafening, my ears ringing as the wood and stone below and around us shook again, and then a third time. Debris fell onto me, where I braced myself above Beau, and I threw a shield around us, as far out as I could, covering as much and as many as I could.

When the attack relented, I looked down at her, and found that she'd brought her hands up to shield her face, and that they were covered in plaster specks and drywall dust. It was then that I smelled the smoke.

I pushed myself up, off of her. The screams, and the rumble of the destroyed palace erupted in my ears as my hearing returned.

Beau looked up at me, then around as she sat up.

I felt Ushar jumping toward us. He'd been off-world, and was rushing back.

Aplek. I called, through the Bond, barely able to think around the panic roaring in my head. What was that?

I got to my feet, pulling Beau up with me.

Brendol. Aplek said. He and Arkanis have just declared war.

There was a second, maybe two, for his words to sink in, then I was running, yelling at the people shrieking and fleeing around me to get downstairs, to the shelter under the throne room. A shelter that had been built after I destroyed it seven years ago. As they started moving to obey my order, I turned to Beau. "Go with them."

Another thunderous boom rocked the palace, knocking us to our knees at the impact.

"Go!" I yelled, scrambling to my feet, and she did the same, running down the stairwell to the shelter below.

I sprinted toward the hangar, where ties were already screaming out, and into the skies. Troopers were forming, weapons being distributed, counter attacks set into motion…

By Vicrul. He stood in the middle of my forces, his arm in a sling, barking orders that the men followed without question. Ushar jumped to his side just as I ran up.

"Beau is in the shelter under the throne room." I panted. "But, there are others who may be trapped."

He gave a quick nod, then he was gone.

"What have we got?" I asked and Vicrul shook his head.

"Their fleet is barely a blip on the radar, which is why Trugden didn't raise the alarm."

"Is it possible that they have a larger fleet, and this is just the first wave?"

"It's possible, but-" he shrugged his good shoulder.

Thunder boomed again as another explosion detonated, down, past the palace walls, into the defenseless streets of my city.

I was moving before I'd even thought to do so, running faster than I'd ever had in my life. Fire licked up, black smoke billowing into the cloudless sky, as I pushed myself faster.

Ushar jumped, catching my arm, and we became darkness and shadow as he teleported into the middle of the bloodied street. He pushed the cold, metal hilt of my saber into my hand, and I ignited it, cleaving the heads off of three soldiers we came up behind.

They went down, and three more spotted me, raced for me, and I spun my saber, a furious snarl ripping out of me.

This was my home. These were my people. I'd protect it, protect them as long as I drew breath.

My power thrummed inside my bones and blood and breath, not threatening, but begging to be unleashed.

I reached the soldiers, and severed their heads from their bodies in one swipe of my blade. But beyond, past the blood and fire and death around me, countless more landed. Too many more.

I'd never be able to kill them all.

As if in answer, my power roared, straining against the restraints I kept in place.

I stole a glance over to Ushar, who gave me an affirming nod. I could do this. I had to do this.

I lifted my hand toward them, my palm out, my fingers splayed, and I released the leash locked on my power.

One second, soldiers were charging toward us, the next, they were nothing but ash and smoke.

The men behind the line stopped, their eyes wide with horror as they whirled, and fled.

Darkness erupted out of me, devouring the soldiers, their weapons, their ships, and when the screaming of my people stopped, the wave of power vanished, revealing clear skies and streets.

And buildings that were untouched.

People were weeping, but when I looked up, I saw them coming out of those buildings unharmed.

'What the hell was that?' Vic demanded, through the Bond.

Ushar gave me a proud grin. 'That was Kylo controlling his power, instead of his power controlling him.'

I'd spent most of my life afraid, terrified of it, of what it could do, that i'd never even tried to wield it. And now, it had saved me, saved us.

'The battle isn't over.' He reminded us.

I looked over at Ushar, the tingle of adrenaline still coursing in my veins. 'We're on our way.' I told Vic, and we jumped to join the rest of the fight.