Nyx sat on the examination bench glaring down the First Order's top geneticist. He had been fumbling the whole time and she hadn't exactly made it easy on him making comments about if he pinched her one more time down there she would strangle him without a second thought. Their tests had been irritatingly long. Nyx was growing restless. She played with her braid, fussing with it more like, to make it lay perfectly. The geneticist flipped through papers avoiding eye contact,
"You are fertile, and um… well the best time for conception this cycle would be…this evening."
"Elders! That's it? All that poking and prodding and that's all the information you can give me?" She snapped touching her bare feet to the cold metal floor.
"If…. You w-would like to see your genetics." He held out the papers trembling slightly. Oh how the knight enjoyed the power of making men fearful. She waved him off feeling Snoke enter her mind.
"Meet with Kylo Ren, and begin your mission." His snake like voice echoed after prying the recent information from her head.
"Yes, Supreme Leader." Nyx replied without hesitation.
The destroyer Languish volted into hyperspace joining the Finalizer moments later as it orbited a desert planet on the outer rim. General Hux was stiff as a board as she entered the Finalizer via a transporter. He made no remark about her midriff exposed below her billowing dusty yellow apparel.
"To what do we owe the pleasure?" Hux had always been straight forward and curt even if his words tried to hide that- the rest of him couldn't. Nyx grinned gleefully,
"Snoke sent me to babysit."
The General's leather gloves crinkled, "If Kylo Ren would just listen to orders we wouldn't be out here in the middle of nowhere."
"Speaking of him, where is he?"
"Down on the planet. He's been down there for some time." Hux replied rather annoyed. Nyx turned to her transport pilot,
"Take me down to the planet." And she disappeared into the ship.
This outer rim planet was a giant orange glob. It was abrasive and the winds thrashed against the ship.
"I should worn…more." Nyx sighed as the transport landed next to a similar ship on the outskirts of a colorful village. She instructed her pilot not to wait for her, that she would catch a ride back in Kylo Ren's craft. The pilot of Ren's ship said he had taken a speeder. "Gone for hours." The pilot grumbled. She walked into the town taking in the raw lawlessness of it; the gambling, shouting, the smell of pure alcohol permeating in the air. It went against every Nubian fiber she possessed and yet its chaos intrigued her. After a merchant so 'obligingly' offered her a speeder she sent a ripple through the force to sense Kylo Ren. It came back to her from a far and weak. The two blazing suns of the planet were approaching the horizon as she arrived at a hovel in the ground. His speeder was parked haphazardly in front of the entrance way. She approaching a gaping hole in the ground. Kylo Ren sat meditative below. Nyx threw herself into the hole purposefully landing inches from him. He didn't move, and in his mask he could easily hide any inkling of surprise.
"You could have used the door," He breathed through the apparatus, "Like a normal being."
She playfully put her hands on her hips and lent down near his level,"Well that's no fun." She reached for his mask but his hands rejected hers. Nyx rolled her eyes, "It's gonna be really hard to kiss you through the mask."
He made no reply. Snoke was really not making her job easy forbidding her to tell him of the mission.
"He's not always with us you know." She folded her arms, "Didn't realize you used the mask to hide your fear of him."
It was immediate, he launched at her from his kneeling position. At first she thought him angry and attacking her for her true words,but his grip was restrained once they hit the ground. She went to make a sarcastic comment mirroring her earlier one about his mask, however she heard the small hiss of its detachment. They were both in a sense getting what they wanted.
Anakin woke in the cold dead of night. He could sense his mother in extraordinary pain, and he rushed as fast as his legs could carry through the door adjoining their rooms. His mother was thrashing violently, tears streaming down her face, and yet her body remained asleep. Almost as if she were unable to wake herself. It frightened him to see her this way, but he wouldn't tell her this the next morning. In fact he allowed her to fuss over him as they got ready that morning. She tried her best to tame his wild curls and though the brush scraped his scalp he tried to stifle his displeasure. Besides today was a special day. His whole class was graduating from exploratory learning. She smiled at him when she thought he was looking, and when she thought he wasn't her face was cast down.
He proudly gathered himself in front of the mirror, since it was a special day they got to wear something special rather than their typical uniforms. Anakin had pulled images from his grandmother's mind, not always on purpose but it helped the young boy form a daring ensemble from his trunk of clothes for that day. He must have been exceedingly handsome because his mother dropped her gloves upon seeing him. His pants were a deep navy tucked into his brown school boots, and he work a dressy button up white shirt with a black vest over it. Success! A small smile formed in the corner of her mouth. But… she still looked sad. He ran to hug her.
"You'll be at the ceremony right?" He looked up at her still in the tight embrace.
"Of course. I wouldn't miss it for anything." She tucked a wild curl behind his ear, "I'm sure Poe will be very excited to hear your determination to be a pilot."
They walked into the hall together. Anakin stopped looking at her outreached hand, while wanting to please her he had his own plans in mind, "I'm seven now mama I can walk myself to class." He took off like a shot unwilling to hear a response, and surprisingly she let him go. He took a sharp turn and came face first into a body.
"Woah! Hey buddy wheres the fire?" the body was Poe's. Anakin took a step back a bit dazed, happy to see Poe, but now his plan was in trouble. He watched Poe lean around the corner, "Where's your mother?" That was always his question.
"I'm walking myself to school today. Mama said I could." The boy replied. Poe gave him a questioning expression.
"In case you forgot bud. School is that way." Poe pointed to the hall behind them. Poe started walking with a gentle hand on his shoulder. Poe always seemed to know when Anakin was up to something, and it made him wonder if that's what a father would usually be like. Anakin felt confident Poe was the kind of adult that wouldn't shy away from hard answers, or bend the truth to make the world seem less scary.
"Who is Kylo Ren?" his voice was almost a whisper- in fear of asking. Poe was quiet for a moment and the only sound in the hall were their boots against the floor.
"A bad person." Was the pilot's reply. Anakin nodded,
"I knew that. He's the one giving mama the bad dreams." This rocked Poe to a halt and in turn Anakin stopped with him.
"How do you know that?" he asked bending down to meet Anakin's eyes. The boy shrugged his shoulders- a very honest answer. He didn't know. The name entered his mind as often, but he had been unable to pinpoint where the information had come from. Poe repeated his question with an imploring tone.
"Sometimes… I just…. know things." Anakin replied with another shrug, "Like I know you and mama like-like each other even though you won't say so." His voice pouted near the end.
Poe looked away from him scratching his stumble ridden cheek trying to hide a half-cocked smile. The pilot plodded a hand on Anakin's head rustling through his hair.
"Hey! Mama spent all morning on my hair!" the boy cried in frustration.
They continued towards his classroom.
"So where were you going?" Poe asked as they reached the classroom door.
"Well… there are these yellow flowers mama likes that grow by the water fall. I thought after the ceremony that I'd give them to her." This was so apart of his plan so he wasn't lying to Poe, but it wasn't the entirety of the truth. Anakin looked in on his half-full classroom, "I better go."
Poe smiled, "I'll see you at the ceremony bud. Behave yourself until then." He gently patted his head trying to undo some of the damage he had done earlier to the boy's mop of hair.
Anakin waved anxiously waiting for the pilot to be well enough away. He excused himself from the teacher to use the lavatory- also not a lie- plotting was very hard on his bladder. In the hillside capital, still under construction it was easy for a small boy to pass by the gaze of hundreds of workers, guards, and every day people. They had their own lives to worry about. Anakin knew he was going in the right direction somehow he just knew each turn would lead him to the prison cells where this monster was kept. The monster haunting his mother. He peaked the corner to see two guards in front of a blast door. One was his best friend, Snaps, father. The other he didn't know, but a voice gave him the confidence he needed to approach the guards. Snap's father immediately recognized him,
"Ani! Whatcha doin down here? Shouldn't you be preparing for the big day?"
The other guard stood sentient. Anakin's body shuttered and his brain tingled. He looked at both of the guards.
"You will open the door." He was so sure of himself as the words floated into their ears.
-I seriously adore all the continued reviews!
