Okay, just a quick note before we jump into this chapter, I have changed the "blurb" of this fanfiction so that now BB-8 is not destroyed. Okay, that was all, I hope you enjoy!
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Kylo was laying on a cold steel bed while a droid tended to his wounds. He was gripping the sides of the bed so hard it was making his knuckles white. He had insisted on not using drugs because they stopped him being able to think straight. And thinking straight is what he really need now.
He could remember how he had been almost defeated by the defiant scavenger girl. How she had almost beaten him. How she had almost killed him. He knew that if it were not for the crack in the corrupting planet he may not be here. He would most likely be on the floating remains of Star Killer Base. If it were not for the girl's stupidity and compassion, he would not have her in his clutches on the Finalizer.
He had walked onto the ship and sat down in a corner of the small freighter. He could remember feeling hot crimson blood dripping down his face, clouding his vision. He could remember the shockwaves that vibrated through the ship that conveyed the destruction of Star Killer Base. He did not look out of the window at the base. He did not need too. He could see the orange light reflecting off the dull metal of the ship.
The girl. She had been in touch with the Force. He had sensed it. He could remember the feel of power emanating from her through the ash filled air. He could see something change in her eyes. The dim candle that was flickering had turned into a roaring fire. She had gained a new strength. She had fought ferociously; she had almost defeated him. But she had not. That was the important thing.
"You would have died if it were not for your belt. It stemmed the bleeding slightly." The droid said in a mechanical voice which withheld no emotion. Kylo grunted in acknowledgment, he was not in the mood for pleasantries.
He let out a gasp as a med droid began to stitch the deep wound dealt by the bow caster. He knew that he should have died that night. He knew that he could have died multiple times. But here he was. In excruciating pain getting sewn up by a machine. He sighed and shut his eyes.
It felt like hours before the droid bandaged the wound completely. He flicked his eyes open and looked at the white lights above him that illuminated the room so harshly. He glanced at the red and black droid beside him. It was retracting an arm that was holding the bandage that had been wrapped around his side.
Too his right, on another bed, there was the form of Captain Phasma who was lying quite still with another black and red droid tending to her. She was breathing heavily, it sounded as if she had a collapsed lung, and now he thought about it she probably did.
"You are ready to leave sir." The robotic droid said. He flicked his gaze back to the droid. Kylo sat upright on the bed. He looked down at his white fists and rubbed them slightly. "I would advise you, sir, not to attempt anything particularly physical at this point of time." The droid said pointedly. Kylo nodded as he pulled on his black robes that had been on a chair beside him.
He could feel a dull pain emanating down his spine. He ignored it and stood up. The room swam before him and he had to hold onto the steel railing of his bed for support. He waited a second before moving forward. The droid watched in a somewhat concerning manner. The cut on his face stung, the raw skin around it was irritated. He strode through the corridors of the Imperial Star Destroyer. He only passed a few Stormtroopers and out of the windows on each corridor he walked through he noticed that there were no Tie-Fighters escorting the ship. No other Star Destroyers. It struck him as very strange. The sound of his own echoing footsteps and breathing kept him company.
He came to the massive cockpit where a few commanders sat in their chairs frowning at different screens. He moved past the commanders and technicians not sparing them a second glance. He walked to the bay window that gave a view of the void of space of engulfed them. He stood next to the General, his ginger hair did not look as precisely combed as usual.
"You said you required my presence?" Kylo said in a low voice. The General did not flinch at the sound of him.
"I did." The General replied stonily. "Let's go someone private." And without another word the General turned around and began to walk briskly down the aisle. Ren strode behind him trying to control his frustration. Kylo was trying to read the man's demeanour but with no luck. He just followed him, like a child being taken to the head teacher.
They entered a bland room that held only a steel table and a couple of cold metal chairs, it had a small window that looked out onto the black void. Hux motioned for Kylo to sit down. Kylo begrudgingly obeyed. He did not like the way that the General was acting, he felt patronized. The sound of Kylo's scraping chair legs along the floor echoed around the room. Hux shut the door and sat down in front of Ren. Hux looked Kylo over, his eyes lingering on the great cut on his companion's face.
"As I said, we have some bad news." Hux paused, taking a sip of scolding liquid from a cup that he had carried with him. "Ah. As I was saying. You have probably guessed that we have had a major setback with the destruction of Star Killer Base." Kylo let out a short cold laugh that did not reach his dark eyes. Hux continued. "We have sustained heavy losses of Troopers and Fighter ships." Hux let out a sigh. "And as you have probably seen we almost lost Captain Phasma in the crippling of the planet."
"That would explain the lack of patrolling fighters." Kylo said darkly. "Why are we not in hyper speed?" Hux took another sip of his drink before replying. Kylo could feel a rage begin to bubble up inside him.
"Some of the Resistance pilots attempted to destroy the Star Destroyers that came to our aid." Hux began to get very interested in stirring his drink at that moment. The steam rose slowly from it.
"Yes, well that would explain the absence of Star Destroyers, but that does not explain why we are not in hyper drive!" Kylo's voice was low and deadly. Hux knew he would have to tread carefully; Kylo Ren was not known for having patience when it came to mistakes. But then, neither was he.
"The Resistance did not manage to take down the Finalizer but they did manage to damage the hyper drive, therefore not allowing us to use it. If we do there is a ninety-nine percent chance of us ending up like Star Killer. And I'm sure you would not like that, now, would you Ren?" Hux said calmly. As he took a sip of his drink, his eyes looked at a practically steaming with rage Kylo Ren. "I already have engineers working on it." Hux could see the early warning signs of an outburst from Ren, he was heavily breathing, trying to contain his rage. "In better news, we still have a few Tie-Fighters and whoever survived Star Killer are coming into the landing bay as we speak." Hux leaned back in his chair in a moderately contemptable sort of way.
"What about the Supreme Leader? Will we be able to contact him?" Kylo said through gritted teeth. He had his hand clasped around his lightsaber, ready to lash out at any moment. Hux let out an audible sigh.
"Not at this moment of time, but we are trying to prepare a hologram chamber in the unlikely event that we do not get the hyper drive working." Hux replied coolly.
"Why can't I use a Tie-fighter and go to Snoke myself? I assume their hyper drives are still working." Kylo countered. He was pacing around the room now, trying to divert his anger into long strides from one side of the rectangular room to the other.
"Because I need you here for two reasons. One, I assume you remember our little rogue Trooper FN- Two-One-Eight-Seven? Well, I don't want to risk the one vessel we have falling into anarchy." Hux said. This time Kylo really did laugh.
"I sincerely doubt that. The traitor was, metaphorically speaking, a thorn among roses. But go on, what is the other reason you need me." Kylo replied, he looked into the dark void outside, he could see the reflection of his scarred face in the glass. The skin around his cut was red and irritated.
"I would have thought even you, Leader of the Knights of Ren would have thought of this reason." His voice was full of malice. "Because ... we still need the map from the girl. And I believe you are the only one who can retrieve it from her. Because last time I checked you are the only person on board this ship who has the power to retrieve memories." Hux said in a rush. "And I would advise you start sooner rather than later." With that Hux stood up, mug in his hand, he strode towards the door. Before he exited he said one last thing to the fuming Kylo Ren. "And I would suggest you try and relieve your anger before you do interrogate her."
The door slammed shut. Relieve himself of his anger was exactly what Ren did.
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Rey woke up on a cold floor. She opened her eyes to bright white light and almost immediately had to shut them again. She could still see a dull light from behind her eyelids. She covered her face and opened her dark eyes again. She let her eyes readjust to the light.
The room greatly resembled the integration chamber back on Star Killer, but she knew for a fact that this was not Star Killer. It was a relatively featureless room with a flat metal board with a lumpy pillow atop it. She assumed it was to be her bed. She stood up shakily and put a hand to her head which was pounding. She walked towards the bed and saw that under it was a small stool. Multi-use then. She pulled it out and examined it, looking for a nail poking out but to no avail. She pushed the metal stool back underneath the table / bed. She sat down on the hard bed and knew that this was not meant to be a place for her to feel comfortable. She dangled her legs off the edge and swung them back and forth.
She could feel small stabbing pains in her back. She tried to reach into her blurry memories to put together a better picture of how she came to be here, and why everything was aching so much.
She could remember that she had been fighting Kylo Ren, she had been in the middle of a forest on Star Killer base. There was snow everywhere and she had been freezing. He had tossed her to the side and she had been thrown into a tree and had scraped down the trunk, that would explain the pains in her back. But … she remembered the fight better now, she had been winning, she could have killed him, she wanted too. She was going too. But then the ground rumbled, she had almost fallen to the floor with the force of it. She had dropped her lightsaber and looked out onto the steadily growing crack in the earth that was distancing her from her friend who lay on the floor, wounded, possibly dead. She remembered screaming his name, and then it all went black.
She could put together a fairly good picture too what had happened after that. She had been re-captured by the First Order and that was why she now sat in a minimalistic cell. She reached her hands under her dirty shirt and felt her back. She could feel small streams of dried blood trailing down from where the splinters now hid in her skin. She winced as she began to scratch at them, trying unsuccessfully to dig out each small sliver of wood. She let out a small yelp of pain as a splinter came free. She held her hand in front of her and saw the bloody piece of wood. She flicked it across the room and resumed her work.
In-between splinters she would grab her grey, lumpy pillow and wipe fresh blood on it. Soon the pillow was streaked with crimson and the floor was riddled with shards of wood. She was in the middle of scratching at a large fragment of wood when the doors to her cell flew open, revealing a tall, cloaked figure. As quickly as the doors opened they shut again. She glanced out of the corner of her eye but continued to claw away at the piece of wood lodged in her spine as if Kylo Ren had not just walked into the room.
Kylo stood there for a second, in the middle of the room, waiting for some sort of reaction from the scavenger girl. It was obvious that as far as she was concerned he did not warrant one. He held out his hand and the stool under her bed screeched out. Rey flinched slightly at the noise but otherwise did not react. He sat down on the metal chair and looked at her. He was intrigued but also weary of her. He knew what she was capable of, of great power that was still untapped in her.
Rey carried on picking at her back until she un-lodged the piece of wood, all the time she felt the dark eyes on her. Scanning her, almost like he was trying to x-ray her. She flicked the piece of wood to the side of her cell. She reached her hand to the pillow slowly wiping the fresh blood and skin from under her nails. Only once they were clean did she look at the tall figure before her.
Whilst she could feel trails of blood trickling down her back and onto her 'bed' she did not care, she was happy to see she had left a deep cut on Ren's face. She watched him, searching for any indication of hostility. She knew that she was in no position to fight back, even if he was wounded and healing, he could wave his hand and she would be choking before she had even raised an arm to defend herself.
"I'm glad to see I left my mark." She said in a small, self-satisfied voice. He did not react, his eyes continued to scrutinize her, as if weighing her up.
"Indeed." He finally uttered. "You know why I'm here." his low voice was calm while her aura radiated one of slight panic. He knew he was in control, and she did too.
"I'm not giving you anything." She uttered in a voice that sounded much braver than she felt. She was looking him dead in the face.
"I think we both know that is not true, don't we, Rey?" a small smirk graced Ren's lips as he sensed a moment of terror in her at him using her name.
"How do you know…" She began to say but her voice trailed off.
"The map. I would rather take it without force, but if I have to take it in a more… Violent manner, I will oblige." He tilted his head to the right slightly, like a curious child. She could feel his eyes boring into her with such intensity it made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.
She was desperate to switch the attention off herself, she cast around her mind for a reason that may possibly get his dark eyes off her.
"How could you kill your own father? Your own father?" She said in an accusatory tone. Her eyes were searching him and she could sense a slight air of annoyance. "He was a great man." She continued, as if to inflict more pain.
"Please excuse me if I do not totally accept your opinion on that, from a girl who had known him for less than forty-eight hours." He challenged, she looked like she was about to counter him but she stayed, wisely, silent. "Now, the map."
He stood up and walked towards her. She did not move. She could feel her heart begin to pick up speed, she tried to stay calm, being panicked would only make it easier for him to look into her mind. She tried to steady her breathing to an even pace. He smirked at her discomfort. He crouched down so he was at eye level with her.
"This could be so much easier. You could just give me the map and you would be on your way back home to D'Qar." He moved his middle finger and his index finger antagonistically to represent walking. She did not look at him, she had her eyes focused on the blank wall behind his head. D'Qar…
"Your mother misses you. I know that she wants you back. I know that she would forgive you." She was desperate now, she needed him to get away, she was not comfortable with him in such close proximity with herself. She could see the fire begin to ignite in his eyes.
"The map. Now." His voice was low and dangerous. His curiosity with the girl continued to grow, but that did not mean she say and could do anything. He needed the map.
"You don't have to do this…" She began to plead. She could remember the feeling of having someone in her head. It was painful, it felt like a hot poker was being pressed to her scalp, and she did not much desire the sensation again.
"But I have too. I have no choice." He reached out his hand and began to reach into her memory.
He could see the traitor and her running from Tie-Fighters at the Niima Outpost. He could feel her fear and exhilaration at escaping the planet that had been her home, and the doubt at the back of her head over what she was doing. Then the scene changed as he delved deeper into the floors of her memory. She was in a tent facing an ugly humanoid, the humanoid pointed behind her as a ship began to lift off and fly away. He could feel the sadness radiating from her. That ship had been hers and she was going to trade it for food. The scene changed once more and now he saw his father. The grey haired man handed the girl a gun. It was on the shores of the watering hole on Takodana. He felt a hole in his stomach. He could feel something in him trying to get through. Something in his heart. The light.
Kylo Ren drew himself back from her. She began to breath heavily as the restraint on her mind was lifted. She had tried to fight him off but she was too drained, mentally and physically. He looked at her with calculating eyes. She once again felt the sensation of being x-rayed. She looked at him, deep into his cold, dark eyes. In them she saw a man who was in constant conflict with his own mind.
"I will get that map from you. I will get it when you are so tired, so hopeless, so weak, you will simply give it to me." He looked at her one last time.
Her chest was heaving up and down, sweat beaded on her forehead, she had black bags under her eyes from exhaustion. He pitied her. He pitied the girl who lay before him, thoroughly broken, but still carried on. Her only source of hope in all her years on Jakku was that her family may one day come back for her. He turned around and began to stride out of the room.
"What about Finn?" Rey said just before the Knight of Ren reached the door. He paused for a second and turned to face her.
"I did not see any ship leave the explosion." He could feel the sadness radiate from her. "My deepest condolences." She glared at him when he said this. "We will have a Stormtrooper and a droid deliver food too you once a day." He said in a formal tone.
"I see you haven't learned from Star Killer." Rey half laughed.
"Actually, you will find I have. The Stormtroopers who will be bringing you your meals have been assessed and chosen for their mental strength, I have tested them personally. A small program we had running on Star Killer for an elite team of Stormtroopers. I'm afraid your mind trick will not work on them." He turned and strode out of the door. As he walked out a droid wheeled in and next to him was the gleaming armour of a Stormtrooper holding a tray of food. Kylo nodded to him and said "FN-3824."
Rey who had returned to trying to dig dried blood and skin from under her nails looked up at the mention of 'FN'. The Stormtrooper walked over to her and handed her a tray of bread, some ham and a glass of water. She did not move.
"Do you know Finn?" Rey murmured once the doors were closed and she was sure Kylo Ren would not be able to hear her. The trooper looked down at her.
"I know no-one with the name Finn." His voice came through the mask in a slightly mechanical way.
Rey thought back and tried to remember her, possibly deceased, friend's Stormtrooper ID. She took the tray and as she ate she searched through her memories. She was sure he had told her back on Takodana. She had almost finished when her head flicked up with such speed she almost cricked her neck.
"FN-2187. Do you know FN-2187?" She asked. The Stormtrooper looked down at her for a second before taking her tray and walking to the door with the droid close behind him. Rey stood up and walked after him. He was on the other side of the door when she reached him. "Well, do you?"
"I thought I did."
The doors slammed shut in her face. She stood there for a second looking at the blank wall. She turned and walked back to the metal board they called a bed. She sat on it and then soon descended into the darkness that was her own thoughts. She still held the glass from her meal. She sat it down on the ground and subconsciously began to move it, inch by inch across the floor.
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Poe reached the outer atmosphere of Takodana and began to slow down. He flew silently above the forests and lakes of the planet until he came to the watering hole. He touched down quietly, the grass rippled below him as his engines grinded to a stop.
He pressed a red button on his control panel and the glass canopy above him let out a small hiss as it flicked up. Poe placed his hands on each side of the cockpit and began to pull himself out. He peered over the side of his X-Wing and looked out to see if there were any lingering Stormtroopers about.
The fractured remains of Maz Katan's castle lay in chunks in and around the lake. Smoke swirled up in double helixes from where stranded humanoids and aliens had set up a temporary camp. Poe could see Maz Katana in the middle of them, trying to keep order within the small makeshift camp. She looked over and nodded at Poe. They shared a silent gaze that spoke a thousand words. Poe climbed carefully out of the X-Wing and landed hard on the floor.
The ground was riddled with the white armour of fallen Stormtroopers. Poe began his ascent into the forest.
He walked for three maybe four hours before he came across the first traces of a trail from the spherical BB-8. Before Poe advanced along the trail he bent down and reached for a blaster from a fallen Stormtrooper. Poe held it close to his chest and advanced cautiously.
The trail began to appear deeper. Poe began to run, he needed to take the map back to D'Qar, he needed to find BB-8. And, he needed to get back to Finn. Twigs and dry leaves crackled under foot. Poe began to make his ascent up a slope when he noticed something in the mud. Footprints. Poe began to sprint up the slope, he could hear scuffling on the other side of the ridge. When he reached the top he could see a small clearing where the spherical, dormant BB-8 sat not moving. Poe half ran half jumped down the hill he could just about make out a scuffling in the foliage opposite him. He did not care. He ran towards the droid.
BB-8 lay silent and did not move. Poe began searching around the droid, trying to find the mechanism that would put him into 'back up power' mode. He eventually found the latch and BB-8's camera focused and came into life. BB-8's head swivelled to face Poe.
"BeeBee-Ate! What happened to you?" Poe exclaimed. BB-8 began to respond in fast beeps that conveyed confusion and concern. "You can't remember?" Poe frowned slightly at this. "What about the map, do you still have it?" Poe questioned anxiously. BB-8 looked down at his containment unit and as it opened Poe peered in and saw that there was nothing in there. The map had been taken. Poe looked at BB-8 who began to exclaim his confusion and excuses. Poe waved his hand at him to signal him to stop. He looked at the ground for a second and saw that there were three pairs of footprints leading from where they were standing heading into the forest. Poe let out a deep sigh. "Let's go home." Poe started to make his solemn way to his X-Wing while BB-8 rolled beside him, his head hung low.
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I hope that you enjoyed my first chapter that was original! I enjoyed writing it immensely! Sorry if it was a bit off though, I have exams coming up and I am pretty stressed, but I wanted to get a chapter out on time!
Thank you for your reviews, follows and favourites, they mean the world to me! I hope you enjoyed and see you next week!
Days until Rogue One: 313 Days
Days until Episode VIII: 676 Days