PART SIX – FALL
ON BOARD THE FINALIZER
RESURGENT CLASS STAR DESTROYER
Day 20, Month 4, Year 34
Together, Kylo Ren and Roxin Avaris left the bay and followed the stormtrooper to Snoke's Chamber. There was an unusual flurry of activity around them: troopers running to the arsenal, technicians dashing to the engine room, and pilots heading for the bridge. There were terse commands and anxious inquiries.
"How many are there?"
"Man the guns!"
But the noise wafted in and out of Roxin's subconscious like irrelevant details of a monumental blueprint. She was still recovering from what happened earlier in the medical bay. She felt him there inside her mind and she, in turn, found herself in his.
What she discovered confirmed what she knew all along – that here was a man who lived and breathed and felt; a man who still suffered from insecurities, who struggled to be accepted, who longed to be needed. Here was a man who wanted to continue a legacy, to make a difference, and to simply matter.
Kylo Ren was a man who echoed the raw and human desires of everyone else. It was only his choice which set him apart from most: his choice to walk in the path of the dark.
And Roxin finally understood why. The dark side did not require Ren to conform to society's standards. It did not compel him to change into the ideal well-mannered, sociable, and agreeable individual. It overlooked his introversion and awkwardness and instead encouraged him to be who really is: passionate, devoted, and eager. Snoke offered him what his former world could not: a sense of belonging and importance. A sense of purpose.
Roxin pondered the degree of loyalty Ren has for his new master. This was the very same entity who seduced Ben Solo to the dark side, causing him to assume a new identity and renounce his family and friends. If Snoke threatened to disown him or even kill him, would Kylo Ren allow her to die?
Roxin inhaled deeply. This walk to the Supreme Leader's chambers, she realized, was her final march. Her march to death.
An ear-splitting boom brought Roxin back to the present. The ground shook and the hall lights above them sparked and sputtered.
Roxin recognized the chrome-armored captain who approached them from the other end of the passageway.
"We are under attack," Phasma announced, stopping abruptly in front of Kylo Ren. "Someone disabled the ship's cloaking device and our coordinates were sent out. The Resistance waited in ambush."
Phasma turned towards Roxin and even though the former's expression was concealed by her helmet, the gesture could not have been more accusatory.
Apparently, Ren sensed this, too. He raised an arm in front of Roxin as if to shield her. "If you assume she is in any way responsible, you are clearly mistaken. It was not her doing. Now go," he told Phasma. "Tell Hux to deploy the TIE fighters and eliminate all Resistance ships. Leave none intact."
Captain Phasma gave a curt nod and hurried off to the bridge.
Outside, a fervent battle ensued between X-wings and TIE fighters. The planes moved in elaborate eclipses, their laser cannons firing a plethora of beams – red and blue, green and orange, each as deadly as the next.
As the Resistance engaged the wrath of the Order's present fleet, an undetected Starbomber of considerable size inched closer to the Finalizer. Hidden by a complex stealth device, the vessel lurked in silence like a predator watching its prey while waiting for the right time to strike.
From the cockpit of the bomber, the bounty hunter carefully adjusted the scope until the target – an adult human female walking alongside Kylo Ren – came into focus on the head-up display. The assassin locked on Roxin Avaris and, wasting no time, pulled the lever and fired.
Ren Force-sensed the incoming torpedo before he saw it hurtling through space. He grabbed hold of Roxin and half-carried her down the hallway just in time to avoid the collision of metal against metal and missile against hull.
The impact tore a large gaping hole at their side of the ship. Immediately, the temperature dropped. All around, red lights began to blink rapidly. A nearby stormtrooper lost his foothold and fell through the blast hole, relentlessly pulled by the gravitational field of the planet below. Upon witnessing this, Roxin let out a scream but nothing came out. She realized that the world was now a vacuum devoid of sound.
Her head suddenly felt like it was being crushed and was about to burst. Her vision blurred and her limbs grew numb. Her pulse heightened. She could not breathe. She felt herself being pulled backwards to the safety of an airlock chamber.
That was when the second missile hit.
The blast shook Kylo Ren off balance and before he realized it, Roxin had already slipped from his arms. He scrambled forward and reached out to the limp body that was now falling past the edge of the disjointed hallway. He fell, his stomach flat on the floor.
For a fraction of a second, his fingers caught hers. He concentrated on Force-lifting her back to him, but a third missile hit and rendered all his efforts useless.
Kylo Ren watched in horror as Roxin's body drifted away, as she gave in to the pull of the planet beneath. He lay there, his arms stretched out, his fingers splayed open, holding on to nothing but emptiness.
Someone – a stormtrooper – tapped his shoulder. Ren was told that his helmet's built-in oxygen supply was depleting and his suit's recompression function had a time limit. He had to leave if he were to survive.
But Kylo Ren didn't move. Not yet. He drew on the Force to fight the fatal interstellar vacuum as his eyes followed the retreating shadow of the woman he loved.
Falling.
Disappearing.
Leaving him for the last time.
That day, to the terror and surprise of the pilots, all nearby Resistance X-wing starfighters spontaneously combusted. Not one survived.
Somewhere in the farthest reaches of the galaxy, a creature called Snoke smiled to himself. His plan - hiring a mercenary, sabotaging the Finalizer, and allowing the Resistance to attack - was a much better alternative to having Kylo Ren kill Avaris. Her death has served its purpose. It reinforced Kylo Ren's animosity towards the Republic and the Resistance.
Yes, Snoke thought with utmost satisfaction. It widened the rift between Kylo Ren and the light.