Chapter 3
Rey dropped into the planet's atmosphere with a shuddering blast that left him frozen. He felt it like a rolling thunder as every muscle in his body tensed. She was somewhere on the planet. Kylo stiffened as he knelt in the main audience chamber. He looked up at his master, burying his reaction deep inside. There was little he had ever been able to hide from his master. The ancient being could read Kylo's innermost thoughts instantly, and he ripped away whatever privacy Kylo ever wished to have. But still, he did his best to hide his feelings.
Aged and feeble looking, Supreme Leader Snoke sat on his high throne of midnight granite. His looks were deceiving. Although pale, his persona radiated the Dark Side. He was a being who held the power and gravity of a black hole. Inescapable and devastating, his influence could be felt by anyone who neared him. Yet Snoke remained motionless.
Kylo stared up at him. "Master?"
"Yes," Snoke muttered, his gums making a slippery grinding sound against themselves in the silence, "I feel it. She's here."
"It is as I suspected," Kylo said quietly.
"No," Snoke muttered, "It is as you feared."
Kylo averted his eyes. There was no point in lying. His master had seen through him once again. Yes. He feared Rey. She had beaten him. Untrained and outmuscled, she had beaten him. Or he had let her beat him. Either way, it was a dishonor. He was weak against her blinding light.
"Your training is complete my apprentice," Snoke breathed, his jaw moving slowly as his words echoed from his aged chest, "Bring the girl to me. Take your knights, and destroy whatever Resistance fighters she may have brought with her."
Nodding, Kylo stood, "As you wish it, Master. But I feel that the Resistance is leading us into a trap."
Snoke stared at Kylo, his olden eyes so dark that they saw through him.
It felt cold. A gaze that could see through space, time, and into the strongest minds. An invisible icy hand wrapped itself around kylo's lungs. For one horrible second, he couldn't breathe. He gasped, his lungs desperate to bring warmth to them.
"I have foreseen it." Master Snoke answered, releasing his squeeze on Kylo's chest.
Kylo gasped again, his lungs aching even after Snoke released him from the icy hold. He nodded, turning on his heel. Snoke didn't have to waste time with words. Kylo understood his punishment for questioning his master.
He strode out of the main audience chamber, slipping his helmet over his head as he walked. When the doors closed behind him, he looked over his shoulder to see General Hux.
Hux was hovering by an array of control panels and a multitude of readout monitor workers. He caught Kylo's glare, and straitened himself to his full height.
"Summon the five," Kylo muttered, his mask broadcasting his voice so that he didn't have to raise it. "We have work to do."
Rey felt the familiar heat of the sand radiating against the soles of her combat boots. Walking alone through the sand drifts and dunes, she made her way under the star speckled sky toward the main city. Even though it was nighttime, the heat kept by the sand still flowed upward into the cloudless sky. Cresting a sand swept hill, Rey gazed down into the city of the Supreme Leader's innermost sanctum.
The commanding base was a massive collection of black buildings and docking bays with gleaming lights that lit up the desert. According to the reports brought back by the Resistance spies, the buildings went for hundreds of miles underground. The large black city that glistened in the desert night was only the top of the massive operation.
It had taken the Resistance years to find this location. While his hands were stretched throughout the entire galaxy, the Supreme Leader never accompanied any of his commanders. He was a silent director. The invisible puppet master.
Closing her eyes for a moment, Rey focused on the city beneath her. She could feel Kylo's presence. He was there. Angry and humiliated, his presence roared like a reckless and enraged animal. He was below her in the city, and he was coming for her.
But there was another presence. Someone so dark, so sinister, that he made Rey take step backward. Like a shadow across the sun, the Supreme Leader radiated darkness from deep in the city. Only someone capable of horrible cruelty and manipulation could send such dark shadows through the Force. He was the one who directed Kylo's rage.
Rey bit at her lip and drew a shaky breath. She was trained in the Force. Fear lead to the Dark Side. She should not fear Kylo Wren or the Supreme Leader. Fear would weaken her. Fear would be her doom. Rey opened her eyes, and glanced over her shoulder to the abandoned stone ruins of a species long extinct. It had been an insect species, and they had burrowed tunnels deep into the sand and rock. Dead for a millennia, their carving in the stone remained as an echo of their existence. She would wait for Kylo there.
Let Kylo come for her, and let him bring his last remaining knights. She was ready for them.
