Rey packed precious few things when she left. The hull was a hollow shell from the beginning, but now it truly reflected its age, the long past glory days of the Empire lying bare and fraying for all to see.

It was gorgeous. The tech was still elegant, the marred controls still usable, the death that hung around it a pristinely crafted warning.

Kylo wanted it for his collection. When Rey returned, he would have to buy it from her. She would realise her family was dead soon enough, Kylo was sure. And then she'd finally leave this hell, finally let snap the single tether binding her to its heart.

He hoped. In truth, he had no frame of reference. He had left his family voluntarily, and yet Rey had stayed here for years waiting for hers to return. It made no sense, that level of dedication. His family didn't miss him now; he doubted Rey's would mind much if she left, for once in her small life. It was a fitting punishment for those who would abandon their child on a free-for-all deathtrap like this, besides. If his family had left him so, they wouldn't deserve his loyalty for a second, let alone decades.

This planet was desolate and dry and the worst environment for a child Kylo could possibly imagine. Why in the thousand stars did Rey even give the slightest care to her bloodline's wellbeing?

Unless she knew something he didn't, which was very much unlikely. He wouldn't call his judgement into question for such trivial reasons. She knew as little of them as he did.

"Where are we going?" Rey asked. She hauled medical supplies behind her, the fifth-portion they'd split for her. Between them, the carry was manageable, but Kylo could still sense frustration and impatience from all of the party.

"To our ship," Hux said. "Quite a few kilometres away, at this point. Just outside the village Dameron was hiding in."

"I wasn't hiding."

"You were a stowaway," Kylo said, and blinked back sweat from his eyes. He'd returned the mask to its usual place in hiding his face, but still he wasn't freed from the heat. Only Rey showed no signs of struggle, though Dameron and Finn were far from complaint. They'd been trained for this.

"I was protecting that map."

Finn shrugged. "I'd say that was fair enough to assume. We usually do a lot more shooting, and brutal, gory murder."

Dameron grinned. "Finally someone with some sense."

"I'm sorry, was it not common knowledge that the First Order leaves a string of death in its wake?" asked Rey, sharply.

"It was, to all the very few survivors," Kylo replied, with all the calm disconnect he could summon, and walked on.

Hux gave another one of his inhuman, pleasant little smiles. "Before their dissent was silenced."

The morning light glinted off the town huts, glaring, harsh, into their eyes, and blinding their sight. Kylo and Hux had the Force to guide them, and Rey used her own internal map. Finn and Dameron likely had little experience in these environments. They stumbled and blustered through the sand, panting and coughing up dust.

They were not even close to arrival. The path from the ship to this centre hub had been enough in itself, but added to the meandering route they'd wound around the sand dunes across Rey's territory, it was frustrating. He wanted to strike the sand with his 'saber, watch it crystallise and melt and vaporise under his weapon's erratic bursts of pure, unharnessed energy.

But that would serve only to disturb the others.

Since when have you cared about the feelings of the people who witness your tantrums, Ren?

Since they've been in possession of knowledge key to our success.

Hux huffed, broadcasting an incredulous sort of amusement. I love how greatly you doubt the capabilities of our soldiers. They don't have any key knowledge, is that it?

It was insulting, perhaps, to Hux, to know those he commanded weren't all that useful. It was not meant as an offence on his skill. Really, it was a miracle Hux had managed to train them thus far. Kylo knew he hadn't the patience to direct bumbling idiots for more than half a second, yet alone so many years. Well, they don't.

I'm glad you think so highly of my abilities. And it was genuine, Kylo could sense, underneath that sarcastic veneer, under the constant, fixed, vicious little smile.

You are likely the only one fit to lead these disposable masses. How does your patience not fray completely? Don't you ever want to throw a 'tantrum' yourself?

Oh, frequently. It's not that I don't think highly of your own abilities, Ren. I might as well admit I have at least a modicum of respect for you if we're going to be sharing minds. I don't imagine either of us are used to this level of intimacy. I do respect you. I only wish you would exercise some control.

The one problem with this mental connection was how little Kylo could keep from it on a passive, subconscious level. Actively, he could block anything, but that would soon tire him, and he needed the Force for much more important things. Call me B- he began, and reeled. Call me Kylo.

The instant correction didn't go unnoticed. But Hux simply shrugged, and asked, How long have you had that name, besides? Not too long, I suppose.

Since I left the Jedi Order. Not all Knights of Ren have changed their names. It's a statement of rebirth to some, and an unnecessary clean slate to others. I chose to change mine because it is too well-known. I want that attention focused elsewhere. On my skill, not my blood.

And you couldn't really call yourself Ben Ren, could you?

Not if I wanted to maintain any shred of dignity, General.

I wasn't aware dignity was something you cared all that much about. Hux gave him a subtle, sidelong glance. He was teasing. He had the trust to show camaraderie. Kylo blinked. If I call you Kylo, then you call me...

You're not happy with your name, are you?

You can call me Brendol if you wish. Hux is more my name than anything, I admit. But I should return the favour; it's only polite.

I'll call you what you want to be called, he offered, puzzled. Hux is less formal than General. Brendol, Armitage, they are only your names if you want them to be. Do you? Want them to be?

I'd accept it from you. Hux seemed startled by this thought, and Kylo realised he, too, fell prey to his mental transparency as much as Kylo did his own. Well, at least you know this isn't a front. Congratulations on being the one and only person who can tell when I'm lying, Kylo Ren. I hope you will be the first and the last.

The same goes to you... Brendol Armitage Hux. Kylo mulled the name over in his mind. It fit, in a certain way. You're aware you're a much more interesting person than your namesake, aren't you? You're compelling. Your father was simply talented. You have a gift.

Hux gave him a surprised stare. You know, I daresay I'm beginning to quite like you. Next thing we know, the stars will orbit the planets, and Jakku will freeze over.

Kylo's pleased look was hidden beneath his mask, but he knew Hux could still sense it. It may help to know I feel the same.

Rey seemed to sense their psychic conversations immediately. He could see her straining to pick up on something, only a faint whisper to her, a small murmur in the sound of the wind. She knew this planet like the back of her hand, and Kylo knew she would soon realise this wasn't nature's natural ambiance.

He would explain to her, should she ask. Denying great power would only delay things, not halt them entirely. And Kylo didn't particularly want them to halt at all, when the Order was so greedy for talent, when the army was in such desperate need of capable fighters, and when Rey clearly met every standard.

He would be instrumental in their rise to power. Finding others to equal him was not intimidating, not threatening. It simply was. Kylo could deem them worthy or he could not; Rey appeared worthy. He would not object to her alliance, but full cooperation was unlikely. She would never - could never - approve of Kylo's methods, or Hux's, or the Order's, no matter how convinced she was that they were attempting a reform.

She distrusted them, and he respected that. Her caution was an asset, as long as she stayed on their side. If the Order split territory between itself and the Republic, the Resistance would settle into wary vigilance, and so would Rey. This was his ultimate goal. Gain knowledge, gain power, gain true enlightenment in the Force. The more strength he and Hux amassed, the more potential they had in quelling all rebellion. Should they find the need to remove the Republic from the equation, his training with the Skywalkers would ensure it was seen to immediately.

Hux wanted his knowledge, his power to translate into control. Kylo wanted his to earn respect, fear. And their three associates wanted peace and happiness. He was not stupid enough to assume they would not come into conflict in the future. He knew the possible outcomes. Beat them or join them. Once the time came - and it would come - he would choose whichever one served to better further his interests in the longterm. And from what he knew thus far, he was fairly certain Hux would do the same.

In the current time, however, it was his job to keep that conflict from manifesting for as long as he could manage. And, if it were to actually help, placating Rey and her Resistance friends was a hardship he would gladly endure.

Though it was best to leave the true diplomacy to those more suited. Let Hux swindle the righteous and the indignant. Before Kylo took his 'saber's blade to all of their throats in sheer frustration.

"How much farther?" Finn asked, blinking stinging sweat from watering eyes. He looked like he'd drowned in a pool of his own sweat, uniform tarnished with smears of dust and debris. His steps were measured, even, but it was clear he'd much rather collapse.

"We're exiting the town now," Hux said, cheery, and turned to Rey. "Not too far from that run-down village of yours."

"It's not mine," Rey said, firm. "This place isn't my true home. My family are."

"They could live on Tatooine." Finn fiddled with his helmet nervously. "Or somewhere equally as... uh, dry. And unpleasant in general."

Rey shrugged. "Anywhere is better than here, to me. As soon as they find them, I never want to come back to this part of Jakku again in my life. I've seen too many terrible things here, I can never look at it the same way."

"You used to like it?"

"I'm not sure if you could call it 'like'. I thought of it a lot better than I do now, at least."

Kylo wondered what it was like, to call home a person and not a place. He had never truly felt at home anywhere except on the bridge of a starship, in streaming hyperspace, watching the stars blink around him. No place he knew felt like home, not Corellia, or Tatooine, or even the empty spot in space where Alderaan once used to spin. And Uncle Luke's temple belonged to him, not to Kylo, or to any of the padawans that had trained there.

Rey didn't know if her home was worth all the effort, Kylo realised. Her family could be cruel and merciless, and she could be pledging herself to their service, in her desperate attempt to grab at some sort of ideal, away from the harsh and bitter reality of Jakku, in all its elegant, empty, dead sand. For all she knew, Jakku was a better home than her family could ever be.

She would feel betrayed and disappointed, should she find them not to her liking. Perhaps she would return to Jakku, or perhaps she would rebel completely, join the Resistance, and settle nowhere except the bridge of a starship herself. Maybe the loss of something that could never have been real in the first place would drive her to violence and ruthlessness. He had to wait and see the results of this experiment, yet a sick, twisting feeling in the pit of his stomach told him he already had enough insight into the issue. He need only look in his parents' direction to see the effects of betrayal on such a scale.

He wondered if maybe they, too, would turn vicious without their imagined image of a son. They could no longer be proud parents. Their blood had poisoned more lives in the galaxy than it had ever healed, from the moment his great grandmother and, soon after, his grandmother's deaths had tainted his grandfather's psyche for eternity.

How did that feel? Kylo was proud of his innate genetic destruction, but Mother would despair. And his father must have called into question the moral soundness of the Solo bloodline many times over by now.

Kylo embraced it. The rest of his family ran from it, save for Anakin Skywalker himself. That was their undoing, Kylo thought. That they couldn't accept their own roots. One's alignment in the Force was entirely controllable, unless it was ceded to fear and paranoia. Which is precisely what his family had done.

Kylo was no paragon of insight. He felt clueless and lost at the best of times, especially now he'd given over his loyalty to an entirely new master. But the rest of the Skywalkers, in all their supposed wisdom, were secretly as ignorant as he, when it came to the truth about power in this universe. Maybe that was why Luke had shut himself away, to somehow gain understanding by meditating in isolation for a decade. Kylo didn't claim to know.

There was a small touch at his mind, and he returned his attention to the present, to Hux's windblown hair, blending in with the bright, glaring orange of the sparkling sand that surrounded them. Will we let Rey know? Of our loyalty to your grandfather. She knows we are not with Snoke, but we haven't mentioned what prompted our little switch in allegiances.

Do you think it will impact her decision to stay?

Hux hummed, mentally. Visibly, he was entirely composed, if not slightly introspective. Never enough for anyone to notice, and certainly a gift that came far more naturally to him than it had to Kylo. He needed a physical mask to conceal himself, but Hux had never needed more than the face he'd been given at birth. She doesn't respect Vader like you do.

No, I get a general sense that she despises him and others like him. She is no Jedi, yet, but she will not turn to the Dark, this much is extremely clear.

She will find out eventually.

Yes, she will. At a more... appropriate time, I will tell her. Is this alright with you? You tear me down for my poor social cohesion and skill, Hux, but even I know telling her now will only result in... complete disaster. If I had more respect for this planet, I would fear for its survival in the event of such a clash of minds in the Force.

Are you saying a fight with Rey would rip this wasteland apart?

You know the Force runs strong within you. Look at her yourself, and tell me she is not powerful. She could match me, easily. Whomever comes to meet and reunite with her in the end, I know they'll have a great birthright for her to claim. It's obvious.

So, you're not all that arrogant when it comes down to it, are you, then, Kylo?

Denying the truth does not lead to enlightenment in the Force. I know this now.

Hux blinked. Where you didn't before?

Kylo subconsciously lifted his chin, appearing taller, as if this would somehow convince Hux he was not a fool to have made such a grave error in judgement. Snoke had me resist the Light inside me. Now, I will accept its presence, and this will make me stronger, as it did my grandfather before me.

Hux huffed, almost pleased. An impressive resolve to change.

Kylo bowed his head in return, just a small dip, so as to avoid notice. You have my thanks, General.

Once they finally made their final approach to their consort ship, a great and terrible thing dawned: that they had even parked it at all. And on this Junker planet, with their vessel's arbitrary and useless security system. Kylo had a sudden sinking feeling that the ship would no longer be there to greet their arrival. Hux?

You raise a very good point, came the dry response. I wish this had come up sooner. There's no chance it's still there. A pause, and then, Kriffing hells. Kark it all. We just lost our ship.

Kylo stopped in the sand and let it whip his face for some time, as Rey grew more and more on edge. "I sense we've lost our ship," he said, and Rey's eyebrows furrowed.

"Well, I wouldn't be surprised. But how can you be so certain?"

"I can't. But statistically, I'm right. The ship has been stolen."

Rey snorted. "Is that arrogance or pessimism?"

"Both," said Kylo, and stalked on.

Hux simply shrugged at their bemused faces and followed suit. I assume you'll be advocating that we steal one?

That is correct. It was the least the people here deserved, as punishment for their crimes. Their ships would be inherently worthless from weather damage, but the inconvenience was enough. He worried for the tranquility of their flight, though, in such a beaten-down hunk of scrap. If he weren't among the talented, if he didn't have talent of his own, they would be a lot worse for wear. In far deeper waters.

Hux was clearly a great skeptic, but he kept his mouth shut and let Kylo stride forward in long paces, boots crunching against the sand. Kylo could sense from him that he found such theatrics irritating, but Kylo himself was irritated. The First Order could afford the loss of the ship, of that they were all sure after he had proved it time and time again, but the gall of these thieving scum, the damage this would do to the Order's reputation, if people saw that it took no more than a greedy scavenger on an equally as greedy planet to steal from them. It suggested that, if one were stupid enough, if one had the mettle, one was fit to do as one pleased with Order tech.

Those who tried it would be swiftly arrested, and put on trial in an Order court, likely to be executed. Though now they planned to overthrow Snoke's rule, the Order's attitudes towards harsh penalties like these would have to change. The Republic, and by extension the Resistance, would never so much as consider uttering a word to them if they acted, in his mother's words, like "savages."

Hux was clearly displeased. He did not need the Force to see this. Once we reach the scene of the crime to confirm, we'll have to double back and head into the town again. This has all been a complete waste of time, you realise.

Yes, I realise.

All this for a map. There was a huff, and then, No! I'm not questioning its value. Only that it has indeed been a great pain in the ar-

This... all of this... it will, you'll find, all be worth it. In the end.

This was met in the Force with clear disbelief. You can't make statements like that, Kylo. We've no idea if this will prove to be worth it. The item itself is valuable, yes, in a purely objective sense, but mixed with the fact that your grandfather likely already knows where it leads? We could have pushed for him to tell us.

No. This was... a test. He was- testing us. Our resolve. He wanted to know if we were... worth it? No, he knows we're worth the effort. He wanted to test our dedication. To the cause? To him?

You don't know.

I don't claim to know everything Grandfather thinks. Do I? I've never- He wouldn't appreciate the intrusion.

It may be that this was what he intended for us. Along with the upside of having a physical copy of previously only mental knowledge, I suppose. A win/win, perhaps, in his eyes?

All his experiences, all his knowledge of Vader, of Anakin, his personality and his tactics, it all supported this theory. I believe, yes. It fits him. It's... characteristic.

Stop deliberating, Hux dismissed. Ask him, for stars' sake.

I will, when we return to First Order space. I have to be sure, Hux. I know you doubt my ability to premeditate, but I do it frequently. More than you think.

Truly a miracle. Hux chuckled to himself, lightly, shook his head, and moved on.

The site of the ship was emptier than it had been before they'd left it. As if they had never come at all, save for faint treads in the sand, where the ship had rested on its landing gear.

"I guess you're right," said Finn. "I mean, you were so arrogant about it, I expected you to be completely wrong. But you're not. It's actually gone."

Dameron mocked, "Who could pass up such an opportunity? Because I'm sure that thing flies exceptionally well, y'know. Exceptionally."

"No, it's true," said Rey. "They wouldn't pass this up. Order tech like this may be cheap to you, but anything is valuable to them. And that this works as intended? That makes it more than just your average steal. They'll be all over this."

Kylo watched the grains at his feet blow with the wind, stream over the toes of his boots. They'd have to retrieve their party at the village, then begin the journey back towards the main trading hub in this dustbath. And have wasted so much time; a precious commodity now it was limited, stretched thin between the present and some ambiguous date in the future when Supreme Leader Snoke would realise he was neither supreme nor a leader. They needed maximised time to prepare, to stockpile weapons, to gain ties and favours, to ready themselves to become their own highest in command.

They hadn't even began. Not one foot had found its step on their path to success.

They could waste no more time. Not anymore.

Author's Note: Definitely still a late ho, that hasn't changed.

I wanted to get a bit more metaphysical and contemplative in this chapter. But that may be because I was lamenting having to write action scenes that flow smoothly. I'll get them written! I'll just... procrastinate a little, first. Now school's started I have, like, zero excuse not to be focused on being productive tho.

Real talk, actual action is on its way. Enjoy some armchair psychology in the meantime? xx Thanks for the patience. I'm forever grateful to all of you.