The town centre was as drab as they had left it, only now sprinkled with bustling sentient life. In the Force, their spirits were too dull to make a difference. Like looking at a million moulds, empty replicas of true existence.
The same could be said of their own gathering, the 'Troopers resting on the hot sand, saying nothing, only panting like dogs against the heat. Rey stood at the top of the knoll, surveying their surroundings. "We'll find ships all around the outskirts. We need to pick one and leave. If we stand around for more than a minute, the entire settlement will get suspicious."
Hux sighed. "Will any do?"
"Any will fly. I can't promise they'll fly very well, though."
"So we pick one that looks in decent condition."
"Correct."
Kylo examined their limited selection closely. From here, he could make out only the bare basics: an insignia here and there, evidence of lasercannon damage, parts falling off. There were scant few that seemed even able to make it off this rock and into the sky, let alone take them into hyperspace.
He wasn't pleased with their chances.
Kylo asked, "Which would you pick?"
Rey hummed. "There's a decent looking freighter over there, a little to our right, see? Doesn't look too slow, but will carry our people and weapons. That'll do."
Hux gave a hesitant grumble. "And it won't kill us?"
"None of us could possibly let that happen," Rey said, sparking with something that was almost offence.
Hux frowned. We'll see to that yet, Kylo heard, a sour little echo. He found he agreed.
His 'Troopers scrabbled down the hill on legs as wobbly as newborns, and Kylo lamented the state of the Order once more. For all Hux tried, for all Hux put in every scrap of his effort, their soldiers were still unreliable, and, on one of their better days, only slightly imbecilic.
He had no issue sliding down the sand with grace, not until the very end, when Hux's pointed internal jabs at the prideful way he held himself grew too frustrating.
You look like you've forced yourself into a neck brace, Kylo, by the gods. We hold our heads high when we address the Order, not when we walk - with as much subtlty as our little gathering can, I might add - into a town of suspicious con artists.
Kylo frowned. If he appeared imposing, perhaps he could frighten this wasteland's inhabitants into offering up their ships for his choosing. I've been trained to present myself as a threat and nothing else since the day I was taken in as a Knight.
Hux shook sand off his boots, looking mildly amused. Everything Kylo did was entertainment to him; it was unsettling. He was used to Snoke's scrutiny, but Hux's was of an entirely different breed. He could never tell which way it ran - to contempt, or to simple curiosity.
I would applaud your paranoia if it weren't so... insistent. You truly don't know how to quiet your mind, do you, Ren?
I have never had reason to. It was the honest truth. He wasn't blind enough to believe there were no Force-sensitives in the Order, but none that he particularly minded hearing the loudest of his anger. Until Hux, who had the sheer daring to tell him to "mind his mental manners". Snoke didn't talk to him enough for it to be considered a nuisance, and Grandfather was no doubt able to shut out all outside sources. Hux was, in fact, the only person he knew who had ever cared to listen to him for more than five seconds of short, barked commands.
Now that's just sad. Don't you have a diary to talk to?
He was exceedingly aware of Hux's opinion of him - that he was a childish sycophant with an attitude problem, a Rebel brat at birth, the esteemed but unworthy child of its greatest leaders. Very funny, General.
That's not precisely true, Hux corrected. I believe you'd benefit greatly from an entire shipload of therapists, but I don't think of you as Snoke's boot-licking, immature little lackey. You're clearly Anakin Skywalker's instead, of course.
Kylo couldn't supress his father's pride. Come off it.
Hux huffed. I'm only joking. What a sensitive soul you are. Tell me, if your precious grandfather turned out to be an unhinged maniac, would you drop him as you did Snoke? Do you pledge your loyalty on a whim? Or is it only by chance that you're switching masters like bandages?
Chance! Kylo gave him an incredulous glare. You don't believe I need controlling to live, do you? I only serve those who are worthy. Grandfather is worthy. If he were a sentimental fool like his son, maybe then I would reconsider.
He is a sentimental fool. He's looking out for you, isn't he? His darling grandson, his adored Skywalker heir.
It's not sentiment that drives him. He wants to see me rise to power. His concern for my happiness and well-being is entirely dependent on my honouring the family name, and even then. He will not shed tears if I die.
Darth Vader wouldn't shed tears if you died, no, but you forget Vader isn't the only one occupying that body. The Sith Lord whose every move you worship? He was the hollow shell of your blood grandfather.
Anakin Skywalker would shed no more tears than Darth Vader.
Hux stared blankly. And I thought I had the least faith in my blood, out of this whole galaxy, but you're quite a worthy rival. I know for a fact Brendol Hux I gave as much of a damn about me as he did the dust at his feet, but you don't know anything at all of the feelings your family harbours for you, don't claim to deny it. Vader could project any emotion he pleased your way, and from your resentment, I don't imagine your birth parents were all that transparent. Really, your uncle was the only one who ever made a show of loving you. And yet he was the one you betrayed.
Kylo winced, flinched back. I did not betray him. I betrayed the Jedi he trained. He could be dead, couldn't he? But he lives, because I allow it.
Your family may act as if they don't care, Ren, but that's all it is - an act. The Skywalkers are sentimental fools, every single one of them, and there's not a sentient mind in this whole universe who doesn't know it.
There was a pointed cough from behind them. "Could you two lovebirds move along?" Dameron motioned impatiently. "Do I have to say 'please'?"
Kylo bristled, but Hux simply waved him along. "Would you like an apology?" he asked. "Pardon me. I'm very sorry for discussing Order business with my partner."
Dameron tilted his head, along with his little droid. "You haven't said anything in the past- oh. Oh, you're having it telepathically." He frowned, turned to Finn. "How could you work for these people? No transparency! None!"
"I mean, to be fair, they did kidnap me."
Hux remained dispassionate. "The Jedi kidnapped children, too, if I recall."
Rey shrugged. "At least they were kind to theirs."
"So they have no faults?" Hux himself was bristling now. "Please, tell me about how flawless the Jedi Order was, and how its problems were pure tragedy and always a result of the Sith."
Rey held up a hand. "They weren't perfect, but they were a lot better than this."
Kylo opened his mouth to retort, to systematically destroy all her fantasies and falsehoods about the oh-so-great Jedi Order, but Hux just shrugged and allowed her to sit and seethe. "It depends on your definition of 'better,'" he said, and left it at that.
At the base of the knoll, Kylo could see clearly the awful state their escape vessels had been left to stew in. Rey did preliminary checks over their functionality, searching for any potentially fatal design errors, and then resigned herself to choosing the least decayed. "I'll need to survey the rest of the docking lots," she began, ticking off some unknown list against her fingers. "Many meet the criteria, but only one of these will have to do. We can't take a whole fleet." She paused. "Can we?"
"We won't insist on our First Order flourish, if that's what you're asking." Hux smiled. "You know this place better than any. The choice belongs to you."
Rey stopped. "I'll decide after I've seen it all," she said, and led on.
Kylo trailed her, to avoid suspicion, not that he imagined it would do much good in a town like this. Nonetheless, he knew how to be cautious when the situation required it.
The dust swirled and brushed around them like cat-tails, licking at their ankles and sliding into their boots. Without the Force, he couldn't see a thing, which was perhaps Rey's ultimate goal. Those who cannot see cannot be seen.
When the dust parted, to flickers of light on metal, then Rey would rest against a nearby pole and pretend to be engrossed in counting credits, while they all let their eyes take their fill. No prospect was particularly promising. Run-down rustbuckets, nothing that Kylo would bet his life on breaching the atmosphere with.
Through every gap in the dust, Kylo caught glimpses of wary faces, the worn scavengers like vultures over their kill. Rey herself was clearly set on edge by these bottomfeeders. They were a threat, of course, but manageable, with time. Why bother with such open caution? They had to walk with confidence. That was the image the Order had always presented, and would always present.
"They'll move their ships if they suspect," Rey said, to his unsaid question. "We'll need to move farther into the town. I can't risk alerting them."
"We can't scout ships we can't see," Finn began, then paused. "Can we? Man, don't tell me..."
Hux's amused laughter settled over their tense shoulders, their rigid postures. "We can, yes. Quite the feat, wouldn't you say?"
"I'm gonna have to say, though, aren't I?" Finn sighed, and began to trail forward into the village heart. "That's the thing."
Chimes made of plating sheets stripped off the hulls of once-great ships greeted them in the town centre. Old, weathered people, their skin lined with scars and a sheen of sweat, hunched over workbenches and focused callous hands on melding liquid metal. Heat radiated off every surface, and Kylo was suddenly suffocating.
"Has this been your entire life?" he asked, and Rey turned to him, almost affronted.
"And what about yours?"
"I've moved," he protested, feeling the thick blanket of Hux's perpetual smug amusement pressing down against his back. He glared. You don't like this place any more than I do, admit it.
Oh, gladly. You're just so defensive; it's entertaining.
Kylo ducked under the cover of his robes. Entertaining. As if he were some spectacle to be watched from afar. This was what had become of his family's legacy. A lightshow.
Was that all he was now? A lightshow for the galaxy to ogle? Was that what Grandfather thought of him, staring down at his puppets, wondering when to make them dance, when it was time to finally cut the strings? He wanted, then, more than ever, to know what went on in Darth Vader's ghostly mind. Kylo could reach out and pass a hand through his grandfather's very head, but he could no more grasp his thoughts than he could grasp the air he breathed. Or could not breathe, in Vader's case.
He wanted that transparency to extend beyond the visual. He wanted to know the plan his ancestors had in store for him. He wanted to see. He had to see.
He collided sharply against something firm and warm, then, which had a faint smell of grease and dust, and an eerie familiarity. Kylo opened his eyes to find an average junker, his arms full with bag after bag of presumed haul. "Watch where you're going, bud," he growled, and pushed forward.
Kylo didn't budge an inch. How dare a lowlife try to lecture me on manners!
"I said," the junker spat, now pushing with all his might against Kylo's unmoving weight, "watch where you're going!"
Swiftly, Kylo kicked out a leg and tripped him. "I'll offer the same advice to you," he said, slowly.
The man below him squirmed in the dust like a snake, and reared up, dropping his haul and raising his fists, likely to fight hand-to-hand, but Kylo wasn't interested. He held the scavenger scum in place with the Force, and looked down only at the parts scattered across the sand below. New metal, clearly from the hull of an unsuspecting ship, painted in glaring white with an insignia he knew better than his own face. Gargling and spitting, the junker managed, "Just move!"
"What is this?" Kylo asked, instead.
The poor, pathetic, miserable little thing shrunk into himself at this. "Important business."
"That's the First Order's emblem. What are you doing with First Order equipment?"
"Whaddaya think?"
"You stole it," Kylo offered, and thanked the stars that the heat rising in his face was disguised by the desert weather. The element of surprise was always an advantage.
"Damn right I did, like everyone else in this town. Now, excuse me, I have places to go-"
Kylo wasn't listening. "You're the one who stole our ship," he said, simply.
Now isn't the time, came Hux's voice.
Now is exactly the time.
"So what if I am? Not the first one to lose a ship around here. Y'know what they say, you snooze, you-"
Kylo gripped at his throat and choked the small vole of a man as hard as he could. A crowd, the vole's friends, scuttled forward to support him, but Kylo was too far gone to care they were outnumbered. They could take the hit. Trash like this never got very far.
Ren, honestly-
He let the man grapple frantically at his neck. "No. Please. Continue," Kylo said, beatific. "I want to hear the rest."
"Ren," Hux said, yanking his words from the comforting shawl of telepathy and into the harsh, audible present, "that's enough."
Kylo let the shaking creature drop, let him gather his things, and gasp like a man drowned, inhaling dust-laden air and choking and sobbing like the miserable wreck he was. The others seemed affronted to see their colleague so humiliated. They had blasters at the ready, their faces vicious and contorted like wild animals. It was amusing to watch them flounder. "Very well, General."
As the thief clawed at the hot dirt beneath him, he angled his neck like a crooked branch towards his compatriots, and screeched, "Get him! Get all of 'em!"
They let loose the first volley of blasterfire immediately, but Kylo had been expecting a skirmish to break, and managed to halt the first bolts. "We don't have much time. Rey, choose a ship. Now. Hux?"
"I'll keep them occupied." Briefly, he snapped his gaze over towards their defective 'Troopers. "Everyone else, follow Rey, and get in the thrice-damned ship without making a fuss."
The whole town, now, was feeling the thieves' rage, everyone turning left and right to point accusations, to squabble like the uncivilised. Heat from passing blasterbolts singed his clothes, and in a second, he saw Rey scrabbling forward to another ship, some backwater Corellian freighter, running to it from the flaming wreck of her first pick. Lasercannons. Force, this place was truly the pit.
Soon, they were scattering among themselves, boots rattling the ground like drums, desperately following to their new shelter. He passed Finn, ducking in the sand to avoid blasts, grumbling, "This ship isn't gonna make it off the ground, let alone fly, and don't even talk about withstanding this bolt party."
From his place behind some stray speeder, he saw Hux standing, eerily still, in the middle of their sights.
He begged, What are you doing?
Trying something. Hux knelt to the ground, and in the Force, Kylo felt a sudden pull, a shift of gravity, clear before him. Soon, the sand was tumbling around him, circling and circling, spinning itself a cyclone to wrap right around Hux's dusty form. Then, Hux let it loose, and everything was chaos. To the ship! Get to the ship!
Kylo leapt from cover, ignoring the pain of the sand catching against his skin, tearing long, red lines, and ran pace-by-pace at Hux's side. How did you- how did you... manage that?
I haven't the slightest. I used your training. Thanks, for that. I'm saving your sorry souls once again. A burst of frustration, annoyance, biting sarcasm. You know how I do so love to keep things routine.
Then, with one final push, they were tumbling head-over-heels into the main hold of the freighter, whose controls Rey and Dameron had already commandeered, and watching as they were lifted, jerky, up into the sky, and hauled into Jakku's atmosphere at top, dizzying speed.
Kylo blinked, and then leant forward to spit up dust. They were out. Free. Hopefully for good.
Author's Note: KYLO WILL CLUE IN SOON. SOON. JUST GIVE HIM A MOMENT TO ADJUST, HE HAS TO CONTINUE TO BE EXTRA, AFTER ALL.
I was away in China for a while, and then got bombarded with schoolwork, but I'm back to the land of the living now! Sorry for the late update.