Thank you to all who gave me feedback for this! Apparently the thing that I wrote in a school-stressed panic was not a total piece of shit (which I edited a smidge when I posted this chapter).
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars or any of its characters. This is just for my own (twisted) amusement and not for profit.
Chapter 2: Clearing Smoke
Rey's hands had a vice-like grip on her speeder's controls as she rode through towards the Senate building.
An attack on the Chancellor's life. But he was fine, not a scratch on him. His closest adviser, one Brendol Hux, was not. Reportedly, the man took the brunt of the attack in the Chancellor's stead, shot in the back by a sniper.
She was newly Knighted, for Force sake, and she did not want to deal with this, not with the Chancellor and, by extension, his politics. She would rather be in the library. And she hated the library.
But it was a direct order from Master Luke. So she really did not have much choice in the matter.
The Senate grounds were swarming with police and the press when she landed.
No one stopped her as she approached the front gates, an obviously stressed-out man standing in front of the door. He looked startled and almost relieved when he caught sight of her.
"What can I do for you, Master Jedi?" he asked.
Rey recognized him from a holo-vid a few weeks earlier. He had been at a podium making a statement about some major event or another.
"You work for the Chancellor. What is your name?" she asked.
He straightened. "I am Mitaka, Chancellor Ren's press secretary."
Rey nodded with a twitch of her lips at the man's enthusiasm for his position.
"Where is the Chancellor? I must see him immediately."
Mitaka cringed, clearly knowing information that she would not like to hear. Rey narrowed her eyes at him, daring him to lie to her.
"He is not here, Master Jedi," Mitaka croaked.
Rey's heart dropped and she probed his thoughts, not buying what he just said. But she did not sense any deceit in him.
The Chancellor. Where…where was he, then? If he was not in his suite, then where?
"Where is he?" she growled.
Mitaka stiffened, the bobbing of his throat betraying his attempt to show authority. "I am not at liberty to say."
Rey stepped closer, her already limited patience wearing thin very quickly.
"I am assigned to protect the Chancellor by Master Luke Skywalker," she growled, "If the Chancellor dies because you are wasting my time, it will be on you."
If Mitaka could have gotten any paler, he did.
"He is at the Coruscanti hospital nearby with General Hux, twenty blocks northwest of here."
Rey tried to stamp out the seething irritation at the whole situation as turned on her heel and strode back to her speeder, making a hard left into the sky. She had rushed to the Senate building and he was not there. Of course, he was not there. That would be too easy for her.
By the time she got to the hospital, he could be dead and she could have failed her assignment before it even began.
When she finally arrived, the hospital was locked down Stormtroopers, making it painfully obvious who was inside. But she could have been blind and have known that the Chancellor was in the building. She could feel him: a pulsing wave of anger and pain.
She had been there when he was sworn into office, only a face in the crowd of Jedi there to pay homage to the new Chancellor. The anger had been there at the time, more muted than it was now. There was also a smug pride in him and a complete lack of the humility he conveyed convincingly in proceeding speech.
It had become increasingly clear through her time as a Padawan why Jedi were not meant to be in politics: the theatrics and deceit that ran rampant through the Senate halls were detestable.
Once again, she parked the speeder and hopped out, making her way through the hospital front doors.
From the chatter of the workers, apparently, all incoming cases were being diverted to other hospitals while the Chancellor and Hux were in the building. Extra security, they said.
She kept her spine straight and her face as stoic as possible as she walked the halls, no one questioning her presence until she was a door away from the Chancellor. There were four Stormtroopers stationed there, the red coloring on their armor telling her that they were part of the elite teams assigned to protect the Chancellor.
They stiffened as she neared, ready to fight, hands going for their sidearms.
"I am Rey of the Jedi Temple. Master Skywalker sent me to protect the Chancellor. Let me pass," she said as the obvious leader stepped in her path.
"You have to give us your lightsaber," a female voice spoke through her helmet.
Rey arched an eyebrow at that.
"Why? I cannot protect the Chancellor without my lightsaber," Rey said slowly, refusing to back down from this matter. If they thought she would let them boss her around, they had another thing coming. The Stormtrooper stared at her as if weighing her options. Rey had a passing thought of using a mind trick on her, but she gestured at the door before she could really put much stock in the idea.
The Chancellor, the most powerful man on Courscant, stood in the middle of the room, hands clasped behind him. The artificial lights drained what little color he had on his face, his black clothes doing nothing to help with his pallor.
Rey bowed stiffly as soon as she entered the room, the door hissing closed behind her, unsure if he could see her. His eyes were fixed on the bacta tank. But that slight twitch of his posture told her that he heard her enter.
"Chancellor Ren," she greeted, stepping further into the room. "I am Rey. Master Skywalker assigned me to protect you."
Rey almost physically recoiled at the wave of anger that came from him in response to her words, though his expression remained unchanged except for a tightening of his jaw.
She allowed herself to relax slightly after mentally sweeping the room, since it was evident that the three of them were to be left alone. But she kept mindful of their surroundings, since she could have a moment's notice before she would have to wield her blade.
Neither of them said anything for a minute, the sounds of medical machinery filling the silence.
"They say it was an attack on my life," he spoke up, voice gravelly and monotone.
She could hear a 'but' coming, so she did not speak up until it was clear he was finished with his thought. He was already simmering with anger. There was no need to make it worse by interrupting him.
He spat out, "I know that he was the target."
His hand gestured at the bacta tank and Rey followed the movement to see the famed Hux, unconscious and floating inside. There was a white patch over his chest, underneath she assumed was the blaster wound.
"The sniper had a clean shot at me, but they shot him instead."
Rey nodded and said, "He means something to you. And that made him a target."
A slight tremor ran through the black-clad man's form, almost missed by Rey.
"He is my adviser. Nothing more."
She nodded again, not going to dispute his words out loud. But she knew that Hux was more than an adviser, if the Chancellor was willing to put himself in harm's way to keep vigil.
…
Kylo always hated hospitals. They always smelled of antiseptic and death and were always so noisy.
And now he hated them even more, because apparently neither the security nor his own men could keep a Jedi from getting into the room. If Hux had been in charge of the security detail, she would not have gotten in through the front doors. But someone shot him.
The rage over what happened washed over him again and he wanted to punch something.
"I don't suppose you know who did this?" Kylo said, crossing his arms, turning fully towards the Jedi.
The woman, Rey, tilted her head in confusion.
"What makes you think I know?"
Kylo rolled his eyes. He hated Rey on principle, what else was a Jedi to him but someone for him to hate, but her obvious innocence gave her some credit.
"Well, you Jedi seem to know everything. I received a call from your Master and not two minutes later, my adviser was shot."
She seemed to realize the hidden meaning of his words and immediately bristled. Kylo felt a small victory over getting an emotion out of her that was not of pure calm or thinly-disguised pity.
"I do not know who did this," she hissed, "But I was instructed to protect you, my lord. So that is what I am going to do."
"How noble."
They lapsed into a tense silence, breaking eye contact to watch the bacta tank.
It was his fault. Kylo knew that. This would not have happened if he had stayed as a Senator. But Hux would have said that it was 'part of the job' and it was 'better me than you'.
"I am sorry for what happened to him. Your adviser," Rey said after a time.
He turned to look again at the Jedi, who kept her eyes fixed to the tank with a frightening intensity.
Her hair was pulled back into three ridiculous buns that lined down the back of her head, her plain robes and cloak and the lightsaber dangling from her belt obvious as to what she was. Thin and several inches shorter than he, her face pretty-looking, Rey was nothing like the old coots from the Jedi Temple.
"He is going to be fine, you know."
Right, he was supposed to detest her. And she was going a good job at reminding him of that with her cryptic Jedi ways. The medical droid already told him that Hux was going to live. It was only a few more hours before Hux was to be removed from the tank and placed on bed rest for a day or two.
But coming from this Jedi, one who probably had no experience with medicine, annoyed him. What did she know?
"How do you know? The Force?" he scoffed.
Rey's mouth quirked up in a smile, not answering.
…
He could hear voices, far away. Like he was far underwater and they were speaking on the surface, unintelligible.
All he remembered was pain and someone shouting his name.
Where was Kylo? Was Kylo okay?
Hux wanted to fight against this grogginess that paralyzed his limbs, but he could not bring his limbs to respond, his eyelids weighed down, keeping him in the darkness.
A feather-light touch brushed against his consciousness, foreign and soothing, despite his instinct to recoil from it.
He is fine. Don't be afraid. He is fine.
Hux clung onto that truth as unconsciousness swept over him once more.
And there it is. And there it is. The seeds (heh) of Reylux are slowly being planted.
Anywho, all feedback is much loved and appreciated! And drop me a message on Tumblr at tiaraofreylos if you want to talk Star Wars and Star Wars ships.
Cheers!
~Tiara of Sapphires
PS, finals are coming up for me (in 2 weeks), so the next installment might take a while. Maybe. If I am smart, it will.