The chase is far from fair, considering Kylo can use the force. The imposter makes for the exit from the maintenance bay, but the door slams shut in front of him, locking. Kylo slows from a sprint down to a prowl, the poor maintenance officer trapped in front of him.
The fake officer looks terrified, prying at the door for a moment before abandoning his effort. He tries to scurry sideways, down one of the side corridors. Kylo flings his hand out, and a broken demolition droid is thrown from where it was crumpled. It lands in front of the corridor, blocking access. The blob recoils in shock, spinning around to hold his hands up.
Anika nearly feels bad for him, he looks so fearful. He's trembling while Kylo approaches him, his knees looking like they might give out.
"I'll cooperate!" he exclaims. "Please, I'll cooperate."
"You will," Kylo agrees, tone threatening.
"Please, sir-Commander Ren," the blob pleads, trying his hand at flattery. "You know, I've come to respect you! The others-they all say Kylo Ren is a punk-they call you Cry-lo Ren-but not me! I think you're-"
"Enough," Kylo snarls, holding out his hand. Anika's eyes widen when the other man slides forward, his feet dragging helplessly along the floor. When he's close enough, Kylo snatches him by the neck. "We're going to the interrogation wing."
If the march across base didn't attract enough attention at first, it definitely does when two Knights of Ren appear. She recognizes Ap'lek, but doesn't know the other one. They flank Kylo and the prisoner, making plenty of heads turn as they pass.
Well, that disguise is done for. Guess this means we're retiring Matt the radar technician. Entirely too many people have now seen Kylo in his technician outfit, escorted by the Knights of Ren, for it to ever work again. It wouldn't take a genius to figure out a regular technician wouldn't be followed around by half of Commander Ren's posse. Plus, the blonde wig is completely crooked at this point, half of his dark hair visible.
Anika feels a bit disappointed over that, as she'd grown surprisingly fond of the look. Perhaps she could convince him to keep the glasses and orange vest. A little role playing never hurt anybody…
Another Knight appears when they exit an elevator, headed for the jail cells. How do his Knights know to just show up? Do they have like a…hive mind, or something? And Kylo is their queen?
Ap'lek's mask moves towards her briefly, and she wonders if he is listening to her thoughts. Do all of the Knights have some kind of power, like Kylo? Can they all spy on people's brains? Anika's cheeks burn red suddenly, as she realizes everything Ap'lek may have heard. Fuck, does he know I call him Murder Mountain?
"Yes."
Anika's eyes snap wide open at the single, softly spoken word from Ap'lek's helmet. Oh, kriff. She spends the rest of the walk in a state of mortification. She manages to snap out of it when they reach the corridor of interrogation cells. The stormtroopers guarding the area part, giving a wide berth to the Knights of Ren.
Kylo leads the fake maintenance officer towards the cell fake Darial had previously occupied. He stops, however, when he sees the pile of melted blob still on the floor inside the door. Darial's clothes are also still there, saturated with the fleshy mess.
"Seriously?" Kylo asks in disbelief. "Why did no one clean this up?"
He turns around, shooting a furious glare back at the stormtroopers. Both of them suddenly become very fascinated with the ceiling, looking up and around. Anywhere to avoid being called out on neglecting to clean the place up. Kylo's eyes narrow further, and Anika's positive he'd be throwing at least one of the troopers into a wall if he weren't currently trying to interrogate a blob.
The blob in question is making a high-pitched moaning sound at the sight of the remains. He starts squirming, trying to pull away from Ren. It's futile, seeing as how he's surrounded by the Knights anyway.
"You don't have to do that to me," he pants desperately. "Really, I'll tell you anything you want to know. You don't have to kill me!"
Kylo gives him a shove, half throwing him into the cell. "Fine. Let's start with this question: Why are you so eager to help your enemy?" he demands.
The maintenance officer rights himself, shaking. "I like it here! I like working for the First Order."
Anika gives a snort. They might pay decent, but no one really liked living on Starkiller Base. "Well, now we know you're full of shit," she interjects.
"No! I know how it sounds, but this is so much better than my job before-and I like being human!" he insists. "Having a mouth is the best! Do you know how amazing your sense of taste is? I had to absorb food through my skin before, it was awful!"
Anika makes a face, trying to picture that. Sounds like it would take forever to eat dinner.
"You like working here so much, you decided to start sabotaging the place?" Kylo pushes, stepping into the cell with the man.
He shakes his head, backing up until he thumps into the wall. "No! That wasn't me! They just ordered me to spy on you…I put the camera on the droid, and for that I am very regretful! But I didn't sabotage anything!"
"Who sabotaged the weapon? Or my ship?" Kylo demands angrily.
The blob shakes his head, face desperate. "I don't know, I just do what they tell me! I'm not high up, really, my last job was processing fecal secretions-"
What the fuck-
"Where is the man you are impersonating? The real head maintenance officer?" Kylo interrupts the blob's blabbering with a growl. "Is he alive?"
"Yes!" he answers immediately, sounding relieved. "Yes, I can take you to him! We have to keep them alive, to learn information. We get better at impersonating the longer we preserve mental access!"
Kylo approaches the man, whose face rapidly switches from relief to fear again. He leans down, his face inches from the blob's. "You'll take us to him. And if you try anything, anything at all…That-" Ren gestures back at the mess on the floor. "That will look like a pleasant death, compared to what I do to you."
Minutes Later
The fake maintenance officer takes them to the fuel depot, a place almost never visited by human workers on base. It's entirely ran by droids, consisting of a series of fuel storage systems and pipelines running into the hangar bay. It's a large, cold space. The fuel has to be stored at very low temperatures until it's pumped into ships.
Anika shivers as they march along metal scaffolding, squinting in the dim light. Kylo's ahead of her, with the blob prisoner between two of the Knights. Ap'lek lingers by her side, his weapon held at the ready. Do they think this is a trap?
She notices Kylo's lightsaber has appeared in his hand, her suspicion growing. Where was he even keeping that? Maybe all that khaki served a purpose, after all. They take a turn, passing a droid clanking by with a spanner. They're walking along a fuel line now, the pipe big enough that she would probably be able to stand up inside of it. There's barely enough space to squeeze by the metal scaffolding holding it up.
"Where?" Kylo snaps impatiently, the space lighting up red when he ignites his saber.
"It's just up here," the blob insists.
"We checked this entire area, Master," one of the Knights says tersely. He shifts his weapon higher, and Anika makes a face at what appears to be a giant meat cleaver. She definitely doesn't like the look of that thing, and neither does the imposter.
"There's a false panel! It's right over there, it crosses under the fuel line," the fake officer insists. "Can I show you?"
Kylo nods, gesturing with his lightsaber. The maintenance officer approaches the fuel line, squeezing past a metal bracket. Ap'lek steps in front of Anika, and she swallows nervously. It's fine. Even if it is a trap, the Knights are supposed to be like…badass, right? But that doesn't reassure her, as anxiety grows the longer the blob feels along the wall panels.
"You've got five seconds, before I start taking off body parts," Kylo threatens, sounding agitated.
"Here! Here, I've got it," he announces, stepping back at a clicking sound. The blob retreats, gesturing at the panel as it swings in and out of the way, revealing some kind of hidden compartment.
He has to freeze, however, when Kylo steps forward to swing his lightsaber towards his head. The crackling beam of light pauses before it connects with the blob's neck, but Kylo holds it there. The fake officer can only stare down at it in terror, his face bathed red.
"Trudgen, check it out," Kylo orders, glancing towards the imposter. "For your sake, this better not be an ambush."
"Yes, Master," Trudgen murmurs. They all wait while the cleaver-wielding Knight moves forward, ducking slightly to get through the open panel. When he calls back his findings, Kylo relaxes, letting the saber drop from the imposter's throat.
"Three humans, two females and a male," Trudgen says. "There's empty food and water containers in here. Looks like they've been here a while."
"Are they alive?" Kylo asks.
"Yes," comes the response. "Might be drugged. They look a little scared."
I'm sure that has nothing to do with your two foot long freaking cleaver. Anika tries to get closer to see who is in the hidden spot. Another Knight moves to help Trudgen, though Ap'lek stays by her. He holds his hand out, in a silent warning for her to stay back.
The real maintenance officer appears first, stumbling through the open panel. He nearly runs into the fuel line, before attempting to balance himself against it. Anika's eyes widen with shock at the person who appears behind him. No way…
"Patty!" she exclaims.
Her former supervisor looks confused. "Anika?"
"I'm so glad you're not dead," Anika admits. She'd assumed the worst, and now feels a little guilty for not asking more questions about what had become of her boss. Patty winces, rubbing at her head.
"Um…thanks?" she says uncertainly.
The maintenance officer doesn't seem as confused. Rather, he's staring at Kylo, unblinking. His gaze moves between the lightsaber, the orange vest, and Kylo's face. Then a smile appears, slowly growing bigger.
"Ah-ha, I knew it," he says, sounding drunk. He sways sideways, grabbing again at the pipe to keep himself upright.
"You knew what?" Anika ventures, when no one else answers him.
He gives her a sloppy grin. "I knew Matt was Kylo Ren!"
"Oh shut up, Zach," Patty snaps with irritation.
"But I called it, didn't I?" he persists. "I said 'That guy is definitely Kylo Ren' and, boom!"
"We've been held prisoner for weeks and you're staring at a fucking clone of yourself," Patty says. "And that seems like the most important thing to you?"
That is most definitely the real Patty. She always did have a sharp tongue and very little patience. The maintenance officer, Zach, looks perplexed. His gaze sweeps from Anika and Ap'lek, back over towards Kylo and the blob. It's obvious when he realizes he is, indeed, in the presence of an identical copy of himself. He staggers backwards, losing his balance and landing square on his behind.
"Holy fuck," he whispers loudly. "How is this possible!?"
"I'm really sorry," the blob apologizes. "This must seem very unusual to you. At least I imagine it is unusual to see a humanoid that resembles yourself so strongly. My kind don't really have that much difference in our phenotypical expression, we tend to all look alike-"
"Stop," Kylo snaps.
The blob falls silent immediately, hanging his head. Trudgen reappears then, helping the last person through the opening. Anika gasps at the sight of Darial, hanging loosely onto the Knight's arm. She looks half delirious, but a strange smile is on her friend's face.
"You've got a big-" Darial begins, before she hiccups. "You've got a big knife."
"I…do," Trudgen agrees awkwardly.
"Darial," Anika nearly shrieks with relief. Darial looks at her with unfocused eyes, before giving a slow wave.
"Anika, hiiii…"
Anika can't stop herself, rushing forward to pull her friend into a hug. Darial staggers and ends up leaning against her, and they both nearly topple over.
"I'm so happy to see you," Anika breathes.
"I feel so high, Anika," Darial confesses, in a whisper that is probably much louder than she intended. "Wait is that-" she pauses for another hiccup. "Is that Matt?"
"Oh, no. Matt is Kylo Ren," Zach supplies helpfully. "Like I said, from day one," he adds, throwing a smug look at Patty.
Darial leans back enough to give Anika a wide-eyed look. "Oh-OOOh, that makes so much sense," Darial announces. Anika just nods, doing her best to continue supporting a decent amount of Darial's weight. She's moving like her limbs are made of rubber, and she suspects if she let go that her poor friend would hit the floor.
"Let's get them to the medbay," Kylo suggests. "Trudgen, get the imposter back to a holding cell. We aren't done talking, just yet."
Later
Kylo had left the medbay to interrogate the blob further, tossing his blonde Matt wig into the trash can on the way out the door. Anika doesn't follow him, sticking by Darial's side. Ap'lek remains behind, like a shadow lurking in the corner of the bay. She's getting used to his presence. Though, she avoids thinking about all of the cringe-worthy things he's probably heard in her thoughts during their limited time together.
Zach's passed out sprawled on a cot, and Patty has her head buried beneath a pillow. Whatever they had been drugged with, it apparently gave her a terrible headache. Darial just seems slap-happy to have been rescued, giggling when Jorran gives her green jell-o.
"You want some, Anika?" Darial offers. When Anika just stares at the jiggly squares of green, she repeats, "A-nick-aaah?"
"Nah, I'm kind of taking a break from jell-o, and other squishy foods," she admits. She can't stop thinking of the melted puddle of fake Darial, and feels far too disgusted to eat anything resembling it.
Darial shrugs with a grin. "Suit yourself."
The medbay doors fly open, slamming into the walls with how forcefully they were flung. General Hux barges in, his face a mix of relief and worry. He pauses a few steps in the door, eyes flying over the cots before landing on Darial. Then he practically runs over. Anika would typically want to roll her eyes at Hux's appearance. But the man appears to genuinely care for Darial, so she suppresses her pettiness.
"Darial, I'm glad you're okay," he breathes, ducking down when he reaches the cot. He goes for a kiss, but Darial recoils from him. Hux's expression immediately crumples with rejection.
"I'm sorry, it's not you," Darial quickly says. "It's not you, it's me." She seems to realize how corny this sounds, giving a loopy laugh. "I just haven't brushed my teeth or showered in days, and I um, I don't want…you know, our first kiss to…be like that…"
The general's already pale face finds a way to get even more devoid of color. His lips part, eyes widening with dismay. "Wait-we haven't…? You and I, haven't…?" Hux stammers.
Darial's eyebrows shoot up. "Did you think we-?"
Don't laugh-don't laugh-Anika don't you fucking laugh right now. But she understands exactly what happened. Mostly because it happened to her, too.
"Did you think you already kissed Darial, Sir?" Anika asks, trying to make her voice sound serious.
Hux splutters, the horror growing on his face. Darial just looks even more confused, slowly lifting a spoonful of her green dessert to her mouth.
"I-I… it must have been… the imposter," he says weakly.
"Don't worry, Sir," Anika tries to sound comforting, still fighting back the awful urge to laugh. "It happens to the best of us."