Kylo Ren

XIX

Far from D'Qar, on a planet known only by a series of numbers and letters, a white-haired young woman sat up in a tree.

She wasn't sitting there leisurely, she never did anything leisurely. Instead, she was watching as First Order transport vehicles landed on a hill.

She climbed down from the scraggly tree, dropping the last ten feet to land in a crouch, and ran to the village.

Nobody liked her there, but she might as well warn them.

She lived with two foster parents and their brood of eight, and was never given enough. Their own children had the priority. So she had to hunt for herself, which made her stronger than the rest.

Coming to a halt outside the village, she wondered if she really should warn them. After all, they'd never done much of anything to her.

As the first of the screams came, she walked back into the woods and scaled another tree.

The young woman watched as the stormtroopers walked through the village, pulling those villagers she hated so much out into the center.

She didn't know it, but the fifth transmission had been sent to her foster father, who'd been a friend of Luke Skywalker.  Five transmissions in just over five years.

Another ship landed, and three figures exited.

Two wore similar uniforms of black with masks, and the third wore a black overcoat and military hat.

The leader of the two figures talked to her foster father, before the maskless man took something from him and went back to his spot just behind the leader.

Then her foster father was cut down with a flaming red lightsaber.

She felt a rush of something she couldn't recognize.  Was it fear, excitement, loss, or jubilation?  Or was it all of the above?

Then the order was given for the rest of the villagers to be killed.

She wanted to join these people, the stormtroopers.  And her chance was slipping away.

The young woman dropped from the tree and ran through the woods, barefoot, with her blaster out.

She halted by the door of the troop transport vehicle, twenty blasters trained on her.

"Don't shoot!" she yelled in her native language, then repeated it in Basic.

The maskless man turned to her and pushed through his troops.

He had clear blue, cruel eyes and red hair.  "What is the problem here?"

"A girl, sir," reported one of the troopers.

"Shoot her," he said, brushing her off.

"Wait!  I want to join you!"

He turned again.  "You're a little too old."

"I know, you take children.  But I can fight.  I'll show you.  I'm a dead aim with my blaster," she said, gesturing with it, earning the guns shoved into her face again, "and I can fight with a staff, too."

The man looked at her coolly. She found herself cringing under his gaze.

"We'll see." He motioned for a stormtrooper to hand him something.

She stared as he fastened her wrists with cuffs. "What's this for?"

"Precautionary measures."

Two stormtroopers led her into the troop transport vehicle.

The ship rocked as it hurtled through space. She almost fell over many times, and each time one of the stormtroopers caught her.

When they landed, she left without a thank you.

Two stormtroopers escorted her down a hall, following the two figures and the icy-eyed man.

They stopped inside a training room, which had scars burned all over its walls.

The leader noticed the young woman for the first time.

"General Hux, what is she doing here?"

"Kylo Ren, she claims to be a fighter. We'll give her a trial run," Hux replied.

"If she fails, we can just kill her," Kylo Ren said drily. He turned to the other dark figure. "Fight her."

"Staff fighting," Hux added.

The Knight moved as through sighing, and threw their blaster onto a table. A tuft of golden hair was hanging down from the helmet, and Kylo Ren stiffened at it.

Before Kylo Ren could move, Hux walked over with a short knife and hacked the tuft off. "You'd do well to take care of that hair," he whispered as the Knight grabbed a staff.

Hux had brought the girl's staff as well, and she limbered up with some twirls.

The two circled each other, as Kylo Ren and Hux looked on.

Suddenly, the girl made a move, which was blocked by the Knight. She made a few more strikes, testing her opponent's strength.

Then she turned and ran. The Knight dropped her defensive position as Hux raised his blaster towards the girl.

The young woman stopped next to the door and kicked off, pushing herself with her strong legs to stand before the Knight, who stepped backwards, startled.

With a quick upward motion with her staff, the Knight's helmet jammed up off their head, revealing a girl with pale skin and blonde hair, pieces of which had been hacked out for hanging out of her helmet.

Kylo Ren looked slightly disappointed.

The Knight's yellow-brown eyes narrowed and she swung towards the girl, who easily dodged it.

Then, faster than either of the onlookers could see, the girl was behind the Knight, staff secured around her neck and a blaster to her head.

The young woman looked at Kylo Ren for approval, asking with her eyes if she should shoot the Knight.

The masked man nodded.  The Knight closed her eyes, in anticipation.

The girl took a deep breath.  This was no different than those humanoid Kanles she killed back at the planet she called home.

Just pull the trigger.

That's all she needed to do.

Pull it.

The body of the Knight fell to the ground.

Breathing heavily, she turned to the two men, who were speaking in low voices.  Hux turned to her.  "Name, girl?"

She considered it.  She could go by her birth name, Kledila, or the one she had called herself, saying it out loud only once ever, in the woods.

"Phasma."