Wayward [Kylo Ren]

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Night brought many things to the group of three: the inability to see, hidden obstacles, and dropping temperatures.

Kaida remained at the tail end of the pack, using the Force to blow fresh snow over any tracks that they made. They did their best to step in each other's prints to make it less work for her. She kept a hand behind her, the wind sweeping away their trail. Let the Stormtroopers figure that one out. They're as dim as anything.

"How much further?" Axel asked from up front.

"Use the Force," Kaida said from the back of the pack. "That tells you how much more we've got to go."

"It feels far away, Kai. It'll take longer on foot. We should have just stolen a ship back there."

"We didn't have the opportunity," Ben cut in on the sibling squabble. "You two were cuffed and being led to your execution grounds."

"Thank you, for doing that," Kaida told Ben. "I almost thought you weren't..."

"Serious about what I told you? Kaida, I meant what I said. I lost my way, I want to be put on the right path again. I know you can help that."

Kaida felt a small, familiar, warm presence of comfort in herself. He was putting faith in her, like he used to. Maybe the man who wore the mask was just that, an alternate, fake identity. A man who really didn't exist but for the sole purpose of tricking the enemy.

Kaida felt the cold on her nose. She saw the tiny flakes falling from the sky. More snow. Great. She focused on staying on pace with Ben. Axel seemed to have a considerable distance between himself and Ben.

We're almost free. We're almost there. We've almost done it.

Kaida startled herself. Those were words she had told herself after the fall of the Jedi, after most people she knew, were slaughtered.

~*~

So much death in the air, it was suffocating. So many slain Jedi. How could have this have happened? How did it get to this point?

The rain soaked Kaida and Axel to the bone. They were running on reserved energy at this point. Not even the Force could properly give them what they needed to avoid capture. Avoid death, really.

Axel was injured, holding his side, leaning heavily on his sister for support. The scent of his blood filled her nose, even though she should have been smelling the rain that was pouring around them.

"Come on, Axel, stay awake," Kaida said in a panic. "We'll get out of here."

"The others—"

"They're either dead or got away. We can't help anyone but ourselves right now."

"Kaida, that's—"

"Selfish, I know. But our world is changing."

"Miss Goody-Two-Shoes is telling me to break the rules? The world really has been flipped on its head, hasn't it?" His laugh was raspy, and Kaida could hear the pain in his breathing.

If only he knew I'm not the "Goody-Two-Shoes" he paints me as. "Shut up. And keep your voice down, they must be listening."

Not only was Axel suffering from physical pain, he, like Kaida, was suffering from the emotional pain. The pain of feeling lives go out through the Force. The heaviness of these deaths put a weight on Kaida's chest. Why try and fight for others when there was nobody to save but themselves?

Yes, the Jedi Code had always said to be selfless, not selfish. But in this case, selfishness was much needed.

~*~

Kaida refused to think of the name Ben had gone by after his...transformation. She never associated the name with him, even after he had insisted to her—once, as she and Axel were captured—to call him that. But that was before she knew who was really behind the mask. She had a hard time differentiating, even now, the man with the mask, and Ben Solo. She would refuse to acknowledge the alternate name.

Every time she'd come close to thinking she had it all figured out, her mind would throw her back into doubt and conflict.

"Kaida?"

She snapped back to reality. She hadn't realized she had stopped in the snow. Axel and Ben both looked at her. She stood, motionless, as snow whipped around her, her hair getting stuck in her lashes and in her mouth. When she looked at Ben, she tried to not put that mask back over his face. But seeing the images: the storm, the dead Jedi...

Right now, she saw the other man instead of Ben Solo before her.

Her headache was coming back again.

"Kai?" Axel moved past Ben to grab his sister by the arms. "Look at me." Brown met green. "You alright?"

Kaida swallowed the truth. "I'm good. Just...cold. I guess we picked a bad time to be on the run, huh?" Her teeth began to chatter.

"All we can do is keep moving," Ben insisted. "It'll keep us warm. We can't let them gain traction. The second we allow them that, we're under more pressure."

With a guiding tug from her twin, Kaida slowly moved through the snow, it crunching loudly under her feet.