Star Wars IX- Balance Of The Force

Chapter 16 - The Trial

In cell 47 of the detention block aboard the Supremacy ship, Kylo Ren was pacing. He could feel the effects of the injection fading. Rey and himself had been injected again on leaving the Dreadnought in a shuttle for the Supremacy. Restrained by binders, Rey and Kylo had been accompanied on their shuttle voyage by troopers armed with blasters and flamethrowers and by the Knights of Ren. Fighting back then would've achieved nothing, so they'd accepted movement to the Supremacy. Once in cell 47, they were provided with more food and new clothing. They were even permitted to separately use a refresher with actual water, not just a sonic shower. Evidently, Hux wanted them to look unharmed for trial: make a real show of it.

Kylo's tread increased as he paced back and forth; the cell was small, a maximum of ten steps from one end to the door at the other and that tenth step was decreasing as his stride got larger in agitation. Rey was at the refresher; she'd insisted he go first. It hadn't been the experience he'd hoped it would be; his wounds stung as the water hit his body, but on his face, at least the sensation was cleansing. Kylo had felt improved until he'd returned to the cell and started thinking. He was trying to jumble a lot of questions, and as a result, he could feel his natural impulse to lash out at all of it growing. What was the light they could sense when they held hands? How were they able to heal each other? How were they able to reduce the effects of the injection? What were they being dosed with? How were they going to escape? The only questions Kylo had mildly been able to answer were the first two; he vaguely remembered reading something from his training with Luke. Kylo couldn't get a tangible hold of the memory; they were the least important, however, and so far, any plan of escape was eluding him.

The door to the cell opened, and Rey stood in the doorway, a stormtrooper on either side, her damp hair hanging around her face. He stopped his pacing and turned to her. Her presence instantly soothed his rabid thoughts; she made him better and stronger, and he did the same for her. He knew now his compassion for her wasn't a weakness; his feelings for her gave him focus.

The door to the cell remained open, and he noticed binders restrained her. A stormtrooper held another pair in his hands, "Time for your trial".

Kylo moved forward, hands held out in front of him, staring the trooper down as the binders were placed around his wrists. They walked down the corridors, stopping at an elevator. Kylo knew this was the elevator to the throne room. They stood in the elevator in silence as the light changed dark, light, dark, light as it ascended the floors. The elevator door opened, and the stormtroopers took them forward in a similar representation of when Kylo had brought Rey to Snoke.

In a semi-circle panning out from the throne sat the leaders of the First Order, and on the throne sat Hux. A gloating sneer on his face at the sight of Kylo and Rey being brought towards him. Directly behind him stood the chrome stormtrooper without her helmet.

"Kylo Ren, you come here, charged with treason for conspiring with the Resistance and aiding a Resistance fighter in the assassination of Supreme Leader Snoke. Rey of Jakku, you are charged with the assassination of Supreme Leader Snoke. How do you plead?"

Kylo looked towards the voice of General Targo, one of the few First Order leaders he hadn't minded. Perhaps a trial and not merely an execution had been her idea. She was not one of those who wholly supported Hux; she was intelligent and hard-working. Targo had gained ascension to the highest level because she had worked to be there, not through Hux's influence.

He looked to Rey, who thankfully appeared to have chosen stubborn silence. Kylo had no intention of doing the same.

"I am not of the Resistance and have not conspired with them." Rey was glaring at him fervently, but he continued. "I'm the one that assassinated Snoke- not the girl; I lied when I said it was her. It was me, just me".