Surrendering to the Dark

Just a Pawn

Patting my father on the arm, a gesture of pure affection for the man that had loved me my entire life, I stated, "When we get back to your quarters, I will tell you everything. I promise." I meant to keep that promise. My father had always been there for me despite my stubborn ways.

I chanced one look back before we entered the foyer. Ren was standing at the edge of the room, watching me. Anyone paying attention to us, would discern what the looks we exchanged meant. I had conceded defeat and was walking away from the man I lost my heart to, lying when I said I would share him. We both knew it. Underneath it all, our Force-signatures wrapped tighter together in an effort to keep us as one. I felt emotions that were not mine pushing through our bond—regret, confusion, anger,  and on the end of it all, lov...

The explosion knocked me off my feet. As everything went dark, the screaming started, but sounded faint and far away. Shaking my head, I knew the percussion of the bomb had rendered me momentarily deaf. Hands gripped my shoulders and Bonam appeared in front of me. Although he was screaming, I could barely hear him. "We have to get out of here. The First Order is under attack!" I read his lips.

A small amount of emergency lighting had come on. In the main part of the gala room, partially dismembered bodies lay scattered about, some scorched to bone. A large hole had appeared in the middle of the room; the blast ripping through more than one deck. Chaos was now the master of ceremonies.

Father!

My father lay ten meters away from me on his side. He was beginning to wake up, but by the angle his left leg hung, it was clearly broken. Ignoring Bonam and crawling over to him, I found that the bones of his lower leg had punctured through the skin. My hearing was coming back and I heard him whimper in pain.

"The Admiral and I will help him up. We need to get out of here and back to our ship!" Bonam yelled again.

"Ren?" I stated out loud.

"What about him?" Bonam asked confused as he and Admiral Kensit helped my father to his feet.

I was torn between helping my family and friends out and making sure Ren made it through the explosion. The last moment I saw him, he was standing in a place not directly hit by the blast. In answer to my worries, his red light saber ignited and began swinging through the air fifty meters away. It was still very dark where he was, but his saber and the blasters being fired at him were easy to spot. For the moment, he was deflecting them well. I made my decision. I had to get my father out.

"Let's go!" I ordered.

We were almost through the foyer and to the corridor when another blast went off, smaller, but effective in collapsing the entranceway to our escape route. We would not make it out this way.

"Come on!" I yelled as I turned around and started back the way we came.

Small fires blazed throughout the gala room, smoke making it hard to see and breathe, but the ceiling of the large room was vaulted, giving us some reprieve as the smoke rose above our heads. The stench of burning flesh assaulted our nose, triggering some to gag. Survivors and wounded were everywhere, moaning and screaming in pain and terror. I steered our little group toward the perimeter in an attempt to stay away from the main damage. I remembered seeing another exit on the other side of the large room and hoped we could make it there in one piece, but before I could take even two more steps, a man appeared in front of me. He wore a dark blue jumpsuit and held a blaster to my chest at point blank range. "Where do you think you are going?" he sneered. 

Bonam and the Admiral froze behind me, seeing the blaster. They were now supporting a large amount of my father's weight, rendering them helpless to assist me.