--HUX--
"General, the Supreme Leader would like a word with you." CPO Unamo stands behind me, her hands folded behind her back. Of all the officers on the Finalizer, she is the one I dislike the least. She irritates me far less than even her superiors.
"Thank you, Unamo." My tight-lipped smile is met with a polite nod before she turns on her heel and walks back across the bridge.
As I make my way to the communication room, I look around at all of my accomplishments. The ship itself I can't take credit for, but everything else...
Ren cannot take that away from me. Try as he might, this is mine. All of it. The precision of the troops, the organization of operations on the Finalizer, every victory the First Order has achieved. I deserve the recognition and praise that Ren seems to keep receiving.
As soon as the door slides shut behind me, Snoke's form flickers to life in the center of the room. It's frigid and dark in his "chambers," probably to make people feel uncomfortable and intimidated. I take a deep breath, puff up my chest, and walk forward. I'm no coward.
"Leader Snoke, you wanted to see me?"
"General Hux, thank you for coming so quickly." His hoarse voice echoes off the cold walls. "I am beginning to doubt Kylo Ren's loyalty to our cause."
Finally, here's my chance! "Has he gone rogue?" My voice sounds indifferent, disinterested.
"No, not yet. But I sense a divide in him. Something is making him question his alliance, I fear."
My lip turns up in disgust. "Something, or someone?"
Snoke lets out a harsh, hissing laugh. "The scavenger! Ren is foolish to believe he has anything in common with the pathetic creature. He is desperate for sympathy."
"What would you like me to do?" I try to keep from sounding too eager.
Snoke leans forward and his hologram flickers. "Destroy him and his precious Rey. Obliterate the Resistance. Call in the Dreadnoughts. Kill them all. He is worthless to us now."
I can't help but smile as I exit the room. Finally, my time has come. Ren is a dead man.
* * * * * * * * * *
--REY--
I'm sitting alone at a table in the mess hall, silently eating my breakfast. People are milling about, telling stories, laughing at jokes, but I don't hear any of it. I didn't get any sleep after my visit to Ren's cell last night. His words echo in my head, ringing true but still doubtful. Is it possible he knows my parents? Are they still alive? Does he know them because he killed them?
"Rey!" The exasperated voice directly behind my head startles me. I jump and turn around, only to find Finn glaring at me.
"What?" I snap, my patience already gone from lack of sleep.
"I called your name, like, five times. What's wrong with you today?"
I narrow my eyes at him and turn back to my uneaten food. "Sorry, I'm just used to tuning your voice out." He gasps but I ignore the hurt look on his face. "What do you want?"
He sits down beside me and notices the dark circles under my eyes. "Are you okay? You look exhausted."
"I'm fine."
Finn shrugs. "Okay, I won't ask again. The general wants to see you. Apparently Ren is being unusually cooperative today. She wants to know if he told you anything that might explain his behavior."
"I'll go see her after I finish eating." I lift my fork, then immediately put it back down. I'm really not hungry anymore. "On second thought, I'll go right now." I stand up and Finn follows after me as I empty my food into the trash bin. "How's Poe?"
Finn picks up my crutches from where I dropped them on the floor. I'd nearly forgotten I still needed them. "He's good. Resting in his room," he replies. "He keeps asking about you."
My heart skips a beat. I feel some kind of weird fluttering in my stomach. Maybe I was hungry after all. "Really? Why?"
"I dunno, he didn't say. He sounded worried though." Finn passes my crutches to me and I smile gratefully at him.
No more attachments, Rey. Remember? "That's...sweet. I'll go check on him later."
A slight pulse in the Force causes chill bumps to erupt across my skin. I stop dead in my tracks and Finn runs into me from behind.
"What the-" I hold up my hand to silence him. "What?"
"Don't move. Don't make a sound." My voice is low, almost threatening. Finn gulps and nods, confused but cooperating.
I don't sense any danger, but something is tugging at the back of my mind. Like the feeling I got during the vision at Maz's, combined with the nudging from the Dark Side. Sinister, but not dangerous.
"It must've been nothing," I tell Finn, shrugging off the feeling. "Sorry."
"Are you okay? Ever since I woke up I've felt like you changed after Starkiller. Like... you're you, but you're hiding something. Or holding back."
It's scary how intuitive he can be, when most of the time he seems oblivious. "I'm fine, I promise. Or I will be, anyway. Let's just get this over with, okay? I want to see Poe."
Finn clears his throat and rubs a hand over his short hair. "Is...is there something going on? Between you and Poe? Like...romantically?" He laughs nervously and stammers again. "I-I mean, not like it's any of my business, but...is there?"
"What in the galaxy gave you that idea?" I'm irritated that he thought I would be so easily distracted from the mission. Seriously, me and Poe?! But, more than anything, I'm amused by the sheer concern and false bravado in the set of his brows and the way his lips are slightly pursed.
He shrugs nonchalantly. "I dunno, it just seems like you two really hit it off."
"We did. I care about him, and he cares for me. What more is there supposed to be? Poe and I are just friends, Finn. Just like you and me." I offer him a sympathetic smile, knowing those weren't the words he wanted to hear. I might be determined and focused, but not so much that I could overlook the way Finn stutters when he's around me, or the way he puffs out his chest and acts tough to impress me. It's sweet, but it'll never happen.
"Yeah, yeah! Of course. I knew that. I was just wondering." The silence that descends after he speaks is unbearably awkward. Ignoring the pain in my leg, I quicken my pace and head toward the command center. Finn struggles to keep up, muttering under his breath as we hurry down the long halls. As annoying as these contraptions are, they sure do help me move quicker.
I feel months of frustration and anxiety weighing heavy on my shoulders, and I'm sure it's evident on my face. The guards stationed outside Command quickly step out of my way as I approach the doors.
Leia looks up as soon as she hears the door open. "Good, you're here." Her tone is cheerful, but her voice is strained. Luke sits at one of the meeting tables, eyes closed in silent meditation. His brow is furrowed, and the dark circles under his eyes are more prominent than ever. If two of the most influential and powerful people in the galaxy aren't strong enough to defeat this enemy, do they honestly believe I will be able to do anything?
"What's going on? Finn told me you're concerned about Kylo." Referring to him by the single name gives a sense of familiarity that makes me shudder; I promptly decide to never do it again.
"There have been...complications," Leia says slowly. "Something happened overnight that leads us to believe the First Order planned this all along."
Fury sweeps through my veins like fire and ice. "Did I not warn you?!" My shout causes Luke to look up from his meditation. "I told you, I told all of you and you wouldn't listen! Now look what you've done."
"Watch your tone, Rey," my master warns me sternly. "Remember your place."
Leia waves him off. "No, she's right. We never should've gotten our hopes up." The mask she wears as leader of the Rebellion is cracking; underneath I see nothing but heartache, uncertainty, and utter devastation. I admire her strength and resolve. In her circumstances I would have long ago collapsed under all that pressure.
"What happened overnight?" Finn is the first to break the palpable silence. Leia glances at her brother, who nods at her.
"They deserve to see it."
Leia waves her hand over the main computer's controls. In the center of the room, a hologram appears, showing a small moon and the empty space around it. "Is that the moon we're on right now?" I ask. Leia nods.
Suddenly the image flashes and when it reappears, two additional holograms appear beside the moon: First Order star destroyers.
"This was yesterday evening. And this..." another blink and my heart drops into the floor. "...was this morning."
Fear laces its tendrils down my spine. Finn glances at me, but his eyes are wide and unseeing. None of us were prepared for anything like this. We're all going to die.
A third ship had appeared in the hologram, easily dwarfing the enormous star destroyers. This was the weapon of nightmares, the destroyer of cities and the one ship no army would ever want to face.
The Dreadnought had come.
* * * * * * * * * *
--POE--
If there's one thing I hate more than anything, it's boredom. I'm an active guy, I always have to be moving or doing something. So being stuck here, in bed, with absolutely nothing to do but stare at the ceiling for hours on end? Pure. Fucking. Torture.
Which is probably why I keep finding myself in the infirmary getting my stitches re-done. I just can't not move.
A knock at my door causes my heart to jump through my chest.
"Come in." My voice sounds hoarse, like I haven't talked in hours. Maybe because I haven't. Nobody ever visits me.
"Hey."
Rey's voice sends a thrill down my spine. Ever since I met her, I've felt something weirdly familiar about her, like we've met before; maybe in a previous life, even. Like I said: weird.
"How are you feeling?" She offers a sympathetic smile as she sits on the end of my bed. I can't decide which card to play. Should I pretend it's worse than it is so she'll stay to take care of me? Should I put on a tough face and make her think I'm some badass strong man?
"I can't feel my toes," is my reply.
Nice, Poe. Very nice.
The concern on her face is immediate. "Really? Have you told the doctors? You should probably get that checked out."
"I'm fine," I grumble, now thoroughly embarrassed. "I've just been laying down too long. Doc put me on bed rest for the next week. He's tired of fixing my stitches."
"What happened to your stitches?"
I shrug nonchalantly. "I'm an active guy, I hate sitting still for too long. I get bored, I get up, I bust my stitches."
She narrows her eyes at me. "You mean, last night..." I can see where this is going.
"When I was outside talking to you?" She nods, and I grin. "Yeah...I was bleeding all over the place. But I just couldn't miss that sunset." Or you.
"I cannot believe you!" She's yelling now, pacing the floor and waving her arms around. It's quite adorable. "We need you, Poe! The longer you take to heal, the longer we have to survive without our best pilot. Stop being such a...such a--"
"What? Asshole? Moron? Sucker for pain?" I ask, giving her many options to choose from. She rolls her eyes but sits back down on the bed, satisfied that I'm not going to spontaneously combust anytime soon. "How's it going out there?"
"That's what I came to tell you," she says slowly. "Leia is calling for a mass evacuation. Everyone, everything containing sensitive information, the entire fleet...by tomorrow night."
I try to sit up in bed but she pushes me back down. "Wait, why? What happened?"
"The First Order is back." She meets my gaze for the first time and her eyes betray a fear her face would never show. "Only this time, they're not here to play with us like prey. This time they're here to exterminate us. They brought a Dreadnought."
Chills race down my spine, causing the hair on my arms to stand on end. This isn't good. This is the last thing we need right now, especially when we haven't recovered from their last attack.
"What about Kylo Ren? They don't care about him all of a sudden? Are they willing to destroy him with us?" I feel the stitches in my abdomen stretching with the tension in my body.
Rey shrugs. "I suppose they've decided they no longer need him."
"What will we do with him? Take him with us when we evacuate, leave him here? Either he will die in our place or they will rescue him and he'll come after us until we're all dead."
"Leia won't let us leave him," Rey sighs. Weariness pulls her body toward the ground, as if she's too weak to even hold herself up. The dark circles under her eyes suggest she hasn't properly slept in a very long time. How is she even upright right now? "Whatever happens, I know we'll figure it out. We always do, right? That's why the Resistance still exists. We never give up hope."
I can't help the smile that spreads across my face. "I admire your bravery, kid. You are the spirit of this rebellion. As long as you're here, we will live to see another day."
Little did they know, Kylo Ren lay alone in his cell, all too aware of the Order's plans, and coming up with one of his own. They would spare him if he could convince the girl to go with him. And he knew just how to do it.