KYLO
Kylo gripped the rudder of the TIE fighter plane in a death grip. The escape pod's trace signature was still traceable, at least until the point that it disappeared in a stretch of space with no planets near by. He pushed the TIE fighter to maximum power. He was mad at Rey, but it was FN2187 who would receive the brunt of his anger, once he found the trio that had run off.
HUX
"Computer, locate General Leia."
Hux stood in front of the control console in the hallway near the elevators. Temiri remained at his side.
"Sorry, you do not have authorization for that command," came the reply from the computer.
Hux's jaw clenched. "Under whose order?"
"Sorry, you do not have authorization for that information."
"What authorization do I have?"
"You have no authorization for any commands or information."
Hux punched Kylo's authorization code into the console manually.
"That is an invalid authorization code."
Hux tried Phasma's code but before he could finish putting it in, the computer spoke again.
"Armitage Hux, my Rabid Curr, you've been busy in my absence."
Hux's back stiffened. There was no doubt now, Snoke had control of the ship. How irritating.
"Step back," Hux said to the boy beside him. He pulled out his phaser.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Snoke said, "I can cut off life support to the ship."
Temiri hadn't moved so Hux set his hand on his son's chest and pushed him to stand behind him, then he fired at the console. Sparks flew and smoke lifted into the air.
Good riddance.
He didn't want to hear any more of Snoke's jabbering. He wouldn't turn off life support. If he did then who would he manipulate and control, if they were all dead? Hux wasn't afraid of him anymore. After the shock of seeing him slain had worn off, he was able to truly see for the first time how manipulative and unnecessary this supreme leader had been all along. Although Hux would never admit it, he was grateful to Rey for doing something he should have done years ago.
"Can I shoot the gun next time?" Temiri asked, his eyes full of excitement.
"I don't see why not," Hux replied. He turned and started to walk down the hall. "We need to go somewhere we won't be heard."
TEMIRI
Temiri had to break into a run every few steps, to keep up with the Red Haired General. He'd decided to trust him, even though he'd grown up trusting robots more than humans, while living in Canto Bight. Robots didn't lie but humans did. But this time, the robot leader of the Ruling Order was doing things like stealing Dusty's brain and telling Temiri that General Hux wanted to kill him.
He followed the tall General into a mess hall then to the back, where large compartments held food, some to be kept warm and others cold. There was no one at the tables when they'd walked in and the emptiness of a place that was meant for people to use, felt scary. Temiri was used to large crowds at ever restaurant and bar, back on Cantonica.
"Why are we here?" he asked the General. He could barely hear his own voice over the hum of all the machinery in the kitchen area.
General Hux suddenly picked Temiri up under the arms and sat him up onto the counter-top.
"We've lost communication with the fleet," he replied. "And Kylo Ren has also left the ship." He assessed Temiri for a moment. "Can you contact them, with the Force?"
"Who? Master Kylo Ren?" Temiri asked.
The General seemed to think about this. "No, not Ren. Can you contact General Leia?"
Temiri didn't remember who General Leia was. The name sounded familiar but he couldn't picture her anymore. Was she the lady that had visited them on Cantonica, with the other Resistance men? Or was that General Organa? Even if he knew which General she was, he needed to know her a lot better than just be able to picture her, if he wanted to find her with his abilities. If they'd been friends, then he could probably pick out her presence, the way Sky Jumper could pick out scents and follow them. But he didn't think he could explain all of this to the stern faced General Hux, so he simply shook his head no.
"Kylo Ren was able to contact that girl, Rey, from far away, using the Force," General Hux said, more to himself it seemed, than Temiri.
"You have the Force too," Temiri said.
"I do, but I'm younger than you in my abilities using it."
Temiri giggled at hearing him say that he was younger, but then he quickly stopped when he saw the serious look on the General's face.
"Can you contact Rey?" he asked Temiri.
Again, Temiri shook his head no.
"Then who can you contact?"
Temiri shrugged. "Maybe Mr. Poe." He'd spent a lot of time with Mr. Poe, the Resistance pilot, who had even given him cake on his birthday. He should be able to find him.
"Who?" the General asked.
"Mr. Poe, the Resistance pilot who gave me cake to eat on my birthday."
A flood of emotions swept over General Hux's face, but Temiri wasn't sure they were. Maybe anger or irritation.
"Is Mr. Poe my father?" Temiri asked, thinking that maybe this was why the General had suddenly displayed emotions on his face, when he was usually emotionless.
General Hux stepped back and blinked hard, as though he'd been slapped in the face. He didn't answer the question but asked another one instead. "Can you contact him?"
Temiri nodded.
"He's very far away right now," General Hux said.
"That's okay. It's like lifting rocks, once you know how to do it, you know how to do it. It doesn't actually matter how heavy they are, only if you think it matters. And it doesn't matter how far away Mr. Poe is, if I know him, I can find him."
General Hux simply nodded, still looking a bit upset.
"What do you want me to tell him?" Temiri asked.
The General stood up straighter. "That the Ruling Order knows of their attack and they have to abort the mission."
Temiri repeated the words in his head. He wanted to get the message right.
The Ruling Order knows the planes are coming to attack. So they need to...
"What does abort mean?"
"To stop. They need to stop the battle plan we made."
"Okay."
Temiri took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He knew Mr. Poe wasn't on board this ship and had left in his plane that morning. He also knew where the plane had left from. That would help him trace Mr. Poe. As long as it was still recent enough that he'd left, Temiri could try and follow Poe's essence out into space. Hopefully.
Temiri left his body effortlessly. It was much easier than ever before. Was it because he was older now? Or was General Hux lending him his own Force strength, somehow?
He focussed in on his whereabouts, adjusting his vision from seeing through eyes, to seeing in a completely different way. Once he was fully in his essence form, he could see General Hux standing in front of him, in front of his body which he'd left behind. It looked so small from this higher viewpoint. Temiri could also see, from this bird's eye view, how alike they both looked. The General was watching Temiri openly now, likely because he though Temiri couldn't see him, with his eyes closed. General Hux looked sad. And worried. He no longer had the firm expression on his face that he always wore.
Temiri pulled back. If he stayed near his body too long he'd just get sucked back in. He floated out of the kitchen area and straight up through the roof to the deck above.
He didn't recognize the hallways here, but the last place Mr. Poe had been on this ship still held his distinct presence and Temiri was able to pick it up right away. As he got closer to the launch bay, he recognized the hallway they'd walked down together to get to the meeting that morning. The lady, Rey, had been with them too. But she wasn't on board the ship either anymore. Her presence was strong, because she had Force abilities, but Temiri couldn't pin point her essence even if he wanted to. He only knew that she was no longer on board. Her essence was too scattered and confusing to follow, like Kylo Ren's or General Hux's, anyone who had the Force. Temiri wasn't trained enough to follow someone with power like that.
Fortunately, Mr. Poe was easy to follow. His essence was so straight forward and honest. Temiri didn't get confused as to which one was him. Mr. Poe didn't pretend to be better than who he was, or act like a fake version of himself, or hide all his emotions, like most adults did. He was very real and that made it easy to get to know him, enough to have a connection that Temiri could use to trace him.
Temiri pushed through the large doors up ahead, which were now closed but had been open for the planes to go out when Poe had been here. Temiri saw them all taking off, one by one, into battle, like a leftover memory of what had happened here this morning. Temiri flew in the same direction, through the doors and out into space.
He was suddenly hit with a dizzying sense of disconnect. He'd never flown out into space like this before, while away from his body. He didn't expect to feel this disconnected. He wasn't even all that far from his body yet, but the atmosphere change seemed to be affecting his ability, in a way he'd never experienced before. Temiri tried to focus. Poe's presence was fading fast. He had to hurry after it.
Flying through space was surprisingly easy, as long as he completely let go of any part of him still holding on to a connection with his real body. He could move like a flash of light, as fast as Poe's plane. Faster, even. He became a flash of light, appearing halfway across the galaxy at a speed that wasn't possibly for any plane, faster than the speed of light itself.
Temiri zoomed past Mr. Poe, almost missing him completely, but the other planes got his attention. The other pilots had such strong emotions about this battle; fear, excitement, nervousness, that Temiri saw them as colours. It was the intensity of these colours that had caught his attention and he quickly came to a stop, circling back.
The planes moved fast towards their target, which made it hard for Temiri to pinpoint which one Poe was in. Then he remembered having seen it before. The one with a red stripe down the side.
There it was, at the front! Of course, Mr. Poe would be at the front, he was a leader.
Temiri entered into Poe's plane, aligning with the speed it was moving through space. He was able to get more grounded, locking in to the small cockpit beside Poe. Temiri felt a lot better, having found a place to settle into.
Poe couldn't see him but he froze for a moment when Temiri entered, in the middle of adjusting his flight pattern, as though he'd sensed him. Then he continued what he was doing.
"Red leader to base," he said suddenly, startling Temiri. "Come in."
Temiri decided to wait for Poe to finish his communication, before he tried to make contact with the pilot. It would be almost impossible to get his attention, if he was already talking to someone else.
"Base, come in," Poe repeated. "This is Red Leader. I need to confirm our target's position."
Poe sighed heavily. "Base. Please confirm. I have a bad feeling about this."
Did Mr. Poe already know about the problem with this mission and the Ruling Order?
Suddenly he slammed his fist onto the dash. "Red Leader to Blue Ace. I can't reach Base."
There was a response, which Temiri couldn't hear, but he could tell by Poe's reaction.
"We can't abort," Poe said, speaking loudly over the hum of the plane. "Not if all the other fleets are attacking at the same time, it would compromise the mission."
Abort! That was what General Hux had told Temiri to say to Poe.
The Ruling Order knows about the attack. Abort the mission. Temiri pushed the message out into the space between him and Mr. Poe, with as much force as he could muster.
Poe's hand paused above a switch on the dash.
Abort the mission, Temiri said again, repeating it over and over.
Poe pushed the button on his headset again. "Red Leader to Blue Leader, do you have contact with the other fleet leader on the outer rim?"
There was a pause, then Poe continued. "Pass the message along to the other fleets. Abort mission. Immediately. We've been compromised. Shields up and redirect flights. Go into hiding. Do not return to Base until we establish contact with them. I repeat, abort mission and go into hiding."
Poe's plane came to such an abrupt halt that Temiri's essence almost flew out into the black of space again. But kept anchored to Poe, with all his will. He couldn't lose Mr. Poe. If he did, he'd never get back to his body. He was too far away from it now, and he didn't have any essence to trace back to the ship, where his body was, at the Base planet. Temiri didn't know anyone back at Base well enough to look for their essence and follow it that far. Not even General Hux, who had spent more time with him now. The General was too closed off emotionally, making it impossible for Temiri to have a real connection to him, definitely not enough of one to recognize his essence or pick it out from among all the others across half the universe. The only presences he truly knew were that of Sky Jumper, who was dead, and his friends from Cantonica, who were also dead.
Temiri became enveloped in fear, a colour similar to black but fuzed with other pale colours. He let it pass through him and didn't allow it to attach to him. As long as he stayed with Mr. Poe in this plane he'd make his way back to his body eventually, if it survived that long without him.
Mr. Poe, Temiri said. But Poe didn't hear him. Please take me back home.
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Author's note: Hi guys, so I'm writing again! ^_^ I'm hoping to have another chapter by Monday or Tuesday. As for you Reylo fans, I'm seeing some possible Reylo coming up soon, with Rey being stranded and Kylo searching for her. I'm still not sure how it will all end haha, but I'll keep going to find out! Thanks so much for reading <3 and for your votes, it helps let me know if people like the chapters :D