Author's Note: Artwork of "Lilith" commissioned by @hal.issa_art
*
"Where...is...the iron?" Lilith's eyes flashed angrily as she stepped within inches of Tyrus' face.
Pursing his lips, Tyrus widened his stance and clasped his gloved hands together in front of his belt as they stared at one another. The rest of the knights looked on from behind him, surrounding a captive Kylo Ren in the hanger bay outside their transport vessel, elite troopers in line behind Lilith.
"It removed itself, or so he claims" Tyrus replied, motioning toward Kylo. "We've stored it for safe keeping."
"It belongs to General Hux and he may not be pleased if Kylo Ren is relocated without it in use." She tilted her chin to view Kylo over Tyrus' shoulder; her eyes were cold at the sight of him. "He's far too dangerous to be transported without extra precautions."
Tyrus squinted as he lowered his voice. "We outnumber him four-to-one, he's not presently armed and still seriously weakened from it. I don't suspect he'll be much of a problem for us."
Lilith's gaze raked Kylo like a fiery brand; her displeasure consuming her on the spot.
"If you say so" she said, ire dripping from her words. "I'll transmit the details for Jakku once you're near the planet. General Hux may contact you upon arrival if he wishes."
Turning swiftly on her heel, her cloak whipped around as she marched toward the exit. The elite troopers were at ease once she left.
Tyrus turned to the knights, gesturing for them to ascend the boarding ramp. Vurdan shoved Kylo up the ramp with an exaggerated move, following right behind until he entered the ship.
No one spoke a word as they took their positions. Ren sat on a stiff seat next to the wall as he watched Tyrus and Vurdan take their places in the pilot chairs. Alwick engaged ramp retraction and closed the outside door.
Freen stood at the middle of the common area, watching over Kylo Ren.
Low words were exchanged between Tyrus and the fleet commander over the comm system as he started the engine. After a few moments, the ship lifted off and rotated toward the hanger exit.
"Set a course for Jakku" he ordered Vurdan, before leaving his seat to enter the common area.
Ren looked up to see Freen, whose yellow eyes were wide and unsettling as they watched over him while the crew was in preparation. Freen reached out with one hand and invisibly disengaged the binders. They buzzed sporadically before releasing; Ren shook his wrists, tossing them to the side.
"Why did you save the girl?" Freen asked without blinking. Alwick turned around as he heard the question. Tyrus' footsteps halted at the edge of the room, crossing his arms as he leaned back against the wall. Ren was sure Vurdan had inclined his ear to eavesdrop as he charted the course.
Ren turned his palms face up, examining them at length as he gathered his thoughts in silence.
"Sir?" Alwick's clear, youthful voice prompted.
Ren sighed before rising to his feet, and walking over to the porthole on the flank of the ship.
"He took everything from me. It was never enough, and it was never going to be enough."
His admission hung in the air, and no one immediately reacted. Alwick awkwardly sipped from a vessel of water.
"She is strong with the Force" Freen said lightly, "and she needs a teacher."
Ren looked out the porthole into the blackness as the Finalizer began to disappear in the distance.
Flashes of red and blue aura's co-mingled in the small space between their faces, as the lightsabers hummed loudly. Snow whipped about them in the angry wind on Starkiller, causing their blades to release steam into the air.
"You need a teacher!" he said. "I can show you the ways of the force."
"The force?" she breathed, blinking in succession. She shut her eyes as her shallow breaths calmed, and Ren did not interrupt her. He studied her face as their blades remained crossed, and when she opened her eyes he should have been burned by the determined fire he saw there.
He was awestruck.
"I know" He conceeded. "I had extended the offer to her months ago."
Vurdan's voice bellowed from the pilot chair. "Is that the only thing you offered her, lad?"
Alwick spit out the water in his mouth, coughing and spluttering before putting his cup down to wipe the droplets from his chin. Tyrus threw his head back in a hearty laugh, taking them all by surprise. Ren shot an annoyed look in his direction.
"I have not laughed like that in a long time. What happened to your oath of autonomy? All you had to do was touch fingertips with a girl!" Tyrus chided with a grin, running his hand through the lock of red hair on one side of his head.
Ren appeared flushed, and attempted to save face. "How do you know about our connection?"
"She allowed Tyrus into her mind to prove it existed." Freen answered matter-of-factly.
So the secret is out.
Ren walked slowly over to the pilots chair and rested an arm on the headrest. Rey had swayed the Knights to her side in the short time she'd been in their company. However, it couldn't be that surprising if his one forest encounter with her was rather impressionable.
"Why would he take her to Jakku?" Vurdan mused out loud.
Alwick whistled. "That's pretty much...nowhere".
"It's her planet, but that doesn't really give us more information on why he's taking her there." Ren shared.
"Or explain why we are to take you there separately" Freen added.
"Perhaps Palpatine is looking for a new apprentice?" Tyrus offered, shaking his head doubtfully.
Ren considered that particular suggestion, trying to recall the conversation between him and Palpatine in the cell. He had forgotten most of it when the black energy struck him over and over. He winced while deep in thought.
He grit his teeth. "I won't be much help without a weapon...it was confiscated when I was detained."
An object was suddenly hurled towards him in his peripherals. His sluggish reflexes barely kicked in for him to raise a hand and suspend it inches from his head.
The cross guard lightsaber hilt dangled in the air to his surprise.
"I slipped it from Lilith when we arrived" Alwick shrugged non-chalantly. "Thought we might need it."
It floated steadily into his open hand, the weight of it satisfying in his palm, and for the first time in a long time a slight smile crossed Ren's face.
*
Rey stared down the open ramp of the ship; the end of it partially buried in the sand. Her breath hitched in nervousness.
The journey from the Finalizer to Jakku was quite enough time to lounge in the uncomfortable silence with Hux and his men. The general sat in the command chair totally upright with his eyes closed in meditation for the majority of the trek, allowing Rey to study the stark blue veins travelling up his neck like some dark infection.
Was he sick? She had wondered.
The heat rose up from the planet; its claustrophobic temperature had already begun to draw perspiration out of her skin.
She hadn't been back here since she first stepped foot on the Millenium Falcon with Finn. The garbage, she had called it.
For so long she'd been obsessed with coming back, scared that if she was gone for a moment, that she might miss her parents' return. The time away was beneficial, but it never really quelled the longing.
They are never coming back.
Rey took a deep breath, and descended the ramp, adjusting the arm wraps as she made her way down to the sand. Standing off to the side, she watched as Hux's tall form exited the ship, black robes swaying at his feet with each step. In the glaring sun, his skin pallor nearly blinded her, and she could hardly stand to look. The hood of his robes was drawn up before he touched the sand.
Shielding her eyes from the sun, she searched the vivid, white-blue sky; no ships were leaving orbit, or entering it.
But, there's someone who still could.
Armitage stepped ahead of her. "We require some supplies from Nima Outpost before heading to our destination" He stated, observing the outdoor market with a deciphering eye.
"And transportation" added Rey. "We can't land the ship anywhere near the debris you described. The sands there are full of gas pockets that could easily ignite, and then swallow up the ship should we land near one."
Hux turned to her with a broad smile and placed a hand firmly on her right shoulder. "I trust your judgement, my dear."
She pressed her lips together and gave a slight nod before walking forward into the outdoor market, with Hux close behind.
Being in his company was strangely confusing to Rey, respectful in all of their interactions up to this point. He didn't treat Rey like a prisoner, and had allowed her to keep the spear that Freen turned over to the First Order officers on the Finalizer. The more time she spent in his presence, the less frightening he was; and the offer of finding who her parents were was certainly accepted.
The market was unchanged; the same as it always had been. The same beings sold the same trinkets, roadkill meats, and scavenged parts. Some of the vendors gave her a second look, perhaps thinking they had seen her before but couldn't place it. The crowds seemed a bit thinner on this particular day, but Rey could see ahead that the shop of Unkar Plutt was quite accessible.
A few large organized piles of parts and old droids littered the area outside the shop. Hux silently followed as she examined the first pile, but shook her head and went to the next. Lifting a damaged box of components to look underneath, she smiled as she tossed it loudly to the side.
The speeder she'd built from scavenged parts was leaning into the pile, looking just the way she left it. Running her hands along the body of it, she grinned as if being reunited with an old friend.
"Our transportation" she said to Hux, gesturing to the salvaged speeder.
"No!" a voice barked loudly from inside the shop, stealing Rey's attention.
She marched urgently toward the shop, but as they neared the entrance, the frightened screams of a child floated to her ears. Glancing back and forth, it seemed no one else heard, and she quickened her steps to a more determined pace, not aware if Hux could keep up or not.
When she reached the doorway with spear in hand, she was met with the sight of a small girl only a few years old, cowering on the floor and a wide figure standing over her.
"It's been two days and you've found nothing, girl!"a loud, grumbling voice shouted.
Upon seeing Unkar Plutt and the girl, Rey's face burned with anger. She was assailed by dozens of memories in that moment, the painful trauma of them bubbling up to the surface from within her soul. The gnawing hunger that prevented her from sleeping at night, the weakness in her little body when it needed to climb to earn another's day ration, and the bruises from sudden beatings.
The soft footsteps of the General behind her were barely heard as the sound of blood rushing was in her ears.
"Ah...your former slave owner" he said quietly. "He's acquired a new addition to do the work you left behind."
The girl had arm wraps and dark hair, her clothes were dusty and dirty from crawling around in unseen places. Bright eyes shone through the dirt on her face as she protected her head from another blow.
"I'm hungry! I can't find things when I need food" her clear voice rang out.
"...a pathetic being...." the general's voice commented, but seemed far away as she focused on the moment. The rage was building in her gut.
"There will be none for you tonight again if you haven't brought a single item of worth in!" Unkar shouted again.
You come from nothing.
Rey's eye twitched.
"Anything, please! I just need something for today" the girl pleaded.
"...a disgusting waste of skin..."
You're nothing.
"...he doesn't deserve to live..."
"You'll get NOTHING, little beast."
Bile rose up in her throat.
But not to me.
The sudden crack of his fattened arm hitting her flesh allowed the barrier to break inside Rey. Her vision awash in crimson, her agile legs brought her into the shop toward the pair; a lightsaber ignited in her hand.
The humming was loud enough to cause Unkar to stop and turn to Rey as she approached. His flat face registered shock and surprise as he absorbed the visual of his former slave wielding a lightsaber.
She drew her right arm back at the last three steps and with all her might, swept a violent slice deeply across his midsection; the smell of burnt flesh wafted up to her as the arc was completed. Rey saw mutilated organs flop around in the black, gaping wound and folds of fatty flesh split in the moment before Unkar fell.
The girl backed up against the wall, her mouth covered in surprise.
"Good...good" she heard behind her.
The crimson glow faded on everything in her view as Rey shakily brought the lightsaber up, rotating it in her palm. The amber color of it was reminiscent of Kylo's blade. Confusion swirled in her thoughts, as she realized the spear lay on the ground beside her feet.
She disengaged it and held it out to Hux. "How...how did I get this?" she stammered.
"I held it out, just before you rectified the situation."
Her heart sank, failing to remember the exact events in the moment her rage consumed her. She looked down at Plutt's body; wisps of smoke rising from it, and she began to sink in her shame.
Killing the praetorian guards in the throne room was different. They were armoured, deadly, and certainly would have killed her. They served a cruel master; Unkar was unkind, but he was also unarmed. He was no threat to Rey.
The girl's eyes, wet with tears smudged in dirt, stared at Rey; some of her thoughts quietly flickered through the force into Rey's mind. When will I eat now? Who will I work for? Where will I sleep?
Crying in despair, the girl bolted out of the shop. Rey watched her go with a helpless expression.
"You served justice, Rey. That can only be called noble."
The image of the body would be in her memory for a long time.
"There's a second speeder" Rey said in a distant voice, as she moved towards the doorway. "I saw it near my own. We'll take those to the location after I make sure they are in working order."
Looking out to the market again, she couldn't help but feel pity for the small scavenger girl, and hoped that whatever being she ended up serving would at least feed her.