Ren rose stiffly from the floor as Alwick and Freen watched from the wall adjacent to him.
Alwick dropped a hand from his mouth. "I take it that didn't go well?" he nervously questioned. Ren answered with a slight shake of the head as he held out a black gloved hand and Alwick obliged by handing him his cloak in response. Ren fastened it to the clasps on each shoulder.
"The Emperor is already eroding her fervent association to the light" Freen concluded. "Obviously we only heard your side of the conversation, but I couldn't help but notice she may not have been altogether...hmm, receptive."
"Correct" Ren confirmed as he clipped the hilt of his lightsaber on the belt around his waist.
"Are you finished your lover's quarrel or what!?" Vurdan's voice bellowed from the co-pilot chair at the head of their ship. The unmistakable sound of Tyrus' muffled laugh into his own forearm followed immediately.
Ren cocked an eyebrow in their direction, hiding an amused smile at their casual teasing. "How much farther?" he asked as he approached their seats in hopes of changing the subject.
"Almost there actually. Less than eight clicks" Vurdan answered, leaning forward to scan the navigational readout.
"I'd really like to know what that is" Freen stood at his shoulder, pointing out of the window. As they approached the target location, the sun was glinting off an object in the sand, surrounded by smaller pieces of metal debris.
"I'm going to try and land her just east of it where it's clear" Tyrus advised as he eased off the thruster propulsion.
"Wait" Alwick interrupted, "what's that on the slope?"
Speeder tracks had engraved the sand up a long dune to the debris, but one was lying on it's side on the incline, sunken partially into the ground and engulfed in orange flames and black smoke.
"Gas cavities must be underneath this area" Vurdan speculated as he gestured to Tyrus. "Don't land yet. The ship will explode if we nick any of the pockets around here." The ship was steered around to prepare for another pass on the area.
A disturbance in the force coursed through Ren at that moment and he stepped forward between the pilot chairs to peer out of the window. A figure in black robes with red hair emerged from behind the metal debris to stand looking up at the sky as they passed over.
Tyrus turned to Ren, his cerulean eyes conveyed concern. "Where's the girl?" he asked.
Rey? He called out through the force, hoping to catch her end of the connection again, but was met with no answer; the line was cold.
"Get me down there" Ren ordered urgently.
Vurdan shrugged his shoulders, "I can get you as close to the debris as possible...there doesn't seem to be any pockets around it or it wouldn't still be there." Before he could say anything else, the ship lurched violently as something made impact to the hull, throwing Ren and the two standing knights against the frame of the cockpit.
"It's Ozir" Freen shouted. "I can sense him."
A sleek, black ship flew past the porthole, screeching as it accelerated away from them.
Tyrus tipped the nose down toward the ground. "I can get low for this final pass before he takes aim at us again...if you're feeling lucky" he looked over hesitantly as if waiting for an answer.
Ren didn't waste a second to give him one before turning sharply and taking long strides to the ship's interior door. As he reached it, the exterior hatch was heard moving to the open position as the ship dipped down. When the exterior hatch completed its sequence, the interior door began to open; bright sunlight poured in as the wind started howling against the frame.
He waited a moment as the larger fragments of debris passed by before leaping out of the ship into the hot air. With outstretched arms and all of his concentration, Ren concentrated on pushing the planet surface away from him with the force as it rapidly approached, hoping to slow himself enough to not be injured. Exhaling before impact, the speed of his descent drove him down to one knee in the sand and his presence was announced by the wave that crested forward as a dust cloud. Ren's vision cleared while the ship continued on, taking the winds with it. He looked up to see it closely followed by the black vessel across the horizon.
Palpatine appeared pleased; the all too familiar sneer Hux often displayed was somehow more unnerving than usual.
Kylo Ren drew his blade, igniting it as he aimed it at the emperor; his confidence had increased since effectively halving Snoke in the throne room months before.
"Kylo Ren," Palpatine remarked as he laughed to himself, "Or should I say, Ben Solo? That mighty Skwalker blood does run strong in you."
"Where is the girl?" Ren abruptly demanded. A sliver of uncertainty arrested his spirit knowing how powerful the master of Darth Vader had been. Darth Sidious had infiltrated the Senate and changed the course of history all due to his ability to sway with words.
"Young Rey is completing her training as a Jedi" he answered knowingly.
Ren marched forward with his blade. "Tell me where she is, or I'll-"
"You'll what?" Palpatine interjected, raising a red eyebrow. "Cut me down? Rid the galaxy of me? My dear boy...your grandfather Anakin was a powerful apprentice whose reputation preceded him. Your potential is limited by your lack of commitment."
A question nagged at Ren's mind. "Why did you need Hux?"
Palpatine lifted his chin. "He's merely a stepping stone - a temporary lift for the time being."
"How did you do it? Darth Plageuis only discovered how to take over the body of his apprentice...someone who could use the force."
The emperor appeared almost bored by his question. "A rather lengthy process for this low quality substitution" he answered as he looked off into the distance. "A slow blood transfusion from my aging body into Hux's was necessary to build up the midichlorian count for the time being in order to transfer consciousness."
Ren concentrated on the details of the process, burning the words into his mind.
Palpatine reached up to his neck, marred and disfigured by the thick, ropy blue veins, and flicked open the neat clasp at his collar to release his cloak to the ground. His body appeared to be covered in a skin-tight metallic black suit that reminded Ren of the swimming costumes they wore on his homeworld of Chandrila. It accentuated every tensed muscle on his body. Unclipping a hilt from his belt, Palpatine ignited a simple blade, the amber glow increasing the intensity of Hux's red hair.
Ren buried his fear as the thrill of the fight awakened in him; he propelled himself toward his opponent, switching the hand grip on the cross guard hilt at the last moment. Making a back-handed swipe as he approached, Palpatine bent backward with a full spinal flexion to avoid the tip of Ren's blade.
Palpatine calmly put distance between them, as Kylo stepped back into a lunge with his lightsaber pointing accusingly. "As enthralling as it could be to continue this, I actually prefer you to be in one piece. I need this body to last me just a little longer."
Ren sprinted towards him once again, but the emperor disengaged his lightsaber and raised both his hands up from his hips, outstretched toward the sky. Ren's feet left the sand and his legs exerted no force against the air as the emperor shrunk beneath him. He watched helplessly as Palpatine's hands wrenched downward, and his stomach flipped when he reversed direction, accelerating with gravity towards the ground. Slamming into the sand with full force, the breath was knocked out of him, and his entire right side felt bruised to the bone. He began to stand as he wheezed but was pummelled by spheres of sand that rose up from the ground, hurling towards him in tandem with Palpatine's arm movements.
As Ren shielded himself on the ground, he heard the screeching sound of the black ship approaching, but was strongly assailed twice more as it passed over him. When the sands trickled away from the spheres, returning to the planet surface, he looked up to see Palpatine gone; the ships ramp was closing in the distance, eluding that the emperor must have jumped as they passed over. The Knights ship appeared firing, chasing the black vessel up into the atmosphere.
Groaning with pain, Ren sat up in the sand, looking around at the debris riddling the area. The silver dome-shaped structure drew his attention, then he noticed small footprints in the sand leading up to it. He stood to make his way over, and his chest felt tight as he could see a hatch was left slightly ajar.
Finding Rey before something happened to her was the only reason he had for going down that hole.
*
The door did not respond to Rey's touch as she tried to activate it from the bridge. She noticed it was slightly ajar at the top, a gap suggested it had fallen off its track and would have to be pulled open manually. Working her fingers in between the door frame, Rey braced her body against the frame and curled her fingertips tightly before she starting pulling with all her might. The door emitted a loud scraping sound as she grunted with effort, managing to pull it back enough that she could squeeze her slight body through the opening.
The corridor on the other side of the door was faintly lit, the lights of the panels surged and ebbed as if this place were running on backup power or a generator. As her eyes adjusted to the low level of light she saw the tendrils of green that were covering everything. Thick ropes of fuzzy vegetation had grown along the walls, cracking panels and infiltrating the seams.
Rey couldn't help herself as she reached for one of the plant tendrils; it was soft, moist and eerie. When she pulled away her hand, a dark, oily residue was left behind on it that she wiped away on her trousers.
"Rey" a disembodied voice came from the darkness at the end of the corridor.
Her heart turned ice cold with fear; she'd heard the voice call her name in the cave with the mirror, a distorted echo impossible to distinguish the exact tone.
Wisps of steam and smoke floated out of the darkness; a shiver travelled up Rey's spine as a soft roar followed a tremor in the corridor. The clamor of many whispers conversed with each other, uttering unintelligible secrets that grazed her ears and her instinctual interpretation led her to believe they were speaking about her. The mystery of the unknown truth continued to drive her feet forward one step at a time down the sloped hallway, her body rigid with fear as she clenched one fist and drew the lightsaber in the other.
The air grew humid the further she walked, and the back of her neck was coated in a mixture of sweat and accumulated moisture. Her vision was constantly obscured by clouds of smoke she passed through, and the darkness filled up the space, bringing with it a level of claustrophobia. Strangely enough, the further she went along in turn the whispers became quieter.
A sudden splash erupted as her right foot came down; water had partially filled the doorway of the corridor connecting to a room. Rey's boots both soaked instantly with cold water, but her attention was stolen by the steam and smoke clearing away from her vision.
The room was at a slope due to the orientation of the craft, but it still appeared to be some kind of command bridge; the water had filled the chamber nearly halfway at the centre of it. The ripples on the water and the residual steam were basked and highlighted in the red glow of standby power lights running vertically along the ceiling; the only sound in the room now was the dripping of water and the hum of backup power.
"Our child is here" a warped but distinctly feminine voice rang out in the room, startling Rey. She scanned the room for the origin of the voice, but no one was perched anywhere above the water. The soft lapping of the waves drew her attention to the centre of the vessel's lagoon where she saw two figures draw near to her on the shallow end.
The adrenaline was coursing through her veins, her entire muscular network contracted with trepidation as she fixated on the dark humanoid shapes moving towards her; their silhouettes exiting the water as Rey imagined some frightful abominations.
The red glow illuminated the faces of the beings as they approached Rey; a gasp left her mouth instantly. Hazel eyes bearing a resemblance to her own stared back at her from a woman, her dark brown hair wetly plastered against her neck and chest. The figure beside her was a man, also drenched from the water. The hair had been buzzed down close to the skull, making his bright eyes stand out. Their deep, brown tone accented by long lashes and his mouth was slightly ajar in awe; the same lip shape and jawline that Rey had seen in her own mirror almost daily.
The words she'd avoided saying her whole life were at the brink of spilling from her lips; their exclusion from her vocabulary vital to protecting her childlike yearning for belonging. Using them meant blowing open the dam holding back all her hurt, leaving her raw and unprotected.
"Mother?" her voice quavered as she spoke to the woman, then turned to the man. "Father?"
The man sobbed as the woman nodded in response, her lips quivering with emotion as water dripped down her face.
"Yes, Rey" her voice an odd melody, "it's us."