Chapter Text
The hum of the shuttle’s engines had become a familiar background noise. Constantly moving was the only way to stay safe.
He was laying on laying on the shuttle’s small bed, holding Skye’s tiny arms to keep her upright bouncing her while she giggled. Her black hair had started to get long enough curl a bit at the edges, framing her tiny face and chubby cheeks. Her hazel eyes squinted as she laughed. If he stopped bouncing her, she’d burst into tears, tiny hands clenching into firsts.
Less than ten feet away, Rey was trying to stir a pot on the portable cooktop he’d picked up a few months ago. They were both sick of ration bars and nutrition packs, so a way to cook a meal while in transit was nice, even if a lot were just dehydrates they were reconstituting.
She had Sol held up on her shoulder with one arm, bouncing slightly up and down as she stirred a pot of some kind of soup with her free hand. Solan’s blond hair had grown, though not as thick as his sisters. It would be a few years before it started darkening to brown. He mouthed his mother’s shoulder, drooling a wet patch onto the cloth.
“You want me to take him?” Kylo asked.
Rey just gave him a dismissive shake of her head, “He’ll cry. It’s okay.”
“You’re hands are full,” he huffed. She was always ridiculously stubborn. He had gotten to his feet, earning an angry cry from Skye as their bouncing game stopped. Adjusting her the crook of his arm, he resumed bouncing her as he walked over to Rey. She quit crying, but fat little lips pushed out in a pout, not happy the game had changed. “I can take them both.”
“He’s fine,” Rey gave him a sharp look as he walked next to her. “She’s enough for you to deal with.”
“I can handle them both until you’re done.”
She didn’t look at him, instead fumbling with her free hand to lower the heat under the pot. He sighed, reaching past her to lower it for her, only to earn a glare for his effort to be nice.
“We’re almost out of fuel.” She was trying to sound like she was saying it as an offhand sort of thing, but he could hear the tension in her voice.
He didn’t look at her. The encrypted credit chip he had taken with him was starting to run low. Not so low that he needed to worry yet, but a few months down the road he was going to run out. What happened then he wasn’t sure. They needed food, they needed fuel, they needed supplies. What was going to happen when he couldn’t buy them anymore?
If it were up to him, he’d just take whatever they needed.
But it wasn’t just up to him anymore. She’d never allow it.
Was she worried about it? Was that why she was asking?
“Yeah, we’ll get to the next port tomorrow. It’s small but we’ll be able to refuel and restock.”
A stiff nod. She was tense, and had stopped bouncing. Solan unlatched his mouth from her shoulder, starting to fret. Rey sighed, bouncing again.
He reached over with his free arm, grabbing Sol, “Seriously, just give him to me.”
For a moment, Rey’s arm tightened, like she was going to fight to hold on to the baby. Then she loosened, letting him pluck the boy out of her arms.
Solan let out a screech, waving his tiny arms at his mother as he was pulled away from her. As the distance increased, he burst into tears. Kylo pulled him close, shushing him, ignoring the glare Rey gave him.
Skye didn’t seem to appreciate the extra attention going to her brother, letting out a howl and bursting into tears of her own, leaving him with a screaming baby in each arm and feeling like the galaxy's biggest asshole. Rey finished heating the food, roughly setting two bowls down and splitting the soup between them.
Once that was done, she turned stiffly, holding her arms out for the babies. It felt accusing, like she was telling him he wasn’t good enough of a father. For a split second, rage flared in his head and he wanted to tell her no.
Then it sputtered away, she was their mother. He wasn’t about to keep his babies away from their mother. He passed Sol over first, letting her settle him on one shoulder before handing her Skye to hold in her other arm. She shushed the babies, walking away. Their cries slowed. He fought a pang of jealousy at how much easier it seemed to be for her to get them content.
He sighed sitting and pulling his bowl over to eat while she walked the length of the shuttle with the kids. Rey couldn’t hold them both and eat. Once he was done he might have to take them from her again and make her eat her food.
They’d probably start screaming again.
After five minutes or so, she approached, both babies quiet, eyes closed, sleeping soundly. He got up, helping her put them down on the bed.
“They were just tired,” she murmured, leaning against him as they stood looking down at the two tiny bundles. He nodded, taking a deep breath as her hand reached up and caressed his cheek.
She pushed his face to look at her.
“I’m just tired too, I’m sorry.” He closed his eyes as she leaned in and pressed her lips to his. Sighing, he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close. Breaking the kiss, she leaned her head against his chest.
He closed his eyes. He didn’t deserve her, and she deserved so much better than him.
“My good and faithful apprentice.” Snoke mocked, voice echoing in the cavernous space as tendrils of the Force wrapped around him, slamming him into the floor.
Kylo pushed himself up to his knees slowly, staring at his reflection in the gleaming black durasteel floor. The glint of the suppression collar the Resistance put around his neck was visible, mocking him. He gritted his teeth together, wishing he had been able to kill more of the bastards during his escape.
Snoke’s uneven footsteps approached. “The mighty Kylo Ren. When I first found you, I saw what all masters long to see— raw, untamed power— and then, something else, something truly special.” Slippered feet appeared in his peripheral vision as he stared down at the floor. “The potential of your bloodline— a new Vader.” Snoke’s voice grew colder, “Only to see you squander that potential, turn your back on everything I offered you. And for what? For what did you betray me?”
He looked up, meeting Snoke’s icy blue eyes, “Where’s my son?”
There was no chance to even see the force lighting before it hit him and he was knocked flat onto the floor again.
“For a worthless girl from a scrap planet,” Snoke continued, as if Kylo had never spoken. “For nothing.”
Grinding his teeth together, he pushed himself up again, staring at his reflection in the floor, fighting the panic trying to cut through his brain. Rey was alright, she had to be. Sol and Skye would have to be alright. He didn’t matter, but somehow the rest of them needed to be alright.
“You, heir apparent to Darth Vader, manipulated by a pair of pretty eyes. Let her twist and turn you around her fingers and mold you into whatever she wanted you to be. Even now, your mind scurries like a frightened gitzka, consumed with thoughts of her.” Snoke’s hand reached down and brushed the suppression collar, “You were collared long before the rebels put that around your neck. She turned you into a domesticated dog, focused on her needs and not your own.”
“That’s not true,” he snapped his eyes up to meet Snoke’s condescending gaze. “She loves me.”
Snoke scoffed, turning and shuffling back towards his throne, “Does she? Well, I suppose most masters love their pets.”
“She’s not my master.”
“Oh?” Snoke leaned forward, “When was the last time you made a decision without obsessing over what her reaction would be?”
Kylo blinked, trying to find a reasonable answer to that.
“That’s what I thought.” Snoke chuckled before his expression darkened. “All of this could have been avoided. You could have been the one to subdue her, bend her to your will, while still fighting for the things you believe in. We could have had the rebellion crushed right now, if you had remained at my side. Peace would reign with the rabble destroyed and the galaxy under the heel of the First Order. All you needed to do was talk to me, we could have come to an understanding.”
That was too ridiculous, he laughed, looking down at his reflection again.
Snoke sighed, a touch of affection in his voice, “Have I ever lied to you, young Solo? From the time I took you in, I was always honest… even blunt, perhaps... with you. I refused to hold you back with lies the way Skywalker had.”
He pushed himself up to his knees, glaring up at Snoke, “You were going to kill her.”
“I did not realize there was any use to her,” Snoke waved his hand dismissively. “Had you pushed for the things you wanted, I could have been swayed into seeing the potential . We wouldn’t have even needed to turn her to make her useful.”
Potential. There was a brief moment of confusion as his brain tried to wrap itself around that word. He looked up, “No.”
“Though even I couldn’t have foreseen how potent your offspring would be. Their awakening has been a jolt through the force.”
Kylo snarled, jumping to his feet, “No!”
Snoke was far enough away that he saw the lighting this time, though only for a split second before being knocked backwards. His head cracked against the durasteel floor and for a moment everything went blank and dark. When he blinked his eyes Snoke was standing above him, scowling. “Blind fool. You are lucky I am so forgiving.” A gnarled hand raised and Kylo felt like nails were sinking into his mind. “First you will show me everything, and then… then my apprentice, I shall show you how she has controlled you.”
Without the force, he had no way to fight back as the claws deepened their hold on his mind and agonizingly ripped and tore it open. There was no way to fight, nor to stop the pain that lanced through his head.
All he could do was scream.
The shuddering of the shuttle as it dropped from hyperspace snapped her out of the exhausted semi-doze she had fallen into. She pushed herself back upright in her seat, using the console in front of her for support and blinking at the small star system they were in. Just a few gas giants and their moons, orbiting a reddish star.
Pava was sitting, tapping commands into her console, pausing to frown down at whatever feedback was being reported to her.
Rey caught her eye and raised her eyebrows in question, and Pava looked down again, “Found the signal amplifier, trying to link up to it.”
“And?”
Jess rubbed her thumb repeatedly over her index finger, “It’s busy.”
“With?”
“It’s transmitting, on a loop.” Jess looked up, fear and resignation in her eyes telling Rey everything she needed to know. It was sending out an emergency transmission.
“Well, what’s it transmitting?” She wasn’t sure why she even bothered to ask, except maybe to shove this whole situation into Jess’ face.
Jess just stared down at the console, still fidgeting her thumb against her index finger. As if by not listening she could pretend everything was okay.
“If it’s sending a message we can listen to it, can’t we?”
Rubbing a hand over her face, Jess pressed down on a button, and warbling sound of an encrypted transmission filled the shuttle cabin. “I know the key, just give me a second to set up the filter.” She tapped some more buttons, and the warble deepened, then burst into static for a split second, before an unknown voice filled the shuttle.
“...repeat, command base has fallen. Order EV2187 has been issued. All operatives are to follow their required plan of action. This message will repeat… Command operation base has fallen. All personnel have been evacuated and the system should be considered in enemy hands… we repeat, command base has fallen. Order EV2187 has been issued. All operatives are to follow their required plan of action. This message will re—”
Jess slapped her hand down on the console hard and the voice cut off. The two sat in silence.
Rey rubbed her eyes, fighting back panic at the thought of where Kylo and the kids might be. They had to be alive, she would have known, have to have known, if any of them had died. Even with Kylo cut off the force she couldn’t believe she wouldn’t have felt it.
Maybe it was just her stubborn refusal to accept the possibility, but for now she was going to run with it, because it wasn’t going to matter if they ran out of fuel and ended up on a dead shuttle adrift in space.
“Order EV2187?”
“Evacuation.” Jess closed her eyes, shoulders slumping. “Proceed to the rendezvous point to regroup. My encryption key can be used to extract the coordinates from the message.”
“Which we have no fuel to get to.” Rey leaned forward and tapped the console, just to reinforce what she already knew. They didn’t even have enough to make a short jump.
“Yeah.”
She leaned her head on her hands, taking a deep breath, then sat up. “So… distress beacon?”
Jess closed her eyes and took a deep breath of her own before nodding, posture changing with resolve. “Distress beacon.” She tapped on the console, engaging the shuttle’s thrusters. “We’ll need to capture the signal amplifier to do the modifications.”
Rey nodded, “Okay, let’s do this.”
“General?”
He looked up from his reread of Kaplan’s report. There wasn’t much chance of Snoke being forgiving, but just in case, it was good to memorize all the details so he could remind the Supreme Leader just how much his fellow General had fucked up.
“Lieutenant,” he frowned over his datapad at Mitaka.
“Phasma has completed the sweep of the rebel’s base. A small handful of rebels were captured and interrogated before they were executed. Unfortunately, none of them appeared to have any information on where their evacuation fleet might be headed. We’re currently extracting any data we can from their data banks, though it looks like most critical data was purged.”
“Hm.” He glanced down at the datapad again, not feeling particularly surprised by this news. It was unfortunate but he was sure they would be able to corner the rebel remnants. They didn’t have anywhere left to run. “No sign of the girl the Supreme Leader wanted captured?”
“No sir. No girl and no body was found that matched the description.”
Given Snoke’s insistence that the child was still alive, that didn’t surprise him. Her being dead would have been more convenient for the future plans he was starting to develop. But at least she was gone, and hopefully would remain hard to find.
“But we may have found something of use in regards to her.”
Hux looked up again, slowly lowering his datapad and setting it on his desk.
“The rebel’s medical data banks are intact.” Mitaka paused.
Hux raised his eyebrows as a way to encourage the man to hurry up and clarify how that was going to help them.
“Both children were given a full biometric scan when they arrived on base. We have enough information to produce tracking fobs. Shall I arrange to set up a bounty?”
Frowning, Hux got to his feet, pacing to the viewport of his office. Saying no to this would be far too suspicious. He couldn’t risk it.
“Yes. Set up the bounty. Contact the guild and send them the fobs, but also publish it openly.” He shrugged, “That should get all the dregs in the backwaters to keep their eyes open in the hope for some credits. Also contact our patrols, make sure they have the tracking data and are looking as well.”
“Specify the asset must be brought in alive for payment?”
Must Mitaka always be such a stickler for details? That would mean less chances of a happy accident. “Yes.” He clucked his tongue thoughtfully, “It’s possible she could lead us to the rebel fleet. Offer double the bounty on the girl for information on the location of the fleet so they don’t try to extract the girl and ruin our chance to corner them.”
Mitaka nodded, turning and walking out. Hux cast a cold glance at the man’s back before returning his gaze back to the space beyond the viewport.
No reason to worry yet, when it was entirely possible nothing would come of this but a waste of time and credits. And if something did come of it, well, he would adapt his plans. Adapting and working from the shadows was what he was good at, and in the end, his goals would be achieved.
Her legs hurt from being cramped down of the floor of the tiny ship. The air was heavy, damp and too warm, leaving her sticky and sweating, shirt sticking to her damp skin. She was thirsty, hungry, and wanted her mom and dad.
The man had offered her water, but he was the one that had tried to kill Daddy and she didn’t want anything from him, even if he was promising to take her back to her mom.
He reached up, flipping some switches and muttering under his breath. She watched him with a cold glare, not changing as he glanced over at her quickly before darting his eyes away.
“Hold on kid, this might get rough.”
The little ship shuddered and she felt a drop in the pit of her stomach as they dropped out of hyperspace, an ugly brown planet filling the viewport. Thrusters revved hard, knocking her sideways.
“Fuck,” the man muttered under his breath, “fuck fuck fuck…” He glanced at her, “We’re on fumes, just hold on…” The ship rattled roughly as they entered the atmosphere, then shook worse as the thrusters revved to slow their descent. They started to stabilize, but then the thrusters sputtered and the hum died down.
“Shit, ah…” The man strained, pulling on the yoke hard. The shuttle shifted it’s angle, but they were speeding up again.
Without warning he leapt out of the seat, jumping on top of her and wrapping his body around hers right as they jolted with impact and the two of them were thrown around the tiny cabin. His body cushioning hers from the worst of the impact.
It finally stopped, the ship rolling slowly once more and coming to rest angled on it’s side. She shook, feeling too panicked to even cry. The man held her for another few moments before untangling himself from her with a groan.
Skye scooted back from him, bits and pieces of debris cutting into her hands. It was dark, only a little light filtering through the dirt caked on the shattered viewport. All she could make out was a shadow as the man pulled himself to his knees.
“Okay, kid?” he asked, not looking at her, groping along the other side of the ship with one arm.
She didn’t answer, just pulled her knees up to her chest and burst into tears.
The kid was crying. Poe guessed that meant she was still breathing and conscious, so there was that. He’d check on her more carefully once he got them out of this wreck.
He searched for the emergency release for the hatch, one arm dangling uselessly, pain flaring through his shoulder. Something wet was dripping down his face. Might just be sweat, but given the knocks he took to his head as they crashed, seemed more likely to be blood. Not that it would matter if he didn’t get them out of here and figure out what to do next.
Pushing debris out of his way, his fingers finally caught on the release. There was a hiss as the seal cracked, light seeping through the inch or so it opened before jamming. The smell of burnt durasteel and sulphur seeping into the cockpit.
“Oh come on,” he muttered, pushing against it. The metal groaned and creaked but barely moved. “Come on you fucking—” He turned his good shoulder toward the hatch and slammed into it, then did it again, and again. It was moving, the hatch grinding again rock as it slowly wedged more open. After an eternity, it finally was wedged open enough for him to squeeze out.
He slid out on his stomach, his hands sinking into layer of fine mud that covered a coarse, rocky ground as he pulled himself out and stood up.
They’d crashed on what looked like a plane of volcanic rock, the expanse only broken by vents spewing steam and ash into the chilly damp air. The planet’s weak sun was sinking low to the horizon.
Squinting, he thought he could make out the spaceport a few clicks away. Too far to walk to by nightfall. They were stuck here till then. Use the wreck for shelter and head out in the morning. He wasn’t sure at that point what they were going to do.
It had been awhile since he needed to improvise on the fly, but at least it had always been something he was good at.
Right now he probably should go check on the kid and patch them both up as best he could while there was still daylight. Dropping back down to his stomach, he crawled back inside to check on the kid.
It was a memory, one from when the kids were just babies. He and Rey had been exhausted, the toll of two eight month old twins, their claustrophobic life in their shuttle, constantly moving, constantly in fear that they were going to be cornered. Not the first or the last that emotions caught up with them and boiled over into a fight.
But it wasn’t quite what he remembered. Rey’s actions seemed colder, more deliberate, more judgemental. Not letting him take Solan seemed like a punishment. Her pointing out they were low on fuel felt more like an accusation, as if she was scolding him for not taking care of them properly.
Wrong. In small ways, but wrong.
“Not wrong, boy. You just have convinced yourself otherwise.” Snoke’s voice laughed. “She even took the children away from you to punish you. She created your weakness, and used them to control you.”
No. They had been crying and she wanted to soothe them.
“Foolish. So foolish, to deny what was going on the whole time.”
He watched the memory replay, the twins finally fell asleep and he helped Rey put them down on the bed. Her hand caressed his cheek, but it didn’t feel gentle. It felt cold, manipulative, and the eyes he met weren’t soft, they were calculating. Her apology didn’t sound apologetic, nor was there affection in her eyes even when she pressed her lips to his.
“Of course not. It was always a means of getting what she wanted from you.”
No. Liar.
Pain seared through his mind, wiping that memory away. Slowly, a new one began to materialize.
Snoke’s voice sighed, “My poor boy. I have so much more to show you. In the end, you will see the truth.”