Fandom Star Wars: Chaos and Order [Closed]

[Lucyfer]

The First Order remained an open secret in the galaxy. Kylo Ren despised it, though he understood the reason for it was his own failure. If he could just find Luke, and eliminate him, they could spread without fear, and take the galaxy as they deserved. To bring structure, and order, back to the galaxy.

To bring the true teachings of the Force forward.

It was such things that brought him to the planet of Bayora, where rumor of a map to Luke Skywalker had reached him. The information had been gleaned from the former Imperial, Del Meeko, but he hadn’t known much beyond that.

Well, that, and the map was in the hands of Lor San Tekka.

The memory of him made Kylo Ren uncomfortable as he approached a small town, already in a panic at the sight of the TIE fighters and shuttle that landed. People left the streets and ran for their red-stone homes, or into the few businesses for shelter. Even if they didn’t know what was coming, they could sense it was nothing good.

Within the town was a Dagoyan School, although Kylo knew it was no longer used for that purpose. It was a relic of a time long lost, but the people kept it in good repair as a community center, and so it was this city, if any, that Lor San Tekka would be at.

It was only too easy to imagine the old man walking through there, and smiling as he talked about what he knew; Kylo had seen it enough times on ventures out with Luke and Lor San Tekka when he was younger.

The mask hid any suggestion of his discomfort as he approached the town, Stormtroopers falling behind as he marched forward into the streets that were emptying out. “Search the homes,” Kylo directed, “bring everyone to the center. Kill no one,” he pointed towards the Dagoyan school, aware the Stormtroopers would have no idea what he meant if he called it by that name. They didn’t recognize the stone structure.

They didn’t feel the pulse of the Force.

‘No, it’s not just the school.’ There was someone there capable in the Force, as well. Perhaps another traveler, drawn to the history of their own power. Perhaps someone who grew up here and felt a draw to it.

A shame.

They wouldn’t make it through the day. He didn't presume he needed to intervene; the Stormtroopers could handle this. If they learned the Dagoyan way, they'd be a pacifist, after all. Even if they hadn't -- there were few, truly skilled Force practitioners left in the galaxy.

Already, he could hear people screaming as the Stormtroopers began to do their jobs, dragging people out alive. None of them would survive, but he needed them alive for questioning first. Someone here had seen Lor San Tekka. If he wasn’t still on Bayora, someone would know where he had gone. Kylo would find him.

He would put an end to this, once and for all.

He began to walk through the school, but he found nothing of the Dagoyan community left. They’d long since abandoned Bayora, long since abandoned the spread of their version of the Force, when the Jedi took over the dominant thought. Not that it would have helped these people.

Pacifists.

The Dagoyan resolved never to use the Force for any impact on the physical world. It made the sculptures, architecture, and wall carvings somewhat impressive, when he considered the Force was used in none of it, but not impressive enough to keep him from causing it harm as he walked into the central meditative chamber, and illuminated his red blade to let it slice through the spiraling floor design, reaching out again the Force for what he sought.

Lor San Tekka.

The Map.

Here, where the Force pulsed with life, he tried to connect with it to pull a vision forward. He had never been good at channeling them, but he still tried, when he had a moment to still his mind.

When no one could see the deep concentration behind his mask, as he probed outwards, and tried to reach beyond time, to find what he wanted.

Of course, it would only make his presence in the Force all the stronger – much as the screaming kyber did as it was activated and bled more by that activation. He was like a gaping hole in the Force on Bayora in that moment, eclipsing the true Force presence the world itself had. It couldn’t stand up to Kylo Ren’s power.

And yet, for all that power – no vision came rushing forward before Stormtroopers began to pull in the citizens of Bayora, their fear, their voices, pulling him from any hope of foresight.

~***~

‘Finally.’

Neria Tarkin took in the sight of the infamous Carrion Spike stealth corvette. For years, she had tracked it, and for years it had evaded her, but now, at long last, she had it in front of her eyes. ‘Several lifeforms within. Terex a possibility.’ A thorn in her side, one she intended to pluck out, permanently.

But, stealing this first would be worth keeping him alive a little longer. His reaction would be priceless.

“Heading in, going dark. See you on the other side, Fyrnock,” she murmured the codename, before turning the earpiece off, and touching a pad on the side of her arm. The cloaking mechanism fell over herself as she approached the door of the Spike, the ramp lowered, but the door shut. It was easy enough to bypass it; she knew all of Wilhuff’s administrative secrets, and was able to force an override through that.

The door opened, but she shut it behind herself – just in case – and kept low as she went through the ship, room by room.

The lifeforms were all alien. Many of them seemed shackled to long chains, giving them room to move about, but little else. ‘Slaves….’ She was aware of Terex’s penchant for enslaving his enemies. Decent strategy for leverage and blackmail. There was a chance they’d get in her way, but not a good one if she promised to drop them off on Hosnian Prime, or some other hub world. None of them had any love of Terex.

Problem was, they likely weren’t inclined to trust her, either.

Ah, the Imperial stigma!

None of them noticed her, even if they had very little to distract them. She gradually made her way to the cockpit, and was just about to open it, when she heard heavy footfall, and what sounded like struggling, and laughter. ‘Take your chance. Open the cockpit. Barricade inside and take him on a joyride.’

No.

She had to know what she was dealing with, and so she made her way silently towards the heavy footfall, and caught up as Terex dragged a dark-haired man, already bound in binders, into one of the rooms that had evidently been made into a makeshift brig. He pushed the man into the room against the wall, and it was then Neria realized who he was.

Poe Dameron. Leia’s elite pilot. But as with any rebel – that was hardly all he did. Neria knew him for being practically Leia’s right hand. A good catch for the Order.

Terex moved quick, not even by age standards – just quick – and he pulled Dameron’s hands up from behind his back and twisted the binder onto a hook in the cell that barely let his feet touch the ground. “Now, just stand here like a good boy, and maybe I’ll consider feeding you before we get back to the Order,” Terex smirked in the pilot’s face, hands going to his hips, one hand wrapping around a blaster, “after all, you’ve helped me score far more than I expected.”

Neria was a second too late to realize he meant her.

After all – cloaking made her confident. She forgot how familiar Terex was with it – and how he could see the signs relatively easily, even in the dim lighting of the corridor.

The blaster shot hit her straight on in the chest, and though it didn’t break the cloak, it certainly made her location obvious by the thud as she stumbled back into the wall, going rigid as the stun shot worked through her nerves, dampened some by the vest she wore under her tunic.

Dampened enough that when Terex grabbed her, she was still able to twist and pull away, but her steps weren’t silent now. They were heavy, leaden. “Oh come on, Tarkin, you think I wouldn’t notice the override warning when I got to the door?” Terex laughed, and not willing to take another shot lest it do too much harm to a prize worth keeping alive, he lunged forward.

Neria was taken in the tackle, but she’d managed to slip a knife into her hand in the moments. She jammed it into Terex’s chest, dead center, but he only grunted before his hand found the tangle of her hair.

He slammed her head hard into the ground, the blood spatter evident of just how hard it was. That, and the sudden lack of struggle. “Tch.” He sat up, and felt along her until he located the cloaking device. He deactivated it, removed it, and pulled her up, finding another set of binders and putting them on her own hands as well, before dragging her to the same cell as Dameron.

He only had one. He didn’t exactly keep prisoners. He kept the dagger in his chest, very aware of the danger of removing it prematurely, but it was clear it was not a glancing blow by the way he’d gone significantly paler. “I’ll be back,” with chains to make sure he secured her better, he didn’t trust she’d be out long.

He shut the door, and made sure it was tightly locked, just before she let out an agonized groan, consciousness slipping right back in with bursts of pain.

 

[cleopat]

‘Go to Bayora and find me information on Lor San Tekka. Do not fail, my apprentice.’

Verena felt the jerk and shudder of her shuttle touch down on the planet. Only a few Stormtroopers accompanied her, as she was told of other Stormtroopers who marched ahead of her on the planet, to secure the area and gather the villagers.

Her cape trailed behind her as she disembarked the shuttle. The ground crunched under the weight of her boots as she took in what the troopers ahead of her already accomplished. They were gathering the villagers in the Dagoyan School, each one she could feel terrified of what was going to happen to them. Their fear radiated in great waves.

Good.

It wasn’t the only thing she could feel in that village. The pulse of the Force.

Someone familiar and well-trained with the ways of the Force was nearby. Someone strong, with a strength she hadn’t felt before.

‘Could it be…?’

Shaking her head, Verena followed the troopers and the screams of the villagers being dragged into the Dagoyan school. That pulse of the Force grew stronger still. The Force user was inside the school. Was it a villager who would make themself known in some desperate swan song?

She continued to follow the screams until she reached the central chamber where they were being held. Stormtroopers surrounded them, but one figure clad in black, face concealed by a helmet, stood out.

‘Ah, a Knight of Ren. I should’ve known.’

Verena ignored him for the moment to turn back to the villagers. Compared to the helmeted troopers and the Knight of Ren, disguising their faces and identities, she must have appeared as an enigma to them with her own face clear to see, yet not donning the uniform of the First Order.

“Please,” one man spoke up. ‘Ah, there it is.’ “We have nothing. We-”

Verena shot out her hand and cut the man off with an invisible grip on his neck. He raised his hands and clutched at his neck, as if that would get rid of the Force she had tightly wrapped around him. She reached out to his mind, searching for any information she could glean on Lor San Tekka.

Nothing.

“If you have nothing, then you are useless to me.” With a twist of her hand, the man’s head snapped to the side, his neck emitting a sickening crunch, and his body dropped to the ground. More screams and cries from the villagers echoed around her.

“I did not expect a Knight of Ren to be here.” Verena turned her head to him. “Did you find anything yet?”

~~~

How could he be so stupid to fall for such a simple and primitive trap?

The great Poe Dameron, General Organa’s right-hand man, fell into a pit trap while scouring the latest planet for any information on the location of Lor San Tekka and the map to Luke Skywalker.

In his daze from the sharp drop to the bottom of the pit, the ever-annoying Terex grabbed him and handcuffed him before he dragged Poe off to his ship. ‘My ship! BB-8!’

He didn’t catch a glimpse of his beloved droid before he was dragged away, still in a bit of a daze from the fall. But once his mind cleared, right outside the ship, Poe struggled against the tight grip Terex had on him. The man delivered a quick blow to Poe’s head, dazing the pilot once again.

Poe was dragged into a small brig, and before he could struggle against Terex once again, the slaver moved with speed to move his binders above his head, letting Poe practically dangle from the hook. ‘Well, this isn’t ideal’.

His arms were already beginning to ache.

Poe was ready to spit in Terex’s smug face, but before he could, a series of surprising events unfolded. Terex shot at an unseen figure, which Poe quickly surmised was someone with a cloaking device. A Tarkin? Oh, he knew that name.

A tackle, a knife to Terex’s chest, a slam of the unseen figure into the ground, and the removal of the cloaking device, revealing the hidden Tarkin.

Oh it was so satisfying to see the knife in Terex’s chest.

It was clear the woman was not well, even if he hadn’t seen how hard Terex slammed her head into the ground. Terex left her in the cell with Poe, but the lucky woman wasn’t strung up like he was, even if she was still in binders.

“First time being captured by that bastard?” He began searching for a way out of the binders, or at the very least unattached from the hook, but the raised viewpoint left him at a disadvantage.

The door made a mechanical noise as it opened again. Poe braced for the reappearance of Terex so soon, but instead, he was greeted by the familiar friendly beeping of his beloved droid. “Beebee!” he breathed in relief. “It’s so good to see you.”

BB-8 beeped at him, and Poe rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, I know, I need to stop getting myself in these kinds of situations.” The droid rolled up to the cell and unlocked it, before pausing at the sight of Neria. It beeped a question at Poe, and he hesitated a second, looking at the woman. “Yeah, I think she’s friendly.”

He didn’t really know, but an enemy of Terex couldn’t be too bad, right? “But she’s hurt.” BB-8 first whirled up to Poe, bringing out some of its built-in extenders to rise up to face Poe, and unlocked his binders. He dropped down to his feet with a sigh of great relief.

BB-8 then whirled up to Neria, beeping at her that it could unlock her binders, but that it couldn’t do much for her head right then.

 

[Lucyfer]

Kylo could not allow himself to be distracted by the pull of the Force. He had to focus on the people ahead, as the Stormtroopers brought them in. One nuisance began to complain that they had nothing to offer, not knowing what it was Kylo wanted – and then they were silenced. His head snapped to a woman in a cape, the Force radiating out from her.

The presence he’d felt earlier.

Immediately, the Stormtroopers under his command leveled their blasters at her, but Kylo noticed there was a group not part of the 422nd platoon he brought with him, and they did not point their blasters at the strange woman. However, they didn’t level their blasters at him, or the other troopers, either. They held their ground, as the dark-haired woman referred to him by position.

Sort of.

He was more than a mere knight of Ren, after all. He was their commander.

His eyes narrowed, even if it couldn’t be seen behind the mask, and he pulled his lightsaber into his hand and illuminated it, pointing it at her, “I do not know who you think you are to come here and question what I am doing, nor why you have manipulated Stormtroopers under your command,” the voice altered his voice as he approached her, “but you will take a seat on the ground with the rest of the citizens here, and you will answer my questions,” Kylo snarled at her, stepping forward, fully aware that threat was unlikely to move her.

It was likely going to take force.

And probably dragging her back to the ship. Breaking a Force sensitive was never as easy as breaking one without the Force, but he could do it. Especially one who clearly manipulated Stormtroopers to her bidding, or else had a few costumed goons to look important for the situation, and not be forced into the line with the other citizens. “Am I clear?”

The Force crackled around him as much as his lightsaber, trembling under his tenuous grasp, waiting for him to issue a lashing command with it, but he held it close as he stared her down, waiting for obedience, expecting none.

~***~

This was not the first concussion Neria Tarkin had. Nor was it likely to be the last as she opened her eyes to the cell, and her companion, who apparently was accustomed to this. No surprise. “I do not make a habit of getting caught,” she answered, eyes adjusting to assess her situation as her head pounded with pain.

She rose, dizziness and nausea following, though thankfully she didn’t lose herself to either sensation, other than to let her shoulder hit the wall so she could claim her balance.

The door opened, and she tensed to deal with Terex – but it wasn’t him. It was a round, orange-and-white, droid. It was one that Poe knew, and Neria chuckled. The rebels and their droids! Well, she couldn’t complain right then, as the droid helped Poe get free and down, and offered to help her. “Thanks,” she knelt down to be more at its level so it wouldn’t have to extend, and let the droid pick the lock.

She attached the binders to a buckle at her hip.

Never knew when they were going to come in handy.

She reached a hand back to where she had a throbbing pain, and her hand came away with a bit of blood. She hissed, and cursed under her breath, “Son of a bitch,” no, not the worst wound she ever had, but still no fun. She touched the earbud she had in to turn it back on, “Fyrnock, things did not go as planned. Briefly captured. Going to try and finish things up, but be prepared in case it goes to hell.”

Fyrnock’s complaints and concerns echoed in one ear, as she turned to Dameron, “Ready to put an end to this bastard, Dameron?” she questioned, opening the door BB-8 had unlocked. She had no idea why he was here, but who was she to deny help?

Of course, as she opened the door, she heard…other ships outside.

Landing.

Things may have just gone to hell, as some of Fyrnock's complaints clicked: he'd seen other First Order ships arriving.

 

[cleopat]

The Stormtroopers aiming their blasters at her was a small inconvenience, but Verena did not waiver under their threat, nor under the threat of the Knight of Ren.

Seeing his distorted lightsaber, forming a crossguard, she knew who he was. She heard stories of his lightsaber and his temper. Kylo Ren.

Verena looked at the lightsaber pointed at her with boredom. Her Troopers huddled closer to her, but she held up one hand, and they stopped. “There was no manipulation on my part. They serve me under the orders of Supreme Leader Snoke.” A few of the other Stormtroopers shifted uneasily at the name.

It was a huge inconvenience that he did not know she would be there though. But who was she to question why Snoke did anything?

“And as they serve under the Supreme Leader’s command, so am I in coming to this pitiful planet.” Verena didn’t move as Kylo approached, almost daring him to strike at her. Her hand hovered over the hilt of her lightsaber, but she didn’t bring it out just yet.

“So while you are transparently clear, I will not obey them. I only obey the orders that Supreme Leader Snoke gives to me, his Herald of Lian.” His apprentice.

~~~

Poe’s binders were stashed away. He looked over to his cell companion, unsure of how to approach her. It was obvious she was in pain, but she was moving on her own. And she was a Tarkin, and he was fairly certain he knew which one. That made him a bit nervous.

But they both were wanting to get away from Terex. He could work with her for now to achieve that common goal.

“I’m always ready to put an end to that bastard,” he answered. The door opened, and as Poe readied his blaster to put a hole in Terex’s chest, he heard the sound of the First Order ships.

They just…had a certain sound in their engines that he could recognize. A menacing noise.

Ah, fuck.

“Hey, Snap, buddy?” he spoke into his earpiece that he fortunately did not lose during the scuffle to the ship.

“Dameron, what the hell happened?”

“Terex happened.” He could hear a groan on the other side. “You have my coordinates, right? We could really use the backup right now.”

“Yeah, I have them-Wait, we? Who’s we?”

“I’ll explain as soon as we’re away from these First Order bastards.” Poe looked to Neria as he stepped through the doorway and out of the brig. “Are you ready to make a run for it if we need to? While I would love to see Terex dead, that may have to wait till another day.” He could faintly hear talking. “We need to leave, now.”

 

[Lucyfer]

‘Herald of Lian?’

Kylo Ren had never heard of such a group. The Supreme Leader never told him of the Herald, or Heralds, of Lian. The woman could easily be lying, but he felt a certain unease move through him. If she wasn’t lying and he struck her down, Snoke may be upset with the action. He’d have only himself to blame, but that hardly mattered.

Kylo Ren would still face judgment.

“We’ll see about that,” Kylo said, lowering his lightsaber only to raise his hand and stretching it out towards the woman as he grasped at the Force between them. “Open your mind to me. Prove you are who you say you are.” If she was telling the truth, she had no reason to hide her mind from his probing.

He still expected a fight, as he pushed forward to reveal her thoughts and mind. If there wasn’t one –he’d be easy. He’d glide over her thoughts and relevant memories of Supreme Leader Snoke to find the command she had for Bayora.

But if there was a fight, he wouldn’t hesitate in making it feel as agonizing as possible as he pulled and stripped away her mental barriers to force the truth out of her so he could determine whether or not she was a liar, or actually telling the truth.

The people of Bayora were too frightened to think of running, even with this distraction. The Stormtroopers were watching, after all, even if some kept their focus on Kylo Ren and this new Herald of Lian – just in case Kylo was taken by surprise.

~***~

Apparently, Dameron wasn’t alone either.

That was likely the reason Terex wasn’t. “That knife is a bit of a priceless heirloom,” Neria wasn’t lying, but she said it so off-handedly it may as well have been. Still, she knew better than to risk it as voices began to come from outside.

Others were going to enter the Carrion Spike. They were outnumbered. “I suppose I can pick it up next time, though.” As much as she disliked leaving Terex with the knife and the ship, living was a greater priority. “By the sounds of it, they’re unloading from a shuttle. We’re going to have to run.”

They’d have only a moment where the Order would presume it was Terex, before they understood it wasn’t. “I can buy time for your friend, but you need to keep your head down so they don’t recognize you immediately, Dameron. Stay in my shadow. Tell me what Snap is likely going to do, or what we need to do to improve our odds of escape.”

As she spoke, she moved towards the door of the Spike, hearing Terex cursing from another room as he spoke into a comm device, apparently keeping them waiting outside.

The urge to break away and finish him off was strong, but it was better if he was stayed occupied.

 

[cleopat]

Verena initially resisted the push of the Force into her mind out of habit. She gasped at the intensity, but immediately after she lowered the shields around her mind to allow Kylo a peek inside her memories to prove her words.

The memory of earlier that day, with her in the throne room of Snoke, kneeling before him, surfaced. Snoke uttered the words for her to go to Bayora.

Another memory surfaced. A lengthy training session with Snoke, with Verena nearly stumbling to the ground from pure exhaustion. Snoke taunting her, “Pathetic. You’ll never be as good -”

Verena pushed the memory and Kylo away from her mind now that he had what he was looking for, the confirmation that Snoke had indeed sent her to the planet. “There, are you pleased now?”

~~~

Poe was about to ask if they really were going to risk their lives for a knife, even if it was a priceless heirloom. It was still just a knife!

Oh thank goodness, she has some sense despite the hit on her head.

He breathed a sigh of relief and nodded. “Yes, you can pick it up next time you find yourself with Terex.” Which, if she had the same track record as Poe…that would not be long at all.

He considered her question for a second as he listened to Terex curse at something from a distance. “He’s most likely to cause a distraction while we get away, which, knowing him, will mean he may shoot at the ships until we’re a distance away from them.” Snap was always willing to put his own life at jeopardy for his fellow squadron pilots.

It was why Poe considered Snap his second-in-command.

“I’m ready as I’ll ever be when you are.”

 

[Lucyfer]

There were no lies in her words. Kylo watched the memory of her conversation with Snoke, and how she had the same orders as he did – find Lor San Tekka. His brows furrowed in concentration, as if trying to peel the memory apart to reveal it was just a dream, but instead, another memory with Snoke rushed to the surface, this one a training session that ended in her defeat.

Snoke…didn’t exactly train with Kylo anymore.

Not that he’d done much to start with. Not that hands-on, anyways. He wasn’t sure in the moment if the pang of jealousy was his own, or the woman’s, as he was pushed out of her mind without resistance.

He huffed.

He wasn’t pleased. He wasn’t informed of this. Snoke should have told him. “I can confirm you are who you say,” his own Stormtroopers began to lower their blasters at that acknowledgment, “in that case, you can assist in gathering the information that we need from Bayora,” with that, he turned towards the gathered villagers, children clutching stuffed creatures, adults feigning bravery, half-shielding some of the kids, or elderly.

“We are looking for a man named Lor San Tekka,” Kylo’s voice boomed over the gathered, “He’s been here, so don’t try to lie. Tell us where he is.” Or where he’s gone. They always seemed a step behind him….

~***~

Tarkin considered the distraction – but more than that, the escape. Knowing Poe, he was flying an X-Wing. Those weren’t exactly known for being roomie. ‘Well, if need be, you can hide in the wilderness and take everyone out.’ Except Terex, who knew most of the tricks, but everyone out there? Easy prey.

It was a problem for the future. The first problem was even reaching that one. So, Neria nodded, “Just follow my lead.” She said, straightening herself up, and combing her fingers through her hair a bit to make it appear less-mussed, before she walked to the door and opened it, stepping out into plain sight of the gathered forces.

She didn’t recognize any faces, but that didn’t matter. They all recognized her – she was something of a big deal in the Order. A Maxima-A class ship had landed near the Spike, and a few TIE fighters hovered off the ground. Hunting Black Squadron required being aerial, after all. Neria took that in before her eyes instinctively went to the commander, a woman with blonde hair pulled back in a bun and one black eye.

The traits of someone using a particular drug that made them stronger, but wreaked havoc on their brain. ‘Easy.’

The commander stepped forward, “Halt! What do you think you’re doing?”

Neria looked down her nose at the woman, still on the ramp, adding to her height and perception of haughty indignation. “Walking,” she answered, “what does it appear that I am doing, Commander?” the rank was obvious enough on the uniform. “Whereas you appear to be lollygagging around while Black Squadron could be escaping this planet at any second.”

The commander was taken aback, not anticipating her to speak with…well, authority. Or to be aware of so much at once. “Not without their commander, they won’t leave,” she snarled, “we’re waiting on Terex to give us information on the situation.”

“Oh, I can tell you that,” she said, “Dameron stabbed Terex in the chest and escaped,” she gestured out into the wilds around them, “I was going to go hunting myself, I don’t need Dameron aware I’ve finally accepted the Order’s courting.”

 

[cleopat]

‘No, I think I was going to frolic among the foliage and fauna instead.’

Verena nearly huffed at Kylo’s command. She was already there to gather information from Bayora, so just hearing him reiterate that order grated on her nerves.

It irritated her to no end that she had heard his name so much from Snoke, yet the Knight of Ren had no idea who she was, to the point he thought she was some fraud. Was she truly so low in Snoke’s eyes that he never mentioned her to anyone else? Or only to those who need to know?

She looked over the villagers, the children catching her eye. Younglings clutching their stuffed creatures briefly reminded her of a young Verena back at her parents’ farm, herself clutching a stuffed lothcat plush that her grandmother had made.

You will not feel guilt over the fate of the children. They are just as complicit.

“I don’t know if they can help us,” she said, feigning a deep sigh. “And if no one can help us…” Her Stormtroopers took the sign and raised their blasters to the villagers, causing a wave of panicked cries.

“Wait!” A woman held up her hands. “I heard him mentioning visiting Cato Neimoida. Please, at least spare the children.”

Verena smiled at the predictability of a mother’s love.

~~~

Poe kept his head down, and made himself as unassuming as possible. He supposed anyone who hadn’t seen him up close and personal would not recognize him from a distance, and he had nothing distinguishable about him, except for his beloved droid, who stayed hidden behind them and behind a wall in the ship.

Smart droid.

Fortunately no one called him out, or questioned him. Not with Tarkin assuming the lead, making herself appear more important than he was sure the First Order thought of her.

Poe wanted to initially shoot her a look for the way she talked about the Black Squadron and himself…but it was an act. He could see that, though that didn’t mean he would fully trust her once they were out of danger.

Oh he wished he stabbed Terex in the chest.

Chaos erupted.

“Look alive,” a voice sounded in his ear. The next second, an X-Wing whizzed by, sending missile fire onto the ground, and several TIE fighters were hit. The others immediately flew after the X-Wing.

 

[Lucyfer]

Verena went for the whole in suggesting execution. Kylo had planned to simply rip thoughts out of them until he came upon the right one, but there was an answer. An answer he couldn’t trust. He knew how quick people were to lie. His mother had lied about the Dantooine base when her entire world was threatened.

When she thought it would save Alderaan.

The mother attempting to save her child likely presumed Kylo would leave with his army as soon as he had an answer, and he would forget. They’d have time to escape if he didn’t. He strode towards the mother, “How long ago was Lor San Tekka here?” he demanded.

“I—” his hand outstretched towards her, and she shrieked.

“Mommy!” the child cried, reaching for her mother, pulling on one arm that had gone up to cover the mother’s head as she dealt with the sudden intrusion, an intrusion she didn’t know how to fight against – or even not fight against. The feeling was foreign.

But the question drew answers in her mind. Kylo saw Lor San Tekka in her mind, confirming the man was there. She never spoke directly to him, but his departure was clear enough – nearly a week ago.

They were far, far behind.

He snapped his hand to the side and released her. She fell to all fours, sobbing into the ground as her child tried to comfort her, so lost and confused to be in the role of comforter for an unknown pain. “We have what we need,” Kylo confirmed to the Stormtroopers, “execute the villagers.”

More screams and outbursts.

Kylo buried his guilt as the fire began into the crowd.

~***~

Poe, blessedly, wasn’t an idiot. He kept his head down. He stayed in her shadow. The focus remained on her for just long enough – the X-Wing came screaming into the area, blasting it with missiles. The TIEs went screeching after it, and the commander shouted orders to scramble those on the ground into action.

Neria didn’t hesitate. She jumped off the ramp on the side opposite of the commander, and eyed a TIE. It would be nothing to beat the pilot to it, and claim it for herself, but odds were the Order could track their own ships.

Not ideal.

“Lead,” she said to Poe as the droid rolled down the ramp with great haste.

The commander turned her attention back to them then, “You—” her mind finally caught up with what was happening. Neria pulled her blaster and fired, the power enough to knock the commander off her feet since it wasn’t set to stun. Whether or not it killed her, Neria didn’t care right then. The commander was of no importance compared to escape, and Dameron was her escape.