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Lucyfer · Jun 7, 2016

Anakin canted his head a bit and smirked at Paquin’s compliment, “Thank you, Paquin.” He’d say something, but it’d be creepy, and he had learned to stop being creepy. Besides, Padme was still a constant in his mind. Padme who had not joined him here. Padme who was one with the Force…at peace…like his mother. 

No, he just had Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Jinn—whenever Jinn felt like being around. 

“Right? I see where Kylo gets it from with that hair—even if it isn’t blonde.” 

Anakin actually laughed, relief at finally being seen, heard, cutting into the serious moment he’d wanted. 

Kylo brought it right back to that, the alcohol burning in his veins, “So why couldn’t I see you before?” He sounded hurt. 

Anakin knew why. He admired him, the idiot, “I never went to see Luke when you were there. Obi-Wan was instructing him to bring the Jedi Order back how it was, and I wanted no part of that.” 

Kylo rose, swaying a bit, “So you are against the Jedi!” 

“I’m against the Jedi Order as it was. There’s a difference,” Anakin said sharply, “And you’re doing it all wrong by following Snoke. He’s just another Emperor Palpatine.” 

“That’s bad?” 

“Yes!” 

But Kylo shook his head. “No.” 

Those who could see, would be able to see the shocked expression written on Anakin’s face, “You were weak, at the end, grandfather. I know how you were swayed from the true path by love of your son. It’s understandable, but weak.” The way he had been, once. Now he was stronger. Those sorts of ties wouldn’t hinder him. “I still admire all that you tried to do, and I will finish it.” 

~***~ 

Mira just shook her head at Finn’s inquiry as to whether or not it bothered her. Of course it did, but it was hardly worth complaining over. Like the wound itself. ‘There are deserts hotter than this that will freeze your blood at night.’ Mira did not know how bad Jakku got, but she wouldn’t risk it. Wild Space taught her a healthy level of respect for deserts, and every other form of nature. 

Her eyes shifted as Hux took off his over shirt. It was a calculated risk; lessen the heat but burn the skin. Mira would have done the same, but not in this company. The jedi tunic was heavy. “I’m sorry.” 

The apology reminded Poe. He didn’t look back, knowing how angry he’d appear, but he had to ask: “Hey, what did you mean you saw that, back on Cimarosa?” Besides, he needed something to focus on besides this heat. 

“Huh?” Finn looked confused, but Poe didn’t explain himself. 

“Dreamt it.” Mira answered. She knew that wouldn’t be enough, so she took a breath, “Jedi could…see the future. Snoke told us not to be concerned with it. Anakin Skywalker saw the future but ended up causing it, so I…ignored it.” And by ignoring it caused it. Changed it. “It didn’t go as it did in the dream. You were captured by Snoke’s clones, and Leia was dead.” Poe wouldn’t care much what happened to the First Order, and Hux probably didn’t want to hear that he’d died. 

“How do you know Leia’s not dead now?” Poe snapped. 

“I’d know.” 

“Why didn’t it go that way then, huh?” 

“The future isn’t written, Poe. I saw what could have happened, and I did something I did not do before.” 

“So those are Snoke’s forces…how did he know?” 

“There’s spies on every side,” Finn said it in such a dismissive fashion it was almost laughable. 

“No, only a few of us even knew what was going on. That narrows it down significantly,” and Poe thought he could trust everyone in black squad. “Hey wait, how did you know?” He glanced to Finn. He hadn’t told him. 

~***~ ‘Go right ahead.’ Phasma’s eyes were fire when the Commandant threatened to bring her up with the General Hux. She wouldn’t get so much as a slap on the wrist for this, she was certain. When he suggested finding General Organa, she only nodded. 

Leia would shred him, and Phasma wanted to watch, but knew better. She had more important things to do. “Do as you must, Commandant, and the First Order will do the same.” It was a sharp separation, but Phasma meant it. 

She turned to do as stated—deal with the prisoners—but she’d keep her ears open if the Commandant felt like causing problems. He was no one to take lightly; he had created those Cadets, after all, but Phasma could deal with him. She’d undergone the training he created and more. 

Leia Organa had landed the ship and finally started to move with the Resistance, and the Academy. A few of the actual Academy administration had come to speak with her. It seemed the leaders of the Dameron Girls and FOTC were also making this their problem. Edwin was the leader of the FOTC, from how the others deferred to him, and he walked alongside Leia’s right now, informing her of where everything was. 

It was respectful, but cold. He’d asked after General Hux as well, and Leia had told him the truth—Hux was removed from the field. 

The Dameron girl was more concerned about where Poe went, and with who. Seemed to find Edwin insufferable. 

Their eyes all fell upon the Commandant at the same time, and that was when Becki decided to bounce, taking the information she’d gotten and leaving. Edwin just stiffened. “Commandant Brendol Hux,” he offered to Leia, in case she didn’t recognize him.

KyloGlenn · Jun 7, 2016

Paquin had, for the most part, tuned out of the conversation. Her gaze switched in between Anakin and Kylo, searching for similarities. But when the shocked expression stumbled upon Anakin's face, she tuned back in as Kylo spoke about Anakin being weak and love for his son. 

Paquin leaned in towards Ariel and attempted to whisper, "I'm confused." 

"So am I," by both Anakin and Kylo. What happened to Kylo's Darth Vader fetish and what happened to Darth Vader himself? 

"He looks very disappointed, you should see him." 

"I am very disappointed," his grandson was the biggest idiot in the entire galaxy. Why did he have to idolize Darth Vader and not Anakin Skywalker? Voids, Anakin really fucked up big time. "You're making all the same mistakes I did." Where did Kylo's common sense go? If the person who's work you were trying to finish told you to stop, that should be a sign. 

"Your father was right, Snoke's using you for your power. All of you, just like Palpatine was using me for mine." 

"I don't want to be drunk anymore," that actually came out of Paquin's mouth as a successful whisper. 

- 

"How did I know what?" Finn tried to avoid the question, mostly because he got his information from Mira. It was clear that Poe wasn't fond of the blonde, not yet anyway. Finn didn't want to get her in trouble or aggravate the relationship anymore for Mira sharing information she wasn't supposed to. 

But Finn knew his avoidance of the question wouldn't work. 

"You know what I'm talking about," Poe rolled his eyes. 

"Fine," he didn't want to put the blame on anyone from Black Squad or Mira. So that left one, "BB-8 told me." BB-8 had known the plan anyway, and it was a droid. Poe couldn't punish his favorite droid. BB-8 paused and let out a beep, defensive and an equivalent to 'hey!' 

It didn't give away that BB-8 hadn't told Finn, to which he was grateful for. 

"BB-8!" Poe scolded, and BB-8 apologized. Poe then glanced to Finn, "If we needed or wanted you to know, we would have told you. You really shouldn't have shown up," but Poe--and Hux-- were both glad he did. Even if they ended up in this situation on Jakku. 

"I know, but...I just felt like you guys needed me is all." 

Before Poe could say anything else, BB-8 let out a string of excited beeps. If the droid could jump, it would be. "What's up, buddy?" Poe rose an eyebrow, but the droid simply rolled off as fast as possible. It stopped at a point, it looked like the top of a hill. The BB unit turned back to the others and waited until they'd caught up. 

They were, in fact, on a large hill made up of sand. It gave them a good view of the desert. And a village. A very familiar village, they'd come to realize, but not at this point. They were still quite a ways from it. "Good eye, BB-8!" Poe praised, his previous scolding being forgotten. 

- 

There was a ghost of a smirk on the Commandant's face as he approached the two, relishing in the reaction he received from the FOTC boy. "General Organa, pleasure to meet you." Not really. He didn't offer his hand to shake or offer any sign of respect towards the woman. 'She should be thankful I even acknowledged her as a General.' 

"I'd like to speak with you, if you don't mind. Since General Hux is M.I.A. with the traitor," if only Brendol knew just how many traitors. Oh, he'd be so pissed, "I'd like to discuss the matters of this...alliance I've been hearing about." Surely Leia knew just who he was, how couldn't she? 

Brendol looked to Edwin, then, "I believe this is a matter for officials." An eyebrow rose, a sign of dismissal. 

Edwin nodded, "Of course, Commandant." He spared a glance at Leia, to let her know that he hadn't forgotten about her existence, they could continue to discuss matters after her talk with Brendol Hux. 

Even if Leia had asked Edwin to stay, he wouldn't have. Not if he wanted any chance at becoming an officer within the Order. Everyone knew how big of a deal Commandant Hux was, even if he wasn't mentioned all that often anymore. He still came up with the Stormtrooper's program, still continued to be a brilliant strategist. 

If his son hadn't come along to become General, Brendol very well would have had a shot at that position. 

Brendol's ego was largely inflated at that point. If only he'd known he'd be absolutely shredded in just a moment.

Lucyfer · Jun 7, 2016

“The only mistake you made was not following through,” Kylo answered him. Despite the words, they were not spoken in anger or even rage. 

In fact, Gnaeus swore he heard disappointment from Kylo Ren, the same sort he was hearing from Anakin. His mind was blown. “And maybe Snoke is,” Kylo wasn’t blind. He knew he was a powerful tool to the ends of Snoke, “But our goals are the same. I am using him as he is using me. We are pursuing mutual goals, to eradicate the Jedi. He has the resources. I have the power.” 

“He will destroy you in the end, as Palpatine would have destroyed me.” 

“No.” Kylo denied. “He will not.” Either Kylo would not let himself become useless, or he would destroy Snoke if he tried. Not that he would say the latter. Never aloud. Never truly in thought. “Palpatine destroyed his weak apprentices. Darth Maul, Darth Tyranus, and you…you were weak.” 

“Woo, woo…wait, I’m not following,” Gnaeus had to interrupt, “Okay. Vader wants us to stop, but—” 

“Anakin wants us to stop.” 

“Same guy?” 

“No.” Like he was not Ben Solo. 

“Um.” Gnaeus was more lost than before. “Okay. But Anakin, what’s wrong with this?” Since this was going to be a back-and-forth of Kylo calling him weak, he supposed he should actually ask why. Kylo wouldn’t. “We are destroying the Jedi. They were wrong, right?” 

~***~ 

Mira could have accepted it if Finn ratted on her, but that he didn’t, and BB-8 didn’t, either, was nice. She gave him an appreciative smile, before he said words that caused it to fade. ‘Felt it?’ Intuition, perhaps. 

Except Mira didn’t really believe in that. Poe rushed ahead as BB-8 rolled forward, but Mira paused. “Finn, wait.” 

“Huh? What’s up?” He asked, looking concerned, “Are you feeling all right? Do we need to rest?” 

Mira shook her head, glanced to Hux to let him know he was all right to continue on if he wanted to catch up with Poe. “I want to test something. May I?” 

“Uh, sure. I guess,” he wasn’t sure what it was, or what was up, “What is it?” 

“Better if I don’t tell you. It won’t hurt.” She promised, and held out her hands, palms down. “Hold yours under mine. Don’t let them lower.” 

“Hey, you guys!” Poe shouted down to them, turning from his hilltop to look down at the others, “What are you doing?” He sounded terribly exasperated with his group. He saw that Finn and Mira seemed to be playing patty cake or something. “There’s shelter this way!” 

“A moment,” Mira called, and then met Finn’s gaze. 

She pushed down on his hands with the Force. She’d make it gradual. She’d feel for a response, the way she’d tested Paquin, but kinder. Kylo was the one who needed extravagant shows—she just needed to feel it, the struggle of the Force of another against hers, the return pressure, it’d be enough. 

And, she did, little by little. “Why aren’t you with Luke?” She asked, not letting up, seeing how much Finn could deal with before his hands were pushed back to his side. 

“What is she doing?” Poe muttered, more to himself than to BB-8 or Hux. 

~***~ 

Leia Organa knew of Commandant Hux, of course. She considered him one of Tarkin’s many lackeys and little else. Sure, he invented the Stormtrooper program that his son now used, and he was rumored as a strategist, but she’d never seen evidence of it. His son outshone him. 

She did not care for the way he spoke to her, or to Edwin, and she let her posture indicate it, one hand going to a hip as she met his gaze and stared down at him, despite being so much shorter. Size didn’t matter, as Yoda had said. “What would you like to discuss, Commandant Hux?” Leia would not be impolite, but she wasn’t sure what business she had with the Commandant in regards to this matter. 

All discussion would be had with Hux himself. He was the one in charge, and Leia didn’t think his father had much input. But, if he wanted information or wanted to advise, she was willing to share. 

She’d not be making any deals or agreements with him, though. 

Nor would she be moving to a more private place. She was going to stay right in the yard, where others could see them speaking.

KyloGlenn · Jun 9, 2016

Anakin wanted to say that it was the same person, Vader and Anakin. He was Anakin, who then became Vader, who then decided to become Anakin again. Like he could be Ben Solo again. But that wouldn’t have done anything helpful. “No. Well, I mean yes, but no.” Anakin had some problems with the way the Jedi worked. A lot of problems, actually. 

He could see why his grandson favored the Sith ways. Anakin had once been told he was a slave to his emotions. That certainly applied to Kylo. And with the Jedi, they’d never be able to be the Jedi they were supposed to be. 

Anakin had hoped his son would be able to rewrite that part of the Jedi. Luke displayed promise, with his relationships with Han and Leia. The emotions he'd felt during their...time together. But then Obi-Wan and Yoda stepped in, and history started to repeat itself. 

Another part he’d hoped his son would rewrite was the whole forbidden attachments thing. Maybe if attachments had been allowed, Vader wouldn’t have existed. Anakin just wanted to save his wife and child, was all. If he had been able to bring that to the Order…That hadn’t really come into play yet. But Snoke didn’t seem to be different from those teachings. 

“The Sith are wrong. Snoke is wrong. The peace that the Jedi strived for, the good and health they tried to bestow upon the galaxy was right,” the kind that he’d destroyed. “The dark side is a fruitless and miserable path to follow. Emotions are free to run wild, but when was the last time any of you felt really happy or content?” He looked from Kylo to Gnaeus. Gnaeus put up this happy go lucky act, but was that really how he felt? Ariel drank so she’d have the illusion being happy, the swig she took further proving that. Paquin didn’t really count, she hadn’t really followed that path quite yet. 

- 

Finn’s eyebrows furrowed, his eyes looking down on their hands. He felt it, the struggle of Mira’s Force. And apparently his own. He wasn’t trying to fight against it, he let his hands just rest there, not pushing up. But his Force was pushing up, much to his confusion. “Because I’m not a Jedi,” and he didn’t think he was Force-sensitive, either. Plus, he’d been injured at the time Rey had left, but he didn’t think that was her question. 

The pressure felt to be increasing, little by little. His hands shook as Mira’s Force finally seemed to get the better of his and soon enough his hands were pushed back to his side. “Um. Mira?” He said her name, confused. He had a feeling he knew what that meant, but he wasn’t going to make any assumptions. 

Surely he would have realized his Force sensitivity earlier, right? Something other than his uncanny intuition. Then again, Rey didn’t know about hers, but Finn wasn’t sure if she’d had any prior signs or not. Wouldn’t Kylo Ren have noticed? Or even Leia? But Mira was also Force-sensitive and she had a suspicion just because he said he felt like his friends needed help. 

Hux stood by Poe and BB-8, watching and waiting for Finn and Mira to finish up whatever it was they were doing. Poe had mumbled, asking about what Mira was doing. Hux hadn’t planned on answering, knowing it was more to Poe himself than the droid or the General. But when he saw Finn’s arms returned to his side, rather forcefully, he did answer. 

“She’s testing his Force sensitivity.” Mira had done something similar, on a more violent scale, in his room with Paquin. Then Paquin’s Force abilities were discovered and Mira was thrown into a wall. Hux really should have scolded Mira more for attempting something potentially harmful on one of his employees, now that he thought about it. ‘Whatever,’ Hux didn’t really care in the long run. 

“Force sensitivity? Finn’s not Force-sensitive.” Poe hadn’t felt the struggle of Finn’s hands or heard the conversation between his pal and Mira. To him, it just looked like Mira pushed his hands down and that was that. 

Hux nearly rolled his eyes, “That’s what she’s testing for.” BB-8 beeped about Finn’s mad lightsaber skills, something about it making sense. 

- 

What Commandant Hux had to say wasn't exactly business related. It didn't have anything to do with deals or agreements, none that he'd make. More so attempting to destroy agreements, the ones that his son made. It was advising, in a way. In his way, that is. 

When Leia made no move to relocate to somewhere more private, Brendol shifted awkwardly before starting. Where they were wouldn't matter, anyway. "I was surprised when my son split from Snoke," Something that Hux had failed to mention to his father. Sadly, Brendol didn't have a chance to scold his son for that. " And that he agreed to meet with the Resistance." No chance for that, either. 

His son didn't tell him anything, to Brendol's annoyance. What was the point of having a son in such a high position if nothing was shared? Brendol didn't spend twenty-four years working on the boy to be shut out of the good stuff. 

"I thought my son was smarter than that," the direction of the conversation should've become clear at that point. "And admittedly, I thought you'd be smarter as well." Brendol never did give Leia the credit she deserved, mostly because he was blind to that. "I figured you'd have known none of this would work out, but it doesn't seem like you do." Brendol wanted to work at the failure of this alliance. His son was turning the Order and his name into something that it was not. Hux needed to ditch the Resistance and return to Snoke.

Lucyfer · Jun 9, 2016

Kylo Ren was more than pleased to hear Anakin deny the Jedi Order. It wasn’t good—he knew it, even now. He wanted to shout out a “See!”, but Anakin tried to backtrack and explain himself, explain his weakness and what should be. “Well what else is there?” Kylo shot at Anakin. “There’s the Jedi, and there’s the Sith. We know the Jedi are wrong. We have not yet seen a universe in Sith power. It may turn out to be right, once we get over the struggle of achieving it.” 

Gnaeus had looked down at Anakin’s pointed question. He felt his throat dry. He didn’t want to answer, because in truth he didn’t know. He’d started faking it, and continued faking it, so he wasn’t sure he knew how to stop. “I’ll be happy when I’ve finally won.” Kylo stated. 

“Perhaps the universe would be better without the Jedi and Sith,” he shouldn’t have said it, Gnaeus knew it when he felt Kylo’s glare on him. 

“Then there’d be no life. That’s the Void, Gnaeus. Do you want to go to the Void?” 

Gnaeus immediately shook his head. “The Force won’t go away just because there are no Jedi or Sith,” Anakin said. “But they’re both wrong.” 

Kylo just shook his head, growing more and more irritated with this. He set the bottle down. “I thought dying would have taught you something, grandfather, but it hasn’t.” 

“It’s taught me more than you. I was Jedi. I was Sith. I know they’re both wrong.” 

“You don’t know that. You never succeeded as either. You were on the right path…you were,” Kylo said, all but pleading it, wanting Anakin to see it, too. 

~***~ 

As Finn’s hands lowered, Mira smirked, “If you weren’t Force sensitive, Finn, your hands would have been at your side in the first second,” she let her hands drop back to her own sides, “Poe, when we get back, you should discuss taking Finn to Luke.” Mira turned from him and walked up the hill where the others were. She did feel a bit hurt; sending Finn to Luke meant losing a friendly face, but it was necessary. If he was Force sensitive, he needed to learn. 

And she’d be stuck with Poe. 

Kylo should have noticed. Kylo had fought him, with the lightsaber—but Kylo didn’t understand those things half as well. He probably didn’t notice the lightsaber was less-erratic in Finn’s hands than it should have been. His own lightsaber was erratic, he’d never notice something so subtle as that, never notice how someone was always in the right place at the right time—Kylo only saw the obvious. 

“What?” Poe looked to Finn with a half-smile, “My buddy’s a Jedi?” 

“Could be,” Mira saw the village below, and started on towards it. 

“Wait—you don’t like the Jedi,” Poe quickly followed after, sliding a bit down the sand in the descent, “Why do you want him going to Luke?” 

“Luke can teach him,” never mind the Jedi Order bit—Luke could be a teacher. Finn was old enough to make up his own mind about what he’d believe, so far as morality and other teachings went. 

BB-8 waited for Finn, beeping out its utter happiness at this, stating how Finn would get to spend more time with Rey now. 

~***~ 

Leia could hear where this was going from the first sentence. The surprise that Brendol had felt was not the good sort, and Leia waited, raising her eyebrows to make the Commandant get to the point. When he finally did, a wry smile came to her lips. “It seems to be working out fine to me.” All around them, Resistance and First Order were working together, on the Academy level and Professional level. 

“You know, I would have thought a man like you, renowned for his strategies, would have learned from history, but,” she clicked her tongue on the roof of her mouth and shook her head, “It looks like there is a reason your son is General, and not you,” why wasn’t Commandant Hux General, anyway? Did he retire, or had he been told to step down by others who favored his son? 

Either way, that would likely hit a nerve, “I know how you Imperial boys loved kowtowing down to your Sith Overlord, but it just doesn’t work out,” Leia told him, “Planet destroying weapons and Sith Lords have a history of being destroyed and overthrown. Your son is making the smart decision and learning from a history of bitter, bitter defeats—organized by me.” 

Her eyes took on a fire as she said, “Or did you forget that, too?” She had outmaneuvered every single Imperial strategy, and sent them all in the depths of space. 

She’d make a senile joke, but he could just toss it back at her, even if she was younger than him.

KyloGlenn · Jun 9, 2016

Anakin really wished he could strangle Kylo. He wished he was alive so he could at the very least drag Kylo back to his mother. If anyone could slap sense into someone, it was Leia. "There you go, being wrong again. I did succeed as a Sith, for twenty years." Luke would say that he succeeded as a Jedi, too, turning good in the end and all. Selflessness, he'd say. 

"The universe was under the rule of the Sith, Palpatine and me." Maybe not in the way Kylo wanted to see, but they were. "And I abandoned it because it was wrong. Most of the universe was simply destroyed." Too many planets were ruined. They nearly completely destroyed Alderaan. Only some of it was still livable, the First Order using it as a base. 

"The Jedi aren't much better, but the galaxy would be in a better place. All the Sith do is destroy." Anakin knew he wouldn't be able to get through to Kylo this time. And there probably wouldn't be another time with Kylo, he wouldn't get drunk again after this. But the others... 

Anakin remembered what Gnaeus had said, about the universe being better without the Sith and the Jedi. Gnaeus would get drunk again. Ariel is always drunk. If Anakin couldn't save Kylo, he'd save them. And hopefully, 'inadvertently' save Kylo. So, he turned back to them. "You three see that, right?" 

"Don't answer that," Ariel mumbled to Paquin, again taking a drink from her bottle as Paquin shifted awkwardly. It's not like Paquin knew enough for her words to matter, anyway. And if they did answer, Kylo wouldn't be all that happy. Which wasn't good. 

- 

Finn smiled at BB-8 as it spoke of spending more time with Rey. Finn would love to do that, at the very least to spend more time with Rey. "That sounds great and all, but I don't think I really want to learn from Luke." He said as he and BB-8 followed after the others. "Besides, he already has Rey." Finn shrugged. 

"But Finn," Poe stopped, sliding down in the sand a bit more, "you could learn how to control the Force! You can come back and use it against Snoke and the Knights." Poe wouldn't push the Jedi on Finn. Like Mira said, he was old enough to make his own decisions. He just didn't want his friend to miss out on opportunities, especially if they could help in the war. 

"The Force hasn't caused any issues, yet," as far as controlling went. He wasn't sure how to use it, but it wasn't going crazy, he saw no issues there. "And we seem to be doing just fine without it." There were pauses between his words as he slowly descended the hill. 

BB-8 was lagging behind at the top, wary of going down. But as the others reached the bottom, the droid succumbed and went rolling down, little control over its round body. BB-8 let out a little screech as it flew down at passed the others, Finn and Poe chuckling. "And I'd have to leave that droid," BB-8 was Poe's, after all. "Besides, I've got Mira here! Why break Luke's focus from Rey when we have our own seasoned Force-sensitive right here?" She wasn't a Jedi, but she still knew how to use the Force. 

If Poe had something to drink, he'd be spitting it out right now. "Mira?" Poe didn't want to protest that. No, he did, but he wouldn't 'Finn's a grown up.' 

Even Hux had the urge to protest, if only for the fact that Mira lacked control in the area of emotions. Hux saw what happened when Kevan died. But Hux knew nothing about the Force, neither did Poe. 

- 

Brendol's jaw clenched as she spoke of Hux being General and not him. It did strike a nerve. At first, he'd thought that it was better that a Hux had earned the title rather than someone else since he had raised his son in his ways. But now, that wasn't the case. 

"Palpatine was smart. He went under the noses of the Republic and the Jedi and overtook them. If it weren't for Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker would have died and the Empire would have remained in power." Things fell apart after Palpatine died, but if he'd remained they could have made it. 

Or Brendol at least thought they would. Sure, they were defeated numbers of times with Palpatine. He wouldn't mention without him because that wasn't the prime of the Empire. Weeded out the weak ones, though. But after the loss of Palpatine, they were in tatters despite the brilliant minds within. They needed time to recover, time they didn't have. The Rebels took that time to strike. 

It was by pure chance, Brendol was sure. And he vocalized that. "It was by complete luck that you won. You're not as brilliant as you think you are." He glowered down at the woman. "In no time Hux will return to Snoke and you won't be as lucky as you once were." Even despite Brendol's shared distaste with Hux over Kylo Ren, he could destroy the Jedi. And Snoke would then take over. 

Sadly, Brendol would have to convince his son of that. Destroying the agreement was a part of that. There weren't many 'Imperial boys' left, not from the time of the Empire. Most of them were killed or simply withered away and died of old age. Not enough to put another person, like him, in charge.

Lucyfer · Jun 9, 2016

No, he hadn’t succeeded. If Anakin had succeeded, the Universe would still be enthralled to the Sith, as the Jedi rule had spanned centuries. A mere twenty, with a powerful resistance, was not success. “We haven’t had the time yet to create. Building blocks come from destruction. Mining tears apart the ground; a forest fire adds nutrients to the soil.” 

When Kylo wanted to be, he could sound clever. Gnaeus hated to admit it, but in many ways it was true. They were still fighting against the influences of the Jedi. There would be a lot of destruction before there would be any rebuilding…and it probably wouldn’t happen in his lifetime. 

“I kinda see what Kylo’s saying,” Gnaeus said, but he was still not looking at anyone. Kylo could actually hurt him. It was better to agree with him, than with the ghost. The ghost couldn’t hurt him. Well, not physically. “I mean, there’s a lot going against us. A lot has to change. We have to tear down the structures before we can make anything new.” 

Kylo was pleased to hear it from Gnaeus. 

Poor Anakin had never really learned of the Grey Jedi or anything like that from Qui-Gon. He was growing frustrated, as he always did, when confronted with things like this. He didn’t have the answers—he just knew what was wrong. “You’re dealing with lives, not buildings!” 

~***~ ‘What.’ 

Mira looked over her shoulder at Finn when he mentioned her, being a seasoned Force-sensitive. Then, she laughed, a bitter sound. “What?” Finn looked a bit upset, “I’d be a good student.” 

“I’m not…,” Mira sighed, “Luke’s better than I am.” Even if he couldn’t teach her the only thing she needed to know. “It’s not you I’m worried about—well…I am.” She could kill him if she didn’t temper herself. “I’ve only had one apprentice, and he’s dead.” 

“Who?” Finn was curious, knees bending a bit as he slipped, but didn’t fall, down the slope. 

“Kevan.” The one she’d thrown everything away for, and still the idiot went and got himself killed. She told him to hide and he didn’t listen. “So I don’t have a good track record.” 

“Neither does Luke.” Finn pointed out. “Maybe we can help each other, right? New eyes to the Force?” 

“BB-8, tell Finn why it’s a stupid idea.” 

BB-8 just disagreed, seeming to think it was a genius idea instead. It seemed to like the idea of blending the experiences of a late bloomer and an early bloomer. It seemed to think Finn would even have ideas to deal with the lightning and the nightmares, since he’d be ‘new eyes’. Mira shot the droid a glare for mentioning the nightmare, and it booped out an apology. 

“If you really don’t want to…I don’t have to learn about the Force.” 

Mira pushed her fingers back through her blonde hair, “I’ll think about it,” she said. “It’s going to be very boring, though. IF. Lots of meditation.” The sun was deluding her. The heat was making her too tired to argue. Once she got off Jakku she’d figure out a way to tell Finn no, certainly, and get him to go with Luke. 

~***~ 

“People who choose unstable apprentices are not smart,” Leia countered, “Snoke has erred there,” much as she hated to admit it, she knew what her son was. Unstable, and in desperate need of help, before he ended up just like Vader—dead. 

She tilted her head up, that smile still there, “If luck is all it takes to bring down a well-oiled machine, I’ll take it, Commandant,” she wasn’t going to back off. She was going to make sure everything hurt. “But I do not think your son is as stupid to go running back to Snoke. He seems enlightened, unlike you, to the struggles of the universe. I do believe that it may be possible to work with him.” 

Her hand removed itself from her hip, “And you’re just going to have to deal with it, Commandant,” there was a sharp bite there, reminding him of his status. Beneath her. Beneath Hux. “So, do you have anything significant to say, or should I point you towards the medbay where they might have some pills for depression for you?” 





~

KyloGlenn · Jun 10, 2016

“Ariel?” Anakin’s voice was a mix of frustration and pleading. Though, he had a feeling that if Gnaeus agreed with Kylo, then Ariel would as well. Knowing that didn’t help the frustration he felt, only fueled it. Why were they all so ignorant? Why couldn’t they listen? 

Ariel shifted awkwardly, her buzz dying faster than she could fuel it. She cleared her throat, staring at the bottle of alcohol, swishing the liquid around in the bottle. “We haven’t gone a generation without the Jedi. You think all the Sith do is destroy things, but there’s been no chance to rebuild anything.” Even if Ariel did like the idea of no Jedi or Sith, that wasn’t ever going to happen. So, she agreed with her fellow Knights. “Besides, everybody dies anyway.” 

Anakin groaned, rolling his eyes. “What is wrong with you all?” They weren’t looking at the entire picture. They weren’t looking at all the lives they’d destroy, families they’d rip apart. Planets and species that would be completely annihilated. And for what? Though, Anakin felt they didn’t really care. 

Anakin’s shoulders slumped. He needed to give guidance to them before they ended up like him, but he didn’t know how. He didn’t know how to save the idiots. How did Mira do it? What made Mira finally decide to break from the Knights? Was it Kevan? That wouldn’t happen with these four. None of them would break and none of them were close enough. 

- 

Hux wanted to comment that Kevan’s death wasn’t necessarily her fault. Sure she’d went and freed him, but everything after that was his own fault. To Hux’s knowledge, Mira wasn’t the one to tell Kevan to rebel against the Knights of Ren and the Order. That was a decision Kevan made on his own, to which he paid the ultimate price for. 

“I can deal with boring!” Mira hadn’t actually agreed yet, but she wasn’t putting up much of a fight. That inspired some hope within Finn. Finn let the subject go for the moment. He was worried if he pushed anymore that she’d be further put off by it. 

Hux was more concerned with what BB-8 said, about nightmares. Nightmares, meaning plural. She’d dreamt about them all dying on Cimarosa, what else had she seen? Or was it all completely unrelated to that? Hux didn’t think now was the time to question it. If Hux needed to know anything, he’d hoped Mira would tell him. 

He might ask her about her well-being, at least. When things calmed down and they returned to…wherever. If they did return. Which brought up a question in Hux’s mind. Who would Mira go with once if they made it off of Jakku? It sounded like the Resistance, but she was now welcome with the Order. Hux didn’t think the Resistance or the Order would merge together, either. 

A question for another time. 

“Looks like you’ll be getting a lightsaber after all, huh?” Poe offered a grin in Finn’s direction. 

“Maybe,” Finn shrugged, a grin on his face, as well. He and Poe had talked about lightsabers before. Finn definitely liked handling one. Maybe, at the very least, he’d get a lightsaber. 

BB-8, lagging behind the others already, paused. The droid had picked up a sound, a soft one. Just little pitter patters. BB-8 turned around, spotting little prints in the sand. BB-8 let out a curious boop, following the trail as it led it away from the group, off to the side. The droid rounded on a small dune when it happened. 

BB-8 let out a sudden wail, drawing the attention of Finn, Poe, and Hux. “BB-8?” Poe called, immediately running in the direction of the wail, Finn following on his heels. Hux only strolled behind them. It was a droid, how much trouble could it be in? 

“What the—?” Poe’s voice sounded as he spotted BB-8, frantically moving around in circles. Clinging to the droid’s half-sphere head was a small fuzzy creature, orange in color. It wasn’t doing any harm, probably couldn’t either, but the droid was still panicking. 

- 

If Brendol clenched his jaw any tighter, he was sure it would shatter. ‘Arrogant little—‘ Brendol’s thoughts stopped short. It was funny, Brendol thinking that Leia Organa was the arrogant one. And he likely would never learn any better. 

“You’re right. I am just going to have to deal with it, Princess,” he’d heard that Leia didn’t much like being called a princess. It was petty, but he didn’t care. Either way, Leia was right. And that would be the only time he’d tell her that. He would just have to deal with it, but not in the way Leia or his son would expect. 

The conversation was coming to a close and the Commandant took it in his own hands to end it. “I believe I’ll pass on the depression pills. But may I make a suggestion? Look into getting some medications for those delusions of yours. Maybe then you’ll realize just how ridiculous this is.” Maybe Brendol would invest in some for his son as well. 

With that, Commandant Hux took his leave, spinning on his heels and going to ‘supervise’ something. More like put down everyone trying to work with each other.

Lucyfer · Jun 10, 2016

“Nothing is wrong with us, Anakin. We have seen the truth.” Kylo stated, “You knew it, once.” He just lost sight to the pleasant lies, and still seemed deluded by them. 

“This is why I hate dogmas.” 

It was a voice the others might not hear. It was a voice meant only for Anakin Skywalker himself, from the man who had wanted to be his mentor. He still could not manifest a ghost, but he had taught the others—Obi-Wan, Yoda, and even Vader, in a vain effort to make sure Vader showed up with those two, so they could help rebuild everything. 

Anakin stiffened a bit. He wanted to ask where the hell Qui-Gon had been, but decided not do to that in front of the others. He could tell none of them heard the other voice, which meant Qui-Gon wasn’t speaking to them. If nothing else, he had good control of his projection. “If you think this is the end of it, grandson, it is not. You will see what you are doing before you go too far.” 

“You will be the one to see that we are right.” 

Anakin cut his hand across the air for those who could see, and turned to leave them. 

Perhaps, the others, when Kylo was not around, would talk and figure it out. 

He would have to try and speak to the others when Kylo wasn’t around, too. At least Ariel and Gnaeus he’d be able to reach, and perhaps Paquin. She hadn’t yet been taught to truly block him out…she was just untrained. 

~***~ 

Finn was too optimistic about all of this. Mira wasn’t sure if it should make her happy, annoy her, or make her afraid. Either way, she needed to get off the burning planet of death to think straight. ‘After what, 50 cups of coffee?’ Right, because she wasn’t having anymore ‘nightmares’. How long could a person go without sleep? 

Would drugs help? ‘No.’ No, they made minds easier to infiltrate. 

Poe and Finn’s talk continued, while Mira’s thoughts drifted to all the ways to prevent sleep, before the droid started to roll away from them, and then wailed. 

Mira sprinted with Poe—that droid was important, after all. What she saw, though, caused her to stifle a laugh. 

Finn burst right into laughter. 

“BB-8! That’s not going to hurt you!” Finn tried to say, as Mira just walked ahead. 

“Hold still, I’ll get it off you,” Mira said to the panicking droid. She had to put her foot in its rolling path for it to stop, and then she bent and picked up the cat by the scruff of its neck. It didn’t look to be quite a year old, but Mira wouldn’t call it a kitten, either. “We must be near civilization,” she said as she held the cat. 

BB-8 beeped out its relief. “What are you, some kind of animal whisperer?” Poe asked, eying the cat suspiciously. He’d had enough bad experiences with them to decide they were all suspect. 

“No,” Mira denied, as the cat suddenly began to squirm in her arms. She let it down, and it immediately pranced over to Hux, clearly seeing a kindred in his hair. Or just in his black clothes—nothing more a cat loves than black clothing. 

"Aww," Poe said it mockingly, expecting the General not to care about a cat. "Look, it thinks you're its mom, Hux." Had to be the hair. 

~***~ 

Leia was not much a fan of her old title, Princess, though a Princess was still a rank above, wasn’t it? She was not going to let Brendol Hux get the best of her, as she never let Vader or Jabba get the best of her. 

Hux left by trying to get the last word, but Leia just let out a breath in a sigh. 

Almost a second later she heard the chipper, “What an ass,” of Becky right besides her, and Leia just gave her a tired smile. 

“Any word on Poe?” If anyone was going to have word of them… 

“No,” Becky looked disappointed. Never worried. Her faith in Dameron was astounding.

KyloGlenn · Jun 11, 2016

Anakin left, just disappeared into thin air. "He's gone," Paquin breathed. Drunk her would miss him. He was nice to look at. 

Ariel and Paquin were silent for a good while, Paquin gazing at the spot the Anakin had previously occupied. Ariel downed the rest of her bottle before looking to Kylo. "Well, sorry. I thought he'd have something important to say. You still drinking that?" Ariel asked, pointing to the bottle Kylo had abandoned before taking it. 

"He was cute, though." Paquin would never be able to get over that. If only he wasn't dead. And Kylo's grandfather. And still hung up on Padme, although Paquin wasn't aware of that. 

"I didn't even get to see him," Ariel pouted. 

There was another silence, the only sound being the swooshing of the alcohol in the bottle Ariel had. "Anyone need a hug? Maybe a handshake?" Paquin offered, looking over the three people in the room. "Touch and warmth release oxytocin, which is the antidote to cortisol, the stress hormone." Even as a drunk, Paquin rattled off near useless facts that no one cared about. 

"I'll pass." Ariel instead opted to drink more. 

- 

Hux shot a glare at Poe before looking down at the fellow ginger. The cat rubbed itself against Hux's dirty boot, the tail wrapping around his leg. Hux leaned down on scratched the kitty's head, the cat letting out a happy meow while it tried to push up against his hand further. 

"Cats can tell the difference between male and female, even in humans." Hux knew Poe was teasing him, based on the hair, but he still wanted to make Poe sound stupid. 

Hux stood up straight, but the cat didn't let up, rubbing against Hux while it went around in circles. "Is it going to pee on you?" Finn asked, unfamiliar with cats and their mannerisms. 

"Don't you dare relieve yourself on me," Hux pointed a stern finger at the cat, even if it didn't understand what he was saying. The cat meowed up at him, before running back to BB-8 and rubbing against it. Then the cat ran ahead of them, and Hux thought that would be the end of the ginger cat. 

But the cat stopped when it realized they weren't following. It meowed again, but Finn, Poe, nor Hux moved. And then the cat meowed again and again. "What does it want?" Poe eyed the tiny fuzzball. 

Hux then moved to approach the cat, and it seemed pleased with that movement. It meowed again, running ahead a bit, thinking Hux was finally following her. But when Hux remained stationary, it repeated the same strategy it had before. "I think it wants us to follow her," Hux stated, oddly trusting the kitten by following after it. 

"Are you serious? Are you seriously going to waste our time by following a cat?" Poe questioned Hux's sanity. The heat must be getting to the supposedly brilliant General. 

- 

"So, this...Mira girl. Are she and Poe, like...a thing? Is there any interest there whatsoever?" Becki wondered. If anyone had any clue it might be the General. Of course, she and her girls could figure it out on their own, but it was worth a shot to milk a little more information from the General. 

"Commandant Hux didn't cause any trouble, did he?" Edwin asked as he and another boy joined the Resistance's General. He completely disregarded what Becki had been asking about. "This is Philip, by the way." He was Edwin's equivalent of a Lieutenant-General. 

"I was talking, you dumbnut!" Becki protested. 

"Was it important?" 

"Yes!" 

"I doubt it."

Lucyfer · Jun 11, 2016

Kylo just shook his head to Ariel’s question. Of course he wasn’t still drinking it. “You did good, Ariel.” He would say that much. He would have been more upset if he missed an opportunity to speak with Anakin. “It is a shame that he has learned nothing in death.” 

Paquin was light, and Gnaeus snickered, “Man, I should dye my hair. Kylo, got any tips?” 

A withering glare was all Gnaeus got, but he was too drunk to care about that. “You’re just jealous,” he stated. 

Kylo rose, Paquin saying something about hugs. Gnaeus held up a finger, “Sec.” And he didn’t bother to ask Kylo, knowing he was heading for the door, knowing he was going to go off to rage against some defenseless wall. He grabbed him, and he pulled him into an embrace. 

“It’s okay, man.” He half-expected to be thrown away. 

To his surprise, he instead felt Kylo’s hesitant arms lift and then wrap around him, too. Perhaps Kylo was just that drunk—or perhaps Anakin’s presence really had shaken him, some. 

~***~ 

Mira was quite amused by the antics of the cat and Hux, though it only showed in the raised eyebrows and quirk of her lips. The cat ran off after getting its attention, but paused. It meowed at them, and Mira canted her head. Hux deciphered its language, though. 

She glanced to Poe, “It likely has a home, Poe. It might be going there,” Mira supposed it wasn’t the worst idea. Although, a dog would have been more reliable than a cat, the fact the cat wanted them to follow it was interesting enough. 

Cats were notoriously independent. “C’mon, BB-8. Let’s see what your new orange friend wants.” 

BB-8 seemed intrigued by the idea of the tiny fuzzy thing being a friend. “No, I don’t think it plays fetch.” BB-8 sounded disappointed. “It would probably play chase, though.” 

“I don’t need it tearing up my droid in its games,” Poe stated, but followed along after them as the cat kept running ahead, only to turn back and meow at them, continuing this trend for a while until they came, at long last, to shelter. 

~***~ ‘Anything but.’ Leia wanted to tell Becki, but she was joined by the return of the FOTC boys, Edwin with a Philip, “Good to meet you, Philip,” Leia spoke, and then answered Edwin, “Commandant Hux may cause trouble down the line. He is not pleased with the situation as it stands.” 

Leia then turned her attention to Becki, before she could lash out at them, “Becki, last I knew, Mira and Poe were not interested in each other.” Some might see their antagonism that way, but they weren’t children teasing each other any more. They were adults, and Mira was an affront to many of Poe’s morals. 

“This is Mira Ren we are speaking of, correct?” Edwin had been curious. 

“Mira Vallens,” Leia corrected, “She has left the Knights of Ren, and the First Order has separated from them, as well.” 

Edwin’s eyes widened slightly. “That explains what Phasma was saying about these being Supreme Leader Snoke’s troops.” Philip noted. He had been showing Phasma to the prisoners before Edwin got him. 

Edwin gave a sharp, terse nod. 

“Wait, Poe went off with a Knight? There was a Knight here?” 

“Becki,” Leia spoke in as calming a voice as she could muster, “Ex-Knight.” 

“But still!” A sharp look from Leia silenced her.

KyloGlenn · Jun 11, 2016

"Look at them! This is why I hug myself when I'm scared, it's comforting!" Paquin whisper-shouted to Ariel. "Look at them bonding. Join them, Ariel. Force knows you all need to bond." Paquin gently shoved Ariel in the boys' direction. 

"No, let them have their moment," Ariel protested. 

"Ariel, go love them," Paquin ushered, taking the bottle from Ariel's hands. She wasn't going to drink any, just hold it while they all formed a group hug. 

"Fine," Ariel nearly rolled her eyes before she shuffled over to the two. "Mind if I join?" She asked as she wrapped her arms around the two. She had to admit, it was comforting to hug them, even if Kylo was hesitant in the whole thing. 

'I'd make a great therapist,' Paquin thought to herself, smiling at the three. In reality, she'd make a terrible therapist. She could fix people's bleeding wounds, but not much else. But her drunken self could dream. Speaking of dreaming, Paquin didn't feel tired anymore. That's what alcohol did. 'Maybe I should get back in the bath...' 

"You all sort of suck, but I still love you guys," Ariel mumbled into the hug before letting go. Time to drink some more. 

- 

The cat looked proud is it stopped in front of a little shelter. The orange fuzz slipped in through a small sliver in the door, turning and poking it's cute face out and meowing. Hux moved to push the door open, only to find it blocked by something on the other side. Hux shooed the cat away from the door, adding more pressure as he pushed on the door. 

Finn could see that Hux was struggling, so he joined in pushing the door open. "What's behind this thing?" He grumbled as the two pushed. BB-8 moved between their legs, slamming itself into the door. That worked, and the door was pushed open. It didn't necessarily swing open, but it opened enough to slip in. 

As they enter, Finn peeked behind the door, a large pile of sand had seemed to build up behind the door, but no place else in the house. Had the cat done that? Maybe it was in effort to keep intruders out. 

Hux looked around the small shelter. There was what once must have been a kitchen, but now it was well and burned. There was a single chair in what was probably the living room, and beside that was a tiny bed. Must have been the cat's. Speaking of the cat, it was sitting by a tiny bowl, sipping at some water. "Where did it get water?" Poe asked. The place looked abandoned. BB-8 beeped, pointing at the hole in the ceiling above it. 

Hux was too busy trying to decipher what was written on the bowl. It was pink and had the letters 'Princ' on it, the rest smudged out. "It looks like it's a she. Possibly named Princess." He informed the others. But the cat didn't respond to 'princess'. 

- 

"I just hope she doesn't hurt him," Becki sighed. She also hoped Mira didn't make any moves on Poe, which was still entirely possible. Becki would keep up the research on the blonde chick and share Leia's information with the girls. 

"I think if she was going to hurt him, she'd have done it a long time ago." Philip pointed out. 

"She could be doing it mentally! Right? Mind control or something..." Making Poe love her or something. 

"I think that's enough, Becki." Edwin dismissed her. 

"Why you little weasel, don't act like you wouldn't think the same about Hux." Becki always teased him about having a hard-on for the First Order's General. 

"It's not an act, I really wouldn't think that. Mira Re--Vallens is with General Hux as well, as far as we are aware." Edwin's voice remained level and calm, even when he messed up Mira's name. Edwin turned to General Organa. "Phasma wanted me to ask if the Commandant caused any problems, I should report back to her." 

"Run back to your girlfriend, Eddy." In the end, despite Edwin and Becki both organizing sophisticated bands, they were still kids. Barely adults, they still had a sense of immaturity to them.

Lucyfer · Jun 11, 2016

Kylo had needed this. Gnaeus had known it, and he was even pleased when Ariel joined, though Paquin stayed away. He was still going to destroy something, but this was…nice. 

Gnaeus lifted a hand and placed it atop Ariel’s red-head when she commented on how they all sucked, the hug breaking apart, “Love you too, miss drunky.” 

Kylo didn’t echo their words of love. He felt it, of course, but he couldn’t say the words. Not when he might regret them sober, when any one of them chose to listen to Anakin and side against him, like Mira. Like Kevan. No, he’d keep those to himself now. He’d not be manipulated by such weak emotions. ‘Not let Snoke know….’ 

Light had to be destroyed. Always. 

“Gonna go destroy a wall, Kylo?” Kevan asked as he walked to the door. 

“…I just need some fresh air. I forgot how stuffy these dorms get.” 

“Sure. Try not to bring the academy down on us, k?” 

~***~ 

The place that Mira walked into was in tatters, but it wasn’t the worst place she’d have stayed in. There was a roof, so, that was an advantage. However, it definitely wasn’t going to have anything useful for getting them in contact with Leia. “We’ll rest here tonight. Tomorrow we’ll have to travel on.” 

“Mm,” Poe agreed with the idea. They did need to rest, though. They’d crash-landed here. Poe wanted to rest to have some time to figure things out, make sure everyone actually was okay, and then figure out directions. He had an idea based on the sun where the city was where he’d reached out to the Resistance before—but he wasn’t too sure where they were in relation to it right then. 

Couldn’t be far. People needed to get supplies. 

“I don’t think her name is Princess, Hux. Probably just a generic bowl,” Finn offered. “Looks like there’s only one bed.” 

“Dibs.” 

Mira rolled her eyes at Poe, “I’ll stay guard with BB-8,” she offered. She wasn’t sure if anyone would follow them here, but it wasn’t worth the risk. Snoke might know where his ships crashed. The droid wouldn’t need to sleep, right? “Is there any food?” 

Finn went to ransack the kitchen. 

~***~ 

“Please tell Captain Phasma that currently the Commandant is behaving himself, but I would like Mitaka to stay with him.” Mitaka would know when to run and get Phasma or herself. He seemed intelligent enough, albeit timid. 

“Very well.” He motioned to Philip, shooting Becki a glare, before it softened and his lips curled into a smile to say, “Perhaps your beloved Dameron is what caused the Knight to fall.” Just to mess with Becki. 

Leia hit her forehead as Becki clenched both of her fists at her side, “You! Ugh!” But she couldn’t deny that. It was Poe—she’d switch sides to be near him. She didn’t have to, fortunately.

KyloGlenn · Jun 11, 2016

Kylo didn't voice if the feelings were reciprocated, but Ariel didn't expect him to. She wasn't sure if they actually were mutual, but she'd like to think they were. 

As Kylo passed Paquin, she reached out and patted his arm. Her way of offering comfort, though it never seemed to be successful. But she hadn't wanted to intrude on the hug between the three of them. 

In Paquin's mind, sober or not, she felt they all needed to heal together. They all knew Kevan and Mira, close or not, and they all lost the two. Paquin didn't need to mourn like the rest of them. Though Mira wasn't dead yet, she would be sooner or later. 

Paquin couldn't help but let the word, "Nice," slip from her mouth as she touched Kylo's arm. "That's like a rock," she whispered to Ariel as the redhead approached her. 

"It's just the armor," Ariel rolled her eyes as she took the bottle from Paquin. "I'm stronger than that punk bitch," a grin graced Ariel's face just before the bottle returned to her lips. 

Paquin was relieved that Anakin hadn't seemed to affect them too badly. Then again, they were drunk. And Kylo was still running off to destroy something. 'At least no one's killing anyone.' 

- 

"Thank whoever that your name isn't Princess," Hux mumbled to the cat. Princess was a dumb name in Hux's eyes. You needed to give any creature a respectful name, a classy one. Hux scratched the kitty's head before standing up straight and moving on to inspect the small shelter. 

The cat moved on as well, moving to lay down in her bed. 

Finn moved about the kitchen. Mira asked about food, so Finn went to the small refrigerator. It nearly fell apart as Finn opened it. A foul stench came from the out of service fridge, causing Finn to cover his nose. "What is that?" Poe complained as the smell filled the hut. 

"Sorry, sorry," Finn mumbled, shutting the fridge. "It'll air out." He moved on from the disgusting appliance, rummaging through the cupboards. "We've got cat food!" Finn offered as he opened one, animal food spilling out. If they needed to, they could eat that. They weren't that desperate yet. 

The next cupboard was the jackpot, though. "Hey guys, you thirsty?" Finn asked, pulling two large jugs of water out from its storage. It was warm, the jugs covered in dust, but it was water. BB-8 beeped, reminding Finn of food. The droid didn't have to eat, but the others did. "Take a look," there were a couple cans of something, Finn hadn't read what they were. He was just so happy with the water. 

- 

As Philip and Edwin marched away from the fuming pilot, an actual Resistance joined the mix, orange jumpsuit and all. The expression on the pilot's face was that of worry, but it didn't occur to Becki that it could be over Poe or the others. 

Until the pilot opened his mouth. 

"General Organa, we tried to get in contact with the X-Wing Poe and Mira took, but we got nothing. It's completely offline, no way to track it. Same with the cruiser Finn took, radio silence." That wasn't a good thing at all, a bad sign. It meant the ships were destroyed, or Snoke and them could have gotten a hold of it. Which in turn meant they had the four that had been in the ships. 

"I'm sure they're fine," Becki interjected. Poe was the best damn pilot around, how could he not be?

Lucyfer · Jun 11, 2016

Kylo paused a moment when Paquin touched and commented. He felt a queer swell of pride, and shot back, “Not all armor,” before he was gone, hearing Gnaeus laugh as he continued on. 

Gnaeus went on to add, “Ariel, Kylo would put your ass down and you know it.” Gnaeus was pretty sure Kylo was stronger than all of them, even without the Force. He wouldn’t try it. That was suicide, as Kevan proved. Mira had help—that was the only reason she was still alive. “Dude’s shredded. It’s quite nice,” he winked at Paquin, “If I were gay or bi, I swear I’d be on that. But then I wouldn’t have the Gnaeus kids…,” he let out a sigh as if that had become a real dream of his now. “Hey, Ari….” He spoke it in his best mock-attempt at implying she was fine enough—and then laughed, because he was not about to deal with real rejection. 

Jokes. Always jokes. 

Fuck Anakin for knowing. “Voids I need to drink less.” 

There were training grounds. Mira, Kevan, and he had built them during Kevan’s training, to teach him how to use the Force offensively, once he finally got the feel for it. As well as to test his lightsaber. 

The training grounds were on a lower level, and the lights flickered on as they sensed Kylo’s movement. He followed them down, to where the droids were, which came to life. Armored enough to resist the lightsabers—it had been a challenge to destroy them, and sometimes they did. Then they had to repair them. 

It was a way of keeping up with all forms of knowledge. Mechanical was necessary for the ships, for lightsabers, and eventually for building defenses for Korriban. Fighting was just necessary. 

Kylo lit his blade and his grin bared all his white teeth before he lashed out at the droids in pure rage, channeling it and throwing it against them in streams of lightning and erratic flares from his lightsaber. 

~***~ 

Mira’s nose wrinkled at the sudden stench, and the cat made its disgust quite audible as it let out something like a yowl when the smell reached it. Mira held her hand over her nose, but smiled a bit as Finn mentioned water. 

She probably should be thirsty, but hunger was on her mind more than that. Poe and his damn donut. “Cups?” There were four of them, and two jugs. Given, they’d share if necessary, she knew none of them would be pleased with that. 

“Yeah…dusty,” Poe said, grabbing a jug without much care for hygiene and downing a good portion of it immediately. Mira looked to Finn, who started to pull out the cans, and then to Hux, who was starting to get as red as his hair. 

“You can go ahead,” she offered. He probably needed the water more than she did, but she wouldn’t put it that way. No need to embarrass him with weakness. To further make the offer clear, she stepped back into the house and leaned against one of the walls, folding her arms lightly over her chest, coat folding over her hands. 

“Looks like we have…beans. Lots of beans.” Finn said as the food was finally out. “And no can opener. Yet.” He went back to search the drawers. 

And Mira had already learned that opening cans with a lightsaber was a bad idea. Too small. The food always burned away. 

~***~ 

Leia Organa did not like the news she heard. If they couldn’t get in touch with them at all, that meant something was wrong—very wrong. “Thank you,” she kept her expression stoic, for Becki. “Do you mind showing Becki where she can help? I need to check with Captain Phasma.” 

“Understood. Becki, would you come with me?” The Resistance pilot knew that Leia wanted to see if Phasma had a way to reach out that they didn’t have, as Hux was with them. 

“Of course!” Becki was too enthralled with the idea of hanging with people from Black Squad to refuse or think deeply about why she was being dismissed. 

Leia walked off then, paces quick, to the building known to house Foreign Language studies. She didn’t hear a foreign languae when she entered, though. She heard one of the prisoners let out an ear-shattering scream. Leia winced at the sound and paused, looked to some of the First Order members and said, “Would one of you interrupt Phasma. I need to speak with her, immediately. It is in regards to General Hux.” 

She knew she failed to keep all of her panic out of her voice. The scream had startled her. The Resistance wasn’t in the habit of torture, and somehow she’d forgotten to expect it.

KyloGlenn · Jun 12, 2016

Paquin was seriously beginning to wonder if Gnaeus did want to have his children. She could tell it was always used in a joking manner, but that didn't mean he didn't actually want him. She figured it didn't matter. Kids, romantic relationships, they didn't seem to be things that would be allowed in their situation. 

"Hey, I'm either the first choice or nothing," Ariel shoved Gnaeus playfully. The alcohol was finally taking the effect that Ariel wanted it to. It just took a couple of bottles. She was feeling the giggly, happy effect that she frequently longed for when sober. Taking another swig, she offered the bottle to Gnaeus. 

"You need to drink more, it's fun. Paquin, you want some?" 

"No, thank you. I can feel my liver and my kidneys dying. You should slow down, too. Your body will thank you later." Ariel rolled her eyes, waving a hand dismissively at Paquin words. "You guys are really bad at taking care of yourselves. Or at least you and Kylo are." Gnaeus was her favorite, and she very nearly revealed that information. Then again, she hadn't yet seen him when he was injured or anything of the sort. 

"No we're not! I mean, have you seen Kylo's hair? Have you seen the muscles that you were just touching? And I am just as shredded. Totally." But Ariel did pride herself in her red hair. 

- 

"We should preserve the food and water," Hux commented. "We have no idea how far any form of communication is or how long we'll be on this burning pile of dust." Hux didn't like Jakku. He could think of a lot worse names to call the planet, but he censored himself. 

His skin was turning red, heat emitting from the once pale flesh. It was only a matter of time before it would start to hurt. 'Shouldn't have taken off my shirt.' He sighed at the thought. If he knew how close the cat's shelter was, he wouldn't have done it. He'd have suffered through the heat to prevent the sunburn. Which was ten times worse than simply being hot. 

Poe stared directly at Hux before bringing the dirty jug to his lips again, chugging a little more. He did it just to piss Hux off, but the General was right. "Everyone take a drink, save some for dinner, and then we'll save the rest." 

Dinner. The dinner of beans. At least there'd be enough for everyone to have their own can, and then some. They'd have to find a bag or something before moving out the next day. 

Finn found silverware. Dirty, but it was there. But he wanted a can opener..."Aha!" The plastic handle was slightly melted, but it would work. Finn went to the stove, hand hovering over the knobs. He didn't think it would work, but he hoped. Finn turned a knob, but nothing. He held his hand over it, to search for heat, but none. "Well. We should start a fire or something." He suggested, returning to the others with the cans, a few spoons, and the can opener. 

- 

An officer nodded at the Resistance General, understanding the urgency and disappearing into the building to retrieve the Captain. Phasma wouldn't be happy with the interruption, but once she knew it was about their own General, all displeasure would dissipate. 

Like the officer had predicted, Captain Phasma was annoyed but only for the briefest moment. Hux's name was mentioned and she dropped what she was doing, leaving the torturing to another for the time she'd be away. 

Phasma straightened herself out the least bit as she was led out of the building. Phasma was aware of the prisoner's blood that stained her once pristine uniform. It could have easily been brushed off as her own, but Phasma still crossed her arms to cover the stain, knowing Leia wouldn't be comfortable with its existence. 

The Resistance's ways greatly differed from the ways of the Order. 

"General Organa," she greeted upon re-entering the outdoors, spotting the small woman. "You have news on General Hux?"

Lucyfer · Jun 13, 2016

“Well shit, I mean, first choice? You’re in the top three?” He almost made a joke about Phasma being first choice. First Order and all. 

Then he remembered they weren’t with the First Order anymore. It was a bit depressing. He’d only ever known the Knights as part of the First Order. 

He took the offered bottle, “Maybe,” and another swig of it, before he offered it back to Ariel. He’d just try to maintain—he wouldn’t get worse off than now. His moods were starting to get erratic. Joking to depressed. He didn’t like it. 

“I mean…the two of them taking better care than I do,” Gnaeus said, “I eat shit, and I definitely do not work out as much as either of them. You’ve seen what I eat,” Gnaeus pointed out. He definitely wasn’t as dedicated to keeping his physical form in good health as either Ariel and Kylo—even if one was a drunkard and the other kept getting his ass kicked. 

Which was unusual. Kylo never lost this much. “Actually, what the fuck is up with Kylo? You remember him being this much of a punk ass?” He asked Ariel, motioning for the bottle again. Screw it, he’d keep drinking and then blame anything he said on the alcohol. 

~***~ 

Poe was an asshole. Mira was annoyed with his childish show when it came to Hux—she could deal with it when it was directed at her. She didn’t care. But she bristled a bit at his antagonism of Hux, depleting the supply further. Unnecessarily. This was exactly why she wasn't leaving Hux with just him and Finn. 

At least he did stop and did make sense. “We can’t be too far from a location. Whoever lived here, had to get food and water from a town,” Mira couldn’t imagine people on Jakku living far from others. 

“Even so,” Poe said, “We might pick the wrong direction.” 

Finn found the can then, and tried to start a fire. “Fire’s no problem. The lightsaber can do that with enough kindling.” Mira never had to worry. “We just have to pick a safe place to start it.” 

Poe glanced to the wooden table, “We can use that to keep it going,” he gestured, and then went to scrounge up kindling, “If you can make that smaller, that is.” ‘Of course I can.’ Mira took the blade into hand, and lit it, deftly hacking the table into several smaller pieces that would be useful in keeping the fire going when it got cold in the night. With the door shut, a fire ought to keep everyone warm—even Poe on his precious bed. 

Finn, seeing that Poe and Mira were busy with fire prep, decided to just start opening all the cans. “Here,” he offered an open one back, not looking to Hux as it was offered. He’d wait until he felt it taken before moving his hand back to keep opening the cans. Four. Everyone was eating. He wasn’t going to hear any protests about preserving food, or splitting two cans between the four of them. 

~***~ 

Leia had found a location that was not heavily monitored, so she would have some privacy in speaking to Captain Phasma. When the woman exited to join her, she said, “I do not. That is why I’ve asked for you. I was hoping you had a means of communicating with him.” 

Leia took a breath before going on to explain, “No one can reach the ship that Poe took, or Finn. It’s radio static.” She didn’t have to tell Phasma what that meant—the ships were offline, which could not mean anything good. 

Leia knew she’d feel it if anything happened to Mira, Poe, or Finn—well, if death happened. Nothing else, though. So she knew they were still alive, but she couldn’t say much else, and she couldn’t say anything about Hux.

KyloGlenn · Jun 13, 2016

Ariel barely had the bottle a few seconds before Gnaeus wanted it again. She took another drink before handing it over. "No. I don't know." She shrugged. "I guess that scavenger really threw him off balance." Kylo wasn't around, he couldn't hear what they were talking about. Ariel felt safe to discuss it. 

"It seems like Snoke's training made him worse off," if Ariel wasn't as drunk as she was, she would have been too scared to even think those thoughts. She felt as though Snoke seemed to know everything. He knew when they were awake or sleeping, knew when they've been bad or good. 

Paquin was rather uneducated on their topic. The only thing Paquin knew of Kylo before was that he was not nice and more or less a cry baby. Which was still true, so Paquin wasn't sure of much difference. So, Paquin stayed out of the conversation, taking up the role of lookout. Just in case Ariel and Gnaeus were going to make a thing of shit talking about Kylo. 

"He killed Kevan, so that was a success, at least." The only one in a while. "Rest in chaos." Ariel was bitter, even if she wasn't all that close to Kevan. 

- 

Hux took the can, mumbling an almost inaudible thank you. He didn't really want to, not to Finn. But at least now, Finn didn't hear it, but Hux could still say he had said it. 

Except Finn did hear, and grumbled, "You're welcome," in return as he finished opening the second can and setting it aside. 

He began on the third, only for Hux to stop him. "We only need two cans, Mira and I can share. Right--" 

"No, I'm not having any of that," Finn denied, "There's plenty left for the road. We could give an entire can to the cat and be just fine." At that, the orange ball lifted her head up and meowed. "Not that we're going to," he continued opening the beans. If Hux didn't want to eat his, he didn't have to. But the can would still be opened and it would just go to waste. 

With that, Hux was silenced. The only sounds in the room were the opening of the final can and the rustling of Mira and Poe readying the fire. "There. Ready to go. Someone will have to keep an eye on it during sleep time, especially if it gets as cold as Mira says." A fire would do well if it actually got to freezing temperatures. And obviously the shelter caught on fire easily, they didn't want to be engulfed by flames while they slept. "I think Finn and I can take turns, right?" Poe didn't trust Hux to do it. He'd kill all of them in their sleep or something. Except maybe Mira and the cat. And Poe's feelings with Mira were still a little rocky. 

Finn let out a noise of agreement. Finn himself didn't trust Hux, even if he had saved him. Mira, Finn was just fine with. 

- 

Phasma's jaw clenched the slightest bit. Leia didn't tell her what that meant, but it was unneeded. Phasma knew it wasn't good and she felt her stomach drop a little. "Hux has a comlink, one he used to contact the Stormtroopers. I could try that." Phasma turned then, going to find a comlink of her own to reach it. 

"If someone does have them," or if they were completely destroyed, "then I imagine his comlink was confiscated or destroyed." But it was still worth a shot, just in case. 

Phasma led Leia to the first First Order ship she saw, shooing away a Stormtrooper that was inside. Phasma scanned over the ship, looking for any mobile communication device. With one spotted, she snatched it up. Phasma held her breath as she tried to connect to Hux, hoping there'd be some sign of life. But nothing came up. No answer, it barely rang him for a second. Not good.

Lucyfer · Jun 13, 2016

Gnaeus took another generous swig from the bottle before offering it back to Ariel as she mentioned how Kylo did seem to deteriorate. “Yeah…I don’t even know what he was learning with Snoke.” Was it more with the Lightsaber? With the Force? 

Either way, he clearly wasn’t prepared. The training, of course, always took time to sink in…did Kylo not have that time? Was that why they were all sent here? “Pfft, as if Kevan could have held a flame to Kylo in the first place,” Gnaeus wasn’t surprised, “His only hope was in his alliances, and we see how well that did him.” 

Too loud, too quick. 

Somehow Mira did much better there, despite being in their hands. Corrupting Hux…. “Maybe that’s really what’s fucking with him. Killing Han was supposed to make him stronger, but I wonder…,” he frowned, “It’s all emotions and passions, right? Killing Han was a passion, and Kylo got rid of that.” 

Not a light, but a dark desire. It was met. Did that make him weaker? “We gotta focus him on something again,” Gnaeus determined. 

~***~ ‘Wasteful.’ Mira bit back on that. Finn seemed adamant that they all ate. Just before she could light the fire, now that it was all set up, BB-8 rolled ahead and quickly lit the kindling with his small lighter. The kindling took flame quickly, disturbing the orange cat who looked towards the fire as if captivated. 

“I’m not planning to sleep,” she indicated to them. 

“You’ve got to sleep,” Finn stated matter-of-factly. “How will you travel tomorrow, in the heat, huh?” 

“Mind tricks,” Mira answered bluntly, causing Finn’s nose to wrinkle. 

“That’s not healthy.” 

“Neither is eating only beans. We do what we must,” Mira said, walking to grab her can of beans. “How about this: you take second-shift. That way if I am tired, you can keep watch, and if I’m not tired, then you’ll at least have company for your watch.” Mira wasn’t going to trust Poe. He’d run off the second he had the chance with Finn, and strand her and Hux. 

Although BB-8 probably wouldn’t allow it, it was still a possibility. 

And she knew neither trusted Hux. “BB-8 will be awake, too,” she noted before Poe could protest her watch. “The droid will shriek if I try anything.” 

Poe grumbled something inaudible before taking his own can from the counter, and digging right in. Fair point. 

~***~ 

Leia gave a grateful nod as Phasma mentioned an alternative. She followed, hopeful that Hux’s comlink had survived. It would be much smaller, easier to survive unnoticed, right? Leia went with her to the ship, her heart in her throat. 

There was a First Order ship they went to, and Phasma tried calling out once the pair was alone. 

Nothing. 

Barely a ring. “Okay,” Leia tried to breathe. “I’ll see if I can get any information about the routes their ships took. There must be something preserved,” they could track their ships, there might be a history report that would tell Leia where they had gone, so they could follow up the search there. “Is there anything you can do as well?”

KyloGlenn · Jun 13, 2016

"Like what? I'm sure he'll be plenty focused on killing Mira and Hux next, or whatever Snoke commands him to do." Ariel wasn't sure if Snoke would trust Kylo with that task or not. Based on how much he's been losing. Then again, Snoke couldn't sentence him or the rest of them to training forever. 

Well, he could. But he wouldn't. 

"I could try and teach him how to braid hair. That'll keep him focused for a hot minute." Ariel laughed at her own joke before sipping at the alcohol again. 

Ariel joked, but she could see the truth in Gnaeus' words. Maybe having something of his own, and not something that they'd do as a group, to focus on would set him back on track. It was weird, seeing Kylo this way. And she knew that she didn't want to see Snoke do anything like he'd done again, not to Kylo. 

No more losing. 

- 

Hux wasn't keen on the idea of Mira not sleeping, even if he did feel better that she'd be in charge of keeping watch and not Poe or Finn, who would likely betray them if they got the chance. Hux frequently went without sleep, but he didn't want Mira to. Especially with the heat of Jakku like Finn had pointed out. 

But he didn't say anything. He'd knock her out if he had to. 

BB-8 beeped in agreement to Mira's words, to further assure Poe, even with his inaudible grumbles. 

"I guess that'll work," Finn sighed. Finn planned to use less aggressive ways to get Mira to sleep if he had to. Lullabies and wrapping her in a warm blanket or something. 

Dinner seemed to commence, silence overtaking the group. There was the sound of utensils scraping against the cans, the fire crackling. The cat was completely entranced by it until BB-8 approached her, a metal arm darting out to pet her like it'd seen Hux do. Only the cat meowed in surprise, claws and teeth latching on to the metal arm. 

BB-8 let out a surprised beep, attempting to gently shake off the cat. "Stupid cat." Poe glared at the tiny thing, clawing up his droid. Both Finn and Hux disagreed with Poe, finding the meow adorable. Especially Hux, who nearly cracked a smile at the creature. 

Finn changed the subject, however, breaking the negativity coming from Poe. "Have you guys ever heard of the game Truth or Dare? My squad and I used to play it all the time." 

- 

"I'll send out some Stormtroopers, search the area and some nearby planets for evidence of a crash." She wasn't sure if she wanted them to have crashed or be captured. Whichever had more of a chance for survival 

No, she'd preferred that they crashed. Hux would as well, she knew that. 

"I'll ask around, see if anyone knows what direction they headed it," not that it really mattered, they could have circled every planet in the Mid Rim a few times by now. But she'd try. She would have to do everything she could, she had to. This was the First Order's General they were talking about. 

"If you could do me a favor, don't mention any of this to Commandant Hux." That was the last thing she needed, his father pestering her.

Lucyfer · Jun 13, 2016

“Buns.” Gnaeus said, cupping his hands by his ears when Ariel mentioned braids. “C’mon, it’s a grand Skywalker tradition, he has to have the buns.” 

Though Kylo wouldn’t like that, and Gnaeus knew it as he leaned his head on the wall. “I mean, yeah…Hux and Mira are probably a good focus, but Snoke isn’t letting him do that now.” No, he sent them to training, which likely meant he was going to do some work against the Jedi and the First Order. “We need something for now…,” his brows furrowed, “There’s gotta be something on Korriban, maybe. This was a place of the Sith, right? Maybe there’s something left to uncover. Put Kylo into bloodhound mode.” 

Kylo could hunt. He hunted across the galaxy for a stupid droid. “Know anything?” He included Paquin in that, since she always seemed able to spew random facts. 

~***~ 

Mira did eat. She was starving, and was glad when Finn agreed, “Thank you,” it would make things easier. Perhaps Hux would be able to trust Finn enough to rest. Finn had saved him, and Finn was…well, Force-Sensitive. 

It shouldn’t make Mira trust him more, but it did. 

They ate. There wasn’t much to talk about. Mira was thinking of the next day, and of how to figure direction. She would likely need to try and sense for life, and not lead them to an oasis. ‘It might be good if Finn takes second watch.’ Mira could step out and get a feel for the surrounding area—perhaps find a place to take them to as they all woke up. 

The cat brought them all to life again, and Mira did smile as the cat reacted poorly to BB-8. “Slower, BB-8. You have to let it sniff you first,” she chuckled a bit as the droid finally got itself free, rolling behind Poe’s leg. 

“Truth or dare?” Poe seemed intrigued by this. “Yeah, who hasn’t heard of it?” Then he realized who was in attendance. He glanced to them. 

“Played it, once.” Mira admitted. A long time ago, as Ceres. “May or may not have gotten Ben—Kylo—in trouble.” Fond memories of frogs and Luke. Poor, poor Luke. But Kylo always chose dare, and they quickly caught on to that. 

“What did you do?” Finn asked, eyes lighting at the thought of mischief. 

Mira just shook her head. She wasn’t sharing. 

~***~ 

Leia nodded, “I’ll get you some coordinates of where the ships fell off the radar and you can focus your squads there. I’ll send some of my own,” she said. “You should check with the First Order base as well. I’ll check home, too.” 

Just in case they managed to escape back to base. It was unlikely, but she had to check. Perhaps they reached out? “I’ll radio you the information,” since she had jog back to her own ship to try and track where the ships were last ‘known’. 

At the words about Commandant, she arched an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything before turning and jogging off. She hadn’t planned to tell him anything, anyway. ‘Where did our generation fail?’ Her with Kylo, Commandant with Hux—so far as relationships went, anyway. Their kids weren’t fans of them…or the parents weren’t fans of the kids…they’d messed up, though. 

But Leia would fix it. 

She made it back to the hangar and quickly reached out to the Black Squad crew, who were able to send her the details as to the general path of Poe’s ship before it fell off the radar. ‘Near Jakku.’ 

She immediately got on the radio to call out to Phasma. Jakku System, western reaches…there were a few habitable planets, at least.

KyloGlenn · Jun 14, 2016

‘Buns.’ Ariel had to do buns, she realized as Gnaeus mentioned them. Kylo wouldn’t like it, but Ariel needed to see him with the traditional Skywalker buns at least once in her life. Maybe when Kylo falls asleep she’d enlist the help of Paquin and they’d style his hair. “Kylo certainly has the ears of a bloodhound.” Ariel chuckled. Those things were huge. 

Paquin, who hadn’t been paying much attention to the conversation, popped back in as Gnaeus asked an open question. Unfortunately, Paquin wasn’t well versed in anything to do with Korriban or what may be on it, so she shrugged. “It has to be something Kylo would be interested in,” Ariel stated the obvious. “There’s plenty of things on Korriban that have gone undiscovered.” There wasn’t a shortage, even if people did search so hard for any tiny artifact. 

“Holocrons, crystals, probably.” Nothing that Kylo would find terribly interesting. They had plenty of holocrons and no real need for whatever crystals or other artifacts that lay about in ruins. “We could send him on a hunt for the mythical book of the Sith. Featuring pages from Darth Plagueis, who could stop people from dying, but couldn’t stop himself from dying.” All legends, things that may not exist. Last she heard of the silly book, which may not have been real, it was in the hands of Luke. “The real challenge is getting him interested in something.” 

- 

Finn was a little disappointed that Mira wasn’t going to share, the glint leaving his eyes. But he respected her choice and didn’t push, turning his attention to the ginger, who’s skin looked even redder than his hair. “What about you, Hux? You ever heard of it?” If he had, Finn imagined he’d think it was stupid. 

“Of course I’ve heard of it,” Hux rolled his eyes, “I’ve played it once or twice.” A very long time ago, nearly twenty years. And he was aware that it was a common game amongst the Stormtroopers. He’d been the center of many dares, as well as Kylo had. ‘How close can we get to a raging Ren?’ was a frequent years ago, before he was actually a threat to their well-being. 

Hux shoveled food into his mouth as Finn’s face showed his surprise. “Really? You’ve played it?” Finn was having a hard time imagining it, but he shook it off. “Well, I think we should play it. After dinner, of course, but I think it’ll be fun!” So they wouldn’t spend the entire time in silence, wanting to kill each other. 

Hux nearly spat his food in poor Finn’s face, holding back laughter. He was a thirty-four-year-old man, a General. Him playing truth or dare now, instead of as a fourteen-year-old, was ridiculous. 

BB-8 peaked its head out from between Poe’s legs, asking if it could play. “Sure, I don’t see why not.” Finn shrugged, spooning food into his mouth. 

Poe was already thinking of many dares for Mira and Hux, even though they hadn’t agreed. Eating sand, maybe lick whatever the source of that fowl stench in the fridge was. Nothing crazy that would get them hurt, Leia wouldn’t be happy with that, but just generally unpleasant things. 

- 

Phasma had reached out to the bases, in the vacuum of space and on Alderaan, asking if Hux or any of them had shown up or if there was any sign of them. But nothing. They’d just up and disappeared. 

She had issued orders for a unit of troopers to prepare to search for Hux and them while she waited for information from Leia. So she was ready and waiting by the time Leia called with their last known whereabouts. 

There wasn’t much relief, though. There were habitable planets if they’d escaped or survived a crash. Phasma really hoped they hadn’t landed on Jakku or any other planet with a burning atmosphere. She knew how easily Hux would burn and he had no access to sunscreen. 

What was she thinking? Sunburn would be the least of their worries. 

“I’ll be sending a unit with a medic or two to search the western reaches, then. Is there anything you need from me, General?” There wasn’t much either of them could do, except sit and wait. Hope and get whatever they could do on Cimarosa done. There was plenty of panic within Phasma. Not only could she possibly be losing someone she cared for, but the Order would lose a General. He’d be replaced by someone with very different ideas, most likely. 

And Leia would lose three people she cared for. Even Phasma knew the woman had gone through enough loss.

Lucyfer · Jun 14, 2016

Gnaeus's eyes lit up, "Ari, you're a genius!" He used to hear Kylo and Mira talk of it. "He's always talked about how much we could learn from it." 

It would even count as training. "Let's get Kylo to figure out how to find it. He can plot tomorrow. I will help Paq here with the lightsaber." Of them, he was probably the only one patient enough. "Then you can figure out a regime to get her in shape." 

He pushed away from the wall. If they could get Kylo to agree, it'd be set. "C'mon, let's see if...." 

He trailed off. Kylo's energy dropped sharply, suddenly. "Voids," he cursed a few other colorful words in other languages before he moved by Ariel and Paquin to try and sprint off. 

He didn't get very far before he had to put a bracing hand on the wall, "Anyone remember where the training grounds are?" 

~***~ 

Mira arched an eyebrow wondering how those games had gone. Wondering who had played. She didn't imagine it was Phasma, but certainly other Cadets or would-be officers. How terrible had those dares been? 

She likely wouldn't get to know, but imagining was half the fun. 

Even BB-8 wanted to play. "Ground rules, if we play," Mira wasn't agreeing yet, "No truths relating to organization secrets," that could end badly if anyone tried, "and no dares that are likely to end in great harm." 

"Fine," Poe consented. 

"Agreed!" Finn sounded excited, "So, are you in, General? Or are you scared?" 

Mira rolled her eyes at Finn's attempt to taunt him. 

~***~ 

Leila wished that she had more for Phasma. Waiting was never fun. The news Phasma was waiting for was also more organizationally significant than what Leia was waiting for...but it was waiting all the same. 

"Get what information you can from the prisoners and we'll move from there. See if any have radio information of their own... I can set up to spy and I have decoders." 

They kept in touch somehow. If the prisoners knew the radio information than she and Phasma could tune in and learn if Hux, Mira, Poe, or Finn were in Snoke's hands. 

It would at least narrow things down. Leia wasn't even thinking of the other uses for such information.

KyloGlenn · Jun 14, 2016

Paquin's eyebrows furrowed at the use of 'Paq'. She guessed her name wasn't very nickname-able. But her confusion was replaced with excitement at the thought of making a lightsaber. And then that was replaced with dread at the mention of getting in shape. 

She had bigger things to worry about, both her and Ariel as Gnaeus trailed off, sprinting past them with only a few strings of curses. Though, Ariel did feel the change in Kylo. 

The two followed after him, Ariel reaching out and grabbing at Gnaeus to help steady him as he braced against the wall. "It's downstairs," Ariel mumbled before beginning to drag Gnaeus along with her. 

Paquin so badly wanted to sprint ahead, the medic in her kicking in. Only she didn't know where she'd be going or if medical attention would be required. It was just something not good. 

- 

Mira and Hux were simultaneous in their eye rolls. But Hux would humor the former trooper. He'd probably only stick to truths, what harm could come from truths? 'Blackmail.' Hux didn't have to tell the actual truth if he deemed something to be too much. With a sigh, he answered. 

"I'm in if Mira's in." He wouldn't be left alone in this game with the two Resistance members and their droid. 

"Mira?" Finn turned to the blonde excitedly, looking for confirmation. The truth and dare game was all coming together. There was a part of him that was prepared to exact revenge on Hux, but this game was to bond them, not put them at odds. Well, he couldn't speak for Poe, but that was Finn's plan. 

Poe spoke with a mouth full of beans, "I think she already confirmed." She set the guidelines, after all. Even if she had said if. Poe was going to act as though she agreed. He would make her lick that weird thing in the refrigerator. 

- 

"It will be done," Phasma was almost too anxious to continue with the torture, but she would do it. They could find Hux, Mira, Finn, and Poe that way. Maybe. Hopefully. 

"You're welcome to sit in if you'd like." Captain Phasma didn't imagine she would like to, but she'd offer nonetheless. "Ask any questions of your own." Ask wasn't really the right term for it. It wasn't the way of the Resistance, but it might involve some useful information. 

They seemed to be in this together, at the moment. 

"I'll resume...questioning and relay information as it's received." And hopefully there'd be some and soon.

Lucyfer · Jun 14, 2016

Gnaeus let himself be dragged along, since he couldn’t even remember where the stairs went, or if they all went to the same place—eventually. He didn’t think that they did. Ariel took them down, and Paquin followed. 

Gnaeus offered a, “If he got his ass kicked by the training droids, he’ll be fine. They won’t kill,” he told Paquin, sensing her own panic. 

As they came into the training room, though, the walls were scarred red, bleeding the fiery remnants of the scars the lightsaber had given to them. The droids crackled and fizzled, sparked and sputtered, which actually awed Gnaeus. He knew how tough those things had been made—more defensive than anything, but still, they were meant to withstand lightsabers. 

He saw Kylo’s hand burned, and the saber seeming to leak energy from its vents, but other than that, he looked fine. He actually looked to be just asleep, though the sort of sleep a drunk might fall into—dreamless exhaustion. 

And indeed, that was the truth. Kylo had thrown all he could at the droids, and exhausted himself of the Force flowing through his veins to the point that he did just collapse, more or less, into sleep. 

“Well…I guess we should take him to bed,” probably shouldn’t leave him there, “and figure out how much repairing this is going to cost.” 

He’d forgotten how expensive keeping Kylo around was. 

~***~ 

Ah, peer pressure! Though, Mira didn’t have any true problems with it. Unlike Hux, she intended to stick to dares. Dares were easier than truths. “I’m in,” she agreed, grinning at Poe as she said, “BB-8 gets to start.” 

“But—” 

“I set the guidelines,” Mira echoed, and then gestured them all closer to the fire to sit near it, to make it all campside-like. It brought back memories, good and bad, as she folded her legs underneath herself. 

The droid rolled up to be between Finn and Poe, and swiveled its head to look at them all, seeming to assess its options. It knew Finn. It couldn’t ask Poe—Poe was its owner. It knew Mira pretty well, too. No, the one to investigate was Hux! 

And so the droid swiveled its head towards Hux, and beeped out that infamous question of ‘Truth or Dare’ to the General. 

Finn grinned, pleased to see the General chosen first, though he knew that meant the General was next to choose, too. Not good. Yet, excitement trilled through him. 

~***~ 

Leia blanched at the idea of sitting in, glad the ship was between her and Phasma. It wouldn’t be good to show such obvious distaste, “No, thank you,” Leia stated. “I only need…” 

She was about to say she only needed information on where her compatriots were, but reconsidered. She bit her bottom lip. Then, asked, “If he knows anything about my son…if you can find anything out from him…I would appreciate it, Phasma.” She would not ask where he was. It was highly unlikely any simple soldier knew…but his status. How things were, with him and Snoke, now that it had all fallen apart with the First Order. 

Was her son still free to roam? 

Or had Snoke taken it as a personal failing of Kylo?

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I made something that'll love me even when I won't

either born in hell or heaven sent

I made something that'll love me even when I won't

either born in hell or heaven sent

I made something that'll love me even when I won't

either born in hell or heaven sent

I made something that'll love me even when I won't

either born in hell or heaven sent

I made something that'll love me even when I won't

either born in hell or heaven sent

I made something that'll love me even when I won't

either born in hell or heaven sent

I made something that'll love me even when I won't

either born in hell or heaven sent

I made something that'll love me even when I won't

either born in hell or heaven sent

I made something that'll love me even when I won't

either born in hell or heaven sent

I made something that'll love me even when I won't

either born in hell or heaven sent

I made something that'll love me even when I won't

either born in hell or heaven sent

I made something that'll love me even when I won't

either born in hell or heaven sent

I made something that'll love me even when I won't

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