The Seventh Knight

"Burn the Galaxy to Ash"

Kaddak
Outer Rim
21ABY

Her lungs burned as she willed her arms to pump faster, her feet thudded against the ground as she ran. Drops of water splashed around her bare feet, up her ankles as the city still drained from the floods.

Please she pleaded with herself, taking a quick turn down a dark alley and glancing behind her. She saw no one but never relented in running, turning back once more, to check over her shoulder, she didn't catch herself as she ran into something, Hard and tall, a wall?

She cried out, stumbling back and looking up, her eyes met a dark helmet placed atop a shirtless man. She took several steps back and turned in a frenzy behind her to run again but his hand on her shoulder stopped her.

She grunted and reached for his arm to spin out his hold, but he only held tighter. 

"You're the one I'm looking for... A bit smaller than I would have thought," the mask stated, looking down at her, helmet tilted to the side inquisitively.

Small? How rude.

She shoved away from him, throwing her foot out, she threw a kick to his knee. He barely reacted but did release her and she stepped back taking up as much of a fighting stance as her small body could, curling her upper lip, she called out, "Let me pass."

Her voice was dry and gravelly, not the voice of a young woman as he expected, it didn't come out nearly as convincing as she wanted it to be, but her face was cold steel, eyes hard, lips pressed tight together, her body was tense. The figure removed his helmet and raised his head looking at the girl. His blue eyes met hers, with his high cheekbones and ruffled blonde hair, he held up his free hand in a surrender gesture.

"I'm not going to hurt you," he promised but she didn't back down. "Do you know who I am?" he asked.

She hesitated for a second before shaking her head.
"I am Ren," he introduced, with a graceful gesture of his hand. "Of the knights of ren."

"What do you want with me?" she asked him and her nervous glance behind her didn't go unnoticed by Ren.

"Have you ever made strange things happen?" he asked her. The girl's spine straightened, her entire body tensed as her breath froze, trapped in her throat.

He unclipped a device from his belt, an odd shaped cylinder and she stepped back in fear momentarily until it floated out his hand, hovering over his fingertips. Ren waited for her answer and eventually she nodded her head.

"Yes," she whispered, and he stepped closer to her. She reached a handout and the device floated to her hand, twirling in a circle above her hand.

"The shadow is strong in you; I can sense it, so powerful," He whispered the last bit looking down at her. "That's good, it's a requirement for membership."

"Membership?" she asked, her voice still hoarse. She pushed the device back to him and he caught it, reclipping it to his belt.

"Membership for the Knights of Ren, little one," Ren replied, "Would you like to be a knight of Ren?"

She froze, this strange man was willing to take her away from here. From this retched planet and her wasted life.

"You could be free," he whispered, his helmet tilted down to the slave tattoo on her thigh, and she looked up at him. "A home, for you. With me, you will burn the galaxy to ash, and take what you want."

"A home?" she whispered.

"A home," he confirmed. "We follow one," he reached to his belt, removing a small cylinder device, flicking a switch. A bright red blade shot out, and she stepped back in shock, eyes wide as the red reflected in her pupils. "We follow the Ren. It doesn't wait to ask whether what it does is good or bad, it simply burns."