Reylo: These Violent Delights

Chapter 26: Smoke, Earth, & Rust

Rey was paralyzed.

She watched helplessly as Kylo hurried down the last stretch of the seafront overlook, taking two stairs at a time and disappearing down onto the shore. When she could no longer see him, reality struck her to her core. This was happening whether she was ready or not. The Knights of Ren were about to murder the Kanjiklub, and the Resistance was here—her family was here.

Organa had let her down, but what if her team didn't forget about her? She knew they weren't here to rescue her, but what if they had the chance? They'd take her, wouldn't they? They had to. They have to take me, Rey thought, dizzy as her head pounded, stumbling side to side. She groaned. She felt weird, hot yet cold, as her stomach churned. She tried to swallow the bile rising in her throat, but then she realized—it wasn't bile.

She was going to be sick.

Rey bolted away from the Stormtroopers, attempting to make it to the nearest trash can, but they mistook her abrupt departure as an endeavor to escape. They forcibly grabbed both of her arms and pinned her between them. While she didn't want their hands on her, ultimately, it wasn't such a bad thing that they stopped her, seeing as how she proceeded to throw up all over them.

They jumped back, disgusted noises coming from their helmets as she scrambled away from them. She lurched forward and found the nearest bush to empty the rest of her stomach in peace, heaving more times than she could count. When nothing else came up, she wiped her mouth, deciding she couldn't eat another muja muffin for a long, long time.

With a moan, Rey slowly stood up straight. Behind her, the Stormtroopers shuffled their boots reminding her of their presence, and all of a sudden, it dawned on her—she knew she couldn't escape Cantonica, but she could at least go searching for the Resistance. If the X-wings were already here, ground support must be close. She just had to get through downtown first.

Turning toward the Stormtroopers, she slapped on a face of humility. "Excuse me, gentlemen, but I really don't feel well. I think I'm going to be sick again, and I don't want to vomit all over you," she mused, gesturing toward the Stormtrooper desperately trying to shake off her lunch. "Do you mind escorting me to the nearest refresher?"

All six of them exchanged glances, presumably deciding which lucky one got to take her. But Rey didn't have time for them to rub their collective shared brain cells together to figure it out—she had to go, and she had to go now. Teetering, she grabbed her stomach and faked a groan. They all stumbled back, and she threw in a phlegmy cough—just for good measure.

A modified voice spoke up. "Fine, follow me, prisoner."

She glanced up at him and gave him a weak smile. "Thank you, sir."

"Yeah, yeah." He grabbed her arm, leading her down the steps to the courtyard. "No funny business, or I will be forced to stun you."

She limped away with him, clutching her stomach. "Me...funny business? I would never."

He grunted in response, leading her back into the plaza. She discreetly raised her chin to assess her surroundings. Save for a few stragglers running for shelter from the chaos unfolding throughout the city, it was completely empty. She heard blaster shots erupting between the Knights of Ren and the Kanjiklub sounding off in the distance, spiking adrenaline in her veins. With the knights occupied and Kylo, Hux, and the rest of the First Order on the shore, she actually had a chance to at least find her team.

"Ah," she groaned, pointing a shaky finger at the nearest shop, Bubba's Butcher House. "They have a refresher. I will be right back."

Rey tried to move away from him, but he held on tighter, jerking her toward him. "Five minutes, scavenger scum, or I will come in there looking for you."

She gave him a solemn nod. "I am a speedy barfer, sir."

With one last squeeze, he let her go. She hobbled inside and looked around at the empty shop. Everyone had fled, except for Bubba the Butcher crouching behind the counter. She loudly asked to use the restroom, making sure her Stormtrooper friend could hear her from outside, and Bubba, the poor bastard, pointed a trembling finger to the back. She continued her bogus groaning as she ambled down the corridor, but the second she entered the refresher, she straightened and ran to the sink. She splashed water on her face, then washed her hands and rinsed out her mouth. Then she circled around to scan the room, her eyes locking on the window near the top of the wall opposite the entrance.

Rey went for it. It was narrow and oblong, but if she could fit, it would spit her out on the side of the building between shops. She stacked a few cargo boxes underneath it, quietly removed the screen, and pulled herself up through the window. It wasn't all that graceful, and she definitely had to work to shimmy through it, but she could have cried when she found herself on the ground of an empty alleyway.

She clambered to her feet and remained hunched down, trying to orient herself. Air support still whined overhead—TIE fighters now joining the symphony of engine battle cries—and she heard blaster shots coming from multiple different areas. She had no idea where her team would be, but she followed her best instinct and sprinted to the left, the opposite direction of the shore.

Rey followed the alleyway, turning right, turning left, getting as far away from the First Order and Kylo as possible. It must have been ten minutes of straight cardio before she had to stop, her heart bursting through her chest. She could see the edge of the city from where she was standing, but even after all that running, she was still downtown. She leaned over, cursing to herself.

All those fucking muffins, she mused, panting, were just to make me fat enough so I couldn't run away.

Breathing through her nose, she stood up straight and leaned against the cool stone wall. She was in a similar alley from where she started, except this part of town felt less fancy, less refined. Endless amounts of trash and empty freight containers were scattered along the dilapidated walls on either side of her. Doors lined each building, some of them open, some of them cracked. The only one that was sealed shut was a red door, which also didn't have a handle or a control panel to get inside.

Rey tilted her head, curious. That's strange. Just then, the door burst open, and she crouched down to hide behind a bag of trash. She peeked around it, trying to see if it was still ajar so she could slip inside, but a man was in the way, awkwardly trying to zip up his pants. She lifted her eyes to his face, and every cell in her body froze.

"Drox?" she blurted, getting to her feet and revealing herself from behind the trash. "Is that you?"

Drox jumped, his hand flying to his chest. "Fuck, you scared the ever living sh—" Then, his eyes widened, and his jaw dropped as he walked forward, stumbling over some boxes. "Rey."

They went to each other. Arms wrapping around her, he squeezed her and held her, filling her heart to the brim. Rey laughed and clutched onto him, taking deep breaths as she dug her nose into the crook of his neck. His jacket smelled like smoke, rust, and earth—he smelled like home.

"I thought I'd never see you again," she choked out, pulling away with big, fat tears in her eyes. "I thought you were dead."

"I thought you were dead!" he yelled, and Rey quickly hushed him, looking both ways down the alley and pulling him behind a stack of boxes. As ships soared overhead and shots pierced the air from the shore, she held her finger up to her lips and told him to whisper. "Sorry—I thought you were dead," he repeated, much quieter now. Stunned silence passed between them, until he looked her up and down and cracked a smile. "Damn babe, fuck the First Order and all, but you look hot in that uniform."

Rey rolled her eyes, lightly shoving his shoulder as he whistled under his breath. She had missed this playful banter, but now was not the time for him to ogle her.

"Drox—not now," she said, swatting him away as he slithered his hands up her sides, gripping the smallest part of her waist. "Zeven and the team, are they okay? Did everyone get to safety after the evacuation?"

He nodded quickly. "Yes. Yes, we are all okay."

"Oh, thank god," she said, exhaling as though the world had just been taken off her shoulders. "Where is Zev? Is she here with you?" She gestured to the door behind him. "Is she in there?"

"No, uh..." Drox hesitated, rubbing the back of his neck as his face scrunched up in apprehension. "She isn't with us at all, actually."

Rey blinked. "What the kriff does that mean?"

Drox sighed. "Look, I wasn't gonna say anything, but nobody can find her." Once he saw the panic unfold on her face, he held up his hands to signal for her to hold on. "But I am positive she evacuated D'Qar, okay? We were on the same shuttle and everything, and we don't suspect foul play, since a speeder was missing the next morning, same with her bag. The General is labeling her a deserter."

Rey's heart raced in her chest. That didn't sound like Zev at all, but she didn't have enough time to keep asking him questions about something he knew nothing about. "Okay, okay," she said, giving him a reluctant nod. "You guys already found a new home base?"

He lifted a cocky brow. "You really think we didn't know Starkiller was set to destroy the Ileenium system? We planned ahead of time and moved to—"

"No," she murmured, her hands shooting to his mouth, stopping him from continuing. "Don't tell me. He will find out if you do."

After she lowered her hands, solemnity flashed in his eyes. "You mean, the Supreme Leader? Organa's son?"

She nodded, and his piercingly concerned gaze made her drop her eyes, stomach twisting with guilt. They had technically been in an open relationship, although Rey always preferred it just be the two of them. While she knew he had been with other people here and there, she had remained loyal to Drox...until she met Kylo.

"Hey, what's wrong?" came his worried whisper. He brought a hand to her face, lifting her chin to look at him. "Is he hurting you?"

She hesitated but ultimately nodded. The lump in her throat did not go down easily. "Yeah. Not so much anymore. But he has hurt me. A lot."

Drox glanced left and right. "Where is he now? Is he here?" he asked but then immediately shook his head. He grabbed her wrists and started to back away. "Doesn't matter. Fuck him. Come on, I'm taking you back with me."

Rey resisted his movements. "I can't, Drox," she said with a sad, soft breath. "He has Force-compelled me to stay. I can't go with you."

"Force-compelled?" he asked, and heartbreak unfolded on his face when she nodded. He looked down at his feet, taking a moment to respond. "Rey, I'm...I'm so sorry. About this, about everything. I didn't want to leave you, but we had no choice."

She bit her tongue. She wanted to tell him he had no choice, but Organa did. And she chose to sacrifice Rey to her monster of a son. "I know," she said, voice laced with restrained emotion. As blaster shots inched closer to their position, she glanced warily over her shoulder. "Look, you have to go. Once he has the crystal, he's going to come for me, he'll—"

Drox shook his head, putting his hands up to cut her off. "Wait, you mean the heirloom the Master Codebreaker had?"

She nodded. "Yeah."

A slow, satisfied smile crept over his face. "We already got it. Maz Kanata beat him to it right before air support arrived."

Rey's jaw dropped. "Maz got the crystal? How?"

"Slipped on a wetsuit and approached from the eastern shore, away from the bucketheads and Ren's ghouls. She paid the Codebreaker a fat sack of credits and told him to dock. Poor bastard had no idea Ren was waiting for him, but I'm sure he'll square up with the First Order somehow. The guy's loaded." Drox glanced down at the databand around his wrist, frowning. "Ah, I gotta go. Maz should have delivered the crystal to Chewie and Organa by now."

Her heart dropped. "Wait, Organa is here?"

"Yeah, she's—"

"Where is she?" she asked, heat crawling up her throat and stinging her cheeks. She stepped toward the red door he walked out of. "Is she in there? What is this place? Is she—"

"Whoa, babe—calm down," Drox said with a nervous chuckle, stepping in front of the door and blocking her view. Cautious eyes searched her face. "You okay? I know that look. You want to kill someone."

Her heart raced in her chest. She knew she didn't have time to give him the whole story, but she couldn't stop the bitterness from slipping through her lips. "Did Organa tell you how I got taken?"

"Uh... no?" He gave her an odd look, releasing a confused noise as he scratched his head. "She didn't have to. We all saw it—we were all there. You were captured by Ren."

"Yeah, because she set me up. She put some Force thing in my head to—" She stopped, her entire being vibrating at her realization. If the General had put the Force-beacon-radar-thing in her head, she should be able to remove Kylo's Force-compulsion that was keeping Rey from escaping Cantonica. "You need to take me to Organa. Now."

"But, I thought you said—"

She glared at him. "Drox."

It only took half a second for Drox to nod and spin around, knowing from past experiences if she took that tone with him, he did not have much time before his balls were compromised. Grabbing her hand, he led her down the alleyway as they walked in a crouched position, tense and alert. It only took minutes to get to the very edge of town, where the last row of shops backed up to a line of trees. Hovering behind a holobulletin board—ironically plastered with a First Order wantedsign for the crystal—Drox looked both ways before hushedly urging, "Go, go!"

Both of them sprinted across the street. Heart racing, the cement below them morphed into dirt as they slipped through the thick of the forest. No one was around—Canto Bight was a ghost town as the battle raged on—but Rey still felt nervous, like eyes were on her. But nobody stopped them as they ran through, allowing them to emerge on the other side of the trees and into a tight clearing.

She came to a halt when she saw her shuttle. It looked exactly the same. Her safe haven. She took a step closer to it, head spinning with deja vu as Resistance fighters ran past her, darting up the ramp to prepare for takeoff. She heard Drox say something, but she didn't absorb the words. Her eyes were locked on General Organa as she emerged from the ship to approach them.

Clasping her hands in front of her, she gave Drox a small smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "Drox, help Chewie in the cockpit, please."

"Yes, ma'am." He looked at Rey, gave her a kiss on the cheek, and whispered, "I will come back for you."

She nodded at him, but her eyes didn't leave Organa, even as she moved aside to let Drox by. "It's nice to see you again, General," Rey said, voice as cold and hard as her expression. "Haven't seen you since you took a field trip into my head."

She had the audacity to look ashamed. "Rey, I know you're angry—"

"Angry doesn't even begin to cover it," she seethed, hot tears burning her eyes as she tried to take a step onto the ramp. Thanks to Leia's son, she was physically unable to, and she glanced down, jabbing an aggressive finger at her feet. "But you have the opportunity to make things right, to fix this."

Leia gave her a knowing look as she took a few steps closer, stopping in front of her. "He Force-coerced you to stay."

"Yes," Rey said through gritted teeth, shifting in agitation. "Help. Me. Now."

She put her hands up. "I wish I could, but it's not that easy. It's—"

"You put a Force contraption in my head, General. I'm sure you can figure out how to take one out."

"That was Luke, not me. He and my son...their powers are far greater than mine," she said, lifting her chin as her jaw tightened. "I cannot remove Ben's Force-compulsion. I'm sorry."

Through the rising emotion in her throat, Rey could only manage a whisper. "Can't, or won't?"

She broke eye contact, and Rey looked at her face. Really looked at it. She appeared older than the last time she saw her. Tired, with guilt etched into the deep lines around her mouth, and something else, too: a detached hardness, a look she had seen in Kylo's face a million times. It was unsettling, it was unfiltered, but above all, it was telling.

"It's not that you can't...you won't, right?" came Rey's small, wounded voice as tears impeded her vision. "It's true what he said, isn't it? You want me to stay with him, to bring him back to the light."

Leia's lips pressed together, turning down into a frown. "I'm so sorry it has to be this way, Rey," she murmured, her regretful eyes searching her face. She leaned in and grabbed her hands, giving them a squeeze. "Truly, I am."

Without another word, General Organa let her go and climbed back up the ramp into the ship. Rey watched the sway of her long, gray coat trail behind her until her frail form disappeared, an emptiness opening up in her chest. Next, the numbness. She welcomed it as she turned around, walking stiffly back through the trees. She didn't need to see the shuttle leaving without her. Not again.

"Babe, where are you going?" Drox yelled from behind her, his boots clanging on the metal ramp. His footsteps became frantic when she didn't respond. "Babe!"

The hand around Rey's arm stopped her in her tracks. He spun her around, gripped her arm, and yanked her toward the shuttle. She let him pull her closer to the refuge of the Resistance, just for a moment, hungry for a taste of something she'd never get the chance to digest. But just as he stepped on the ramp, her body came to a stop involuntarily. She swallowed the pain that threatened to break down her walls of self-preservation.

"I can't," is all she said, throat aching from suppressed emotion. "I'm sorry."

Drox turned around and looked down at her with desperation. "What are you talking about? Didn't Organa fix the Force thing? Get on the shuttle!"

Rey shook her head. "No, she won't. So, I can't."

Outrage flashed in his eyes. "She's making you stay with him?"

She nodded, watching as a range of emotions flickered across his face. Anger, frustration, sadness, guilt, all expelling from his body in the form of an explosive exhale. "Fuck, fuck," he breathed, running his hands through his hair as he paced on the ramp. "This isn't—"

A burst of footsteps erupted behind them. Stormtrooper footsteps. The sound of them set the panic in Rey's veins aflame, plucked her straight out of her pity party, and placed her in the present. They're here. The hair on the back of her neck raised. Which means Kylo isn't far behind.

"Drox, it's okay—we don't have time for this." Heart hammering, she reached as far as she could to grab his hands. "You need to go. If he finds you here, he will kill all of you and make me watch. Please, just go."

With a stubborn shake of his head, Drox's lips pressed into a hard line. "No. I won't leave without you. Not again."

Rey glanced anxiously behind her, panicking when she saw streaks of white slinking through the forest. She turned toward him and tried to push him up the ramp. "You don't have a choice. They're coming!"

Pain distorted his features. Other fighters were yelling at him from inside the shuttle, but his eyes were stuck on her face. "I failed to protect you, Rey," he said, voice thick with emotion as he cupped her face. "I'm so, so sorry, baby."

She leaned into his palm, warmth expanding in her chest at the way he looked at her with such concern and affection, and love. She swallowed the three little words she had always wanted to say, had always wanted to hear as they began climbing up her throat. But the Stormtroopers were shouting and moving in on their position, and she didn't have time. It was almost too late.

Rey gave him a firm shove. "Leave!"

After a moment of agony, Drox planted a kiss on her lips, holding onto her like it was the last time either of them would be alive. She closed her eyes, remembering the days she spent wrapped up in those arms, those lips, being held and touched and fucked and cared for. Then, he pulled away, and as they soaked each other up for one last moment, those three little words rushed through her lips before she could stop herself.

"I love you."

Surprise flickered across Drox's face. His fingers dug into Rey's arms, and with a pained smile, he pivoted, running up into the shuttle to leave her. The ramp closed behind him, the ship teetering from side to side as it lifted off the ground. That emptiness began to gnaw at her again as she watched it ascend straight up and up and up until it was just a minuscule dot in the sky. She fell to her knees, refusing to look away, refusing to accept the sting of rejection coursing through her.

He didn't say it back.

As tears silently flowed down Rey's face, chaos encircled her. Soaring TIE fighters. The clatter of armor. The parade of footsteps. The chorus of shouts. Their derogatory names for her. But she didn't listen. She didn't even react as their rough hands pulled her up. She went limp in their grasp, the words she would never hear ripping through her soul.

I love you, too.