Darkness At Dawn • Kylo Ren [1]

Ⅰ

"Do or do not, there is no try."

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Heaving in a much needed breath of oxygen, she fell to the ground with a loud thump and began choking for air. Her eyes met her opponents and she began to kick recklessly at him with her legs so he would not dare go near her. She felt hot blood trickle down the side of her left cheek and the sting of a blaster wound on her right shoulder. Turning her back, she began to crawl away with every ounce of power she had left. If she hadn't been winded in the stomach multiple times before, she would of screamed for help.

"Elara Jane, you have met your end." The bounty hunter stepped on her ankles so she could no longer move. "Jedi scum."

She shut her eyes and told herself she would not be scared of death because Master Skywalker told her that a Jedi who is in fear will not live peacefully as a force ghost. Suddenly, all pressure of the bounty hunter was taken off of her when she heard a raspy yell and the ignition of a lightsaber.

"Get off of her!"

She knew who it was but she remained lifeless on her stomach, begging for the horrible pain she felt to disappear. Elara even caught herself wishing to pass out or die because she was drenched in agony.

Toned arms wrapped around Elara and brought her off the uncomfortable and hard surface. The all too familiar sound of his voice was echoing in her ears, telling her to 'stay with him' and 'not die on him' but Elara did not reply. The sound of blasters made it hard for her to concentrate but when she heard nothing but the rustling engines of the ship she had arrived on, she opened her eyes.

He was towering over her and looking directly into her eyes, his dangerously dark eyes meeting her own pair that resembled his almost identically. Blood was swiped across his forehead as more of the crimson red dripped from a fresh gash on his angelic face.

"You're bleeding." She muttered.

He made a noise, something between a scoff and a sick laugh.

A medical droid took his spot and she watched him walk away, his robe drifting up as he went back into the battleground. Elara had seen his eyes dark like that before, he had killed the bounty hunter.

The medical droid began to talk to her, scanning her body carefully. "Tell me your name."

"Elara Jane." She stated, wincing at the cool metal against her bare skin.

"Why are you here?"

"A group of us came here searching for Geil Hutt but we were ambushed by his bounty hunters."

"What ship did you arrive on?"

"The Stella Interfectorem." The moment the last word left her lips, the suffering she had felt disappeared and the blood flowing down her face stopped. A relieved sigh escaped her lips and she shut her eyes, muttering a soft thank you to the droid.

When Elara opened her eyes again, she was met by multiple blurry figures standing over her.

"Rise and shine." Palace Fahl, sent her a toothy grin. "I'm surprised you woke up."

Hungry to sit up, she was pushed down by Dez Edel immediately, his dark brown hair tied back with an old rag. "Not so fast Elara, med droid said you aren't going to be able to get back into action for a few days."

"What happened after I got injured?" She moved her hand to her belt loop, grasping the lightsaber she thought she had lost.

"After we landed, Dez and I went to go find Geil but I guess he already knew we were coming and set us up for a trap." Vega Delgado explained. "I managed to get a transmission out to Master Skywalker before Geil cut off all ways to get a signal in or out of Tatooine. We managed to fight off a majority of the bounty hunters but Geil had called them off before any more of us got seriously hurt."

"Guess he wasn't in the mood for negotiating." Elara huffed.

"Master Skywalker said he'd meet us here as soon as he could but trusted us to take care of ourselves." Vega added, playing with her thumbs. "So I suggest we take the ship out of Hutt territory and find a docking bay."

"I agree." Ben Solo finally spoke, looking over at Elara. "But our pilot is down."

"Relax." Dez grinned. "I can fly this thing no problem."

"Palace will co-pilot you as I have little faith you will be able to fly this on your own." Elara was quick to add.

Palace sent Dez a giddy grin as the two raced over to the cockpit. Vega sighed in defeat, following the two like a disappointed mother.

"You'd be surprised by how much better I could still probably fly this thing then those two joined." Elara pulled out her lightsaber from under the blanket and ignited it, the purple flare reflecting off her eyes.

"I get really angry when my uncle puts you on missions like this with us." Ben muttered, standing above her. "You aren't ready."

"Geil has wanted me dead since my parents blackmailed him." Elara said sternly, keeping her eyes on the wandering blade. "You should've expected that I'd be number one on his kill list."

Ben cringed, his face darkened with the shadow of the medical droid. "You shouldn't be wanted dead."

Years before Luke Skywalker met Elara Jane, she lived on Tatooine much like he did when he was younger. Elara and her parents and sister lived as slaves to the ongoing reign of the Hutt's. Geil Hutt had treated them so poorly that when Luke Skywalker came to Tatooine looking for force sensitive children, her parents threatened to get the Jedi Knight to kill him for his horrible actions. Once discovering that Elara was force sensitive, her parents made it their mission to give their daughter a better future and so they did. Not long ago, Elara had felt a disturbance in the force. Her sister's presence was missing and she realized that Geil had sold her parents to someone else and the group of Jedi padawan's came to Tatooine to try and negotiate their whereabouts.

Only, it didn't go so well.