Hidden Malice

Chapter Sixteen

When Malice woke, she was alone. Placing a hand on the spot Kylo had been, it was barely warm. He'd been gone for awhile. Why hasn't he woken her? Why hadn't she woken herself? She was usually a light sleeper. She looked around the room, perhaps he'd left a note? Did people still do that? Were notes still a thing?

No note. No mind prompting. And most importantly.

No Kylo.

She stood, dressing in something that wasn't the clothes she'd slept in, and walked out into the ship. She felt through Kylo's room as she passed. Not there, either. She decided to stop the next passing troopers to ask. Two of them rounded the corner, and she called them over.

They saluted quickly.

"Lady Malice, how can we assist you?" One of them asked.

"Where is Kylo Ren?"

"Uh, last we heard, he was having a...moment, a few floors up. Interrupting is not advisable." They saluted again and continued on their way.

What in the world had happened to cause this? Hux shouldn't have left to retrieve the droid just yet. She stretched out with the force, trying to find him, but found nothing. Was he purposefully trying to hide from her? Was it something that had happened last night? Had he secretly hated it? All these thoughts raced through her head as she rose in the elevator.

Stepping out onto the floor she'd been told was where Kylo was, she was greeted by the sounds and sparks of a lightsaber. She still couldn't sense him. It was him none the less but it was interesting that he was hiding himself from her.

She stood in the doorway of the room that was the cause of all the ruckus, and she did indeed find who she was looking for. Kylo had his lightsaber out and was scraping it against the walls of the chamber. The same chamber that had held their resistance prisoner just the night before. Where in the world had he gone?

"He escaped." Kylo seethed. A loud explosion came from somewhere nearby, Malice guessed the hanger. Looking at each other, they both walked quickly to see what was going on.

Sweeping into the control room, they found a slightly upset General Hux.

"Is it the resistance pilot?" Kylo demanded. Hux seemed clammy.

"Yes. And he had help, from one of our own. We're checking the registers now to identify which stormtrooper it was." He turned to look at the screen. Kylo paused.

"The one from the village. FN-2187."

FN-2187? Why did that number ring a bell? Then she remembered. One of the first times she had left her old room, Kylo had left a trooper to escort her to wherever he had been. That trooper was FN-2187.

"Sir, cannons are hot." One of the technicians told Hux. Hux muttered one word.

"Fire."

Malice turned to Kylo, wondering what his plan was, when Captain Phasma was called into the room. Once caught up to speed, Hux asked if FN-2187 had acted out before.

"FN-2187 was reported to my division, was evaluated, and sent to reconditioning." She announced as Hux brought up the troopers information on a screen.

"No prior signs?" Hux asked.

"This was his first offense."

"General," someone called, "they've been hit."

"Destroyed?"

"Disabled. They've headed back to Jakku."

"They were going back for the droid." Malice said, piecing it together.

"Send a squad to the wreckage." Hux demanded, turning to go about his business. Kylo nodded for Malice to join him and walked out in a rage. They walked past the smoking prison cell and back to the elevator. She guessed he would be returning to his chambers to let himself calm down. She said nothing as they walked, not wanting to make it worse. Rage was a powerful tool, but it was just going to waste now.

They arrived and Kylo entered the room, with Malice waiting outside the door. She was going to be sure to not do anything that might upset him right now without his permission.

"You may enter." He said, pulling his helmet off. She took a seat on his bed as he paced furiously the length of his room. The door hissed close and he screamed in rage.

"A STORMTROOPER. ONE OF
OUR OWN. I SHOULD HAVE SENSED IT HAPPENING."

Malice remained calm as he started throwing things with the force, ducking every so often as something soared over her head.

"We can't always sense everything, Kylo. We aren't all powerful."

"BUT WE SHOULD BE." He hissed at her. Not wanting to yell at her again, he turned in frustration.

"I've been alive for a long time. And even I'm nowhere close to such power. I couldn't even sense where you were when I woke up."

Kylo's shoulders slumped a bit.

"I didn't want you to worry. Or sense how angry I was."

Malice stood, smiling.

"Not sensing you is much more cause for alarm than finding you angry. You're angry quite often." She placed a hand on his shoulder as he faced away from her, and he flinched. She started to withdraw her hand but he put his over it.

She slowed her breathing, and once he sensed this, his own breathing followed.

"Don't blame yourself for this. There's only so much you could have done." She said gently, and he turned, taking her face in his hands and bringing their faces together. He touched his forehead to hers, and breathed again, attempting to calm down the rest of the way. Using the force, she moved her calming energy towards him and felt him relax even more.

She wasn't sure how long they stayed like that, but she didn't really care.

Oh dang Poe is gone, Finn is gone. Drama, romance?¿?, stars, wars?