Allegiance | Kylo Ren

LXXVIII

When I woke the next morning, Kylo was still asleep next to me. I slipped out of bed so as to avoid disturbing him and took a quick shower, changing into some clothes that Rey had loaned me—tight-fitting dark green pants with pockets on the sides of the legs and a lightweight sleeveless white shirt. It was a foreign feeling to be wearing anything but black, but the soft materials were cool and comforting against my skin. I watched myself in the mirror as I combed my long blonde hair, wondering how my reflection could seem like a stranger.

Kylo was awake when I returned to the bedroom. He looked up as I entered, his black hair sticking up messily but his eyes bright. I couldn't remember the last time I had seen him this well-rested; it was a relief to see him looking alive.

I lingered in the doorway, using a towel to dry the ends of my hair.

"Good morning." I said at last.

"Morning." He mumbled in reply.

I tossed the towel into the bathroom sink before making my way to the bed. "I believe you promised me some answers last night."

He nodded, running his fingers through his messy hair in an attempt to tame it. "Ask away."

I thought for a moment, caught off guard. For some reason I had expected him to put up some sort of a fight before agreeing to anything. "Okay—let's start with the ride here. What was that?"

Kylo gave me a strange look. "That's what you want to know about? After everything—Okay, whatever. When I trained here as a kid we learned to hover while meditating. I was never very good at it, but you were having a hard time staying in place while we were flying so I decided to try it again. I had never done it while holding another person, but it actually worked fairly well, I think."

I nodded, thinking over the concept. "Okay, that makes sense." I adjusted my sitting position so my legs were crossed. "What was Poe doing at the First Order headquarters?"

"That's a longer story." Kylo's dark eyes watched me as he spoke. "Essentially, I had remained in contact with the Resistance since the day of the meeting where I got you back. I was working under the radar, without Hux or Snoke knowing. It was just me and the Resistance. I told them that things were probably going to escalate very soon, and that your life would probably be at stake. That was enough to convince them that they needed to help."

"How did they know they could trust you?" I interrupted.

He grimaced. "To prove that I was trustworthy, I had to betray the First Order's source within the Resistance—the transmission monitor, his name was Hugh I think."

I frowned down at my lap, remembering the young man's tireless work in receiving the transmission. It hurt a little to think that he was a traitor all along.

"Hux was told that the source merely tripped up and revealed himself, sealing his fate. I was left out of the story." Kylo shifted slightly. "I hadn't known exactly what my second task would be, but I had a feeling that it would involve you, and it wouldn't be good. Snoke always emphasized cutting off connections, and you were my strongest one, so I figured that you were in danger. I contacted the Resistance the night before the task and asked them to have a pilot sent over in case we needed a last-minute extraction."

"Poe." I nodded, the pieces coming together.

"Poe." Kylo confirmed. "I disabled the radars long enough for him to fly his plane in and land it in the loading docks, out of plain sight. Then he only had to wait."

"Why couldn't we leave earlier? Before—" A tremor ran through my voice. "Before Mason?"

Kylo ran his fingers through his black hair, suddenly looking tremendously stressed. "Calia, you have to understand, I never wanted to kill Mason. I never liked him, but I didn't want him dead. Like I told you before, I knew he made you happy, and I would never take that away from you. But we didn't have a pilot ready to get us out of there, and I couldn't risk ruining everything by refusing to kill him. I—" His voice broke. "I'm so, so sorry, Cal."