Ordered

Chapter 8 - In Which Kylo Ren Visits Jakku

(Chapter Rating: M)

As the heat got to him, Ren realized once again that Jakku was a miserable rock. The constant feel of sand was strange and irksome. He felt annoyed merely shifting through it to reach the abandoned At-At, his wife's former home. It was the source of her loneliness. When the probing worked, her unhappy thoughts were riddled with it.

There was still no word from her. But he would find her. Like a good girl, she would make her way back to Skywalker seeking his knowledge and protection. Forced to bide his time, curious, desperate for an occupation, Ren decided to seek out this unfavorable location so locked in her mind. He would learn all that he could from it.

His memory knew countless things about an Imperial At-At. Specs. History. Design flaws. He even knew, thanks to his education, this particular Imperial walker had fallen in the historic Battle of Jakku.

But this was different. The menacing little enigma he was bound to had carved herself a niche out of the wilderness. He paused at the threshold of the auxiliary belly, taking in the humbleness of it. Ren had been lonely, but never this utterly removed from the galaxy at large.

Inside, the alarms from her motion sensors sounded, engaging an electroshock trap. He silenced and killed the defense system with a wave of his hand. Clever. She had worked so hard to protect herself. Her mind was always mulling over new ideas. He realized long ago, as they had argued over the technical aspects of the droid with the map, she was bright. A self-taught, autodidact prodigy stuck in the middle of nowhere.

Finally standing tall in the center of her home, Ren felt traces of her everywhere. The images became almost overwhelming. He sought everything that could be used against her in the future. She owned few material possessions, but what she did have was hard fought. There was a molded flower vase, a homemade doll, pans for food, and spare junk that could be useful for mending. The Force showed him snippets of her burdensome life. He fought the rise of pity. Why did she still have a hold on him?

Oddly, the wall was covered in hundreds of strange marks. He let his gloved hand linger over their amazing number. Each had been etched with care. Such dedication and intense longing for something.

A word formed in Ren's mind. Raeh. No, not just a word, it was a name he knew well. Raeh was the son of the famous starfighter pilot, Dosmit, as well as, Ben Solo's fellow padawan at the Jedi academy. So, the poor girl thought her father, Raeh, and her mother, Kira, were coming back for her? It was insanity. Raeh was long dead.

Didn't she know? Could she not remember that her dear husband had saved her by killing her miserable father long ago? The man was a butcher, even by Ren's standards. The bastard had been one of Luke's pupils, but had slaughtered the remainder of his uncle's Jedi academy, and would have killed his own daughter if the Knights of Ren had not stepped in to restore order. Kylo Ren was many things, but he had never murdered children.

So strange, the dead and the power they held over people. Even now, gone some fifteen years, Rey had hoped for her father's return. But that had been part of Raeh's talent. The man had once possessed a well of never-ending charisma. His eager smile and friendship was inviting, when in realty it held others in his control. What fool would welcome a grinning reaper? She was even more misled than he'd ever imagined.

Her other possessions told him little. Mostly trace memories of survival. Days she spent climbing around old, decayed Star Destroyers looking for the all important scrap metal. Her quiet time watching the sunset and daydreaming of flying away on some ship. Her family's return. Then there were long, boring hours she devoted to cleaning scrap. The frustration that her toil never seemed enough. The anger at the junkboss for not being reasonable. Counting, always, counting away the days.

Although he shouldn't have, he allowed himself to linger over her modest, makeshift bed. It was little more than a dusty hammock. Finally giving into the temptation, he touched the tattered material. He paused, then immediately recoiled, tasting bile in his throat. The dreams here were not sweet.

Sicken, he saw where she had learned the submissive, mouthy trick she had pulled on him. It was a horrendous and disgusting account. Reliving it in the present, Ren batted the urge to destroy his surroundings in a fresh fury. There were days when the scrap simply wasn't enough to survive. During the heat of the brutal Jakku summer, the choice stood between the hunt for fresh water and the hunt for scrap. Scrap meant food, but it could never be counted on, and water was essential. There weren't enough hours in the day to acquire or barter for both to sustain life. She had been broken, desperate. Close enough to going under that she had been forced to finally accept the underhanded offer from a would-be boyfriend: a favor for her life, sole male gratification for enough water and food for her to continue to survive a few more days. From it, she had learned a brutal fact. That once satisfied a man would be lulled into the deepest of sleeps.

On their wedding night, this knowledge had allowed her to plot against him. To form her escape plan. Although she hadn't had a lightsaber and could not yet outmatch the full extent of his powers uninjured, she'd known the same menacing act was a weapon she could use to her advantage. Ren had fallen for it. Welcomed it with open arms. Considered it their first step towards a longer relationship. Yet, she thought him no different than the monster she had known before. The pain of the knowledge surfaced and boiled under his skin. Ren felt diminished again. It was infuriating. Unable to contain the vile emotions, anger crashed through his body as he destroyed her modest belongings with his unstable blade.

Finally content with the obliteration of the entire room, he informed the division leader, "Signal back to the outpost. I want every human male of an age greater than eighteen rounded up immediately."

Kylo Ren would find the greedy bastard and personally cut him down. The vow declared on his wedding day had been "forsaking all others." So, by right, the fool would forsake his life tonight. As his need for revenge grew by the moment, the outpost would be lucky if he didn't cut them all down before the night drew closed. For spite, for the ease its power would bring him.

Captain Phasma's voice was clear on the other end of the communicator, "Sir, the girl has finally plotted a course in the Tie-Fighter. She's headed for a planet called Ahch-To."

So, that was where she thought she could hide, on some remote water world? His bride was beautifully clever, but she was capable of making careless mistakes. She had no way of knowing that the First Order knew the status of every Tie-Fighter, no matter how far the range. Her escape would still bring about her downfall. And, more importantly, Skywalker.

The satisfaction in his voice was rising as he replied, "Inform General Hux that my transport will be directed to that planet momentarily." They would flatten the outpost. Then he would be on his way.

The very hour of their reunion was set.