S H I F T

Chapter 6: Bitter

The quiet hum of the ship's main engine lazily awoke Magdalene from her slumber, a very limited slumber from her thoughts racing throughout the night. It was barely sunrise on Kashyyyk, meaning it was just early enough for Magdalene and Kylo to get there unnoticed. She manages to get her body out of bed and get ready to head to the bridge. She didn't know how she was going to interact with Kylo after her actions yesterday. She didn't even stay long enough to see his reaction. She wanted to forget her stupidity but it bugged and nagged the back of her mind.

She walks over to her table, her grandfather's lightsaber sitting upon it waiting for her to pick up. She stares at it for a moment, thinking about how she was going to wield it today. She had waited for this day for many years, to finally kill her brother once and for all, to kill off all traces of her past life. His existence itched at the back of her mind ever since she had left him alive that night. She should've ignored Blomma, let her live and taken Erskine's life. As much hatred that she held for Blomma at the time, she didn't deserve what Magdalene did. The pang of guilt from that night came over her again, Mags closing her eyes thinking of it. With a deep breath, she grabbed the lightsaber and walked out the door.

The walk to the bridge was quiet, little to no troopers were patrolling her hall. The whole ship felt rather eerie. Everyone seemed to stare her down more than usual, like they were surprised to see her. Mags kept casually walking on, ignoring all the looks and the vibe of the ship. She reaches the bridge a few moments later, Kylo hadn't arrived yet. She looks out the windows of the ship, studying the endless amount of stars that freckled the outside. She looked for her home planet among them while she waited for the Commander to arrive. She spots it, a small bit of sadness coming over her at its sight. So many brutal things had happened to her on such a beautiful planet, things she wished she could forget. She adverts her eyes from the planet to other neighboring ones as Kylo finally comes to the bridge.

Mags turns to him awkwardly, envious that he had a mask to hide his face. "Let's go," he orders, quickly turning away to head to their ship. Mags knew right then that he wasn't happy with her, doing her best to hide her regret from last night. She follows him, acting like nothing had happened between them. She felt like the whole ship knew something had happened however.

Kylo enters the ship without acknowledging Hux, who looks very disgruntled that he had ignored him. Mags steps over to him to get their mission in full. "He's in a mood today, isn't he?" Hux mentions. Mags shrugs. "I'm just letting him chill out before I pry," she replies. Hux nods before looking over his data pad. "Now, I know you're going to take care of that Jedi but before you do anything to him, I'd like to see if you can find out anything about the other Jedi that still are in hiding," Hux says. Mags nods. "Once you've completed that, I need you and Ren to head over to Naboo. We have a good agreement with them and they're expecting you both to stay as guests in the palace. Our source is saying that our target with the Skywalker map is attending a ball at the palace tonight that you both are expected to attend as well. Everything you need for that is already set up for you both. Once you've gotten the target, you need to head right back here. Is there anything else I need to go over?" Mags shakes her head. "I'll inform you once the Jedi is taken care of and we're on our way to Naboo," Mags comments. Hux nods curtly.

Mags enters the ship without another word, closing the doors and heading to the cockpit. Kylo still has his helmet on as he waits for Mags to take the pilot position. "I closed the door you know," she says as she takes her seat, "you can take that off now." Kylo says nothing, keeping his helmet on. Mags sighs and turns her attention back to the controls, turning on the ship and signaling the control room to open the outside to them. Once out in the open, Mags turns on autopilot toward Kashyyyk. She sits back waiting for Kylo to say something, but he never does. She shakes her head. "Look, I understand that you're mad about what I did last night but you can't just ignore me today," She speaks, "Even if you ignore me on Kashyyyk you still have to socialize with me on Naboo." Kylo still doesn't respond. Mags sighs again, taking the ship off autopilot and going into light speed to Kashyyyk.