hiraeth ➤ kylo ren

one

ext. jakku village

A SMALL LEATHER SACK is placed in the palm of poe dameron, one of the best pilots of the resistance.

"this will begin to make things right. i've traveled too far and seen too much, to ignore the despair in the galaxy. without the jedi, there can be no balance in the force." the old, rugged explorer, lor san tekka places his hand over the closed fist of dameron, fully submitting his treasure to the trusted pilot.

"well, because of you now we have a chance. the general's been after this for a long time." poe places his other hand over the enclosed fist of san tekka, expressing his gratitude for his efforts through the gesture.

"the general," san tekka scoffed, "to me, she's royalty. well, she certainly is that."

as bb-8's frantic beeping becomes closer by the second, a dark-haired girl came to view, gripping her blaster tightly, in a surprisingly calm aura despite the chaos surrounding her. "we've got company."

as poe almost shoves the girl in the amidst of his sudden worried demeanor, he quickly exits the large hut. raising his quadnoculars, he sees the approaching enemy ships. the first order. he turns back around facing lor san tekka, "you have to hide."

shaking his head he rushes them both out of his home, "you both need to leave, go!" as poe and the girl turn to eachother, conflicted. poe makes the decision to protect the valuable information from the first order, as he turns to run the dark-haired girl grabs him by his bicep.

"they're defenseless, if we leave they'll all be killed." she says almost as a plea to stay and help. holding up her blaster as if it'd help her against hundreds of storm troopers.

"and if we don't, the first order will find this before the resistance and the lives of thousands are at risk. we need to go." poe begins running back to his x-wing with bb-8 following closely behind.

with her mind telling her to go and her heart telling her to stay and help, she runs toward the rest of the village, hands lifting up the openings to various tents, she begins shouting to alert the villagers "everyone hide, escape! the first orders coming!"

with poe almost tripping over his own feet to get to his x-wing before the first order gets to jakku, he doesn't realize it's only him and bb-8 until he's starting up his controls. frantically looking around, hoping to catch a glimpse of the girl anywhere near, he bangs his head against the steering's of his ship. dirt suddenly surrounds the pilot, covering him in a thin layer before his canopy could fully close. as poe shoots a quick look back, the enemy has arrived. urgently working the controls, bb-8 beeps as a sign of his own exigency. the x-wings lights come on and the engine whines to life! but just then: his x-wing is hit by blaster fire, turning the way of the fires two storm troopers charge his way. "i see em!" as poe grabs his controls to begin to fire back, the storm troopers fall to the ground and running up behind them is the dark-haired girl, not only the best soldier in the resistance, but his best friend.

"why haven't you both left yet" she says in almost an angered tone. poe motions to his damaged x-wing. poe kneels beneath his ship, grabbing the leather sack and pulling out the small artifact given to them by san tekka, which he inserts into bb-8.

"you take this. its safer with you than it is with us. you get as far away from here as you can. do you hear me?" bb-8 beeps hesitantly, almost as he knows he may never see his master again. "ill come back for you. it will be alright. we'll hold them off."

as they both come up behind a dirt mount they raise their blasters, ready to fire at any given second. "look how old you've become" they hear a mechanical voice state in the distance, mocking san tekka for his delicate look. the clink of the ship metal taps as the man begins to walk closer to the entrance, revealing himself. yet, ciara can already feel the fear that surrounds this man, plaguing the storm troopers and villagers minds around them. authority drips from his presence as he continues his slow walk off the ship, as if the dozens of people around him work around his pace, and his pace alone.

as KYLO REN exists the first order ship, "you know what i've come for."

she almost cant believe it, the man who has the lives of hundreds under his belt, the man who killed her sister was right in front of her and she could end his life with a pull to the trigger.

"hold your fire." poe says next to her, almost as if he can hear the thoughts in her mind.

"the first order rose from the dark side, you did not." lor san tekka said holding his brave front.

"with one click i can end it right here dameron, we could end it all." she tightens her grip on her blaster, begging poe to tell her to pull the trigger.

"or you could be the end to all these peoples lives." poe continues to try to talk her out of her simplistic ideology.

and then suddenly..

"you may try but you cannot deny the truth that is your family." kylo ren raises his lightsaber, igniting it. the red energy spitting sparks and smoke.

"you're so right." as he rips it down across san tekka!

"now" poe says running up from their covering, the girl closely following as they both pull the trigger towards the masked man.

but with one raise of his hand, kylo stops the two blast coming towards him in mid-air. he turns around to see the two resistance members, who are straining to use their own limbs, like statues struggling to break free. they're both grabbed by storm troopers and they're pushed past their blasts that have been frozen in mid air. approaching the dark force user, they're patted down for remaining weapons. as kylo moves closer, a storm trooper kicks ciaras legs out; making her land hard on her knees. kylo then kneels down in front of poe, letting silence fill the air.

poe's eyes dart between him and ciara, back and forth several times before poe breaks the awkward silence "so who talks first? you talk first?"

ciara sighs, that humor of his is gonna get him killed, the girl thought, rolling her eyes at the pilot.

"the old man gave it to you." kylo speaks up, asking a question in the form of a statement.

"its just very hard to understand you with all the..." poe says, motioning to his kylo's mask.

"search him." the storm troopers roughly pull him away. poe continues his glare at kylo until the pat down ends.

"nothing sir" the storm trooper states after finishing the thorough search.

ciara rolls her eyes, knowing this whole interaction will lead to nowhere. how stupid does he think we'd be to confront him with the desperately craved information still in reach.

suddenly kylo ren grabbed the by her chin, forcing her to look up at him. "ciara, i see your attitude hasn't changed."

"don't you ever read my mind, ben." feeling violated in the privacy of mind being invaded forcefully, she jerks her head to the side, forcing his grip on her chin to loosen.

he snarled at the familiar name, not hearing it in years. kneeling down, his lips brushing against her right ear he whispered, "you and your sister always had that in common."

a faint gasp escape her lips as her eyes locked on the sand beneath her knees, suddenly finding it interesting to avoid looking at the man in front of her. memories of the girl flood her mind as she holds back the sob in her throat that arise from the mere mention of her younger sister.

"put them on board" ren demands as he turns on his heels to head back into his ship.

"sir, the villages?" a chromed head trooper asked.

he pauses his stride back into his ship, however, stays with his back facing towards the village. without missing a beat, he says, "kill them all."

ciara's eyes widened, snapping out of her daze, she begins to thrash and kick, desperate to get out of the storm troopers hold.

"NO," she exclaims as she twists her head around to face the village, "you cant do this again, they're innocent! please, they're innocent!" tears spill out of her eyes as they begin shooting at the villagers, falling one by one.

ciara's heart drops to her stomach as she realizes that this was not the man she once knew. this was not ben solo, this was kylo ren.

word count: 1511

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