•LEGACY - A Reylo Story•

CHAPTER XXX - PHASMA

Rey hears the door sliding open, but she doesn't look up. She doesn't want to see Snoke, or that smug, priggish general Hux. She stays curled up on her cot, arms wrapped around her stomach. Protecting Ben's child. Her child.

She still can't quite believe it. Herself, a mother? Ben, a father? The notion of Snoke doing to her child what he did to Ben-turning him against his family-adds ripples to the waves of nausea already surging within her.

Would it be better to lose the child? Should she hope for that?

She can't. She's so scared, and yet she can't wish it away.

Snoke told Ben last night, she knows. Is he happy? Is he scared? She hopes it's a bit of both.

"I have water for you, and food," Captain Phasma says in her robotic voice.

"I don't want anything."

"Don't want or can't have?" The robotic edge melts slightly. Rey peers up at the mask.

"Can't."

"If you have some of the wafers, they might help the nausea," suggests the Captain.

Rey frowns, hands still splayed over her abdomen. She can't feel any signs of a baby except this pulsating nausea. "Have you been pregnant before?"

"No. But my mother had many children. I was the eldest."

"I'll try them."

Phasma hands her the plate. Rey grabs the blue wafers and forces them into her mouth, chewing slowly.

"Do you get to see your family?" Rey asks, even though she suspects the answer.

"No. I hear they are well, though."

Well, that's more than Rey would have guessed. "Do you usually serve Snoke so closely?"

Phasma straightens to her full impressive height. "The Supreme Leader requested his best troops to guard you."

"I'm not flattered." Rey snatches another wafer.

Phasma turns and leaves.

/////

"You were in there a peculiarly long time," Hux observes as Phasma marches back to the control room.

"The girl is ill."

Hux snickers. "Because she's carrying Ren's brat."

"Try and control your glee, sir. It's showing."

"Well, forgive me if I'm relieved the Supreme Leader has finally seen through Ren. If trying to save the girl wasn't enough, knocking her up certainly should be."

Phasma stares through her mask at the stars. She waits, her irritation with this insufferable man growing with every moment. Hux has no loyalty to anyone besides Snoke and the First Order-and even then, Phasma wonders if he's not seeking to use it for his own purposes. Not that Kylo Ren was any better.

She, at least, understands loyalty. To her troops, if nothing else. She remembers that stormtrooper who deserted-FN-2187-with a pang.

I'm in charge now, Phasma! I'm in charge!

She's felt oddly proud of him in that moment. Furious, terrified off his Wookiee henchman, but proud in an almost motherly sense.

Hux begins. "Do you know how many years I've been waiting for the Supreme Leader to realize what Ren is? He's a liability. He always has been. His fits of rages, his personal agendas, his inability to think things through-" Hux sucks in his breath. "And now the Supreme Leader knows. Kylo Ren will never be my problem again."

Phasma has no love for Kylo Ren, but she knows his loss weakens the First Order far more than his temper tantrums and impulsivity ever did. "Will he?"

Hux glances at her. "What do you mean?"

Phasma watches worlds fly by, some tinted white like stars, some gleaming with hints of blue and others sparking with hints of orange. "Why do you think Snoke is keeping the girl?"

"To replace Ren. When she comes around, she may be better."

"When?" Phasma drags herself away from the window. "You're planning on using your brainwashing. On her."

"The Supreme Leader has entrusted me with that task, yes."

"While she's pregnant."

"While she's-it's not going to cause her to lose the child! I will be careful in my selections, Captain Phasma, and you'd do well to remember that my ranking is above yours!"

"Apologies, sir." She resumes watching the planets and stars. "I do wonder, though."

Hux huffs. "What?"

"Why have one Force user, or two, when you could have three? Potentially one who's spent more time with the Resistance?"

"If you're suggesting Kylo Ren is on some kind of undercover mission with them, you're wrong."

"I'm not suggesting that at all. He betrayed us. But the Supreme Leader is wise. If he can persuade Ren to return-promise him something, like the girl, the child-wouldn't it make sense to do that? If he-if you-can turn the girl, surely she can turn Ren back as well?" Phasma suspects that's not the Supreme Leader's plan in any sense, but if she can get under Hux's arrogant skin, she will.

Hux says nothing, but Phasma sees the color flashing in his cheeks. Under her helmet, she smiles.