The Independency: A Star Wars Story

The First Fight

     This was not how Miscellin had anticipated their first meeting to be. To give a vague description, she had envisioned their first encounter to be in a well-lit room with a long table that was stretched from one wall to another, with Comlinks and hologram devices that were placed on the table emitting a blue glow. She had imagined herself walking in and sitting at one end of the table, directly across from Kylo Ren as he sat with his hands folded on the counter, guarding his helmet which was placed in the corner.

      But that is not how they met. They stood across from each other, Kylo's hands on his lightsaber, the red color from it casting light on his bare face: he wore no helmet that day, and he never intended to again. He had finally understood that he was not Darth Vader. The helmet did inspire fear, but Kylo felt he would be more intimidating if he only wore a scowl on his face.

      Rey, also with a lightsaber in hand, put her right foot in front of her left and stood somewhat sideways, as if she was on a stage and was required to cheat out to the audience. Her face scrunched up into expressions of indignation, desolation, and concentration combined. She despised this man, but knew that a fight needed to be avoided.

      Miscellin didn't remember pointing her blaster at him, but the nose of the gun was indeed facing Kylo and her fingered hovered centimeters above the trigger.

      Poe moved to Miscellin's right side and copied her stance, blaster angled towards Kylo's chest. Kylo didn't seem to care though, all he did was curl the corners of his lips up into to a sneer as he glared at Rey. Rey's lips tightened into a grim yet determined line, and her knuckles turned white while she clenched the shaft of her lightsaber.

      Miscellin shifted around on her feet uncomfortably...she could sense the tension. Her eyes searched Kylo, and they asked a simple question, 'How?'. All Miscellin could wonder was how Kylo had managed to find the coordinates to this base, it was immensely secluded and the only way to get here was by taking a strange path off of Hydian Way. A thought struck her: What if a spy had somehow infiltrated the base? She shook her head. That was a question for a different time.

      Poe seemed to sense Miscellin's nervousness. Miscellin jumped, startled, after a reassuring hand was placed on her arm: Poe had taken a hand off of his blaster to comfort the uneasy leader. It was not the fight that was sure to come that caused Miscellin to feel jostled, but it was worrying to Miscellin what would come after the fight. What if her troops forgot that she was on the planet and they accidentally left Poe, Rey, and her in the base? Miscellin did have a Comlink in her left chest pocket just in case something like that ever happened...but she knew that she couldn't take the risk, her troops might not have received the message if they got stuck there because of distance. Messages tended to be distorted if Comlinks were too far away from each other.

      Rey was too valuable to lose, she was the very hope on which the rebellion survived. Without Rey, it was possible that everything Leia had worked to build would begin to crumble. Miscellin knew she had to convince Rey to leave.

      Almost as if she was too frightened into submission to move, Miscellin took two cautious half steps towards Rey. "You need to leave," Miscellin whispered. "Get yourself and Poe to the launch bay, before you can't get out!"

      Rey shook her head fiercely. "We're doing this together."

      Miscellin knew that it would take too much time to persuade Rey to leave, so she turned to Poe for help. Just as she began to speak, Poe's arms flailed about as he fell backwards. Kylo's hand was outstretched in a pushing gesture, and within a nanosecond Miscellin was able to comprehend what had caused Poe's fall, and she rapidly assessed her more-than-dangerous situation. Hastily, she stiffened her arm and braced herself, then squeezed the trigger on her blaster. A green beam flew out of the blaster, directed at Kylo's chest. Kylo held out his palm and did a rolling movement with his wrist, so the shot ceased in midair and redirected itself at Miscellin. Miscellin shot her weapon again, this time at the green light coming towards her. The two green objects collided with each other, causing a mini explosion that was a fiery orange color and a bright green.