Ouroboros

Twelve

Twelve.

"How many?" Rose's voice was shocked and she knew that she wasn't the only one disturbed by the turn of events.

"The Governors, Prefects, Electors and Monarchs of eighty-two worlds have demanded Kylo Ren's rendition for trial and public execution," Commander D'Acy reported, her face troubled. "In addition, the Hutts, the Guavian Death Gang, the Kanjiklubbers, the Slaver Guild, the..."

"I think we get the picture," Beaumont Kin sighed.

"There are currently thirty-four extremely generous bounties on Kylo Ren's head," D'Acy added.

"Any more good news?" Rose asked, willing the older woman to shut up.

"Somehow, word of his escape has gotten out and all of them mention the Millennium Falcon as well," D'Acy concluded.

"That's hardly a surprise since almost everyone here believes he should stand trial and pay for his crimes," Beaumont conceded.

"But it does mean that some of your friends have been communicating with these people for them to know about the Falcon," Jannah commented, walking forward. Lando nodded.

"Not to mention the small matter of the few remaining First Order ships and bases that didn't go down when the Final Order was defeated," he added.

"And our co-leaders are stuck in the middle of a scrum of bounty hunters, all of them tasked with bringing Kylo Ren back, dead or alive," Rose sighed. She looked up. "Contact the Falcon. If you can't get hold of them, send our fastest remaining ship to find them. The war isn't quite over and we can't have our leadership running off."

"And if Ren has them?" D'Acy asked. Rose gripped her pendant and stood, her face determined.

"Then we rescue them and bring him back here to pay for his crimes," she said. Everyone nodded and set about their tasks as Jannah paused.

"I think I know just the ship-and the pilot," she said.

-o0o-

Waking almost wasn't worth the bother but he did it anyway, forcing his eyes open and waiting for the host of pains to make themselves known.

The first thing he saw was the strange bird that was sitting about three feet away, between the bed in his cabin and the door, apparently nesting on his cloak. He blinked and raised his head a fraction, blinking his bleary eyes and wondering if he was hallucinating. The creature was a squat smooth brown and white with big eyes and stubby wings. As he stared, it made an incredibly jarring noise, someway between a scream and a really bad yodel, and then it turned and waddled away. Realising he was back on the Falcon and didn't seem to be in chains, he sat up, swung his legs over the edge of the bed and waiting for the vertigo to settle before he stumbled up and slowly made his way out of the cabin.

The others were in the cockpit but no one looked up as he slid into the vacant seat behind the pilot, grimacing as he jarred a variety of injuries he had picked up. The elongated light blurs of hyperspace filled the forward window as Poe leaned forward.

"So there are over eighty worlds we can't go anywhere near and pretty much every major organisation has a price on his head?" he checked. There was a pause.

"That's what we've learned," Rose reported. "A number of them were not happy we didn't just hand him over the moment we returned from Exegol."

"Well, that would have been easier," Poe conceded, frowning. "But it wasn't the right thing to do-and we're all in this to do the right thing."

"Even for the wrong people?" Rose's tone was hard.

"Depends who decides who's the right or wrong people," Poe suggested. "And once you start making those judgements, you're no better than the First Order."