Light Up the Dark

The Real Enemy

Finn and Poe stood surrounded by a circle of stormtroopers with their hands in the air, outnumbered. The troopers had their weapons drawn and ready to fire. There were several TIE fighters on fire along the wall of the main hangar. Bodies of stormtroopers littered the area. General Hux was walking along the circle of troopers antagonizing the two men, clearly getting off on the feeling of power.

"HUX!" Kylo's powerful voice reverberated through the hangar. Hux jumped at the sound. He spun on his heel to begrudgingly salute the Supreme Leader and his apprentice. Rey noticed he was moodier than usual.

"Supreme Leader, I have captured two resistance soldiers. One of them is the traitor, FN-2187"

"It's Finn, you ginger bastard!" Finn threw his taunt at the general, who whipped his head around to glare at him.

"I will make sure your death is slow and painful, you disgusting resistance scum..."

Hux suddenly flew through the air and landed dangerously close to a flaming Tie fighter. He gasped for breath as he crab crawled away from the heat, clawing at his neck as Kylo Force choked him.

"Lower your weapons!" Kylo commanded. A loud sound of armor clattering rattled the room as the troopers obeyed.

Hux was turning a deep shade of purple. Kylo freed him, and Hux's head smacked against the hard floor as he coughed and gasped. Kylo and Rey made their way through the circle of stormtroopers until they were face to face with Finn and Poe. Kylo looked over his shoulder in annoyance.

"Extinguish the fires, you imbeciles!" The troopers scattered quickly towards the charred mess that used to be an impressive collection of Tie fighters, shouting orders to each other. Finn and Poe snickered.

"State your business, rebels," Kylo's voice was devoid of emotion. Rey, on the other hand, was shaking.

Poe spoke first, glancing at Rey quickly with a smirk. "We came for Rey. I thought that was pretty obvious since you found us, you know, with Rey."

"Yeah, it was definitely obvious," Finn added, grinning. He turned to Poe. "The Supreme Leader doesn't seem very 'supreme' today."

"Well, he doesn't have his helmet." Poe finished while Finn laughed and elbowed him.

Rey's eyes widened at their taunting. She tilted her head upwards to look at Kylo. The only indication that he acknowledged their taunts was a slight twitch in his left eye. Rey started to panic.

"What are you DOING?!" Rey whispered as if Kylo couldn't hear her. Poe and Finn straightened and resumed military stances.

"Sorry, Rey." "Yeah, our bad." Poe and Finn muttered together.

Much to Rey's surprise, Kylo had the tiniest smirk on his face as he spoke.

"The First Order currently has a truce with the resistance. Your mission to kidnap Rey is breaking that truce."

Poe puffed his chest out and held his head high as he responded. "First off, YOU did the kidnapping. Second, we have received information that the First Order isn't keeping their end of the agreement."

Finn chimed in. "A small rebel base that was hidden in the Outer Rim was attacked two days ago. They killed everyone, including those who lived in the towns around the area."

Rey gasped. "What?"

Kylo furrowed his brows in confusion. "I never ordered an attack. Your information is incorrect."

"Oh, is it?" Poe pulled out a hologram and clicked play. Sure enough, it was the First Order. Storm troopers were slaughtering everyone in the vicinity, their blood running down the snow covered ground in rivers. Rey choked on a sob when she saw children lying on the ground.

"Kylo, what is the meaning of this?" Rey whirled around to face him, blocking Finn and Poe. Her hand was on her lightsaber.

"Like I said, I have no knowledge of..." Kylo stopped mid-sentence and looked towards Hux. He had disappeared. Rey shared Kylo's realization.

"HUX!" She screamed. She began to run in his direction, but Kylo Force froze her in place.

Finn ran forward and attacked Kylo.

"Let her go, you demon!"

Kylo used the Force to make himself a human wall. Finn had a surprised look in his eyes as he slammed into Kylo and fell backwards. Poe aimed his blaster at Kylo and fired, but Kylo stopped the blast in midair. It made a buzzing noise then ripped through the hangar with a flick of Kylo's hand.

"Enough!" Kylo commanded. He let go of Rey, and the three friends gathered in front of Kylo, all of them seething with anger. Kylo chewed the inside of his mouth while he thought through the situation.

"So Hux has betrayed me," Kylo muttered, mostly to himself.

Rey stepped forward. "We have to find him now! We need to move!"

Kylo sighed heavily. "I know that, Rey, but it's not as simple as you think."

Poe and Finn looked at each other suspiciously as they watched the pair talk as if they were...friends.

Kylo looked past Rey at Finn and Poe and cocked his eyebrow knowingly. "I'm assuming you're not alone since you blew up so many of my ships."

As if on queue, a Wookie announced it's presence with a guttural trill. Following closely behind was a dark haired girl that stopped in her tracks at the scene.

"Chewie! Rose!" Rey brushed against Kylo's shoulder as she ran behind him to embrace her friends. Chewie bellowed a greeting to Rey. Rose looked at Kylo then at Rey, then back at Kylo.

"Why isn't he trying to kill us?" She asked.

"It's a long story," Rey laughed. Everyone but Kylo looked at her as if she was crazy. She met Kylo's eyes and noticed his subtle amusement.

"Tell them later. Come on, Rey. We need to lay low while we figure this out." Kylo held out his hand. Rey paused and looked at her little family who looked as if they had seen a ghost.

Poe snapped. "Nah, no way, Shadow Man. She comes with us. YOU are a prisoner of the resistance now."

Kylo looked down at Rey, his lips curling into a devious smile. Rey sighed as she took Kylo's hand. Her friends all yelled in confusion. Poe's face fell. It tore at Rey, but there was no time to explain. Instead, she tried to reassure them.

"We will find you. Go, relocate the General before Hux attacks again."

Rey and Kylo didn't wait for the group's response. They ran towards Kylo's private hangar hand in hand, leaving the resistance members to wonder what hell was going on.