Darkness Within

Loyalties

Rey stands alongside Kylo in the control room, their backs to the wall of windows looking out to the front of the star destroyer. After she stood up to him with such ferocity last evening, he is finding her even more distracting than she was before and her newfound love for tight leather combat pants and shirts with mesh cutouts isn't helping him any either.

"We have located the resistance base," Pryde says while leading them to the window to look down at the planet they had stopped above overnight. "The ship was stupid enough to return while we were tracking them. Not that they had much of a choice, I'm sure their fuel reserves were dangerously low."

"Where are we?" Kylo asks, Rey hanging back behind his shoulder a touch.

"Ajan Kloss," Pryde narrows his eyes and looks down at Rey. "I'm sure you should have been able to tell us that though."

"You will not concern yourself with her," Kylos snaps at him and Prydes blue eyes return to his mask. Kylo had in fact learned that the Rebel's were on Ajan Kloss by entering her mind yesterday when she was lounging on the couch, her guard down, and thinking about her friends back on the base. In order to not betray her trust though, Kylo decided to wait for the location to be discovered. Rey still possesses an annoying amount of loyalty to the resistance and to his mother, but he knows that pushing her to betray that too fast would push her away as a result.

"Another ship has evacuated sir," a technician says to Pryde from the bank of computers to the right.

"Shall we destroy it?" General Paranadee asks Kylo, her face eager and waiting. "Our weapons are charged."

"No, I would like to make a sweep and personally visit the remaining fighters myself," he says to the general. "Prepare my transport."

Rey falls into stride with Kylo as they make their way down to the hangar bay to his transport, and he notices how distant she seems and that she has her mental walls up. Crews rush around the ship and they board it, Kylo taking his seat in the pilot's chair after removing his helmet, and Rey sitting in the copilot's chair next to him.

Kylo flips through the switches following the preflight routine and lifts the ship off the hangar floor, leading the trail of tie fighters and trooper transports down to the planet. Rey sits quietly next to him unmoving, guarded, and distant.

"Who's still there?" Kylo asks, looking straight ahead at his path, his head no longer concealed by his helmet.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she mutters, looking straight ahead as well.

"You're locating them. Who's there?"

"Very few people are left."

"My mother?"

Rey shakes her head. "I can't sense her. Just Poe and Finn and a few others."

"Ah, the traitor and the pilot," he acknowledges as he lowers the ship in a clearing, dirt and leaves blowing up around them. The ship lurches as the landing gear comes into contact with the ground and the ships sink slightly into the wet ground of the humid planet.

Rey is already on her feet as Kylo takes a moment to power the ship down and he stands up quickly to catch her. "Wait," he demands as he reaches out and grabs her wrist with his leather-covered hand. Rey stands at an angle to him, looking over her shoulder and glaring at him. "Your loyalties are with the First Order, it's time to forget the Resistance."

"Unlike you, I won't kill people who I care about," she snaps.

"I didn't care about Han Solo," Kylo hisses at her and tightens the grip around her wrist. She stares up at him, challenging him and unphased by his aggressiveness.