The Brighter Dark (Kylo Ren X Reader)

Ch. 1- Old Demons

Pulling the trigger used to be the hardest part for you.

It'd been a long time now since you'd last said a silent prayer for the soul of whoever was about to meet the business end of your blaster.

After the first few kills, the novelty of that particular brand of guilt had started to wear off and been replaced with a familiar combination of numbness and calm.

The calm was to make sure your hands didn't shake and your aim was true. The numbness was to help you ignore the part where you felt bad about it later.

But regardless of how many kills you'd made without blinking an eye (you'd lost count at this point) this one felt different for some reason. As you watched the unsuspecting Duros through his kitchen window, you somehow felt a twinge of guilt about killing him, and that really frustrated you. This guy was far from what anyone would consider an innocent man; you may not have known him personally, but you'd read his profile. This guy had red on his ledger.

But he was a bounty hunter, just like you.

He may have killed thousands and engaged in countless illegal activities- but hey, that wasn't much different than what you had done.

So, yeah, killing someone who was more or less in the same boat you were in made you feel for the guy. Even if it was just a little bit.

Keeping your blaster sniper rifle trained on the back of his head, you begrudgingly meditated for a moment on what you were about to do.

Rego Thane, you thought, you're a wanted man in over 12 systems. You've murdered, cheated and no doubt backstabbed yourself to the top of the little hill of crime you stand on....not that I'm one to judge.

You cringe. Hill of crime? Thank goodness you weren't giving a real eulogy, you sucked at this.

And while I'm sure you worked very hard to earn your place in this world, you unfortunately owe Groono Aball a lot of money and he doesn't seem to like it when people don't pay him back. So.......yeah. Whatever you believe waits for you on the other side of the veil, I guess I hope it goes easy on you.

You took a deep breath in through your nose and let it out through your lips, feeling the warm air bounce off the inside of your helmet and prickle your skin. You relaxed your trigger finger, but just before you could squeeze it tight you saw Thane's head whip around and stare through the window in your direction.

You tensed, remaining as still as physically possible. You were too far away for him to see you with his naked eyes, (you weren't an amateur) but you figured you were better safe than sorry.

You watched him like a hawk as he looked to the right, the left, up, down....the man was clearly paranoid that he was being watched. Rightfully so, you thought.

Once he seemed sure he was alone, Rego Thane tentatively turned back to fixing his sad, pre-packaged dinner. That was when you struck.

Pew!

It was a clean shot, right through the back of his wrinkly blue head.

The silencer on your blaster made the deadly blow sound like a lot less of a big deal than it was- just how you designed it to be.

You watched as Rego Thane's lifeless body fell forward onto his half-opened package of rations, then slid down to the floor. This was the part where you waited to make sure the job was done.

3..........2..........1. Yep. He's dead.

Tossing your rifle into the holster across your back, you picked up the gray coat you'd thrown down to lay on and threaded your arms through the sleeves. After checking to make sure you were leaving nothing behind, you began your descent down the fire escape from the rooftop where you had been camped out waiting for Thane for the last five hours.