Chapter Text
She knew that voice.
Rey's eyes snapped to his face, trying to focus past the fever haze. Dark hair slicked back instead of falling across his forehead. White shirt, dark vest, blaster at his hip. Dressed like a roguish spacer rather than the Supreme Leader of the First Order.
But that face. The strong line of his nose. Those full lips. Dark eyes fixed on her like she was the only person in the room.
Kylo.
Her knees buckled, all the fight draining out of her at once.
His hand caught her elbow before she fell. She leaned into him without thinking, her body recognizing safety before her mind caught up.
His other hand came up to her face. Gentle. Barely there. His thumb brushed her cheekbone and his eyes moved over her, taking inventory. The collar around her throat. The bruises on her arms. The sheer gold fabric that left nothing to imagination.
He went very still.
She knew that stillness. Had seen it before he killed. The quieter Kylo got, the more dangerous he became.
"Who did this to you?" Soft. Too soft.
"It doesn't matter. We need to go."
"We're leaving." He pitched his voice loud enough for the crowd. "Now."
He guided her toward the steps, his hand sliding to the small of her back. Possessive. Protective.
Three steps. Four.
Gardulla laughed.
Metal shutters slid open along the walls. Rey saw the cages first, dozens of them, and then the creatures inside. Small. Lizard-like. Huddled in the corners with dull eyes.
She'd heard stories. Smugglers on Jakku trading tales of creatures that could make a Jedi helpless. She'd thought they were myths.
She looked at Kylo. Saw his hand freeze on his lightsaber. Saw the moment he reached for his power and found nothing.
No.
The lights died.
"Did you really think I wouldn't know, Ben Solo?" Gardulla's voice rolled through the chamber. "Grandson of Vader. Walking into my palace for a piece of Jakku trash. I've been preparing for this since Senna sent word."
Red emergency lighting flickered on. Empty tiers. Vanished crowd. Figures emerged from alcoves, from behind pillars. Professional killers in combat gear. Rey counted forty, maybe more, surrounding the platform. Three exits visible, all blocked.
At their center stood a woman with chalk-white skin and auburn hair pulled back from sharp features. The hunter from Nar Shaddaa. Senna Kast.
Forty assassins. No Force.
Kylo ignited his saber.
The first three assassins came together. His blade took one through the chest, reversed to catch another across the throat. The third scored his forearm before Kylo kicked him backward into a fourth. A fifth blade caught his ribs. He cut the man down and kept moving.
Rey's vision tunnelled. He was bleeding. They were making him bleed.
She grabbed a fallen vibroblade and drove it into an assassin's throat before he could reach Kylo's flank. Kicked the body aside. Another came at her and she bared her teeth, feral and furious. He wasn't dying here. Not for her. Not today. She buried the blade in the man's chest, wrenched it free, kept moving.
They fell into rhythm together without a word. Him carving through the front, her handling anyone who tried to flank. Ten down. Twelve. The south exit was thinning. They could make it.
Fourteen. Fifteen.
Rey's arms were shaking. The vibroblade felt heavier with every swing. She killed another assassin and stumbled over the body, caught herself, kept moving. Her side was on fire. Every swing pulled at the wound.
Not yet. Hold together. Not yet.
Sixteen. Seventeen. The fever was pulling at the edges of her vision, turning everything soft and strange. She blinked sweat out of her eyes and almost missed the blade coming for her throat. Twisted away just in time. Too close. She was slowing down.
She'd lost track of Senna.
The thought came too late. A hand grabbed her wrist from behind and twisted. A knee drove into her wounded side.
Her vision whited out. When it cleared, she was on her knees with her arm wrenched back and cold metal pressed to her throat.
"Drop it." Cold. Professional. "Or I slit her throat."
"Don't." Rey's voice came out ragged. "Kylo, don't—"
Senna's blade pressed harder.
Kylo's lightsaber deactivated.
No no no—
"Kick it away."
He did.
"On your knees."
He knelt.
Something cracked open in her chest. He'd come for her. Walked into a trap for her. And now he was on his knees because she'd been too slow, too weak, too useless to watch her own flank.
The remaining assassins swarmed him, wrenching his arms back. Heavy shackles locked around his wrists. They hauled him upright with weapons pressed to his neck and spine.
His eyes never left her face.
"I'm sorry." Her voice broke. "This is my fault."
"No. This is where I choose to be."
Gardulla's laugh rolled through the chamber. "How touching. The Supreme Leader, on his knees for a scavenger." Her platform drifted closer. "Chain him up. I want to take my time with this one."
They dragged Kylo to a pillar. Chains hung from ancient hooks embedded in the stone, heavy and rusted. The assassins locked his shackled wrists to them and hauled the chains taut until his arms stretched overhead, his back against the cold stone.
One guard ripped his torn shirt away, exposing pale skin marked with old scars. The fresh cuts on his forearm and ribs still seeped blood.
Guards forced Rey to her knees in the corner. Hands clamped on her shoulders, keeping her down. Close enough to see everything. Too far to reach him.
The collar hummed against her throat.
Senna stood near the doorway with her arms crossed, watching with cold satisfaction.
Gardulla's platform drifted closer, her massive form casting shadows in the red emergency light.
"The Skywalker bloodline." Her voice was almost fond. "Always so arrogant. So certain of your power." She gestured and a Gamorrean guard shuffled forward with a shock prod, the tip already crackling with blue-white energy.
"Your great-grandmother was my property. Shmi Skywalker. She bore your grandfather in my chains. Your mother strangled my cousin with hers. And you've cost me credits dismantling my operations."
Her gaze slid to Rey. "Imagine my delight when I learned what this scavenger means to you."
She smiled. "Your bloodline owes me blood. And profit."
Kylo said nothing. His eyes found Rey's across the chamber. Cold. Controlled. Giving her nothing to fear.
The guard pressed the shock prod to his ribs.
Kylo's body went rigid. Every muscle locked, straining against the chains. His jaw clenched so hard Rey could see the tendons standing out in his neck.
No sound.
Ten seconds. Fifteen. Twenty.
"Stop!" Rey lunged forward but the guards shoved her back down. "Stop it!"
The guard pulled the prod away.
Kylo didn't sag. Didn't gasp. Just hung there, breathing controlled through his nose. When he lifted his head, his eyes were almost bored.
"Pain is nothing." His voice was steady. Dismissive. "You'll have to do better than that."
Gardulla's eyes narrowed. "Again. Longer."
The prod returned to his flesh. Stronger this time. Rey could hear the crackle intensify, could see Kylo's body convulse as the current overwhelmed his control. The chains rattled. His hands clenched into fists above his head. Blood appeared on his lip where he'd bitten through.
Still no sound.
Stop. Please stop.
Rey fought against the hands holding her down. Tears burned her cheeks. "Please! Stop!"
Thirty seconds before they pulled it away.
His breathing was harsher now. Ragged despite his efforts. Sweat ran down his face, his chest. But when Gardulla's platform drifted closer, he met her eyes without flinching.
"Is this really the best Gardulla the Hutt can manage?" Each word measured. Controlled. "I survived Snoke's training. This is nothing."
His bloodied lips curved. "Jabba died squealing under a slave girl's chains. Your family is pathetic."
Silence.
Then Gardulla's massive body quivered with rage. "Hold it until I say stop."
No.
The guard pressed the prod to Kylo's chest.
The current hit and didn't stop.
Kylo's body arched against the chains. His head snapped back. This time his control cracked. Sounds tore from his throat, raw and involuntary. Blood ran from his nose.
Rey screamed his name. Fought against the guards until their grip bruised her arms. She couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. Could only watch him break.
Stop. I'll do anything. Just stop.
Forty-five seconds. A minute. Longer.
Finally, Gardulla raised her hand.
The guard stepped back.
Kylo hung motionless. For a terrible moment Rey thought he was dead. Then his chest shuddered. Drew breath.
"Still conscious." Gardulla sounded impressed despite her fury. "The Skywalker endurance is legendary."
Kylo lifted his head. Slowly. With effort that cost him everything. His eyes were glassy, unfocused at first. Then they found Gardulla. And even now, even bleeding and broken, his voice came out steady.
"I've survived worse than you."
"Ben Solo, grandson of Vader." Gardulla's platform drifted in a slow circle around him. "Supreme Leader of the First Order. All that power. All that control." Her eyes slid to Rey. "All this for some scavenger cunt."
Gardulla's gaze lingered on Rey. Assessing. Her platform drifted closer, those small cruel eyes traveling over her slowly. Head to toe. Like inspecting livestock.
Rey bared her teeth. "See something you like, slug?"
Gardulla's expression flickered with amusement. She gestured lazily. "Teach her some manners."
The Gamorrean with the shock prod lumbered toward Rey. She tried to scramble back but the guards held her firm. The prod touched her neck.
Lightning tore through her body. She heard herself scream.
Metal shrieked. Chains rattling violently. Kylo's voice tore through the chamber, raw and furious.
"Don't touch her!"
Silence.
Rey's vision swam. Her whole body trembled with aftershocks. Through the haze she saw Gardulla's face transform. Slow, delighted realization.
"Ah." Gardulla laughed. Deep and rolling. "There it is."
She looked at Kylo. Looked back at Rey. Her smile widened.
"Pain won't break you. But her..."
"Gardulla." Kylo's voice dropped. Quiet. Deadly. "Your quarrel is with me."
"Oh, I know." Her small eyes gleamed. "That's what makes this so delicious." She raised one massive hand. "Guards. Bring me the girl."
"Touch her and I will destroy you."
The guards hauled Rey upright. She fought, kicking and twisting, but there were too many. They dragged her forward.
Don't. Don't do anything stupid. Not for me.
"Throw her in," Gardulla said, gesturing to the metal grate.
Metal shrieked.
Rey's head whipped around in time to see Kylo tear one shackle free from the ceiling, ancient chain links scattering across stone. He lunged for Gardulla, one arm still chained, blood streaming from his torn wrist.
Kylo—
Three guards hit him at once. Four. He whipped the broken chain around one man's throat and pulled until something cracked. Then the others swarmed him. A shock prod caught him in the spine. Another in the ribs. A guard drove a boot into his thigh. He dropped to his knees and they forced him down, pinning him to the floor with their weight and their weapons.
His eyes found hers from the floor. Blood on his face. Chest heaving. Body trembling.
Not defeat.
Promise.
"Fascinating," Gardulla murmured. "Absolutely fascinating."
She gestured toward the metal grate. "My pet krayt dragon needs feeding."
"Gardulla." Low. Quiet. Deadly. "Drop her in that pit and I will erase you and your pathetic family from existence."
Gardulla laughed. "Open it."
Guards dragged Rey toward the grate. She fought, but they overpowered her. The metal groaned as they lifted it. Darkness gaped below. And from that darkness, a low hungry sound that turned her blood to ice.
She looked at Kylo.
He was pinned to the floor, guards holding him down with their weight and their weapons. Blood on his lips, his chin, his nose. Sweat and blood streaking his face. Still fighting. Still straining against the bodies holding him. Still trying to get to her.
Their eyes met.
He came for her. He was still fighting for her.
She'd wasted so much time.
"Rey."
Just her name. Raw. Broken.
She opened her mouth. "Kylo, I—"
The guards threw her into the pit.
Rey hit sand and bones, the impact driving the air from her lungs. She rolled on instinct and came up in a crouch despite the pain in her side. Her vision swam. Far above, the grate clanged shut with a finality that echoed off ancient stone.
Darkness surrounded her, broken only by dim red light filtering through the bars above. The stench of rotting meat hung thick in the air.
Something moved in the shadows. Something large.
It emerged into the dim light, and Rey's stomach dropped. Three meters long and built low to the ground, its body covered in armoured scales the colour of sand. Two horns swept back from its skull. Four powerful legs ended in curved claws that clicked against stone with each deliberate step. But it was the head that made her blood run cold. Nothing but jaw and teeth. Rows of them, serrated and yellow.
Its nostrils flared, smelling her blood.
Rey's hands found a bone on the ground, a femur thick and heavy enough to do damage. She gripped it with both hands and forced herself to breathe.
Not today. I am not dying in a hole.
The creature lunged.
She threw herself sideways as jaws snapped shut where she'd been standing. She swung the bone with everything she had and connected with the side of its head, the impact jarring through her arms hard enough to make her teeth ache.
It wasn't hurt. Just annoyed. And now it was paying attention.
It began circling her with predatory patience, those small intelligent eyes tracking every shift of her weight. It knew she was wounded. It could afford to wait.
Rey backed toward the wall, scanning desperately for anything that might save her. Handholds. Ledges. There! There was a narrow outcropping jutting from the wall about three meters up.
The creature charged.
Rey dove toward it rather than away, hitting the ground and rolling beneath its belly as massive jaws snapped at empty air above her. She came up running, bare feet slapping against stone, and her foot caught on a bone that sent her stumbling forward. She caught herself before she fell and kept moving.
The creature spun behind her, faster than something that size had any right to move. Its tail caught her shoulder and sent her sprawling into the wall. Stars exploded across her vision.
Get up. Get up get up get up.
She pushed herself to her knees. Her hand found a rock with a sharp edge. The creature lunged, jaws opening wide. She threw the rock at its eye.
It reared back with a shriek that echoed off the walls, one massive paw swiping at its wounded face. Rey didn't wait to see the damage. She ran.
She hit the wall without slowing and her fingers found gaps in ancient stone that most people wouldn't even see. But Rey wasn't most people. Years of scaling the gutted carcasses of Star Destroyers had taught her where to grip, how to shift her weight. Her arms burned and her side screamed as she pulled herself up.
Claws scraped against stone below as the creature recovered and lunged. Jaws snapped at her feet and she kicked out blindly, connected with its snout, and hauled herself the last meter onto the ledge.
She pressed her back against the wall with her legs pulled up beneath her. The outcropping was narrow, half a meter wide at most, but the creature couldn't reach her here.
It tried anyway, jumping and scrabbling at the wall while jaws snapped at empty air. It fell back, circled, and tried again.
Rey pressed herself smaller while blood seeped steadily through the bandage at her side.
Someone will come. Someone has to come.
The creature jumped again, higher this time, and its claws caught the edge of the ledge. Cracks spread through the rock beneath her.
No.
She stretched toward another handhold above but her fingers only brushed rock without finding purchase. No grip. No way up. Below, the creature dropped back and began circling again, preparing for another leap.
The ledge shifted under her weight. Stones crumbled away and fell into the darkness.
No way up. No way down.
The creature coiled, muscles bunching as it prepared for another leap.
BOOM.
The entire pit shook and dust rained from above. The creature startled badly, its head swinging toward the sound with something almost like fear in its small eyes.
BOOM. BOOM.
The ground trembled and stone cracked. Through the grate far above, Rey saw red lights flickering. She heard shouting and blaster fire and the unmistakable hum of heavy weapons.
The creature backed away, head low, eyes on the ceiling above.
Rey didn't move. Didn't breathe.
More explosions rocked the chamber, and the walls shook hard enough to send fresh cracks spiderwebbing through the ancient stone.
Then silence.
Then the grate exploded outward in a shower of twisted metal.
A figure dropped through the opening, landing in a crouch that should have broken bones. The Force cushioned his impact, dark power radiating outward like heat from a sun.
Kylo.
Shirtless. His torso covered in blood and burns from the shock prod. His wrists raw and torn. His dark eyes found her on the crumbling ledge, assessed her in a single glance, then fixed on the creature.
The krayt dragon lunged at him with jaws gaping wide.
His hand rose.
The creature stopped mid-leap and hung suspended in the air. Its legs churned uselessly. Its jaws snapped at nothing. A horrible choking sound escaped its throat.
Kylo's hand closed into a fist.
The creature's neck snapped. Clean and instant.
He released it and the body hit the ground with a heavy thud.
His eyes lifted to Rey. Dark and intense.
"Jump."
Her legs were shaking. The ledge was disintegrating. She couldn't hold on much longer anyway.
Rey jumped.
The Force caught her and lowered her gently until her feet touched stone. Her knees buckled and then he was there, one hand steadying her while the other found the collar at her throat. His fingers traced the clasp and the Force wrenched the mechanism apart from the inside.
The collar fell away.
The bond slammed open.
Rey gasped. His presence flooded through her. Fear. Rage. Desperate, overwhelming relief. Days of silence shattered in an instant.
His hands were on her face now, tilting it up. Blood on his chin, his chest, his arms.
"Rey." Her name came out ragged.
She kissed him.
Her hands fisted in his hair and she pulled him down and kissed him like she was dying and he was air. He made a sound against her mouth and then his arms wrapped around her and he kissed her back. Hard and desperate, his hand cradling the back of her head while his body pressed against hers.
You came. You actually came.
I will always come.
She was crying and she didn't know when she'd started.
He pulled back just far enough to press his forehead against hers. Both of them breathing hard. Both of them shaking.
"I thought..." Her voice cracked.
"I know." His thumb brushed tears from her cheek. "I know."
Above them, the battle still raged. Blaster fire and explosions.
Kylo's jaw tightened. His hands moved over her, checking for injuries. Finding the blood seeping through her bandage. The bruises on her arms and shoulder.
"Can you move?"
"Yes."
He looked up at the opening above, then back at her. Through the bond she could feel how much the torture had taken out of him. More than he'd ever admit.
"Hold on to me."
Rey wrapped her arms around his neck. His arm locked around her waist. The Force gathered around them and they launched upward together, clearing the pit's edge in one hard push.
They emerged into the middle of a battlefield. Assassins and guards converged from all sides with blasters raised and vibroblades gleaming. But through the chaos, black-armoured figures were cutting through enemy ranks. Kylo's Knights, carving a path toward them. One of them sprinted close, scythe dripping, and tossed two lightsaber hilts across the distance.
Kylo's hand shot up. Caught his. The blade ignited with its distinctive shriek, crossguards flaring.
Rey's hand rose. Her saber slapped into her palm and blue plasma blazed to life.
The assassins nearest to them faltered. She saw it in their faces. The dawning realization that they were no longer hunting prey.
They were dead men.
A squad opened fire from the eastern alcove. Kylo's hand swept up and the bolts stopped mid-flight, suspended like frozen lightning.
For one heartbeat, everything was still.
Then Kylo twisted his wrist and the bolts reversed. Every assassin dropped, killed by their own fire.
"Can you fight?" he asked without looking at her.
The Force sang through her veins again. "Yes."
They moved as one. Through the bond she felt his exhaustion and the agony of burns covering his torso. She let him feel hers in return.
Neither of them slowed.
Assassins rushed them from both sides. Rey's blade swept through one, reversed to catch another. Kylo carved through three more, his saber shrieking with each strike. They flowed around each other, anticipation moving through the bond faster than thought.
Around them, the Knights carved through what remained of Gardulla's forces. Arm cannons and cleavers and precise rifle shots dropping anyone who tried to run.
Through the thinning chaos, Rey saw her.
Senna. Slipping toward a side passage.
Rage flooded through her. This woman had hunted her. Poisoned her. Sold her like meat.
Rey broke formation and charged.
Senna's lightwhip cracked to life. The first lash came fast and Rey ducked under it, closing the distance. Her saber swept low and Senna leapt back, but not fast enough. The blade caught her thigh and Senna hissed in pain.
Good.
Rey pressed forward. Another strike. Senna parried with the whip's handle, sparks flying. Rey drove a kick into her wounded leg and Senna stumbled. Her saber came down and carved a gash across Senna's shoulder.
Senna screamed.
Their eyes met. Fear flickered behind Senna's cold mask.
The lightwhip lashed out wildly, forcing Rey back. When she recovered, Senna was already running, blood trailing behind her.
Rey started to follow.
"Rey." Kylo's voice through the bond. Urgent. "Gardulla."
She turned. The massive Hutt was sliding toward the main exit on her repulsor platform.
Rey's jaw tightened. Senna was wounded. She would carry those scars.
Next time.
Kylo's hand shot out and the Force grabbed the repulsor platform mid-flight. Gardulla shrieked as she was yanked backward into the center of the chamber. The platform crashed and her massive bulk hit the stone floor hard enough to crack it.
The Force held her pinned.
Kylo looked at Rey. Then he stepped back.
Yours.
She felt it through the bond. Not words. Just understanding. He could kill this Hutt with a thought. But this death belonged to Rey.
She walked toward Gardulla with blue blade humming. Still dressed in nothing but sheer gold. Still bleeding. But walking with her lightsaber in hand.
Gardulla's small eyes widened. "Wait. We can negotiate. I have credits—"
"You can't afford me."
Rey deactivated her saber and clipped it to the chain at her waist. She found a vibroblade near a dead assassin and picked it up. This didn't deserve the clean death of a lightsaber.
"For every slave you ever owned." She drove it into Gardulla's side and the Hutt shrieked.
She pulled it out. "For selling me like I was nothing."
Again. Higher.
"For thinking you could break him."
Again.
The rage was a living thing inside her and she didn't try to stop it. She wasn't the Jedi everyone wanted her to be. She was Rey from Jakku. And she had survived worse than this slug.
"Die knowing you were killed by Jakku trash."
She drove the blade in one final time.
Gardulla's massive body shuddered once. Then went still.
Rey stood over the corpse with the vibroblade dripping. Her whole body shook from adrenaline and fever and exhaustion. The blade slipped from her fingers and clattered to stone.
Through the bond, she felt him. Pride. Satisfaction. Recognition.
She turned to find Kylo standing where she'd left him. Blood covering his torso. Dark eyes watching her with fierce intensity.
Their eyes met across the carnage.
They moved at the same time. Met in the middle. His hands found her waist as her fingers twisted in his hair, and they kissed like the violence had unlocked something between them. Hard and fierce and tasting of blood.
Through the bond, darkness swirled with desire. She should pull back. Should remember who she was supposed to be.
She didn't.
Someone cleared their throat.
"Master." The Knight with the scythe. "Gardulla had allies. They'll send someone to investigate. We need to be gone."
Kylo pulled back slowly. His eyes stayed on Rey's face, dark and hungry.
Later.
She felt it through the bond. A promise.
He looked at her properly then. She was swaying on her feet. Blood soaked through her bandage. Her skin too pale beneath the splattered crimson.
"Can you walk?" he asked.
"Can you?"
His lips curved. Just slightly.
They moved through the ruined palace together, leaning on each other, leaving bloody footprints on ancient stone.
The Knights formed around them without being asked. The big one with the cleaver took point. The one with the arm cannon covered their flank. The others fell in behind, weapons ready.
The Knight with the scythe walked beside Kylo, close enough to catch him if he fell.
The ship waited on a landing platform beyond the palace walls. Rey just wanted to sit down before her legs gave out.
Kylo guided her up the ramp, his hand at the small of her back. Possessive even now. She found she didn't mind.
Inside, she got her first real look at the Knights of Ren without the chaos of battle. Six of them, all in black armour, all radiating violence even at rest. They should have terrified her. A week ago they would have. Now they'd just saved her life.
"What took you so long?" Kylo asked as he lowered himself onto a cargo crate.
"Three layers of mercenaries and those damn lizards." The one with the scythe headed for the cockpit. "Couldn't sense you until we destroyed the cages."
Rey collapsed beside Kylo and leaned into his side without thinking, her body seeking warmth and safety. His arm came around her, pulling her closer.
The big one with the cleaver kept his gaze fixed somewhere above her head as he shrugged off his long coat and held it out. Around them, the other Knights had suddenly found the walls, the ceiling, their own boots intensely fascinating.
She should be embarrassed. The outfit hid nothing. Every part of her on display in front of six masked strangers. But she couldn't summon the energy to care, and from the way they were all very deliberately not looking at her, she suspected their discomfort had less to do with modesty and more to do with the possessive hand Kylo had on her waist.
She took the coat without hesitation. "Thank you."
Trudgen grunted, still not looking.
"That's Trudgen," Kylo said. "He doesn't talk much."
Trudgen grunted again, which seemed to confirm this.
"Ap'lek." Kylo nodded toward the lean one with the medkit. "Cardo." The arm cannon. "Ushar." Checking his weapon in the corner. "Kuruk's up front with Vic."
"His second," a female voice called from the cockpit. "Also the only reason he's still alive. You're welcome for the rescue, by the way."
Six Knights of Ren, and now she had names for them. The Resistance would kill for this intelligence.
Ap'lek approached with the medkit and reached for Kylo first, but Kylo waved him off.
"Her first."
"You have burns across your—"
"Her. First."
Ap'lek paused, then crouched in front of Rey, holding up a scanner at a respectful distance. "May I?"
She nodded.
He ran the scanner over her without touching, his helmet tilting as he studied the readout. "That wound doesn't look good. Fever's climbing." He pulled out an injector. "I can give you something for the pain and fever, but you need that looked at properly once we land."
The hiss against her neck barely registered.
Only then did Ap'lek turn back to Kylo, scanning him despite the glare. "Burns across your chest and ribs. Deep tissue damage."
"I have supplies there." Kylo's eyes stayed on Rey. "It can wait."
Ap'lek hesitated, then put the bacta patches away.
"Coordinates are locked in," Vic called from the cockpit. "Twenty-five minutes."
"Contact the Finalizer," Kylo said. "Tell them to reduce Gardulla's palace to rubble. I want nothing left standing."
"With pleasure." Vic's voice held a hint of satisfaction.
Rey frowned. "Where are we going?"
"Somewhere safe," Kylo said.
"The Finalizer?"
His arm tightened around her. "No."
She waited for more. He didn't offer it.
"You're not taking me prisoner?"
Something flickered through the bond. Amusement. And something darker, more possessive.
"You're not my prisoner, Rey."
She didn't know what to say to that, so she said nothing. Just pulled the coat tighter and let herself lean into him.
The ship lifted hard, engines roaring, and Rey felt herself pressed back against Kylo's chest. She should feel strange about this. Cuddled against the Supreme Leader of the First Order, surrounded by his Knights, wearing one of their coats over the blood of a Hutt she'd just murdered. The Resistance would be horrified. The Jedi would be worse.
She was too tired to care.
Cardo lingered nearby, his helmet tilted toward her with what seemed like curiosity. "You fought well back there. The Hutt deserved worse."
Rey managed a faint smile. "I'm not sure stabbing someone repeatedly counts as fighting well."
"Depends on who you're stabbing," Ushar offered. "Hutts are thick-skinned. Takes commitment."
"Stabbing a Hutt to death within hours of being sold." Ap'lek repacked the medkit. "You'll fit right in."
"The Master doesn't usually bring his work home with him," Kuruk called from the cockpit. "This is new."
Kylo's hand tightened on her shoulder. A warning.
"How much did you pay for her again?" Ushar asked. "Fifty million?"
"That's the going rate for Jedi these days," Kylo replied flatly.
Rey snorted at the absurdity of it all. Fifty million credits for her. The scavenger who used to trade salvage for quarter portions.
"Hux is going to love that expense report," Trudgen rumbled.
"Hux can file whatever he wants. I'll burn it."
Rey smiled against his chest. This was a side of him she'd never seen. Not the Supreme Leader, not the tortured man from their bond conversations. Just someone with brothers who'd earned the right to tease him.
She liked it.
"You destroyed half of Gardulla's palace," she said. "How did you even get in?"
"Cardo blew the east wall," Ap'lek said. "Trudgen went through the front gate."
"Subtlety isn't really our style," Cardo added.
"I noticed." Rey pulled the coat tighter. "Thank you. For coming."
Awkward silence. Shifting of armour.
"The Master called," Vic said from the cockpit. "We answered. That's what we do."
The minutes blurred together after that. The Knights bantered among themselves, their voices a low hum Rey couldn't quite follow. Her head rested against Kylo's chest and her body felt heavy, like her bones had turned to lead.
The coat was warm. He was warm. Everything was warm.
Too warm.
The conversation slid past her like water, everything growing distant and muffled. Then she was cold suddenly, shivering when she'd been burning up a moment ago. Her teeth started chattering and her hands wouldn't stop shaking.
Something's wrong.
She couldn't hold on. The world tilted sideways.
Kylo felt it through the bond before she moved. Her presence flickering, dimming like a flame guttering in wind.
"Ap'lek." He kept his voice steady. "Check her again."
The Knight was beside them in seconds, scanner already in hand. He ran it over her and went still. "It's in her blood." He looked at Kylo. "We need to land. Now."
Rey stirred against him, her eyes fluttering open. Glassy. Unfocused.
"Kylo?"
"I'm here." He cupped her face and forced her to look at him. "Stay awake."
"Cold..." Her teeth chattered. "Why's it so cold?"
"How long until we land?" he asked.
"Ten minutes," Vic called back.
"Make it five."
"The engines are already—"
"I don't care. Make it five."
The ship shuddered as Vic pushed it harder, and the Knights went silent, watching from their positions around the cargo hold. Rey's eyes drifted closed.
"Rey." He tapped her cheek. "Look at me."
Nothing. Her head lolled against his arm and her breathing turned shallow, rapid.
Don't you dare leave me. Not after everything.
"Landing in two minutes," Vic announced over the scream of the engines. Rey's breathing hitched, stopped, started again.
"One minute."
The ship banked hard, descending fast. Kylo gathered her against his chest, ignoring the agony in his own body. The burns, the wounds—none of it mattered.
"Thirty seconds."
The moment the ramp began to lower, Kylo was on his feet with Rey cradled against him. His legs screamed in protest but he was already moving toward the opening.
Ap'lek stepped forward, arms outstretched. "Master, let me carry her. You're injured—"
"No." The word came out hard and absolute. "Return to the Finalizer. No one learns where I've taken her. No one."
He didn't wait for acknowledgment. Just carried Rey down the ramp, leaving the Knights standing silent in the cargo hold behind him.
The homestead rose from the sand ahead, half-buried domes weathered by decades of sandstorms. Behind him, the Night Buzzard's engines roared and sand blasted against his back as it lifted off, banking hard toward the stars.
Then silence. Just wind and sand.
He made it to the entrance and keyed the panel with bloody fingers. The hatch slid open to reveal steps leading down into darkness, cool air washing up from below as lights flickered on and environmental systems hummed to life.
His legs gave out halfway down.
They went down hard, Kylo twisting to take the impact on his shoulder so Rey landed against his chest instead of the stone. They hit the bottom in a tangle of limbs and the breath slammed from his lungs.
For a moment he just lay there. Rey's weight on him. The quiet hum of the homestead around them. His own heartbeat pounding in his ears.
Then he felt her slipping away.
"No."
He rolled her onto her back, ignoring the agony in his body. Her face was grey and sweat beaded on her forehead. When he pressed his hand to her side, the bandage was soaked through, the flesh beneath hot and swollen.
"Rey." He tapped her cheek. "Open your eyes."
Her lids fluttered. Barely. "Kylo..."
"I'm here." He pressed his palm to her face. “I'm right here."
"Cold," she whispered.
She was going into shock. The infection, the blood loss, days of trauma all crashing down at once. And he had nothing left. The torture had drained him, the fighting had drained him, his own wounds screamed for attention.
Kylo pressed both hands against her wounded side and reached for the Force.
Nothing came. The well was dry, completely empty. He had nothing left to give.
Then he felt it. A presence at the edge of his awareness, familiar and impossible.
Ben.
Power flowed into him. Not his own—a gift from someone who'd failed this exact test, who'd chosen darkness trying to save the woman he loved and lost her anyway.
Kylo gasped as new strength filled him and pushed it into Rey, willing the infection to retreat, willing her torn flesh to knit, willing her to live.
"Stay with me." His voice cracked. "I didn't tear apart the galaxy to lose you now."
Minutes passed. Or hours. He couldn't tell. There was only Rey, only the bond, only the steady flow of borrowed power into her broken body.
When he finally felt her presence steady in the Force, the relief nearly shattered him.
She was going to live.
The borrowed power drained away and his body finally gave out. He collapsed beside her, vision darkening, and unconsciousness took him before he hit the ground.
Senna Kast limped up the ramp of her ship as the last of Gardulla's palace burned behind her.
Blood ran down her shoulder and thigh where the scavenger's lightsaber had carved through flesh. She'd underestimated that one. Wouldn't make that mistake again.
She dropped into the pilot's seat and fired the engines, lifting off just as the black ship disappeared over the horizon. Two Force users and six Knights of Ren. Not odds worth dying for. She'd lost the bounty but kept her life. Time to regroup, time to heal, time to—
The Star Destroyer dropped out of hyperspace directly above her.
The Finalizer opened fire. Senna watched through the viewport as the ancient palace vanished in a column of flame that rose halfway to the atmosphere. Stone and sand and centuries of Hutt legacy, erased in seconds.
If she'd been thirty seconds slower, she'd be ash.
She punched in coordinates with shaking hands and jumped to hyperspace before the Finalizer decided to clean up loose ends. Only when the stars stretched into lines around her did she let herself breathe.
Her fingers found the wound on her shoulder. Her leg throbbed. Scars she'd carry forever.
You'll pay for these, girl. You and your dark prince both.
The Supreme Leader had a weakness now. A vulnerability he'd revealed to half the Outer Rim when he'd paid fifty million credits for a slave girl. Information like that was worth more than any bounty.
This hunt wasn't over. It was just beginning.