Chapter Text
He was going to have heads roll when he returned. Literally. All of upper command, all of the idiots who’d done their jobs so poorly as to not know a Resistance trap had been waiting. He’d love to have Hux’s head too, though he knew Supreme Leader would never allow it. Pity.
It had been three days now since he's woken up face down in the sand after the failed raid. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been laid unconscious. The raid had appeared to go smoothly at first, they'd laid waste to the village, the troopers herding the surviving villagers together and dragging that old fool San Tekka to him.
That's when things started to fall apart. As he was demanding the map, the old fool had begun to taunt him. He had already decided he was going to kill him, that he would not give up the map willingly. Then the old man spoke the words, “You can not deny the truth that is your family,” and Tekka swung his arm suddenly, the old fool’s fist made contact with his forearm.
He felt a needle pierce his skin through his robe. And then the world erupted into chaos as explosions ripped through the village. They must have been planted before hand. Blaster fire filled the air as the Resistance fighters stormed in amid the aftermath of their bombs.
Whatever drug he's been injected with worked fast. He felt his strength wanting. It had been a trap for him , he realized. Probably his bitch of a mother's idea to try to capture him and drag him back to her.
His escape was unclear amid the haze of the drug. He remembered stumbling, fighting almost blindly with his saber and the Force. After that there was no memory until waking up in the desert wastes of this kriffing druk planet with his head throbbing from the after effects of the drug, the heat, and dehydration. He thought he had probably killed a lot them as he fought his way out. He hoped he did. He hoped his mother knew all of them personally and had to be the one to tell their families.
His side throbbed, he had looked to find the right side of his robes torn and soaked with blood. The wound itself wasn't too deep, the blaster bolt had grazed him, but sand and dirt already worked into the wound and it was black and red on the edges. He needed to clean and treat it soon or infection was going to set in.
Taking inventory, he was relieved that he still had his lightsaber. Unfortunately that was the only good news. The tattered side of his robes had been where his hidden pocket that he kept his emergency med kit in. There was no sign of it. He had reached into the torn remains of his pocket and found the mostly intact remains of his distress pulser. It had been nicked by the blaster bolt and the metal had warped from the heat of the plasma as it passed. Nonfunctional. No med kit to keep his wound from going necrotic. No water, no food.
He'd started walking the direction of the large congregation of force signatures in the distance. A town or outpost. It was quite far away.
A small salvation the next day had been running into one of the locals traveling alone. He'd used the force to crush their neck and had taken a small amount of food and a nearly full canteen of water. Not much, but something. It had taken self control to make the water last as long as it did, but it had finally run out this morning.
Still a long way out from the town.
But he spotted another little salvation. This one riding a junk speeder, but a functional junk speeder. Through the force he thought it was female, and young. She parked the speeder below at the bottom of a dune and scrambled up it before disappearing into the wreckage of an old star destroyer. He slipped into the shadows as he stalked his new prey, staying near the entrance to wait for her to return.
He could probably just steal the speeder. A small part of him pushed at him to spare her, take the speeder, get to town and find a way to send a distress signal. He ignored it, the girl was most likely carrying water with her. He was thirsty. It was nothing personal.
Out of the sun in the shade of the wreck, he disengaged his mask and removed it for a minute, wiping the sweat from his face before putting it back on. He sunk back into the shadows, fading into them. She’d come back this way when she exited to return to her speeder, and he’d move on his prey then.
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It was almost pleasant in the cool shadows of the wreck. The girl took her time, scaling up the sides of the destroyer. He supposed the easier to access parts of it had long been stripped bare, leaving the remaining spoils for the more agile or brave of the riff raff. In this girl’s case, she appeared to be both.
A noise outside from the bottom of the dune startled him. He slipped out for a moment-- three Gamorreans were gathered around the speeder, talking to each other in grunts and squeals as they pawed at whatever the girl already had stowed on it .
This seemed opportune, they looked to be carrying a decent amount of supplies on them. They each had a blaster, but that didn’t concern him in the least.
He heard a zipping metallic sound and echoing thunk of the girl’s feet hitting the floor, she must of heard them as well. He ducked back into the shadows as she ran past him. Getting to the entrance to the wreck she shoved her goggles up to her forehead and ripped the veil that covered her face down.
“ HEY !” she charged down the dune, balancing nimbly as the sand slid underneath her. “ WHAT do you think you’re doing?!?” He slipped outside but kept himself against the ship, shifting off to to head down the side of the dune so he could flank them. In all black he stood out against the sand, but the four appeared distracted enough by each other, and it wasn’t as if any of them were a threat to him.
The girl was poking one Gamorrean with her staff, pushing him away from her speeder, “That is mine!” Her accent made her sound commanding. One of the others waved his blaster towards her with a squeal, and she turned and tapped him in the shoulder with the end of her staff, “Quit pointing that thing at me!” She shouldered her way past them to the side of her speeder, checking whatever she had strapped to the side of it, “Where did you steal those from anyway?”
A series of squeals and grunts responded, “A posse? Someone made you a posse? You? Now that’s hysterical.” The largest of them moved forward, grunting. She turned, “No, I haven’t seen a man, I haven’t seen anyone.” The middle one squealed and grunted. She sounded exasperated, “I just said I haven’t seen a man, so no, I haven’t seen an injured man in black wearing a mask. Who’d be wandering the desert in black? That just sounds ridiculous.”
Well then, they were looking for him? This was interesting. He started to move forward when the third squealed suddenly and grabbed the girl, wrenching her staff out of her grip, while the other two leveled their blasters at her.
“GET OFF!”
The biggest letting a grunt that sounded like a sinister laugh.
He moved forward and reached out with the force and began to choke the three Gamorreans. The two dropped their blasters, clawing at their necks, and the third dropped the girl who landed in a heap at his feet. She scrambled up, looking at the three of them in confused panic as they gasped for breath.
Then she saw him and stumbled backwards. He glanced at her and locked the force around her, freezing her there without paying much attention to her. He stopped in the middle of the three suffocating Gamorreans, glancing at each before looking at the girl. “Which of them was in charge?”
Her eyes were panicked as she struggled, unable to move. He was just starting to think he might need to be a little more forceful with her when she answered, “Bnob.”
He looked at the three of them and then back at her, rolling his eyes behind the mask, “And he is?”
“The big one.”
He nodded, turning and loosening his hold on the biggest one’s neck to let him get just a bit of air with effort. The other two he tightened his hold, listening to the satisfying sounds of their necks cracking. He heard the girl gasp in horror as they fell.
He crouched down to look in the pig like face, “I think you were looking for me?”
The creature responded with faint, panicked grunts. He looked up at the girl, who’s flushed face had now paled considerably, “What did he say?”
“That there’s a bounty, and that they were giving blasters to those who agreed to look,” she was trying and failing to keep her voice from shaking.
“Who are they ?” he asked, although he was pretty sure he knew.
A slight squeal, looking back to the girl she translated without being asked, “He said the outsiders.”
“Outsiders.” He cocked his head at her slightly, “What outsiders?”
Her lips trembled, “There have been a group of them in Niima the last few weeks.”
“Who are they?” He approached the girl, sensing she knew more.
“I only heard rumors,” she flicked her eyes to his mask as he cocked his head at her again. She bit her lip suddenly, “Will you let me go?”
He bit back a laugh, was she hoping to bargain with him? “If you don’t tell me what you know you’re going to die here with those three.” Deciding he was done with the remaining Gamorrean, he opted to emphasize his point by crushing his neck.
It made a satisfying crack. The girl managed to pale further.
“There were whispers they were Resistance. That there was an arrangement being made between them and Plutt,” her voice was shaking as she spoke.
“Plutt?”
“The junk boss, Unkar Plutt.”
He frowned and turned away from the girl, leaving her in the force hold as he started to sort through the Gamorreans’ supplies for anything useful. This was not good. The Resistance appeared to have established an alliance of sort with the locals, and if they had a price on his head then likely just about everyone on this kriffing planet was going to be looking for him. Heading into town would likely be walking straight into the hands of the Resistance.
There was a slight movement in the force and his head shot up to look at the girl. Had she just pushed back against his hold? That seemed unlikely… but… he inserted a small weakness in one of the threads he bound her with, and waited. In less than a minute he felt it again, this time she’d instinctively found the weakness and pressed against it, forcefully. Surprisingly strong though unfocused. He locked the weakened thread firmly around her again.
Force sensitive, and strongly so, but completely untrained. He doubted she even consciously knew she was trying to use the force to fight back against him. Interesting.
He went back to sorting the supplies when the girl spoke, “You came from the top.” He met her eyes, letting her stare into his mask, “You were hunting me, before they showed up.” There was a building rage in her. His force hold on her shook suddenly as she pushed against him harder. For a moment a puzzled look filled her eyes, as if she recognized she did something but didn’t understand what.
It probably wasn’t good to let her awaken more to her powers right now. She was strong and he was not in the best condition at the moment. He spoke to her calmly, “If you promise me you won’t run, I’ll release you.”
She frowned, it made her young face look more childlike, again he felt the rage rumble inside her, “But I don’t have to promise not to try to kill you?”
He laughed, it was a growling bark through the voice modulator of the mask, “You’re welcome to try.” She was a feral little thing.
“Okay.”
“You have to say it.”
She scowled, “I won’t run.”
It was tempting to make her say ‘I promise’, but he didn’t have time right now to play games just to antagonize her. He let go of his force hold, watching her shift with a relieved breath when she realized she could move. Then he snagged the force around her ankles and jerked them forward, pulling her legs out from under her. Her ass hit the sand hard enough to knock a gasping breath out of her.
She glared at him but didn’t move. He saw her reach back into the back tied around her waist and watched carefully, just in case she was dumb enough to try something, but she just pulled a water bottle out and spun it open. There only appeared to be small amount left and when it was gone she held the bottle over her mouth, smacking the sides to knock out every last drop. Returning the bottle to her bag, she went back to glaring at him.
He found the Gamorreans had two good size water jugs and three full canteens. Both he and the girl got lucky that they showed up. He’d have killed her to find she had next to no water on her, a total waste of energy. Meeting her glare, “Who are you?”
She looked puzzled, “I’m noone.” He chuckled, he couldn’t fault her honesty there.
“What’s your name?”
“Rey,” she said curtly and looked away.
“Still thinking about killing me, Rey?”
“That happens when you’re being hunted by a creature in a mask.”
He laughed again, reaching up to release the mask and pulling it off. She regarded him, startled, meeting his brown eyes with her hazel ones for a second before looking away. He opened one of the canteens and drank, then picked up one of the others and held it up, catching her attention before throwing it to her. She caught it, looking from the dead Gamorreans to him to the canteen, apparently conflicted about the gift.
“Considering they were attacking you when I showed up, you probably don’t need to feel guilty about drinking some of their water. It’s not like they’re going to need it anymore,” he went back to searching for anything useful. In a pouch on one of their belts he found a small tin of bacta. It wasn’t a lot, but it was better than nothing. He tossed it in his small pile of things he’d found worthwhile to take. It wasn’t much, some rations, the bacta, the water.
She seemed to consider a moment before opening the canteen and taking two large sips, then closing it again.
He wiped the sweat off his face, there was the nagging question of what the kriff he was going to do now. Going to town didn’t appear to be an option since it was likely crawling with Resistance. Staying out here with a few jugs of water and a tiny bit of bacta with an infected wound on his side didn’t seem like a good option either. He looked at the girl again, “Do you live in town?”
Her eyes narrowed, confused as to why he was asking such a thing, “No, in the Badlands.”
That seemed promising, he didn’t know where she was referring to was, but it wasn’t town, “Live with anyone?”
“No, by myself, why does that matter?”
He didn’t answer, instead he stood and nodded at the bodies, “Is there anything left on them that’s of value to you?”
She frowned, conflicted again, then shook her head, “Nothing I want.”
“Again, they were attacking you… sentiment is foolish here.”
“The blasters are going to be too easy to trace, nothing else is worth the effort of carrying it,” her eyes were cold as she regarded him. “And I don’t want it.”
She was being smart about the blasters. He was pretty sure there was more there that she thought was worthwhile, but if she wanted to be stubbornly sentimental and foolish, that was her problem.
He crouched down in front of her, “Okay then. I want you to take me to where you live.”
A look of horror crossed her face, “No!”
“Yes,” he watched her lips tremble, it could have easily been mistaken for fear, but he could feel the fury growing in her, hatred too, “And stop thinking about killing me, little one, I would crush you if you tried.”
She glared, even more angry because she knew it was true. He smirked, “Good girl.”
He could hear her grind her teeth. She wasn’t stupid but she was absolutely feral, but he could deal with that. Extending a gloved hand, he touched her cheek, and as if to confirm his prior thought, she let out a growl. He leaned forward, “Rey, I need a place to lay low a few days till the chaos dies down. Unfortunately for you, I don’t have many options at the moment, so you will take me there and you will cooperate.”
Breaking eye contact, she scowled at the ground. He could feel her defiance as she wondered what the cost of fighting him would be.
His voice was almost sweet, “You don’t want to find that out.”
She stiffened, then looked at him again. Her eyes were wet, fearful, fighting so hard not to cry. Maybe she was tameable after all, he thought with a chuckle.
“Okay?”
A nod and she looked away. He stood up, “Good.” Reaching down he grabbed her forearm and pulled her up, purposefully being a bit forceful in his grip and action. A reminder.
“Then help me load this and let’s go.”