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[KyloGlenn]

Paquin exhaled, a suppressed sigh. They both knew that wasn’t what she meant. Her eyes stayed on him as his gaze moved out the viewport. “If you want to think of it that way.” He could avoid it if he wanted, but she’d at least let him know what she wanted him to. And in a way, his dismissal of it was just confirmation that he understood what she’d said.

“It’s not dwelling to address how you feel. Sometimes moving on can involve acknowledging things you don’t want to,” Paquin utilized what grief training she’d received as a medic. Changed some words around. “Like I said, you don’t have to say anything. I can somewhat understand how you feel,” Paquin’s parents hadn’t accepted her path. Of course, they weren’t leading a war effort against her. She hadn’t tried to kill them. “I just...I want you to take care of yourself,” she wanted him to be okay.

She knew what he would do with his feelings. Bottle them up, anger and all that. She supposed releasing his emotions in a productive way wasn’t unhealthy, but holding it in until he couldn’t anymore was. Just like Ariel’s drinking to mask whatever pain she felt was. Gnaeus, somehow, seemed to deal in the least destructive way. ‘Group therapy.’ They’d never go for that.

Paquin looked down to her food, no longer as hungry as she had been. Still, she ate a bit more because she probably needed to. She didn’t dwell anymore on the subject. She didn’t want to upset him, or make him avoid her. She changed the subject. “I get to make a new lightsaber,” more like she had too. “I bet I’ll have more design freedom.” As far as the hilt went. Would she have to get a synthetic crystal? She didn’t think they had any more natural ones lying around.

-

The Jedi were too mysterious. What was the point in being that vague? Just for fun? Or did they actually have a reason to be so anonymous and incomprehensible? Finn didn’t really think so, considering they’d been a driving force in the galaxy once upon a time. And maybe that was a part of the Jedi problem. Either way, it was terribly inconvenient.

“If Mace even shows up,” Finn still hadn’t gotten a message back. Not that he expected to. Mace seemed to be the type that would either show up without announcement or not show up with no acknowledgement. “I suppose we could always send it to him, too.” Hook it up to a datapad or something, send it his way. But again, there would be no guaranteed answer. But Mace had to know something, right? Maybe the Jedi had been a vast organization, but Mace had been on the council.

Really, Finn didn’t know how any of it worked. None of them had been around.

Finn set aside the holocron, so they’d be able to tell which one it was later, as Mira selected a Sith one. He did look to Rey then, at first with concern if they should watch it with her or not. But his concern was quickly replaced by amusement at the look on her face as she dove into the ice cream. Simple pleasures and he was happy to see her happy. “I’m glad you’re learning something, Rey,” he joked. She was learning new ice cream flavors.

Finn would have to agree, there was a sweet innocence to her in that moment. Even if Finn had known she’d seen things, been through things that someone her age shouldn’t have to.

All three of them had, hadn’t they?

Deciding he didn’t need to cover Rey’s ears, he turned back to Mira with a smile etched on his face, reaching out for the Sith holocron. With the Force, of course. Admittedly, he was a bit nervous about handling the little pyramid. As if it could have some sort of influence. “Are the Sith holocrons special? I mean is there more to it than the...puzzle?” He asked.

-

Brendol wished he could just rise from the stupid chair he was shackled to, rid her of that stupid sense of pride he knew she felt. Not that the chains didn’t have range to them. He wasn’t as quick as he once was. Too old, too fat. He cursed himself for that, for he knew if he could get a hold of her, the guard would do nothing. What would a stormtrooper do, kill him, a Commandant and Hux’s father, over assaulting some mystery woman?

She wasn’t Hux’s mother to any of them.

Not even Hux.

“Good luck with him, Roisin. Whatever relationship you can scrounge up with him.” If there was any luck on Brendol’s side, the boy wouldn’t fail to recognize that even though Roisin might care for him, she abandoned him. Brendol hadn’t all those years. Even if he wished he had. Even though he did try to send him to his death.

Of course, Brendol overestimated his appreciation. “I’m afraid I can’t give you my blaster, ma’am,” the stormtrooper’s modulated voice sounded almost amused. And no, she wouldn’t be snatching it on her way out. Well, she could try. But she didn’t appear very physically strong. The stormtrooper even noted her resemblance to the general...uncanny. Especially as the cell door opened and on the other side stood the General, as if he’d never left that spot.

There was a brief glare exchanged between father and son, but no words. Hux had nothing left to say to that man. But he had much to say to Roisin. The door shut behind her and the stormtrooper, leaving the older Brendol alone in his cell. Too good for him, but Hux would do nothing different.

“I think there’s quite a bit more to who you are, Roisin Orla of Arkanis, that we need to discuss.” Hux didn’t know how he felt. It was a strange feeling of every emotion he was capable of feeling mixed with numbness. Should he be kind to her? Should he be dismissive? Should he be entirely neutral? He didn’t know.

 

[Lucyfer]

Kylo acknowledged that Leia and Mira would never see his path as the right one. That they would do everything in their power to stop the galaxy from actually growing, from healing, from the wounds the Old Republic, the Jedi, and the New Republic had inflicted upon it. He understood he would never be heard. He knew it infuriated him to be aware of this, but what else could he really do?

What would saying it do?

Would it help if he said he was nervous about being Supreme Leader? Nervous about a prophecy, concerned about Pryde’s agenda, but most of all feeling strangely relaxed at the same time as he felt like a fish out of water?

Perhaps that was what Paquin wanted to hear.

And he supposed, he’d want to know if Paquin were feeling these sorts of things, although he wouldn’t know what to do with it. He supposed he’d want to fix it, but he couldn’t ask Paquin to go fix it. To go kill Leia and Mira. To go dive into Pryde’s head and figure out all his thoughts.

It was a test of endurance, right now.

And he sighed as he realized he upset her by withholding, as she poked around at her plate. That frustration mounted as she deflected, spoke of a lightsaber. Of course. Hers was broken. “We might be able to get your crystal back,” he hardly thought it would go missing. “You could use that in any new design.”

What would she want?

He could have kept it light, and asked that.

Instead, he said, “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to keep you in the dark. I just don’t know what good it does when nothing can be fixed.” Blunt. Perhaps too much so, with no sequitur. “But it helps you, doesn’t it?” And he should care about that.

He did care about that.

But that didn’t mean he liked this idea of sharing pithy words when nothing could be done. And his tone was probably too bitter to be engaging.

~***~

Mira would consider the matter of Mace and the holocron – whoever this Jedi was – at another point. It depended on if he showed up or not, for one. Two, she had never really considered trying to send a holocron message to anyone. She supposed they could record it.

Rey smiled. She might have stuck her tongue at Finn, but there was precious ice cream behind her lips, so she didn’t. She did say, after swallowing it down, “Much,” and she was paying attention to the holocrons. While enjoying her ice cream. She saw no harm in this.

Poor Finn was the one who had to focus and wasn’t getting to eat nearly as much.

“It’s…similar, but different,” opening a Sith holocron was much the same – a puzzle, but it required touching the Force in a different fashion. What Luke would probably call using the dark side, but Mira didn’t understand how opening a holocron was automatically dark side.

“Luke’s told me you have to use the dark side to open them.”

There it was. “It’s still just a puzzle. You’re not going to start spitting lightning from your fingertips in the process, but the puzzle is a bit more aggressive,” it responded back, it didn’t want to be opened.

Not by the wrong people.

~***~

Roisin had not paid enough attention to where Arm—Brendol was while she spoke with the Commandant. She had thought he wondered off, even though he’d claimed he would listen. She wasn’t sure why she imagined that might be from elsewhere, behind a screen, away from this. At another time.

And yet, there he stood.

She bowed her head.

She wasn’t sure if there was too much, or too little, to say about who she was in relation to him. General Hux knew who she was, now. Perhaps he wanted to hear it spelled out. Perhaps he wanted to know where she’d been all his life. Questions she could certainly answer. Questions she owed him answers to.

“All right,” she said. “But I want to sit down,” she might not sit with the Commandant and indulge him, but this matter was weighty. She would need to sit, if she was going to talk to her son, and not become a mess.

 

[KyloGlenn]

For some reason, she didn’t think they’d be getting her crystal back. Paquin couldn’t explain it, she was sure Kylo would think her silly if she tried, but she didn’t feel it anymore, didn’t feel connected to it. Of course, that could be for a number of reasons. That strange stone. Maybe the crystal had broken along with the hilt. And maybe, part of it, was the idea of going back to Korriban did not at all appeal to her.

She didn’t mention that. Not that she had a moment to.

She lightly shook her head, “You don’t have anything to be sorry for. It’s just...you don’t know what good it does until...you do. Maybe I can’t fix anything,” she couldn’t change Leia or Mira’s minds. She couldn’t kill either one of them. “But there could be something I can do to help,” offer comfort, or a distraction. Or maybe she could fix something. But she wouldn’t know unless he told her.

Did he not trust her? Or was it as simple as him not seeing any point? She shrugged. “I suppose it’s just how I’m used to communicating. And I need to adapt to how you handle these things,” especially if they were going to build a relationship. “I’m sorry if it seems like I’m trying to make you talk to me, I’m not. I didn’t mean for this to be a discussion, I just wanted you to know...you have options.”

In case he hadn’t felt like he did. That all he could do was suffer in silence, deal with himself. She didn't think Snoke encouraged anything else.

-

Finn supposed it was fitting that the Sith holocrons were harder. It seemed like a Sith thing to do. And since he started by cracking open a Jedi holocron, naturally he’d graduate to something a bit more challenging. He just hoped it wasn’t too challenging. Could holocrons vary in difficulty? Could some Sith holocrons be harder than others? Jedi ones, too?

He just had to figure it out for himself.

Finn did raise an eyebrow. How dark sided could opening a holocron be? “What exactly is the dark side?” What defined it? What set it apart from the ‘light side’? The turning point? He knew there was some difference to it, it wasn’t all just ‘the Force’ collectively. There was something corruptive about the dark side. ‘Or is it just the people?’ The way someone chose to use it that dictated it?

Maybe it wasn’t Finn’s place to ask these questions. Maybe it wasn’t Mira’s to answer.

Finn poked and prodded at this new holocron, feeling exactly what Mira spoke about. The Jedi holocron had been pliant, welcoming movement. There was nothing welcoming about this pyramid. He wasn’t even attempting to solve the puzzle, not with his pokes. And yet, he felt a firm resistance. He worried about what might happen if he pushed too hard in the wrong direction, pulled the force in the wrong way.

It couldn’t explode, could it? It wasn’t trapped? I mean, he assumed one of the Knights had gotten into it. But maybe because they were of the dark side, technically.

“Are you sure I can do this?” He had to ask. Was this beyond his current abilities?

-

“Very well then. We’ll sit.” Hux gestured her along. He figured the best location to hold this conversation was in private. Not in the hall. Not on the bridge. Not in the canteen. He didn’t want any officers or troopers to overhear anything more than what already had been. He didn’t want to have his reactions to be public, or hers. So the safest place would probably be his quarters.

And Millicent was there. She was a comfort.

‘I’ll have so much to tell Mira tomorrow,’ he wished he’d insisted on her coming back with him, but he knew he couldn’t have done that. He had to let her do her thing.

Hux wondered if he should have a room prepared for Roisin. But he held off on that. He wasn’t sure if he’d want her to stay. He might want to have the troopers make a specific run back to Arkanis to drop her off, wherever the hell she’d come from. That was dependent on if her answers would be what he wanted to hear, or if they’d upset him. Because he had a lot of questions.

He knew who she was now, he didn’t need her to spell it out. But Where had she been? Why didn’t she come for him? Why was she here now? It couldn’t have just been an attempt to kill Brendol. She must want something from him, because everyone usually did.

He sighed, another wordless jaunt across the ship despite his mind racing with things to say and questions to ask. It wasn’t until they’d reached the sliding door to his quarters, Millicent rushing to the door with excited meows, “You can take a seat on the couch, start from the beginning, if you would.” Maybe he should have been nicer. This was his mother, he supposed. But was that what she wanted to be?

 

[Lucyfer]

Perhaps Paquin was right, to some extent, that Kylo didn’t know what good it would do, until he tried it. That said, trying it was still something he didn’t feel keen towards. Suffering in silence had worked for him so far, after all. Ignoring his outbursts of rage that broke things around him, of course. Always ignoring that.

The anger was good.

The anger was a tool.

‘Would you get better at focusing it if you talked?’

“You don’t need to apologize either,” he said, lips quirking a smile as she apologized and tried to brush it off, “It’s not bad to want me to talk.” Even if he didn’t want to talk about those kinds of things. Even if his method was so ingrained now that he wasn’t sure he could see any benefit to an alternative.

Wasn’t sure he even wanted to risk an alternative, at these critical moments, when he was now at the helm of this so-called Final Order. He had gotten this far with things as they were, with his current methods.

And he was sure as hell doing a better job than Mira with emotions and the Force.

“We’re both adapting to changes.” In their relationship, and in their life. “I appreciate the…option. If I ever…if I ever think I can try it, I will.” But not now, no. Now was not the time to start experimenting with that, when everything was working.

‘If it’s all working, then why don’t you have Leia and Mira on your side? Why do you still destroy things in a rage?’

He ignored that internal voice, ignored the voice that brought to mind the thought of a wounded Paquin.

At his hand.

Like Mira. Like Kevan. Snoke. Han. “How does it work for you? To…talk about things like that?”

~***~

“The Dark Side is any aspect of the Force that draws its power from raw, aggressive emotion. That’s…in a nutshell,” Rey said, glancing at Mira as she said it. To Luke, it had little to do with what it was used for, and how it manifested.

She had a feeling, Mira disagreed.

“That understanding of it will help you to open the holocron,” it did require a certain level of aggression, and pushing back. Of insisting upon one’s own will. Mira still wouldn’t call it dark side, but there was a notable difference in the way the Force could be used, and how it manifested from that use.

There was no arguing with that – just with labels, perhaps. “We won’t know if you can do it, until you try, Finn. If you can’t, we’ll go back to the Jedi holocrons,” build him up some more, until he was ready to try again.

Eventually, he would get it.

Mira wouldn’t be keeping either side of the Force from him.

~***~

Roisin followed after General Hux silently, glancing around the ship as she went. The ship was still an unusual thing to her. Although she’d seen plenty of them from the outside, she had worked on Arkanis itself, not their ships, and hadn’t really spent any time in an Imperial destroyer. She hadn’t followed Hux onto the ship.

She didn’t expect to be taken to his room.

She didn’t expect to see any glance of personality so soon – no that, she soon realized, there was much.

‘But there is.’

Just enough to show that Hux wasn’t as cold as some likely first suspected. The meowing cat was the first sign of it, followed by the couch that stood out from everything else. The couch was directed to sit on, and so she did make her way over to it.

Nothing scattered about as reading material.

Nothing scattered at all, except she thought she saw a stray cat toy.

He asked her to start from the beginning. Roisin wouldn’t ask him to be more specific, or ask any clarifying questions. She’d start. “I met your father 35 years ago when he was serving as Commandant of the Arkanis Academy, and I was working in the kitchens of the Sindian family.” Not, in fact, the military barracks.

Brendol had started to become concerned about his political place in everything. “Long story short, in spite of the obvious red flags and the fact he was married, I was still stupid and fell for his lines, and had a child with him. You. Only you were Armitage Hux to me, and I guess now you’re…Brendol Hux,” she wouldn’t put down her son’s name, but she didn’t like it. “Your father and I had already started having a rocky relationship during my pregnancy, and I thought I’d seen the last of him when you were born, besides just…in passing.”

Millicent seemed to decide to come over to sniff at her. Roisin lowered her hand for Millicent, and smiled a little as the cat brushed her head against her hand.

If only the story ended there, but no. Maratelle gave him no child, and he was so damned focused on legacies. He wouldn’t have been looking into politics otherwise. “The Emperor died, and that man came to me in a panic. Everyone was in a panic,” she was in a panic, and she looked down, wringing her hands in the fabric of her shirt. “But he said he was worried about you, and worried about me. He said the Rebels were going to come to Arkanis and kill every Imperial. Every child of every Imperial,” she had been stupid.

Stupid to even fall for his lines to begin with, to sleep with Brendol, but stupider to believe this. “He wanted to take you away. To get you to safety, he said. To get you into something better than this, to restore the Empire one day. The Empire needs children.” She remembered that. “I thought…he was Commandant of Arkanis, he was successful with so many cadets, or I thought – I didn’t know – and I was afraid for you, that he was right – I let him take you back then. I thought it was the best for you, and he said it would be better if I…if I stayed behind. If I wasn’t involved.”

It would soften him.

Perhaps that was exactly what he needed. He probably had tossed the ewok she sent along as soon as he could, to prevent that softening. “And then he was gone…and I didn’t know where you were, or where he was, and I just had to…hope.”

 

[KyloGlenn]

Paquin didn’t know why, but him saying ‘if I ever think I can try’ made her heart ache. She was sure he hadn’t meant it that way, but it made her feel a bit saddened nonetheless. What stopped him? The difficult topic? Was it simply because he didn’t see the point in it? Interesting phrasing if that was it, but Paquin didn’t press. She was happy, at least, that he’d consider it, maybe, at some point.

Even if she was fairly certain he said it just to appease her.

Paquin shrugged again, at his question of how talking worked for her, but she expanded on her answer verbally. “I’m not certain on the science behind it, that wasn’t really my area of focus. And I never really get to do it often,” she only had a chance when she called her one friend and they’d go back and forth, which she hadn’t had a chance to really do in a while. And she certainly wasn’t going to burden any of the Knights with her thoughts.

“It’s...nice. Relieving to not hold things in, put a name to feelings. To be assured that something was as unfair as I thought it was,” Paquin supposed she never had anything so heavy to talk about as Kylo did. Other than perhaps her parental situation and the emotional weight of her job.

“Or sometimes get a different perspective, even though it might not be what I want to hear,” that had happened a few times. Paquin had once thought it might’ve been Yara getting back at her for saying things she didn’t want to hear. But Paquin had eventually made sense of things.

“It’s just nice to not feel alone in something. It helps,” helped her, at least.

-

Finn wasn’t quite sure what to make of Rey’s description of the dark side. It was just a simple explanation, however, and he was sure there were still some more particulars to it. But as it was, well, then hadn’t all of them used the dark side of the Force? Hadn’t everyone? Finn wasn’t going to get too deep into it right then. That seemed like an entirely different lesson in itself.

For now, holocrons.

Finn didn’t want to go back to the Jedi ones. Well, he wanted to watch them, but he didn’t want to not be able to open this Sith one. He knew that was just the art of learning, working up to a challenge and overcoming it. So, with the words of Rey in mind, he went at the thing with a little more determination this time. Not just the poking and prodding he’d done before to test the thing.

And...nothing!

He tried, of course. He pushed as hard as he could, even grew a bit frustrated. The holocron’s guard even gave way, a bit, before it snapped back, almost like it was smacking his hand away. And he kept trying, and he made bits of progress. Or he thought he did, twisting the strange invisible puzzle around it more than his previous attempt, but...it always coiled back. And the holocron’s resistance seemed to get more aggressive itself the more he tried.

But that might’ve been his frustration mounting. “Okay, maybe I need to work on some Jedi holocrons a bit more…” He was a bit disappointed to admit it. He covered it with a few spoonfuls of ice cream. Ice cream fixed everything didn’t it?

-

Hux sat on the couch along with her, a distance between them but he positioned himself so he faced her a bit. He said nothing as she spoke, as she recounted how this all came to be. How he came to be. He didn’t think he so much as made an expression as she told her tale, as if he was afraid something that didn’t require any conscious effort would pull his focus, like he’d miss some detail.

There was a lengthy pause, one Hux allowed. One he’d caused.

He thought maybe his questions would all be answered in her story. He’d have nothing to ask. He could say ‘I appreciate your time, you can be on your way’ and send her back on a shuttle to Arkanis and go about his night, the next day, his life.

But that wasn’t what happened. That wasn’t what would happen. With some of his questions answered, he only had more than he’d started with.

“Brendol has always had a talent for being deceitful.” That was the first thing he said after a long beat of silence. His way of saying he didn’t think her stupid for falling for it. He’d fallen for it, hadn’t he? And he wouldn’t call himself stupid. Perhaps, everyone had moments of stupidity. “I could see...where he’d fool you into thinking that was a good idea. Or the truth at all.” Brendol wasn’t half as successful as Hux was sure he’d convinced everyone.

He had many thoughts. Armitage, for one. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that name, but one thing was for sure–it was better than Brendol. And she worked for the Sindians...was she still working there? ‘Can’t have that.’ That was his initial thought, for he hated that horrid Carise woman. But that was fleeting. The rest of him was consumed by loathing for his father who did not deserve to be called anyone’s father. And he knew, as easy as it would be to call her stupid, blame her for everything bad that had happened in his life, he wouldn’t. He didn’t know anything else.

Millicent jumped, settling into the space on the couch between them. A central position where she could reach both of them. Or they could reach her. Hux had many questions, but didn’t bother asking any of them. Not until one was answered. “You’re here now. Why? Because you thought you could execute my father, get revenge? And nothing else?” Hux thought he was a little old to have a mother now. But above all, he wasn’t about to tolerate another parent of his using him for their own devices.

 

[Lucyfer]

Kylo didn’t really need science, or logic. He wasn’t interested in all of that, so much as why Paquin saw it as beneficial, for herself. It must have been something she believed in, and she did elaborate on it.

The way she elaborated on it, it made it seem like the talking it out, was also a way of thinking it out. Processing it. As she said, putting names to feelings. In some ways, Kylo was able to grasp how that was useful, but internally, he was still thinking he understood it. He knew what he was going through.

He knew what it was. He just wanted it fixed.

He also didn’t have too many good experiences where talking led to people agreeing with him that things were ‘unfair’, as Paquin noted. He definitely did not have many good experiences, in general, with expressing himself. Paquin did touch on that, hearing different opinions.

Kylo didn’t want a different opinion.

Still, he nodded. Paquin had explained how it helped her. That was what he’d wanted, “I’ll try to be available, then. For this, as well.” He knew he would never be the easiest to deal with, but he did want to be there for her. He briefly thought Gnaeus might be better at this, but he wouldn’t say that outright.

He stabbed the last of his fish. “I know you went through a lot, all at once, to get here,” and he didn’t really think she’d had much time to talk about it, or reconcile it, with her new powers, new allies, and much else. “So if you do need to go back to that, I’ll…listen.”

Or try to. Without too much judgment.

Too much expressed judgment.

He could likely empathize, at least. He’d feel quite a bit was unfair, in her shoes.

~***~

Mira observed Finn, not only with her eye, but with the Force. She felt the push and pull – more of a push from the holocron, back against Finn – as he tried to open it. He didn’t know how to manage it, though. He didn’t know how to let up, adjust, push back – it was a skill he would develop, of course, but it was interesting for Mira to witness.

She didn’t consider faulting him.

She’d rather forgotten how complicated it could be, given it was something of second-nature to her, now.

“All right,” Mira floated the Sith holocron back to its original spot, and lifted up another Jedi one at random, floating it in front of Finn. “When you’re ready,” she encouraged him.

He would at least get familiar with one process, and learn to use that to open the others. Eventually. Mira would help more with that if he still struggled significantly with the Sith holocrons.

~***~

Roisin’s gaze dropped to her lap in the silence. Waiting. She expected more questions. She even anticipated accusations or being called a liar. She anticipated much that would not necessarily be good, and so, she waited. Silent.

The movement of the cat earned a brief, sidelong look. Tempting as it was to reach for the cat, she kept her hands as they were, for the moment.

Roisin lifted her gaze up as the General indicated he was aware of his father’s deceitful nature. That he even thought Brendol was good at it. It didn’t quite bring a smile to her lips, but her gaze was soft with the understanding that her son seemed to be offering understanding, over accusation. She had called herself stupid enough times over it, to be fairly certain that was true…but she appreciated the understanding all the same.

“I found out he had broken many promises, from what I was hearing on Arkanis,” she said, “and I saw a way to get to him. I didn’t think too far ahead,” that should have been obvious, since she showed up wielding a crude knife and tried to get access to Brendol with obviously violent intentions.

She had not been subtle, or thoughtful. “I do want revenge,” that wouldn’t change. That wasn’t past tense just because apparently it was out of reach. “I didn’t…expect to see you.” She hadn’t thought she’d get that high up to see him.

Stars, it was insane enough that she’d seen Lieutenant-General Phasma.

“I never really thought I’d see you again. I couldn’t…I couldn’t hope for that.” And she couldn’t hope for anything from it now, either.

It would hurt, to have her heart broken again. “I’m glad that you’re alive. And well. And doing so much better than him. That people see that, clearly.” Or else he wouldn’t be General. He wouldn’t be able to keep Brendol locked up. “But I know…I haven’t been here. And I don’t expect anything from you.”

 

[KyloGlenn]

Paquin knew Kylo was far from the best person to unload her thoughts and feelings onto. They were both probably aware of that. She knew he wasn’t a patient man, nor did she think he’d be terribly understanding of her situation. Or in general most of the time, really, but she’d never hold that against him. But despite all that, it warmed her that he’d even thought to offer to listen.

“That’s sweet of you, Kylo. Thank you,” her smile was grateful because it did mean a lot to her that he’d offered. But still, she was hesitant to dump her thoughts on him. He had much of his own going on, all bigger things than her complaining about losing her job or getting shot and stabbed more times than she could keep track of. ‘Well, maybe that was a big deal…’

She took a final bite of her food. Not that it was the last of the food on her plate, and she did feel a bit bad for wasting it. But her eyes had been bigger than her stomach, and she’d lost her appetite somewhere along the way. She drank the rest of her water, making note to refill it before they headed to their rooms.

While she sat, she lazily practiced. She lifted her plate with the Force, letting it wander beyond them, until a droid grabbed it out of the air, something of an electronic huff coming from it. “I’m upset I never had a choice. I miss the Finalizer. I’ve never lived somewhere as long as I did on that ship,” Paquin said. How could she ask Kylo to open up if she didn’t?

“I miss my job. I was good at it, I knew what I was doing. I don’t...I’m a little lost, now. I adore all three of you, that I wouldn’t change. But I’m not quite...alright, yet.” Because she hadn’t had a chance to rest, to process anything. ‘It’s okay to not be okay,’ only Kylo hadn’t agreed with that. "I haven't...made sense of all of this."

-

Finn sighed, just a bit agitated with himself for not being able to open the Sith holocron. Especially because he was curious what it might contain. There was something equally mysterious and intriguing about the Sith as there were the Jedi. Perhaps even more so, given he seemed to become more acquainted with the Jedi side of things. Even if he’d grown up closer to the dark side of things.

He just had to work up to it, then.

This new holocron that Mira floated to him, that he grasped through the Force himself, looked older. A bit beat up, scuffed in some places, rusted looking in others. As Finn messed with it, it was a bit harder to crack then the previous one, but not nearly as challenging as the Sith holocron. Perhaps it had something to do with age, maybe something was different about it.

But he cracked it open, and it started with a flicker and a stutter in audio before a woman appeared. She reminded Finn of Mira, in a way.

This holocron seemed to be more of a personal documentation, a diary, rather than something intended to be a lesson.

“I fear I’ve seen something...perhaps something terrible,” there was an obnoxious flicker to the holo, a buzz over the audio. “I’m uncertain of what it all means. I don’t know if it proceeds or coincides with the Chosen One or if either of them will come to exist at all,” the woman rambled as if she was getting something off of her chest more than she was informing.

“I’ve foreseen a group of five, and I’m afraid this group of five might see to the return of the Sith. The fall of–one–” the audio began to cut out, and skip over bits. “Light…dark…the rest.” Finn shook the thing with the Force, reaching out to smack it with his hand, as if that would wake it up. Only, it abruptly shut off, the figure gone from view. Maybe he broke it...

"Huh." Was all he said.

-

“Somehow, I don’t doubt your truth.” Hux was fairly certain that he’d be inclined to believe anyone speaking against his father. And Brendol had dug his own grave through his years of lies and mistreatment, the man handing his own son off to the enemy was only his most recent offense. And perhaps the most egregious.

Perhaps that made him too easily believe Roisin’s story.

Or perhaps it was because Roisin was telling the truth that he believed her. It was obvious enough she hadn’t been prepared, hadn’t thought ahead. That was evident in the sad excuse for a blade she brought, in the way she announced herself the second she entered the hangar. She could have gotten farther if she’d snuck around. Or if she’d slipped into some Stormtrooper armor. Or even stolen a blaster.

Of course, she’d never have gotten close enough to kill Brendol, which he was amused she still wanted to do. But her efforts could have been stronger, if they’d been premeditated.

She spoke of not expecting anything from him, and he believed that, too. Even if he could easily see her trying to utilize his position to gain access to Brendol. Another potential reason for her existence as his mother to not get out. Not quite yet, he supposed. He had to ask himself if he wanted to bother with her. If he wanted to try and forge a relationship with the woman who birthed him. He’d made it all this way without her. Could they ever have a bond that a mother and their child had?

He didn’t think so. But could it hurt to try? He supposed it was as safe as it would ever get to ask questions. He reached out for his cat, running a hand over her. “I suppose there’s a lot of questions I want to ask you, a lot of...catching up to do. Like where the name Armitage came from. But...where are you now? What is your life on Arkanis?” He hadn’t been there in so long, and beyond that he had no understanding of how or where she worked. But some information did click in his head, causing his brows to furrow.

“Do you still work for the Sindians?”

 

[Lucyfer]

Kylo wasn’t sure if he ought to anticipate anything from Paquin, and was certainly going to write it off as she lifted her plate with the Force, and sent it moving across the room, only to be caught by an agitated droid. Were all the droids moody? He wondered if that was somehow the way they liked their droids here.

Kylo couldn’t fathom why.

Or perhaps it was just the personality they developed from being around officers like this. Kylo was never exactly certain how droids developed personality. He was certain no one would program Threepio to be as anxious as he was, or Artoo to be as reckless. Droids were…interesting.

But he didn’t linger on that thought, even if his eyes followed the droid a bit of the ways, when Paquin began to speak.

She was upset.

She was lost, and she was confused, and she was hurt. Kylo focused his attention on her. He could feel those things, now. Before all this, he had felt them in passing, but they were easily attributed to moments they were presently enduring, not to a long-lasting undercurrent of issues she had yet to deal with. Now he tried to focus on that, to understand the tension that the past was putting onto the present.

He wasn’t good with the ‘comfort’ part.

He knew that in himself. “Is there anything I can explain, clarify, or help with, that will improve your situation?” She said she was lost, and that she didn’t fully understand things as they were. She was not in a job she had training in, any longer.

Perhaps he could offer clarify on anything like that, and perhaps those understandings would go some ways to helping her emotionally digest it all. Or at least…help adjust and situate.

~***~

As the holocron came to life, Mira paused, spoon in her mouth, as she recognized the figure. How could she not? Even she knew of Snoke’s obsession with a particular prophecy, and it was no surprise to her that this was about that prophecy. They had better recordings of it. Different recordings.

This one seemed…original.

Hasty.

Perhaps she did not think she would live long to do a better job of telling it.

“Krynda Draav,” Mira offered to Finn’s sound as it cut off.

“You know her?” Rey asked.

“Not personally,” Mira said. Perhaps that was obvious, “I never heard anything about the Five leading to the Sith before, though,” that was new, and she realized the other two didn’t even know what she was talking about, as made clear by how Rey was looking at her. “There’s the Prophecy of the Five. Snoke was…obsessed with it. I think he was trying to collect the pieces of it in his knights.”

“Who are the five?”

Mira shrugged. She couldn’t say if the prophecy was true, if it was relevant to them, but, “Five aspects of the Force, it seemed like. There was one for the Darkness, one for the Light, one who came from Darkness but went to the Light, one who came from the Light who went to Darkness, and one who Stood Apart. I imagine Snoke thought he Stood Apart, unless he knew about this Sith part…but I don’t think he did.”

So far as she knew, none of them wanted a return of the Sith. “The prophecy ended with the idea that the Five would somehow be responsible for an end to all that was built…I know that Kylo liked to interpret that as an end to the established governance and Force traditions.”

~***~

Roisin hadn’t put up a good case to the contrary of the truth, which was probably a good thing, for her case. She glanced over, a bit, as Hux reached out to pet his cat. She wondered at that. At the cat itself, at how an animal could even come into his life. She had questions, too. Many.

She wasn’t sure if she ought to be relieved that he had questions, or worried. Both was likely an appropriate reaction. They didn’t know each other. It would only take one misstep for Hux to determine he was better off not knowing her, as well. He didn’t have to say that. It was easy enough to sense in how this was approached.

In who he had become – at least the outward persona.

“Yes,” she answered his question about her employment first, “I do.” She was good at what she did, after all. It also allowed her easier access to rumors of Brendol and her son, even if it had never told her just where they were, or as many details as she might have liked. She had stayed with that family. “It pays well. It allowed me to follow rumors. And…well they’d blacklist me if I went anywhere else,” a small, bitter little laugh.

It did pay well.

And she had her own room and board.

Which she also, probably, just tossed away by leaving without notice. Oh well. “The name, Armitage…,” she hesitated, but continued, “I know on some planets it’s used for a place that’s like a temple, but I liked that it meant ‘One’, too. Just ‘One’.” Some had attributed loneliness to the second meaning, particularly given the monastic meaning of the first, but she had seen it more as an ‘only one’. A one among many. A meaning more attributable to ‘best’.

It wasn’t truly there, in the name, but she had seen it that way. And it sounded strong. Army. Arms. Tage—not quite like Tagge, but it was in there. “And it sounded military, a bit. Arms and Army, and the infamous Tagge name…I liked all it combined. It sounded strong and unique….” Special. To her.

 

[KyloGlenn]

Paquin hadn’t expected Kylo to comfort her, or comfort her in the way she wanted to be comforted. She almost expected him not to say anything, because he had said he’d listen. She felt bad for having admittedly low expectations, but Kylo was not the warm and fuzzy type, so she would not anticipate that from him. And in a way, he still wasn’t when he offered to clarify, to help.

It wasn’t a hug or him telling her everything would be okay.

But she still felt warm and fuzzy, because it was Kylo being supportive in his own way. “I don’t know,” her tone was musing. “I’m sure I will, eventually. I just...don’t really know anything yet.” She hadn’t even had a chance to figure out what confused her, or scared her, or hurt her the most, let alone what might help. And she figured much of it would require her to understand it herself, in her own way.

Not necessarily alone, she needed the Knights. But they couldn’t tell her what her purpose was, how she fit into all this. She had to understand that herself. “I just need..time.” And by time she meant a pause in all these life altering changes. She didn’t think she’d get that. “I want to learn more about...all of this. The Force...this Order...I think that might help.” It was all a process. And if she was lucky, she’d figure out how to apply her talents to her new position.

She reached across the table for him, “It means a lot to me that you ask, that you care. That helps.” It did. It was a comfort in itself, and she knew she had him in her corner. And she was in his.

-

What Mira told them certainly filled in the gaps of what the recording skipped over. Finn couldn’t attest to the accuracy of it, for he knew nothing about these prophecies. Prophecies were not something he was taught as a Stormtrooper, even if it was a part of the Jedi. The Order, Brendol Hux, pick and chose only some ideals to train them on.

“Maybe it was just a bad dream.” Rey mumbled through her ice cream, swallowing. “The Sith already returned, didn’t they? With Palpatine and Anakin?” Rey knew some things, given her lessons with Luke. A lot of history lessons. Was that what Luke’s training was when Mira was around? Or was there more Force-stuff? “And then Anakin killed Palpatine, fulfilling the Chosen One prophecy…” Luke spoke fondly of his father, something he didn’t share with Leia. But Rey wondered about what Luke told her about Anakin...

Did he? Fulfill the prophecy? With Snoke...Kylo wasn’t a Sith, but he couldn’t have been far from it.

“Maybe it’s not meant to apply to us yet. Or it already has happened. When was this recorded?” Or at least, when was Krynda Draav alive? The holocron seemed very old. “Snoke was pretty typical Dark Side if you ask me.” He didn’t think Snoke stood apart at all, other than being an exceptional evil. And that didn’t matter anymore, because he was dead.

Finn tried to think of how the prophecy could apply. He tried to amuse himself with it. There were only four knights now, but Mira was still alive...so maybe, technically, it did apply to them. “Kylo could be the darkness....you,” he pointed to Mira with his spoon. “Could be the one that stands apart, I think with the whole Grey thing, the separation from the Knights. I don’t know about anyone else, though.” He didn’t know the Knights. Who would be the light? The dark who stands in the light? Vice versa?

“I think I’m thinking too much about something that won’t apply to us.” It could be in the future, it could be in the past. Neither was comforting.

-

Hux was a bit bothered by her confirmation that she did still work for the Sindians. He didn’t fault her for working, of course, but part of it nagged at him...how convenient it was that his mother happened to work for the Sindians and here she was now, when it was no secret the Huxes did not get along with them. Even more curious…Hux noted he had to look into exactly where Brendol had wanted that shuttle of troops to station themselves. He hadn’t looked beyond the planet before he’d ordered them to be recalled.

But he wasn’t alarmed at the moment. He didn’t believe Roisin to be a spy of some sort–he knew Carise was much too curious about things she shouldn’t stick her nose in. BUt Roisin woukd be a terrible spy, if she was. He’d rather listen to the meaning of the name Armitage.

Which amused him a great bit, and an unfamiliar emotion ran through him. It showed on his face, he was sure. He just couldn’t tell if a ghost of a smile was tugging at his lips or if it was a grimace caused by some other emotion. But, at least on the inside, he liked it. The name. Better than the one he had, that he often refused. He was always just Hux. “It’s better than Brendol,” he did say. While the meaning of Armitage, the story behind it, wasn’t anything exceptional, there was still meaning to it.

“We both know no such thought was put into the name my father gave me,” he’d been named after the man, no doubt with the expectation to live up to his...well, expectations. No doubt his father regretted that, for Hux never did become what Brendol wanted. Hux wouldn’t brag, but he would like to think he was successful in his own way. Especially because Brendol had never wanted Hux to exceed him.

Hux liked Armitage. “You hadn’t expected to meet me. But now you have.Before either of us wastes the others' time,” more than they already had, he supposed, “I understand this wasn’t anticipated, but I’m afraid you must make a decision. I have no time or energy to spend on people with poor or futile intentions. Either you want to maintain some sort of relationship–in which I could not promise to be a son–or you don’t. If not, I will put you on a shuttle back to Arkanis. If you would like to form...something, I will ask questions, and I will answer whatever questions you may have in return. And go from there.”

Millicent meowed over him.

 

[Lucyfer]

Admittedly, Kylo had not expected Paquin’s confusion to be so deep that she didn’t even know where to begin. It hurt, that he didn’t have a way to help her. That she was so lost in all of this that she didn’t know where to start.

As she reached for him, he folded a hand over the top of hers. He knew he’d accept this matter of time. “If you think of things, don’t hesitate to mention it,” he encouraged that much, at least. He wasn’t the best at this, but if he had a problem, or something that could be fixed, he could at least work on that.

It was what he was trying to do on much larger scales, after all. An entire galaxy.

The odds of rest, of a pause, were slim. Although the next couple of days was likely to be a little slower, as they worked on meetings, and efforts to push forward with taking the galaxy. He didn’t know if that would help her…but he would keep it in mind.

No matter what, they would be moving faster than Snoke allowed.

He supposed he was done eating, but he didn’t float his meal to the droid right then. “To any of us. I know the other Knights care for you, as well, so if you can’t…if you don’t want to mention it to me first,” she could go to them.

He would likely be upset over it, but he’d get over it.

He was making the offer.

He’d deal with the anger that came from it. He was somewhat aware of his anger issues, even if he had no plans to correct them anytime soon.

~***~

“A long, long time ago,” Mira said to Finn’s question about it, “it’s possible it has already happened,” she agreed, “perhaps the Five were actually around the time that Vader rose,” but she didn’t believe that. Not really. The Sith hadn’t been gone at that time, just in hiding.

The Sith were certainly gone now. Vader and Palpatine both, and so far as she knew, no apprentice of Vader existed and rose up. They might have taken a liking to Kylo, if they existed. Or gone after Luke to destroy him – but nothing had come of that.

Then again, they might be smart, and be in hiding.

“I don’t think it’s actually relevant,” Mira chuckled, “but…there is a difference between prophecy and dream,” Mira said to Rey. Her dream, before the meeting with Hux and Leia – those feelings before the Order attacked on Cimarosa, weren’t soon to be forgotten. She didn’t want to experience it again. She didn’t like dreams in the first place. They were always bad.

Of course, she deserved that, for killing her family. And for her family worshiping a dream deity.

She was amused by Finn’s thought process, though. “You think Snoke actually got it right?” She shook her head, “Kylo is the from the light, standing in the dark,” they had thought of that before, “Rey might be the light,” Mira considered, “maybe you’re the dark standing in the light, Finn – from the First Order, and all.” She offered as a play.

It was likely, entirely, irrelevant.

Who then was all dark, though?

It left her, oddly enough, with that ‘honorable’ spot as the one aside. The Gray. If the prophecy was to be believed. Ariel and Gnaeus didn’t seem like they would be it. There was Paquin, though she hadn’t gotten to know her very well – but she was from within the Order, and she rose into the Knights. “Maybe Paquin is the dark….”

And then the holocron started again. “What’s going on?” Rey was startled, “Finn?”

No, it was not Finn. Kevan was trying to replay it, to get around the age of it – because that was not how a holocron should respond.

~***~

‘It’s a thousand times better than Brendol.’ Roisin didn’t say that, but as she pursed her lips to prevent saying it, she nodded. She could confirm that was what was on Hux’s real birth certificate. He could have it back, if he wanted it. However, she wouldn’t say that. Insisting on things from him didn’t feel right. She was still weighed down by the years apart, a weight that had not bothered her when she approached his father.

If anything, the years had driven the weight from her shoulders when confronting him.

But these were two different circumstances.

Not to mention he cut away, quickly, to the matter of wasted time. To the matter of her decision. And she stared her son straight in the eye as she said, “I’ve wasted 31 years of time, I don’t want to waste anymore time.” She knew, she could not have the same sort of relationship with him that she could have had if she had raised him.

That would always haunt her.

But she could be something for him, now. “I can’t promise to be a mother. That was taken from me,” as was his ability to be a son, “but I can promise to be someone who is interested in your welfare, and I can promise to feed you well,” perhaps a terrible joke, but it was said with some earnestness. Some truth. It was a skill she had, and she was still damn proud of it.

It may not be warfare. It may not be anything anyone applauded or wrote history about, but it was a necessary thing. Why not also be a comfort, a pleasure? “And love your cat. I already love it.” She didn’t know if it was a she, or a him. “I’m glad you’ve had something like it…I’m sure Brendol tossed the ewok as soon as he was out of my sight.”

 

[KyloGlenn]

Paquin wouldn’t lie to herself or him and say she’d go to him first when she had a question, but she appreciated his open offer. He must have understood that, well, he wasn’t the most inviting for these things. There was a hesitance to ask him things that might earn an unsavory reaction. And Paquin thought he had a bit of habit of giving biased answers.

Still, she smiled, her hand squeezing his. “When I have questions, I’ll ask them,” because she was definitely going to have questions at some point, she was sure. She wanted to be able to ask Kylo questions, and she would when she felt like she could. But she suspected she’d likely be going to Ariel or Gnaeus first.

“I’m grateful for all of you. That, at least, has been constant.” The one thing that she knew, she was sure of, that kept her going forward.

Unexpectedly, she yawned. Her free hand moved to cover her mouth as she did so, suddenly aware of just how exhausted she felt. She didn’t want to part from Kylo or abandon the view that she thought was pretty, but the thought of letting her body rest grew more appealing by the second. Not that she and Kylo would really part–their rooms were right next to each other–or that the view would go anywhere. A glance at the large chrono on the wall told her it was terribly late.

Paquin looked back to her companion, “I don’t know if you’re ready, but I think I’m going to wind down.” She didn’t say it, but there was a silent suggestion that he should, too. She could imagine how exhausted he must be, too.

-

It actually made much sense, the roles Mira felt they could fit into. Even if she was just playing, humoring his own musings. Kylo, unfortunately, fit the light-to-dark. And Finn could certainly see Rey as the light, a small smile gracing his face at the thought. Perhaps he could fit into the dark-to-light, but the whole Grey Jedi alignment made him question…

As did Paquin being the dark. He didn’t know her well, not outside of the few instances they’d encountered each other on the Finalizer. But she’d been nice to him, to the other troopers. But, perhaps everyone had misjudged her. Maybe she was a dark sided mastermind.

Who else would be the dark?

Finn had no chance to express any of these thoughts, or express his amusement that they even tried to fit themselves into it. No chance before the holocron came to life, and Finn jumped, tensed at the action. Rey asked what was going on, looked to him. But he just shook his head, “That’s not me, I’m not doing anything.” ‘Or am I?’ Of course, he checked himself to make sure he wasn’t the culprit unconsciously.

He definitely wasn’t. “Mira?” He questioned, before he thought of something. “Wait! The crystal!” Finn exclaimed, offering no more explanation as he moved for it. It wasn’t glowing, but maybe it could.

“Okay, Force! Is that you? Are you trying to tell us something?” He asked, voice a little louder than it needed to be. And if he was talking to the Force, wouldn’t it be able to hear him at any volume? Maybe he was making a fool of himself.

-

They both agreed that neither of them could promise to fit into the roles taken from them. He couldn’t be a son, partly because he never thought he ever had been one. Yes, of course he was someone’s son, everyone was someone’s kid. But he’d never been treated like one. He was sure he’d tried to act like one, to earn something from his father. But really, he didn’t know what it meant to be someone’s son.

And the opportunity to be a mother was taken from Roisin. Hux knew he couldn’t fault her for handing him over, even if he had underlying feelings of abandonment. Brendol was manipulative, and Hux knew his threats, the fall of the Empire, it all could have seemed incredibly terrifying. And he assumed she’d been young, and she was not wealthy. There were too many factors out of her control for him to be upset.

He did snort, a bit, at her mention of feeding him well. That would be welcome. He had received reports from people around him that he did not, in fact, eat enough. In his defense, he didn’t have time.

“Millicent,” he offered the cat’s name as she said she’d love her, she already did. “Most people do,” love her, that is. Except Brendol. But everyone else had taken a liking to the orange little thing, him especially. She was a sweet cat. And Millicent liked Roisin, it seemed, as the cat rubbed her face against Roisin’s leg. Though, Hux’s brows did furrow at the mention of the ewok.

“That came from you?” He asked. He never knew where he’d got it. But it had always been his favorite. Perhaps he knew, somewhere, that it came from his mother. He shook his head, “He didn’t throw it out, not right away. I had it for a while,” until he was around seven, maybe? “I don’t know what happened to it. I assume Brendol threw it out–he never let me have many toys. He especially thought I was too old for ewoks.” When he was certainly not too old.

“Or because ewoks were enemies of the Empire.” Strange. “I never knew where it came from.” And he hadn’t been able to find anything like it since.

 

[Lucyfer]

They had each other – through all of this, Kylo hoped, that would remain constant. He wasn’t soon to forget the nightmares, the possibility that they may all be ripped from him, but he wanted to believe that somehow, with Snoke gone, the odds of that were lessened. He didn’t know, of course, but he wanted to believe it.

He supposed he’d find out if he had any more of those terrible dreams.

The thought didn’t hold.

Her yawn was a bit too cute to allow it to hold, and a low laugh escaped him after she mentioned turning in. He was not so certain he would, immediately. He wanted to walk the base, but he wouldn’t force her through that. He did at least consent to leaving the kitchen, levitating his plate towards the droid who fetched it out of the air with similar mutterings.

“I’ll walk back with you,” he said. He wouldn’t lie and say he would also wind down.

Even if walking might be a bit of winding down. Getting a feel for the place. Figuring out where things were. Walking would also let him think for a bit, even if he was actively looking into where he was going.

“I’ll be up a little longer, but not too much longer,” he said as he rose from his seat. He had to hope not too much longer.

He didn’t think this place was as large as Starkiller Base.

~***~

Mira shook her head immediately at the question of whether or not it was her, before Finn recalled his crystal, and the incident that he’d mentioned. Mira hadn’t thought too much of it. It was Korriban, after all – but now, she wondered.

Did something from Korriban come back with them?

Or was it something else?

Either way, the holocron stopped playing, and the crystal flashed twice.

“Yes! Yes! Almighty Force is here!” Kevan really wished they could hear him. Alas. He was in a room of rookies, and Mira, who was so closed off it was hilariously sad.

“Jinn?” Jinn had tried to talk to her before, so Mira guessed it might be him. She knew she had…problems…listening to hallucinations. She still wasn’t entirely certain it wasn’t a hallucination despite Luke confirming it.

One flash.

“Why don’t I know morse code?” Not that it would help, at all.

“Oh! We should—maybe we should go get Luke?” Rey suggested.

“Ya know what….” Kevan flashed it twice. Luke heard him. Why not? The worst it could do was cause the Rebel Base to fall apart because Mira couldn’t keep her temper.

Nothing serious.

~***~

“Millicent,” she echoed after Hux had said it, and reached for the cat as she opted to ignore Hux and press herself to Roisin’s leg. Yes, she already loved Millicent, like everyone else, except Brendol, who didn’t matter anymore. Who would never matter again. She scratched behind Millicent’s ear, before looking up, a bit startled, as Hux asked about it.

He remembered it.

Roisin nodded to his question – it was from her. And she was glad he had it, for a few years, at least. It was taken from him, but…he had it.

He probably wouldn’t appreciate a replacement at 34 years old, but the thought crossed her mind. Perhaps she could find something more ‘grown-up’ that would work instead. “They weren’t enemies of the Empire when I found it for you. At least, not openly, though I don’t think the Empire cared much about Endor,” and ewoks weren’t known for space travel.

“I was lucky to meet a couple of them when I was young. I thought they were cute, and my parents told me that they were vicious little things,” a touch of a wry smile crossed her lips, “what better gift than a vicious little protector for you?” And they had taken down an Empire.

Helped take down an Empire.

She liked them more. “I haven’t seen any since I was a child, though I know they don’t travel much. And I…might have had it commissioned. A friend knew someone, and it came together.” At least working in a trade, she had met lots of other people in trade work. Arkanis was good for that; nobles wanted everything, immediately.

 

[KyloGlenn]

Paquin was a bit worried when he said he’d stay up, even if he said it wouldn’t be for too long. She figured he’d wander, too, and she worried about not knowing where he was. Even if this base was safe. Still, she didn’t protest it. “Okay. Just as long as you get some rest, eventually,” he needed it. They all did. It felt like ages since the last time they’d all actually slept.

She let her hand slip from his, only to stand and grasp her empty glass of water. She supposed she could just have easily used the Force to pour herself some more water, but she just went about doing it herself. She’d return the cup in the morning when she would inevitably return for breakfast. Or at least to see what this place was like in the morning, maybe observe the weather through that fun viewport.

“Goodnight,” Paquin said to the kitchen droid as she passed it to return to Kylo, to which the droid only grumbled.

Paquin wasn’t affected by the dreary droids as she fell beside Kylo. She wasn’t in any hurry to get back to her room, her body too tired to move quickly. She was sore, too. She’d definitely moved in ways she really shouldn’t have. But at least her wounds weren’t searing pain, but becoming an ache. Stung if she moved in the wrong way, but with the bacta, they’d be healed from that in the morning.

Which reminded her. She hoped they delivered that gauze she requested, so she could remind Kylo to put it on before he went to bed. Just to avoid aggravating his abdomen wound. “Well...you know where to find me if you need anything,” she offered. Not to talk, but if he just wanted company. If he had a dumb question, or if he was in pain. “At any time.” She made sure to specify. She didn’t care what time it was.

-

“Rey!” Finn did frown at her suggestion, nodding in Mira’s direction. A nonverbal reminder that the two of them didn’t get along. Big emphasis on they didn’t get along. Of course, there was no subtlety in the message he was trying to convey. Not in his exclamation, not in his exaggerated nod, and the small space that was his room did not help him conceal its obviousness from Mira. He just hoped he didn’t hurt her feelings.

“Finn! It flashed!” Rey gestured with her hand to the crystal in his hands. “The Force wants Luke!”

Finn frowned. “Can’t argue with the Force.” He snapped his fingers as a thought came to his head, “Luke must know something about the prophecy!” Maybe he was the prophecy! Yes, that was it!

Rey was already on her feet, bowl in hand. She wasn’t leaving her ice cream behind to melt. “I’m going to go get Master Luke, I’ll be right back.”

“Wait, maybe we should all go! It might be easier to show him than to convince him to come here,” and they could avoid the whole Sith holocron situation. Finn also felt like Luke would be anti-carbonated beverages, though that was the least of their problems. Finn gathered the stone and the old holocron in his arms, not worrying about his ice cream. Rey was already off on her way when Finn paused.

“Er, Mira, if you don’t want us...if you don’t want to come with…”

Finn wasn’t sure how to phrase it. If she didn’t want him to go, he wouldn’t go. If she didn’t want to go, he wouldn’t make her go.

-

“I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting any ewoks myself,” he was a bit disappointed by that. He supposed he could have much of what he wanted, but he did not get to meet any ewoks. He knew some were used for therapy after the Empire fell, which didn’t exactly fit with their vicious description. Hux wondered, truly, what their mentality was like. If they were conscious of sides.

Would anyone question it if Hux wanted to take up the old outpost on Endor? Death Star ruins, something like that. Not that he’d find any ewoks there…

“I don’t know how vicious something that was often turned into jerky could be, but I can appreciate the sentiment,” perhaps his own stuffed ewok had served somewhat of a therapeutic purpose to him. And the fact that the ewoks had such an impression on her that she’d had the thing commissioned–which would also explain why he’d never found one like it–left Hux feeling uncomfortably warm.

A similar warmth he felt with the Admiral. But different, too.

Foreign all the same.

“It was my favorite. I regret losing sight of it,” he wished he could have grown out of it on his own terms. Though, he questioned if he would have as he wanted the thing then, at a wise age of thirty-four. He could still remember it. The fuzzy fur, the embroidered eyes, and the soft cloth of the headscarf.

“Your parents,” his grandparents, “are they dead?” It was a very strong likelihood, Brendol’s were. But still, even Hux thought that perhaps he could’ve sugar coated it a bit. But he never really was the type to do that. Bluntness got answers and he was curious.

 

[Lucyfer]

Kylo shook his head to deny that he would be awake too long, before Paquin moved off to get more water. She certainly could have done it with the Force – and he thought, next time, he might encourage it. Get her used to using the Force. Make it a part of her life, the way it was his, the way it was all of theirs, so that she didn’t forget to use it in situations where it would be useful.

He didn’t know if that might help her confusion, or her sense of ‘place’, but he wanted to think it wouldn’t hurt.

As she returned, he walked alongside her, through halls that would gradually become familiar. She offered her presence to him, and he gave a small smile, as he nodded, “I know,” he agreed, “and you will know where to find me,” when he returned to his room.

He thought to add, “If I’m not there…if you do need me and can’t find me…you can use the Force,” he added. “It can offer a sense of where I am, and you can also learn to sort of…push feeling or thought through it, to another.” Some did it unintentionally. He could feel Snoke’s anger from planets away, sometimes.

He could feel Leia. Still.

Or perhaps he was imagining that.

~***~

Kevan was cackling as best he could, without vocal cords. Which, it seemed, was no longer so hard. This ghost thing was becoming easier. More intuitive. Rey and Finn were adorable little novices to trust so blindly that he was the Force talking directly to them and giving them messages. Luke was, no doubt, going to ruin the game – but he wanted that.

Needed it, really.

The looks on their faces would still be amazing. Worth all of this.

Even if Mira did not look pleased. No, he didn’t expect that, either. Mira was frowning at Finn and Rey, even as Finn offered not to go. Not to make her go. She sighed, but rose, with her ice cream. She was going to keep eating it. Maybe it would help her deal with Luke if her mouth was full of ice cream.

“I have to deal with him tomorrow anyways.” She couldn’t hide away. “I’ll try not to punch him in the face.”

Rey pursed her lips a moment at that, reconsidering having them all go to Luke – but Mira was usually fairly contained, right? She hadn’t seen all that Finn had, with regards to Mira’s emotional problems. Even if she’d heard some things.

“Okay. I know the room we’re staying at. He’s probably in there.” Maybe he was asleep. Well, the Force wanted him, so they’d just have to wake him up. “Follow me.” Rey said, and took the lead, in spite of the fact Finn probably knew the base, and where Luke was, better.

At least Rey didn’t get turned around.

~***~

A small smirk twitched on Roisin’s lips at the mention of ewok jerky. “You know, there’s krayt dragon jerky, too.” And steak, and much else, for the brave of soul, and those with enough money to buy it. Krayt dragon was expensive – but she worked for the Sindians. She’d prepared it before. A show of status, more than anything. An attempt to intimidate was also likely inherent in that, even if everyone knew the Sindians weren’t actually capable of killing a krayt dragon.

Of all the highfalutin Imperial names, probably only the Tarkins would pull that off.

At the question of her parents, she started to shake her head, before pausing, “My mother passed a couple of years ago,” it was hard. Her mother had not been supportive of many of her decisions, including letting her son go. They had not been on the best of terms for many years, until, they were.

Her father had tried to mend those bridges. “My father is still alive, still on Arkanis,” she added. “He doesn’t work for the Sindians,” though he wasn’t retired. He should be, but…well, she honestly didn’t think he’d know what to do with himself if he retired. He always had to be doing something. “He’s a mechanic,” he was so much more than that. He was a tinkerer, really, but his money came from repairing any vehicle that broke.

But he liked to build. Anything and everything. He didn’t have any engineering or architectural degree. “I don’t think he could stop working unless his hands fell off…and I’m not sure even then.”

Perhaps her son got that sort of work ethic. He clearly had more than Brendol. “His name is Egan. Your—my mother was Bryony.” Odd names. Very un-core, she knew. Not that Roisin or Armitage were very core, either. “She didn’t forgive me for letting Brendol take you. She doted on you,” not that he remembered. “You…you were her little gingersnap.” It was a fond memory, Bryony playing with him, laughing with is laughter, and encouraging his young ‘why’ games to the point that Roisin thought she might go insane.

 

[KyloGlenn]

Despite Paquin’s leisurely pace, both too tired to move faster and wanting to make the most of their time, the halls seemed to pass them by entirely too quickly. If Paquin was familiar with this place, with any other route than the one she’d committed to memory, maybe she would have taken the long way around. ‘Next time.’ She hoped they’d get more quiet opportunities like this.

But she wanted to savor it, now, for she was more certain they’d only get further occupied in the days to come.

Kylo offered a way to find him, if he wasn’t in his room. “I hope I won’t have to tonight,” or any night, not for anything bad. “I’ll keep it in mind, though, and add it to my list of things to learn.” In a way, she knew what he meant, she had done it before. Not intentionally, but when she used the Force she could certainly make out presences. Kylo’s was unmistakable. The other thing, though, she hadn’t done that. She was sure her feelings could be felt, just like she had felt the feelings of the others, but she had never tried to push them through the Force.

She liked the concept of it. She thought it could be useful, even if for now all she tried to do was offer positive thoughts. Nice thoughts, feelings, like how she’d liked the viewport. How she felt relieved that all of them were alive, and half of them were sleeping safe and soundly. How she was happy to get a smile out of him, small as it was.

She didn’t think it actually worked, and she breathed a laugh at herself. “Luckily, I like learning. Since we’re all going to be doing a lot of it. And you know...I know I don’t really know anything about Supreme Leader activities, but I do know a thing or two about...some things,” things Kylo might not have seen in his high positions. She could at least help that way, if nothing else.

Their hall was in sight, a little box of gauze set outside her door.

-

‘Maybe this won’t go well.’ Finn worried as Mira spoke of trying not to punch Luke Skywalker in the face. Sure, she would try not to, but punching him was still a factor in all of this, somehow.

Should he insist that she stay behind? For everyone’s sake? No, he couldn’t do that. Not only because she was his teacher, but because Luke and Mira would never get along if they didn’t encounter each other. Maybe it would help, too, to soften the inevitable argument that would take place the next day.

Or maybe it would make it worse. So much worse.

Finn only paused a moment to try and contemplate if he should say something, opening his mouth and then closing it just as quick to turn on his heels and follow Rey. Sure, Finn most definitely did know the base better, but he didn’t actually know where Luke and Rey had been set up for their visit, so he was fine with following Rey. Of course, he wondered if she even knew where they were going, if she’d even had a chance to memorize where they stayed.

But she got them there, didn’t she?

Luke had been sleeping, evidently, as the room was dark when they barged in. Or, at least, he had been trying to. The man grumbled as he heard the door open and more than one set of feet shuffle into the small room. The light flicked on and he squinted against the light “What is it?” He asked as he shuffled to turn and sit up, eyes blinking to better see the three figures. Two with ice cream in hand and Finn with a holocron and a kyber crystal. Curious.

“Sorry to bother you, Master Skywalker, sir,” Finn tried to offer some sort of manners to smooth over their abrupt entrance, but Rey didn’t seem to take that same care.

“Master Luke, we have a message from the Force,” Rey gestured to the things in Finn’s hands, “Go on, Force, show him!”

-

Hux didn’t know why he was disappointed to hear of Roisin’s mother’s passing–his grandmother’s. Saddened, even, despite the fact he had never known her. Well, he did, but not to his memory. Another disappointing fact, because he would never have the chance to create memories. This entire time he’d had blood family out there that might’ve been worth the effort these relationships required, but he’d missed out.

Thanks to Brendol. Or perhaps, he had some fault of his own. He’d never tried to find the maternal side of his family.

He supposed there was Roisin, now. And this Egan, also Orla, he presumed, given he hadn’t noted any marital signifier. Though, would a kitchen woman wear a ring or anything of the sort? He wasn’t sure, supposed he could ask, but he was momentarily distracted by this ‘little gingersnap’ nickname. It was horrible, absolutely atrocious, but he thought it funny nonetheless.

It was a nice pet name, born of adoration, no doubt. Reinforced by the apparent upset Bryony felt over Roisin giving him up. “I’m sorry for your loss,” he supposed his, too, but he didn’t know what he’d lost. “It’s a shame she couldn’t see the resolution to…,” Hux gestured, “this.” A terribly unsatisfying fate to not see this conclusion. Or beginning, Hux didn’t know.

“Perhaps it would be nice to meet this Egan,” very un-core name indeed, but no name was truly strange in the galaxy, “some day,” Hux considered, not that he thought he’d have time anytime soon. Nor did Roisin note Egan’s feelings towards him or the forced abandonment. “And any other family you might have,” a subtle nudge in the direction of whether she’d found someone that hopeful was nothing like his father. Other kids...siblings, nieces, nephews, cousins.

He was curious.

And maybe, despite his refusal to admit it, a family might be nice. Troublesome, of course. Extra baggage always was, “Though, it’s only fair to add that if, or rather when, your identity is discovered, there is a danger to consider,” it was common knowledge that he was a bastard, sure, the son of some kitchen woman. But no one knew the identity of her. Being related to the leader of the Order wouldn’t mean well.

 

[Lucyfer]

Kylo also hoped that Paquin wouldn’t need to attempt it, ever, but he knew that their situation was still uncertain. They were likely to end up in battles again. In more unfamiliar buildings. It might become necessary that she learn to follow others through the Force, to find help, or to offer help. It might be necessary that she learn how to communicate through it, too.

Kylo knew he could offer some teaching with that – and admitted to himself that he almost wished Snoke or Mira were around to teach Paquin those particular things of communicating through the Force. Kylo knew they could, over time, create a bond that would help with that. Their continued presence around each other was already doing that, but he had never quite been able to bridge connections as quick as some. Not like Snoke, or Mira, but he still could.

He would.

He had to get better at it all, and bridge the connections with all of the Knights. Now that they were working more closely together, it shouldn’t be that hard.

He wouldn’t comment on that, except to say, “I promise we’ll all try to show you and help you with those skills.” With any skill. They owed it to Paquin to help her catch up.

“Although I’m not sure Supreme Leader activities goes beyond sitting around and giving commands,” that’s how it felt with Snoke, although clearly, Snoke had been doing much more. He would learn. This Allegiant General was likely going to show him much – and perhaps, hide much.

He had to figure that out.

“But I’d appreciate any additional insight,” from someone he trusted, too.

He almost sighed as they entered the hallway, and he knew they’d have to separate. He did notice the box outside of Paquin’s door. They were still terribly efficient here. “I suppose I should get wrapped up before wandering, shouldn’t I?” So he didn’t have to disturb her when he got back from his wanderings.

~***~

“I’m baaaack!”

Kevan announced, but of course, only Luke heard as he tried to focus on the disturbance to his rest. He had an idea what this was about before Rey and Finn tried to clarify it, and more of an idea when Kevan began to laugh.

“They think I’m the Almighty Force. Don’t ruin this for me.”

Luke let out a heavy sigh as the kyber flashed twice, clearly something the others understood – or thought they understood, by the way Rey gestured at the crystal, “See!” as if two flashes in no context meant anything.

Luke palmed his face as he sat on the bed, “It’s Kevan.”

“You suck.” Kevan complained.

Mira stiffened. “What?”

“Kevan,” he repeated. “I don’t know him, but that’s who he tells me he is, and from what I’ve gathered, he seems attached to following you around Mira. Or Finn, or Hux.” Those Mira cared about. “He’s not quite a ghost like Obi-Wan, more like Qui-Gon. He’s just a voice, and an influence, it seems.” Signaled by the orange light. “He also doesn’t shut up.”

Mira wasn’t sure what to feel. What to say. Sorrow rushed over her first, the realization that Kevan was there, hitting with the reality she couldn’t see Kevan, because he was dead. Gone. Fear – because he ought to be angry with her. Shame, guilt, anger – these followed fear, because she still held herself responsible, at least partially, for his death. There could be no relief, no joy, in the moment. Not when she was undeserving of Kevan’s continued presence.

Luke could feel it – but he wouldn’t comment. Mira was keeping it contained, biting the inside of her cheek, and staying silent.

Besides, Kevan continued to annoy him.

“Tell Finn he did good. Tell Finn he got the plant and I’m proud of him.”

Luke wondered if he should just teach them how to talk to ghosts so he could be rid of translating for Kevan. Or anyone else who decided to show up – like Jinn.

~***~

It was a shame that Bryony couldn’t see the resolution to this, although Roisin thought she may be aware, somehow. She wasn’t a terribly religious woman, but she did believe in the Force. She didn’t understand it. Still, she thought somehow, through it, Bryony knew. All the same, a wavering smile touched her lips at Hux’s words – sympathy.

He definitely wasn’t as cold as Brendol.

She reached for Millicent all the same, and stroked the cat’s back. “Egan would like to meet you. Of course, he always thought you’d become some great engineer,” not…this. She knew Egan was disappointed in hearing what Hux had been behind – the entire destruction of the Hosnian system.

Admittedly, so was Roisin.

But that wasn’t something to bring up, or ask about, so soon.

He spoke of other family, and then the risks of revelations. Roisin laughed a bit at that and shook her head. Of course, she hadn’t thought that far ahead, exactly. She hadn’t even thought she’d meet Hux, let alone be sitting in his room, petting his cat, and getting to know him. “I think I can handle that. I’ve already lived through one war on the wrong side.”

She didn’t mean to imply that Hux was on the wrong side, but realized it could sound that way. She sucked her bottom lip between her teeth a moment, and drew her hand back from Millicent, “Not that…I’ve heard you’re with Leia now,” was that to say he was on the wrong side before? Maybe. “That a lot changed.”

Her transition to another subject was without much transition at all, “But you do have a bit of a larger family,” she added, “Um, let me get my datapad,” there were pictures, and she rose a moment to figure out which pocket it was in, eventually drawing it out and turning it on, “I have two younger brothers – Aster and Niall,” she offered, “and they have children. Aster has two daughters, and Niall just has one son,” there was a family picture in here, somewhere. “Niall’s divorced, but Aster’s wife is still in his life. Nothing wrong with Niall’s life, love just isn’t enough sometimes.”

It was amicable. As amicable as a divorce could be.

“Ah, this was a few years ago, when…when Bryony was still alive,” she added, and shifted the datapad so Hux could see them. “It was for her birthday,” Bryony’s, that was. They all came together for things like that. “And her,” she gestured to the red twi’lek, “I…never found anyone else.” Never trusted anyone else, better said. “But I adopted her, when she was ten.” Part repentance – and she knew now that had been for the wrong reason. Repentance both for being with the Empire, and for giving up her own son. Having Rhea had taught her that. It was…not an easy relationship, but they had learned to love each other. Learned to choose each other.

Another reason she wasn’t certain she could be a good mother, to anyone, but she knew how to be present. She knew how to choose to love.

Rhea was now in her thirties, too. A victim of the war, her parents slaughtered, and nowhere to go, she’d been in the system most of her life. Roisin knew by then the plight of the twi’lek, and while perhaps it might have been better to let her find a twi’lek family…she was already ten. Most were adopting younger children.

So, she tried. It was a struggle, admittedly. “Her name is Rhea Orla – although she was born a Shak. I didn’t force it on her, she…she chose it.” she had decided to leave that name behind, after meeting others of the Shak clan. After realizing her extended family were slavers. Rhea held her suspicions about what happened to her parents, when she learned from that meeting how rare red twi’lek were. “I’m not sure I’m much of a mother to her, so much as that crazy aunt who took her in, but she knows where to go, where she has people who love her,” Roisin laughed, a bit bitterly, with the tinge of truth in her words. “She’s a dear, something of an…activist,” Roisin sighed, “She worries me.” Immensely. She may as well be a pirate or a criminal or a vigilante – she put ‘active’ in activist, that was for sure.

 

[KyloGlenn]

“I know you all will,” she spoke to his promise. And they had already helped her develop some skills she hadn’t had before. Of course, her experiences with Kylo’s way of teaching had been a little rocky, but she hoped to remedy that. Even if it meant likely engaging in an argument or two before they got there. But she knew him better, now, and could hopefully understand where he came from with some things.

Gnaeus was a bit more patient with her, she understood him. But he couldn’t teach her everything, nor could Ariel, so she would make things work.

They both knew that Supreme Leader activities consisted of more than just sitting and giving commands. Or at least, now they knew. But he knew what she meant. She may not know anything about strategy, and she hadn’t been an officer, but she knew many. Heard them talk. She had some knowledge.

“I suppose you should,” Paquin agreed on wrapping his wound, bending down to pick up the box as they were upon it. Paquin wouldn’t have minded if he disturbed her later for it, for she would at least know his whereabouts and his intention to settle. But they were both here, and it gave them just a few more minutes together. “Come,” Paquin’s hand gently grasped Kylo’s to pull him along into her room. “It won’t take long and you won’t need it after tonight.”

Of course, Paquin didn’t think of what it might look like if someone saw them, not in the way, say, Ariel would probably see it. Her thoughts more so wondered if she should be less open with her affections, the ones beyond her normal, anyway. Recalling how Kylo had pulled his hand away in the laundry room. Just because she could express her feelings outwardly without fear of Snoke, didn’t mean she should. Perhaps they should discuss that, but that conversation could wait until later.

“You’ll have to lift your shirt,” Paquin said as she opened the box to free the little roll of gauze. Though, that was obvious, and she turned a bit pink for a multitude of reasons.

-

Kevan? Well, that certainly wasn’t the Almighty Force. The name probably didn’t mean much to Rey or her understanding, but Finn knew what it was, what it meant to Mira. Or who rather than what. And he felt, as he was sure they all did, the range of emotions that ran their course through Mira. Sadness, fear, guilt, anger. He waited for her, readied himself to reel her back if she exploded.

But she didn’t. He was proud of her for that, and for not punching Luke. Not yet, anyway.

At the same time, both his and Rey’s cheeks burned. Hers were noticeably pink, but it wasn’t so easy to tell on his darker tone. They probably should’ve known that it wasn’t the entire Force talking to them, and they glanced at each other with sheepish looks. Rey was the one that spoke, “Sorry, Master Luke.” Well, really it was Kevan’s fault, wasn’t it? The ghost had tricked them…

Finn was the first one to fall for it.

Luke waved it off. “Finn, he says that you did good. He’s proud of you for getting the plant.” Luke relayed the message begrudgingly, not for Kevan’s sake but because he thought it would be a nice thing for Finn to hear.

“Getting the plant?” Was that a joke? “What about the astrium?” Finn couldn’t help but mumble. Wasn’t that what he wanted him to get? “Can you ask–”

“No.” Luke decided then, not to be the messenger. Besides, Kevan could still hear them. They just couldn't hear him. But he did sigh, gesturing them along. “Come on, sit. Let’s see if I can’t teach you how to hear him,” it came natural to Luke, but he knew it didn’t to some. And usually it took time to teach someone how to be open to that sort of connection, communication. But for the sake of Kevan and the kids leaving him alone for a couple minutes at least, he’d try. He thought he could at least help Finn and Rey, but Mira…

He’d failed to teach her much, and she was closed off to these sorts of things. It would probably take time to teach her, time that he wouldn’t offer because, well...she wouldn’t accept it. But perhaps Finn and Rey could serve as new Kevan translators.

-

Hux was not a technician, no. He wasn’t entirely useless, he knew how things worked at least. Not to say he could build or fix anything...strategy was more his thing. He did purse his lips at her words, the implication of them. That he’d been on the wrong side, that the Empire had been the wrong side. That being aligned with Leia was the ‘right side’. He could at least agree that a lot had changed.

Hux had not agreed with Snoke, or much of what the Empire had been. He had not agreed with what his father wanted. But he still believed that his ideas were right, his desire for order, peace. Even though he worked with Leia, they didn’t see the same path to peace. Something that would be worked upon the following day.

She transitioned, and Hux opted to not bring it up, either. Not the conversation to have right then, so soon. Surely it would come up eventually, but preferably never. Differing opinions could be...dangerous.

Hux, admittedly, was a bit overwhelmed by his newly acquired family members. He hadn’t expected so many. Hux realized, then, that he didn’t really know what the ‘normal’ body count for a family was. But now he had a grandfather, two uncles, three cousins, and...a sister. Technically. Not by blood, though Hux wouldn’t mention that. He’d come to learn that blood had little to do with family, the feeling of it. But a twi’lek sister was by far the most shocking part.

Particularly because, well, Hux knew history. Twi'leks and the Empire did not get along, to put it simply. And the galaxy had not treated twi’leks well. “That is...quite the family you have,” he had. Of course, he did not feel a part of it. And he wondered now, if they’d ever accept him. If he wanted that himself. “It must be nice,” there was no bitterness in his voice, just a distant factor to it. He was processing. “To have a family you can...count on. Be with.”

He had tons of questions, of course. How old everyone was, what everyone did, where were they now? But his focus was on Rhea, the red twi’lek. A rarity, and how fitting to be amongst red heads. “A good name. I’d change it, too,” it said something about Rhea, to reject the Shak clan. Something good, he figured, for clan Shak was not renowned for anything good. And Hux could understand not wanting to associate with what one came from. “You took her in and clearly took care of her. That’s most important above titles,” at least, to Hux.

Roisin clearly loved Rhea, but Hux didn’t have much faith in him and Rhea getting along, solely based on his alignment and the unfortunate past the lineage had with her species. Even more so, he worried what this activism of hers was. Likely not in the same way it worried Roisin. For he knew some...extremes. “An activist is quite the label. Not inherently worrisome,” perhaps there was some motherly way that Roisin worried, or perhaps there was more to it. “I assume what she advocates for aligns more with...General Organa’s beliefs?”

 

[Lucyfer]

Kylo had been prepared to strip his shirt in the hallway and be treated there, so he was a bit caught off guard when Paquin grabbed his hand and pulled him towards her room. He didn’t resist, but he was a bit baffled at the need of privacy for this all of a sudden. It was just wrapping a wound, right?

“I know, I know,” it was why he had delayed in putting his shirt on after the shower. Nonetheless, once she let him go, he pulled it off over his head, not so much as wincing at any pain that shot through from the action. This was hardly a wound worth wincing over, compared to others.

Compared to the scar that still marred his chest from the crossbow.

Actually, maybe he didn’t mind being pulled into the shelter of a room, now that he thought of that, and had to consider that wound along with his newest one, which he hoped wouldn’t leave behind much of a scar. ‘Fitting as it would be.’ That so many significant people were leaving terrible marks on him. It would make sense for Mira’s to last.

The thoughts fled his mind as he saw that Paquin had blushed. Apparently she wasn’t so distracted by her datapad now. “Do you need me to sit down?” He asked, wondering if he should make any comment on the flushing. Okay, probably not – but he wanted to. It just wasn’t so organic, not yet in his mind as to how to do so without upsetting her, or ruining it.

So he’d leave his mind to wander over it, little additions he could have added, like ‘or should I flex?’ instead of saying them, this time around. He was too uncertain to be confident in saying anything like that.

~***~

Mira might later be amused at Rey and Finn’s embarrassment over mistaking Kevan for the Almighty Force, but for now she couldn’t feel that amusement. Although she did want to palm her face when Kevan thanked Finn for saving the plant. Apparently, Mira really was going to have to keep it alive. ‘He probably didn’t know about the astrium.’ Just dumb luck, then, that Finn found it.

Luke refused to offer services as intermediary any longer, but instead directed them to sit. Mira knew without question that she was excluded from the lesson, and she stepped away towards the door.

Rey caught the movement and looked to Mira as she was settling. She opened her mouth, but Mira just shook her head, “Learn what you can,” she told them, including Finn in that, “I’ll just go back to the room for now,” she’d only disturb the situation, and she knew better than to think she’d learn much.

Or that she wanted to learn it, if it involved opening up. When she heard Jinn’s voice, she’d been a wreck, enough so to think it was a hallucination.
She wasn’t all that keen on reliving that anytime soon.

Rey wouldn’t push it. She just nodded, even as the kyber flashed orange. “Damn it, Mira.” But Kevan wouldn’t ask Luke to try. That was pushing too much. He would try to help Luke in teaching the two padawans, though.

“Well, tell me how I can help, Luke.” Kevan offered all the same. He could probably start singing if they needed constant chatter to figure out when the padawans would hear him. He didn’t think Luke would appreciate that, though.

Rey took her seat, setting her ice cream aside. She hoped it wouldn’t melt.

~***~

Roisin heard the distance in her son’s voice, as he looked at the picture, as he processed the information. Likely, it would have been easier, if not a little sad, if Roisin had no one else left to her. Thankfully, she did. She may have truly gone mad without their influences on her.

As expected, it was Rhea who drew his attention most of all. It drew everyone’s attention, a twi’lek amongst a human family. A red twi’lek amongst gingers. Rhea had taken to that well as she aged, able to make jokes about it – how it was somehow just right for her to be there, and Roisin loved that.

It seemed Hux was also familiar with the Shak name. Not a good thing. That meant they were that notable, and it made Roisin wonder if that name alone had been part of why Rhea wasn’t adopted for so long. If they had such a notorious reputation, it could lead to discrimination against an orphan child.

“More or less,” Roisin admitted, “As you may imagine, she’s taken a rather firm stance on slavery, and her…activism is a bit more active than perhaps it ought to be, although she’s made a lot of togruta friends for it.” By releasing a whole bunch of them and helping them get home. She had a lot of friends of all different species, actually, and Roisin had been baffled more than once by waking up to a kitchen full of outcasts, and Rhea trying to cook.

Rhea definitely hadn’t become a good cook, but she tried.

“She tends to advocate for anyone displaced, whether by slavery, the Empire’s near-genocide of several species, or…planetary destruction.”

Rhea might butt heads with Hux.

Actually, she certainly would. No question there. She was mouthy and hot-headed, but for all that anger, just as prone to bursting into tears over a soft film. “It may take some time for you two, if you want to meet her.” Roisin said. “Is there anyone in your life?” She hadn’t heard of anyone. She certainly didn’t see any evidence of it.

Millicent let out a soft mew.

“Besides Millicent, of course,” Roisin gave the cat an endeared smile.

 

[KyloGlenn]

Paquin hadn’t so much as considered Kylo stripping his shirt off in the hall, because why would they when her room was right there? She figured privacy was the normal for these sorts of things. Nor had she considered Kylo taking his shirt off entirely, she thought he’d just hold it above his wound. Of course, whatever was comfortable for him. Besides, she certainly didn’t mind. He was nice to look at. Though, her eyes avoided lingering anywhere too long, as not to objectify him.

It was strange to Paquin. She had seen many people disrobed, often entirely, and she’d seen physiques as impressive as Kylo’s. And yet, he was the only one who made her flustered. Perhaps it was simply because there were feelings involved, and that made things a little more...personal. Should she compliment him while she was here? No, that would be weird…would it? It wasn’t like he was a patient. Kylo’s question pulled her back to reality. “No, you’re fine where you are. The gauze will settle better if you’re standing,” Paquin rambled off.

Because Paquin had foolishly not requested any tape, she couldn’t make a neat little cover of the wound, but rather had to wrap it all the way around him. ”Let me know if it hurts or if it’s too tight,” she spoke gently as her arms moved behind him, beginning to wrap it around. She was fairly good about pressure, though.

Her eyes tried to keep focus on the wound she was currently wrapping, but she was simply the perfect height to observe. And hopefully the trailing of her eyes wasn’t terribly obvious. Though, her focus wasn’t so much on his body as it was following the trail of scars. She knew how Kylo felt about them, but not whether it was the appearance or the cause that bothered him. Maybe both. Maybe she could help the appearance, but the other thing...“The bacta should help with scarring,” she mentioned. Of course, scar tissue was a natural part of the process, and lightsaber wounds were...strange. But perhaps it wouldn’t be so apparent like some were.

Paquin tucked the end of the gauze into itself to secure it, testing it for breathability, “There. How does that feel?”

-

Finn frowned when Mira said she’d go back to the room. “Mira, you don’t have to go,” he tried to tell her. She didn’t have to learn along with them, but that didn’t mean she had to leave entirely. And Kevan was here! Why would she not want to hang around, if not to hear what Kevan had to say? Well, what was translated that he said, since she didn’t seem to want to learn how to listen.

But Finn wouldn’t go back on what he said earlier. She didn’t have to be here if she didn’t want to, he wouldn’t guilt her or force her to stay. And with Kevan there, she was emotional. But he wanted her to know she wasn’t unwelcome.

Luke wouldn’t have excluded Mira, didn’t exclude her in his invitation. He just didn’t think he could teach her anything. He hadn’t been able to before, and she clearly wouldn’t have been receptive to it. But he hadn’t shooed her away. He’d thought she might want to be present while someone else was teaching her padawan. Someone else being him, specifically. But he wouldn’t encourage her to stay like Finn did, not even for Kevan’s sake.

Finn moved to sit next to Rey as Luke spoke, seemingly to the unseen Kevan. “There’s nothing for you to do yet, but once I teach the kids,” adults, but kids to him, “a thing or two, you’ll have to do some talking.” In other words, don’t say anything until requested. “The Force can still be manipulated in death. Not the same way, of course, but you can still draw on a connection to the living. I’ll ask you to do as much when the time comes.”

“For you two,” Luke’s attention returned to Finn and Rey, “The best place to start is meditation. Anyone Force-sensitive can communicate with the dead, it just requires an openness from you and a willingness on the dead’s part. Welcome the Force, be one with it,” Luke encouraged.

“Eventually you’ll be able to connect unconsciously, but for now it requires focus. Finn, I assume Mira has practiced meditation with you?”

“Yep!”

“Alright then. Both of you begin your meditation and we’ll go from there.”

-

Hux didn’t think what Rhea was doing was a bad thing. Of course, it was probably rich coming from him, but he could at least see how displacement and slavery added to the growing chaos in the galaxy. The Empire had left many planets in shambles, and the New Republic failed to pick up any pieces that weren’t the Core worlds. Slavery, well Hux couldn’t really comment on that. It was an issue that plagued the galaxy for centuries and he’d contributed to it.

Of course, stealing babies and training them to be soldiers hadn’t been his idea, but he’d allowed it to proceed. His father had convinced him it was the only way, Snoke supported it. At least Hux could say that since he’d obtained full control over the Order, the kidnapping of children had ceased and would not be continued. He couldn’t undo everything that had been done already, but it had been agreed that it needed to stop. He’d have to focus on other efforts of recruiting…

As for planetary destruction, Hux hadn’t felt bad about that. It was war, it had been a straightforward way to eliminate both the New Republic and the Resistance. Besides, Hux had plans to recover for after he destroyed the Resistance. But of course, plans had changed.

It would be made right again, sooner than later he hoped. “Well, I’m not opposed to meeting her, should she want to meet me,” had Roisin told Rhea that her long lost adoptive brother was in command of the First Order. “Perhaps that introduction will need to be gradual. But I’m pleased to know you had someone–multiple someones–after I was gone.”

Did Hux have anyone? ‘Besides Millicent,’ Hux thought as he pet the cat. “I have a very strong working relationship with the Lieutenant-General that bleeds into an acquaintanceship.” More than that. They were friends, in simple terms. Phasma was among the few people he trusted. And then there was perhaps the most obvious answer, at least in his mind. “And I’m very fond of the relationship I have with the Admiral, Mira Vallens,” Roisin hadn’t met her, but Hux was certain his friend had to have her name being passed around by now.

And those were his people, he supposed. He could also throw in Mitaka, probably.

 

[Lucyfer]

Kylo remained standing as he was, aware of how close Paquin had come to him in order to wrap the bandage around him. He was used to being treated by droids, not people, so this was still a bit of a strange novelty. It wasn’t that he hadn’t had actual people treating him – but he knew his preferences before now.

Droids.

Paquin did a fine job of it, though, even if he could see how her eyes lingered on him. What they lingered on, precisely, became obvious with her words, dashing any thought of a comment or tease. ‘Scars.’ It bothered him. It was another reason why he hated them. They were going to be the draw for anyone who looked at him – even Paquin.

The bacta treatments hadn’t gotten rid of them. The bowcaster mark was still there. The scar on his face, still present.

He was going to have a new scar, now. How many more before the war was done? How many from people he’d cared about? He wondered if there would be one from Leia, before all was said and done. He wasn’t a fool to think she wouldn’t find the strength to act against him. She’d done so many other things in her past…she would.

It was a terrible truth.

And at least distracting enough to keep him from focusing on Paquin, until she finished, “It’s not bothersome,” so he assumed that meant it wasn’t too tight. He hoped that didn’t mean it was too loose. “We really need to create something that actually heals scars,” he reached for his shirt to put it back on, wanting to cut sight of them, now that he was thinking of them.

Now that he couldn’t stop thinking of them.

“It shouldn’t be that hard,” his complaint continued as he slipped the shirt on, muffling it a bit.

~***~

Meditation was starting to become second-nature to Rey. She had spent her whole life waiting, after all, for a family she now knew was never going to be reunited with her. Not the family in the sense of parents, nor the family, in the padawans she had once known.

It was easy for her to slip into it, and feel the Force around her.

A Force that was a teeming turmoil, given Leia and Mira’s close proximities, but Rey knew she had to move beyond them and not focus on that.

She focused on her breathing.

She had to focus on herself, and what she felt. Her curiosity for learning to talk to the Ghosts. Her worry, for both Mira and for Leia. Even for Poe, a small spark in the Force comparatively speaking. Her concerns for tomorrow's meeting. She acknowledged those feelings, one by one, and found ways to release them into the moment. Acknowledging, accepting, and moving forward.

Although Rey had yet to realize it yet, Luke always knew when she was in a higher state of meditation.

She started to levitate. Just a little – but Luke was always glad to see it.

He didn’t know how Finn was, or how far Finn had gotten with meditation. He didn’t know what methods Mira used, in truth, or how much further instruction Finn might need. If it was his place to offer it.

Nonetheless, Luke waited until he could see Rey levitate, and he would wait until he got some sense from Finn, though considered the possibility that Finn might not make it so far.

“I forgot how boring meditation is.” And listen to Kevan, apparently, who couldn’t help but talk even when he’d been told not to. “At least when I’m not doing it. Watching other people is boring.”

Luke wouldn’t respond. He noticed Rey levitating, “Good,” he spoke softly so as not to disturb her, and decided to offer instruction. If Finn wasn’t there, he would hear the instruction at least. If he got there, he could try using it. “What you have to do, once you’ve cleared your mind, is let the Force flow through you. Connect with it,” as Rey knew, “not as it is in living things, or in the environment around you,” Rey was very good at feeling out the Force around her. In the soil. In the air, “But the Force itself. Just the Force. Reach for something akin to a whirl.”

That was the best way he knew to describe the feeling of those passed on, or influences that lingered in certain places. “The Force is like a river, but there are these whirls, these presences of energy, that adjust the flow.”

It wasn’t only ghosts, but ghosts were certainly among the many things that could leave behind that sort of presence.

~***~

Mira still shook her head as Finn tried to call her back, and wouldn’t give a second look back. She couldn’t stay. It wasn’t only Luke, but he was certainly the larger part of it. She wasn’t going to get in the way of his teachings, or detract from it. This was something he could teach, and she didn’t want to hinder Finn in that.

She wanted Finn to have every opportunity to learn what he could; she just hoped she could serve as guidance in the process. If Mace, Luke, or Rey – hells, if the Ghosts, could teach him things, then she wanted him to learn.

But she wasn’t going to be around Luke for a lesson she wasn’t going to take part in.

And she wasn’t going to linger where Kevan was, knowing she couldn’t reach him. Knowing she didn’t know how to apologize to him. Everything in hindsight – she should have run with him on Tatooine.

But then she wouldn’t have talked to Hux and changed the First Order.

She wouldn’t have met Finn.

‘And you can’t apologize when you wouldn’t change it, can you?’

Mira didn’t go back to the room, but kept walking to leave the base. Not far. Just out in nature, where she could safely bury her head in her knees, and cry, at the realization that made her feel like more of a monster than any atrocity she’d ever committed.

That she wouldn’t take it all back, to have Kevan. That she was so damn selfish – even if it was impossible, anyways – that she was still that selfish.

~***~

A gradual introduction might be best, though Roisin would admit that she had no idea how to do such a thing. Obviously, she’d be telling her family about how this went – that her half-brained plot to kill Brendol had led not to his death, but to her meeting her son. And his cat. And getting to have an actually pleasant conversation with him.

Well, she’d figure it out. Somehow.

“I’m sure she will,” if not for the best reasons, initially. She might want to meet Hux to harass him about the Order and make herself heard, more than she’d want to meet him as a relative. Roisin might have to talk her down from being so overt with that, although knowing Rhea, that might be impossible.

Still, it had been…nice, having everyone, even when her mother was freezing her out.

He had people for him, now. Just two, but it was something. Phasma had been a name that Roisin heard plenty of, since Phasma became the Stormtrooper in the silver armor. She was infamous – as symbolic to the Order as their actual symbol, it seemed, and likely well-deserving of her promotion to Lieutenant-General.

Mira was another matter, a name not heard until recently, and always spoke with extreme resentment or bitterness in the Sindian household. Suspicion. There seemed to be nothing good to say about the Admiral, and Roisin had picked up bits and pieces of it. Something about Force-sensitivity, and corruptive influence.

So, she smirked.

Anyone with that reputation that her son was fond of, had to be interesting. And fond seemed like it might be a strong word from him, given how he danced around saying that Phasma was a friend. ‘But what if she’s manipulative like Brendol?’ Roisin dismissed the thought. She might get a chance to see for herself. “I take it this Mira is more than a mere acquaintance?”

She wouldn’t try to tease, but there was something about the way Hux spoke that made her want to. “I’ve heard her name, though only very recently. She’s not well-liked on Arkanis, so I’m going to take that to mean she’s quite opposite of Brendol.” And perhaps opposed to those things which Brendol was a fan of. That could be good.

 

[KyloGlenn]

Paquin stepped back when she finished to allow him space to pull his shirt back on. She sighed a bit, not because of him, but just...a release of emotions in general, she supposed. But her exhale turned into a giggle at his complaint, muffled by his shirt. It did sadden her a bit, that he disliked his scars so much. She didn’t see them as such loathsome things, but then again, they weren’t on her body. She didn’t have a scar that marred her face or scars inflicted by someone she loved.

She did have scars of her own, of course. Discolorations from failed experiments, thin white lines from tumbles and accidents from when she was a child. The new additions, the ugly one on her leg from where a rock impaled it and it was cauterized by a lightsaber–that wouldn’t be going away. The one on her shoulder from the Praetorian that would become a jagged mark, and the blaster wound on her abdomen would scar, too.

But she saw scars differently, perhaps due to her profession. They were good, they were a sign of healing. Of living despite something traumatic, to the body or mind. Kylo had exceptional examples of that, but he didn't view it that way. And she wouldn't force her views upon him, though she could try to make him feel better about the things. “Or you could stop getting hurt,” she suggested, scrunching her nose a bit. “I like that idea.”

But that didn’t fix the scars he already had.

“You’d think it wouldn’t be hard, but scar tissue is healed tissue. Once it’s fully healed, it’s hard to do anything with it. Of course, there are things you can do to fade discoloration, or prevent scar tissue build up by stimulating the area with massaging or stretching, but it’s hard to heal something that...isn’t, technically, injured.” She did sigh again. That probably wasn’t something he wanted to hear. “But, there might be something that can be done yet,” Maybe in Snoke’s things she’d find something, something for him and Gnaeus. Maybe it would give her an excuse to call Yara, too.

“I suppose I should say goodnight, now, and let you go,” there was nothing keeping him around, and she was tired. But she didn’t want to say goodnight. She wasn’t sure how to say it, either. She supposed it should be as simple as saying it, but she wanted to do more. She wouldn’t, though.

-

Meditating came fairly naturally to Finn, he found, especially so as he practiced the Force more and more. Perhaps because it was something Mira was keen on introducing first. Meditation, connecting with the Force. Heck, he was even getting pretty good at connecting to the Force outside of meditating. He thought Mira was a good teacher. Even if she had moments where she wasn’t so good at meditating, she’d taught him well.

He was good enough to make his own lightsaber, at focusing on the Force anyway. The poking and puzzle solving could use some work, but he didn’t think there’d be any of that in this lesson.

If Finn’s eyes had been open, he knew he’d have been in awe of Rey’s levitation. But as it was, his eyes were shut to help him better filter out distractions. Like Luke sitting and watching them, and, of course, Rey levitating right next to him. There were other unseen distractions, though. Like Mira, who he was naturally more attuned to, for she was his Master. Perhaps, even more so after the events in Tarkin’s apartment. There was a level of connection required for that.

But he had to push past her sadness, her emotions, even if it pained him to do so. It was only for the moment, just so he could learn to talk to Kevan. So Kevan could talk to Mira.

Luke talking did make Finn’s focus waver, but he understood the instructions nonetheless, and managed to refocus, center himself. Finn didn’t float, and he wouldn’t. Luke supposed he wasn’t there yet, or maybe he just wasn’t the floating type. But that didn’t mean Finn was not adequately connected, that he didn’t let the Force move through him.

Because it did. The constraints of the room, of the base, they all faded away. Finn couldn’t feel them, envision them. It felt like he was being guided along by a breeze–or a current–and he allowed the feeling to sweep him away. To move through him, technically, and he carefully reached out, gently prodding for a miniscule bump in the Force. The swirl of energy that was unlike the presence of the living. ‘Aha!’

Luke gave them a few moments of silence to try, to adjust, and to ask questions if they were having trouble. But they were smart, he had no doubt about it. After another moment, he spoke quietly, but to Kevan. “Alright, Kevan. If you can speak, you can reach out. Be conscious of how you’re communicating, and reach for the padawans as they reach for you. Then say a few things, continuously,” yes, he was encouraging Kevan to ramble on, just in case it took some extra time to connect with them. Hopefully the padawans would hear Kevan sooner rather than later.

-

Hux couldn’t dwell on how meeting his new family, particularly Rhea, would go. For one, he didn’t know if he’d ever actually meet any of them. Second, he was fairly certain it wouldn’t go over as smoothly as either he or Roisin would naturally want it to, given how Roisin seemed to imply a good handful of them didn’t like the things he was doing. Of course, that could just be Hux being pessimistic. Expecting the worst because that’s how it always went when it came to family.

‘No dwelling,’ he reminded himself, and allowed him to be distracted by talk of Mira, as his mother seemed to take to discussing her over Phasma.

His brows furrowed as Roisin seemed to believe he and Mira were more than acquaintances. “Now why would you assume that?” He asked to brush it off more than anything. Because he knew why. Because he was obvious even when he tried not to be. Hopefully she simply assumed he and Mira were just...better friends than the acquaintanceship he’d described with Phasma. Even though neither were really true or just that simple.

‘Ugh.’

Hux did frown when Roisin said those on Arkanis didn’t like her. Of course, “I’m not surprised.”. There were a great many people who didn’t like her, and given things with Carise...it made sense. Didn’t mean he had to like it. Though, what perplexed him the most was why Roisin mentioned Brendol in comparison to Mira. Did people on Arkanis actually like Brendol? Still? “She’s nothing at all like him,” perhaps he was a bit defensive about that. “She’s more competent than Brendol could ever dream to be. She’s not cruel,” she could be. He knew that. They all could be. But she wasn’t cruel to him…”I admit her position exceeds her expertise, but I’ve no doubt she’ll own up to it. Better than Brendol ever could be a Commandant.” Mira was exceptional in that way, ambitious.

He thought about her then, once again wondering how she might be doing.

“Perhaps you might meet her someday,” definitely, if she intended to be in his life more. He did pause a beat. “Why would you say that?” He wasn’t angry, nor defensive, in tone. Curious. What was said about Mira that made Roisin think of Brendol?

 

[Lucyfer]

Kylo huffed once the shirt was over his head and he was straightening it out around his torso. He would also like to stop getting hurt, but that wasn’t in his future anytime soon. He wasn’t one to stand back and issue commands from a starship. He would be out in the thick of it, and he knew, he would get hurt again. He would add to his scars, and he would hate every new one he received, no doubt.

He knew there were ways to fade it – but if it wasn’t gone, then it was a nuisance, faded or otherwise. It was still visible. It was still there, a mark of his failures, a mark of betrayals, across his body. “I understand enough of what it is,” people had been telling him that. Droids, rather. People didn’t tell him these things. “But I still hope that advancements will one day make scar tissue removable…or healable so it isn’t visible any longer, even if it is healed tissue.” Advancements in the Force, advancements in technology, he wasn’t terribly concerned with where the advancement came from.

But he knew it was unlikely in either.

One look at Snoke’s deformities showed how little the Force had progressed with healing. Whatever Darth Plagueis had known, died with him. If he had even known such things as that; one would assume he must have, to prevent death from occurring, he must have been able to heal. ‘But this is healed.’ He still didn’t like it.

And felt just as strange leaving Paquin on such a…casual note. Or with those irritated thoughts in his head. She wasn’t saying good night, just yet. She just supposed she should. He caught that, at least.

Managed something of a weaker smile. “Yes,” he agreed, for he should get going on to his exploration, “but would it be asking too much to leave with a kiss?”

He could admit to wanting that. To taking his mind off his scars, and remembering that even with them, even knowing where some came from, Paquin wasn’t upset or that bothered by them.

He wasn’t that comfortable yet with just reaching for her and taking the kiss – but he would consider this, mentally, as progress to accepting what they were. To knowing what they were, and wanting to show it, To express it.

~***~

“You know, I’m still new to this disembodied voice thing.” Kevan was teasing. He knew how to reach out. He’d done it with the kyber crystal, after all, so he knew he could try to reach out to them, too. Hells, he knew how to connect to minds. When he was living. He and Mira had done it a few times to better coordinate on battles or spars, without words.

So the reaching out part, wasn’t that difficult. That whirl in the Force grew, and flowed outwards as a part of the current, to move through the open and inviting minds. To try and reach them.

And he spoke. Rambled.

“So, that plant that Finn found, it’s called Gnaeus 4. I didn’t name it, it didn’t have a name before Gnaeus named it. I don’t know why Gnaeus 4, I assume an inside joke, he did it to upset Kylo so I’m willing to accept that as its name. It’s a dreamwort – it’s supposed to flower at some point, but I’m not sure how long that takes or if it will make it that long, now—”

Rey had caught on to the rambling a bit, and tried to maintain her focus without jolting at the fact she was hearing a strange voice from nowhere. It went in and out, and then finally, she asked, “What is a dreamwort?” Okay she knew it was supposed to flower, but why was he talking about a dreamwort?

“My plant! My plant is a dreamwort, the one Finn rescued! It’s from Zeffo, although I didn’t find it on Zeffo.”

~***~

Hux’s query seemed rhetorical enough – particularly as he launched into a defense on Mira. Apparently, Mira did not, in fact, have the qualifications for Admiral. It was a questionable choice to make her one, perhaps, but Hux seemed to have the belief that it would all work out in the end. He had strong faith in her. That much was obvious. It would probably be obvious to a stranger, too.

‘Is it obvious to Mira?’

A question Roisin could not ask. “I would like to meet her,” that much couldn’t be denied, “Someone you defend so strongly, and that Arkanis society seems to loathe, sounds like someone worth meeting.” Given her experiences with many of the Arkanis elite, she couldn’t see it as a bad thing that Mira was loathed.

She wouldn’t shirk from answering Hux’s question, “Arkanis still thinks…highly of Brendol,” she said. Carise certainly wouldn’t see him slandered. “So I assume that someone that Arkanis society on the whole dislikes must be different from him, although they…associate attributes to her that I think of with him. Manipulative being key among them – I’ve heard she’s been associated with the Force?” That such was how she was manipulating people.

But wasn’t Snoke doing that?

But of course, no one on Arkanis would call Brendol out on being manipulative. No one knew the depths of his depravity, or all that he’d done to his son, and to other people’s children. “They seem to think she’s key behind some of the major changes that are not looked fondly upon, like the break with Snoke,” Roisin only knew of Snoke as some figure led the First Order.

She didn’t know Snoke was dead.

She didn’t know much at all about him, only that he was supposedly someone worth following. Until, of course, he wasn’t – until her son broke free of that.

 

[KyloGlenn]

Paquin didn’t want Kylo to leave as it was. Irritated, with less than pleasant things on his mind. He still hoped, which was good. She didn’t mean to dash them with her words, more than she simply hoped to ease his mind, perhaps help him on the path to accepting his scars. And be a bit realistic. But she didn’t know what advancements were to come, from her or anyone else. It was good to hope.

Her lips quirked upwards at his question, amused that he asked. Warmth swelled in her already. Of course, she wanted the intimacy, but she wouldn’t have asked it of Kylo. She didn’t want to pressure him, move too fast for his comfort, for she knew she was more open to these things than he was. She shook her head, “It’s not too much,” she stepped close to him again, one hand slipping around his waist, moving up his back and guiding him closer. “You know, you don’t have to ask,” she told him, her other hand resting at the back of his neck.

Though she supposed it might be a lot of asking until they better understood how to navigate each other, until they both felt comfortable with this new thing.

She gently guided his face to hers, of course doing her best to meet him halfway. ‘Need to get some taller boots...’ It wasn’t any intense thing, she didn’t make it anything more than it was, a simple kiss goodnight. A gentle moving of their lips together that made her want to say goodnight even less. When she did pull away, she lingered. She wanted to tell him everything would be alright. His scars, this Final Order, everything. But she didn’t want him to leave with those thoughts.

“Don’t forget to tell me about your exploration in the morning. And get some rest, please,” her hand moved to brush his hair behind his ear, as if it prepared him for his mini midnight adventure. She pulled him back for a final, quick peck before she loosened her hold on him. "Goodnight, Kylo." Of course, she'd still walk him the two feet to the door to see him off.

-

Luke, of course, regretted giving Kevan permission to ramble on, for he had to listen to this plant backstory before either padawans had to hear him. Though Luke was admittedly amused by the dynamic of the Knights, how the plant got its name, Kevan’s enthusiasm for this plant. Besides, the kids wouldn’t know when they could hear him if he didn’t talk every living thing and every ghost’s ear off.

Finn didn’t quite catch Kevan’s ramble from the beginning, he ‘tuned in’ during something about Kylo before he went on to discuss what Finn assumed was his plant–a dreamwort. Well, Finn wasn’t sure what a dreamwort was supposed to look like, but he was certain it wasn’t what it did look like. He didn’t know how Mira was going to nurse it back to life–or if she wanted to. Maybe now that they knew it was Kevan’s plant, she would.

Wait. Kevan! “I can hear him!” Finn exclaimed, only for Kevan’s voice to fade out for a second. ‘Focus!’ He needed to keep focusing, until he got the hang of it.

“Good job, both of you,” Luke encouraged. It was nice to know he could still teach some padawans some things.

“Wait, Kevan...you really only wanted me to get the plant? All that...flashing for a plant?” If the plant was from Zeffo, and the astrium was from Zeffo...was that not connected? Finn risked losing focus to poke an eye open, to see if Kevan had suddenly appeared physically. “I–is there something we can do to see him–uh, you, Kevan?” Finn asked Luke at first but he supposed he should ask Kevan. It was weird, talking to someone he couldn’t see. Where was he supposed to look?

“There’s nothing to be done on your part, Finn,” Luke said. It was up to Kevan, to materialize or not. It wasn’t anything to do with Rey or Finn’s own Force abilities.

“Well…,” Finn trailed off, closing his eyes again. He didn’t think he lost focus, but it was better than maintaining eye contact with Luke as they talked to a ghost they couldn’t see. “So, as a ghost, is there a purpose to floating around or is it just for fun and to keep your plant alive?” Luke said Kevan followed him, Mira, and even Hux around.

-

Hux was a bit disappointed in Arkanis’ mob distaste for Mira and appreciation for Brendol. Of course, he expected as much. Mira didn’t particularly align with what they were used to, and Brendol did. Not to mention the older Hux had a presence on the planet, and Hux didn’t want to think about the influence the Sindians had. Still, it was disappointing for his home planet to not be of similar mindset as him.

Then again, Arkanis was as much his home as the Finalizer was.

Perhaps the Finalizer even moreso.

“Yes, she’s a Force-user, but she’s not...manipulative. Not like Brendol,” she could be. Especially with her specialty in invading minds, he had no doubt. But that wasn’t how she was doing things, to his knowledge. She genuinely seemed to want to inform and persuade as opposed to...force people in favor of her ideas and intentions. Of course, if she did use the Force on any of them, Hux supposed he wouldn’t know.

Though, the stone in his pocket certainly would have prevented any of that as of late, he supposed.

“They wouldn’t be wrong, but it’s not in the way they think. I certainly wouldn’t have come to the decisions that I have if it weren’t for her input,” he supposed the situation was a bit more advanced than simply her input, but that described it well enough. “Arkanis would have seen much too late that Snoke is not what they needed. He only sought ultimate control, not stability.” Of course, Hux didn’t consider that Snoke’s death was not yet common knowledge. But it would be.

Or would Ren conceal it? That seemed unlikely.

But with those thoughts, he did consider, perhaps it was time to sway Arkanis...though that would hold no importance other than a personal desire. “I am meeting with Admiral Vallens and a few others tomorrow, I’m sure she’d be intrigued to hear about this. If there’s any time you’re available, I could mention it to her tomorrow,” Hux didn’t think it would quite be appropriate to bring his mother along, especially given he’d just met her. But he didn't mind planning to meet her again.

 

[Lucyfer]

Perhaps Kylo did not need to ask, but he wasn’t used to that. The thought of just kissing Paquin out of the blue was a strange one. Perhaps there was better ways to build to it, so that it felt natural, but he wasn’t there yet. Although, the gestures that Paquin made after asking, made it feel guided. Natural. He was able to lean down a bit as she guided him, and to join his lips to hers.

One of his hands wrapped around the wrist of the hand she’d moved up to his face. The fingers of his other hand lingered just on her side, just a little under her shoulder.

It wasn’t a deep kiss, or a drawn out moment, but it was a pleasant, quiet moment, all the same. The lingering came in the moment when it passed, as their lips parted, and neither of them wanted to leave. These moments were new to Kylo – but seemed to hold much of what he was discovering he wanted.

But he needed to explore the base.

So he drew his hands away, let her wrist go, and started to straighten up as his hair was brushed back, a pleasant tingle at his ear – before he was drawn back down again. He hadn’t straightened much in the first place; her arm was still around his neck.

Still, he chuckled after that quick peck, “I’ll report on it in the morning,” he agreed. Likely, to everyone. Breakfast and regrouping would be required. He would walk with her, those few steps, to the door that opened automatically as they drew nearer. “Good night, Paquin,” he said, as he stepped into the doorway to keep it from closing, for a moment longer.

He had a thought to wish her sweet dreams.

A thought shot through with the recollection of someone who hated dreams.

‘Move on.’

“Sweet dreams, Paquin,” it wasn’t quite natural, no, but he would make it so, and get over all that once was. Create anew, and start again.

That was what this Final Order was going to be for him, and for all the Knights, now that Snoke was out of the way. He would make sure of that, as he stepped out of the doorway, and into the hall, to begin his exploration of the base.

~***~

“Yeah, I don’t know how to make myself visible. Sorry. I wish I could,” Kevan told Finn, “It’s on the list of things to figure out now that I’m a disembodied freak of nature.”

Rey wasn’t sure how to take Kevan’s commentary. He definitely wasn’t like any Jedi she’d heard of – not that he was a Jedi – but based on what she knew of ghosts, she thought it took a particular, well…mindset to become one on death. She didn’t open her eyes just yet. It was easier to stay focused without doing that.

Finn seemed utterly baffled by Kevan. Not a surprise. He apparently had just been trying to lead Finn to a plant, and not another thing he’d found.

“I mean, is there really a purpose to most people being alive besides, you know, eating and sleeping?” Existing was something that happened. It was utterly purposeless. Kevan had never been a fan of a purposeless existence, though. “I mean, I’m not saying I don’t have a purpose for all this, but I don’t think I need to justify being a ghost even if it were just for a plant.”

Rey frowned. “Then what is the purpose, Kevan?”

Kevan wished he could shrug. Or truly, truly, sigh. To feel that airflow just…leave him. Alas. “Look, I barely know how I did this to begin with. I didn’t exactly study the theory of ghosts or life after death, but I wasn’t done with things, and I wasn’t going to be done with things, either. I wasn’t going to let this little novice Knight of Ren Paquin be the end of me and all that I had figured out about Snoke and the Order. So I…didn’t. It took a while to figure out how to…move, and even talk, and interact.” Time was an interesting concept on this side, and he’d been disconnected from it, for a bit. “And when I found out Mira defected I tried to reach out to her, but, well…kind of a lost cause. And I didn’t know how to reach out to her, or to my old crew, or…anyone…so I just hung around and hoped one day she’d figure it out.”

Which was, obviously, foolish. “And then you come around, Mr. Replacement Padawan, and you don’t question a flashing magical kyber as anything but good, sooooo…yeah, I used you to protect my plant. And figured I could keep interacting that way for a while.”

Rey couldn’t help the slight chuckle, even if she quickly stopped it, at Kevan’s jab at Finn and his naivete. Maybe it was something Finn ought to work on, but…it helped here, right?

~***~

Roisin chewed the inside of her cheek as Hux spoke of Mira. She was a Force-user, but he didn’t consider her manipulative. Roisin wanted to believe that, of course, but…well, she had doubts. Even if this Mira wasn’t like Brendol, she still knew how manipulation went. One didn’t always know they were being manipulated, until much, much later.

She had influence on him. That also, wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Friends and family were meant to influence, and if she helped with the changes towards Leia…well, Roisin couldn’t call that all bad. Still, she held her doubts.

She knew she would hold them until she met Mira for herself.

Which, it seemed Hux was willing to offer that opportunity. “I…,” well, what did she have going on tomorrow? “I do probably need to get back to work, or at least get in touch with my family, or call-in.” Something. She really hadn’t though this through in the least, and the Sindians would be pissed if they found out where she ended up.

“I suppose, if I call in, that would open up my availability tomorrow,” she was curious where Mira was now, but just assumed she was on another ship. Traveling between them could probably be a hassle, particularly if Mira’s ship wasn’t among the nearby fleet, but elsewhere. “If she wanted to meet tomorrow. Otherwise I usually have availability in the mornings,” late evenings, and of course, a couple of days during the weeks. She wasn’t often on ‘breakfast’ duty, so mornings were more available to her than other times.

 

[KyloGlenn]

Even as Kylo bid her goodnight, Paquin’s face held a smile. Not because he was leaving, she didn’t really want him to go yet, but because she was content nonetheless. Content with their growing relationship, with all of them being safe, and cautiously optimistic about the future. A future without Snoke. Still, there was a twisting feeling in Paquin’s stomach that reminded her to be careful.

She watched him as he left. Watched until the door slid shut behind him. “Sweet dreams, Kylo,” she echoed his words, long after he was gone. She hoped maybe the Force would carry them. Not verbally, of course, but in action. As if the Force would protect him from bad dreams or unpleasant thoughts. She knew it didn’t work like that.

She was left to the silence and the dimness of her room, left alone with herself. She sighed, stripping herself of everything that would be uncomfortable to sleep in. She set an alarm on her datapad and set it on the table next to the bed, next to the ring she’d acquired from Snoke’s things. She crawled into the new bed, too tired to care it was foreign apart from the fact that she wanted to get a better pillowcase for her hair, maybe one for Kylo, too, since he liked his hair so much. Those were among her final thoughts before she slipped into unconsciousness.

Kylo’s words of sweet dreams did not carry into her slumber. Paquin wasn’t one to dream so much, but she dreamt that night. They weren’t nice, they were scary. It took her back to earlier in the day, only Kylo didn’t miss his mother. His touch wasn’t gentle and welcoming like she knew it to be, and his eyes were that haunting yellow that she convinced herself she’d imagined. The strangest thing was the dark figure that came to her, a shadow, that said her name, beckoning. Slow at first, a dark and shaky drawl, and then...‘Paquin!’ A quick hiss that had her bolting upright, panting.

A look at her datapad told her she was up well before her alarm – and she was an early riser as it was. It would at least give her time to shower again, since she seemed to sweat in the night, and meet the Knights presumably for breakfast. If any of them got up early.

-

Kevan really did talk a lot. Way too much, if Finn was honest. But he supposed he, too, would have a lot to say after not being able to communicate with anybody for a long time. Just floating around with a lot to say and no one to talk to. Though Finn wasn’t really sure what to make of all the things that Kevan rambled off. There really was a lot to try and process because he seemed to list off one thing right after the other, as if any of it was supposed to make sense to them.

Something about not studying ghosts–which Finn didn’t know was a thing–and not being done with...something. Not letting Paquin, apparently, be the end of him. Did Mira know about that? Seemed her anger would be directed elsewhere if she did… But it only fed into Finn’s growing interest in prophecy, the dark one and all, which also made his thoughts return to the holocron. That would be for later, because Finn was only more lost as Kevan spoke of figuring things out about Snoke...something about old crews.

Luke tried to tune much of it out. It didn’t really concern him, but yet he still listened. They were having this conversation in his room, after all.

And Finn did take offense to Kevan’s jab, more so at the replacement part than the real issue at hand. “Hey, I’m no one’s replacement. If anyone is a replacement, it’s miss Paquin, so maybe you should take it up with her,” Finn didn’t know that to be true, but he defended himself as his own person. Perhaps a little too much, but he was very passionate about maintaining his own identity. “If it weren’t for me believing in there being good, your plant would be dead and you would still be talking to yourself right now. Or Luke,” Luke hummed from his spot at that.

At some point, Finn had opened his eyes, pointing a finger nowhere in particular because, well, he couldn’t see Kevan. But the gesture was there. “The only reason I’m even still listening is because of my friendship with Mira. And it doesn’t seem like she wants to talk to you.”

“Okay, I think you two have got the hang of this,” Luke rose to usher the kids out, and to get them to take the talkative ghost with them. He was tired!

-

Hux knew he couldn’t make anyone see Mira the way he did. His mother would just have to meet her for herself and decide what she thought of Mira. If she was manipulative in her eyes or not. “I don’t want it to inconvenience you. Any time that you’re available, I’m sure we could figure it out.” Was it weird? To schedule his newfound mother to meet the Admiral? His friend–whatever.

Probably.

“Feel free to check in with your family, call in, whatever you need to do,” she had brought her datapad, and he had his if he needed it. It was late on Arkanis, her family might be worried about her if she didn’t return when she was supposed to, which was something he ought to mention, too. But first, he’d probably message Mira. If she was asleep, it would still be there early in the morning when she woke up.

But what did he say? Hello, I have met my birth mother, would you like to meet her for some reason? Yeah, that would probably be about what he’d send.

“I suppose we should consider getting you back to Arkanis, too,” should he suggest she stay on the ship? If they were to meet Mira tomorrow, it might be convenient. But she might have had to go back to work–and Hux couldn’t simply tell her to quit–or she might simply just want to be home. “And return your knife to you. If it’s too late for you to travel, though, I’m sure we can accommodate,” he offered, at least putting it out there.

He did type away, as if it were some casual thing, a message to Mira.

Developments have been made and I believe it would be nice for you to meet my mother. I’ll explain more in the morning. Sleep well. - Hux

Well. That ought to do. Surely it would leave Mira curious.