The Prettiest Star - Star Wars - Kylo Ren

VII

All emotion seemed to evaporate from her as she ran through the corridors of the base. In its place she felt the Aya she had constructed gradually become her, ruthless, and spiteful. Her face was a blank slate as she ran, yet her heart was racing.

Her movements were robotic. Everything sounded as though it was underwater. Aya felt numb. She may have accidentally run into some people on route. She couldn't remember; she didn't register barging into them. Her mind was racing at a hundred lightyears a minute. But at the same time, her mind was nothing but the static of a broken television screen and a heartbeat.

She didn't wake from her daze as she flung open the door to her dormitory. It was cold and empty without the presence of neither BB-8 nor Poe. What was worse was that his belongings were strewn across the floor and bed. However, at that moment, she didn't even see them.

As she pulled the door to her locker open, it banged loudly into the metal locker behind it. Aya didn't hear it. She reached down and plucked out the familiar weight of her lightsaber and the device that had caused this mess in the first place. It seemed so small and innocent in the palm of her hand. But it was about to cause the deaths of all of the friends she had made over the last few months.

Yet she didn't even think about it as she picked it up and ran back out of the corridor.

The aching pain was getting worse, she could sense his presence getting closer. So she ran.

About a third of the way through the intricate web of rooms, she heard a rumbling in the distance. The sound of an oncoming army. Suddenly the corridors were filled with people running and shouting. Panic filled the air like smoke. A few times people stopped to talk to her, at least she thought they did, she couldn't tell, she was too busy running.

Their shouts were still drowned out for some reason, as if submerged. Despite running through thick crowds, she felt incredibly alone and isolated.

Then the rumbling got louder. She felt the room shake as she ran, the sound became deafening. At some point fragments of the ceiling began to fall, threatening to cave in entirely. It felt like the world was ending. From somewhere in the base, a massive explosion erupted, shaking the room like a rowing boat in a storm.

She tripped up in the sudden movement. It woke her with a jolt and she caught herself just before she came crashing to the ground. Aya halted in her tracks, breathing heavily, and staring around her as if she she had woken from a dream. For a second she observed the anarchy around her and leant against the wall, familiar faces ran past her in blurs, terror radiating from them like heat from a sun.

She gulped down the emotions that were threatening to rise once more and began running again. Soon the stormtroopers would arrive and then it really would be a bloodbath. The exit wasn't that far away now, she felt the crowds already surge towards the right direction.

When she burst through the door and onto the forest floor, she heard a cacophony erupting. The world was noise as she watched the trees around her burn. She stood there in the clearing, bemused. Her expression was emotionless, she was incredibly relaxed as she simply watched everything crumble around her.

The heat from the flames engulfing the dry trees showered over her, almost, but not quite, at an unbearable temperature. Black ships flew over her head above the flames shooting down to the people running below. The rebels were all standing there, shooting up at the ships with their pathetic blasters, hitting nothing. She could hear screams and shots. Through the trees some of the ships began to land.

Slowly, she pulled her blaster from the holster at her side and gripped it tightly. The lightsaber and tracking device seemed to be burning holes in the pockets of her large jacket. With no thought at all, she ran into the woods.