Across the Stars (Reylo fanfiction)

Fire and Flood

"BURN IT! BURN IT ALL!"

"But Master Kylo!" protested the Twi'lek woman in front of him. Her skin held a navy blue hue and she wore a loose, hooded black kaftan with side slits that rose up to its belted waist. Tight dark grey pants peaked out from beneath the robe.

"We are not the sith! The sith are dead! We do not serve their purpose or that of The Galactic Empire or The First Order or whoever else may try to control us! From now on the Knights of Ren are our own and not even the force itself will keep us from the destiny we carve for ourselves." He looked around at the faces around him. "Gaia ... Lucien ... Brin .... Vinz ... Whul ... Cresta. Didn't I save you from being wasted to the light? Didn't I spare you and teach you the power of the darkness? And then Snoke split us up! Had us roaming the galaxy looking for ancient artefacts of darkness. Sith," he almost spat the word, "artefacts. He had us suppressing any outbreaks of force sensitives proving troublesome to The First Order when we should have been together crushing the heart of the Resistance." The faces around him were silent; it wasn't like they could argue. "We were nothing but dogs. Trained and kicked and kept hungry. But no more."

"But this temple gives us power," said the tall and lean human male with curly brown tresses. Wisps of facial hair caressed his chin.

Kylo narrowed his gaze. The ground began to shake. His right palm began to tingle. He spun around. Lightning shot from out of his fingertips and hit the cracked and crusty helmet bonded skull on the podium in the centre of the room. It caught fire and started to burn. "No Whul," he said, a slight tinge of yellow bleeding into his eyes, "we give ourselves power. Our future gives us power. Follow me and together we will bring a new age of darkness to the galaxy such that they will be speaking our names for the next thousand years."

The room was silent apart from the crackling fire that had begun to spread.

Then the Twi'lek woman stepped forward and knelt before him. "My Lord," she said. The others shot side glances at each other. And then one by one followed her in kneeling.

"My knights," Kylo said looking around at those kneeled before him. "You are my knights and I am your lord. And this galaxy is our kingdom." He unclipped his lightsabre from his belt and activated it. Then holding it above his head he shouted, "NOW LET US TAKE IT!"

The six warriors before him stood and yelled a chorus of agreement. Together they exited the building, hoods raised and cloaks billowing. The desert sands swirled around them as smoke rose in the background.

In the present, Lord Kylo Ren snapped out of the consuming memory.

"Kingdom of Ren Star Destroyer One to Coruscant ground control, we are now entering your airspace," he heard one of the ship's pilots say over the comms.

He thought about how it had taken a week after the Battle of Crait to gather his knights from the corners of the galaxy. After which, on Kylo's orders they had crossed the inner star systems burning the remanets of the sith, the jedi, the rebellion, the resistance, and had reclaimed their rightful place as leaders of what was previously The First Order. Of course that meant the prior commanding officers and those immediate subordinates loyal to them had to be disposed of. He smiled remembering the feeling of force choking the life out of that slimy weasel Hux. Though, the corners of Kylo's mouth soon flattened out as his mind flickered to how in moments of weakness he still secretly called out to his grandfather for strength.

Suddenly, he felt a presence walk up beside him.

"Mmm. Lord Ren, home," a deep female voice said.

"Yes, Grand Lieutenant Gaia Ren," He flicked a glance at the Twi'lek knight beside him, and then continued staring out the front glass of the ship, "home."

***

In, out, in, out. Rey watched as the sandy haired human girl sat cross-legged and eyes closed. Come on, Rey thought. A low hum began to thrum through the cavern. Ripples glided out from the centre of the dark pool in front of them. Come on, Rey silently encouraged again. Then with a roar the water seemed to lift out of its place and rushed towards them.

The girl opened her eyes and gasped, before scurrying behind her teacher.

Rey held up her hand and the water stopped, hanging in space, before curling up back through the air and returning to its natural banks.

"Alright!" cheered a slender mirialan teenager off to the side. She ran to the blonde human and hugged her.

"You done good, kid," said another female voice. But instead of green skin and black tattoos, this voice was followed by the striking red and white marked visage and unmistakable montrals noting togruta heritage.

Rey heard a shuffling behind her. She turned and saw her final student -- a dathomiri man with pale skin that was striped with rivers of black and accented with many inked swirls of various shifting hues. His white hair, braided at the sides, fell down to his thighs. As he walked up to Rey, his cane, carved with images of loth wolves, clicked on the stone. "So she's finally done it."

"And faster than you, old man," the togruta woman said. She patted the human on the back.

Rey smiled at her youngest pupil, "Well done Heul."

"Thanks, Rey," the girl's accent rolled the 'r'. She leaned her hands on her knees and puffed.

"Deep breaths, now," Rey instructed.

While Rey was showing the girl how to regain her inner balance, the togruta stripped off her brown cloak. Soon she was down to her under things.

"Um ... Janna what are you doing?" said the mirialan.

"I'll have you know, Bryt Illeih, all training and no play makes one a very dull padawan," she replied over her shoulder. "Don't worry, Master Rey, no skinny dipping in front of the kids," she jerked her head towards Heul and Bryt. Then she cannonballed into the water.

"May we?" asked Heul.

Rey nodded.

The girls hurried to remove their outer layers of clothing and soon dove into the water.

As Rey watched them, a cold echo slithered through her mind: as darkness rises, light rises to meet it. She gripped her cloak tighter around herself. "Not too long now, though, everyone still needs to wake up before dawn, and I don't want anyone catching a chill tonight."

As she stepped back from the water, someone lightly touched her arm.

"Are you alright, Master?" her only dry pupil asked.

"Yes, Kol. Thank you."

"You should go get some rest. I'll watch over them and make sure they're in bed before curfew."

She thanked him again and he bowed his head as she turned to walk out of the cavern.

***