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CHAPTER ONE:
JAKKU

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JAKKU WAS AS MUCH A WASTELAND as the rest of the galaxy was.

Harsh desert winds pressed against her skin, sand slowly finding its way into the cracks of her clothes and boots.

Force, she hated sand.

The Senator adjusted her scarf until it hung below her face, the stone hut now protecting her from most of the elements.

Her dark hair hung loosely around her shoulders, with most of it pulled away from her face in a braid atop her head.

She sat beside an olive skinned man with dark curls and a chirping droid, the man scanning the horizon every now and then behind him before turning back to the person of interest in the middle of the desert planet.

Lor San Tekka had known both their mothers for far longer than either cared to admit and had seen them grow from babies in diapers to children playing at war.

Except they were no longer children.

He was the best pilot in the galaxy and she was the Senator of Naboo.

A job she took just as seriously as the woman who held the position before her.

"You're sure about this?" She asked San Tekka, a skeptical look crossing her face at the sliced chip in her hands, containing potentially damaging information on the Ambassador of Corellia.

The older man smiled, a wizened thing with a twinkle in his eye, "Minister Thrackan may be able to hide his dealings in the chamber of the Senate, but his data history tells a different story," San Tekka nodded toward the chip, "Everything you need to prove Corellia's underground dealings to the chamber is there, including their backing of the First Order."

The Senator let out a sigh of relief, it sounding more like a chuckle than she intended.

"Thank you," She pressed her lips to the cool metal, tucking the chip in a safe place in the folds of her jacket, "The Resistance thanks you," She paused, "The General thanks you."

San Tekka's smile grew wider at the mention of the General, "She was right to place her faith in you."

The Senator froze, grey eyes staring through heavy makeup at the older man. She couldn't read the expression on his face, but she almost thought it looked like pride.

"You really do remind me of her in so many ways."

A beat passed.

Then another.

"Do you have the other thing we came here for?" The pilot interjected, leaning forward with a look of urgency on his face.

"Poe.." She chided.

He just stared at her, "Look Princess, we've got about thirty minutes maybe less before the Order is on top of us, we gotta—"

He was cut off by the sound of a ship coming out of orbit, the engine loud enough to only be one kind of freighter.

The Senator knew that sound all too well, and her blood ran cold as her hand flew to her blaster, resting on the trigger in a readied position.

"Stay here," Poe muttered, pressing her into her seat as he raced out into the harsh desert.

San Tekka's face grew grim and he palmed a leather pouch hanging from his neck before following the pilot out into the sands.

"We're out of time," Poe yelled back into the hut, "And we really need that map."

The Senator stood at attention, the winds picking up as the distant sound of a ship touching down grew closer.

San Tekka pressed the leather pouch into the pilot's hand, saying something the Senator couldn't make out.

Her heartbeat was growing louder, pounding in her head as the clanking of metal footsteps grew closer.

She could practically feel the familiar presence enveloping her senses, a bleeding, scarred red she'd known all her life.

"He's here." She whispered, breath catching in her throat.

Poe's eyes grew wide and San Tekka's face became solemn.

The pilot rushed toward her, urgency in his gaze as he grasped her shoulders, "You need to leave, now. Take BeeBeeAte and the map and run, I can hold him off long enough for you to get a head start—"

"No."

Poe blinked.

"What?"

"I said, no." The Senator spoke with more force, steeling herself as she dismissed the pilot, "I'm what he's looking for. I'm the one he wants."

Poe creased his brows in frustration, "Exactly, which is why—"

"—I'm the perfect distraction." She cut him off, not paying attention to the incredulous look on his face. She moved closer to the village, torn back by the force of Poe's hand on her forearm.

Grey eyes met brown in a clash of wills.

"I'm not letting you die out there."
She pursed her lips, "Neither will he."

She didn't know why she spoke with such confidence. Maybe it was her father's luck coursing through her veins or her mother emboldening her from afar, but she knew her words were true.

He wouldn't harm her.

He couldn't.

Not without harming himself.

"She's right," San Tekka spoke with authority, catching Poe off guard enough for him to loosen his grip. "The First Order wants the Senator as much as they want Master Skywalker, perhaps even more."

The older man paused, "Which is why you both must run, I will hold him off as long as I can."

"No—"

"If I can save you then perhaps my sacrifice will not have been in vain."

Poe seized his grip again, the Senator struggling against it as he began to drag her out of the hut, "The galaxy needs you, you can't do this..."
San Tekka cut her off with a gentle smile, "You really do look so much like your mother..." His eyes drifted to Poe, "Tell the General I am sorry I couldn't do more."

"Princess, we gotta go, now—"

"Please," The Senator struggled against the tightening grip of the pilot, eyes pleading with Lor San Tekka, "You have to hide."

The sound of a ship door descending hissed in her ears.

San Tekka grew urgent, "You have to leave...now!"

The sound of his voice caused her to cave and she nodded, pressing a kiss to her old mentor's cheek as she and Poe bolted into the shadows, BeeBeeAte not far behind.

The sound of charging blasters and readied vibroblades came from the village as the two fled to the borrowed X-wing, villagers ready to protect their own against an invasion they fought off nearly thirty years ago.

Blasterfire filled her ears and suddenly she heard herself shout, "Poe, fire!"

"What?!"

The Senator ducked as a missile shot toward the two Stormtroopers who were about to fire off shots into the X-Wing.

The pair went flying, but not before a stray blaster bolt hit the rear panel of the ship.

"Dammit," The Senator muttered, eyes scanning the damage. The engine was almost entirely shot, there was no way they were going to get off world now.

Her mind raced, and she could hear the distant shrieks of horror as villagers were cut down and torched, the presence growing closer and closer.

They didn't have time.

"BeeBeeAte I need you!"

The droid whirled in concern before rolling to her leg.

Poe dropped down from the canopy with a look of concern, "What's going on?"

"Ship's shot," She spoke at a pace she'd once used with her father, "I don't have the tools to fix it and we don't have time to barter for them."

The Senator pulled the datachip from her jacket and gestured toward BB-8.

The droid obediently enveloped the chip with his multi reader, the valuable information hidden and processed.

She turned toward Poe, "Give me the map."

The pilot looked between her and his droid like he'd been betrayed, and she stared expectantly waiting for him to hand over the leather pouch.
A beat passed and he pulled the artifact free.

The Senator turned back toward the droid, "You take this, you get as far away as you can, and we'll come back for you okay?"

"What the hell are you thinking?"

The droid beeped in tandem with his owner, echoing the same uncertainty.

She refused to answer either of their questions and grabbed her blaster from her side, tossing the rifle to Poe.

"You want to get back to the General? This is how you do it."

She turned her attention toward the screams and shrieks coming from the village, her heart beating in time with the pulsating force.

Poe shook his head and readied his blaster stance, "I hope you know what you're doing."

She hoped she did too.

Orange bolts fired into troopers as she ducked for cover and shot them again, never missing.

She ducked again and gasped, holding her breath as the sound of a transport shuttle made its way to the ground.

It was closer, harsher, pressing against her mind and threatening her memories.

She squeezed her eyes shut and told herself to ignore it, drowning the presence out with anything she could.

The blaster fire, the flamethrowers, anything she could to ignore the figure descending from the shuttle in an imposing shadow of black.

She didn't need to see him to know he was there.

The minute his foot touched the ground, her heart jumped into her throat, eyes flying open.

"Look how old you've become."

"Something far worse has happened to you." San Tekka's voice sent a wave of calm through her veins.

A moment passed, two people who'd once known each other now strangers.

"You know what I've come for."

Lor San Tekka strode forward, "I know where you come from. Before you called yourself Kylo Ren."

Instead of striking fear into her, The Senator felt herself emboldened.

The name was something she'd expected to hear again, but every time she heard it all she could feel was a deep rage coursing through her.

"The map to Skywalker, we know you've found it and now you're going to give it to the First Order."

"No he's not."

Her own voice rang out across the battlefield and she stood up before either her or the pilot knew what she was doing.

"Because he doesn't have it," She whipped around, staring into the metal inlays of the dark sider's mask. She swallowed the knot forming inside her throat, "I do."

The figure tilted his head at the sight of the brunette.

Lor San Tekka sighed.

"Senator." The warbled voice spoke.

Her boots crunched against the sand, stepping over bloodied and charred bodies, but her eyes never left the mask.

She came to a stop beside San Tekka.

"Ren."

Instead of fear curling at the bottom of her stomach, it was rage, it was anger, it was grief.

It was a righteousness that had gotten both her mom and uncle in trouble thousands of times and a hotheadedness passed down from her father.

It helped she knew exactly who was behind the mask.

And how to make them look the opposite direction.

"I should have known he'd give it to you." Ren's voice was laced with malice, a sound familiar to her after years of fighting the First Order.

"The Senator has nothing to do with this—"

"He's lying," She cut San Tekka off, voice cold and detached like she'd heard dozens of politicians use before, "You think I came all this way for simple information? You know me better than that, Ren."

She could almost see the victorious smirk on his face behind the mask.

"Yes...I do."

She holstered her blaster, lifting her hands in surrender as an idea formed in her brain, "We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Let him go and I'll tell you where to find Skywalker."

A beat passed.

"Or?"

The Senator smirked and ripped a blaster rifle off one of the troopers, butting him in the head and firing off a shot into the neck of the one closest to Ren, sending him to the ground.

"Or I kill every last man under your command."

Ren scoffed and the Senator tilted her head.

"You know I can do it."

The masked figure paused, hand resting atop his lightsaber, "You're surrounded."

She positioned her finger on the trigger, firing off another warning shot, this time into the Sith's shoulder.

A grunt of pain slid through the mask.

She readied another round.

"You really wanna take that chance?"

The two continued to stare at one another, both wearing unreadable masks, bleeding red against steady amethyst, lightsaber against blaster.

His hand dropped and a single breath left the Senator's lips.

"Let the old man go."

The Stormtroopers released San Tekka, whose look of disappointment she tried to ignore.

"Take Senator Amidala into custody."

A trooper in chrome armor approached her coldly, ripping the rifle out of her hand and pressing the barrel of their blaster into Amidala's back.

She raised her hands in surrender, eyes gently floating toward San Tekka before moving back to Kylo Ren.

She could almost feel the smugness radiating off him.

"You gonna get a gold star for capturing both of your targets at once?" The words left her mouth before she could stop them, but the way Ren tensed up sent a thrill of satisfaction down her spine.

He gestured toward his troops and a pair of hands wrapped around Amidala's biceps, one of the troopers decorated with a bloody handprint.

Before a pair of binders were placed around her wrists, a strangled yell rang through the clearing.

Dammit.

She knew she was forgetting something

Kylo Ren threw his hand up and Poe froze along with his blaster bolt.

The raw power of the force was blinding, vibrating and humming in the air.

"One of yours, I assume?" The modulated voice asked, disdain coating every word.

Amidala threw a frustrated look Poe's way and sighed.

"He was protecting me, he had nothing to do with it."

Poe strained against the power of the force, trying to fire off another shot but remaining stuck in the same position he'd been caught in.

Her heart jumped into her throat, and while she knew Kylo Ren wouldn't hurt her, she couldn't say the same for the pilot.

"I see nothing's changed," Ren said, hand shaking.

Amidala resisted the urge to roll her eyes, the steel of the chrome trooper's blaster still pressed against the leather of her jacket, through the brown cotton of her shirt.

She tried not to think too hard about how her previous threat probably held no weight now.

"He's harmless," She lied, screwing her emotions into something unknown, "A republic pilot, a dime a dozen."

"Then he won't be missed."

"Come on," Amidala spat out in disbelief, "You can't tell me the First Order cares about some hot-shot pilot?"

"QUIET!"

Ren's voice echoed across the village, moving closer to Poe until he was eventually side by side with San Tekka.

"The First Order rose from the Dark Side," San Tekka spoke, the first time since the Senator had revealed herself, "You did not."

Ren kept his gaze fixated on the pilot, "I'll show you the Dark Side."

Red light illuminated the Sith's mask as he ignited his lightsaber.

A Stormtrooper kicked Poe's legs out from under him, sending him kneeling into the sandy planet's surface as Ren turned around to face the Senator.
"You have a choice, Senator. The old man or the pilot."

Anger stirred in her chest, "That wasn't the deal—"

"It is now."

His lightsaber hovered dangerously close to Poe's face as he said that, and she knew exactly why he was doing this.

She could hear the delight in his voice when he realized who Poe was, she could feel how excited he got at the opportunity to force her to choose between his life and the life of her oldest mentor.

It was sickening.

"Neither." She spat.

The crackling of kyber filled the air.

"That's not the deal." The modulated voice seethed, "Either one dies, or they both die."

"Then your best chance at finding Skywalker dies with them." She snapped.

Metal glared into grey eyes, Ren's free hand flexing open and shut as he looked the Senator up and down.

The act want meant to instill fear, but instead it did the opposite.

She could feel her courage rising with each attempt to get a rise out of her, and she refused to let a man hiding his face behind a hunk of metal tell her what to do.

"I will get that map one way or another." Ren threatened.

Amidala steeled herself.

"You can try," Lor San Tekka spoke up, his voice never wavering. Ren wheeled around on the old man, "But you cannot deny the truth that is your family."

A pause filled the air, and Amidala knew it was over.

San Tekka had made the choice for her.

And he sent her one last proud look before turning back to Ren, who was now staring quietly at the old man.

"You're right."

Red flashed across her gaze and San Tekka fell limp, his body cut in two.

A nod toward the chrome soldier sent Amidala marching into the transport shuttle in binders, the bloody trooper leaving her side and getting back in line.

A minute, maybe two passed before Poe joined her in the shuttle, the pilot refusing to look at her.

The sound of thrusters taking off filled her ears, replaced by the sound of rapid blasterfire as Kylo Ren sauntered into the shuttle, pausing to look at Amidala one last time before disappearing into the cockpit.

"I sure hope you have a plan to get us out of this mess," Poe said with a glare.

Amidala swallowed the lump in her throat.

So do I.

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