Chapter Text
“How long can they take?” Rey asked Leia.
But it was Hennis who answered from the other side of the room. “As long as they want. That’s the privilege of being on a jury. But don’t worry, they usually don’t like being locked in a room together for days on end.”
It had been hours already since the jury began their deliberations. Just outside the courtroom, Rey and Leia were waiting along with Hennis and Kappa. Poe and Finn had checked in on things a while back. At one point, Rose had stopped by to chat. But they had all gotten bored and left.
Everyone on the small base would know when the jury was done deliberating. The four of them seemed to be the only ones compelled to wait near the courtroom.
“I’d think you’re be hoping for a long deliberation,” Kappa said.
Hennis shrugged. “As long as they didn’t all make up their mind right away, I’m hopeful, but I’ve never been sure that long deliberations are always good for the defense. For all, I know their all on my side, and there’s one lone hold out arguing about throwing the book at him.”
“You really think your call to a higher morality is going to outweigh how much a bunch of Resistance soldiers hate Kylo Ren?” Kappa asked.
“I’m not counting on the jury’s higher ideals,” Hennis explained. “I’m counting in their self-interest. Like you said, they’re Resistance fighters, not part of the New Republic fleet. They here, because they didn’t trust the Senate to protect the Republic against the First Order. I’m guessing they don’t trust a bunch of politicians to have their back when push comes to shove. Uh, no offense, Senator,” Hennis acknowledge Leia.
She smiled. “Hardly the first time I’ve heard that people don’t trust politicians.”
Everyone was silent again for a while, but something was bothering Rey.
“You don’t really think it could take days you do?”
That seemed impossible to bear. Days of waiting, days of limbo. Maybe she should have been looking at it as an opportunity. An opportunity to plan what came next. The closer they’d gotten to the end of the trial, the more Rey had realized how much she’d meant it when she’d told Kylo she wouldn’t let them execute him.
Whatever he deserved, it wasn’t that.
She knew she should have been planning some sort of escape, but somehow never managed to.
“Maybe,” Kappa responded. “It’s not unheard of, and there is a long list of charges. Maker knows how complicated sentencing could get.”
“Sentencing?” Rey asked.
“Once they decide what crime’s he’s guilty of,” Leia explained, “His punishment for each charge has to be decided.”
“Why,” Rey frowned. “They can only execute him once. Does the rest really matter?”
“You don’t have to worry about that,” Kappa said. “Since the charges on Silas III were thrown out, the only other capital charges are for the destruction of the Hosnian System. . . And well, even if the jury does find him guilty of that, I wouldn’t feel right pursuing the death penalty. Whatever his involvement was, it wasn’t direct enough to warrant that.”
“And of course there are the appeals,” Hennis said with a smile even as Kappa rolled her eyes. “The Judge’s outburst alone is enough to start an appeals process, not to mention all the questions about Jedi law.”
“Appeals?” Rey asked, a feeling of dread growing inside of her.
If they were going to execute him, she could handle that. She would figure out how to handle it. But if they couldn’t decide on that. If this was going to just keep going. . .
“There’s another process,” Hennis explained. “To make sure the trial really was fair. Even if we lose today, there’s still a chance a few months from now that the conviction will be overturned, and he’ll be let go.
“A few months?” Rey asked. Suddenly she was feeling very, very sick. “I... Excuse me.”
Maybe it was the baby. The medical droid had warned her that the pregnancy might make her nauseous or sick. It hadn’t happened yet, but Rey found herself running for the nearest fresher.
She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t just wait and wait and wait. And there was the baby. Months from now, would she be too pregnant to save Kylo from execution if he needed it? Except she wouldn’t be pregnant then, because she wasn’t going to keep the baby? Was she?
Luckily she made it to the fresher in time. Whether it was the pregnancy or the stress, it didn’t matter. Rey had lost her breakfast.
And none of that even took into account the tiny possibility that they let him go. What did that even mean? What would that look like? She didn’t think he was going to simply walk away from her, especially now that she was pregnant. But what then?
Rey was never going to join the First Order, and she didn’t think he would leave it. So where could they go, what could they do?
“Rey?” it was Leia’s voice from outside the fresher door. “Are you all right?”
“I... Yes, I... I just need a moment.”
She rinsed her mouth out and did her best to look normal. But as soon as she opened the door and saw Leia standing there, something broke inside Rey. The next thing she knew, she was crying incoherently in Leia’s arms.
Leia put her arms around Rey and stroked her hair. “I know,” Leia said soothingly, “I know.”
Garnik V 53 days after the crash
It was Rey who saw the ship. Kylo was off in the jungle, gathering some of the herbs he liked to flavor their food with.
She didn’t recognize the ship itself, but it wasn’t First Order; it was too run down for that.
“Hey,” she shouted in joy, trying to get the ship's attention. Then feeling foolish, she reached out, calling her lightsaber to her.
She ignited it, and waved it above her head, realizing the that purple blade would be far more likely to attract the ship’s attention.
And then the ship opened fire.
It took her a moment to understand what had happened. The blasts flew over her head, nowhere close to harming her. That confused her instincts since she didn’t need to dodge out of the way.
She looked over her shoulder as the ship swung around for another run, and her heart sank as she realized what had happened.
Extinguishing her lightsaber, she ran as fast as she could to the jungle’s edge. Kylo must have heard her yelling and had come to see what it was. Focused on her, he hadn’t noticed the ship.
Luckily his instincts must have kicked in at the last moment, and he’d rolled mostly out of the way because had he taken one of the ship's blasters straight on, he’d be dead. Instead, he was unconscious, blood flowing from the side of his head, where some of the debris from the blast had struck him.
As soon as she was sure he wasn’t dead, she ignited her lightsaber once again, wondering if it was strong enough to deflect a blast from the ship.
She didn’t have to find out. Instead, it landed, and Poe and Finn flooded out blasters in hand.
“Rey!” Finn yelled excitedly. “I knew we’d find you.”
The jury didn’t come back with a decision on the first day. But discovering that nothing was likely to be over anytime soon, was just what Rey needed to actually make a plan.
She had ended up talking to Poe to see if he’d known about the appeals, and what would happen then. It turned out he had been preparing for that.
He was just as impatient about the whole thing as she was, although perhaps for different reasons. He wanted to get back to fighting the First Order. Arrangements had been made to ship Kylo Ren off to a proper prison after the trial, where he could be held until all the appeals were done.
And he was somewhat delighted when Rey offered to be part of Kylo’s escort to the new prison.
“I didn’t want to ask,” he said. “I hate to think of you as just a glorified prison guard, but so many things could go wrong transporting him.”
Rey agreed. A lot of things could go wrong. Like the Jedi, who was supposed to be guarding him, deciding to help him escape instead.
That was actually the easy part. The hard part was what came next. The best Rey had come up with so far was taking Kylo back to Takodona. It gave Rey a kind of cover, she could pretend that she’d done it because she felt that he deserved to be tried on the planets where he’d committed his crimes.
But really, she just wanted Maz’s advice.
And then there was the little voice of doubt. That voice that reminded Rey that she was about to betray her friends and the Resistance. After all, maybe the system would work? Maybe the appeals would happen, and he would be released.? Maybe she just needed to be patient?
But Rey had hit the end of her patience. She couldn’t spend any more months in this limbo waiting for other people to decide what happened next.
It took two days, but finally, the jury came back with a verdict.
For once, the courtroom was full. Witnesses like Poe and Finn, who hadn’t been allowed to watch the main proceedings were now allowed back in. Even Rose, who hadn’t directly be involved, was there.
“I understand that the Jury has reached a verdict?” the Judge asked.
“Yes, your honor,” one of the jurors stood up and said.
“On the count of kidnapping Commander Poe Dameron, we find the defendant not guilty.
There was a small gasp. Most people had expected him to be found guilty on all counts.
“On the count of the torture of Commander Poe Dameron, we find the defendant guilty.
Rey frowned in confusion.
“On the count of destruction of property and the assault on Takodona, we found the defendant not guilty.
“On both counts of kidnapping Rey Starfallen, we find the defendant not guilty.
“On the count of torture of Rey Starfallen, we find the defendant guilty.
“On the count of the murder of Han Solo, we find the defendant not guilty.”
“On the count of the destruction of the Hosnian system, we find the defendant not guilty.”
And on its went. “What’s happening?” Rey finally whispered to Leia in confusion as more and more counts came back not guilty.
“Who can say,” Leia whispered back. “But my guess…Hennis did a good job, but they weren’t willing to let him get away with everything. I guess torture is where they decided to draw the line.”
They weren’t the only ones whispering, a dull hum slowly rose throughout the court, and the Judge was forced to slam down his gavel so the juror could continue reading out the charges.
Finally, it was done. All Kylo Ren had been found guilty of was torturing her and Poe.
The Judge silenced the court again.
“And this is your final verdict?” he asked the jury.
They nodded slowly.
“I see,” the Judge said slowly.
His voice was almost too calm, Rey thought. She knew the pain and anger he felt, and she had expected him to be raging. But instead, there was a cold determination in him that frightened her.
“I wish I could say this was the first time I have seen a jury rule incorrectly. It is the nature of the system that sometimes we get it wrong. But I have to respect the verdict you have come to. That being said-”
Suddenly the air raid alarms went off in the courtroom and throughout the base. The Judge and the attorneys looked around in confusion, but the Resistance members were already on their feet.
Poe was shouting for everyone to get to their stations, and people were moving quickly and mostly orderly out of the courtroom.
Rey decided quickly that what she needed to do was get Leia to the command center. It was the most heavily fortified part of the underground base. But they were near the center of the room, and it made no sense to try and force their way to the front.
She placed her hand on Leia’s shoulder to guide her, but the General was already moving. This was hardly her first unexpected attack.
Then there was a loud explosion, and the room shook. Dust filled the air. Rey looked up and saw that the ceiling had cracked in the center, and dirt from above was slowly dripping in.
A wave of dark emotions caught Rey’s attention, and her eyes darted to Kylo, who was being escorted out the other way by his guards, but it wasn’t him.
The last thing Rey saw as the ceiling caved in was the Judge raise a blaster and aim it Kylo.