Chapter Text
Jakku District was a true god-forbidden slum, and Ben Solo had been familiar with many places like it. Buildings on every block were dilapidated and crumbling. The people who remained out were either homeless or hoping to make deals of “leisure”.
It was the perfect place to hide as he waited for news from home to die down. Police presence was very minimal here as if they had given up and left residents to fend for themselves.
But it wasn't just hiding that brought him here. His task was far from done. Snoke had been getting on him about the next person on his list, a list that had been kept for years. Only problem was...Ben had tried for years to find that person with no such luck. All he had left to go on was a possible connection residing somewhere in Jakku.
Finding a place to stay was too simple a task, since Ben could not imagine that anyone living in Jakku carried as much cash as he did. At least he didn't had to worry about any of the street filth trying to mug him. He was not expecting any remote form of luxury in Niima Townhouse, which was just another three-story aged ruin like all the others. Already he nearly tripped over a couple of homeless who made their beds on the front steps of the building. Most of the apartment buzzers were worn and nonoperational. But he only needed to press the one labeled “Unkar Plutt: Manager.”
“WHAT DO YOU WANT?!”
Ben remained calm against the groggy annoyed voice on the other side of the intercom. “I called about the apartment.”
After a minute, the front door opened, and Ben swore he was looking at an enormous blob barely resembling a man, grotesque in every shape and form. Unkar was as tall as Ben was but had much more weight to his sides. “Five-hundred upfront or get lost!”
Ben knew before looking at any of the apartments, that none would be worth that much of an advance deposit. But he found humor in waving the exact cash that Unkar requested infront of him. He grabbed it like the greedy spineless creature that he was and let Ben inside.
The building was rather dark, and the walls were peeling off everywhere. Clearly Unkar had zero interests in the upkeep of the place. Ben could imagine the whole thing collapsing on him in the middle of the night, not that he would have minded. Niima Townhouse was already starting to feel like home, a perfect dwelling for someone as disturbed and out of touch with the good world as he was.
Ben had only brought two bags with him, but Unkar noticed one was unusually bigger than the other. “What's in that bag? A dead body?”
“Would that be considered unusual here?” Ben was trying real hard to keep it together but the irony was too much.
“Some of my tenants have a tendency to get into trouble. It's none of my business as long as I'm not involved.”
Unkar took him up to the top floor to apartment 21. “This is the only decent thing I got right now.” It seemed that the unexpected cash deposit got the manager playing kiss-up, expecting a good cash-flow from his new tenant with time.
The place was painted in puke green but all the utilities were in place. Doors were falling apart but most of the furniture was in good shape. If this was decent, Ben didn't want to know what the others in the building were like. He went over to the living room window which gave him only a view of the brick wall across the alley and down below, a fire escape. The place was exactly what he needed.
“What do you provide in here as far as leisure?” Ben asked as they went back out into the hall.
Unkar laughed, knowing exactly what Ben was looking for. “So it's the goods you're looking for, is it? Teedo, he's in apartment 13...is one of the best suppliers in Jakku. I'll let him know he'll have a new customer soon.”
The conversation was momentarily interrupted by and older woman stumbling out of one of the apartments and trying to fix her state of undress. She yelled back in, “You're not getting anymore until you pay me back for the other nights, you hear me?!” The woman then shoved her way past the men and disappeared with angry thumps down the steps.
“The female tenants here...there's not a lot of 'em but they're all open for business as well.” Unkar then pointed to the smaller end of the hall, “...except the one in 24. That one's mine.”
Ben doesn't think he'll be all that interested in getting laid with Snoke badgering him over what he had to do here in Jakku. At least Teedo would be able to provide with the necessaries to secure his sanity for the time being.
So he was quick to sign the lease. Unkar was too brainless to see that Ben only signed it as “Ben S.” just in case certain people were looking for him. And once the fat blob was out of his hair, Ben retreated back to the privacy of his new home and emptied his two bags. The smaller bag had his day clothes and his living essentials.
From the bigger bag, he removed a large folder filled with news clippings that he would decorate the walls of his bedroom with. Then he took out two military gas masks, one was quite old...an artifact from the great wars. Ben set it over by the desk facing his bed and he knew that would be the perfect place for his shrine. The other mask was his own recent creation, one that him quite nervous and uncomfortable every time he took it out.
“Let us not hesitate,” a voice assured him. Snoke was not often seen, but he was the brains of the operation and always knew what needed to be done and when. “There is little time before you are tracked down and we have a list to complete.”
Ben remained in his bedroom alone with only the voice of Snoke keeping him company, reminding him of his purpose and why he did the things that he did. It was about strength. It had been Snoke's promise that we would gain it upon the list's completion.
By the time darkness filled the block, Ben was ready to don the mask as well as a complete black apparel and made his way down the fire escape of his apartment. He was thankful that it was a quieter night than most. Many of the streets' expected inhabitants, the dealers and the call girls had to be gathering elsewhere. There was little light thus giving him the advantage. This would have been the stuff of vigilantes and superheroes, except Ben was neither of those things.
He found a potential target, a tiny scrawny man sitting on a curb smoking a cigarette. “Lor San Tekka?”
The thing saw a tall dark masked man approached him and recoiled in terror. This could not have been Lor San Tekka for the real one would not have suddenly shriek, “HOLY HELL, IT'S YOU!!! You're...you're Kylo Ren!”
Still, Ben was impressed that the stranger had heard of his alter ego...likely from all the horror stories the news spoke of. Few had ever survived to see Kylo Ren in his masked form and those were the lucky ones. To this day no one yet knew that Ben and Kylo were truly one in the same and he hoped for it to stay that way.
Through Ben's mask, the voice of Kylo Ren changed to something deeper and much more terrifying. “Do you know where I can find the one call Lor San Tekka? I know he lives here in Jakku.”
“I might...I mean...please don't kill me and I'll tell you!”
“I'm not interested in reasoning with scum. You tell me where San Tekka resides now and I'll consider letting you live.”
The scrawny little man put an arm behind his back. “Oh...sure…,” he squeaked. “Just let me see if I have...”
Ben should have seen it coming but he was not quick enough for it. The man was armed with a dagger and despite his size, he was able to stab the lower calf. Ben was only held back for a second by the pain, then he quickly moved to pull out his sword. The little man was too slow to make the getaway he thought stabbing Ben could afford him. The sword sliced his back and he was on the sidewalk screaming in horrific pain. Ben admired the man for trying to put up a fight. Perhaps he was worthy of living after all.
“Don't kill me! I'm sorry! Don't kill me!”
The sword came down and silenced the pathetic being for good. The victim had wasted his final moments displaying weakness. What a disappointment, Ben thought. He should have known that he would have no actual clues to San Tekka's location from that scum but he wasn't going to give up yet.
His concentration was broken by the return of the pain in his leg. It was fortunate that there were no working streetlights where he was. It would be hours before they found the man's body but they would all know the killer by the sword wounds.
Limping back to the apartment was going to be a struggle but he had to remain inconspicuous and unsuspecting to whoever might see him. As he moved, he began to remove his mask and wrapped his bloody sword with his outer garments and shoved them into a bag, leaving in only his black pants and a muscle shirt. The walk was getting more strenuous and painful as distant thunder was closing in. By the time he made it to the steps of Niima Townhouse, his strength had left him. His black pants hid the fact that he'd been cut but he could feel the loss of blood and was near collapsing. He looked up to see if anyone was awake and found all the windows in darkness. He swore he saw the fluttering of tarp covering one of the third story windows, but it could also be that he was near delirium now. Would it even be worth enraging Unkar by ringing his bell at 3am and asking for help? Ben couldn't believe that he was even entertaining the thought of needing assistance. He truly was loosing it.
As the rain began, a light finally appeared on the other side of the front door. Ben was bent down, unable to look up and see who was coming out, but the figure stop so that he could only see a small pair of feet.
“Are you alright?”
The voice seemed foreign in a place like this...not just by the British accent but how soft it was. Ben looked up but it was still too dark to see anything but the silhouette of a woman approaching him. “I can move,” said Ben.
“Bad night?”
Ben nodded. “Someone...they tried to mug me but I'm fine. I just need a minute.”
“The rain will make things worse for you,” the woman said as she approached Ben to support him. Ben grasped tight the bag that held his secrets and he was thankful that she seemed to have ignored it.
The woman was surprisingly strong, Ben thought, as she helped him up the steps to the door. Under the light Ben got a closer look at her and in disbelief at the sight. She was more a girl than a woman, a face gentle and serene unlike the women Ben had seen so far in Jakku. She was not stylish by any means as her hair consisted of one messy ponytail and she wore only pajama pants and a hoodie.
“You…,” Ben stuttered. “You live here?”
“On the top floor,” she said. “Better that I saw you though. Unkar wouldn't take kindly to being woken up this late.”
Once they got inside, the woman...or Ben now thought girl...stayed with him the entire time, quietly helping him up each step until they got all the way to Ben's door. Ben was not used to this type of compassion being bestowed upon him...ever. It was too surreal for him that it almost made him forget about why he was even out in the first place. This truly was an angel, if he had ever believed in one.
“Thank you…um...”
“It's Rey,” she said. “My name is Rey.”
“I'm Ben.”
“Well Ben, you'll be alright then? Maybe I'll see you around.” The very idea of it brought unexpected excitement in Ben. And he couldn't help but be enamored by Rey's radiant smile as she was making her way down to the smaller end of the hall. “Take care...and goodnight.”
Ben could not say or do anything but stand there and watch her disappear through a battered door. The curious sounds of furniture shuffling from inside compelled Ben to walk down the hall toward the noise.
Until he saw the large 24 on the door and his heart instantly sank.
The taken one? Of course she had to be. Someone young and beautiful as her, was a complete oddity in Jakku. But then the very idea that she was Unkar's made him sick to his gut. It only plagued him with so many unanswered questions as to how that was remotely possible. Rey did not seem like a prostitute in the least. And Unkar's apartment was on the first floor.
But if this was actually her choice, Ben thought, he couldn't blame her. He always made the choice to listen to Snoke even when he knows he's not real. Yet Ben still went by Snoke's list as it was made for.
If only Unkar had been next on it. Perhaps he could persuade Snoke. That one would turn his work as Kylo Ren into absolute pleasure.