Rating:T, due to minor coarse language. Saga spoiler level: Very, very high Recommended pre-reading: Definitely read The Sparrow's Shadow first, and honestly, there's a huge gap between that story and this one, so there is guaranteed to be major spoilers. Canon stories:The Force Awakens Level of completion: I'm actually most of the way through what I visualize this story being (it's much shorter than most pieces). However, I can't say for certain and I haven't worked on it for a while, so it may not be finished anytime soon.
Remus stood alone in the bare room. He forced his muscles to relax one by one, as if he was preparing himself for combat. He hadn’t wanted to be in the room, but being alone was almost worse. A cry, half scream and half howl, came from behind the door and he pulled his sensitive ears back against his head. Almost worse.
A minute later the door opened, and there was Credence. He was beaming, and Remus’s ears flicked forward again curiously. Credence put a small thing in Remus’s arms, and the thing immediately claimed the teenager’s attention.
“The first one,” Credence explained. “Isn’t she beautiful?”
Lea’s honey lit brown eyes showed themselves in a small wrinkled thing that scowled at Remus. He immediately fell in love. He grinned at the creature, ugly as it was with its faint trace of scarlet hair and newborn skin.
Credence clapped an arm around Remus’s shoulders, and Remus looked up at him, the smile still lingering.
“I’ll leave you here with her for a bit, okay? I want to see how Lea’s doing with the twin.”
Remus stood in the center of the room again, alone except for the infant in his strong and protective arms. He’d do anything for her. He didn’t understand it, but he was sure he would.
An unfamiliar scent of machinery and dark magic hit him, mixed confusingly with the familiar taste of salt. As Remus began to turn, began to cry out, began to stop the intruder from whatever they may be planning, an explosion of pain rocked his skull, and as he collapsed he only had enough sense to clutch the child to him, to protect her fragile body with his own.
As Remus lay unconscious, blood oozing from his head onto the tiles, someone reached out with black leather gloves. A cloak whispered against the tile as they lifted the child from her older brother’s protection and took her.
And Wren wailed.
Chapter 1
He didn’t name her at first. Instead he called her whatever came to mind when he sat watching her in her box. Wretch. Idiot. Harlot. Then he felt bad. She was, after all, innocent. It was the mother he had aimed at, and by taking the newborn had no doubt wounded irreparably. She lay, small and pathetic-looking, in the box he had stuck her in. She probably needed medical treatment in the absence of her mother. He would tell one of his officers to take care of it.
Kylo Ren stood up quickly, and exited the room, lightsaber thumping against his side.
“Sir, we’re having some technical issues with the ship,” General Hux sneered at him, a day later.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Our clocks seem to be going far too slow. It’s happening with all the time-clocking devices on the ship, so we have no way to right them. We should dock, and adjust them. The nearest trustworthy dock is five hours away from where we are based currently.” Kylo nodded. Much as he hated doing what Hux said, with small decisions Hux often suggested the obvious decision before he could, and he had no choice but to agree.
As the engines began to quietly start, a ranking stormtrooper approached.
“My Lord,” she said. It was Captain Phasma, Kylo now realized. “The human child is well, but she needs physical contact with a human. Our young stormtroopers receive time each day being held by an unarmored trooper until they are weaned off of the touch. Do you wish us to begin the same program with her?”
“No.” Kylo didn’t know why the thought of the girl becoming a stormtrooper was so distasteful. Maybe it was because he knew how she could become much more. He already had troopers constantly watching her. They didn’t need to make her, of all people, identical to them. Her mother would scarcely have approved – although that was rather the point of kidnapping her.
The child needed touch. Only the stormtroopers that were closest to him and a few trustworthy humans knew about the girl. Hux would tease him mercilessly, and definitely tell Snoke. Not that there was anything wrong with Snoke knowing, but he would ask questions, and learn about the girl’s mother. That was one season of happiness, bitterness and hate that Kylo would rather be kept to himself.
Sending the stormtrooper on guard away, Kylo looked at the child. She seemed unnaturally intelligent for only being a day old. She needed a name. He sighed.
“You’ll be one of the Knights of Ren when you grow, did you know that? You’ll probably be stronger than them all. I know the blood in your veins. Well, not your father’s. He looked like a pushover. Maybe he wasn’t, though. I can’t really see Lea in love with a pushover.” It was strange, talking to the motionless infant who simply looked upwards upon him with unfocused eyes.
He reached out and awkwardly lifted her. “I’m Kylo, by the way. Kylo Ren. I can be your father now. It’s weird, but I would have been your father if your mother wasn’t such a stubborn idiot.” He felt somehow that he owed the girl a description of her mother. Everything in him was begging him to put the child down, to leave her and this uncomfortable situation and to never come back. Strangely enough, it was the thought of Captain Phasma that helped him stay. If stormtroopers were given touch, it must be as necessary as food; otherwise it would have been removed from the program.
“Your mother was crazy, you know. She was the nicest person I’ve ever known. She really cared about me. We argued, though, and she left. Everything that’s happened she deserved. Her name was Lea Sparrow. She called me Wren, saying that we could both be birds.” The baby fell asleep in his arms, her little fist resting against his chest. He was quiet for a moment. “I’ll call you Wren – the one who was a Sparrow, and now is mine.”
He accidentally woke her when he put her back in the makeshift crib, but he ignored her whimpers as he left, motioning to the guard to return as he passed him in the hall. Hux pounced upon him immediately.
“Ren, we’re moving impossibly slow. Nothing has been found wrong with the engines, yet they’re barely circulating. We radioed another ship, and they say that our clocks are correct. Something’s happened with time.”
That bastard girl, Kylo thought. She’s only been alive a day and is already messing with time. He knew what she was doing, too. In the world where her true family lived, time passed much faster. That was why Lea was already married with several children when he found her. In his world, only eight years had passed. As Lea gave birth to twins, he stole one and escaped.
Wren was keeping pace with her sister, across galaxies and dimensions that couldn’t be traversed save by Lea or someone who had been close to her.
“My Lord,” Hux continued, interrupting his thoughts, “what do you recommend?”
“Take up knitting,” Kylo snarled, and stormed away.
After a full day of the bizarrely-stretched time, Kylo was almost ready to take up his own advice. Even with the time on the ship slowed down, Wren was growing far faster than she ought to. He found himself visiting her often, simply to keep away the boredom. Sure, practicing with his lightsaber took up a lot of his time, but there was only so much one could do alone. The Knights of Ren weren’t on the ship, and stormtroopers were terrible at dueling.
Time stretched onwards. The stormtroopers invented crazy, intense board games to take up their time, as well as creating a new language and an unusual yet strict ranking system with its own nuances. Kylo found himself getting better at holding the magical child he had abducted.
He had nightmares of Lea coming for him, coming with blazing eyes and smoldering flesh, coming to burn him and send him into the agony she had been living in. But he had hidden his trail well, he comforted himself, and she wouldn’t be able to trace it back to him.
Wren had learned to recognize Kylo’s step in the hall. Often he heard her laugh with delight when he approached, ready to see the man she loved and trusted, perhaps mistaking him for the mother she hadn’t been able to know. There was a couch in her room, and many times Kylo found that he had fallen asleep upon it, with Wren snuggled on his chest. The light wisps of golden hair gave way to messy red curls, and she learned his name.
“Kywo.” Klyo Ren had been speaking to Captain Phasma about how to handle the increasingly creative and destructive bored stormtroopers. At the voice, he wheeled around, and found Wren standing, looking at him. She swayed, and sat down. He hadn’t seen her stand before without support, but that wasn’t where his mind was.
“Wren,” he said, his voice icy, “why did you leave your room?”
Realizing she made a mistake, Wren shrunk backwards, eyes apologetic. Kylo lit his lightsaber and used it to tear through the wall next to him with a yell of frustration. She whimpered.
“Thank you, Captain. You may leave,” he said. It was almost a whisper, for the sudden shout had cracked his voice. Captain Phasma nodded and left. When the room was empty, Kylo kneeled before Wren. Despite her obvious fear, Wren put her arms out imploringly.
“You must obey me,” he said, before giving in and pulling her to himself. He held her for a long, long time. She ran her fingers through his hair, pulling on it and putting it in her mouth.
“Do you think Snoke knows why time is messed up?” Kylo wondered aloud. He was long in the habit of speaking to Wren as if she understood all that was happening. One day she would, for she would be one of his most trusted members of the Knights of Ren. “I hope he doesn’t ever blame you.” Kylo gave her a gentle kiss on her forehead, and she hummed at him. “He never found out about your mother, but you’re so little that you might make a mistake. A mistake could take both of our lives, Wren. How did you get out of your room, anyway? You probably put the guard to sleep. It wouldn’t surprise me.”
He opened a drawer and pulled out a piece of paper and a drawing stick. “Here. Draw me a picture.”
Wren tried to eat the drawing stick, but when that venture proved unsuccessful, she began to scribble on the paper. When there were two scribbled blobs on the paper, Wren pointed at each one in turn.
“Kywo. Muh.” Kylo felt like his heart had stopped. Although the figures bore no resemblance to him and Lea, he knew that was what she meant. He was her Kylo. Lea was her mum. How did she know? Before the question could torment him anymore, he scooped Wren up to return her to her room. He ran down the hall, Wren clinging to his neck and bouncing along, whooping with laughter. She was so like Lea, this Wren of his.
“My Lord?” Hux’s normal sneer was distorted with surprise. It wasn’t seemly for a Sith apprentice to be running around a ship with a toddler in his arms. Before the General could ask any pesky questions, Kylo nodded at him as if nothing was amiss and walked past. Wren hissed like a cat as they passed Hux and turned into her room. Kylo could barely keep his smile down. His- that is, Wren, had already learned to dislike the stuck-up, pathetic General.
The guard was indeed asleep, but he awoke when Kylo kicked him. Ordering him to keep a better eye on Wren, Kylo left. Hux was waiting for him outside the door. He mentally sighed, but knew he would have to face the General sometime about Wren, now that he knew.
“Who is she?”
Looking Hux in the eye, Kylo answered. “My daughter.”
“I thought love was forbidden to the Jedi?”
“I'm a Sith Apprentice, Hux. Not a Jedi.”
“But why is she here?”
Why indeed? Kylo sometimes wondered the same thing. “Her mother died. She’s strong in the force, could be useful with training. I expect she’ll be high ranking in the Knights.”
Hux snorted. “How would you know? She’s just a child.”
“She used the force to get out of her room.” It was almost true, Kylo reasoned. It had been magic, not the force, but it was close enough, and proof that she was powerful.
“She could cause horrendous trouble,” Hux said, clearly grasping at straws.
“Not if she is loyal to me.” Kylo was rather satisfied with the conversation. He had explained away her origin and his reason for keeping her, as well as given an explanation for the bond he shared with her. Hux seemed willing to let it slide, and although he would probably tell Snoke, was no longer as suspicious about the child – not to mention he clearly hadn’t thought that she might be the cause of the agonizingly spaced time.
Having no more to say, Hux awkwardly left. Kylo exhaled subtly in relief. He had to protect Wren. It was his fault she wasn’t growing up with her mother and her sister, and even if the mother deserved the pain of separation, Wren didn’t.
A stormtrooper walked by with a bright pink scrap of cloth wrapped around his arm. Kylo frowned. They really were getting out of hand. He should probably meet with Snoke to discuss how they would manage the distorted time aboard the starship.
Hopefully Snoke would allow them to stay on the ship, along with the Knights of Ren. It would be annoying to be so stranded, but they could train and prepare themselves.
*******
Time. What a bizarre invention. Or was it a discovery? Kylo supposed that Time existed whether or not men measured it out and counted it. Whatever it was, he had more than enough to sit and ponder deep things – such as whether or not time had existed before measurement. Snoke had agreed to allow them to stay on the ship, but he was clearly surprised by his apprentice’s willingness to be patient.
How was he able to speak with Snoke at a normal timeframe without time returning to its proper speed? Closing his eyes, Kylo tried to focus on the pulse of energy he had learned belonged to Lea. All he could feel was the spell that kept him and Wren hidden from the fearsome witch.
When he tried again in Wren’s room as she slept in her box, he felt the thread of power as sharp as a knife that connected her with her twin. The girls alone were keeping the timing of the ship more attuned to that of earth, but Lea’s knowledge and bountiful magic probably provided Wren’s sister with the ability to modify the spell to allow messages to continue as normal. Two tiny children, boring a hole in the very patchwork of the galaxy.
Wren had learned to walk, then to run. Her sentences were becoming longer, and one day made the exciting discovery that Kylo was the same person even with his helmet on. She began taking off the stormtrooper’s helmets after that.
Only six months after he had stolen her, an estimated two years on the ship, Kylo brought her two sticks. She looked about four years old by his uncertain guess. Holding one of the sticks like a lightsaber, he began to teach her to duel. Internally he hated how he was teaching like Luke had – with fairness, kindness and strictness – but the training he had received from Snoke was nothing he wanted his daughter to endure.
“Balance, Wren,” he said for the hundredth time. “If your balance falters you will fall. Your enemy will see your weakness.” As he spoke, he lunged with his stick and sent her over backwards. She glared at him from where she sat on the floor. “Get up.”
He had lowered his weapon when she went down, and Wren took the opportunity to leap up and smack his side with her stick. By the time he retaliated, she was in a defensive position.
“Never let your guard down,” she said in her innocent voice. Giving a playful roar at the mockery, Kylo grabbed her, heedless of their sticks that clattered to the ground, and swept her up. She laughed from her place in his arms, holding on to his shoulder.
“My Lord,” Hux said, entering. “The Supreme Leader wishes to speak with you.” Kylo’s heart plummeted, but he showed no emotion as he nodded. As Hux left, Wren tried to give Kylo a comforting hand in his own, but he shook her off and strode away.
The discussion with Snoke proved to be a bad one, but worse was coming. As soon as the Supreme Leader had cut his hologram connection, Kylo saw Wren standing behind the projector, looking furious.
“He hurt you,” she said.
There was so much Kylo wanted to say to her, but no words left his mouth. He wanted to scold her for spying on him, wanted to tell her that Snoke was who he wanted to follow. The second thought was one that send his mind immediately back to Lea, on the day she left him. He had said the same to her, and she had lifted her head and walked out of his life.
Thinking of Lea reminded him of the last time he had had an unpleasant conversation with the Supreme Leader and she was there for him. She had escaped from her prison cell, much like Wren constantly escaped from her room. And, like Wren, Lea’s only goal once she had escaped was to find Kylo. He had loved her. She had taken care of him, holding him in the night, listening to his rants, teaching him to play once more. And she had left him.
Furious eyes lifted towards Wren, Kylo stormed away without a word. The girl could get caught by Snoke. She could burn for his amusement, and Kylo wouldn’t care. She was a wretch who deserved all that came to her.
*******
A week later she stole a mouse droid. Dismantling it, she reprogrammed it to her own commands instead of those of the ship. Kylo first noticed that something was wrong when he saw a mouse droid scurrying along a hallway with an apple on its back. Wren had been hungry, and sent it for food. At least, that’s what she told him, but he knew she was just experimenting with what her droid could do. She was going to have Hux baying for her blood soon, but he didn’t say anything to her.
The next day he entered her room with a stack of books in his arms. Wren was frowning intently over the droid, grease smudged on her arms and nose. Kylo suddenly remembered his own childhood, when he had gotten scolded by Leia for getting dirty helping his father fix a “junk heap” of a ship. Han snapped back, and a battle began.
“Wren,” he said, ignoring her blackened fingers. “I have something for you.”
She made a face of disgust as she saw the books. “Books? Really?”
“Yes, really. Being a Jedi is about more than fighting.” Wren cast a dramatic and longing look at the stick with which she trained. Kylo reminded himself to get her a proper padawan blade.
Surprisingly enough, after the first reluctance, Wren took quite well to reading the textbooks he found – books about history and diplomacy and science. Many of them were his own, scribbled rebelliously in the margins where Uncle Luke was sure to not notice.
Hearing monotonous chanting coming from her room, Kylo curiously looked inside. Wren was performing some sort of ritualistic dance while waving her arms. The book she was dancing around suddenly grew slightly thicker.
“What are you doing?” Kylo had just woken up, and was still rather blurry.
“I’m making the book more interesting. You know how dry and hard to read they are?” He nodded. “Well, I tell the book to rewrite itself so that it’s like a story. The treaty of Balron seemed really boring, until I told it to do a better job.”
What was the girl talking about? Kylo wondered.
“You should just read it,” Wren said, realizing that she had lost her audience. She pulled one of her older books from the pile beside her bed, and flipped open to the proper chapter.
Reluctantly, Kylo took it from her hand. He didn’t even know what the treaty of Balron was.
That day, he read the entire chapter about the treaty five different times. There was something engaging about the book that demanded one care about what was happening, as if he was one of the lower-class women protected at last from the nearby soldiers, or the quirky noble named Jensen who gave more than anyone else to bring the treaty together.
There were people who had been affected, people who cared deeply, and reading about them made Kylo almost want to celebrate when at last the treaty was signed. The next chapter detailed the following hundred years of peace, and the sickening fall of the balance that had been so closely maintained.
He couldn’t spend his entire day reading, however, for discipline was at last being taken against the bored stormtroopers, and it was a complicated process. They were relatively free during their off-duty shifts. Before time had changed to such a fickle, unstable construct, they had spent that time sleeping.
How much punishment should be delivered to bored stormtroopers who were only trying to cope?