The first step

AN: Please read "I can't go on" before this, it is a side story that takes place after the second chapter.

Without Snoke's lurking presence in the force, always buzzing in the background, it was alarmingly clear how long it had been since Kylo Ren had truly felt the force in its purest state. The force didn't have a smog muddling his view of it, causing him to have to fight to feel anything. Having Rey turn down his offer stung, but after the initial sting he couldn't bring himself to hold on to his anger. He was still prone to temper tantrums, as much as the was loth to admit it, however with his temper came an easy sense of peace at the oddest times. It was a balance that had been lost to him for so long.

With this new found balance it was amazing how much he could feel, making it easy to tell there had been a shift in the force. Something had happened, the shift in the force was so easily noticeable without the buzzing. A new force user had awakened and the force moved around them to attempt to protect them from some danger, most surprisingly to him was how near it felt to him. Then the ripples stopped and he could feel the new force user farther way, near the other point in the distance where Rey was.

It had started near him though, but besides the fleet he was currently part of the only inhabited planet near him was the training planet Brom. This knowledge sent him to his office, sending all Stormtroopers away and doing some research. To start he pulled up a record of ships docking and leaving all First Order units within the last week.

It was even more boring than expected.

That was saying something because he expected it to be a painfully boring procedure, but the endless flow of boring numbers of ship names almost blurred together. After five hours of sifting through the records a ships a name caught his eye.

Valerian: Docked at 1000: Departed at 1300

The last time he had heard that ship name…

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"When I grow up, Ben, you get to be my co-pilot and our ship will be named the Valerian. Like the comic Uncle Chewie got me! Look Ben. Ben!"

"Why am I the Co-piolet, Freja? I am older than you, and I am a better pilot." He answered, laying down on the ground, stretching his gangly frame out in a way that Uncle Luke would never allow when they were at the Jedi temple. It was nice to be home, there was less to worry about being at peace when he was babysitting his little cousin.

"NO! Ben, you are the Jedi, its my job to be your pilot." Freja scoffed, turning her nose up at him, "You can't be both, Ben; you can't do all of the fun things. I am going to become the best smuggler in the galaxy and I'll save your Sculag butt."

"Be carful, last thing we need is Uncle Calrissian to walk in and both of us will be in trouble," Ben warned before using the force to snatch one of the Forest -Honey cakes from her plate, resulting in a wrestling match.

Jolting away from the memory, Kylo Ren quickly pulled up the file on this Valerian; the feeling of dread mixing with a equal amount of hope. The two sides, light and dark both fighting over who would prevail in this situation, was enough to make him feel sick.

There was listed everything he needed to know.

YT-74 class ship.

Hired by Captain Cardinal to bring supplies.

Name of Captain: Freja Zarander, (YT-74 class ship was a favorite for vaping brat was using her real first name and Aunt Calrissians' maiden name like a Lurdo.)

He pulled up the video of the last ten minutes of surveillance from that morning, everything looked normal the new Lieutenant Commander FN-2155 helped her bring the new empty crates onto her ship before she left. Feeling like he was missing something, he was rewatching it when he noticed one of the bottom crates move. Rewinding, he zoomed in on the crates, slowing down the video to see the top crate slowly lift revealing a curious brown eyes and cadet crew cut brown hair. It was only a couple frames before the top crate settled back down.

Well, he had found the force user. The question was what to do. Not only did he have a Lieutenant Commander that was smuggling off cadets that showed force sensitivity, but Lando Calrissian's daughter was no doubt gathering information for the resistance.

He was Kylo Ren, Supreme Leader of the First Order. He was going to rule the galaxy. However he could still hear the excited voice of a nine year old Freja the last time he visited home. Trying to coax him into helping her get more Forest-honey cake from where it had been put on the top shelf where she couldn't reach it, but the awkwardly long limbed fifteen year old could reach easily.

With skills that had almost grown rusty from lack of use, Ben Solo corrupted the film, insuring that there were too many pixels to make out more than the crates that were being loaded and the ship as it left. Then he ensured that there were no copies on any First Order computers saved.

"This is the Last time I have your back, Lurdo," Ben whispered to the screen before he wiped any trace he had checked in on the ship.

AN: So what do you guys think? There will be more where this came from!