Kaia Kestis

As Kaia closed the door to Lyra and Kelsa's screams, she pulled out her lightsaber, which she had kept concealed on her belt and tossed Cora hers. They activated them in unison as Kylo Ren approached and activated his own, the raw and angry red blade crackling ominously.

"I thought I sensed something familiar," he remarked, his lightsaber hissing by his side. Kaia and Cora both braced themselves, their lightsabers positioned defensively.

"I hope you're not disappointed," Kaia retorted. Beside her, Cora shifted her weight slightly, preparing to lunge.

Kylo Ren spun his blade slowly, coming closer. "Killing you and the rest of the rebels on this ship will be far from disappointing."

"You can try," Kaia shot back. With a yell, Cora suddenly threw herself at him, swinging her bright lightsaber viciously. Even though he was caught a little off guard, Kylo Ren managed to block her fairly easily.

He swung back in retaliation, and Kaia lunged to block his strike. She pushed upward, knocking him off balance, and took her chance to swing back at him. Still, he prevented the blow and she staggered backwards.

Kaia was able to recover her balance in time to defend against another slash from Kylo Ren's lightsaber, and Cora moved to attack him at the same time.

Somehow, Ren handled them both, and they dueled with fierce intensity until he was able to knock Cora off-balance, and because of her heavy armor, she wasn't able to recover fast enough to avoid being slashed in the back. She collapsed onto the ground, dropping her lightsaber.

"No!" Kaia cried, taking a ferocious swing at Kylo Ren in an effort to keep him away from her gravely injured friend. He dodged around the blow and brought his crackling blade up to meet hers once more. "How could you? You were one of us!"

"The Jedi are weak," Kylo Ren responded, pushing her back. Kaia stumbled, but managed to deflect another stab. "Surely you can see it."

"I can see that you're delusional," Kaia shot back before striking back, then dodging an attempted blow.

Kylo Ren was an aggressive fighter, and he was very skilled, which made him very dangerous. Even though Kaia had experience fighting him before, when they had both been training at Luke Skywalker's Jedi Temple, that still didn't prepare her for the even more untamed and violent form he now used.

She fought hard, trying desperately to force him backwards, but he still seemed to have the upper hand. Every time she got him to move back, even just a little, he had a counterattack that practically reversed her efforts.

She refused to give up, and she kept fighting until Kylo Ren managed to slice her leg, and when she stumbled, he stabbed her where her shoulder met her arm and she collapsed with a gasp, pressing her hand against her shoulder wound and trying desperately to push herself backwards with her good leg, away from her attacker, even though she knew her efforts were futile.

Kylo Ren raised his lightsaber as he advanced, as if to strike, but right before he did, the door behind them opened, and before Kaia knew what was going on, Ersela darted forward, grabbed Cora's lightsaber, and activated it just in time to block the blow.

Taking advantage of the moment, Kaia pushes herself back towards the wall, looking briefly at Cora, who remained unconscious on the ground, and heaved herself to her feet, favoring her uninjured leg.

She watched as Ersela dueled Kylo Ren with skill she hadn't known the general had possessed. It almost looked as if she had carried a lightsaber her entire life. Still, Kaia didn't want to leave her friend to fight the Supreme Leader of the First Order on her own.

Reaching out with the Force, she summoned her lightsaber, which she had dropped after being stabbed, back to her and she activated it once more.

Ersela was forcing Ren back, but Kaia could see that he was about to retaliate more vigorously, so she half ran-half limped to her friend's side, exchanging a brief glance, before they started fighting in unison, slowly pushing the Supreme Leader back the way they came, and the way that they would now have to go, towards the hangar that they had originally abandoned.

Using the Force, Kaia pushed Kylo Ren back, in the direction of the escape pods, then gestured for Ersela to run.

"We're going to have to find a different way to get out of here," she told her as she started to run as well, despite the pain. "We can't lead Ren to the others."

"What about Cora?" Ersela asked, glancing back over her shoulder. Kaia didn't need to look behind them to know that Kylo Ren was pursuing them, and she put on a burst of speed that Ersela matched easily.

"I'm sure Kelsa and Lyra will take care of her," Kaia replied.

"Uh, about that," Ersela started. "Lyra was actually captured."

"What?" Kaia cried, though she didn't stop. "Well we can't go back for her now!"

"It's OK," Ersela assured her. "If Kelsa can get Cora then maybe they can get her back."

"I hope so," Kaia muttered as they rounded the corner to the still flaming landing bay and Ersela deactivated her lightsaber. "Now which ship do we take?"

"A TIE fighter," Ersela responded breathlessly. "It fits two people."

"That'll work," Kaia agreed, deactivating her lightsaber as well. "I'll fly it." They sprinted over to one of the remaining sleek, black TIE fighters and Kaia threw open the hatch on the top and slid in, ignoring the pain in her leg and shoulder. Ersela came in close behind and closed the hatch, taking her seat facing opposite to Kaia's.

"Alright let's go," Ersela yelled as they powered up the fighter. "We've got company!"

Kaia looked out the window as she flipped the last few switches and saw Kylo Ren approaching slowly, his lightsaber still activated and glowing a vicious red. "Get ready!"

She eased the TIE fighter out of its docking station and piloted it out of the hangar as quickly as possible, eager to get away from the haunting figure of her past.

Unfortunately, she hadn't thought of the possibility of the Star Destroyer going into hyperspace, which it was, and the TIE fighter was hurtled out of hyperspace as soon as they left the Steadfast, and when everything steadied and Kaia stopped cursing, she realized they were in the middle of deep space.

Her head still spinning, she turned to Ersela, who had her hands pressed against her head and was moaning slightly. "Are you OK?" she asked the Resistance general.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Ersela replied, putting her hand down and turning to face Kaia. "That just got a little crazy."

"It definitely did," Kaia agreed, facing forward again. She leaned back in her chair, clutching her shoulder as if to keep the scorching throb at bay, and closed her eyes, taking a few deep breaths.

When she opened her eyes again after several quiet moments, she noticed that where there had been empty space, there was now a huge mass of metal in the shape of a rhombohedron. It had a faint reddish glow that made Kaia feel uneasy.

"Do you see that?" she asked Ersela, who turned around to look in the direction she was pointing.

"What is that?" Ersela murmured, sounding both mesmerized and confused.

"I don't know, but I don't like it," Kaia replied in a low voice. She grabbed the controls of the TIE and found that she could not control the direction it was going, which was straight towards the strange structure. "That's not good."

"What's not good?" Ersela demanded uneasily.

"Whatever that thing is is pulling us towards it," she explained. "I can't control the ship anymore."

"Great," Ersela muttered sarcastically. "I guess we're going to see what's inside that thing."

Kaia didn't reply, suddenly feeling very faint. She glanced back at Ersela and saw that strangely, the general was struggling as well.

"What's going o-" she started to ask weakly, before there was a flash of bright light and then everything went dark.