Author's Note: Thanks everyone for the votes and comments! I don't deny that I gather some of my ideas and inspiration from movies and books, like star wars and the hunger games, etc. But my writing itself is original and I work hard on it, my editing I'm doing here right now takes about 1 hour per chapter (because I'm kind of a perfectionist). Alright, here's the next chapter release! Thanks for reading :) 

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Hux curses as he passes me the shower head. "Come on Ren, isn't your skin burning?" He pulls his shirt over his head. Phasma grabs the shower head from me and begins to rinse herself off. She's already fully undressed and not shy at all, but I don't watch. Hux doesn't either. I can't clear my mind of the image of the students who were burning, their scared expressions when they couldn't get out of the gathering space in time before the door closed.

"Here." Phasma hands Hux the shower head and leaves the walk in shower area, closing the door behind her and leaving me and Hux in the stall.

"Ren," Hux says, waving his hand in front of my face. "Do you want your skin to eaten away by the gas?"

"It was the Sith Lords."

"What?"

"Behind the glass barrier. They were starting the fires in the room."

"Well, it's still a flammable agent of some sort and it's burning through my skin." He begins to undo his belt then stops. "Here," he reaches past me and opens the shower door. "Wait out there if you're not in a hurry to rinse off. I'm about to burst into flames." He shoves me out and closes the door behind me.

I look into the washroom mirror and see a rash is forming on my neck, all the way around the collar of my shirt where I didn't rinse off yet. My skin feels like it's on fire, with acid burning my skin away and stealing the breath from my lungs.

"Hux!" I bang on the shower door. "Hurry up."

"Pass me a towel!" he calls back. I grab one and open the shower door just enough to toss it in. Little bursts of flames suddenly pop up on my shirt.

"What the?" I smack at the flames with my hand, burning my fingers in the process. "Ouch." I pull frantically on my sleeves, trying to get my shirt off but the fabric is already stuck to my skin now, in the spots that have burned.

Hux comes out of the shower with a towel wrapped around his waist. "What the hell?" he says when he sees me. He grabs the bottom of my shirt and pulls it up over my head, yanking it off along with the burnt skin stuck to it.

I yelp and Hux shoves me into the shower. He turns the water on and rinses me off with the shower head. The cold water cools the skin on my back. I fumble with my belt, my legs already searing with pain, but my scorched fingers hurt too much to be useful. Hux pushes my hands aside and unsnaps the clip on my belt in one quick move, then undoes the one button at the top, above the zipper. He hands me the shower head.

"You're on your own now," he says and steps out of the shower.

* * *

"Done." Phasma puts the panel on the door keypad back on. "This should keep the door locked, even if someone overrides the computer system. I have it hooked up as only manually controled now."

"Good job, Phasma," Hux says, sounding tired. He's sitting on the floor beside me, leaning against the wall and eating some kind of cold pasta dish with me. We haven't said anything to each other since the rinsing off. My skin still hurts but feels a lot better after Phasma helped me put burning ointment on my back, where I couldn't reach. I put the cream on my arms and fingers too, where they were blistered, but nothing else got burned, thankfully. Now the sore spots are numb with the healing cream, which I used all of from the room's first aid kit. Hux and Phasma rinsed off before they got any burns. We wouldn't have had enough medical ointment for all three of us and I'm glad they're both so brave and not self-conscious, like I am. I glance at Hux beside me. He looks deep in thought.

"You were smart to bring food to the room," I say to him. Phasma walks over and sits down on the other side of Hux. 

"Do you think they'll enforce the no hiding rule?" she asks.

"Probably," I say. "But night time hours start in like ten minutes anyway."

Hux takes a breath to respond but a bleep sound interrupts him. It's the call button for the door.

"Don't answer it," Phasma says. The ringing goes on and on. 

Hux gets up.

"Don't open it!" Phasma gets up too.

"I won't." Hux walks over to the door console and turns on the small screen. "Who is it?" he says, pushing the comm button.

"Please, help me!" a voice calls from the tiny speakers. Hux leans down closer to get a better look at the screen. I get up and go over to look too.

"I just need clean water," the voice says. "Please..." It's one of the boys from the school, eyes wide with fear, staring into the camera outside the door.

"How does he know we have clean water?" Hux says.

"It could be a trap." Phasma looks to me. "Can you tell if it is?" 

I close my eyes and concentrate, setting my hand onto the door and reaching through it to the boy on the other side. My stomach tightens. "It's not a trap," I pull my hand away and shudder. "He's actually sick. It's Harvoth's fever."

"Then we could catch it. Don't open the door," Phasma says.

"Please," the boy outside pleads. "I have white blood cell pills. I just need clean water."

Hux punches the numbers into the keypad.

"Hux!" Phasma yells, pushing him aside, but it's too late, the door opens. A dark haired boy topples forward into the room, his bottle of pills fall out of his hand and spill onto the carpet.

"What happened to you?" Hux asks the boy.

"I just need water-"

"First tell us what happened."

"My group contaminated the water with Harvoth's fever."

"All of the water on the ship?"

"Yes, but Master Snoke is aware of it now."

"Then how did you get sick? Didn't you know?"

"Hux..." I say, feeling bad for the boy. "He needs to take the pills right away if he's going to survive."

"The fruit..." the boy says, coughing. "It was washed in the water and I ate one. My team gave me the pills, but they only work dissolved in water and they wouldn't let me back into the team room."

"I'll get a bottle," I say. 

"Phasma, grab a towel," Hux commands. 

When I return the boy is sitting up and Hux is standing behind him, his knees on either side of the boy's shoulders. He takes the towel from Phasma.

"Don't watch," he says to me then drops the towel on the boy's head. The boy starts to protest but Hux grabs him in a headlock and snaps his neck quickly with a sickening crunch. My stomach lurches. The boy drops to the ground, dead.

* * *

"It was a mercy killing," Phasma says, taking a seat beside me on the floor. I know she thinks I'm being quiet because Hux killed the sick student, but it's not what's bothering me. It was only one death, our first killing, and the Games have just started. There will be more and the reality of it is only now dawning on me and I'm scared, not for myself but for Phasma and Hux.

"The two Masters that were with Snoke tonight at the opening ceremonies, they're Sith Lords. They're the ones that were starting the fires. It was all planned," I say to Phasma.

"I figured as much."

"I think Master Snoke is controlling the Games. And he's going to let me win. But I'm worried about you two."

"Ren, you were in that room when the gas was released too, weren't you? And you got more hurt than both of us. Plus you weren't able to get out without my help. So I don't think they're favouring anyone specifically, or else you wouldn't have been there."

"You're right, I wouldn't have gotten out without you two." 

"But your Force sensitivity helped warn us. You knew we had to get out, so we had a head start."

I nod, then I take a deep breath and let it out slowly. The clock on the night stand says 01:20. It's officially off-hours for the Games, but I can't seem to relax. "I don't know if I can kill people, like Hux," I say. "He's stronger-"

"No, he's not. Quit saying that. This upset him too, you know. He's just better at hiding it. I think that's why he's locked himself in the washroom for the last hour."

"You're right. I shouldn't make him do all the killing for us. But I would have tried to save that guy, if Hux hadn't killed him."

"I already told you. Jared wouldn't have gotten better fast enough to make it through the Games, even if the pills worked, he would have needed weeks to fully recover." My chest tightens at the mention of the boy's name. Phasma knew him. "And now we have the white blood cell immune boosters he brought with him, which will help us heal from just about any virus," she says.

The washroom door opens and Hux steps out. "Did you know the shower is also a decontamination chamber?" he says, walking past us. "It wouldn't hurt for both of you to use it. Since that boy was in our room."

Phasma and I exchange a look. "You go first," I say.

Phasma gets up and heads for the washroom. I watch Hux as he rummages through the refrigerator silently. I don't know how he can eat after dragging a dead body down the hallway. But I admire him. Phasma's right. It was a mercy killing and I wouldn't have wanted to watch that Jared kid suffer for days before being killed anyway, fast or slow.

I close my eyes and lean my head back against the wall, never having been more tired in all my life.