Note: The first does contain a depiction of torture/violence.

It was late evening when the Supremacy came into the harbor in Jakku. At this hour, the port was empty. Nearby lodges and shops were dark inside, their occupants either sleeping or relishing a cold brew at the pub. Time-wise, it was perfect for the pirates to slip in and out quietly if they desired to.

And that was precisely what Captain Armitage Hux intended to do.

"Sh-Should I inform the crew of an overnight stay, sir?" Mitaka wearily asked. Having returned empty-handed to Jakku after spending the last several months combing every island in the Caribbean for the compass, he hoped that the captain would give them one night on land to rest.

But alas, the captain considered differently.

To Hux, when the ocean was permanently rid of Kylo Ren, there would be plenty of time for rest. By slaying the Silencer's current captain, Hux would be given full authority over the ship that he had been second in command of before its rightful commander - Snoke - was killed. Before Kylo Ren came aboard and stole everything from him.

His aspirations, gone. The power, gone. Everything he had ever worked towards was gone.

It was a secret that not even Mitaka was aware of. None of his crew members knew, in fact. He figured it was best that way. The fewer questions he was made to answer about his affiliations with Kylo Ren and the Silencer, the better off he would be.

Regarding the shadowy bags beneath Mitaka's eyes, Hux fluttered his wrist and rejected the query without additional thought. "Nonsense, this won't take long," the captain stated haughtily, his lips cracking a sinister grin. "We're just paying an old friend a quick visit."

Mitaka nodded, his shoulders slumping. Clearly disappointed, the first mate knew better than to protest his captain's orders. He'd dutifully accompany Hux to the end of the world if it were flat and jump should the captain tell him to. Actually, all of them onboard the Supremacy would if he'd ever ask.

With their unshakable loyalty, surely he'd be unstoppable once they procured that sweet taste of immortality. How it felt to live without ever fearing death. But there was still one particular crew member that the captain was a little uncertain of.

Striding out onto the quarterdeck from his cabin, Hux immediately spotted the crew member in question, hauling a barrel across the main deck below on his shoulder toward the rear stairwell entrance. "Finnegan!" he shouted, crisply.

Finn stopped short and spun on his heel, perceiving Hux while the captain descended the quarterdeck stairs. Seeing it was indeed the captain who had addressed him, the pirate sat the barrel down on the floor and hastily met his superior midway. "Yes, sir?"

"You are relieved of your duties for the evening," the captain affirmed, smirking. "You will be coming ashore with us."

Finn and Mitaka blinked at him, puzzled. It was definitely unlike the captain to request anyone who wasn't the first mate to attend such an important meeting with him. But Hux had his reasons, for which he wasn't about to disclose to either of them.

Besides, it was time that he gave the rookie a proper induction to piracy. To introduce him to a world beyond sailing around the ocean, seeking a treasure of particular interest. Or building friendships, as Finn had previously displayed with the girl. That simply wouldn't do for those wanting to stay aboard his ship. Pirates were a class of men that were meant to be feared. Outlaws who answered to no government or law but to the will of their captain. Qualified to take anything from anyone—no matter the cost.

And Hux was fully aware that there was always a price.

The trio departed from the Supremacy, Finn dawdling a few paces behind the captain and Mitaka as they walked the deserted streets of Jakku. Illuminating the blackness with their golden light were the lanterns hanging outside doorways. A dog barking occasionally broke the stillness of a fairly cool evening.

Hux escorted the two men to a corner building not far from the port, a weathered sign that read Pawn Shop in bold, red letters hung from its awning overhead. Touching a hand to its doorknob, Hux pivoted at the waist and aimed a stern finger at Finn. "Not a word of what you might hear tonight is to be repeated to anyone," the captain warned in a hushed voice. "Do I make myself clear?"

Finn swallowed dryly, nodding. "Yes, sir," he whispered.

The captain held his gaze for another minute. Seeing that he had no reason not to trust this man, Hux peeled his eyes away and gave the doorknob an experimental twist. Unlocked. Ah, brilliant, he crooned, a wolfish grin playing on his lips. And here he had expected Maz to be more cautious.

A bell chimed above as the captain nudged the door open and stepped inside, leaving it ajar for Mitaka and Finn to follow. What bit of light there was from the outdoors revealed a narrow pathway, clear of clutter, leading to a beaded curtain at the far back where a light had flickered on. A faint pair of footsteps scuffing along the wood floorboards resounded over their boots, then the petite figure of Maz Kanata appeared; one hand clutching the front of her knitted shawl, covering the shoulders of her peasant gown, a candle in her other hand.

"What in God's name I'm clo—." Her rant ended there upon meeting Hux's glare. Pinching her lips, the old woman's bowed posture straightened. "Armitage," she hissed.

Hux chuckled. "Don't look so surprised to see me, Maz," he preened, hands clasped behind him as he moved a couple of steps closer to her. "Though I must confess, it has been a long time."

Maz tilted her chin, cutting to the point. "What do you want?"

Hux considered her. "You know what I've come for," he answered furtively.

The old woman's gaze flitted to the two men standing quietly behind him, observing them momentarily. "We had an accord," said Maz, her attention veering to Hux. "And I upheld my end of the bargain, as promised. If it is the compass you are looking for, you will not find it here."

"Well if it isn't here, then perhaps you could be so kind as to tell me where it is," he implored flatly.

"I am all out of favors for you, Armitage," countered Maz, her tone absent of remorse. "I freed you of the curse, and my services will not be extended."

His patience with the old woman was draining rapidly. No thanks to Maz, there were now two sets of eyes drilling into the back of his skull. Deciding he would deal with the repercussions of that later, he began to pace toward Maz, circling her as a predator would while gauging its prey. "Need I remind you, you too would still be a prisoner to the sea had I not offered you freedom, witch," he seethed. "You and I, we have a lot more in common than you think."

Maz peered out of her peripheral at him as the captain strolled passed. "You may be human, but you will always be a monster," she grimaced, a gentle breeze from his movement causing her candle's flame to waver. "I am nothing like you."

Smug, Hux chuckled. "Ah, except that is where you are wrong," he taunted, pausing a few paces shy of Maz's right side peripheral. "You wanted this, too—freedom. So much you forgot it was the young Solo boy that you left wallowing in your spell's aftereffects, did you not?" Tsking, his head shook disapprovingly. "How incredibly selfish of you."

Despite her small size, Maz stood tall, refusing to repent. "Ben Solo wasn't born into darkness, unlike that wretched captain of yours. It was love that drove him into Snoke's snare. It is because of love that his heart remains pure. He has every ingredient he needs to save himself."

Hux sneered at the curved blade of a dagger he had drawn from his belt. "That's touching and all, but you're forgetting that his heart is also his greatest weakness."

Maz whirled on her toes to face him. He caught that fleeting glint of fear within her brown orbs before it vanished behind a neutral mask. A wicked grin spawned on his lips then. "Yes, I'm afraid that Ren's heart on land leaves him quite vulnerable when he has no means of protecting it himself."

Her upper lip curled ferally. "Nothing makes a person more vulnerable in this world than simply being human," she supplied, an ominous cast to her voice. "And you - Armitage - you have many enemies nowadays. It seems fitting that mortal death is the price you will pay for your atrocious sins."

His hand shot up without warning, grabbing Maz by the neck and driving her against the closest wall, sending the gadgets hanging there crashing to the ground. Her breath hitched in her throat as a startled cry escaped the old woman's lungs. She dropped the candle to force him off but his grip stayed strong.

"I can be a reasonable man, Maz," he purred, lowering his face so it was mere inches in line with hers. "The way I see it, this can end in either two different ways. One, you tell me where the compass is and I'll spare your life. Two—." Raising his dagger, he pressed its razor-sharp edge to her cheek, its pointed tip directly beneath her left eye. "Or two, I kill you. And when I find the compass, I'll kill Ben Solo too. Either way, I win. But it would be so much easier for me in the long run if you would cooperate."

"I—," Maz panted, her body trembling feverishly. "I...am not... giving you anything."

His fingers constricted around her throat; his dagger drawing blood as he pressed it harder to her skin; however, the torture didn't end there. Down, down, slowly, he dragged the blade, the incision marking her cheek all the way to her jaw. Maz clenched her eyes, suppressing a sob as her top molars clamped down on her bottom lip. "Where is the compass?" he snarled.

Silence followed his query, save for the old woman's labored breaths growing steady as Maz slipped into a deep, meditative trance in spite of the pain he had forced her to endure. Confused, he stared at her smile blooming in place of the frown on her disfigured face.

When she opened her eyes, they burned embers of defiance. "The compass is precisely where it should be," she calmly reported. "Now, it is only a matter of time. And Armitage, this will be a fight that you cannot win."

He released her instantly. As her frail body, helplessly, fell to the floor, Hux staggered on his soles, distancing himself from Maz as if being within minimal proximity of her would cause him to burst into flames. Had the warning derived from anyone else, he might have considered the woman crazy and ordered her beheading right then.

However, Maz was no ordinary old woman. She had been a goddess of the sea. Gifted powers beyond any living sentient's comprehension, foresight included. She had seen the compass; she had seen it was with Kylo Ren.

"S-Sir?" Mitaka nervously chirped. "Is everything alright?"

Hux's fingers curled around the dagger so tightly that the inscription on its handle was likely engraved now on his palm. "I know where the compass is," muttered Hux. Turning, he bolted past Finn and Mitaka without providing a further explanation for his quick departure.

Too set in his tunnel vision, the captain failed to notice it was Mitaka and himself who returned to the Supremacy.

**

Across the ocean, onboard the Silencer, Rey was struggling in her hammock to find sleep. It had been a few evenings since the botched dinner with Kylo. She hated to admit, it affected her in so many ways she had actually lost count. Not because of his hurtful remark at the end, it was all she had learned of the captain beforehand that kept the gears inside her head spinning.

During those seemingly infinite daytime hours, in a vain effort to avoid the captain when she wasn't busy counting sheep, she made herself useful on lower decks, maintaining upkeep as she had done on the Supremacy. Although she couldn't say who was trying their hardest to avoid the other. No matter when she visited the upper deck, Kylo's cabin door was always locked. She knew this because Poe told her so.

Rey wanted to make amends with the captain. She was on his ship, after all. Eating his food. Dining with his crew. Breathing the same fresh air as him. However, in the same note, what could she say that would begin to make things right with him?

She contemplated who the man was behind the tentacles. What the man who had once called himself the son of Han Solo looked like. Did he have dark skin or was it creamy as coconut milk? Was his hair short or long? And whether or not it would be possible for him to ever be that man again should she uncover the remedy to his curse. Ren had insisted that he didn't want her help, but she was still torn.

What if she could help them both? Could the compass help her find two things her heart desired instead of one? It sounded plausible. In order to do that, she needed the compass, which had been confiscated by the captain days ago... Ugh! Damn him.

If it wasn't her mind keeping her awake late at night, it was the haunting pipe organ music seeping through the rafters. Beautiful yet depressing. A piece she envisioned hearing at a funeral. Someone who was mourning. She dared not let herself think it was her that Ren was grieving over. It was utterly absurd and selfish. She was a nobody. A nothing.

He'd reminded her of that during dinner, in so many words.

Cutting her losses with sleep, she rolled out of her hammock before the music drove her madder than it already had. It was pointless, the melody was louder above deck than it had been down below. Under the ledge of the quarterdeck's overhang, a candle their lone source of light, crew members huddled around a small table were too busily engaged in their game of dice to notice the madness pouring out of the cabin above them. Or Rey.

Intrigued, leaning her shoulder against the wide base of a mast, she watched them. Studying their moves. Relying on her poor lip-reading skills to determine the game's strategy.

"Fancy seeing you up here so late," uttered Poe flippantly, standing with his arms crossed beside her. "Isn't it past your bedtime?"

Rey spared him a weary smile. "Couldn't sleep," she replied, sighing, mimicking his pose. "What are they playing?"

"Liar's Dice," he affirmed. "Easy means of entertainment when nothing else can make the time here fly."

Rey nodded. "I see," she hummed, thinking. "So it's a game of deception."

"Basically."

She snickered, amused by the pirates' source of entertainment, calling one another out on each other's bullshit.

"Except in Liar's Dice, you're playing all the dice," Poe continued, cutting into her train of thought. "Not just your own."

Rey nodded. "What do they wager?" she asked, glancing at Poe.

His brows furrowed. "The only thing we do have." Grimacing, Poe met her inquisitive gaze. "Our years of service."

She worried her bottom lip. "Can anyone play?"

He nodded. "Yep."

"And anything goes?"

Another nod. Rey grinned, her inner lightbulb upstairs finally clicking on. "Well, then," she announced, bristling with newfound confidence, "I wish to challenge Kylo Ren."

Silence. Awkward, deafening. As if a bomb of epic size had been dropped on Earth and she was the planet's sole survivor. Only it wasn't Rey absorbing the crew's attention.

Not a peep was heard as Kylo Ren stepped off the stairwell's bottom stoop, his dark bourbon eyes solely trained on Rey. His steps measured and precise as he lumbered towards her, presenting himself in a manner she deemed too regal for a pirate.

Kylo stopped in front of her, cocking his head, his gaze swung to the crew then again to Rey. He was close, so close she could have reached out and touched his face, a tentacle, a bronze button on his barnacle-embellished jacket if she had wanted to. From this angle in the moonlight, his irises were a shade dimmer and glazed. He looked—exhausted. She couldn't say why that alone made her heart sink.

"Name your terms, Miss Turner," he commanded, his voice low yet surprisingly gentle.

Rey inhaled through her nose. "One round," she replied. "If I win, you give me the compass."

Ren considered this, lifting a browline. "And if I win?"

Her perception fell to her hands, fidgeting with a loose thread on her vest. "Me," she whispered. "You can have me."

"You..." Ren parroted, scoffing. "You would bargain your soul for a compass?"

Rey peered up at him. "It's all that I have."

Kylo winced, studying her reluctantly. Rey held her breath, convinced he was going to say no. His response, however, was remarkably the polar opposite. "Very well," he muttered. How he had said it though she knew he was clearly not pleased.

Those who had been playing the game surrendered their seats, which were bottoms of wooden crates they had flipped over in the absence of benches. They scurried out of the way, observing their captain and Rey from afar. Three cups, each containing five dice, sat on the table. Claiming a seat across from the other, Kylo and Rey grabbed their cups, shook them, and thud them down on the table. Another sounded, unexpectedly, pulling both Kylo and Rey's attention to Poe as he plopped himself down in the third player's seat.

Rey frowned at him. "What are you doing?" she scolded, heavily enunciating her syllables.

"I'm in," said Poe, rolling his shoulders and neck as he cast a knowing look to Kylo. His head bobbed an affirmative yes to the captain, then gesticulated a hand to Rey. "Ladies first."

Rey grit her teeth, rolling her eyes and stealing a quick peek under her cup. A pair of threes and three two's displayed on the ivory dice. "I bet three two's." She looked to Kylo expectantly, whose sharp gaze was watching her like a hawk eyeballing a tiny field mouse. "Captain?"

Ren's mouth worked, lifting his own cup with a front tentacle for him to quickly peer at the hidden contents underneath. "Four four's."

Poe followed in suit, raising the bid. "Four fives."

"Six threes," Rey declared.

It was Kylo's turn. "Seven fives."

Emboldened, perhaps a bit overconfident, Rey leveled her chin. "Liar."

Ren met her gaze, his poker face making it increasingly hard for her to determine whether or not she had made a grave mistake. "Are you sure, Miss Turner?"

No, her instincts told her. Her bullheadedness, on the other hand, said otherwise. "Yes, I am calling you a liar."

Kylo considered her, motionless. His sullenness indicating how horribly wrong she was. How stupidly quick she had just handed herself over to him. But his actions proceeded to prove how horribly wrong she had been about him. His tentacles parted down the center, a rear appendage revealing the compass, unharmed and completely intact. "I guess this means you are free to go."

Her fingertips barely skimmed the tentacle's smooth skin as she accepted the compass from him. Feeling his bareness sent a cold shiver up through her spine, her heart missing a beat, and an overwhelming urge to assure him she wasn't leaving welled inside her breast.

Her lips opened to tell him she was sorry. That she had every intention to stay. "Kylo," she breathed. "I—."

"Next time we make port, Miss Turner," he added, melancholy lacing his timbre. Once he was sure her fingers held a solid grip on the compass, Ren pulled away and rose from his seat. "No one will stop you, you have my word."

Rey sighed, shaking her head. "Kylo, would you please just lis—."

Ren turned and left before she could elaborate further. Puffing a frustrated breath, Rey looked down at the compass, her thumb brushing its lid, frowning.

"Do you want me to talk to him?" asked Poe, sincerely concerned.

Her brows slanted, regarding the object in her lap pensively. It occurred to her how quickly Kylo had surrendered the compass to her, not a single trace of resiliency elicited in his gaze. Shouldn't he have been angry, at least? Raising her chin, she reached across the table for Ren's cup, flipping it over to reveal the five black dice: all of them fives.

"Rey?"

Rey blinked, cocking her head, her vision glued to the dice as she scoffed at what should have declared Ren the winner. Instead, he had given the title to her.