Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“No, listen, all I’m saying is that if they already send us out to such a godforsaken place, they could at least pay us more.” You rambled, adjusting your position in the sand, cringing about the little grains of sand making their way into your clothing. “We’re not getting paid at all.” Avix stated, her voice sounding slightly static through your coms. “Exactly!” You exclaimed, slightly messing up the positioning of your rifle. “For fuck’s sake.” You grumbled, before taking aim once more. “Just focus on this please.” Avix reasoned with you, while you found your target. Taking a deep breath, you waited for moment as your target stopped moving and with the exhale of the breath you pulled the trigger. “Done!” You exclaimed, straightening yourself up. “Don’t forget his head.” Avix reminded you, you nodded forgetting that the female Twi'lek was not actually able to see you. “I’m making my way to collect it now.” Picking up your sniper rifle, you made your way down the cliff you had been laying on top of, to retrieve the head of your victim, after all you needed proof that you had indeed completed your task.

“Did you see that?!” Notaka turned around to face Tharja, who was smirking down at the white haired male, as he lowered his binoculars. “Yup. Your kill just got taken by a random mercenary.”  The brunet grinned down at Notaka, who turned back around to keep an eye on you through the scope of his rifle. “For fuck’s sake. There goes his head.” Notaka announced, while Tharja was already pushing himself to stand. “Come on. We have to let Ren know.” Notaka cringed at Tharja’s words but finally nodded and stood up as well. “Naiad is going to love this.” Notaka froze in horror at Tharja’s word before he rushed to catch up with his partner. “There is no reason to tell Naiad about this.” Notaka tried to reason, while the pair made their way to their ship. “No there isn’t, but it would be very amusing indeed.” Tharja declared with his heavily accented voice, while Notaka simply glared at the brunette.

The two had nearly reached their ship, when the sound of running and shouting caught their attention. “Looks like someone got caught.” Notaka smirked, while he crossed his arms and the two of them came to a stand still. You were running at full speed in their direction, while a mob of angry Klatooinians were hot on your heels. The head of your victim was in a sack you had swung over your shoulder. “We could help.” Notaka offered, looking up at the tall male next to him. “We have no reason to.” Tharja answered looking down at the pearly white haired male next to him, who agreed with a nod of his head. Meanwhile you had gotten closer to them and the pair could finally understand what you were saying. “Stop arguing with me Avix. Just get me the fuck out of here.” Your voice was already breathless and Notaka had a feeling that you wouldn’t make it much further until the Klatooinians would catch up with you.

“Both her and our work would be for nothing if she was caught.” Notaka stated, his eyes flickering to the now blood soaked sack that was bouncing over your shoulder, beads of blood staining the sand red. “Fine.” Tharja finally grumbled, before he pulled out his vibro-axe, readying himself to step between you and the mob. “Fuck it.” You shouted into your coms, before you turned around holding out your hand and freezing the mob in place using the force. A satisfied smirk curled your lips, when a gasp caught your attention. Looking to your left, you found two men standing just a few feet away. One of them was a tall brunette with a nicely trimmed beard decorating his face, making you wonder for a second how much he must suffer in this heat. He was holding a vibro-axe and looked ready for a fight. The other was a bit short but not much, he had pearly white hair with one dark grey stand at the front, an impressed smirk was on his face, while he held two lightsabers, each the size of a shortsword.

Notaka and Tharja glanced at each other and nodded, before they took a step towards you. Before you had just been another mercenary, but now it turned out you were force sensitive and the pair knew that Kylo would most likely want to see you. Approaching you, the pair took to putting away their weapons, while you took to backing away from them. The sound of a ship approaching filled the air and a grin took over your face. “Sorry, boys. That’s my ride!” You announced, before turning around and sprinting towards the ship, leaving behind two rather annoyed and impressed knights.

Notaka took a moment to stare at the ship, that was growing smaller and smaller in the distance. As soon as you had been out of sight, the mob had started moving again, but only for a second, before Notaka froze them. With a nudge Tharja brought his partners attention back to him and what he had just said: “We need to inform Ren, come on.” With a nod, Notaka followed the older knight onto their ship and set the control on autopilot, while Tharja set up for their conversation with Ren. The familiar face soon began to hover in from of them a rather annoyed look on his face. “What happened?” He bit out, his eyes momentarily focusing on something else. “Another mercenary beat us to it.” Notaka filled in his leader, who looked anything but pleased with the two knights. “And you call me inform me of this?” Notaka shook his head and was about to speak up when Tharja beat him to it. “The mercenary, she was force sensitive.” Ren’s annoyed look turned into one of interest. “Find her and bring her here. We might finally be able to replace the two knights we lost.”

Chapter Text

“Oh, come on, Maz. It’s a head.” You smirked at the humanoid female, who had her arms crossed over her chest. “A severed head.” She corrected you. “Put it back on your ship and then you can come in.” She gave you a look indicating that she was not going to budge. Groaning, you turned to Avix, who had been standing beside you. The Twi’Lek female raised her eyebrow at you in question, while you made a defeated noise. “Fine.” You grumbled. “Let that old Dathomirian know we got what he wanted and to meet us at our ship.” Avix gave an agreeing nod, before she entered the castle and you turned around to head back to your ship. Shaking you head slightly at Maz behaviour - she had never had any problems with people bringing in severed limbs - it was slightly worrying and suspicious that she would stop you from entering now.

You were just walking out of the gate of Maz’s rebuild castle when a familiar looking ship landed not too far from your own. Sucking in a breath, you took a few steps back, before you pushed yourself against the inside walls of the castle, hoping that they had not seen you. You were almost completely sure that the ship belonged to the two mercenaries whose kill you had just stolen on Tatooine. Regulating your breath, you tried to find a way to figure out how to get out of this. Going back to your ship was out of the question, but you also couldn’t enter the castle with the head still swung over your shoulder. Groaning in agitation of the situation - after all this was supposed to be a quick and easy job - you hid the sack behind one of pillars in one of the bushes, before your entered the castle. Not even two steps in Maz was standing in front of you again. Holding your hands up to show that you were not carrying the sack anymore, the female grumbled. “Your rotting head better not kill my plants.” She scolded, before walking off.

Scanning the room, you quickly found Avix, her ice blue skin was standing out in the rather dark place. She was talking to Ryo, the Dathomirian who was the one that had assigned you the job. The grey skinned male was sitting in a booth with some other members of the Brotherhood Mortalis. The Brotherhood Motralis was an organisation of mercenaries that lured in new mercenaries by claiming that by joining them they would earn more money and would be better protected. You had always found it ironic that people who didn’t care about anyone but themselves started an organisation that claimed to help others. Taking a deep breath, you approached Avix and Ryo. Ryo’s red eyes found yours and it made your skin crawl. You knew the male wasn’t evil but he was strict and you had made a mistake. You had been seen when you had taken off that Klatooinian’s head, you had left witnesses behind, witnesses that had in fact just followed you here. “Avix just told me you left two heads behind” His voice was calm, something you had always found unnerving. “And now you stand before me without the head you were meant to bring. Where is the head?” You felt like a child being scolded, but you also knew that if you were to remain silent for much longer, Ryo’s wrath would be even worse. “It’s outside, hidden in the bushes. Those two mercenaries followed us here.”

Ryo’s annoyed sigh made you tense, unsure what to expect from the Dathomirian. He was just about to open his mouth, when Avix interrupted. “Here they come.” Turning your head slightly, your eyes easily found the pearly white hair with that one annoying dark grey strand. Next to him stood the brunette, whose silver eyes were already turned in your direction. At first you had thought he was looking at you, but you quickly realised that he was actually looking at Ryo. As the two males approached, Ryo turned to the other members of the brotherhood, who quickly scattered. “Tharja.” Ryo greeted the brunette, as soon as the two males were close enough. While Notaka shot Tharja a confused look, you and Avix gave Ryo a just as confused look. “Ryo, I don’t think I have seen you since we were children.” Tharja’s lips curled into a small smile, while you, Notaka and Avix looked between the two of them still in confusion. “Indeed, I think we both went down two very different paths.” Ryo smiled, standing up to clasps his old friends forearm. You looked at Notaka, to see a look of realisation cross his face, before he caught you looking at him and a smirk curled his lips.

“I have a request, Ryo, and I feel like you are not going to like it.” Tharja stated, while Ryo nodded waiting for the brunette to continue. “We’d like a word with your young mercenary.” Panic rushed through you and you felt like running, surely this wasn’t about the killing right? They would not take you just because you beat them to the kill and surely Ryo wouldn’t just let them. “I was wondering when you would come for her.” Ryo smiled, giving Tharja a nod, indicating his agreement to Tharja’s request. You were too stunned to even react and were only shook out of your thoughts when Notaka’s hand wrapped around your arm. “Come on, sweetheart, time for a chat.” You let the two males take you outside, figuring that your chances to escape would be better outside. The two took you out of the castle and were approaching the gate, when they stopped. “Better not forget the head.” Notaka grinned at Tharja, who simply nodded his head and reached down into the bushes to grab your sack.

The two led you to their ship and finally stopped. “Relax no one is going to kill you.” Notaka reassured you and his words did make you relaxed almost instantly. “We have a proposition for you.” Tharja informed you, after he had placed the sack inside the ship. “A proposition?” You tiled your head to the side slightly, while you looked between them. “Yes, have you ever heard about the Knights of Ren?” Tharja crossed his arms over his chest, waiting for your answer. “Who hasn’t?” Once the words left your mouth a cocky grin took over Notaka’s face. “Well, you have two of them standing right in front of you.” The white haired male grinned, while you raised your eyebrows in surprise. “Indeed, tell me how much did it hurt your pride then when I took your kill.” You teased Notaka, who’s grin immediately slipped from his face, while Tharja looked down at him with a smirk. “Anyway..” Notaka prompted Tharja, hoping to move on from this moment as quickly as possible. “Our master would like you to join the Knights.” You looked at them both with furrowed brows, waiting for them to reveal that this was all a joke and that they would actually kill you.

“This is a once in your lifetime opportunity, you would be trained in the force and serve the Emperor.” Tharja stated, when you still hadn’t answered. “You are serious?” You finally questioned, still unsure if this was really happening. Notaka simply nodded his head, while Tharja informed you: “It was at our masters request that we followed you here, he wants you to become a knight, you should feel honoured.” Taking in his words, you still weren’t entirely sure about this whole situation. “Why me?” You asked, looking between the two males, neither of which looked like they were actually capable of the horrid stories and rumours one heard about the Knights of Ren. Notaka especially didn’t look menacing at all and yet you had heard the stories about the knight with the lightsaber shortswords and he did not come across in any of them as charming as he did standing right in front of you. “You are force-sensitive and your skillset is impeccable.” Notaka answered, while he uncrossed his arms, the small smile back on his face. “We could need someone with your skillset, as you can see our sniper still needs improving.” Tharja smirked at Notaka in a teasing manner.