#named!reader

Canon Divergence Notes: There is no Rey. Finn is the destined Jedi, and he leaves the scar on Ren’s face during the climactic fight on Starkiller Base. The only original canon kept after TFA is the destined Jedi (Finn) leaving to find Luke and Snoke pushing Kylo Ren to the breaking point, continuing the student-kills-the-master cycle. Summary: No Rey. Finn is training to be a Jedi. Kylo Ren takes the throne from Snoke.

This chapter is the only pre-TFA part of the story. Everything after that is in the AU as described.

A/N: Holy shit, I'm having so much fun with this. You all have no idea (but you will soon). Out here crafting whole-ass mythologies and cultures for this shit. Literally forgot to post this first chapter because I'm neck-deep in the next. Please, please, please do comment! I post for interactions with friends new and old. Otherwise I'd hoard all my embarrassing stories like the grouchy old dragon I really am.

1.

He needed to maul something.

His lightsaber practically vibrated on his belt, answering the pull of itching hands as Kylo Ren stormed into the planet-side depot. Civilians scattered from their orderly lines in front of the First Order’s regional bureaucratic office, startled like so many kaadus. The system had so little to offer, the Order couldn’t even justify a separate complex for the port authority and notary.

A shabby little base on a barren little world. If he could, he’d sink his saber to the planet’s core and kill it all in one, fell stroke.

What a waste of his time.

The rebel insurgent had nothing. They hunted him to the edge of the First Order’s territory only to discover a dead end whose handful of contacts met the heat of Kylo’s blade long ago. They’d missed something. He’d missed something. Instead of fresh leads into the Resistance’s plans, he would leave empty handed. This detour took weeks, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that their enemies were planning something. But in the end, the only thing the dead Rodian had been good at was hiding. Any trooper could’ve shot the scum and been done with it. No need for the Knights of Ren.

He looked like a fool.

Rage tipped over the edge of reason, flooding logic, and plans, and anything but the dark urge to destroy.

He marched through the door, well ahead of his knights. The stormtroopers were nearly as eager to avoid his wrath as the civilians, and he burst into an empty hall. The faintest conversation reached him, a hum of living Force further inside. He followed it. Down the hall. Around the corner. Gathering fuel to further spark his hate for this place and all the people in it as he approached.

A crisp, core world accent he had no doubt belonged to an officer carried farthest.

“I’m afraid it just won’t do. If you want clearance to leave for Gan Moradir, I’ll need those credits in my hand. Today.”

“You already have them.”

The second voice almost surprised Ren. He could barely feel the speaker’s signature, and he rested his hand on his saber, ready for a battle. No one unskilled in the Force could veil themselves like that.

From the sound of things, he had two valid targets to suffer for his humiliation. With new focus, he prepared to take the last corner, the heat in his blood ready to burn through the traitors and fools ahead.

Just out of sight, the officer tsked. “Not enough, I’m afraid.”

“Do you plan on demanding more every time we visit your system?”

“I could.”

“I’m afraid that will be very bad for trade.”

Ren saw the pair before they saw him. A First Order corporal with his hands clasped behind his back and a sneer on his face stood opposite a civilian girl, both oblivious to their approaching doom.

“Corporal.”

The man practically jumped out of his uniform, eyes bugging wide. The girl barely even flinched, following the officer’s panicked gaze with guarded curiosity. Ren would deal with her after he thinned the ranks. It was important to cut out rot before it spread, after all.

“Lord Ren!” The officer’s voice wavered, nearly breaking like a teenager’s as he took two steps away from the civilian and bowed to his superior. “My apologies. We’d heard your knights may be in the system, but we had no idea you’d actually –”

“What is the First Order’s standing on bribery?” He asked like he didn’t know simply so the criminal would recite his own conviction. Let him know how he’d failed. Let the fear string out his last moment.

The corporal’s mind couldn’t keep pace with his spiking adrenaline. He shifted, eyes darting for an escape, an excuse, as he tried to drag an explanation through his dry mouth.

“Well, I…”

Ren had no mercy. And no patience. His hand clenched over his blade’s hilt, and he imagined he could already feel the subtle vibration as it came to life to end another’s.

“Well?”

The corporal swallowed, and Ren watched the confidence roll away down the man’s throat.

“Soliciting or accepting bribes in any form, be it credits or goods, is a class three offense, sir.” He spoke clearly. Responding to a clear order with clear rules he would’ve learned by rote in training. He knew the consequences for disguising this theft behind the First Order’s banner, and now Ren would reveal a new part of the corporal. Blood. Bone. The messy things he wrapped out of sight beneath his skin.

Ren hummed. A mockery of consideration as he swayed nearer, forcing the smaller man to stare up at a painful angle. Decapitation was too neat for such a selfish little traitor. Maybe he’d sheer away half the man’s chest. Or leave him in a dozen pieces for his command to discover.

“I see.” He stalked forward another step, savoring the building dread like a cool wind beneath his mask. “And what is the punishment for class three offenses?”

The officer’s lingering hopes to put off his superior with a lie – Blame the girl, his mind screamed – finally crumbled. The dread Force-wielder had caught him. He knew enough to damn him. He’d been judged. He’d been sentenced. Only one step remained. Kylo Ren loomed, a Loth cat playing with vermin caught raiding the larder, and his uniform was an invitation to deal justice, not the shield the corporal once believed. He backpedaled, nearly foaming at the mouth as he spluttered a final plea for mercy.

“Lord Ren, please! I merely –!”

Red light and a crackling hum cut him off.

Ren speared the traitor through the belly, letting the fool totter backwards, wheezing for a breath that would never come. The corrupt officer groped over his exposed diaphragm as he tumbled to the floor, and his head met the polished floor with a crack as he continued pointlessly gasping.

It wouldn’t be a quick death.

Satisfied, Ren looked at the second actor in this little scene. She’d barely flinched when he struck down the corporal, but her attention remained fixed on the dying criminal. Ren waited for the inevitable wave of panic, ready to toy with a fresh target, but the life ending at her feet held her gaze. Something about her blunted his senses, and he struggled to pry into her mind beyond what she projected: caution and studied calm.

Maybe it was shock. Or maybe she needed reminding of her own mortality.

Ren cut off the corporal’s death rattle with a stroke of his saber, and as the head rolled across the hall, the girl finally looked up to meet his gaze. He glowered back through his visor, itching for her reaction.

She bowed. Maintaining the poise of a diplomat who hadn’t just witnessed a brutal execution, she dipped at the knees, dropping her eyes in polite deference before rising to meet him all over again. Still as a lake.

His lightsaber hissed, twisting in his grip. He pointed it under her chin, demanding she answer every question he hadn’t asked.

“You.” He didn’t bother with the show he’d put on for the corporal. Her careful placidity irritated him, and it felt like her very presence muted his senses when he hunted for her fear.

He looked again, noting the grey stone pendant and loops of beads she wore. A memory teased the edge of his lingering rage, dragging his focus away from his quest for bloodshed. He’d seen that material before. He recognized the numbing sensation in the Force from a failed project to build better restraints for Force sensitive prisoners. “What is that?”

Her fingers rose to the pendant, brushing over an unfamiliar pattern of engraved stars.

“It’s Selenubis, sir.” She paused, flicking her gaze over his mask like she might find a clue to his expression. When he didn’t answer, she pushed ahead. “A traditional protection charm from Lethe. If it’s offensive to the First Order I can come again with out it…?”

Behind his mask, he ground his teeth, clawing against the foggy wall so few of her thoughts penetrated. Selenubis proved useless to the First Order when it became clear the stone did as much to shield a prisoner from other Force users as it did to shackle the target.

She wanted to return without her shield? She wouldn’t leave with it. He’d hack it off her neck, and if he didn’t like what he found in her head, she wouldn’t leave with that, either.

His flickering saber reflected in her eyes as he angled it up, forcing her to expose her throat as red lightning reflected in bottomless reservoirs of control. He didn’t believe for a second she was ignorant of the power in her little trinkets and beads.

Just as he prepared to cleave through her jewelry – and likely leave a deep burn to remember him by – one of his knights burst into the hall.

“Commander. The Supreme Leader requests your presence. Immediately, sir.”

His foiled rage rebounded, arcing like a current through his bones and burning him with his own intent as he growled in frustration. The sound hissed through his modulator.

This would have to wait.

Deactivating his saber, he stepped back, pivoted on his heel, and marched back the way he came. He would have to relive his humiliation at his master’s feet, and there was no time to vent his frustrations.

He left no orders in his rush to answer his master’s summons. No one held the girl or even took special note of her name and business as he knelt before Snoke’s projected image, and by the time he returned to the hall, she was gone.

“Zeph, You guys be careful and please be safe. The weather is acting up and these incidents are getting bad.”

You read the text quickly and a fond smile pulled at your lips. “I’ll be careful💞" you text back to your best friend.

But just in case, you turned your tv on to see what would have prompted Rayne to send you a worried text. 

“Taylor here, for Channel 128. As you can see behind me, this area is all police taped off. This hiking trail is where Lee Howon and Kim Myungsoo disappeared. The police suspect a brutal dog attack from the bites on the body of Lee. If you know anything about these disappearances, you can…”

You shuddered and turned off the tv. There was enough going on within your own world to be adding to the balance some random murders in Crescent City.

“Good luck tonight, Hwa!” You texted your other friend. You hoped he didn’t chicken out and he did confess to Rayne tonight.

You got a text from Rayne and grew excited but then a bad feeling in the pit of your stomach formed upon reading the message. “Oh no, he this no, we checked, this isn’t ecscd dgnegneghrh rgne”

“Rayne? What’s going on?”

“Did you fall asleep while texting me?”

“What’s going on???”

You waited but there was nothing back, not even an indication that Rayne was texting you back. You worried but you knew it was a big night for her, so you didn’t push. Instead you texted Yunho.

“Yun, when was the last time you heard from Rayne?”

“I dropped her off half an hour ago. She should just be waiting for Hwa 😉"

“Zeph, I--” San knocked and stepped in and you screamed. San’s eyes were wide and bewildered.

You had to laugh your scare away. “Ah, sorry San. I’m a bit jumpy from a bad story on the news.”

San could tell you were hiding something from him by the way you tucked your phone under your leg but he left it alone. If only she would let me in further than just a friend, San thought to himself, I love you, Zeph.

“I’m heading to bed, just wanted to say night,” San said softly, scuffing his foot against the floor.

“Night, Sannie,” You cooed and then he closed your door.

You turned to your side, watching your phone avidly. You had a feeling you’d have a very sleepless night on this night.

“No magic in the common area.” A voice from the door said all of a sudden. Tony. They instantly broke apart and a magic field she had created around them disintegrated. She didn’t do this by choice. It was a protection spell, purple. “Woah.” Came beside her as she looked around herself. “I never did that before. That’s a protection shield,” she mumbled shocked. “Neat,” he commented. “Neat? That’s the only thing that comes to your mind when that thing could’ve even withstood Tony’s blasters probably?” She said fake offended. “I doubt that.” Came from Tony that was sitting on the table by now. “We’ll try it someday.” She dared him before taking James’ hand and dragging him out of the room, into her room. “What the fuck,” she mumbled standing in the middle of her room. “Huh?” He didn’t understand. “I cast a spell without casting a spell. Let me research that,” she said before hurrying to get the books out of her bag. He just sat down on her bed since he knew there was no stopping her when it came to this. She went through multiple pages in multiple books. “A protection spell can be cast without using words. All it needs for a trained witch is the intention and intuition,” she read out loud. “So...you deeply care about me and your soul wants me protected. Am I getting that right?” He asked laying on the edge of the bed with his face to be able to watch her concentrated face. “Yeah, pretty much,” she mumbled and looked up to see a soft smile. “If I could do that I would probably do the same...but I’m not as cool,” he said with a little shrug of his shoulders. “Have you seen yourself using a knife?” She asked seriously shocked at him not thinking his skills were cool. “Yeah, not as cool as magic,” he said chuckling. “Well, yeah. But pretty hot at least.” She gave him a smirk. “You really think you don’t look hot when you do magic stuff? Cause I can tell you...you are. Like, a lot,” he said while she laid down next to him. She intertwined their fingers and whispered into his ear, “Then show me how hot.” He had goosebumps all over his body “Not here,” he mumbled. “No, exactly here. I don’t fucking care.” She was serious. “Damn, you’re getting pretty confident in the last few days,” he said sitting up a bit and smiling at her sitting down on his lap. “Why wouldn’t I?” She smiled and broke the distance between them again. She felt his fingers digging into her thighs and couldn’t hold back the little sound building up in her throat. He loosened the grip a little out of fear of hurting her and started making little circles up and down her thighs while having her hands in his hair. All the 115 beats of her heart per minute were faintly audible to him and gave him an ASMR sensation. He never heard these so close in a positive context outside of saving someone. She moved back a bit and broke the kiss apart breathless. “How do you do it? How am I not feeling any pain from my past when I’m with you?” she asked with a soft smile and a glimmer in her eyes making him feel more alive than ever. “I could ask you the same.” his left hand started cupping her face. It felt weird for him but she blew every doubt away when she leaned into it with a comfortable smile. That was an image he won’t ever forget, something about her feeling so okay with something so out of this world for others. “My Harmony,” he mumbled with the most content smile he had ever smiled. “My safe place.” She smiled but then started giggling, “Sorry, there just isn’t a way to make something romantic out of your name.” “Fair enough...until you have part of it, it just isn’t that romantic.” He chuckled and watched her blush at his little suggestion. Harmony just wanted to answer when there was a knock on her door and they moved apart and fixed their hair before she said, “Who is it?” “Clint. Have you seen my wallet? Lost it somewhere in the compound yesterday. Has a picture of my family in it,” he said through the door. She stood up and opened the door a little, “How did you manage to do that?” “It’s called trust, Harmony!” He said serious but joking. “Haven’t seen a wallet but will tell you if I do. Probably one of the boys pranking you. Maybe Tony or Sam?” She smiled. “A billionaire stealing wallets?” He asked. “It’s Tony, not just any billionaire.” She chuckled. “I’ll investigate that,” he said squinting. “Good luck, dork.” She giggled and closed the door again. Behind her a smirking James in the little hallway of her mini-apartment. “I’ll beat your ass if you did that.” She gave him a death glare and his smirk vanished. “Maybe?” he said making himself seem smaller which never worked with his giant body. “Give it to me.” she held her hand out and with an eye roll he got it out of his back pocket and put it into her hand. She gave him a little clap on the side of his head smiling before leaving the room and searching for Clint to give it back. After she didn’t come back to her room for a while he decided to leave her room and see where she has been all that time, just to find her in the kitchen cooking herself some lunch. Clint was sitting at the table with his wallet in front of him and a glass of cola. Without thinking twice he crept up behind Harmony to hug her and look at the food in the pan. “Don’t even ask if you can have some of it. It’s just for me, Clint if he wants to and maybe the team. You come last today,” she said serious but with a soft smile on her lips. “Come on, Harmony! Please,” he mumbled and got a head shake back. “Pretty please.” He continued and attacked her with a kiss on her cheek. “Ugh, fine. Second to last. Sam is still worse than you,” she said annoyed but still with a hint of a smile on her face. “Hey!” came back from Sam who was just walking in with the others. “She’s right,” James said looking at him now and shrugging. “You’re biasing her!” Came back. “Nah. You are a little bit more annoying than the rest. Although Tony, Clint and this idiot here are close,” she said flinging around with her fork before getting back to her stir fry creation. “That’s my girl,” James said proudly hugging her again and staring at the food. “Get a room.” someone mumbled from behind and she felt his hands forming fists before laying her free hand onto one of them gently. “Ouch! Why?” came from Sam which made her smile. “Because that’s disrespectful!” Wanda answered in a serious tone. Meanwhile, James had taken a fork from a drawer right to him and took some food. He knew Sam being a prick gave him a free pass. “Can’t wait for Sam to have a girlfriend that constantly does exactly that. Every single time.” Harmony chuckled and started putting the food onto plates. James helped her put the plates in front of all of them and they sat down next to each other shortly after.

After a shower she picked up her sketchbook and some art supplies and left the compound to go to the tower again. She didn’t even think about the plans she made with James for the morning, she just needed a different environment to get her mind off things. She walked in to a few college students learning for their exams and two high schoolers hurrying to leave because their next lesson would start soon. After grabbing a snack she sat down in front of one of the laptops in the computer room and opened her book of shadows on a new page to write down the symbolism of her dream. There was something very soul-cleansing about spending the evening before and this morning alone with herself and her thoughts.

Someone sat down next to her while she was deep into reading an article on coping through dreaming. “Is everything okay, Harmony?” Steve’s voice asked beside her.

She looked away from the screen and at him, “Yeah, just need some alone time. Why are you asking?” “You are so different today. I saw you train and you were...not like you usually are,” he answered softly. “I had a nightmare but I’m fine. Promise.” she gave him a weak smile but she meant it. He put a hand on her shoulder, “I’m always here if you wanna talk about it, okay?” She nodded, “I know. Sometimes I just need a bit of time to understand things myself.” “You wanna be alone now?” He asked empathetic. “If you wanna stay you can. I don’t mind. Just don’t interrupt me too much.” She smiled before she got a nod and looked back onto the screen. The morning hours in the tower were actually quite nice, not a lot of people and still a lot of inspiration from Midtown Manhattan outside. Steve was drawing again, this time with markers, and she went on with reading about PTSD and other mental health things. The only sound interrupting the silence was her regularly eating a date from the snack package she grabbed or the closing and opening of a pen. “You know...he’s the old him around you,” Steve said out of nowhere after closing a marker. “I know. He just...he’s home,” she described it back to him. “And the only times you have a generally positive look on your face is when he’s around.” He went on. “You can be lonely in a room full of people until the right person comes around.” She smiled softly at the thought of the evening before. “You love him,” he said with a soft and knowing smile back. “Yes. Yes, I do.” A dumb little smile formed on her lips after saying that out loud. “He loves you too.” He opened the next marker. “I know.” Her heart made a little extra jump. “Why that?” He asked with a grin knowing that she was either about to list all the ways he made her happy or tell a great story of him admitting his feelings somehow. She opened her sketchbook on the page he had drawn. “That’s why you weren’t mad at him when you came out of the elevator.” He realized. She giggled and nodded at his little realization. “He can be really charming if he wants to, huh?” He joked about his friend. “Truly, with a little pinch of being afraid of me throwing him across the room with my magic...which I won’t say that it happened but I don’t wanna lie either.” She was back at her normal self again finally. Both of them started chuckling before they heard footsteps in the door, “It was her learning self-defense may I add.” James said with a smile. Her whole face lit up even more when she saw him there “What are you doing here?” she asked while pointing at the chair left to her. He walked over with a, “My two main idiots aren’t at the compound. Of course I look for you here after you told me about your art sessions. Turns out they are also gossiping about me sessions.” He winked with a smile on his face. Before sitting down he leaned forward and softly pressed a kiss onto her lips. This was the most perfect situation. His best friend deserved to know first and he was the most comfortable doing this in front of him. With one of his typical Steve smiles he asked, “How long have you been doing this right in front of my face without me knowing?” “Since the elevator incident,” James answered. “Great. Makes me feel really good about myself that me scaring you, kissing you where Steve can’t eavesdrop and you telling me my art is better than Steve’s is ‘The Elevator Incident’,” She chuckled. Both men started laughing loudly at her little sassy moment. “With a witch and an assassin, everything has a code name or is an incident...or both,” James said shrugging and smiling. He was sitting with his body towards her and his hand on the table in front of her where she grabbed it. He didn’t stop his breathing this time. Something about her warm hand on his cold one was calming him. “Actually...I made a painting of that incident.” She flipped open the page with her free hand. “That’s pretty.” James smiled at it and leaned forward to kiss her head. “Of course you like a painting of yourself dude.” Steve laughed. “It’s called being grateful and in love Steve!” He said giving him a slight punch on his arm with his free hand. “You sure you both aren’t blood-related?” She looked at both of them with a soft smile. “Nah, I would be way more of a dumbass if I was related to him.” James started. “But also a little more artistic.” Came back from the other side. “Damn, that hurt.” He said fake offended. Harmony just shook her head giggling, “I went here to learn but that’s impossible with two idiots left and right from me.” Their little chatting session was interrupted by a lot of school kids coming in. School was over for most of them and she realized how long she had been sitting there with Steve before James came.

The girl from last time sat down across from them with a little smile at Harmony. “Hey Lydia.” Steve beside her said with a smile. “Oh, she really came to you for help, huh? Told her you were a complete dork.” Harmony nudged her elbow into his side. “He is.” Came back with a bright smile. “Can we help you somehow?” She asked her. “Not unless you wanna write an essay about pop culture and its influence on spirituality in the last 10 years.” Came back a little bit exhausted. “I know a lot about it but really wouldn’t know where to start with it. Let me know if you need my help when it comes to nature religions and witchcraft.” Harmony answered. Her eyes got a little bigger when she heard witchcraft. “Wait. Tell me a little bit about witchcraft cause that’s something we didn’t talk about and that could get me a straight A.” She was excited all of a sudden. “Sure.” Harmony grabbed her book and came over to her to talk about her experiences with witchcraft. The two men just sat across from them staring for the longest time until Steve continued drawing and James stole her sketchbook and drew something into it too.