Chapter Text
She was there when the cloud of smoke cleared and she and her master could peer inside the pod. There she was, the scavenger girl.
Everyone had heard the whispers, of how she was to be the next Jedi, an opponent finally worthy of her master. She had refused to believe them. No one was better than Master Ren, no one would ever defeat her master. But there she was.
A tiny thing, mousy brown hair and achingly skinny. The scavenger, by the Maker no one could get her to call the desert rat his scavenger like the other Knights did. She was no older than Jayna was. Nineteen? Twenty? It didn’t matter, she had already won her Master’s respect.
Jayna remembered when she was with her master when he was nineteen. She was five, and he had snatched her up from her home planet, hissing and spitting like a feral cat. She didn’t know it then, but he had saved her from a lifetime of slavery and abuse on Canto Bight and made her who she was today- a fearsome warrior, his most loyal Knight. She had known him all her life, she would give even that up for him in a heartbeat if he had asked. But when the scavenger’s large brown eyes stared up at her master like hers had done fourteen years ago on Canto Bight; she felt it- Master Ren’s sigh of relief.
She felt the stabbing sensation in the pit of her gut when she realized in all her time training with him, fighting by his side, saving his kriffing life- she had never heard that kind of joy in his voice. She could swear she saw his eyebrow twitch up in surprise, almost pleased that she was finally by his side. She was glad she still had her mask, beneath it, years of training would almost betray her as her eyes gave off waves of unchecked fury. Even being the most favored Knight of Ren didn’t do her much good when the stinking scavenger girl came aboard the Finalizer. Master Ren was instantly enamoured by her- all the Knights could feel it, but none more than her.
***
It took every fiber of her being not to visibly recoil when Master Ren demanded she escort the scavenger to the Supreme Leader’s throne room. It had taken her eight years and countless beatings to earn the honor of the Supreme Leader’s presence, but all the scavenger girl seemingly had to do was show up. The turbolift ride to the throne room crackled with tension, when she heard the girl call her master Ben, she was ready to drive a blade through her skull. Yet Master Ren had done nothing but place a warning hand of her forearm and stared the insolent little scavenger down, his eyes drifting down to her lips. It made Jayna’s fists tremble and her eyes water, so when she escorted the scavenger through the narrow doors, the girl’s slender shoulder made hard impact with the cold metal. Behind her mask, Jayna Ren’s mouth curled upwards slightly through her mumbled apology. It was all she could she could do for now.