Work Text:
Taric Sto-Kah watches. He watches Rey, his Rey. The Force has always taken with one hand and given with the other and he sees how he has finally been rewarded for his constancy. His Set, come back to him.
He’s in the hangar, keeping to the edges, listening to her talk to Dameron and that friend of his that’s always sniffing around his Rey. She’s impossibly lovely today, with a smudge of grease on her cheek. She cares nothing for what people think of her, she has no awareness of her affect on men. The Friend always stands too close and Taric doesn’t like it.
---
The General’s Son arrived today. His Rey does not like him so Taric does not like him. He is wary, because Ben Solo obviously likes his Rey very much indeed. He will bear watching, too.
---
He found the beautiful necklace on an off-world mission. He’d scoured the bazaar, seeking. He had wanted the perfect gift for her. He has been confined to what he can find on D’Qar, flowers, crystals, sweets from the kitchens. Little BB-8 is the perfect intermediary for his gifts, he is not ready to reveal himself. But none of it his tokens have been right, nothing fit, yet he is driven to show his devotion. He has always been resourceful. He feels the light silver chain pull through his fingers as he fondles it in his pocket. He rubs along the brilliant green stone, feeling its hardness and the gentle curve of the tear-drop shape. Green, Set’s favorite color. The color of his eyes. Perhaps this will turn his Rey from her seeming interest in Ben Solo . He hates Ben Solo.
---
Taric is remembering the awful moment when he’d come home to find his Set sliced in two by Kylo Ren. Memory takes him hold and he cannot escape. He remembers how Set had changed him, how she’d bathed him in her gentle kindness. He remembers how his Force ability had been revealed to the neighborhood. A boy was caught under a crumbled wall, pinned by a huge piece of stone. Set had begged him to save the child, her own Force powers slight and better suited to the mind. He’d levitated the great rock and Set had darted under, trusting him to keep it aloft as long as needed. She’d pulled the boy from the rubble and dressed his wounds. His Set was always so amazingly good. He knows he is so lucky to have found her again. He remembers feeling her body grow cold. He feels that horrible sensation every day, the twin of his desire to feel Rey’s life pulse under his fingertips.
The neighbor woman told him, told him of the great black beast that had come, his red weapon and awesome power. It was not until later, until stories of Kylo Ren began to whisper through the galaxy that he’d found his quary. Once, on a near miss with the Resistance, he’d seen the monster himself in action. Seen that awful, spitting weapon with his own eyes. He’d been escaping with the rest of his compatriots, his Enemy too far away. But he’d seen and he’d remembered. Someday … someday.
---
Something has shifted, people are gossiping and staring. He turns to see his Rey holding hands with that boy . The General’s Son. Oh, his Rey … can she really be so blind? Her head turned by this soft Upstart? Taric wants to rip her away from him and kill him where he stands. He wouldn’t be much of a challenge, he can’t imagine Ben Solo has ever been in danger, the General would never allow it. His chest fills with jealous fury as his Rey smiles up at that awkward, stiff, ridiculous boy. Taric had noticed him pinning, it had amused him. He’d never considered that his Rey would accept Ben Solo. He will make her see. Somehow, she will understand that she is his . He melts back into the edges of the crowd and plans .
---
He thinks that now, now he will reveal himself. She cannot choose the Upstart. He simply won’t allow it. He stands outside her room and knocks hesitantly. No answer. He’d chosen this time specifically because she would just be waking up. He hears her droids chattering inside. Where is she? He looks at the bouquet of flowers in his hands and feels thwarted. He does not like this feeling. He turns to leave when he hears her voice coming from a room close by. He puts his ear to the door and hears them . She has spent the night, spent the night with the Upstart? His head is filled with unwanted visions of tangling limbs and her sacrosanct body under another’s and he cannot control himself. He destroys the flowers, ripping them to pieces. He leaves the destruction on her doorstep and goes to the droid. He does not wish to be discovered, now.
---
But his fury will not leave him and he’s back at her door, once again she isn’t there. He uses the Force to open her door and goes into her room. He stands there, looking at the familiar space. He has been watching for a very long time. He sees the box of his devotion by her bedside and smiles. It pleases him that she’s kept each gift. He thinks she will see sense soon. She must. She has to.
He walks into the ‘fresher and notices his face in the mirror. He looks into his own eyes and is filled with such longing. He thinks how her naked body stands in front of this mirror, fresh from the shower. He imagines the water running down her exquisite form. Then he thinks of the Upstart’s gangly limbs wrapped around her, his too-large hands cupping her breasts and he rages. He punches the mirror and is satisfied with the crunch. He grasps a large shard and cuts ‘MINE’ into the wall. She needs to understand that she is his. She has always been his, ever since Set left him, he has been coming for his Rey.
---
They’re laughing together, eating their meal. That mewling child of a man has the audacity to look like the galaxy is at his feat. The Upstart looks at his Rey the way one would the answers to everything. Taric hates him. He tries not to notice the hand on Rey’s perfect thigh, tries not to imagine what they get up to in the dead of night. She will have to be punished for her infidelity. He knows that she is young, that her heart is soft and easily turned. But she will still have to be punished.
---
He’s following them as they walk the edge of the base, keeping a safe distance, cloaking himself deeply in the Force. His Rey is crying. Why is she crying? He will end the Upstart, Ben Solo will have to be dealt with. Perhaps then she will see. Then, oh Maker, no. He’s kissing her, kissing her and they’re pulled into passion, grasping at each other’s body in an obscene display. Taric thinks they might rut right there and he’s disgusted. Yes, she will have to be punished.
---
Ben Solo has survived? Taric is filled with anger and desperate helplessness. She’s slipping away from him and he’s beginning to doubt. He has done so much for her. Made sure she always had the most interesting projects, selecting just the right droids to incapacitate so she could bring them back. Her little droid family brings her such joy. He has done this for her, she cannot choose another, she cannot . He’s furious with her. She’s likely sucking the Upstart’s cock right now, so thrilled that he’s alive. Taric decides that he will take her droids, then. He will take her little family and then she’ll understand that Ben Solo has no right to touch her. Yes, it is fitting, it is proper. He strides off into the night to collect his tools.
---
He has retreated to the forest. Now that they know who he is, it’s no longer safe at the base. So he watches her walk through the forest. She’s so tempting, he wants to go to her. But he worries it is a trap so he waits.
---
She walks every day and he thinks that perhaps this is only a new ritual of hers. She is a creature of habit. He sees no comm link, sees no one else in the vicinity. He thinks, tomorrow, tomorrow he will approach her.
---
He has her, she’s in his arms and he’s touching her and it’s every bit as perfect as he’d dreamed. She even smells a bit like Set. He bends over and nuzzles her slightly and then she’s pulling from him and he’s locked in combat. His Rey has turned on him.
---
Ben Solo is Kylo Ren? His mind can’t quite keep up. He sees that abomination of a lightsaber and he knows his eyes are telling him the truth. His Enemy is right there and he will end him. Taric let’s himself be captured. He needs more time to untangle this.
---
He sits in his cell and contemplates how the Force has brought him what he truly desires. He thought it had been the Jedi Slut, but oh no, Kylo Ren is here , and Taric is deeply satisfied with this turn of events. He had thought the Force was guiding him to Rey, that she was his salvation. How wrong he had been. It had always been about Ben Solo, he had just been too blind to see. But now he knows, now he sees. All he needs to do is bide his time and Kylo Ren will know what it is to lose. He will know what it is to feel his heart die, never to truly beat again. He sees now that he was deluded about Rey. How could he have thought his Set could be replaced? Taric is ashamed that he ever even imagined anyone other than his beloved wife. He is filled with revulsion at the thought, grateful he never touched the Jedi Slut’s filthy, stained skin. He waits. Soon, he thinks, soon.