Dear Stranger,
Xenos. His name is Xenos.
“There are forces spread all over the galaxy that seek to overthrow the Dark Lord. Forces composed of suppressed groups. Suppressed yet not beaten. They have risen in resistance to prepare a strong front for the war that will happen soon. Very soon. But this time, the Resistance will be ready to fight and geared to win.”
There was a gleam in his red eyes. A gleam I could well identify with. The taste of his mouth lingered in mine, though and the world still was going in circles around me.
“You…” I asked tentatively, not daring to believe. “You are a part of the Resistance?!”
He nodded, running his hand lightly across my cheek.
“Do you know about the Resistance?” he questioned uncertainly. I was suddenly happy we were both a little high. Such conversations usually involve blood.
“Of course. Luke Skywalker is a legend…and well, I do keep my head around a bit.”
He looked at me, mildly interested.
“Our erstwhile leaders – Luke and Leia have passed on to us the mantle of taking the movement forward. We have our representatives everywhere. All across the galaxies. Some in open rebellion. Others still under the wraps.”
My heart thudded so hard I was sure he could hear it.
“By secret representatives…do you mean…like-?”
“A spy, yes. We connect through the Dark Web. Through encoded messages and secret letters. You wouldn’t know, dear kid.”
I didn’t even flinch this time as he called me a kid, simply because my mind was on overdrive. I couldn’t believe what he was saying. He wasn’t…? He couldn’t be…?
“Is that really you?” I asked, bewildered out of my wits. It couldn’t be. I mean, I knew I could be writing to almost anyone. But it was a reasonable expectation that it would be someone from the earth. “Was that you to whom I have been writing letters all this while?”
Stranger…
Xenos…
My eyebrows must have disappeared into my forehead.
Xenos is Greek for stranger, I realized belatedly.
He looked at me as if I was a brand new specimen from Andromeda galaxy.
“It was you who wrote those letters?” He somehow didn’t look too happy to know the identity of the secret spy. In fact, he didn’t look like he believed me at all. Well, sorry for disappointing you, Mr. Stranger, if I didn’t come up to your expectations. It wasn’t as if I was writing you love letters, for heaven’s sake!
“But…they said there was only one spy from the earth confederation?” he stared at me in open suspicion now.
“Yeah, so?” I asked, confused now.
“And well, this house belongs to him.” Xenos declared, pointing to his right, from where emerged the person I have hated the most. All my adult life.
“Hello Gina.”
I didn’t just want to reach out and wipe the smirk off his face. I wanted to take the lit end of the fag and rub it across that maddening smile of his, pardon my violent thoughts. It was none other than the Dark Lord’s pet…Kylo effing Ren.
*
“RG1 has a way of sneaking into places she isn’t meant for.” Kylo began speaking to Xenos.
“You knew??” I thundered at him, ignoring the stupid stranger to whom I had been writing so religiously. “You knew about the missing consignment?”
“That’s none of your business, Gina.”
I felt my blood boiling to the surface and my hands scraping the cuffs. I didn’t know who to be more furious at. Xenos who had bound me or Kylo who was an as**ole of the first order.
“That was my effing consignment!! And so, my effing business!! Do you get it, Kylo?!”
“That consignment would have reached the hands of the Martian people and hence, kickstarted the Inhuman Project, don’t you know that? We, at the Resistance, mean to put a stop to it.”
Kylo couldn’t be. It was getting more and more impossible for me to believe that someone like Kylo could ever be against the Dark Side.
“Since when have you been worrying about the Resistance?” I sneered. “He can’t be trusted, Xenos.”
“I know him longer than you, to be honest.” Xenos looked at me and Kylo in turns, his face a mask of indecision. “As per my information, there was only one spy in the Death Star, someone who worked closely with the Dark Lord. And it is him.”
“Yes, it certainly is I, the son of Han Solo and Princess Leia.”
The declaration sent a chill through my spine. Alpha had told me the same thing. This was why Lord Snoke had made a visit to the earth. He suspected that Kylo may be spying for the Resistance; the reason why the Dark Lord had not been able to initiate the Inhuman Project on the earth in the first place. But I knew the truth; I was the spy from Earth. How could there be more? Something was surely amiss. Some crucial piece of the jigsaw was missing.
“How do you know there is only one spy?” I asked Xenos, a bit anxious now, worrying about my safety for the first time. If I was actually a spy for the Resistance (which I was! These diaries are a record of the same!) and yet, the Resistance doesn’t believe it, then that makes me their enemy. On the contrary, if I pledge my allegiance to the Resistance here and go against the Dark Lord, I burn my bridges on both ends.
However, in both the cases, Kylo wins. Because both the Dark Lord and the Resistance believe him. As for me, no one seemed to be giving me any thought.
Holy Hell. I was locked between a rock and a hard place. What was I supposed to do?
“We are not aware of the exact identity of our planet counterparts unless we enter that planet. When I arrived to prevent the consignment from reaching the wrong hands, Kylo contacted me first. And knowing his ancestry, I expected him to be the spy, to be honest.” Xenos began. “Of course, you are most welcome to join the Resistance if you wish, Gina. We could do with more volunteers. However, I will need you to undergo a proper loyalty…”
I had stopped listening by now. My only hope were the letters I had sent to Xenos. I had to ask him if there was a way to authenticate them. I badly hoped that Kylo hadn’t intercepted them.
But one thing was for sure. My identity as a Resistance spy was compromised. Kylo, the most dangerous person on this planet, knew who I was now.
In murky waters,
The Rogue Stormtrooper
