A/N: Okay guys. I have never done a Star Wars fic, but I have been a fan for a long time now. Jumping aboard the steaming trash pile that is the Reylo fandom, I have written this fic. Honestly, I am so into this pairing I cannot stand it. There is such intense chemistry, and, regardless of what some people are thinking, I do not believe that Kylo and Ren are in anyway related. If I am wrong, well, I have until 2017 to keep my Reylo fantasies on the web. Here it goes.
~THIS CHAPTER HAS SINCE BEEN EDITED/REWRITTEN~
Turning from BB-8 as he rolled through the underbrush, Rey began to run. She could hear the whirling of the First Order's tie-fighters through the canopy of leaves laced over her head. The sound served as a powerful incentive to push her legs faster. Breath labored, lungs aching, and heart racing, the forest around her rushed by in a blur. When Rey had first arrived on Takodana, she could not stop staring in awe at all the green, but now she could not afford to spare the alien beauty a second glance.
The trees thinned ahead out of her and she could see a hint of the stones that made up Maz's castle shining in the distance. Coming to a stop on a mound of dirt, not far from beyond the boundaries of the woods, Rey paused to take in the scene before her. Stormtroopers were jogging on the lawn, and explosions were firing off large chunks of the cantina. Just as the welcoming statue of Maz's outstretched figure toppled, she caught sight of a stormtrooper not ten yards away.
Panicking, she reached for Han's handblaster, fumbling with the contraption stupidly. She raised the weapon and pulled the trigger. Nothing. Realizing her error, she mumbled a curse, and flipped the safety off. At this point, the stormtrooper noticed her, firing off a shot. In a stroke of pure dumb luck, Rey's reflexes were on her side, and she dodged away from the hot red blast. She took aim once more and, after two attempts, took down the trooper.
Han was right - she did have a lot to learn.
But now was not the time to dwell on missed lessons. Now was the time to get back to the Falcon - and fast.
Growling at having to retrace her steps, Rey broke into a run in the direction that she had just come. She tried not to think of how Han was doing, seeing as, last she had known, he had still been at Maz's. However, she reassured herself, this was Han Solo. The same Han Solo who had helped defeat the Empire and had piloted the Millennium Falcon to complete the Kessel Run in fourteen parsecs. Or was it twelve? In any case, Rey was sure that Han could take care of himself, just as she could take care of herself.
As far as Finn went, those worries took a lot more strength to silence. All Rey could now was hope that he had already departed with his tickets to the Outer Rim. Her friend had seemed so haunted, so desperate to run; while she did not want to lose him, another person she cared about leaving her, she couldn't hold it against him.
Lost in her thoughts, Rey had not been paying much attention to where she was headed. She stopped for a moment by some large rock formations to catch a few needed breaths and reassess which direction was the correct one. Living on Jakku for all her life, a place where it was sand, sand, and more sand, her navigation skills were exceptional. If she could get where she needed to go in a desert, where everything looked exactly the same, she could handle this place.
It took a moment, but she eventually got a handle on her approximate position; she was delighted to discover that she was not all that far from where they had left Chewbacca with the ship. She had only managed to advance an inch when a bizarre tug pulled at her chest, pulling her back. Astounded, she fell back a step and analyzed the air. It was only then that she noticed a strange aura around her - a low hum - one that was steadily growing stronger with every passing second. The way it made her feel was not necessarily unpleasant, but it was disconcerting. How had she not noticed this until now?
Instantly, as that annoyed thought rolled through, a low, hot, crackle sounded off nearby. Rey halted, not daring to breathe through already taxed lungs, and took in the murmurs of the forest. Only a second later, she heard a similar buzz fizzle somewhere to her left. It was a sound that Rey had never heard before, but she could feel intuitively that whatever the source, it was not something that she would like. It was too menacing. Too powerful.
The crunch of leaves very near her position forced her into action. She bounded forward, trying desperately to get something against her back, most vulnerable to attack. Planting her back against one of the dirt covered rocks, she whipped her head around, and raised her blaster in preparation for whatever was coming. In anticipation, she imagined firing off a few well-placed shots in a stormtrooper's chest. Every passing fantasy of her approaching victory, Rey gained some confidence. She readied herself to make her move.
However, what ended up approaching Rey caught her off guard entirely – it terrified her. A stormtrooper would have been a challenge, but a challenge she could have had at least some chance of conquering. But this - this tall, black, figure who moved at her with surety and menace - was an opponent obviously much more than your mass produced stormtrooper; this was no mere pawn of the First Order. This one was different. The creature wore a slightly metallic mask, long black robes, and, worst of all, carried in one hand, a blazing red lightsaber. Rey knew instantly, looking at the sizzling weapon, that she was faced with the decision to either fight or flee. Ultimately, she chose something in the middle.
Shoving off from the rock, she stumbled forward and away from the masked figure, while at the same time turning back to deliver a few poorly aimed blasts. The large man avoided the ones that managed to land anywhere near him and continued to pursue her without so much as slowing down his measured stride. Noting her lack progress, Rey gave up her hopes of potentially winning, and decided to focus her efforts on evasion.
She whirled forward and climbed up over a nearby rock, hoping to dash into the trees, when suddenly the hum of the lightsaber met her ears. Calculating just how close the sound must have been, Rey turned and was shocked to see that the creature had already caught up with her. In a desperate attempt at self-defense, now that it was obvious that she could not even run away, she raised her blaster and shot directly at the approaching form.
With effortless skill, the figure calmly deflected each blast with a twirl of its weapon. The creature, following through with a fluid motion, reached out a spread hand to Rey - an immediate vice grip took hold of her entire body. More alarmed then she had ever been before, her breathing picked up, increasing from its already rapid pace.
She was helpless as the towering figure stalked towards her, staring straight through her with the expressionless face of a cold mask. At the close distance, she could see the scratches and gouges that peppered the mask. The rest of the creature was pristine, however, and the coarse knit fabric of its scarf and hood acted as just one of the many variations in the uniform. Rey hardly had a full second to ponder these trivial details when a low, rumbling timber issued forth from the mask.
"You," the creature whispered out, so gentle Rey almost missed it.
The figure had halted his approach immediately when he had come close enough to see Rey's face; she was grateful for the pause in his stalking.
What felt like an eternity as Rey stood, twitching slightly form the strain, before the now transfixed figure. Finally, it spoke, it's voice strengthened and firm now, "So, you're the girl I've heard so much about."
The thing, which Rey guessed at being a man, continued to step around her, and it was then that she noticed the strange aura had flared up again. It intensified into a frenzy of energy when his cloaked form passed by her frozen body, coming to stand at her back.
"Where is the droid?" he asked, his voice a just a filtered grumble.
Finding that she was able to move her mouth, despite not being able to move much of anything else, Rey found the strength to speak, "I don't know about any droid."
Very convincing Rey, she thought dryly.
Apparently, the masked man saw through her as well – he was not convinced either.
"Don't you?" she heard him say just as a glaring beam of red stopped to hover beside her face. The heat radiating from the saber was unbelievable, and she could not help it when her eyes widened, her heart feeling as through it had to escape. Rey was all too aware that just the slight move of this creature's hand, and her head would come clean off.
But, loyalty winning out over cowardice, she managed a response. "I won't tell you," she bit out.
Surprisingly, her weak attempt at bravery was followed by the removal of the saber's heat from her cheek. She sighed out in relief silently, immediately refocusing her efforts on staying calm and collected in front of this new enemy. He circled around once more, coming to a stop in front of her. Rey had to strain her eyes up, as her neck was immobile, to meet the shielded ones of the man. He raised his hand, outstretched once more, and kept it level with her head.
At once, she felt a pressure against her skull. It was not particularly painful, but it was frightening nonetheless. The sensation quickly morphed into a focused push against the center of her forehead, and she began to struggle against the feeling. Something was wrong. The pull in her chest was strengthening in its intensity, just as the prodding in her head was becoming more acute. Somehow, she knew then what the creature was doing. He was trying to see inside her mind – it was a Force users trick. Panicked, Rey tried uselessly to block him out. She wasn't sure how or where to begin but, being desperate, she grasped at whatever mental control she could muster. But it was too late.
"You. You've seen it. The map." The creature said it with such disbelief that, for a moment, Rey felt indignant at his insinuation she wasn't important enough to know such information.
Straining to the point of tears, she tried to prepare herself for the onslaught of the next invasion, but found she no longer felt the unique pulse radiating from the creature. While his gloved hand was still outstretched, he was no longer using his power against her. Instead, he did something even more distressing. Rey watched as his hand hesitantly inched towards her cheek. The masked head tilted slightly as the tips of his gloved fingers brushed her temple.
In a flash, as though burned, the dark figure pulled his arm back and turned away from her. Rey, still tensely adhered in place, shifted her eyes to see what had attracted the thing's attention. A stormtrooper had quietly approached, a commander by the looks of the pauldron on its right shoulder, and stopped respectfully in front of the creature. Rey could tell from the trooper's deferential posture the masked man in black was a superior.
"Sir. We could not find the droid. But, the Resistance has taken out most of our tie-fighters and we are now outnumbered. We need more troops."
Turning his back on the trooper to face Rey once more, the masked figure answered, "Forget about the droid. We have what we need."
Before she could register his swift motions, the man took a step towards her, hand raised to her temple. Then, for Rey, her world instantly went black; one quick pulse, and her whole body was limp. The last sensation she felt was the firm, but gentle, grasp of hands around her shoulders and underneath her knees as the man easily swept her up and into his arms, cradling her against his chest.
From within her consciousness, Rey was vaguely aware of the thrumming aura, now humming with excitement around her. As pleasant as the sound of it was to her ears, the sensation brought a dry ache to her sternum. Despite the bizarre new feeling, Rey felt at ease; a soft peace drifted in her as she was lulled by the hum. But the peace, she knew, would end as abruptly as it had come once she awoke again.
A/N: Short, I know. This was kind of a test. Obviously, most of this is completely out of the movie so it might have been a bit boring. The next chapter will have the actual interrogation scene (but expanded and altered a bit so that there is a lot more material). Let me know if you liked it. Really, I am more interested (panicked), to see if I get the characterization right. I NEVER want to make any character OOC. Happy Holidays, guys.