Rey had awoken with a start, cold and uncomfortable with her wrists, waist, and ankles manacled by thick iron cuffs. Her whole body was held upright in an elaborate restraint, tilted up slightly toward the grey ceiling of an otherwise empty room. Her head pounded as she struggled to open her eyes, dizzy with confusion and frustration. They focused on a still form in black kneeling at her feet. She knew without a second glance it was the same man who had attacked her with the red light saber in the woods. Uncertainty and fear began to bubble up all at once, threatening to tighten in a ball of anxiety in her chest, but she stayed her thoughts before they spiraled out of control. Alarmed, but desperate to keep her voice calm, she asked roughly, "Where am I?"
The form raised his head. "You're my guest," he said in explanation, his masked breath a thin metal scrape against the hush that otherwise engulfed them.
Memories came back to her in a random series of images, flickering like a distant flame. Back in the woods she had not been able to move when he froze her in her tracks with a simple flick of his wrist. Terrified, for those brief moments she experienced both awe and panic as he held her hostage within her own body. The power that had washed over her was like nothing she had ever felt before. She remembered how he had begun prying into her memories, sneaking in through the smallest of cracks in her mind, forcing an intimacy that violated her very soul. Instinctively she knew he had been using the dark power of the Force, the Dark Side. And now he knew she had seen the map. Her worst fear was coming true. If he somehow extracted the map from her mind, she would be the reason that Luke Skywalker was found and killed.
"You still want to kill me," he stated more than asked, her anger and rage apparent.
"That's what happens when you're being hunted by a stranger in a mask," she spat back at him.
He stood.
Her blood went cold as she watched his movements carefully, his very presence a real threat. To her surprise, he took off his mask in one smooth motion, revealing the face of a pale young man no older than she was herself. A strange attraction stirred at the back of her mind. His dark hair was stark against his pale skin, yet framed his features softly, and his eyes... his eyes were all anger and sadness, like a disappointed little boy. Darker even than his hair, they threatened to drown her in their depths. She couldn't help but note the tenderness and humanity in his face. Even his energy was not as threatening. A distinctly different feeling arose from her, unbidden, some kind of longing for him tinged with pity. She could feel her face and neck flush with heat at her arousal as she shoved all of the thoughts down again, composing herself in an instant, knowing he could feel her every vulnerability and use it against her to find the map, and find Luke.
"Tell me about the droid," he said, abruptly bringing her back to reality. She nervously began sprouting off stats of the BB-8 unit, hoping that if she was talking it would take her mind off of her growing attraction to him. He interrupted her.
"He's carrying a section of a navigational chart, and we have the rest… Recovered from the archives of the empire, but we need the last piece. And somehow you convinced the droid to show it to you. You," he said then in a low voice, almost a murmur, as he stepped close to her. "A scavenger. And you know I can take whatever I want."
The attack he waged on her mind then was far stronger than the one she experienced in the woods. He taunted her, preying on her memories viciously, honing in on the things she tried to keep hidden even from herself.
"Yes, so lonely. So afraid to leave… At night, desperate to sleep, you imagine an ocean. I see it. I see the island. I know you've seen the map. It's in there. And now you'll give it to me."
Eyes shut and straining against the onslaught of his power, she reached out to a bright light for help... it was just up ahead, yet just behind her eyes. Somehow, it was working. It was taking all of her concentration, but she was shielding herself from him. Her body burned with fury and rage and desire, but she was winning.
Panting, his attack wavered and then came to an abrupt end.
