The light shone in the small room, blinding, and it made her dizzy the second she regained consciousness. She was sitting on the floor, still wearing her worn out jacket and pants. She tried to stand up but a sharp pain hit her in the ribcage, almost making her fall. The last thing she remembered was a stormtrooper shooting at her and then everything went black. She lifted the hem of her shirt to find a fresh bandage covering the wound. It was starting to bleed.
"Great" she spat. Her second attempt at standing up was somewhat more successful, and the girl slowly dragged her body to the door. She felt heavy and breathless, but if things went down as she imagined, she still had someone to help.
She reached the heavy metal doors, but they were closed shut. Before she had time to think of what to do next, the doors opened violently, almost causing her to fall for the second time. Two of the troopers entered the room, followed by a tall man wearing a mask, all covered in pitch-black clothing. It was Kylo ren.
She had heard of him so many times. She knew who he really was.
"Take her and follow me," he said in a robotic monotone, that made her wonder if there was in fact a human behind the black helmet. She didn't fight them as they seized her by the arms. It was nearly impossible to escape, she knew that much, it was time to be smart about this.
They walked for a while, down long and cold hallways, built all with the same grey metal. It was a lifeless place, and she thought to herself that she'd rather die before having to live in a place like this. The pain on her side was getting almost unbearable and she was almost unable to keep up with the soldiers, whom at this point were virtually pushing her down the hall. Finally they stopped outside a room.
The door opened at Ren's command. The soldiers pushed the girl inside the room roughly, and this time she hit the floor, grabbing her side in pain.
"Fuck" she murmured, trying to regain the breath that the fall had taken from her lungs. She opened her eyes to a place filled with all sorts of machinery built-in the walls. And in the middle, the most terrifying sight she could imagine awaited. They had her best friend, Poe, tied to a chair, beaten and barely conscious.
"Leave" the man ordered to the soldiers, and they did, closing the doors behind them.
"Hey- she managed to whisper to her friend in the chair- hey I'm here"
He recognized her voice immediately, and a wide cheeky grin appeared in his troubled face, a sigh of relief leaving his bruised lips. "I knew you were alive. You're to stubborn to die"
"Well so are you. But they did manage to open a hole in my ribs." She said, trying really hard to stand up again, and only achieving a sitting position against the nearest wall.
"Enough with the reunion" Ren said, walking over to Poe. "I need answers and one of you is going to give them to me."
"No. You can beat the shit out of me, but I won't say anything." Poe said
"You're strong. I'll give you that. No one has been able to get anything from you. But you can't fight my power"
"I won't tell you anything. Ever"
"Well then maybe she will" He turned to the girl on the floor, kneeling besides her.
Poe's eyes widened in panic, and he screamed "No! Don't hurt her!"
Ren meant to be intimidating, but the girl didn't even flinch at his nearing presence, which made him uncomfortable.
"Do what you will. I won't tell you anything," She said coldly, clenching her jaw.
"Don't touch her!" Poe kept yelling at the top of his lungs, over and over until his throat was raw, and his arms were sore from trying desperately to get rid of the binds that tied him to the chair. But no matter how loud he was, his voice was overpowered by the sinister speech of Ren.
"You will give me what I want" He said, lifting a hand to her temple. He seemed so sure of his abilities that she braced herself for the worst, taking deep breaths of air. If this were her end, she'd go down fighting.
The screams of Poe turned to pure noise, sinking in the background of her mind, as she willed it to go blank. But then nothing happened. She could tell he was trying to read her mind, she felt it. But he found nothing but a wall; she wouldn't let him in. It was surprising even for her how effortless it was.
Ren looked at the girl, perplexed, his bewilderment growing into anger. She looked right back at him, half amused and half surprised at what had just happened. Her voice came out clear and disdainful
"Am I supposed to feel something? Are you trying your weird magic on me?" her snarky comment only fed his anger further, and he stood up, a lightsaber coming to life in his hands
"Why!" He screamed in his robotic voice, making her shiver. "What are you?!" the hum of the red saber rang in her ears as the echo of his voice lingered in the corners of the room.
She felt small in that moment, and closed her eyes.
Sparks came flying off the walls, and by the time he'd stopped destroying the machinery, the air was filled with the smell of burnt steel.
Poe was as confused as she was by the very thing they had just witnessed, and after a few astonished glances, she ran to him, and all he could blurt out was "Are you ok?" "Yes" she scoffed in disbelief, smiling. Suddenly, the electric hum of the lightsaber was shut off, and Ren had regained his cool, as if the room wasn't on fire because of him.
Two troopers walked in that very moment, and the robot-like buzz of his voice ordered them to "Take her away".
That was all he said to his subordinates, as they grabbed her by the arms again. Her bleeding wound had gotten worse from all the movement and now the thick red liquid dripped down her shirt onto her boots and even the floor. She felt the world start to spin again, and all she managed to scream before she was taken away was "Poe! Don't tell him anything! It doesn't matter what he says, you don't tell him anything!"
She thought she heard him say something in reply, but his voice was lost in the steps of the troopers and the searing pain of her side, until she gave in to it, and the world became blurry once more, swallowing her thoughts.
She woke up once more in the well-lit room, only this time she rested on a couch that wasn't there last time. The pain on her ribs was significantly less and her bandages had been changed. She wondered how long she had been in there, but there was no way to tell, as there was no notion of day or night in space, only infinite darkness. Not only literal space darkness, but there was one growing in her heart, because she knew that it was more than likely that Poe was death by now, somewhere in the cold emptiness of the massive starkiller base.
That notion consumed her for a while, and she almost drifted off again, until she heard footsteps approaching the door. She stood up quickly, thinking they were coming to take her back to Ren. It was now or never, she thought. She had been trained to fight, and as long as Ren wasn't with them, she could take on a couple of troopers. At least she hoped so.
Once the sliding doors opened, she didn't even hesitate and threw herself to the soldier that came trough, punching and kicking franticly. They both fell to the floor, the trooper fighting to get her off of him.
"Hey man I didn't sign up for this" He shouted looking back, as a very surprised Poe entered the room next.
"Stop!"- Poe said- He's with me! He's helping us!" Her eyes turned to the doorway and she stopped, instantly frozen by the sight of his friend, unrestrained and still alive.
After that, she didn't even thought about it and she launched herself in Poe's arms, resting her head in the crook of his neck. He held her back, as tight as he could, placing a kiss on the top of her head and he mumbled, "You have no idea how happy I am that you're ok" the relief was evident in his voice, and it was the best sound she had heard in a long time.
She looked right into his eyes, voicing the most sincere words she was capable of "Poe… I just… oh god I thought he was going to kill you! I was so scared…I can't believe you're alive"
"He didn't kill me. But he knows where the map is." He lowered his gaze, knowing very well she'd be disappointed. "I'm so sorry… I just couldn't let him kill you. So I had to tell him"
Her hands went to his face and she lifted his chin until his dark eyes were looking right into hers, and whispered, "You have nothing to be sorry about. Nothing." They were dangerously close, so much so that she forgot where they were. He closed the gap between them and kissed her slightly on the lips, getting carried away by the moment.
Her eyes widened in surprise, but the moment was over when the stormtrooper coughed, loudly. He had taken his helmet off, revealing a very handsome young man underneath.
He had a look in his eyes, kind of sad, but also good-hearted, almost pure.
He seemed nervous, looking constantly at the door, and he broke the silence-
"Guys, I don't mean to interrupt but we need to get out of here NOW"
"Who is he?" she asked Poe, and he just smiled and said:
"He's going to help us"
She smiled at the trooper, nodding, and thinking that for some reason, she trusted him.
"Ok. Lead the way"
The trooper shoot her a small smile before placing his helmet back on, and guided them through the maze of hallways, pointing a blaster at them, as if he had them captive.
"So what's the plan?" she whispered to the trooper.
"Well, your friend here says he can fly a tie fighter so we're going to steal one"
"What" she answered almost too loud, gaining suspicious looks from some stormtroopers that were around. "Sorry- she said softly- it's just that I don't see how we can steal one of those things."
"Well, we're about to find out"
The trooper ran to one of the ships, the two rebels behind him. The wound on her side was coming back to life as she tried to keep up with the others, but by that point, some troopers around had taken notice that something was going on.
One of them was closing in on her, as she was the slowest one since the wound was throbbing in her side. She managed to put an elbow to the trooper's head and kick him to the floor, stealing his blaster. Poe was yelling for her to hurry, as they were already boarding the ship, but a new wave of troopers came from the other side, and she knew in her heart that she wasn't going to make it out.
"Go" she screamed at Poe- "Go, come on go!" she said, shooting the gun at the troopers nearest to the ship.
"I can't leave you here! I…I love you!" the anguish in his words was heartbreaking, but there was no other way. It was too late.
"I know. But you have to go! Come on! I'll figure something out, I promise, we'll see each other again, just go!" she said, her voice breaking as she fought the tears that were threatening to fall down her cheeks.
"Come on man!" the trooper screamed from inside the ship, and Poe took one last look at the girl he was leaving behind, and yelled, "I'll come for you! I promise"
She nodded "Just go!"
The ship elevated in a heartbeat. If someone could fly anything, it was definitely Poe.
All hell broke loose, as the ship struggled to fly away, and she just stood there, watching them go. The troopers now surrounded her, and she threw the blaster to the floor, lifting her arms in surrender. At least Poe was safe. That was all that mattered right now.
For the first time since she had been captured, the troopers cuffed her hands and lead her to their superior. A lean, red haired man with an icy blue stare waited for her at the entrance of what appeared to be a control room.
His unwelcoming tone matched his appearance, as he spoke firmly to her -"Who helped him escape?" He was clearly irritated, his voice as cold as his eyes, almost cutting.
"I don't know. A trooper. Don't know his name." She tried to seem as casual as possible, even though this man terrified her even more than Ren.
"They don't have names, they have numbers. –He said as if he was explaining the simplest thing to a naive child- My men are trained from birth, it is impossible that one of them has helped you" his statement was matter-of-factly, and she couldn't help the retort that came out of her lips like word vomit-
"Well, maybe you're not so good at training them." The contempt was clear in her broken voice.
"How dare you, rebel scum, to talk to me like that"?
"It's not my fault your men are blatantly incompetent at their jobs"
His hand rose from his side and she could almost feel the fist meant for her face, but it never came. His hand had frozen mid air, and his enraged breath proved that it wasn't
voluntarily stuck in that position.
"The rebel scum is not wrong, general Hux" there it was again, the robotic voice, the black helmet.
"Ren- he said, fuming- let go"
His hand was released from his frozen stance, and Kylo Ren approached the red haired general
"Perhaps the supreme leader should consider a clone army. Your men seem to have a knack for high treason. You'd do better to find that droid, for your sake general. And now, if you excuse me, I'll take care of my prisoner"
"Walk with me" The guttural, breathy voice, told her, and he started to walk, his robes fluttering along his dark figure. She was running out of choices, so she walked along Ren, out into the hallway.
"You won't be needing those" He spoke, and with a swift hand movement, the restraints were snatched from her hands.
"I'm not going to tell you anything" Her voice was determined, more than she actually felt.
"I have the information I need."
"Then what do you want from me?"
"The force. It is in you, buried so deep that you forgot it. I feel it … And if you learn to use it, you can become powerful. You can use your hate; you have so much in you. Let me teach you the ways. Be my apprentice"
"Weren't you someone else's apprentice yourself, Ben?"
"That name means nothing to me anymore"
"Is that why you hide behind that mask? So no one can see the real you? Or are you finished turning yourself into a machine yet?"
For a moment she feared she had stroke too deep of a nerve. His breathing got loud, like that of a wounded animal. But the only movement he made was to take off the heavy helmet on his head, dropping it to the floor.
"I don't hide from anyone."
His black hair fell in streaks down his forehead, right over his pale skin, freckles spread across his young face. And his dark eyes were filled with overwhelming pain, one she had never seen before. He was definitely not what she expected to see beneath the helmet.
"You seem to know a whole lot about me." His real voice was deep and calm, but it had an edge that she couldn't properly describe even to herself, and not minding her lack of response, he continued- "But who are you?"