AN: This was originally published on AO3 for the Knight Pilot Fanworks Gift Exchange 2017. This was a gift for idrilhadhafang over on AO3.
Prompt: "Ren wants the prisoner": What exactly did Ren want Poe for after getting the information about BB-8? After Poe is interrogated by Kylo Ren, the Master of the Knights decides to make Poe his lover and a loyal servant of the First Order.
When Poe had been taken from the interrogation chamber, he was expecting to be marched to his death. What else could they want him for? They'd already forcedly taken the location of the map from him.
He surely had not been expecting this.
The stormtrooper had roughly pushed Poe forward into the dark room before hurriedly scurrying out, the door sealing closed behind him. Poe stood there quietly, his eyes flicking back and forth, observing his new surroundings. It was obviously a bed chamber of sorts. Everything dark. Everything black. Including the figure standing within the room, back facing Poe. The pilot recognized him as the one who'd interrogated him. The monster.
"Well," Poe huffed, adjusting his wrists within the metal confines of the handcuffs. The masked figure turned slightly at the unexpected word. "Would you mind telling me what I'm doing here? Not that this ain't a real swell party, but I'm sure we've both got better things to do than just stand around here," Poe said with a snide smirk.
The figure, Ren, turned to face Poe. Any emotion was hidden behind his metal mask. "You are so naive, little pilot. You think you are brave, do you? You are merely foolish."
"Listen pal, I don't know what you're-"
Poe's defense was cut off right as he felt an invisible hand wrap around his throat, pressure pushing down on him, cutting off his air supply. Poe gasped and choked, his eyes wide and staring at Ren's outstretched hand.
"You are expendable. The First Order has no use for you. We know where the map is. Jakku is not a large planet. Even General Hux's incompetent stormtroopers should be able to find it there. I could kill you now and no one would care."
Poe was released, gasping for air. "Then why don't you? Why not kill me now?" he said roughly.
Ren tilted his head at Poe and stepped closer to the prisoner. "I'm giving you a choice."
Poe snorted at that. A choice?
"If you want to die so badly then I'll give you what you want. I cannot promise it will be painless, but I would try to make it quick. The First Order certainly does not have time to waste on rebel scum like you." Ren paused, his breath loudly passing through the mask and filling the silence. "Or," Ren took another step closer to Poe. "Or you pledge your allegiance, your devotion, and your obedience to me. And by extension, you pledge to serve the First Order." Ren's proposal hung in the air between the two men. Poe's head had tilted to one side and he wore an incredulous look upon his face.
"Are you serious?" Poe sputtered.
Ren let out what was practically a growl, his hand clenching and unclenching into a fist as he struggled to contain his impatience for the insolence of this stupid prisoner. "You pledge to serve or you die. It's a simple choice, one that I would think would be very easy to make, Pilot."
Poe shook his head and let out a humorless laugh. "Why would I agree to this? What would ever make me join the First Order? Why would I ever agree to act as your- your slave ?" Poe laughed again. "You're crazy."
Ren felt the anger build up in him. "You really have no wish to survive?"
"Oh, I'd like to survive, but I refuse to betray the cause purely for my own benefit. I refuse to spend the rest of my days receiving orders from some angry brute of a monster like you. Never."
Ren let out a frustrated huff and quickly turned away from Poe. The clenching motion of his hands continued as he seemed to angrily pace back and forth. Poe watched him with defiant, but nervous, eyes. Ren stilled. He paused for a moment, his heavy breathing filling the silence yet again. He raised his hands to his neck and slowly removed the helmet, sliding it over his head. He let the heavy helmet slip from his hand, a hollow thud echoing as it hit the ground. Poe stared at the exposed expanse of pale skin and dark hair. Poe's lips parted and he knew his eyes must have been as large as a moon as he began to recognize the man standing before him, his brain struggling to catch up with his eyes, to process what was surely impossible.
"Really, Poe. Never?" Ren said, now unencumbered by the mask, as he turned halfway back towards the startled Poe Dameron.
It was not hearing his name that made Poe's words catch in his throat, stuck there for eternity. No. It was that voice. That voice he had not heard for years. That voice he had never thought he'd hear again. That voice saying his name, almost like Poe had heard it say his name a million times before.
"Never?" he repeated, his voice an equal mix of frustration and despair.
Poe continued to stare, eventually finding his voice again as he choked out one word in a half sob. "Ben?" The name erupted from his throat and filled the room with a new tension and a new desperation.
Ren chuckled darkly as he looked down at Poe with burning eyes. "I haven't been 'Ben ' for a long time."
"Ben," Poe choked out the name yet again, his face an ever changing and ever conflicting scene of misery and relief. "You're alive?"
"What? General Organa didn't tell you that? It must have just slipped her mind I suppose." Kylo Ren responded with false mirth.
Poe's face fell. "She wouldn't have."
"It seems she did. She knows who I am and where I am. She's known for a long time."
"But," Poe stuttered as he began, trying to comprehend this, trying to comprehend that Leia had lied to him. "But she would've done something, would have said something. You mean the world to her and she knows that you mean even more than that to me." Poe finished softly.
"I still mean something to you?"
Poe blinked. "Of course you mean something to me. How could you not?" Poe stepped closer to Ben. All he wanted to do is reach out to the other man but his hands were still encaged by the metal cuffs. "You will always mean everything to me. You were- you are my husband, Ben."
"I'm not Ben anymore." He turned his eyes away from Poe.
"Bullshit." Poe murmured. "You are always going to be Ben to me. I don't care who you think you are or want to be, you are Ben to me. As long as that mask is off and I am standing in front of you, you are Ben . You're always going to be my Ben."
A silence passed between them, still tension filled, but quite different from before. Poe was no longer afraid, no longer having to bluff his way through. What he wanted was standing right in front of him.
"Fuck the cause." Poe said suddenly.
"What?" came Ben's startled response.
"You are my cause. I promised that a long time ago. I can't serve the First Order. I'm sorry. I know I cannot. But I pledged myself to you a long time ago and that is not something I'm willing to go back on. Those vows meant something to me. You are more important than the cause. I've done my part for them. Now, I will do my part for you and for me." Poe gave Ben a hard look as their eyes finally met. "If you will be Ben for me, then I will be whatever you want me to be."
He waited a moment before answering. "I'll be Ben for you, only you, if you'll just be Poe for me."
AN 2: Thanks for reading! Please review! Favorite? Follow?
Looking for more KnightPilot? Check out my other fic: "The Date"! More KnightPilot to come soon!