Rey

Rey awoke with a start, confused. The last she remembered was struggling to move in the forest. A creature that terrified her, that caused pain to swell in her head. She could feel the invasion into her mind, seeking answers, looking for BB8, the map. She wanted to run from the pain, the fear. It felt as her eyes were being pushed from the sockets, her body screaming at her to flee but he muscles in pain when it refused to do what she wanted.

She had heard the storm troopers calling to this man, this beast, but she couldn't understand what they were saying. The creature had stopped searching her mind, but the pain was still there. It was hard for her to think of anything but the pain that ripped through her head and body. The fear that was pulsing through her veins. Then there was nothing.

She felt the bindings on her wrists and forearms keeping her in place. The jolt that had awakened her made her aware or the dull pain that was still behind her eyes from the earlier altercation. She scanned the room. It was fairly well lit considering the black panels everywhere. The air was sterile and she could smell the metal of the ship. He eyes then stopped at a corner of the room. It was darker there and the beast looked as if he were a decoration. He was sitting on his heels watching her, how long had he been there? How long had she been out?

If she had learned anything on Jakku it was to not show fear. "Where am I?" she asked hoping she sounded braver than she felt.

The beast didn't move. "You are my guest."

The fact that he called her his guest seemed to get under her skin, she wanted him to keep talking though, hoping she could find out about her friends. "Where are the others?"

"You mean the murderers, traitors and thieves you call friends? You'll be relieved to hear I have no idea."

She thought about what he just said. Why did he tell her this? Wouldn't he have so much more advantage thinking that he had Finn, Han and Chewie? She studied the beast with a bit more curiosity. What monstrosity was behind the mask? Why would this thing hide behind a mask?

"You still want to kill me." He said.

She noticed it wasn't a question he asked, but more of a statement. She thought of his words earlier of her being his guest, she felt more as if she were prey caught in the corner by a beast. "That happens when you're being hunted by a creature in a mask."

She watched as he rose from his crouching position his hands unlatching his mask, and pulling it off his helmet, placing it in a pile of ashes. She was caught off guard. There was no monstrosity behind it at all. His dark locks fell around his long face. If she were to see him at the outpost she would almost call him handsome, until she looked into his eyes. The dark eyes that seemed haunted. Her breath caught in her throat and she had to look away.

"Tell me about the droid."

She again was taken aback by his voice. Without the helmet his voice was pleasing, a sound of velvet that unnerved her.

"He's a BB unit with a selenium drive and a thermal hyperscan vindicator..."

"He's carrying a section of a navigational chart. We have the rest, recovered from the archives of the Empire. We need the last piece, and somehow, you convinced the droid to show it to you. You. A scavenger."

She is again afraid and hurt. How does he know that? Why is she hurt she wonders? His words are nothing, should be nothing to her. Though she knows, she felt so alone. At least on Jakku she could fight back, she could run if needed. She doesn't look at him, she stares straight ahead trying to not let his words hurt her, trying to keep her emotions in check so he doesn't realize he had gotten to her. Though tears are springing up in her eyes she is hoping that he doesn't notice, or hopes that he doesn't realize that it was his words that did it, that made her feel so alone all over again.

She feels him so close to her, feels the heat from his breath on her neck. "You know I can take whatever I want."

She feels like her heart drop not knowing what he meant. Not knowing if he were going to do what he had done in the forest or worse. He hasn't touched her so far, and she was hoping that with his disdain of her being a scavenger from Jakku he wouldn't now.

He brings his hand to the side of her face, it felt like a static electricity from his hands to her skin, it didn't hurt, it wasn't unpleasant at all, more of a tickle. She could feel him seeping back into her head. This time it wasn't as bad as the last, the pain didn't hit her like a transport ship screaming in her head. She tries to resist his gentle probing. Trying to hide inside her own head.

"You are so lonely, so afraid to leave."

She can't hold back the tears now, they stream down her face. Partially due to the strain she is having trying to get him out of his head, but mainly because she is always alone. She had thought with her meeting of her new friends she wouldn't feel that way anymore. She felt him go deeper into the recesses of her mind.

"At night, desperate to sleep, you imagine an ocean, I see it. I see the island."

She tries to break free but the restraints keep her tightly in place. Tears still streaming down her cheeks, meeting under her chin. These are her thoughts, her private dreams, the places she goes when she wants to get away from Jakku without having to leave. When she was lonely, so alone in the harsh deserts that made her so hard. She needed to stop thinking about her feelings on loneliness. She thought of Han and how he offered her work. How she looked up to the man whom she had just met, that offered her a place, a purpose other than just surviving.

"And Han Solo, you feel like he's the father you never had…. He would have disappointed you."

She turned her head from him, she didn't want to show the pain he was bringing to her, though she knew it was futile. He could see everything, invading her privacy. She had to try to make it stop. She had to not think about what he wants. Couldn't make it easy for him. She started to resist, to try to hide her mind from him. Oh stars it hurt fighting back. The pain from earlier was returning as she resisted. She wants the pain to stop, "Get out of my head!"

He leans closer, the electric tickle intensified, the warm breath on her neck felt more like fire now. She was still fighting the battle that was going on in her head.

"I know you've seen the map, it's in there, and now you'll give it to me!"

She is still trying to fight him, to resist him. The static and heat leave as he moves in front of her, his hand outstretched.

"Don't be afraid, I feel it to."

She regains her senses when he wasn't so close, she feels stronger and fights, she can feel the barrier in her head which he is trying to knock down mentally. "I'm not giving you anything!" She feels stronger, she leans towards him staring into his dark haunting eyes.

"We'll see."

She can feel him trying harder to break her, yet she still resists. She doesn't know how but she notices that he is shaking now. She can feel him, she can hear a whisper in the room, it's him, but she knows he isn't saying anything. She can see the confusion in his eyes, and something else. The air around them is electrified, she believes she sees a glow around them both, it distracts her, but as soon as she sees it, it's gone. She realizes its fear she sees in his brown eyes. "You… you're afraid." Then she hears a name ~Darth Vader~ "that you'll never be as strong as Darth Vader!"

She feels him retreating from her head and sees a panic spread over his face. She falls back to the hard table once the connection of their minds are lost, though she keeps watching him. The relief of her thoughts being her own washes over her. Adrenaline flowing through her body as she is breathing hard from the battle that raged between them. Her eyes never leaving his, and she continued to watch as he grabbed his helmet from the ash and walked briskly past her.

Rey was alone in the room, still strapped to the table. The adrenaline had died down from the encounter with the creature. She didn't want to think of him as anything else. She didn't want to think of his eyes that made her think of rich soil, or his handsome features. It was easier to think of him as a monster, a murder and not the man she saw behind the mask. Her eyes were heavy, she couldn't remember the last time she had slept. The past days were all a blur, from her saving the little BB unit, to meeting Fin and going on the run with him. They had become fugitives of the First Order, and now they had her. She was hoping that Han, Finn, and the BB unit were able to find the Resistance. Their mission was so much more than anything she could do. She was a lowly scavenger. A nothing. She had even stopped wondering how to escape. How could prey escape a monster in a mask?

Her eyes were closing, she couldn't keep them open between everything that had happened, and the tears that burned her eyes from self-pity. The hum in the room lulled her to sleep.