"He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. For when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you." - Friedrich Neitzsche
Fires raged around you, dancing and crackling with delight as they devoured everything in their path, including the remnants of your simple home, with its hand thatched roof and foraged glass windows, now reduced to ashes, embers floating in the arid wind. Outlined against the blazing pyres were the white shimmering silhouettes of Stormtroopers, their guns raised, the echoing stomps of their feet matching the dull rhythm of your heart as you knelt on the scorched ground, your palms facing upwards as they lay on your knees.
Smoke filled your lungs as you gasped in desperate breaths, tears streaming hotly down your cheeks, mimicking the ashes falling like snow around you, crisp downy flakes landing between your upturned fingers. The abode you'd lived in alone was gone, burning into nothingness before you; the only thing you were thankful for in this moment was that your family was long dead, spared the carnage now running rampant in the small trading community you had called home.
Everything you had built here over the last few years, the roof and four walls you'd painstakingly erected crashing down around you in a matter of hours. All you could do was watch, dumbstruck and devastated by the destruction around you, numbness creeping into your limbs, and slowly but steadily crawling towards your hammering heart.
You didn't even react when you heard the crunch of heavy boots all around you, their measured staccato march alerting you that Stormtroopers were closing in. A small, self-preserving part of you whispered urgently that you should run like hell, but the thrill of adrenaline you waited for never came. No warmth spread through your veins, your heart rate plodded on, never increasing in speed. You were numb.
You heard the Stormtrooper closest to you shift his blaster in his hands, no doubt preparing for the kill shot. Your eyes slid closed and for the briefest moment you welcomed the prospect of death, even looked forward to its blissful oblivion. Another tear tracked down your cheek and dried on your skin almost immediately in the parched air. One heartbeat. You saw the faces of your parents, smiling down at you, your mother holding your hand tight in hers as you walked through a field filled with flowers in one of the fondest memories you had of them. Another heartbeat. You saw your parents carted away, stolen to be slaves on the barren wasteland of Jakku. Pain knifed through you, sharp and lacerating, the only thing quelling your agony was the knowledge that soon you'd see them again. Another heartbeat. And then another. You were about to ask what the hell was taking them so long when a distorted, dispassionate voice grated, "Not her. She's mine."
Your eyes flew open and you whirled around, rising to your feet quickly to see who your unexpected savior was. You trembled slightly as you surveyed the tall, black clad figure standing in front of you. You knew who he was, you'd hear the rumors; darkness rising in the ashes of the Republic, new enemies and orders forming. Judging by the way the Stormtroopers obeyed his every command and the subtle reverence they showed when near him, this was Kylo Ren.
"On your knees, prisoner" One of the troopers said, his harsh mechanical voice jarring you. He raised the blunt end of his blaster to strike you and you didn't flinch; nothing he could do to you would compare to the pain of watching the life you'd built crumble around you.
"No," Kylo said, his soft but commanding voice stopping the cruel force about to be directed at your temple, "She is not to be harmed."
He stepped closer to you, his advance slow and undeniably imposing. His ornate mask shone in the light of the raging fires consuming your home, the silver lines etched around his deep black eye holes glinting, giving his gaze a strange luminosity. Curiosity peeked through the cracks in the numbness icing over your bones, making you wonder why he would spare you. Filled with a newfound fire you squared your shoulders as he drew close to you, the heat of his body washing over you, somehow hotter than the blaze at your back.
"She is mine." He rasped again, raising a gloved hand to trace the curve of your jaw, his touch feather light, sending tingles running down your spine. Your confusion deepened, spilling into the shock and defiance that settled low in your body. Your resolve wavered as you stared into his stark black mask, seeing only your own ash streaked face reflected back at you, and you wondered if there was truly a man behind this metal face.
"Why?" You whispered, the question spilling from your lips before you could stop yourself.
"Because I want you," He answered simply, his hand moving to your nape, the tacky leather snagging on your skin, "Relax."
He commanded gently, and you felt a presence in your mind, lulling you into unconsciousness. You sighed gently, the feeling of him using the Force on you foreign and strange, but oddly comforting. You welcomed the loosening of your muscles and darkness rushing into the corners of your vision.
His hold on your neck tightened as your knees buckled, exhaustion and shock combined with his influence taking a toll on you. He gently laid you onto the ground before him, pausing for a moment to trace the curve of your cheekbones before quickly rising to his feet. Turning away from you he barked out commands to his Stormtroopers, his steps quick and measured, carrying him to the ship he'd come here in.
Just before you slipped into unconsciousness you watched the slope of his shoulders rising and falling with his confident strides, a delicious heat sizzled sharply in your chest as you realized Kylo Ren had just simultaneously saved and condemned you.