AN: So I decided to post a second chapter today, since I always like to have a little bit more to read, especially when the story is new! Thanks for reading!
He drags her through the hall, and the men look on smugly. Even the troopers pause to look at her and whisper. Rens little prisoner, a worthless nothing, surely on her way to a painful execution. She has no way to prove that they're wrong.
"I'm not going to hurt you." His voice in her mind startles her, makes her trip over her feet, but he catches her before she can fall, and stands her back up roughly, though he gently squeezes her arm before he lets go. She'd felt him in her head before, but now she could hear his voice as plainly as if he were speaking to her aloud. And she wonders…
"What is this?" She asks, sending the words to him across the streams of energy.
"It would appear we have a bond of some sort across the force." He shrugs mentally, and she almost wants to laugh at how absurd that sounds. "Can you really still doubt the force, Rey?"
"No." She responds after a minute, keeping her eyes fixed firmly on his back, trying not to think about how the flesh of it is probably riddled with scrapes left by her jagged nails; it was only fair. He'd marked her shoulders, her throat, her breasts. Why should he walk away without a physical reminder?
"Rey…" He cautions, and she knows he's been in her thoughts, seen it as she's relieved intimate details of what had just occurred. And she could feel the pulses of desire that it sent through him. It thrilled her and terrified her that she could have such an effect on such a powerful man. That she had been the one to make him come undone. That she had been the one to plant that seed of doubt in his mind, the one made of light. Or perhaps she hadn't planted it, but her light had givin it what it needed to take root and grow.
"I don't understand what you're doing." she says next.
"Neither do I." He admits with what feels like a sigh. And suddenly, they're in an empty room, a hall, really, and he undoes her binders. "Follow this hall. It will take you to a hanger. Take one of the ships and go. Get far away from here." She nods, and turns away from him, but there is a sharp tugging at her heart, telling her that she can't leave him. So she turns to look at him.
"Ben?" She asks, reaching up to his mask, which he removes almost instinctively. Her hand meets his cheek, and he leans into it. He's known so little tenderness in his life, and he's known none for many years. This might be the last moment he has to experience it. "Come with me. Please." Her voice is fervent, pleading.
"I can't." He says firmly.
"Ben, please. I...I can't let you go. Please, we can leave together, we can go back to-"
"To the resistance? To the people who would kill me without a trial? They'd have every right to. Ive killed more of their men with my own hands than I can count. This is my place."
"What if your place was with me? No sides, no war, just us?" Rey isn't sure where this pleading is coming from, where the absolute terror and fear of losing him resonates from, but it's deep within her chest. "Please."
"Rey. You can get away. I'll stall, I'll say that you escaped. You're valuable to the Supreme leader, but not worth an entire fleet risked in battle. I, on the other hand...I'm his apprentice. I know too much. I'm too strong with the force. He'll never let me go." He takes her face in his hands, trying to get through to her. "Please, you have to leave. I can't let him have you! You...you're worth everything to me." She kisses him then, passionately, deeply, promising more, promising things they could never have.
"I'll come back for you someday." She says, leaning her forehead against his.
"Right." He tries not to sound sarcastic, but he knows that it would be impossible. That once she leaves Starkiller, he'll never see her again. But he knows that he'll feel her; the force bond between them is too powerful for her to ever truly be far enough away to avoid being felt. Being heard. "You have to go." He insists finally, forcing himself to break contact. She nods, and backs away slowly, doing everything she can to distract herself from the pain that leaving is inflicting on her; it shouldn't hurt so much. She doesn't know him. She should hate him.
She should. But she doesn't.
And the pain is unbearable. It's unbearable as soon as she realizes that she's feeling his pain too. Pain like he is being torn in two. And then anger, his saber slashing through metal in his rage. She wants to go back to him, to kiss him sane, to beg him to go with her, to drag him along if she has to. But she keeps running. And she keeps running.
But the feeling never fades.