A/N: I hope everyone who celebrates had a good holiday season and is getting hyped up for New Years, because I know I am. I had a pretty shitty Christmas but everyone who reviewed/faved/followed/supported this story in any way has kept me positive! I would hug each and every one of you if I could.
Chapter 3
Rey slept for hours, but it was a rare, dreamless sleep. She wasn't one to sleep regularly, or for healthy stretches of time. Hell, she seldom exceeded 6 hours. The thought of wasting so many hours of the day for a state of unconsciousness, no matter how pleasant, was repulsive to her. Besides, nighttime was ideal for scavenging. The high desert temperatures that wore her out more quickly during the day were no longer a problem. And as long as she was careful not to run into any unsavory characters, she was able to get more work done.
But aboard the space station, Rey had no concept of time, of day and night. She had time to think about how arbitrary those ideas were, and it only served to show her just how small her world was. She was unsure if she could ever be satisfied with living inside of it again.
If you leave, you run the risk of never seeing them again. What if they came for you and you weren't there?
Rey's eyes fluttered open. The sight of the new room was disorienting, and it took a few seconds for her to remember where she was, but then the details flooded back to her.
Finn, BB-8, the mission, the map, Luke Skywalker
The first thing she noticed was that she'd been moved, and though new room was smaller, Rey was happy to see she could move about it freely. She raised her right arm, and then her left, realizing how much she missed even that small amount of autonomy over her body. She rubbed the places in her arm where the metal restraints had left marks, characterized by a constant, dulled pain. The burn on her neck from Kylo's lightsaber was beginning to heal.
The next thing that Rey noticed was that she was in a proper bed, with blankets, a pillow, the whole nine yards. She sat up and the cold air hit her immediately, that and a sharp pain in her abdomen, for which she blamed yesterday's events. She clutched her stomach in an effort to soothe the ache.
There was an obvious disparity in temperatures between this room and the last, which led her to believe she'd been moved to a different wing of the facility entirely. Rey also saw that there was a window above the bed. She was initially very excited by what was outside, perhaps she'd see a planet or star that looked familiar, and by that she meant resembling the artists' renderings she'd spent hours poring over in her favorite books. But she was disappointed to see that there wasn't much for her to look at, only distant planets and stars, so she laid back down.
The room really was cold, or perhaps she just wasn't appropriately dressed. Rey pulled the blanket over her shoulder, because she knew that bare skin under a blanket would conserve more of her body heat than it would had she been more covered up. She removed the cloth she draped over her shirt and pants, dropping it on the ground next to her. It was cumbersome and whereas it did the important job of covering skin and protecting it from the desert heat, it was unnecessary now.
It hurts to move, he really did a number on me.
There was food and water too, sitting on the floor by the bed, doing nothing but furthering her confusion. Had he taken the information while she was sleeping? Was she being held here until termination?
It could be poisoned, they won't kill me. Not if I can help it. I'm going home.
Rey sat up again, and the pain ripped through her core. She winced before focusing on the cup of water and extended her right hand.
Remember, just how he did it. Focus and then flick your wrist.
She did this once without success, and then tried again. The third time, it moved a few inches to the right, but outside of that she didn't get any meaningful results. He made it look so easy and natural. His movements had an otherworldly quality to them, one that she was unable to replicate. They were so precise, governed by laws that were unknown to her. She wished she'd observed him more closely, and decided to do so when she saw him again, assuming the next time they met wouldn't be too late for her to save her life.
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Kylo Ren told himself that he was in a good mood. After he had moved the girl to another cell, he was in an excellent position to look around her mind again for the map, but with better results this time. He now had the knowledge he needed, which he delivered to Snoke immediately. And he had been pleased with Kylo, proud even, which should have meant his good mood would be genuine and untainted by any thought of that girl. She complicated things.
She's the one causing this, her stubbornness is unprecedented, she's rude, irritating, uneducated, uncultured, and yet...
Kylo couldn't deny that she was a attractive woman, though it had taken him some time to be able to admit that he was attracted to her. There was a difference, at least in his mind. He thought that admitting the problem to himself would help, but it only made matters worse. It was impossible for him to look at her and keep his mind from wandering.
Maybe that was why he lashed out yesterday.
He didn't want to hurt her, especially not on the level he had tortured her yesterday. He was angry with her because he was close to giving into temptation. This was his own fault, not hers.
But she thought it, she thought that I was handsome.
The resistance base would be raided for the droid and then bombed, he knew it. People that she cared about were going to die. Kylo considered not telling her, or putting the blame on someone else. She would hate him for what he did, but that was only because she didn't know any better.
Today he would make his offer to train her, not that there would be much of a choice involved on her part. Kylo knew that she would do anything to return to Jakku, even if it meant wasting her life and potential. He wouldn't let her do that, she had no idea what she would be throwing away.
But he had other reasons for asking Snoke to keep her alive. Like how last night when he had put her to bed, Kylo kissed her. She was asleep and he was staring, and he felt the need to do it so he did, just to see how it would feel. He thought that after feeling how chapped her lips were and smelling the dried sweat on her forehead this desire would go away, but it persisted, no, it grew stronger.
While he walked down the hall the air felt stiff, heavy, it wanted to hold him in place but he kept moving forward. This was nothing, he reassured himself, and it mustn't get in the way of his mission. She was far too old for training, Kylo remembered how young he had been when he'd started, but with time and work she could be bred into a powerful Sith Lord. Being her teacher would lend him some of the credibility that he so badly desired, force everyone to take him seriously.
Kylo eventually came to the door marked A-145 and paused. He almost knocked before entering out of habit, but imagined Rey as the type of person who wouldn't be receptive to politeness, especially from an enemy. So he pressed the button and the door opened.
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Rey had been expecting him. In the hours after she'd woken up, she meditated on what she'd seen Kylo do and eventually developed the ability to sense his presence. It was indescribable, nothing like anything she'd felt before. She was able to feel the thousands of people aboard the ship, but the majority of them blended together to the point of becoming indistinguishable. But he stood out, so when she knew he was headed in her direction she decided to take action.
First, she stuffed the pillow inside of the blanket and bunched it up so that it looked as if she was underneath it, with the outer layer of her outfit poking out to make it more convincing. Next, Rey moved to the front left corner of the room as close to the door as possible. He was right handed, so an attack to his left would catch him off guard, and when the door opened she would strike.
So she waited with bated breath, her heart thumping out of her chest, and her arms shaking. She would punch him in the nose if he was helmetless, Rey knew how much that would hurt from experience. If his face was covered, she'd kick him in the crotch and run. This never would've been a fair fight anyway, so she was at peace with being unsportsmanlike.
If I don't pull this off, I'm as good as dead.
She launched at Kylo as soon as she saw the tiniest bit of him come through the doorframe. Rey was no stranger to fist fights, and everything she knew she'd learned the hard way.
Form a tight fist, thumb on the outside across your fingers, punch with your knucklesā¦
But those were easy fights, much simpler than this, even if she hadn't known it at the time. Her opponents had been petty thieves, small time criminals, nobodies just like her. This was different, and it was over before it started.
Rey didn't have the time to check for his helmet if she was to hit him quickly enough, so she took a gamble and ended up punching a rock hard surface. The pain reverberated through her right hand and she pulled it back, but she wasn't done yet. She was able to get in a kick to the shin and a quick hit to the chest with her left hand before Kylo caught her wrist and pushed her against the wall. She fell to the ground after colliding with it. His height was never as noticeable to her as it was then, as he had nearly a foot on her. She knew in that moment that she was foolish to take him on like this without a weapon, without knowing how to manipulate objects as he could, and this was a losing battle from the beginning.
"You've come here to kill me then, is that it?" Rey said.
"Is that so?"
"Well you moved me here, to what seems like some kind of death row," Rey said, getting up from the ground and wincing. She wrapped her arm around her midsection to support the area as she stood, though she was still hunched at the waist, "But if that's what you're here to do you have another thing coming."
"Last night when you passed out, your mind was as weak and vulnerable as your body," Kylo said, walking over to the corner of the corner of the room where Rey struggled to stay on her two feet, "So naturally I was able to get the information that I needed. In many ways I am finished with you."
"What'll happen to them?" Rey asked, "Han, Chewy, Finn, BB-8?"
"You think of Han Solo as something of a father, do you? Let me save you the trouble and tell you now that he'll only disappoint you."
"Han Solo is a great man," Rey said, "Shut up and answer my question."
"Touchy subject, no worries, I understand more than you know. But about your friends, I don't have an answer for you. It's out of my hands."
"That's it then, I can go home now?" she asked.
"No, you cannot return to Jakku."
"So you'll," Rey paused, "Y-you'll kill me." Her voice shook and she bit her lower lip. It was something she did when she was nervous, but nervous didn't even begin to describe what she was feeling. She wasn't ready to die, not after her life had been given a new light and purpose. It felt as if things were just beginning, and now they would end just as quickly.
"No. I have an offer for you, one that I think you'll find to be most generous."
"Go on."
"You're powerful, more powerful than you know. The Force is strong within you and that means you are capable of incredible things. It surrounds us, penetrates us, binds the entire universe together and with proper training you can learn to control it. My offer is simple: either you submit to me as your teacher and learn the ways of the Force of your own volition or I use other methods of persuasion, and you won't like them."
"You can't keep me here, you can't just take my life away from me," she yelled.
"I can take whatever I want," Kylo said, "But it doesn't have to be that way. You're angry, and rightfully so, but it's misdirected at me and the First Order. I can't understand why you would fight to preserve the same system that kept you in extreme poverty for your entire life."
"I don't pretend to understand politics, but I don't see how things would be any different," Rey said.
"That's for you to decide, because you would be a part of the new order," he said, "Wealth, power, prestige, it can all be yours. So what is your decision?"
