Ben groans as he slowly regains consciousness, he's disoriented and slightly lightheaded. He can feel tight restrains on his wrists and ankles. He lets out another light groan and begins to open his eyes. Then he lets out a shocked cry.
There he is, mask and all, towering intimidatingly over him. From the corner of his eye, Ben sees another trooper standing by the door.
Ben's eyes dart around for a moment, and he struggles with the restraints before he looks back at Caedus, "W-Where am I?" he asks, choking up slightly.
Caedus smiles under his mask, "You're my guest."
Ben glares and his fear is more or less forgotten, "Well that's fantastic! But that really doesn't answer my question!"
The guard starts forward but Caedus hold up his hand and stops him.
"You're in Starkiller Base." Caedus answers.
Ben has no idea what or where that is. "Where are the others?"
"You mean the murders, traitors and thieves you call friends? You'll be relieved to hear I have no idea." Ben feels his brow furrow.
"You're still scared of me?" Caedus asks, tilting his head slightly.
"That's what happens when you're being hunted by a madman in a mask!" Ben snaps.
The guard is quicker this time. He marches up raises his hand and smacks Ben in the face. This seems to enrage Caedus.
Ben watches as Caedus lifts his hand slightly and suddenly, there are choking noises and the trooper reaches for his throat.
"Don't. Touch. Him." Caedus snarls, teeth gritted behind the mask.
Caedus lets the trooper go and orders him to guard the door outside, or Ben thinks he does, he just says, "Get out!" and the trooper trips over himself trying to get out the door.
Ben looks back at Caedus as the door closes, and Caedus looks back at Ben.
"Now where were we?...Oh right. The mask."
Caedus reaches up and takes his hood off, then presses the release button on his helmet, a light hissing occurs as the back of the helmet opens. He bows his head and slips the helmet off, before looking back up.
Ben didn't know what to expect when Caedus takes his mask off, but he didn't expect what he sees. There stands a man in his late twenties, his facial features look...familiar, he has short black hair, his eyes are red and yellow with thick black circles around them, and there's a scar beneath his left eye.
Caedus slams his helmet into a container of ashes before he walks closer to Ben, the closer he gets to Ben, the taller he looks. He looks down at Ben and smiles slightly, "I'm sorry about the guard, shouldn't happen again."
Caedus reaches over and gently touches the area where the guard smacked Ben, just beneath his left eye.
This action sends chills down Ben's spine and he begins to struggle with the restraints again "Don't touch me!" he snaps.
Caedus moves his hand away from Ben, "As you wish, Ben."
"H-How do you know my name?" Ben asks, fear evident in his voice.
'The question I've been waiting for.' Caedus thinks.
"Well…a brother never forgets."
Ben feels all the blood in his body run cold then fall into his boots, he begins to feel dizzy, blackness tries to invade his vision, but when his head slumps onto his shoulder, a sudden jolt wakes him up. He had felt that same jolt in the forest, before he passed out.
"No, no, no Ben. I don't want you passing out again, I'm not waiting for you to wake up again." Caedus says. Ben overlooks this comment though.
"Did…did you just say, 'brother'?" Ben asks.
Caedus smiles again, "You already know that answer."
Ben raises an eyebrow, "Huh?"
Caedus proceeds to walk around the small room, "Yes, Mom and Dad thought they were clever, repressing your memories, making you forget who everyone is and was. Even forgetting yourself."
Ben wracks his brain for answers.
"But enough of that; I want you to tell me about the droid." Caedus says. Ben didn't really know how to 'tell him about BB-8' so he comes out with; "He's a BB unit with a selenium drive and a thermal hyperscan vindicator-" A hand covers his mouth "MMMHH!"
"We know about the droid's background and programming." Caedus says, a plastic smile on his face and his teeth gritted "And we know that it's carrying a section of a navigation chart, we have the rest, recovered from the archives of the Empire but we need the last piece and somehow you convinced the droid to show it to you."
Ben's eyes shift over from Caedus's hand to his face.
"You know Ben, if I want something...I get it!" He says, removing his hand from Ben's mouth. As Ben ponders about what that meant, he feels as if something sharp stuck into his head and sucked his memories out by force like a vacuum.
Ben tries not to yell out as his back arches and tears escape his eyes, Caedus speaks again. "Oh you were so lonely…so afraid you'd never leave…and at night, desperate to sleep…you imagined oceans and rain…I see it…and Han Solo...you felt like he was the father you never had...well isn't that ironic."
"Get out of my head!" Ben exclaims, Caedus does so, but Ben knows he did it out of frustration. "I know you've seen the map! It's in there somewhere, and you will give it to me!" Caedus growls, reaching out and pushing into Ben's head again.
Ben feels his throat constrict slightly and more tears escape his eyes, he's sweating profusely as he tries to block out Caedus, he lets out a choked cry. "I'm not…giving you…anything!" Ben pants, feeling the sweat roll down his forehead.
"We'll see…" Caedus says almost threateningly.
Caedus is quite surprised at how Ben is keeping him out of his head. 'Come on! Show me the map!' he thinks.
He urges harder, Ben takes in a choked breath. Then the next thing Caedus knows, he's pushed from Ben's head.
And Ben pushes into his.
Ben pants between his teeth "You…you're afraid…" Caedus's eyes widen in shock, he can't move!
Ben furrows his eyebrows, "...You're afraid that you'll never be the Supreme Leader!"
The link between their minds break as Caedus screams and uses the Force to slam Ben back against the backrest. He stares at Ben, anger and confusion in his eyes.
Ben watches as Caedus throws his mask back on and storms out, saying, "Guard this door!" to a guard outside. Ben stares after him, then begins to struggle with the restraints.
"The scavenger…resisted you?!" the Supreme leader yells at Caedus.
A mask-less Caedus points behind him, "He's strong with the Force! He's the one who was awakened! He's untrained but stronger than he knows!"
Snoke stares at Caedus for a moment, before he speaks, "You have...compassion for him."
Caedus kind of glares, "What? Compassion? For an enemy of the First Order? Never!"
"I perceive the problem, it isn't his strength that is making you fail...it's your weakness." This comment angers Caedus, but he doesn't show it.
"What about the droid?"
Caedus openes his mouth when another voice joins them,
"Caedus believed it was no longer valuable to us!" Hux.
Caedus's head snaps over then he turns back, he mutters a swear under his breath as Hux continues.
"And that the boy was all we needed! As a result the droid has most likely been returned to the hands of the enemy! They may have the map already!"
Caedus gives Hux the 'evil eye' as he nears, but this went unnoticed to him.
"Then the resistance must be destroyed before they get to Skywalker!" Snoke says, making a fist.
"We have their location. We tracked their reconnaissance ship to the Ileenium System."
"Good. Then we will crush them once and for all."
Caedus is getting angrier the more Snoke agreed with Hux.
"Prepare the weapon."
That small sentence sends Caedus over the edge.
"SUPREME LEADER! I CAN GET THE MAP FROM THE BOY! WE DON'T NEED TO BLOW UP A KRIFFING SYSTEM!"
"CAEDUS!" Snoke roars, standing from his throne. Caedus is taken aback, and he realizes he went too far, "Supreme Leader my apologizes."
"SILENCE!" Snoke roars again, "Need I remind you what your place is here, Caedus!"
Hux is standing next to Caedus, stiff as a board, fists clenched at his sides, staring straight ahead, face ridden of emotion as he listens to Snoke yell at Caedus.
"And you General," Hux jumps and looks up at the Supreme leader "I told you—prepare the weapon!"
"Yes, Supreme leader." Hux says before turning and walking out of the room.
"Now, Caedus, if what you say about this boy is true…bring him to me."
Ben struggles with the restraints for a moment, then he remembers the guard and decides to try something. He takes a deep breath,
"You will remove these restraints, and leave this cell with the door open."
The guard turns to look at him, "What did you say?" he asks.
'Okay let's try again.' Ben thinks. "You will remove these restraints, and leave this cell with the door open." Ben repeats.
The guard walks over to him, "I'll tighten these restraints, you child!" he snarls. 'One last time!' Ben thinks, 'How did I do that thing with Caedus?' He takes another breath, calms down, looks at where the eyes would be and remembers how he got into Caedus's mind.
"You will remove these restraints and leave this cell with the door open."
"...I will remove these restrains and leave this cell with the door open." the guard repeats almost cheerily.
Ben's eyes widen in amazement as the guard releases him. The guard then walks toward the door and opens it, Ben turns and looks over the backrest of the chair, then he adds, "And you'll drop your weapon!"
"And I'll drop my weapon." The guard drops his blaster.
'I think I'm beginning to like this!' Ben thinks, climbing from the chair.
AN: Hmm, I don't really know what to say other than "go Ben" and...Caedus that was stupid, yelling at Snoke like that. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed. ;)