The hand around her throat was enough to send a thrill of desire through her - but not enough to make her turn back. Not this time.

"No," Manna said hotly, trying to straighten out of his grip. "I'm serious. I'm done. I want to go back to my room now."

He chuckled and gave her no leverage, one arm still tight around her waist.

"You think so?" Ren whispered into her ear. He began to say something else but that was when she summoned all the mental courage she had and projected one fierce, furious scream into his brain.

The Commander dropped her at once with a surprised cry. He'd been holding her so tightly she fell hard onto the ground; it only took her a moment to scramble to her feet and face him, naked, enraged.

His handsome face was tainted by confusion, as though he truly didn't understand why she was doing this.

"I want," Manna said through gritted teeth, "to go back. To my room."

They faced off, old adversaries, predators in the heat of battle.

She didn't back down. Neither did he.

"You can try to leave," Ren growled at last. "Go on. The door is right there."

He jerked his head at the heavy black door behind him. His body was tense, ready to pounce. The dare felt dangerous. It felt like a heated jab that she'd be unwise to respond to.

Manna straightened and crossed her arms over her bare breasts.

"These games, Ren," she said softly. She was trying to address him as a person rather than a captor, but she had no clue if it was working. "They can't go on. I'm tired. I don't want -"

She took a breath, sighed, looked at the floor.

"I don't want to do it anymore. I want to go. I want to be... free."

Her gaze remained fixed on the ground. He said nothing.

When the silence became too much to bear, when she realized the warm seep of his seed was dripping down her leg, she looked up at him.

The Commander's face was full of unchecked fury. He was daring her to go on, to demand him to let her go.

He was beautiful in his anger, but that was the source of his beauty: anger. And she was done with it.

Manna searched him for some mercy. She thought maybe he'd relent. He'd open some sort of softness to her.

Instead, his muscles seemed to tense further. He squared his shoulders and dared her to pass.

It was then she realized it was all a show. A silly little farce to keep her in check. The realization made her laugh out loud, a hysterical sort of sound.

"I'm going," she said at last, and began walking past him. She went to the door and waited for it to open.

Kylo turned towards her, his chest heaving with breaths of rage.

"You'll just go back him," he barked, and for the first time he sounded somewhat scared.

"Why don't you let me go," she murmured, heart hammering against her ribs, "and see what happens?"

There was a tense, horrible pause. Then the door slid open.

She didn't have much time; Manna bolted back towards the bed, seized a sheet, wrapped it around her. Once she was properly covered, she scrambled back into the hallway and started trying to figure out where her quarters were in relation to Ren's. The base was pretty big, after all, and it had been some time since she'd been there.

Manna only encountered a few stormtroopers on her journey home. They gave her the same blank, masked look that her unclothed self deserved, but soon she was back in the place where he'd found her and the metal door closed behind her and she allowed herself to start crying.

She had no idea what, exactly, she was crying for. Was it for her lost innocence? For the fact that she'd given herself to a man who proved to be a monster? For the idea that she'd willingly tricked another man into thinking she had feelings for him, then actually having feelings for him, then watching him be destroyed before her very eyes? For the idea that Kylo Ren had managed to utterly destroy everything about the person she considered herself to be?

She didn't know. She had no energy to figure it out.

And so she cried, and eventually fell asleep on her bed, naked and yet still half-wrapped in the sheet from the Commander's bed she'd taken in her hasty escape.

It's late. Wake up, Manna.

The thought poked at her brain with gentle fingers, prodding her up - not roughly, but carefully, a soft sort of rousing. The way you might try to rouse a sick patient awake in the most tender of ways.

Manna. Please, wake up.

She was only partially awake but the affectionate tone caught her ear, bringing her further into consciousness.

When Manna came to she was, surprisingly, alone in her quarters. Still naked in a tangle of both her sheets and the one she'd taken from Ren - a decidedly apt metaphor if she'd ever seen one - and she put her her head in her hands.

Manna?

A careful pause, and then:

You're not with him, right?

The thought hit her with such tenderness, such soft vulnerability that it made her heart ache in her chest. That, and the fact that he hadn't just looked to see for himself. After all, there were no secrets in her mind that could be kept from the Commander. Not if he chose to look.

No, Ren. I'm alone.

She tried to give the thought a calm but firm feel to it - yes, I'm alone, but no, I won't come back. Manna couldn't do it anymore, the endless back and forth of kindness and cruelty. If her life with Ren had to be like that, she'd rather have her old life instead.

Would you... like some company?

Manna laughed aloud in the empty quarters. Good god, he wasn't giving up. He was never going to give up.

I'm tired.

No you're not. You've been sleeping for hours and hours, silly thing.

She ran a hand restlessly through her hair.

That's not what I meant.

A pause, and then:

I know.

Manna drew her knees up beneath her chin, considering the silence that followed. She stared at the black sheet from Red's bed tangled with the white one from hers. The contrast. Dark and light.

Kylo?

He responded almost immediately.

Yes?

She laid on her back, closed her eyes.

Look.

Rather than a sense of his fingers poking around, she felt the very distinct sensation of being watched - and intently. Good.

Manna slipped a hand down her stomach, fingertips trailing over her womanhood. She could feel him, wherever he was, tensing in anticipation. She ran her tongue along her lips and began touching herself slowly, sensually, relishing the fact that for once, she was in charge.

As she touched herself she thought of what she wanted. She thought clearly, and loudly.

She thought about Ren holding her in his lap as she rode him, his arms circling her waist in a gentle embrace. His lips pressing soft, tender kisses to the skin of her neck. His dark eyes looking at her, only her, with a level of tenderness she'd never truly seen.

Manna let out a little moan, her breath coming faster, feeling her orgasm approach sooner than she thought. She wondered if the Commander was touching himself too.

The very thought pushed her over the edge, pleasure washing over her in waves, turning her head to the right and curling her toes as she came.

For a few minutes, it was quiet. She lay on the bed, breathing heavily, staring at the ceiling and running her fingers along the black sheet. In a surprised instant she realized that it smelled like him.

Then, in the stillness of her lonely quarters:

I'm coming to you, silly thing. Please be there when I arrive.