Authors note:
My most humble apologies to my faithful readers for the long delay. I've gone back to school to finish my undergrad, and between that, a husband, a 7 year old who's now homeschooled, a 1 year old who's still breastfed, and working from home, I'm stretched pretty thin.
This chapter contains assault. If you are triggered, this is your warning.
Rey
I blinked, forcing my eyes to focus on the cloaked and masked creature stalking toward me.
He was several inches taller than me, and at least a hundred pounds heavier, putting me at a disadvantage, made worse by the metal cuffs still locked around my wrists.
"Who are you?" I breathed, trying to buy myself time to figure out a plan.
"I am Supreme Leader." He answered, moving closer.
"What are you going to do with me?" I demanded, side stepping to keep him from getting behind me.
"I had planned on publicly executing you as Snokes murderer." He told me. "But, now that I know that you're his mate." He shook his head. "Trying to torture him is pointless, I know that. Snoke would leave him broken and bleeding for days at a time and it didn't even phase him. But, you…" He purred, and the sound made a shudder crawl up my spine. "You are just a kind of torture that I'd never thought of."
My stomach dropped. "I am not going to help you hurt him." I growled.
"I'm not going to hurt him." Kylo Ren said, taking a step toward me. "I'm going to make him watch while I hurt you."
I felt my eyes widen in horror. Not because of what he wanted to do to me, but because of what it would do to Ben.
I took a quick survey of the room. One exit directly behind Kylo Ren, and there was a throne several steps behind me. He was advancing, pushing me back, and I retreated, until my calves hit the throne.
He lunged, and I easily ducked, then ran around him, toward the exit.
A hand gripped a fistful of my hair and I yelped in pain and surprise as I was dragged backwards.
I spun, bringing my boot up into his ribs, and he grunted in pain. His grip on my hair loosened, but he recovered quickly, and rewarded my efforts with a backhanded blow to my right cheek.
I lost my balance and with my hands bound, i was unable to use them to catch myself, and I fell onto my shoulder.
He was there in an instant, flipping me onto my back and pinning me to the floor. I struggled beneath him, screaming when he grabbed two fistfuls of my blouse and roughly ripped it down to my waist.
I brought my knee up into his groin, then kicked him away with both feet, moving quickly when he fell off of me, and onto his side.
I scrambled to my feet, and went to stand behind him. He rose to his knees, and I looped my arms over his helmet, and locked one under the face place. I used my other arm to apply pressure, and I squeezed.
He thrashed, gasping and groaning, and clawed at my arm, trying to pry it away from his throat. He swung his arms above him, landing one solid hit on my face before his hits weakened.
His movements slowed, and after what seemed like an eternity, stopped all together.
I felt him go limp and eased him down onto the floor before unlocking my arms and running toward the exit.
I was able to make it to the stairwell without being noticed, and stopped, closing my eyes and focusing what little Force ability I had on the Bond.
Where are you? I begged through the panic and rage that consumed the tether between us. I didn't know what was me and what was Ben.
I felt a pull, and knew he was on the other side, so I started running, following it, not knowing where I was, or where I was going,
I ran until my legs and lungs burned and my heart felt as if it would burst, and came skidding to a stop when I saw a cloaked figure ushering a dozen young women through the stairwell.
She noticed me, and pulled her hood back, revealing a mane of curly black hair, and the bluest eyes I'd ever seen.
She looked at me, at the bruises and scratches on my arms and face, my ripped blouse, and her lovely face softened.
"Dont be afraid." She whispered, coming to me. "I'll get you out of here."
She produced a set of keys from her cloak and quickly found the one that unlocked the cuffs around my wrists.
I felt the Bond snap into place as my abilities returned to me.
Rey!
Ben. He was close. And, getting closer.
"This way." The woman in front of me said, pointing down a hallway.
I took a step back, shaking my head. I hadnt caught my breath enough to form an explanation.
"You can trust me." She insisted. "I have a ship ready just this way."
Go with her. Ben said through the Bond, and I didnt object.
We moved silently through the service corridors until we made it to an awaiting craft tucked into an unoccupied corner of the hangar.
I watched as all the women boarded, and had opened my mouth to tell the woman in the cloak that I couldnt leave without Ben, when I felt him through the Bond.
I turned in just enough time to see my mates face before he crashed into me, and lifted me into his arms, crushing me to him.
"I must have climbed a million stairs to get to you." He panted. "The elevator controls are in the throne room, and the only way up was the stairwell, and I tried, I swear I tried to get there."
I held him to me, and tears that I didnt know I was holding back sprang to my eyes.
"Are you ok?" He managed to choke out.
"Yes." I said, and he pulled away enough to look at me.
My jaw fell slack.
The entire side of his face was swollen and bruised, with dried blood around a cut in his temple.
"Ben!" I gasped, bringing a hand up to gingerly move his hair back so that I could inspect the wound.
His gaze was locked on the pieces of my tunic that hung open, exposing my breast band, and traveled up, to the marks on my arms and face.
His eyes hardened. "I will fucking kill him." He growled.
"Kill him later." The woman said from behind us. "I can get all of us out of here safely but we have to go. Now!"
Ben ground his teeth together. "I could kill him now and end this."
The woman nodded. "You could." She agreed. "Or, you could get yourself killed or imprisoned by any trooper or guard you run into from here to there, and doom us all."
I felt my eyebrows pull together. Who was this woman?
"Fine." Ben relented.
We went on board, and I followed Ben into the cockpit, taking the co-pilot seat next to him.
The engines hummed to life, and I was thrown back against my seat as we went into drive, jumping to lightspeed out of the hangar.
oOo
Ben
We jumped a few times, just to make sure we weren't followed, and as soon as we came out of drive, Rey unbuckled and left the cockpit without a word.
She returned a moment later, but when I looked up at her, I found Severyn in her place, sinking casually into the co-pilot seat and crossing her legs.
She'd removed her cloak, and was wearing a simple loose fitting linen dress.
"I'd planned on taking the girls back." She said, propping her elbow on the arm rest, and putting her chin in her hand. "Those that wont be resold as soon as they're returned, at least."
I didn't respond. I was too consumed with everything that had happened to do little more than nod.
Rey had come to the Finalizer to tell me that she regretted rejecting the Bond, and then she'd accepted it. She'd said the words I'd been waiting to hear, but she'd said them to Hux, and he'd beaten her and done Force knew what else.
Instead of killing him for it, I'd ran.
I'd done exactly what I was trying to avoid. And now, I had no idea what to do next. I had no idea where to go.
I felt Rey walk back into the cockpit and watched her put a medpac on the dash in front of me.
She gently took my face in her hands and tilted my head up, and I made no move to stop her.
"I think a planet on the outer rim would be best." I heard Severyn say. "Away from sympathisers, away from the Core."
Rey washed my temple with a saline solution, and I hissed when I felt the burn of antiseptic.
She muttered an apology and went back to her work.
"They'll hunt Rey and me." I told Severyn. "The sooner you get away from us, the safer you'll be."
Who is this? Rey asked, through the Bond.
It occurred to me that I hadnt introduced them. Severyn.
Her eyebrows flew up, as she remembered the information I'd given her that night on Naboo. The Severyn?
I nodded slightly. The Severyn.
"Are you two using some weird Force thing to talk to each other?" Severyn asked. "Because if you are, rude."
She was right, we were being rude. "Severyn, this is Rey, my-" My what? Mate? Wife? Force Bonded partner?
I'd spent so long knowing that she wasnt mine, and now that she was, I didnt know what to refer to her as.
I looked up to find Rey staring at me.
My…? I begged, through the Bond.
What do you want me to call you? She asked.
I couldnt care less what you call me. I admitted. As long as I'm yours.
A delicate blush flooded her cheeks, and she looked down, biting her bottom lip. Mate.
"Mate." I finished, bringing a hand up to move her hair out of her face. She smiled at me, her bottom lip still caught between her teeth, and I had to remind myself to breathe.
"Your mate." Severyn repeated, taken aback.
I'd forgotten that she was in the room.
She extended her hand to Rey, who pulled away from me to shake it. "It's nice to meet you."
"You, too." Rey told her.
"We can set course for Serenno." Severyn told me, then excused herself and left.
I set course, then looked up at Rey, who went back to dressing the gash on my temple, and I sat silently, letting her do her work.
"What happened?" She asked, and I told her.
I told her about returning to the Finalizer, Severyn coming to my room. I told her about Hux, the helmet, the fight, and waking up in the brig. I told her about Severyn finding me in my cell, the plan to save the girls that Hux had bought to serve him as concubines, and hearing what she'd said when she accepted the Bond.
She soothed a bandage over my temple just as we were entering the atmosphere of Serenno, where we docked long enough to refuel.
"We'll find our way from here." I told Severyn. "It's better for you and the girls to not be associated with us, Rey still has the bounty on her head."
"Where will you go?" She asked.
I shrugged. "I'm not sure."
She retrieved her cloak off of the back of a nearby chair. "This might help."
I took it. "Thank you. For everything."
She pulled me into a tight hug. "Good-bye, Ben." She whispered.
I pulled away to kiss her forehead. "Good-bye, Severyn."
We watched the craft disappear, and turned to go back into the Port when I heard the distinctive sound of coins jingling whenever Rey took a step.
"What is that?" I asked.
"Oh," She said, going to the pack she had strapped to her hip. She opened it, and the silver and gold coins I'd given Severyn gleamed in the soft light.
"Where did you-" I gasped.
"Severyn gave them to me." Rey explained, looking at me from under the hood of her cloak. "She said they were yours."
