Chapter Six: Affected
Kylo watched the girl from the other side of the med-bay's large glass window, no longer wishing to occupy the same space as her. The droids had worked tirelessly, zooming about the room, retrieving instruments and medicine with industrious diligence.
She was sleeping now, he saw on her file, which he'd ordered enlarged and facing out towards him. The fact he had missed his opportunity to delve into her mind while she'd briefly regained consciousness was not lost on him.
I must end her soon. Snoke will claim I'm showing pity. Being weak.
Despite the vow, he continued supervising her ovaloid caretakers, entertaining no further notion of intervening. They had managed to roll her onto her side, even without leverage or strength, and were slicing away her tunic to bare her back. Swathes of blistered skin and prominent spine came into view, and Kylo's eyes narrowed at the definition in her protruding shoulder blades.
General Organa's disregard for her tools has increased, he mused. This girl is starved.
The droids measured one of her showcased ribs, and added a new diagnosis to her bio-file.
Extreme malnutrition, the file flashed. Slowed metabolic rate, tissue wastage critical, elevated risk of organ failure.
Kylo closed his hands into fists, fighting the desire to slam them into the window. Snoke knows nothing. If I want her whole before tearing into her memories, it's my prerogative, not his. She'd get off too easy if I killed her like this. She should suffer for the havoc and destruction she's caused.
If he were to inwardly press, he might wonder where this foreign hesitation was truly springing from. He had never gifted it to other foes, regardless of their hapless state, and this blighted, would-be Jedi posed more of a threat than any he'd encountered.
As Kylo's gaze lingered on the uneven ends of singed hair wisping at the nape of her neck, he admitted only that there was… something… about her.
Something… unsettling.
Rey's glares of strength were more than just contrary—how someone so weak could muster such temerity was baffling. Still, her presence quieted the constant, screaming conflict within, allowing him to hear the honeyed notes of faint Force whispers for the first time in years. Kylo could feel her so clearly through the power life seeped into the air, an occupancy unable to be overlooked.
Forget the wreckage of Starkiller Base. She would pay for inflicting such indignities upon him.