A/N: Upped the rating to 'M' just to be safe. Please remember to leave a review! They sustain writers everywhere!

Chapter Twenty-Two: The Gorgodons

Kylo stared slack-jawed at his captive, trying to comprehend the impossibility of what he was witnessing. Apparently, when Rey's life was in danger from twenty-foot predators, her feet stopped working. Just mutinied completely. She had stumbled from the jerk of his pull, landing on her tailbone in a mess of knocked knees, and had done nothing to scramble into a stand.

Unbelievable, Kylo fumed. Where's her drive to fight now?!

He grimaced. The base was RIGHT here. She had to walk FIVE paces.

Horrible woman. Horrible.

With a gusty exhale, he left the open doorway, placing himself between her and the gorgodons. "Get up," he ordered, unclipping his lightsaber from his belt.

The slavering beasts were almost upon them, nostrils flared in anticipation. The Ilum-transplants relied mostly on their keen hearing and sense of smell to detect prey, and beneath their fur was a tough hide thick enough to repel blaster fire. Kylo ignited his saber, filling the bunker's edge with its ominous blade, bright enough for even their poor sight to detect.

Rey ignored the command, extending her arm out from the snow with deliberate calm. He felt her concentrate as she closed her eyes, drawing energy up into her fingertips, and realized a moment before the first gorgodon rose into the air what she was attempting to do.

As the creature left the ground, bellowing in outrage as his limbs stopped carrying him forward, the remaining two surged for Kylo, angry and confused. They charged on instinct, right into the humming red haze surrounding him.

Kylo swung for their outstretched claws, halting their advance with a strike that caused discomfort over damage. Plating along their pawlike hands protected them from the lightsaber's true bite, but still managed to make them pause.

The beasts roared in displeasure, only to both become airborne a second later. Kylo had stretched out his own palm, aiding Rey. Beads of sweat were forming on her forehead despite the freezing cold, and he transported the creatures higher, raising them far above the shipyard.

"I've got all three now," he murmured, straining not from their bulk, but the fervor of their thrashing. "Get inside."

Rey opened her eyes and hauled herself up, bracing her shaking thighs into a wide, weary stance. "No way," she said. "I'm not going to owe you anything."

"You already owe me your life from Starkiller Base," he reminded. "Another rescue won't warrant anything as extreme as gratitude."

Her gaze grew baleful. "I'll hold them," she insisted. "You wound them with your lightsaber enough for us to escape."

"There's no need," Kylo closed his hand into a fist, and the gorgodons' roars morphed into wails of agony and distress. Their struggles turned to desperate flails as he crushed their insides, constricting them in measured, unhurried degrees. The sickening sound of crunching bone jarred across the snowy plane, and the wails weakened, crumpling to whimpers.

Kylo watched them suffer with an idle tilt of his head, so consumed with the spectacle he almost missed the gentle pressure of trembling fingers at his forearm.

"S-Stop," Rey pleaded. "P-Please stop," tears crowded the corners of her imploring gaze. "Don't prolong their misery like this. Finish them."

He canted his head further, needing no Force guidance to see an opportunity. "What will you do for my mercy?" He asked.

She didn't hesitate. "I won't fight you anymore. I promise."

Kylo appraised her, weighing her sincerity, and the fingers became a curled clutch.

"End this!" Her voice broke. "Please!"

It was odd. Her begging satisfied as little as her fear had. With a bored nod, Kylo turned his wrist, snapping the creatures' necks in tandem.

"You did well, my apprentice," he offered graciously, showing how magnanimous he would be as her teacher. Opening his hand, he let the beasts' carcasses drop in a splattered pile a distance away, pleased they had provided such an in-road to her cooperation.

Wetness spilled down the girl's cheeks as she stared at their mangled frames, sorrow infecting her lower lip with a quiver as she held in a sob. "T-Thank you," Rey stammered, unable to look over at him.

"Shall we return to the ship?" Kylo asked.

"Of course," she demurred.

"Oh, I like this much better already," he scooped up his helmet and switched off his saber, returning it to his belt. "I should have found something to torture earlier."