Glitter and Gold

Chapter 31

34 ABY – D'Qar

Poe hadn't returned home to D'Qar victorious as he'd hoped. With Vex on his arm, ready to celebrate the map they'd hoped to find. No, Poe had returned alone. Battered, scared, and a total failure. Without Vex. Without the map.

Telling Leia was nothing, after all he'd gone through. He was ashamed, sure. But all of that felt far away, buried beneath the worry and heartbreak of Vex's capture. He was in a daze. Shell-shocked.

He didn't even have BB-8. The one of a kind droid Vex had built for him. What did that say about Poe as a person? At the first possible moment, he lost everything. In one fell swoop.

"Poe," Leia's voice came, along with a warm hand on his shoulder, startling him from his thoughts. "Go get some rest. We'll talk more in the morning,"

His footsteps carried him not to his own quarters, but to Vex's. After a few moments of staring dumbly at the door, he approached. It took Poe a few tries to remember her door code, but within a few minutes he was inside.

Looking at the room as how had Vex had left it a week ago. How they both had left it. Ever since that fateful, wonderful night, he'd spent all his time here. With her. He'd only left to grab more clothes, or when Vex had barked that he was hovering.

Poe had known from that moment – that first kiss – that he loved her. And that Vex loved him, even if she didn't say it. She said it without words. Love was in her eyes when she looked at him, when she brushed a curl from his forehead. When her hand skirted across his back as she passed.

The sheets were still rumpled from their late awakening before the mission. Poe's shirt was draped over a chair at the foot of the bed, beneath Vex's datapad. He knew if he turned it on, it would play a video of Anakin. If Poe had to guess, it was the one he'd taken of the little boy exploring his new room on Yavin 4.

Poe sat down on the bed, toeing off his boots and lay back on the bed. Where he was surrounded by her warm, musky scent. He turned his head to the pillow, inhaling deeply.

I'll find you, Vex. I'll return you to your son, Poe swore as he drifted off.

The Supremacy

Vex was back in her old quarters again. But she wasn't alone.

Creel was here. The cowardly man who had invented a collar to block Force powers in order to rape a little girl. Over and over. For years. When Snoke had found out, he'd been furious. In his first and only fatherly gesture, he'd banished Creel from the First Order and promised to kill him if they ever crossed paths again.

The only father Vex had ever known had tortured her for years, but somehow this was worse. Snoke had betrayed her to the only man he'd ever scorned for her. The only man besides him she'd ever felt powerless before.

Creel had been quick to sweep her in and out of sick bay, hardly pausing long enough to have her wounds closed. Vex could still feel them, pulsing with pain just below the surface. Worst of all were the burning lines that crossed her face. The sharpness of it had faded, but the ache of it throbbed in time with her heartbeat. Every time her expression shifted, they erupted like a line of fire across her face.

Vex had come into her quarters ready to fight. The moment he'd tried to push her towards the bedroom, she'd swung her arm back to hit him. Creel had darted out of the way, hand shooting to a thin band around his wrist.

And, suddenly, an electric current was coursing through her body, paralyzing Vex. She dropped to the floor, her teeth clacking together, muscles locking in place.

Tears were running down her cheeks. She could feel the salt burning into the wounds on her face. Creel knelt beside her, settling a hand on the back of her head as she seized. Vex could feel it there, slowly growing heavier and heavier as he pressed her face against the cold floor.

After an eternity – or what felt like one, anyway – he turned the current off. Vex sagged against the floor, a whimper finally escaping her lips. "What…the…f-fuck.."

Creel's fingers tightened in her hair, dragging her head back so she had to look him in the face. "I'll not tolerate a filthy mouth," he hissed, dropping her back to the floor as he stood. "The electricity is an upgrade I've added to the collar. When the Supreme Leader reached out to me, he told me just how far gone you were. I knew you'd need incentive,"

"You're a…coward…S-sick," his fingers were at his bracelet before she'd finished the sentence. A swift shock went through Vex, eliciting a cry.

"On your feet!" he barked.

Slowly, painfully, Vex climbed to her feet. She trembled as Creel looked her up and down, circling carefully.

"You're a woman now, Vex," he said, catching her by the chin. She flinched, trying to draw away, but he held firm. "You know I always like my girls young – but you, Vex, you'll always be my girl," Creel said with a pleasant smile, his eyes cold.

He pointed past her to the door to her old bedroom. "Now!" he ordered.

x

x
x

During,

she'd stared at the corner of the room where she'd built EV-9. Or the space before the bed, where she and Kylo had their first Force-bond. Or this very bed, where they'd conceived four babies. Anakin.

Her one and only true love. For him, she would endure any pain. Any humiliation. And Vex knew they would be many. And great.

Vex would not break.

After,

Creel trailed a hand down her scar-roughened back after he'd dressed. Vex fought back the urge to shiver. "That wasn't so bad, was it? You're on your way, Vex," he bent forward, hot breath brushing her ear. A sob left her throat.

"Welcome to re-education, Vex."

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Thanks to my reviewer last chapter - Mstngsali1! You're the best!

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Much love, Suz Singer.