DISCLAIMER:
I own nothing. I'm merely playing with the characters in the sandbox that is my imagination.

Parts of the dialogue were borrowed from The Force Awakens.

"Trusting is hard. Knowing who to trust, even harder."
- Maria V. Snyder

2.

They Flee

When Kylo Ren heard the missing BB unit was seen in the presence of a girl, he knew.

She had been sighted with the droid and the traitor, and they had fled Jakku on board of the Millenium Falcon, no less. They had destroyed the TIE fighter squadron that had been sent after them by flying inside one of the ancient Star Destroyers, navigating through the downed ships scattered across the scorching desert and evading seemingly everything Hux had thrown at them.

And Ren simply knew. It didn't matter how he knew. He just did.

Rey.

Now, they are headed to the Mid Rim planet of Takodana. One of their spies there had informed the missing BB unit had been sighted in the presence of three humans and one wookiee. Somewhere along the way they had ran into none other than Han Solo.

His father.

Ren knew she was with him and the wookiee, as Supreme Leader Snoke himself had revealed this information to him. Still, hearing the spy's report had angered him, for though he did not doubt his Master's word, he had, deep down, wanted those news to be false.

Anger still simmers within him as they approach the planet, because he does not trust himself to feel anything else. He had decided to go himself, both because he does not trust Hux to get the job done and because the Supreme Leader had trusted this mission to him. But Ren is certain that he would succeed in obtaining the map the droid carried, one way or another. His anger at the knowledge that his father is there only serves to fuel his determination.

So, when his shuttle lands he wastes no time marching down onto the planet's surface. He takes great delight in the volatile hum of his lightsaber as he deflects bolts shot towards him, and in cutting down those foolish enough to stand in his way. The droid is his priority, and though perhaps he could speed the battle up by taking part in it, the Stormtroopers are there purely for distraction while he takes care of his own mission.

And then, he senses it, a flicker in the Force, drawing his attention like a beacon. For a moment he wonders about the awakening in the Force that his Master had briefly mentioned – the awakening that Ren himself had also sensed, but he discards this thought when his gaze finds the scavenger girl from Jakku.

The girl stands at the edge of the forest, staring at him, a blaster held uncertainly in her hand, like she does not fully know how to use it. He deflects another bolt speeding towards his head as he regards the girl for a moment, and then begins to walk through the battle field towards her.

She flees.

-o-o-o-

When Rey saw the dark figure effortlessly carve its way through the battle, she thought that perhaps she should have accepted Han Solo's offer and gotten the hell out of this strange forest planet while she still had the chance. She had taken one look at the viciously crackling red lightsaber the figure wielded before she had turned tail and ran. It wasn't so much the saber itself that made her skin crawl but the sinking feeling of dread caused by the realisation that just moments prior she had seen this same figure in that vision that had appeared when she had touched that blasted Skywalker lightsaber.

Running may have been her second mistake. She doesn't know how to flee from someone in a forest. Had it been the sand dunes of Jakku, she would have had no problem. But here, everything is green, so full of life, with plants and moss and water, and she is armed with a blaster she has no idea how to use.

And she can hear the steady, vicious hum of the lightsaber of her pursuer. Closer, and closer, and closer. Panic fuels her escape. She has no idea what the terrain is like, and the vegetation makes it impossible for her to pinpoint the distance and the direction of that hum.

She stumbles, and suddenly the figure is in front of her. Startled, she fires her blaster, just like Han had told her, and watches in pure horror as the figure deflects the bolt with an almost careless flick of his blade. The next bolt the figure merely side steps, and the third one goes wide, hitting the rocks and dissipating harmlessly.

Rey turns and continues to run.

She doesn't get far when the figure suddenly emerges from the forest in front of her, hand outstretched, the red blade crackling, and her whole body freezes. She cannot move a muscle, can merely breathe and move her eyes. The figure circles her, says he has heard about her, and falls silent as he continues to walk around her with slow, measured steps.

Fear. She has never been so frightened before. She finds she can speak, her vocal cords are left unfrozen by the invisible force that keeps the rest of her immobile, but no sound comes out of her. The figure comes back around to face her, his masked face far too close to hers. He says something but she cannot focus, can only hear the hum of the lightsaber, cannot even hear if he is speaking to her, cannot concentrate on anything but that hum.

It appears right next to her face. She whimpers, now beyond merely frightened. She is terrified. She can feel the heat of the blade vaporise moisture off of her skin, can feel it make the tears that involuntarily leak from her eyes vanish before they have even properly formed. There is an odd pressure in the air, but she cannot even focus on that with the lightsaber so close to her face.

"The map", the masked figure's words come from behind the mask, distorted, far more inhuman than she anticipated. The words sound... surprised? "You've seen it!"

A gloved hand appears in front of her face and suddenly there is pain. Pain in her head, so intense that she fears it might explode. She cries out, feels her body want to convulse but still her muscles will not move. Memories flash through her mind, she realises, too fast for her to see them, too fast to understand what is going on.

Suddenly the red blade retreats, as does the pain in her head, and she can hear a Stormtrooper address the figure. With the blade gone, her brains finally register the horrifying realisation she has been trying to deny for the past few minutes.

This is Kylo Ren. The most feared commander of the the First Order. A figure even the scavengers of Jakku have heard of, whom is spoken of in the barest of whispers as if mere mention of him will make him appear, and whose very name inspires terror in anyone remotely aware of the First Order and its struggle with the Resistance.

And she is now in his clutches, with no way of escaping.

"Pull the division out", she hears him say as he approaches her again. "Forget the droid. We have what we need."

She has a brief moment to feel a strange heaviness in the air before her whole world turns black.

-o-o-o-

Kylo Ren watches the girl in contemplation. He has kept her unconscious for several hours, and knows that her awakening will take a moment. She will awaken soon, now that he is no longer influencing her state of awareness with the Force. But he is patient, though usually patience is not his forte. The girl has the knowledge he needs, the missing half of the map that will lead him to Skywalker.

He ponders the approach he should take. Normally he would simply force the information out of her head, like he did in the forest of Takodana, in the heat of the moment of realising this girl has what he needs. But the fact remains that he knows her. She helped him on Jakku, though at the time she had no idea of his true identity.

She had thought him to be a Jedi.

He has no idea what to do with her. He has to get the information, this much he is aware of, but he still wants her skills at the disposal of the First Order. The true question is whether or not her mind has been twisted too far into believing the Resistance is a better option. The traitor, FN-2187, would perhaps be eager to jump into the same boat with them. The droid obviously trusts her enough to show her the map, perhaps it even believes she would help it get to the Resistance.

And then there is Han Solo and Chewbacca, and who knows what the two of them have told her.

He really hates this situation. Hates that he will potentially lose the formidable skills of the girl in the process of getting what he wants, hates that he already may have done so with the hastiness with which he tried to pry the information from her on Takodana. Hates that he feels this way about a mere scavenger from Jakku.

But, she helped him even though she didn't need to. When was the last time someone helped him just because they wanted to?

He doesn't know. It has been a long time, so long that he would rather not think about it. He is used to ordering people to aid him, and he never asks help with his personal matters. To require help is to have a weakness, and Kylo Ren does not want to be weak.

The girl stirs and his attention turns to her. He says nothing, speaks nothing, just waits and watches, determined to remain silent until she realises the situation she is in.

He still has no idea what to do.

-o-o-o-

Rey comes back to her senses with a small groan. Her head is pounding, her body oddly sluggish and unresponsive. Artificial light is bright in her eyes and she hisses, hating the brightness already.

And then she sees the figure in dark clothing and that terrifying mask and she freezes. At the same time she realises she is restrained, strapped into some sort of a metal slab... table... something. She is no longer on Takodana, but in a room of black and metal and faintly blinking lights.

And the figure just watches her from across the room, making her skin crawl uneasily. She parts her lips, fighting back a shiver, refusing to show just how frightened she is. To show fear is to have a weakness, and a scavenger cannot afford to be weak. This she has learned from early childhood, ever since she was four years old and was left in the hands of Unkar Plutt.

"Where am I?" she asks out loud, her voice quiet, but surprisingly unwavering.

The figure tilts its head slightly, regarding her in silence before answering.

"You are my guest", it – he – says, his voice distorted and inhuman through the mask. It is a terrifying voice, now that she is not distracted from it by the hum of a volatile lightsaber next to her head. And this time she cannot quite suppress her shiver.

"Where are the others?" she asks, subtly trying to tug on the restraints that hold her wrists down.

They do not budge.

"You mean the murderers, traitors and thieves you call friends?" he asks her indifferently. "You'll be relieved to hear that I have no idea."

She stares at him, still terrified, but also curious as to what he intends to do. She hates being restrained like this, hates how easily he overpowered her in the forest, how there was nothing she could do to stop him. She doesn't like this, doesn't like him just standing there and watching.

"You still want to kill me", he tells her, tilting his head, sounding vaguely... amused?

Kill is a rather strong word, but she is distracted from it by the anger that flares within her. Is he somehow reading her thoughts? How dare he! "That's what happens when you're being hunted by a creature in a mask."

There is a moment of silence, during which the figure – damn it, Kylo Ren – straightens himself. What he does next catches her completely by surprise. He reaches for his mask, presses a concealed button, and it clicks open with a few mechanical clicks and whirrs and a small hiss of air. The scavenger in her rears its head in curiosity, wanting to instantly figure out the mechanism behind it.

And then she sees his face and she is stunned, forgetting the workings of the mask. Her eyes widened slightly, her mind scrambling to understand what is going on here.

"Hello, Rey."

No. No. No no no no –

He places the mask on a small desk beside him. It settles on its surface with an ominous, metallic thud, but she barely notices, her gaze fixed on the man's face. He's the same man she helped on Jakku, a mere day before she ran into BB-8. An aching realisation hits her as she realises how wrong her initial guesses about his identity were.

"You do not have to be a Jedi to carry lightsabers."

He is definitely no Jedi.

"Tell me about the droid", he says, his voice a low rumble, soft in comparison to the harsh distortion caused by his mask.

Rey narrows her eyes, her surprise melting away as her earlier anger rears its head. Does he honestly think she will voluntarily tell him anything after dragging her to wherever she is being held right now? No. She will most definitely not. She does not trust him. Not like she trusts her new friends. Hell, she has never had friends, as far as she knows, and though her plan had been to go back to Jakku...

She swallows and takes a nervous breath, tries to suppress her racing thoughts. Thinking about Jakku and how long she has been away will not help her right now. She doesn't really know what will help her, but she is far too stubborn for her own good to betray her friends. All she can do is try stalling until she can come up with... what, exactly? An escape plan?

It's a far fetched thought, and truthfully not a very feasible one, but she has to try anyway. She doesn't really think she has any other choice.

"He's a BB unit with selenium drive and a thermal hyperscan vindicator –"

"He's carrying a section of a navigational chart", Kylo Ren interrupts her. "We have the rest, recovered from archives of the Empire. We need the last piece."

Rey shuts her mouth and realises she cannot play ignorant. Kylo Ren knows exactly what he wants from her. He downright radiates an aura of certainty that by the end of their discussion he will have what he wants. It's that, together with what happened on Takodana, that makes it difficult for her to mesh this man with the one whose stabilisers she fixed on Jakku. They're too... different. That man did not try to hurt her, despite the numerous opportunities he had been presented with. This one, however...

She supposes this one will kill her, if she does not give him what he wants.

But, she is persistent. And stubborn. Mostly just stubborn. Especially when pressed to do something against her will.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Oh, but you do", he tells her, taking a step closer. "I know the droid is the reason why you left Jakku. I know you have seen the map. Somehow, you convinced the droid to show it to you. You. A scavenger."

Rey narrows her eyes. "Insulting me will hardly make me cooperate."

That earns her a small, faintly amused chuckle. "No. I don't suppose it will."

He watches her again, pondering. She has no idea what's going through his mind, but he seems to come into some sort of a conclusion when he takes a small step back and makes a small, almost careless flick with his hand.

Her restraints snap open. She bolts up on her feet, backing away, to the opposite side of the room, until her back is pressed against the wall. It's not ideal, not even very useful, all things considered, but she wants as much space between herself and Kylo Ren as the small interrogation room provides. He's watching her retreat with faint amusement, and she frowns.

What is he planning? Why did he release her?

"I have no intention of hurting you", he tells her. "Not if you give me what I want. I just need the map. Nothing more, nothing less."

Rey still doesn't trust him. Doesn't trust this, him releasing her just like that. It goes against everything she has heard of Kylo Ren, against each and every one of her own conclusions she has made since Takodana. What is he trying to prove? That she is safe?

She hasn't felt safe since... She doesn't even know. Even her AT-AT, though secure, had never felt completely safe.

"And after?" she asks instead, her voice full of suspicion. "What happens after?"

Her answer comes in the form of a small shrug. "That is entirely up to you."

She knows that is a lie. It has to be. She'll be kept imprisoned until she is no longer useful. Maybe they'll force her to work for them, maybe they'll keep her for amusement. But she knows for damn sure that they will not let her go, even if she'd just want to get back to Jakku. Too much of a risk that she might run to the Resistance instead, to tell them everything she has learned during her imprisonment.

Which, to be honest, is starting to sound like a very tempting idea.

"Why would you help them?" Kylo Ren suddenly asks, breaking the momentary silence, startling her with the accuracy with which he answers to her thoughts. "The Resistance is nothing but strangers to you. You do not know them, what they are capable of. Why believe the stories of how good and righteous they are? Why believe their lies?"

Rey scowls. Why shouldn't she believe them? At least they haven't taken her prisoner, tried to interrogate her for the contents of some map that she hasn't got a clue how to even read. Besides, BB-8 was desperate. So was Finn. And Han and Chewie too, once they got over their little misunderstanding about the Falcon. And they were friendly, even though they didn't need to.

When was the last time someone was friendly towards her just because they wanted to?

She doesn't know. What she does know, however, is that Kylo Ren is definitely not friendly just because he wants to. No, he wants the map. What she doesn't get is why he's making attempts at earning her trust all of a sudden. He didn't seem too keen on that approach on Takodana.

"Why are you doing this?" she asks, the question slipping out of her mouth before she can reconsider asking it.

He regards her with a slightly tilted head, his expression now completely blank. Just how much of her thoughts did he just catch?

"I have my orders", he finally replies.

Rey raises an eyebrow. Now that is dodging a question if she has ever heard one. Perhaps it's knowing he doesn't want to answer that makes her bold enough to keep talking.

"And do you always follow your orders?"

He narrows his eyes, and Rey realises, too late, that she has gone too far.

"The map", he tells her, his soft tone now hardened with an icy edge. He's slowly approaching her now, and Rey makes an attempt to scramble further back. But she is already in a corner, and in the small room there is no real way of getting away.

Suddenly she really cannot get away. There's that strange heaviness in the air and her muscles freeze in place. She flinches, recalling the terror she had felt on Takodana when he had done this to her the first time. There's no viciously crackling lightsaber this time to draw her attention, however, so all she can do is watch with increasing fright as Kylo Ren slowly approaches her.

"It does not need to be this difficult", he tells her, his voice a soft murmur.

"I'm not telling you anything", Rey hisses through clenched teeth, trying to mask her fear with anger.

"You don't have to", he murmurs to her, and he is so close now. Close enough to touch her if he would so choose. "You know I can take whatever I want."

He raises his gloved hand and Rey recoils in memory of the pain of having her mind probed, her memories torn from her subconsciousness. She tries to move away from him, to avoid the inevitable, but she can't. The invisible power forces her to remain still.

His fingers nearly touch her and the heaviness in the air lifts for the briefest of moments. She feels a sudden brush of power wash over her, so different from anything she has ever experienced. She stares, trying to figure out what it is, why it feels so familiar...

And then there is pain and she twitches, clenching her eyes shut. Why is he doing this to her? Why did she not just stay on Jakku...

Flashes of memories in her head again. Of the many days and many nights spent on the desert planet, of the longing with which she always gazed at the stars, of the rows upon rows upon rows of tiny little marks on the wall, one more appearing beside the last after each passing day... And then, when it became too much, she imagined...

A spray of sea salt on her face. A soft breeze, then a violent one, and soft again, ruffling her hair, filling her ears with a steady hum. The birds, all over the place, small, round, soft with so many feathers, white and red and orange and black...

"You're so lonely... So afraid to leave", he murmurs and her eyes snap open, automatically focusing on him, drawn by his soft voice. He gives her a faint smile. "At night, desperate to sleep... you imagine an ocean. I see it – I see the island..."

No no no no. He is not taking that memory from her!

But she cannot truly resist and he tears into the memory of the island she used to dream about, the island and its strange birds that have been her only companions on all those nights on Jakku when loneliness was becoming too much for her to bear. The memory shatters in her mind as he peruses all of its details, the fragments turning into white hot shards that send a sensation both searing hot and burning cold through her. She winces, her body refusing to comply to a movement much stronger than that, and she feels the sting of tears forming in her eyes. But she doesn't want to cry, so she does what she can in an attempt to distract herself from the pain.

"Why are you doing this!" she asks out loud, her voice raspy, tinted by the pain.

"I told you that I must", he answers her, his voice still infuriatingly soft. "The pain will stop when you give me what I need."

She's openly crying now, unable to stop the tears, but she doesn't really care anymore. She just wants this to stop, wants to get away from this. But the invisible force still holds her firmly, and the needling pain in her head remains. And she is too damn stubborn to tell her captor anything. She's always been too damn stubborn. She wants to get back to her friends, back to the moment before she stormed into the forest.

She should have taken Han's offer...

"Han Solo", Kylo Ren remarks, with a hint of contempt in his voice. "You feel like he's the father you never had. He would've disappointed you."

Rey opens her eyes and glares, furious. How dare he? How. Dare. He? The brush of power returns, and her anger momentarily overrides her pain. Who is he to judge her? She has never known her parents, has never had the approval of anyone. Only loneliness, the cold blanket of abandonment. How dare he judge her for wanting to have that from Han, from the only person in her life who has complimented her for who she is, not merely for what she can do?

"Get out of my head", she hisses, jaw clenched, eyes flashing, her survival instinct finally kicking in and making her fight back.

But of course he does not pull away. Instead, he leans closer. The power around her swirls, growing, intensifying, as if his mere presence makes it gather around her. He is watching her, thoughtfully, imploringly, and with a hint of... what, exactly?

Recognition?

Understanding?

She has no idea.

"I know you've seen the map", he tells her, his tone more commanding than before. "It's in there... and now you'll give it to me. When you do, this will stop. The pain will go away."

She narrows her eyes, distrustful. The power is still there, in her, around her, helping her cope with the needling sensation of having her mind violently probed against her will. She has no idea where the power is coming from, but she is glad for it. He looks at her, the small smile from a moment ago very nearly returning, the strange look in his eyes intensifying. They're so dark, his eyes. She never really noticed it before, until now when she can do nothing but look straight at them.

"Don't be afraid", he tells her, his soft tone a complete contrast to the agony he is causing her. "I feel it too."

He thinks she fears this thrum of power she feel? Why would she...

Oh. Oh!

She realises then what the power is, understands exactly what she is dealing with. She goes back to the moment in the forest, to the pressure in the air when he stunned her, knocked her unconscious. To the oppressing heaviness she felt when she travelled down into the basement of Maz's castle. The pressure she felt before and after touching the saber she found there. The pressure she felt when she helped this man with his busted stabilisers, when he used the Force to clear the path into the TIE fighter hangar.

Perhaps she has known all her life, but has never admitted it. Still isn't, not fully. But she has had the uncanny ability to know when a wall she is trying to climb is collapsing, when the sand she travels has become treacherous. Has known when to make that last moment leap before her perch crumbles from under her, how to avoid the grabbing hands of the men in the outpost when she has to travel there too late during the day, when to stay out of sight of the great ocht'kai that search for unsuspecting prey on the deserts.

And she knows, in that moment, that she will not give in now.

"I'm not giving you anything", she says defiantly, angrily.

Kylo Ren peers at her intently. His words, when he speaks, have a dangerous edge.

"We'll see."

She meets his gaze unflinchingly, and does the unthinkable. She reaches out to the power she feels around her and forces it to do as she wants. The pressure in her mind increases, but she answers that pressure only by pulling more of the power around her. She sees him falter, sees the flicker of uncertainty in his eyes.

And suddenly it's not simply him she sees. Chaotic memories flash in her mind, but they are no longer hers. They are too much for her to focus on, too fast and too disarrayed. She feels the thrum of power, dark, seductive, and she realises it is his power that she senses, that it is his memories she is seeing. And from the torrent of memories, a single realisation forms.

"You..." she starts, straining to focus, to form a coherent sentence in face of the chaotic memories she sees. "... You are afraid... that you will never be as strong as Darth Vader!"

The whirlwind of memories slams to a sudden halt when Kylo Ren pushes her out of his mind. She gasps, her eyes wide, disbelieving of what she just did. But then her gaze focuses on him again as he stumbles back and her gaze steels. She is still angry. Angry and confused and betrayed.

He flees.

AN: I still have no idea where I'm going with this. But at least I'm getting an idea of how I want to write this. xD