The healing process was very slow and well encumbered by The First Order. They saw that she was on the mend but cared little about painkillers – no doubt an order delivered by Hux.

The red-headed general had been mended quickly, state of the art medical equipment seeing him back to his duties within a few days. He had been incredibly sick and had cursed the Skylander throughout his time in the medical bay. Pain and poison on a double-edged blade.

Ailsa, however, remained confined to a bed, unable to move and only allowed a small fraction of mobility at meal-times.

Hux came to visit the girl as soon as he was upright, the sharp ache in his side the only remnant of her attack. Kylo Ren had not been back to her, and he had not used his power to invade her mind and get answers to questions held by The First Order.

The general laughed when he saw her there, face framed by dark hair, eyes blazing but circled by lines of pain and exhaustion. Her injuries made sleep hard, the pain drifting through her with every breath. The laugh was not loud nor well humored, but rather given as a deserved sensation – a 'serves you right' noise that came from the back of the throat and growled it's way forward.

"Bet you wish we could swap places." He mused, only his face exposed. Gloves, boots, hat, jacket. Hiding. Maybe. Hux crossed the barren room, the woman and her bed sitting there like a piece of art to be approached and viewed. Floating there as the only living thing in a sterile environment. "Unfortunately for you…your attempt failed."

"But it seems you got the message." Ailsa breathed, words just as slow as they had been with Kylo but this time tainted with tiredness and aching. "I trust you understand."

"Yes." His expression became very suddenly serious, posture rigid, hands folded behind his back as he looked down his nose at the young woman. "I got a message, but the sender did not sign. I assume you are Resistance? But…ah, see, one in the Resistance would not act in such a ghostly manner. They have enough courage to own their attempts."

"So they should. War has two faces and neither side should hide."

"But yours did."

"No. We don't hide. You just fail to look."

Hux set a hand on the railing around the bed, on where the cuff that held one of her hands was secured to the metal. His finger drifted over the binding, contemplating it, pointing it out. "You know what I have come to ask. Who, and why?"

"You are an intelligent man. The 'why' should be fairly obvious."

"Oh?" A brow lifted. He wanted to test her. He wanted to see what she knew. "And why is that?"

"We're in it."

Hux's mouth turned up in a sly grin, mind acutely aware of the Star Killer Base and it's power. "Ah. So you know about this marvel of engineering. I wonder who you've told? The list of questions keeps growing, woman."

"Did you not learn my name?"

"I don't care about your name. I care about what you know."

Ailsa stared up at him. From her angle, all she could see was a jacket, a chin, a pair of red eyebrows. "Not sure I'd survive your methods just yet."

"I don't care. You are disposable."

"I do not know that your Supreme Leader would agree. A Force User he failed to detect for so long? What a pity."

"That failure falls upon Kylo Ren." There was a silence. Hux's gaze changed, brow furrowing for a split second as he drew a few lines together. "He did not kill you. He did not interrogate you…."

Ailsa watched the man piece together the puzzle of The Force and how time had shaped its presence in the universe.

"He knew you before, didn't he?" Hux spoke with a hiss now, leaning in with a sickly sweet smile. "You know Ben Solo."

"Ben Solo is dead."

"Is he though? Why would Kylo Ren hesitate to kill you – were you friends? Were you…" He let out a small laugh. "Were you more than friends? Is that what has you alive for me to interrogate now?"

"No. I think I am alive now to be interrogated – not for the past." Ailsa found herself replying without thinking, yet she had the same questions as Hux. Why did he let her live? Why did he not invade her mind? Did Ben live on as she had, somehow surviving, exhausted and silent and fighting against The Darkness?

Hux let his finger drift over Ailsa's, the leather of his glove warm against the chill of the room. "So let us put all of this together – I want to know who sent you, I want to know why, I want to know what you know of this place and who you have told, and I want to know if you ever fucked Kylo Ren."

With what little movement she had Ailsa twisted her hand, summoning The Force and using it to blast the touch of the man away. She only managed to send him back a few steps, but his hat came off and he was quick to backhand her across the jaw in retaliation. Hux straightened and fixed his collar and set his cap on straight as he watched the new bruise form on the girl. He was a stunning orator, a brilliant general, and one of the sharpest minds in the galaxy. But he was a villain and head of The First Order for a reason. Only one sat above him, and only another stayed at his side. Power became him. Power and anger.

He summoned a Storm Trooper with ease, giving an order for the woman to be confined more securely in a place where she would be far more limited with her use of The Force. Despite her condition, she would be taken to the interrogation room and locked in the device used by Kylo Ren as he invaded the minds of those who opposed him.

They unstrapped her for the move and with what little strength she had, Ailsa managed to kick and fight, using The Force and her body in whatever way she was able. She felt the need for air as her lung healed, felt the strain on broken bones, but she was angry now and she was upset. Those she worked for would not come. They did not do rescues. Too much risk. Ailsa knew she could not get free in those moments, but she tried anyway – struggling until she was forced to the floor. Two unconscious troopers lay beside her, as did a medic with a sedative. Hux stood near the door with a serious expression, watching beyond her reach. It was Phasma who had forced her down, a knee in her back, hands holding the Skylander's behind her as a free medic delivered the sedative required for transportation.

Kylo Ren was nowhere to be seen.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Ailsa woke in a new pain. She had new bruises, new aches in her body. There was also a new pressure on her healing lung; the pressure of being upright and held uncomfortably, heart rate up due to a rise in stress levels associated with the position.

She was bound securely, legs, hands, torso, even her neck. Held steady, held helpless. All she could do was stare at the blank wall across from her and listen to the hum of the ship and her own unsteady breathing.

Kylo Ren came with Hux a few hours later, standing side by side with The General. No word was given on the previous conversation between the red-head and the girl. No doubt Hux was planning to use his theories and turn them into information he might use as leverage against Ren if it was ever needed.

"You know your task, Kylo Ren."

"It is not for you to give me orders, General." Came the reply, voice changed by the helmet.

"You know what the Supreme Leader has tasked you with. I am here to ensure you carry those orders out."

"You cannot understand the nature of The Force. You are not required." Kylo delivered a blow to The General's shortcomings. The Supreme Leader and the Commander of The Knights of Ren both had strong ties to The Force. He, however, ran bare.

"Leave us." Ren stated flatly.

Hux's jaw tightened, chin lifting as he watched the girl. She watched him back unabashedly, eyes bright with a power he could never understand.

Finally, he left, holding his pride as his boots carried him away. Kylo waved a hand, the door closing with his motion and his attention turning to Ailsa. She could feel his gaze through that mask, she could feel him watching her. But she did not know what he was thinking. She did not know that he was examining the new marks upon her, did not know that they angered him, that The Light he battled so violently sparked up as her presence turned his rage toward Hux for a split second.

"You can answer the questions or I can find their answer in you." He sat on the bench cut into the wall. "The longer you stay silent, the longer you stay in that position."

"If I talk I betray those whom I trust, and who have trust in me. When I am done talking I will no doubt find myself in a prison cell for the duration of my life – which may very well end at the hands of The First Order shortly after you get what you want. I have no incentive to talk." Such words took a long while to say, each sentence requiring a long breath at their end and each punctuation point darkening the circles beneath her eyes.

Ren pressed his fingers together, the only action to show that he might be considering what she was saying. "You think we will kill you?"

"Yes."

"Are you afraid?"

"No."

"Why?"

"I died a long time ago, Kylo Ren. You know that. I faced death then and found it was not to be feared."

He was silent for a long time. He could use fear. He could use death as incentive. He could enter her mind and find out if she was telling the truth about her feelings toward both of these things. He was known for his effectiveness in interrogation. He was known for leaving nothing behind.

"The Supreme Leader has an offer for you." He stated instead.

"The Supreme Leader should make the offer himself."

"He makes it through me."

"Ah. So he's pulling the right strings to make you dance?"

The words were sharp and intentional. Kylo closed his hands into fists and rose, anger and power surging through him in the most intoxicating, uncomfortable, unnatural manner. He stood before her, hovering close, helmet cold. "Do you wish to hear the offer?" He stated so simply. "Or shall we simply follow your previous prediction?"

"Do what you will. We both know you are in the position of power here." She inhaled carefully. "You were always stronger than I was."

He did reach out then, fingers brushing her temple. She stiffened at the slightness of his touch, tense as she waited for him to barge into her mind and rip out the wiring as he chose. Instead he did nothing, waiting there for a long minute, lingering until her eyes left his mask and closed.

She offered him a view, a little peer into her perspective. A silent agreement, a quiet trust fall for the man she once knew. If he was not that man he could carry on, and if he was truly detached from Ben he would immediately bypass her little offering. It was a venture in reality for them both. A secret convergence.

Ailsa let him see that she was not as unafraid as she portrayed herself to be. She was cold, in pain, struggling to breathe and battling the failure of a mission gone awry. He did press on, standing on the border of what was offered and peering on as one might when looking at a view from the edge of a cliff. In that moment she peered back at him, climbing into his power, feeling such rage and loneliness. It fed him well. It fed an ability with The Force unlike any she had ever encountered.

With that, he shut her out. He stood composed. He could rip her mind apart at a moment's notice and leave her drooling. He could find out about this nameless, shapeless, ghost that she worked for. It would surely be an advantage to The First Order.

"The Supreme Leader has an offer." He reiterated instead. "Join the Knights of Ren. Train under me. When you tell us what we want you will not die or be left to rot."

"Why didn't you burn Skye?" Ailsa returned instead. "I went back there. You could have burned it all, but you didn't."

"I do not answer to you. I do not have to explain any action to you. You have your offer – I shall let you think on it." His words were clipped and hard. "Be assured that if you join with the intention of bringing us down from the inside, I will know. I will know and I will crush your lungs myself."

His knights. His power. His rule. Of course he would know; it was his life now. His life support. She could join in or be permanently left out. She could join and find out more of the base, find out more of The First Order and their intentions. But her aim was never to save lives. Her aim was to never take a side. Ailsa was not there for light or dark; she just wandered the world between and let The Force take her where it willed.

The Force was ferocious and strong here. It pulled hard and with a biting violence. It was a side that those on The Light never knew. Kylo knew both. Perhaps that was his downfall. He knew both sides and never the middle. There was no middle for him.

He left her there with the wall for a friend. He left her there and did not think on what would happen when he returned. Not yet. She would choose now. He'd given her one thing in return for it all; he'd given her a choice. He'd removed such pressure from himself and passed it along.

Now Ailsa sat under its burden, desperate to reach out to Kylo, desperate to find Ben. He lived; she was sure of that. That bright boy – he was still shining somewhere. She'd seen it. He'd shown her.

A/N: Thanks for reading! Hope you're enjoying yourself so far. Please leave a review; constructive criticism is welcome! I'd love to hear from you and improve as a writer in whatever way I can.
Expect a new chapter soon!