Chapter 2

A prison cell located on the star killer base

3 days was spent in complete isolation. My lack of communication with anyone other than myself was its own form of torture. The only thing I could think about were the pained screams of everyone in the village and the masses of dead bodies that followed them.

After the first 24 hours, my appetite became completely non – existent. The constant anxiety and fear for my life had caused anything I attempted to consume to almost immediately be brought back up, into the make – shift latrine located in my cell. As a result, my energy levels had depleted and left my body in a barely functioning state on the cool, metal floor.

The guards took notice of my lack of nourishment. Every time they pushed a small tray of food through the slim hatch in the door way, they would peak through the gap and report on my condition to their officer. By now they knew it would only be days before I was seriously ill, or worse.

However, their constant efforts to keep me alive led to me questioning the identity of the masked man who saved me. His name was Kylo Ren, but that knowledge had no meaning to a scavenger like me, who was isolated from the current war. I was completely unaware of his existence until a few days ago; but he had surely known of mine.

Were the empire aware of my previous affiliation with the resistance? Despite the improbability of them recognizing me, it was still a small chance. I knew that if it was the case, then my limited life on this battleship would be an excruciatingly painful one. They would torture me for every last bit of information I held; once finished I would be quickly disposed of.

The irony was that I would be of no advantage whatsoever to the scheming generals who would batter my body for this worthless information. My last contact with the resistance was over a year ago, but even then I was quietly kept out of the loop about all the latest plans and raids. Minors would not be allowed to take part in missions until they had come of age.

Hopefully that would make my death on here a less tormenting one. I knew it wasn't long until I would be took in for questioning and extracted out of every single thing I had learnt about the resistance. Yet as I saw the door of my cell being swung open by two Stormtroopers, I couldn't help but feel a shockwave of fear spread through my body.

They knew that my limbs were weak by now, and so hauled me from my position on the floor and dragged my limp body down the complex of hallways in the space station. I reluctantly swallowed any fear I had, knowing that it would make me more vulnerable to their punishing methods of interrogating.

It took a total of 10 long minutes before we reached our final destination. My arms ached from being pulled through the long corridors. Not once did the white armoured soldiers relent as they marched with my body in their arms. They had no sense of humanity about them, instead acting like lifeless robots who obediently took orders from whoever was above their ranking.

As we reached a halt in front of the grand steel doors, I was placed back onto my feet whilst the Stormtroopers commenced in opening it. They forced me to step inside the menacing room and commanded me towards a metallic table. The sight of it caused me to gasp.

2 straps were positioned on either side of the counter. My eyes bulged with shock as I was grabbed and tied onto it by the pair of soldiers who had brought me here. I kicked my legs in defence, attempting to prevent them from locking me in place. After a short – lived fight, my frail body betrayed me and subdued to the threatening surface of the bench. The table was then rotated upright so that I was in a standing position, with my limbs unable to move completely.

Not long after, the Stormtroopers exited the haunting room, leaving me alone with nothing but my thoughts. Instead of the fear I was used to feeling, a growing sense of frustration filled me. There was no hope left for my existence and my final days would be spent being treated like a despicable prisoner.

It was only a brief period of 5 minutes before the door to the room reopened, but it felt like an eternity. I wasn't surprised to see the dark suit of Kylo Ren be the one that had entered. It would only make sense that he would be the one that took responsibility of his own captive. My furious gaze felt strong enough to penetrate his black mask, nonetheless he was completely unaffected by the action.

His loud footsteps echoed around the 4 walls until he finally came face to face with me. At this point I had lost all hope of survival; all I wanted was answers.

"Why didn't you leave me to rot like the rest of the village? Why do you insist on bringing me here and torturing me? You're only prolonging my death! Do you enjoy torturing your victims before you kill them?!"

My loud outburst ripped through the silence that had formed over the last few days. My adrenaline led me to continue my short speech which I would surely pay for afterwards.

"I wish you would have left me to die and burn with all the people I had once known! You are a murderous psychopath with no value for human life!"

In a fit of rage, Kylo began to force choke me in order to prevent me from finishing my harrowing speech. Pained coughs escaped my mouth as I attempted to breathe again. As quickly as it had begun, the pressure instantly stopped.

"You will never talk to me like you just did again, or next time I will watch in joy as your body turns unresponsive at the wave of my fingertips!"

I said nothing in response, my only defiance was returning an unsettling eye contact with the emotionless mask. The tension between us felt suffocating in such close quarters. After realizing that he had no intention of restarting our cut throat conversation, I flicked my eyes away from his intimidating suit, and instead towards the wall I was adjacent to.

He took this as an opportunity to penetrate my mind and sift through the contents of it. I looked in horror as he dove deeper and deeper into my brain, afraid of what he would find. It was only when he reached my most dreaded memory from 3 years ago that I began to thrash in my restraints, unable to handle reliving the event.

As he watched the moment Ben strangled me and let my body collapse on the ground, he immediately withdrew from my mind and took a step back from my shaking body on the bench. He looked torn as he stood staring at me and watched my eyes pool with tears of defeat.

"You know everything now! Are you happy? I will be of no help to the empire whatsoever! Do me the favour and end my life now."

Kylo started to take strides towards me, till my nose was practically touching my mask.

"Im sorry." He murmured in a robotic voice, before proceeding to doing something that left me speechless.

Kylo Ren slowly lifted his mask, until it was completely off. Left facing me was a person I had never thought nor wanted to encounter again.

Ben Solo.

I threw myself back in fear at the man who was facing me. He was the maker of all of my night terrors and now was only inches away from me. I looked down at the floor in disgust. Ben had turned into a monster, replicating the look of his sith grandfather. The only difference was that Anakin had found a way to return to the light.

His pale fingers cupped my fragile face and lifted my head up in an action that was uncharacteristically gentle. My light blue eyes gazed into his dark black orbs. For a short moment, it was just me and Ben again, causing my heart to swell from the long forgotten memories of our friendship.

"Ben…" I sobbed, hopelessly looking at him for any sign of the person he once was.

As soon as his name had left my lips, his eyes turned into slits and his grip on my chin tightened.

"That name will not leave your mouth again! Ben was gone the day I discovered the beauty of the dark side. Only your ignorance is stopping you from seeing that too."

The man staring at me now was only the shell of the close friend I once loved. The only thing they both shared was the same face and black curly locks. The restraints on my body suddenly felt tighter than ever, as I was desperate to inflict the amount of pain on Ben that he had on me for all these years.

"You are a monster! Look at yourself. You parade around in a suit all day thinking that it will make you just like your grandfather! I will never forgive you for what you did to me the day that you left! I bet you wished that you had finished the job! The truth is Ben, that you have made everyone who ever loved you despise you in your quest for power!"

Once he had heard my response, his face turned crimson with outrage. The lightsaber located in his right pocket was ignited into a striking red ray. He launched it at every object in the dense room. Not one counter was left untouched in his destructive frenzy. All I could do was watch in despair as he cried in annoyance at my hatred towards him.

When inanimate objects stopped satisfying his anger, he turned his saber to me; a look of insanity was painted on his face.

"You have no information on the resistance. Why should I bother sparing your life?!"

He wanted his harsh words to have the same effect on me that they did on our previous encounter. But I didn't fear death anymore, I welcomed it. I was done with the suffering that Ben had caused me and prayed for it to be over. I would no longer be disturbed by nightmares or constantly on the run from both the resistance and empire.

It was likely that in his manic state he wouldn't spare a thought about plunging his red staff into my heart and watch my life rapidly fade away before him. I knew that dying now would be easier than enduring the torture of being a prisoner. So when he asked me that question, I instantly knew my response.

"Don't."