A heartbeat pounded in her ears, deafening her from the outside world. It took a firm hand and a hard shake to her shoulder to knock Rey out of the blank haze she was buried in. "Rey, what are you doing?" The scavenger's eyes snapped to Finn's face, not even realizing that two of her fellow Resistance fighters were dragging Kylo Ren off to a nearby transporter, his body limp in their arms.
"Rey, did you hear me?" Finn stood before Rey, his face a grimace of concern. "Rey, what happened? Did he hurt you? I swear, if that monster put a scratch on you— "
"Finn, I'm fine. I just…" Rey looked to the ground, confused with her own actions. "I just froze. I don't really know what happened. I just couldn't do it. Not because I couldn't move, I just…"
"Hey. Don't worry about it. We finally got him," the ex-stormtrooper reassured, giving the scavenger the faintest hint of a sympathetic smile. It took almost all of what was left of Rey's energy to return the smile. Her body seemed to work on autopilot for the remained of their journey home to D'Qar.
It was blur of energy when they had returned to home base over a month ago. It seemed every last person who had inhabited the planet couldn't get to Rey fast enough to congratulate her on her victory, but their kind and encouraging words held no place in her heart. Without fail, every night the young Jedi had lain herself down to sleep, nightmares would flood behind her closed eyelids. There was always so much blood, and it seemed to get everywhere. Just blood and his fearful, sad eyes. She may have looked upon him, but it was never until that moment that she saw the criminal in any human way.
Even as her mind and body had seemed to calm over the last month, Rey had not brought herself to visit the man in his cell. Her gut seemed to twist with fear at the thought of laying eyes on the monster she had almost ended. She was too afraid to know if she would just feel sickening compassion for man, or regret for sparing his life. Rey was being torn apart.
It had reached almost two months before Rey's restless nights had seemed to have finally eaten away at her. It was far past settling in hours when she snuck out of the base and climber aboard a speeder, making her way towards a prison encampment about twenty clicks from home base.
Rey had attempted this trip many times within the past few weeks, but fear had always gotten the best of her, turning her around to flee back to her welcoming quarters. She wasn't going to turn back this time. She was sure of it. The scavenger needed to see the man that had haunted her dreams to finally put her mind at ease.
As she reached her destination, Rey slid off of her transport and entered the housing of cells, all of which were hidden underground in a system of caves. Loud hoots and hollars pierced Rey's ears from the caged men and beasts that were imprisoned within the length of the makeshift hallway. Nonetheless, the scavenger kept pushing on deeper into the dank, dark cavern, until she had reached a sectioned off piece of the prison.
One of Rey's clammy hands grasped the handle on the non-mechanical door that separated her from the evil entity within. With a long drawn out exhale, the scavenger pushed through the door and greeted the two armed guards that were keeping watch.
The first guard nodded in respect to the young Jedi as she entered the room. "Rey. I was wondering when you'd make it down here. We almost thought you'd never show up." Rey managed a small, silent nod in return before stepping past the two guards and peering beyond the strong glass that held it's captive secure.
The cell consisted of only a cheap and rather dim light fixture hanging from the ceiling and a blanket that rested upon the floor, the thin fabric currently occupied by the confine's prisoner. Rey's mouth went dry and her body grew hot with intense emotion. There on the blanket lied Kylo Ren, but if it weren't for her prior knowledge of who the cell contained, Rey would not recognize this person. What was once a strong, fearless man, was now a frail, nearly skin and bones ghost that curled in upon itself to seek warmth within the frigid cavern.
As if sensing her presence, Kylo Ren woke from his slumber and slowly turned to face the scavenger. His face was gaunt and pale, sunken eyes peering up at Rey in a daze of sleep and emptiness.
Explosive rage boiled to every surface of Rey's skin as she whipped around to glare hatefully at the two other inhabitants of the room. "Who did this?!" The second guard began to sputter out the beginning of a sentence before being sharply cut off by the scavenger. "By whose orders are you starving him?! Tell me!"
The first guard hesitantly stepped forward and offered the name of his superior before Rey attacked them with another tongue lashing. "Get out. Both of you. Get out now," she commanded, her hand resting dangerously over the lightsaber at her hip. The guards couldn't get out of the room fast enough for their own comfort. It wasn't until the door closed firmly behind them that Rey turned back to Kylo Ren, kneeling before him.
"When was the last time you ate," she pressured, her eyes traveling the husk of the once great Kylo Ren.
"Piss off, scavenger," Kylo Ren rasped out, his voice cracked and barely there. "Go back and play pretend war hero with that deplorable woman I call mother."
Rey's hand slammed into the glass, jolting the prisoner the look up the woman. "When was the last time you ate," she repeated, her own voice cracked with raw emotion and her frame visibly shaky.
Kylo Ren's expression softened in the slightest, though his eyes were hard as steel when he spoke. "Six days ago. The pigs kept count as they stuffed their faces in front of me."
"I'm sorry…" Rey gave Kylo Ren a look of what could have been construed as pity. It reality, it was sympathy. Rey knew all too well what it was like to be afraid and hungry; no one had the right to starve. Not even Kylo Ren himself.
Without another word, Rey rose from her spot on the ground and took her leave. It would be several minutes later before two guards stumbled in and offered sustenance to the prisoner.
She was going to save Kylo Ren.