(((Note: Sorry this chapter is pretty short. If the story seemed to be pretty slow building up so far, I apologize. The real action will be coming to fruition in the coming chapters.
I am pretty fried right now, so I cannot guarantee when the next chapter will be up. I hope to have a new chapter posted by at least Saturday.
I want to say a very big thank you to those of you who have stopped by and read, have commented, liked, and continued reading my work. It is certainly the push I needed to have the courage to go back into writing, and I couldn't have done it without you guys. Thank you so much!)))
Kylo Ren jolted awake, drenched in sweat and his heart pounding. 'Just a dream…' But it wasn't. The prisoner ran a frantic hand through his hair, his mouth set in a hard, tense line. He had seen these before: force dreams. Every single time they had played out in reality, no matter what measures were taken to avoid it.
Hurried hands worked quickly in dressing the man before he rushed to his door, pounding on the thick metal. "Open the door. I need to speak to the general immediately. It's urgent," Kylo Ren shouted to the other side. After a few moments, the entryway slid open to reveal his three personal guards with their weapons trained on the prisoner.
"What is the meaning of this? Do you have any idea what time of night it is," the biggest guard warned, grabbing hold of Kylo Ren and shoving him out into the quiet hallway.
"Please, I need to speak to General Organa—dammit, I need to speak with my mother! Now you take me to her know before I leave you all bleeding out on the floor," Kylo Ren threated, a darkness emanating from the man so powerful that it sent chills down their fragile spines. The threat alone scared the guards into submission. Without another word, the men lead the prisoner to the woman in charge.
After incessant pounding on the door to the command room, Leia appeared behind the newly open entrance, looking up at her son as if she had seen a ghost. "Ben." The general reached out to cup her son's cheek, but a firm hand grasped her wrist in defense. "What is going on," she asked, the audience behind her practically staring.
"It's the scavenger girl—Rey. Wherever she is—whoever she is with, they're all in trouble. I had a force dream. Please, you have to trust me," Kylo Ren begged to the point of losing his breath. Leia pulled her hand back from the prisoner's grasp, a look of weariness melting over her face.
"I can't. Ben, you know I can't. No one can after all that's happened," the general spoke, sternness attempting to blanket the pain strained in her voice.
"You have to believe me! You're going to have blood those peoples blood on your hands—you're going to have her blood on your hands," Kylo Ren shouted, his visage twisting into that of an enraged, wild animal.
Finn, who had been standing by watching silently, stepped forward and interceded. "General, if I may. Poe and I have been spending time with him lately, and his recent actions speak to his character. We both believe he can be trusted," the ex-stormtrooper spoke bravely, sparing a reassuring glance towards Kylo Ren.
"I'm sorry, Finn, but his history speaks greater volumes than just a few passing days of niceties." Before a single word could leave the enthralled man's lips, Leia cast a nod to a guard behind Kylo Ren and the hard butt of a blaster rifle connected with Kylo Ren's head, making everything go black.
Kylo Ren woke with a splitting pain in his head and a ringing in his ears, though he was not hearing the sound out of thin air. The prisoner rose to a sitting position and observed his surroundings. The man was sitting on the cold, hard floor of his old cell, deep within the ground. Where it was usually deathly quiet in the dwelling, a sharp, piercing alarm sounded within the room and through the rest of the prison.
Realization hit Kylo Ren with the force of a speeder. Throwing caution to the wind, the prisoner lunged to his feet, immediately set off balance due to the blood-seeping wound on the back of his head. Dark images of blood and bodies flooded Kylo Ren's mind as he reached a hand towards the glass, attempting to use the sheer power of the force to burst the glass; the material barely shook underneath the man's intense and frightened gaze. As if a fire had been lit underneath the prisoner, Kylo Ren threw himself into the glass, each time the surface doing more damage to his shoulder than he was doing to the glass. Emotion came flooding into Kylo Ren, his fear, rage, and hope powering each contact of his fist to the surface.
The image of Rey bleeding out blinded the man, ignoring how much blood had coated his hands from the repeat abuse he was subjecting himself to. The scavenger was right about him: he was very much still human. Though he had tried to mask it, metaphorically and physically, Kylo Ren still felt the entire spectrum of human emotion. Despite his actions, the man ultimately cared about people more than even his mother did. She was right about him, and the prisoner had drove her away. The one person who should have killed him, but instead saving him, redeeming him. The one person who truly understood his suffering. The one person to send his heart pounding, even at the slightest thought of her. The scavenger was now going to die from his actions.
Kylo Ren drew back his fist one last time and sent it careening into the glass. A guttural, anguished yell ripped itself from the prisoner's throat as he cradled his now broken hand. Kylo Ren paced his cell like a caged animal, looking and sounding the part. "This is all my fault. This is all my fault…" The prisoner continually paced the small space, not even stopping when the alarm eventually ceased. The man didn't even know that he had fallen unconscious until he woke up to a gentle hand cradling the side of his face.
"Kylo…" The prisoner slowly began to stir out of his slumber. Rey sat on the edge of the infirmary bed that Kylo Ren had currently occupied, brushing the soft black locks of hair from his face and resting her hand on his cheek. "Kylo, can you hear me? Are you alright," the scavenger asked, lowering her head to meet the man's dazed stare. Recognition quickly hit the prisoner and Rey had to utilize to force just to keep the man down. "Stay still. You've lost quite a bit of blood."
The heart rate monitor beeped furiously as Kylo Ren gazed up at the scavenger with half crazed eyes. "H—how, you were gone. You were dying. There was s—so much blood, I…" Rey quickly cut off the prisoner before he could continue prattling on.
"We received your message, thanks to the defiance of Finn and Poe. I had a rather vicious word with your mother when we returned…" Rey's jaw tensed before she returned her eyes to Kylo Ren's face, her face lightening into an emotional smile. "We were on Naboo, trying to recruit more members to join the resistance when we received the message. We moved all of the civilians from the area and waited for the First Order to strike. Some lives were lost, but many more were saved. I was saved." The scavenger leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to Kylo Ren's forehead. "Thank you…" she whispered against his skin. With the strength that he had left, Kylo Ren moved his arms to weakly embrace the scavenger girl above him, pulling her close and holding her there for the longest time.
After several, peaceful moments had passed between the two, Rey pulled away, quickly trying to swipe away a stray tear before the prisoner could notice. "As of today, you will have the same rights bestowed to you as everyone else here. You are no longer to be held prisoner in any sense of the word. On behalf of the resistance, we urge that you are more than welcome to stay and we sincerely hope that you do decide to join ranks with us," Rey announced proudly, not too concerned about the half ass job trying to cover her own intentions with those of the resistance.
The look that crossed Kylo Ren's face could not be summed up by anything more than peace. A certain warmth reached his eyes that Rey had never witnessed before, and the corner of his eyes crinkled with the drugged up smile the stretched from cheek to cheek. "I formally accept the gracious offer, Captain. Thank you."