"Tell me your name," Ren said after they've been sparring for a few minutes. She was surprised by the question, though it wasn't much of a question. They circled each other, panting.
she thought for a moment about how she wanted to respond. Her first name, nemesi, felt too familiar to share with him but her preferred name, Sully... Poe had given her that nickname. It was her identity within the resistance. It meant something to her, and she wanted to keep it for herself while she was in this hellhole.
"Sullivan," She finally answered, swiping a hand across her forehead. He seemed like he wanted to press for a better answer, but he lunged at her instead. She blocked his lightsaber with her wan-shen and brought her knee up into his gut. He flexed his abdominal muscles and absorbed the blow. He pulled back his lightsaber again and this time swung at her from the left side. she pivoted away to block the incoming side blow, and when she did, he swiped out a leg and kicked her feet out from under her.
Because her stance hadn't been prepared, she fell flat on her back.
Ren picked up her wan-shen, which she'd dropped when she fell, and threw it across the room in a fit of annoyance.
"You still haven't slept." He said accusingly. "You're no use to me like this. Did you even eat the food you were brought?"
"When I thought I was going to be executed? No." She replied tersely, groaning as she Rose back to her feet.
"You might be if you don't start cooperating," He threatened, his expression like that of a petulant child.
"I let you throw me on my ass. What do you call that?" She argued.
"You're not supposed to let -" He began, before shaking his head and exhaling. his frustration was making him look surprisingly human. "You eat what's given to you and you sleep at night." He commanded in a low, controlled voice. "Or else the deal's off."
He brushed past her and headed for the door. She turned and watched him.
"And what happens if the deal is off?" She asked.
"Then we go back to what emperor snoke had planned for you," He answered. She didn't need to ask what that was. He snorted impatiently after a moment.
"You think I'm going to leave you here with all these weapons? Let's go."
Kylo Ren had sent a stormtrooper to fetch her the next day. The trooper dutifully led her to the training room and stood watch outside the door while she paced on the mats like a caged animal. When Ren finally entered, she stopped and turned to glare at him, her body going rigid.
"You're looking well-rested," he said as he pulled off his cloak. Sully felt a pain jolt through her jaw as she gritted her teeth, hard.
"You drugged me." She spat. She'd followed orders the evening before and eaten the tray of food that was brought to her, only because she knew she would need the food to remain strong. She hadn't intended to sleep. But she had - almost immediately after eating - and had slept straight through the night and perhaps some of the day as well. She was having trouble keeping track of time in this place. He could have easily denied it, but he didn't.
"Are you prepared to put up an actual fight today?" He asked in a flat tone, ignoring her accusation.
Boy, was she.
She walked over to the hook on the wall that held her wan-shen and grabbed it. When she turned around, Ren had lost his shirt and was waving his arms back and forth in an attempt to loosen up. She rolled her shoulders and took a defensive stance.
"No weapons." He said, looking her dead in the eye.
"What?" Sully asked, her eyebrows inching closer together.
"We fight hand-to-hand today," He elaborated briefly.
"How is that going to help you beat Skywalker?" She asked defiantly, though she threw her wan-shen down in compliance. Ren's head cocked a bit - the remark had taken him off-guard.
"Who said anything about Skywalker?" He retorted, his voice dangerously low.
"Isn't that why you want to train with a force-user?" She replied knowingly, not really answering his question. She pulled off her tunic, leaving herself in the tight training pants and wide black breast band she'd been given. she wasn't going to let him think that he could intimidate her.
"I owe you no explanations," He told her, before swiping for her head. She blocked, shuffling backwards. He went in for another swing and she grabbed his arm, yanking it upward to expose his side and bringing up a leg to kick him in the abdomen. The moves have been so swift and strong that Sully, who was easily dwarfed by Ren had knocked him onto his back several feet away. He staggered to his feet, clutching at his ribs a bit.
"How?" He asked as they began to circle each other slowly.
"How do you think?" She retorted. " You used the force when you fought me on Shaksari."
"I use it to jump- to support myself." He corrected her.
"All external uses," She said thoughtfully. "My body is one with the force."
"My mind is one with the force," He immediately countered, as if it was a competition. "What did your training consist of?"
Like she was going to help him unlock more capabilities.
"Are we going to fight or are we here to talk?" She asked.
"We're here to do whatever I please." He shot back venomously.
He approached her quickly and she lashed out instinctively, striking for his face. He blocked it and grabbed the curve of her elbow, yanking her closer and knocking her off balance. He turned her around as she stumbled into him and a rigid arm wrapped across her clavicle, holding her against his chest.
"Ren," A voice from the door called. They stop struggling, and Sully glanced over to see a red-headed man with a smug look standing in the doorway with his hands folded behind his back. Ren's body went rigid and Sully could practically feel the hate rolling off of him. " Snoke wants to see you. Now."
Ren didn't move immediately and Sully decided to take advantage of the moment. In an instant, she had shifted her weight back on to him and pulled her legs up to her chest. She then kick them out and the momentum of her body coming back toward the floor pulled Kylo Ren down and right over her shoulder. He had planted his feet at the very last moment, but it didn't matter because one push of the force gave her the strength she needed to send him sprawling onto his back. She kneeled over him, a knee pressing into his chest to keep him down. She wasn't surprised when her airway suddenly slammed shut, but her body reacted anyway, her hands coming up to clutch at her neck .
"You can use the force for your little workouts all you want, but you'll never be able to match power like this. Do not forget it." He told her, his voice much more controlled than the fury spinning in his eyes. He let her struggle for a few more moments before releasing her. She fell to the floor, coughing. Before she could get her bearings, Ren was fully dressed again and was storming toward the door. He stopped for a moment, contemplating something.
"I'll make sure she gets back," the red-haired man said. Ren said nothing more as he exited. " Are you quite finished?" The man asked her after her coughing died down, as if she was being dramatic.
"He must really hate you," She rasped, still sitting on the floor, her elbows resting on her knees.
"He must really hate you," The man retorted.
"I was just doing my job. The only reason he got so upset is because I did it in front of you and made him look weak." She argued.
"Right. Your job. Because you're Ren's new project."
"His new punching bag, you mean?" She asked, rubbing her neck.
"Come on. Up you go." He ordered, his voice clipped. She didn't move.
"I need to spend more than five minutes a day outside of that closet. Especially if he wants me to stay limber." She said, nodding toward the door Ren had just exited through. The man raised an eyebrow and she felt her face heat up when she realized the potential double meaning of what she had said. " I could stay in here a bit longer. Can't you just... Watch me?" She continued.
"Watch you?" He repeated incredulously. " I'm a general with the first order."
She bit the inside of her cheek and glanced around, trying to come up with a more convincing proposition. The general sighed.
"Want some food that isn't laced with sleeping serum?" He asked after a moment, surprising her.
"That depends," She replied. "What is it laced with instead?"
The man rolled his eyes and turned away from her, walking out the door. Sully scrambled to her feet and followed him, scooping up her tunic along the way.
She had followed him (Taking two steps for every one of his) to some kind of mess hall, and tried to make note of every turn and every Corridor they passed. Now that she hadn't been killed, she needed to start thinking about how she might get out of this place and back to the resistance.
Once in the mess hall, he had led her through a line (well, they had cut to the front of the line) and they both got a tray of food. She hadn't really expected him to eat with her, but she supposed he couldn't leave her unattended so he might as well. Then again, there were dozens of Stormtroopers eating around them that he could command to escort her to her cell. And yet, he led her to an empty table and she sat down across from him.
"So does the general have a name?" She asked after they had eaten in silence for a few minutes. He glanced up at her, unamused, and then back at his tray as he took another bite.
"Hux." He answered begrudgingly after a moment. She had thought as much, having heard some about him in the resistance.
"General Hux," She repeated, considering it. " I'm Sullivan."
"It's inconsequential, really," He replied.
"True enough." She murmured, focusing back on her food.
"You're really a Matukai?" He asked, studying her.
"That's what they tell me." She answered, brushing the question off.
"Where are the others?" He asked. Her eyes shot up to meet his, narrowing in suspicion. What others? The resistance?
" The Matukai," He clarified. "I've never met one. Thought they were thing of the past."
Sully's shoulders relax a bit.
"I don't know," She replied honestly.
"You're the only one in the resistance?" He asked, as casually as one might ask a person if they have siblings. Sully laid her fork down on her tray with a resounding clink and leaned forward on her forearms to look in firmly in the eye.
"I bet it would make you look really good to get intel on the resistance that Ren couldn't, huh?" She wondered aloud. His expression fell a bit. "I would rather take the sleeping serum, honestly," She told him bluntly. " I'm ready to return to my room."
She put a sarcastic twinge on the word "room." Hux stared at her for a moment, his tongue pressed into his cheek in frustration.
"TK-8294." He called out. A stormtrooper at a nearby table got up and approached them, standing at attention. "Take Miss Sullivan back to her designated quarters," Hux ordered.
The Stormtrooper hustled back to his table and grabbed his helmet. When he returned, Sully was rising from her seat. He grabbed her arm and she gave him a deadly look, causing him to let go. She walked off with the stormtrooper without another glance back at the general.
Sully spent the rest of the afternoon and evening meditating in her quarters. She was trying something she hadn't tried in years- something that used to make her cry tears of frustration growing up: she wanted to talk to Poe. To somehow make a connection with him, using the force.
She allowed her mind to be flooded with thoughts of him. The routine he would be going through at this time of the day. The sound of his voice. The expression on his face when she told him a joke that took him off guard. The wrinkles around his eyes when he laughed. The wrinkles around his mouth when she worried him. Two things made her meditation difficult. One was that she was trying to keep her mental barriers rock-solid at the same time - she didn't want anyone to know what she was attempting. The second thing was that the memories she was stirring up we're causing inner turmoil for her.
When she decided that she couldn't try another moment more, she laid down and fell asleep, against her better judgement, her dreams filled with images of Poe.