Chapter Nine: Novice

Rey blinked herself awake and realized several changes to her status. She had been moved to a medi-bed, a long sheet pulled up to her chin, and the fuzzing in her brain had cleared. Her body ached, but no longer felt like it was on fire.

There was a steaming bowl of soup on a trayed table nearby.

And Kylo Ren stood at her feet, scrutinizing her as he had in the interrogation cell of Starkiller Base. She assumed behind his mask she'd see cold calculation, which was why she almost choked on her tongue when a gloved hand gestured to the table.

"Eat," he ordered.

Rey didn't give the offering a glance as she scooted upright. "No, thanks."

He flicked his wrist, bringing her hovering bio-file flying to her bedside. She flushed as she scanned its new contents, angry her most private details were on full display.

Tissue wastage indeed, she seethed. I was climbing around their precious stronghold JUST fine.

"Your friends seemed to care after your wellbeing as well as they planned and executed your rescue," he intoned, watching her read.

Rey wasn't going to answer. There was no need to give this masked horror any fodder. But her mouth opened anyway. "They didn't do this to me," she said.

Kylo Ren straightened as if she'd surprised him. Drawing his arms behind his back, he recovered quickly. "Ah, yes. The harshness of Jakku. And…," he paused. "Unkar Plutt?"

Her eyes went wide. How had he gotten so much from their brief encounter? He knew about Niima Outpost?

Resolutely staying mute this time, she cast her gaze about the room, alighting on an array of valuable instruments the droids were dittering over, beeping to each other.

"There are no weapons you could use against me," Kylo Ren stated, catching her inspection. "Except perhaps your paltry, Force fumblings."

Rey could tell he was testing to see if she could repeat her efforts from the cockpit, but decided to indulge anyway. She'd take any opportunity to increase his wariness of her.

Closing her eyes, she called up an image of her captor to mind, envisioning herself yanking the end of his pretentious cloak and sending him sprawling. She beckoned the warm, invisible ripples of Force lapping against her to rise to waves, but her entreaty was timid. They swelled gently, aimless and without purpose, unable to do more than roll around her.

Kylo Ren's flat monotone broke in contempt. "You grope for it like a child too short to reach a high shelf," he said. "Awkward and inexperienced."

He can feel my efforts? Rey tensed in her seat. I'm not imagining the ripples?

Encouraged, she concentrated, fueled by a fervent desire to prove him wrong. She barely knew what he was talking about; Maz had only mentioned the dormant power now awake in the vaguest of terms. But Rey had seen her effect when she'd pushed back against his mental assault. And when she'd convinced her guard to release her.

She heard cloth flutter, like a sudden draft had breezed through, and squeezed her closed eyes tighter, imagining Kylo Ren upended on his back.

The flutter intensified to an erratic flapping before a surprised snarl broke from his mask.

With a creak of glove leather, her summoned waves dissipated instantly. Rey opened her eyes to a glower she could feel through the layers of helmet between them.

"You are clumsy," Kylo Ren clipped out. "More of a bungling amateur than I originally assumed." He folded his arms. "You aren't part of the Resistance at all, are you?"

Rey's face betrayed her, heating in a bright blush that gave all the answer he needed.

Kylo Ren seemed to mull his own words, turning them over for a long moment as his obscured chin dropped down. "Yet you were able to enact their plan without any knowledge of it," he murmured, snapping attention back to her. "Those are powerful whispers you hear."

Rey made a big show of smoothing the sheets around her, trying to seem composed as she leveled their creases with flat palms. "A plan? Did something happen to your base on Ilum? Is that why we're now on an emergency shuttle?" She asked. It was a shot in the dark—she had no idea what kind of ship they were on, or why. Her charges couldn't have done anything catastrophic.

His shoulders moved in a flinch too fast to hide, and a spark of pride ignited in her. At least the gravity of her situation had been worth it.

"The shelves don't seem too high to me," Rey managed crisply.

Kylo Ren made an almost-human sound. He snorted. "With a teacher, you'd reach them effortlessly," he acknowledged.

Her hands stuttered at his lack of anger. Had she… not damaged Starkiller Base? Why didn't he seem to care? She fumbled through a reply. "That so?"

As he nodded and lifted an arm, she caught a flash of unfamiliar ships firing on the planet-size construct.

No, not… caught. Sent.

Rey narrowed her eyes at his open hand spread out towards her. He was choosing to send her information. To show off? To trick her?

"I'll crash those shelves down on you first then," she vowed.