Chapter Twelve: A Flicker
Kylo had originally put in coordinates for the Unknown Regions, intending to bring Rey to his master. After her demonstration, he found himself altering course, heading instead to an early Order shipyard no longer in use on Rakata Prime. It had been commissioned in the regime's infancy, before Hux, and abandoned for years due to the planet's exhausted resources.
He would need to manually pilot the shuttle soon, space anomalies were prevalent in the area, but Rey had to be moved somewhere more secure first.
Her recovery had gone smoothly. Kylo had linked her bio-file to the personal console in the quarters he had claimed and could monitor her progress whenever he wished. She was eating everything put before her and had regained enough strength to complete several bacta rounds of skin growth.
Unfortunately, her defiance had increased as well. The little junk rat had already attempted to fashion herself a welding torch from spare parts she'd torn off the med-bay walls, and he'd caught her gaze lingering on the sharp appendages of the medical droids in appraising calculation she couldn't quite hide.
She didn't seem overly-prone to sentimentality where her freedom was concerned. How very unJedi-like. Promising.
Kylo stood before the med-bay door now, checking the window to be sure she wasn't going to lunge at him again with some new, cobbled-together armament. He didn't fully grasp what he was doing—his intentions were still murky at best—but he knew being stabbed in the stomach wasn't part of the yet-to-materialize picture.
Rey had her back to the hall, arms stretched overhead as she combed her fingers through her scorched hair. The left side had taken the brunt of the explosions' heat, shored off at her chin, and errant curls of damage ringed her head in an asymmetrical bob. A slice of skin peeked from beneath her black shirt, and it widened as she leaned her weight on one foot, sending her hips askew.
It was obvious she thought herself alone. When she normally faced him she was taut and guarded, gauging how monstrous he'd be, but now she lengthened in a second stretch, tentatively testing for any soreness. Kylo determined sensing an enemy's presence was one of the first lessons he would teach her, if only to avoid stumbling onto so much bared hip again.
Rey continued inspecting the wreckage of her hair, separating a jagged lock of brown between two digits and pulling it to her face.
Kylo opened himself to her thoughts, a gentle listening markedly different from his normal onslaughts.
What would Finn say? He heard her muse. How much is a sense of duty, and what's true feeling?
Kylo's eyes widened from behind his visor. It seemed an unsettling posture wasn't all he'd come upon.
He'd do anything to keep me safe. Rey's thoughts hushed to a self-conscious whisper, becoming hard to hear. To see me now… these scars? She fingered her cheek, tracing the healed side still covered in ridges. Would he still ask me to join him?
She brimmed with misery and silent insecurities he doubted she'd admit to aloud.
Who the hell is Finn? He stewed. Why does she care what she looks like to him?
Kylo craned forward as her misery multiplied, unaware his eavesdropping was growing less discreet, and his own mind was beginning to broadcast.
Rey pulled the hem of her top up, examining the new, pink skin at her stomach.
What if that monster hadn't grabbed me right when those charges went off? She wondered. I'd be dead, or in so much pain I'd wish I was. Maybe Kylo Ren isn't so bad.
He leaned until his helmet bumped the door.
I mean, aside from relying on forceful abductions, strangling his captives, and voyeurism of course. Maybe under all that he's not such a twisted juvenile parading around in a costume.
Ah, Kylo stiffened at her venom, realizing he'd been misled. Her erratic abilities—amateur, yet uncanny—left him scrambling for strategy, unable to succumb to his normal, mindless rage. She senses me now.
Damn right I do, Rey whirled around and stalked up to the window, tapping the glass as she caught sight of him. Stop staring and let me out of here.
He doubted she knew how prodigious it was to exchange silent sentences through the Force. It was one thing to discern emotions or coherent sentiments in the churning, rapid tumult of another's mind, but a nearly-lost aberrance to send intent as clearly as spoken words.
Have you scavenged another useless weapon? Kylo asked mentally.
My words injure just as well, Rey returned. And you've been leering long enough to see I have nothing concealed on me.
His jaw locked. I was NOT leering—.
Your thoughts give you away, she interrupted. Your mask doesn't hide where your eyes fall. Rey yanked the last of her shirt down, obscuring her vestige burns.
Kylo contemplated sending her flying against a far wall, or perhaps snapping the bones in her forearm. Hold your tongue, he warned. Idle curiosity doesn't mean I won't destroy you in the most drawn-out, torturous ways.
She crossed her arms. Really? She challenged. I'm waiting.
Careful, he fed her images of the stationary equipment making up her impromptu cell being pried from their bolts and sent hurtling at her, crushing her in a buried pile of jagged metal and sparking, broken wires. I am not one to antagonize.