That Night

Anika tries to get comfortable and go to sleep, after saying an awkward goodnight to Ap'lek outside her door. She's shivering, however, as the base is unusually cold tonight. In fact, now that she's thinking about it… It's been a lot colder lately, hasn't it?

Was the planet's temperature fluctuating even lower than normal? Still, the base's heating system should be able to compensate. It pulls excess heat from the weapon and recycles it into the ventilation system. It is quite a smart solution, actually. The base acting as a heat sink helps to stabilize the weapon, and the weapon's supply of heat keeps everyone from freezing to death on the frozen world.

Anika burrows down under the covers further, hoping the bed warms up soon. Perhaps it is just a leftover effect from her illness. If she'd been as sick as Jorran said, it might be a while until she feels completely better.

Eventually, her toes feel slightly less frigid under the blankets. She relaxes against the pillow. If she's being honest with herself, she's a little bummed about sleeping alone. It had been strange at first, crawling into a bed with her commander. But nice feeling…very nice feeling. She sighs, tucking her hands under the covers for warmth. Kylo's undoubtedly busy, and she doesn't want to seem needy about staying in his room.

Several minutes go by, and Anika's mind starts to drift towards sleep. She's half there, unconsciousness pulling her in bit by bit, when the voices start. They're faint, hard to understand at first. Her mind barely processes them.

"Now's our chance."

"He won't be listening, he's with the Supreme Leader."

"It's a disservice to talk about this without him."

Anika fidgets on the mattress, clinging onto the sleep that still dances within her reach. She tries burying her face in the pillow to escape the sound. But the chatter is dragging her back from the void, waking her. The voices are getting easier to understand, and louder. With the increase in volume, her mind is finally able to realize something is wrong.

"Do you think he would listen? He'd be at our throats for daring to mention it-"

"-he's compromised, his priorities-"

"Do you think it's your place to question his priorities?"

"-he can't be worried about her, we're at war-"

"She's a problem. She needs to be dealt with."

The voices blur together in a tangle of an argument, battling to be heard. Her eyes snap open as her mind suddenly twitches to wakefulness, and all at once, the voices vanish. Anika sits up in bed, heart beating with alarm. Whose there? What the fuck was that? Silence meets her ears, only her dark quarters visible around her. But Anika knows she'd heard voices. Men's voices, and several of them.

"Hello?" she ventures timidly.

She sighs a minute later when, predictably, no one answers her. Her eyes rove the dark room as she waits to hear the voices again. A long time passes without even a whisper, and she heaves a sigh. Was I dreaming that?

Or was I hearing people in the hall? She throws the blankets back dramatically, ignoring the unpleasantly cold floor on her bare feet to march to the door. It slides open to reveal an empty hallway, Ap'lek the only figure outside. Anika sticks her head out, peering down the long corridor. It's entirely devoid of anyone but the Knight.

If he's curious about her behavior, he doesn't show it. Ap'lek just stands there, still as ever. Against the black walls, unmoving, he nearly blends in. Anika hesitates, before working up the nerve to ask him.

"Um, hey, Ap'lek…" she murmurs. "Was there anyone else out here a minute ago? Maybe some guys talking kind of loud?"

For a moment, he acts as if he hadn't heard her. But then he shifts, the mask shaking minutely. "No."

Fuck. What was that, then? Anika fidgets uncertainly, realizing she isn't exactly dressed at the moment. She'd neglected to pull on proper pants, and she does her best to hide her lower half within the doorway, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Oh-okay. Um, did you know if Ky-Commander Ren is still busy…with the prisoner, I mean?" she stutters.

"No. Master Ren is meeting with the Supreme Leader now," Ap'lek answers.

She has to swallow against a sudden lump in her throat. Isn't that what she'd heard in her dream? Something about he won't be listening, because he's with the Supreme Leader? What the…was I dreaming about people talking about Kylo? But how… Unless…

Unless it wasn't a dream. Anika shakes her head suddenly, retreating to her room with a hastily muttered thanks to Ap'lek. Once the door slides shut, she stares at it. What else would it have been, if not a dream? No…it had to be a dream. Just a really weird, coincidental dream. I've been through some weird stuff lately. There's probably all kinds of funky dream fuel in my brain.

Yeap. That's it.

Anika tries to lay down, to go back to sleep. But the strange incident has left her wide awake. She stares at the ceiling, making a disgruntled face. Why would I dream about a bunch of men arguing? She can't stop trying to remember what the voices were saying. Her stomach sinks when another fragment comes to her, replaying.

She's a problem. She needs to be dealt with.

Could the voices have been talking about her? She sends a glance towards the front of her quarters, and the closed door that Ap'lek is standing on the other side of. An uneasy feeling creeps over her.

Later

She must have fallen asleep at some point, because she wakes up in a panic at the feeling of someone touching her. Anika flails, striking out at whoever has a hold of her. Her eyes are too blurry from sleep to make sense of anything she's seeing, but she sends her fists flying.

"Woa-stop!"

Whoever it is catches her hands, and she thrashes in the attempt to break lose. Everything that's happened, from sabotage to blobs, to that strange argument she'd dreamed somehow, has set her on edge. Her mind interprets the abrupt wake-up as an attack, until it catches up to reason and Kylo's urgent voice.

"It's okay-Anika, it's me!"

She falters mid swing, that familiar deep voice managing to break through the stupidity of her sleepy brain. "Kylo?"

"Yes! Who else would it be?" he asks, sounding irritated.

When she lets her hands drop, he releases them. Anika frowns. "O-Oh…"

She darts her eyes at the digital clock, noting that it's late enough to be considered morning. Kylo gives a groan, dropping down to lay on the mattress. He's laying the wrong way, his legs hanging off the side of the bed. It's too dark to really make out his expression, but Anika can tell he isn't exactly chipper.

"I'm sorry. I didn't hurt you, did I?" she asks.

"No," he insists, despite the fact that he's ruefully rubbing his eye. The very same eye she's fairly certain she'd felt her hand connect with. Guilt lingers in her chest.

"I'm really sorry. I wouldn't try to hit you on purpose," Anika apologizes again. "I had this weird dream earlier, and I think it got to me."

Kylo sits up, and the lights in her quarters flash on without warning. Anika winces, blinking against the sudden onslaught on her pupils.

"Is that why you were asking about me?"

"How did you-"

"Ap'lek," Kylo cuts her off curtly. "He said you were acting stranger than usual."

She narrows her eyes at the wording. Meaning I always act strange? Rude. "Is that why you came here in the middle of the night?" Anika questions.

"I would've come here anyway," Kylo admits. "Though, I was expecting you to be in my quarters."

She swallows heavily when his eyes lock onto hers, something in them volatile. He's definitely in a mood, and she doesn't know how to handle it. Is he angry? Is it at her, or something else? Should she have just assumed he wanted her sleeping in his bed? Not everyone's a mind reader, you know…

Kylo must hear her passive aggressive thoughts, his eyes narrowing. Her heart speeds up when his gaze drops from her face to her night shirt, the cold air making her nipples more than noticeable through the thin material. His eyes linger there, before flitting back up to her face. She tugs the sheet up above her waist, trying to conceal herself.

"Next time, I'll have you escorted to my quarters," he promises lowly. "Then you won't have to guess at what I want."

His intense expression makes her feel nervous. For the first time since he took off his mask for her, he's fully reminding her of how intimidating he can be. There's something different about him tonight, something a little off balance. It's sexy, but unsettling. A thought occurs to her, but she hesitates. Does she dare to tease him like this? Throwing caution to the wind, Anika goes for it.

"Aren't you worried how that will look?" she asks. "Having a woman dragged to Commander Ren's chambers for the night…What would people think?"

The darkness in his gaze only deepens, pulling her in. For a moment, she is unsure if she should have gone there. But then he moves, finding her ankles under the sheets and wrapping his hands around them.

"Do you think I care what people think of me?" he asks softly.

The air leaves Anika's chest in a gasp of surprise when Kylo tugs her suddenly. He slides her down the mattress by her ankles, tugging the sheets down too, exposing her. He crawls over her, quick and predatory, pinning her down beneath his mass.

She searches his face, but gone is any hint of the sweetness she's seen from him before. This Kylo reminds her more of when he'd kissed her on his shuttle, after crash landing on that awful planet. She doesn't struggle when he takes her wrists, placing both above her head and holding them down with one hand.

"The entire base could see; it wouldn't do you any good. No one would dare to stop me," he admits quietly, searching her eyes.

She lets her eyelids fall closed when he leans down close to her face. She's expecting a kiss, hoping for it. There's a heat surging in her, compounded when she tests her wrists against his grip. Kylo's hand doesn't budge. If anything, he pushes her wrists down harder into the pillow, a confirmation of how useless a struggle would be.

She feels a ghost of Kylo's lips on hers, and tries to chase it. But he withholds a proper kiss to threaten her quietly. "I can do whatever, take whatever I want. And I want you."

Fuuuuuuck. Where had this side of him been hiding? Anika feels like he's short-circuited her brain when he finally kisses her. It's just a taste at first, but she can detect something on his tongue. Her baffled mind identifies it as liquor. I thought he didn't drink…His kiss turns rougher, the thought falling away. He forces her lips to part for his tongue, drags the hungry whimper from her throat. But then he stops.

Anika opens her eyes to find his, calculating. "You're distracting me," he accuses. "First, the dream."

"Huh?" she murmurs.

"Tell me about the dream that bothered you," Kylo commands.

"It wasn't important," she mumbles quickly.

It's a lie, of course. It had shaken her up, but she doesn't care now. She just wants more of him. Kylo growls with frustration, wrapping his free hand over her throat. Her body responds immediately with a throb of pleasure. He squeezes slightly, observing her react with excitement to the barest increase in pressure. There's a telltale flush to his skin, just a hint of a blush as he watches her.

"I could force you to tell me," he suggests. "But you'd probably like that."

Well, yes…Obviously.

"Is that what you want? Me in your mind?" Kylo asks, sounding doubtful.

"I mean…" I'd much rather have you in me other places… "It wasn't that bad last time," she admits uncertainly.

Kylo releases her, sitting back. Though his hand has left her wrists, she finds she is still not able to move them. She's pinned down now by something else, something intangible. Anika licks her lips, searching Kylo's face for a sign of what is going on in his mind. But he's unreadable other than the hunger plain in his eyes. She shifts her hips beneath him, impatient.

"You're not very good at being interrogated," Kylo says mockingly. "Shouldn't you pretend to fight this? Not wiggle with arousal underneath me."

She glares at him. "Who knew Commander Ren would be such a tease," she challenges. "What happened to taking what you want?"

His expression grows more severe at the goading. She's still stuck, held down by his power in the force. For just a moment, she considers that she's gone too far. But then the corners of Kylo's lips twist upwards, in a smirk.

"Well, if that's how you want it to be…" he says.

She freezes with alarm as he lunges down to capture her mouth aggressively. But Anika recovers quickly, kissing him back enthusiastically. She barely has a moment to enjoy the taste of him before he presses himself into her mind. It tears her focus away from Kylo's kiss. A muffled cry of surprise escapes her, only for the sound to die on his tongue.

It's much more abrupt than the last time he'd invaded her thoughts. His presence surges quickly, and her mind doesn't know how to process the sudden presence of someone else in a place where it had always just been her. It doesn't hurt, but it's startling.

And that's not all, as something else is different this time. It's no longer a one-way street. She can feel him. Arousal and aggression slam into her, backed by twin storms of anger and desperation. She drags her lips from Kylo's to gasp his name, and the feelings disappear as quickly as they'd assaulted her. But she's dizzy, her senses rocking as Kylo rewinds through her memories of the night.

Flashes of his memories leak through, and she catches glimpses of his lightsaber. Red sparks fly as he uses it, destroying panels in an elevator. He'd released his rage on the base as he'd made his way to her. But he tugs back on the memories, concealing them from her like he'd concealed his feelings.

Her hands are suddenly free, the force no longer pinning her. Whether he'd meant to free her or just been distracted, she doesn't know. She grabs onto his shoulders, searching for a way to feel steady despite the turbulence in her brain. Kylo finds the memory quickly enough, the one of men's voices arguing. He replays it as she clings to him. And then, as rapidly as he'd entered her mind, he withdraws.

Anika still feels shaky as he retreats from her, moving off her to sit at the side of the bed. Well, that was… Her stomach flips with nausea. Not my favorite thing in the world.

Kylo looks furious, his hands clenching into fists. She drags the blankets back up over her lap, uncertain if she should say something. For as mad as he'd apparently been earlier in the night, he hadn't seemed that bad when she first woke up. What about my dream made him mad again?

"It wasn't a dream," Kylo says flatly.

"…What was it then?" she questions curiously.

"Ap'lek put it there," Kylo explains. "He knew I wouldn't be listening, so he recorded it in your mind for me to find."

Anika's mouth drops open with surprise. What the fuck… But Ap'lek had been right outside her door. There wasn't anyone else out there, so how could he have been talking…? Anika shakes her head, feeling a dull ache that hints at long overdue sleep.

"Was that…the Knights talking?" she guesses. Kylo only nods in response, his jaw clenched. "So they were talking…like, in the force?" A second nod is her answer.

So Ap'lek used my mind like a fucking notebook? Wait, I am the problem they want to deal with, then!? Fucking fantastic. What the hell does that mean?

Kylo stands, pacing across her room. "This is not good timing. As if I don't already have enough to deal with."

"Do I have to worry about one of your Knights offing me now?" Anika asks, her heartbeat accelerating. The masked ninja wannabes were terrifying, all of them trained killers. Fuck me… fuck!

"No," Kylo snaps. "Most of them are still loyal, I'll deal with the problem."

Anika covers her face, pressing her palms against her eyes with exasperation. Somehow, Kylo's response isn't enough to reassure her. What is stopping one of them from deciding to take her out while he isn't around? "I hear you, but-"

"I'll handle it," Kylo repeats, angrily enough that she doesn't bother protesting further.

She sighs, plopping back against her pillows tiredly. She watches Kylo pace back towards the bed, his face still distorted with anger.

"What else do you have to deal with?" she asks, furrowing her brow. "I mean I know the blob thing, but…" she shrugs. She doesn't want to mention the flashes of his memories he'd accidentally shared while in her mind. But Anika is curious what pissed him off in the first place.

Kylo scowls. "The Supreme Leader has given us forty-eight hours to deal with the blob infestation. Or else."

Anika's jaw drops. "What!? But that's impossible, you can't check everyone on base in that short of time!"

"And yet that is exactly what I must do," Kylo says, sitting back on the edge of the bed. He rolls his shoulders, as if attempting to dispel his stress that way.

Suddenly, the taste of liquor on him makes much more sense. "Were you drinking before you came here?"

He darts a glance at her. "Hux offered while we were attempting to come up with a plan, and for once, I didn't turn him down."

Anika's eyes widen with shock. If Kylo was drinking with Hux, then circumstances were truly dire. The two men hated each other. She can't even imagine them being civil enough to share a drink, let alone have to come up with a plan together.

"Okay, but what does 'or else' mean?" she asks. "I mean, what can he do if you don't deliver?"

The look Kylo shoots her silences her immediately, somehow conveying the ominous alternative to fulfilling the Supreme Leader's orders. Shit. She stares up at the ceiling, searching it for a clue of how to help. Her eyes rove over the panels uselessly.

"The plan was to clear the troopers tomorrow, using the Knights," Kylo explains with a sigh. "Then use the troopers to assemble everyone else, group by group, working up to leadership. Clear them and have officers report anyone missing from the roundups."

Anika frowns. "But shouldn't you start with leadership and work your way down? If the blobs catch on to what you're doing, any in higher positions might be able to cause a lot of mayhem," she points out. "Like more sabotage, for starters, or…Anything to slow you down from getting through ranks."

Kylo's brow furrows as he considers what she said. "That's…a good point, actually," he admits begrudgingly. "But clearing the officers will be a lot harder without troopers to round them up."

"That officer's dinner is tomorrow," Anika points out, remembering when the real Darial told her about Hux's invitation. "They'll all be in one place."

Kylo gives a derisive laugh. "Right. I'll just circulate a fancy dinner, slashing apart blobs as I go. I'm sure they'll all sit in place and wait for me to get to them."

Ugh, true… If Commander Ren showed up and started murdering people without explanation, the ensuing panic would allow any blobs present to escape. Anika's eyes trail over the ceiling, restless, as if she's missing something. Finally, they land on a metal fixture. She contemplates the sprinkler head, unable to figure out why her mind is so stuck on the random object. But then, the idea clicks into place.