The Broken Ones | REYLO [Complete]

Prologue

Awareness creeps back in as I slowly come out of the black fog. My fingers and toes twitch, but I am unable to move much else. The sharp smell of metal fills my senses and I'm aware of a bright, artificial light beaming down on me. I come back to reality as I try to figure out where I am. My head is throbbing as if I'd taken a beating from the inside. There's something else, deeper. A nagging feeling that skirts just out of reach.

I try to remember what happened before I blacked out. Flashes of gunfire, the green and brown of a forest and the red of a blade. Red and black, darkness, pinning me down and forcing my memories. Red...there's that feeling again. But what--

I gasp sharply and jerk forward as my eyes fly open and I find myself staring into a harsh light pointed directly at my face. My gaze travels the room, taking stock of the claustrophobic metal walls and the overall coldness of the room. I tug at the restraints around my body and glance down, noticing for the first time the bands strapping my arms and legs to the metal contraption that resembles a torture device. I can't move at all and I see no way of escaping. I look up and glare at my captor, who is crouching in front of me and watching my every move. "Where am I?" I demand, my voice surprisingly strong. 

Kylo Ren is silent for a moment, and I can practically see him smirking. "You're my guest," he replies calmly. His deep voice, distorted by the mask, sounds inhuman.

"Where are the others?"

"You mean the murderers, traitors, and thieves you call friends?" He tilts his head ever so slightly and I clench my fists angrily. "You'll be relieved to hear I have no idea."

Hatred, pure and white-hot, races through my veins. I rack my brain in an attempt to come up with some kind of escape plan, one that involves strangling or pummeling or--

"You still want to kill me," he states smugly. I narrow my eyes and stare back at him, unafraid.

"That happens when you're being hunted by a creature in a mask," I snap. Ren seems to mull this over before reaching up and placing his hands on either side of his mask.  Moments later I hear a small pop, and the snout-like mouthpiece slides up. He stands up and removes the mask, allowing thick, dark hair to fall over his face. The seconds feel like hours as he slowly straightens his tall frame and looks up at me. Deep brown eyes meet mine, daring me to say something. My gaze roams over his features. I'm not sure what I expected, but this was not it. His face, long and pale, is framed by hair so dark it's nearly black. His eyes don't betray any emotion, but also aren't as cold and unfeeling as I had imagined. I glance over full lips and a nose that looks like it's been broken a time or two before meeting his gaze once more. He's handsome, in a dark, dangerous sort of way. But what stands out to me the most is how young he is. I never expected the mighty Kylo Ren to be just a few years older than myself.

Ren slowly approaches and drops the mask in a tray of ashes before moving to stand alarmingly close to me. My pulse is racing and I try unsuccessfully to hide my fear. His imposing figure looms over me, and suddenly I'm back on Jakku, an abandoned little girl standing in the shadow of the vile junker Unkar Plutt.

"Tell me about the droid." His voice sounds oddly normal without the interference of the mask, making it hard to believe that this is the man who has slaughtered countless innocents without reason.

I take a shaky breath. "He's a BB unit with a selenium drive and a thermal hyperscan indicator--"

"He's carrying a section of a navigational chart," Ren interrupts impatiently. "We have the rest, recovered from the archives of the Empire. But we need the last piece, and somehow you convinced the droid to show it to you." He pauses to give me a disgusted once-over. "You. A scavenger."