Torn Apart

Company

Lux opened her eyes slowly, her body registering pain. The room was lit with obnoxiously bright bulbs. Where was she? She remembered being surrounded by Stormtroopers. She knew she'd been shot but if she was a prisoner, why was she not restrained?  She closed her eyes again trying to remember any detail. It took all the resolve she had to shake herself from the sleep that threatened to overcome her and examine her wound. It had stopped bleeding but it was still painful. She leaned her head against the wall and hoped like hell it wasn't fatal.

All hope drained away as Kylo Ren, himself, entered the room in front of her. She couldn't see his eyes but she could feel his gaze heavy upon her face. She tried not to show fear but she was certain he could feel it. She took deep breaths, but she didn't know if it was to keep herself calm or to prepare for a fight. She knew she couldn't beat him but she'd put up a hell of a fight.

"Why did you bring me here?" she asked, her voice steady "Why didn't you let them kill me?"

"Because I wanted you alive," came the mechanical voice from his mask.

She could feel his probing in her mind and she purposely kept herself blank. "What do you want with me?"

She felt his hesitation. "I haven't decided yet. I could kill you, yes but then I'd never know the reason you and your band of troublemakers were running around Dathomir." She looked straight ahead and closed her eyes. 

"I asked you a question," he growled trying to hold his temper. "Do you always ignore your hosts??

"Always...especially when he has brought me here against my will," she replied finally.

"Would you rather me have you tortured by  soldiers who would keep you on a shackled rack in dark dank  holding cell?" he threatened. "Tsk, tsk, tsk," he shook his head side to side. "We have too much history together for me to not take a personal interest. Will you finally learn to appreciate my company?"

"I have often found that company in and of itself is not necessarily to be desired," she said flatly even though her wound was killing her.

"And you know all about desire, don't you, Lieutenant," he said a bit too suggestively. A warning to her that she wasn't dealing with Ben Solo boy but rather Kylo Ren the man.

She blushed and looked away, almost like the young girl he remembered.  He couldn't resist moving closer and she watched him approach apprehensively.

"You see," he said as he walked toward her. "Desire is what makes the whole world run, desire for gold...like my father, desire for power like my mother" he paused as he considered his parents. 

"And your desire?" she asked cutting him off. "To be treated like a circus monkey, carrying out foolish tricks that your master teaches you." Her body went stiff and the ache in her leg grew to an excruciating level of pain. He hadn't laid a hand on her but it was almost as if he had reached into her wound and ripped out the muscle.

"I am trying to restore order...order to the galaxy that the Rebels have taken away...order that the Resistance discourages." He said roughly as tears ran down her face.

"It's not your galaxy to rule," she managed to choke out as she fought against his invisible grasp.

"So you've learned to use your power at last. It certainly took you long enough. Your father was weak in letting it go to waste," he said tightening the hold to prove he was stronger. 

"M-m-my father loved me," she rallied against him "He tried to keep me safe....from you."

Kylo clenched harder as his anger grew. "And yet...here you are...in my grasp...just seconds from breaking the way your father tried to protect you from." She shook and fought but in the end he was too strong.  "You aren't the only one whose power has grown stronger. So has mine."

"Screw you Ben," she spat through her teeth. He released her at the sound of the curse words.

"What are you doing on Dathomir?" he asked again regaining his composure.

She braced herself for more pain "I'll never tell you," she whispered hoarsely.

"I can make you," he threatened.

"Keep telling yourself that," she hissed  "You'll have to kill me first."

"I can arrange that," he said pulling his lightsaber.

"Then do it, Ben. Just do it and end this stupid game," she growled in return.

"Stop calling me that. Ben is dead," he yelled lifting the glowing angry blade to strike. "He was a weak pathetic soul. I destroyed him."

She looked up into his blank mask but she could feel the anger pulsing off of him in waves. He was going to kill her. She knew that much.  She could hold off blaster fire but she was no match for a lightsaber. "And Kylo Ren is a coward," she muttered through her clenched teeth.

The blow was unexpected. She had prepared herself for the lightsaber but not to be thrown across the room and into the wall. 

And then it was lights out.

==============================

Kylo felt sick as his footsteps punished the floors of the Starkiller base. His insides were being ripped in half. Lux's presence was throwing him off of his game. He wanted nothing more than to take her in his arms and tell her how much he missed her. The girl he'd known had grown into a fiery brave and beautiful woman. It had pained him so to hurt her. But  she was part of the Resistance and he had a duty to fulfill to Supreme Leader Snoke...to his grandfather.