Torn Apart

Failed

Lux pulled herself slowly onto the sofa, the urge to sob was overwhelming. Her leg was in pain but what hurt more was the fact that whatever he had planned for her was still coming. He wouldn't just kill her. He planned to drag it out slowly.

She tried to weigh her options. She needed to escape. Get away...but how? She could barely walk and surely people would be on the lookout for her. Think Lux...you didn't get to be an officer by being a slow thinker. She stood but even her good leg was not working correctly and a sense of exhaustion came over her.  

She hobbled into one of the dark rooms and the light turned on as it sensed her presence.  A large bed covered in a deep maroon coverlet was before her. The room was bare with only essentials in it. There were no personal effects to determine if anyone slept in it. She assumed this was where  she could rest, at least until Ben returned. She pulled herself onto the bed slowly trying to find a comfortable position to keep her leg from aching. Once that was achieved, she closed her eyes and let sleep and the sweetest dream take over.

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Kylo Ren slipped soundlessly through the door and tiptoed to the side of the bed. Lux had fallen asleep with one arm shielding her eyes from the light she hadn't turned off. The other was twisted at an odd angle beneath her body.

He turned off the overhead light, then gently moved her arm away from her face and as he did, she pulled her mouth into a frown and shifted to one side.

He eased her bent arm from underneath her and straightened it before running his long fingers over the soft skin of her forearm. He then let his fingers close softly around her wrist, his heart racing in time with the pulse he felt.

His lungs filled with her smell...a scent he couldn't forget even after all this time... soap and roses. He saw her bottom lip quiver with a quick release of breath and heard the small sounds of contentment she made as his fingers rubbed her arm. He lifted his hand to pull the images from her head, almost expecting to see images of the Resistance base and life. Instead, she was remembering running through the palace gardens and drawing pictures of galaxies she had never dreamed she'd ever see. How far she'd come since the day in that pool where they swam together. And when her eyelids fluttered, something caught in his chest, caught his breath for just a second and a feeling other than the anger awoken in him.

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As she awoke the next day,  Lux shivered as she remembered where she was. She'd lived to see another day but she didn't know what the First Order had in store for her. In her dreams, Ben had been sweet and tender but she knew that it wasn't real. It was a product of her imagination. She had to remember who she was dealing with.
She was feeling significantly better than she had the day before. She stretched her injured leg out cautiously;  it hurt but at least she move it it. Now was her chance for escape. She maneuvered herself out of bed and stuffed a pillow under the covers, shaping it to look like a body. She ambled her way to the door and opened it quickly. She peered  down the halls to make sure there was nobody outside the room before slipping out and closing it quietly behind her. She still didn't have any shoes. This could be a problem. There was no way she would get far without any shoes, and people would definitely notice. Luck was on her side though as she made her way back to the medical bay. She rounded a few corners without being spotted. It should have alarmed her but the halls were empty.. This time she walked confidently, hoping that if she did meet anyone, her demeanour would not rouse their suspicions. She pressed the button pad to let herself into the what looked like a dressing room for the medical personnel.  She began to check the lockers for shoes and a First order uniform, and eventually found some that were the right size. She even found a mirror and some hairpins, and tried to tame her hair into a semblance of sanity; it would not do for her to wander the corridors looking like a mad woman. Now, where to go? She didn't even know what floor she was on. Where was the hangar for a ship? Or a communications room? How would she escape from this place?  The planet was frozen and full of snow and she was injured with no jacket or transportation. Lux knew that she was overthinking things. She was trained to handle these situations. She'd been in sticky spots before. She could do this. Right? She needed to if she wanted to get out alive.  She probably didn't have much time before her escape was discovered. She needed to find an exit, and fast. She tried to walk as normally as her leg would allow down the hallway. A First Order lackey passed in the corridor, going for the confident look she nodded to him and to her horror saw a look of recognition in his eyes. Before he had time to react she swung her arm up and brought the heel of her hand smashing into his nose. Internally she winced as she felt the bone crunch under the blow, but there was no time for squeamishness. She clapped her hands to the side of his head and he staggered and reeled. She sprinted away as fast as her leg would carry her, each step more painful than the next. Hopefully the combination of a broken nose and burst eardrums would slow him down. As she took a left turn, then another, she suddenly heard the sound of a siren, and lights began to flash.  Not good. That must have been the work of the officer she had decked, or maybe of someone who had found him. She could hear the sound of running footsteps behind her and she sped up, dragging her leg as she raced to get to the elevator before anyone found her. She made a right turn and there it was!

"Move damn it," she said to herself as she attempted to sprint the last five feet, and reached for the button, hoping she didn't need security access to call it. Just as she reached it the door opened and her heart sank. There was General Hux himself flanked by four Stormtroopers each pointing blasters at her. She leant forward, panting, her hands on her knees as a wave of faintness and nausea washed over her. 

She had failed.