Mother ~ The Sequel to Breeder

6

Kylo Ren's POV

"I had no idea we had the best pilot in the Resistance on board."

My captive slowly blinked his eyes open, blood dripping from a cut on his lower lip, more smeared across his sweaty forehead. Even bound and beaten, he clenched his square jaw in a futile show of bravado.

"Comfortable?" I asked, smirking behind my mask.

"Not really."

I took a few steps towards him, his eyes struggling to absorb his surroundings in the dim lighting. "I'm impressed," I said. "No one has been able to get out of you what you did with the map."

"You might want to rethink your technique."

Perhaps you're right.

I held up my right hand, the muscles in my wrist tensing ever so slightly, creasing my leather glove as I reached into his mind through the Force. Despite his former toughness, a quivering breath escaped my prisoner's lips, his brows pulling down in discomfort, which quickly devolved into pain. I'll admit, he held up better than most, but none save those trained by the Jedi or the Sith had the willpower to resist my psychic interrogation.

Poe Dameron, orphan, no siblings, though he sees- my upper lip twitched involuntarily. He sees General Organa as a mother figure. No girlfriend, no boyfriend.

The commander grunted in agony as I flipped through memory after memory of the attacks he inflicted on First Order bases and fleets. Where the fuck was that damn map?

My impatience got the better of me, and I slammed his head against the back of the crude device he was strapped into, the impact audible. Through the Force, I felt his pain, but also his continued determination.

"Where is it?" I asked slowly, willing myself to maintain my composure.

He craned his neck to look at me, gasping out, "The Resistance... will not... be intimidated... by you."

I curled my fingers slightly, the tension causing the muscles in my arm to reverberate, sweat pooling on my upper lip. "Where is it?"

Dameron's face contorted in pain, a few tears mixing with the sweat on his face, the tendons in his neck popping out violently. The trick with prisoners like this was not accidentally killing them before I could extract the necessary information. He roared with rage and defiance, but it couldn't stop me from peeling back the walls of his mind and locating what I sought- the location of the map, stored inside a BB unit.

But that's not all I saw.

Without meaning to, I sped past the previous night, all the way to the previous few days, saw him at different Resistance bases, meeting with pilots and mechanics alike. My heart lurched when I saw a familiar face, one I hadn't seen in over four years.

Astrid had grown older, obviously, and little things changed over the years (the length of her hair, the shape of her face), but she was still the woman I fell in love with. I thought I'd never see her again, and yet here she was, in this filthy rebel's brain.

In her arms, she held a young boy, his hair dark and silky straight, her hand rubbing soothing circles on his back.

My son, that's my son.

Tears welled along my lower lid, and I had to relinquish my hold on his mind, the emotion too intense to bear. He never got a look at my son's face, never bothered to, and I was tempted to murder him for such a transgression.

But I'd seen her beautiful green eyes again, and every passion I attempted to suppress came flooding back to me, twisting my chest with longing. There wasn't a day that went by that I didn't regret sending Astrid away from me, and now I knew how to find her, how to bring her back. I'd gotten two maps for the price of one. But could I do it? Could I drag her back into my world- put my son within Snoke's grasp again?

I left the integration, passing a Stormtrooper as I went.

"The map is still on Jakku," I said almost off-handedly. "In a BB unit."

As much as it killed me, I had to prioritize finding Luke, at least for now. But I wouldn't let Astrid slip away a second time, that much I knew for sure.