The Prettiest Star - Star Wars - Kylo Ren

VIII

The room was cold and filled with sharp shadows. Its metallic walls and floors seemed to close in on her as she sat there. Neatly stacked on shelves and compartments, other 'tools' for more vigorous interrogation were on display, she silently wished that they weren't applicable to her. The chair she sat on was just as cold and harsh as the rest of the room. It was made of an uncomfortable metal and the restraints dug into her wrists.

She stared into the eyes of one of the two men stood in front of her, expressing both bravery and respect. Every move she made had to be calculated, she wanted to get on their good side. "Are these restraints necessary?" She said clearly, her voice confident. "I came here willingly yet you treat me like a prisoner."

The man frowned, she panicked for a moment thinking she had already crossed the line. He wore an impeccable black suit that contrasted hugely to his red hair. His face was like stone, she could sense the malevolence in him. He was far worse than Kylo Ren.

"It is a precaution." The familiar deep, metallic voice sounded. She turned to look at the mask of the Sith Apprentice himself. Light reflected from it, turning on the sharp corners of its face and disappearing into the eyes. Aside from the light she may well have been looking at a shadow. "We still don't trust you."

"And I don't quite trust you. However we are going to have to overcome this mutual distrust if we are to get along." She commented, keeping her head high.

"Don't get too full of yourself girl." Hux sneered. "Just answer our questions."

She politely stopped talking and nodded slightly. With a slight turn of her head, she looked at Ren once more expectantly. "How many X-wings were being contained in that rebel base?"

"Twenty three," She began. "However a pilot was out on a mission during your attack, when full there are twenty four."

"Good," Ren said quickly. "We want him to discover the extent of our power and run crying to the others." He turned to glance at Hux who nodded stiffly.

"She speaks the truth. Twenty three fighters were counted in the docking bay however twenty four were registered in their systems."

"How many inhabitants lived in the base?" Ren questioned further.

"One hundred and seventeen. We were expecting three more by the end of the day."

"What was the rebel base's next move going to be?" He said, more slowly this time.

She leaned forwards tipping her head towards him as she spoke. "The next day they were planning to attack one of your Star Destroyers situated in the inner rim. All three squadrons were to participate. I was going to lead one of them. Do you want me to name each member of my squadron?"

Hux shook his head. "You have said enough. Any extra information on the rebels would be greatly appreciated."

"They withheld a lot of information from me for this very reason. However I can tell you that in two days, your base on D'Kar will be attacked at approximately eighteen hundred hours."

Hux turned to face Ren. "Does she speak the truth?"

He simply nodded in return. "You can leave us now General." The voice sounded.

Hux swiftly left the room. Aya heard the sound of his shoes tapping along the floor and through the corridor, eventually fading away completely. With a wave of his hand, Ren shut the door; it slid along and was secured with a click. As the silence began to set in, he started to slowly walk around the chair, facing her every inch of the way.

Instantly, Aya's guards were up in her mind. She trapped all of her true thoughts and memories inside of a locked room in her head. It was a simple manoeuvre she had made up millenniums ago, no doubt Ren knew how to do it himself. "Sir, may I please be released from these restraints? I swear I wont stand up." She asked, breaking the growing silence.

He stopped pacing. She looked into the black void of his eyes, the mask threatening her with its gaze. Suddenly, a loud click sounded as the restraints sprung free. Relief spread through her wrists and she absentmindedly rubbed them as he began pacing again.

"Why are you here?" He rumbled, his masked voice betraying no emotion.

"I like to join the winning team." She began, lying effortlessly. She could feel him wander about the outskirts of her mind. "I recently came across a small dose of power, and I got a taste for it."

"That's not the only reason." He stated before diving into her mind. With his hand raised he dove through the outer barriers and into the depths of her consciousness. She felt him run through her brain and open doors, he viewed her synthetic memories and drank up her fake emotions. He stopped moving and leant closer to her, when he spoke again it was quieter, almost whispered. "You have had your deal of pain."

She looked up and stared into the black emptiness of his eyes once more. "I have had my deal of suffering and betrayal."

Instead of replying, he dug deeper into her mind. The girl intrigued him. When she was placed in her cell she just laid on the bed, hands clasped on her stomach, and stared at the ceiling. She lay like that for hours, waiting for their arrival. The Force hovered around her, orbiting her like her own solar system, like she was a star. Her thoughts and emotions lay in patterns unlike anything he had seen before.

General Hux was less enthusiastic about Ren's decision to keep her. He thought she was a possible weakness, untrustworthy. Were it not for Ren, she would no longer be breathing.

Aya soon understood this as she began to stretch into his mind. Unlike Ren, she could extract thoughts undetected. Her methods had been tried and tested on almost every species to exist over the course of thousands of years. This was as natural to her as it would be breathing. So she slipped into his mind, swiftly breaking through his barriers into parts of his mind only he had ever touched.

She saw him as his parents never had. Aya saw the confusion and suffering, all of the self-torturous thoughts. She witnessed the atrocious acts he had committed and the guilt that came with them. His guilt was so thick she could taste it; it was strong, sour, so much that it burnt the tongue. The light side was incredibly strong in him, his inner battles were some of the largest she had ever seen. This was part of the reason why he was so strong.

However, much to her surprise, she came to a blockage. Just as she got to the subconscious, the parts of his mind that even he couldn't see, she found that she could go no further. It seemed that he had buried them deep enough for even her to reach. The walls he had built were catered for himself. Like his mask, it separated the outside world from him. However in this case it separated him from himself.

Aya needed to get closer to him, she needed to break down these walls. She needed to get him in the most vulnerable state possible.

She felt him withdraw from her with a long-held breath. Slowly, he moved away from her, releasing his building tension. She could tell that he had not noticed her as she searched in his mind. Both of them suddenly felt a wave of fatigue, they had both stretched their brains to the limit. However neither of them let the other become aware of the tiredness. 

"In two days we will see if what you told us about D'Kar is correct." He said, emotionless, in his deep metallic voice. "Until then you are to stay in your cell."

Aya held back a smirk, he was coming round to her. Soon she would be walking the corridors of the Destroyer without the aid of a stormtrooper.