Kylo Ren

XVI

Aura Dameron woke up in a room filled with flashing control panels.

She tried to sit up, but found that she was bound to some sort of interrogation chair.

With a sigh, she let her throbbing head fall back to the headrest.

It was hours before the door slid open.  She forced her eyes open and lifted her head to see.

Kylo Ren.

She stared right at where his eyes were, but she couldn't tell if he was looking back or not.

He paced around her and she strained to keep her eyes on him.

When Kylo Ren stopped right behind her, she closed her eyes. He stood there for a while, then walked back around.

"It's peculiar," he said, with a gravelly, mechanical voice, "how you found the destination before we did."

"Not so peculiar once you consider our technology comes from the smartest minds in the Republic." Aura's voice was rough, and it scraped up her throat.

"The smartest minds in the Republic work for me," Kylo Ren said forcefully.

"Obviously not, since they decided to work for you instead."

It was not the thing to say to Kylo Ren. Within seconds, the tip of a fiery red lightsaber hung before her face. The heat made her want to sneeze, but if she did, she would drive her head straight into the lightsaber.

Instead, she slowly moved her eyes from the saber to the mask.

The lightsaber was slowly lowered, and she though perhaps Kylo Ren would have mercy.

He put out his hand and pain rocketed through her skull. Aura winced.

"Where is the base?" he asked through clenched teeth.

Fighting back the pain, Aura shook her head.  She couldn't speak, she knew all that would come out was a scream.

He pulled harder, and she closed her eyes against it.

"No!" she yelled, voice fraying around the edges.

But he persisted.

Finally, Kylo Ren exhausted himself, only getting the name of the Dunov base.

He left and let the door close.

Aura slowly opened her eyes to the empty room.  The panels winked back at her, spotting as her eyes struggled to focus.

She let her head fall back again.

Once she had gathered her strength again, she looked down at her wrists.  They were bruised from pulling against the restraints.

Aura tried to reach the pocket of her jacket, where she knew there'd be a tool that could help her escape.  Just before she'd reached the pocket, the door opened.

Her head hit the headrest in surprise.

A tall, red-headed man entered, and went straight over to the controls.

"What are you going to do?" Aura asked, hoping to stall him.

He didn't look up.  "Since Kylo Ren is obviously incompetent to get this information, the Supreme Leader commissioned me."

"You will not get any out of me."  She certainly hoped what she said was true.

"We'll see.  Head back."  He glanced to make sure her head was on the head rest and pressed a button.

The sides came together around her head, pressing cold metal to her temples and the back of her head.

The man walked around slowly, moving her head roughly back and forth to his satisfaction, then went to a control panel to her left, positioned so that he could face her while working it.

"We'll start easy.  This machine is designed to detect lies, and, depending on how I set it, deliver punishment in varying degrees of electrical shock.  Let's see, name?"

"Aura Dameron," she said, jerking so that her temple hit one of the metal things.

He stood and readjusted her head, moving something so it held her more firmly.  "Right.  Now, the stakes are higher.  If you lie, it will hurt.  Terribly.  Understand?"

She tried to nod.

Aura Dameron took a deep breath.

"Do you know Luke Skywalker personally?"

"Yes."

The man seemed satisfied as she relaxed.

As he entered a code, she tried to stall him again.  "What's your name?"

"None of your concern."

"It is, if you're interrogating me.  Who's name do I say if you ask who I hate most?"

He glared up at her and touched a button, making the power higher than before.  "General Hux.  Now, do you know where Luke Skywalker is?"

"No."  She let out a deep breath as no shock came.

"From here on out, it gets worse," he said, pressing a button.  "Where you after the map?"

"It's a map?"

"No questions."

"I didn't know it was a map, but yes, I was sent after it."

No pain.

"Who was it sent to?"

"I don't know," she replied.

"How did you figure out who it was sent to?"

"A duo of lieutenants, who work in transmissions."

He pressed a button.  "Did you move the base?"

"I didn't."  That was truthful, if not fully, and no shock came.

"Where is the base now?"

She took a deep breath.  "Dunov."

Pain ricocheted through her body, starting at her head.  When it subsided, her vision was clouded.

Hux pressed the button again.   "Where is the base now."

"Dunov."

The pain was stronger this time.

He asked her three more times, each time she said Dunov.

Finally, he turned it off and let the headrest release.  Her head fell sideways into a point and she hissed slightly.

He left, returning with Kylo Ren.

"She will not tell us where."

"Did you try the highest setting?"

"Of course, twice."

Kylo Ren circled her again.  She closed her eyes.

Finally, he stopped.  "Execute her."

"Is not the protocol to have a day's delay, for the records?"

"The protocol is tedious, of a failed empire."

The two men stared at each other, until Hux finally broke.

She was too groggy from the pain to respond as Hux went to the control panel.  A tiny silver arm popped out of the chair by her right bicep.

Aura watched it.

"Awaiting your command, sir."  She noted how General Hux said that, with contempt.

Kylo Ren nodded to him.

A quick pain, dull against the interrogation, and all went black.

---

Wow look an authors note.

This chapter was really hard to write, but it kind of explains the hatred Poe has towards Kylo Ren in TFA.

So yeah.

Sorry for the feels.

Plus I couldn't find a picture of the empty chair, so Poe's sitting in it.