Creatures behind Masks

Chapter 1

He watched her as she slept, her mind in a state of darkness. He moved through her memories as a snake through a forest, scenting for anything important. But nothing on the surface was of interest to him. He pulled away as her mind began to awaken.

Her eyes opened and she blinked a bit as she took in her surroundings. Her gaze finally landed on him and he felt her fear of him. She did her best to hide it from him and herself but there was no escape from the gnawing biting terror that would consume her as he took what he wanted from her. She knew it was only a matter of time.

The scavenger took a steadying breath and her voice was deceptively calm. "Where am I?"

He couldn't help but admire her a bit. Many in that same chair had begun their...discussions with screaming and pleading. It was a refreshing change of pace.

He smiled behind the mask. "You're my guest."

Her brows knitted in confusion as she looked around again. It was the only outward sign that her mind was still in disarray.

Still, she swallowed and asked, "Where are the others?"

His eyes narrowed and he didn't even try to keep the contempt from his voice. "You mean the murderers, traitors and thieves that you call friends?"

She didn't respond but he answered her question anyway. "You'll be relieved to hear I have no idea."

He came closer to the girl and he allowed a bit of his power to roll through her. It twisted and writhed with her own weak connection to the force.He could sense it now . She was force-sensitive but untrained at hiding her emotions or her intentions , it seemed.

His head tilted to the side. "You still want to kill me?"

She bared her teeth at him like the 'reaches trash that she was. "That happens when you're being hunted by a creature in a mask."

Kylo looked her over; truly took her in physically and mentally for the first time. She was...different. He'd trained dozens of knights over the last decade but few had the fortitude to stand up to even a minimal amount of his power in their minds. At least not at first. He cared little for the other knights, usually, and disliked having to instruct them.

But the scavenger...He thought he would enjoy the challenge of breaking her and reshaping her into a knight. His first instinct had been to remove his mask and show her that he wasn't a creature. That he was a man able and willing to do terrible things to her in order to get what he wanted.

His hands came up a few inches before stopping and falling back down to his sides. No...to show her his true face was to show her that he was flesh and blood...and weak. While shrouded, he was still unfathomable to her. He was still more than human. She wouldn't be afraid if she thought him no better than her. He would be a known quantity then.

Even now he could feel the force swirling in soft waves about her, light and airy as an endless desert or ocean. And just as deadly if given even an inch , he thought.

He came closer to her. "Tell me about the droid."

Her face immediately closed off and she leaned back. "He's a BB unit with a selenium drive and a thermal hypo-scan vindic—"

He stopped her recitation. He didn't care about that. "It's carrying a section of a navigational chart. We have the rest recovered from the archives of the Empire, but we need the last piece."

He paused, searching through the shallow thoughts that floated along the surface of her mind. He skimmed them but found nothing of interest. The question he really wanted answered was why a droid carrying classified information would allow her to know his mission; much less see the map.