Wayward [Kylo Ren]

III

III

"Come back again, have you?" Kaida greeted the open door as she heard the heavy feet clomping through. She wondered how long it'd been since she woke up in here. She knew that she was hungry, and thirsty, and needed to use the bathroom. Priorities.

She turned her head to see him, without the mask this time, approaching her. A man clad in all black. A man who was practically foreign to her eyes.

"I just came back from visiting with your brother, actually," his baritone voice said. "Unlike you, he didn't speak a word to me. I found it quite rude."

"I don't know why I talk to you, you've done horrible things to good people. And I have a feeling you're not done committing heinous acts yet."

"Instead of letting you slowly rot here, I'm going to give you an opportunity, Kaida Quinn." Kaida flinched at the use of her full name. "You give me what I ask for, and in return I'll move to you to another cell, one more...comfortable."

"Bargaining?" Kaida scoffed. "I didn't think that was your style."

"I don't want to have to hurt you. It's the last thing that I want to do."

"Then let me out. Let me go free. And Axel. Just let us go."

"Pleading. Pathetic." He snorted down at her. All she could see in him was disdain for her. A complete one-eighty of how he used to feel. "Give me the location of Luke Skywalker."

At this, Kaida furrowed her brows. He wasn't actually serious, was he? Her, Kaida Quinn, know the location of the famous Luke Skywalker, famed Jedi and rebel fighter? Has he lost his mind? "I don't know where he is." Even if I did, I would never betray someone like that.

"I know he's not dead, we would have confirmed it with his body. We would have felt it in the Force."

"Master Skywalker and I weren't close."

"You could have heard something. Words do travel."

"Not to my ears," Kaida said strongly.

"I would ask you about a resistance, but clearly you never got that far to make contact with any of the scum."

I wish I had so I wouldn't have to see you again in all of your dark glory. "If there is such a thing, I hope they're your downfall, Ben."

Ben's face tightened. "That is not my name."

"It's the one your parents graced you with when you were born. It's the one you gave me the day I met you." Kaida's voice became stronger with every word. "How can you refuse to acknowledge your heritage? How dark have you gone that you refuse your true name?"

"You call it dark, I call it enlightened. I'll give you one more chance, Jedi, before I start poking through your mind. Where is Luke Skywalker?"

"Are you deaf? I don't know where he vanished to." I wasn't even aware he was alive until just now. But Kaida refused to let Ben know that. "You can prod through my mind all you want, but you won't find anything about Master Skywalker. I can't wait to see the look on your face when you realize how much of a fool you've made yourself to be."

"We'll see about that."

Kaida tensed, cringing, as she felt something trying to poke into her mind. She knew Jedi were capable of manipulating the weak minded with some help of the Force, but this...this was something brand new. Something that only someone influenced by the Dark Side could learn.

Suddenly, she regretted ever telling Ben—no, challenging him—to get inside of her head.

She had no valuable information that he could use for his gain, not in the sense of him hunting down more Jedi. But she feared what he would uncover from her past, and his. Some of their past was intertwined, some of it very intimately. She didn't want that to fall into his hands. Oh the leverage it would give him, and the damage it could do to her...

Kaida grunted, trying to figure out a way to push against Ben's intrusion. But we weren't trained to protect ourselves from...this. This was new, this was strange, and this was most certainly unwelcome to her.

Her face twisted into concentration, just as his did. She could feel his power as it tried to tap into her brain and extract the information. She felt her muscles begin to shake, and a slight sheen erupt on her forehead. Don't let him in. I'm not afraid of him, but he has no right to violate my privacy like this. He will not breach my mind. I won't let him.

The best Kaida could think up was a concrete wall as high as her imagination could build it. She watched the struggle in Ben's face. She knew by his expression that she was gaining a foothold against him.

She felt the pressure in her skull, and it was pressing harder now, so much that she was starting to grunt more from the pain. Does he think he'll gain anything from squeezing my brain to mush? Kaida wriggled in her restraints.

She watched the frustrated look on Ben's face slowly disappear.

If he was in, she couldn't tell. She could just feel the pain that he was dealing to her. It was a migraine amplified by five times the normal amount of pain. Kaida closed her eyes, trying to focus herself harder. But the pain seemed to break her defenses, and now she was letting out little cries of pain. She refused to beg him to stop. She refused to give him that satisfaction.

Kaida was surprised when he stopped suddenly, and she gasped out loud, heavily, as she threw herself back against the chair. She winced at the slight pain it gave her. The throbbing in her head was slowly lessening, and she glowered at Ben.

"I told you, I don't know where Luke Skywalker is," Kaida huffed, sucking in breath. "Do you want to turn my brain to mush to prove your point?"

"You weren't cooperating."

"You thought I was lying."

"And you don't lie?" Ben asked her coldly.

"You did. You still do." A lump caught in Kaida's throat.

Ben's face remained unreadable. "You don't know anything about me."

"If you stay a bit longer, I can tell you that I do."

Ben stood up straighter. He said nothing for a time, just stared down at her while she stared up at him. Both pairs of eyes, brown and green, almost never blinked. They engaged in a quick staring contest, to which he lost when he moved his eyes away from hers.

Wordlessly, he left Kaida alone, still stuck in her contraption. She gently put her head against the chair, calming her breathing. She could feel Axel's worry through the Force; he must have sensed her pain. She tried to assure him that she was alright, but she didn't feel his worry lessen. 

**Mm so a little head-to-head action. Just not the kind you were probably hoping for if you ship them.

Hmm, ship name, ship name...Kailo? Kyida? Kailo sounds decent but it doesn't have that just right feeling. Or maybe I'm just not used to it yet.**