Sulit [ Ben Solo ]

XI.

CHAPTER ELEVEN
[ inimitable! ]

"Ah, very good, my young apprentice. You have brought me the Jedi Queen."

Ben took her by the arm and hauled her into the throne room. She stared Snoke down as she walked in, head held high and back straight as a board. The way she'd once faced the Emperor.

Ben knelt for Snoke, down on one knee with his head bowed, and Asteria stayed defiant. She stared hard at him, her gaze deadly. He pulled her lightsaber from Ben's hand with the Force and looked it over, smirking, before setting it down beside him.

"I have heard many stories of you, Asteria Rhyos," Snoke began, "a Jedi that never ages. A Jedi Queen of a planet no one knows of, and one that no one can find."

"I'm afraid I've heard nothing of much importance about you." Her handcuffs fell away from her wrists, clattering onto the floor. She took a quick look out of a nearby window. The Resistance has taken escape pods and abandoned the ship. They were being destroyed more and more by the minute.

"Still defiant. Though I suppose someone that faced down the Emperor and Darth Vader would be." He pulled her close to him with the Force, and she let him. "They were powerful, but it is I who will destroy you."

"You can try," she replied, her voice even and calm. "You've heard so much about me, yet you still underestimate me. And Ben Solo. It will be your downfall."

"We shall see." He stroked her face with the back of his hand, trailing it down her cheek and jaw, then taking hold of her mind with the Force. "But first, you will give me everything."

She fought back, pushing back on him hard. Through clenched teeth she gritted out a response. "I will give you nothing."

It hurt, oh kriff, did it hurt. He was in there, searching, invading violently. She fought back hard, trying to get him out. Her head throbbed, pain shooting through her brain. She was sure that she screamed, but she didn't hear it.

With a final push, she shoved him out of her head. Her throat was raw. She must have screamed. She took a second, just one, to glance over her shoulder at Ben. He was standing now and watching the exchange, his expression unreadable.

"You think that because of your bond that you know him?" Snoke mocked. "You think that he will save you? I created that bond. He is mine."

No. It wasn't true, it couldn't be. He was just saying it to push her. What they had was real, she was sure of it. She'd felt it. She had been alive for so long and felt nothing like she did when she was with Ben. It had to be real.