The Dark Side

~15~

Neri'el awoke long after her meeting with the man of her nightmares. She did not give any signs that she was awake but rather steadied her breathing and peeked out from under her dark lashes. 

She was alone.

After learning this, she opened her eyes fully and looked around. She found that she was strapped to a long vertical table in a room barely bigger than the tent she and Tekka had lived in.

Tekka.

Her heart stung and she could feel a sudden constriction in her throat at the thought of the man who had been her caretaker for nearly four years. The man who had kept her safe, cared for her and protected her from her worst enemy. Herself. He had comforted her and loved her as his own daughter.

Neri'el closed her eyes as a memory rose to her mind and began to play out like a hologram in her mind's eye.

"It's incomplete," she murmured thoughtfully.

As she turned around, she saw Tekka nod.

"Correct." He sighed. I have studied this map for years yet still do not recognize the stars."

"But why have you done nothing with it?" Neri'el asked quickly, "You could get in touch with the Resistance and give it to Master Luke's sister."

"I have considered it. However I have also been waiting for the correct time to return it."

Neri'el swallowed thickly and refocused on the man's words.

"The right time?" she asked, beginning to tap her metal foot against the floor.

Tekka nodded and clicked the button. The stars vanished and he slid the cartridge back into his leather bag.

"Yes. The time when The First Order seems to be unstoppable and insurmountable. The time when new heroes will rise to light and defeat the army of darkness."

His grey eyes shone with new life as he stared back across the table at Neri'el.

"You are one of those heroes, Neri'el," he whispered.

A tear slid out from under Neri'el's lids and raced down her cheek. The droplet made its way down her chin then slowly dripped off onto the thin cotton of her shirt. A small damp mark decorated her otherwise plain tunic. It was soon followed by several more drops.

It was happening all over again.

Her home was gone.

Her mentor was gone.

Her new life was destroyed.

More tears came but no sounds. No screams, no loud shaky breaths, no torrential sobs. Just silent tears.

* * * * *

The tears had dried. They left behind sticky lines on the pale woman's cheeks. Neri'el's tunic was still damp but drying out. Her heart still ached but she forced herself to focus. She swallowed heavily and looked around her room again hoping to see something to use to aid her in her escape.

There was nothing.

The room was bare apart from her vertical table and a short grey bench across from her. There was only one door leading into the room that she could see on her left. Her room was dark and cold. Her clothes were made for the warm days of Jakku not the frigid nights in space. A shiver ran up her arm but it wasn't from the icy vent above her head.

A sudden coldness had surged through her. Her heart twisted as she felt the familiar sense of the Dark Side. She could feel her stomach churn as the door slid open to reveal the masked man.