Prisoner

24

He moved out of the row back to the main isle of the archives looking around for where the computer might be. "You take that side," he told her gesturing to the right, "I'll take this one." He motioned left. "Look for a computer, I can't remember where it is, all I know is that it's fairly old." She nodded and turned away from him. Kylo Ren began to walk back to towards the main doors of the archives. He would start at the front and work his way down.

As he approached the doors, one of them flew open.

Startled, he stopped in his tracks. He glanced back looking for Magnolia, but she appeared to have disappeared among the stacks. He turned his attention back to the newcomer. 

"Kylo Ren! I hopped you would be here!"

"General Hux," he said through gritted teeth. "What brings you to the archives?"

"I could be asking you the same question," Hux replied breezing past him, "but I am here solely on business."

"What kind of business?" Kylo Ren asked, following the General as he began looking down every row.

"Strictly professional, I can assure you."

Kylo Ren had a sneaking suspicion it wasn't professional, but decided to remain silent. He hopped the General's search for whatever he was looking for would involve him going down one of the aisles soon, because they were fast approaching were he had left Magnolia. 

"Ah ha! Here we are!" Hux exclaimed.

Kylo Ren felt a surge of panic, the General was making his way hurriedly towards Magnolia, who seemed to shrink back in fear as he approached her.

"How did you know where we were?" Kylo Ren asked.

"I always know where everyone is dear Ren." General Hux told him, now standing uncomfortably close to Magnolia. "I am a General after all. Snoke expects a lot from someone such as myself."

He turned his attention to Magnolia. "And speaking of, the Supreme Leader has requested to see our little prisoner here."

Magnolia paled and glanced fearfully at Kylo Ren.

"Absolutely not." Kylo Ren told him. 

"Going against our superior?" The General let out a low whistle. "You know how that would end don't you Ren?"

Kylo Ren wanted to smack his forehand for being so stupid. He couldn't go against Snoke, not yet anyway.

"Snoke has requested to see our new friend here. And actually, you might have known that yourself Ren, had you actually been present at our last meeting with the Supreme Leader, but instead, you were running around with her." He gestured to Magnolia. "Oh I am so looking forward to his reaction when her finds our why you weren't there."

Kylo Ren had to think fast. He would have to come up with another reason as to why he couldn't speak to Snoke, but in the meantime he has to make sure the two of them never met in the first place.

"She can't go. She is still unwell." He told Hux matter- of- factly. 

"Oh, is that so?" Hux sneered. "She seems just fine to me. Running around with you."

"She is still technically injured, especially in her brain. If the Supreme Leader wanted information with her, it might be inaccurate. She is still having trouble with her memory."

"Is that why you brought her here then?" Hux asked. "Hoping it might jog her memory?" He added sarcastically.

"Actually, that's exactly why he did." Magnolia spoke up. "After you left us this morning, Kylo Ren began to interrogate me in the hallway, knowing full well I was not in the right frame of mind to do so."

Under his mask, Kylo Ren's mouth opened in shock. He couldn't believe Magnolia was making this up to throw off the General.

"And just why did he do that Ms. Ruliesoli?"

"I think it might have been you, General Hux. You probably inspired him to take some action for once in his life. Unfortunately for the First Order, ever since I hit my head, pieces of things keep floating around my brain. I don't know how I ended up here. I don't remember how I became entangled with the First Oder in the first place. What I do know is that after minutes of verbally accosting me and trying to use the Force to will me to give up any information I had, Kylo Ren grew frustrated enough to bring me here. He told me that reading about the Resistance might jog my memory faster. He said that there wasn't time to wait on me to recover, he said the First Order had to act now."

Kylo Ren smirked under his helmet. If only Magnolia knew how proud he felt of her.

Hux turned away from Magnolia, clearly frustrated by her answer. "Is that true Ren?"

"Why is it that you always doubt me General? I do have my moments of genius, yet you can't seem to accept them." He said.

Hux took a moment to process the information given to him. Magnolia had clearly been convincing, but he still didn't trust Kylo Ren. He would just have to think of another way to get Magnolia in front of the Supreme Leader. Then Snoke would see just how weak Kylo Ren had become in the presence of someone like Magnolia. 

"Very well. You two continue your great quest to get her memory back. I'll have to inform Snoke of our prisoners convenient memory lapse." He began to move away from Magnolia, and drew very close to Kylo Ren. "Don't think you've got me fooled for a second Ren." He said quietly enough so that Magnolia couldn't hear. "I know you two are up to something and believe me, I will find out." 

With that, the General vanished from the aisle and out the door of the archives.

Magnolia let out a huge sigh. "I can't believe he bought it!" She squealed excitedly, running up to hug Kylo Ren.

He was a bit taken back by her reaction, but hugged her back. Then she moved back from him a little bit to gaze at his mask. 

"He still thinks we're up to something." He told her solemnly. 

"Well, we technically are." She smiled at him, remaining very positive. "And technically we are trying to help my memory, just a part that doesn't have to do with the Resistance."

It was his turn to smile at her. "Well, you aren't wrong, but we do need to be a bit more careful from this point on."

She frowned. "But he seemed to have bought my story?"

"He told me he didn't. He has eyes on us all the time. That is a benefit from being General."

Magnolia backed out of his grasp realizing there was truth to his words. She crossed her arms. "Does he have camera's in your room?"

"Of course not." Kylo Ren said. "That would be an invasion of privacy."

"Well then, I suggest we grab as much information as we can, then go back to your room where we can be in private. Without the worry of unwelcome eyes." She told him.

His eyes lit up at her emphasis on the word "private". "I agree. Let's do that." He told her as she smiled back at him.