You jolt awake. Your head ringing, eyes heavy and stinging every time the cool air hits them. You shut them.
Your jaw aches from where Mug struck you. Going to lift your hand to rub the area you realise you can't. Your arms and legs are bound down. You're in the upright position. Your back pressed against something cold and hard. Interrogation chair.
You eye the room. It's dark. The walls shiny, as is the floor. Thoughts invading your head. Trying to remember how you got here. And where here is exactly.
At the corner of your eye you notice something shift. You draw your eyes to the movement. Settled in the corner of the room is Kylo. Sitting patiently, hood drawn off his head and mask directed your way.
You try to hide the quiver that ripples through you. You mustn't be afraid. Don't let him see you weak.
You trail his presence from ground up with your eyes. His fingers tapping against his thigh.
"Comfortable?"
His voice is modified under the mask. He doesn't sound like the scared boy he once was, but more a man extruding wrath.
You huff. "I could use a pillow."
He's silent. It fills the room. Trapping every particle of air. His head tilts to the side.
"It's been a long time." His fingers still tapping against his thigh.
"So you remember who I am."
You're offered a slight nod from him. "How brave you've become," he pauses, tilting his head the other way. "Stronger. Nothing like the girl I once knew."
Memories of a girl cram your head. A girl long gone. A girl who died in the fire Kylo started. She was smaller than the other kids, nothing but skin and bone. Laughed at by people she considered her friends. She was you.
You shift under his gaze, biting the inside of your cheek. "Something far worse has happened to you."
Silence.
"Do they still call you Zero?" He asks. A name you haven't heard since infancy. A name the other students at the temple would call you, always being the last to hit the targets scoring zero points. He's pulling your strings, but you won't allow yourself to become undone.
"No, they don't." You don't skip a beat. "And I'm guessing they don't call you Ben anymore either."
His fingers stop tapping.
He stands from his seat, showcasing the immensity of him. Broad shoulders and towering height wrapped in nothing but black robes.
He takes a step toward you. Wishing you still had a knife in your boot.
"No, they don't." He takes another step, hidden eyes never drawing there attention elsewhere but on you.
"Why were you on Jakku?" He questions, his fingers start tapping again.
You swallow. "The same reason you were."
"The map?"
You nod. "The Resistance is looking for it. As well as their allies."
He heaves a distorted snicker. "Ah, their allies," He rolls his shoulders, rounding the chair, circling you. You keep your eyes forward. "I heard you've been spending your days on Takodana. Following orders from that little Jawa lady."
How does he know that? Maybe he caught Lera as well. Gone to Takodana himself. Goodness knows what length he would have gone to to get this information.
You swallow the fear and worrying thoughts. "Maz took me in a long time ago," Kylo stands back in front of you. You provoke him. "You know. After you burnt our temple to the ground."
His fingers stop tapping. Instead he clenches his fist. His energy seems to intensify. You can feel it. Sense it. Glad you got under his skin, you furrow your brows. Your eyes locked on where his would be.
"Are you smiling under that mask or scowling I can't tell."
You watch as he raises his hands to his helmet. Your breath gets caught in your throat. His fingers hooking on the inside of the mask above his collar you hear a slight 'click' then a hissing noise as he pulls the mask up and off his head. Dropping it on the seat he was positioned at before.
You freeze.
His eyes. His mouth and nose. Convincing yourself that the human part of him was gone, you expected to see some form of monster. Something ugly and daunting to reflect his actions. You convinced yourself there wasn't a face under that mask at all.
His deep brown eyes bore into yours. You stare at him for a moment, before casting your gaze to the ground, the wall, your feet. Anywhere but at him.
He looks just like them. Like his parents. Dark eyes like his mothers. Full lips and crooked mouth like his fathers. He looks like the boy you knew. Only more corrupt and older.
He draws toward you, closer to you. Practically a breath away from your left side. Your shoulder tingles. The blaster shot tickling under the fabric of your shirt.
"I'd be very careful about what you say to me." He bends down closer to you. His voice seconds away from your ear. "You know what I'm capable of."
The fear you tried so hard to secure, slowly seeps through you. Releasing from your pores. Your breath quickens. Your eyes remain forward. You don't want to look at him.
He moves to stand in front of you again. Holding his arms behind his back.
"I know you found the map," He looks at you, and only you. Your eyes remain on the wall behind him. He take a step. "Where is it?"
Your lip is quivering, your body trembling. You won't give in.
At the corner of your eye sight you see a smirk play on his lips. "So stubborn."
He draws toward your side again. Staring at you. You won't look at him. You can't. But he has other plans.
You feel a sensation under your chin, like an invisible hand. It pulls your chin toward him. He's forcing you to look at him. Your face may be directed toward him but your eyes find the floor.
He tightens the grip. Manipulating you with the force. "You know I can take whatever I want."
It's not a question.
He drops the grip from your jaw and reaches his gloved hand out in front of you. His wrist twists and his fingers shake.
You begin to feel a heavy pressure fill your head. Like a headache but ten times worse. Vibrating your skull. You shake under his touch, loud blood-curling sounds pass your lips. It hurts. He's searching your head. Ripping and pulling through memories and thoughts. He's not a surgeon, but a butcher.
The pain intensifies as he looks deeper, harder. You catch him furrowing his brows. You can tell he's struggling. He may be strong but so are you. So is your mind. Besides, you had the same teacher.
The answers and thoughts you don't want him to find get buried deeper. Fighting him. But others...others you find yourself struggling to hide.
He takes a breath. Releasing some of the pressure from inside your head.
"You," he knits his brows, eyes running over every curve and angle of your face. "You've shut yourself off from the force..."
The pressure returns. Your ears are ringing. You want to scream out in pain but you don't. Gurgling noises coming from you instead.
You feel him latch on. "You did after your mother died," You exhale. "Her lightsaber hidden away with your own. Untouched in years. Why?"
You don't answer. Tears want to fall but you won't allow it. The pain and grief from loosing your mother. A powerful Jedi once. Taken away from you in war.
"That's okay." He says, snapping you out of the thought of your mother. "I'll find out why."
We reaches inside your mind again, the pressure and pain the worse it's been. You let out a moan of agony, from where you're bound down. He rips through your mind, trying to find answers. Searching for the maps whereabout as well as trying to find out why you would shut yourself off from the force - just for fun.
So determined and concentrated on ripping through your thoughts, you do the same to him. Reversing the connection he has on you, using it to your advantage as well.
You look through his mind. You shiver. You feel cold. Darkness. The want to kill. The need. The wishes of death he has for his mother and father. And Master Skywalker. Hate fuels him. It's all he's ever known.
But that's not all. There's more.
The faint pull to the light he suffers everyday. The hatred he has for his Master. Snoke. The hatred he has for the man he is. He tries to hide it but you won't let him.
Then you see something else. Someone else. Someone unfamiliar. A woman. Her hair as red as his lightsaber. She's underneath him. Screaming in pain. No...not pain. Pleasure.
You want to shy away from the thoughts. To stop looking at them but you can't. They're too recent. His lips are on her skin, trailing every part of her body. But never her lips. He never touches her lips.
You feel a flush climb onto your cheeks. You push past those memories of the girl with red hair he has. You want something deeper. To use against him.
The pressure builds in your own head. His hand still hovering in front of your face. You search, ripping through his mind with your own skill. And then...
He catches a breath. Releasing a growl. Realising you've been searching yourself. You look at him finally. Confused.
"You. You're afraid..." He snaps his gaze to look back at you. "You don't want this. You don't like the person you've become. But you will continue to do as Snoke says because you are afraid."
He frightens you, but you scare him too. Raising your voice you lean toward him as much as you're able. You raise your voice.
"You know Snoke senses the weakness in you. And when he sees it strengthen he will destroy you because you will never be what he wants you to be. You will never be as strong as Darth Vader."
You don't know what hurt more. Kylo increasing the pressure in your mind or your head hitting the back of the chair from the sheer force of it. He wants to destroy you.
You feel light headed. You feel death would be better than this. Than getting your mind torn apart by the monster that stands in front of you. He may hate the man he has become but there is no turning back. He already is Snoke's image. His prodigy. The monster that possesses him will never die.
He drops his hand after a moment. The pressure releasing from your head altogether. Your breathing comes in short harsh waves. Sweat beaded at your forehead, your ears ringing and head aching. You stare at him. Weak and limp in the chair. Sweat beads across his own forehead. His lip quivers, his tongue finding the inside of his cheek. His eye twitches before turning, grabbing his helmet and exiting the room.
You close your eyes. Wishing never to open them again. You feel anger, his anger as well as your own.
You are afraid of him, but he is of you. But you know deep inside that he will do anything to rid his fear of you. Because fear is a weakness.
He will destroy you.