Author's Note:
The story's timeline begins with a slight corruption of certain events in Episode VII, followed by an assumed window of several months between the events on Starkiller base and Rey's journey to find Luke, wherein this story takes place. The reader should be aware this story has multiple graphic depictions of rough but consensual sex, and some depictions of violence.
*****
Prologue: How things begin.
She jolts awake, startled, unsure where she is. She realizes that she is restrained, hand and foot in an interrogation chair and she tries the shackles briefly, vainly hoping that she might break free. Then she stops, because she realizes she is not alone in the room.
A black clad figure is across the room, crouching like a beast ready to attack. It, perhaps he, watches her silently. A chill of fear passes through her to think how long she lay there, unconscious and observed by this black harbinger of death, this violator of her mind. Had it been able to see her dreams?
"Where am I?" she asks, fearing the answer.
"You're my guest," says the electronically distorted voice from the beast's helmet.
"Where are the others?"
"You mean the murderers, traitors, and thieves that you call friends?" it asks, disdain audible even in its lifeless post-processed voice. "You'll be relieved to hear that I have no idea."
There is a pause, lingering between them.
"You still want to kill me," it says, a shade of wonder, appreciation perhaps, in its tone.
"That happens when you're being hunted by a creature in a mask," she rejoins, embracing her anger.
To her surprise the figure stands, and raising its hands to the mask, unlatches it and pulls it free to reveal its face. She feels her heart catch in her throat at what she sees. What she has imagined was a face, no, not even a face, a visage, grizzled and scarred, showing explicitly the evil underneath it. But the face that is revealed, his face, is both young and beautiful. Unusual perhaps, but achingly beautiful. It disturbs her to feel her body respond to the sight, feeling a sudden rush of desire within her, mingling with her fear and anger. She is captivated for a moment, confused, then looks away.
He approaches her, coming to stand close, staring down at her calmly from his considerable height, and she conspicuously avoids his gaze.
"Tell me about the droid," he says.
Her mind grabs onto this. The droid. A distraction. She begins to recite its specifications like a litany, a prayer for solace, but he interrupts her.
"-carrying a section of a navigational chart. And we have the rest, recovered from the archives of the Empire, but we need the last piece. And somehow you convinced it to show it to you," he pauses here, shifting his gaze to look down at her. "You, a scavenger."
You want to make me feel tiny, thinks Rey, tiny, helpless, and worthless. But I will not let you cow me.
"You know that I can take whatever I want," he says, allowing his eyes to trail from her face down the length of her prone body and back, quickly but suggestively, his face hard.
She should be revolted at this, or frightened, but it nearly sends a shudder through her, her stomach tightening and her throat dry with desire. It brings thoughts unbidden to her mind that excite and horrify her.
He moves next to the chair and crouching down, brings his hand close to her head. She tenses, looking away, but she feels him push his way into her thoughts again, just as he had in the forest. Desperately, she pushes the lustful images aside, and puts all her efforts into stopping him, blocking him, but to no avail. She feels as though he is simply drawing back a curtain with his leather gloved hand, exposing her inmost thoughts.
"Why are you so lonely?" he asks, and she feels as though her heart stopped. "So afraid to leave. At night, desperate to sleep. You imagine an ocean. I see it. I see the island." He pauses, evidently displeased with what he has found. "And Han Solo, you feel like he is the father you never had." There is a tone of disgust and bitterness in his voice now. "He would have disappointed you."
"Get out of my head!" she says, furious, wishing that she was capable of blocking him out.
"Why," he asks, reaching to grip both sides of the chair, looming over her and bringing his face close to hers, his eyes straying to her mouth. "Is there some place else I should be?"
And she knows that he senses it, not just her fear or anger, but her desire and revulsion, and he is toying with her.
"You're a pig," she says with as much venom as she can muster.
Then suddenly he is kissing her, his mouth pressed almost violently against hers. Startled for a moment she doesn't respond, then she bites down on his lower lip. He cries out and springs away. He is bleeding, and he brings his gloved hand to his mouth to touch the wound and then examines his finger tips.
"I know you've seen the map," he says, changing the subject violently, his voice cold again. "It's in there. And now you'll give it to me."
He reaches into her mind again and she feels overwhelmed by an awareness of him. She struggles against him, but she can't keep him out. She swims in a pool of rage and fear, trying to keep afloat, while another dark emotion swims with her, beneath the surface. Goose bumps raise on her skin and she feels a knot tighten in her stomach as her heart rate accelerates.
"Don't be afraid," he says, "I feel it too."
"I'm not going to give you anything," says Rey, and she doesn't mean just the map.