Rey 
  A constant dull ache kept nagging at her tigh. And her head hurt. It hurt so badly, she realized she was clutching at it when she woke up.

   At first she could not open her eyes. Nor could she speak, as only muffled cries of pain came out of her mouth, a silent plea for help.

   She rolled on her side, her arm draped over the place where she had been wounded, the place someone had bothered to wrap in a white cloth.
   She did not know where she was, what the searing pain meant. Until she saw the iron bars that caged her from the dark corridor.

   In an instant she knew she had to get up as her mind was beginning to clear, she remembered what had happened.

   Ben, her first thought went straight to him.

   She could hear his cries of pain. Now raw and terrible as the part of his bond was open. And it was not something he let to happen. It only meant he could not hold it anymore.

   She stood up on her knees and her hand slapped the wall, her fingers clawed at it. As if she could break her way through, as if she were closer to him.

   "Ben!" she yelled as she pounded her fists into the hard iron surface.

   She slammed her hand against the wall until her knuckles have gone red from blood, until they were sore. But she hit, and cried, and hit, and cried.
   What had she done to deserve this? Has Ben's salvation from death not been enough of a proof that he was meant to live?

   She raised her fist and gritted her teeth in anger to hit again. But her outstretched arm stopped in the air. And slowly, it fell back next to her body as her eyes brimmed with tears.

   Her lips began to quiver as a knot she couldn't seem to swallow settled in her throat. A deep black hole seemed to widen within her body, a grief that stopped her breath, slowly, that threatened to eat her up from the inside.

   Taking a step back, she tried to breathe. But only a hiccup drowned by salty tears came out.
   Her knees were about to buckle beneath her, when the iron bars rattled open, and hit the wall with a loud clang.

   Her head snapped straight to them, five men dressed in dark blue attire, with two blasters at their belts. Three of them remained outside, while the others came for her. And she vowed she would stay calm, welcome them with the defiance they deserved. Instead she found herself edging back, until her shoulders hit the wall and her breath caught in her throat.

   Pain. The dull ache she felt in her tigh was now a sharp one, a rain of knives darting up to her core. Her eyes widened, and Rey wanted to cry. In her despair, they darted to the men coming to grab her and to the open door. If I'm fast, I can make it, she thought fastly. Only if I'm fast, it's the only way I can make it. Her hands propped on the wall, and she was ready to fly. When an iron-cold hand gripped her left arm, and a voice whistled past her ear.

   "Don't you even think, girl!"

   "No!" she cried and tried to fight.

   Rey did not want to give in again, did not want to lose the fight. She would not let that happen. She kicked, and screamed...though her mind already told her she was outnumbered.

   She received a hard kick in the stomach, and all she had eaten the last time she left the resistance retched back up her throat, showering the soldiers that stood sentry, and spilling farther down the corridor.

  Two of them scrunched their noses. The others remained impassible.

   Rey felt the cold shackles around her wrists as her hands were bind again, as the two men dragged her down the dark place, and to the elevator.

   She heard the door rattle shut behind them, an echoing sound through the pounding of their boots.

Ben
   The next whip he received crossed his face, making his skin split. His mind blanked once again as he crumbled on the hard floor, as the warm blood made its way from his cheek and down to his mouth, the metallic smell that had kept him aware in the last two hours.

   His hands weren't bind in shackles anymore. And the tunic he had worn was now only covering the left half of his chest. Good it's not my grandfather's.
   He had meant to find the remaining one that had once belonged to Anakin. One he supposed was on Naboo. But now he was glad it had been the one Rey and Chewie had helped him make.

   A man he did not know was pacing slowly around him, a long whip in his hand, a blaster in the other. He had shot Ben once, when he had shown opposition. And he would shoot as many times as needed.
  
   Be with Rey, he kept sending small prayers to the force ghosts. That was all he did in the little moments, when the pain would soar away. Spare her this thing I'm going through.

   He had no idea what was going on with her now. Nothing, for his mind was flooded with pain. But she had to be well. He should have felt something, a disturbance, if bad things were to happen.

   He labored another breath, and forced his head up. His hair was slick with blood as well, making his right eye sting when he tried to open it. It was Pryde who had woken up the last bit of strength he had inside. In spite of the person he used to be, now he was afraid of what was about to happen to him.
   Why am I afraid to die? Didn't I do enough? Do I not deserve it?

   He knew the answer. He knew he could not die now. And it was not the pain that scared him, but what was to come over the resistance, the people who he had tried to make up to, and failed.

   His gaze rose io to meet Pryde's. The general that has once been Ben's subject now looked triumphantly over him, showing no mercy to the broken boy that was about to crumble on the ground at his feet.

   The old man's smirk made anger surge through Ben. But he hold the thought back.

   No... I must not... That's what he wants... The dark side, to bring it out inside me...

   "So after all this... Have you decided to tell me, Supreme Leader?"

   Ben's good eye bore into cold, grey ones. They were like bits of ice, cutting through his soul, but cooling down his would. With the same acceptance, he shook his head slightly. He had tried to restrain the shake caused by the bruises and the searing pain he felt. He was using the last of his power to keep his head up and respond the questions. Because he knew if he fell, Rey would be the next one in his place.

   I must not faint..., he kept praying. Though his body begged him to give in, to crumple down in a heap of blood and slashed skin and rags and wait for the commanders to drag him to a cell.

   The sudden current that surged through his neck took him by surprise. He let out a yell at first that turned into a whimper as he crashed on his elbows. And an old, crinkled figure appeared in front of him. Only it was just his imagination. His vision swayed and shifted, and with it Palpatine's hollow face turned into Pryde's.

   "I can stop... If only you tell me where the resistance hides now, when they plan to strike." General Pryde kept pacing around.

   It took Ben more than ten seconds to draw a breath. And when he spoke, his voice was but a croak, broken and ravaged, nothing like what it used to be.

   "I... Know nothing of them. I'm telling you to your face that I don't." and it was true. What they might have discussed, have kept it away from his ears. But Rey had spilled some of it the last night, when he had held her in his arms. He never intended to find out, but, as it happened, now he knew. She had told him they were planning to round up soldiers from foreign planets, to abolish the slavery instilled by the Final Order, before striking the enemy to the core. But not the next location, not crucial information.
 
   Words are like blasts, he thought. Once you pull the trigger, you can never call them back. So he chose to hold his tongue. And it cost him yet another surge of electricity.

   So much alike Palpatine... And he wanted, wanted to know something ever since his betrayal. Who was behind all this? Who was working behind the mask of General Pryde?

   The words stumbled out of his mouth before he had the chance to stop them.

   "Who are you working for?" Ben demanded to know.

   "Does it matter to a dead man?" Pryde replied.

   "Tell me... General..." he croaked, and blood splattered the floor when he finished.

   But he shouldn't have said that. He knew it too late, when another lash crossed his already bloodied shoulders.

   "You're in no place to command!" Pryde growled, his face distorted in a snarl even Ben pitied. "If you can't tell us a word, then the girl will do!"

   And Ben knew he was speaking about Rey.

   The shuttle rose up, revealing a trembling Rey escorted by two soldiers on each side, their hands dug deep into her flesh. Her breath was ragged, and he remembered that last time she had gotten impaled in her tigh, where the cloth was now a soaking patch of fresh blood.

   From her face, his eyes turned directly to Pryde. "Leave her alone." he panted. "I'm telling you whatever you want, but leave her alone."

   He thought it would go easy. But Rey was not keen on betraying her friends.

   "No, Ben." She rather pleaded. "please don't. Don't do it for my sake."

   Good, caring soul...do you deserve to die for this?

   He tried to tell her he won't give away any information, in any case. But the ends of their bond were shut.

   He could feel the current tug at his mind, shredding it to pieces. The last of the strength was deserting him as he crumpled to the ground on his knees, his hands clasping his head.

   And his memories were fading... Fading, fading, fading in a galaxy full of lost stories.

Rey
   "No!" she cried as she fought to tear free from the iron grasp. She bared her teeth and kicked and screamed, all of it to no resolve. "Stop it! Stop it!"

   Her eyes darted between the dying man heaped on the ground and general Pryde. His grey eyes caught her eagerly, as if he could suck the information from the girl's gaze. She could tell him all she knew, and spare Ben that horrible fate that awaited him. Maybe they'll let him live, after all.
   But deep inside, Rey doubted it. General Pryde would leak what he wanted from them, then let them die.

   She received a hard nudge in her back, that almost made her fall to her knees. Yet her feet planted on the floor, opposing the soldiers that wanted to bring her to Pryde's face. She knew it, that she was afraid.

   She thrashed and whimpered, all to no resolve. Pryde was slowly pacing before her with his hands clasped at his back, when he finally stopped and his gaze fell on her disheveled face. He studied her for a moment or two, his eyes crossing from contempt, to pure irony.

   "You thought yourself strong..." he began. "You thought yourself brave."

   Rey had to bite her tongue to contain her anger.

   "Yet here you are two paces away from me, no more than a frightened girl with no place in this!" he almost spat.

   All Rey felt the need to do was run. Yet she felt like a mouse trapped beneath an eagle's eye. She wanted to turn her eyes away, but his would always catch hers and pin them with fear.
   In spite of the hard glare she struggled to keep on, her lips were quivering.

   He took one more step toward her, and reached out. Again.
   For a moment, Rey's eyes left his Grey ones and fixed on the fingers that were now inches away from her jaw.

   "Don't be afraid of me, child." he said as he began to caress her cheek. "I know that you're not ready to die yet. I know, I know..." he almost whispered soothingly.

   Rey had no intention to relax. Yet the single feeling of safety made her sigh with relief. And he took what he wanted, he made her reveal her real emotions as her eyes begged innocently for mercy.

   "You know what you have to do, and you're free. Free to go to your family, free to do whatever you want."

   She knew. But what family could she go to, if they killed Ben? She inhaled sharply and tears invaded her mouth first, the sadness, the aching she felt in her chest threatening to rip the heart out of her. Her brows furrowed and she clenched her teeth, but that didn't stop the tears run free from her eyes.

   "Not him, sweetling. The truth won't spare his life. Only yours." Pryde whispered as he wiped her ckeek with his thumb.

   She dared not turn her head and look at Ben. Was he dead already? No, it must that he was not, just unconscious. And Pryde... For a sparse moment she had thought she could feel something that was long buried inside him as he stroked her face. But no, it was just her desperate need to have someone to understand her. Someone who really cared about her would not hold her in chains.

   But as she closed her eyes, she was snapped immediately to reality as he grabbed her by the chin and tilted her head up, grasping her face so tight right where she'd been hit, she wanted to cry.
   And that was how she felt, now. No more than just a little girl.

   "Say it!" he growled, and his spittle hit her in the face.

   She gulped down and directed her swollen eyes at him, shaking her head with all the strength she'd got left.

   For a moment neither of them reacted. But the first to act was him. His hand left her face, and she struggled not to exhale with relief. All the same, he slapped her hard with the back of his hand, then once more, before walking past her.

   "Take her away." he commanded his men. "And bring her when she's thought on my offer."

   Two soldiers came on her either side and grabbed her arms, half dragging half carrying her to the shuttle.
   Rey managed a weak turn of her head, just to glimpse the shadow of someone who had once been her dyad in the force.
  
   "After a few days here you'll say it! I warrant!" Pryde's voice thundered behind her.

   When she was down to her cell, the two dark clad soldiers pushed her inside and rattled the bars shut behind her. The darkness veiled her a moment after black floor slapped her cheek when she landed on her belly.

   Next thing she knew, she woke up to the noise of the shuttle. Have they come to take her again? She couldn't see anything, her vision was still blurred when other two men stepped at the entrance of the cell. What did they want to do to her?

   She rolled on her back and crawled in the corner like a wounded beast. No, no, no, please don't! She would have begged them, have the words not refused to form in her mouth.

   Was it a nightmare? She hoped it was. Otherwise it couldn't explain the lack of voice when she needed it the most, when she wanted to scream, when the heart would run out of her chest.

   She balled in a heap and buried her face in her knees, waiting for a hand to grab her shoulder and yank her to her feet, for another to rip off her tunic and lash her across the back, crying silently as all her courage has deserted her.

   But the expected never happened. No hand touched her, no whip crossed her face. Instead she heard a loud fall next to her, and the door closed once again.
   She never opened her eyes until she heard the two soldiers edging away.

   Slowly, her vision came back, too. And she began to look for for the prisoner they have brought in her cell. He was awake, too, she realised. Torn clothes, a bruised face smeared with blood, yet somehow, that man was still alive.

   She had known him once, his face... Now she couldn't recognise him anymore.

   What have they done to you? Poor sweet thing...

   Why she hesitated when she tried to approach him, she could not say. It was not the stiffness in her back that held her in place. Maybe it was the haunted look in his eyes that kept her away.

   "Ben..."

   He looked at her in confusion. He did not seem to see a girl whom he had shared so much with. But a stranger.

   "Ben...?" she whispered, again. But even her voice seemed strange to him, as he furrowed his brows.

   She reach out to touch his face, to wipe the blood away. But he flinched, as if she meant to hurt him.

   Her eyes began to tear when she realized, when the sadness was slowly drowning her heart.
 
   He does not know who I am...

~*~