Chapter 12: Cell Block

"Kylo?" a quiet voice asked beside his left ear.

"Hmm." He responded sluggishly, eyes still closed as he lay on his back.

"Look at me" the female voice insisted.

Ren turned his head to the left as he opened his eyes. At first there was only suffocating darkness, but as his eyes adjusted he could see bright eyes peering at him and the outline of cheekbones and lips.

Another dream?

Rey stared back at him, and he immediately became aware of the mere inches separating them. She was laying next to him.

"Why did you kill your father? I know you said you didn't hate him."

The Rey in his dreams was just as serious and business-like as the Rey he knew in the present. He felt easily detached in the darkness; far away from Hux, responsibilities, the war, his self-loathing, and more.

He worked his mouth back and forth before answering. "I thought it was my last opportunity to prove my allegiance to Snoke. However, it was the beginning of my rebellion against him."

Rey's eyes softened with pity before she turned back to looking straight up at the darkness. A thoughtful sigh followed her silence.

Ren took the opportunity to study her profile; her lashes seemed to go on forever, a perfectly sloped nose standing out above defined lips with a sharp and petite chin. The more he looked on, the greater the swell in his chest expanded; a gravitational pull manifested at the same time, as if an inward compass rotated towards her to eventually collide in spirit, or collapse under the pressure. His chest felt a strange tightness.

Her breath noticeably hitched at that moment. Could she feel it too?

Ren looked back up at the darkness above them, realizing he'd been staring too long. It was an odd dream...unless-

"Rey...is this your dream, or mine?"

A sigh fell in the darkness. "I'm not dreaming."

Perplexed, Ren's thoughts processed the circumstances. The bond had progressed from seeing each other in a dream while both asleep, to a conscious individual entering the bond while the other was unconscious.

"You're awake then?" he asked.

"Oh I'm awake alright," she answered sarcastically, "your men have yet to update you on my whereabouts."

Ren hesitated, realizing the knights had found her.

"Unfortunately" there was defeat in her voice,"and now they are bringing me to the First Order to be tried for Snoke's murder. I suppose you neglected to fill them in on the particular detail that I was not alone."

Ren swallowed. He hadn't imagined it would go down like this, that the bond would connect them during her capture. He never anticipated they would have a few personal moments beforehand. Surely, he had thought, he could convince her to see his way once she was here.

It was premature - desperate - when he extended his hand to her.

"Do you ever think about it?" he diverted the topic, "about what happened?"

Rey didn't turn her head to face him. "Yes" she whispered.

The memories of the throne room were basked in the blood red tone of the curtains. Rey's eyes were pleading with him from the position on her knees, as he rotated both lightsabers in the room and ignited one through the core of Snoke's body. First, the euphoria of freedom passed through him as she stood to her feet with the blue blade in her grasp, and then came the sharp thrill of the fight; one that he would not face alone.

When she shouted his name - his real name - it awakened something inside him. The body behind him crumbled to the floor as he stood and tossed the spear to the side. Ren wanted to cross the floor to her, but the moment was fleeting as she stuttered and begged him to stop the firing on the rebel fleet.

The moment was lost.

"Rey," he grasped at words, "I wanted you to join me."

Another moment of quiet fell.

"I know, Kylo."

Calling him by that name stung, and he didn't miss her intention of using it in this conversation. Protecting herself meant putting up the walls, and using that name certainly solidified the boundary.

Ren took a deep breath before he spoke again. "Armitage is ruthless and takes pleasure in the little power he holds over others. He will not be kind to you when you arrive."

She glanced over at him this time and a noticeable vibration of fear trembled along the bond as her eyes studied him.

"You won't be receiving me into custody this time?"

When Ren didn't reply, she stared at length; her lips parted in anticipation.

"Will he kill me?" she asked quietly.

"It's hard to say. He lives for making examples of individuals. I doubt he will simply kill you without making a spectacle of it."

Rey shrugged uncomfortably in the darkness, and then as if a switch had been flipped, Ren was jolted by her fury dominating the connection.

"If this is how you believe I will come to join you," her words were laced with venom, "then you don't know me at all. I'd rather die than become another pompous, ruthless, cruel, pathetic tool of the First Order. The answer will continue to be no."

Stone-faced, she waited on his reply as she watched from her peripherals.

A strange sound erupted from his throat that almost resembled a laugh.

Turning her head just a fraction towards Ren, she could make out a look of amusement on his face. The sound happened again, startling her.

Rey blinked in shock. "Are you...laughing at me?"

"I'm particularly amused is all."

"Why?"

Ren cleared his throat this time. "Anger is not an attribute of a Jedi."

"And saving the life of a Jedi is in turn not an act of the Sith." She retorted haughtily.

Game. Set. Match.

"Anyways," she went on, knowing she had leveled the field, "Freen and Tyrus are enroute with myself, so i'll see you face-to-face for the rest of this conversation."

Ren closed his lips tightly, concealing the truth in his reply. "I suppose you will, in some capacity at least."

She squinted at him. "What's that supposed to mean? You're the Supreme Leader, are you not?"

He was about to reply when the twisted bar around his wrists yanked ferociously, sawing into the old cuts. Crying out in agony, he saw the confusion and shock register on Rey's face as he was hauled right out of the dream world.

*

Ren was hauled up to a sitting position on the floor, his head spinning as the blood rushed from it, and his stomach wrenched in response to the painful jerk of the wounds in his wrists. They were released once he was on his knees.

With a shuddering breath, he lifted his joined wrists to observe how the flesh had swelled, tender in its angry shade of red, puckering against each barb as blood crusted every spot of contact. He licked his lips in worry.

The cell was dark, save for the single light shining on the spot before him. Through the fuzzy luminescence he could make out a figure seated on the small bench. Inclining forward, Lilith's face was illuminated under the light as she leaned her elbows on her knees. A stone-like expression on her face, and her features were marked with deep shadows from the lighting in the room. The whites of her eyes stared at him in the darkness.

Her mouth twisted into a sneer before feigning a bow.

"Supreme Leader Ren."

Lilith's mocking tone came as no surprise. The older of the twins, she often campaigned for ruthless and unnecessary torture against anyone the Knights came across, whether innocent or not. Although they had converted to the Dark Side, most of them retained a sliver of moral code, or at the very least, could not be bothered with wasting time on every transient that happened by. Lilith was the exception.

Ren had always sensed her despise for him. She challenged his leadership relentlessly on his commitment to Snoke. Snoke's death only confirmed what she had always badgered him for.

"When did Hux contact you?" he asked, controlling his breaths to manage the pain.

"He didn't" she replied, her eyes unblinking. "I had a special visit from the beyond."

Ren narrowed his eyes.

Lilith lifted her chin as her pupil-less eyes widened. "Snoke's ghost it was."

Ren's chest felt an icy stab of fear at the mention of that name. He'd hoped to never hear that voice again for the rest of his life.

She moved to stand from the bench and under the light; the toes of her boots stood inches from his knees.

The fingers of her left hand found the point of his chin and sharply jerked it upward. Their eyes connected before her head nodded in confirmation.

"A child in a mask indeed" she muttered under her breath.

The cell door sounded before sliding open. Armitage Hux and Ozir stepped inside casually as it closed behind them.

Lilith released Ren's chin and took a step back to allow Hux to approach in close proximity.

Before Ren could take another breath, Hux's gloved fist crashed solidly into his right cheekbone. A crackling sound traveled outward from the point of contact as fluid rushed into his face to protect the bruised tissues. His body rocked backwards as it absorbed the blow, and his head throbbed with the new pain.

Hux hissed as he spun away from Ren, clutching his right fist in an attempt to shake off the impact of knuckle against bone.

Lilith and Ozir observed him as he opened and closed his fist several times. Once he regained composure, he addressed Kylo loudly.

"It's interesting that although you may have been Snoke's celebrity apprentice...you were the least loyal of us both. It's satisfying to not only take your place as the head of the First Order, but ultimately do the task you can't seem to finish."

Ren continued to focus on drawing in even breaths, attempting to ignore him.

"We'll destroy the Resistance once and for all of course. An objective you quite honestly almost avoid entirely."

Hux watched him closely for a reaction. When none was received, he took two aggressive strides toward Kylo and grabbing his throat with one hand, hoisted him to his feet. With inhuman strength, he continued to march him backwards up against the cell wall.

Ren struggled momentarily to fight the pressure against his windpipe, grunting in effort before relaxing his bound and bleeding wrists. He could see the toes of his boots scarcely touching the floor of the cell as Hux held him there.

When did Armitage possess such strength?

A disturbance in the Force drummed loudly through his spirit; there was something deeply unsettling about this encounter.

Hux's face was maniacal - angry but on the verge of explosive, unhinged laughter. When his lips moved to speak, it was not Hux's voice that articulated them, but instead an ancient, wrathful tone.

"Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen" the voice whispered.

Ren barely sucked in enough breath to avoid passing out.

Snoke?

The voice in Hux laughed; a low sound that seemed to come from deep within.

"Your grandfather and I had a much....closer relationship. Snoke carried out pathetic work on you, if I must say."

Ren's eyes widened in childlike fear as the sweat trickled down the side of his face

"Palpatine" his voice strangled.

Blue, ghastly veins travelled up Hux's neck out of his collar, tapering off before they reached his eyes as the skin somehow paled beyond the shade the redhead had previously.

"Wait," Hux's true voice came through, "this is not exactly what we agreed to-"

He was cut off and released his grip on Ren's throat unexpectantly, sending him collapsing to the floor; forcefully coughing between his gasps for air.

The internal struggle for the body of Hux played out, lurching side to side with clenched fists. Palms against his temples and eyes closed, he took a deep breath before hollering in frustration at the top of his lungs.

Ren couldn't help but feel a touch of pity for Hux. The general would be swallowed up by the Dark Side, left to be an observer from within his own body.

Lilith and Ozir moved closer together, and a pleased smile played on her mouth.

The shoulders of Hux's body slowly relaxed, and when his eyes opened, the iris's had transformed from blue to a pale yellow; the whites ran blood shot, maddened with power.

"I needed a younger body you see" the emperors voice stated, "the former one has been rotting away in wait for another vessel."

Ren backed up against the cell wall, his stomach knotted in tension.

Palpatine approached him with an outstretched hand. "I will rid this galaxy of the Jedi, and you will join me either in this life, or in death...if I release you to it."

Bolts of electricity lit up along his shoulders and travelled down the forearms to accumulate in his palms. When he brought the other hand up, the energy blasted from his fingertips directly into Ren's body.

Thrashing as he fell to his side on the floor, Ren's mouth opened in a silent scream. His wrists went numb and he fleetingly wondered if his hands were even still attached to his body. The pain was beyond anything he had ever received from Snoke. The energy was writhing over his whole body, burning and lashing his insides relentlessly; in that moment, death certainly sounded blissful.