Prompt: Kylo Ren being captured by the resistance and Rey interrogating him.

Part of the Reylo 2016 Valentine's Gift Exchange, for Airlia on AO3.

Warning: Major Character Death

The ship rocked from another unseen bolt of blaster fire. The durasteel under her feet vibrated as the ship tried to move away from the Resistance attackers. Rey gripped the bars that separated herself from freedom and prayed that the rescue crew wasn't going to blow her up before they actually came to get her.

The vibration kicked up another notch, sending shooting pain straight to her head until she unlocked her jaw, but there was no matching shift in Rey's stomach to indicate they were moving. The Resistance must have deployed a tractor beam to trap the First Order shuttle. She heard frantic shouting outside of the tiny brig followed by twin deafening explosions. The door from the brig to the main deck buckled, sparks erupting from the wall panels.

Rey threw herself as far away from the explosion as possible, tucking herself into a corner of the cell. The ship rocked again. Dammit, there wasn't going to be a ship for her to be rescued from if they kept this up!

She heard the engines stutter out, the last gasp of the shuttle against the tractor beam. Sure enough within a few seconds Rey felt the ship being tugged backwards. With a tiny bit of focus, Rey could sense the commotion occurring on the main deck. Officers scrambled to try to bring the engines back online. The few troopers on board were assembling by the rear entrance to prepare for the Resistance boarding party.

And Kylo Ren seethed with rage, lurking ominously behind his troops.

Even his Force abilities were no match for the sheer quantity of Resistance fighters who boarded the shuttle. The master of the Knights of Ren was forced to yield to the attacking force, especially when Rey sensed the rest of the surviving First Order soldiers surrender.

She opened her eyes to see Resistance soldiers working to blowtorch the cell door open, a woman shouting assurances that they were rescuing her and that she shouldn't be afraid anymore.

Rey exhaled slowly and relaxed her shoulders. She was rescued and they now had Kylo Ren, the galaxy's number one treasonous murderer, in custody.

"You can't seriously think that just anyone can interrogate him, can you?" Rey asked, completely incredulous. She'd been in this debrief for the past six hours, detailing the exact sequence of events that lead to her capture and everything that followed. General Leia and the other two Resistance leaders had been insistent in learning every detail possible from Rey's recollection, and she was glad when the conversation finally shifted from the past to the present.

Even if that present was questioning just how to handle the First Order's most prominent attack dog.

Leia raised a single questioning eyebrow, but it was Major Ematt who responded first. "Commander, we're not going to send in 'just anyone.' Of course they will be trained-," he explained in a patronizing tone. Rey didn't let him finish talking though, interjecting quickly.

"You don't understand," she said, shaking her head. "It's not a matter of what questions to ask. It's a matter of him hijacking the mind of whatever moderately weak minded fool you send in there." Rey stared intently at Poe, who had become very still. "His Force abilities are immensely powerful and it's not beyond him to overwhelm even someone normally strong willed to escape."

Poe swallowed thickly and Rey sent him a reassuring smile. She didn't want to bring up bad memories for him, but she needed to get her point across. Leia sat up straighter and folded her hands. "So what should we do with him? Leave him to rot in a cell?" Her tone was carefully controlled.

Rey chewed on her lip. This was the tricky part. She had come to the realization of the danger of Kylo Ren being in custody during the rescue, but it was entirely another thing to make the suggestion she was about to. "General," she started slowly, "I think it would be best for someone who knows the Force to interrogate him."

"They would be able to protect themselves from his influences and we might even get more intel from him because of it," Rey continued eagerly. "Especially if he had a history with them." She licked her lips and looked down quickly, not wanting to see the committee's reaction.

The implication buried in her suggestion hung in the air and Rey tried not to let her nerves show. Major Ematt spoke up after only a momentary silence, his voice gruff. "Commander, I don't think it would be wise to expose Master Skywalker to his apprentice," he said. "Or vice versa."

Leia cut in, ever the commanding presence. "Caluan, she doesn't mean Luke. She means me," she asserted.

Rey sucked in another breath and cautiously looked up. "Well, he is your son," she explained meekly.

The general was shaking her head, unfathomable sadness in the crinkle of her eyes. "That creature is not my son. B-... He died when Han did," she said sharply after stumbling on the fragment of Kylo Ren's true name. Rey had no response.

"What about someone else that Kylo Ren knows?" Poe asked, breaking this new uncomfortable silence. Rey felt her heart pound.

There were only three Force users - or at least known Force sensitives - in the whole Resistance. Luke, Leia, and herself. Rey looked over the committee, nausea twisting through her stomach. Leia had regained her impassive composure. Ematt looked pensive, his hand idly running over his beard. All three were thinking hard about Poe's suggestion.

Rey fought against her nerves and replied as evenly as possible, "I've been his prisoner for the past four months. Do you really think I'm the most impartial person to be interrogating him? Not to mention the fact that I never finished my Jedi training. Or my general lack of what questions to even ask." It was all pretty ridiculous. She was a fighter pilot who sometimes tried to follow what little Jedi teachings she knew. She was not a trained interrogator.

But her protests and lack of qualifications hardly seemed to matter to the committee, never mind the fact that the last time they had seen her she'd been captured by the First Order. They turned in at the table and murmured excitedly between each other, leaving Rey to fidget uncomfortably in her chair across from them. It only took a short exchange for them to come to their conclusion.

Poe looked at Rey with a sympathetic smile. "Honestly, you said it yourself. We need a Force user and you guys are kind of in short supply," he explained.

Leia nodded in agreement. "Your official assignment will be to lead the investigation and any required lines of questioning of the prisoner," she ordered. "Access to the prisoner will be controlled by you and you alone." A thought seemed to cross her mind and she added in an afterthought, "Unless a security situation arose where you needed backup."

Typing something into his datapad, Ematt chimed in. It was eerie how in sync the committee was. "Your command has been reinstated, though we cycled your codes. Your new ones will come through the terminal in your quarters. Commander Poe can log you in to get them," he explained.

A few short pleasantries were exchanged and Rey was finally excused officially from the debriefing. Poe followed her out of the conference room, cracking his neck and tucking his datapad into a pocket.

"The compound is set up pretty much the same as usual, so you shouldn't have too bad of a time re-acclimating. They've assigned you to one of the rooms near the other flight commanders," he explained. Rey nodded silently, waiting for him to show her the way.

Her fellow pilot looked her over quietly, his usually eager smile fading to something sad. Pity. He pitied her. "It's good to have you back, Rey," Poe murmured.

She swallowed heavily and nodded. "Thanks."

Finally they were moving, skirting through prefab hallways and cave-like tunnels to finally reach the section of barracks nearest to the landing area. Rey tried her hardest to keep a smile on her face, but the wide eyed stares of the Resistance members they passed wore on her. When Poe gestured to the door to her assigned room, she let out a sigh of relief.

Inside was the usual scarce assortment of prefab furnishings - a bed with simple sheets, a single skinny dresser, and a table with two stools. A terminal sat on the table with wires stretching to the ceiling to link into the main computing cluster elsewhere in the base. Rey watched as Poe logged in and brought up her new access codes.

"They, uh, changed the system over a few weeks back. New codes come out bi-weekly, so you'll need to be sure to get them from one of the techs when that happens," he explained. "It was part of a security initiative put in by the General."

Rey filled in the blanks. "In case there's a risk of someone getting taken and giving up their codes," she said simply. "You don't need to dance around the topic."

If anything, Poe looked even more uncomfortable. He rubbed at the back of his neck, wincing. "I know that, but it's kind of hard when you're still wearing First Order clothes," he explained in a pained voice.

She looked down at herself and winced. Sure enough, she hadn't yet gotten to a change of clothes since the rescue and was still wearing the clothes given to her while in captivity. The stark black uniform was dusty and torn in several places from shrapnel, but it still stood out in clear contrast to the Resistance's brighter tones. That explained some of the shell shocked glances from the people in the halls.

Rey forced herself to look up and smile at Poe. "Well, that's an easy fix. Stop worrying about me. I'll be fine," she reassured him. "Honestly."

He didn't look entirely convinced, but Rey was more than done talking about "how traumatized she must be" for the past six hours. She shoo'd him out from her room, promising to meet him and Finn along with any of her remaining squadmates for dinner later that night. Once she was finally alone, Rey collapsed onto the edge of her bed, fingers knotting through messy brown wisps of hair.

It had been only 10 hours ago that the Resistance had captured Kylo Ren and his shuttle. Since then, she had barely been given the chance to think about the implications of that, never mind grab a moment of rest or change into more familiar attire.

Her eyes flicked over to the dresser with fresh clothes in it, remembering the uncomfortable stares and Poe's nervous behavior. She really should change out of the starched pants and high collared jacket she was currently wearing, but practicality won over her exhausted mind. She laid down and counted her own breaths until she fell into a deep sleep.

Her first conversation with Kylo Ren went about as well as Rey had claimed it would. She considered putting it off to allow the Knight of Ren some time to "chill his heels" she told Poe at breakfast the next day, but a missive sent to her from the general herself ordered her to begin her "investigation" as swiftly as possible.

So Rey called up Kylo Ren's cell location on her datapad and left her friends to the rest of their meal. The cell block wasn't that far ultimately from her own quarters and she wasn't entirely sure that it was by chance. Rey was waved through the entrance to the cellblock by a very nervous looking junior officer clutching a second-rate blaster, white knuckled and twitchy. If Rey hadn't been so focused on her own task, she might have called the woman out for having terrible trigger discipline.

Rey idly nodded to the guard standing watch next to Kylo's cell before punching in her code to open the door. When the red light flashed in her face, she scowled until remembering that she had new command codes now. The door slid open with a low hiss with the correct code.

She steeled herself before entering the white-walled cell. Her prey was a dark smudge against the uncovered mattress he sat on, staring at the ceiling silently. The only other piece of furniture in the room was a single table, bolted to the floor. The lack of chairs appeared odd until Rey noticed scratches in the white paint of the walls. Apparently they had been victims in one of Kylo Ren's infamous temper tantrums and had since been removed.

She made a mental note to ask for the security feed. Whatever had set him off could be telling for the Resistance. Regardless, she needed to address the present Kylo Ren sitting right across from her. Rey's heart thudded in her chest. Bracing herself, she cleared her throat to make her presence known.

He lazily turned his head, not bothering to get up from his position. However his entire demeanor shifted the moment he laid his gaze on her. Kylo practically threw himself off of the bed and stalked towards her, his dark form towering. Rey shuffled backwards and quickly closed the door behind her with a tug of the Force. She couldn't let him go after all the effort that had gone into capturing the knight in the first place.

"You?" he sneered, dark eyes flashing.

"Me," she replied coolly. "Expecting someone else? Your mother, perhaps?" Her voice was strong despite her nerves.

"Too bad. She's not interested in speaking with the greatest disappointment in the galaxy." Her words stopped him in his tracks as though she had physically slapped him. Tense, raw silence stretched between the pair. Rey's gaze was even; Kylo's snarl twitching.

She stepped slowly to the table that separated them, placing her hands on the smooth surface. "You get to speak with one person: me. And maybe your executioner when I inevitably prove how useless you are to them," Rey intoned as clearly as possible. He needed to be made to understand that this was how it was going to be.

A vein throbbed in his forehead. Rey could even tell his pulse from how hard his heart was pounding. He was an open book without his mask. Seconds ticked by until finally he forced his shoulders to a more relaxed position. "The Resistance is more foolish than I had thought if they think they can simply kill me," he boasted.

Rey tilted her head, the motion curious. "You're trapped here. They can kill you any time they want," she replied.

His head shook violently and his fist clenched. "I hardly think that I'm as expendable as you're claiming," he growled. A thought seemed to occur to him, and Rey watched warily as a smug smile replaced his scowl.

The tell-tale tickle at the base of her skull started up. Rey concentrated on her connection to the Force and quickly stopped his attempt to delve into her thoughts. She grunted at the effort, but didn't break eye contact with him. "You do remember the last time you tried to read my mind. This will end no better," she taunted.

She expected him to try again, to force himself against her mental blockade. Instead he only threw a hand up and stormed back to the other side of the cell. "So what happens now? You ask me questions and torment me until, what? Until I spill my secrets and pledge myself to the Light?"

Rey gritted her teeth and nodded, though he wasn't looking at her to see. "Essentially," she replied coolly. "So let's get started, eh?"

Her attempts at direct examination continued to fail. Every time she tried to get a straight answer from the bastard, he would become hostile and violent, resulting in a battle of wills and sometimes fists. Rey took a page from the First Order's own book and had his food supplies taken from him for several days, but Leia put a stop to that.

"We're not barbarians, no matter who is in that cell," she had reasoned. Rey wondered if Leia would have stopped her if it was someone else's son in their prison. Either way, the method hadn't done much except to further drive Kylo Ren into obstinate silence.

She decided to try a different method altogether, leaving him to his own devices for several days. Poe and Finn nodded sagely at this, insisting that solitary was more than he deserved. "He's lucky that no one's slipped something in his rations already. Would make your job a hell of a lot easier," Finn said darkly, making Poe almost spit out his drink. They were talking over lunch, their respective schedules finally meeting up.

Rey smirked, but she didn't laugh. "It would also kill the general, for all that she refuses to speak with him," she sighed. "Which, honestly, I feel would probably be the thing to actually break the bastard."

Poe pointed his fork at Rey. "I envy you, you know," he drawled. "No one else can do what you're doing. You're the only one-"

"-Almost the only one-" she corrected.

"Almost the only one," he said with an eyeroll before continuing his previous train of thought, "who can safely talk to him. You could beat the ever-living shit out of that piece of garbage, you know? Get revenge for everything he's done to you."

Her stomach tightened and she quickly looked away. "That's not something a Jedi does or even thinks about doing," Rey whispered quietly. She wished that they would just stop bringing up her capture.

Poe didn't seem phased. "Regardless, I'm envious," he said simply. Finn nodded in agreement.

Rey stood up from the table, bringing her tray with her. "I've got to go," she said quickly, ignoring the pair's questioning calls asking her to come back. She stormed away, shoving her tray on the return cart without really looking.

Her feet carried her back to her quarters, but surely that would be the first place either of the wonder twins would look for her at. So instead she headed to the one place where she couldn't be followed. The guards at the cell block were used to seeing her now and were actually prepared to wave her through, despite her last visit having been almost a week prior.

The door slid open and Rey stalked through. It was only when she actually saw Kylo Ren sitting cross-legged, eyes closed in meditation atop his bed that Rey realized she didn't have a plan. She stood in between the table and the closed doorway, hands bundled in fists and her heart hammering hard in her chest.

The dark haired man before her didn't move, not reacting to her sudden reappearance in the slightest. Rey bit her lip, casting her head side to side as she tried to think of a reason to give for being here. Nothing came to her readily and, frankly, Rey was sick and tired of trying to play the clever interrogator. It wasn't working.

"Every single person in this complex thinks that I would be entirely justified in having you executed on the spot, no questions asked," she admitted in a rush.

Kylo Ren didn't move, though his breathing was no longer careful and controlled. When he spoke, his voice was rough from disuse. "And this bothers Rey the Jedi terribly so?" he sneered.

She jumped when he said her name so casually. Throughout their back and forth there had been an unspoken rule - neither would name the other. "I'm not a Jedi," Rey replied tersely.

That didn't stop him, though. He opened his eyes to stare up at her, sending a whirlwind of emotions through her. "Then why do you care if I am sentenced to death?" Kylo asked.

Rey turned around, pressing the heel of her palms against the table as though she could use it to block out everything he was saying. "I just do," she growled. Her eyes cast up to the camera above the doorway. The tiny reflection in the lens was flipped, standing her on her head with the dark form of Kylo Ren a blur behind her.

His laugh echoed against the metal plating of the walls. "You want me to believe you feel guilty. That you couldn't harm another living soul, is that it?" he taunted. "Your attempts to show the righteous path of the Light Side won't succeed."

"That's not-" she started to explain only to be cut off by a hoarse whisper in her ear.

"That's exactly what you're attempting to do, you Jedi scum," Kylo Ren purred, his breath fanning hotly on her neck. He had moved so fast, so silently that it caught her entirely off guard. "Next time you try your pathetic mind tricks, don't be so painfully obvious about it."

Rey swallowed hard, not daring to turn her face to look at his. "It seems to be the only thing that gets through to you," she replied slowly. "More so than the actual threat on your own life."

He huffed indignantly, still mere inches from her ear. "You and I both know your little band of freedom fighters will be dead long before anyone has the brass to order my execution," he said smugly. She could practically hear the smirk in his voice.

She pushed away from the table, whirling around to face him. He stayed leaning over the table, dark eyes and scarred face pointed up at her. "Next Monday," Rey said in a shaky voice.

His brow furrowed. "What about it?" Confusion crept into his voice and Rey felt a surge of emotion at having caught him off guard.

"Your execution. I've concluded my investigation that the Resistance has extracted all useful information possible from you," Rey said, tipping her head to glare at the camera. "Mark it down," she ordered to the tech she knew was monitoring the feed.

The dread coming from Kylo Ren was palpable even without Rey trying to use the Force. She flicked her gaze back to him, raising a single eyebrow. "I suggest you think long and hard about what your final wish is," she taunted.

Without waiting for a reply - or a more violent reaction - Rey waved for the door to be opened and strode away.

Six days later and Rey felt like her stomach was in knots. Despite reassurances from multiple fronts - Poe, Finn, the general herself - she couldn't help but feel like she was making a terrible call. She hadn't been back to speak with Kylo Ren since that day, choosing to hide in the main hanger, spending time with the new batch of mechanics who had been shuttled in. It kept her hands busy and her mind distracted from the impending execution.

Unfortunately it didn't stop time from progressing. Sooner than she would have liked, Rey was putting on her new formal Resistance uniform and walking with the general to speak with Kylo Ren one final time. Before they got to the cell block, Rey stopped Leia in the hall.

"I think I should go in first, just to be sure that he's secured," she said quietly. The general paused, but after a moment nodded quietly. Rey grimaced, but didn't say anything else. What else was there to say? Sorry your son became evil incarnate and butchered his way through the half the galaxy? Sorry you have to watch your own son die? Hope they serve chili tonight in the mess? There were no right words, so she said nothing at all.

They continued in silence until they stood outside of his cell. Rey punched in her code - newly refreshed just last night - and walked inside. They had given him fresh clothes for this moment, the deep brown tunic and khaki pants looking wrong against his pale complexion and long dark hair. Resentment burned in his eyes and Rey swallowed her guilt at her part in this process.

"I see you got your final meal and new clothes," she said simply, noticing the empty tray sitting on the table.

He said nothing, choosing to continue staring. Rey held up the pair of binders that she'd brought with her. "I need you to let me to put these on," she ordered. "Now."

"Why? Don't you have some rule against killing defenseless people?" he sneered, though there was no bite to his words. She approached him slowly, not responding. He held up his hands tiredly, allowing her to snap the binders on his wrists without further protest.

He seemed the complete image of a broken man, trussed up and awaiting delivery to his end. That is until the intercom in the room buzzed and the voice of his mother filtered in. "Is the prisoner ready?" she asked, her voice cold and hard.

Rey stepped quickly away from Kylo. His shoulders had tensed and barely held contempt was splayed across his face. She called back in reply that the general could enter before turning back to Kylo. "You have five minutes to speak with her. After that, you will be brought to stand before the firing squad," she explained quickly.

The door opened and he stood up, emotions running unchecked into the Force and slamming into Rey's mind. She had to make a conscious effort to ignore everything coming from Kylo Ren as he saw his mother for the first time in more than a decade's time.

"Mother," he whispered. For the first time since he had been captured, he exhibited something resembling humanity as he furiously blinked back tears. All traces of the contempt from a moment ago were washed away by her appearance.

Leia hovered at the doorway, her carefully composed face falling at the soft exclamation from her son. Her mouth opened and she tried to speak, but nothing came out. Their eyes were locked on each other, and Rey could have been singing in Shyriiwook for all the attention that was being paid to her.

Kylo took a tentative step forward, whispering mindless apologies. There was almost a magnetic connection between the reunited family members as Leia matched his pace step for step until they were separated by mere inches. Rey walked carefully around the table to stand by the now-open doorway, watching silently as to not break whatever spell had fallen in the room.

"Ben," Leia finally spoke. The name made Kylo twitch, but he still stared at his mother. She lifted a single hand to cradle his cheek, touching him tenderly. "Why couldn't you have come home?" Leia said quietly, tears streaming openly down her face.

He closed his eyes, tipping his head to rest against her hand. No reply came from him and Rey swallowed hard. Seconds ticked by as mother and son stood, connected by a single touch. Finally, Kylo spoke, his voice hard. "Because a ghost has no home to return to," he rasped as the crackle of a saber lighting surged.

The unstable beam of Kylo Ren's crimson lightsaber pierced through his mother's chest, erupting through the back of her jacket in a blaze of white-hot heat.

Rey met his eyes, the grin twisting across his face a mirror of her own.

Four weeks earlier…

The radar technician working on the shuttle called out frantically, her voice high and squeaky. "Sir, we've got a Resistance frigate coming out of hyperspace with weapons armed and ready," she cried. Rey whipped around from her position next to Kylo and stalked towards the panicking tech, her boots echoing menacingly on the tiled floor.

"What do you mean, frigate? This was supposed to be a snatch and grab, not an all-out battle," she snarled. Alarms blared through the small craft as more reports came in.

"Fighters inbound as well."

"I'm getting readings of at least two full squadrons!"

"They're hailing, asking for a full stand down or they're going to use a tractor."

Rey looked over at her mentor, eyes wide. Kylo's gloved hands clenched in tight fists, but otherwise he was maintaining his cool. "Evasive maneuvers," he ordered, the vocoder in his mask crackling over his already gruff tone. "Jump to lightspeed as soon as possible."

Officers scrambled to fulfill orders even as the first barrage of blaster fire rained down on the shuttle. Rey cursed as someone called out damage reports for the hyperdrive. They weren't going to get out of this easily.

Once the tractor beam got involved, she knew they had to do something drastic. Rey ripped off anything resembling a rank from her uniform, jogging towards the brig with single-minded determination. Kylo followed closely behind, having only picked up on the fringes of her plan from her mind.

"What are you doing?" he called out as she checked the cells for prisoners. They had dropped off their last captives only a week prior on the Finalizer but had picked up some mid-level Resistance spy during a sweep of one of the weapons depots. With cool efficiency, Rey used her hip blaster to execute him in two quick shots.

She turned to look at Kylo, grimacing. "They're going to capture the shuttle," she explained hurriedly. She tossed her blaster and her lightsaber into the weapons locker, closing it with a wave of her hand. "They won't give two shits about keeping any of the officers as prisoners, but you know they're going to want to interrogate you. And "rescue" me from my long-suffering captivity."

He still was bewildered, tugging off his helmet to properly look at her. "I don't understand," he started, only to be caught off balance by Rey frantically pulling him into an embrace. Her lips pressed hotly against his, and she nipped impatiently at his lower lip. Another explosion rocked the ship, forcing them to break the kiss.

Her eyes bright with pinpricks of tears, Rey quickly ran through the rest of her plan. "I don't know how, but I'll get them to keep you alive. And there's no way the general can avoid speaking to her long-lost son. When she does, we can kill her and we'll have crippled the whole Resistance with their own operation."

Kylo swallowed once, twice, before nodding tightly. "I will be the one to cut her down," he demanded. "And you guarantee you can keep both of us alive?"

With another nod, Rey grinned. "They're sentimental fools. And their intel is months behind knowing that I'm not locked up any more," she jeered confidently. "Cut off the head and they'll flounder. The galaxy will fall to the First Order within months instead of years." Fierce pride flushed her face before she returned to the task at hand.

"Now go," she ordered. "They're expecting a fight from the monstrous Jedi killer, Kylo Ren." She tugged the cell door closed between them, watching him slam his helmet back on to fight off her "rescuers."