Dangerous Game

Chapter 1: The Beast

Hello my lovelies, here is another story for you, it's very special, I have had this idea for a long time and now I am finally giving it to you. Well it takes place in a world where things didn't happen and so this is what I think the outcome would look like. I hope you enjoy.

O~o~O

The complex restraining holds Rey upright against an angled platform. She wakes slowly, disoriented, dizzy feeling going through her head. She looks around, seeing that the dark room has no movement or sound she can hear or see. Nothing, just silence and darkness.

She looks around again to take in her surroundings, they are as different as can be imagined from her previous ones. The last thing Rey can remember is the confrontation in the forest on Takodana, the sounds of battle, and sending away BB-8. That, and then the mind invasion, the pain. Her efforts to shut it out and the contemptuous ease with her mental defenses being brushed aside. Even now, there is a lingering ache at the back of her head.

The forest is gone, so is Maz's castle. Gathering up her courage, she asks. "Where am I?"

"Does it really matter so much?"

In Kylo Ren's voice, there is an unexpected gentleness, but not quite sympathy. It is something less than, the hostility he showed when he confronted her in the forest. "You are my guest."

He casually waves in her direction, and in a couple of clicks, the restraints fall away from her arms. She walks to the side and rubs her wrist, never taking her eyes off of him. She doesn't want him to think he can intimidate her any more than he has. Taking quick glances around the room, she confirms that they are alone.

"Where are the others?"

"You mean the traitors, murderers, and thieves you call friends? I could easily tell you they are dead, righteouslykilled in battle. But, I prefer to be honest with you from the beginning." He pauses and breaths out a huff. "You will be relieved to hear that as far as their current status and well-being is concerned- I have no idea."

She stares at him, thinking how calm he is. But deep down, she feels that a wrong word, an unsatisfactory response, might set him off.

"You still want to kill me," he murmurs.

Her true self gets the better of her and she replies tactlessly, despite the danger. "That happens when you're being hunted by a creature in a mask."

She has a moment to ponder his possible reactions and to fear them. But he doesn't do what she expected. Instead, he reaches up, unlatches and removes his mask. She just stares at him in silence.

"Is it true?" he asks. "You're just a scavenger?" Rey doesn't respond and sensing her embarrassment, he changes the subject. "Tell me about the droid."

She swallows. "He's a BB unit with a selenium drive and a thermal hyperscan vindicator, internal self-correcting gyroscope propulsion system-"

"I am familiar with general droid technical specifications. What I want, is located in its memory. It's carrying a section of a transgalactic navigational chart. We have the rest, recovered from the archives of the Empire. We need to last piece. Somehow, you, convinced the droid to show it to you. You." He steps closer to Rey. "A simple, solitary, scavenger. How is that?"

Rey looks away. How does he know that?

"I know you've seen the map," he repeats. "it's what I need. At the moment, it is all I need." When she maintains her silence, he almost sighs. "You know I can take whatever I want?"

Her muscles tighten. "Then you don't need me to tell you anything."

"True." He steps closer to Rey. "I would have preferred to avoid this. Despite what you may believe, it gives me no pleasure. I will go as easily as possible- but I will take what I need."

She knows that trying to resist him physically will not only be useless, but will likely result in unpleasantness of a kind, she prefers not to imagine. So, she remains motionless and silent.

His hand rises towards her face. Cupping her shin. He hesitates. Something unexpected.

Rey strains to resist the invasion, but he pushes into her, brushing aside her awkward attempts to keep him out. While he investigates her mind, he speaks softly.

"You've been so lonely." He murmurs as he searches for what he needs. "So afraid to leave." A thin smile crosses his face. "At night desperate to sleep, you'd imagine an ocean. I can see it… I can see the island."

Tears are streaming down her face, from the effort she is making to withstand him. Increasingly desperate, she tries to strike out. But just as on Takodana, her body refuses to respond.

"And Han Solo," Ren continues, relentlessly. "He feels like the father you never had. A dead end, that vision. Let it go. I can tell you for a fact, he would have disappointed you."

All the rage and terror inside her comes out as she turns to meet his gaze.

"Get-out-of-my-head."

It only makes him lean in closer, enhancing her feeling of complete helplessness. "Rey- you've seen the map. It's in there. And I am going to take it." He leans in closer, near her ear and whispers. "Don't be afraid. I feel it too."

"I'm not giving you- anything." She snarls back at him.

His response reflects his unconcern. "We'll see."

Narrowing his gaze and his focus, he locks his eyes with her. Rey meets his gaze without trying to look away. It is the rational thing to do. The sane thing to do. Instead, Rey just glares, trying not to flinch, not to blink.

Ah Kylo thinks to himself. Something there, of interest. Not the image of the map, that would take another moment. But definitely something worth investigating. He shifts his perception towards it, seeking to identify, to analyze, to-

The barrier stops him cold. And it is he, Kylo Ren, who blinks. It makes no sense. He pushes, hard, with his mind- and the invasion goes nowhere.

Rey realizes his failure and the fear on Rey's face, disappears, as she discovers herself in his mind. She finds herself inexorably drawn to- to…

"You," she hears herself saying clearly, "you're afraid. That you will never be as strong as- Darth Vader!"

His hand pulls sharply away from her chin, as if her skin has suddenly turned white-hot. Confused, rattled, he stumbles back from her. Her gaze follows him. Rey's eyes are the same, but something else changed- something behind them, in her stare and in her posture.

He moves to leave and, at the last moment, gestures powerfully in her direction. She moves back in front of the platform and the restraints that held her wrists, snap back into place, once again securing her to the inclined platform. Then he puts the mask back on and is gone.

O~o~O

So yeah, I know this is just a review of what actually happens in the movie, but with some twists. Well not exactly, I followed along a different path that is similar to the book's version, but that doesn't matter. Next chapter will be out tomorrow, so will Attention, but TOAS (Truth of a Slave) will come out on Saturday. Until then, my lovelies.