THE HUNT

Eleven

"Is this a pity visit?" Massif asks, voice slurring. "Because I don't want your-"

"I brought you bacta." I interrupt, pulling it from my pocket. I hold up the syringe, and she scoffs, the sound more like a wheeze. 

"So it is a pity visit." 

"I could just as easily give this to someone else." I snap. "Kylo doesn't care what happens to you anymore. Do you want it or not?"

"I tried to kill you." 

"I'm still alive, unless you haven't noticed." I step closer, and she flinches softly. 

"Such a shame." She says.

"Apparently." I take a few more quick steps. "Let me help you, Massif." She hesitates, but nods. 

"Only because I want to get well enough to get out of here." She grits her teeth. "Ren's forbidden the rest of the knights from helping me get better, but I know that they'll help me escape." She watches me as I approach her. I suck in a breath. 

"I'll help too if I can." I inject it quickly and step away. She breathes out, and I know she feels better already. She hesitates, but clears her throat. 

"Did Ren give you his code, or did you get it from somewhere else?" 

"He gave me his, why?"

"That's the master code for the prison." She groans, readjusting her position. "You can use it to see your friend." 

"I-" My heart skips a beat. "Why would you tell me that?" 

"You helped me." She shrugs. I laugh. 

"I assume that's fair." I step closer to the door, unease filling me, though I'm unsure why. 

"Are you done here?" She asks, lifting a brow. "Because I really don't want to start liking the person I lost my career trying to kill." I laugh again, and she smiles a little. 

"It's kind of sad that you consider this a career." I turn and open the door, somewhat glad to hear her laugh a little as I step into the hall, activating my mask once again. 

I find myself stepping down the hall towards the cell I know my childhood friend is in. I draw another vial of bacta from my robe, pulling a long breath into my lungs. 

Then I type in the code and the door slides open. 

Only when the door hisses shut does he flinch awake. 

Clearly Ushar has been in here again. Bile rises in my throat, but I shove it down. 

This is nothing compared to what I looked like. Nothing compared to what I went through. Not yet. I think. But he still sold me out. 

"H-Hunter?" His eyes catch on me, and I angle my head as he watches the bacta in my hand. I hold it up, placing it on the table beside Ushar's toys. They're clean, which is unusual. He usually lets them fester with bacteria, causing infections that cause his victims to hallucinate and beg for anything to help with the pain. 

"You look terrible." I say, mask filtering my voice. He laughs, the sound cold and humourless. 

"You made this happen." 

"Orders are orders, Imrie. You know that." 

"What about friends?" He winces, shifting in his restraints. "We've been friends longer than we've been part of the Resistance." His eyes narrow. "Or in your case, the First Order." 

"Friends don't leave friends in the forest with a killer." I cross my arms, and he scoffs. 

"Oh please, he's never put a hand on you." 

"That's not true." I roll my eyes behind my mask. "You saw him hurt me." 

"Yet you love him." 

"Yet I love him." I echo, lifting my chin. 

"Are you here to gloat, Hunter?" He turns away, and I say nothing for a moment. He laughs, and I flinch slightly. "You're not really a spy for the Resistance, are you?"

"What gave it away?" I step closer, rolling my hands into fists as I lower them to my sides. 

"Your boyfriend, first of all." Then he nods towards the table of tools where the vial of bacta rests. "And the fact that your friend in the mask told me that he never cleans his toys." Imrie lifts his chin. "He did it for you. Because of who I am to you." I let a cold laugh tumble from my lips. 

"You're nothing to me." I say. "You killed me." 

"Yet here you stand."

"As Kylo Ren's creation." I hiss. "Here I stand on top of the broken shards of Hunter Horne that you threw to the ground." I take a step closer to him, and he shrinks back. Good. "You broke me. Kylo Ren built me."

"You built yourself." 

I whirl, seeing Kylo leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. I take a breath. 

I'm sorry.

"For what?" He stands up straight, stepping towards the table. His fingers brush the bacta, and he lifts a brow. "You're going to heal him?" 

No. I watch as he picks up a small circular device. Imrie flinches, and my gaze snaps back to him. 

"Something the matter?" I ask, voice filter crackling. "You don't like this one?" I hold out my hand and Kylo gives it to me gently, eyes soft. 

"You don't have to do this."

I ignore his comment, finding the small button on the side. A thin yellow electrified wire whip releases, and I snap it across his bare chest with no warning. He screams, the sound raw and painful. This is what I came to do. I hit him again, and his body constricts as much as it can with his restraints.

"Hunter." He groans, head dropping. I snap the whip across his chest again, and he cries out. "I'm sorry." He weeps, tears streaming down his cheeks. 

"Sorry doesn't save a dead girl." I hiss, whipping him again. 

"Darling," Kylo whispers in my ear. "You're not dead." I deactivate my mask, fixing him with a look. He steps back, lifting his hands. "Okay, okay," He bows his head. "Do your thing." I turn back to Imrie, who flinches away. 

"If I wasn't following Kylo Ren's orders to be a double agent, and if we didn't have the relationship we have, your confession would have had me killed." I hit him again, and he screams once more. "You betrayed me when I almost died to not do the same." I hand the whip to Kylo, turning on my heel and stepping through the door.

Rebel scum, I guess.