Conflicted: A Reylo Fanfic

Captive

"Put your clothes on, now!" he shouted as he returned from the cockpit, already heeding his own instruction.

"What is it?" Rey asked frantically as she obeyed, fear quickly gripping her heart.

"It's a proximity alarm. It's Cerisse."

"Cerisse... She's here?"

Rey didn't notice Ben's response, her mind already lunging and leaping in a million different directions as she thought about her friends inside the bunker, this particular Knight of Ren's penchant for murdering Force users, her own brush with death at the mercy of Cerisse's disc, Ben's collusion with a general of the Resistance, the two ships parked at the back of the mining facility, her previous encounter with Cerisse on Yavin IV, the pair of footsteps that led directly to Ben's shuttle—

"Stop," Ben told her suddenly. "I can't think."

Aware that he meant the noise of her heightened anxiety was drowning out his own thoughts, Rey attempted to focus just on the one element that most concerned her: whether or not Cerisse knew of the Force bond Rey shared with her Master. She watched as Ben thrust his hand out in the general direction of the bunker, and she followed his gesture with her senses, recognizing that he had just put her friends into a Force sleep so they couldn't inadvertently make their presence known by emerging from the defunct base. Surprised that he could do that at all from this distance, not to mention through the cavern wall, Rey found herself wondering how effective it would be.

"Not very," he admitted, having sensed her doubt. "But it should hold long enough."

"For what? What are we doing?"

"You're going to have to come with me, Rey. As my captive."

"What?" she cried, already shaking her head and rejecting the plan. "No! I won't!"

"Two sets of footprints!" he reminded her forcefully, taking hold of her shoulders and speaking firmly into her face, his eyes intense and grim. "If she doesn't find you here with me, she will hunt you down."

"I'll fight her. We can fight her!"

"You're safe under my protection, Rey. She won't challenge that."

"But what if she knows that you—" love me? "—saved me?"

"She's not very good at extracting information. Too much subtlety for her. When she tries to read your thoughts, let her."

"What? Ben!"

"Listen to me, Rey! Let her in. Don't stop her getting in, but do guide where she goes, what she sees. She won't be able to tell if you're doing that, but she will know if you're hiding something."

Rey shrank back from him, shaking her head frantically. "No, Ben, I can't do this. I'm so afraid..."

He pulled her roughly into his arms, holding her tight and pressing a kiss to her forehead. "I won't let any harm come to you. Please trust me, Rey. Follow my lead on this."

Without quite confirming her complicity in his plan, he kissed her once on the mouth then promptly set her aside to don his helmet, which she hadn't noticed him retrieve from the cockpit.

"Stay there," he instructed, pointing to the bunk on which they had so recently realized their immeasurable passion for one another, "and don't call me Ben."

Collapsing onto the bunk, Rey pulled the blankets tight around her and watched as Ben—Kylo turned to lower the shuttle's ramp. Stopping halfway down the ramp, he waited for Cerisse. It was not a long wait at all.