12 || the last straw

"WHAT'S GONNA HAPPEN TO ME NOW, HUH? YOU JUST LOCK ME UP FOR THE REST OF MY DAYS TO ROT?"

STAR DESTROYER, FIRST ORDER-

There was a sort of silence inside of the interrogation rooms that Kyra had never experienced before inside of the First Order. It was chilling, an ominous draft blowing her way every once in a while, whether that be from one person entering the room to try and break her or that same person leaving when they had failed.

She couldn't tell how many days it had been inside of here. The dull thud of her heart beating seemed to be the only thing keeping time. The only way Kyra could tell the time was by counting how many people had come in and out of the room she had been stuck in so far.

Right now, that count was at 15.

Her eyes had been closed for the past... well, she didn't know how long, but Kyra had tried to get some semblance of rest after the last interrogator, General Armitage Hux, had failed. She knew he had stomped out in a fuss, muttering to some stormtroopers escorting a new prisoner outside about someone bigger coming in.

She had no clue who he was talking about, unconsciousness drawing her in before she could finish. But now, Kyra could tell that there was something different about the room, even with her eyes closed. It was a new sort of dynamic, and it wasn't a good one by any means.

Daring to open her eyes a crack, Kyra immediately found the change in the room, her eyes staring into the mask of the sith lord apprentice himself, Kylo Ren.

Ah, so that was the person that Hux had ordered come into the room and deal with her.

It didn't take Ren but a moment to realize she had forced herself back from unconsciousness, the man rising from where he sat in the corner. He had been tucked away from all of the main lights in the room, most of them glaring down at Kyra with a harsh light.

"So the traitor finally awakens." The hostile tone from the masked man was noted by Kyra quickly, trying to squint her eyes to see him better as he adhered to the darkness. "I'm surprised you made it through all of those interrogators- especially Hux. He had the belief that he wouldn't leave until he broke you."

"Guess he was wrong." Kyra barely whispered, the pain from Hux and the interrogators before rushing back into her like an ocean wave crashing into the shore. Her eyes still staring into Ren's, she tried to keep her wince of pain unnoticed.

That didn't work, however. The sith lord apprentice immediately noticed, clicking his tongue in almost disappointment. "When I trained you for all of these 9 years, I thought I taught you better than to let your enemy show that you're in pain."

"Well, when almost every surface of your body is littered in bruises and cuts, get back to me on that not showing pain thing." Kyra gave her best attempt at a sneer to the man, not bothering to break eye contact with him. She wasn't the girl that she was four years ago, bright eyed and fearful of the First Order. And Kyra was ready to show Kylo Ren that fact.

Her fiery spirit made Ren let out a surprised chuckle, almost amused at how much fire was inside of her still. "That spunk. I'm surprised that it's stayed with you for so long." He commented, finally tearing his masked eyes away from hers. The breaking of eye contact made Kyra break into the slightest of smirks behind Kylo's back. She had a small victory, at least.

Still silently eyeing the man, Kyra wasn't sure what he was there for, exactly.  Was he just sitting in the darkness waiting for a moment to rub her failures in her face like a child, or was he here with other ulterior motives? It was hard to pin down exactly what he wanted, every movement he made now calculated and well thought out.

It wasn't like the countless days of those 9 years that they had spent in the training room together, unmasked and drenched in sweat. It wasn't like it was back then, when she could read every mood he had, his face an open book. The face of the man who had kicked her ass and looked into her eyes as he punished her for failing missions was gone, the cold exterior of a man with a mask the only thing that remained.

"You keep trying to analyze me." Kylo Ren noticed, rising from his seated position, analyzing her expression as he walked to the side of the room, grabbing a small device. Kyra had no idea what it was, but she knew whatever it was- and whatever it did- meant nothing good for her. "You know that it does you no good when I'm in the mask."

"I know." Kyra stated, the words barely escaping her lips as her expression hardened. Her lips pressed against themselves to form a tight line, Kyra's eyes now trained upon the small device on your hand. "I can only read that ugly mug of yours."

Ignoring her words, Kylo Ren started to walk to the side of her standing interrogation prison, stopping by the left side of her body. "I know what you're trying to analyze me for." He realized, his voice slightly lighting up as his brain recognized her familiar motives. "You're wondering why I'm here."

"Among many other things, yes. Figured someone like you had much better things to do than interrogate a prisoner. Did Snoke demote you or-"  Kyra was silenced by the man pressing the button on the device in his grasp, the device letting out a high pitched frequency sound that made her ears want to bleed. She let out a scream, almost ready to beg the man to stop when the noise finally ceased.

Her ears still ringing, Kyra could feel that something was different in the atmosphere now. The normal pressure that she had grown so accustomed to  around her had disappeared, the darkness and cold slowly seeping in. The small layer of warmth that she had once felt had was all but gone, leaving her open and vulnerable. Which left her with only one question-

"What the hell was that?" 

"A new little device that came from Deftrine to help control you. It's taken him over four years to perfect it, but he believes to have found a frequency high enough for only you to hear that inhibits your abilities." Ren stated, a bit of glee evident inside of his voice at the idea that she would be stripped powerless. "After all of these years of you having the upperhand on me, it appears that I finally have the upperhand on you."

"If it even worked." Kyra scoffed, challenging the man. She knew she was vulnerable and most definitely at risk of god knows what by Ren, but frankly, she didn't care. Her ears still ringing, the sound reverberating quietly in the background, she stared straight into the depth of Kylo Ren's mask, knowing exactly where his eyes were inside.   "You know that Deftrine is so dumb enough that he couldn't tell spotchka from sarlaac. How could he have-"

In an instant, it felt like every molecule of air had been sucked out of her lungs. It was like the worst sucker punch to her gut ever, except afterwards, she didn't get to breathe back in. The feeling inside of her body was something she had never experienced before, her throat gasping for air, a pressure around it restricting her to even take a breath in.

It seemed to go on for an eternity.

Kyra closed her eyes after a few seconds, the unbearable pain too much for her to take anymore. In that instant, the pain went away, her mind going back to the shining fields of Sorgan and the peaceful farms that she had grown up on. It seemed like an eternity ago, but an eternity that Kyra would gladly escape to now if she had the chance.

All she could hear were the peaceful noises of the krill farms in the morning, the water rustling with the crops moving around inside of them. The frogs that were so peaceful (yet annoying) in their evening croaks to attract a mate, and the quiet silence of dawn in the village. In that moment, the ringing in her ears faded, and the chokehold with it.

The familiar feeling of warmth rushed back into Kyra as quickly as it left, the feeling making her relieved. It was almost as someone was hugging her as an apology for ever leaving, reminding her of the hugs that her father used to give before he left on trading trips, and before he had never returned back to Sorgan.

Her eyes flying open again, Kyra gasped for air, seeing an upset Kylo Ren turn away from her, his hand that he held close to her throat being ripped away, out of sight. "That didn't last long at all. He had told me that it would last at least a good hour."

"Your good old doctor isn't so reliable then, huh?" Kyra, still sputtering for air, let out the smallest chuckle that she could. The fact that Ren and Deftrine had failed at limiting her powers for that long helped boost her ever fading confidence, even if the prospect of getting force choked again was very high.

"Or you have something built into your ability that allows you to help resist anything that attempts to harm it." Ren muttered to himself, thinking of all the possibilities as to why the device had failed so easily. "If it keeps getting used, perhaps that built in safety will slowly diminish." He whispered, just out of range of Kyra, who was still recovering from his attack on her.

Kylo Ren quickly whirled around again, stalking towards Kyra like a man on a mission. His hand still gripped the device, the man pressing the button again, the torturous sound ringing again inside of Kyra's ears. He did not hesitate as he held his hand up to her again, this time aiming to do something other than torture her physically.

This time, he was going to try and delve inside of the woman's mind, emotionally pick her apart until she caved.

And if that didn't work?

He'd just telepathically probe her mind until he found what he wanted.

After all, he could take whatever he wanted from her now with this new device.

Feeling the warmth drain out of her again, Kyra looked up at Ren, fear starting to become evident in her eyes. She had no idea what he was going to do to her, and it scared her. "Why are you here?" She croaked out, unable to find any more courage to fire back at him.

"I thought you'd know by now." Kylo Ren almost scolded her, chastising her with a click of his tongue. He was most definitely cherishing this moment over the young woman. "I need all of the Resistance information inside of your head. Ever since we captured that stupid pilot who's madly in love with you, we haven't been able to find the map to Skywalker."

"What?" Kyra whispered, her brain not being able to process what Ren was saying. She was so focused on making sure that the sith lord apprentice didn't take anything as much as a step towards her that she was confused as to what he meant. The only pilot she knew inside of the Resistance was-

Shit.

The First Order had Poe Dameron.

"You two were fools to ever think that we wouldn't find out about all the information that was being traded between you. Luckily for us, our supporter on Tatooine informed me of your betrayal, and I was able to send away those two troopers that were always by your side. Who knows if they were involved in any of your schemes."

"They weren't." Kyra whispered, more afraid for her friend's lives than her own. "I swear, it was only me who decided to share the information. They were just extra help on the missions for the First Order. Please don't do anything to them." She pleaded, willing for anything to happen to her before 4236 or 6978 were injured.

"If you want them and your Resistance pilot to live another day, you're going to give me exactly what I want. Listen very closely." Kylo Ren reasoned, trying to ensure that he'd get the map. If Poe wouldn't give him the map, and had chosen to so foolishly keep the coordinates a secret (as he had done, instead screaming at Ren when he arrived in his interrogation room an hour after he had given him the ultimatum), he would get them from his traitorous weapon he had trained for nine years.

The sith lord apprentice knew that Kyra wasn't as strong as her facade was, her attachments to the people around her making her weak. She would break under the pressure of her stormtrooper friend's lives at stake, or that Resistance pilot she had taken a liking to. At least the Resistance pilot had stuck to his morals, sacrificing the woman Ren was now interrogating for the map to Skywalker.  Even if it wasn't a choice Poe Dameron had audibly made, his silence had led him to this moment.

"You're going to tell me where that Resistance pilot hid the map to Skywalker."

That stopped Kyra dead in her tracks. Her mind had been racing with information that the First Order leader would want, thinking of everything that she had given away to the Resistance, or about people she had met within the Resistance and how deep it went.

But this question?

She had no clue how to answer this.

"I don't know." Kyra whispered, tears starting to form in the creases of her eyes. The once cocky demeanor of the girl had become dust in the wind, the fear that had overcome her the first day she had met Kylo Ren coming back to her all over again. "I wasn't on the planet where it was found, and Dameron gave me no motives as to who he would give it-"

"You know something." Ren accused, knowing that there was something that the young woman was holding back. Pressing the button on the device again, the screams of Kyra were the only thing that echoed in his ears as his frustration only grew. "You're hiding something, and you need to tell me."

"I swear I don't know anything about where he put the map!" Kyra screamed, tears flowing freely down her face. The stains of the trails the tears took now combined with the dried paths of blood on her face from earlier beatings, making the girl appear like a wreck. "I only gave him the coordinates to where it was and who it was with. I don't know anything else."

"Liar!" The man snarled back at her, losing more and more of his patience as the girl remained stubborn. He knew there was something that she was holding back. But if he tried to go into her mind too early, the resistance built inside of her to the device would kick in, and Ren would get nowhere. Dameron had given him nothing only an hour before, and he was not going to get nothing from Kyra. "Where is the map?"

"I don't know! I've been locked up here since Tatooine!" Kyra tried to reason with the man, racking her brain to find any source of information on what he wanted. "Please, I can give you anything but that information!"

"You. Lie." Kylo Ren spat, in his frustration reaching his peak. Grabbing his lightsaber from his hilt, he ignited it, the red the only color inside of the room. In his fit of anger, he struck Kyra's right side of her face, hearing her screams increase as he did so. When his lightsaber no longer glowed inside of the room, he saw the wreckage of what he had done.

The backside of Kyra's right side of her  face burned red, the girl's tears now being mixed in with the hot cauterization of the wound that Ren had just inflicted. Her ear had been sliced clean off, the area where the limb used to be now a burned patch of skin.

The ringing in her ears (now one sole ear) stopped abruptly, the pain of losing one of the vital parts of her senses blossoming up in its place. It was a throbbing pain, ebbing and flowing like the ocean. She could feel her heart pounding in the place where her ear used to be, and nothing else.

"I told you that if you didn't listen, you'd be punished heavily." Kylo Ren spoke very tersely, cocking his head slightly in almost shock that she had disobeyed him for this long. "Your ear is going to be one of many things lost if you don't give me what I want, Solani." He warned, using the name that he knew she despised, a way to show her that he was serious about every threat he was issuing.

"Tell me where the map is, or who it's with. I know that Dameron had to have an accomplice in all of this. He most certainly had to have someone else with him. The Resistance wouldn't be foolish enough to send someone out there on their own." Ren stared at the woman, who was still struggling with the pain that he had inflicted upon her. Frustration quickly flashed across his face as she remained silent, barely able to keep her focus on him.

Kyra was exhausted at this point, drained and hurting more than she had ever been. Her brain only wanted to rest, not wanting to formulate any words or respond to the sith lord apprentice that was standing in front of her. "No one accompanied him." She croaked out, her mind flitting back to when she had met Poe before. Her only memories were with his droid, who wasn't a person.

Which meant that BB-8 had the drive with Skywalker's map inside of it. A sly thought came into her brain, now knowing a way to tell the truth to Ren's question while keeping the information she had just figured out safe. There had never been any person with him, so no one ever truly did accompany him.

Now all Kyra had to do was keep this information from him.

"If you're not going to answer my questions, and try and cover up your little Resistance pilot's tracks, I guess I'll just have to take what I want from you instead." Kylo Ren growled, his irritation wi.th the woman growing even after he had unleashed his rage on her.

Making sure that the device was working and the frequency was in place, Kylo reached out his hand, ready to delve into the young woman's mind. He had to pick apart the pieces of her memories, find the useful information, and make sure that she was suffering while he was at it.

Ignoring Kyra's grunts of pain and attempts to scream at him to get out of her head, Ren passed through memories of her childhood on a planet he had long forgotten in his conquest of the galaxy, a peaceful farming planet called Sorgan. The vivid greens and blues of the planet overwhelmed him, causing him to toss the memory aside in favor of something with a more useful memory and pleasing color scheme.

Next he had stumbled upon one of their training sessions together, the one in which Kyra had finally beat the man who lumbered over her. It was early on in her training at the Star Killer base, after he had pulled her from the front lines of the First Order's conquest in order to sharpen and hone in on her skills to be a deadly weapon for the First Order. All it had taken for him to go down was one strategically placed sweep at his legs and for the girl to wrap her legs around his head to knock him down towards the ground.

Memory after memory passed by him, Ren finding information about the girl that he was sure to exploit. Not only did she have a developing love for the Resistance pilot she had been helping for the past four years, she also loved the two troopers like family.

Family he would ensure that she would never see again.

Kyra could feel him picking apart her brain, every time he moved through a memory torturous for her. It felt like Kylo was cutting away into her brain, picking apart the pieces that were useful and throwing away the rest. Every time that she would try to resist or fight back, he would just press the device's button again and leave Kyra reeling. 

She had to get him out of her mind, and fast.

"The more you delve into my mind, the more trouble you're going to get into." Kyra barely whispered, trying to contain her pain from the interrogation with Ren as she spoke. She was about ready to fall back into unconsciousness, the pain of everything overwhelming her as she tried to focus on the man in front of her.

Kylo Ren stared at her, releasing his hold on her mind for a moment. Kyra gave a gasp of relief, her mind feeling scrambled when he let go of his grasp of her. It was awful, as if someone had seen every private intimate moment of her life- well, that was exactly what he had done.

"Your mind is stronger than what I thought it would be." Ren remarked, somewhat surprised at how long she had maintained sanity throughout the process. He was sure that by the end of this, she would be a mindless puppet for the First Order to control, no choice being left in her whatsoever. "However, that won't stop me from getting what I want."

"Either you tell me who accompanied him, or I find out myself." The man reminded Kyra, cocking his head slightly once again to stare at her wound that he had inflicted upon her. "It would be a shame if you had to lose more than just an ear."

"Your threats are empty." Kyra whispered, her voice hollow. She had already been ripped apart and broken, any fear or courage that had once been inside of her was left with only a numb sort of pain that took over her insides like a poison. "You won't kill me."

His temper being tested, Kylo Ren gave a cold laugh, unsure of what else to do in that moment. He was frustrated yet impressed with the young woman that stood before him, seeing what all of his training had come to produce. A failure, yet a stubborn one.

"Watch me."

Pressing the device again, he ripped apart her brain, this time determined to find any interactions with the Resistance and their pilot she liked so much, Poe Dameron. Memories of places like Naboo and Corellia were useless, until he found something that he had not noticed inside of the memories. Kyra was on Hosnian Prime, and beside Dameron was a droid.

"A BB unit." Kylo commented, picking apart her brain with a laugh. The man had realized why Kyra had said what she said earlier. He stared at her, shaking his head with disbelief. "You're a sneaky woman, aren't you? You said there was no one with Dameron because there wasn't. There was a droid. The map isn't with the Resistance pilot because it's with the droid. On Jakku."

"No." Kyra whispered, realization dawning on her face when he spoke about the droid. He had found the thing she had so desperately tried to hide at the back of her mind. Ren had torn apart her mind and scattered the pieces like a wolf devouring its prey, only finishing when it was satisfied. "No!" She screamed, seeing him turn away from her, inspecting the device.

"Perhaps you and this device were more useful than I thought." Kylo Ren remarked, walking away from the woman that he had left beaten and torn, seeing the door open for him. Before he walked through, he hesitated, savoring the moment of victory for one second. "Thank you for the information, Solani. Because of you, the First Order will reign supreme all over the galaxy."

But the words that Ren said last would echo inside of Kyra's head forever.

"And the Resistance will be crushed."

All because of her.

God, what had she done?

<~•~>

hi yes I know this chapter was the definition of bipolar but ,,,, who cares

this is what happens when you leave me to just barf words on a page and my character is a cocky woman with a tortured soul and she breaks so 😗✌🏼

I really want to thank you guys for making this book become what it's become already, and I'm super proud of what work I've done on it!

I really hope you all enjoy what comes next in these upcoming chapters, but until then, thank you so much for reading!