Raey cursed, jerking away in surprise from the sudden attack, but the stormtrooper's grip on his elbow only tightened. She (there was just enough femininity in the voice making it through the helmet to convince him the stormtrooper was a woman) dug her armored fingers into his flesh, lowering the stun baton that she had just jabbed into her companion's back.

"Don't run, don't panic, and don't make a sound if you want to get out of here alive," she commanded quietly. "Just walk."

She didn't give him much of a chance to do otherwise. His arm ached from the iron-grip she had on him, and he almost stumbled over the other, unconscious trooper while trying to keep up with her brisk march. They were alone in the hall, so he risked a quick question.

"Are... are you breaking me out?"

"No. I'm getting away from the First Order, and I'm taking you with me. The hanger is close. Hurry."

Raey stiffened, a thought striking him. "What about... are there any more prisoners here, maybe that you captured with me?"

The stormtrooper glanced at him, her expression impossible to discern through the white helmet and black visor, and her voice betrayed nothing when she asked,

"Worried for your rebel friend?"

Spast. They did catch him.

"I know you owe me nothing," Raey pleaded, "but I have to at least try to get him out of this, too. Please."

He half-expected the stormtrooper to hit him with the stun baton like she had her fellow trooper, leave him to his reckless quest while she made her escape. The other half of him expected this all to be a twisted method of manipulating him, getting him to reveal some secret or weakness in the Resistance in a fake escape attempt. Still, he had nothing to lose by playing along. He didn't know any Resistance secrets, and the stormtrooper, despite his doubts, did not simple abandon him then and there.

Instead, she hesitated, then dropped his arm and turned to march over to the nearest console.

"You're right," she muttered, the words barely making it through her helmet. "Leverage."

Her fingers flew across the keyboard, then she stopped and watched as information began scrolling up the screen. Raey fidgeted, fiddling with the cuffs still clamped around his wrists.

The stormtrooper typed in a command, then turned towards Raey again.

"Come on," she said sharply, grabbing his bruised arm again. "We have to move."

"Is there a plan?"

"Shut up."

Raey dug in his heels. "No," he said, pulling against his captor's grip. "I want to help here, lady, and I can help somehow, but not if you don't tell me anything. What's going on?"

"You Resistance have no discipline," hissed the stormtrooper, yanking Raey with more force then he had expected her to be capable of. "Cooperate, and we get out of this. Hinder me, and I will leave you in the nearest cell or garbage compressor for someone else to deal with. Understood?"

Raey swallowed. "Understood."

"Good."

She opened a door and shoved him through first, then blasted the door controls to seal it behind them.

"The situation," she began again, returning her free hand to his elbow as though he couldn't walk down the hall on his own, "is simple. There is trouble on the bridge. We have an opening to slip away while the officers on distracted. If fortune is on our side, they won't notice we are gone until minutes after the fact."

"Minutes?"

"That's the best case scenario."

.

.

The Knight straightened, last hints of electricity sparking off his fingers. Dameron's screams echoed around the round room, no longer capable of being restrained by a stubborn desire to deny the Knight the satisfaction.

And the Knight did take satisfaction from hearing them. When the echoes died down, the screaming turned to panting and breathless groans, he again made his oft-repeated demand.

"Give me the coordinates."

"I... can't..." gasped his prisoner. "I've told you... before... I don't know them!"

The Knight lifted one shoulder, then the other, rolling his neck beneath the black armor that encased him.

Then, the door slid abruptly open. A stormtrooper ran into the room, saluted.

"My lord! General Hux has run into trouble with the command of the Domination."

"I'm busy," growled the Knight, not turning or even glancing at the intruder.

"C-Captain Phasma ordered me to tell you there is real danger of a co-"

The Knight whirled away from his victim, thrusting out a hand towards the stormtrooper in the doorway. The trooper flew back into the hall and slammed against the wall with a cry quickly cut short, sliding to the ground limply. The Knight made a fast, jerking gesture and the door screeched shut, the mechanisms tearing apart as it was pulled back into place through sheer force.

And the rebel's screams resumed.

.

.

The stormtrooper led the way unwaveringly, not even looking twice at hallways before taking turns or marching past them. Raey clamped his mouth shut whenever they passed another stormtrooper, an event which began happening more and more frequently. They, like his captor, had an urgency to their strides that worried Raey, but he dared not ask more questions while there could be enemies around.

Then, they turned a corner and Raey saw right ahead of them the wide, open cavern of a hanger bay.

His heart leapt, and then promptly sank.

Tie-fighters, shuttles, ships and droids and technology all in prime condition, and all right there. The polished, gleaming metal sent a thrill of excitement through him that no 'captivity' could dampen... but then it hit him that the stormtrooper had tricked him. And yet he couldn't say anything. There were other stormtroopers, people in uniform milling around their hanger workstations, fueling ships and making repairs. A wrong word now, and they both could get shot on sight.

So he kept his mouth shut, but resentment still darkened his expression. The stun baton strayed closer, hovering around his ribs just out of shocking-range.

"It's too late, kid," hissed the stormtrooper under her breath, much to Raey's surprise. "I'm sorry, but your friend is out of reach now."

Raey's fingernails dug into his palms, but he couldn't reply. Another stormtrooper turned his head to follow Raey and his captor as they passed him – Raey lowered his gaze, fear mixing nauseously with anger in the pit of his stomach.

"Orders?"

Raey kept his eyes trained on the ground, but the new voice made him even more tense then his captor's deception had. Yet another stormtrooper...

"Special orders by Captain Phasma. The Knights want the other captive transferred to the Resurrection in light of the fighting on the bridge."

"Have you checked in with your squad-leader yet? All movement between levels has been suspended until further notice."

"We are not going between levels."

"I will need your designation, trooper. Taking a shuttle will require confirmation."

"LN-2737."

"Stand by."

Raey chanced a glance up. The other stormtrooper had one hand to his helmet, ready to call in the situation, and Raey's captor – LN-2737 – stood stiff and silent at his side. She looked unconcerned, but he could feel her hand trembling slightly through the tight grip on his arm.

Shoot him, Raey wanted to yell, or stun him, at least, but he didn't. She-– LN-2737 had a plan. She had to have a plan. So why was she trembling so much?

A sick feeling in his gut told him that there was no plan. There were too many stormtroopers in the hanger to fight... LN-2737 had been gambling on being able to get into a shuttle unseen, and now that gamble was going to get them both recaptured.

Spast.

"Transfer orders confirmed." Even the other stormtrooper sounded surprised, and Raey could almost feel LN-2737's sharp intake of breath through her grip. "Shuttle Diomediun launch-codes activated."

"Move, Resistance scum," commanded LN-2737, shoving Raey forward. The other stormtrooper stood aside as the shuttle ramp descended with a hiss.

Raey felt like blasters were trained on his back all the way up the ramp, but he held his breath and obeyed LN-2737's orders. Could still be a trap, he warned himself, but his old excuses held firm. Even if it was a trap, things could hardly get worse. And they might, might, get better.

The ramp sealed again with a hiss, and LN-2737 let her stun baton drop to the floor. Raey, his nerves all on high alert, jumped at the sound and spun towards her, only to find the stormtrooper leaning against the wall as if she could barely hold herself up anymore.

"Are you alright?" he asked awkwardly, suddenly not sure how to talk to a First Order stormtrooper.

"I can't believe we're not dead," came the almost faint reply, a response Raey did not find particularly encouraging. LN-2737 lifted her hands and unlatched her helmet, then tugged it off and let it, too, fall to the floor.

Okay, definitely a woman.

The stormtrooper had extremely short – almost shaved – pale blonde hair, fair skin that hadn't seen nearly enough sunlight, and a pair of dull hazel-green eyes that were nevertheless so intense that Raey didn't feel comfortable meeting her gaze. Perhaps the stormtrooper helmets weren't as well-designed as Raey had somehow assumed they were – LN-2737's face gleamed with sweat and her breath came in great gasps, as if she hadn't been able to breathe properly.

She straightened, still breathing hard, and gestured for Raey to come closer. "We're not out of the black hole yet," she warned, punching a deactivation code into his cuffs. Raey happily tossed the restraints aside and rubbed his sore wrists as she continued, "Sit down and stay here. If anyone sees you in the cockpit, that'll be the end of us both."

Raey caught her wrist as she turned away. "What about my friend?" he asked, caught between frustration and gratitude. LN-2737 grimaced, then bent to pick up her helmet again.

"According to the transfer records, he and the droid you were captured with were handed over to the Knights shortly after their arrival, and they did not stay long. I'm sorry... but he has been aboard the Resurrection - the Knights' ship - for hours."

.

.

"I don't... have them."

The torturer was gone, and his lightning and his lightsaber with him. Dameron almost wished he would come back.

I know who you met in that village.

The voice was inside his head, wriggling into his thoughts like a horrible brain worm, dragging out all his secrets.

A former pupil, a failed attempt. Before he died at my hand, I read his thoughts.

"I don't have them..."

He hid the coordinates from me until the end, but that left the rest open and unprotected. I know he gave them to you. Perhaps you never saw them... but you did possess them. Where are they? Did you give them to your droid?

"I... I don't have them."

The words were torn from his throat, unwilling but true. He couldn't lie to the force in his head. He couldn't lie, so he dared not think.

"I don't have them!" he screamed, half from pain and half in bitter resistance. I don't.

The black and silver mask in front of him retreated. This new Knight straightened from his predatory hover, taking his hand away from Dameron's throbbing head.

"So, you don't have them."

I'm... I...

"You hid them on the scavenger."

"No..." I didn't... I'm sorry.

"Thank you for your cooperation."

I...

The Knight turned away.

"I don't have them..."

Dameron bit back the betrayal, but too late. The Knight was gone. They knew.

"I'm sorry," he thought, mumbling unknowingly as his eyes slipped shut, unconsciousness finally came to sooth his pain. "I'm sorry..."

.

.

LN-2737 stiffened. "Oh... no."

"What's wrong?" asked Raey, lurking just out of sight beyond the doorway. The stormtrooper, halfway through the procedures of a standard startup sequence, skipped straight to the end.

"An all-channels warning and command from Captain Phasma. They're after you now. All of them."

Raey slid to the floor, back to the wall and head in his hands, even as the trooper outside activated his comlink.