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Entry tags:
CLOSED | Skeletor Christmas Special
WHO: chise and kylo ren
WHAT: Being yanked sideways through the multiverse for fun and profit.
WARNING(S): TBD
OTHER> AU of the AU
Chise wanted so desperately to believe that her life had plateaued into something close to peaceful. With a home to go to at the end of the day. Where standing in front yard after sunset and not being afraid when she would look over the hill to find the lights on. These simple needs met were to her a wish finally granted. Home is what she had here and it was at home where a new chapter of troubles opened up. It started, as most things did where she was concerned, with a strange artifact. Elias told her it came from the auction house as she had. The only difference was that its seller was strangely keen on undercutting the price and never made mention of where it had come from. Not of this world, was all they could parse from its mystery seller.
The pyramidal shape in her hands was really rather beautiful. Set in a intricately made gold casing was black glass with Chise could only guess was a dead language carved onto its surface. What had been called a holocron by the auction house was a magnificent looking thing but only superficially so. Chise found it pretty to look out but neither she nor Elias could make heads or tails of the thing. Mysterious and thrumming with some kind of living energy energy but the only use for it now was an ornamental paper weight. Chise left it on her nightstand without a second thought.
That night when her eyes were heavy as she peered over her featherdown pillow at the moon hanging low through the window lattice - the whispers started. First they were barely a sound something she more imagined than actually heard until the noise began to build and build and build. Ruth barked in alarm when the whispering rose to a piercing sound that made the backs of her teeth ache and her eyes rattle in her skull. The words spoken were intelligible and not in a language she understood, but it was so loud and so unnerving that not even trying to scream over the voice or covering her hands over her ears could drown it out. Her vision blurred a blinding white before it faded to black when she finally lost consciousness. The last thing Chise remembered was a long shadow filling her vision as it grew in size to loom over her. It hadn't been Elias.
"Ah - I see it now."
The thing called Snoke spoke through a twisted mouth with a voice that was low and strangely musical. Chise knew immediately that through the heavy scarring of his misshapen face that whatever had brought her to this place was not human. Snoke was the first thing she saw when she came too in a dark, cavernous room where he sat on a black marble throne in heavy black robes that almost made he appear to be a solid shadow oozing out a greater darkness. The room was cold and the air stale and dusty in her throat. He introduced himself rather cordially but the moment he stood from his throne, standing tall and terrible like that shadow in her room, Chise knew he was anything but benevolent.
He smells like blood and old paper, She thought when spidery fingers married to cool, dry hands with skin she couldn't tell from the scar tissue cupped her face.
"You are a shadow under the briers but a light through the leaves as well," Snoke had a voice that made her skin explode in gooseflesh even as he never raised it above a whisper, "Child, the Force moves within you like water does through a bottomless well."
The Force.
For a reason felt so bone deep as to be called instinctual that word - Force, resonated in Chise. Something half-remembered came to her as she stolidly bore Snoke's hands combing over her face, her mind. Magic was called a great many things and somehow this Snoke had need of it - of her.
"The girl is a rare and precious thing the power of the Dark Side thrives through-in and throughout - take her."
Chise looked up to see beady black eyes set in Snoke's ruined face peering over to something - someone standing at a distance behind them. Her blood ran colder even when those icy hands slide away from her face.
WHAT: Being yanked sideways through the multiverse for fun and profit.
WARNING(S): TBD
OTHER> AU of the AU
Chise wanted so desperately to believe that her life had plateaued into something close to peaceful. With a home to go to at the end of the day. Where standing in front yard after sunset and not being afraid when she would look over the hill to find the lights on. These simple needs met were to her a wish finally granted. Home is what she had here and it was at home where a new chapter of troubles opened up. It started, as most things did where she was concerned, with a strange artifact. Elias told her it came from the auction house as she had. The only difference was that its seller was strangely keen on undercutting the price and never made mention of where it had come from. Not of this world, was all they could parse from its mystery seller.
The pyramidal shape in her hands was really rather beautiful. Set in a intricately made gold casing was black glass with Chise could only guess was a dead language carved onto its surface. What had been called a holocron by the auction house was a magnificent looking thing but only superficially so. Chise found it pretty to look out but neither she nor Elias could make heads or tails of the thing. Mysterious and thrumming with some kind of living energy energy but the only use for it now was an ornamental paper weight. Chise left it on her nightstand without a second thought.
That night when her eyes were heavy as she peered over her featherdown pillow at the moon hanging low through the window lattice - the whispers started. First they were barely a sound something she more imagined than actually heard until the noise began to build and build and build. Ruth barked in alarm when the whispering rose to a piercing sound that made the backs of her teeth ache and her eyes rattle in her skull. The words spoken were intelligible and not in a language she understood, but it was so loud and so unnerving that not even trying to scream over the voice or covering her hands over her ears could drown it out. Her vision blurred a blinding white before it faded to black when she finally lost consciousness. The last thing Chise remembered was a long shadow filling her vision as it grew in size to loom over her. It hadn't been Elias.
"Ah - I see it now."
The thing called Snoke spoke through a twisted mouth with a voice that was low and strangely musical. Chise knew immediately that through the heavy scarring of his misshapen face that whatever had brought her to this place was not human. Snoke was the first thing she saw when she came too in a dark, cavernous room where he sat on a black marble throne in heavy black robes that almost made he appear to be a solid shadow oozing out a greater darkness. The room was cold and the air stale and dusty in her throat. He introduced himself rather cordially but the moment he stood from his throne, standing tall and terrible like that shadow in her room, Chise knew he was anything but benevolent.
He smells like blood and old paper, She thought when spidery fingers married to cool, dry hands with skin she couldn't tell from the scar tissue cupped her face.
"You are a shadow under the briers but a light through the leaves as well," Snoke had a voice that made her skin explode in gooseflesh even as he never raised it above a whisper, "Child, the Force moves within you like water does through a bottomless well."
The Force.
For a reason felt so bone deep as to be called instinctual that word - Force, resonated in Chise. Something half-remembered came to her as she stolidly bore Snoke's hands combing over her face, her mind. Magic was called a great many things and somehow this Snoke had need of it - of her.
"The girl is a rare and precious thing the power of the Dark Side thrives through-in and throughout - take her."
Chise looked up to see beady black eyes set in Snoke's ruined face peering over to something - someone standing at a distance behind them. Her blood ran colder even when those icy hands slide away from her face.
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He watches as she shuts her eyes, and he can sense the way her mind lets the Force move around her, like an endless sea, waves pushing out from her and into him. For a brief moment, he's speechless. He's known the Force all his life, but somehow, because of her, he's been brought closer somehow - it's like being able to see a blurry mirage of something in the distance that only he could see, at first, and being suddenly able to see it more clearly in his mind's eye thanks to her presence pushing him towards it.
But the moment ends quickly, as she suddenly is up and on her feet, rushing behind him. He almost jerks away from her, surprised.
The thing she says next chills him. It shouldn't. She's obviously trying to mess with him, perhaps, put him on edge, but she wasn't the type to mess around, was she? No. Unless he had somehow missed something, what she was saying was absolutely sincere.
He casts his gaze towards where she's looking. He reaches out with the Force, probing, seeking, but nothing appears. They're alone. They have to be.
"...What man?"
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"It- he's..." She swallowed dryly while trying to steady herself and speak above the thunderous sound of her heart beating between her ears.
There was most definitely something man-shaped trying to stitch itself into being in the far corner. His presence was indistinct and difficult to make any sense of. The afterimage of a bright light flashing in her eyes, darting in and out of existing. Or a very faded old photograph whose image lost all meaning to the corrosive flow of time. One minute, Chise saw a forlorn young man and the next he was a behemoth in black more menacing than the person she cowered behind.
"Here."
Chise shores up her courage and places her much smaller hand in Ren's to anchor themselves. Hedging her bet on the notion that the Force was a common denominator between them. That unlike the workings of fae, Ren could just as draw from her powers and she could his. Thar seems to work, she can almost feel her energy coursing through him with her hand as the conduit. Something tells her that Ren can now see and hear what she does.
An apprentice at last.
Chise jolts at the sound of voice painted with so much relief intermingled with a sorrow she couldn't call anything else but bottomless. She dares to look around Ren to see the figure more clearly now. Wreathed in a eerie blue glow with a face that was neither young nor old but achingly sad was a robed man. A sorrow welled up inside her she had no explanation for, like the empathetic grief when one passes a funeral procession. This is not her pain but she feels it so deeply that it finds a home in her chest.
Those sad, encouraging eyes find her own before the image fades. The Force was vast but imperfect the vision was only ever meant to be fleeting.
Something cold trails down her face and it was then Chise realized she started crying. The tears didn't feel like her own. She lets her hand fall away from Ren's to hurriedly rub her eyes dry with a sleeve not wanting to be scolded again.
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He feels starstruck - as in, as if a star had just collided with him, filling his mind with things he couldn't understand. Chise cannot see his face, but he gapes at the vision. It can't be. It can't be, he must be dreaming, but he, most certainly, is not. He may not be familiar with the face of the apparition, but the threads of his bloodline practically screams within him, beating in his heart in a rhythm of "it's him, it's him, it's HIM".
It's nothing like the visions he had before, if those could be called visions. The shadow of Darth Vader had hung over him for so long that he was surprised to see him as anything else (and he refused to see him as anything else, Darth Vader was, always, and would be Darth Vader, even when he had been called by a different name so long ago). He wants to reject the vision. He wants to tear it apart. This is not the Anakin Skywalker he has ever wanted to witness in front of him. He doesn't want this message, from a practical false prophet, and yet...
And yet, why do his eyes smart with tears? Why does he feel like somehow, the presence of this girl has given this thing hope where Ren had brought none before? I will finish what you started, he had whispered to that twisted helmet so many times, and yet, there was no pride shared by this ghost. He has the urge to throw himself at its knees, try to grasp its robes, and ask him why he looked at him like that. Like he was shameful almost, as if he hadn't spent so long trying to succeed in the tasks Darth Vader left behind. He wants to scream until his throat is sore:
"Why do you feel this way, Grandfather?"
He watches as it disappears, but the image is still burned in the back of his eyes. He doesn't know what it means. He doesn't know what to feel. Even as Chise pulls away to wipe her face, he stands as if frozen. For a brief moment, he feels numb.
He twists his head towards Chise, and for a moment, he's silent. When he speaks, he almost sounds hollow.
"How..." Start again. Collect yourself. Don't let the emotions drip through your words. He starts again, and there's a familiar rise of anger, dipping his tone in evident jealousy. "How did you do that?"
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"I don't know."
Face flushed, completely breathless just managed to say that much before collapsing back down to the floor. This latest introduction to the Force now leaving her spent with an exhaustion that drilled holes into her bones she barely scraped together enough energy to sit on her knees. Ren is afraid, she tells herself, At least give him something before you keel over.
Why she should want to gentle this spiteful person that played a part in her being kidnapped and dragged somewhere cold and awful was a mystery even to herself. But then, she had always been selfish. She wanted people to smile and be kind for her and just for her so much that she would wear herself to the bone for those scraps of warmth. It had always been her biggest foible of character. Even when it came to childish, nasty people like Kylo Ren.
"You did most of it," There is truth to that, she thinks. Knowing almost without being sure that the Force called to Ren more than even he realized. She doesn't just say this to stroke his ego. "It was...for you, but I just had to make the picture clearer."
She had more questions now - chief among them being who that man was and why he seemed so elated at the prospect of Ren finding an apprentice in the likes of her. Chise voices none of these - for now. It was then she could hear herself panting and feel the nausea roiling in her stomach. Instead, looking up at Ren and mutely imploring him to call it a day. Chise had always been afraid to ask for things even when she was in pain.
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He doesn't really believe her - she cannot see the sneer under his mask, but it's there. Why would she be so selfless, give him something after understanding the position she was in? Nobody gave Ren anything out of their own free will. He either had to work for it or force someone to the point where they had no other choice than to give it to him. But he doesn't comment on this. Maybe she was right. Maybe it was him all along...but why now? What was so special about her, that the image of his grandfather would show so suddenly?
"We will continue this another time," he finally says, turning away from her. It's not that he cares about her pain. Snoke never care about his pain, when he had brought him in and showed him techniques and powers that Luke never had. No, he wants to end this for now because of his own feelings - he needs some time to himself. She was a tool, that was for sure, but he had not yet completely accepted the fact that maybe, possibly, she would be his apprentice. He had much to think about, and he didn't want her around right now, staring at him with those pathetic wide green eyes, seeing things he could not.
"...Have you been given a room?" He says, after a long pause. "I'll have the guards prepare one for you if not. I'll order them to keep you under constant supervision."
He will not have her attempt to escape. Not under his watch.
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"Ah-" Chise looks over her shoulder as she was been led away at the solid shadow peering out the doorway - at Ren. She almost said goodnight.
No answer. The rest of the escort was done in silence with only these anonymous guards on either side as company. If there had been anything worth seeing along the way, Chise missed out. Her eyes firmly fixed on the floor and her own shuffling feet until they came to another metal door that slide open when one of the guards tapped a panel on the wall. Everything here was so soulless and mechanical. Already she missed the feel of brass knobs and the sound of creaking wood. She thanked her guards. One she could almost hear sneer under that blank white mask, but the other seemed to deliberate. Almost stamping out the urge to tell her you're welcome. She thinks that one was FN-2187 - maybe, and let's the combination of numbers and letters stick to memory when they depart. The door is locked from the outside when they leave.
The room itself was all slate grays and an unwelcoming sterile white. No windows. Only a bed built into the wall like an alcove, a closet also built into the wall possibly to conserve space, a metal desk, and another room off to the side that could only be the bathroom. After the trial and error that was working the shower and trying not to wince when the thin and scratchy towels rubbed against her skin she went padding over to the closet. Two sets of clothes awaited her. Both were her size which begged the question how planned her arrival had been. One set was a pair of thin cotton-like gray sweats with a shirt of the same make. Pajamas was her generous estimate. The other were humorlessly a bit like what Ren wore but not so flashy or intimidating. A black tunic that was cinched at the waist with a thick belt woven into the shirt, trousers that felt surprisingly high-quality and warm - also black. Surprise, surprise. This also came with boots that went up to her calves and a coat that trailed to her knees made up something like a pea coat without buttons. She dresses in the gray pajamas that sit baggy on her.
What came as a surprise as to be called pleasant, Chise finds her bag waiting for her bed. Despite how tired she was, she excitedly digs through it. Nothing out of place not save for a now missing stone knife. She expected as much, but is heartened to find they left her remedies and even the skinchanger pelt. It was likely they only saw the knife for what it was and ignored the rest as merely eccentric. The first thing she does is pull out the spool of cotton fly wool and with some fiddling manages to stitch half into the thin pillow. Not enough to fluff it up, but that wasn't the point. Cotton fly wool helped with insomnia and nightmares. Chise was anticipating both. She saves half, thinking at some point she will stitch it into Ren's own pillows in some uncertain near future. Not that she knows why or how she is going to go about doing that, but he doesn't seem like someone who sleeps peaceful or much at all. If he was going to be her teacher she would like for him to at least be well rested.
Today was full of surprises. Moments after she put her things away and just as she was about to settle in for the night, a little rustling sound followed by a curious mew peeled from under a lump in the sheets she hadn't noticed. Chise was startled to see an orange tabby come prancing out. As was their wont with cats this little tabby leaps into her lap without preamble. When her shock subsides, Chise finds some solace in the company.
"Hello." She says, stroking marmalade fur. Nothing. Only a pair of curious copper eyes looking back at her. "You must only be on your first or second life." Again, nothing. Only the cat's content purring where she hoped to find something touched by even a bit of magic.
"What's your name? Does your boy treat you well?" By now, Chise is only speaking to the cat to fill a void left in the absence of everything having been so freshly taken from her. She knows the cat can't have belonged to Ren but the thick black collar and the people seen thus far implies a male owner.
Chise eventually settles down for the night. Tucking herself beneath the sheets that were as scratchy and cheaply made as the towels. Warmer now with the cat curling herself to Chise's chest. Eventually, she puts herself to sleep petting the cat idly until her eyes become too heavy. Her dreams that night are strange for how mundane they are. In her dreams, she almost feels the bright sun on a rare clear sky day in the English countryside where she stands pinning sheets to a clothesline. She sees Silky through the kitchen window, and the mountainous figure of Elias wandering the nearby garden; something about the way the shadows are cast on the skull of his face almost make him appear to be smiling. Ren is there. Looking out of place in his bulky black clothing, hooded and cloak with that terrible mask. He does nothing except observe them both.
This is alright, Her subconscious organizes these thoughts as ideal, Ren can learn with me there - in those gardens. With Elias. Maybe then he won't be so afraid.
It was selfish, she thinks even so deeply asleep. To want everything to center around that little house.
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He makes sure that the door is shut before he removes his mask, wiping away what tears are left angrily with the back of his glove. It hasn't even been a few hours and it feels like he's already made a mistake with the Supreme Leader's gift. His master had told him it would be a test, and so far, he's already failing.
He shoves his helmet down on one of the pedestals nearby, before bringing out his lightsaber, clicking it to life with a satisfying crackle. He needs a distraction, anything to pull him out of this wretched state. Stepping forward, he swerves and starts a sequence against an imaginary opponent, bringing up the familiar steps and twists of his wrist as he moves across the room. It pulls him into focus, the sound of the lightsaber burning through the air providing an anchor for his thoughts. Here, first is Ataru, short and swift, then twisting backwards to set himself up for Makashi through a riposte of his blade - the movements are familiar to him, but there's an urge he cannot quell, a push to do more than fight mental images of faceless opponents. He wants to feel his blade tear through flesh, see the way his opponents howl in pain and fear. But as he moves, his movements swifter, the mental image of the apparition from before burns in his mind. He can almost feel the presence in the corner again - standing, judging, those sorrowful eyes piercing into his heart-
And he missteps. His foot moves too wide, and he almost falls, catching himself only barely before he completely loses his balance. He immediately twists towards the corner, but just as he expected, there was nothing there.
But maybe something is there, he thought, his lips pulled back in a grimace. She could see it, and you didn't. There are some things you're blind to.
He can't tell the Supreme Leader about this. He doesn't need a reassessment on his power over the girl, being judged for his inability to work with her properly. He would handle it himself. What had happened before was a fluke. He bites his lip as he switches his lightsaber off, already sick of staying in this room. The training brought some order to the mess in his head, but his thoughts were still a mess, and staying in this place and dwelling over the vision of his grandfather was not helping him at all. He places his helmet back on and leaves the training room, heading towards his quarters.
He hasn't seen Hux yet, which is good, he thinks. Hux would no doubt be nosy over the new arrival, and he wasn't in the mood to explain. For the first time, he thinks of that girl...what was her name? Chise? An apprentice at last. He would see about that, he thought. She had potential, that was true, but she seemed fragile, too selfless. That wasn't the make of a potential new follower of the Dark Side. He would have to put in a lot of work before she even resembled one.
He decides to remove the usual conversation with his Grandfather's helmet for the day, a bitter feeling rising in his throat when he thinks of it. He probably had enough of Grandfather for today, and he needs to...take a break from that, somehow. A part of him is glad for the upcoming rest. Another part hates it, because sleep has never been quite as relaxing as he'd always hoped it would be. When he was a child, he screamed out loud in his sleep, beset by dark visions of hands pulling at him, blood running from their fingers. Now, he doesn't scream. He's forced himself not to. He's glad when he dreams of nothing at all, only darkness, but tonight is not such a night. He's in the midst of battle, and he's breaking off someone's blank silver mask with his fingers, feeling the pieces dig and pierce into his ungloved hands. The man under the mask is screaming in pain. There's a roar of blaster fire in his ears, but he doesn't falter, maliciously enjoying the possible death of whatever creature is before him.
A large part of the mask falls to reveal an eye, widened in fear and very dark. He grits his teeth and pulls away more of the mask, and when more of the shards fall, he finds the face is exactly the same one of his grandfather from before, eyes filled with a dark despair far beyond what he understands.
But it shifts as he moves away, a scar tearing between the man's eyes and eyes sinking in, and Ren realizes its now his own face he sees. It disgusts him. He feels the sudden urge to take his lightsaber and tear this shapeshifting man into two - how dare it mock him? That isn't his face, that isn't him, what right did it have to be this way, why does he look so weak, he wants it to die for good, just die already, just raise the lightsaber and behead it in one blow like he's done with so many others-
He reaches back for his lightsaber. He meets the gentle fingers of a hand, instead. It grabs him, a gentle voice sounding in his ear. He doesn't know what it says, but suddenly, he feels like something's been lifted off his shoulders. He has no need to waste energy on such things. He can step away for just a moment, to catch his breath. It's odd, the hand feels oddly feathery in his fingers, like he's grasping on tight to the wing of a bird, like it can fly him away from all of this pain and worry.
And as he turns around to see who it is, the vision is gone, and he finds himself face to face with the infinite darkness he's so familiar with.
He wakes eventually, his sleep dreamless for the rest of the night. How odd, he thinks. He never had anything of the like before. But he was not a man to dwell on dreams - it was another day, and he must right what he so wronged before. This time, he would do things the correct way.
He makes arrangements for the girl to be escorted to the training room, and waits for her, robed and masked as usual. The training would start for good, this time.
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"It's too early to guess what kind of person he is," Chise tells an empty room save for one cat still curled and softly purring beside her. She runs her hand through marbled orange fur for luck as she carefully extracts herself from her sheets without waking her temporary companion. She will have to tell her guards about the cat. Your boy must be worried about you, she thinks. Even while having no clue as to the nature of a person who would live here but do something so mundane has have a cat with them.
Anticipating the arrival of either Ren or someone coming on his behalf, Chise dresses herself after splashing water on her face. She had guessed correctly the night before that the tunic and trousers were of good quality and fitted to someone of her size. The idea that either Ren or especially the likes of Snoke took the time to pick out clothes is one that entertains her as she wrestles the last buckle of her boots shut. After arguing with herself, she stuffs the river stone Elias gave her under her tunic and puts her pouch around her waist. She felt better knowing some parts of home were with her. These things were magical to be sure, but no one here seemed to guess their nature. It was a risk she had been willing to take.
As if on cue, there was buzzing at the door which Chise learned now meant the locks were being opened from the other side. She is momentarily indignant over the idea that someone would barge in without asking if she were decent but then again that would imply she wasn't effectively being held prisoner. Chise stands in the middle of the little room in view of the door waiting with a heartbeat that skipped over itself for whatever new horrors the day had come to collect her for.
"Ah - there you are."
Who came into the room was the first living human face Chise had seen since her arrival, but there was nothing reassuring about it. For one, he looked a bit like her. Only not at all. The man had a shock of neatly ordered red hair and green eyes that despite their vividness lacked any hint of warmth. Also and perhaps tellingly the man looked straight through her and at the cat still resting on the bed. Oh, It clicks, So this is your boy. Looking at that austere uniform matched smartly with such a unsmiling face - she felt sorry for the cat.
"Stars," The man scoffed finally taking notice of Chise while looking down his nose at her as if he had stepped in something, "He's gone and made himself up in miniature. How very vain."
Before she can speak or get so much as a huff out, the man has her her forearm in a vice like grip. Wheeling her around to his side before he's marching out of the room with her in tow. Chise tugs herself back in protest but it was ineffectual wriggling at best. The man, who the guards outside addresses as General Hux, was very tall and razor-thin but his grip was ironclad.
"Ren wanted me to-" She starts before being cut off.
"Ren shares the same burdens of command as I do and can wait like everyone else if he wishes to flout protocol," The general's voice is sharp like he was used to snapping at people more than actually speaking to them, "It does not impede the wishes of the Supreme Leader that I should be informed of any newcomers and tagalongs brought aboard my station. We're going to medical. I don't know what backwater little planetoid Ren found his little chit of a vanity project and frankly I don't care but I will not tolerate deviations. Who even knows what you could be carrying."
Chise wants to dig her heels and fight because this so-called general treated his cat more like a person than he did with her while speaking about her like she was right there. She wanted to fight, she was even desperate enough to considering calling for Ren in some fashion. Does he know about this? She already gets the impression he and the general are at odds with one another. Again, her head was swimming while keeping a stumbling pace beside Hux as he yanks her along. What could he have meant planetoid, and this was a military operation of some kind? What had she been made a part of.
Ren, The sound of her own thoughts were miserably weak and helpless. Desperate enough to hope he would hear this to spare her being used by this Hux as a means to spite her capricious teacher.
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And then he hears her. Not through sound, but through thought.
Immediately, he reaches out with the Force, moving through the base to find her location. She isn't hard to find. Her presence rings loud and clear in his mind, like a bell, her power attracting his reach like a magnet's influence over a nail. She's not heading towards his training chamber. And...wait, there's somebody with her.
He clenches his fists at his sides. Of course. General Hux sticking his nose where it didn't belong, as usual. Ren practically spits in disgust. Well, he wasn't going to have any of that.
Ren leaves the room, almost shoving aside the stormtroopers who had arrived to tell him the news that he already knew, that the girl was already taken. He hones in on her, following the winding corridors and hallways until he steps directly in front of Hux's path, stopping him in his tracks.
"If you could be so kind as to take your hand off of my apprentice."
(Oh. Well, then. He called her apprentice for the first time. It sounds nice to say. Apprentice.)
The momentary surprise on Hux's face is quickly buried, replaced with a frustrated annoyance that is a sight far too familiar for Ren. The general digs his fingers into Chise's wrist, as if to emphasize that she is, indeed, not going anywhere as long as he's here.
"Just because she's your apprentice, Ren, doesn't mean you can use her to scout around procedures that are clearly there to serve a purpose. She needs a lookover by medical. And you are not going to stop me, even if you mistakenly think your position with the Supreme Leader allows you to get away with subverting the rules whenever you please."
He fixes a haughty look on Ren's mask, lifting his chin up as if to say "go ahead, try to go against me, see if I care". It was irritating. If he could, he'd show Hux a thing or two, force him to respect him and his power and his influence, but it was decreed by the Supreme Leader that Hux was necessary. He was useful. And so, as much as he would've liked to indulge in the fine feeling of making Hux choke on his own blood, Ren had to quell the urge to do so.
It doesn't mean he can't show his irritation in ways other than physical violence, though. At this point, he's not even paying attention to Chise - this is between him and Hux alone.
"Is that so, General?" He finally replies, flatly. "Shouldn't what you say apply to you? This is far outside your jurisdiction. The Supreme Leader delivered this girl to me. If he desired to have her cavort with generals shirking their duties and dragging people around the place, then he would've said so. So far, he has not expressed any desire to have you mess around with her affairs, rules or not."
He steps forward, tilting his head down and fixing a steely glare at Hux's pale, sallow face.
"Give me the girl. If you have a problem with my apprentice, I recommend taking it up with the Supreme Leader. I'm sure he'll have time to listen to your petty complaints."
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Almost immediately her earlier estimation of the relationship between the two is proven correct. Chise could barely find a second to let the reality that Ren was framing her in terms of an apprentice and not a thing sink in before she was witness to their inflammatory posturing. Fingernails through the general's leather gloves leave sore red impressions where he tightens his grip, but she doesn't cry out. Only watches with a fixed, stolid expression and waits for the opportunity to wriggle loose. If she a had a learned talent for anything it was pretending something didn't hurt long enough until she could run away.
Hux himself doesn't rise to Ren's bait when the latter transparently threatens him by evoking the Supreme Leader. Chise watches as he straightens himself like a regimented man who saw himself as too dignified for this conversation - or an animal that made itself bigger in the face of predators. Both, maybe.
"Your threats do not signify Ren," Hux retorts, "Starkiller is my jurisdiction and nothing goes out of place without my knowing down to the last man. Unlike you, the Supreme Leader is guided by reason and has more on his plate than to indulge your puerile, one-sided pissing match with me."
It doesn't look all that one-sided, Chise observes.
"However," Hux pulls Chise around and releases her, "Cooler heads always prevail. Personally it's no concern of mine if you catch whatever she could be carrying. Just have her report to medical provided you don't chew her up and spit her out after whatever it is your lot get up to."
Chise wastes no time and the moment she's loose she darts behind Ren. Safer with him than with this Hux who despite the way he carries himself only reminds Chise of her adolescent tormentors. Part of her is grateful and maybe even amazed that he hadn't gone so far as to pull her hair or push her into a muddy puddle.
Hux looks down his nose at her from where she peaks out from behind Ren's robes like a hare hiding in the tall grass from a fox. "How affectedly quaint," He comments with a disgusted curl to his thin mouth, "You found something beyond your own grim company that tolerates you."
Something cold seeps in Chise; the almost nauseating knowledge that she could with a thought send his hateful head snapping back. Not being a vengeful creature, the thought frightens her. She looks up at Ren. Thinking she must have unwittingly been made some sympathetic connection to his own feelings. His violence runs bone deep. When Hux turns sharp on his heel and departs does Chise realize her teeth were chattering even though she wasn't very cold.
"He's not like us, is he?" Chise withholds her gratitude for Ren's intervention because she knows it would only fall on deaf ears. "None of them are. I-"
It had taken this long to realize but she marvels at this revelations.
"The General seems...oblivious to the Force - he's more mundane than most. It's like not having the sight." She said that almost as if she found it pitiable. Not that she ever enjoyed seeing things from the other side or having these powers, but Hux was just a bully lashing out at something beyond him. She knew the type. It just surprised her to suddenly be back in the company of ordinary people.
"Are we training today uh - sir?" She shifts the topic, but doesn't know what to call Ren. Not master, surely. And teacher hit too close to home.
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He's about to give Hux a nice retort for his troubles when the girl shifts behind him - he twists his head to her, surprised. She's practically using him like a shield. It's strange, because he's not a shield, he's not used to defend others, he's used for the offense in every situation Snoke puts him in. He's a weapon. This is hardly a position he's used to, and he catches Hux's comment with a deep frown - what was that supposed to be imply?
"Carry on with your work, General," he hisses after him, abruptly, having momentarily lost his train of thought thanks to Chise's movement. He never did like to have Hux have the last word, but even so, he feels that the whole conversation ended too awkwardly for his comfort. (And there's some kind of feedback from her, some kind of disgusted feeling that radiates off of her. He doesn't know what it means.) He steps forward to put some distance between him and Chise, turning around to face her.
"No. He is not." It's obvious, really, to anyone sensitive to the Force - she's beginning to understand that through her own discovery. That's good. Of course, he doesn't want her to move too quickly, the Force is not some puddle one can just jump into without worry of sinking. He's about to speak up and make reference to that, but her comment about the general surprises him, momentarily.
"That he is." He says, a touch of amusement heard in his altered voice - even she, of all people, could see what Hux was. It pleased him. But no amount of agreement or chattering teeth was going to make him consider giving her a break. They were already running late in terms of his personal schedule - this whole situation with Hux had wasted precious time he could've used to start training her.
"Sir?" A pause. "You shall refer to me as master, if you are to be my apprentice. I have not made the decision yet as far as that. I will need to see your capabilities. Just because you can sense it does not mean you can wield it. So yes. We are training today."
He starts walking down the corridor, expecting her to follow him back to the training room. He's not going to wait for her to catch up.
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Chise has known the company of tormentors long enough to wade through the varying manifestation of fear or apathy thrust on her that she can pick up on the little threads of positive feedback. Like living off birdseed. This might not be Ren ratifying her in any significant way but she swore she heard of a smile under all that metal and electrical white noise. The commonality of their dislike for one individual was still a commonality If anything it assuaged her feelings of disgust at the sympathetic reaction she experience. That meant she could, at the very least, defer to Ren if this general blindsided her again.
"Yes...Master." She doesn't like the word because it reminds her of the auction house and what she had so nearly subjected herself to out of desperation. Trying hard she impresses upon herself that master wasn't such a thorny word when paired with apprentice. Only just as she said it she looked over to see Ren taking long-legged strides in the other direction.
"Ah- !"
Chise moves at a brisk walk then breaks into a scampering jog until she closes the distance again. The walk back to the training room was oppressively quiet as the last time. Only now she was running through her head what she could possibly demonstrate for Ren. He certainly wasn't going to be impressed by her gardening acumen needed for the harvest of mandrake leaves or how she can weave spools cotton fly wool. The little spells that don't leave her winded were, for now, going to be her played close to the chest. Little things that might come in handy later but where she stood she was back to her first strategy. Do what Ren tells her until the situation improves.
The training room was as dimly lit and chilly as ever, but at least this time she was more appropriately dressed. Chise looks up at Ren for guidance. Suspecting a curious 'Now what?' would be seen as disrespectful.
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The problem was, could she use that power? Could he shape her into something that was such the antithesis of herself?
(The Supreme Leader did it with him. Took him, a gangly boy with ears too wide and eyes too pained, and made him into a monster. It could be done. He knows it for a fact.)
As soon as they've entered the training room, he reaches out a hand - from one of the corners, a small spherical remote floats over to his outstretched hand. Grasping it, he moves to stand at one end of the room, turning to face Chise.
"Take this from me." A pause - his fingers tighten around the remote, as if his grip alone will provide most of the obstacle to his little test. "But not with your hands. Use the Force."
He lets the words sink in. Is she a power source, or a user of power? This would serve a way for him to see that for himself.
"Let's see what you're capable of."
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"Alright." Her voice is steady but green eyes widen as his grasp tightens. An almost sympathetic response to the metal sphere in his hand. Those hands were powerful and terrible things and she does not want them on her. Ever.
Chise takes a few steps until there expanse of the open room stands between them. She closes her eyes to attempt something like a meditative state before continuing forward. Her breathing plateaus into something almost peaceful before she feels it.
Hands. The living weight of two hands resting on her thin shoulders. Her eyes screw up tighter, remaindering shut but her heart is in her throat threatening to flutter straight out of her like a frightening animal. Had she done something wrong? Was Ren angry with h-
"Steady."
A voice that sounded like it was coming from...inside her own head. Something as intimate as a thought but there was definitely someone beside her now and she readjusts. The hands are gentle, well worn as old brass doorknobs familiar to touch. Chise doesn't know why but she knows if she opened her eyes she wouldn't see anyone there.
Which means Ren wouldn't either.
"What do you feel as the Force calls to you?"
The presence exudes that same quiet sorrow as it had the last time. The voice that sounds like it had once been very sharp, very angry but time had worn it down to something smooth. Its inextinguishable attention fixed on Ren even as it spoke to her. The man she guessed, if he ever was a man, knew Ren somehow. The relationship that tied them together was carved in deep like a wound.
"I feel..." Her lips barely move and she speaks lower than a whisper, "An ocean."
The Force she knew was everything, in everything. It went as wide and it went deep. From above the breakers she could sense its infinite berth and 'looking' down could get a glimpse at the impenetrable, crushing dark of its depths. Both facets frighten her. The connection to everything around her, and the bottomless depths of her own nature.
"Do you go deeper, or wider? Choose wisely, little robin."
The voice fades along with the hands on her shoulders. In his absence Chise feels like a boat that lost its anchor in a storm. Without her direct action she could sink or be cast further out into that endless horizon.
Deeper - or wider. Deeper or wider.
Chise breathes, and swims out. Where she goes without moving it was cold beneath her finger deeps but warm at her back. Learning how to swim beneath the waves without forgetting to come up for air.
Her hands slowly fold open like blossoming flower petals and before she realizes it something hard and metallic comes to rest there like an enticed little honeybee. The ocean falls away when she opens her eyes - and sees the remote whirring quietly in her hands. All without taking a single, physical step.
"It did it! I- ouch!" Chise beams, only to retract in pain when the remote levitates above her grasp and shocks her with a burst of green light. She shakes the numbness out of her stunned hand with a withering look at the offending remote droid.
Then she looks over to Ren either for ratifying approval - or an overwhelming urge like an itch begging to be scratched to ask him the same question. Had he gone deeper, or wider? Or if he was drowning in the choice he already made.
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And then he feels it. Something reaching out, a hand brushing the waters of the Force (there's also something strangely familiar, the sensation of seeing someone he knows, but there's no one there). And then something moves into it, sending a cascade through it that makes the whole length of his spine shudder. He steps back, surprised, and then there's the sudden sensation of the remote leaping out of his outstretched hand.
"You did it," he breaths. Even now, in his surprise, he doesn't seem to allow any nice words to escape his mouth, but the sense of awe in his tone isn't completely erased by the voice modulator of his mask. The girl was powerful, and not just a source. She could be a powerful apprentice, if trained correctly. Could he train her? He believes he can.
He waves the offending remote away, approaching her, staring down into those wide green eyes.
"You need training," he huffs. "You will learn what I have to teach you, without complaint. Don't make me regret my decision."
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So there was that.
"Thank you," Chise said before even considering the thought not to. More because he made the stupid little remote go away than for his half-hearted attempt at ratifying her successes, She was a docile girl and her chosen shield was deference. Already she (correctly) surmised that along with learning her way around the Force she needed to navigate Kylo Ren's unpredictable temper.
"I never complained," She shot back mildly, feeling a bit braver. From what she gathered from Snoke that in sharp contradiction to Ren's huffing and puffing - he needed her. For whatever she could scarcely imagine and did not much want to. Still, he could stand to be less...antagonistic.
"And I want to learn, and you're my master in this," She added. This was true - some rebellious little spark deep in her gut ignited at the idea of learning magic or this Force in depth without Elias stonewalling her at every turn. Of course, she also knew when to stroke Ren's ego. Something large enough that she could have spotted it from orbit.
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"That I am." He is the master. She is the student, the disciple. She will obey, and he will mold her into something that the Supreme Leader would praise him for. He can already imagine Snoke looking down with appreciation, dark eyes glinting with pride in seeing what his apprentice had accomplished.
He will stop at nothing to prove that he is still worthy of being the Supreme Leader's apprentice. Nothing.
"Are you experienced with weapons? I would hazard a guess to say that you are not, but appearances can be deceiving."
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"Weapons?"
That caught her off guard. It had been obvious from the beginning that her new teacher had plans for her that aligned with what it was Snoke was up to. Something like actual combat had never occurred to her, but she was used to being taught under the assumption that she was rather delicate.
"I only know how to use a knife," She answered honestly but maybe not being handled as if she were enfeebled could be an interesting change of pace, "But not in a real fight."
Not that she really wanted to get into fights.