The footsteps and voices and gun sounds faded into the distance but Kylo Ren continued to hold me in the dark long after they departed.
_____
***
A few hours passed with us and the dark. I stopped crying and, eventually, Kylo Ren turned on the lights tentatively. He let me out of his grasp rather carelessly -- no lingering was involved, no final stroke of the hair, no nothing. He just let go of me, walked to the opposite wall, and slipped his helmet over his head.
Kylo Ren then walked to me. "We're going upstairs. I can't sense any of The Resistance right now but I have no means of communication so I don't know if it's safe or not. We have to be careful." He then turned and began ascending the ladder.
I looked after him, wondering if him holding me for the past few hours had meant anything to him. I assumed it didn't and I felt a little sinking feeling in my stomach, but then again, was I really that surprised? This is Kylo Ren, people.
I followed him up the black metal rungs and he pushed open the floor. He took a moment to get out of the secret entrance, looking left and right. After he did exit the bunker, Kylo Ren extended a hand to me. I grasped his hand and even though my head was the only thing out of the hole, he pulled me up without stress.
Kylo Ren extended his palm above the hole, shut off the lights with The Force, and pushed the floor back over the bunker.
He reached into his belt and pulled out a small silver cylindrical object. I watched all of these actions with awe. He seemed so confident and domineering with everything he did. It was slightly entertaining to watch.
His hand applied pressure to the cylinder and as fast as light itself, a red laser shot out from the top and the sides of the cylinder -- the side lasers were much shorter than the top, maybe only a fifth of it's size.
I jumped and my eyes widened involuntarily. "It's a lightsaber. Only for caution." He spoke quietly in that dull mechanic voice. He turned away from me, swung it in a circle, and began prowling forward. I'd heard of a lightsaber before that moment, I just hadn't seen one.
Before every turn he would stick his arm backwards, press his palm to my chest, and hold me back.
When we finally returned to his quarters, I sat on the bed and tucked my knees into my chest. Kylo Ren immediately withdrew his lightsaber and pulled a small black square out of a slit in the panel by the door. He set it on the waist-high dresser and pressed a few buttons. In nanoseconds a blue hologram was displayed above us.
It was a man I didn't know. Kylo Ren began talking to him.
"General Hux." Kylo Ren's mechanical voice greeted.
"Kylo Ren." The man greeted back. He sounded pompous, and I instantly didn't like him.
"Are there any stragglers?" Kylo Ren asked. "No. They've all been rounded up and taken care of."
I continued listening intently to their conversation concerning The Resistance rebels. I was only curious, but the next phrases they interchanged caused the hairs on my arm to raise, my blood to boil, and my heart to chill.
"When is the execution?" Kylo Ren questioned, folding his arms. "It's tomorrow midday. We're attempting to get information out of them first." The pompous man called General Hux said. Now I really didn't like him. I hated him.
Kylo Ren exited from the hologram without a dismissal and slid the hologram displaying machine back into the panel.
"You're going to kill them?" I exclaimed, untucking my knees so my feet grazed the floor. "Yes." Kylo Ren answered as if I was an imbecile. I scrutinized him, squinting my eyes. Disgust filled me from head to toe. I stood up.
"You're going to ruthlessly kill people." I stated angrily, my fists balling up. "Nira, it's not ruthless if they attacked our base. Besides, --"
"It's ruthless!" I interrupted furiously simultaneously as he turned his back and began to walk out the door. He stopped in his steps, and my rage lingered for a moment but then resolved into fear.
Kylo Ren turned around and strode towards me with such velocity that I fell back onto the bed but that wasn't a good enough position for him to scold me. He grabbed the front of my shirt with both hands and effortlessly held me up in front of him so we were eye to eye.
My toes fluttered, barely hitting the ground. I stared into his mask and I had to swallow the puke that threatened to make an appearance. I wasn't grossed out, I was just so immensely scared. I pressed my lips together to form a tight line and I felt helpless and humiliated. I was dangling by his grasp and I couldn't do a thing about it.
"They killed some of our men. They flew into our hangars and destroyed our fleets. They ruthlessly shot at us, so we retaliated. They came to take you, Nira. Why are you so sympathetic?" His voice was not calm. His voice was not monotonous. His voice was infuriated.
I stared into the grate before his eyes and he thrust me onto the bed. I flopped on my back helplessly. Heat rushed into my face and I couldn't tell whether it was from anger or embarrassment.
Kylo Ren stood above me. He towered over me. His posture was lean and tall. "Do not argue with me over what is right for The First Order."
He left the room without another word.
I couldn't do anything the rest of the night except think about what had just happened. It occupied my thoughts until I fell asleep from mere exhaustion.
***
I woke up the next morning with ten minutes to get ready for training.
At least, I think I have training. Maybe I pissed him off too bad, I thought hopefully. However, I knew that he wouldn't let a missed training session slide over mere emotions, so I brushed my teeth and began to get dressed.
It was 9:55, five minutes before he was due to arrive. I was about to put on my shirt when the door slid open.
"Ah!" I let out a sharp yelp and covered my chest, turning away from the door.
I peeked over my shoulder and saw Kylo Ren gazing at my back. He immediately recognized that I'd caught him, and he whipped to face the opposite direction. "Nira. Finish getting dressed." He ordered, looking away. He sounded slightly ashamed.
As he should. Pervert, I thought, rolling my eyes so he couldn't see.
I hastily pulled my shirt over my head and turned to face him. I knew my face was beat red. My cheeks felt like they were ignited and my palms were suddenly sweating.
It took us a short time to get to the training arena, and it was awkward the whole way -- I had seen him checking me out from behind and he knew I'd seen him checking me out from behind.
We began weight training as if nothing had happened. He didn't take off his mask and cloak like usual, though.
The combat for the day was the most interesting it'd ever been.
We finished weight training and began combat after my twenty minute break.
"Today, instead of the usual hand-to-hand combat, I'll teach you how to handle weapons. My fitness attendants think you are ready to handle them." He walked over to the shelf and pulled off two objects. He held them out towards me and I recognized a lightsaber and a gun.
I stared in amazement. I suddenly felt as powerful as I had when I'd first put on the nightgown. I felt like I could rule the world. I, Nira Leven, would get to handle an actual lightsab--
"Now, this lightsaber isn't real. It works the same as one but instead of the light part we inserted a light metal substance instead. As for the gun, there are injury-proof bullets." He interrupted my high and mighty thoughts.
Damn it, I thought sourly. A slight pout crept onto my face. "Which would you like to deal with first?" Kylo Ren inquired, holding them both before me. I looked at the cylindrical fake lightsaber to the real-looking fake gun. I shrugged and pointed to the fake lightsaber.
Might as well, I thought.
"Okay." Kylo Ren used The Force to send the gun rocketing back to the shelf. He turned to me. "There's only one con with you using a lightsaber; one of the main uses of a lightsaber is deflecting bullets. You wouldn't be able to do that since you don't have The Force and its reflexes, so that takes away the main defensive aspect of the weapon. However, I can still train you to use this excellently as an offensive tool. I can teach you to have the proper attacking reflexes. Reflexes is what lightsaber dueling is all about." He explained, handing me the cylinder.
I stared at it and twisted it in my hands. I was mesmerized by the small object. I never knew something of such miniature stature could contain so much power.
I looked up. Kylo Ren reached forward and grabbed my right hand. "This is how you turn it on," He wrapped my hand around the cylinder, his overlapping, and applied pressure with a few of my fingers.
Silvery metal popped out and I raised my eyebrows. I was thoroughly impressed and even though I didn't feel as powerful as before, I still felt a little something.
"Remember that fighting with a lightsaber is all about reflexes. Keep that in mind today. We'll work on basic jabs and parries." Kylo Ren announced. He used The Force and pulled the dummy over in front of me. "Just like in regular combat, you need to follow through. As you progress in skill your follow through will increase in both accuracy and speed, but for now we'll go slow."
I nodded and could feel my palms sweating from nerves.
I just don't want to be bad, I thought anxiously, That would be so humiliating.
Kylo Ren pulled out his own glaring red lightsaber and began showing me a few different simple jabs. He worked with the air in front of him and I pathetically swung at the dummy that faced me.
"Good! You're getting the hang of it." He complimented when I successfully hit the right target on the dummy. "Now, one thing about a lightsaber duel is that it's all random. What your moves are depends on what your opponent does. You parry, you attack, you find holes in their defense, you don't let them find holes in yours. It's all in your reflexes. It sounds simple but it takes a lot of practice. It's very hard to do when put in an actual lightsaber duel when someone is trying to injure you."
I nodded again, comprehending that he was trying to intimidate me -- not intimidate me into not wanting to duel but I knew he wanted me to know this was the real deal; this was life or death.
We then went over the few jabs again; me with my dummy and him with his open space in front of him.
"To conclude this session we'll practice parries, one-on-one." Kylo Ren said. He still hadn't taken off his mask the whole session and I couldn't help but wonder why.
Then I realized the meaning of his words. "What?" I exclaimed.
He used The Force, pushed the dummy to the wall, and summoned a fake lightsaber for himself. "I will attack and you will parry. I'll start off slow." He said, applying the right amount of pressure and forcing the metal to extend from the cylinder.
I gripped my fake lightsaber tightly. "Right now?" I was flustered and my voice was informing him of it -- my voice shook with apprehension and was a few pitches higher than it was supposed to be.
"Yes." Kylo Ren simply stated, sending a jolt of fear rocketing out of my chest. He began walking towards me and it was probably the most intimidating thing I've ever seen. Kylo Ren striding with confidence, completely armored and masked, holding his fake lightsaber up at an angle is the most intimidated sight I'd ever experienced.
I cowered, stepping backwards but he advanced more aggressively. He raised the fake lightsaber slowly above his head and kept to his word -- he started slow, but not too slow. After thirty seconds I was out of breath from parrying his multiple attack attempts.
What's he like in real action?, I wondered. The mere thought sent a tremor of fear and excitement through me.
Kylo Ren had started off going easy on me, but as we progressed his jabs and swings gained more refinery, maturity, and acceleration.
I was losing breath and my pace slipped away from me as our fake duel continued but he seemed to be gaining strength and speed as it endured. It was like he was fueled by the duel.
My limbs ached and burned and I was whipping my lightsaber right, left, up, and down, trying to keep his fake lightsaber from touching my body until eventually he faked right then swung around left. The motion so agile I didn't even fully see it happen. He stopped the fake lightsaber right before the metal would've connected to me and he repeated with slight smugness, "Reflexes."
We put away our equipment and I felt defeated, although I knew I shouldn't have felt defeated because he was Kylo Ren, one of the most supreme leaders of The First Order and I was Nira Leven of Tunstead. What, did you think you were going to beat him?, I questioned myself as we began to walk out of the room.
He stopped me right before we left by placing his hand on my shoulder. I looked up at his mask. "You did quite well today." Kylo Ren spoke slowly, gazing at me through the mask that deformed his voice. He pulled the glove off of his right hand.
He raised his hand to my forehead and pressed all his fingerpads except his thumb onto my cheek. His left hand held my shoulder steadily. He extended his thumb and wiped a small portion of the sheet of sweat that dripped down my forehead.
He then quickly dropped his hands from me and put on his glove speedily.
Kylo Ren stared at me for one second, two seconds, three seconds. Then he told me, "I'm proud of you," and walked out of the room.
_____
Author's Note
This chapter's long but I had to get in the part with Hux at the beginning for characterization purposes and I really wanted to get the part in at the end! I hope you liked it!
If you did like it, please vote and if you really liked it, leave me a nice comment!
Okay I'll try to update tomorrow but I'm switching from my dad's house to my mom's so it might be a little difficult. Forgive me! I'll try my best my amazing readers!
Bye! :)