"You will perish." He stated in his deep electrical voice, advancing and threateningly making an 'X' shape in the air with his lightsaber.
I shook my head, and defiantly claimed, "I deserve to live more than you do."
This was where I either lived or died. This is where I either succumbed to evil or gloriously succeeded.
This was either a new beginning or the end.
_____
The leader of the Knights of Ren suddenly barreled towards me, raising his lightsaber above his head as he charged. I waited until he began to swing his weapon down towards my head to elude the attack.
I leaped to the side, turned, and shot electrical bolts at his exposed torso, but he swiftly brought his lightsaber downwards and deflected my attacks with ease. The bolts darted past my shoulder and powerfully hit the wall behind me with an electrical bang.
He then turned his body to face me and took another lethal swing with his lightsaber. I jumped out of the way and rapidly backed away from him. The bottom of my foot stung (recall that it had poked me as I tried to crawl behind the pipes) but I had to ignore the sting and keep putting distance between myself and the dangerous being who was trying to murder me.
"You could have prevented this," He commented as he powerfully strode towards me. I continued to backpedal away from him. I figured that shooting an electrical bolt at him would be uselessly; his reflexes were too far in tune to let a shot of electricity hit him.
He then stopped advancing, so I stopped backing up in response. "You could have stopped this." He spoke, pointing towards Kylo Ren's limp body with his lightsaber. He then gestured to the rest of the fallen Knights of Ren scattered around the room in bits and pieces and calmly accused, "You could have prevented all of this."
"You came to us," I seethed, "You didn't have to come to us. You brought this upon all of your men. I was defending myself."
The leader switched the hand he held his lightsaber with and swung it in a circle. He began approaching me again with alarming speed, but I didn't maintain a safe distance between us. Kylo Ren was dying. If there was any chance of me saving his life, I had to finish up the fight with the Knights of Ren leader quickly.
I stood in an aggressive stance, ready to fire electricity from my palms. I waited until he neared and then did so. The familiar static feeling arose in me and raced to my fingertips, followed by the burst of electricity that forward shot so fast you nearly couldn't see it.
He easily blocked it with his lightsaber, which was a red glow flying across air. The blast deflected off of the lightsaber at a strange angle, but I didn't watch to see where it went. I was focused on the duel, ready for it, and determined to come out victorious.
He continued his progression towards me, and I retained my fighting stance.
Suddenly, he took an extremely large step towards me and pulled his lightsaber above his head. I just had enough time to put my hands above my head to protect myself.
He didn't wait for the anticipation to rise, but immediately brought the lightsaber careening down towards the middle of my skull. It was not pointed downwards, but rather pointed diagonally upwards. I stopped his arms from bringing the lightsaber through my head by grabbed onto his wrists.
The sheer force of catching his oncoming attack knocked me onto my knees. I was pushing upwards trying to save my own life, he was pushing downwards, trying to end it. Both of us refused to give up.
In the back of my mind, I summoned an expert idea and immediately put it to use.
I let the electricity begin to rapidly flow through my fingers and into his wrists. I heard a metallic grunt from behind the mask -- a grunt of pain. I pushed the electricity hard into his skin, but he was relentless. The Knight still steadily forced the lightsaber closer to my scalp.
I could feel my arms losing strength. I continued sending the electricity directly into him, but he was not letting up. I didn't know how much longer I'd be able to keep myself alive.
I persevered, but with less determination and courage, and continued sending pulses of my voracious power through him. He began to convulse, but continuously drove the lightsaber closer to my head.
I cried out; the physical exertion was nearly overwhelming. My arms burned, begging me to give up and just let the malicious lightsaber slice through me. My breath was labored and I knew I was close to being assassinated. I was on the brink of death.
Then I exploded.
Well, okay, not literally exploded.
My vision had begun to darken. I could feel myself fading away. The lightsaber was close enough to my head as to where I could sense the heat emanating from it.
Suddenly I felt a swelling inside me. A static, electrical swelling.
It happened as fast as lightning itself. I could barely sense the power rushing through my fingers because it traveled so fast.
It flooded out abundantly onto my opponent, all in one large blast of electricity. It abruptly flowed from my fingertips, but my hands refused to dissociate from his wrists. We were connected by pure electricity.
The Knight was suddenly sent flying to the opposite end of the room, faster than gravity itself, because while he flew, his lightsaber remained suspended in the air.
Then it began to fall over me, and I, however, was not faster than gravity itself.
I moved my head out of the way in time, so I was not killed, but the lightsaber cleanly fell and hit my wrist, slicing my hand clean off of my limb.
Immediate burn filled me, and a scream begged to erupt, but when I opened my mouth, I struggled to make any sound. I clutched onto my forearm. The pain nearly kicked me into unconsciousness.
The bloody stump that used to be my hand continuously bled and all I could do was stare at it with panic and try to withstand the pain. The dark red blood fell onto the floor, creating an eerie puddle. I pulled my shirt over my head, leaving me in just an undergarment, and fashioned a tourniquet out of the black cloth. I tightly wound it around the bloody stump, panting from the pain the entire time.
I tightly clutched my forearm and gritted my teeth. Oh, I couldn't believe it. I'd actually lost my hand!
I looked up to where the final Knight of Ren had been blasted off to and immediately had to look away due to the rise of bile in my throat. His body was completely . . . mutilated. I couldn't get the bloody image out of my head.
I keeled over sideways and threw up on the ground. The crisp, metallic smell of blood began to infiltrate my nostrils, causing more regurgitating on my part.
I slowly sat back up, wiped the leftover sickness from the edges of my mouth, and focused on looking at the floor in front of me. I knew that I couldn't have looked at any of the fallen bodies around me without getting sick again.
I was alive, all thanks to Kylo Ren's training.
Kylo Ren!, I anxiously thought, whipping my head to the side to look at him. He was ten feet away from me. His body was pushed up against the wall, facing away from me.
I tried to stand up to walk over to him, but immediately fell back to the ground. My foot had immediately pulsed with a burning ache even with the most ginger pressure applied (if you would recall during the battle as I crawled behind the pipes the Knight nicked my foot with the tip of his lightsaber?).
I hurriedly came to a solution to my inability to walk and propelled myself over to Kylo Ren on my hand and knees. While I crawled I noticed that the throbbing in my thigh from the bullet was beginning to make a reappearance.
I may have defeated the Knights of Ren, but they had really messed me up.
I tenderly tugged on Kylo Ren's shoulder until he rolled over. I wanted to see if he had any serious head wounds but I'd never taken his mask off before and I only had one hand.
Wow. I only have one hand.
I took the fingers on my intact hand and began gently pulling upwards on the base of the helmet, but it wouldn't budge.
Clunk clunk clunk clunk clunk clunk clunk clunk clunk.
I rapidly turned to face the staircase. I heard several sets of footsteps approaching at a run. My heartbeat elevated intensely and I immediately started gasping for air out of pure panic.
Oh God, the Knights of Ren! There's more of them! They're coming for me!, I thought with pain and pessimism. I had done my best against eight of them, and suffered a variety of injuries; I would be completely unable to handle another Knight.
I used my intact hand and my other upper arm to bring Kylo Ren to a sitting position. I then scooched myself against the wall and lay a small portion of his upper torso in my lap, because that's all that fit. I cradled his helmeted head against my pounding heart. My blood rushed faster and faster as the sound of running footsteps grew louder.
Whoever was coming was not slowing or stopping at all. They were headed straight for us.
I looked down at his gorgeously dark mask, and then I viewed his entire body -- not in a perverted way, but in a caring way. I took the time to truly look at all of his armor and all of the uniqueness it held. Admiring different aspects in his body caused the terrifying sound of footsteps to fade into the backround.
I quickly looked up towards the staircase when I heard the metallic footsteps begin to descend them.
My heart beat hard. I was prepared for abduction, or torturing, or death, or all three.
I was okay dying with Kylo Ren held against me. I closed my eyes serenely and focused on how smooth his helmet felt against my fingertips.
I heard ten or twenty pairs of footsteps go down the stairs and then begin walking around the room. I didn't dare open my eyes. I couldn't be terrified in my last moments of life. I just continued to gently stroke Kylo Ren's helmet and take deep, tranquil breaths.
"Nira Leven, are you alright?" A mechanical voice asked me. It had a low pitch, but not nearly as low as Kylo Ren's (or any of the Knights of Ren's, for that matter).
I slowly pulled my eyelids upwards and looked up to see who was greeting me.
Immense relief crashed against my chest. I closed my eyes as my body felt like all of the worry was rushing out and deflating me; my shoulders physically drooped downwards and my head lolled to the side.
Walking all around the room, turning over the bodies of the Knights of Ren, and looking down at Kylo Ren and I were stormtroopers and commanders from The First Order. I was panting with alleviation.
"I thought you were . . ." I looked around, breathing heavily, "I thought you would . . ." I sighed with mitigation, unable to comprehend the intensity of my anxiety just a minute before.
"Ma'am, are you alright?" The stormtrooper asked, looking down at me.
Ma'am?, I thought, surprised, that's new.
"I'm . . . I'm in pain." I spoke with confusion in my tone because I had just come to the realization that I truly was in pain. Some adrenaline still remained in me but was dissipating, and replacing it was the now-fresh pain.
I had a severed hand, a clean removal of skin from my other arm, a stab in the bottom of my foot, and a straight scar across my lower back all from the ruthless lightsabers that the Knights of Ren ambushed me with. The bullet wound, although there was only one, had transformed into a relentless throbbing that did not descend to a lower level of intensity as time continued; in fact, the pain from the bullet only gradually increased. I also had singed hair from the multiple deflected electrical bolts, but that was no matter compared to my other lacerations.
A group of stormtroopers suddenly rushed down the steps with two floating casket-looking objects following them. "We're going to bring you both to the hospital in these." The stormtrooper next to me explained, gesturing to the caskets. I nodded, beginning to feel dizzy with pain.
I felt Kylo Ren's body being lifted off of me. The world began to swim before my eyes and suddenly I was laying down on something, staring at the ceiling.
I must be in the casket-thingy, I dizzily thought.
I slipped into darkness.
_____
Author's Note
Sorry for the update hope you enjoyed! See you later :)