A vibration. The smallest disturbance in the constant wave of energy. To someone who wasn't Force-sensitive, wouldn't even have noticed the difference, but to Ree, the deterrence made all her muscles tense. Someone was meddling, doing something, not just using the Force, but actually shifting the flow of it. It nagged at her, she desperately wanted to know what was causing it, so she dropped everything she was doing and started following the vibration.
The vibration led her out of her and Kylo's joined chambers. She continued down the hallway, stormtroopers that passed her saluted her but she didn't even notice them. This strange flow of energy consumed her entire focus. Keelor passed the infirmary, only giving it a glance as she reminded herself that she needed to get her stitching redone. After a few more turns and passes, the small vibration had turned the whole Force shaking. Ree only stopped dead in her tracks as she was about to turn into another hallway when she heard a recognizable voice.
"You'll bring Luke Skywalker to me." It was her lover. He was standing in one where the Force disturbance was coming from. Ree peeked around the corner, ready to brace herself for whoever was there with him. Kylo's back was towards her and in front of him, no one. Her beloved had gone mad, he was talking to the air. "You're not doing this. The effort would kill you." Ren continued the one-way conversation and Ree was keeping herself hidden. "Can you see my surroundings? I can't see yours. Just you. So no. This is something else." Keelor feel her brain burning up in confusion, he seemed to be talking to someone and he could see them but not what was around them? Just as she was about to reveal her presence and ask if he had gone mad, footsteps could be heard. Ky had started walking away from where he came, along with the disturbance in the Force disappearing.
---
It was a tedious lesson. In Ree's hand was a small mirror, she stared at herself until her vision got blurry. The harder she tried to make the reflection in the mirror change, the harder it got. "Don't alter it all, start with one thing." Snoke ordered from his throne. She nodded and focused her energy on a single aspect of her appearance, the colour of her hair. She had always wanted rich dark hair instead of those bleached and split ends. That scavenger girl had dark and rich hair, even though she had probably never showered a day in her life, it still looked more taken care of than Ree's. She closed her eyes and gave a final push of the Force as she tried to mimic the scavenger's hair.
"I can't!" The Commander exclaimed as she opened her eyes and saw the regular blonde Ree staring back at her in the mirror.
"Try harder! You will not fail!" Snoke boomed, there was no room for failure, only success. Once again she closed her eyes and started drawing power from her anger towards the brunette. She focused on that smug smile that Rey had when she circled the wounded Kylo and the pain her lightsaber had inflicted on her own back. Remembering that face was enough to make the roots turn brown and the colour cascaded down the strands of hair like a waterfall until the reflection in the mirror was a brunette Ree. "Well done, my apprentice." Snoke's acknowledgement filled Ree with confidence.
"Thank you, Supreme Leader." Ree bowed her head in respect, it was the best feeling in the world, feeling accomplished.
Suddenly that feeling of proudness ran off her just as her hair colour did when she lost focus. Keelor's full attention turned to a disturbance in the Force. It was even more powerful this time. Her face dropped as she searched around for the source of the disturbance. "Something wrong?" Leader Snoke asked as he looked down at the uncomfortable Commander.
"Yes, I don't feel well," she answered absent-mindedly, "forgive me, Supreme Leader." Quickly stumbling away to the elevator, hoping to reach the disturbance before it once again disappeared.
It tugged at her, the feeling. If the Force was a constant heartbeat then this was an irregular beat. She searched wildly for it, praying that she found what was causing it, something not good that was for sure.
The disturbance became nearly too much as Ree stumbled up onto an archway that connected to a viewing area looking out over the hangar. "Why is the Force connecting us?" it was Kylo's voice, he was around the corner inside the viewing area, just where the disturbance was coming from. "Did he tell you what happened? The night I destroyed his temple, did he tell you why?" Once again, her dear was having a full-on conversation with someone. She did not dare to peek around the corner, afraid that her presence would be revealed. "You do? Ah, you do. You have that look in your eyes. From the forest. When you called me a monster." Ree only knew of one person who had ever called Kylo a monster in a forest. It was on Starkiller Base, just before Ren got his scar and Keelor got her back cut open. It was clear to her that it was the scavenger standing accompanying him. She needed to stop her, stop her from hurting his beloved again. Without hesitation, the Commander ignited the lightsaber from her belt and stormed into the room.
"Ree?!" Kylo exclaimed as he watched her practically jump into the room with her lightsaber ignited, "what are you doing?" She looked around the small and empty room, looking for the brunette, only to find a startled Kylo. Her cheeks turned as red as her lightsaber which she quickly turned off as she realized her mistake. She was the mad one, the foolish one, the one who thought that her beloved was talking to ghosts or something. Of course, he wasn't. This was just in her head.
"I learned a new trick." The blonde quickly made up a lie, "and I wanted to show you it."
"And what's the new trick? Nearly cutting me in half?" He crossed his arms over his chest.
"This." She focused on changing her hair colour to brown. Even the second time it had already become easier and the raised eyebrows on Kylo's face told her it was impressive. He moved closer so that their noses were nearly touching.
"It's a cool trick," Ky said as his hand moved up to Ree's still bright red cheek, "but I like you, just the way you are." The space between their lips was gone and Ree's cheeks nearly started shine so red and hot were they. The brown colour faded from Ree's hair just as the importance of her being mad did.
---
In front of Ree stood a Lieutenant in his dark grey uniform. He stood in attendance. Afraid to do nothing else in the presence of Supreme Leader Snoke and Commander Keelor. "Commander," Snoke spoke up, "show Lieutenant Levsco the ball." From behind her back, Ree brought out a red ball, holding it in front of the Lieutenant who inspected it with brows knitted together. "What colour is the ball, Lieutenant?"
"Red," answered Lesvco as he swallowed nervously, "Supreme Leader." The poor guy had no idea why had been called to the throne room, completely unknown that he was just a tool for Ree to practise on.
"Hide the ball, Commander," Snoke instructed from his throne. She hid the ball behind her back once again. "Good, now, begin."
With the order, Ree brought out her free hand, holding it out towards the Lieutenant. The Force started vibrating through the room as Keelor manipulated it. Her eyes became two fine lines as she focused her full attention on Levsco. "You will forget," her tone was much darker than usual, "the colour of the ball. Understood?"
"I understand," Levsco's tone was completely monotone.
The Force in the throne room had returned to normal as Ree lowered her hand. Her eyes were big as she awaited the results. "Lieutenant," Snoke spoke up, "what colour is the ball behind Commander Keelor's back?"
"It's, uh..." The Lieutenant found himself at a loss of words, he could remember Keelor showing him the ball, Snoke instructing her to hide it behind her back but for some reason, he couldn't remember what colour the ball was. "I-I don't recall, Supreme Leader." Fear spread through the poor man, was he losing his mind?
"Very well," Snoke chuckled. "You're dismissed, Lieutenant." A baffled Levsco stumbled out of the throne room.
"I did it!" Ree shrieked with happiness.
"Well done, child." Snoke found great amusement in seeing his apprentice succeed in using the Force to manipulate the memory of a Lieutenant.
---
The shower in Kylo's and unofficially Ree's chamber was amazing. The water was as warm as Ree liked to be, unlike the community showers where you would be grateful if the water didn't freeze your toes off. The last few weeks had been rough on her, both physically and mentally. There had been a lot of intense training with Snoke, like learning how to Force alter your appearance. That wasn't the worst, Ree had become afraid of herself, after hearing voices and feeling disturbances in the Force that wasn't even there, she had been fearful of what she might trick herself into believing. Just standing there with the water cascading down her body made for a nice change. For the first time in those eventful weeks had she actually felt calm and not insane.
To entertain herself, Keelor used the Force to make the water drops running down the white tile wall change direction, she made them defy gravity and race upwards towards the ceiling. Though water drops were only entertaining for a while. She thought about calling on Kylo who was in the living area just outside the bathroom, hoping that he would join her in the shower. Just before she could call on him his voice was heard. The words said were unhearable to Ree due to the wall between them and the water running. But that wasn't all, that disturbance was back, and it wasn't coming from some distance hallway or viewing area but from the room just outside. Ree could feel herself losing it again. She was hearing things that weren't there and she could feel the panic rise in her.
Before Keelor had a full-fledged panic attack in the shower, she turned off the water but also to hear the imaginary voices better. "Stop it. there are no voices, no disturbance," she told herself as she got dressed. The clothes were simple, a black open back top with long arms and some black pants. The blonde turned towards the mirror as she sloppily dried her hair with a towel. "You're imagining things." She continued telling herself these things, even though the disturbance was as strong as it had ever been. "Kylo will think you're crazy." It seemed as if the more she told herself to stop, the more she could feel it, the strange rhythm in the constant flow of the Force. And that, combined with her hearing Kylo uttering those three words was enough.
"You're not alone." Even though it was a wall between the two, Ree heard it as clear as daylight. Then the disturbance was clear, it wasn't just a weird beat it was a whole entire new presence of the Force, a familiar one, one that Keelor had endured several times. She could no longer stand there in the bathroom, wondering if she was losing her mind, she needed to find out what was happening on the other side of the door. By using the Force, Ree flung the bathroom door opened and stormed out into the living room.
On a chair sat Kylo slightly leaning forward, but that wasn't what was appalling to her, it was who sat opposite of him. There she was, also leaning forward, a brunette with a blanket around her, the scavenger girl. The two had their hands extended out to each other, and they were holding each other's hands. As the Commander had entered the living room, the two sitting there had turned towards her. the two women's eyes had locked onto each other. Those hazel orbs ignited something in the blonde, a hatred that could easily be confused for jealousy. A hatred that made Ree lift the dining table into the air and then swing it in the direction of the brunette.
Kylo had to throw himself away so that he wouldn't be crushed under the steel table and Rey had disappeared into thin air as soon as hers and Kylo's hands were no longer touching. He quickly got up on his feet, no one could understand what he was feeling, angry because Ree had just thrown a table at him but also ashamed like he had been caught cheating. Ree was not hard to read at all, she was full out pissed. "Ree, I can-" Kylo started but she didn't give him a chance to finish, rushing up to him, with anger prevailing in her eyes.
"You have been talking to her?!" She roared as she started pushing Kylo, "how could you?!" Tears were already threatening to fall down.
"We weren't talking." He tried to explain, but Ree knew that it was all a lie, everything she had heard, every word she thought she had imagined was a word Kylo had said to Rey.
"Yes, you were! I heard how you talked! Like you were friends!" She spat the last word as if it was venom in her mouth. Tears streamed down as she imagined Kylo actually liking the scavenger.
"We're enemies!" He tried to hold his love but all the adrenaline pumping through Keelor made her stronger than an entire army. She continued pushing him and punching against his chest and he had to continue backing up to keep a distance between him and the furious Ree.
"Well, enemies don't hold hands!" There was no arguing with that, he knew that Ree had seen them doing it, their fingertips touching each other, "nothing clever to say back? Huh?! Don't have a good enough excuse?!" She took a step back, tears still running down her cheeks, "No? Because you know I'm right." She couldn't stand in that room for a second longer with that liar, she needed to get out of there so she bolted for the door.
"Ree-" Kylo didn't get another word out and not because he didn't want to but because Ree had whipped around, extended her arm and was now Force-choking the Master of the Knights of Ren. The air was leaving his throat and there was nothing he could do, she didn't allow him to move a muscle, the Force had frozen his body. She was using the very tricks that he had taught her. The smallest hisses of air came from Kylo as he tried to get air into his lungs but Ree didn't let a single gust of it down his throat. The blue colour on his face confirmed it. For a second, Ree pondered to never let go, to drain all the colour from his face and watch his body go limp. That would make her the second most powerful being in the galaxy, just after Snoke himself.
But eventually, Kylo's body was released from her tight grip and oxygen rushed into his lungs. The mighty Ren was down on his knees, doubled over as he chipped for air. Between his raven-black locks, he peered up at Ree. It was with a look that Ree had never seen Kylo use when looking at her. It was one of fright.