Venus & Mars

Chapter 15 ~ Perseverance

I awoke the next morning to Kylo snoring softly in the chair he fell asleep in. Rubbing my eyes, I knew I couldn't handle another day like the one before. Completely alone and bored out of my mind. Biting my tongue to keep quiet, I shifted in the bed to sit up straight and kicked my legs over the edge. Taking a deep breath, I raised my hand toward Kylo. Using the Force that was returning to my wounded body, I made him levitate and float out of the chair, pulling him across the room and setting him on the bed as softly as I could manage. Satisfied, I got to my feet, limping away from the bed and over to the door. Sorry Kylo...I won't get stronger by sitting around all day. I thought, exiting the room as quietly and carefully as possible.

Due to my painful injury, it took far longer than usual for me to make my way to the newly repaired training chambers in the west wing of the ship. Gritting my teeth, I limped through the winding corridors until I reached my destination. The halls were eerily quiet, but I ignored it as I walked into the silent chamber. Looking around, I observed a much larger table. It was made of a strong, sturdy metal, as were the four chairs placed purposefully around it.

Interested, I sat on the floor and held my hand up again, attempting to move it. Nothing happened. Using more power, I repeated my action, willing the table to do as commanded. Still no movement. Curious, I crawled over it and examined the top. Nothing was holding it down from the actual platform part, nor was there any force field keeping it in place. My inspection continued downward, falling to the very base of the table where it sat on the floor. There lay the answer to my confusion. Someone, one of the tech guys I assumed, had screwed the base of the iron into the metal floor with thick nails. Tilting my head, I tried a different tactic. I focused my gaze on one of the large screws, rotating my hands in a circle, as if I were physically turning it myself. As I had hoped, the screw slowly began to twist, my powers causing it to come out of the base with ease. Happy with the results of the first experiment, I repeated my actions three more times, once for each screw. I finally finished, leaving the table extremely unstable. Perfect. I thought, leaning back. The motion caused my stitches to pull agonizingly, and for a moment I contemplated what Kylo had told me about how pain empowers the Force. But I didn't want to use my pain to cause destruction or chaos. All I wanted was to help people. So instead of lashing out, I swiftly got back on my feet and used my power to pick up the table, flinging it across the room. Even though it had not been my true intention, nothing more than a reflexive movement, the table made contact with the hard wall and shattered, breaking into pieces and scattering across the room. Oops.

Shaking my head in defeat, I decided instead to practice on my mind bending and putting up a protective wall. But as I allowed my senses to wonder, I felt a strong feeling of fear and anger creeping up my spine. It was unfamiliar. Perhaps it was Hux. Oh great... I thought. Fists clenched in anxiety, I rounded toward the door, waiting for the intruder to break into the room. The door suddenly slid open, but before I even thought about it, my hand shot out and away, flinging the person across the room. "Oof!" I heard a groan of pain before I recognized the black mass now lying crippled on the cold ground. "Kylo!" I shouted, hobbling over to him. He threw off the cape covering his face, staring at me in both anger and surprise. "What was that about?" He hissed. I blushed darkly, glancing away. "It was an accident. I thought you might've been Hux or something." I explained. He rolled his eyes and sat up, rubbing the back of his head. "Well at least you've actually learned some things in the past months." He muttered with a heavy sigh.

I felt his anger dissipate, which totally took me off guard. I had at least expected him to start yelling at me or something. But he simply got up and brushed himself off. Wait for it... Kylo finally met my eyes and this time he did seem quite unhappy. "I thought I ordered you to take a break." He rose an eyebrow and crossed his arms over his chest. And there it is... "First of all, you never ordered me to do anything. And second, when have you known me to listen?" I pointed out. He looked completely unimpressed. "You could've got hurt again. Torn those stitches. You can't just go off and walk around this ship without telling someone what you're doing! Especially now!" He growled. "Oh and you care? All I ever did when you first dragged me onto this stupid ship was be alone. And now it's some big deal?" I argued. "Things were different then!" "How so?" I challenged.