Villains on My Mind

Chapter 18

What the hell have I done?

Kylo Ren raises his crackling lightsaber and points it at me. At that moment, I feel his powers enveloping me, leaving me unmoving. A statue nailed to the ground. Then, in a blink of an eye—if I could blink—Jerry is airborne and clashes against the building wall. He comes down hard and seems to be knocked out cold. Please don't be dead. I try to scream, but nothing comes out. I can scarcely take a breath. Jerry is now sprawled out on the ground, and I try to fight against the force field around me but obviously, to no avail.

I knew it. I knew Jerry was in danger by being with me. Why does he have to be so damn persistent! If he had just one uncaring bone in his body, he wouldn't be dead right now. How do I always get myself into situations like this! I must be self-destructive. That's what it must be.

Kylo Ren begins advancing toward me. His lightsaber still ignited, looming of what's to come. I can't help but wonder if death by lightsaber is swift and painless. I guess it rests on the beholder of it. Whether he wants to make it easy or difficult.

He's hardly an arm's length away from me now, and he raises his fiery weapon next to my neck. So close that I can feel the scorching heat of it, hear the crackling of its energy. It looks like the sun and its coronas, fighting, barely stable.

"Did you really think you could save New York?" Kylo Ren's distorted voice asks. His face hidden. "Earth cannot do anything against The First Oder. Perhaps you would be able to obtain minor victories, but you will never defeat us."

"I- I had to try." I succeed to articulate weakly. My instincts are screaming at me to get away from the searing hot lightsaber next to my ear, but I'm confined to stay put. But even if he didn't hold me still with his powers, I don't think I'd still be able to move. I realize, he's right. It's an ugly, insufferable truth. They're superior to us, we are mere Chihuahuas trying to fight a Pitbull on steroids. I'm not sure what I expected to achieve with my little escapade, but I couldn't just sit still either, and watch as my home gets blown to pieces.

"We will finish what we started, Ana." He says, turning his blade so that one of the bottom thorns of it is now almost blistering the skin on my cheek. My eyes are searching for his, but I can't see anything but darkness behind the helmet's mesh, which covers the minuscule opening of it.

"What?" I stutter, his words only now registering.

"I was mistaken, " He says so calmly, it sends chills running down on my spine. "I thought my Grandfather was foolish because of Padmé. I realize now, his weakness did not lie there, it was in his failure to have Padmé on his side."

"W-Who's Padmé?" I stutter. I don't understand anything he's talking about. A Grandfather? It's hard to imagine Kylo Ren having a family, someone who raised him, cared for him. I wonder where they are now. If they're even alive. What do they think of their son now? The destroyer of worlds?

"I will not be weak like he was. You will be on my side, if you wish to save Earth." He seizes my jaw with his leathered hand, pulling my face closer to his dented helmet. I can hear his breathing through the modifier. I wish he would lower the lightsaber, I'm too anxious to breathe.

"I will teach you of Padmé. And of the most powerful Sith there ever was, my Grandfather."

"I won't be on your side, Kylo Ren. Ever." I stutter, trying to say it like I'm not absolutely terrified of him right now, like his lightsaber isn't almost charring away the skin off my throat.

"You wanted power, to change things, make them better, influence. I'm offering it you on a silver plate. You can have it all." He tempts me, his voice both silky and hard through the mask. This is what the devil must sound like.