VENDETTA [ kylo ren ]

eighteen

18. first looks

THE Supremacy soared through the Galaxy. They passed many solar systems, leaving havoc after they'd left most of them. Little children were torn out of their parents' arms and dragged back onto the First Order's ships to serve as new recruits for the Stormtrooper program. They were all so scared, but soon they wouldn't know any better, they'd be the ones causing havoc and taking children.

Vada had known of the First Order's ways since she was a little girl. She was ten when her mother was killed, she wasn't there but her father had told her and the people of Ilia what had happened. The First Order had killed Queen Kya and her brother, the Commander of the Silver Forces, Tiro.

Since then, she had studied the Order, trying to figure out their ways, what drove them to do this and if there was a way to tear them down. Though, revenge was what she longed for, it wasn't something she actually believed would be possible.

Until she was twenty, and her older brother Alon was murdered by the First Order. The Crown Prince of Ilia was on a peaceful diplomatic mission on Coruscant. He was supposed to meet with the Republic and discuss some trading agreements. His ship never even made it to the surface, he was already blown to pieces.

This was the last straw for Vada. She was already the Commander of the Silver Forces by then and knew that the only way her family, her planet and the entire galaxy could ever know peace again, was to destroy the First Order. So, her vendetta began.

But there she was now, staring out of a window on board of the Supremacy. They had entered the Coruscant System and they were nearing Coruscant itself. Her hand rested on the cold window as she looked at the busy planet in agony. Her brother had died there no more than five years ago, it still stung every day.

She sighed heavily and wiped away a tear that had escaped her eye. But there was no time to mourn when her feet were knocked out from under her with a staff. She fell to the ground with a loud thud and groaned as she stroked her back in pain. "What was that for?" she yelled.

"You were distracted," Kylo said calmly, mask on and a wooden staff resting in his hand.

"It's the first day of training, for god's sake!" she growled as she got up and gave him a nasty look.

It had been two weeks since Snoke had ordered Kylo to take Vada as his apprentice. Though, she desperately wanted to, Vada didn't refuse. She knew how powerful Snoke was and she couldn't risk it.

"Well, then here's your first lesson," Kylo told her, "being distracted gets you killed."

She scoffed. "It's gonna take a little more than a stick to kill me, I'm afraid."

"We'll see."

He gave her no time to wonder, because he lunged for her with the staff, aiming for her abdomen. "Hey!" she yelled after she had dodged his blow. "It's not fair, I don't have anything to defend myself with!"

He slowly walked in a circle around her, waiting to strike again. "You have to be able to defend yourself even when the odds are against you."

She rolled her eyes, "I took out those guards on Ilia just fine."

He stopped strutting and took a step closer to her. "A palace guard is nothing compared to me." He struck again, this time he aimed for her legs, and succeeded. She laid flat out on the ground again.

She saw him shook his head in disapproval and he rested the staff against the wall next to the door. The training area was a circular room with just one window, it was dark and grey like almost everything on the ship. Unfortunately for Vada, the floor wasn't covered in a mat, it was just metal.

She didn't stand up this time, instead she sat on the floor, giving her bruised back a minute to recover. "I thought you were supposed to teach me about the Force," she said as he stood silently inspecting several weapons on a table. "I'm a good fighter, you know that."

"You are," he admitted. The tiniest smile found her lips but she washed it away quickly. "But you need to be prepared to fight someone who is strong than you, someone better than you."

She scoffed, "so, when will he be here?" she laughed but his head shot to her and he said nothing. "Oh come on, that was a joke." He still didn't say anything. She rolled her bright blue eyes and stood up. "You know what, if we're going to have to do this training thing, I can't do it looking at a piece of metal. If I want to fight someone without a face I'll ask a stormtrooper."

He just stared at her. She didn't repeat herself, she knew he knew what she was asking. He just didn't know what to do with it. She gave him a few seconds to comprehend it before speaking again when he did nothing. "Come on, take it off," she said, "you can see my face, it's only fair I see yours." He still didn't move. "I'm the only one here and you can put it on after we're done training."

She really hoped he'd take it off. From the day he walked into the throne room she had wondered what he looked like. Was he old? Or was he young? Was he even human? She couldn't even hear his real voice. "It's not like you need it to live, right?"

After a long, and quite uncomfortable silence, his gloved hands moved up to the backside of his helmet. She waited in anticipation of what she would see. He pressed a button and with a hissing sound the mask loosened, and he pulled it off, revealing a man, who could not be much older than she was. She didn't say anything as he put the mask down and stared at the ground.

She had been painting images of him in her mind, but she never thought he'd look like this. He had thick black curls a little over his ears that fell perfectly into place, fair skin and dark eyes. His nose dominated his face but it suited him, she thought. Frankly, she was surprised. She thought a man who brought chaos to the galaxy wouldn't look so...handsome to her. But he did, and she hated it immediately.

She quickly averted her eyes and coughed a stutter away. "Can I have a staff as well?" He threw one at her and she caught it.

"Satisfied, now?" he asked. It was the first time she head his voice. It was rough and low, but it also held a certain softness and confliction to it that she couldn't quite place.

"Getting there," she answered before taking a defensive stand and getting ready to finally fight someone with a face.

・。・。☆・゜・。・゜。★・。・

Sorry for the wait, I was on a small holiday. Don't worry, it was in my own country and following my government's guidelines.

I hope you guys can also still enjoy this summer even though there's so much going on right now!

Writing this chapter I realized how difficult it actually is to write something out that you see in your head. For me, I always think what I wanna see happen in my stories and then writing it out and having it actually happen that way is so much harder! Especially building up connections between characters.
So, major respect to people who are able to convey so much emotion into a story that it literally pulls you into it because that is so difficult to do but so beautiful!