34 ABY
With Finn's guidance and Gray's scanners, the group found the entrance to the flooding tunnels. As they entered the tunnel, Finn said, "This tunnel should run for about a quarter of a mile before it connects to the transport tunnels."
"No time to waste," Karena said after Chewie closed the hatch they had climbed through. "Come on!" She waved for them to follow, and Finn kept pace.
The tunnel was long, damp, and dimly lit, leading on to connect to other flooding tunnels to stretch for miles under and around the base. Both a perfect entrance and a perfect exit. The group hurried through, knowing their allotted time was growing short. They needed to get into the base, disable the shields, find Rey, and get the hell out before the Resistance began their bombing run, leaving explosives along the way. But both Karena and Han were secretly hoping to run into Kylo Ren somewhere along the way, preferably alone. Neither held out much hope of getting through to him, but they had to try. Han owed it to Leia and their friends, and Karena owed it to herself to pull her cousin back to the light.
A few minutes later, Finn pointed toward a hatch on the ceiling. "Up there! The ducts connect the flood tunnels to the transport tunnel for maintenance crews. We just need to hurry before the next transport passes over."
The group hurried over to the metal rungs leading up to the ceiling. Chewie tightened the duffle bag straps around him as Karena began climbing. When she reached the hatch, she waited a moment before opening it, sensing passed the metal to determine what awaited them above. Not sensing anything, Karena undid the locking mechanism and pushed hard upward.
She kept a tight grip on the handle to not let it slam open before climbing through. Chewie passed her the duffle and she hefted it through the hole and moved aside for them to come through.
Finn grabbed Han's wrist to look at the comm timer counting down, and right above it sat the military time. While the hours wouldn't match for Ilum, it was the minutes and seconds that mattered. "Alright, we have just over a minute before the next transport passes," he quickly said. "Follow me."
He took off running and the others followed, and when they heard a transport car coming through the tunnel behind them, Finn motioned for everyone to press up against the wall near the support beams. The wind rushed past them, slicing at their exposed skin with high force, but they stayed as still as possible in order to avoid being carried away with the transport or seriously injured.
Once the transport passed, they waited until the wind in the tunnel died down. Then Finn continued leading them to the nearest maintenance entrance.
When they stopped outside the doors, Karena raised her hand to keep either Han or Finn from opening the door. "Two enemies on the other side," she said.
"They must be taking a break," Finn told them. Han and Karena gave him odd looks, and Finn shrugged. "Unauthorized breaks are usually taken in off corners or by maintenance hatches to avoid patrols and officers. Work around the base gets stale and boring fast."
"Now I feel almost bad," Han snarked with a smirk. "Chewie, get ready to slam their heads together." Chewie growled in agreement as Han set his hands on the hatch.
The moment, Han pried open the maintenance door, Chewie set his giant paws on their helmets and slammed them against each other. The two First Order troopers crumpled to the floor with groans of pain.
"Hm." Han set his hands on his hips as they passed through the hatch, stepping around the bodies. "Good to know the First Order armor sucks just as much as Imperial armor." Chewie chuckled as he tossed the unconscious troopers through the maintenance entrance and shut the hatch.
"Mass production of fear doesn't leave much room for efficiency," Karena said then motioned to Finn. "Where's the control room?"
"What about Rey?" he asked.
Karena sighed. "Shields first, then Rey. The fleet will be here any minute now."
Finn wasn't particularly happy, but he understood her underlying meaning. The mission objective and saving the galaxy were more important than their individual lives, but that didn't mean she was giving up on Rey either. There were simply priorities. But it also meant that since the troopers will be preoccupied with fighting back against the Resistance, focusing on Rey might be easier.
"Alright," he murmured. "This way." Finn pointed forward down the hall and led the way.
As they hurried through the halls, Karena sensed a small group of troopers coming their way, and she quickly grabbed Han and Finn by their jackets and hauled them to a nearby observation alcove. Chewie and Gray followed as well. Finn was about to ask her a question, but Karena raised her hand, and they waited patiently, the marching steps of the troopers reaching their ears.
"Squad Five reporting," one of the troopers said. "No sign of the prisoner in Sector Eight. Moving on to Sector Nine."
"The prisoner?" Finn whispered, leaning closer to Han and Chewie.
Han nodded slowly, a proud smile forming. "She must've escaped."
"They're coming," Karena told them, and their group prepared to jump the squad of troopers.
The moment the white plastoid armor entered their line of sight, they attacked, knocking out the troopers swiftly before dragging them off to the side. Setting the troopers against the wall, the group focused on each other.
"So, since Rey escaped from the detention block, where might she be?" Karena asked, looking at Finn.
"Maybe one of the hangar bays?" Finn said, shifting his weight. "Since there's multiple and plenty of ships to hide in or try to escape in, that's where I'd go." He pointed down the hall. "There's one just after the control room."
"Then we can duck in there after we get the shields down," Han said. "Lead the way."
They inched down the halls again, a little slower than before as they were growing closer to their goal. It would be poor timing to get spotted so close to their destination.
The group stopped at the end of a corridor before a turn, and Finn whispered, "The control room is the next door on the right just down that hall, and the hangar bay doors are in the adjacent hall a few meters down."
Karena nodded, took a moment to reach out with the Force to sense for lifeforms, then looked around the corner when she didn't sense anyone in the hall. She did, however, sense two people inside the control room. They would have to act quickly; a moment of hesitation would be enough to give the troopers time to raise an alarm. If they wanted to lower the shield and find Rey, it was something they couldn't afford to let happen, and it had to be done now.
"Two inside," Karena said, opening her eyes. "Hall empty."
"Alright, let's take care of them," Han said.
The group rounded the corner and hurried to the control room door. Chewie readied his bowcaster directly in front of the door while Han stood by his side, holding out his blaster. Han nodded and pointed to Karena and Finn standing by the door controls.
At Han's motion, Karena jabbed the open button, the control room doors sliding open to reveal two technicians sitting in front of the large control panel.
With simultaneous blasts, Han and Chewie took out the technicians before they could react to the presence of the intruders. The bodies of the technicians slumped in the seats, and the Resistance group entered the room with Finn closing the doors behind them.
"The controls for the base's shield should be under a display of the shield's power levels," Karena explained, making a beeline for the control board. "Should be labeled, too." The others joined her to help in her search.
The boring color scheme of white, black, and red made the more colorful buttons on the controls stand out, even if the shield display was monochromatic, along with the other displays of power levels, alarms, and base blueprints. Karena found the interior decorating of the First Order base boring as well.
Would it kill them to have a nice tapestry to spice up a room where people have to sit for hours on end? The bodies of the dead technicians really tied the room together, so they did the First Order a favor.
Gray whistled as he pointed with one of his mechanical arms at the far end of the control panel.
"Thanks, Gray," Karena said, walking over to her droid who settled onto her shoulder once more. She shoved the dead technician out of the closest chair and sat down, scooting closer to the controls as she read the labels of the dials, switches, sliders, and buttons.
'Power Grid Compliance'
'Energy Output'
'Power Convergence'
'Deflection Levels'
'Atmospheric Regulation'
'Power Stasis Levels'
'Shield Power Regulators'
"There we go," Karena muttered, eyeing the last label. Under it were three sliders, one for each of the base's shield generators, so Karena slid all three from '100' to '0'. The display above the sliders showed the power distribution changing from the shield generators over to other subsystems.
"Great," Han said as he attached an explosive to the underside of the control panel. "Wouldn't want someone undoing all our hard work."
Karena stood and the group followed Han out of the control room. But as they walked down the hall in the direction Finn indicated for the hangar bay, Karena sensed something with her outreached Force surveillance.
"Wait, someone's coming," she urgently whispered.
Han raised his blaster, staring at the corner they were about to turn on. He readied to fire the moment someone crossed into his sight.
Karena jumped in before he got the chance, recognizing the Force signature not a moment too late.
"No, wait!" Karena exclaimed. She grabbed Han's arm and yanked it up to stop him from firing as Rey jumped at the surprise.
"Rey," Finn sighed in relief, rushing to hug her.
Rey returned the hug with a smile, lowering her blaster rifle and guard at the sight of her friends. Friends. She had friends. And they were there. She pulled out of the hug and smiled at all of them, surprised and relieved to see them, glad she was no longer alone on the hellish base.
"Are you alright?" Han asked.
"Yeah," Rey answered with a sigh and nod, feeling her pulse slowing to a normal pace. Gray zoomed forward through the air, doing excited circles around Rey who laughed in return and patted his top with her free hand.
"What happened?" Karena asked. "Did Ren hurt you?"
Rey didn't know how to answer that as she met Karena's gaze, letting a brief silence pass between them. But Karena didn't need a verbal answer. She could see the hesitation in Rey's expression and the pain in her eyes. Instead of waiting for a response, Karena gave Rey a small nod.
"What are you all doing here?" Rey asked, glancing between the four in front of her.
"We came back for you," Finn said.
Rey's eyes widened as she looked at him. She was speechless. We came back for you. The five words she'd been wanting to hear her whole life. All she had ever wanted was for someone to care enough to come back.
Gray beeped and whistled as he nestled onto Rey's shoulder, and she took in a sharp breath.
"What'd he say?" Finn asked.
"That it was your idea." Rey moved to hug him again as Finn awkwardly smiled. "Thank you."
"How'd you get away?" Finn asked as he pulled out of the hug.
"I-I don't know." Rey shook her head as she looked over at Karena. "I can't explain it. But. . . but I know it was the Force."
"You can talk about it later," Han said. "We need to go. The Resistance fighters should be dropping out of hyperspace any second now."
"What?" Rey moved to stop them from walking away. "No, no, they'll be destroyed!"
"What do you mean?" Karena asked.
Rey made a few erratic hand gestures as she moved to explain. "I heard some of the troopers talking about a weapon. A-A Starkiller, I think is what they called it, that they have hooked up to the base's defenses."
"Are you saying they have an operational Starkiller not attached to a ship?" Han asked, frowning. Alarms began to sound around them, lights flashing the walls in bright red. "The Resistance is here."
Karena huffed and gritted her teeth, an image of a bright red laser decimating Poe's starfighter entering her mind. "We need to take out that Starkiller. The assault won't last long with an operational superweapon." She turned to Finn. "Where would it be?"
Finn looked down at the floor, thinking back to when he was stationed on the base. "When I was stationed here, engineers were being rerouted to the southern gunnery station. If they built a Starkiller into the base's defenses, that's where it'd be since it's the closest gunnery station to the tarmac."
"No time to waste," Han said. "Let's move."
Finn took a sharp turn, leading them down the opposite hall Rey had come from.
They dispatched two squads of troopers as they encountered them on the way and exited the base through a service hatch, entering the freezing cold environment of Ilum once again. In the sky above the base and tarmac, ships flew, spun, and exploded in the air. A dogfight raged in the lower atmosphere. And the sound of a sonic boom shook the ground. But they couldn't get distracted.
Finn pointed at a large tower a hundred yards away near the cliffside. It stood out against the surroundings at almost a hundred feet tall and forty feet wide. "That's the gunnery station," he said over the biting wind. "The Starkiller is there. You can tell by the visible axial gun. It's not the same as the other stations."
"Come on," Han said, motioning for them to follow.
"Gray, scan it," Karena ordered, and the little droid surged ahead as the sentients trudged through the snow. His results came through her comlink halfway to their destination and she relayed the message. "One squad of troopers with three technicians. He says they're charging the cannon."
"No time to waste."
With a renewed sense of energy, they ran through the snow, trying to ignore the chill permeating through their clothes. Gray rejoined his human as they reached the gunnery station.
They paused, collecting their breaths, and Han turned to them. "Karena, go in and draw their fire. We'll come in behind you and dispatch the troopers."
Karena nodded and unsheathed her lightsabers, the brilliant teal lighting up the snow. Finn pressed the button to open the door, and Karena jumped through, grabbing the attention of the occupants inside. Troopers raised their blasters to fire as Karena leaped onto the rafters, dodging and deflecting blaster fire in the large space.
Through the open door entered the others, Chewie sniping a trooper with his bowcaster, Han blasting a hole in the wall near another, and Finn sniping the one guarding the technicians on the upper level. Rey rushed to the stairs, blindly shooting into the fray as she ran. As she reached the upper level, the nearest technician pulled out a baton and attacked, only for Rey to sock him in the jaw, sending him toppling over the railing. She leveled her stolen blaster rifle at the other two technicians who raised their hands in surrender.
Once the troopers were dispatched, they joined Rey with the technicians.
"Karena, you and Rey use the big gun to take out as many of the First Order ships as you can," Han said as Chewie set the duffle bag on the floor in front of them. "The rest of us will ready the explosives. We'll set charges at every other column." Chewie growled as he handed charges to Finn and Han. "You're right. You take the top. Finn, take this floor. I'll go down below. Detonator." He handed the detonator to Finn. "We'll meet back here."
Karena set a hand to the first technician's forehead as the others went off to plant the charges. The technician stared frightfully up at her and Rey who was still leveling the blaster at them. But a moment later, the technician's eyes closed as he fell asleep, hunching down in the chair. The second technician's eyes widened as he winced at Karena's hand nearing him, but the moment she touched his forehead, he fell asleep as well.
"What did you do to them?" Rey asked, trepidation in her voice as she slowly lowered the blaster rifle.
"They're asleep," Karena explained as she pushed one out of the chair. She started pressing buttons and then set her hands on dials to change the x-axis and y-axis targeting system of the Starkiller barrel. "Get ready to fire on my mark."
Rey took a slow breath as she reminded herself that what Karena had done to the technicians was not in the same vein as what Kylo Ren had done to her on Takodana despite it being the same Force ability. Rey slung the blaster rifle around her back and sat in the empty chair, hand hovering over the bright green button labeled 'FIRE'.
Karena spun the dials, watching the holographic display above her with the targeting system. They could hear the turning gears as the barrel of the Starkiller atop the tower changed positions, lowering as it faced the tarmac down below.
"Ready?" Karena asked as the targeting system began to beep in warning at being leveled toward the ground. "Fire."
Rey pressed the button, and the tower began to shake. The central systems of the hypermatter reactor fueled by the kyber crystals harvested from the planet generated a superlaser shot through the axial barrel and destroyed the nearest grounded Star Destroyer. Durasteel and concrete shredded and imploded, erupting in a fiery cascade of debris and a gaping hole in the destroyed starship and tarmac below it.
Rey gasped as she watched through the window as First Order personnel ran away from the falling chunks of Star Destroyer.
"Wow," Karena muttered. "This puppy's got some juice. I'd hate to see what prolonged exposure does to a planet's surface." She was still praying Ezra, Sabine, their kids, and Hera with her Ghost crew were alive and well on Lothal.
"Another?" Rey asked, gesturing to the plethora of available Star Destroyers that the First Order was still trying to get airborne. Seismic charges had already been dropped by the Resistance fighters, but they hadn't done as much damage as they would have liked. Neither had the mag-pulse warheads and proton torpedoes since TIE fighters had engaged the fighters before many could be launched.
Karena turned the dials, aiming the superlaser at a Star Destroyer that was rising off the tarmac. "Now!"
Rey hit the button again, firing off another blast of the Starkiller to decimate the First Order's attempt at a response. While Karena was pleased at how fast the recharge time was at the moment, it didn't bode well for the off-planet Starkillers the First Order had at their disposal. And Starkiller Base was only one First Order base they knew about. They likely had at minimum a few others, along with more ships.
Finn was the first to return after planting the charges, and he watched as the girls let off another blast of the superweapon. A single blast was only a fraction of what the Starkillers were capable of, he knew, having sensed the destructive power while on Takodana when the First Order had launched an offensive against multiple planets to test the effectiveness of the weapons.
As Chewie rejoined the group, the door of the gunnery station opened—the crisp sound of the hatch sliding open penetrating the silent air inside.
The group turned around to see stormtroopers enter, and they immediately ducked down, laying flat on the floor of the level they were on. They crawled forward to watch through the gaps in the railing as Kylo Ren entered the tower, followed by more stormtroopers. It was an entire platoon. Forty soldiers: three rifle squads and a weapons squad with machine guns.
"Oh, no," Finn whispered. "We must've tripped a sensor. They couldn't have gotten here that fast without it."
Chewie whimpered, tightening his grip on his bowcaster.
Karena recognized the sentiment. "Han's down there," she said quietly to let Rey and Finn know.
As the last trooper entered, the door slid shut, with the closest trooper locking it.
Kylo Ren walked toward the central tunnel vent, grasping the rail with his hands. The heat from the energy production could be felt from the tunnel with the reactor built below ground level. If he wanted, he could reach out to touch the metal that funneled the kyber energy from the hypermatter reactor or stab it with his lightsaber so the next time it fired it exploded.
"No one leaves," Kylo said, his voice deepened by his helmet. "Fan out. Find them."
"That isn't necessary."
Kylo tensed at the sound of the voice. He turned around as Han Solo left the shadow of a column, entering the line of sight of two stormtroopers who grabbed him and shoved him forward after taking his blaster pistol.
Han took the manhandling in stride, outstretching his hands as he slowly walked forward. Nothing about his expression wavered. He'd been waiting for the moment he saw his son again for years, having spent most of it searching for any way he could get close, any way he could speak to him. And he finally met that goal. There stood his son in front of him, donning a get-up that attempted to mimic Darth Vader, someone who Han had never once believed his own son would idolize and emulate.
It was at that moment, Han wished he'd tried harder to find him. Maybe if he spent more time trying to find only Ben instead of spreading his time between searching for him and Luke, then maybe, just maybe, Han could have reached him sooner.
As Han drew closer to Kylo, Gray tapped Karena and Rey on their shoulders to grab their attention. The droid pointed down the walkway a short way from them that led to a door that led out to a balcony.
Karena nodded toward it, and Rey and Finn listened, crawling quietly away. But Karena and Chewie stayed put. They weren't planning on leaving without Han. And Karena had a sinking feeling in her gut that she didn't like.
"Han Solo," Kylo clipped, raising his chin. Han recognized it as a move to appear taller and in more control than he felt. Han had done it often in his youth. With the stormtroopers stationed around them, he needed the confidence. "I've been waiting for this day for a long time."
"Take off that mask," Han said, dropping his hands. "You don't need it."
"What do you think you'll see if I do?"
Han stopped a few feet in front of Kylo. "The face of my son."
Kylo almost rolled his eyes, but he took off his mask anyway. Despite everything, he wanted to see his father's face with his own eyes, not through the electronics of his mask. Kylo dropped the mask beside him, and it was the first time in years Han saw the face of his son, now a fully grown man. Han never thought he'd miss six years of his son's life, but there they stood, those missing years leaving a tension between them.
Rey and Finn stilled at the sight of his face, pausing in their crawling venture. Neither had ever seen his face before, only the eerie look of the mask and expressionless eyepieces. After everything they had heard or seen from him, they were both surprised to see him with a normal face, to see him so unlike the monster he acted like.
Evil took many forms. Sometimes they had the face of seemingly innocent men. But no one innocent took the lives of an entire village or the lives of their peers. No one innocent plotted with a military force to decimate planets and kill trillions of people.
They needed to leave before they joined those numbers.
"Your son is gone," Kylo said, his voice every bit as firm as it was when hiding behind the mask. "He was weak and foolish, like his father. So, I destroyed him."
"That's what Snoke wants you to believe," Han tried, "but it's not true. My son is alive. And his family wants him to come home."
Kylo's jaw clenched at the words. Family. Family. He'd thought of his family for years. There wasn't a day that went by when he didn't think of his family. But all he could remember were the years of being dropped off at the academy by his parents or left behind by his cousins or looked over by his aunt and uncle.
None of which they could remember in the slightest.
"No, I have no family." He spat out the word as though it were poison. "I have the Supreme Leader and the First Order."
"Snoke is using you for your power," Han said. "When he gets what he wants, he'll crush you—you know it's true."
Kylo paused, trying to shove aside his father's words. They didn't matter. It didn't matter what Snoke wanted. What mattered was what Snoke could give him.
During Kylo's brief pause, in the strained silence of the gunnery station, a metallic creak echoed around them. Sharp motions were made toward the origin of the sound, and all eyes stopped on two of Han's accomplices opening the balcony door above.
The junk rat and the traitor.
"Open fire," Kylo ordered.
The First Order stormtroopers raised their blaster rifles and began shooting at the intruders who hurried to escape through the door, and Han jumped to wrestle away the nearest blaster and begin firing his own volley to protect them.
Only for him to be shot from three directions.
Kylo's eyes widened at his father being gunned down in front of him. A sense of horror courses through him.
"No!" Karena screamed, hopping up from her hiding spot.
Chewie let out a cry of anguish and fired his bowcaster into the fray of blaster fire. As Karena gripped one of her sabers, intending to activate it, Chewie shoved her out of the way, toward the balcony door that Finn and Rey had gone through.
Long disappeared the chance to take total control of the station, so Chewie pressed the detonator button, activating the torrent of fiery explosions throughout the station, shaking the building and throwing everyone inside off balance if it didn't kill them in a mass of fire.
Karena leaped over the torn walkway to reach the balcony door and exited with Gray following behind. Outside, Rey and Finn were sliding down the support columns, with Finn losing his grip as one of the explosions rocked the station. Karena jumped off, landing in the snow below while using the Force to cushion her fall. She prayed to the Force that Chewie got out of there safely.
Inside, Chewie jumped from the technical station down to the floor below, howling at the pressure placed on his joints. But he pushed through the pain as he snatched Han's body and hurried out a large hole blown into the side.
Alarms blared around what remained of the First Order squadron, and Kylo growled as he pushed himself up from the floor. His vision blurred at the sudden motion. Blood dripped from a cut on his forehead. The smell of smoke filled his nostrils and made him nauseous. He spotted his mask a foot away.
"Sir, sir, are you alright?" a trooper asked next to him. "What are your orders?"
Kylo used the Force to shove the trooper away before grabbing his helmet and stumbling out of the station. Looking around the area, his eyes caught movement in the crystal-white snow.
The traitors were making a break for the forest.
Pulling his back on, he hopped on the speeder bike he had used to get to the station and hurried after them.
Karena and the others ran as fast as their legs could carry them through the snow. Other than their heavy breathing and blood pumping, the sounds of the dogfight still raging in the sky reached their ears. They hoped the Resistance could persevere because they were no longer in the fight unless they could make it back to the Dragon in time.
They were just entering the forest when Rey looked back to see Kylo tailing after them on a speeder bike and gaining ground. Using the stolen blaster rifle, she began shooting at him, but he dodged, turning up snow clouds in his wake.
Karena gripped her sabers and turned around, with Finn and Rey stopping immediately after as they wanted to stand their ground with her. And Chewie prepared to fight while protecting Han's body.
Kylo loomed closer, leaping off the speeder and landing in the snow. Karena hurried to catch the speeder with the Force before it hit them, and in her distraction, Kylo used the Force to throw Rey against the nearest tree, knocking her out as her head hit the hard surface.
Karena breathed deeply and stepped around the idle speeder, her eyes not leaving her cousin. "Get to the ship," she told them. Chewie started to growl in protest. "Now!"
Chewie begrudgingly agreed to let cousin verse cousin, and he set Han's body on the back of the speeder. It wasn't large enough for Finn and Rey too, so Finn waved him off as he hurried to Rey's body.
Karena stared down Kylo as they were slowly left alone with the others disappearing into the forest. She didn't miss how he hid behind the mask yet again, making him truly Kylo and not Ben. Kylo was once a name she had given him. Almost like a gift. A symbol of how close they were. How close she considered him. But now, it felt like an insult.
Kylo Ren. A name given to him paired with her own nickname. Was it a sign of remorse? Or was it a slap to the face?
He slowly reached up and she tensed, but instead of using the Force, he took off his mask, letting the wind whip around his hair as his eyes met hers. She didn't know what he was playing at with the move.
"I don't want to fight you, cousin," he said, speaking over the wind biting them.
Karena's grip tightened on her unignited lightsabers. "You lost the right to call me that when you killed my mother," she said harshly, spitting out each word with as much venom she could muster.
"There's more to it than that," he assured. "I didn't want to kill her. I loved her, but she forced my hand."
Bullshit, she thought. Kaleena had long since left behind her more aggressive tendencies in favor of compassionate, empathetic ones.
But something else was a more pressing matter. "You stood by as your father was gunned down. There's no coming back from that. He's dead." Karena's voice cracked at the last word. She couldn't sense any empathy in him, only tampered rage and pain.
"He can no longer save you now."
That wasn't what she wanted to hear, but she should have expected it from her fallen cousin. Karena steeled herself, twirling her hilts in her hands before settling into an open stance.
"I'm not the same girl you sliced in half a few years ago," she reassured.
"I'm counting on it."
Kylo slipped his mask back on and ignited his lightsaber, the crackling red energy threatening to explode in the hilt.
Karena ignited her own lightsabers as she leaped into the air with a side flip and a loud cry, using her blades as conduits to throw a wave of Force power at her cousin, throwing him back into a tree. Payback for what he did to Rey.
Kylo hit the cold snow after hitting the tree, the chill jarring his system. If he hadn't put his mask back on, it would have been worse, but the impact of the move still left an impression so soon after being caught in an explosion.
When he picked himself up from the ground, groggy and covered in snow, he grumbled, "You know I hate it when you do that."
He stood tall in the snow and slowly advanced on her, holding his lightsaber out to his side.
"Do you want to know something, cousin?" he asked. "Something I noticed during our time at the academy?"
"What?"
"The only way you can use the Force effectively is by turning it into a weapon. . . because that's all you are. A weapon."
Proving his point, Karena swung her blades at him, and he parried, pushing them around him to avoid being sliced. When she swung low at his legs, he leaped back. And when she aimed for his head, he stopped the sabers dead in their tracks with his own.
The connected sabers hissed at the prolonged contact as they looked at each other.
"A weapon to unleash with Kelin to rein you in," Kylo continued. "My parents knew it, that's why Mother recruited you for her little Resistance. Your parents knew it, too. That's why they always sent Kelin with you."
He shoved her away with as much strength as he could muster, and Karena jumped back with a flip, landing crouched and glaring at him.
"But what?" she asked. "You're going to offer me a place in the First Order with Snoke as something other than a weapon?" Karena stood up straight, pointing her sabers downward. "I know I am. That's what I trained to be. A weapon in the shadows. Searching for ways to not strike unless I must but win if I do." She entered the open stance of Djem So. "Instead of focusing on what I should do, focus more on what you should do."
"Turn back to the light, you mean? Like the light's done me any good."
Kylo rushed forward, swinging his blade.
They went back and forth between offensive and defensive, neither gaining the upper hand for long. Where Karena would slash, Kylo would parry. Where Kylo would stab, Karena would dodge. They'd both grown as lightsaber duelists over the years apart.
But Karena had one advantage. Their mindset. Where Kylo was still at war inside himself with the Force not providing a clear answer, Karena was in tune and comfortable with her place in the galaxy.
Kylo miss-stepped and moved to block a moment too late, and for that, he paid a price as he tried to dodge.
Karena's lightsaber skimmed the surface of his face, slicing through the mask that protected him from a far worse fate. The mask broke apart, split in two, and Karena used the Force to shove Kylo back into a snowbank. His lightsaber deactivated and lay discarded in the snow at her feet.
He pushed himself up onto his elbows, shaking in pain and anger as he glared up at his cousin.
Karena deactivated her lightsabers and hooked them to her belt. She looked up at the sky and saw that no dogfight remained, only Republic starfighters flying through the air.
"The Republic and Resistance fleets will be arriving soon," she told him. "You'll be taken directly to Leia."
Karena moved to pick up his lightsaber only for it to be called to him by the Force.
Before she could react, Kylo slashed at the snowy ground and flicked up, erupting a cloud of snow and steam around them. And when it cleared, he was gone.
Wow, it's been a while lol. Can't promise when the next chapter will be out, but I'm trying. Hope everyone's doing well and hope you like it! Any reviews, questions, or feedback are appreciated!