Their break from the training session eased the strenuousness of the new training regimen. Jamis eased her breathing that caused her to heave, catching every inch of breath that she could catch, and calming the throbbing veins on her temples. In a place as sterile as their training room, it feels suffocating—as if the walls close in every hour and then into every minute—and the only life forms present in the very place is just Jamis and Kylo.
While resting, Jamis toyed with her lightsabers, lining them up in parallel lines on the floor—perfect twins, but very different in nature: the other is peaceful and diplomatic, whilst the other is a lethal yet mysterious persona.
Kylo noticed the way she uses the Force to move things—particularly on her lightsabers and how she tore apart a huge chunk of the platform in the hangar the first time they encountered—he has not fully deduced if she has practiced her control of it or did the Force control her; then he realizes that he has a long way laid in front of him for training this naïve bounty hunter, as for Jamis, she knew that she has yet to learn and this single day of sparring is not going to cover a whole lot of ground of learning for her.
"You know you're not going that far if you play with it like that," Kylo remarked.
"What? I'm just lining them up," Jamis defended.
"I meant the Force, how you use it. You have no consistency or uniformity as to how, when, and where you're going to use it," he began lecturing.
Jamis sat there, across him, listening to him, giving her a sermon like an adult to a child; to her, it was sort of chilling to see that he can look at her straight in the eye without any short glimpses on the side while he goes on and on ranting. It just comes to show that whenever he is angry or gradually being enraged, this is how he acts—regardless of who the person is.
"So, does this mean that you're just going to lecture me or are you going to train me in using it properly?" she said, calmly.
"You're not getting anywhere by just lining up your lightsabers in a straight line."
She shifted into a cross-legged posture, suddenly, her soft playfulness melted away as she prepared to listen to Kylo—sensing that he has something in store for her in their training.
"Wait here."
Immediately, he stands up and leaves her alone in the room. As he has exited the place, he placed a huge amount of faith on Jamis—hoping that she will not ditch the place—but since she is a reasonable and considerate person despite her brash and feisty attitude, she is easy to talk to.
While waiting for Kylo, she decided to toy again with her things—the staff she has brought with her when she first entered the room and her twin lightsabers—she dared herself to try and open the door but without the intention of escaping, but for some reason it does not budge at all, unlike earlier before they started sparring.
Her attempt on the door resulted in failure, and instead she made use of the time and silence to meditate—she fixed herself on where she sat, straightened her back, and relaxed her body until she could feel not a single stiff joint.
In the silence, there is nothing, she hears nothing. In the silence, she felt something but it was ominous as it was shrouded in darkness—as if keeping itself hidden away from her sights and wanting to stay that way—her consciousness did not follow this unknown entity and allowed a newfound sensation envelop her in the dimness of the room.
Ben, I'm here…
Again, the voice has made its visit in Kylo's mind, causing him to stop in his tracks again. He winced the moment the voice pierced into his mind.
Please don't leave me, Ben…
"I… I didn't want to. I couldn't…" he whimpered, "But I had to."
Kylo continued walking in the corridor, after recovering from that brief episode with the voice that perpetually haunts him. Shortly, he reaches one of the very few sub-rooms of the main control room; he ordered two cadets to fetch him droids ranging from small to big that can be used for the next phase of Jamis's practice—he waited for these cadets to achieve this meager errand, but of course, they did not speak of any complaint about the task and its nature.
Eventually, the cadets found old droids that do not seem to be working anymore—an MSE-6, a BB-9E, a Sentry Droid, and an interrogator droid. Kylo requested the cadets to bring them over to the doorstep of the room where he and Jamis are training in—they followed him, seeing that they are not fully aware of the existence of that room until now.
The door opened its mouth and entered Kylo along with the cadets bringing the heaps of deactivated droids.
"Did I disturb you?" Kylo asked nonchalantly.
"I was about to finish anyway," she grumbled.
She noticed the droids on the hovering trolley, Kylo simply pointed the floor to them and they gently put it there, then they anxiously waited for his signal for their dismissal and they scurried out of the room. It gave Jamis the idea that this room they are in has very, very few witnesses.
"What's that?" asked Jamis sheepishly.
Kylo answered the question as vague as he can, "Something to help you with your training."
She received it with a raised eyebrow, "I'm listening…"
"Right, I suppose it's best to start small," he said calmly.
"Define small," she jests, but he is not having it.
"Your lightsabers have done their time, I'm thinking of something else we could use," said Kylo while lining the small toy-like droids that should have been jettisoned this morning. "Besides, lightsabers aren't the only thing that you'll lift up into the air. You'll have other options too,"
Jamis examined the droids, "Like trash?" she asked sheepishly.
Kylo shot her a look and he continued fixing the droids, checking if they were indeed deactivated and do not have the slightest chance of spontaneously reactivating.
Later, she eyed on the patrol droid that Kylo did not seem to bother standing even though it was a spherical droid. So she focused on that droid, slightly reached out her hand, and exerted her mind's energy on that inanimate object. Little by little, it nudged on its own, until it broke free from the line where it was placed… and then it began dragging, pulling itself rather than rolling on its own, and it finally drew the attention of Kylo.
There she is… at it again. Kylo grumbled mentally.
"Why are you so frustrated every time I do this?" Jamis suddenly blurts out.
Kylo is taken aback, he did not realize that she can also sense feelings—she is strong with the Force after all. When the droid had gotten close enough to Jamis, her hands shifted into a different position—both hands suspended in mid-air, palms open—and the ball-droid was floating between her palms, barely holding it up.
"You should talk," Kylo muttered, "You're the one who is unstable."
Immediately, Jamis dropped the droid, its fall caused a dull, clanging echo across the room. Kylo's comment had triggered Jamis's loss of focus. She tried levitating the patrol droid again, but it was not rising as smoothly as the first time, for her mind was rattled and her insecurity has begun nagging her. Again, Jamis tried to do it again, but it was no use, the thing weakly dragged itself up and shuddered as it levitated as if it put too much weight on its own person for Jamis to lift it.
Jamis sighed. In her head, the same comment rung, but it was not Kylo's voice—it was more aggressive and ill-willed—and she tried to fight it while lifting the spherical droid back up in the air. Her eyebrows furrowed, her eyes were shut, and her fingers curled inward as if putting in more force in lifting the object… until it suddenly dented and crumpled up like a piece of paper!
Losing focus, Jamis broke free from the mental bondage, she gasped her air as she massaged her wrists and hands. The metal scrap fell to the ground again. Kylo witnessed everything. Jamis's head ached and her back rose up and down as she caught her breath.
She is unstable… too unstable, but powerful. He thought.
"I don't get you," he commented, and Jamis weakly turned to him asking him to clarify what he just said, "There are times you are strong, there are times you aren't—what is really with you?"
"Well, I guess you could say I'm not as practiced as you are when it comes to…" Jamis glanced at her hands and then the patrol droid, "This."
"Then we're going to take a lot of time just to teach you how to use it right,"
"Whatever you say," Jamis sighed in defeat, having no choice at all but to go with Kylo's flow.
Deep inside her, she knows she wants to master this ability—not just by wielding her lightsabers—but this unseen force that she is able to pull with its strings under her every whim. However, the Force does not always go with her favor—which explains why there are instances why she could do things that are obviously beyond her own strength and instances that she could not at all, but most of the time, the Force does not get along with her and she cannot fully understand why… yet.
With the remaining droids lined up for her training use, Kylo sat down behind the line but with distance.
"Now, try reaching out to one of these droids—it doesn't matter which, just choose one of them," said Kylo.
Jamis sat down opposite Kylo, but had an adequate distance from the line of droids. She did not take a good long look at these droids so she would know which one she is reaching out to. She straightened her back again, relaxed, and tried to reach out—this time without hand gestures—and for a brief moment, it was nothing but awkward silence.
Kylo observed her ways and methods as to how she would use the Force. Then he watched how she would call to it to work in her favor.
"How are you calling out to it in the first place?" Kylo interrupted her.
"I… I don't know, I just… do,"
His eyebrows furrowed. Her answer felt like a mockery in disguise. How could she—a mere bounty hunter—reply like that as if it was nothing but a simple trick while he had to undergo strenuous—and oftentimes, quite abusive—training regimens for him to practice and then master this ability.
"Don't look at me like that, it's hard to explain! You think I'd be able to comprehend this easily like you did? Need I remind you that I had no teacher whatsoever who knows this stuff!" she fumed.
He rolled his eyes and sighed, "Point taken. Let's just start small with these for now," he said, eyes on the tiny droids he had lined up.
And so Jamis resumed—however she tried calling out to the Force—and shortly thereafter, she became relaxed and focused. She had no particular droid, she was allowing the Force to bring her whatever droid. Although that was her problem: she does not know how to use it properly and only does very spontaneously, she thinks it is an omnipotent object that controls the individual or the target object, and she thought she had to communicate with it as if it were a sentient, intelligent being. From this, Kylo buried his face in his gloved hands, sighed deeply, and pressed the bridge of his nose while sitting in front of this unbelievable girl trying to use the Force to pull a dead droid.