The low rumbling of the Finalizer slowly crawling through space and passing by planets and systems have lulled Jamis to sleep, as well as the tea aiding her slumber. If one thing, she has grown fond of how soft the bed is despite being surrounded by greys, silvers, blacks, and dots of red, yellow, green, and orange in the ship; eventually, they would look like floating spheres of light in her puffy, sleepy vision and they would help her in falling asleep. They remind her of the evening lights of glamorous cities like Canto Bight, Coruscant, and Naboo. But she admits to herself that she has never stayed in an inn that comes close to a bed this soft.
"Man, I bet not even Bight's lounge homes could top this!" she squeals in delight, snuggling into the sheets and letting herself sink into the mattress's softness.
For the rest of the day, she would always recall her conversation with Kylo and the way he would look at her. She remembers the way his piercing brown eyes would stare back at hers, whenever the image of it comes back to her, chills run down her spine and goosebumps spread on her skin quicker than lightning.
"Not bad a proposition, Kylo," she mumbled under her breath, of course, addressing the comment to Kylo.
In the middle of the night, she would find herself panting while drenched in cold sweat, occasionally waking up TC-846 from its sleep mode and it would constantly ask Jamis if she is all right or requires medical assistance due to sleeping problems. Of course, Jamis would dismiss it as she cannot be bothered and resolves it by sleeping again.
The next morning, Kylo thought of doing something new for Jamis's training regimen. He instructed her to meet her at the arena where he will be waiting for her inside. To her curiosity, she followed his instructions, she did go to the arena and spotted him there—patiently sitting in the middle of the arena, with his eyes closed, perhaps meditating while expecting her. Jamis enters the arena in full practice garb—she usually wears something light such as a black tank top, slightly loose cargo pants, and boots, optionally she wears gloves and this time she did wear her fingerless ones.
"So, what's this big new thing that you got going here, Ren?"
"Just wanted to test the waters on this one."
"Oh?" she smirked, "Well, let's see how this little experiment fares then,"
"Don't take this lightly with your smug, pretty face, Jamis,"
Kylo summoned the droids earlier than they were programmed to the moment the settings on the control panel has been confirmed by the trainee; and while the lifeless droids still hang on the hooks of their posts, Kylo unclips and sheds his cape then tossed it out of the arena, he does this with a full straight face.
"You seem to be used to assassinations," said Kylo.
The arena's AI system unhooks the droids from the posts, they are now standing stiffly, flat on their feet. Jamis's smirk slowly melts.
"Face-to-face combat with your targets," he added. "Usually, one to three at a time."
Jamis remained silent, the smirk in her face completely dissolved, the arena's AI has awakened the droids from their shutdown state. Their heads perked up, their muzzles pointing in their own forward direction.
"But I wonder if you have ever faced a company," he continued.
The droids prepared themselves in battle stance, half of the droids in the arena comprised of melee fighter whilst the other half comprised of gunners, with Kylo Ren standing in the middle. Slowly, Jamis arched her back like a cat, her facial expression morphing from a smirk to furrowed brows, and then she reached for her sabers.
"With a lightsaber-wielder who's in command of them?"
Suddenly, all the droids looked at Jamis with their weapons at the ready—the droids with blasters steadied their aim at her, the melee droids spun their staffs as to intimidate her.
The smirk found its return on her face, this time, more confident and enthralled.
She ignited both of her lightsabers, "Oh, this is going to be fun."
Kylo already had a pattern in mind even before releasing the droids, he divided them in waves but he was always in the vanguard of the fight, making him stand out and become the main target for Jamis in a cluster of silver and grey droids. Jamis cut her way through the droids and would occasionally get a chance to strike at Kylo which she personally thought always made her training sessions interesting. He did not know that today would be the day that she would conjoin her lightsabers and use them in battle. Her varying spinning styles and patterns allured him greatly, the humming and the illumination of the lightsabers were almost hypnotic altogether.
To her advantage, her conjoined lightsabers would double the number of droids that she can bring down in a single swing or two. Fortunately, her amazing dexterity was one of her strengths, it may seem tedious to a stranger or a person not familiar with the style but she made it look so easy, she can determine the timing when it is the best time to detach the lightsabers and bring damage instantaneously and when to connect back again. With wise calculations, she does not do this all the time to peacock her skills all throughout the fight, she does this for the sake of cutting down numbers in a battlefield. Even before, she applied this fighting method with her fighting staff, it took her years to practice and then master it both on her electrostaff and lightsabers.
Jamis managed to cut through the numbers and reach Kylo, who would counter her attacks despite her impressive weapon.
"Impressive," said Kylo, then he smirked.
She returned the smirk with a slight shrug, "Thanks, I've been practicing."
She would last in a collision of lightsabers with Kylo and then pull back to tear down more of the droids. The cycle repeats until Kylo ran out of waves of droids to send out on her, and so he is left yet again with this bounty hunter.
He actually almost felt proud of her. After braving so many weeks in training—both alone and with him—Jamis actually became better. He saw it in the way she moves, the way she fights, and the way she balances the usage of her abilities without compromising anything, and the show of struggles does not etch her face anymore. All he sees is grace, poise, the fluidity of her motion like the current of the water, and beautiful destruction.
He cannot really confirm it to himself, but he could have sworn he saw her face having a radiant glow.
He did not realize it but Jamis already has him at the tip of her red lightsaber. His lips curled upwards, showing his approval and good impression on her improvement. Her eyes are twinkling in front of him. He saw the red illumination in her eyes, though he did not see the aggression that would supposedly be there, he only saw eagerness; in the blink of an eye, the sight of Jamis changed into Kalia, although Kalia's smile was more innocent than Jamis's coy smile, Kylo being taken aback did not go as obvious as a jolt but it was noticeable as his smile melted and his heart somehow sank. Behind her, there littered the dismembered limbs of the felled droids.
"I'm waiting," said Jamis.
Kylo managed a small smile—a smile nonetheless—then gently pushed aside her saber with his, after that, he prepared himself to a good fighting stance for good measure.
"Don't go easy on me." She added.
The exchange of strikes and slashes began. Sparks flew, sudden flashes of red and blue light blended with the crisp white light of the arena, violent hissing and buzzing rang across the walls.
And then the unthinkable happened.
Jamis managed to disarm Kylo. She has his lightsaber in her hand while her conjoined lightsaber rests in the grasp of the other. Her patterns have helped her along the way, they were most reliable when deflecting and blocking Kylo's attacks, although it would require her to pull or step back a bit for a better lunging attack at him. Due to the barrage of attacks, Kylo was overwhelmed—to the point that his grip on his saber loosened than usual. Jamis took advantage of her hand-to-hand combat to send punches to Kylo on the abdomen, causing him to really let go of his saber, let it be flung into the air for Jamis to do the taking.
On his knees, the tip of his jagged, unconventional saber is now against him as Jamis has it raised and held in her right hand while the left holds her own lightsaber with the blue blade pointing outward to Kylo.
It felt time stopped again, like it occasionally does to him that he does not even realize it. Standing and towering before him was Jamis, assertive of her dominance against him as she brandishes two sabers and have them pointed at him; he looked deep into her eyes, seeing through her, he wondered if he will find the answer to his question today. The question that he had always harbored in his mind since the day Jamis came walking in this very ship.
Am I ready to tell her that I have done my end of the bargain?
Then why do I feel like I can't? Why can't I?
He assessed his situation and it is pointless to fight back, even if he did wield the Force against her—or even choke her—it would still be pointless. In the spirit of sportsmanship, he yields.
Jamis switches off both lightsabers, she returns his, and helps him up.
"Take note that not every enemy you disarm will always be generous to yield for you."
"I know that, happened to me twice already," Jamis said casually while heading to the control panel down the arena.
"Jamis," Kylo calls her before she could step down the arena.
"Yeah?"
His eyes dropped, he sighed, and took a good long look at her, "You did very well today."
Her face mellowed and managed a smile, not a snarky one but a real genuine smile, "Thanks."
Jamis deactivates the battle mode in the arena, two metal claws each with a single eye attached to a lid-like head descended from the ceiling and collected the disembodied droids from the floor for clean-up. Kylo stepped out of the arena and rejoined Jamis on the main foyer.
"I got to be honest with you, there was a rush of aggression in me when that happened," spoke Jamis.
"When?"
"When we were fighting—when there was nothing else to fight but you,"
He did not react or comment back, he just looked and listened to her.
"But it's strange," she added. "That rush of aggression, suddenly changed into something else, it was… it felt lighter and less violent, it's as if I got everything under control. It was definitely different than last time or any other time. Do you get what I mean?"
"Yes, I do."
"Oh good, I guess I wasn't really nuts," she chuckled. "Is that a good thing for my training?"
He nodded.
"Yes, it is." He added.
She smiled and nodded in relief. She sat down on the floor, leaned against the wall of the arena, and finally found a moment to unwind. Kylo sat down next to her, relieved himself from his gloves and lightsaber. They share the silence of the room, it felt comforting for both of them. After all, when was the last time did they experience such calm quietness?
Jamis chuckled, her shoulders rose when she did, and she smiled. Kylo noticed but he did not speak.
"I guess you're good at keeping promises," she said.
Kylo's eyes widened, his nostrils flared, he swallowed a lump in his throat, suddenly the memory of Kalia making him promise that he will not forget her rushed into his mind—it felt like he was splashed with ice-cold water—and his heart raced wildly. He turned his head to her with an alarmed look in his face.
She noticed this from her periphery and she looked at him, clueless of what she said meant to him.
"Was it something that I said?"
"No, it's just… I never thought of myself as a good keeper of promises."
"Well, you are keeping your end of the bargain—isn't that like keeping a promise already?"
"Yeah, I…" he turned away, staring at the floor before he could even finish. "I suppose so."
A fringe of black hair obscured Kylo's face from Jamis's vision, slowly, she reached out to brush away the lock of hair covering his eyes from her; as soon as her bare fingertips softly touched the skin of his temple—out of impulse—he reached for it and held her hand, caging it gingerly within his own fingers.
Kylo looked at her again, they exchanged mellow glances, and Jamis's heart pounded as the hairs on her nape stood up. Whatever it is, it is far from the feelings she has felt the last time she looked at Kylo straight in the eye—she felt comfort with just the touch of his hand.
A surprised look in Kylo's eyes can be seen, as clear as day, it is as though he has been struck by lightning and realized something thereafter. From Jamis's touch, he felt sheltered and well-guarded with the warmth flowing out of her and that warmth has found its way into his system; but he was confused, he somehow sensed something blocking him from Jamis—even though they are basically skin-to-skin—it was like glass or thin ice separating them but then Kylo thought of it again… alas, no, to put it simply at best, it is like a very fine mesh with little holes as small as the human pupil exposed to light. He can see and feel Jamis but the mesh shrouds her, revealing nothing more but a silhouette of her.
Even in, possibly, their most intimate moment, something in Jamis is hindering her from fully permitting Kylo entry into her mind and—if possible—soul. He cannot place his finger what could be that thing that is blocking his way in her mentally. Whatever it is, it surely has blurred his sights on Jamis's true thoughts.
A/N: I did some revising on Chapters 3, 10, 11, and 13. Added a few scenes, tweaked some paragraphs, and probably changed a bit of each chapter's plot to avoid redundancy—stuff like that. It may not be obvious but I think it's quite necessary to fix these little things, on my part as an author.