A/N: Now that Viila and Kylo have met, and are on the Finalizer, my mind is in total overdrive. This is my 'make up' upload, but I'll upload another chapter before the weekend. Expect things to blow up within the next two chapters. The M rating should crop up 2+ chapters into the future. I want to build up Viila's dynamic before things escalate too far.
Viila Thaan is pronounced 'Vy-ILLA THAR-n', by the way. :)
Ta-ta!
Stripped of her cloak and two lightsabers, Viila Thaan looked little more than a well developed young woman. She sat quietly on a bench, hands and forearms secured in metal cuffs which glowed with a faint blue light. Her fiery eyes scanned the interior of his ship, a tiny smile resting absently on her lips. The Knights were following behind him in her own transport, where her personal effects were also being held.
After her dramatic introduction, she had tossed the two metal cylinders that made up her defence at his feet, and dropped readily to her knees, wrists pressed together and extended; that sly smirk hovering at her mouth all the while. The Knights had reluctantly converged on her prone form, and lethargically restrained her. The blood boiled under his skin as he tried fiercely to puzzle out how he had no knowledge of her when his subordinates seemed so terrified of the woman.
Kylo Ren cast a look over his shoulder at her yet again, eyes roving over the black boots, cuffed to the bench, that blended seamlessly into leggings, and the black tunic with red detailing that ended with a thin floaty hem at mid thigh. Her arms were covered by long tight sleeves in the same colour as the rest of her ensemble, gloves covering the dainty lengths of her hands.
As his eyes moved upwards, inspecting the waves of lush dark hair, he found twinkling golden orbs to be staring back at him, with yet another condescending smirk sent his way. He sneered at the woman from behind his helm and turned back to his navigation, ignoring the smoky giggle which fluttered through the air behind him.
"How did you find me?" he called back to her, trying to calm the heat that bubbled in the pit of his stomach. He concentrated on directing his craft towards the pocket of space that the Finalizer occupied, and wondering what to do with her once they had docked. A meeting with the Supreme Leader seemed inevitable.
"It wasn't all that difficult. Your signature has very distinctive... flavour..." Ren could hear the smirk in her purr. Then again, when wasn't she smirking?
"What is your purpose?"
"A gift from Him. The Master," she clarified before he had a chance to ask. The muscles in his upper body locked up and he stared straight ahead. The reverence in her voice made his blood run cold: Snoke had sent someone to monitor him. An extremely powerful someone. He set the ship on auto-pilot and then swept to his feet, stalking over to Thaan before crouching in front of her. He watched as her eyes scanned the expressionless, heavy-browed face of his mask.
"A gift? Or a spy? Either way, I certainly don't appreciate the intrusion. I have done nothing to warrant a review of my actions. I will get to the bottom of this, and if I have been taken a fool, you will die a slow, painful death. That I guarantee."
He stood and began walking away, his focus on the goading thrum that shivered through the Force, underlined by a stronger, deeper displeasure. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up and he gave the woman one more cold glare before he closeted himself in his quarters.
:::::::::
Viila's head snapped upwards as the ramp to the ship lowered with a muted hiss, and Kylo Ren finally emerged from the room he had been in for the majority of the journey. He waved a hand at the metal securing her feet to the seat she occupied, before his large hand closed around her upper left arm and he hauled her to her feet.
Her face retained a mask of cold superiority even as pain throbbed under the flesh around his hand. He lead her none too gently out of the ship and into the bright docking bay, where, bit by bit, activity in the direct vicinity ground to a complete halt. The Stormtroopers and mechanics bustled on with their tasks, but anyone of any importance knew exactly where she had come from, if not who she was, and she grinned as she felt Kylo Ren's frustration build inside him.
"Ren; finally! Who-?"
The ginger male came to a grinding halt in front of the duo, eyes widening as they flicked between her face, arm, and his hand which was still clamped tightly onto her.
"My Lady," he greeted Viila with a sharp bow, eyes burning holes into Kylo Ren the entire time.
Hux strode forwards with sharp strides, and fell into step beside the man as he waved the surrounding staff back into action.
"Do you know what you are doing?! If the Supreme Leader finds out that-! Ren, I urge you to release her."
"I shall do as I see fit, General." The Force wielder snapped, his hand only tightening on Thaan's bicep. She heard the General fall back slightly, and mutter quietly to an aide as he tailed them.
"Set up a room for her, give her access to the training rooms... and for all of our sakes' find her sabers!"
Viila grinned as she was shunted down several brightly lit hallways, twisting deeper and deeper into the heart of the Resurgent class Star Destroyer. Kylo Ren suddenly turned off to the left, shoving her into a dark, cavernous room, which was circular in shape and contained a large carved throne made of marble.
He pushed her to her knees in the centre of the room, and stood attentively at her right hand side while the General settled uneasily to her left, shooting glances at her every so often.
"Supreme Leader! I require your attention!"
"Fool," the military man hissed in response to Ren's summons, but Viila's eyes were trained on the imposing throne in front of her, watching greedily as the tell-tale blue flicker of the hologram shivered into His image.
"Master..." the whisper was too low for the other males to hear, but the fact that she respectfully bowed her head and sunk even lower to the floor did not go unnoticed.
"Ah, so she has found her way to you... Very good, child. Rise." Viila straightened up, but refused to come higher than her kneeling position. "I trust you have been treated well."
"Yes, Master."
"Supreme Leader, what is her purpose? Why has she been designated to me? Who is she?"
The giant's dark chuckle echoed through the room, and the woman shivered slightly, the power she had been granted thrumming through her in response to her Master's presence.
"She is to be your teacher, boy. The next stage of your training has begun. The flow of the Force changes and warps at this very moment: you must match it. She is to be treated with the utmost respect, Kylo Ren. My wrath is not something you will want to witness. You know what to do, my daughter. Hux, ensure she is comfortable in her new home."
"Yes sir."
The holographic connected fizzled out, and there was a moment of thick silence before anyone moved. Kylo Ren turned slowly to stare impassively down at the female, and his mechanised voice cut through the air like a knife.
"What are you?"
She just held out her bound arms, and calmly met his gaze, which smouldered behind the cold metal of his helmet. He swiped his hand over the contraption, and the trio watched as it released a gust of steam before dropping to the ground in two halves.
Viila Thaan climbed to her feet, and tossed two words over her shoulder as she strutted out of the room, General Hux hot on her heels.
"Your anchor."
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Viila grinned as yet another crash was heard, accompanied by the screaming of hot metal and an enraged male. Hux cringed, and took several shaky breaths before continuing, eyes flicking repeatedly to the door of her suite.
"Eating times are from 0600-0800, 1200-1330, and 1800-2000 hours: an announcement will sound. You are authorized to access anywhere on the ship except the engines, private quarters, the reconditioning wing, and the Bridge without an escort.
"Your wardrobe and the rest of the suite is fully stocked, but if you need anything else, contact me, or talk to the tailor directly. Your holo has a map of the ship: just ask it for directions, and it will lead you to your destination. I also ask that you do not disturb Kylo Ren unless absolutely necessary. He can be-"
More crashes and shrieks echoed through the ship, accompanied by the acrid smell of burning plastic.
"-violent. If that is all, my Lady..?"
"Dismissed,"
The man scuttled out of the white and grey suite, leaving the black box of medical equipment she had asked for behind at the foot of her bed. The woman knelt next to it and slipped into a trance as she began setting up the apparatus that would provide her with the nutrients she needed. She was behind by about a week, meaning she had missed the equivalent of two days of food. She didn't feel hungry per se... just drained.
She ripped open the plastic top of the fluid drip, and hooked it from the ceiling, before turning back to the box. She scooped out a tenth of the container of nutrient paste, and dropped it into the suspended sac of clear liquid, stirring it with the plastic spatula until the bag was filled with a green sluggish looking concoction.
She resealed the bag, and stripped herself of her tunic, rolling back the sleeve on her left arm and flicking the delicate skin at her elbow until a vein was visible. She shed the plastic casing around the needle on the end of the long tube, and eased the sharp piece of metal under her skin, releasing a blissful sigh as the green sludge began filtering into her bloodstream.
She lay back on the plush bed, and let her mind stretch outwards while her body topped up on the sustenance it craved.
The first thing she noticed was Kylo Ren's aura. It tasted sweet, tangy, and bitter on her tongue: a foreign delicacy that she would recognise anywhere. The roiling cloud pulsed angrily with a crimson light, and sizzled and lashed out unstably while he had his temper tantrum just down the hall.
She examined his Force signature, and tutted mentally when she found only one of seven possible criteria fulfilled. Realising that training would have to start much earlier than she fully anticipated, she stretched out her own cloud of influence, and slowly began merging it with his.
The red light died almost immediately, and although Viila could tell Kylo Ren was trying desperately to reign himself in, the dark cloud reached and eagerly twined with her own, seeking to covet that power it knew lingered within.
She sent a simple message through the tenuous link they shared, allowing it to echo several times before she easily pulled away, despite the hold the cloud attempted to tighten around her; she slipped away like water in clenched fists
Leave your weapon. Don't eat. Don't drink. Tomorrow at dawn.
The pale woman stretched out on the bed, listening intently as her apprentice stomped back down the hallway, the reek of singed fabric and hot minerals filling the hall and seeping under her door. She heard the door next to hers slam shut, and then the tinkling shatter of glass as he threw a set of crystal tumblers against the wall separating them. Her own set stood untouched on the coffee table in the centre of the living space.
Seeing that roughly half of the IV had drained into her by this point, at feeling that the edge had been taken off of her desiccation, she swiftly slid the needle from under her skin, plugging it and letting the hose hang idly while she laved the small beads of blood from her skin.
She stripped her clothes from her body and let them drop to the black white carpeted floor before climbing into her lush warm bed. The young adult focused on the muted noises from the other room, the rest of the ship, and the sound of her own body, slowly slipping into the realms of sleep.