Snoke looks like a giant scrotum and that's the only author's note that I'm putting on this Chapter.
LOCATION: KYLO REN'S QUARTERS - STARKILLER BASE
STARDATE: 15/09/1843
"Go back to the kitchen. I'll have a word with your head chef. I think you and I are going to be seeing much more of each other."
The sentence was out of Ren's mouth before he could stop himself. His hand was shaking slightly, and he clenched his fist inside his thick leather glove to try to still the tremor.
This was unexpected.
The girl nodded at him with wide green eyes. She looked young, he noticed. Barely twenty, her pale face clear and long strands of black hair escaping from the blue plastic hairnet pulled over her head. Not unattractive.
RN-0087. The RN troopers were kitchen workers, in charge of preparing and serving the meals eaten by everybody in Starkiller base. Perhaps not the most glamorous of jobs, but certainly an important one.
She nodded at his order and turned to go, almost running out of the room, slamming the door behind her, desperate to be out of Ren's company. He didn't blame her. She was short, much shorter than him, but he assumed that it was more than the height difference that intimidated her. Ren exuded power. He practically radiated it. It was an advantage in a battle, but not when it came to relationships.
Not that he needed relationships.
He let out a deep sigh that he didn't realise he had been holding in, and ran his hand through his dark hair, pushing it back from his face. There were shards of the broken plate still on the floor, but he ignored them, sitting back in his seat and looking intently at the tactical maps in front of him. The letters blurred into each other, swimming about the page like fish. He couldn't concentrate.
His mind was whirring, the mental image of trooper RN-0087's face as she lifted her hand out and stopped the plate in mid-air flashing across his mind. It was obvious, she had never done that before. Ren rubbed his hand over his chin pensively.
The force was strong with her. He could feel it in his bones when he touched her shoulders, she was stronger than she realised. But her use of it was messy, clumsy. The plate had fallen as soon as she had taken her concentration off it.
He pushed himself up from his seat and walked towards the door, not forgetting to grab his thick metal helmet from the desk and place it over his head. It was cramped, and the visibility was terrible, but Ren preferred to have his face covered.
His eyes always told too much.
He opened the door and walked out into the well-lit corridor of Starkiller base. He knew where he was going, and he walked with a purposeful stride, his long legs covering the necessary distance quickly.
By the time he reached Supreme Leader Snoke's quarters, he had calmed down slightly, the tremor in his left hand reducing to only an occasional spasm.
Despite the fact that Ren hated to admit it, Snoke scared him. The omniscient leader always seemed to know what he was going to do before he did it, and it wasn't uncommon for him to use force when Ren didn't do well enough. His quarters were massive, the largest room in the basement of the ship, the ceiling so high above Ren's head that he couldn't even see it. Ren's footsteps echoed in the giant arena, and as he walked forwards, the empty chair at the apex of the room shimmered slightly as the holographic form of General Snoke appeared in front of him.
"Supreme Leader-" Ren began, his low voice echoing in the massive arena.
"There better be a good reason for this unprecedented conference, Kylo." The sound of Snoke's voice, gravelly and harsh, sent a thrill of fear down Ren's back. Snoke was a sight to look at, a mass of sinew and greying flesh that looked like it had been moulded into the shape of a man by somebody who had been told what humans looked like, but had never seen one himself. Snoke had been the person to bring Ren to the dark side. He had taught him everything he knew, how to control his use of the force, how to resist the call to the light, how to rise up to one day be as strong as Darth Vader, his grandfather.
"There is." His voice came out slightly metallic, distorted by the thick metal mask, "There is a girl who works here, a cook in the kitchens. She has the force."
Snoke's eyebrows raised, intrigued. He leant forwards, his long fingers grasping the armrests of his large metal chair.
"Are you sure?"
"Positive," Kylo responded with certainty.
Snoke lifted his left hand, and Kylo pursed his lips as he felt the thin tendrils of thought sneak into his mind, probing and searching. Snoke was of the impression that it was much quicker to get information by simply plucking it out of somebody's head than bothering to ask for it. Ren clenched his fist again as he stood, stock still, letting Snoke look through his mind. He saw her, red faced and terrified, shaking as he grabbed her by the shoulders. He regretted that slightly, there was no need for him to have got emotional upon discovering her powers. He gritted his teeth in discomfort as the probing fingers removed themselves from his mind, leaving him once again alone. He let out a huff of breath.
"It seemed to be emotively controlled," Kylo explained, relieved to be free once more.
Snoke nodded. That wasn't unusual. The force usually expressed itself through emotions before the user learnt to control it. RN-0087 had been scared. Scared of him, scared of the repercussions of dropping the plate, scared that she would be punished somehow. That fear hand manifested itself into an expression of force. It was primal, animalistic.
"What do you recommend I do?"
Snoke thought for a second, before looking down at Ren with eyes too small for his bulbous face.
"You need to train her."
He took a step back in shock. He hadn't been expecting that.
"What?"
The corner of Snoke's mouth lifted in a mockery of a smile.
"We have a war ahead of us, Kylo. We need as many fighters as we can get. This girl may be useful to us."
Ren nodded in understanding.
"Also," Snoke continued, "This can be a test of your powers. It takes an exceptional force user to train another. Prove to me that you're up for the challenge." The sentence sounded like a threat.
"Yes, Supreme Leader."
"Dismissed."
That was it. No further conversation to be had. Ren bowed in respect and turned on his heel, walking out of the room with a long stride. He was annoyed. He had too much to be doing at the moment; battles to plan and a lost jedi to find. The last thing that he needed was a protégée to train. His mind wandered to his own training with Luke Skywalker. It had been a long and arduous process, trying to get him to the stage that he was now.
He continued to walk, Stormtroopers and Generals alike moving out of his way as he strode along the corridors, looking for one place in particular.
Kitchen Four.
He took all the right twists and turn through the maze of floors and walls, and eventually arrived at the door. He pushed it open, not bothering to knock, and was immediately hit by a wave of heat. The room was boiling, at least twenty cooks, all in the same white scrubs and blue hair nets ran around in a mad panic, chopping and slicing and frying and boiling. He spotted RN-0087 immediately, stood at a large sink, her sleeves rolled up, piles and piles of dirty dished and pots lined up in front of her. She hadn't noticed him come in.
"Mr. Ren, Sir," a voice from his left. He turned to his side and looked down in surprise to see a short man with close-cropped greying hair looking up at him nervously, "I'm CN-9778, head-chef. Can I do anything for you? Do you want something to eat? Drink?"
"I want RN-0087."
The chef raised his eyebrows in shock at Ren's request, wringing his hands together.
"I heard about what happened this morning. I've put her on washing up duty for the next three months, and I can only apologise, Sir. I promise this kind of incident will never happen agai-"
"Just give me the girl." Ren was getting annoyed. He didn't have time for this.
"Of course, Sir. Right away, Sir."
The man scurried away, roughly grabbing the girl by the shoulder and pulling her away from the sink. She looked around in confusion and her eyes widened when she saw Ren at the door. His lip quirked up into a smile as he didn't miss the fact that she mouthed the word 'fuck' when she saw him. Behind the mask, however, nobody could see him.
The kitchen was silent as RN-0087 removed her hairnet and walked over to Ren, slowly, almost as if she was preparing for an execution.
"Do whatever you deem necessary, Sir," CN-9778 was still talking, his hand gripping tightly to RN-0087's arm "The mistake this morning was unacceptable, she deserves a punishment. I assure you, this kind of thing doesn't usually happe-"
Kylo flicked his left hand and the man went flying backwards, crashing into a stack of empty pots and pans. He let out a strangled grunt as he fell to the floor, looking up at Ren with an expression of pure fear.
He looked down at RN-0087, her green eyes wide in shock.
"Come with me."
He turned on his back and walked out of the kitchen and she followed suit, jogging slightly to keep up with his stride.
"Am I in trouble?" She asked as she walked next to him. He rolled his eyes, turning a corner and continuing to walk.
"I am to teach you the ways of the force."
"What?" she stopped walking, her face morphing into a shocked expression. Ren stopped too, annoyed.
"You have power, but it's sloppy, lazy. I'm going to teach you how to use that power in a way that could be beneficial to the First Order."
She bit her lip, and took a wary step forwards.
"So you're not gonna throw me out of an air-lock?"
He surprised himself by letting out an unexpected snort of laughter at her sentence. The mask distorted the sound, making it come out as more of an annoyed sigh.
"You're not getting thrown out of an airlock, RN-0087."
He thought for a second, looking down at her.
"You are going to have to choose yourself a name, though."
Her eyebrow quirked up in confusion.
"What?"
"I'm not going to spend the next year calling you by a number. Pick a name."
He could see the cogs whirring in her brain, thinking desperately. She licked her lips.
"RN." Her voice came out unsure, "How about Robin?"
"Robin," He agreed, turning and continuing to walk, hearing her footsteps running behind him to catch up, "Your training starts today."
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