TWO WEEKS LATER
Ren's POV
LOCATION: GENERAL SNOKE'S CHAMBER - STARKILLER BASE
STARDATE: 31/09/1843
"I want to see her." Snoke's voice echoed around the large chamber, resonating through the air. This had been the fourth of their meetings since Ren had discovered the girl's abilities, and Snoke was appearing to get more irritated as the time went on. He kept asking the same thing, to finally see Robin, but Ren always managed to convince him otherwise.
A muscle in Ren's jaw twitched, the only sign of movement on his stoic face. His head was covered in the mask, so it wasn't like Snoke could see his slight look of apprehension at the words anyway.
"I'm not sure that's such a good idea, Supreme Leader." Ren's voice was metallic, fileterd through the mask. Snoke leant back in his chair and tilted his head, looking at Kylo with an expression of barely concealed contempt.
"And why would that be?"His voice was light. He was toying with Ren, but the man couldn't help but wince slightly at the hidden ice beneath his words. Snoke was getting impatient.
Ren licked his lips. He was too hot under the mask, sweat beading on his neck and forehead.
"She's not strong enough." He answered truthfully. In the past two weeks, Robin had increased in leaps and bounds, but perhaps not in the ways that Snoke had wanted. She could now read the longer words in the books that Ren challenged her to without too much difficulty. Sentences still took her a while, as did punctuation, but Ren was hoping to begin writing classes for her in the near future.
As well as that, he had managed to pull a few strings with the head-chefs of Starkiller base to restart the literacy classes for most of the Kitchen workers. He could only manage to negotiate one class a week for them, but still, at least there would be no more illiterate troopers.
He hadn't told Robin about that.
He didn't know why.
As for her force-training, things had moved far slower than he had been hoping. She seemed to have plateaued after the event with the helmet. He could manage to get her to move it a few metres off the ground, but she could only hold it for a few seconds before dropping it back down again, breath heavy. Anthing denser than the mask, and she couldn't move it at all. She still refused adamantly to allow Ren into her head. He had tried to explain to her, the best way to control her force was to discover her deepest fears, but it appeared that there were some things in her head that she didn't want him to see. He couldn't help but wonder about that, what was there that she was trying to hide from him?
"She wasn't strong enough last week, either." If Ren didn't know better, he would have said that Snoke's voice had a teasing quality to it, "I'm beginning to think that you're just trying to keep her to yourself."
Ren shook his head at the words, though he couldn't claim them to be untrue. He knew how Snoke worked. He had the tendency to creep through someone's mind without stopping to ask their permission, eager for knowledge. There was a part of him that didn't want to subject Robin to that. She wasn't ready for it.
"Her force-training is going slowly, Sir," Ren admited. Snoke rasied his hand, and Ren braced himself for what he knew was to follow. When Snoke wanted answers, he preferred to seek them out for himself.
The thin tendrils of Snoke's force crept through his mind, picking at his memories, searching. The sensation wasn't painful, but was certainly uncomfortable. The long fingers sneaked into a memory of Robin's last force-training session, in the familiar setting of Training Room Four.
"Good. Keep that up."
The helmet was hovering a few feet above the ground, but Ren wasn't looking at it. He was concentrating on Robin's face, twisted up in discomfort as she tried to keep the mask floating.
"I can't-"
Her hand was raised, shaking slightly with the exertion. She kept the mask in the air for a few more seconds, before letting it drop and bending over taking gasping breaths. The mask rolled on the floor with the momentum of the fall.
"Get up." His voice was like ice. She raised her eyes to him, a look of disbelief on her face, "Lift it up again."
"You can't be serious..."
Ren flicked his wrist and the mask lifted immediately, hovering in the air with none of the uncertainty that it had when Robin had tried it. It began to spin slowly.
"I'm always serious, Robin."
The mask flew towards her at a high speed, and she brought her hand up, stopping it just before it hit her face. She straightened up, her jaw twitching, holding the mask between her and Ren. Her eyes flashed upwards to him.
"Could you perhaps stop trying to decapitate me?"
Snoke's mind went further into Kylo's, searching for more evidence of his teaching. Ren clenched his gloved fist by his side at the intrusive sensation. He wasn't entirely comfortable with Snoke seeing everything that had happened between himself and Robin. He'd certainly been much more careful with her since their first combat training lesson, when he had embarrassingly lost control around her, but still, he would prefer some of their interactions to stay hidden. Since that day, he had made sure to only touch her when necessary; to improve her posture or show her a particular combat move. The incident hadn't been repeated.
Snoke's tendrils searched deeper, looking through one of Kylo's memories from the large library. He had been teaching Robin about the theory of the force, their voices echoing through the high walls.
"What does this word say?" Kylo's voice was quiet.
Robin bit her lip, leaning over the table to get a closer look at the word at the tip of Kylo's finger. She had improved her reading greatly since the first day in the library, when she had struggled to even read the word 'Midi-chlorians'. Her green eyes scanned the page, her lips forming out the syllables of the word as she read each individual letter.
"Pad... a... wan? Padawan?" She looked up at him questioningly. The pair were sat next to each other, so close that their knees were almost touching under the table.
He nodded at her, a small smile on his lips.
"Good. A padawan is a student of Jedi. A 'Jedi-in-training', if you will."
She nodded, her eyes scanning over the words in the book, much faster than they had a week before. She was a quick learner.
"So am I your Padawan?" she asked him.
He let out a low chuckle, and ignored the fact that he had enjoyed when she used the word 'your' a little too much.
"Not quite. I'm not a Jedi, and you're not a Jedi-in-training. I'm just a teacher."
She nodded in understanding.
"Alright."
"It seems like she is progressing adequately," Snoke's voice cut through his memory, reminding Ren of where he was.
He let out a small sigh of relief as Snoke removed his intrusion from his mind, bringing him back to the room in which he was stood.
"You will bring her to me this afternoon." Snoke's voice was raspy, breathy through the filter of the holographic image he was being shone through, "Let's see how much your training has payed off."
"Supreme Leader, I don't think that-"
"That wasn't a request, Ren. It was an order."
Ren was silent for a time that was slightly too long to just be a pause of breath.
"Yes, Supreme Leader."
He turned his back and strode out of the room, his steps echoing loudly on the hard floor as he walked.
Robin's POV
LOCATION: GREAT LIBRARY – STARKILLER BASE
STARDATE: 31/09/1943
"Hansel and Gretel," I said out loud, my voice sounding tiny within the giant walls of the great library. I traced the words on the page with my finger.
"Hansel and Gretel."
When Ren had instructed me to practice reading in my spare time, he probably hadn't meant the large book of Fairy Tales that hid down at the bottom of one of the larger bookshelves, but I was reading it nonetheless. He had given me the whole morning off, telling me that he had 'other things to attend to'. I didn't question it.
I crossed my legs over one another and placed the book on the floor in front of me. It was handy that Ren had logged my fingerprints into the security system, which allowed me to come into the library any time I wanted. I had spent a good deal of my free time surrounded by the smell of paper and old leather. It was surprisingly relaxing.
I tucked a strand of brown hair behind my ear, and placed my finger on the paper, reading the words as I went along.
"I knew I'd find you here." The low voice was unmistakeable. I looked up from my place on the floor to see Ren, mask under his arm, looming over me.
"Come on, get up. There's somewhere you need to be."
There was an unexpected sense of urgency to his voice, and I closed the book and unfolded my legs from underneath me, standing up with it under my arm. Even when standing, the top of my head only came up to Ren's chin.
"What's wrong?" I asked. He didn't answer, just walked away from me with the expectation that I would follow. I placed the book down on a table next to me, I could come back later and pick it up, and ran after him. His strides were at least twice as long as mine, and I found myself jogging to keep up.
"What's going on, Ren?" I asked as he opened the door to the library and held it open for me. I walked through, and he closed the door behind him, the loud click of it's lock echoing around the metallic walls of the corridor.
"Supreme Leader Snoke wants to see you." There was a hint of something unreadable in his voice, something close to irritation. He placed the helmet back onto his head and looked down at me. "I've been ordered to bring you to him."
A shard of ice stabbed through my gut. Supreme Leader Snoke was hardly ever mentioned at the base, but his name brought with it connotations of power and fear. I had known that Ren, as well as a few select others including General Hux, had been in contact with Snoke, but I had no idea that he knew about me.
"It's not wise to keep a man like that waiting." Kylo's voice was surprisingly gentle as he continued walking, gesturing for me to follow along.
People moved out of our way as we walked, somehow sensing either by the look of fear on my face or by Ren's purposeful stride that we had somewhere important to be. I followed Ren into a part of the ship that I had never been in before, and the number of people milling around decreased dramatically as we went further into the belly of Starkiller base. Eventually, it was just the two of us, walking quickly through a corridor that was much more dimly lit than the ones I was used to.
"What does he want?" The question echoed in the space between us, but Kylo continued to walk, ignoring my question.
"What does he want from me?" My voice came out slightly irritated. I didn't know what all the secrecy was for. Before I knew what was happening, Ren had stopped walking. He brought his hand out to stop me as well, pushing me backwards and around, so my back was pressed up against the cold metal wall of the corridor. He placed his hands on the wall above me, and looked down at me. Even through the mask, I could tell that he was breathing heavily. My heart jumped in my throat.
What the fuck is he doing?
"You need to listen to what I have to say very carefully, Robin." He was so close to me that I was completely penned in, with no chance of escape. His voice was deathly serious.
"Snoke is powerful. More powerful than me. A lot more powerful than you. If you don't treat him with respect you're going to get hurt."
I was breathing heavily from the unexpected contact. Sure, Ren hadn't actually touched me, apart from moving my arm, but still, the contact seemed too intimate.
"Alright."
Ren seemed to accept my answer, and pushed off from the wall, letting me breathe. Without another word to me, hop removed a single glove and placed his finger onto a scanner just next to me. A door in the wall that had been previously hidden opened up, and he took a step back, extending his arm in an invitation to me.
"Just stay calm and you should be fine." He said quietly. I nodded, nerves tense, and walked into the darkened room.
It was bigger than I thought it would be, the ceiling so high that I could barely see it above me. But that wasn't what made me stop in my tracks. No, that was the gargantuan form of General Snoke that sat at the epicentre of the room, glowing in an almost ethereal light. I felt the small pressure of a hand on my back, pushing me forwards, and I took a step into the room. There was a man stood on the small podium in front of Snoke, dressed entirely in black.
"Hux."
Ren's voice contained more hatred than I had ever heard in it.
"Ren." The red-haired man responded in kind. I could practically feel the tension between the two of them. I walked forwards and stopped next to Hux. The man looked down at me, and I couldn't shake the feeling that he was slightly disgusted by my presence. This was a man who had probably never talked to anybody with a rank less than a Lieutenant, and here I was, a kitchen worker, somehow being granted an audience with Snoke.
"Ah. So you must be the girl I've heard so much about."
Hux's voice told me exactly what he thought of the 'girl he's heard all about'. Ren stood beside me, sandwiching me in between the two men.
"Robin? That's an interesting choice of name." The booming voice came from the giant of a man sat in front of me. His tiny black eyes glistened in the shadowy lump of his face like beetles. I knew that what was in front of me was just a holographic image, as immaterial as a wisp of smoke, but I couldn't help the fear that suddenly encompassed me. I swallowed thickly.
"My number was RN-0087-"
"I know what your number was, child." The words sounded like they were supposed to be comforting, but coming from the monstrosity of flesh and sinew sat in front of me they didn't come out as such, "How has your training been progressing?"
I nodded my head. This was something that I knew, something that I could answer.
"Relatively well, Supreme Leader." My voice rang out in the theatre, "I am now able to lift heavy objects for a short period of time using the Force."
Snoke leant back in his seat, curling his long fingers around the arm rests. His eyes narrowed.
"Ren. Place your mask on the floor."
Oh no, surely he wasn't expecting me to be able to-. Ren removed his mask, exposing his pale face, his expression blank. He placed the mask on the floor in front of me and took a step backwards, all in silence.
"Move it." Snoke's voice boomed. I took a step back, heart racing. I had moved the mask in training sessions, but this was different, with both Snoke and Hux watching me judgementally. I didn't know if I could do it under this amount of pressure.
"Calm down."
The familiar sound of Ren's baritone voice entered my mind. I looked to the side, but he was standing with his hands behind his back, face turned to Snoke. He hadn't spoken out loud, but directly into my head.
"You can do this, Robin."
Again, his mouth hadn't moved. He was right, I could do this. I reached inside myself for the force, and felt a small spark in my chest, accented by the fear that I felt under the watchful eye of Snoke. I raised my hand to the mask, ignoring the fact that it was shaking slightly, and breathed out through my nose. The mask wobbled slightly. I gritted my teeth and pushed with all of my strength, and I saw it slowly float up off the ground, only a few feet, but certainly something. My breath was coming heavy, and fatigue had already set in.
"Hold it."
I nodded my head at the voice and steeled myself, keeping the mask balanced above the ground. I let out a small grunt as I felt it slipping away from me. I had only ever been able to hold the mask for a few seconds at a time, but I was nearing a minute and every muscle in my body was burning, begging for release. Eventually I had to let the mask go, and it fell to the floor with a metallic clang. I dropped my hand and bent double, arms on my knees, taking in gulping breaths. I looked up at Snoke, who was looking down at me with appraisal.
"Not bad. Needs to be improved on."
I nodded, standing back up again. I didn't fail to notice the tiny quirk of Ren's lip as he picked the helmet up again and placed it on his head, sealing it with a click.
"Good job, little bird."
I hid a smile at his praise.
"How has your other training been going? Combat and Theory?" Snoke asked me. Before he gave me a chance to answer, he shook his head, and lifted his hand.
"Never mind. I'll find out for myself."
"What?" the word escaped my mouth before I could stop it. I knew that it sounded rude, but I couldn't help myself. It was then that I felt a small tendril of thought push its way, uninvited, into the back of my mind.
"No," I mumbled, shaking my head, bringing my hand up to my neck, "No."
I felt a firm hand on my left shoulder and looked up to see the smiling face of General Hux, his pale eyes looking almost happy at my discomfort. I looked up at Snoke, panic in my eyes. The corner of his mouth twitched.
"Ren. Ren, I can't do this, Sir." My voice was panicked. I couldn't breathe. I looked over at him, but he remained standing, face turned towards Snoke and away from me. He acted as if he couldn't even hear me. Hux's hand on my shoulder stopped me from moving as Snoke's consciousness crept further into my mind.
"Don't fight it. It'll hurt more if you try to fight it." Ren's voice was urgent, echoing around my head, which was seeming far too busy for my liking.
I couldn't help myself, I tried to put a wall up in my mind, preventing Snoke from looking through any further, ignoring Ren's advice. A shock of pain ran up my back as Snoke dug deeper, probing at the wall I'd put up in my mind. I let out a quiet hiss.
"Robin," Ren's voice contained a hint of desperation, "Just let him in. It's only going to get worse."
Everything was too much. Too much pressure in my mind, too much noise echoing around my head. Hux's fingers tightened on my shoulder, and I shook him off, disorientated. My mental wall was crumbling under the pressure, breaking, falling off in cracks. Snoke's mind broke through mine with a rush of pain so great that I actually screamed out loud. My throat was constricting, cutting off my airways in panic.
I felt Ren's hand on my waist, keeping me steady.
Everything went black.
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