THE APPRENTICE ➛ Kylo Ren

⁽ ¹² ⁾ ❝ s ᴜ ʙ ᴍ ɪ s s ɪ ᴏ ɴ ❞

It was only a half an hour after Jana requested the guards outside her door to have Ren sent to her that he arrived.

She had rehearsed her words, her act, and even her expressions for hours, but she feared that all the memorizations would be in vain. Either he'd see right through her, or he would distract her and make her falter. If he found out it was all a ploy, she was sure that she would be punished. Sent back to her cell or worse, tortured. Maybe he would decide the she wasn't worth it any more, kill her and be done with it.
But if it worked, she would be given her chance. Then she would have to continue acting. Something she didn't think she was particularly good at. Maybe she was. Either way, she was about to find out.

The chill of his presence surged into the room like a wave from his very being. He looked the same as always. Mask, robes, lightsaber. Nothing had changed. Except this time, Jana had called for the visit.

"You wanted to see me," he said authoritatively, striding to where she stood in the center of the room. Time for her to use her scripted words.

"I wanted to ask you something," she replied, letting fatigue and pain drain the color of her face. Her voice was hoarse. That was good. Hopefully it made the exhausted cover more convincing.

Ren didn't reply, so she went on with her monologue.

"I haven't been able to sleep since that night you took me here. There are dreams. Nightmares. But when I'm awake, I hear voices in my head. I can't...I can't stop them."

She was tearing up now. Her hands started to shake of their own accord. A shot of satisfaction rose to her throat, but she shoved it back down. Right now she was not putting on a performance. Right now, she was a broken little girl, called by the darkness, bound by the light, and desperate for relief. So desperate, she would betray her own sister. Because she was weak, and as Ren had said once, a portion of her heart was being eaten away by evil. It was from that festering wound that her actions and words had sprung. That was who she was in this instant.

"Every day - every waking second -I'm in agony!" She cried, forgetting how sappy the speech had sounded earlier. "Why is this happening to me? How can I make it stop? What can I do to make it leave me alone!"

Sobs wracked her body as she doubled over, gradually collapsing to the floor against the wall.

Ren's expression and emotions lay cloaked behind the mask. What was he thinking? Was it working? When he did speak, it was to answer her first frantic question.

"This is happening to you because all your life has been spent in the light. Your soul longs for darkness." He spoke so casually and emotionlessly that Jana wondered if he even cared at all about what she had said. But when he knelt down in front of her, and spoke again, his words were earnest.

"You can stop it by giving into it."

Oh no! Jana thought, realizing that she couldn't remember what she was supposed to say next. Just like she had feared, his nearness was making her mind go foggy. And before she knew what was happening, her voice was working, and weaving words that she hadn't planned to say at all.

"I want the power to make them stop," she whispered, staring into the lifeless mask. "I need the power to make them stop. I need you to show me how. I...I need you to be my Master..."

Silence.

Did he believe her?

Was he angry?

Was she actually telling the truth?

And then he laughed. It was quiet, menacing, and electronic. He leant close, hands placed on the wall behind her on either side of her head.
"Then I think it's time that we begin your training, Jana."