Shades of Grey ► Kylo Ren

The Dark One

For a full Coruscanti week, Kylo Ren's stomach had been in knots. Not, it should be noted, because he was anxious or ill or anything of the sort. From the time he had risen from his bed that Primeday to the time he had been summoned to the Supreme Leader's reception chambers on Benduday, he felt his innards coiling and rolling like the waves in a sea-storm, ready at any moment to pull him down to an unfortunate end. The feeling had him on edge - he had stalked through the hallways of his current abode for hours, trying to quell the squall within. The days had passed with a mercurial dullness - unexpected missions often superseded his discomfort. A village of members of the church of the Force had needed to be cut down on Taungsday, and a sighting of a force user (a baseless rumor, it turned out, about a medicine woman on the water-world of Capitula) had pulled him away from his sea-sickness on Benduday morning. The nasty business on Capitula had been finished (with the rumormongers of the town suitably punished for calling the First Order) and still, Kylo felt that churning in his stomach.

He did occasionally ponder on what it was. After the aforementioned options had been ruled out and an X-Ray confirmed that no strange creature had wound its way into his intestines, he could only assume that whatever was causing this strange affliction was created by the force, disturbing him to bring his attention to it. After all, the feeling waned occasionally as if whatever caused it slept, but it always returned to full power. Today, the Supreme Leader had called for him, and Kylo sensed why; after a week's worth of this agony, it waned almost completely. 

He was nearing Snoke's reception chamber when the feeling came back, full-force, but worse, so suddenly that he found himself caught off-guard. There had been a slight disturbance moments before, something that had made his heart pound, but he had not put much stock into it. Moments of that were common for him; the sympathetic nature of the force made him rather attuned to the minds of First Order personnel, and there was always some form of drama to be had. The feeling had arrived and fled, and he assumed that somewhere close, an underling had expressed dome sort of unreciprocated feelings to her superior. Kylo sometimes found this sort of spectacle entertaining, but after a week of sickness, he brushed it off until he neared the reception halls. He was nearly winded, and he braced himself against the burnished durasteel walls, trying to breathe through it. Instead of recovering, he was hit by another sensation, although this one did not physically hurt - this was an emotional response, a feeling of untamed rage and grief and sudden loneliness. Despite the disturbance's lack of physicality, it struck him the same as if he had been slapped. He dwelled on it only for a minute, but the sensations disappeared as fast as they had come, leaving him nearly trembling with the energy of it all. He stood up straight and made his way through the next set of corridors that led him to the chamber, where he would have his private audience with his Master. 

Snoke, a large-headed, wizened, scarred humanoid, was not truly present at that moment, but even his mottled blue projected appearance was enough to intimidate Kylo as he stood before him. Luckily, Snoke wasted no time on the pleasantries, moving straight on to their mystical affairs. 

"There has been the death of a Force-Sensitive very close to here." He said, looking down at his apprentice with some disdain. "Have you felt it?" Kylo let the words ring in the room for only a moment before answering.

"Yes." His voice was cloaked with the machinery that was placed over his face. "I've felt it for days."

"It was an arduous death, then, that came to its final end mere minutes ago." Snoke settled deeper into his seat. 

"I doubt it was natural." Kylo offered.

"No, it was murder." Snoke agreed. "I assume you felt what came after it, then?" Kylo shifted, placing his arms behind his back.