S H I F T

Chapter 5: What You Got

The training room was filled with the sound of heavy breathing as Magdalene sparred with one arm, the other recovering from the recent mission. The ugly scar hadn't healed well and was covered with thick stitches, sticking out like a sore thumb on her left arm. The poor Stormtrooper she was sparring against was failing miserably to just her arm. It was quite clear Magdalene was getting fed up with only using one arm and being paired with such a lousy opponent. With another swing of her good arm, the trooper was on the ground. Mags sighs in discontent, looking over to an armor-less Phasma. "They're too easy to take down," Mags complains, "I need an actual fight." Phasma shakes her head. "As much as I would like to spar against you, Ren would kill me if I did that with your arm healing," she says, "I'm surprised he hasn't come in to scold you for sparring in general." Mags rolls her eyes. "Who cares about what he does anyway?" Mags asks. "You do, apparently," Phasma replies. A light blush comes across Mags' face. Sometimes it was easy to forget about their 'arrangement'. She sighs again, knowing she wasn't going to spar her. "As soon as this stupid arm heals, we're sparring," Mags says, hopping down from the sparring area. Phasma smirks, "You bet."

Mags goes next to Phasma to collect her bag, the Captain noticing the ugly scar that had resided onto Magdalene's left arm. "That really is quite unsightly," She comments. "I blame the stupid trainee medic that had sewn me up," Mags replied, "Kylo hasn't seen it yet and I plan on keeping it that way." "Why's that?" Phasma questions. "Because if he sees it, that poor medic isn't ever going to get past the title of trainee," Mags answers, wrapping gauze around it. "Maybe it's for the better of he does see it if the trainee can't even sew up a simple wound," Phasma suggests. "That's the problem, it isn't a simple wound," Mags informs, "It's deep. Really deep."  Phasma grimaces. Mags stuffs the gauze into her bag and starts to walk out but turns back to Phasma at the door. "Scars just add character anyway," She stated before walking out of the training room.

Mags walks the halls of the Finalizer like normal, her usual hard exterior relaxed from that talk with Phasma. She hadn't seen Kylo since the mission a couple days ago and they were heading to Kashyyyk tomorrow to see her brother, one of the last Jedi in the galaxy. She hadn't seen him in years just before she ran off to the Academy. His face hadn't left her mind, his look of anger and fear rolled up in one. Mags shook her head and scrunched her eyes at the thought of it. Erskine wasn't very emotional growing up, but that expression had haunted her for years. Mags rushes into her quarters, freezing at the sight of a maskless Kylo sitting on her couch petting James. She closes her door quickly before anyone can catch the sight of him. He turns his head toward her, her entrance grasping his attention. "How did you get in here?" Mags questions as she puts her bag down. "Hux gave me your code, he seemed concerned that you hadn't given it to me yet," Kylo answers. "Why would I give you my code?" Mags asks. "Well we are "courting" aren't we? It should be normalized between us to have each other's code. Which is why I sent mine to your data pad," Kylo replies. "I don't use my data pad. I have no use for it," Magdalene comments as she sits next to him. "That's why I haven't heard from you," Kylo said. Mags raised a brow. "I've been trying to write to you from my data pad for a couple days now," Kylo adds. "Sorry, I didn't know," Mags replies.

"Hux has told me after our mission on Kashyyyk tomorrow we have to go straight to Naboo. We have to get the lead to the Skywalker map before the Resistance does," he informs. Mags nods, her mind elsewhere. Although the Kashyyyk mission didn't seem like a big deal to her, the thought of seeing Erskine again was getting to her. And Kylo had taken notice of this. "Are you alright?" He asks. Magdalene looks ahead of her. "I haven't seen my brother in a very long time," she explains, "I didn't leave on the best terms. And now that I know that the day I've been waiting and training for is here, I don't know what to think. I don't know what he's going to say." "You shouldn't let that fear control you," Kylo states, "If you let it control you, you cannot win." Mags looks at Kylo, a seriousness coming over her. "Than teach me how to win," she comments before standing up. With a raised brow, Kylo watches her as she walks over to the safe by her bed. With a few flicks of her wrist on the knob and a few presses of buttons, the hiss of the safe echoes in the room and causes James to jump from Kylo's lap and go off to hide. Magdalene stands and turns to Kylo, holding her grandfather's lightsaber tight in her grip with the seriousness still plaguing her face.