Wayward [Kylo Ren]

XIII

XIII

When the blaster bolts started raining down, Kaida reluctantly pulled her attention away from Kylo, prepared to take on the onslaught of troopers coming her way. She was aware of her dead twin's body still lying in the snow. She swallowed the mourning down her throat. Now is not the time.

She deflected any blaster bolts that she could. She heard some strike armor, others bounce into trees. She mostly went on defense, always aware of Kylo's looming presence. She knew he was waiting for her most vulnerable moment. When that would come around, he'd strike her down.

She heard the troopers trudging through the snow, the red blaster bolts the only way she could kind of gauge where they were. As some got too close for comfort, Kaida struck them down. Any within eyesight, she used the Force to shove them into their comrades in hopes of slowing them down.

Just as the blaster bolts stopped coming, Kaida spun to meet her blade with Kylo's. Her arms began to shake, and she began to bend backwards, towards the ground, as he pushed against her. She locked her jaw in concentration. She felt her body going towards the ground. The second she moved, she knew he'd go in for the kill.

"I would give you one last chance," Kylo sneered to her, "but since you're so adamant about killing me, I think you lost it." He kneed her right in the gut, sending her stumbling backwards. "I wanted this to work out, Kaida, I really did. If you had just cooperated—"

"Never," she spat. Without realizing it, she was using the Force for a dark purpose: she had Kylo Ren in an invisible chokehold. And she liked it. She liked the surprise on his face, the stumbles that he took backwards as he was losing the air from his lungs. Bravely, she took a step forward, letting her hate take control. "You killed my brother. I can't let that stand."

"Now that is a lovely feeling coming from you," Kylo wheezed. "That pain, that torture, the hatred. It's too bad it's too...late for you. You will die here, Kaida Quinn, just like your brother."

"I won't!" she screeched. As she did so, Kylo began sputtering for breath. "Your corpse will rot here, just as you deserve." She took a few steps closer towards the Sith. "You can try and play a trick on me, but I can see clearly now. You are not Ben Solo, as you say. You're a psychopath, remorseless. A killer who lives and serves in the shadows." She snorted as he buckled to both knees.

"Good," Kylo rasped. "Let this consume...you. Let it eat you alive. If you kill me, you'll live to regret it."

"I doubt it." Kaida was even closer now, and she had him physically by the throat, with the help of the Force still. Her upper lip twitched from anger, and all she could feel was a smoldering hatred for the man who she had at her mercy right now. "Face it, you lost."

If only Kaida realized just how wrong she was in those seconds.

She felt the jagged saber cut through her and protrude from the other side. Her mouth fell agape, and her concentration was shattered. Her hand, and the Force, removed itself from Kylo's neck. She felt inside of her screaming in pain, melting.

When the saber was suddenly pulled out from her, the shock of the pain sent her falling forward into Kylo. Instead of letting her hit the snow face first, he caught her against his body. Kaida felt all sorts of alarms going off throughout her body. What have I done?

"I had hopes for you," Kylo hissed in her ear as she gasped in pain. "I'd hoped you could make something of yourself. Yet, here you are, a dying breed." He moved her so that they could look at one another. Her eyes were full of pain, and tears. His looked remorseless, dead. "You brought this on yourself, Kaida. How does it feel, to know that you failed? That you are about to die, just as your brother did? That you fell for a stupid act?"