Love Is a Four Letter Word

Prophecy

The smell of bitter, tanging metals- iron and copper, thick in the air. Ozone of burning sabers and blaster bolts. Somewhere, a ship has been shot down- dark, thick smoke is rising around you, dense with burning engine oil. You've long since dropped your mask-- you followed his style, dark, but with a flatter profile and smaller mouthpiece-- too lost in the battle to care. You needed to feel the foreign air on your skin, to taste the blood in the air instead of through your mask's filter. This was- something personal.

Besides, you hadn't been hit in battle in months, you were too good. You wouldn't be hit today. You knew it. Even if you didn't, these footsoldiers were awful shots and had no sense of the real power you wielded. But, you did know you wouldn't be injured. You'd seen this day before. You both had.

It's a dance, you've realized. After so long- you understood how it worked. Fighting with the Force. All the katas you've flown through, it's simply a matter of feeling the flow of the Force around you- to find the balance of the physical reaction and that beyond instinct, to see what other people can't. Your saber slices another faceless antagonist- clean through uniform and flesh and you don't stop, spinning and reflecting a blaster shot back, moving forward into the next uniform, just as easily torn down as the last

You stop- a scream drawing your attention away from the fight. Some young soldier injured in the line of duty. It's a rebellion; a battle of these young, upstarts- fighting something so much bigger than themselves. You can respect it- that need to acquire power for your cause. You'd lived it. You'd fought for it. Nearly died for it- nearly lost everything you cared for in the pursuit of a shared power.

Hadn't you? Hadn't you- been in battles like this before?

Suddenly- this was. Wrong. Foreign. You've never seen this before- the smothering taste of death and burnt flesh. Where was Kylo? You dropped your saber. Why wasn't he with you? Why were you here? You turned- looking for him, reaching out for him through the mess of the battlefield.

Kylo was up ahead of you- his own saber spinning in a wide, red arc- spitting sparks and hissing wildly. He swung fast and hard, cutting through a masked soldier's neck- too fast to cauterize, blood spilling over his clothes, his helmet. He turned- paused. His masked head tilted, something strange filtering through his emotional response. He came towards you. All long, powerful strides and flowing robes that flapped around his legs. His thumb slipped off the ignition to his saber- the blade fizzling out as he dropped the hilt.

He kept walking- came right up to you, towering over you with his impressive height, intimidating with his wrong mask and dark, stained robes. His response a flood of adrenal response, the nerves of a fight- jitters and the jumpy need to move and fight and kill, half driven by an unexpected lust. He likes you bloodstained. And yet- under all that primal urge- was a distant curiosity.

His mask was similar- but. Wrong, somehow. The metal bands were, thicker, more solid around the snout which was- wider and flatter, but still protruding. It's been through many battles, just like the one he has. Had. It has a rough scrape to the right of the visor and a hard dent to the left of the mouthpiece. Little pockmarks of small impacts littered around the durasteel. If he didn't have his mask on he would kiss you.

His new vocoder held a different timber. Lower, smoother, than his old one. "Are you awake yet?"

You shook your head, scrunched your brow. "What?"

"I can feel it's you, really you." His gloves touch your arms-- your arms covered in thick robes, dark with blood, grime. Slightly different than the robes hanging in your dresser. "Are you awake?"

You tilted your head, the world strange again. Of course you were awake- you were in the middle of a battle. You weren't in the habit of sleepwalking through a rebellion. Kylo shook his head, you could feel the sigh as it passed through his vocoder. He grabbed at the seals and-