Who: Xiria Orion and Kylo Ren What: Snoke charges Kylo Ren with testing the strength of Xiria’s mind When: 7 years ago Where: First Order base Rating: PG-13 for some references to torture in a memory Status: Complete
After passing her literally torturous final exam, Xiria was finally allowed out of the First Order’s territory within the Unknown Regions to do real spy work. Being young and inexperienced, she had not been sent out alone, nor had it been a particularly high risk. Pose as a newly minted reporter from a low-budget publication on the holonet, move in to speak to Senator S’kal Sharre of Coyerti while she was making public appearances, and discreetly probe her mind to determine what her thoughts were on investigating the First Order in the Unknown Regions to see if they were violating Galactic Concordance. Then implant a strong mental suggestion that anyone pushing for the investigation was nothing more than paranoid.
Despite that final exam, she still was being tested. The Supreme Leader told her people might intercept her, but she must not let herself be distracted and most report her findings to him immediately upon her return. She was not to discuss the mission with anyone else without orders from him to do so. She’d already proven she would be loyal in the face of adversity. This, it seemed, would be a test of her willpower against harmless little temptations. Like the company of old friends. Almost immediately upon her ship’s arrival, she spotted a familiar face.
“Xiria? Oh my stars, it is you. I haven’t seen you in years!” exclaimed a young pilot she’d attended the Academy with until she was eleven years old. Cado Marnath had been a friend. “Not since you got transferred out of the Academy. I’m going to be here overnight while my ship gets a checkup with the mechanics and refueled...maybe we could get caught up?”
“Sorry Cado, I’m on an errand right now,” was all Xiria said, offering an apologetic smile as she continued along her way. “I’ll try to find you later. It was good to see you again.”
Several other people showed up with seemingly inexplicably good (or bad depending on perspective) timing with little interruptions. Even her grandfather flagged her down to try to encourage her to play a game of holo-chess with him. Xiria diplomatically turned down every offer, intent on getting to the Supreme Leader like she’d been told. Then she felt it. That strong presence with the Force, moving in her general direction. She changed paths, once, twice, three times, wondering if it might be a coincidence, but no. Kylo Ren was getting closer, despite her erratic route. This wouldn’t be a harmless little temptation like the others. It seemed that Snoke wanted her to face adversity once again.
The area the two Force-sensitives found themselves in was now sparsely populated, the sudden seemingly odd influx of distractions done away with as Kylo made his way toward his target. No mental suggestion had been necessary; most tended to move out of his path once he appeared in an area. This particular area of the base was offices, all filled with high-ranking members and usually bustling with activity. Kylo made no move to intercept her path directly, instead allowing his aura to push her to another path entirely.
So much for the easiest route there. Feeling that aura, Xiria considered the alternate routes to the Supreme Leader, including which were closest, which ones would be the most difficult for her, and which ones would be the most difficult for Kylo Ren. She also took into account what sort of obstacles she might throw into Kylo Ren’s path without harming him. It was unwise to give someone like him a reason to hold a grudge. She moved at a brisk pace, not quite running, but definitely moving quickly and lightly on her feet on her chosen path toward the elevators. It was a roundabout route and not her preferred one. What it gave her was the greatest opportunity for obstacles to send Kylo Ren’s way. He had longer strides than her, and was more athletic than her overall. She would need to stall him as much as possible if she was to reach the Supreme Leader before Kylo Ren intercepted her.
There was a complex command code to gain access to the more elaborate control panel for the elevators. It was typically reserved for technicians, but there were a few security staff who knew it as well. It was one of those useful little things Xiria got herself unofficial access to, because it would enable her to slip in discreetly to report to the Supreme Leader. Now, it seemed, it would have another use. She entered in the code, and the control panel unlocked. Time for stalling tactic number one.
She had diverged from his planned course, but this was of no concern; she was merely running herself into another hole. Kylo altered his own path and headed for the elevator bay, intending on cornering her.
Xiria made the elevator adjacent to hers out of service and scheduled for repairs before quietly stepping into the other. Her own was programmed not to stop for anyone ranking below General unless they had the code to override that command. Admittedly, she didn’t know what sort of access was granted to Kylo Ren. Like her, he only answered to the Supreme Leader, but he seemed to have more authority. Or perhaps he simply intimidated others enough to convey authority. It was something she would have to look into, if Snoke was going to spring surprises like this on her. For now, she focused on the possibilities for delaying him so she could reach her goal. She would adapt as needed.
The doors closed just as he entered the lobby, and he could feel her presence descending down the elevator shaft. He had no desire to entrap himself in such a small space; instead, he reached down, bringing the car she was in to a shuddering stop. Metal screamed on metal as the machine protested, but Kylo gave no quarter; then, slowly, he began to drag it back up to his level.
Xiria’s blue eyes widened when she realized he had the elevator car itself in his Force grip. The car alone would be at least two thousand pounds, and that was without the resistance of the machinery he was straining against. She did not want to be inside if he broke it. “Code 4F3900G, voice activation priority override,” she commanded the elevator. “Going up to floors 45, 46, 47, 48 and 49.”
He would find the elevator coming up without having to pull it with the Force, but she selected floors above his. It didn’t give her much time, but if it seemed like she was coming up to surrender, he might let go momentarily simply to conserve his energy and miss it for a second or two as it passed. She doubted very much that he’d miss more than that. Opening up the ceiling to the elevator with the Force, she lept up and pulled herself up and through her small makeshift exit to stand wobbily on top of the rising elevator. It took more effort and was far less graceful than she cared to admit. She banged her elbow while getting to her feet as the elevator came to a sudden halt, and quietly hissed out a swear word most wouldn’t have suspected a polite little thing like her of knowing much less using. She pushed the upcoming doors apart with the Force, scrambling to pull herself through before they shut on her.
Now a floor apart from Kylo, she made a dash toward where cleaning equipment was stored. The RZZ470 units were technically too large for the side corridors, but they were just barely small enough to fit through without banging into anything. They took up the entire hallway and moved slowly as they polished floors. No matter how strong he was with the Force, they would still temporarily obstruct his path and help to put more distance between her and him. Xiria sent one down the corridor with the nearest stairwell, and another down the nearest corridor he could run to.
Kylo felt her form slip out of the car a moment too late; he released his grip, letting the car fall down the shaft, turning on his heel immediately. There was no need to wait to hear it hit the ground, though the sound reverberated through each floor. Whether or not Snoke would care was beyond the knight as he left the elevator bay and moved for the emergency stairs that would take him down one flight.
He could feel the spy's presence not too far off, but when the large machines came into sight he paused. The cleaner was making slow progress in his direction, filling nearly every available space. Annoyed but not overcome, Kylo raised a hand and pushed the machine back on its wheels and bristles at a much faster pace than it was accustomed to. It began to whine in protest, its gears catching as the wheels stopped moving completely. He shoved it down the hall, following it at a careful pace after it left the floor slick with wax and cleaning products. He could feel that Xiria was close, and drawing closer with each passing moment; the elation of a nearly successfully completed mission goaded him on, and he sent the machine spiraling down the hall in a whirlwind of shrieks and scrapes as he sought to gain his target.
That was less of a delay than she’d estimated, She hadn’t realized how little he cared about collateral damage. Xiria had just managed to hotwire the laundry cart and unhook the two wires that restricted the cart’s speed before she heard the cleaner being shoved out of Kylo’s way. Slamming her foot on the pedal, the cart squealed as it took off at top speed. She kept herself crouched down, alert and ready to react as she tore out of there. As long as she could get out of the knight’s range, she would be in the clear. At this speed, the cart was much too fast to pursue on foot.
Kylo was unconcerned about pursuing her by foot; instead, as soon as he had cleared the machine that had gone hurtling down the hall, he raised a hand and the cart and its passenger froze in time. His arm remained static, muscles bulging as his fingers curled into a claw; he moved forward, closing the distance between him and Xiria.
"Close, but not close enough." His modulated voice gave no emotion beyond the simple tone of his words. He wasted little time in removing her to a nearby interrogation room, moving her frozen form with the ease of someone who gave little care about life.
* * *
He kept the hold on Xiria even after she was firmly strapped into the room's cross-examination chair. Whether he was enjoying the fact that she was immobile or was simply untrusting was not immediately clear. After a few minutes of close study, his mask hiding any emotion on his face, he stepped back a pace and allowed the freeze to melt away.
"I trust you understand why we're both here."
At first, Xiria had instinctively resisted against the Force freeze, pushing out, seeking a weak point in Kylo’s Force grip to strike at...anything that would let her escape. After a minute, she realized the futility of it and let her body relax. It was a waste of energy that she could conserve instead. She even shut her eyes, resting them as she thought about the situation. As it turned out, she had several minutes to think about it. Immobilized like that, there was little else she could do but think and observe.
“The Supreme Leader is concerned about enemy Force users breaking into my mind and using my ability to see the future,” she said, keeping her tone calm and even, as if she was reporting the answer to a physics calculation. That was the only logical reason for this. She had proven she wouldn’t willingly divulge information, even to a seasoned torturer. Other spies who were not Force sensitive would have no resistance against mind probing. After the way Kylo had apprehended her, she wasn’t looking forward to this, but she wasn’t terrified as some might have been. There was only grim acceptance that this was, in fact, a necessary test to pass.
“Well. Thank you for giving me a short break before getting started.” She was well aware that he hadn’t been acting in her interests, and that the minutes spent immobilized in silence very well could have been an intimidation tactic - a way to remind her that she was at his mercy and that he had very little of that. Her grandfather once told her that battles were partially psychological. Convince an opponent that they had no chance of victory and the battle was half won already. With that in mind, she opted for a polite response, neither defiant nor cowardly.
"Always glad to help." The response was dry, and a short precursor to his gloved hand coming down before her face as his mind invaded hers. He pressed deep, his mental touch sharp and incisive, at first attempting to overpower her interior walls.
Kylo would be met with several strong mental barriers, like thick metal doors clamping shut before him. It was an automatic response to the invasion. Xiria knew it would cause more strain to resist directly, and used this only as an opportunity to reorganize her thoughts. When interrogated, it was better to think of what one would divulge under duress rather than what one absolutely must not say. She had plenty of information to share with Kylo Ren if he really wanted in her mind. It just wouldn’t be what he was looking for.
Xiria let him push against her mental walls before suddenly dropping them and seizing him mentally, pulling him in like a fierce riptide. Her thoughts flowed in many different currents. The ones most directly accessible to Kylo were filled with academic information. Information on the cultures and etiquette of other worlds, code from the programming languages she knew, Dejarik strategies, how to mix up various drugs and poisons, star maps, various languages of the galaxy, among other things. If Kylo hadn’t known before that she was a studious polymath, he almost certainly did now. Nearby those information currents was more abstract information - the sheer amount of things Xiria sensed in any given day through the Force. When someone told the truth or lied, their emotions spelled out for her like an open data file, the weather, nagging intuition even when not having visions or consciously using Farsight.
The sheer amount of information was overwhelming at first, due to his unpreparedness. But Kylo quickly parsed through the useless information, focusing his will on precisely what he was after. He cleaved through the tide, pushing it aside like useless sand, sifting and shoving it down as he waded further and further into Xiria's mind. Each mental step was another rip in her psyche, his gloved hand twisting the psychic blade that he was using to penetrate her. He pushed her open wider, and delved deeper.
He found a young girl; a blond girl-child, standing over a body. It wasn't so much that she could see it as she was feeling it, this person's death throes. Kylo paused only momentarily by her side, watching the young Xiria use her burgeoning Force abilities to discern the modus operandi, performing an act no child should ever be privy to. But he passed no judgement nor felt any sympathy toward the memory; spending time here was merely a waste toward what he truly sought.
Moving from that memory, the next showed a red haired man that he was becoming intimately familiar with as he rose through the ranks of the Supreme Leader's forces; Hux, as he was wont to be known, black-uniform stretching over forearms folded neatly in a military posture behind his back, a sneer on his face as he and Xiria performed an interrogation. Kylo lingered a little longer over this memory, observing what Xiria had performed here -- she acted as a live polygraph, detecting the man's lies even before they were released to the atmosphere.
"This won't hold me back for long," he said aloud. "You're only delaying the inevitable, and making yourself suffer for it. Let. Go."
“No.” She was calm, and resolute. Keeping her mind flowing like this spared her a lot of the pain she could have felt from more active resistance. “I have worked way too hard to become what I am. I won’t let you take that away. I refuse to fail.”
Her mind. Her sanctum. Her will. Xiria reminded herself of these things as she prepared herself. She would have to fight back more directly if she wanted to keep Kylo from discovering the information that was only supposed to be between herself and the Supreme Leader. Kylo was relentless and had already seen two things she didn’t mean for him to see. Psychic shackles rose up within her mind, clamping down on Kylo as firmly as the restraints that bound her in reality. He might even feel the sensation of them around his wrists and ankles outside of her mind, purely psychosomatic but difficult to shake off.
His arm tipped forward as he felt the bond snap around him; muscles shuddered as he forced the limb back up, refusing to allow her to overcome him. For a moment, he wondered if such an ability would be useful to his knights; he surged forward, pushing at the bond inside their mentally constructed facade, and felt it break. It was too weak, too immaterial to cause any true bondage. He cursorily thought of a brief conversation between himself and Snoke when he'd first been given this assignment; Xiria was not only to be tested, but weighed, and Kylo was finding her wanting. Instead, he pressed forward, intent on completing his task.
Mental folds were torn open as Kylo continued his onslaught. Suddenly, he found himself inside another interrogation room, where Xiria was strapped into a chair as she was here. Kylo wondered if she was projecting this instance within herself as a confusion tactic, but was quickly corrected when another man entered the space. Kylo stepped back for a moment, watching the scene.
Major Carrod smiled as he hurt her, taking his time between injuries inflicted so that the old sting would not dull her to the new. He wanted her to talk, he wanted to break her, but he wanted to take his time. He enjoyed the challenge she was posing. Inappropriately so. Xiria’s gift for sensing people’s emotions made this interrogation all the worse, because she could sense that the man was aroused. Even without that, sometimes he leaned in to smell her hair, or touch her - on the waist, on her leg, even on her neck. Xiria endured the misery of the torture and Carrod’s revolting desire for the set time limit, hating him all the while. Despite being a seasoned interrogator, he failed to get her to talk after all that time. It was supposed to be done...and then he continued. Worse yet, he slipped a hand up her shirt.
Rage overwhelmed her. Xiria wanted to make him suffer, wanted vengeance for every injury and indignity he’d inflicted on her battered, branded body. Suddenly, Carrod fell to the ground, screaming and writhing in agony. Angry red marks appeared all over his body, each in the exact same places he’d hurt her. Her pain, forced upon him and magnified.
Having this memory uncovered like a raw wound roused Xiria’s anger. Cold fury took over, immersing Kylo Ren in psychic ice, crackling and frigid around him. “Enough.” Concentrating, she shoved at him mentally, intent on forcing him out.
Taken by surprise, Kylo was swept out of the young woman's mind on a tidal wave of rage. He clawed at her walls, attempting to stabilize himself, but now everything was open to the elements. Almost instantaneously, he was back in his own mind, the receding waters of her thoughts brushing his own mental barriers. In it, she could see a glimpse of a young man accepting a mask from weathered fingers, taking the gift with the reverence he believed it was due. It was a pale mimicry of another that he had taken by force, but the young Kylo Ren wore the persona it offered with the same pride that he would have had it matched the other.
Then his barriers came smashing down, pushing her out, cleaving their threadbare connection completely. Kylo found himself breathing hard for a moment, and he calmed himself, glaring from within the same mask as the one in his memory at the woman strapped to the chair before him. Gently, he reached out and probed her mind once more, but found it too well locked.
He stood before her for a moment, seething.
His rage was palpable. Xiria could feel it clearly and looked back at him, unflinching. Though she had no desire to make an enemy of him, and respected his power, she did not fear him. Accidental as invading his mind had been, she couldn’t bring herself to apologize. Not after the way he’d poked around in her own memories. It was an interesting bit of information about the aloof Knight. Her inquisitive side, the insatiably curious part of her that made her well suited to being a spy, that part of her wanted to know more. Her more professional and logical side stamped that urge down. Pushing was rude and the consequences outweighed the benefits.
“Unless the Supreme Leader says otherwise, I don’t believe anyone else needs to know the details of this training exercise.” It was her indirect way of letting Kylo Ren know she would keep what she had seen confidential, simultaneously assertive and non-confrontational. “Thank you for your help. If there’s nothing else, I have to go and make a mission report to him.”
Kylo remained impassive for a moment, making no reply. Whether her attempt at an olive branch incensed him further was unclear, his rage already strong enough to permeate the room. Suddenly, he turned on his heel and removed himself, his presence an echoing departure that was felt long throughout the halls before it disappeared entirely.
Xiria was left alone in the room for a period that seemed to stretch on without answer. Finally, the interrogation room doors opened and two stormtroopers entered, blasters strapped to their sides in order to leave their hands free so that they might extricate the spy from her bonds. Once they were undone, the two impeccably armored troopers fell into line with their arms at their sides.
The muffled voice of one chirped through his mask. "Do you require an escort, ma'am?"
When Kylo left the room, Xiria was torn between relief and thinking he was being a petulant child about this. She didn’t like failure either, but that didn’t mean she would have left him bound had their positions been reversed. Then again, perhaps he was leaving the room to resist the urge to hurt her. That potent rage could have been felt, she thought, by even someone who wasn’t Force sensitive. To a Force sensitive, and especially to someone like her whose strengths with the Force were in the mental and sensory aspects...it was like the oppressive heat of a volcano. As she felt him leave, she wondered how long she was going to be trapped here. Was she going to have to extricate herself from her bonds?
In case that answer was ‘yes’, she decided to shut her eyes and conserve her energy. Telekinesis was not a skill that came to her easily. She almost envied Kylo Ren for his gift with it. Almost, but not quite. With that power and that connection to Vader came higher expectations. Being so close to the top meant he had far to fall, and since he was trying to emulate a man who’d been feared by the entire galaxy, he would have few friends to catch him if and when that did happen. If any. No, Kylo was not to be envied. While valued for her own abilities with the Force, she did not have the same burden to bear.
Fortunately, the stormtroopers showed up before she had to try escaping. “Yes,” she confirmed, expression neutral even as she inwardly winced at being addressed as ‘ma’am’. She was too young to be called that and had to remind herself that they were merely using the correct form of address for a female who ranked above them. “I have to report to the Supreme Leader and wish to avoid any further delays.” Xiria paused for a moment before adding, “Once you’ve escorted me to him, have elevator 3RX seen to by a technician. It was broken in a training exercise.”