Who: Freya Shepherd and Kyle Roth What: Training. Where: An abandoned building in London. When: Friday afternoon, February 28th, 2020 Warnings: TBD, but probably nothing.
One of the benefits of living in London without a car was becoming intimately familiar with all the streets and buildings within walking distance. A few blocks from Freya’s flat was a mixed-use monstrosity that had sat empty for over a year now, an eyesore in an otherwise thriving community. One of those gentrification efforts that transformed old offices into “luxury lofts,” the project fell apart before it had even really begun, and now it was nothing but an expensive embarrassment for everyone involved.
Freya had her eye on the building as a potential neutral location long before she needed it. The security was lax and easy to bypass, the surrounding buildings promptly emptied by the end of business hours, and miraculously, someone was still paying for the electricity. Before, she’d been keeping this place in her back pocket should Jo ever need it for their work, even going so far as to stock it with emergency supplies. Now, she was glad she’d never told anyone about it.
It was the perfect place to meet someone who would very likely try to kill her.
Sitting in plain view of the lift and hugging her knees to her chest, Freya once again ran through all the possible paths tonight could take as she stared at her lightsaber on the floor in front of her. She’d been repeating these scenarios for weeks now, weighing her options and deciding that this was what she wanted. That, no matter what happened, she knew the risks and prepared herself for the worst. In part, that was her excuse for making Kyle wait as long as she did before reaching out to him. There would be no room for doubts once they were standing across from one another again, sabers drawn. She needed to be ready, and she needed to be sure.
She thought she was. Meeting the reincarnates of Han and Poe had put a slight wrench into things, though. Somehow, it had been easier to justify hiding the existence of this life’s Kylo Ren when she’d only known about Lydia and Lachlan, but adding Matt and Gabe into the mix made the lie feel bigger. Uglier. But in the end, she decided it was better to keep the secret and deal with Kyle herself. That way, she could also hide them from him.
Part of her could legitimize her decision to keep seeing Kyle as protection, evaluating a potential threat with the possibility in mind that she might have to neutralize him one day to protect both herself and the others, but it was a very small part, pushed to the very back of her mind. The bigger part of her knew that agreeing to train with him was purely selfish, a temptation she couldn't resist. In a way, it was just like the mirror cave of Ahch-To. Kyle was offering her something no one else could give her: a chance to test her limits with the only person who could meet them. What other choice did she have? The darkness called, and she couldn't help but run toward it again.
At least this time she was being smart about it. Like Rey, she knew the lines she wouldn't cross, and she knew she was strong enough not to let his darkness consume her, so any other temptations Kyle offered would fall on deaf ears. Unlike Rey, though, Freya knew better than to fly straight into the villain’s lair. This time they’d be doing things her way, on her turf.
When she finally committed to her decision and found him again through the Force the day before, their conversation was short and curiously direct. She explained to him her conditions: this would be an exploration of their abilities and nothing more, there were no "greater things" in store for her so he could just give up on that one, they would meet where she chose, and under no circumstances would he return to her flat. She wasn't surprised when he agreed, though she was still suspicious of him giving up so much control. She sensed a trap somewhere down the line, but she couldn't see it yet.
But in the end it didn't matter. Neither of them said it in so many words, but she expected that they wanted the same thing from this training session (and possibly more, if this first one didn't end badly): to find out what being a dyad in the Force really meant. Rey and Ben never had time to figure it out, but Freya and Kyle? They did.
So that was the end of it. She handed him a slip of paper with an address and let go of it the second his gloved fingers touched it, not yet wanting to cross that particular boundary, through the Force or otherwise. She told him to meet her in 24 hours and broke the connection. And then she prepared.
Everything was ready now. The third floor of the building was the most open of them all, with only a few crumbling walls left standing closer to the corners. The ceilings were high, pipes and wires exposed, lights dim but functional, windows blacked out (Freya’s doing, from months ago). No one would care if the interior of this building were destroyed in a lightsaber battle, whether it was for practice or for real. No one would see it from the outside.
Freya knew every inch of this building, and she’d gotten here hours before the time she’d given him. She was ready. All he had to do was show up.