Sharp hands dig equally sharp nails into his rib cage, slip between the bones and curl around the bottom to find strongholds in the gaps and pull. It isn't enough to yank him from this mental construct of Ilum, but the strength and violence behind the actual, physical act of this manner of retribution leans him forward under the weight of it, disrupts the steady inhale-exhale pattern of his breathing with a hitch that sounds similar to choking. A steady hand travels up, up, through his lungs to his trachea, applies pressure, just enough to turn the rhythm of his breath to a wheeze, thin and reedy, then nothing at all before it falls away.
He almost slips, almost loses focus enough to emerge from the mind walk like breaking the surface of water after being held under for far too long. Snoke's presence encourages him to wake, promises forgiveness in its existence at all if he just turns his back on this endeavor and escapes. He knows there is no escape. Standing in the dark on Ilum, seated in the uncomfortable chair within the Resistance camp, there is no freedom to be found on either side. The only path that might lead to some semblance of the idea, the word, is the one that they walk right down the middle.
Soft, spoken words return on Ilum, creeping through the cave like heavy fog, forming black words under the guise of a soft touch. )
Bring the girl to me, and all will be forgiven, Kylo Ren. ( Snoke says it to him, only to him, but in this shared space there is no only, and the delicate boom of the Supreme Leader's voice makes rock face tremble and ice crack. The power that his presence holds here, even without physical or projected form, makes Kylo believe, understand, that it's real. Another failure, another weakness, another mark against him. He should drop to his knees and beg for mercy, but he stays standing, ice cracking underneath the weight of him in his own right. ) Return from this moment of weakness, and you will be exulted, not punished.
( Rey steps in front of him, a quick sideways maneuver that he doesn't see coming. He half-expects her to pull out, to leave him stranded in this darkness to warn the others of what's coming, their failure as he slips back underneath the dark waves of the Force as he always has. She is defenseless in the void, the comma of her frame just a figure in the darkness, the barest suggestion of a presence suspended here as his has become, but she steps forward all the same, and it strikes him then that it would be strange to consider her doing anything else. Foolish, suicidal, but brave. A scavenger. She yells into the face of this unknown being and her voice is swallowed by the vacuum of space, by the emptiness of the cave, desperate to consume life so that it may persist. Something shifts very distinctly in the air, the rearrangement of atoms, a new distribution of gravity. Before Kylo can answer her, Snoke begins to laugh. )
I see you, girl. ( He isn't here but he is. He doesn't appear but he does. He is nowhere and everywhere, peering through time and space to look into every part of her with a sharp, distinct lens. Klyo feels the burning focus of his master's intense anger, the cold sting of his perception of Kylo's betrayal. No matter what line he had stood on in the command shuttle, as a prisoner of the Resistance, every step through this landscape has been one further and further from the Supreme Leader's reach, and that, in itself, is inadmissible. Kylo sees that for what it is: he does not stand with his master, and he does not stand with the Resistance; he barely stands next Rey, but he does stand on his own. ) I see the darkness within you. Untouched, untapped, don't hold it at bay, afraid. Use it.
( The intent in his instruction is clear, though hard to facilitate even for someone of Snoke's scope and reach of power. There are no sabers here, no blasters, no weapons to raise against one another. They could unravel one another's minds or tap into arcane abilities to destroy one another. If the cloying darkness Snoke aims to inspire in Rey takes root, she could turn to take Kylo's place at Snoke's side like the Supreme Leader aims for. Anger blooms in him, bursts through his blood vessels, finds a path out through the curl of his hands, freezing cold and stiff and white in Ilum's frostbitten air. It isn't a new feeling, but the source of it is suddenly new. )
Enough. ( The voice that cuts the tangible silence of the cave is his own, loud and dark and twisted with anger underneath the calm rumble of Snoke's, verging on hoarse as it strains against his master. They can't win, can't beat him like this. It's a thought that presents itself completely and unquestionably, as much as the knowledge that killing Snoke is going to be the end goal, as much as what he and Rey had seen together on Yaga Minor. The ambition of all Sith is to defeat other Sith, and while Kylo Ren might not be Sith, the hierarchy of their existence as Knights underneath the Supreme Leader models the hierarchy that his grandfather subscribed to. And Vader threw Sidious down a maintenance shaft. He grabs Rey's arm by the elbow and pulls himself in front of her roughly. ) Your power spans the entire galaxy, Supreme Leader, but it does not reach this far.
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Sharp hands dig equally sharp nails into his rib cage, slip between the bones and curl around the bottom to find strongholds in the gaps and pull. It isn't enough to yank him from this mental construct of Ilum, but the strength and violence behind the actual, physical act of this manner of retribution leans him forward under the weight of it, disrupts the steady inhale-exhale pattern of his breathing with a hitch that sounds similar to choking. A steady hand travels up, up, through his lungs to his trachea, applies pressure, just enough to turn the rhythm of his breath to a wheeze, thin and reedy, then nothing at all before it falls away.
He almost slips, almost loses focus enough to emerge from the mind walk like breaking the surface of water after being held under for far too long. Snoke's presence encourages him to wake, promises forgiveness in its existence at all if he just turns his back on this endeavor and escapes. He knows there is no escape. Standing in the dark on Ilum, seated in the uncomfortable chair within the Resistance camp, there is no freedom to be found on either side. The only path that might lead to some semblance of the idea, the word, is the one that they walk right down the middle.
Soft, spoken words return on Ilum, creeping through the cave like heavy fog, forming black words under the guise of a soft touch. )
Bring the girl to me, and all will be forgiven, Kylo Ren. ( Snoke says it to him, only to him, but in this shared space there is no only, and the delicate boom of the Supreme Leader's voice makes rock face tremble and ice crack. The power that his presence holds here, even without physical or projected form, makes Kylo believe, understand, that it's real. Another failure, another weakness, another mark against him. He should drop to his knees and beg for mercy, but he stays standing, ice cracking underneath the weight of him in his own right. ) Return from this moment of weakness, and you will be exulted, not punished.
( Rey steps in front of him, a quick sideways maneuver that he doesn't see coming. He half-expects her to pull out, to leave him stranded in this darkness to warn the others of what's coming, their failure as he slips back underneath the dark waves of the Force as he always has. She is defenseless in the void, the comma of her frame just a figure in the darkness, the barest suggestion of a presence suspended here as his has become, but she steps forward all the same, and it strikes him then that it would be strange to consider her doing anything else. Foolish, suicidal, but brave. A scavenger. She yells into the face of this unknown being and her voice is swallowed by the vacuum of space, by the emptiness of the cave, desperate to consume life so that it may persist. Something shifts very distinctly in the air, the rearrangement of atoms, a new distribution of gravity. Before Kylo can answer her, Snoke begins to laugh. )
I see you, girl. ( He isn't here but he is. He doesn't appear but he does. He is nowhere and everywhere, peering through time and space to look into every part of her with a sharp, distinct lens. Klyo feels the burning focus of his master's intense anger, the cold sting of his perception of Kylo's betrayal. No matter what line he had stood on in the command shuttle, as a prisoner of the Resistance, every step through this landscape has been one further and further from the Supreme Leader's reach, and that, in itself, is inadmissible. Kylo sees that for what it is: he does not stand with his master, and he does not stand with the Resistance; he barely stands next Rey, but he does stand on his own. ) I see the darkness within you. Untouched, untapped, don't hold it at bay, afraid. Use it.
( The intent in his instruction is clear, though hard to facilitate even for someone of Snoke's scope and reach of power. There are no sabers here, no blasters, no weapons to raise against one another. They could unravel one another's minds or tap into arcane abilities to destroy one another. If the cloying darkness Snoke aims to inspire in Rey takes root, she could turn to take Kylo's place at Snoke's side like the Supreme Leader aims for. Anger blooms in him, bursts through his blood vessels, finds a path out through the curl of his hands, freezing cold and stiff and white in Ilum's frostbitten air. It isn't a new feeling, but the source of it is suddenly new. )
Enough. ( The voice that cuts the tangible silence of the cave is his own, loud and dark and twisted with anger underneath the calm rumble of Snoke's, verging on hoarse as it strains against his master. They can't win, can't beat him like this. It's a thought that presents itself completely and unquestionably, as much as the knowledge that killing Snoke is going to be the end goal, as much as what he and Rey had seen together on Yaga Minor. The ambition of all Sith is to defeat other Sith, and while Kylo Ren might not be Sith, the hierarchy of their existence as Knights underneath the Supreme Leader models the hierarchy that his grandfather subscribed to. And Vader threw Sidious down a maintenance shaft. He grabs Rey's arm by the elbow and pulls himself in front of her roughly. ) Your power spans the entire galaxy, Supreme Leader, but it does not reach this far.