( Muscles underneath his skin seem to ripple with the remembered plunge of the vibroblade through his flesh, striking bone, and when Kylo attempts to put weight on this leg, he fumbles, fingers gliding against the wall that is not the wall but is the ground as his weight brings his knee to the floor of the mine shaft. He has to take care in the span of one heartbeat not to bring his saber across himself in an effort to both regain balance and continue lashing out in abject rage and mortification, in the interest of not burning himself and -
Rey, who steps in front of him and throws a high knee toward the twist of melted fiber and the smell of burnt skin that greets him when he looks up. The world seems to slip sideways down into a black spiral of hollow, hot pain, and he can feel his pulse in his leg where blood rises to the surface and turns the dull and dark fabric of his pant leg almost luminescent with the damp glitter of dark blood on dark clothing. Bile rises in the back of his throat at being shuffled to the side in such a fashion, and it gurgles at the thought of Rey trying - assuming - to protect him even while she's trying to stop him from ripping Ji apart limb by limb. His teeth grind together, rip apart just as savagely to let a sharp bark full of surprised pain issue forth as he looks up in time to watch Rey parry and drive the Knight of Ren back.
He imagines that this is what it might have looked like had their positions been reversed on Starkiller, had he been the one waking in the snow to watch her beat the opponent back and back. He has the recollection of his own time spent down and out across from her, waiting and wondering if she would take the window of opportunity to drive the solid blue beam down into him, stop the course of their intertwined lives from intersecting ever again in that moment, but this is different. Kylo is not unconscious, for starters, with one hand grasping the shaking hilt of his saber and the other palm-down in an effort to guide himself to his feet. He won't kneel, not in pain, not in obedience, not out of necessity.
The pain is not enough to distract him from the whirling turn of color and light converging that Rey becomes, swallowed by darkness on either side but still illuminated. Kylo knows when Ji lands a hit, slaps a palm against his abdomen as the sensation of Rey's skin splitting open right between her ribs hits him like a punch straight to the gut, but he also knows how Rey intends to use it and can't find it within him to critique her strategy when Ji's hand and blade fall away in one perfect motion from the mercy of Rey's form. He would have taken the same risk, employed the same strategy, in the interest of winning, and it's this thought that brings him to his feet, bent over and favoring his left leg as he is.
Rey is speaking, and he hears it through the haze of his own slide down into the darkness, shadows pulling and clawing at his arms and legs, wrapping around his middle, offering him the strength he needs to stand, to drive forward if need be. He hears the clatter of the vibroblade as Rey kicks it away, a sharp, metallic spin deeper in the shaft, completely out of sight and swallowed by the darkness. Ji is a ragged mess, a bleeding tear in the Force, cradling what's left of her wrist against her chest in an effort to stem the pound of pain rather than out of despair. He knows better than to think her movements are the anything other than strictly clinical, but the flow of her anger is strong and alarming, infecting the wound.
I would rather have yours, she says, before extending one hand with a power that is not hers. Ji's fingers spread out and turn inward in a jerking motion, and Kylo has just enough sense and energy left within him to grab Rey by the belt and haul her bodily away from the spot she has been occupying. The mine goes up in a thick cloud of dust, painting the both of them with brown-black soot and filling their nostrils and mouths with pulverized rock. )
Go! ( Kylo manages to roar it at her through the cough that erupts from his chest, throwing open the channel between them with a fierce shove that cracks an iron handrail next to them under the concentrated effort of reaching her in this way. His hand is still wrapped around her belt, and he uses it to shove her ahead of him, their red and blue blades the only light in the gloom. )
no subject
Rey, who steps in front of him and throws a high knee toward the twist of melted fiber and the smell of burnt skin that greets him when he looks up. The world seems to slip sideways down into a black spiral of hollow, hot pain, and he can feel his pulse in his leg where blood rises to the surface and turns the dull and dark fabric of his pant leg almost luminescent with the damp glitter of dark blood on dark clothing. Bile rises in the back of his throat at being shuffled to the side in such a fashion, and it gurgles at the thought of Rey trying - assuming - to protect him even while she's trying to stop him from ripping Ji apart limb by limb. His teeth grind together, rip apart just as savagely to let a sharp bark full of surprised pain issue forth as he looks up in time to watch Rey parry and drive the Knight of Ren back.
He imagines that this is what it might have looked like had their positions been reversed on Starkiller, had he been the one waking in the snow to watch her beat the opponent back and back. He has the recollection of his own time spent down and out across from her, waiting and wondering if she would take the window of opportunity to drive the solid blue beam down into him, stop the course of their intertwined lives from intersecting ever again in that moment, but this is different. Kylo is not unconscious, for starters, with one hand grasping the shaking hilt of his saber and the other palm-down in an effort to guide himself to his feet. He won't kneel, not in pain, not in obedience, not out of necessity.
The pain is not enough to distract him from the whirling turn of color and light converging that Rey becomes, swallowed by darkness on either side but still illuminated. Kylo knows when Ji lands a hit, slaps a palm against his abdomen as the sensation of Rey's skin splitting open right between her ribs hits him like a punch straight to the gut, but he also knows how Rey intends to use it and can't find it within him to critique her strategy when Ji's hand and blade fall away in one perfect motion from the mercy of Rey's form. He would have taken the same risk, employed the same strategy, in the interest of winning, and it's this thought that brings him to his feet, bent over and favoring his left leg as he is.
Rey is speaking, and he hears it through the haze of his own slide down into the darkness, shadows pulling and clawing at his arms and legs, wrapping around his middle, offering him the strength he needs to stand, to drive forward if need be. He hears the clatter of the vibroblade as Rey kicks it away, a sharp, metallic spin deeper in the shaft, completely out of sight and swallowed by the darkness. Ji is a ragged mess, a bleeding tear in the Force, cradling what's left of her wrist against her chest in an effort to stem the pound of pain rather than out of despair. He knows better than to think her movements are the anything other than strictly clinical, but the flow of her anger is strong and alarming, infecting the wound.
I would rather have yours, she says, before extending one hand with a power that is not hers. Ji's fingers spread out and turn inward in a jerking motion, and Kylo has just enough sense and energy left within him to grab Rey by the belt and haul her bodily away from the spot she has been occupying. The mine goes up in a thick cloud of dust, painting the both of them with brown-black soot and filling their nostrils and mouths with pulverized rock. )
Go! ( Kylo manages to roar it at her through the cough that erupts from his chest, throwing open the channel between them with a fierce shove that cracks an iron handrail next to them under the concentrated effort of reaching her in this way. His hand is still wrapped around her belt, and he uses it to shove her ahead of him, their red and blue blades the only light in the gloom. )