Summary: The galaxy calls her Lady Snake- a quick and merciless killer. Kylo Ren calls her a nuisance.Krina, a Commander and the only other Force user of the First Order, despises what the dark side has become and wishes to return it to its true state of power but what she hates the most is the naive man-child ruling over it.
Chapter 6: Reluctor (To Struggle Against)
Words: 2,112
Krina would rather be doing anything else right now- anything. She could make a whole list and organize it accordingly. Kriff, dying would be right at the top- even only a few days after her nightmare. Instead, she was standing beside Kylo Ren on a planet all too new for her.
Salt crunched against thick, black soles, leaving a trace of Krina’s path through the newly exposed red crystal. It was beautiful, unlike anything she had seen before. The perfect layer of white could be mistaken for snow when looked at from afar but up close it was coarse and rough. She had to be careful of how she stepped, due to the slickness of the planet’s surface, as she followed Kylo’s lead and made her way to the corpse of a battle that had taken place only months before.
Much to her dismay, Krina was ordered to stay on the Finalizer while a small portion of the First Order took to Crait in hopes of cutting off the Resistance and destroying them. She was restless, wanting to be in the middle of it all. She was more than capable of causing serious damage to anything the Resistance threw her way. The First Order knew she was the perfect person to go in and do the job but pride got in the way of seeking true success. And of course Kylo Ren stood in her way, ordering her to stand down.
The Resistance had grown accustomed to dealing with Kylo. They knew his motives and the way to break him down. It was surely going to be his downfall. They didn’t know Krina in the same way. She was a mystery to them, something of their nightmares that only ended in bloodshed with a devilish smile. It was no secret that the Resistance’s hatred for her exceeded anything they felt for Kylo. Even then, she wanted nothing more than to stand in front of them again and watch fear cloud their judgment.
Krina continuously shifted her gaze between the terrain in front of her and Kylo’s large frame as they trudged on, resorting to using the end of her long, delicate cape as a cover for her face as a strong gust of wind sent flumes of salt spiraling. A small group of stormtroopers followed behind them as a precaution but kept their distance. As the wind-picked salt began to settle, the Resistance outpost and remnants of the battle came into view. The pair took attentive steps into the wreckage.
A few First Order machines were the first to catch Krina’s eye due to the dark grey shading out against pure white. AT-AT and AT-M6 walkers had begun to cover in salt as if it were snow, causing only about half of each walker to be accessible to her. Large chunks of the armored exterior were missing from blasts, the impact of collapsing, and even time. Krina stared down at the AT-M6 beside her, scanning what had remained of it. It was apparent that it had been shot down by something Resistance owned since the wounds were small and plentiful. She took note before she continued to walk towards her destination, trailing a little behind her superior who didn’t need to assess the damage he had inflicted.
Catching sight of a lone skim speeder, a V-4X-D to be exact, is what caused Krina to stop again. The quality of the speeder, what was left of it anyway, showed its age. It was practically in pieces. First Order blasters and cannons were far more powerful than anything the Resistance could dream of making. Krina was surprised this one held up as well as it had. She bent down, landing on her knees. She put one hand on the metal, shivering at the cold, and closed her eyes. She invited the Force to take over and it flooded her senses.
A slowly moving image played in her mind of the skim speeder losing its balance as it, and its pilot, narrowly avoided First Order bullets and collided with the salted terrain. Fear and a sense of acceptance hit the pilot all at once before their heads lulled to the side as the speeder landed on top of them. Krina didn’t flinch at the sight or the ghastly emotions. The image slowly disappeared and Krina was staring back at the vehicle again.
“Force echoing?” Kylo questioned as he looked at her from over his shoulder. Krina looked up at him, pursing her lips.
“You’d know I could do that if you actually paid attention to anyone but yourself.”
Years ago, Krina had mastered her ability to use psychometry. Most called it “Force echoing,” much like Kylo did, but it was hardly technical terminology. It was a skill very few Force-sensitives were born with and those who mastered it could acquire information about objects just by touching them. Krina had been one of those few and was the only known Dark sider who possessed such a power. It was just another piece that made her so vital to the First Order. She could feel the jealousy radiating off of the man ahead of her.
Krina straightened out and made her way over to Kylo. The pair walked side by side once again, their eyes on the only real reason they were on this waste of a planet in the first place. The massive, metal mine shaft door was sealed shut with one massive crack running all the way down it.
“The battering ram cannon only managed to put a crack in it?” Disgust oozed out of Krina’s words.
“It was successfully opened.” The sternness of Kylo’s correction trailed off as his eyes scanned the mysterious door.
“Then, why is it closed?”
“Isn’t that the reason why we are here?” Kylo snapped and Krina rolled her eyes.
It made the pair look so small as it towered above. It was quite comical how someone as tall and intimidating as Supreme Leader Kylo Ren seemed so insignificant against it. Krina took a step forward and closed her eyes.
“You do not truly think you can open this door after it took death star technology to open it the first time?” Kylo snorted, crossing his arms over his chest. Krina kept silent and deepened her breathing, using the Force to will the door open. As the door creaked and began to lift, Krina smirked proudly to herself. She could feel Kylo’s scowl burning a hole in the back of her head. It was an inconvenient day for him to decide to leave his helmet on this ship. As the stormtroopers approached, they all gasped at the sight.
“Kylo Ren can’t do that,” One of them whispered under his breath, trying to keep his words to himself as much as possible. Krina threw her head back and let out a loud cackle as Kylo threw out a hand and squeezed around the trooper’s throat.
Krina really was a lot stronger than she let on. She was going to have to boast about this when she was back on the Finalizer, tell Hux how Kylo Ren’s blood boiled, and maybe try to impress a few Knights of Ren. If only the First Order would have let her attend the mission the first time around. Whether she was strong or not, the amount of power and manipulation of the Force it took to open the door knocked the wind out of her. She tried her best to not let her newfangled exhaustion show as she very slowly and cautiously stepped inside.
The outpost was a skeleton of what was already a bare bones operation. It had been stripped, forgotten, further abandoned. Dust, grime, and dirt had begun to rest in cracks and on the tops of surfaces. All machines had been powered down or destroyed.
Truthfully, Krina couldn’t quite understand how the Resistance found a place as desolate and outdated as Crait to be useful to them but then again, they were terrible at making just about any decision. And this time, they managed to get away but their fleet was continuing to dwindle. Had she been allowed to go, the Resistance would no longer exist. Then again, maybe Krina would no longer exist instead. This could have been the very place where she fell. The very place where the Resistance showed her no remorse, where Kylo Ren stood with them as they struck her down.
Kylo Ren. Krina quickly abandoned the crates and searched for him. Stormtroopers, deserted equipment, and no sign of the Supreme Leader. Panic. All that settled in Krina’s bones was unbridled panic. Was this all just a ploy? A way to get her alone so he could put an end to her?
Had he really left her behind?
Krina pushed past stormtroopers and searched everywhere. Her mind was racing and she didn’t stop for a second to think of utilizing the Force. She was so used to cutting him off from her mind and keeping her distance that searching for him in a way that made them both vulnerable felt foreign and sinister.
While running a shaky hand through strands of hair that had fallen out of a haphazard ponytail, Krina let out a breath. Pain, manifesting as both physical and mental, caused the sigh to come out as a whine. The whole world seemed to freeze around Krina as she unraveled.
“Kylo.” One simple word came out in a broken whisper. Something tugged at Kylo as he searched the premises in a room that veered off from the main hangar. It echoed in his mind, practically screaming at him. Something was wrong. Immediately, he thought of Krina and all the ways she could be causing trouble.
Krina was so frantic, she didn’t realize Kylo, out of breath and disheveled, had arrived at her side. A gentle touch and soothing voice shook her out of her thoughts.
“Krina,” He practically whispered back to her. She looked up at him, eyes wide. “What have you done?”
“Nothing!” She scoffed, stepping away from him. “I don’t spend all my time causing problems for you.”
“I sensed a disturbance. I only thought-”
“Well, you were mistaken. Whatever you sensed was not from me. If you don’t recall, I tend to keep you cut off. I don’t need to be interrupted by your unbalanced connection with the Force.” Krina’s words were a string of defenses to cover a moment of weakness. Hopefully, that was something Kylo couldn’t sense. He did.
“The Force does not lie, Krina. I would not have abandoned my search to come to your rescue if it was nothing.”
“My rescue?! You can do that now when it’s misplaced but not when I was dying?!” Krina’s voice echoed through the bunker as her volume continued to get louder. She was yelling at the Supreme Leader of the First Order with no remorse. Kylo’s facial features twisted in confusion.
“Dying? When were you dying?” His works cracked and frayed at the seams. The thought of Krina dying struck fear in both of them. Krina’s eyes doubled in size before she tried to normalize her expression and erase any signs of her former panic. This nightmare had continued to seep into moments in her life and blur the edges of reality, which she was losing her grip on.
“Unimportant,” Krina mumbled as she turned on her heels and walked back towards the crates she had been rummaging through. Kylo followed closely behind her.
“I only found pieces of broken speeders and a holopad that seems to be damaged,” Krina kept her eyes on the items as she listed them off. No part of her wanted to explain her words to Kylo Ren of all people. Kylo blinked at the change in conversation.
“The holopad could be an important piece. If we can get it working, we can essentially come in direct contact with the Resistance.” Kylo commented, keeping his eyes on Krina. Nothing on this planet was worth what had just happened between them. He wasn’t going to let her off the hook.
“So this wasn’t all for nothing?”
“No, I suppose not. Although, one holopad hardly seems like a victory. We need to bring this back to the Steadfast immediately.” Kylo barked the orders loud enough for the stormtroopers to hear and marched out of the hangar. Krina hesitated before she followed behind with her head hung low. Silence became a close friend on the trip back.
The sudden echo in the Force, Krina’s broken expression, and her eerie words played back in Kylo’s mind over and over again like a broken record or a dream he couldn’t shake.
Summary: The galaxy calls her Lady Snake- a quick and merciless killer. Kylo Ren calls her a nuisance. Krina, a Commander and the only other Force user of the First Order, despises what the dark side has become and wishes to return it to its true state of power but what she hates the most is the naive man-child ruling over it.
Chapter 5: Defluo (To Fall Away, Disappear, Be Lost )
Words: 2,144
“Supreme Leader,” She started. “Kylo Ren. Kylo. Please. Please, Kylo. Help me,” Krina was begging so fast, her words slurred. She didn’t know how much time she had left and she wanted to be able to say it all. “Kylo, I- I’m sorry. Please, just save me and we can start over. Please I-”
The blast was so loud, everything froze.
Sweaty palms gripped at silk sheets as Krina jolted up in bed. Her heartbeat was so loud, it throbbed in her head. The red glow of her lightsaber filled the room as she instinctively reached for and ignited it. Her eyes scanned the space around her and slowly, she realized where she was. Her quarters. She was safe for now.
Krina held her saber sideways, using its illumination to give herself a little more vision. She knew this room like the back of her hand and could navigate through it with her eyes closed, without the guidance of the Force, but it felt so foriegn in the moment. Her quarters were nothing to gloat about- a single room with a small refresher attached- but it was hers and she should feel safe while laying in her own bed. When she proved to herself that she was in fact alone, she extinguished the blade and laid back down, tossing the hilt on the pillow beside her own.
A bad dream- a nightmare. Merciless killing had its consequences and the Force was unforgiving with the emphasis it gave to the weight of guilt. Krina had gotten used to it and let it roll off her back- most of the time. Tonight was different. She squeezed her eyes shut and let the dream play back in her head.
Krina could see the Resistance troops so clearly as they gathered and prepared to march towards the First Order, who outnumbered them tenfold. Krina stood behind lines of stormtroopers. Her lightsaber crackled at her side, and she tightened her grip in anticipation.
Directly next to her was the one and only Supreme Leader Kylo Ren whose one lightsaber was much louder, much angrier. It drowned hers out almost completely. They didn’t dare to look at each other or mutter a word. They were both perfectly still and silent as Hux shouted orders and prepared troopers. They both knew this was the battle that was going to end years of fighting, years of being unable to let go of the past. There was a sudden shift in the Force that left Krina winded. It was the beginning of the end.
“Fire!” The word came out of Hux’s mouth so harshly, it would’ve startled Krina if she hadn’t sensed it coming. The First Order always made the first move. They were far brasher than their enemy who had anticipated this very thing.
The first cannon, the first blaster bullet, the first airstrike. The first kill.
The Resistance reacted logically. Their retaliations were slow at first but sped up over seconds and suddenly, it was an all-out war.
The sound of blasters was deafening. Krina couldn’t make out what side the sound, or the bullets, were coming from. It had to be both but keeping up was almost impossible and she could only stop and redirect so many. Stormtroopers scattered and attacked so quickly, they became streaks of white as they charged. Screams, pained grunts, and commands all mixed into the air and made it impossible to make out anything.
The first shot to her exposed arm only felt like a pinch, a poke. She brushed it off, kept running towards the one person she wanted to murder the most: Rey. The three force-sensitive people in the area could sense it the second their eyes met. They knew Krina was going to put an end to the scavenger who tore Kylo Ren’s soul in two. She didn’t hesitate. Her feet practically glided against the ground as the Force surged her forward, pumping in her veins more powerfully than adrenaline ever could.
Krina was interrupted by a Resistance fighter who ran at her with all their might, screaming a battle cry at the top of their lungs. Their shouts immediately silenced as Krina slid her lightsaber out of their chest.
Rey was becoming clearer as she got closer. There was no one around the new Jedi, no one trying to attack her or aim anything her way. Serenity surrounded her, she was the calm in the eye of the storm.
“Scavenger scum!” Krina screamed with her lightsaber up in the air like the head of a cobra, ready to strike. Rey stood her guard in her stance, eyes locked on Krina, who couldn’t quite place the emotions the girl was giving off. It sat somewhere between sadness and guilt. Krina didn’t care to know why.
The clashing of their sabers created a splash of color, a scream of sound. Krina was one step ahead of her enemy, already forming her next move before Rey had any time to plan, to think. It didn’t matter. Rey was just as quick to counter as Krina was to strike.
“You’ve trained well, Jedi, but not well enough,” Krina commented through gritted teeth. Rey was silent, only speaking through the look in her eye. They continued like this for what seemed like forever. Attacking, parrying, fueling their own power through the Force. Krina was growing tired. Rey was not.
The Force, and the impact of the nightmare, were not being kind or letting up on Krina at all. The weight on her chest had become enough and she slipped out the bed in a quick motion. Bare feet padded against the cold floor as she made her way into her refresher.
She hesitated before she dared to look at herself in the mirror – she hardly gave a thought to her appearance on any given day. What stared back at her was unfamiliar. Disheveled hair poorly framed her face as it covered her scar and hung low by her eye. She batted it away but didn’t bother to fix the other messy strands that were out of place. Her usually dark brown irises were practically black in the dim light and her pupils were blown. There was a paleness to her skin that would’ve caused her to be sent straight to the med bay if anyone of importance saw.
Dreams- nightmares- had never left such a noticeable impact on Krina. Frustration bubbled in her chest and she let out a frustrated scream, punching the glass in front of her. The impact left a spider web crack in its wake. She didn’t flinch at the pain or the action. She just retracted her fist and rolled her shoulders back.
The shrieking sound of a blaster bolt tore through the air and echoed in Krina’s ears even after it silenced as the intense plasmic energy wracked through her body. She let out an angry snarl as it radiated through her muscles. Somehow, the first wound was suddenly much more prominent and she was hyper-aware of her disadvantage: the bleeding and aching injuries that were beginning to litter her body. Krina flipped around, eyes wildly searching for her attacker. She located a Resistance member, whose face felt familiar, and took them out easily enough, crushing their windpipe with a single swipe of her hand.
Krina searched again, this time for First Order members, stormtroopers, officers, Kylo Ren, anyone. She was surprised by her realization that she was alone, surrounded by no one else but Rey who had reminded her of the task at hand with a violent slash to Krina’s waist.
Another scream left Krina’s lips that were now beginning to stain with blood. Pain flooded her senses in place of panic. She looked at Rey as her nostrils flared and her eyes narrowed.
“I’m going to kill you so mercilessly, your friends are going to be seeing your mangled body in their dreams,” Krina threatened, striking again. This time, her attack was sloppy and brash and felt as if someone else was attacking for her. This was hardly her style but she was tired, weak, and angry- so angry that her vision was beginning to blur.
This time, it wasn’t Rey who blocked the attack. There stood the traitor, FN-2187, wielding a weapon that didn’t belong to him at all. The scavenger's staff soaked up the attack as much as it could, cracking in the process. Krina looked up from her illuminated blade and was met by Finn’s expressionless gaze as he attacked her again, swiping at her feet. Krina lost her balance, falling to the ground. She scrambled and reached for her weapon that was too far from her grasp as it had rolled closer to the enemy.
As Krina began to stand, a strong hand pushed her back down, causing a snarl to tear from her throat. Her head bounced back as it hit the soil and she blinked rapidly, trying to keep conscious.
Krina ignored the physical pain as her knuckles throbbed and focused on the way the Force was crushing her morale. Using her uninjured hand, she turned on the facet as far as it would give, inviting the warm water to begin to fill up the sink and try to wash the remnants of the nightmare away.
She couldn’t keep her gaze from slowly trail back up to that reflection, so uninviting and cold. Years of training, killing, and living for the sake of the First Order should’ve cleansed her of any warmth anyway but there was something so frigid about the current version of herself that it brought hatred up through her veins.
The Force wouldn’t allow her to have such a dream with little to no reason. She felt it to be true: she meant nothing to the First Order or anyone in it, regardless of how much she had given up for it. She was a cog in a machine much larger than herself.
Her eyes snapped back down to the water and she impatiently shoved her fist into it, unbothered by the sting. The water worked to wash away glass shards and blood but it could never wash away Krina’s skeletons that had begun to show themselves. Eventually, the pain subsided but she continued to let the water run anyway and ignored the pang of guilt in her chest as she looked back into the distorted glass once again.
The realization, the whole purpose of having to bear such a nightmare, hardly mattered to Krina. Her whole life had been dedicated to this very cause and she was going to continue fighting for it until her very last breath.
“Scum!” She screamed at no one in particular, even though Poe Dameron was standing directly above her with a blaster pointed at her uncovered head. “All of you!”
Krina thrashed, begging the Force to help her. She just needed another rush of power, even if it was hardly any power at all. She just needed something. She snarled, gnashed her teeth, and continued to struggle.
A boot smashed right against her chest, earning a wheeze from the wounded Commander. She could barely make out the new attacker but something in Krina’s aching body knew exactly who it was: Rose Tico. Of course, she would want a piece of Krina’s demise. They all did.
Tired eyes began to look frantically, searching once again for anyone who was coming to save her. Her eyes first landed on a large group of stormtroopers fighting just feet away from where she was surrounded. They had been ignoring her pleas as they fought their own enemies. Once she finally got herself to tear her gaze away from them, she found Hux standing alone, watching on. His arms rested behind his back and disappointment was written all over his face.
“General,” Krina cried, reaching out a shaky hand. Hux remained still and his expression became unreadable. He wasn’t trying to save her either. None of them were. They all watched on and let it happen, silently cheering.
There was one more person Krina needed to see before the end of her life. The only person her mind could stand to think of in the moment. Time was moving so fast yet so slow, she almost missed him standing there. There was no helmet covering his face nor a scar staring back at her own. His eyes shined in the darkness that was blurring the edges of Krina’s vision. Kylo Ren looked more peaceful at the moment of Krina’s death than he ever had in his life. She reached out the same hand she offered to Hux. Salty tears stung the cuts on her face. She had so much and yet so little to say, to feel, to think. None of it mattered anyway. Her time was up and she knew it as she began to speak.
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