Log:TFA: Rey and Finn vs Kylo Ren

TFA: Rey and Finn vs Kylo Ren

OOC Date: January 11, 2018
Location: Starkiller Base
Participants: Finn, Rey, and Kylo Ren

This log picks up with our heroes after Han Solo was killed in http://www.swaoa-mush.com/wiki/Log:TFA:_Assault_on_Starkiller_Base

He can only watch in horror as Han Solo tumbles from the walkway. "We have to go." Finn's voice cracks - they can't mourn Han now. They had to get away - they had to escape. He fires several shots off at the troopers below before the explosions detonate. Now! He turns to flee with Rey. The ocillator is crippled, they did their part. Han Solo did his part. They have to go - snow beneath their feet, the forest rises to meet Rey and Finn in their retreat.

Rey stumbled up out of the facility and tried to keep up with Finn. She'd never been in snow before, it was freezing and her appendages were already numb from running through up tot his point... it made her fumble a bit, but her mind was in so many places she could barely focus on any one thing.

"How do we find Chewbacca?" She asked frantically, her voice echoing in the dark woods as she kept up with Finn.

Standing there directly in their path with a blade of fiery red held almost sizzling in the snow, Kylo Ren waits for the former stormtrooper and the scavenger girl. His sweaty hair clings to his face, his posture stooped from the wound to his side, but he faces them down nonetheless, bitter rage curling his lip. "We're not done yet," he calls, almost mockingly at them.

Rey glares at the man who murdered Han, her eyes are on him... his saber and his exposed face. She clutches her blaster tightly in her grip and she curls her lips. "You're a monster!" She spits out at him before glancing down at his damaged leg... Chewbacca had blasted him, he was injured, she had a chance!

A moment later and Rey's blaster is being hoisted into the air and aimed at Kylo!

Kylo doesn't argue with Rey. He just pushes out with the Force, hard. His arm punches towards her, taking a step forward as he channels all his power forward and out, lifting the girl bodily from the snowy forest floor and flinging her up into the trees. She'll go sailing for a ways before she hits one, and falls to the ground in a puff of white. Meanwhile, he paces like a caged animal, thumping the wound on his side with his fist, taking deep breaths and channeling the pain, steeling himself against it.

NO! Finn spins and rushes to Rey's side, making the executive decision to thrust his blaster away into the snow. To make him faster or something. "Rey!" He drops to her side - don't be dead, please don't be dead. "Rey?" He only turns to face Kylo when he hears the other man's movement... And his hand starts to drift to the lightsaber at his belt.

Rey was launched across the snow and right into the trunk of a giant tree. Her breath was hocked right out of her chest and her head hit the immovable object hard! She landed on the ground, unconscious... When Finn reached her, he'd be able to tell she wasn't dead, she was breathing. But she was limp, asleep... out like a light with that blaster she'd been holding flung far off into the forest and lost forever.

Spinning the unique saber around in his hand, the man known as Kylo Ren approaches the pair.

"TRAITOR!" It's not the first time Finn's heard the word. It won't be the last.

The blue blade ignites in Finn's hand, and he rises to face the Sith. This lightsaber belongs to neither of them. "Come get it." He barks, and rushes forward to meet Kylo. Blue against red, the pain of the saber's "hilt" burns through his shoulder, and parry as he might - the saber is thrust from his hand and the searing pain that splits his back in two staggers him. Finn collapses forward into the snow, unconscious.

That lightsaber belonged to him, and Kylo had let Finn know it, and then Kylo had drawn a big line up the back of the traitor and left him steaming in a heap. The lightsaber fell into the snow, its silver grip askew, and much like his uncle before him, Kylo reached out with the force, injured, tired, and pulled at the hilt.

The Force flowed through the woods as the planet they stood on was shaking and rumbling from earthquakes all around them. Kylo's use of the Force was mixed over upon by a sudden second source... another pull.

When the lightsaber shook from the snow and shot ot the sky, it flew past Kylo's fingertips, tumbled through the air and slapped right into the hands of the Jakkuan scavenger girl.

Rey narrows her eyes at Kylo, she raises her elbows and ignites the lightsaber with a snap hiss of brilliant blue light that bathes across her face!

Staring at her in shock, Kylo almost forgot the wound on his side. Almost. Bright drops of red slip down over his belt and fall into the snow, and when she ignites the saber, he reignites his, with a hungry growl.

Thumping his wound, he strides quickly towards her, angry and afraid, his hair a mat of wet, cold strands clinging to his head. Coming in close, he swings first, angling the blade for her body with devastating speed in spite of his injuries.

Rey's fingers clutch the lightsaber handle, it was cold and wet from the snow, but her grips were quickly heating its surface as was the re-ignited brilliant blue beam of energy sizzling out of its emitter at the top, held close to her side.

She stared right at Kylo, seeing the face of a man that she despised more than anyone in the galaxy. She stared at him, watching the anger and hatred inside his face as he turned his weapon back on...

And when he charges at her, she charges back at him. She had never fought with a weapon like this before, but she'd had extensive training with her quarterstaff--lessons taught to her from Rebellion training tutorials salvaged from their ships on Jakku--and she put as much of that training into this.

And it likely shows to Kylo.

Rey's initial attacks are primarily hard thrusting jabs at the man's center-mass! She tries to run him through like she would with her Jakkuan quarterstaff!

The girl comes right at him, and when she blocks his attack, he shifts to the defensive, but he's tired and hurt, and that shows just as much as her related training does. He bats them away, each in turn, with wider, slower movements than good form would dictate. His hair flies, mop-like, as he fends off each thrust, swinging his lightsaber with one dogged hand while the other arm stays tight against his body, cradling his ribs. The pain in his side flares with each swing, but he keeps on swinging, turning the hilt in his hand towards her using the momentum of a backhand slash and stabbing back towards her in reply, boots crunching in the thick snow.

Rey had been in several fights on Jakku, drunken fools or just terrible individuals under the employ of Unkar Plutt. These manner of occurances is what lead the girl to train herself from the salvaged war materials, she wanted to be able to defend herself and to defeat the common thug that plagued Niima Outpost.

But in fighting Kylo, here and now, Rey could see him adapting to her fighting style with every strike she took. She could see him learning from her like she were giving him training lessons on how to defeat her.

The two dance thorugh the snow, errant swings causing trees trunks to crack / splint and tumble into the dark.

Soon they find themselves in a corridor of snowy rocks. Rey tries fleeing from Kylo by nimbly running up the layered ledges of one rock face, then she jumps across to the other side, rolls and re-ignites her saber... hoping to avoid him for a moment!

Rey spins back around toward him though when he catches up, panting and growling she strikes more at his body with her own weapon!

Trees crack and groan as they fall in two, split by glowing lines of vaporized wood so hot it doesn't even have time to catch fire before it turns to char. Rocks gain deep, luminescent gouges they will wear for the rest of their existence, but as the whole planet is beginning to crumble, that won't be very long. Explosions are a constant backdrop in the distance as the man in black watches Rey climb up out of his path, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment as he pounds his own fist against his torso, lips pressed into a thin, colorless line.

Relentless, he gives chase, feet blindly scrabbling up the ledges behind her, his weapon held low, and when she spins to face him again, he meets the blow with his blade. The sabers shriek and wail, locked together, and the tension in the air betrays his siphoning of the Force to help him push with that single hand and send her back away from him in an attempt to open her guard, directing another hammering blow at the girl using his grandfather's lightsaber against him.

Rey knew that her only advantage was that injury that Chewbacca had dealt the man after he'd killed his father minutes earlier. She had to play up that weakness, because without it he would've likely made short work with her. But there were so many things going on, so many elements at play here that she could barely keep up.

His strikes were powerful, and though the weapons had virtually no weight beyond their hilts, when the blades connected thats when she felt the strength behind his swinging arm... he was stronger her and his attacks were pushing her backward.

Rey blocked a swing, it sends her stumbling backward in the snow and nearly falling over (its so cold!), but she recovers with a gasp and twirls herself back around to defend another striking blow from the advancing Nightmare.

The world IS falling apart and she wasn't sure if it was his doing or not.

Rey finds herself pinned back against a deadly ledge of earth. Rock and snow had fallen from this ledge just seconds before she reached it!

She can go no further! Rey spins back around and reaches her blue blade out to blocks and shove-aside another slash from the man! Desperate to defeat him now before he pushes her over the cliff!

The landscape behind Rey has split into a deep, fiery chasm as the pent-up energy stored in the planet has begun to rip its surface apart. When Kylo swings again, he brings his lightsaber crashing down against Rey's, locking them together in an a struggle right on the edge. Bringing his face close to hers, the light of the sabers glows bright between them, flashing and sputtering. "You need a teacher!" he insists over the sounds raging around them, looking her right in the eyes. "I can show you the ways of the Force! I can help you understand your powers! Come with me." His head jerks towards the expanse opening behind her, eyes leaving hers for a moment before turning back. "I can take you away from this."

Rey's face was an expression of desperation and fear. She was worn and emotionally drained, having gone through a whirlwind of events in the past many hours. With their sabers locked together, both of their bodies were bathed in the opposing light sources. She stares at him with her eyes locked on his... her teeth gritted.

Part of her wanted the knowledge that she knew he had, some deep part of her knew he had answers to everything she was going through and the power that was awake inside of her now... But her mind couldn't leave the man's dreadful actions, she'd witnessed what he was capable of. He murdered Han in cold blood, minutes ago.

Rey's mind drifted to the thoughts of Maz and the words of wisdom the woman had given her in the basement of her far away castle.

The words rang clear in her mind now and Rey let her eyelids slip shut. She focused on those words and let them guide her, to find the decision deep inside her.

Crackling of saber energies battling against one another...

Rey's eyes opened, a clear look of determination replaced the fear and the desperation. Rey shoves back at his blade and slides her way beneath him!

A second wind fueling her, she slashes at the Nightmare of a man's already injured side! If she was going to win this fight, she had to chip away at his weaknesses!

This time, Kylo doesn't try to read what Rey is thinking. He just stares in suspense, his teeth openly gritting together as he pushes to keep her in a defensive stance, letting out small grunts and hisses of pain at the fire burning in his side for every instant of this deadlock. For a moment, he allows himself to hope that she will see reason and the truth of his words, and join him as a student. Then something changes.

She slips away, and he whirls to follow, his blade swinging around in a clumsy defense, utterly exhausted. All but the last of his energy has been spent in a desperate attempt to convince her to put the saber down. Her offensive renewed, he does his best to block her and at least manages to orient his back away from the abyss and give himself room to give ground, and he does. A swing passes through the robes hanging around his leg, and he stumbles backward, feet churning in the snow as he falls onto his back. The snow is cold and the chill immediately begins to seep in towards his skin, but he drags himself upright again, panting with desperate determination as he comes at her again, swinging with reckless abandon.

Rey was counter to his position, the tides had suddenly shifted and she was the one with the energy and the determination and she could feel/sense his exhaustion! The Jakkuan girl defended against his attacks and now was striking back at him with harder slashes and aggressive thrusts!

One deadly slash connected with his body and severed at least part of his clothing along way! Another successful strike! She felt the presence of others... as though they were being watched and she was supported by their distant minds... and it only encouraged her onward!

A thrusting attack sent their blades bouncing off of one another, and then Rey pulls her saber up for as hard of a downward strike as she can summon!

Pulling himself up each time he stumbles, Kylo continues to repel her offensive but is unable to transition to the attack himself, too tired and occupied with fending off each successive strike from the girl from Jakku. When she telegraphs her swing, he pulls his own blade up between them, holding it horizontally to take the brunt of the blow, as he has a thousand times before, but this time, things are different. He's exhausted, bleeding into the snow, sending little trails of steam up from red spatters that follow him like breadcrumbs in the forest. He's still only got one arm to fight with, the other trying to maintain the illusion that he isn't hurt and failing badly. Steam vents off him like a sauna, climbing through the heavy black clothing. A burn on his shoulder sizzles and smokes, and his eyes squeeze shut, knowing he's running on fumes here.

Rey felt an energy like she'd never felt before and when he blocked her savage strike she watched it nearly crumple him in defeat... but he rose again, like a determined fighter would. But she wasn't done with him yet!

Rey growls and charges at the Nightmare, she moves to catch his Saber hand with her left and tries to slam her own Saber hand down toward his face!

But soon the two are caught in a grapple! Rey's eyes glare at him, face to face the two angrily contest for strength... Rey's face is a mess of emotion, hatred for this monster!

But he's too strong for her, even in his weakened state. So with a release of his wrists and hands, the Jakkun native ducks away from him and twirls her saber up for another sweeping strike across his arm and then up toward the Nightmare's face!

Locked in the grapple with this girl, frustrated that he can't easily overpower her, Kylo first growls and then outright yells as he vents his anger, feeling it bubble up inside of him. He should be winning. He knows he should be winning. His lightsaber nonetheless is dragging in the snow uselessly, and then as she slips away, he stumbles abruptly forward, swinging around to try to stop her, but before he can, her blade nicks his wrist, and his lightsaber goes shuddering into its hilt, the blue slash comes up and rakes across his face. The young warrior collapses backward into the snow, a smoking, steaming mass of black fabric, arms spread eagle.

For a moment, an old memory flashes unbidden through his mind. Lying in the snow. Happier times. Laughter. A father's voice. Someone else's memory, it seemed now.

Blinking, he pushes himself panting onto one arm, staring at the girl triumphantly standing over him, a ragged line of charred flesh seared into his face. Before he can muster the strength to rise again, the earth splits again, this time between them, and she is suddenly borne away from him, leaving him cold, wet, bleeding, maimed, and alone.

Rey does stare triumphantly down overtop of him... This is a fight she should not have one. She knows it... She'd capitalized on one weakness, in the form of that Bowcaster injury, and she'd somehow managed to build upon that one destablizing blow after another.

What was she to do with him now? She didn't want to kill him, she knew that, but how could she leave hi--.

When the snowy earth quaked and then ripped apart between their spaces... Rey gasped and stumbled backward to safety to ground that felt sturdy again beneath her feet.

They were now separated by a new firey gorge... Her eyes went back to the Nightmare across the new destructive chasm between them.

'Finn.' Rey thought to herself. 'I have to get back to Finn!'

The Skywalker lightsaber was deactivted with a squealing hiss and with one final stare over at her fallen foe, Rey spun around on her frozen feet and started to run back into the woods! Back to her friend.