Chapter Text
Working on the Finalizer wasn’t all that it had been cracked up to be. You were ready for adventure, a sense of importance, but ended up in a small group of three other engineers who worked long, hard hours with little pay. You were sure the First Order could spare a little on dental insurance, but who are you to complain. One perk, however, was the gym. Holy smokes was it impressive. Now, you’re not talking about the type of gym with weights, and icky stuff like that (although, there was one of those on this floating murder ship). No, you were talking about the wonderful room with a big ass mirror, and stereo with a bass that could send your poor heart into shock. You’d found yourself a dance studio.
The First Order wasn’t one for Zumba classes… Come to think of it, you had no freaking clue why there was a studio with a floor that gave just right for your jumps, and was perfect for your turn combinations. You tried to imagine that they’d built it just for you, to give you a small ray of sunshine in your extremely dull/stressful life. It's not like anyone else used it, so why not entertain your ego.
After a particularly long day on the job, running around, fixing all the destruction that the lampshade asshat Kylo Ren caused with that damn saber of his, you found yourself in the studio, stretching. Dance had been a huge part of your life since you were two years old, and you’d always thought you'd follow it as a career. Your dream was to become a choreographer on one of the city planets, but your parents seemed to have other plans. They thought you were “too smart” to waste your time on dance. So you’d packed away your dreams neatly in the back of your mind, and became one hell of an engineer. Which brings us back to the present.
You hummed along to your warmup playlist, stretching out your muscles. The last thing you needed right now was to tear a muscle doing the splits. A good ten minutes went by before you were satisfied with your stretches. So you stood, and decided to work on your turns. You focused for a while, but in true (y/n) fashion, your mind began to wander. This time to your job. You hated having clean up duty for the Commander’s temper tantrums. It was supposed to be an “honor” to be selected for this job, but you found yourself to be underappreciated, and overlooked in that position. Every day it was something new. A hallway cut and burning here, a control panel sliced in two there. The worst clean up duty yet was when the pilot had pissed the Knight of Ren off one way or another. Let's just say it was a good thing you were in the area, because the Finalizer quite literally began making a final fall towards the black hole the ship was so desperately trying to pass. But, because of you being amazing hold the applause, you got the thrusters back in working order, and saved the day. You really should have gotten a medal for that.
You were too deep in thought about Mr. Tall, Dark, and Destructive to notice the ringing in your ears and slight increase in pressure in your skull. So, you went on to think about how much of a hell Kylo Ren had made your life. That no good, emo sith, bucket headed, sorry sack of dicks. He couldn't go one day without being public menace numero uno. So much for being head engineer. No one takes notice in my work because I'm too busy covering the Commander’s ass than making a name for myself. To top it off though, is the fact that the lampshade probably has no idea who I am. Why pay any mind to the adorable engineer who picks up the pieces left behind a light saber tantrum.
You were way too busy doing a beautiful fouetté/float turn combo while simultaneously feeling sorry for yourself to hear the heavy footsteps storm through the hallway. It wasn't until the door banged open that you screeched yelped, and fell flat on your ass gracefully to the ground. Standing in the doorway was the head lampshade himself. In that moment you were pretty sure your jaw came unhinged, and swore you felt it touch the ground. You stayed like that for a full minute, splayed on the ground while the head honcho towered over you in his six feet of glory, mask glaring at you. You finally scrambled to your feet, and saluted.
“Commander,” you said, hoping your voice was steady, “Is there anything I can do for you?” You were scared out of your mind. The Commander wasn't supposed to know who you were, so why the hell did he know where to find you. It was in that moment that you also began to feel extremely exposed. The Commander was in, who knows how many layers of clothes, complete with a cloak and mask, while you weren't only out of uniform… But you were out of uniform and in a tank top, sports bra, and compression shorts that left literally nothing to the imagination.
“Get out of my head,” Kylo Ren commanded. His voice garbled, and mechanical from the voice converter in the mask… Oh how you always wanted to inspect that beautiful machinery.
“...Pardon?” You replied, shaking yourself from other thoughts. The Knight didn't dismiss you, but your hand fell to your side anyway, tired from already holding it too long.
“You were in my head. Get. Out,” he demanded again. Now you were extremely confused while being equally terrified.
“I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about,” you say wearily, biting your lip. He took a threatening step forward. His long legs put him right in front of you. You squeak again, and scramble backwards, back hitting the mirror. Damn, it was cold against your skin.
“Your thoughts were pushed into my mind. I did not search for them, but I could clearly hear you thinking about me. I can tell you are not force sensitive, you need to tell me how you are doing it, and then stop immediately,” he demanded, voice somehow getting lower, and more terrifying as he talked.
Your eyes were wide with fear, and you didn't reply. You didn't know what to say, and were too afraid to say anything anyway. As the silence grew longer, the knight drew his saber, and turned it on. The red beam crackled to life, and illuminated the room. You gasped and flinched as he raised the weapon above his head. This is it. I'm going to die. Goodbye cruel world! I didn't even get to eat one last banana nut muffin. Man, life sucks. You thought to yourself.
“Shut up!” The lampshade demanded as he slashed into the mirror to the right of your head. Aww, you’d liked that mirror panel, and it never did anything to the dark menace. You frantically casually stepped aside and completely freaked out kept your cool as the mean emo sith demolished the mirror. The chrome bucket mask turned towards you once again. “Tell me.”
Pretending not to be shaking like a leaf, you drew yourself to your full height of 5’4” and held your head high. “Look, dude,” did I really just call my superior officer dude, do I want myself killed, oh well. No going back now “I actually have no clue what you're talking about. I was minding my own business, keeping my thoughts to myself. Thank you very much.” You crossed your arms over your chest, and stared into the eye slits of the mask. You could swear if the robot mask had eyebrows that one would have been raised right now. Call it intuition.
The two of you stared at each other, and your mind was racing faster than the Millenium Falcon making the Kessel Run. What the hell is this asshat talking about. He's the one that reads minds, he needs to get out of my head. Shit, what if he's in my head right now… Hi Mr. I mean Commander Ren… Wait, no, that's weird. Fuck, stop thinking. I can't stop thinking I'd have to die, or maybe sleep. Damn, sleep sounds good right now. I'm so worn out from being Mr. Tall, dark, and menacing’s personal trash man, trash woman, whatever. I still know I'm trash though. Ah crap, he's coming closer. This is it, my time has come, I don't wanna die. Hey I think that’s a song… Mama!!! Oooooo! I don't wanna die, sometimes wish I'd never been born at all, carry on, carry on, as if nothing really-
“Enough, I'm not going to kill you,” the mask in a dress said. You coulda sworn he almost sounded exasperated, but you shrugged that thought away. The metal lampshade shook his head, “You need to quiet your thoughts. They are quite trivial and annoying.”
Hey now. Bohemian Rhapsody is a classic. The tin can shot you a pointed look, and you raised your hands in defeat.
“Alright, alright. Sorry,” you said. You shifted your weight from one foot to another as the man a few feet away sized you up. Reminding you yet again that you’re still in your workout clothes. To distract yourself, you started to imagine what was under the mask. Was he human, did he wear the mask cuz he thought he was ugly? Was he some weird ass space monster? The world may never know.
Kylo Ren sighed, “I assure you, I am quite human,” his mechanical voice droned. “Come with me,” he said eventually, turning on his heels, cloak swirling in a sea of black around him. Always with the drama, this one. You bit your lip pretty hard, and went to grab your jacket. “I said follow,” the Commander ordered. You look at your jacket.
“But-”
“Come!”
You yelp, and hurry after the emo drama queen. The Commander had very long legs, and therefore covered a lot of ground as he strode through the halls. You basically had to jog to keep up. You felt your cheeks turn red as passerby's looked at you with pity.
Eventually, you and the dark menace arrived at an intricately designed door. Maybe this is where he took the sacrifices. Did the First Order have sacrifices? Who would they sacrifice to? Did we gave a god? Or was it the Force? How would you know, you were just a lowly engineer. Maybe he was going to have you killed for all the things you thought about him. Surely you weren't the only one with mean things to say, and the Commander didn't seem the sort to really care what others thought of him. But, still.
The knight made a sound that seemed like a growl. “I've already said that I'm not going to kill you,” he explained, running out of patience. You nod at that, but still don't believe him. Kylo Ren just shook his head and wrapped your forearm in a vice grip with his leather gloved hand, and pulled you inside the room.
“Supreme Leader. I seek your presence,” the robotic voice rung out, and you looked around the room. This place looked ancient. How the hell did they get it on the ship? You shrugged, and turned your attention to the humungo hologram of Supreme Leader Snoke in front of you. For the second time of the day, you thought your jaw hit the floor. Man, you must be making a good impression to all these big important people while wearing basically nothing. Joy.
“What do you seek?” The Supreme Leader asked, eyeing you. You tried to smile innocently, but it came out pretty tight.
“This woman has been forcing thoughts into my head. She is not force sensitive. We need to get rid of her,” the lampshade said, voice sounding almost monotone, bored. You knew it! He was gonna kill you. You had half a mind to turn around and kick him in his naughty place for suggesting you were so disposable that it bored him, but you were too terrified to move as of now. Snoke looked at you again, and smiled. What the actual fuck.
“Introduce yourself, child,” he said gently, before shooting Kylo Ren a look which made the man let go of your arm. That was going to leave a bruise in the morning, maybe you could tell people you’d gotten it while having some great, wait, no nevermind. Mr. Mind Reader is behind you, this is no place to think about that stuff.
“Uh, I'm an engineer on this ship,” you said, figuring he wouldn't care about much else.
“No, your name,” Snoke insisted.
“Oh, uh, (y/n).”
“Very good,” the Supreme Leader said. He seemed to think for a few moments as you shifted uncomfortably. You could feel Kylo Ren’s eyes on your back, but you didn't turn around. You liked the look of your back too.
“My student,” Snoke finally said, addressing the murder bucket, “Your body is strong, but it is time your mind became just as powerful. I want this woman to train with you.”
Cue jaw drop number three. You were pretty sure Kylo Ren was doing the same thing.
“What?” The bucket head hissed, fists clenching, and unclenching. Snoke just nodded.
“Yes, my student. Once Luke Skywalker returns with the girl. A new Jedi order will rise, and you will be faced with those who can push thoughts to you. You must learn to control it.”
Well hot damn. I think I just became important. You thought, and you could practically hear the asshat’s eye roll.
“Your training starts today,” Snoke said, and suddenly he was gone. Leaving you grinning at a maniac with a light saber.