Chapter Text
You were young. You were powerful, and the lot of the people on the base respected you. Just like he did.
~
Almost everyone on the base, whichever you were on at the moment, would make a point to come watch one of your training sessions. You had always been used to fighting for a crowd, this was no different.
The poor idiot who had challenged you today was just that, a poor idiot. You almost held sympathy for the man… almost. You had a predilection for using classic weaponry against your opponent’s, enjoying the pride that came with being skillful with any weapon. Today, you had your battle axe, heavy and dangerously sharp to the point it would cut through any type of armor that dared challenge you. The poor idiot picked to challenge you on the wrong day, maybe with a blaster, he had a chance, but not with your axe.
You spun the weapon in hand, sizing him up. He had height as an advantage for sure, but you had him in strength and speed. You tossed the weapon into the air, not expecting him to become distracted so easily, yet you already had a wide opening. You caught your axe and began to move fast, it seemed you suddenly appeared in front of him, your movement with your axe was just as fast. When you stepped away you watched him come forward, bit by bit his armor and part of his clothes falling away. You hadn’t left a single mark on his skin.
As he stared at you in horror, you watched in amusement as his helmet finally fell off, it sliced in two, right down the middle. Your audience was silent, your opponent terrified, yet all you could do was laugh. It wasn’t dark, or malicious in any way, just amused by the look of horror.
“Hey, you should see me with a dagger, then I’m really fast.” you smirked out. The man shook his head out of his horror, falling to his knees before you.
“I’m sorry I challenged you, Sergeant Major L/n, I thought I could at least last longer than the last one.” He bowed his head in shame.
You let out a chuckle, holding out your hand. “To your credit, you got me on battle axe day, not very many people last longer than 45 seconds with me on battle axe day, and you at least lasted 50.” You winked at the man as he took your offered hand, you were pulling him up out of his shock. Your audience had fallen into chuckles. This was merely your opening act. Normally Captain Phasma would challenge you, or maybe even General Hux, but something different happened today. Kylo Ren decided to try his hand at the most legendary fighter of the First Order. Your audience quieted as the man in black stepped forward. You could feel his eyes on you and they were intrigued. You felt it best to let him be the first to speak.
“How long do you think I will last?” You rose a brow in amusement, even more so when he grabbed his weapon and flung it to the other side of the room. You grinned, throwing your battle axe with such ease and precision, it embedded within the wall with a slicing noise, right next to your previous challenger’s head.
“That depends, are you going to use the force in our fight, or are we merely going to use our bodies, Commander?” You settled your hands onto your hips, head quirked to the side in fascination of the man before you.
“I will not.”
“I have no idea, having only seen you battle with your body and your light saber, we’ll just have to find out, won’t we?” You couldn’t see beyond that damn mask, but you could feel the slight adrenaline rushing through him, you knew because the same was happening within yourself.
You both stood idly watching, for only a brief moment, sizing each other up, but as soon as he moved, you leapt into the air, completely dodging him. You wrapped your thighs around his neck, trying to use your weight and momentum against him, only feeling those gloved hands rip you from his shoulders. So, he had impressive strength, only slightly stronger than yourself, unless he was holding back for your sake. You crouched low on the floor before bouncing up like a god damn spring and landed a punch hard in the sternum, you heard his breath stutter out before you felt a chest being pressed against yours, your hands and arms locked above you. He was trying to use his height. Everyone always did. It never worked.
You swung the whole of your body up, leaning to the side and re-placing yourself on top of his shoulders, he once more tried ripping you off, but you knew his strength now, though you felt he did not quite know yours. In a swift rocking motion you had him falling onto his back, you quickly swinging around to keep his neck pinned to the ground with your knees, and your hands locking his onto his chest. You could have sworn you heard General Hux choke out a laugh. However, you knew Lord Ren was not done, you left his legs.
In a great heave of momentum, and impressive speed, even including your own, he flipped you onto your back, your hair spreading out around you and your body still furled up. Kylo Ren used the whole of his body to keep you furled up, unable to move. You were both panting heavily. He saw respect in your eyes, and he could feel a light pull from you, knowing that you had even the slightest bit of force power in you to read his flood of respect for you. He was not expecting you to push your limbs out, causing him to momentarily lose his balance and land his cowl between your breasts.
You gripped his shoulders and rolled on top of him, your knees holding his upper body in place while your hands held his thighs. Never one to be out done, you felt something wrapping around your leg, in your moment of distraction, you were once more pinned to the ground, as soon as you realized, you were kind of impressed.
“You cheated.” you panted out.
“I didn’t use the force at all for the fight.” You rose a brow. “You allowed yourself to be distracted.” You conceded before him. He was right. Your head fell back onto the mat.
“I haven’t been beat in three years, congratulations Commander.” you smiled out.
He quickly removed himself from you, nodding at you in approval you felt, and then was gone. You pushed yourself back up with a grin. That had been the most exciting fight you had had in long while. Though you had no idea what you had sparked in the man. He felt the need to beat you, honestly. And he would try, though if he was honest with himself he knew there was more he felt. The peace that overtook him during that fight was something he was going to chase.
~
News spread quickly through the Star Killer base that you had almost defeated Kylo Ren, news also spread that you had truly been the one to win, Kylo tricked you somehow using the Force. You shook your head whenever anyone tried to talk to you about it. You did your best to focus on your troops, your elite group of fighters that you were cultivating to be the best First Order soldiers. Storm troopers were great, but had poor aim, except for Captain Phasma’s personal group. She had trained them personally and they were most competent.
Still. You had your elites trained with a variety of weapons, hand to hand combat, and several different fighting styles. Your fighter’s looked to you with such respect and admiration, all of your peers, underlings and over seers did. But, all you cared about was the fight. The act.
Perhaps one day, you would care for more, but right now all you needed was your training sessions, and your audience.