For allbingo
Jun. 9th, 2021 04:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladyofleithianTitle: Shades of Fire
Summary: It’s painted in both their memories, in shades of orange that are almost red.
Prompt: Blood Orange
“It’s very hard to understand you with all the — ”
“Search him.”
“ — apparatus.”
Poe is yanked to his feet in that moment as Kylo watches him. He still has that defiant look on his eyes, though there’s something about it where Kylo swears his eyes are smoldering.
Smoldering. Kylo would prefer being subject to this gaze any time but now, under a sky that’s been tinted so orange it’s almost blood red with the fires of villages. Now that he thinks about it, was there any point to it? Of course, this isn’t the first time Kylo’s murdered what the Resistance would call innocents. Hux and Phasma would call it sending a message. Punishing the village for sheltering a member of the Resistance as well as an explorer who believed too much in the ways of the Jedi.
He doesn’t want Poe to die. He knows that. The idea is...undesirable, the idea of Poe dying. And then later, Kylo will have to interrogate him.
Later. That’s the key, isn’t it? He doesn’t have to do it now. He can stall it as long as possible, he can negotiate. Stars, maybe Poe’s hiding it in his pockets or something. He’s hoping that Poe would be that foolish, that stupid, even though it’s unlikely. His Poe is not stupid.
“Nothing, sir.” one of the stormtroopers says.
“Put him on board,” Kylo says.
The stormtroopers march Poe towards Kylo’s shuttle. It’s in that moment that Phasma enters the picture, her armor seeming droid-like in how it creaks. "Sir,” she says. “The villagers.”
Them. Ben Solo, in the beginning of being Kylo Ren, would have been revolted at the idea of firing on civilians. Or ordering the trigger pulled. Kylo Ren is all but numb to it now. He doesn’t take any pleasure in it, he isn’t revolted by it — it’s simply What Has To Be Done. There is a part of him, a part that is still Ben Solo, that prays that Poe doesn’t have to see this.
He isn’t one to force people to watch atrocities anyway, but there’s something about Poe seeing it that’s particularly undesirable.
He gives the order. “Kill them all.”
He can feel the villagers’ terror, and — to his dismay — he hears Poe’s voice, pleading with him. “No, no!” Does Poe know who he is, underneath the helmet? Kylo has worked so very hard to cover himself, to insulate himself as much as possible, in armor and a cowl. He is nothing more than armor. Does Poe know who he is, or does Poe think even Kylo Ren can be moved to mercy just by struggling and pleading?
Does he know everything I’ve done? What I plan to do?
Then again, if he knew Kylo was Ben...wouldn’t he have called out his name by now?
It is Poe, either way, and Kylo momentarily regrets, at least, that Poe had to hear and see the villagers being murdered.
***
When Poe thinks back to that day where he saw the villagers murdered, when he heard them, he most remembers how the sky was so orange as to seem blood red. How the stormtroopers seemed to force him up the loading ramp. Poe doesn’t know if Kylo Ren intended him to see or hear the slaughter of the villagers, but he does anyway. It doesn’t matter Kylo Ren’s intent (though Poe doesn’t know why he wouldn’t want Poe to see the villagers die); Poe sees and hears them die anyway.
These are people who he shared food and company and conversation with, and they’re being punished for showing a Resistance member and his contact compassion, giving them sanctuary. Even if they hadn’t, it wouldn’t mean they deserved to die like that. So Poe pleads for their lives. They’re just civilians. They’re innocent. And they’re being shot to death.
Poe’s pleading doesn’t work. It doesn’t convince Phasma and the other stormtroopers that Poe can see (Poe doesn’t miss how the stormtroopers seem to force him around like they’re forcing him to look away, to keep moving). It doesn’t convince Kylo to stop watching — he isn’t evilly laughing like villains in holos do, but he’s just watching. Coldly, his gaze never faltering.
And then Poe’s forced to the back of the shuttle. He’s too exhausted, too guilty-feeling to really protest anymore. He didn’t find Ben on Jakku, BB-8’s lost stars-knows-where and Poe...
Poe failed to save anyone. Innocent people, good people, and Poe couldn’t rescue them from their own deaths.
That’s the problem with war, Poe, Leia said to him once. You can’t save everyone.
Can’t save everyone. That’s something Poe can’t bear to believe. Can’t process, can’t cope with. And he’ll have that all but painted in his memory, in shades that are so orange they are almost red.
Summary: It’s painted in both their memories, in shades of orange that are almost red.
Prompt: Blood Orange
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
“It’s very hard to understand you with all the — ”
“Search him.”
“ — apparatus.”
Poe is yanked to his feet in that moment as Kylo watches him. He still has that defiant look on his eyes, though there’s something about it where Kylo swears his eyes are smoldering.
Smoldering. Kylo would prefer being subject to this gaze any time but now, under a sky that’s been tinted so orange it’s almost blood red with the fires of villages. Now that he thinks about it, was there any point to it? Of course, this isn’t the first time Kylo’s murdered what the Resistance would call innocents. Hux and Phasma would call it sending a message. Punishing the village for sheltering a member of the Resistance as well as an explorer who believed too much in the ways of the Jedi.
He doesn’t want Poe to die. He knows that. The idea is...undesirable, the idea of Poe dying. And then later, Kylo will have to interrogate him.
Later. That’s the key, isn’t it? He doesn’t have to do it now. He can stall it as long as possible, he can negotiate. Stars, maybe Poe’s hiding it in his pockets or something. He’s hoping that Poe would be that foolish, that stupid, even though it’s unlikely. His Poe is not stupid.
“Nothing, sir.” one of the stormtroopers says.
“Put him on board,” Kylo says.
The stormtroopers march Poe towards Kylo’s shuttle. It’s in that moment that Phasma enters the picture, her armor seeming droid-like in how it creaks. "Sir,” she says. “The villagers.”
Them. Ben Solo, in the beginning of being Kylo Ren, would have been revolted at the idea of firing on civilians. Or ordering the trigger pulled. Kylo Ren is all but numb to it now. He doesn’t take any pleasure in it, he isn’t revolted by it — it’s simply What Has To Be Done. There is a part of him, a part that is still Ben Solo, that prays that Poe doesn’t have to see this.
He isn’t one to force people to watch atrocities anyway, but there’s something about Poe seeing it that’s particularly undesirable.
He gives the order. “Kill them all.”
He can feel the villagers’ terror, and — to his dismay — he hears Poe’s voice, pleading with him. “No, no!” Does Poe know who he is, underneath the helmet? Kylo has worked so very hard to cover himself, to insulate himself as much as possible, in armor and a cowl. He is nothing more than armor. Does Poe know who he is, or does Poe think even Kylo Ren can be moved to mercy just by struggling and pleading?
Does he know everything I’ve done? What I plan to do?
Then again, if he knew Kylo was Ben...wouldn’t he have called out his name by now?
It is Poe, either way, and Kylo momentarily regrets, at least, that Poe had to hear and see the villagers being murdered.
***
When Poe thinks back to that day where he saw the villagers murdered, when he heard them, he most remembers how the sky was so orange as to seem blood red. How the stormtroopers seemed to force him up the loading ramp. Poe doesn’t know if Kylo Ren intended him to see or hear the slaughter of the villagers, but he does anyway. It doesn’t matter Kylo Ren’s intent (though Poe doesn’t know why he wouldn’t want Poe to see the villagers die); Poe sees and hears them die anyway.
These are people who he shared food and company and conversation with, and they’re being punished for showing a Resistance member and his contact compassion, giving them sanctuary. Even if they hadn’t, it wouldn’t mean they deserved to die like that. So Poe pleads for their lives. They’re just civilians. They’re innocent. And they’re being shot to death.
Poe’s pleading doesn’t work. It doesn’t convince Phasma and the other stormtroopers that Poe can see (Poe doesn’t miss how the stormtroopers seem to force him around like they’re forcing him to look away, to keep moving). It doesn’t convince Kylo to stop watching — he isn’t evilly laughing like villains in holos do, but he’s just watching. Coldly, his gaze never faltering.
And then Poe’s forced to the back of the shuttle. He’s too exhausted, too guilty-feeling to really protest anymore. He didn’t find Ben on Jakku, BB-8’s lost stars-knows-where and Poe...
Poe failed to save anyone. Innocent people, good people, and Poe couldn’t rescue them from their own deaths.
That’s the problem with war, Poe, Leia said to him once. You can’t save everyone.
Can’t save everyone. That’s something Poe can’t bear to believe. Can’t process, can’t cope with. And he’ll have that all but painted in his memory, in shades that are so orange they are almost red.
