mental link, v important questions;

[narcissithstic]

(Tell me, have any of you spoken to Cathaway within the last two months.)

[The newer Hosts are the most likely suspects, but perhaps through the link—

Perhaps he feels nothing not because of distance, but because she's chosen to keep him locked out. The possibility is a nagging itch at the base of his skull; he'd rather know for certain.]

Comments

[narcissithstic]

(What did she say?

What did she tell you?)

[Answer his questions first, Aunt Mara.]

[snaphiss]

[Fine, but only because you're her favorite nephew and because it costs her nothing.]

( We spoke on the point of the Nest, and whether its plans where feasible. Do you want the memory? )

[narcissithstic]

(Later.)

[Anything viewed now runs the risk of being seen by someone else. Felt or followed, and this— this is too different. Personal.]

(She didn't mention me.) [An assumption, but one suspected of being true all the same. Mara had a tendency to keep secrets, but she also has a habit of blunt sincerity whenever something seems relevant enough.

And she keeps little from him.]

[snaphiss]

( Should she have? )

[narcissithstic]

(In a better world, yes.)

[But things are, as always, exactly what they are. Besides, it's possible she didn't want to convey weakness, attachment - or that she didn't want him clinging desperately to either when so much else is on the line. True or not, it takes the edge off.]

(I'll wait until we're done here to resolve this.

Or until I've managed to reestablish mastery of the Force.) [How proud she'd be of him, then.]

[snaphiss]

( Forgive my gnawing curiosity, but what does that dried out crone have to do with any of this? )

[narcissithstic]

( Shut your mouth—!! )

[Never mind the fact that she isn't speaking, his anger is so quick to burn, he doesn't care whether or not his response makes logical sense. Copper on the tip of his tongue, heat at the corners of his eyes; no matter how adoring he is when it comes to the Empire, to Darth Vader or his imagined memory, Ren's outrage in regards to his surrogate creeper might as well match it.

That he doesn't reach across their mental connection to lash out in physical retribution is a testament to how much he values Mara Jade.]

( She deserves -nothing- but your respect. )

[snaphiss]

( It seems I misspoke. I'll be sure to pay her the appropriate respect in your presence from now on. )

[aka none and falsely :') ]

( I still want to know what she has to do with you and the Force. )

[narcissithstic]

[Mara he was born 30 years ago, not yesterday.]

(It would be easier if I showed you.) [And more painful, but...]

(Are you alone.)

[snaphiss]

[Yet he acts like this.]

( I can be. Why? )

[narcissithstic]

[Space apples, space trees, etc.]

(Because I wouldn't want anyone to see you like this.)

[The kindest sentiment offered before he takes hold of her consciousness as only a fellow host, proficient with the Force, can: it comes as a crippling blow to the both of them (reenacted on his end, shaking with the echo of his own memories), rips the breath from his lungs, the strength from his bones. Like a cup overturned, it all spills out to invade her consciousness, a hundred pinpricks of stars and distant worlds; she lives it as he lived it, knows the Nest intimately in the span of a single heartbeat.

Knows her place in less than that.

Painful, beautiful and cruel in its simplicity. How could she— how could anyone— refuse?]

[snaphiss]

[It infuriates Mara.]

[Maybe 'infuriates' is an understatement. For a moment, everything is ripped away. All the things she's worked for, all the things she's struggled and killed and scavenged and lied for, gone in an instant. Kylo Ren doesn't know it, though it may become obvious from her revulsion: what he's shown her is her worst fear realized.]

[Her horror is palpable, as is her burning anger. How dare he. No alliance is worth this. Mara Jade does not forgive.]

[Through the Force, through their bond, the mental equivalent of a scream can be heard.]

( How dare you. )

[narcissithstic]

[How dare he? He enlightens her, brings her a revelation that the rest of the Nest might never see— might never deserve to see— and he's the villain for it? She should be so lucky. So grateful.

Ren recoils as if struck, confusion left as a tangled lifeline between them, sticking to his skin, his every conscious thought; even in feeling her shock, her horror, he fails to comprehend its source. Perhaps she wasn't ready, perhaps she's incapable of grasping what it means for them.

Is this why Cathaway had chosen him alone? Had he somehow mistakenly shared something too valuable for her mind to fully comprehend?]

(She chose me—) [There's a note of urgency in it, almost pleading her to see reason.] (She chose all of us.

Can't you understand what that means?)

[snaphiss]

( Then you are a fool chosen by fools. What you want is death. )

[narcissithstic]

(If it was death I would have been done with this before you ever laid your lonely hands on me.)

[Cruel and cutting; the subject is sore for them both for entirely opposite reasons. Snoke, after all, had always been there. Not presently, not potently, but he'd felt it. He'd felt it.]

(But if you're so afraid, be like him— limp away. -Leave-.)

[snaphiss]

( You have no clue what you're talking about. Go ahead, roll over for them. )

[One final thing, though. It's nice, because it's not even a lie:]

( Vader had his flaws, but he never would have let himself be used in such a way. )

[And then she cuts the connection, jagged and rushed. Any more attempts to contact he will be met with painful feedback; she's boobytrapped the connection with memories of pain.]

[narcissithstic]