Jacob Daniel (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
adarkergray) wrote2018-03-17 02:42 pm
adarkergray) wrote2018-03-17 02:42 pm
Kenoma
Previously:
Escape From Starkiller Base
At the Monuments of Madness
A Living Weapon
To Jacob's surprise, they made it to Ahch-To's system without incident - but then, it was clear now that the Force was on their side. As per his calculations, they'd dropped out of hyperspace a few hundred thousand kilometers away, just beyond its outermost moon's orbit, and as they headed toward the planet at sublight speeds, he tried to ignore the way his protective instincts were going into overdrive.
However, the closer they got to the planet, the more he couldn't help being aware that everyone there, everyone they were going to see, was someone who'd hurt Kylo terribly, and Force, how could Jacob even begin to justify taking him down there? To put him in that level of danger, in the kind of condition he was in--
He made himself take a deep breath, though the fingers of his free hand were clamped tightly around the hilt of one of his lightsabers. The urge was incredibly strong to tell Kylo that he couldn't in good conscience do this, that there had to be another, better way to defeat Snoke, and they would find it - but, deep down, he knew that if there was, the Force would have shown it to Kylo instead. He had to have faith in his master, and in the Force.
Instead, right now, he had more sympathy than ever for why Snoke wanted to destroy the Force's will - not that he had any sympathy for Snoke himself. That thought was enough to settle his nerves slightly by reminding what they were here for, why it was important, why they could all work together just this once.
Snoke had to die. That was the one thing they all could agree on.
Finally, he calmed his mind enough to push his senses outward through the Force, to see whose presence he could detect. Even this close in, he still couldn't pick up Skywalker, but he could sort out Rey and General Organa from the background energy of the planet. He turned to Kylo. "...Your mom's still here. Do you want me to ask her to leave?"
Escape From Starkiller Base
At the Monuments of Madness
A Living Weapon
To Jacob's surprise, they made it to Ahch-To's system without incident - but then, it was clear now that the Force was on their side. As per his calculations, they'd dropped out of hyperspace a few hundred thousand kilometers away, just beyond its outermost moon's orbit, and as they headed toward the planet at sublight speeds, he tried to ignore the way his protective instincts were going into overdrive.
However, the closer they got to the planet, the more he couldn't help being aware that everyone there, everyone they were going to see, was someone who'd hurt Kylo terribly, and Force, how could Jacob even begin to justify taking him down there? To put him in that level of danger, in the kind of condition he was in--
He made himself take a deep breath, though the fingers of his free hand were clamped tightly around the hilt of one of his lightsabers. The urge was incredibly strong to tell Kylo that he couldn't in good conscience do this, that there had to be another, better way to defeat Snoke, and they would find it - but, deep down, he knew that if there was, the Force would have shown it to Kylo instead. He had to have faith in his master, and in the Force.
Instead, right now, he had more sympathy than ever for why Snoke wanted to destroy the Force's will - not that he had any sympathy for Snoke himself. That thought was enough to settle his nerves slightly by reminding what they were here for, why it was important, why they could all work together just this once.
Snoke had to die. That was the one thing they all could agree on.
Finally, he calmed his mind enough to push his senses outward through the Force, to see whose presence he could detect. Even this close in, he still couldn't pick up Skywalker, but he could sort out Rey and General Organa from the background energy of the planet. He turned to Kylo. "...Your mom's still here. Do you want me to ask her to leave?"
no subject
At last, he closed the boarding ramp, and turned his mind away from the regret at their parting. He had much more important things to occupy his thoughts now. He made his way up to the cockpit, and took the ship back out of the atmosphere and away from the planet before programming in the coordinates for the hyperspace jump; as the stars around the ship bled into starlines, he returned to the cabin and to Kylo's side.
"We both know the healing technique was successful, but I want to have the numbers to back it up." He helped Kylo out of the bunk, to take him to the medbay. "I'm going to run some scans and blood tests, and once those confirm everything is good, it'll just be a quick surgery to take the central line out." Then, finally, it'd be a little easier to put the worst of this behind them, and focus on the future - one that looked brighter and brighter, the more Jacob thought about it. Snoke was gone, and Kylo and Jacob were going to be parents.
no subject
It was a strange, disconnected feeling.
Kylo nodded when Jacob approached. He moved slowly, still awestruck at how the constant aches and pains were all but gone. What remained, he assumed, was phantom pain, only there because he was expecting it to still be there. That, in and of itself, was surreal.
“Of course.” It would take time to regain his stamina, but the act of walking was no longer a chore. He situated himself so that Jacob could run the necessary tests. He ran his hand over the port. “I’m looking forward to that. How soon before we intercept? I want to be there when we do.”
Not unconscious. Not still sedated. He wanted to face Hux head on, just in case he had even the slightest desire to utilize any of the methods that Snoke did.
no subject
Besides, he needed Kylo there with him when they arrived at the Supremacy. If the information he'd gotten out of Hux was anything close to accurate, they'd be walking into a hive of twitchy, paranoid crewers and Stormtroopers, and the situation could turn ugly if it wasn't adequately managed. Unlike Kylo, he didn't suspect that Hux might deliberately try to move against them; Jacob figured he'd done a good enough job of putting the fear into him to prevent that. However, he might no longer have control of the situation aboard the ship. And, if certain measures needed to be taken, Jacob also figured that Kylo had more knowledge than anyone left alive of the backdoors that Snoke had built into his soldiers' mental conditioning, so he could forcibly prevent them from ever being able to turn on him - backdoors that Kylo and Jacob might need to use in a worst-case scenario.
no subject
"Thank you."
Whatever happened, he knew he would need that enhanced connection the moment they stepped aboard the Supremacy.
"I want enough time to recover physically, while still being able to take advantage of the meditative trance. Time your procedure accordingly." he instructed. Were it not for that, 'as soon as possible' would have sufficed.
"Take some time to meditate as well. Reach out to them. Touch their minds, gently of course. Soothe them if you can. Let them know we're coming." he added. "If the Force wound remains closed, my energy may feel different to them from anything they've sensed about me so far. Yours may be more familiar. And less frightening."
no subject
For now, the most important thing was to make sure that he at least did what was necessary to make sure he and Kylo were taken care of. Otherwise, it'd be too easy to skip or put off things he shouldn't - and that was a habit he couldn't afford to get into, when soon, they'd be responsible for a lot more than just their own lives. Jacob couldn't remember the last time he'd been as excited over something as he was the fact that they were on their way to pick up their children, but he also knew that this would change their lives in ways he couldn't even begin to imagine yet, and the only way they'd be able to keep it all together was to maintain focus on what their priorities had to be from a practical standpoint.
no subject
"And now that Snoke is dead," he had to pause, as it felt so surreal to actually say that out loud, "there is no longer the danger of my mind being a conduit. I would like to better understand the technique you used to heal me, as well as anything else you may have found and were forced to keep secret."
Aside from wiping out the malignancies, it had also done the near-impossible task of closing the Force wound. It wasn't a permanent fix, as Kylo could feel it laying dormant within him. With enough energy and the right circumstances, he could tear the wound right open and reap both the curse and the rewards. Knowing a technique to close it again was certainly in his best interests - especially if it avoided going anywhere close to his family... or scavengers that chose to practically adopt themselves into it.
no subject
Now that Snoke is dead. At those words, Jacob couldn't help smiling. Now that Snoke was dead, they finally had a chance to make a clean break with the pain of the past, and to start building a future that truly belonged to them. "Of course. I just wish I had managed to hold onto even one of those ancient Jedi texts, instead of letting Rey take them all back - there were some techniques I would've loved to study more, but I barely got the chance to do more than skim them. The only two have a good enough handle on to teach you right now are Force healing, and the ysalamir technique. That's the one I was using in short bursts to disrupt Snoke's connection with the Force, and it's relatively quick and simple to pick up."
Once he'd put their food on to cook - and set a timer, just in case - he opened his mind fully to Kylo, showing him how the technique worked, how it felt. Creating a Force-neutral bubble was an almost counterintuitive kind of skill, but he had every confidence that his master would pick it up just as quickly as he did everything else. When he thought Kylo had a good enough feel for it, he used the Force to levitate one of their spoons off the table. "Now try to disrupt my hold on it to knock it out of the air."
no subject
At first, it felt as though Jacob was actually negating the Force, but that was impossible, as the Force still flowed between all things. Then, he felt the bubble itself, the outline of a warped barrier where everything was neutral inside.
It took Kylo a few attempts to visualize the technique, but once he could, the borders of the bubble weren't any more difficult than manipulating a solid object. And that was how he achieved that Force neutral bubble - not by creating it, but by physically moving the Force itself away from a point.
The spoon fell when Kylo formed the bubble completely around Jacob. He released it, and they practiced the technique a few more times. Kylo determined that he could also make the spoon fall by completely enveloping the spoon itself. (While it was not the best use of the technique in a combat situation, it might be useful if an aggressor was out of reach, among other things.)
"I see how Snoke was not prepared for this." he nodded. "I'll do it again. Against you. Show me how it feels when you resist."
If these techniques were in the ancient texts, which were in the presence of his enemies, they could be used against him. He needed to learn to defend himself from a Force neutral bubble as much as he needed to learn how to create and manipulate one.