As the sun rose over the choppy blue sea, a single figure left footprints in the soft sand.
It was the beginning of another day, and for Rey, the galaxy's newest Jedi, it meant another grueling day of training under her new teacher, Luke Skywalker. Some would grumble and complain at the prospect of pushing their body to its utmost limits, but it filled Rey with exhilaration.
She had brown hair tied into a sensible bun, brown eyes that could switch from playful to intense in a heartbeat, and the garb of a wandering samurai. All her life, the girl had to struggle to survive in the deserts of Jakku, with only her resilient spirit and will to live as her allies. Training to become a Jedi was fun by comparison.
Still, she had never imagined a training exercise like the one her master was suggesting to her right now. "Master Skywalker, are you sure this is a good idea?" She questioned.
"Of course, Rey! This is a fantastic exercise. In fact, my own master trained me this way. Now squat so that you can carry me on your back." Luke Skywalker said in a jovial tone. The Jedi master wore light grey robes that bolstered his slim frame. His wild silver hair blew about in the breeze, and his eyes shone with a mixture of excitement and nostalgia as he thought of his own training days as Yoda's apprentice.
Rey sighed in resignation. "I wonder if he's gone daft living alone for so long…" She thought. "Wasn't master Yoda a bit smaller than you though?" She asked.
Luke scratched his beard in thought. "Well, yeah, I guess he was. Still, it's the same principle. Besides, you're a pretty strong kid. I'm sure you can handle it." The Jedi grinned cheekily. Rey weakly smiled back before allowing Luke to piggyback on her shoulders.
The older man's weight was nearly too much for hear to bear at first; she stumbled as she began to walk. "Ugh, this is so ridiculous…" She thought. However, despite how silly the exercise seemed, if it would help her defeat the First Order and protect the people closest to her, she would do it.
Slowly, with Luke on her back, she began to run across the sandy shore. "I thought I'd give you a break today, kid. Only twenty kilometers for the morning run." Luke added.
Rey would've chuckled if she had the spare energy to. Instead she merely wheezed as yet another day of practice began.
Meanwhile, on a distant planet…
The sand was a dusty orange and the sea was a grim grey. The desert sun beat down on upon the solitary human roaming the wavy dunes. In the distance was a black First Order Imperial-Class yacht, its sleek frame seeming to shimmer in the heat.
Kylo Ren stood stock still in the center of a large clearing where he had been conducting his training. Despite the sweltering weather, he still chose to wear his black robe and mantle, as well as his Dath Vader-inspired helmet. In the dark warrior's hands was a smooth, shiny black lightsaber with a shining crimson blade and crossguard. Gone were the erratic, seemingly volatile flames of his previous makeshift sword; this new saber was aesthetically professional in its design.
On a nearby sand hill was the traitorous knight's master and the supreme leader of the First Order, Snoke. The dark sage sat in a seemingly meditative position, his tiny legs and arms crossed comfortably. His pale grey skin and black, glittering eyes seemed almost comically out of place in the light of day.
"Ah, I see your new lightsaber is serving you well, my young apprentice. Your eagerness is amusing; you've already sliced down five hundred training droids today, have you not?" The demon's deep voice cackled in amusement.
Ren's head tilted upwards. "Not quite…" Saying nothing else, the warrior leapt into the air. Aided by the Force, his jump was nearly twenty feet high. From the sand below emerged two training droids programmed by Captain Phasma herself to challenge the burgeoning Sith.
Using rocket-powered technology, the bipedal droids followed Ren into the air, hovering alongside him. Their plating was a rusted brown to blend in with the desert, and so Ren had to jump into the air in order to discern them from the landscape.
"KILL MODE: ACTIVATE. BLASTERS SET TO LIQUEFY." One of the robots intoned before unleashing a torrent of blue blaster bolts from its eye sockets. "Haah!" Kylo shouted before raising his weapon to block the fire. With a furious series of swipes, he reflected every single laser that was shot back to its original sender.
The orange droid was ripped apart by its own blaster fire, its now-useless parts falling to the ground in a neat scrap heap. Kylo Ren landed on the ground, his hitched breath catching in his throat as he desperately looked around for the second training droid.
At last, he saw the robot in the air. Before he could do anything, the droid unloaded a salvo of homing rockets at him. Their contrails marking their previous location, the rockets accelerated towards Ren's position. And yet, the black knight did not move.
Summoning from the dregs of his remaining strength, Kylo thrust his cloaked hands out and called upon the dark side of the Force. With an audible grunt, he unleashed an explosive wave of power that caused all of the missiles to explode in midair.
Rescinding his right hand, he drew his lightsaber once more. Taking aim, he threw the blade in a spinning arc towards the training droid. Using the force to guide its path, the lightsaber ripped the dummy in half before slowly returning to Ren's hand.
"That will make five hundred, master." He said coldly before sheathing his newly forged lightsaber. In a moment, he was bowing at his teacher's feet, bent on one knee. He removed his helmet, revealing his face.
His messy black hair nearly reached his shoulders now, giving him a distinctly barbaric countenance. The scar on his face, an ugly parting gift from his battle with Rey, had mostly healed, leaving only a discolored path of repaired tissue in its wake.
Snoke smiled. "You have been training with a certain intensity lately, my young apprentice. Your hate grows stronger by the day, and yet…I sense something else within you…do you still feel compassion for that miserable girl?" Snoke's voice transformed from a caring caress to an accusing snarl within seconds.
Ren was suddenly worried. "It is nothing, my master. When I think of the girl, I only think of how she will beg for her life when I defeat her, of how she will suffer when I destroy the pathetic Resistance and her master, Skywalker!" Ren sneered.
"Do not let your loyalties waver, Kylo Ren…I will not be satisfied until the heads of Skywalker and the girl are brought to me." Snoke rumbled.
"It will be done, my master." Ren said confidently, although inwardly he was plagued with doubt.
"Good…now rest, my friend. The First Order is counting on us. We must bring order and peace to the galaxy…at all costs."
Later that evening, Rey was finishing up her last saber practices of the day. Sweat dripped from her forehead and her breathing was heavy as she shut down her own newly crafted lightsaber.
She gazed at the weapon fondly. One of the first things she did after Luke agreed to take her under his wing was construct her own personal saber. She relished the opportunity to reverse engineer Luke's old blue sword to make her own. In one of the island's caves there existed a variety of crystals used for the focusing of lightsaber blades. Rey decided that liked the blue color, and so she imbued a crystal similar to Luke's and made her own blade.
Strapping the sword to her side, she went to join Luke, who was currently setting up a campfire by the sea. Food and water was never an issue for either for them, since they both could easily levitate fish from the water. Luke was even skilled enough to filter the salt out of the sea water using only his mind.
Rey brushed a lock of fair out of her face and took a seat next to Luke, who was turning a grilled fish over the open flame. "So, I want to hear more about the Jedi who trained the great Luke Skywalker. Whoever it was must have been a powerful warrior." Rey commented blithely.
Luke gave her an amused look. "Being a Jedi isn't the same as being a great warrior. Remember, we are only to use the Force in self-defense, never for attack. I was taught by two Jedi masters, and one of them was certainly not what one would think of as a great warrior. In fact, I thought he was a crazy little goblin when I first met him. His name was Yoda, and he taught me nearly everything I know abut the Force."
Rey listened intently, interested to hear about past generations of Jedi. "What happened to him?"
"He passed away about thirty years ago, but he lived to a pretty old age." Luke replied. "How old?" Rey asked wryly. "About nine hundred years old!" Luke said, and they both laughed for a long time.
As his laughter died down, Luke looked into the fire. "I only hope I can be half as good a teacher as him…I still have much to atone for. Poor Han…" He said sadly. mourning the loss of his best friend.
Rey placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Don't blame yourself, Luke. Han saw something in Ben that no one else did. For a moment, Finn and I actually thought that there was a glimmer of good in him as well…but we were wrong." She said bitterly.
Luke looked at her. "When you face him again…try not to kill him. I want to see him, try and bring him back to the light. Even now, I refuse to accept that he's completely gone."
Rey frowned. She felt far less sympathy for Kylo Ren than Luke seemingly did. She would try to honor her teacher's wishes, but that certainly didn't mean she would hold back against the dark warrior. After all, he was certainly training just as she was.
"One way or another, we'll succeed, master Skywalker. I believe that."
Indeed, the future was fraught with upcoming battles, but such wars were necessary to defeat the darkness and bring peace back to the galaxy.
A/N
Greetings, lovely readers, and thanks for reading the story!
I've always loved Star Wars, and I thought The Force Awakens was a wonderful film. The fandom is absolutely blowing up right now, so I thought I'd help stoke the flames a bit with this canon-compliant vignette of Rey and Ren training under their respective masters. Thanks for reading and have a blessed day!