Star Wars: The Knights of Ren

*WARNING: Contains spoilers from Force Awakens and entertaining speculation…*

Chapter One

The wind bellowed across the island as Luke Skywalker stared down at the young woman stood before him. He held himself together, startled at the sight. He had never forgotten those eyes, they were the reason he was out here in the first place.
As she stood there, her outstretched arm offering him the lightsabre he had abandoned on his quest to reconquer the force, he simply watched. All he could bring himself to do was watch her. It had been years, her expression today was one of determination and purpose, so much so she took strides toward him and he had to stop himself from backing away. Was she offering it to him or was this a threat on his life?
'Luke Skywalker…The Resistance needs your help.' She beckoned.
'How did you find me?'
'R2D2 had the remaining part of the map we needed.'
We?
Luke studied her, had she grown up to become part of the resistance? He hadn't anticipated this. But then, when after what happened at the Jedi Temple all those years ago, he hadn't anticipated anything after that. He had lost his faith in the force, it had failed him intimately, it had also failed her.
'General Leia, needs you. Come with me.'
As he studied her expression he began to realise she had no idea who she was talking with, she was simply fulfilling Leia's commands.
Luke cautiously approached her, accepting his sabre. She watched him intently, her eyes two brilliantly blue marbles on a sun-kissed face. Years facing the scathing heat on Jakku would do that to you.
'What is your name?' Luke enquired, as his clenched the sabre then loosened his grip on it, rolling his wrist around. Yielding a lightsabre was not unlike riding a bicycle, your body, your cells, your very essence remembered it. It was as if the missing piece of a puzzle had been slotted into the correct spot and he was wholly functioning again. Nervous, he extended the sabre, and instead of a brilliant cobalt, it instead lit up a dull blue, barely visible.
It was a disappointing blue, a blue that demonstrated Luke's own private abandonment of the force. How his faith had withered and wilted away, how his conviction in the force had become so weak his own lightsabre could not conceal it. But still, the flicker of blue, no matter how faint, meant the force was still within him. He holstered the sabre, and began walking in the opposite direction to the ship. This was all wrong. This was all so wrong.
'Rey.' She stated after a beat of watching him with the lightsabre.
'Just Rey?' Luke queried, she was glancing at the island around them.
'Yep.' She answered, something about how completely sincere she was caused a twinge of dismay within his being. She did not know who she was. She did not know, what, she was.
Rey studied the man, he was more silent than she expected, and more… weak. She almost felt disappointed that this was the legendary Luke Skywalker.
'The Millenium Falcon…is that way…' Rey explained as she caught up with him, her hand in the air behind her pointing at the ship down on the coast.
'I cannot help Leia, Rey. I am no longer with the force.' He grumbled as they approached giant stone columns, indicating a Jedi temple was nearby. Taking a sudden right and stomping through a stream, Luke led the way to stone steps. Rey stumbled, doing her best to keep up with the mysterious man.
'You've been living in a Jedi temple for years, and you're saying you're not with the force?!'
Despite Rey's incredulousness, Luke remained calm.
'Go home.' He declared as he climbed the steps.
'I don't have one.' She stubbornly shot back.
This tugged at him and he found this bothersome, he sped up. Rey managed to match his pace, she kept trying to lock eyes with him but he avoided her gaze.
'Take the ship and go.' Luke instructed her, the pair had scaled a steep hill, and now stood by a large rock with a Jedi symbol engraved in it. Luke pressed his hand gently on the rock.
'Why won't you just come with me? There is nothing out here! Take a look around!' She gestured at the beautiful paradise, it was nature at her best. Rey's conviction fizzled out when she heard a deep groaning from nearby. The rock lowered into the ground revealing a passageway.
She was impressed. The temple was hidden well, no wonder Luke had evaded being tracked for so long.
'You will go no further.' Luke said, 'tell Han, I'm sorry.'
Luke began to descend down the steps, but Rey didn't speak. She didn't have the heart to tell him about Han. A cosmic vibration pulsed from the temple doorway, flashing white a wave of energy knocked Rey meters from the temple.
Rey groaned, sprawled out on the ground.
'Rey!' Luke barked, his voice saturated in both concern and frustration. He hurried over to her, she had a bruise on her cheek, below it was a cut. He examined her face, and that was when their eyes locked.
'I'm a Jedi, why did the temple expel me…' she mumbled, dipping in and out of consciousness.
'Because you're...' he thought about his words, 'you've come too soon.' Rey's head slumped back as her eyes rolled. She was knocked out.
Luke scooped her up and carried her down the stone steps, his eyes kept drifting to her face. The anger in his gut began to melt into sorrow, rising up as pressure behind his eyes, Luke Skywalker began to cry for the first time since the massacre at the Jedi temple.
All those children, all that death, all their pain, and now of all people, the force had brought her back to him, it had dug her up from a place so secret even Luke didn't know where she was, and it had brought her to him. The little girl who murdered the love of his life.
And it was his fault.
Be still Luke, he told his weary heart, do not let yourself recall it.
After everything that happened at the school for Jedi younglings, Luke was no longer able to relive it. It crushed him beneath the weight of devastation everytime. And as the stars would have it, though he had her taken away to be hidden safely from threat and those she could harm, she had found him.