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Fate's Folly
Chapter 1: The Awakening
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"Reveal itself, a Conduit should."
There was hope, then. A flicker, or at least a glowing ember.
"When? What will become of the Force until it does? It's already so much quieter than I've ever known it to be, Master."
"… Endure the Force always has, and silenced it cannot be. Awakened by a great disturbance the Conduit can be. Weak is the Dark side, yet still strong enough that survive it may."
A sigh. He closed his eyes.
Just as the Dark side was weaker, so was the Light side. With no one to connect with them, both sides had become quieter and quieter as the years passed.
"This Conduit; what effect could it have on the Force? Can we control it?"
"Give you these answers- you know I cannot. Begin preparations you should, for there is much to be done... Mindful you must be. Discover the Conduit you cannot until awaken it has; and reach it before the Dark side you must."
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Nearly twenty years he had waited, and still he clung to that small hope.
Watching his Padawan work through her stances and forms, exemplifying the diligence and focus that he had often lacked when he was her age, Luke couldn't help but be emboldened by her progress. It had been nearly half a year since Rey first came to him at the ruins of the First Temple at Ahch-To, her appearance signaling a shift in the tides and a new chance to fulfill his Master's dying wish. Rey's connection to the Force was strong and unobstructed, and he often wondered how she could have gone through her life without ever knowing it.
Now the scavenger girl from Jakku, born of unknown parentage and sculpted by the harsh sands that surrounded her in her formative years stood before him as nearly a fully qualified Jedi. In the beginning of her training she had struggled like so many before her, the internal turmoil and impetuousness of her spirit proving to be at odds with the Jedi Code she was attempting to adhere to. But the Light had always been within her, flaring brightly like a well-fed flame and keeping her on the Jedi path. And the Light was there still, but more refined; more tempered.
Luke was fairly certain that was what had drawn her to the lightsaber that had once belonged to his father, and apparently what caused it to favor her over any other. As far as he was concerned, for what little it mattered, Anakin's lightsaber belonged to her now. After its initial loss, when he had been forced to craft his own lightsaber, Luke had resigned himself to never seeing it again- in some ways, it was a reminder of who his father had once been and it was that spirit he hoped would guide Rey when his own could not. Anakin lived on in the Cosmic Force, and to some degree Luke believed that it was his redeemed father who sought to bring them together.
As the sun climbed higher in the sky and humidity began to settle heavily on the island, Luke drew his Padawan to a pause with a gesture of his hand. Her shoulders heaved slightly with exertion as she holstered her lightsaber, hands finding purchase on her hips as she used the brief respite to catch her breath while awaiting his guidance. She had been up since before the break of dawn, practicing of her own accord, and as such Luke felt comfortable dismissing her to meditate until their mid-day meal instead of having her continue with her forms.
Rey responded with a few short bobs of her head in acquiescence before she started the walk toward the rocky overhang that had rapidly become one of her favorite spots. He watched her disappear as she rounded the corner of a crumbling rock wall before sequestering himself in the few remaining building that made up the temple compound. The Force flowed freely here, a fact that he believed had encouraged Yoda to appear to him when he first arrived on Ahch-To more than five years ago. He thought often of their conversation that day, of a mysterious Conduit that would awaken and could help them, assuming they ever found it.
It had taken a few weeks after Rey's arrival for Luke to realize that she was not the Conduit that his master had spoken of. When he first felt the Cosmic Force react to her awakening it had been very faint, a mere flutter he is sure he would not have felt had he not been meditating and openly searching for it; it was hardly the disruption he had been told of. But a short time later, he felt the Force shudder- so much so that it almost took his breath away. It was Rey who had told him about the events that had transpired between the First Order and the Resistance, including the firing of the First Order's Starkiller Base and the destruction of the entirety of the Hosnian system. The untold number of deaths coinciding with each other caused both aspects of the Force to rapidly swell and expand, a ripple spreading throughout the galaxy that was far stronger than anything he had experienced in his lifetime.
Although the Cosmic Force was more tangible in the months following the destruction of Hosnian Prime, it was still much weaker than what he had known in his youth; but it was getting stronger with each passing day. The only explanation Luke could come to was that the awakening of the Conduit had coincided with firing of the Starkiller Base superweapon and, as such, any effect the Conduit had on the Force went unnoticed. Or so he hoped.
When Rey told him of the man who pulled the strings behind the guise of the First Order, he knew there was little good that could come of allowing something potentially so powerful to end up in his grasp. It couldn't be coincidence that the one who tempted his nephew away from the Light and the de facto leader of the First Order shared the same name; if nothing else, it all seemed like a cruel joke. A sadistic mockery of how his own father had been lead to the Dark side by someone who hid his personal vendettas behind the shield of a government. If Snoke were to somehow acquire the Conduit, there's no way of telling what he would destroy or how many he would kill until he reached his goals.
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Rey exhaled slowly through her mouth, the salty breeze that the sea brought in cooling the sweat that had settled on her skin. Meditating had become as easy as breathing to her- all she had to do was sit down, close her eyes, and in no time she could sense her consciousness slipping away from her body and mingling with the Force. She felt every shift, every tug- like billions of tiny threads were telling her that she was not as alone as she felt. Rey had a family after all; an entire galaxy of relatives, most of whom she would never meet but were connected to her just the same. She wondered often if, had she learned this younger, she would have spent fewer days waiting for parents who would never come. Rey knew she had unconsciously realized that fact more than ten years ago, but by then her excuse for remaining on Jakku had been all but cemented in her daily existence; by every ship of smugglers and traders that came to buy from Unkar Plutt and that might have given her a ride off-world, but left before she could convince herself to go with them.
She had been so afraid.
For so many years, the trepidation of missing out on what she wanted more than anything else had driven nearly all her actions, up to the very day she first climbed the steps to the temple on Ahch-To. Becoming a Padawan to the man many believed to be the last Jedi was the moment she finally could let go of all the mounting fears and worries, because by then she had no reservations about finally letting all of it go.
The hardest thing to rid herself of was interestingly enough not her fear or desires but her anger, most of which was directed at the First Order as a whole, though a few individuals came to mind as well. First in her mind had always been Snoke, some faceless phantom of a man she blamed for every evil that was occurring in the galaxy, and whom she hated for the sake of every life he had ruined. Similarly, there was not much love lost for Snoke's apprentice Kylo Ren; and certainly not after he drove his lightsaber through Han Solo's chest and put her closest friend into a medically induced coma. Upon leaving D'Qar, Rey didn't even know if Finn would still be alive once she returned- still, she did her best to believe that if Finn had died she would have felt it, no matter how far apart they were.
In her pleasantly dull meditative haze she easily felt Master Luke reaching out to her, summoning her for their midday meal. Upon opening her eyes Rey allowed herself to gaze for a few more brief seconds across the wide expanse of ocean surrounding her before climbing to her feet and retreating back toward the heart of the ruins. She always ate around midday and before sundown, but Master Luke was far less predictable. She had her suspicions that he had been fasting for a majority of his years in hiding, using the Force to help keep him alive and draw out the life of his rations. Plenty of consumables had been left when Chewbacca and R2 dropped her off, more than enough to sustain them both for many years, but Luke still frequently went without eating for days at a time. After living predominantly off of nutrient loafs for most of her life, Rey couldn't rightly complain about the rations the Resistance provided.
As she mounted the last few steps up to the most intact portion of the temple's courtyard, she felt a peculiar tickle at the edge of her consciousness that prompted her to pause and turn, trying to locate what had caused the Force to respond in the way that it had. It was a few more seconds before she finally spotted it: a small, light blot against the blue sky, descending from the atmosphere and growing larger as it headed toward them. Before she could fully discern the shape of the object, realization struck her as the tickle turned into a light, pleasant hum.
"Master Luke… It's the Falcon!" Rey noted excitedly, walking briskly across the piazza toward where her teacher was emerging from the largest structure of the remaining temple compound.
"Indeed… I was beginning to wonder when they'd come check in on you," Luke mused as he strode to meet her, moving at a rather leisurely pace. He gave her a knowing look, nodding in the direction of the flat field near the beach where Rey had first set foot on Ahch-To. With a flash of a grin she took off, jogging down through the ruins and descending the hundreds of winding stone steps that lead down to the coastline.
Rey arrived just as the Millennium Falcon touched down, the loading ramp dropping just as the landing stabilizers cut out. She moved to meet Finn's grinning face, knowing a similar expression was on her own. He looked good, healthy- not like the last time she saw him, not knowing if that would be her last memory of him. She noted that still wore Poe's jacket, though he had finally gotten rid of the last remains of his Storm Trooper garb and instead sported a white base-layer and dark gray pants, no doubt courtesy of the Resistance. It felt good to hug him again, knowing he was still alive and healthy enough to make the trip to visit her.
"Rey… I'm so happy you made it here. I knew you would," Finn said warmly with a slight tightness in his throat as he pulled away, looking over her features more intently as if to reassure himself that she was alright and that it really was her.
The Padawan felt herself grinning anew, unable to mask the excitement of seeing her friend again and finally having someone to share her experiences of the previous few months with. A wholehearted, warbling roar reached her ears just as she went to speak, causing her to peer around Finn's shoulder as Chewbacca ambled down the ramp with R2-D2 close behind. Disentangling herself from Finn's embrace, Rey jogged a few steps to wrap her arms around the lumbering Wookiee who gave another intricate vocalization, his chest vibrating against her cheek as she laughed.
"Oh come on, that's a bit harsh! You know you like being back in the fray," Rey chided, giving the large creature a gentle push as she stepped back, nodding to R2 when he greeted her before to darting past her with a series of chirrups and whirrs. Rey glanced over her shoulder to see her Master on the weathered steps, the droid excitedly rocking back and forth at the sight of his long-time companion.
"Amazing… I didn't think the First Temple would still be so complete! These ruins could be 4, 5,000 years old; or older still… I can't figure how it survived the Empire- evidently it's been deserted for millennia, practically forgotten, so maybe that's not so far beyond the reach of the imagination. The old Order could have left any number of things for us to learn from-" Rey turned toward the unfamiliar woman who had been speaking more to herself than anyone else, noting that she drew to an embarrassed pause when their eyes met and stopped at the edge of the metal ramp, unsure if she should approach.
Even from a distance the woman looked well put-together, her tailored outfit made of rich fabrics with a fair amount of gold trim and shiny closures. She appeared fairly young, still a bit older than Rey herself but no more than five or six years by her best judgement. What really struck her was that something about the woman just seemed… out of place, like she wasn't the sort who would be fighting on the ground for the Resistance.
"Rey, this is Zerra Bridger. She's one of the people who was helping the General track down Luke Skywalker," Finn said by way of introduction, motioning to the tall, dark-haired girl to join them. Zerra gave her a quick, somewhat crooked smile before moving to Chewbacca's side; even in the flat boots she wore she still stood as tall as the Wookiee's shoulder.
"Well, in fairness I was already trying to find this temple… It's really just pure coincidence that this is where Master Luke was suspected to have gone," Zerra asserted in an attempt to contradict the pleased tone of Finn's voice, her shoulders giving a slightly apathetic heave.
"When General Organa told me that Master Skywalker had been found at the First Temple after all, well, she seemed to think that I earned the chance to come see this place for myself."
The droid began to speak rapidly in Binary as the aged Jedi finally reached them, placing a familiar hand atop R2's domed head in response his old friend's animated greeting before continuing on toward the rest of the group. Chewbacca gave an equally warm greeting as Luke approached, and Rey saw her Master grace them with one of his rare smiles.
"I'm glad they're keeping you busy, Chewie- and it's good to see you again, too," Luke replied quietly, earning an enthusiastic response from the Wookiee.
"Master Luke, this is Finn," Rey happily, nodding to the man who stood to Luke's right. She'd spoken often to her Master of Finn's unwavering steadfastness and dedication to the Resistance- as well as his past experiences with the First Order.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, sir," Finn said wholeheartedly, his dark eyes roving the Jedi's wizened features. Luke nodded his head firmly in response, turning his eyes to the last unfamiliar face.
"And this is Zerra," Luke's Padawan continued, not missing the intent way he was regarding the other woman. His eyes moved slowly back and forth between the embroidered gold crest on her capelette and the pair of diminutive black dots on the lashline beneath her pupils. It seemed as if he were seeing something… more than the rest of them.
After a moment he rewarded her with a similar nod to what he had given Finn, slowly turning back towards the ruins.
"Come, we were about to sit down to eat… I'm sure Leia has some secondary reason for having you all fly all the way here besides a visit, so we might as well make ourselves comfortable in the meantime," the old Master proposed, leading the way back up the island's mountainous terrain.
;To be continued