Chapter One

An Encounter with Darkness

Rey stood alone in darkness, with water from an invisible sea lapping around her. The hilt of a lightsaber cleaved in two sat in her left hand, the crystal inside glowing in its housing. Fire then bloomed around her in her black abyss, circling her in flame. A man, or what was left of his severed torso, parted the flames and floated through, revealing a crooked and fleshy, scarred face as he entered the light. Rey was promptly knocked over by an invisible wind, causing the destroyed lightsaber to fall from her hand.

"Fulfill your destiny!"

Snoke's words knocked Rey backwards as if there were a storm in the abyss, and she hit, finally, hard and genuinely solid floor. She lifted her head, and saw the flaming red curtains and toppled throne, Snoke's hand still lying on the armrest like a morbid ornament. A ghostly figure came up behind her, and gripped her violently by the neck, restricting her lungs. Rey fought the nonexistent figure with her fists as she blacked into nothingness once again, and also once again, falling into the loop.

This time Rey did not scream as she awoke from the cold grip of the man she had taken part in killing. It wasn't the first time she had experienced it, and she knew it definitely wouldn't be the last. She glanced around the room, addressing the abrupt feeling of the absence of the Millennium Falcon. It took her only a few seconds before she realized that she had been placed as an assistant upon one of the thousands of Resistance cruisers transporting refugees. A blue vortex sped along outside the floor length window stretched across the wall, suggesting they had gone into lightspeed recently. Rey kicked her sheets off and swung herself out of bed, dressing herself in her usual coarse cloth tunic and reached for the skin of the half-built lightsaber hilt she had been using as a pastime. She then realized she had implicitly modeled it after the broken one Luke Skywalker had once used, before his hand was severed and before he had died from overextending himself. She flinched and got to work, prodding it with a makeshift welder and saw, frequently making it spark and smolder. Rey minutely turned her head to the blue-tinted crystal sitting on the desk across from her, that had luckily survived the full effect of the Force tugging at it. Soon, after half an hour, the chrome casing had been polished beyond perfection and the crystal inserted into the mess of wires concealed inside its compartment. The time was now. Rey reached out with her mind and emotions, feeling for the Force that surrounded her at all times. Sure enough, as always, she had found it, and tugged at it with all of her mental strength. The casing hovered into the air, and more slowly, the rest of the scattered components. Rey concentrated harder, and carefully fit the pieces together, locking them in place. Unfortunately, she had missed the attention of a tiny screw, which was nowhere near its correct slot, and eventually caused the lightsaber to split in two and fall to the ground where she scooped it up before the delicate components could hit the ground. She sighed, annoyed and set the halves on the desk once more, and continued out the door of her quarters. Men in bleak tan uniform and yellow-visored helmets rushed past, likely training or addressing a small inconvenience. Suddenly, her mood improved as she remembered the only thing that had actually helped her since Luke's death: Finn. Rey slowly trudged through the hallways to the bridge, where she had been let on that she was always welcome when the times arose. The doors opened slowly, as the cruiser was the least the fleet could offer without having to sacrifice a valuable cargo freighter or the even rarer stealth cruisers. Rey again, trudged in, and immediately got a shock. The consoles strewn across the room all displayed images of a First Order warship, but when Rey rapidly glanced to the viewport, there was nothing visible. She whipped around, turning to a very concerned and worried General Leia Organa, who's expression deepened when she saw Rey.

"What's happening?" Rey spoke before Leia could answer her clearly visible unspoken questions. Leia turned to the viewport and replied worriedly, "We have come across a small crisis."

Rey turned and assessed the consoles even further, skimming through the Aurebesh writing and descriptions.

A cloaked warship, Rey thought as she turned the situation over several times in her mind. If the First Order had gained the technology to create ships like this in the past few months since the Resistance's forces had been replenished, then the Resistance still stood no chance against them even with their more experienced leader dead, and the replacement a hot-tempered buffoon. A surge of anger washed up into Rey's body as she thought of Kylo Ren, causing her to ball her fists. He was likely on the cloaked ship right now, preparing to wipe out the Resistance that wouldn't ever seem to die.

"Keep it quiet," Leia interjected. "if this gets out, the entire crew will erupt into chaos."

"I understand," Rey acknowledged and sat in the nearest chair. She searched the bridge, and only came across high-level officials, and then one thing that stood out. Surprisingly, the one thing she had come for.

"Rey?" Finn exclaimed, suggesting that he had known about the crisis. Across the room, Leia nodded to Finn in acceptance.

Finn's PoV

Finn knew he had no time left. Ever since he had been promoted, or at least given a position. Now, the First Order had showed up, searching for the cruiser he was on. He had never assumed it was just about him, as it was entirely about the refugees and the survival of an otherwise finished organization. His actual position as an authority wasn't clarified or very solidified, so his power was limited. He turned the idea over in his mind a few times, attempting to clarify the motives of the Empire's attack. The essence made sense, but why stay hidden if they clearly already had the element of surprise? The rest was a confusing disarray, which he presumed was just what the First Order desired. Judging by the scans, the minimal forces and weapons upon the cruiser that was mainly built for transportation wouldn't hold long against the armored Dreadnought-resembling ship. He had worked with the First Order before he left his life behind, but had never been let in on projects like this one, that with the proper use, could annihilate all threats. Finn ran through a list of all the resources that he had seen shipment of carried in, and judging by his extensive (but usually circumstantially minimal) knowledge of valuable materials, he knew what they had used to create this. Rey turned her head, surprised, as Finn shoved past many of the officers and started typing away at one of the consoles. His eyes fluttered across the database of files and searched keyword after keyword until he found what he was looking for.

FN-2187 trudged along a sandy and deserted beach, the ocean beyond a cruelly pale and sickly blue. Another stormtrooper, his training supervisor, trudged along in front of him, his armor flaked with desert sand. 2187 turned his helmet styled like an engorged skull in the other direction, revealing a vast and seemingly endless desert. The Outer Rim planet Volia was, according to his supervisor, rich with valuable resources that 2187 could never seem to understand.

"Keep up!" the other yelled from ahead, stopping in his tracks to wait. Sand somehow found a way into 2187's helmet, slowing him down even further. The supervisor lifted a device in his right hand, and started searching near a small cave composed of sandstone and scrap metal.

"What're we looking for?" 2187 inquired bluntly, with his inexperienced mind. Given his lack training successes, 2187 had never been informed on the actual mission, only the goal and circumstances of the place.

"If you must know," the supervisor told him without looking up from the device, "A crystal."

2187 waited for him to elaborate, but there was only silence as he continued to search.

"It's harder than it sounds."

"I don't see how-."

"Listen, kid," the supervisor snapped, turning from the device. "you don't understand. If the First Order wants it, they'll get it, no questions asked."

2187 had never done the latter, no matter how much he implicitly disagreed with their methods. Soon after, his supervisor crouched down as he came across the tiny cave, staring at something that appeared invisible. He reached out, and plucked the translucent crystal from its resting place in the heap of stone, and stored it in an armored case hanging from his belt.

"Ghostfire crystals," the supervisor thought aloud, and 2187 took a second to realize he was being talked to.

"I assume you're familiar with Ren's lightsaber?" he inquired, and 2187 discreetly nodded.

"The crystals that power every lightsaber are no match for this one."

2187 suppressed the urge to laugh, imagining a world-killing saber.

"What're they for?"

"Classified kid. I've already told you too much. If Phasma finds out, I'm already dead."

Finn clutched the corner of the armrest until the metal cut into his skin and he began to bleed. Sure enough, his supervisor, who had only given his name as FN-6189, was executed the next day. He released the armrests and stood up, walking toward Rey and Leia.

"How familiar are you with Ghostfire crystals?"

Rose Tico had never had a good life, and the constant shaking of the cruiser while she was working on the ship's hyperdrive definitely didn't help. Nobody around her seemed to be fazed by the problems, and whenever she tried in inquire, they all brushed it off as a technical problem, which Rose had investigated and proved fallible. Unfortunately, there seemed to be no external attackers above, so she had no proof outside of the perfect condition of the engines. She had searched for hours just for a cause but the most problematic parts (short of people) were fine. Aside from her problems with technical difficulties, after she was knocked comatose on Crait, everyone seemed to be distant, like they were all outside of a tiny glass tank that Rose had been sealed inside. That was before the airlock across from her exploded, and air rushed outwards, ripping her from her rack and wrenching her hands from the pipe she had desperately grabbed in an attempt to save her life. Before she could scream, emptiness filled her lungs and she was thrown into a black void.

Kylo Ren's PoV

Ren sat emotionless, staring out the viewport of the bridge as his artillery unleashed a barrage of fire. It had been a tedious enough task to create the invisible warship in the first instance, and rigging the ship to be silent and stealthy was another task to be recognized, but none of it compared to the waiting. It had been from many points in the project, and he was done. Starkiller Base's destruction had been a major setback on the aptly named Project Specter, and had consumed a wide range of the First Order's access to resources, especially Ghostfire crystals. The form of kyber crystals had been the outright most challenging task, considering they only appeared on Outer Rim planets and those that wanted to show themselves to. A small price to pay, Ren thought as he lifted himself from the throne of his toppled master. The guilt of killing Snoke was almost nonexistent, as he had blamed it on the girl who had swiftly betrayed him. He searched his mind, appalled that he had already forgotten her name. Rey, was it? He balled his fists and dropped back into the throne as the green bolts of light washed his face in emerald. Their shields were minimal, and the boarding party he had prepared to retrieve his target was ready. Whatever doubt he had held before, it was eradicated now. Ben Solo had, ironically, died with Snoke.

Rey's PoV

Rey rushed to the broken airlock, and slammed herself against the sealed door. Finn followed shortly behind, his face shocked as he saw the level of destruction it had caused. A pang of fear and guilt shot through Rey as she realized that Rose had been working as a maintenance officer in the now gaping hole the ship.

"She's gone…" Finn said quietly and bluntly as he watched flaming scraps of metal float through the air through the tiny porthole. Rey did not reply and stared solemnly out the porthole as an idea drifted into her mind. She pushed herself past Finn without speaking and without thinking over the idea first, and outstretched her hand. She felt for the Force she had searched for so easily before, mentally calling it forward to submit to her will. An invisible hand started feeling for Rose in the void of space, searching for the soul of a girl long forgotten. Suddenly, Rey felt a warm feeling drift into her mind, and she instinctively pulled the body in, her eyes oblivious to who it was until it drifted into the light. The frozen face of Rose Tico fell through the sealed door, which promptly closed after the unconscious girl fell through.

"Rose!" Finn yelled, reaching to grab her face. Rey turned away, a wave of relief and weirdly, sadness as Finn shook Rose with vigor. She had been numbed to the fact that Finn and Rose had been together since Crait, but the waves of pain and jealousy smashed into her brain, mingling her thoughts and emotions together until they were one nonsensical mess.

"Rey!" Finn screamed to her, snapping her out of her daze. Blaster bolts shot by her as she recovered, and observed the source. A squad of black and silver clad Stormtroopers had boarded, firing a barrage of bolts into the walls.

"Get Rose out of here," Rey ordered Finn, and he followed suit.

"Where are you going?"

Rey did not answer as Finn's next words were jumbled in her dash to freedom.

Kylo Ren's PoV

Ren ignited his lightsaber and viciously slashed it towards the Resistance officer as he stepped of the transport. His troopers had already been dispatched to collect prisoners, but he knew internally that Rey had not been apprehended yet. The red glow of the unstable blade he held washed his face in a ruby light, creating an eerie effect as he followed his gut, searching through hallways he had never known. Two troopers followed behind him as he cut through several soldiers like they were made of butter, their screams echoing through the walls. There was no doubt the others had escaped by now, but he had to make some sacrifices to capture the one person that could turn the war around. Soon, Ren turned the corner and impulsively grabbed at the throat of the first person he could see, and he soon got a rush of satisfaction as he realized who it was.

Rey's PoV

Rey felt a coarse hand grab at her throat as she ran around the corner, the vise-like grip tightening around her airways until she could barely breathe. Kylo Ren had found her, and even with a smug smirk on his face as he spat rapid orders to the troopers bring him up. The bag she had procured from her quarters before dashing was hastily yanked from her neck and handed to the men behind her as she started to black out from the lack of air.

Godspeed, Rebels, she thought as she faded into the darkness.