The dust settled as Maz Kanata parked the landspeeder outside of a small hut on the outskirts of the city. Dusk was quickly approaching and Maz had been unusually quiet and focused. She lead the way to the front door.
"Kamal...KAMAL…" she yelled, bangging on the door. "Right now is really not the time to be taking a NAP!"
After a few brief moments of silence, dense footsteps trotted toward the door.
"Kanata!" A huge blob of creature wearing a welding mask on his head and a tiny vest appeared at the door.
"What did you bring me today? A lovely girl?" he grinned from ear to ear looking at Rey.
"Don't get your hopes up. I have a very special project for you, probably the most important one of your life. Do I have your attention now?"
The slimy nubs he had for eyebrows above his beady eyes shot up with intrigue.
"It's not every day Maz Kanata comes to you saying this will be the job of your life. Whatcha got?"
"Before I tell you anything, I need you to swear on your life that what I am about to ask you does not leave this place. I am not at all understating it by saying the fate of the galaxy depends on it."
"For the woman who saved me from certain death...anything!"
"No need to be so dramatic about it," she mused.
Maz careful removed the severed lightsaber from her satchel. Kamal's beady eyes grew three times wider.
"I know what you are thinking, and I know what you will need…" In a small pouch hanging from her side, she pulled out a lightsaber crystal. The glow from the crystal filled the room, illuminating Rey's face.
"I have many questions but I figure I won't get answers to any of them," Kamal said.
"That would be correct," Maz replied.
"Very well then, I'll see what I can do." Kamal took the two pieces of the lightsaber and the crystal and motioned for them to come inside.
"Where did you get that?" asked Rey, referring to the crystal.
"There are too many stories to tell today so that one will have to wait for another time," Maz replied.
While Kamal began to gather his tools together, Rey looked around the room. The hut was small, filled with tools and a small fire in the fireplace on the far side of the room. A window in the back of the hut brought in light from the sunset that fell on the barren plain beyond. Rey could feel herself becoming anxious. She knew there was a lot at stake.
Maz, knowing it would take Kamal some time, took Rey's hand.
"Come with me," she said, leading Rey out the back.
They walked across the flat plain for several yards. Maz stopped at a pile of rocks and sat down, motioning for Rey to do the same.
"I know you have a lot weighing on your mind. There is much I have not spoken about for a long time. We seem to never both be in one place long enough for me to tell you what needs to be said." Maz paused and looked out over the horizon. "The stories of darkness from the past, do you know of them?"
Not completely sure what she was referring too Rey shook her head.
"I'm talking my child about the rise of Kylo Ren and his Knights of Ren. I assume you know of Kylo Ren?"
"Yes, we've met," Rey said curtly, "I spent some time with Luke before...before he moved on and he mentioned that when he was training Be...Kylo something went wrong and Kylo destroyed the Jedi temple. He killed all of the Jedi in training, except those that were seduced to the darkside with him."
Maz nodded her head. "Yes, those souls that followed Kylo Ren rose from the ashes of evil to form a powerful group bound to the darkside, the Knights of Ren. They have been reigning terror on the citizens of this galaxy for years under the leadership of Snoke and now, Kylo Ren."
"How do you know about them?" Rey asked, curiosity brimming in her voice.
"In recent years I have heard the stories of their unspeakable evils but how I came to know of the Knights of Ren starts with me meeting Han Solo. I thought of him as I did all of the other scoundrels that frequented my establishment, just a man looking to score the next big thing. I had heard of the stories of his work with the Jedi but they were whispered rumors then. As time went on over the years, Han and I became good friends. I think you could say we trusted each other, as much as two people in our line of work could. He came to me once and asked for something that seemed very out of character for him. He needed my help, saying he would pay me a very large sum to personally oversee events that were going on involving the Jedi and that I was to report back to him with the details frequently. I thought this was odd since he did not seem the type to care and neither was I. Naturally, I did not like the idea of leaving my place, I work with thieves and the like after all but, something inside me told me I needed to go. I needed to see for myself. So I posed as a building engineer and went to the sacred Jedi temple to restore the structure. That's where I saw Luke, training his young apprentices, and it became clear to me why Han was so interested."
"Ben…" Rey interjected.
"Yes," Maz said smiling. Her smile quickly faded into a frown as she continued to recall the story. "The peace I saw and the goodness in those early days was short lived. When the destruction began, it caught us all off guard. It all happened so quickly, I saw Ben Solo go from an anxious young boy to a dark, sinister one. The day it happened, I managed to escape the temple as it crumbled around me, burning to the ground. By the time I made it out, Luke was gone. There was destruction and chaos everywhere. People were dead and hope was lost. I barely had my wits about me, I was so consumed in the turmoil. That's when I saw it, the lightsaber, discarded in the rubble, like it had been thrown away. So I took it. I'm not sure what came over me in that moment but I had to believe that someday it would be useful to someone and I was right. It found its rightful owner in you. You are carrying on the Jedi ways."
Rey took pause and thought back through her journey. Listening to Maz, the event seemed eerily familiar, like she had been there, when Ben burned down the temple, when the Knights of Ren chose the dark over the light. "Of course it can't be possible," she thought to herself, "I didn't even know Luke or Ben when that happened…"
"Is something wrong Rey?" Maz inquired.
Rey sat perfectly still, scanning her memories for the moment…and then, it hit her.
"I...I saw them...the Knights of Ren. I saw them after they destroyed the temple."
"What?"
"The lightsaber, when I first met you, when I touched it, it brought me to that place."
"It is the Force Rey, guiding you and from the looks of it, you are on the right path."
"Maz...if what you say about the Knights of Ren is true…that they are all powerful with the darkside...how can I ever be enough to stop them and how can we get the numbers we need for the Resistance to survive. It all seems so impossible."
"You are looking at it from the wrong perspective, that of a Resistance fighter, you need to look at it from the perspective of a Jedi."
"But Luke was not able to finish teaching me. My training is incomplete."
"Somehow, I do not think you will let that stop you. The Force is with you, you need to trust in it, that it will continue to guide your path and bring you the answers you seek."
Rey became quiet, looking out over the horizon as the last rays of sun set. Taking a deep breath, she knew what she needed to do.