Thanks Gu Long, Capsicle0199 and John for the review.
Chapter 3 - A strange dream
Darkness. A mist surrounded everything. Ian could barely see where he was walking. It seemed as if he was trapped and caged like a wild animal. No matter where he headed, he could see no glimpse of light. There was cold sweat on his forehead and he was breathing heavily. His heart beat fast and his face was ashen white. He was alone. Blinded. Afraid.
"Luke?", he asked. "Rey? Finn? James?"
No matter how hard he shouted, no onecould hear him. Suddenly, a lone figure appeared from amidst the mist; the man was wearing a long black robe and a dark hood hid his face. Ian could see from his hands, metallic and with long needle like claws, that this man was not an ordinary one. He could see sparks fly in his hands.
Ian prepared for a fight and asked, "Who are you?". He got no reply. Instead, the man walked slowly towards him. Ian, trembling in fear, attempted to retreat but lightening coming out from the man's hands struck him. Ian was sure that he was going to die, but suddenly realized that he was lying on a bed in the Millennium Falcon's quarters and that all of this was just a bad dream.
"Thankfully it was just a dream.", he said. Although he had rested, emotionally he was still exhausted. Too many changes had been made to his life in just one day and he felt overwhelmed.
"Uncle!", he instinctively shouted. He then remembered that he had left behind his uncle in Bliz village. He missed him. When he was living with him in the village, he always wanted to leave that place and wander the galaxy, seeing strangeplaces, meeting newpeople, tasting exotic food. He could have never foreseen back then how much he would miss his home and his uncle. It is true that only when you lose something, you realize its importance.
Ian could still remember the warm smile of his uncle greeting himwhen he woke up, how they ate breakfast together and spoke about what they would do next. The food was not much tasty, but it was the feeling of warmness and family that made morning breakfast great, although only now did Ian realize how great something which he considered a pleasant but rather unimportant routine was.
Now, he felt as if he was all alone. Luke, Rey, Finn and James; he had all met them just a day ago. He sighed and remarked, "I must be strong. I have to be. I have been in tougher situations before."
That was only partially truth; he had to face wild beasts, blizzards, lack of food, terrible injuries but the task he had undertaken right now was something else entirely. He had to leave behind the only place he knew, learn the mysteriousways of the Force and battle against the First Order and theforces of evil. If someone had told him about this a few days ago, he would have laughed him off as crazy. But now this madness was his new life.
He got up from his bed and looked around. He sawthaton a small desk there was a small cup with water. He drank some of it and used the rest to wash his face. He walked out of the quarters and saw Luke who, smiling, greeted him. "Good morning Ian. How are you? You must be quite tired."
"Yes...", Ian replied. "Why did I collapse yesterday? What happened? I just remember that I had a fight with James and suddenly collapsed."
"Well, it seems that you unleashed a Force wave. You are beginning to discover your powers."
Ian smirked. "That means that whenever I want, I can now use the Force?"
Luke laughed. "No. Not yet, at least."
He then said in a more serious tone, "You first need to hone your skills and tame this great force inside you, to learn how to use it when you want to do so and while being calm. Also, the Force is not to be used for trivial reasons. The Jedi use the Force only for knowledge and self-defense, never for attack or for selfish reasons. Using the Force to fulfill your desires and allowing hatred and anger to overtake you will lead you to the dark side. And once you go down this path, it will forever dominate your destiny and you will be an agent of evil."
"Like Kylo Ren in your story...", Ian remarked.
"Indeed. Once, he was known as Ben and was a promising young man with noble desires. But he allowed visions of grandeur, hatred and his ambition to cloud his judgment and followed the path of evil. Now he is no more than a pawn of the dark side."
As Ian was thinking about what Luke had said, Finn appeared and greeted both of them. "Hello Master Luke. Hi Ian, how are you?"
"I am better.", Ian replied. "Thanks for looking after me when I was injured."
"Its nothing.", Finn remarked.
"You are with the resistance?", Luke asked Finn, still curious about how he managed to get BB-8 out of Jakku.
Finn put on an awkward smile. He had told to Rey and, later on, to James that he was a member of the resistance. He still felt ashamed of the fact that he was once a Stromtrooper of the First Order. Finn attempted to hide his anxiousness and quickly replied, "Well, yes, I am. I am with the resistance."
"You've been in many battles?", Ian inquired.
"Yes. I have seen much combat.", Finn lied. In reality, he had only been in one battle; that of Jakku when Kylo Ren was searching for BB-8. "I've had to see friends die and I almost was killed."
Although Luke was not entire convinced of Finn's story, he decided to let it go. Finn had proved that he had a noble heart and sincerely wanted to help them in their cause. Everyone has secrets that they want to keep for themselves, Luke thought. He too had secrets best let unknown. "So, where is Rey?"
"She is with BB-8 in one of the quarters.", Finn replied.
"Wait for me.", Luke said to Ian and a moment later he returned with three medium sized wooden staffs in his hands. "Come with me.", he said andthey went on to find Rey. They found her talking to BB-8 in one of the quarters. Ian smiled when he saw the droid: it looked like a ball. It had a dome head and was mostly white, with some silver and orange on its body.
"Hello.", a smiling Rey said to both.
Ian smiled back but before he could say anything, Luke spoke. "If you are to stop the First Order, you must begin you training in the ways of the Force. You are both very gifted with the Force and have great potential but you must learn discipline and how to tame that power you have and use it for good."
"I can become a Jedi?", Rey asked. When she was in Jakku, she heard all the time stories about those sorcerers. When she was still a child, an old man used to gather the kids and tell them stories about the exploits of those sorcerers during the Clone Wars; he used to tell them about Anakin, Obi-Wan, Mace Windu and others. Those stories had amazed all of them but when she grew up, she believed that those were just travelers' tales and myths.
"Yes. But being a Jedi does not mean excitement, adventure and glory. A Jedi those things he seeks not."
Luke could not help but smile for a moment, realizing how much his words resembled those of Master Yoda. This idealist, impatient youth had become a mature and wise Master. "But enough with theory. Its time for practice."
He threw one wooden stuff to Rey and one to Ian. Rey grabbed it midair while Ian was hit by it, as he was not paying much attention and was lost in his thoughts. "Always focus on where you are!", Luke shouted.
"Yes...", Ian said and was about to grab the staff from the ground when Luke hit him in the stomach with his staff.
"Too slow."
Rey laughed. She found the fact that Luke was beating Ian so easily funny. Suddenly Luke's staff hit her back and caused her to fall on the ground. "Focus on the battle!", Luke barked.
"I was not expecting you to attack me.", Rey protested. "You were attacking Luke."
"Rule number one: always be on alert. You cannot predict what the enemy will do and when he will attack, so never let your guard down. If I was a real enemy, you would be dead by now."
Even as Luke was talking, Ian had grabbed his staff and was charging at him from behind his back. Luke went quickly to the right, letting Ian pass before him and slam on the wall. "You were too fast this time. Charging so fast means that you have littletime to see and realize what the enemy is up to. You must be fast enough to strike the enemy and slow enough to be able to have a clue about what happens around you. You do not charge like a wild bull."
It was then when Rey attacked. She pretended to attack Luke's head and midway retreated by a step and changed the direction of the staff to Luke's chest. Luke was of course able to see through this deception and quickly blocked Rey's staff with his own, but he smirked. "Good. That was a good attack.", he remarked. "That's enough combat training for now. You should now let go of your staff, sit on the ground and empty your mind of all thoughts."
Ian and Rey did so. After this intensive and exhausting training, they thought that this meditation task would be easy; but they were terribly wrong. Neither of them could empty their mind of all thoughts. Ian was constantly thinking about his time back home and so did Rey, thinking about her life in Jakku. Although it sounded easy in theory, being in peace and not thinking about anything was an almost impossible task, far more difficult than fighting with the staff. That's the reason why the Jedi of the old Republic spend so much time trying to tame their emotions and achieving inner peace compared to the time they spend practicing their lightsaber techniques.
"To find inner peace and empty your mind of all thoughts, you must first think of a place which you like and which relaxes you.", Luke said. "This will allow you to calm down and eventually let go of worldly affairs."
Rey thought of an island in the middle of a huge ocean, which she was always seeing in her dreams. Ian, on the other hand, thought of the snowy forest where had been hunting. Both of them relaxed and gradually they emptied their mind of all thoughts. Both of them could sense a powerful source of energy calling for them. They could also hear sounds from all over the ship; James and Finn chatting, the sound of the engine, BB-8 moving around. As time passed, they could sense the warmness of the starts and the vast emptiness and coldness of space. Without themrealizing it, objects in the room began levitating.
Luke was smiling. His students were making their first steps into a wider world. They were beginning to learn how to use the Force and realize its vastness and power. "Everything, living or not, has the Force in it. You can feel it in the people here, the machines, the engine, even the metallic walls and doors. When you sense the vastness of the universe and the Force, only then do you realize that we are like dust in a beach, water in the ocean. Yet even though we are but a tiny part of this universe, we all play a part in the shaping of events and some of us can even cause momentous changes."
Suddenly, Ian felt a terrible coldness. Chillness. Darkness. Loneliness. His heart began beating fast. He felt trapped, just like when he had seen that dream about the strange hooded man.
"Ian..."
Someone was calling his name. Ian could clearly hear this, even though the sound was faint and the voice weak and soft.
"Ian!"
Ian was confused. That voice belonged to neither Luke nor Rey, nor did it belong to Finn or James. 'This must be a dream', he thought. He opened his eyes and saw nothing but darkness before him; Rey, Luke, even the room, everything had disappeared. "What?!", he shouted. "Where are you?!"
"Ian!", the voice barked. This time Ian saw someone: the dark hooded man he had earlier seen in his dream. The man was approaching him. Ian could see sparks fly in his hands. "Your friends have been captured, you are all alone and now, young Jedi, you will die..."
A spark of lightening appeared on the man's hands and suddenly that lightening struck Ian. The pain was excruciating and he fell on the ground, semiconscious and trembling in pain. "There is no escape...", the man remarked and Ian screamed in pain. He then realized that all of this was just another dream and that he was still in the quarters with Rey and Luke.
Hearing his scream, Rey suddenly woke up from her meditation and Luke asked, "What happened?"
Ian, still trembling and with his face pale, replied, "I… Nothing. Just a dream, I suppose."
"It was not a dream.", Luke said. "The Force has the power to allow you to see the past, old friends or even the future. Your so called dream may have been a vision which the Force allowed you to see."
"This was the future?", Ian asked. This made him even more anxious; he now knew that his friends would be captured, possibly killed, by a dark hooded man and that this man would kill him too. "That means that we are in danger!"
Luke smiled. "The future is not set in stone. Nothing is set beforehand. The Force only warns you of a possible future. Whether this will come true, it all depends on you."
"What did you see?", Rey asked, curious about that vision.
"I was in a dark room and a strange man clad in black said that he had captured all of you and then began striking with me with some kind of lightening. I was helpless against him."
"Weird.", Rey remarked. "A few moments ago I also saw for a second the image of a man clad in black."
"Weird indeed.", Luke said. "It is no coincidence that you saw the same figure as Ian. But you did not see a vision, only an image. That means that what happened was that you sensed was Ian was thinking because his thoughts were too strong about this person."
"How is this possible?", Ian inquired.
"Well, that's what the Jedi of the old Republic called Force bond, but few people managed to form such a bond in such a short time. Usually, it was formed between a Master and an apprentice."
"So, what is this Force bond?", Rey asked.
"It is a link between two force-sensitives that allows them to influence one an another. If one feels something strongly, the other too gets a glimpse of that thought. If one feels excruciating pain, so does the other. But one's will can also strengthen the other. I do not know how you managed to form such a bond in such a short time, but it is both a bless and a scourge."
Both Ian and Rey remained silent for a moment. Then, Ian spoke. "So…if one of use dies in battle, then the other…"
"Will most likely die.", Luke replied. "This certainly complicates things."
"Can a Force bond be cut?"
"I do not believe it has happened before, but I do not think that it is impossible either. The ancient Jedi were said to have had a technique designed to cut a Force bond, but such knowledge has been lost for hundreds of years."
An alarm ringed and the three force users heard James shouting, "We've reached Nar Shaddaa!".
Luke, smiling, said, "Well, we have a lot to do, so I say that we drop this subject and focus on the challenges ahead."
"What exactly are we doing in Nar Shaddaa?", Rey asked.
"I have to meet an old friend who has valuable secrets that could help us in the struggle against the First Order. Plus, we can lay low for a while and escape from the First Order's attention. The entire planet of Nar Shaddaa is essentially a huge metropolis. No one will be able to find us here, amidst so many millions of peoples."
He then walked out of the quarters, heading for the cockpit, leaving Rey and Ian alone. He knew that they had to discuss about this Force bond they had. Ian spoke first, "I just want you to know that I will not do anything reckless that will put your life in danger."
"Neither will I.", Rey assured him.
For a moment, there was an awkward silence in the room before James was heard shouting: "Will you come to the cockpit, dammit!"
The two force users headed to the cockpit, where they found James and Finn sitting in the pilot's and co-pilot's seat respectively. The Millennium Falcon had entered the planet's atmosphere and James asked, "Where are we landing?"
"In dockyard 99.", Luke replied. "It is in blue sector. The fee for landing is cheap too."
"Blue sector? That reminds me of something...", Finn murmured.
"The blue sector is where most poor people and immigrants live.", Luke said. "It is a place of suffering where criminal gangs rule and tyrannize the people. Even before the war, it was a terrible place to live, but now, with the Republic focusing on beating the First Order, the gangs have no one to oppose them. They fight each other for control of the city and steal anything of value the people have."
"Then why have come to this filthy place?", James, with his usual arrogance, said.
"Firstly, because even if the First Order somehow finds out that we are in Nar Shaddaa, I do not expect them to predict that we have come to this dangerous place. Secondly, because a friend of mine lives in this place. A friend I haven't seen in many, many years..."
"Do you trust him?"
"With my own life.", Luke confidently replied. He then turned to Ian and Rey and said, "This will also be a good place for your training. You can meditate in this place and listen to the sounds and sense the feelings of a whole city. It can be an overwhelming experience but one that is invaluable."
The Millennium Falcon landed on Dockyard's 99 landing pad. With a switch, James opened the outer hatch of the ship and then said, "Lets go out."
Luke, Finn, James, Ian and Rey got out of the Millennium Falcon while BB-8 stayed behind in the ship. Both Rey and Ian where overwhelmed with the magnitude of the city; they had never seen so many and so high skyscrapers. Speeders and ships were flying above them in the thousands. To Ian, they reminded him of the wild birds in the snowy forest, but they were far more noisy.
"So, when will the dock's owner arrive?", Finn asked.
"Here is he!", Luke said and pointed at a short fat middle-aged man walking to the landing pad. He was wearing a white shirt that was so dirty that parts of it looked as if they were painted brown and black trousers. He was bald and his face was somewhat ugly, but his most noticeable characteristic was his huge belly.
"The fee is forty credits per day!", he dryly said. "I do not bargain, so do not bother doing so."
"How rude!", James remarked but Luke quickly handed out the forty credits to the man and said, "The ship will stay here for about four or five days."
"Alright...", the man nonchalantly said, not caring less about what those travelers were up to. To him, only credit mattered. He had to pay protection fee to the gangs and run the place, which was pretty stressing, so he could not be bothered about others.