Chapter 7
Wish You Were Here
Rey felt something strange happening, a ripple in the Force. It wasn't the same kind that meant someone died, it was something different. She reached out with her feelings and tried to find its source but it eluded her and she felt a brittle anxiety rise in the back of her mind. She suspected that it might have something to do with Ben, but with their Force Bond inexplicably closed for the moment it was hard to say for sure.
A questioning growl from Chewie pulled her out of her reverie and she looked up. "Oh, nothing. I'm fine. Just thinking about what we have to do when we get to Bespin."
Chewie, R2, and Rey were all in the common area of the Millennium Falcon working on different parts to get it ready for the flight to Cloud City. Leia had given her blessing for the three of them to go off on the journey and had even given them things to take with them to the city. After the war Bespin had become an independent governing body and hadn't technically been part of the new Republic when it had fallen to the First Order. They were managing to keep their independence by sheer number of their own military.
"An old friend still runs the place, give him this will you?" Leia had handed her a package that was small but heavy.
"What is it?" Rey had asked.
"That is for Lando to decide if he wants to share." Leia had smiled and brought Rey in for a hug. "Be safe out there, and come back to us."
"I will." She had replied, but there was something ominous causing ripples in the Force somewhere out there and she wasn't sure that boded well for anyone.
Rey put Leia's package into a storage cabinet and took to her own pre-flight duties. She had hoped that Poe or Finn would have wanted to come along but by now they were each walking their own small paths through the Rebellion. When she returned with a working saber she would be able to take on her role as the Rebellion's Jedi.
R2 beeped and trilled a series of statuses from the Falcon. Chewie roared an affirmative.
They were ready.
She and Chewie sat in the cockpit and disengaged from the hanger bay while R2 sat in the back and monitored systems. His statuses read live on her console display. As the Falcon was towed out onto the tarmac the light of midday speared through the cockpit and Rey let out a sigh. Just beyond the tarmac safetyline a dozen or so people that she had grown fond of since becoming part of the Resistance stood waving farewell. Among them were Leia, Finn, Poe, Rose, BB-8, and half the crew that she had ferried from Crait. She waved back even though she knew they probably couldn't see her through the glare on the Falcon transparisteel. Rey hated that some part of this felt like a final farewell but she tried to think of it as if she were going out into the galaxy to become a better person. When they returned it would be like she was a new person. Reborn.
Ugh… reading the Jedi texts was starting to make her wax poetic about philosophical things. She shook her head just in time to hear the little beep of the console that indicated that the tower was giving them clearance to depart.
Rey and Chewie lifted the Falcon up through the atmosphere and as soon as they hit escape velocity the ship rattled in protest. She was an old thing, but Rey and Chewie had done an insane amount of work to get the old girl into perfect running order. Old didn't mean bad, and the Falcon wore her age well. As a girl on Jakku she had only seen it for its surface and cosmetics but on the inside this ship was strong and built to last.
Chewie roared a question. Are you ready?
"Yes, I think so," Rey said without much conviction. She plotted the course to Bespin and with a mutual nod shared between pilot and co-pilot she pulled the hyperspace lever. The stars around them streaked and the Falcon settled into hyperspace like a cat on a blanket. Chewie's porg took that moment to squak. Rey chuckled… or as snug as a porg sitting on a wookie's shoulder. Chewie murmured to the porg and patted it gently.
Rey smiled and laughed openly. It was too adorable for words.
The flight to Bespin would take three hours so both Rey and Chewie settled into their own respective pass times for the duration. Chewie wandered into the back of the ship and Rey sat with her feet up on the console with a couple of the Jedi texts. Since leaving Crait she'd spent most of her time reading the one on lightsaber craft and occasionally reading the one that talked about the philosophy of the ancient Jedi. For the trip to Bespin she pulled one out that had a dualistic symbol on the first page. It was the exact same as the pebble mural inside the pool of water where Luke had taught her the few lessons he could before he had passed on.
To say that the light dies if the Jedi die is vanity. Wasn't that the first lesson?
The second of the hubris of the Jedi.
She sighed heavily and propped the book open in her lap. The fine calligraphy and fancy but simple artwork on the pages of flimsi were old, ancient, but there was an energy in the pages that wasn't ordinary. It was a thing of the Force, or something like it. As she flipped through the pages she let archaic words pop out at her but nothing kept her eyes until she saw a phrase that jumped out at her.
The Prime Jedi ist thine benefactor of knowledge and will. It is through the Prime that all will know equal parts dark and light in the Force. Thy will, and the will of the Force is that of balance. This is a thing of the galaxy that shall not be thus ignored. Lose balance and the Force will take what it needs to right itself. The folly of past Jedi has been to take too much of one side or the other, thus losing sight of the will of the Prime and losing sight of what it means to be one with the Force.
Luke hadn't really taught her anything about the light side of the Force, and what little she had gleaned in her half-witted efforts to train herself in the Force since grasping what it meant to really feel the Force she knew enough to know where to draw the line in the sand between light and dark. But she was also realizing that there wasn't a line at all, that between the light and the dark was a gradient of glimmering grey. Like the symbol of the Prime Jedi the Force as it presented itself to her was an amorphous thing. Intent, belief, these were things that let her use the Force. She has used the Force with the intent to kill, for self-defense, and to save Ben from the Praetorian Guards. She had used aggression, and anger, and passion to drive herself through battle. Weren't these inherently dark side things? But she had also used the Force to save her friends, to bring light and life into the darkness that surrounded the burgeoning Rebellion.
Rey pressed a finger to the page where the Prime Jedi sat balanced between light and dark. Everything she had learned about the struggle between light and dark told her enough that unless something changes the battle for the soul of the galaxy would be lost. Too many Sith, everyone suffered. Too many Jedi, and still, people suffered.
She would be lying to herself if didn't acknowledge the burning thought at the back of her mind. The only time she had ever felt in balance, with the Force, with herself, and with the things around her had been when she and Ben had fought back to back. For the briefest of moments they had been in balance and all had been right, but then… they had lost it.
She yearned for Ben to be here with her, exploring the facets of grey in the false dichotomy of the Force that they had all been fed.
Ren stood looking up at Lord Eska. The creature, whatever he was was staring back with a glint of evil glee in his blue eyes.
"Your seat? YOUR SEAT?" Lord Eska stood towering over Ren. "It has come to my attention that you have killed Supreme Leader Snoke with a false sense of impunity. I do believe that you are a traitor and have no-" Ren didn't wait for him to quit monologing and drew his lightsaber.
Lord Eska raised his hands and a trickle of electricity crackled between his fingers. "You will die!"
Ren snarled and ignoring the surprised shout from Hux he rushed at Eska. Vic Elan stepped back and out of the way. Eska shot a harsh bolt of electricity at Ren and it sent him flying back. Ren rolled into the momentum and when he final stopped sliding across the floor he already had one knee up ready to leap back into action. Ren gritted his teeth as his body jittered from the exposure. He rushed Eska again ready for the bolt of electricity and reached his free hand out to capture it with the Force.
"Vic Elan if you truly carry any loyalty to me you will help me!" Ren shouted to the woman.
She shook her head. "I'm sorry Ren, I only have loyalty for myself right now. Good luck." And with that she bolted for the widow and crashed through disappearing into the darkness.
Ren turned the electricity back used the Force to reroute its destructive energy back at Eska. Eska waved a hand and it hit a wall behind him. Eska screamed in frustration and changed tactics. Ren had gotten used to Snoke being in every corner of his mind. He had always been there, in the darkest corners, whispering poison into his ears for as long as Ren has been alive. When he was nothing more than Ben Solo, child of Leia and Han. As Ben, he could only remember a few times in his life where he'd truly been allowed to break free from the legacy of his family's past, and of the expectations of his future. Everything else had been filled with terror, anxiety, fear, loneliness, abandonment. He had taken the first step in freeing his mind and reaching for something more precious when he had killed Snoke, not only to save himself but to save the woman he had begun to…
For the briefest of weeks his mind had been blissfully free, and then terrifyingly free, like he was in a free fall from a great height. He knew instinctively that he would have to learn how to fly or he was going to hit the proverbial ground.
Lord Eska was trying to invade his mind like Snoke had done one too many times, and Ren knew that if he didn't stop Eska right here and right now, the vestigial wings of his mental freedom would be clipped before he had a chance to really learn how to soar.
Time seemed to slow as Ren moved across the expanse of the room deflecting electricity with his hands and the mental barrages with the knowledge that Lord Eska, just like Snoke had no true power over him. He was free. Ren remembered a time when he had a strange, small scavenger girl in an interrogation chamber and being thoroughly resisted by her inner-strength. He admired that girl, that woman, and when he turned Eska's attacks back on him he thought of her, and her fearlessness. He wanted to see that face of hers again. He wanted to see her smile because of him and for him.
Lord Eska didn't see the saber because Ren directed all of his focus on making Eska defend himself mentally. And the saber cut true across his throat killing him instantly. But he didn't have time to celebrate. The whole of everything around him imploded.
Moments earlier...
"Sir, everyone is out."
"Excellent," Hux said and tapped his access code into the console. The screen began a countdown. "Get to your transport and report to me when everyone is on board the Allegiance."
"Yes, sir." The Lieutenant saluted, but not before eyeing the countdown warily, and then disappearing with a manic haste to his step.
General Hux smiled at the numbers counting down and then leisurely made his way to where his shuttle was parked and waiting for him. It was only a matter of time before the bastard Kylo Ren was dead and the First Order would be his to command.
Other than a battle of dark sided wills battling on the other side of the base, all was quiet and the countdown to the destruction of the base was just the calm before the storm.
TBC...
