The mightiness of the Millennium Falcon stood as far as few meters, as its glory remain unscathed even with the loss of its previous and legendary owner. The day was quiet and the light began to set through the skies, slowly turning into the night. Rey, after trekking to the Falcon nearly twenty minutes ago, still holds the awe and transgressions of admiration to the ship.
Smiling to herself with a piece of folded paper on his palm, she quickly walked to the Falcon's direction expecting Chewie or Finn will show up after the short and surprisingly, failed TIE fighter run. She recalled Finn running back and forth to the cantina and the Falcon three times, seeing him groan in several times out of exhaustion.
She wiped some sweat dripping into her neck, damping her neck and as well as her chest using the back of her right hand. Gasping for few moments under the heat of an afternoon light, her movement grow slowly but still the Falcon is within her arms reach, all with parts and sparks.
Maz's words from her conversation earlier still stocked and remained glued to her mind and it was playing over and over again, entering her ears and as well as her mind for a few times. Words and as well as names pierced through and wanting her to pull out her eardrums.
The name Obi Wan Kenobi still remains on her memory, instead of the planet name that she was to focus on in building the lightsaber. Maz intently told her that she was getting impatient. Does being impatient can lead to the dark side? Probably not in her own mind.
Rey immediately realized she was not walking or not moving, for thinking too deeply when walking on the road. She topped knowing her thoughts has been bothering her far too much. Maybe a little rest might help this. I am thinking about this too much. Using the Falcon's size as a shed from the sunlight, the shadow of the ship blocked any ray of light, making her to cloud beneath the shadows. "Obi Wan Kenobi."
The name remains on her mind, why the Force did Maz made her to figure it out herself. Luke was hiding it and doesn't want her to know exactly. You hid from me, Master. Rey heard a plenty of stories about Obi Wan Kenobi, especially on the Clone Wars and the hunt of General Grievous, marking the death of the android General, before the execution of the Order 66.
Words again entered her mind from Maz, saying that he reminded him of someone or something when the first time they met each other. Rey shook her head from disbelief. Obi Wan and I could be related. She spoke to herself, trying to break the clue.
The only question was, why Luke looked at her with sorrow and regret, did Luke disappointed Obi Wan years ago that she didn't even know? Now she felt numb. She cannot trust anyone but her mentor and comrades, but she began to grow doubts to her mentor. Especially hiding something very important to her.
Memories of blurred and dark images was the only thing she remembered in her ancestry, probably Obi Wan Kenobi can help her if she knows how to summon a dead Jedi from the grave.
"You're thinking. Your thoughts brought fear in your mind and disturbance."
Rey snapped from her thoughts, still her eyes is on the dark shadows of the Falcon, still covering her whole body from the light. She knew that voice and it spoke to her earlier that day, her lightsaber's real owner. "Master Anakin."
Anakin smiled in recognition in her voice without fear and disturbance in her spirits. "Too formal. Anakin is just fine. How was your talk to Kanata?"
She froze. Even her lungs stopped taking in oxygen, she was left breathless at his sight. Her first encounter with him was not a pleasant and confusing one, with her not looking straight to Anakin's face all the time. Her eyes stared towards the Force ghost, as he gave her a smile. She found herself breathing slowly in every rhythm in her mind. Breathe Rey.
Almost hyperventilating, Anakin spoke as cleared the silence between the two. "I suppose that it didn't went well?"
"I don't know Master Anakin."
"Rey, Anakin is just fine. I don't deserve being referred to as a master, not even once." The Force ghost frowned, but his calm expression made things even calmer for the two of them. "I just don't deserve it, not after what I've done."
Rey knew what he meant. Darth Vader. The most hated man in the galaxy, also known to be the greatest and most powerful Sith that ever lived back in the days of the Rebellion. Now she was talking to him, the same man responsible of the deaths of hundreds of people, maybe a thousand.
Looking at the eyes of the same man changes everything that Rey though he would be. She saw the eyes of one who is afraid of losing someone, whose past is full of jealousy, hatred and rage. That caused him to fall even deeper to the dark side.
Ever since with this encounter, Rey can't find herself to find her strength to do this, even with the Force guiding, in her words and actions. "Did you still regret the things you have done in the past?"
The ghost man laughed and nodded his head up and down. She gazed herself on his scar and his overall facial features. Clearly and mindfully, the resemblance. Without hesitation he spoke, bitterly. "Yes, not even the Force is for me that time. The code Order 66 began and killing over the whole Jedi council, even I slaughtered all younglings."
"Yes, you did. But in the end you were with the light and made peace with it, with the help of your son." She saw Anakin's lips pressed tightly, looking like a child who was found guilty of taking something. Anakin wasn't proud of being with the dark side and was saved by the mercy of his son.
In return, Anakin smiled. "He was a young man when I met him, with such courage and determination in facing his own father to the death. He was a better replacement for the Emperor, for me."
Rey paused in her thoughts, but still remained silent as Anakin's smile subdues, turning into a serious expression tracing his face and his scar. The mighty and fallen eyes beamed to her eyes as if she's watching her own eyelids. The ghost man sighed, opening his lips, speaking. "I made peace with the Light, not because my son and my pride wants it, nor the works of betrayal of the Emperor made me to suffer great peace in the Light. It is me. Not the Darth Vader, who killed hundreds or thousands of innocence in cold blood. The real me, with innocence and love towards Padme."
Sensing the sadness and conflict, she felt the same way and sensed it to someone else. A familiar memory whisper, flowed to her ears giving her chills and fear engulfed her. Let the past die, kill it if you had to. Those words, were the last words she expected to hear from. She stared at Anakin, believing the fact that his grandson was haunting her mind like he did after the encounter at the throne room with Snoke. "When the Force has its own way, it will be its way?"
"Absolutely." Anakin smiled, in response. "You cannot resist the pull when you are being pulled or tempted from the dark side or the light. My grandson fails to understand that."
The mention of the word, grandson, made Rey to shudder uncomfortably and clasped her hands together like she was ready to sock his own face when he will be nearby this place, which can be impossible. "He is stubborn to realize that, he has no longer the light in him. He killed everything he loves and trusts. His own father, and he struck your own son and his uncle, down."
"Yes, just like me." Anakin spoke gently, his voice is calm as wind with a hint of regret but with determination. "I did many things worse than him, but that didn't stop us from hoping that something will happen."
With those words, Rey frowned in slight anger, and it was burning in her chest and body. As she saw it in her own eyes, Kylo Ren wanted her to rule with him and she refused. She knew that the light in him already snuffed out, seeing that he wanted to rule and to destroy. "Every action has its consequences, if Ren will realize that he may live, I can care less. He is the top enemy of the Resistance."
"And the last heir of the Mighty Skywalker blood, if he dies our kind will be wiped away from the galaxy. The name Skywalker and Solo will be no more." Anakin replied, crossing his arms as his Jedi robes still rounded his body perfectly. Then he looks at her, watching her closely. "You have pride and hate in your heart, it can tempt you."
She slouched her shoulders, showing her cluelessness as she could be. "Well I think it's just my confidence about him begging for mercy when I bested him. I cannot say I hate him, he is my enemy."
"No." Anakin's gaze slowly turned dark and far darker Rey has ever seen in a human's face. "There is something else, you are a strong Jedi. But in your heart, the Sith's ways are beneath there clawing their way to the top."
"I am a Jedi." Rey spoke immediately, defending her own self from Anakin's observations and looking. She was somewhat insulted by the choice of words Anakin chose, especially on the Sith. The Jedi order had already vanished from the galaxy and she assumed that the Sith as well. "I was trained by your son the Jedi way, to embrace the dark side."
"Only to embrace it, and not to destroy it. Look around this place, Rey." His head tilted from left to right, watching every detail of the Takodona's dense forest and trees, engulfing every inch of the forest. Rey followed her eyes watching the Takodona's forest as well. "In every ways of life, there is always darkness, fear, hate and anger. These are the main core for the Dark side to tempt you, as well as compassion. Beware Rey, the Sith can rise from the ashes without you knowing it."
"Haven't you destroyed the Sith once and for all?" Rey questioned him, speaking out what is best from her mind. Questions clouded her mind from her memories. "We all heard about the chosen one prophecy as he himself can destroy the Sith."
Anakin, in turn, smiled sadly. Realizing the fact that his prophecy was already part of the legend, and he fulfilled it without even a trace of conscious. "I did. My Masters, both Master Windu and Master Qui-Gon, they all believed that I will end the Sith from the Republic. Because of that, Obi Wan wanted me to be his Padawan."
At the mention of the name, Rey's eyes perked up from the ground and stared at Anakin with more intense look with a bounce of excitement. "You knew Obi Wan Kenobi."
"For the most of my youth. I did." Anakin replied, smiling from his memory of his old friend. The one who cut off his arms and legs, the one he killed on the Death Star, also the one whom he carried him when he was unconscious in the enemy ship. The one who trained him and the reason he became stronger. "Obi Wan was there from my childhood to my adulthood. Trained me as the Jedi he ever wished for. He was wise, cunning and also cocky for some occasions. Took the Jedi way too seriously, and eventually paid for it."
Smiles escaped her lips, from knowing one step details about the man she needs to know. "Maz said that Obi Wan Kenobi was the first thing that Luke saw in me when he saw me for the first time. I asked her about him, and she said I have to find it out myself"
"I guess I can do the same to you. Let you to discover about my former Master by your own." The Force ghost replied as he waved his hands in front of her. "It can save you from yourself and your downfall."
Rey grumbled in response, she was already troubled in helping the Resistance, finding her right crystals for her lightsaber, defeating the First Order, and now her task is to learn everything about a dead man. "Why can't you just tell me? I have many things to worry about."
"Impatience. I see." Anakin observed with a slight smile on his face, tearing the serious motion away from the picture. "You are stubborn for everything, and strong. But be careful for the temptation of the dark side. You have nothing to blame but yourself."
Rey turned to his direction, seeing that he was slowly fading away into the thin air. She pressed her lips together, knowing that more questions will invade her mind tonight and days to come. She exhaled a large breath, letting all of her doubts away.
Chewie made it outside, giving her a furry hug that almost made her ribs to crack from the tightness of the Wookie's hug. "Good to see you too, Chewie."
The Wookie nodded his head before moaning some words to Rey. Rey twitched her eyebrows, from his words in confusion and disbelief in the Wookie's words. "What? Finn? You haven't seen him returned."
A nod from the Wookie gave her a clear answer. Rey feared the worst. Her friend was gone, and she has no clue of finding his lone friend and have no idea where to start looking for him. She guessed that the First Order found him and began to drag him back from Takodona to their fleet.
Another guess that, he may be killed in the attack run and his body was never found. She gasped, covering her mouth hoping to the Force that it did not happen. "Focus Rey. You can save Finn, there is still time." She scolded herself.
The last guess was him, getting lost in the Takodona forest. But that would be impossible, knowing that Finn literally ran from the Falcon to Maz's Cantina back and forth for at least 4 times. Therefore, he has no doubt of finding the Falcon again and got lost into the woods. Rey wasn't convinced of her guesses and her third guess sold her more.
She turned to Chewie as they began to head to the cockpit. "Ready the Falcon, get her up and running. We'll find Finn."
She hopes to do so.
TWO DAYS LATER
Darkness.
Sounds of water and current entered his ears, as he flinched at the contact of stones at his back. Pricking him, somewhat touching his back rib. He snorted for air, still his eyes closed and was listening from the sounds around him.
The cool wind blew in his cheeks, he shivered from the contact. As tight and eerie aura clouded his mind making him to wonder more about it. It was difficult to think, difficult to remember and it was difficult to ponder on every memory in his mind.
The pain on his head was still excruciating and he pressed his teeth together and hissed from his head injury. The sounds around him was still the same, and his eyes were filled with darkness as he remained on his position with his eyes closed.
He began to think, what was going on. It was difficult for him to do so, and everything he remembers, it was unclear and disturbing for him to remember. He can see a man's face, whose face is not visible through the light, holding his hands to him and touching his cheek. Another woman, shorter than him, held his hands and engulfed him into a hug. These were some images he can see unclear, and as well some disturbing memories but it is quite unclear for his sight.
Slowly moving his hand, he trembles upon moving it. As he felt his bones and his muscles moving in every direction of its nerve and blood. He gasped during the motion, feeling the movement rattled through his head, clenching his fist and opens them again.
At last, he opens his eyes, with such immediate motion he began blinking few more times, more than he could ever count of. His eyes watches the sky, the night sky. Stars glowing below him and the dark sky was looking at him. There was nothing to see but the night sky.
He drew his hand, raising it and began to touch his face slightly. Running his hands through his cheek and his forehead, feeling every detail of his head. Making him to think hard, but failing to recognize and to do so.
Moving his body to stand up, the excruciating pain from his head jolts up and made him to hiss again in unexplainable manner. He placed his hand where the pain was still piercing in his head. He removed it and by the help of the night sky, he saw the blood smearing all over his hand.
"Jeez." A surprised voice snapping his actions, as hand remained in the air and still looking at his blood stained hands. He turned to the owner of the voice, seeing a black dud in brown uniform or jacket or some kind he cannot recognize. "I was hoping you were dead. "
He was a bit offended by his words, by frowning in response. He shook his head as he struggled to stand. Something inside him was digging inside his head, screaming about the guy in front of him. He took time to stand up unto his feet, fighting over the dizziness, headaches and as well as the sharp pain in his wound. "Where am I?"
"Somewhere in this riverbank." The dark man replied, still looking at him with such seriousness in his face, and with a look of a threatening man. He found himself backing a little, ignoring the sharp and excruciating pain in his head, wanting it to smack to lessen it. "I saved your life, probably you owe me from killing you."
He raised his eyebrows in confusion, still trying to balance himself from his own dizziness, making him to see the world upside down. "Killing you? I can't recall me killing you."
"You didn't kill me. Not yet." The man said, with a shrug. "But maybe you will since I am defenseless and all, can you please hold it?"
"I don't get it." He spoke in response out of confusion and need of every answers he need to finish his inner searching inside his mind. "I'm sorry, what are you talking about." Due to his dizziness, he sat down on a large rock formation, out looking the night sky and as well as the riverbank.
Finn scoffed at him, shaking his head in a mocking way. "Look, I know you have many questions and plans to murder me in my sleep, but I need something to signal Rey something big, because I've been waiting for her for days, trying to build a biggest bonfire but sadly I cannot light the fire." Finn stared at the night sky and mumbles. "Now it's two days straight."
That explains the large wood formation few meters away from the river bank, he looked around and also saw some failed and burnt firewood, big enough for someone up in the sky to see it. He motioned to his stomach as his angry stomach grumbled, and Finn heard it loud and clear. "Sadly I cannot see any results."
Finn noticed him fidgets his abdomen, with grumbling noises. "I thought monsters didn't have to be hungry. Well sadly, some of the waterproof edible food in my pouch were the only thing that kept me going, I left nothing for you."
He can only nod in response, but before speaking again with some questions. "You had a name?"
"You once called me Traitor." Finn replied, still his mood is cold as ice in his voice and his stare. He had difficulty in controlling his temper in the man who almost killed him and ruined his jacket. But to his surprise, he saw him calmly nodding in his response, his cold mood soften a bit. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, Traitor." He responded, moving both of his hands, covering his head altogether. Finn looked at him in confusion and curiosity. He turned away, trying to think of any alternatives of solving his exact problems right now. Two days and Rey haven't found him yet. He curses knowing that the water flowed pushed the communicator away from him earlier. Now with no alternate communication, he had no hope left.
Finn turned to him, giving him a death glare, but stopped after seeing him remained calm like nothing ever happened in his whole life. "You do remember you called me a traitor in Starkiller?"
He shrugged. "Well that's the name you called yourself earlier." He smiled smugly, while Finn scowled and cannot remove the glare away from him. "Starkiller? You do have some interesting stories, what is Starkiller?"
"Stop playing games, Kylo Ren." Finn snapped and loudly exclaimed in unholy voice of anger and hate in his heart. "I know you are playing along, enough of this."
"Who's Klauren? Is that right? Klo Ren? Kylo Ren?" Finn stopped in his tracks, and the first thing came into his kind that he was really playing games with him. He turned around, expecting to see a smug smirk from Ren's lips but in his surprise, Ren's expression shook him over.
It was an expression of an innocent looking man, with no clue what was entire going on with his life and Finn's. He pressed his lips together, trying to concentrate on thinking what to do next in his words of actions. He can't be forgetting what he did, and who he was."
Turning over, watching him quirked his eyebrows, in waiting and instantly staring at his wound on his head. It was still bleeding and it looked awful and painful if he had it in his head. Maybe. Maybe he can be. With a look, he responded. "Nobody, just a random name slipped in my mouth."
"Okay, I'll forget about Klauren. Or Kylo Ren." He spoke innocently, in response making Finn to shake his head in irritation and annoyance of his questions. "Why are you still here Traitor? Isn't dangerous here?"
"I have a name…" He stopped mid-sentence, part of him doesn't want him to mention his name and knowing the advantage of it, making him to fight for the Resistance or to take him out of the picture, to deal with the First Order themselves. "It's complicated, plus it's much easier for my friend to find me in the air than in the damn forest."
Something happened that Finn never expected to see ever again especially from the Resistance worst enemy. A smile. He saw Ren smiling widely, closing his eyes and snickered. "Fair point, tell me about this friend of yours, Traitor."
"Finn." His blood runs cold at his mocking words, even he knew it was the name Ren called him in the Starkiller, and he will be especially defected from the First Order. "My name is Finn, not Traitor."
"Finn." He repeated. "Nice meeting you, Finn. Sadly I cannot know or remember my name or everything around me except your attitude and your coming friend, if that friend is coming."
Finn stopped and trying to think of the decisions that he needs to make. Tell him that his name is Ben Solo and he will be a walking target with the First Order and the Resistance. Finn knew this. Or help him finding and setting up his new name again and can go unscathed. With a massive choice, he picked one. "Then feel free to remember your name."
He sighed in response, and it was a desperate sigh when Finn spoke those words. Finn remembered the first time he met Poe, and giving him name from FN-2187 to Finn and that changed his life forever. From a distressed Stormtrooper to a Rebel. "I tried everything, and anything to remember in the past few minutes, but I can't"
"I'm glad you didn't" Finn grumbled under his breath, making sure he didn't hear it loud and clear. He then cleared his throat and responds. "Then give me a name that nobody will recognize that name."
"I don't know." He spoke in hopeless manner in his eyes and mouth. "Matt? That can be my name."
Finn scoffed and shook his head. "Matt is too usual name."
He placed his hand in his bleeding head and giving it a wipe, then turned to the river and washed it using his hands, giving a cool sensation in his head. Finn ponders on the giving. Some of the name doesn't fit him or anything too usual for them to recognize.
"Okay, how about James?" he heard him speaking near the river, still washing his injured head from the blood spilling around his face. Finn sighed in response, clearly not agreeing with the name as well.
"Too usual also." Finn pressed his hands together and trying to think of anything that he can call him, especially to forget that he was Kylo Ren in the first place. He focused on the K and R letters and trying to form something out of it.
"Frank?"
"Nah." Finn waved his hands in retaliation, also knowing it was a usual name and it can be identified as a lie when the First Order or Resistance questions him.
"Jake?"
"Absolutely no." Finn relied, still thinking anything that matches the K and R combination of a name, because it fits him so much. Kacper? Konnor, wait wasn't that supposed to be C instead of K? Kareem? Maybe Karl? Kasper? Without thinking, he spoke. "What about Kyrie? Or Karl?"
He saw his face gleamed up, when he gave his suggestion while cleaning his head wound, making Finn to roll his eyes in frustration. "Kyrie. I liked that."
"Probably for the best, so that your mother cannot recognize nor your comrades." He spoke lowly, but loud enough for him to hear it by his both ears.
Ren or Kyrie, like he wanted to be called in his mindless ways, his mouth shaped into an O, as Finn slapped himself in mentioning his mother, General Leia Organa. "I have a mother, I always thought of her dying when I was a child."
"Well she was alive, Kyrie." The name Kyrie was unusual for him, especially from the man both Kylo Ren and Ben Solo, and picking this name far from what he always known is new to his mouth. He is still has darkness inside of him, Finn knew it. "I'm going to rest. Find your own space, Kyrie."
"Nice to meet you too, Finn." He smiled before finding his own space near the river bank and sat down in the rock formation. Finn found himself lying on his made bed from the tree branch and used his jacket as his pillow, when he took it off from his shoulders.
He sighed, knowing the risk of keeping Ren alive, as the name Kyrie was foreign to him. But he hopes for the new beginning for him, if Finn himself is willing to forgive and forget everything this man have done.
Where is Rey, when you need her?
Sorry for the lateness, I grew restless of being in vacation everybody and I had literally no time in writing this chap, hope you liked it. It's 3:30 am here, and I need sleep.
Choosing a right fake name for Ben Solo was a pain in my ass, and I have to ask few friends anything that fits Kylo Ren. So I began to stick with the K and R combination and searched through the internet. But none of them worked though.
One friend (A Reylo Shipper), came to me and said that I should combine the name Kylo and Rey's name together, which is terrible at first. Starting with Kyrey was bad enough, and the first name popped in my head was Kyrie, still pronounced the same as Kyrey. So that's why I came up with the name, if it sucks tell me I might change it in the future chapters.
PS: I'm not a Boston Celtics fan, but damn I really admire Kyrie Irving. Even though he came from Cleveland (My rooting team)