Chapter 9: Trials of Skill
The Resistance Fleet
After reuniting with Leia, Luke got two additional reunions, namely of a certain pair of Droids he hadn't seen or spoken to in years.
"Oh, Master Luke! It's so good to see you again at long last!" C-3PO said, walking up to Luke as briskly as his characteristic "waddle" movement allowed. If he had both the articulation and personality for it, Threepio would have shaken Luke's hand vigorously right then and there. R2-D2 too, was happy to see Luke, beeping and whirring, and making quite a bit of noise.
"Good to see you again too, Artoo." Luke said with a soft smile. He realized all at once that he had almost forgotten how much he cared about these two Droids, how long they'd stood by him, and how incredibly loyal they had both been through so many trials and tribulations. But he'd locked all of that away when he'd gone into exile. Suppressed it. Like putting a priceless treasure in a chest and then burying the chest under several large mounds of sand. But now that treasure had been unearthed, and the years of being without it had made it shine and sparkle all the brighter. Simply put, Luke was, for the first time in a long while, happy.
"Oh, Master Luke, it's been so different with you gone! I've found myself often struggling even more to know what to do! You always had an idea of what I should do, Master Luke, and for that I..."
"It's okay, Threepio. It's alright. I understand." He shot his sister a knowing look, and she just smiled and shrugged. It was only then that Luke took notice of C-3PO's red arm. "I see you got a new arm..."
"Oh, yes I did, Master Luke. Quite the adventure that was. Why, I thought for sure I would not survive it! Would you like to hear the story?"
"Perhaps some other time, Threepio." Leia said. "Right now, Luke needs to tell the other leaders of the Resistance some important things."
"Oh, well alright then. But, if you have some extra time then..." But Luke and Leia were already heading into the meeting room, and Rey followed right behind.
"...huh. Back after so many years, and now already leaving me again..."
"Don't overreact." Was R2-D2's reply, though of course only C-3PO actually understood him. C-3PO's vocabulators made a very credible imitation of a wistful sigh. "I really did miss Master Luke. And with Captain Solo now gone, I feel that Princess Leia could use her brother back in her life again."
"It's not as though he's leaving forever." R2-D2 pointed out.
Suffice to say, the mere return of Luke Skywalker caused quite an uproar. Most of it was positive, though there was more than one person who shouted at the old Jedi, demanding to know where he had been when the Galaxy needed him, and why he had turned his back on the Galaxy he had sworn to protect.
"Everyone be quiet!" Leia shouted, in that characteristic bluntness of her's that nothing and no one had ever been able to curb. If anything, age had only diminished her already low tolerance for niceties and pretense. When she wanted her men to shut up and listen, they'd shut up and listen. That was just how it was.
"I know I have been gone a long time..." Luke began, as he did noting sadly that speeches never were his strong suit. "...but I came here now because the Resistance and the Galaxy as a whole are facing something that could be just as bad as Starkiller Base. It's a super weapon called 'The Mass Shadow Generator'. If Kylo Ren or anyone else in the First Order is allowed to build it, it will mean more destroyed planets, and more murdered billions."
"What is the Mass Shadow Generator?" Admiral Ackbar questioned. "And what is to be done if it does indeed get constructed?"
"A superweapon. The original one was built and used during the Mandalorian Wars. When activated, it sucked a large number of ships from both fleets into a vast gravity vortex that was powerful enough to crush them all onto the planet the battle had been taking place over. It ended up disrupting the core of the planet, twisting and distorting it and wiping out or horribly mutating what little life had been on Malachor at the time. Revan and Meetra knew what the Mass Shadow Generator would do, and so had chosen a relatively uninhabited planet on purpose. If the First Order builds one, we can all rest assured that they will not be so picky about what planet they choose to use the weapon on."
"If this weapon is as powerful as you suggest..." another Resistance leader noted. "...they could easily use it to wipe out or severely cripple our fleet."
Luke nodded and said grimly: "That is quite true, and I think they probably will if they get it."
"We can't afford a loss like that!" A third Resistance leader, a Duros said, panicking. "Our fleet's not like the New Republic's, or the Old Republic's during the Mandalorian and Clone Wars. They unleash something like what you're describing on us, we won't have anything left to wage a war with! The First Order has us outgunned as it is!"
"All the more reason why we need to find the Mass Shadow Generator and stop it." Leia said firmly.
"How do we even know it's real though?" Demanded a fourth Resistance leader, this one an admiral. "What proof do you have?"
Luke and Rey each produced what they'd gotten, Luke setting the holocron down, and Rey the data-drive. "Everything we have on this thing is in those." Rey said firmly, choosing then to speak up and refusing to let all the pairs of eyes on her intimidate her. After seeing and nearly being killed by a Terentatek, the eyes of so many on her simply didn't scare her. "We're telling you the truth. And Master Skywalker is right; we need to find this thing and keep the First Order from finishing it. Or destroy it if they already have."
"And do you know where it might be?" Leia asked. Rey shook her head. "No, we don't."
"We can't spread our forces thin looking for it." Ackbar pointed out. "We need some idea where it might be."
"Deep in First Order territory most likely." Leia said grimly. "We know the First Order built Starkiller Base and their fleet somewhere, we just don't know where exactly."
"That would be a good place to look." Luke said. "But you can't just rush in. One of you said it yourself, you're already outgunned."
"That might change soon, actually." Leia noted. "I recently contacted two of my men. They say that one of two warring factions of Mandalorians might be willing to work with us against the First Order, if we help them find something called 'The Darksaber'."
"I know what that is." Luke said with a frown. "I also know something of it's significance to the Mandalorians. I'd advise against trusting them. Honor or not, they're rarely on the up and up."
"Normally, I'd agree. But if what you say is true, we may need to take the First Order head-on soon, and to do that we need more support than what we have. The Mandalorians that want to help us could be that. We all know how skilled they are, and if they give their word, they'll keep it. And, my daughter is with them."
"Jaina's with them?" Luke shook his head. "She made a less-then-stellar choice in allies. But, I can see your point. So, if we find the Darksaber for them, these Mandalorians will help us?"
"They said they would, and bad as they are, Mandalorians always keep their word if they're something other than Death Watch."
"I seem to remember from my studies that the Crusaders and Neo-Crusaders didn't always keep their word either." Luke retorted. "I don't like this, Leia."
"Maybe we could get help from other groups." Rey suggested. "Surely there are others who would help us against the First Order? After what those monsters have done..."
"There are several different groups we could go to to get help from, yes." Leia said. "We actually have already been trying with some of them. Mass Shadow Generator or not, we need more people in our corner. We've sent envoys to the Echani, Onderon, and elsewhere. But so far, we haven't been making much progress."
"Why not?" Rey asked in a horrified tone. "Don't these people know what the First Order is? Why don't they just help?"
"It's not that simple, Miss." Ackbar said apologetically, cutting in. "Many of these places do have their own legitimate problems. We cannot expect them to just drop everything and sign on to help us in a losing war after just one or two meetings. Not a practical or reasonable thing. We need to convince them to help us by helping them."
"We could do that." Rey suggested. She turned to her Jedi Master for encouragement. "Right, Master Skywalker? That's what the Jedi do. We get people to work together and build harmony between different groups."
"We do, yes." Luke said. "But remember, Rey; there are only two of us, and numerous planets and factions that need our help."
"Then we start with one and keep going." Rey said firmly. "We have to do something, Master Skywalker. You said it yourself."
Leia smiled and nodded approvingly. "You've been teaching her well, Luke."
"Well, before we do any of that, we first need to go to Vjun. There are still things our father left behind in his castle there, and I don't want Kylo Ren to get them if he hasn't already. My Padawan and I will go there first. Then we'll help you recruit allies."
"Fair enough." Leia said, before adding quickly: "But be careful on Vjun, and don't take too long there. If they really are making another Mass Shadow Generator, then we only have so much time left."
The Hand of Complicity
"I take it you had a hand in getting yourself put back at my side?" Hux asked Kylo Ren with a frown.
"It was the Supreme Leader's desire." Kylo Ren pointed out. With his helmet gone with Starkiller Base, he now kept his face bare, showing off his now even paler complexion, yellow eyes, and diseased visage for all (including Hux), to see.
"Yes, but I assume you still persuaded him."
"You never did much like me, did you Hux?"
General Hux shook his head. "Speaking honestly, no. I have intensely disliked and detested you almost from the start. I don't like your way of doing things; too reckless and hot-headed, always thinking with your lightsaber instead of your wits, if you have any. When I use force, it is with purpose. A pick and a hammer working in tandem. You, Kylo Ren, are just a hammer."
"I'd be careful how you speak to me." Kylo Ren said simply.
"We both know the Supreme Leader wants me here as much as he wants you. Either of us makes a visible move against the other, we'll incur his displeasure." Hux turned around slowly to face Kylo Ren: "So, like it or not, 'my friend', we are stuck with each-other for now. An arrangement unsatisfying and distasteful to both of us maybe, but necessary to eliminate our mutual foes."
"Well, hopefully we can do a better job at that then we did at Starkiller Base."
"As I recall, it was you who was left a wounded and broken wreck there, not me."
"Because you've always been too much of a coward to dirty your own hands."
"Just as you've always been too much of a mad Kath Hound to keep yours out of the filth when you can benefit from doing so. You've no sense of pragmatism."
"What you call 'pragmatism' I call your excuse not to fight and risk your own neck."
"Just remember who it was that suggested that Starkiller Base be used." Hux said darkly. "I ordered it to fire and destroy multiple planets. Billions extinguished. I regret none of it. Make no mistake, Kylo Ren; I'm pragmatic, not merciful. I intend to finish what I started with the New Republic fleet and Hosnian Prime; the Resistance and all others who cling to that way of thinking and reject the First Order's way, will be swept aside."
"Finally, something we agree on." Kylo Ren said with a slight, sadistic smile. "I happen to know that the Resistance has been sending out envoys to try and convince others across the Galaxy to help them against us. Onderon is one such place."
"Then we go there and make clear to Onderon what happens to those who defy us."
"Where was all that talk about being the hammer and the pick?" Kylo Ren asked with a raised eyebrow. "If we move in and slaughter the Onderonians indiscriminately, that will make them more likely to join the Resistance, not less. We must...'invalidate', the Resistance in the eyes of Onderon's people. Make it so that they wish to join us instead of them. Then the Resistance not only fails to get allies, but we get some of our own. Two victories accomplished at once."
Hux frowned. "Would seem I underestimated you." He acknowledged bitterly. "I take it you recommend we go to Onderon next?"
"I do." Kylo Ren said simply. "Mustn't let the Resistance convince them to side with us. We must win them over ourselves."
"How do you propose we do that?"
"Onderon's been a...'chaotic' place since the fall of Palpatine's Empire. The collapse of the puppet-regime Palpatine had put into power there with nothing to fill the void, has ensured they've been in near-perpetual unrest and on-and-off civil war, revolutions, and coups for, oh, about thirty years now." He made a cruel smirk. "Now, if someone were to, say...'uplift' these poor people from their predicament, they might, possibly, become very grateful afterwards."
General Hux made a cruel smile to match Kylo Ren's. "I believe I can see where this is going." He nodded. "Yes, I like the sound of that. Let's go to Onderon and...'uplift' them."
Ord Mantell
"Owen!" His mother called out to him. "Owen, come inside!"
Owen nodded and did as he was told, making his way into the modest abode on the barren planet they had been hiding out in for quite some time. Upon entering, he saw his mother there, with her fading red hair, mildly lined face, and fairly modest and simple white robes that could not be more in contrast to what she had worn in her younger years.
Her name was Mara Jade. But to Owen Skywalker, she was simply "mom" or "mother".
"You wanted me?"
Mara nodded. "Yes. I can sense that the First Order will be making another attack soon."
"So we just hide out here?"
Mara shook her head. "No, we don't do that. But we don't put ourselves out in the open until we're ready to attack, either. I can sense that the First Order will be moving on this city tonight. Most likely to 'make an example' out of the people here." Mara's disgust at the concept was evident in her tone, and it was a sentiment her son shared.
"Haven't they slaughtered enough people in enough towns already?" Ben asked.
"Apparently not."
"We could have done more to help the other ones." Owen pointed out.
"No, Owen, we couldn't have." Mara said sadly. "Too far away, and we can't take on the entire First Order military presence here on our own. But we can do something about the attack that's coming."
"Won't we still be outgunned?"
Mara smiled. "Not this time. This city has people who can fight. We'll be working with them."
"I...sense you know one of them."
Mara nodded. "I do, yes. Something of an 'old friend'."
Owen raised an eyebrow at that but said nothing. He merely clutched tightly the handle of the lightsaber he'd made with his parent's guidance. A lightsaber he'd previously used in sparring sessions only (ones in which each of his parents whilst holding back had dealt him sound thrashings regularly), and the occasional bit of disarming against some fool or training droid or another. Never had he used it in a real, true, "kill or be killed" fight before.
Sensing her son's anxiety, Mara pulled him in close for a hug and said: "I know what it feels like. I know how I felt my first time. And it wasn't a kill in self-defense either."
"Do you still feel guilt?"
"Of course. Every day. Him and the others like him. I haven't enjoyed any time I've taken a life. You won't either. But if you do it only when you know you must, when you have no other choice...it makes it easier. Much easier. I promise."
"I hope so..."
Mara smiled. "You'll do fine. Especially when I'll be out there with you." She closed her eyes for a moment and then opened them abruptly.
"What is it, Mother?"
Mara made a soft smile, half of pleasant surprise the other of gentle amusement. "It's your father, Owen. He's on the move again."
Vjun
As The Millennium Falcon came within sight of Vjun, Rey could feel the Dark Side all at once, and so could Luke. However, with Vader's now over thirty-year absence from the planet, the Dark Side's influence on Vjun had waned and weathered somewhat. His castle had fallen into some amount of disrepair, and even though Dark Side artifacts and treasures doubtlessly still remained, it was not as it had been when Vader made it one of his prime residences. It was still a Dark Side nexus, but now only somewhat.
This meant though that, if any Knights of Ren were on Vjun, they'd be at least a little bit augmented from basking in the dark aura of the place. As such, Luke had been further training Rey in lightsaber and Force combat almost non-stop since they'd left the Resistance fleet. Luke was determined to get her as refined and skilled in Shii-Cho and Niman as he possibly could in the limited time. Rey's taste of battle on Yavin IV and her coming out still alive had had an interesting effect on her; the presence of more actual combat experience now made learning the rest of what Forms I and VI offered come that much easier to her (though she suspected her ever-growing and strengthening connection to the Force had something to do with it too).
In any event, Rey was growing in skill and power rapidly. Even though Luke was still beating her without exception in their spars, and still holding back against her, she was at least now seeming to give him better fights.
"Very good, Rey." Luke said after swatting her double-bladed lightsaber out of her small hands for the eighth time straight. "You're becoming a challenge to me."
"Yeah, while you're still holding back." Rey said with an amused smirk.
"I also have the advantage of knowing how you'll fight though." Luke pointed out. "Logically, that advantage should cancel out my disadvantage of holding back. And yet, still you are doing better against me. At the rate you're going, soon I will be legitimately challenged pulling a win against you."
"I doubt that." Rey said. "I can't believe you're still so good with a lightsaber..."
"Because I'm old, or because I was in exile for years?" Luke asked with a gentle smile.
"Both."
"I kept in practice. Wasn't much else for me to do alone on Ach-To. And I knew that Ben and Master Yoda's saber skills had deteriorated somewhat because they'd both kept out of practice whilst in exile. I didn't want to make the same mistake, in case any of the Knights of Ren found me. So I stuck with it. I can assure you I'm still the lightsaber duelist I was over fifteen years ago."
"I believe it." Rey said. Certainly, her body and long list of defeats attested to both facts. Her arms were now sore, and she was again panting and sweating profusely. Luke allowed her a good rest to replenish herself, and then they'd be going down to Vjun.
When The Millennium Falcon set down on Vjun, Luke and Rey both felt the Dark Side more acutely like a noxious, choking mist all around them. The feeling wasn't quite as bad as it had been on Yavin IV (as again, this planet had become less of a Dark Side nexus than Yavin IV currently was), but it was still very much there. And that wasn't the only thing bad about the planet.
"Damn." Luke hissed. "Acid rain. Vjun hasn't changed at all since I was last here." He turned to Rey: "Have you been practicing your Force Barriers?"
"Haven't had much time for it with you training me in lightsaber combat so much." Rey admitted.
"Alright then, I'll make one for both of us." Luke said. Sure enough, with a wave of his hand, he conjured a translucent barrier of pure Force energy that served as a natural umbrella against the acid that came down steadily.
"I thought the point of my being a Jedi Consular was that I'd favor the Force over lightsaber combat? I know you want me to be good in both, but it feels like we haven't had much time to focus on my Force power..."
"You're right." Luke admitted. "We haven't. But many Dark Siders love lightsaber dueling and aggressively seek it out against any opponent. I knew that if you couldn't defend yourself well enough with a blade, you'd never last." He paused, then added as the two kept walking: "I'm impressed with how you handled yourself on Yavin IV. You took down more than one Knight of Ren in lightsaber combat. And all of them were feeding off of the Dark Side aura on that planet like Banthas to the feeding trough. That makes it even more impressive."
Rey smiled. "They were neophytes though, I could tell. I could sense their inexperience." She sighed. "I didn't like killing them."
"Nor should you. The moment a Jedi actively enjoys killing, even the wicked, he's fallen down the same dark path as his enemies. We have to hold ourselves to a higher standard than that. Jedi must be dispassionate in those moments."
"I understand, Master Skywalker." She paused, then added: "I hope I don't have to kill anyone else."
"I fear that may not be possible." Luke admitted. They stopped in front of a large boulder that blocked their paths. Based on the size of it, Luke for one guessed it to be about 2,000 pounds or so. He turned to Rey: "Well, you wanted to further hone your Force abilities. Let's start with trying to lift that and move it out of the way."
"I don't think I've ever moved something that heavy before..."
"Well, here's your first opportunity to. The principles are the same, Rey. This boulder may be bigger and heavier than other things you've lifted with the Force, but to the Force, the difference is inconsequential. The difference, as Master Yoda once told me on Dagobah, is only in your mind."
"Not every Jedi can lift any object of any size." Rey pointed out.
"That is true, even the best of us have limits." Luke confirmed. "But I know how strong the Force is in you, Rey. And I know that your limit is not this boulder in front of us right now. You can do it, Rey. You just take the principles and mindset you use when you've used your telekinesis before, and apply it to the boulder. Account for the greater size and weight, and concentrate. Above all, concentrate. If you feel the object, and concentrate on it, as you do any other time you use the Force, you can do it."
Rey nodded, outstretched a hand, and did as Luke told her.
As had been the case on Yavin IV with the severed tree, the boulder resisted. But this time, Rey concentrated more strongly, remembering that to use telekinesis properly, one had to truly reach out and connect with the object and not just treat it like firing a tractor beam at the thing. She needed to, if not become intimate with the boulder, feel it through the Force. Imagine it's rough surface against her gloved hand, or bare flesh. Finally, the boulder shifted and wobbled forcefully, and seconds later it lifted off the ground. Heart soaring as success was within reach, Rey refused to let up, keeping her focus squarely on the boulder, and was pleasantly surprised at how it lifted up higher, higher, and higher, all the while her finding it easier to keep it up rather than less. Soon, she'd lifted the boulder over ten feet into the air. Smiling with satisfaction, Rey moved it horizontally and dropped it in a nearby body of acidic water caused by the rain.
"Well done, Rey. I told you you could do it."
Rey turned to Luke and smiled. "Thanks, Master Skywalker."
"Just remember, Rey: if I could learn to do it, then you can learn to do it. I may be a Jedi Master now, but when I was your age, the idea of becoming so seemed implausible. Ludicrous, even. I had wanted to become a Jedi like my father, but I'd never thought I'd get this far."
"I bet your father would be proud of you."
Luke nodded and smiled. "He is."
The two continued to walk through the rocky, barren landscape of Vjun in silence for a few more moments, all the while the acid rain doing nothing against Luke's ever-present Force Barrier. But then, they came within sight of a large, imposing structure. The faint but ever-present Dark Side aura suddenly became far more pronounced, like following a slight stink to a massive cesspool where the odor was far more potent. Turning to Luke, Rey said: "There it is, Master Skywalker. How do we get in?"
"Through the front doors." Luke said with a gentle smile before a large, two-legged walker came within sight. Luke zipped to cover, taking Rey with him. As they peered out from the other side, they got a better look at the thing; it resembled an AT-ST, but with a different, smaller head, more well-armored legs with clawed "feet", and powerful looking laser cannons on the bottom and sides of it's "head". Sensing no living presence within the vehicle, Luke realized that it was, in fact, not a vehicle at all. He turned to Rey: "That thing is a droid. I sense nothing within it's shell. Even Artoo and Threepio have echoes inside them. Not that. Just a mindless machine."
"Looks like the AT-STs the Empire used to have." Rey said, remembering as she did pictures and holonet videos of them fighting Rebel/New Republic men that she had seen in her childhood. "Guess the First Order decided they liked it better without the pilot."
"I'm not surprised. War-droids tend to not feel anything like remorse, doubt, or regret. And they'll do anything they're programmed to. Perfect for a commander who wants utterly loyal killing machines. It's why the Separatists during the Clone Wars were so fond of their droids."
"So does this mean we won't be going through the front?" Rey asked with a bemused smirk.
"Well, I could probably take it out easily enough. But if that thing's here, that means the First Order has already gotten here. And I don't want to let them know we're here as well. At least, not before we get into my father's old castle. Follow me. There should still be another way in."
Ord Mantell
It was dusk when a large number of Stormtroopers converged on the Ord Mantell town that Mara and Owen had chosen as their place to lay low. With them were Flametroopers for setting fire to the buildings, and for swiftly cutting down any who attempted to flee or resist, war-droids modeled loosely after the Separatist Destroyer Droids, only more humanoid in overall appearance and without the force-field. But they had similar blasters in place of hands, and head designs that looked as though they were ripped straight from the Separatist engineer's schematics.
In all, it was apparent what was to happen; the overall collection of minions would serve as a show of force, and if the population of the city refused to bend knee and join, then the Stormtroopers would open fire, the Flametroopers would burn to the ground everything that could be burned to the ground, and the War-Droids (aptly called "Cleansers"), would pick off any stragglers that the Stormtroopers missed, along with anyone brave enough to stand up and fight. This was, in fact, exactly what had been done in several other cities on both Ord Mantell and Dantooine thanks to General Hux's brutal subjugation tactics. The latter had shifted to keeping the populace working and cowed, but it seemed that those on Ord Mantell had yet to follow suit. So the massacres continued.
But tonight, was the night when they'd stop.
A First Order Stormtrooper officer with red pauldron walked up to the town, and demanded to see it's leader. Knowing he wasn't to be refused, the town leader came out to face the officer.
"You know why we're here."
"I do."
"This doesn't have to turn bloody. Just bow down and promise that your people will join our ranks, and everything will be fine. The First Order always needs more men."
"For tasks just like this one, I'd imagine." The town leader said simply. He got a rifle butt to the jaw for his remark.
"Watch what you say, old man." The Stormtrooper Officer hissed. "I'm not bluffing here. My men have already laid waste to a couple different villages on this stink-hole planet. I got my fill of this after the first one. But people like you always want to be stubborn. And then my men have to punish everyone for the actions of a few fools. Don't be one of those fools. Bow down and pledge your town to the First Order now." The Stormtrooper Officer raised his blaster rifle, aiming it at his chest. "Otherwise I can't be held responsible for what comes next."
The town leader looked up at him defiantly and said: "Of course you can."
A blaster bolt whizzed through the air and hit the Stormtrooper Officer square in his helmeted head. He dropped dead instantly, and his men scarcely had time to comprehend the sight before more blaster bolts from different directions came speeding down into the horde. Stormtroopers and Flametroopers dropped like big, white stones, and when some of the Flametrooper's fuel tanks were hit, it caused fiery explosions that set the troops unfortunate enough to be near them on fire, and sent the rest into even greater confusion and disarray.
As the Stormtrooper Sergeant that had been acting as second-in-command to the Officer moved forwards to try and contain the situation, it was then that two robed figures strode forwards, one in white, the other in brown. Seeing them, and the cylindrical devices they drew, the Stormtrooper Sergeant hollered over the clamor that had started: "All troopers! Focus your fire on..."
The two robed figures ignited their blades, one bursting forth as a fountain of amethyst, the other singing blue fire.
"...on the Jedi!"
A barrage of blaster bolts were unleashed, but Mara and Owen created tapestries from the movements of their lightsaber blades to meet the blaster bolts as they came and deflect them. Several of the deflected shots went back into the Stormtroopers and Cleansers that fired them, killing the former and short-circuiting the latter. By now, the source of the sniper shots revealed themselves to be guerrillas of all backgrounds. More of the same came out from behind covers and hiding places to charge the enemy force directly, unloading shots from blaster rifles, repeaters, and other weapons while their fellows continued to provide covering fire with their sniper shots.
"Hold fast!" The Stormtrooper Sergeant ordered. "Do not break formation! They're just rabble!"
"These 'rabble' are killing us, Sergeant!" Shouted one of the Stormtroopers, FN-1179, as he narrowly avoided getting a blaster bolt to his neck.
"And if we break formation, they'll swarm us in seconds! Hold. Fast!" The Sergeant ordered, before a Trandoshan with a blaster carbine shot him in the leg. Grabbing him, FN-1179 dragged him along, shooting his blaster one-handed. Next to him, FN-1178 died to another blaster shot from the Trandoshan. The Cleansers, mindless machines that they were, just advanced without thinking or fear, unloading a merciless torrent of blaster bolts the whole while. The scarlet lances burned many holes into many unfortunate guerrillas, but in the end, superior numbers for the latter proved enough to overwhelm the droids that had no sense of self-preservation, the Cleansers eventually all getting blown to bits by the combined firepower of so many guerrillas shooting at them.
Forcing himself back up, the Stormtrooper Sergeant angrily shot at one of the guerrillas and missed. He shot at another one, a Rodian, and put a blaster bolt through his heart. The woman he'd missed with his first shot paid him back by shooting him with a blaster bolt that went clean through his armor and chest and came out the other end.
With both the Officer and his second dead, it seemed that the First Order platoon was now leaderless. But then the true leader of the party showed up, having decided that, with two Jedi still loose, and both his officer and his droids gone, it was time to stop directing things from afar, and get more..."physical".
Owen scarcely realized that a dark presence was zipping towards him before reacting on instinct just in time. Nudged along by the intuitions of the Force, he brought his blue lightsaber blade up to block the green blade that smashed down with the intent of splitting his head in two. As Owen did what he could to hold the saber-lock, he looked out at the source of the green lightsaber:
Even though the lightsaber blade was green, the wielder was from his outfit and Dark Side aura, unmistakably a Knight of Ren. He was bald, green-skinned, and yellow-eyed. Owen figured he was a Mirialan, and the signature "chin tattoos" of black diamonds confirmed it.
"I thought it would be all too easy to just waltz in here, and raze this town..." The Knight of Ren said with a very refined and classy sounding accent and somewhat high-pitched voice. As though he were a foppish noble instead of a deranged sociopath. As Owen nearly failed to keep the Knight of Ren from breaking the saber-lock he added with manic glee in the same high-pitched tone: "...and it is!"
As Owen looked around him, he could see that the First Order troops, perhaps invigorated by the arrival of a Knight of Ren, were starting to push back against the guerrillas, gunning down several (including the Trandoshan from before), and pushing back the woman and most of her remaining fellows. This distraction allowed the Knight of Ren to finally break the saber-lock. He'd have surely decapitated Owen then and there, had the son of Skywalker not been so quick-footed. Narrowly ducking under the green blade (which did manage to singe off his top hairs), Owen put his focus back on his dark foe, knowing that another distraction like that last one could easily mean his death.
He struck out with his blue blade this way and that. His foe's heavy, purposeful, two-handed swings of his lightsaber, as if he were using a vibrosword instead of a green blade, told Owen that this Knight of Ren used Djem So. Owen smiled. That suited him just fine; it was his form too, as it had been his grandfather's during his Jedi days.
However, in the exchanging of heavy, powerful blows that followed, it became clear quickly who had the better training; Owen's parents were both masters of lightsaber dueling, and even after renouncing Emperor Palpatine's ways and becoming a Jedi, Owen's mother had always loved a good fight, and had imparted through both genes and training that same enthusiasm to her son. Once he realized that this Knight of Ren was not, in fact, vastly above him in skill, he relaxed a bit, and quickly found his stride; he was batting away blows easily, side-stepping others just as easily, and becoming so comfortable he even started integrating some Ataru acrobatics into his predominantly Djem So based style. Owen's specialty was the latter, but he had been practicing the former too since before the Temple on Yavin IV fell, and he was getting good at it...as demonstrated by how another acrobatic attack, his lightsaber an azure blur, knocked the Knight of Ren's green lightsaber out of his hand. Yellow eyes widening in shock, he tried to call on the Force to call back his saber, but someone must have seen that the Knight of Ren was disarmed, and shot him before he could get his lightsaber back. As he collapsed, Owen went after some of the Stormtroopers, who he found easy to disarm and take down non-fatally. One drew an electrified weapon of some kind, indicating one of the riot control Stormtroopers. He and Owen traded a mere two blows before Owen took the Stormtrooper's weapon-arm off between elbow and shoulder.
The Stormtrooper screamed in pain and fell to his armored knees, looking in horror at the stump where his arm used to be. Deciding that the man was no longer a threat, and not wishing to watch and see if he died from his wound or not, Owen zoomed forwards again, becoming a brown blur as he took out several more Stormtrooper's blasters. A pair of flametroopers saw him and unleashed spewing jets of fire at him. Owen merely raised a hand to disperse the flames before they could reach him, before pulling the two men towards him. With a single, expert slash, he severed the weapon hand of both men. A Force push after that blasted both of them backwards and away from him.
As the last of the First Order troops were killed or sent packing, most of the guerrillas gave chase, not about to let any of them escape and report to their leaders what had happened. However, as this occurred, a spinning red light tore through the air, decapitating three of the guerrillas before returning to the black gloved hand of it's owner; another Knight of Ren.
"Ah. I see Somminick Ren and his men failed. Pity." The Knight of Ren spotted Owen, gave a salute with his crimson blade, and promptly got into a fencing stance, holding the lightsaber blade low to the ground with one hand while the other was behind his cape. All of this told Owen that his style was Makashi.
"I am Ekas Ren. Know that you die by my hand."
The exchange of lightsabers that followed wasn't terribly long; Makashi never was a good choice against Djem So, and for all of Ekas' obvious skill, all of his ripostes, thrusts, and elegant, sweeping motions, Owen took them all in stride, blocking each strike as it came no matter how swift they were, and replying in kind with hammering strikes that Ekas was ill-prepared to deal with. By the time he realized he was facing someone who's form was inherently good against his own, Owen had singed part of his black cloak. Snarling, Ekas Ren blasted Owen back with a Force Push, leading to a pause in the fight and giving him time to switch styles. He switched to Shii-Cho and came at Owen again, using strikes that were less elegant or refined but also more practical against Owen's Djem So. Suddenly, what had been a very one-sided lightsaber duel became less so, though Owen still held his ground well as Ekas let loose with attack after attack.
Owen forced Ekas Ren's lightsaber away from his head, and cleaved down with all his might. Ekas Ren met that strike and blocked it just in time, but the impact still sent him stumbling backwards. Not about to let up, Owen pressed his attack, advancing purposefully and hammering away with more Djem So strikes. Ekas Ren did what he could to block the attacks, his lightsaber turning into a scarlet fan as it moved back and forth, and finally he managed to land an attack near Owen's leg. Owen narrowly kept from getting his foot chopped off, gave a two-handed thrust in response, and ducked and spun to avoid the overhead slash that followed Ekas Ren blocking Owen's stab. Closing the gap again, the two traded a few more blows before, finally, Owen delivered an upwards slash at an angle, cleaving through Ekas Ren's chest and leaving an ugly diagonal wound.
Owen stared in shock at the injury he'd dealt, and so did Ekas himself. He gave a faint, gurgling whine before his red lightsaber blade vanished, the hilt fell out of his hand, and he collapsed.
Owen Skywalker had killed his first man.
Vjun
One trip through some decidedly foul-smelling sewers and sub-levels dedicated to garbage disposal later, and Luke and Rey were in the base-level of Darth Vader's castle. In here, the Dark Side taint on Vjun was at it's absolute strongest, even with the castle's master having been redeemed and dead for decades now. Still some of his influence remained, and between that and whatever Sith alchemy he'd put into designing his castle, the place was still tainted. Indeed, Luke said: "Be careful, Rey. Any Dark Force users inside this castle will be more augmented than they would have been outside. My father's influence hasn't left this place. Not completely."
"I understand." Rey replied. As they walked, Luke noted: "After this is over, Rey...I want to take the time to teach you Force Barrier."
"I thought you told me once that all Force users have that?"
"They do, to a point. But not all Force users can do what I just did, creating a barrier for both of us to protect us from steady acid rain indefinitely. No, something like that requires training. As you've chosen to become a Jedi Consular, I'll want to take the time to help you hone and develop abilities other than basic telekinesis."
"I understand, Master Skywalker."
"Good. But, first thing's first; we have to survive this."
Rey chuckled lightly at her master's rather blunt attempt at humor, and the two kept walking silently. They encountered no resistance making their way through the bottom floor of the castle, but they did discover as they got up to the second floor large deposits of green crystal that were periodically giving off electricity. Luke frowned at the sight.
"Those look like kyber crystals, but there's something wrong with them..."
Rey advanced cautiously, only to instinctively step back as all at once one of the crystals unleashed a powerful, intense beam of energy that went through an opening that had apparently been made for it. Looking out briefly through that opening, Rey realized that the energy beams were actually charging up something inside. From the brief look she got of it before she had to move out of the way of another beam, she reasoned that it was a generator.
"I think we found what's powering this castle." Rey said. Luke nodded. "Yes, I should have figured. Father would have wanted a way to keep this place functional for as long as possible. Kyber crystals and the energy concentrated in them would be a perfect choice for long-term fuel, if you can keep them from exploding. Their energy isn't meant to be harnessed like this. I suspect there were at least a few 'accidents' before they got it right."
"Looks like kyber crystals can be used for a lot more than just lightsaber construction." Rey observed.
"Yes. They were part of what made the Death Star's super lasers as well."
The two Jedi continued their path past the castle's power-core and the kyber crystals that's energy powered it. They leaped up to a way out that would have been out of reach to those not Force-attuned, and made their way through a sliding set of steel gray doors. On the other side, they met their first resistance.
Two Knights of Ren rapidly drew red lightsabers as a fair number of Stormtroopers opened fire as well. Luke disarmed the latter of their blasters, sending many of them plummeting into the parts of a gap that the room's see-through bridge didn't cover. Another wave of the hand, and Luke had implanted a very simple suggestion into all of the Stormtrooper's minds: time to take a nap.
For her part, Rey engaged both of the Knights of Ren. Her double-bladed lightsaber proved well-suited to blocking each one's strikes on one of her two green blades. She kicked back one Knight of Ren and delivered a downward slash to the other that killed him. The second one came running back in. Rey parried his attacks easily before kicking him down. She hesitated to plunge her double-saber into him, remembering how it had felt to do it to the one on Yavin IV, but when he got back up and nearly severed her legs at the knees with a slash as he rose, Rey snapped out of her moment of hesitation and reminded herself that no Knight of Ren would show her mercy, and that they'd all made their choice to serve the Dark Side. She'd need to treat them as she would fight a rabid beast or an unfeeling droid, or she'd never get by as a Jedi. So with that in mind, she waited for the Knight of Ren to come at her again, and when he did she twirled her double-saber, and a green fan later and the Knight of Ren's head had been taken off, Rey all the while grateful that the man had been concealing his visage with a helmet.
Past the bridge was a control room manned by a couple First Order officers and guarded by several Stormtroopers. Luke and Rey knocked every last one of them out with their combined telekinetic power the minute they saw them. As their bodies hit the floor, Luke frowned and shook his head. "This isn't good. The First Order have clearly set up a base here."
"If they've been here a while, it could mean that the Knights of Ren already found everything there is to find here."
"That would be a very bad turn of events..." Luke trailed off as he realized he sensed something. "There's someone else here."
"What?"
"Not in this control room. In this castle. Someone else is in this castle besides us and the First Order and the Knights of Ren. Something...dark. Feral. It's a Dark Sider, I'm sure of it. A very angry one. Consumed by hatred, actually. Using it to fuel themselves. I sensed the same thing on Yavin IV, but I thought it was just the Knights of Ren plus the bad aura of the planet. But now that I'm sensing it again here, with no Knights of Ren around, I'm sure it's something else. We're being stalked, Rey. By a very, very powerful servant of the Dark Side."
"Kylo Ren?"
"No, I'd have recognized Ben if it had been him. No, this is...someone I've never sensed before. Until Yavin IV that is."
"Then we need to get out of here."
"We will, but first we need to check the upper levels of the castle. I want to be absolutely sure there aren't any other leftovers of my father's for the Knights of Ren to find. If we can keep them from getting even one major artifact or weapon of my father's, then that's a victory."
"So that means we're going deeper into the castle?" Rey asked.
"Yes. And then I'm going to destroy it."
"What? How?"
Luke smiled. "How else, Rey? Through the Force."
Exiting the control room and taking a lift up brought them to a second control room. As before, First Order officers and Stormtroopers lay within, and once again, they offered no real resistance against two Force users of such power. In the hallway outside the control room were two Stormtrooper Officers who Rey killed with a single throw of her double-saber. Past that, was another lift. They were all set to take it when part of the floor began to shake and shudder violently. Rey struggled to maintain her footing, while Luke used the Force to render himself perfectly immobile, like a statue almost. However, this did him no good when the part of the floor he was on broke off completely and gave way, sending Luke plummeting into the void below.
"Master Skywalker!" Rey shouted, rushing to the broken off edge to see where Luke had fallen, even though she knew she could never see that far down. The seconds passed, all the while despair rising inside Rey, before she heard Luke's voice in her head: "Calm yourself, Rey. I'm banged up, but I'll live. You must continue on."
"But Master Skywalker, where are you!?" Rey demanded, sweat forming around her head and tears threatening to come out of her eyes.
"Listen to me, Rey; you must keep moving now. Whoever destroyed the part of the floor I was standing on wanted to separate me from you. And it's the same dark presence I mentioned earlier. It's not just stalking us, Rey. It's hunting us. And it knows it's got a better chance against just you than it does against both of us together. You need to keep moving. Do you understand, Rey? Go, now!"
Nodding vigorously and wiping away the tears in her eyes, Rey said: "Y-yes, Master Skywalker. I will."
So it was that Rey kept moving, going up onto the next floor of Darth Vader's castle. And as she went up, a dark figure that had been watching her carefully, since she'd left the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, in fact, zipped across the gap to get to where the young Jedi had been, and followed her up.
Ord Mantell
"You did well." Mara said to her son as they and the remaining guerrillas surveyed the damage of the battle. For her part, Mara had killed more Stormtroopers than everyone else put together, which was saying something. Dozens of First Order men and droids had been taken out, though many guerrillas had died as well. Still, the First Order's decision to send in so many troops as a show of force had only ended up costing them more than if they'd sent in a smaller amount of troops (as they would not have needed many to massacre people they had assumed were helpless).
Mara walked over to the female guerrilla who had survived the whole ordeal and shook her hand. "Good to see you again, Sabe."
"You as well, Mara." Sabe said as Owen walked up to the two.
"This is my son." Mara elaborated. Sabe smiled at him and stuck out her hand for him to shake.
"Pleased to meet you." She said. "My name's Sabe."
"Owen." He replied before asking: "That name...it sounds Naboo."
"That's because that's where I'm from, originally." Sabe said with a smile. "Naboo was Emperor Palpatine's homeworld, so we didn't all realize just how bad he was until it was too late. But I recognized it. Joined up with the Rebellion and have been fighting my whole life, ever since."
"How do you know my mom?"
"She tried to kill me once." Sabe said with a laugh, even though it wasn't a joke, and Owen could sense it.
"We've come a long way since then." Mara admitted with a smile. "It's good to have you here, Sabe."
"You as well, Mara. Does this mean we can expect help from other Jedi?"
"Not at present, no." Mara said, before adding: "Although...I think my husband may be helping again."
"Luke Skywalker? Luke Skywalker is alive?"
Mara Jade nodded. "Yes. And I sense that he's come out of hiding at long last." Her smile widened. "And it seems he's got a Padawan now too."
Vjun
Finishing her walk up the stairs, Rey found herself in a large, spacious room that was mostly black with white, red, and yellow lights. She scarcely had time to take it all in before some Stormtrooper variant she hadn't seen before spotted her, and took off on his jetpack, his blaster rifle firing away. Rey blocked the shots as they came as soon, regular Stormtroopers came in as well to lend the jet-trooper support.
"Rey, what's going on?" Luke's voice came through clearly in her head. Rey smiled, happy to still have him watching her back in a sense, even though he wasn't physically there. All at once, Rey decided that telepathy was one more power she wanted him to teach her.
"Nothing I can't handle." Rey said confidently as she deflected blaster bolts back into Stormtroopers easily enough, though the jet-trooper remained elusive. The officer in charge of the Stormtroopers fired with his own blaster rifle, and Rey returned the shot, sending it into his unarmored chest. As he dropped, Rey reached out with the Force to try and "grab" the jet-trooper with telekinesis, but his speed plus her needing to divide her attention between him and the remaining Stormtroopers, kept her from succeeding.
Deciding to focus on the Stormtroopers and worry about the jet-trooper once he was her only concern, Rey blasted the rest of them to the sides, and pulled their blaster rifles away with more telekinesis. The jet-trooper tried to gun her down as she was doing this, but Rey spun her double-saber like it was a propeller blade, creating a spinning green "wheel" that caught all the blaster bolts and sent several of them back into the jet-trooper, which finally knocked him out of the air. However, with his armor having been sturdy enough to weather the shots, he wasn't quite dead. Seeing this, Rey disarmed him of his blaster with the Force, grabbed it, and shot him one last time, which killed him. She then threw the blaster away.
Going through a door down a hallway, Rey wasn't surprised to find a pair of Knights of Ren blocking her path. No longer allowing herself to feel hesitation against such foes, she dealt with them swiftly, disliking their deaths but knowing they were necessary, and pressed on without a word. Taking a lift, she found another Knight of Ren waiting for her, this one with a crossguard lightsaber like Kylo Ren's. He too, fell swiftly.
Walking out of the room, Rey realized that she'd actually been taken to the walkways overlooking the large room where the bodies of the jet-trooper and the others still lay. Seeing a row of Stormtroopers coming towards her from the other walkway, Rey blasted them back with a Force push, the men falling like dominoes.
Past the Stormtroopers, and within spitting distance of the door, Rey's path was cut off by a new figure who came out through the doors to challenge her.
He was a man of about average height, with a fairly muscular and physically fit build. He was dressed in some fairly heavy-looking garments with bits of light gray armor worn over a blue bodysuit. Black gloves covered his hands, and a black mask and hood his head. Only his yellow eyes and the area around them were visible. All at once, Rey realized she sensed something...off about him.
He looked at her blankly for a few moments, saying not a word. Then, abruptly, he drew a lightsaber that yielded a crimson blade, it's hue standing in stark contrast to his partly blue attire.
He came at Rey almost without warning. She raised her double saber to meet his strikes, but they came harder and faster than she'd been expecting and she started to backpedal. Taken aback by how this man's fighting skills were clearly of a higher level than the fodder Knights of Ren she'd fought up to that point, Rey's surprise left her vulnerable, and the man in blue exploited this without mercy, hammering away. One strike got past her defenses and grazed Rey's upper arm. Gasping in pain, Rey struck out impulsively, and he easily ducked her attack. Shaken out of her moment of surprise, Rey got her head back in the fight, deflecting and dodging the man in blue's lightsaber attacks.
He may be better than the Knights of Ren I've fought so far... Rey reasoned as she continued to trade blows with him. ...but I can still take him.
Finally, after narrowly leaping over an arcing slash the man made and landing, Rey did a spinning strike with her double-saber that was a bit too unorthodox a move for the man in blue to block effectively. A downwards diagonal slash that Rey followed with managed to cut the man in blue down.
"Don't know who or what he was...but I hope I don't run into anymore like him." Rey thought as she used the Force to heal her injury and kept going through Vader's castle, going down hallways, taking lifts up. After a while longer, Rey came to a hallway with a glossy black floor, a red overhead light, and a view of the lower parts of the castle Rey had already traversed via the windows built into the walls of the hallway. In the center of it was a man dressed the same as the one in blue, only for him the blue parts were red. Like the first one, he drew a red lightsaber.
Rey tried to blast him back with a Force Push, but incredibly, the man was not fully blasted back, instead his Force Barrier weathered the hit just enough to send him sliding back across the ground but not flying backwards through the air. Scoffing at Rey's effort, the man in red outstretched a hand and fired a blast of lightning Rey's way.
Rey had been taught about this by Luke; Force Lightning. A powerful attack to be sure, but usually not indefensible. Holding out her doublesaber, Rey met the bolts of lightning and let her lightsaber blades do the rest. Huffing in annoyance at the display, the man in red moved in with his lightsaber. Rey quickly found his skills to be about the same as his blue-clad counterpart, and for a while the two exchanged lightsaber strikes back and forth fairly evenly before the man in red unexpectedly kicked Rey back. She recovered quickly from the kick, but couldn't block the next Force attack the man in red unleashed, namely wisping trails of blood-colored energy that seemed to sap away Rey's vitality as they hit her.
"You are weak." The man in red hissed.
Willing herself to stand back up, Rey leaped over the man in red's charging slash, landed behind him, and pressed her attack. Their lightsaber duel lasted a little longer before Rey slashed sideways, cutting the man in red across his entire chest and killing him instantly. Past him was a chamber bathed in a blood colored light where another pair of Knights of Ren waited, and with Stormtroopers as back-up. Rey blasted back the latter with a Force push, and engaged the two Knights. As had been the case with all the others she'd already cut down in Vader's castle, they didn't last long, the first dying to a single slash to his chest before he could so much as level a strike, and the second curiously fighting with a blaster but as a result dying when Rey deflected his shot. Taking a lift out, Rey came to what seemed to be a hangar. Mercifully, there were no First Order troops, Knights or Ren, or those mysterious men in blue or red there. What she did see though, was what she recognized as being of the TIE family of vehicles, but with a different wing design than the standard.
Must have been Darth Vader's. Rey guessed correctly, before moving on. She expected another attack any second, but thankfully, it didn't come, and she made it out of the hangar without incident. Around then, she heard Luke in her head:
"Rey, where are you now?"
"I just got out of a hangar, Master Skywalker. There doesn't seem to be anyone else here."
"Well, I'm making my way through the lower levels of the castle now. I'm doing what I can to catch up with you, but the First Order knows I'm here and they've been throwing men at me non-stop. Great big waste of life it's turning into down here."
"What am I looking for up here, Master Skywalker?"
"Go to the upper-most floors of the castle. My father's throne room, isolation chamber, museum, and workshop could and will have things there the First Order and Knights of Ren could use. I want to make sure they're all searched before I destroy this castle."
"What happens when I'm done searching?" Rey asked.
"Meet back up with me, and then I'll get us out of here. Then I'm bringing the castle down."
"I'll enjoy seeing that." Rey said with a nod. "I don't like this place at all."
Past a few more parts of the castle that were mercifully devoid of an enemy presence, Rey took another lift up, and came into what she realized was that workshop Luke had mentioned.
It had seen better days. Everywhere Rey looked, bits of droid pieces, mechanical limbs in various states of quality and condition (but mostly poor), machinery of all shapes and sizes, and just plain garbage littered the floor and covered up every inch of the large table in the center of the place. Rey shook her head. Even growing up on a planet like Jakku, it was still a sight to behold, and not in a good way.
Who knows how long they've been dumping rubbish here? Rey wondered.
"I sense you, Jedi..."
Rey's heart caught in her throat and she gasped as she realized someone else was in the room with her. Whipping around in a cold sweat, Rey saw another of the men in red reveal himself, looking exactly the same as the one she'd already killed. He'd somehow cloaked his presence from her. A crimson lightsaber appeared in each hand, and next thing Rey knew, she was facing a fairly frantic and erratic assault from her foe. She figured he was using Ataru, as the Knight of Ren on Yavin IV with the silver and red lightsabers had done, and like there, Rey found herself losing ground fast. Her enemy seemed to be everywhere, leaping about like mad, rarely pausing for anything. Rey kept up her defenses admirably, but for every strike she parried, it seemed like she'd then have to spin around and turn to deal with another attack from elsewhere.
They got into a saber-lock, each of his red blades pressed hard against one of her green ones. Rey forced his lightsabers down and away from herself before leaping backwards. He fired out blasts of Force Lightning but Rey deflected them just in time. He closed in and she finally managed to nick him in the shoulder with one of her blades. A few more exchanged blows later, and Rey slashed him in his upper chest, and at last the man in red collapsed, his red lightsabers dropping to the floor.
Rey gasped in relief at her victory, realizing all at once how close it had been. She knew why; these men were not only much better than the neophyte Knights of Ren she'd been dealing with previously, but were just as augmented by the darkness of Vader's castle as those Knights were, making them even more dangerous. Rey wasn't sure how many more of them she could face before finally one of them came along that proved to be just too much.
I'll worry about that later. Rey reasoned, even though she knew she was just stalling because, whether she admitted it or not, she was afraid. She was afraid she'd die there, in Vader's castle, alone, without her master at her side. She knew they needed to be absolutely sure no more dark artifacts got into the Knights of Ren's hands, but even so, Rey could feel her resolve weakening with her stamina. How much more did she need to do? How much more could be asked of her before it became too much?
Deciding she ought to look around while she was in the workshop, Rey searched everywhere for anything that had the taint of the Dark Side on it most acutely. She found nothing of note. Just machinery and junk, and what she realized were old, discarded limbs of Darth Vader's or else replacement limbs that were ready if he needed them but had never been worn. Those were especially unsettling, but strictly speaking, she found nothing that the Knights of Ren would find worthwhile. If there had been anything there they'd want, they'd already taken it.
Frowning, Rey pushed on. She came into a spacious area that she realized was a training room. Walking forwards, Rey examined the controls that she reasoned would provide their late master what he desired as far as honing his skills and power went. Turning it on, she saw options for all manner of training droids, beasts, and an option for "sapients" that she realized must have been people. She couldn't imagine anyone wanting to be Darth Vader's training dummies willingly, which told her that, most likely, he had honed his skills now and again on captives brought in and made to fight him against their will.
Horrible. Rey shook her head in disgust and kept moving. She exited the training room none-too-slowly, suspecting that at least some of the training droids Vader had used were still active, and not fancying her odds against whatever was considered good enough to give him a challenge.
I'm so glad I'll never have to face him. Rey thought.
Taking another lift up, Rey made her way through another part of the castle that seemed to be deserted. She didn't walk much further before at last she came to a large, spacious room with a glossy black floor with intricate silver-white designs. A large window on the far side of the room offered a view of Vjun's surface (such as that was), and standing in the center of a light gray rectangular area of the floor in front of the window, was a large statue of Darth Vader himself.
Rey gasped upon seeing the awe-inspiring visage of the Sith Lord standing there. Looking up at the statue of him, Rey realized that she hadn't felt so small since she was a little girl. And not just because the statue was easily around six meters tall; there was a power and presence to Darth Vader, something Rey had understood ever since she'd first heard the stories as a little girl. Ever since she'd first shuddered and curled up into a ball when she first saw the holonet videos of him. The towering, wraith-like figure who had cut down enemies of the Empire without mercy or hesitation, who had been perhaps the single most prolific killer of Jedi other than his master to ever live. And one of the most powerful wielders of the Dark Side and skilled masters of lightsaber combat to ever live. And yet, there had been a tragedy to him as well, sadness, loss. As though Rey could perceive the good man he'd once been and ultimately died as, but was no less aware of the terrifying force of destruction he'd been in-between.
And looking up at the statue, into the masterfully sculpted and carved representation of Darth Vader's iconic helmet which continued to haunt the nightmares of sentients the Galaxy over long after his redemption and death, Rey could feel those same feelings. There, in the heart of his castle, Rey sensed and felt the power Darth Vader had exuded, as well as the power and the ferocity and the fury, but also the deeply repressed grief and sadness and pain.
Taking note of a great, slate gray object in front of the statue that looked almost like a sarcophagus, Rey cautiously walked up to it. She saw that it could be opened, but it would not. Trying to open with the Force, Rey found that it would not. She considered using her lightsaber blade to cut it open, but the object turned the blade.
Stretching out both hands and concentrating, Rey willed the object to open. It did not. Turning to one side, Rey realized that there was a body nearby that she hadn't noticed before; another of the men in red, with very visible slash marks across his body from a lightsaber, and his own pair of lightsabers laying slashed to pieces on the ground. Looking at him, Rey perceived that he'd been taken by surprise, slashed quickly and mercilessly before he had had a chance to react. Such a feat would have required someone who was not only fast and skilled, but had had the element of surprise.
But who had done it? Near as Rey could tell, these men and the Knights of Ren both fought alongside the First Order, which meant that all of them were on the same side. She didn't sense her master anywhere nearby, so he couldn't have been the one to do it. But then who was it?
Looking more closely at the body, Rey realized that there was a puddle of blood beneath it, and she quickly realized that he had fallen from the walkways and ramps leading up higher into the castle. Meaning he'd been standing guard up top, and whoever had killed him had caused his body to fall. But who?
Little did Rey realize, that the perpetrator had in fact followed her discreetly into the room, zipped up to the upper walkways, and killed the man standing guard there before he could do a thing. Rey didn't know any of this because, this same figure who had been stalking and hunting her and Luke as the latter had warned her, had been using the Force to mask their presence the entire time, and Rey's senses, good as they were, were not advanced enough to detect her pursuer.
But just as Rey was all set to move off and go up the walkways, the stalker made their presence known. Leaping down from the walkway the man in red had been perched on and where he'd been ambushed and killed, the Dark Warrior landed dramatically, at the same time sending out a powerful wave of telekinetic energy that knocked Rey off her feet and sent her tumbling. Advancing menacingly, the Dark Warrior outstretched a clawed hand, and the sarcophagus Rey had failed to open gave no resistance. It's top popped open, and Rey could see that inside were two lightsabers; one that had been a spare copy of Darth Vader's lightsaber in the event of the original's destruction, and the other was the lightsaber of a certain Jedi who had died by Vader's blade, and who's lightsaber had been a favorite trophy of his former apprentice turned killer's ever after.
The two lightsabers flew out of the chest and into the clawed hands of the Dark Warrior, who then added them to the other lightsabers worn on the figure's belt. Taking in the Dark Warrior's appearance, Rey realized immediately that it was the same one from her failed Trial of the Spirit at Coruscant.
"No...no, it can't be! It can't be you! You weren't real! You...you were a test!"
Turning to face Rey without a word, the Dark Warrior drew the same, spiky, rag-covered lightsaber the Dark Warrior in her vision had drawn. As before, a bloodshine, crimson blade shot out, and Rey was finally forced to acknowledge the terrifying reality in front of her: that the Dark Warrior, that terrifying, nightmarish figure from her failed Trial of the Spirit...was real. Real, and alive, and hunting her and her master.
And then the Dark Warrior ran at her.
Author's Notes: Bonus points to anyone who gets the little reference to a favorite movie of mine that I snuck in here, as well as the SW: Rebels and Middle-Earth: Shadow of War references. And now, Trivia!
1. The Death Watch are of course the notorious Mandalorian splinter-group from Jango Fett: Open Seasons and the second Clone Wars cartoon, being depicted in both as hypocritical and sadistic thugs who wouldn't know true honor if it bit them in the rear. But then, as is noted in this story, the earlier Neo-Crusaders and Crusaders under (respectively), Mandalore the Ultimate and Mandalore the Indomitable were little better, considering each of them waged brutal, merciless, take-no-prisoners war against the Republic (though in fairness to both, one was being manipulated from afar by Vitiate, and the other was coerced into service after losing to Sith Apprentice Ulic Qel-Droma in a duel).
2. Owen Skywalker is indeed this canon's equivalent to Ben Skywalker, Luke's son from Legends. Obviously, Kylo Ren's real name precluded the possibility of using the name "Ben", so I figured it might make more sense for Luke to name his son after the man who had raised him. But for all intents and purposes, he's Ben Skywalker with a different first name, right down to being close with his mother Mara.
Gotta give him credit, he did much better against a Riot Control Stormtrooper than Finn did. XD
3. Mara Jade is of course very famously Luke's spunky, redheaded wife and former Emperor's Hand from the original Star Wars continuity, and one of the most enduringly popular and loved of all Legends-exclusive characters. How I hope that she one day gets transferred over to Disney's canon for real, not just in my story here.
4. Luke's comment that Obi-Wan and Yoda's skills deteriorated a bit during their periods of self-imposed exile is correct, at least in Legends anyway. But presumably in Disney's canon as well.
5. The First Order's successor to the AT-ST that I came up with here is officially called the AT-ADS, or "All-Terrain, Armored Droid Scout".
6. Despite the name, Sabe is not in any way related to Padme Amidala's decoy from The Phantom Menace, who had the same name. I just chose that name because I needed a female Star Wars name, and the in-universe explanation is that she's from Naboo, and so has a Naboo name.
7. The men in blue and red are New Reborn, who I shall elaborate more on in the next chapter. Their backstories will be near-identical to their Legends counterparts.
8. In Legends, Darth Vader did indeed put Obi-Wan's lightsaber in his castle on Vjun after killing him. I don't remember what ultimately became of it.
All of the trivia out of the way, I now have to be blunt: I have started a new round of College classes, and am in fact living on-campus these days. I expect a more grueling work-load than what I got at my last College, and even if not, College work still takes priority. In other words, this is liable to be my last chapter for a good long while. Sorry to break it to whoever is enjoying this story, but again, College work MUST come first, especially when I'm still trying to navigate the place and figure out where everything is. I hope I can do more for this story, but I can't promise anything.
