Rey looked around the dark room feeling confused and extremely lost. How had she gotten here? And more importantly, where was here? She looked around but could see absolutely nothing outside the small beam of light she stood within. Shielding her eyes, she tried to look up- it was most probably a spotlight but it was too far and too bright for her to confirm.
"Finn!" She yelled as she reached over her shoulder and thankfully, found her staff strapped there. Slightly relieved, she pulled it free and held it before her, "Poe!"
But only the silence answered her.
This made no sense. The last she remembered, she was in the Galactic Empire base on Jakku, how had she ended up here?
"Is anyone here?!" She tried again.
This time, however, there was a response, but not the one she had expected. It was the ever familiar sound of a lightsaber being drawn.
Quickly, she turned to face the source, a crimson plasma beam was floating in the darkness, its luminous quillons barely illuminated its owner's gloved hand. Its ominous hum bringing back dark memories.
"Ben…?" She lowered her weapon slightly, still extremely confused. Had the First Order found them? But she doubted she wouldn't remember that.
The wielder of the lightsaber did not answer however, he did walk into the light and his appearance made Rey take multiple swift steps back. It was Kylo Ren alright, mask and all. His breathing was intensified by the mask he wore and he firmly gripped his weapon as he stopped within the little circle of light. Rey firmly readjusted her staff as she took in his appearance. For some reason he appeared shorter and slimmer than the last time she had seen him but she dismissed this as a trick of the light. It was the mask he wore that truly unnerved her, it had been many weeks since she'd last seen him in it. Draped like this it was almost impossible for her to see Ben Solo within Kylo Ren.
"Ben," She struggled with the word, "What happened? Where are we?"
But the masked man did not reply. Instead he attacked, raising his weapon as if to slice her in half. But she'd heard the shifting of his breath in anticipation and so managed to dodge easily.
She cursed as she was forced to roll away from another swing, and another, and another. She barely had time to steady herself before she had to dodge another of Kylo's relentless attacks. Kylo slashed, she dodged and then the man feinted, catching her mid jump. Out of instinct she uselessly attempted to block the attack with her staff. The wood sizeled and charred, being cut to almost half it original size as it came in contact with the saber's plasma beam.
Cursing again she quickly turned her weapon around so that the longer, intact part was facing her opponent, but she now felt like a foolish child holding a makeshift sword against a real weapon.
Kylo attacked again and this time Rey feinted, jabbing her weapon at his side. But he curved out of her reach, once again slicing off a piece of her stuff and leaving her with only a stub for a weapon.
Panting, she tried to dip her mind into the Force, to try and see his next move. He moved his arms one way and she reacted accordingly, but Kylo was skilled. He kicked her feet from under her, causing her to stumble to the ground, twisting her ankle in the process.
She gritted her teeth against the pain before looking up. She was greeted by the point of Kylo's shimmering blade. It was so close she could feel its unpleasant warmth on her face. Strangely, now that Kylo had her immobilised, he didn't move. He simply stood there with his weapon pointed at her face.
"What are you waiting for?" she shouted at the masked man. "Finish me off Kylo Ren! You've finally won!"
She could feel her anger growing- at her weakness and at Kylo in general.
"Oh, I wasn't your opponent for this match." A cool, familiar voice sent her stomach in knots for too many reasons. Kylo Ren emerged from the darkness, unmasked and unarmed.
"What…?" her voice betrayed her confusion as her eyes darted between Kylo and her masked assailant. The older man gave her a pitying smile, as if he could see the gears in her mind failing to produce any feasible answers.
"This will make things obviously clear." He stepped behind the shorter figure and began to unclip his helmet. The unnamed individual didn't even move as Kylo, removed his mask with surprising gentleness.
What Rey saw made her blood turn to ice in her veins. She would have clawed her eyes out if the image before her hadn't already been seared into her memory. She looked along the crimson blade, into her own face.
" No!" She exclaimed, trying to stand but her ankle failed her, making her unable to move. She shook her head wildly, not wanting to believe her own eyes.
"I told you you'd join me eventually." Kylo gave the other Rey, the darker Rey, a pleased look. Rey looked up at her doppleganger and the other looked down on her with cold, meticulous eyes.
"Now finish her off, we've wasted enough time on this one." Kylo turned his back on her as he spoke. The other Rey didn't even flinch as Kylo gave his order. She raised her lightsaber above her head with inhumane calm.
Rey wanted to yell, to shriek, to run away from this place but her body refused to respond. It felt as if time had slowed as her eyes stayed locked on her darker version and the latter, painfully slowly, lowered her lightsaber.
"Rey! Wake up, Rey! Wake up!" A deep, worried voice forced her out of her dreams. To Rey it felt as if her heart was trying to escape from her ribcage and she breathed as if she couldn't get enough air into her lungs. She could feel hot tears streaming down her cheeks and strong hands gripping her shoulders.
The sound of something crashing to the ground finally brought her to reality as her eyes, through the tears, tried to make out Poe Dameron's face. She could see concern in his dark eyes but she shrugged him off as she sat up in the bed she had been sleeping in. She frantically rubbed her eyes and at the tears that refused to stop.
"I'm sorry." She said, still rubbing at her eyes, though honestly she'd lost track of what she was sorry for now.
Poe stood awkwardly by her bed, pretending not to see the tears she was forcefully wiping away.
"I didn't mean to…" He began. "I heard you talking in your sleep from the hallway... it didn't sound so good so I came to check on you… I knocked… but the doors are automatic …. And the desk was floating."
So that's what the crashing sound had been.
"What were you doing in the hallway at this time?" She murmured, from the small window in her room she could see the stars still shining.
"Had to take a leak." He shrugged, sheepishly. "It impossible to go with that droid shadowing me."
Rey blinked at him before she let out a small chuckle at the simplicity of his answer. It had been awhile since she'd received one. Poe smiled down at her, joining her in her laughter before asking if he could sit. Rey moved a bit away, making more room so that he could sit on the edge of her bed.
"So… you going to tell me what was bad enough to frighten our resident Jedi?"
Rey averted her eyes towards the collapsed desk, "I'd rather not talk about it."
"Suit yourself," he shrugged. "Though if it had anything to do with today, Finn and I already told you we're fine. No need to fret about that."
Rey bit her lip. "I think that was only part of it."
"Well if you need to talk to anyone I'm all ears, and probably the only one awake at this hour." He fiddled distractedly with the ring he wore around his neck. "My ma' used to say, talking about a problem already solves half of it."
Rey momentarily wondered of her own mother had ever given her such words of wisdom and, before she could stop, she found herself telling Poe, a man she barely knew, about everything that had plagued her since traveling to Ach-To. Everything she had been too frightened to tell anyone else, not even Leia or Finn. It all just came spilling out.
She told him about how Luke feared her affinity to the Darkness and of her confrontation with Snoke and Kylo. She told him about how the knight had turned on his master to save her and how the two had fought the Red Guard, back to back. She even told Poe about what Kylo had revealed about her parents and how he claimed that Rey would join him. The only thing she didn't elaborate on was her Force Bond with Ben, she doubted she'd ever be able to put that experience into words.
Poe was a good listener. He never interrupted her, not even once, even though it seemed that he had many questions at some points. He even nodded his head encouragingly when she faltered. She broke into tears again when she arrived at the dream she'd just had and her battle with Dark Rey. However, all he did he hold her in a safe embrace as she cried into his shoulder, something she never would have done if she hadn't been feeling so wrecked.
When he finally let go of her, it felt as if finally a weight had been lifted from her chest
"Kylo's wrong." He finally said, it shocked Rey to hear him speak after so long hearing only her own voice. "You will never turn to the Dark Side."
"You don't know that. Today, with those Gnaw-Jaws, I could feel it- fear and anger- those are emotions of the Darkness."
"It's also called being human. It's only from fear that bravery is born and lessons from anger." He stood up, stretching slightly. "Now it's up to you to let them fester like Kylo did or to accept them and learn from them."
He smiled at her, as if he secretly already knew what option she'd pick. "Now we better get some sleep, we have a long day tomorrow."
Rey nodded her head and lied back in her bed as Poe walked towards the door. She momentarily looked up at the metal ceiling before sighing and closing her eyes. Poe stopped at her door before turning back to look at her restless face. He didn't head back to the med bay until her breathing calmed, a signal that she had finally fallen asleep.
Rey would have called it more of a coma then a sleep but it was much better then the nightmares of before. It was BB-8 who woke her, beeping excitedly into her room and colliding with the collapsed table.
She stretched and walked to the med bay where she found the med droid force-feeding Finn what looked like a rather disgusting porridge. His hands were strapped to the sides of his bed like a prisoner, hindering his escape. Poe was sitting at the edge of his own bed, his hand running through his hair, silently glad he hadn't been the one that had acquired the head injury, yesterday.
"Rey!" Choked out Finn, spitting out the spoon of porridge he had been forced to eat. "Can you tell this blasted droid that I can feed myself? I swear this stuff expired thirty years ago!"
"The medication has no such expiration date and is especially formulated to speed healing." The droid explained, scooping another spoon of medication.
"Can't argue with a medical droid." Laughed Poe, as he nodded his greeting at Rey. He didn't say anything about last night and Rey appreciated that, she didn't feel like explaining all that again to Finn. She already felt foolish enough for breaking down in front of one person
"Ready to head off, Poe? The general and the others are waiting for us."
"Hold it! You two aren't leaving me here . Alone. With this insane droid!"
"Of course not." Rey said as if that were obvious. "BB-8 is staying to make sure we disabled all the traps after yesterday."
"You've got to be kidding me!" Yelled Finn as Poe and Rey made their way out of the med bay and towards the landing port, where the scout ship waited for them.
"What's with the fuel?" Asked Poe as they took their seats in the cockpit.
"Need to fuel up the Millennium Falcon." Was her vague response.
"Planning of taking a trip?" Poe asked, starting up the engine and lifting the ship off the ground.
"It's already been cleared with the general." She explained, her eyes already focusing on the Starship Graveyard, keeping an eye out for any more hungry junk-eaters.
"Alone?"
"Some things a girl just has to do alone." And she attempted a smile which Poe took a moment to reciprocate.
"If you think it will help with … with what you told me then I think you should go for it."
In truth, Rey still didn't know why Luke had spoken from beyond to tell her to go to some unknown planet, but she was grasping at straws for anything that might help her.
For the rest of the trip they flew in silence, each one concentrating on the surrounding sand but no Nightwatcher Worms appeared this time. It was probably the calmest trip they'd had in a long time and they left the graveyard without a hitch and arrived at the Resistance camp with no problems.
Rey just hoped this wasn't some sign for worse things to come.
The sand swirled around them as they landed but the general and her troops were already waiting for them with bags filled with provisions and weapons. The injured, including Rose, were on stretchers, also waiting to board. Poe saluted the general from the cockpit before the two headed to open the cargo bay.
"Wait." Called Poe as Rey was preparing to open the haul door, the fuel casket was already hovering calmly at her side. From around his neck Poe removed the necklace that held his mother's ring and presented it to her. Rey just looked him, very confused.
"My Ma, gave me this the day I became a pilot of the Resistence. I've worn it for every flight since then and I've come back each time against unbelievable odds." He shrugged sort of sheepishly as he spoke."I don't believe much in luck but I think you might be needing it on your journey."
Rey shook her head, unsure how to react to this."I can't accept this, your mother gave it to you for a reason. And I can assure you I'm a perfectly capable pilot."
He smiled before forcing the necklace into her hand,"I've no doubt about that, but let's call it a loan- give it back to me when you get back and I'll sleep a lot sounder knowing you have it."
Touched by his words Rey accepted the loan and put the necklace around her neck, safely hidden from prying eyes under her shirt. She finally opened the cockpit door and led the fuel casket to the Falcon while Poe helped the troops board their equipment and injured.
Rey had already fuelled the Falcon when Leia came with some final parting words.
"I hope you don't mind, but someone insists on joining you." She said, handing Rey a bag filled with more than a week's worth of provisions.
The scavenger gave her a quizzical look, momentarily wondering if Poe had changed his mind about letting her go alone.
"Chewie says that he goes wherever the Falcon goes." Leia gestured to the cockpit where the Wookiee was patiently waiting, pushing away a porg from the dashboard. "He also argued you'd need a copilot and I wouldn't want to be the one to argue with a Wookiee."
Rey smiled up at her co-pilot."Smart move."
"The droids Artoo and C3-PO have also been assigned to you- they might prove useful in unforeseen circumstances." Rey nodded, accepting the general's advice.
"Now Rey," Leia's voice put on a more serious tone."The Resistance will try get back on its feet here but if we need to move quickly I'll send you a message."
"And I'll get her as quick as I can." Nodded Rey.
"No, you take as long as you need at Ilum, the Resistance has survived this long and we will continue to survive." She gave Rey a knowing look. "You focus on finding the answers you seek. I can tell the events of yesterday have really shaken you."
Rey made as if to protest, even though she knew Leia's words were true she didn't want the Resistence thinking she couldn't help them. Leia stopped her with a calmly raised hand. "I've already lost one child to the Darkness and I will be damned if I let another one fall to its temptations under my watch." Leia then smiled, and the age and loss briefly appeared across her face. "I just wish I could go along with you."
Rey shook her head, also smiling now. "No, you have a job here."
And the two woman nodded their heads understanding their own individual tasks before them.
"May the Force be with you, Rey." Said Leia.
"And you too, general." She replied as she climbed into the Millennium Falcon where the Wookiee was waiting for her.
Whoop! Another chapter done when I really should have been studying but it was worth. The story's got almsot 100 follwers already! So what did you guys think of the latest chapter? Drop me a review, I'm always happy to hear form you and thanks again for reading! I'll try update ASAP but until then, may the Force be with you!- Luna Pendragon