Part I, Chapter X: The Last Stand
[In which Kylo Ren is grounded, and Luke faces the First Order.]
~o0o~
The next two weeks on Ahch-To were spent in a peaceful, mellow mood. As she had foreseen, Rey's nights remained blissfully undisturbed by Kylo Ren, and she spent the days with force training - jumping, pushing, gripping, anticipating attacks - as well as with meditating and sparring with her Master. She practiced to perceive life forms around her, and learned how to exchange thoughts with Luke via the force.
Offset only by the occasional pang of missing Finn and Chewie, Rey could not remember happier days in her life than those spent on Ahch-To with Luke. She still harbored the hope that one day, the old Jedi would agree to come out of exile and travel the galaxy with her, but Rey never once voiced that hope. On that front, Master and student had formed an unspoken understanding, and after coming out of her own ordeal, Rey felt she understood Luke's actions - or rather lack thereof - much better. When you stand on the edge, all alone, you make the choice you can live with best. Luke's secluded life here was the one he had made, and Rey would not judge him for it, just like he never judged her.
Occasionally she dove down to the temple and sat under the dark dome lost in thoughts, looking up at the slow pulse of the light and dark force symbols lighting up peacefully. It inexplicably calmed her, and she found meditating a lot easier in the peaceful silence of the temple. In more practical matters, she was delighted to find quite an amount of metal junk in the outlying rooms that could serve as building material for the saberstaff she wanted to build eventually. However, Rey knew that she was unlikely to find everything she needed on this island.
She said as much when she returned to Luke one evening, some two weeks after her last encounter with Kylo Ren. Once more, she had explored the temple all day, looking for a long piece of metal to serve as handle base, but had come up empty-handed.
"I suppose it's time I faced it," Luke said and, when Rey looked at him quizzically, added: "The end of my exile."
Rey was too astonished to reply.
"I have spent many years on this island," Luke explained. "Hiding from Ben and Snoke, in grief, in solitude, more concerned with licking my own wounds and looking to this old temple for guidance. I was waiting, but didn't know what for. But since you arrived, my way forward has become clear. I am supposed to guide you on your journey, help you grow and become a fully realised Jedi. How can I show you what that means, while we're cooped up on this planet, cut off from the world?"
"But the First Order is hunting us," Rey said, staring at her Master. Yes, she had hoped for this, but she never would have imagined that hope to be ever fulfilled, much less so soon. "Anyway, didn't you tell me your fighting days were over?"
"One step at a time, Padawan. I'm not planning an assault on the First Order's flagship just yet. For now, I'm talking about getting you all the materials you need for your saberstaff. What do you think about a visit to D'Qar? We'll be as safe as anywhere with the Resistance. I will grovel and ask my sister for forgiveness, and while Leia chews me out, you can check on that dashing pilot of yours", Luke teased.
"I told you there is no dashing pilot!" Rey protested, laughing - but truthfully, she did look forward to checking on a certain ex-stormtrooper.
"Then that's settled. I'll reactivate the communicators and contact Chewie tomorrow - he'll come get us in the Falcon. Though he'll probably nag at me and tell me to make up my mind for once."
"You're in a giddy mood," Rey said, amused when she saw Luke grin fondly at the thought of his old friend. "Doesn't really make you look all that venerable, honestly."
"I've shut myself away for too long," Luke said, standing up and stretching. "I'm quite looking forward to seeing some old faces again."
He looked at her fondly. "This island might have become my final resting place, if it wasn't for you, Rey. I'm glad we have found each other again. You have given me a sense of purpose again, and you've already made me very proud."
Rey was rather flustered by his solemn words, but smiled warmly. She, too, felt giddy. Very soon, they would be on their way to D'Qar, in the Falcon, with Chewie and herself at the helm. She would see her friends again, and more - she'd return with the legendary Luke Skywalker, after the Resistance had to dealt with the disappointment of him refusing to get involved. His return would be a huge boost of morale for everyone, especially General Organa.
But as she went to sleep, happily recounting all these good prospects, Rey could not shake a dark sense of foreboding.
For the first time in two weeks, Rey felt into the force, into her own mind where she knew her bond to Kylo Ren was. There was absolute silence there, but it was the pregnant silence of someone very close, quietly standing right on the other side of a door. Rey considered communicating something, anything. Would it reach him?
But no. She had made this mistake once, and would not be so foolish as to initiate any kind of contact between them again. It was well possible that after the harrowing experience of their last shared dream, Kylo Ren was happy to stay far away from her.
~o0o~
General Hux stood on the main bridge of the Finalizer that had drawn up near Ahch-To, looking down at the blue planet, half shrouded in the darkness of night. From the huge window, he could see the pilots move into position. He shook his head - all these ships, all this manpower, for an old man and a girl. He had heard the tales of the Jedi, knew what the Force could do, but it still seemed a little excessive to him.
But if the Supreme Leader thought all this effort necessary, Hux was not going to go against him. Today was a big chance to prove his worth - Snoke had given him supreme command for this mission, and for once, that explicitly included Kylo Ren. Snoke had impressed upon his disciple several times that Hux was in charge, and that he was to listen to his orders as if they were Snoke's own.
The General smirked, shooting a glance at the dark-robed figure standing next to him. This order must have already irritated the man to no end, but what was more, Snoke had also decreed Ren was not to join the front line, was not to challenge Skywalker directly. Instead, he was to stay behind on the Finalizer to concentrate on his own special task. The knight had barely managed to keep it together hearing this as they had all stood before Snoke, but had thrown another one of his tantrums as soon as the meeting was over, and with Snoke's backing, Hux - oh glorious day - had had the power of authority to berate him for it.
"Are we ready to strike?" Phasma asked Kylo Ren, snapping Hux out of the sweet memory.
"Not yet," the knight snapped irritably.
There were a few more tense minutes of waiting. Silence reigned on the bridge. Then, evidently having picked up on some kind of change somewhere, Kylo Ren settled down into a nearby chair.
"Give the order, General. I will take care of the girl."
~o0o~
Rey dreamed.
"Go on, Rey, go with the other kids," a man's voice told her. She was running along a sunlit stone path, towards a big courtyard. There were other children around, mostly older ones, some teenagers. To her four-year-old self, they were all giants.
And there was Master Luke. He looked much younger, a handsome man in his late thirties, a broad and happy smile, radiating power and confidence, wearing the light garb of the Jedi.
"Alright," he called. "Before you pick your partners - come here, Rey." He motioned for her to stand next to him, which she did, a little shyly.
"This is our newest student, Rey. She's a little young still, so all of you are to look after her and help her, okay?" Luke announced. "Now let's hear the Jedi code, Padawans."
The students obediently started reciting. There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no ignorance, there is knowledge. There is no passion, there is serenity. There is no chaos, there is harmony. There is no death, there is the force.
Rey looked around with huge round eyes while holding on to Luke's robe. She then noticed someone standing to Luke's right side - a teenager, very tall, towering even over Luke, pale, dark hair, dark eyes. He did not join into the recital and was looking straight ahead.
"Let's get started." Luke said when the students had finished. There was a moment of hurried disorder as the Padawans rushed around to get their swords, then they all paired up for sparring. As the rowdy shouts of kids and the clattering sound of wooden swords clashing filled the air, Luke leaned down to Rey from an impossible height and handed her a small wooden stick.
"Now, this is where we train how to fight," he explained. "You're a little young to do that, but why don't you have my nephew Ben here show you a few moves? Who knows" - he winked at her - "perhaps you can even beat him?"
The dark-haired lanky giant shot an annoyed look at Luke as only teenagers are capable of, but took up a wooden sword nonetheless. Rey laughed - she loved this game - and hit at the boy's legs with her little stick.
This is a memory, the part of Rey that looked on dimly realised. An actual memory from my first day at school. From before Jakku. I wish I could remember more.
She was still child-sized as she ran around Ben, laughing and swinging her stick around. But suddenly the teenager with the perpetually annoyed expression before her seemed to erupt with darkness, and the wooden sword he'd held exploded into a red-hot lightsaber.
Little Rey screamed - and adult Rey snapped out of it. The courtyard, the Padawans, Luke - all gone. But she was not really awake, she instantly realised. She was in a small, square room. The walls, floor and ceiling around her were made of welded steel; there was no door, no window, nothing.
She was still in a dream. So, evidently, this was to have been the extent of her holiday from nightly harassment.
"What do you want this time, Kylo Ren?" She shouted, banging on the metal walls with her fists - feeling a lot more angry than scared. "Have you come for a rematch? Because that can be arranged!"
You'll have to be patient, scavenger. A disembodied voice entered her head. The Supreme Leader and I require you out of the game for just a little while longer.
That's when Rey realised - the First Order had found them.
~o0o~
Luke Skywalker was instantly awake. They had come, they were almost upon them. He jumped up, grabbed his saber and rushed into Rey's cottage, only to find his student still fast asleep. Ben's force signature was flowing around her, and that was when he realised she would not wake up until his nephew allowed it. Anxiety for her rose, but he had other problems to deal with.
Be strong, Rey. I'll keep you safe here, he promised, lifted her over his shoulder with ease, grabbed her bag with the saber parts she'd collected, briefly stopped to stuff his father's lightsaber inside as well and rushed back outside. Already he could hear the roar of TIE and shuttle engines in the dark sky.
Think fast. If Ben was keeping Rey trapped in their bond, it meant the person that was most dangerous to him was tied up himself, and not out in the field.
He needed to get to his ship down in the forest. The trees would shield him for a while, and he could send out a signal to D'Qar, reactivate the ship and try to shake off the pursuers until help arrived.
But as he looked down from the cottages into the direction of the dark shadow of the forest, he could already see white dots emerge from the trees - stormtroopers. An explosion told him that they had found and disabled his getaway vessel. And now they were closing in.
Luke cursed. He'd show them what it meant to pick a fight with a Jedi - but he could not fight with Rey slung over his shoulder, and he needed to keep her safe.
He looked out into the bay. There was one other option.
~o0o~
Luke. Wake up, Luke. They're coming. They've found us. Rey had sat down in her steel cage and sent out her thoughts into the force, hoping they would somehow rouse her Master and warn him.
Cut it out. Kylo Ren replied in an annoyed tone of voice. He can't hear you, I've seen to that.
"How did you find us?" Rey asked desperately. Her thoughts flitted to the Resistance Base. Enough people there had seen the map after they had reassembled it - surely the First Order hadn't…
"Oh, you haven't figured it out?" Kylo Ren said. From one moment to another he had materialised inside her cell. His hood and mask were back in place, he seemed more distant than ever, a stark contrast to their last shared dream. "You showed me."
"I did not!" Rey protested. Surely she would have noticed - but he had never even tried once to pry things from her mind. She herself had once remarked on how strange that was.
"Don't you remember? I told you on Starkiller Base that we already had a part of the map. And then there was that memory you shared with me, from the top of that outlook," he said, truly enjoying to rub it in. "A lovely view of a starry night sky as seen from your planet. It was quite thoroughly stuck in my mind after you showed it to me. From there, it was easy to extrapolate your position. I've known where you were for some time."
He leaned down to her, got in close. Rey stared searchingly into the dark slit of his mask, surprised herself at how little he scared her anymore. I know you. I have seen you.
"Why don't you take that off? Aren't we past all that?" She asked quietly, nodding at his mask. Kylo Ren abruptly turned away as if he had been burned.
"I had an unfortunate lapse of judgement, before, in underestimating your influence," he said walking up and down in the tiny cell slowly in a predatory pace probably meant to intimidate her. "I assure you I will not make that mistake twice."
"You're scared of me, then," Rey paraphrased calmly, and was slammed against the steel wall for it by his force grip. She undid it - this she had practiced with Luke for hours on end - and dropped to the floor.
"You are," Rey whispered, staring at him almost in awe. "You are actually scared of me."
"Keep telling yourself whatever you need to be comforted," he replied hotly. "Because soon you'll kneel before Supreme Leader Snoke, and he will decide your fate. If you behave yourself, I may just let you say farewell to the dead body of Luke Skywalker. Otherwise, you'll never see him again."
Rey looked up in alarm at the threat.
"As if you could even lay a finger on him!" She said scathingly. "He's way more powerful than you. After all" - she suddenly realised what would really hit home - "he is the son of Darth Vader, and you are just his grandson. And you're scared."
He moved towards her at that, and Rey drew back tensely, feeling his anger, the oncoming storm of something violent - but then he stopped himself.
"No farewells to Skywalker it is, then," were Kylo Ren's last words before he vanished from her cell and fell silent again.
Rey sat down on the floor, thoughts racing. Luke was probably dragging around her unconscious body right now, she was being a hindrance, a dead weight. She needed to wake up and help him. And for that, she needed to break Kylo Ren's control, like she had done in the last dream, when she had been fuelled by undiluted rage. She had seen it then, had felt the bindings of the force illusion around her, and had felt it come crashing down when her rage had hit it.
Luke's words came back to her. If only I had the time to show you you could be as powerful in the light side as you were in the dark just now.
Could it be done without the dark side? Rey collected her thoughts, pooled them within her, and concentrated on the force, that vast ocean within her, waiting for her command. What was the nature of this force connection she shared with Kylo Ren? How did it work, this whole "trapping the other's mind in one's own"? She let the force flow around her and touched, felt, sensed, traced every little bond and crack around her with her mind. Maybe she needed to think of it like one big force grip?
And perhaps here, too, she would grasp on a thread by which it would all come undone.
~o0o~
"General, we have located Skywalker again, heading away from the shore," one of Hux' cadets reported. "Squad C closing in now, squads F and G on the way."
"What about the other target?" Hux asked. Supreme Leader Snoke had stressed the importance of bringing the girl in several times. According to the plan, they would overwhelm the old man with sheer numbers and then retrieve the girl whose consciousness would still be held by Kylo Ren - a straight-forward "strike hard, strike fast" kind of operation. Hux shot a glance at the still form of Kylo Ren in his chair, in deep meditation.
"Nowhere in sight now. We think he may have hidden her somewhere along the shore," the lieutenant replied.
"Cut him off from the beach then. We can search for her later. Encircle him around the cliffside. He'll have nowhere to go but up."
"Sir, we have lost three TIE fighters," an operator in charge of the airstrikes a bit further away reported. "They inexplicably crashed."
"Sir, squads B, F and G have all been taken out," another cadet cut in, in an astonished tone of voice. Hux saw Phasma tense at hearing her troops being decimated.
"It's just one old man, what the hell are they doing down there?" Hux growled. Despite the order and his personal feelings about it, he felt that since their opponent was a Jedi, this would actually be the one time when Snoke's spoilt little prince would prove to be a real asset in the field. But - as things stood, they would have to exhaust the man with sheer numbers. And numbers, the Finalizer could provide.
"Send in as many squads, as many TIE fighters as you need, I don't care how many it takes. We're taking Skywalker down, if we have to blast the entire island to pieces," Hux said.
"General-" Captain Phasma started in protest, concerned for her troops, but Hux shut her down with one gesture.
That was when Kylo Ren started moving - but not voluntarily. He emitted a low groan, thrashed wildly and gripped his face with both hands - his mask, as it were - and slipped out of his chair, writhing on the ground.
"What the hell, Ren?" Hux asked. "You there, and you, put him back in his chair, restrain him. He's having some kind of seizure."
The hapless volunteers that Hux had pointed at looked in terror at the mere idea of restraining Kylo Ren, but saw no other choice but to obey their general - and paid for their loyalty with their lives. As soon as they had so much as touched the man on the ground, they were flung back, their necks turned with a sickening crunch. Another cadet apparently thought this was a good time to inform Hux that Squads A and L had been annihilated by the one-man-army on Ahch-To.
"Then send in more! And - damn it, Ren!", shouted Hux. "Get yourself together!"
The knight, getting up from the ground, ripped off his helmet and slammed it down, livid with anger. His face was full of blood, flowing freely from his nose.
"She got out," he hissed. He wiped his nose from which blood was still flowing, and turned on Hux. "Change of plans, General. I'm joining the operation."
"Absolutely not," Hux declared. "I am ordering you to-"
"I'm moving out," Kylo Ren growled, choking his words out with one gesture. "And if you think of stopping me, by the force I swear I'll take your head off right where you stand."
Phasma stood petrified as Kylo Ren dropped a writhing and coughing Hux to the ground, and strode away as operators around her continued to announce the annihilation of her finest troops.
~o0o~
[to be continued]