Part I, Chapter XI - At the Crossroads
[In which Rey has a moment of weakness.]

~o0o~

Take that, Kylo Ren.

Rey awoke with a start, nauseous and with a bad headache, but also with a rush of triumph of having escaped his imprisonment. Disoriented for a moment, she looked around wildly, not knowing where she was - she had definitely not gone to sleep here. Had she been captured already?

The she realised. Luke had put her in the safest place he could think of - in the temple's gallery, with all the precious kyber crystals. But where had he gone?

Rey jumped up and, ignoring the nausea, rushed down the stairs, calling her Master's name, increasingly frantic. That was when she felt it. Great turmoils in the force, close by, centered around one single person. Luke was fighting and wielding a power so immense she felt her skin prickle even down here.

Master Luke!

Rey rushed along the corridors, towards one of the pools, all the while feeling the shocks and tremors in the force. It was awe-inspiring - and yet she knew her Master was in trouble. He was just one person, and by the feel of it, half the First Order had shown up to take him down. The Order was bombarding the island, she could feel the earth tremble even down here - clearly they did not even care for the safety of their own infantry as long as they took down the last Jedi. No matter how strong Luke was, a missile was a missile. Why was he even out there? Why had he not stayed down here with her?

Padawan. Stay away. Stay in the temple. A thought reached her. It felt exhausted, tired.

Like hell I am. Taking a deep breath, Rey jumped into the pool and dove through the small tunnel towards the outside.

It happened when she arrived outside and was just about to push herself off towards the surface - a violent contraction and explosion of the force, a powerful wave that shook even the earth and waves so strongly that Rey gasped in surprise, which, underwater, was a bad reflex. With her last senses about her, she pulled herself back into the tunnel and out of the pool in the temple, where she coughed and hacked up water for a few minutes until she felt strong enough to try again.

Master?

As she pushed towards the surface, lungs burning, she knew something was wrong. When she pulled herself onto the shore, she was greeted by the sight of the wreckage of a half-submerged, smoldering TIE fighter, but otherwise everything was eerily quiet. There was no blaster fire to be heard anywhere, no engines, no shouting, just ocean waves - the island was still as a grave. And as Rey struggled up the worn path towards their stone cottages, she saw why.

A scene of destruction lay before her; craters, debris and dead stormtroopers everywhere. Not a single one was left alive to challenge her.

"Master!" She cried, listening for his reply, feeling for him in the force. He was close, she could tell.

Rey. Go back to the temple. It is shielded; he won't find you there. I'll tell him I sent you away. Luke's thoughts sounded horribly weak. My father's lightsaber-

As he said it, Rey realised that obviously, he must have left it down there with her. But she, like a complete fool, had stormed outside without even spending one second to look for it, and now she was unarmed.

No time to turn back now. She needed to act fast. Find Luke, get him to safety-

"No, no, no." Rey's voice faltered when she saw the carnage increase the higher she climbed up the cliffside. It was littered with the bodies of stormtroopers, too many to count. The Jedi must have raged like a storm among them.

Rey finally found him lying at the very top of the cliff, at the site of his favourite lookout, gazing at the sky through half-closed eyes. His flickering presence in the force told her he was still alive, albeit barely.

"Rey," he mumbled as he felt her approach. His sight was fading fast. "What are you doing? Ben is on his way. I can feel him."

"I'm not leaving you here." Rey was nearly choking as she reached him. "It was my fault, he found us because of me, I'm so, so sorry."

She was shaken to the core at the sight of his gruesome injuries; he was bleeding from several wounds. There were laser burns all over him.

This could not be happening. This could not be real.

"Don't blame yourself." Luke looked at her gently. "Don't be sad."

"No. Don't talk. I'm going to get you to safety. You still need to help me become a fully realised Jedi. We need to find parts for my staff. We were going to D'Qar to visit your sister, remember?" Rey babbled frantically, as she uselessly tried to suppress the bleeding of his wounds. Too many. Too many.

"Rey, remember what the Jedi code says about attachment. You have to-" Luke strained to continue, but his power left him. Rey was racked by huge, desperate sobs, her tears nearly blinding her as she tried to gather her Master up into her arms. She needed to get him to his bed, patch him up, then try and get help, somehow. Any minute was crucial now.

Where are you going to get help in such a short time? She thought as another part, the abandoned little girl within her, cried desperately. Please don't leave me. Oh, please don't leave me. Not you, too.

She was too overwhelmed with grief to notice the man who had drawn up behind her, until Luke's lightsaber next to her was lifted from the ground by invisible hands. It snapped into Kylo Ren's outstretched hand, and came to life with a hum.

"Step aside," he said, standing over them like an executioner. Rey stared at him through tear-clouded eyes. He had lost his mask somewhere. Traces of blood from his nose betrayed the damage she had caused when she had shattered their last dream.

"Over my dead body," she whispered, clutching Luke's still form to her.

"That can be arranged," Kylo Ren said softly, his face an expressionless mask as if to make up for the one he had lost.

Rey knew it was hopeless. She was near mad with worry for Luke, to disturbed to fight, and anyway Kylo Ren held the only weapon in sight. Why didn't I stop and think to look for the Skywalker saber?

But even if she had that weapon now, there would be no time for a battle against Kylo Ren. She had to save Luke. He was fading fast.

"I want a bargain." The sentence burst out of Rey before her brain had really caught up.

Kylo Ren shook his head. "I already have got everything I want," he said without any real malice. He was stating a fact, and it was true - he had won, utterly and completely.

"I'll come with you. Willingly. I won't put up a fight. Please, I beg you. Spare him." Rey was openly crying now, and she didn't even care.

"You're coming with me, either way. Your willingness does not factor in." This too, was stated as the fact it was. "Now. Step aside."

He drew back his arm in preparation to extinguish the last flicker of life in his uncle's body. Rey threw herself over Luke protectively, and without looking at Kylo Ren, screamed:

"I know where Darth Vader's lightsaber is hidden, and I know you'll never find it unless I tell you. If you kill Luke, and take me with you, I will make your life a constant misery, in every tiny little way I can think of. You will get nothing from me, I'll fight you to my last breath, and I will use even the slightest opportunity I get to kill you, and if it is the last thing I do in this world."

She looked at him with red-rimmed eyes and added:

"But if you spare him, if you save his life, I'll come quietly. I'll be your student. I'll give you that stupid lightsaber you want so much. I'll even throw a bunch of kyber crystals in the mix."

Kylo Ren met her gaze. His expression had moved just the slightest bit. Then-

"The decision to spare him is not mine to make."

"Not your decision?" Rey almost laughed. "You said if I let you teach me, I could be my own master. Are you even your own? You're standing here with your saber pointed at your own uncle, and you're seriously telling me it's not your decision to make?"

Rey's heart beat a little faster when she saw that her last words had gotten through to him. She let go of Luke to stand up, and imploringly put her hand on Kylo Ren's arm that was poised to strike.

"Just consider it for one moment. You have more to gain if you take my offer."

See the potential of the situation before you, maximise the profit of your endeavor.

Kylo Ren stared into her eyes as if to test the strength of her resolve. She met his gaze equally intently, pushing her appeal at him with the force, willing, begging him to accept it. I spared you. Twice, I spared you. Please, for the love of all that is holy, spare him.

An endless moment seemed to pass before Kylo Ren relented.

"You have a deal."

Behind them, stormtrooper reinforcements were now drawing up. Kylo Ren motioned to them, and then at Luke.

"Bring Skywalker in. He will be contained and put on life support."

Rey closed her eyes, exhaling deeply as stormtroopers rushed past her to heed Kylo Ren's order. Tears were stinging in her eyes. She had been flying free as she negotiated, begged, pleaded, had followed her heart, not her head. Now the gravity of her decision was starting to sink in.

She felt Kylo Ren's heavy hand on her shoulder.

"I expect you to make good on your word," he said, and Rey's heart clenched painfully. "My saber, where is it?"

When she did not immediately reply, he put his hand to the side of her head once more. "You know how this goes, scavenger."

Rey simply closed her eyes, and did nothing to fight his probe. It was easier to let him take the memories rather than solidify her betrayal of Luke's trust by verbalising them herself. In this light, she regarded the pain of Kylo Ren's intrusion into her mind as just punishment.

"Such guilt, such shame." Kylo Ren murmured, twisting the knife. "He put the saber down there with you, didn't he? I see the bay, the temple. I see the crystals. I see..."

A mural of the light and dark side symbols on the ceiling of the dark dome, slowly pulsing in the soft light.

Kylo Ren snorted softly and withdrew from her mind, satisfied with what he had found and not interested in anything else. Rey simply stood there, the will to fight having left her entirely, and let the feeling of crushing defeat wash over her. She had managed to save Luke's life. But at what cost? When push comes to shove, your allegiance must be to the light side. Death is not the worst thing to happen to a Jedi.

This was not the choice Luke would have made, if their situations had been reversed. He would not thank her for saving him under such terms. But then, it had not been for Luke that she had done this.

It had been all for herself. For the heartbroken girl who could not bear the idea of losing - once again - the closest thing she'd ever known to a father.

"Come, Jedi." Kylo Ren took her by the arm and led her down the cliffside towards his command shuttle. Silent tears ran down Rey's face as she stumbled along.

'Jedi'? I'm not a Jedi at all.

~o0o~

[End of Part I]

[to be continued]