Darkness was falling fast and Rey's first awareness was that she was lying on a hard surface under the evening stars, her lightsaber in clasped in her right hand.

She tried to move, to lift her head, but the second she did, a ringing sensation flooded her ears and a tinge of nausea immediately washed over her.

"Raiyah?…" came a shaking voice nearby in a familiar whisper

Rey immediately fought the pain and rolled on her side, holstering her lightsaber as she came up onto her hands and knees and immediately lost her balance and fell against something that felt like…someone.

She groaned as she pulled herself back up and sat down, then gasped in horror as she slowly turned her head and took in the sight of the bodies of the children of her class, lying lifeless and still in all manner of configurations as they surrounded her.

"Raiyah?…" the whisper came again with irregular breaths, and Rey's eyes quickly surveyed the bodies.

Suddenly, her eyes stopped and immediately welled with tears.

"No…" she cried as she fell again to her hands and knees, trying to keep her composure as climbed over the bodies to the tall figure with auburn hair she could now see lying on her back in the center of the room, "No…"

Rey gasped again taking in the sight of the large amount of blood pooling beneath Mayla Skywalker's body as her chest heaved and her eyes searched around her.

"Mama!" Rey cried as she crawled through the blood on her hands and knees and reached her mother's side, taking her hand.

On hearing her daughter's voice and feeling her small hand in hers, Mayla let out a cry of joy, tears streaming down her face as she painfully turned her head toward Rey.

"Mama…" Rey whimpered as Mayla smiled at her daughter and clutched her hand

"My darling girl…" Mayla said softly, relief crossing her quickly ashening face, "Are you alright? Are you hurt?"

Rey shook her head as tears streamed down her small face.

Mayla coughed and gasped for breath, tightening her grip on Rey's hand.

Suddenly, spotlights and various lights of different colors appeared in the sky overhead, flooding through the windows, doorways and skylights.

Mayla moved her eyes from Rey toward the lights and whispered, "Raiyah…you have go—"

"Mama—" Rey started

"You have to get out of sight…" Mayla said quickly, nearly choking as she still gasped for air as she tried to release her hand from Rey's, "You have to let me go."

"No… Mama! " Rey cried

"It's alright. Your father will find you," Mayla smiled sadly, trying to reassure Rey, "Let go…Raiyah, let go."

Suddenly, the ground beneath them trembled and Rey looked over her shoulder as a crack in the floor splintered past them and the marble immediately broke open and gave way, sending bodies, furniture and everything else in the room tumbling and sliding into a black abyss below.

"No!" Rey screamed, closing her eyes as she held tightly to her mother's hand, sliding toward the edge, but soon realized it wasn't the voice of a six year-old girl anymore, it was her own voice.

She gasped when she finally opened her eyes, looking down into the darkness of a seemingly bottomless nothing, then gasped again, when she looked down over the edge where she hung and saw a figure holding her hand—a figure that was not her mother.

It was Kylo Ren, dressed in his dark cloak and mask.

Rey grimaced, her eyes watering through the cold wind generated from the abyss below, as she struggled to hold on his gloved hand.

Suddenly, Ren lifted his free hand and clumsily pulled his mask from his face and tossed it over his left shoulder into the darkness below.

Then, he lifted his dark eyes up to her—the eyes of Ben Solo.

"It's alright!" he called through the darkness, "You can let go!"

"Ben…" Rey whispered, battling her inner emotions as she closed her eyes and held tighter to his hand, "No..."

"Raiyah…." Ben said in a loud, but gentle voice and Rey immediately opened her eyes to meet his as he smiled sadly, then whispered her name again, "Raiyah…."

They stared at each other for a few moment before Ben nodded, urging her, "It's alright, I promise. Let go."
"I can't…" Raiyah said softly, a tear streaking down her left cheek, "I can't!"

"You can!" Ben insisted, looking down before looking up, "You have to! Or you'll fall in, too!"

"What if I was always meant to?!" Rey called back "What if everyone is wrong?! What if all this power inside me isn't meant for the light, what if it is meant for the darkness, to serve the darkness?!—"

"I don't think that is your fate!" Ben shouted as the wind began to pick up, "There is a reason you have so much power, Rey. In time, you'll come to understand why it was given to you. Now, hurry! We don't have much time. Let go!"

Rey shook her head and opened her mouth to say something else, but suddenly felt herself slide forward as the edge gave way and crumbled beneath her.

Out of reflex her hand opened and Ben fell out of her grasp into the darkness.

"No!" Rey screamed, as she tumbled forward, but keeping her eyes focused on her cousin falling silently into the nothingness below, "Ben!"

Suddenly, she felt a hand grab her right arm in mid-air and she let out a huff and braced herself as the left side of her body hit the cliff face.

Rey grimaced, then looked up, taking in the sight of a small boy with blonde hair, her mother's dark brown eyes and her father's strong chin. He was about six years old. There was no way that he could possibly be holding her up, and yet there he was, leaning over the edge, clasping her right arm tightly with both hands.

"I've got you, Rey!" he called out over the wind, "I won't let go!"

Suddenly, her father, the way she remembered him from her youth appeared, at the young boy's side and knelt down.

In a moment, Luke's hand was grasping Rey's arm, too.

"None of us will!" he called down to her

Suddenly, Rey saw a small green alien with pointed ears, dressed in Jedi robes, appear on the boy's other side and also place hand with three fingers on her arm.

Soon an older man with a graying beard, wearing a dark brown cloak appeared next to Luke.

He also knelt down and placed a hand on Rey's arm with a gentle smile.

He was followed by a young man with light brown hair, her father's piercing blue eyes, a black robe and padwan braid who appeared next to Yoda.

Finally, a tall, strong looking man with long hair, a long beard and a kind face, dressed in tan robes placed a kind hand on the padwan's shoulder before he knelt beside him and also placed hand on Rey's arm.

After a moment, they gathered their strength, pulled together in one movement and Rey came up over the cliff's edge….

"Rey…" Luke whispered as Rey startled herself awake, her eyes searching the dark room before they fell on her father's kind face as she immediately sat up and he wrapped his arms tightly around her, holding her protectively to his chest, "It's alright baby, you're alright…you're safe. It was just a dream."

# # # # ##

When the yellow recording hologram light around her disappeared, Leia let out a sigh and closed her eyes.

After a moment, she opened them and cast them toward the blue and white droid in front of her.

"Thank you, R2," she smiled as she placed a gentle hand on the droids dome and he beeped lovingly, "Be sure to say hello to Rey for me, alright?"

R2 beeped again and danced and she smiled wider.

When Leia turned toward the doorway, she stopped as she came face to face with Major Ematt, leaning on the frame in the threshold.

"You think it will work?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow

"Honestly, I don't know…" Leia replied, then cast him a sarcastic look as she walked toward him, "And you have no right to have any sort of doubt about this since you were the one who so cleverly suggested to the council the idea of Old Order Justice—"

"Whoa!" Major Ematt cried with a smirk, holding up his hands, "White flag, General and I quit!"

When Leia gave him a disarming smirk, he lowered his hands, "You know that I only did it to save the boy. Out of respect for you and Han…I had to try."

"I know," Leia said, softly, coming to his side, "And I'm grateful. I just hope it was enough."

"We'll know in a few days," Major Ematt said, "When Luke returns."

"If Luke returns," Leia corrected, looking toward R2 and closed her eyes in sadness, "I don't know if he's ready…not after their last encounter—not after…"

She trailed off and Major Ematt stepped forward and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder

"I'm sorry," he lamented, "If he can't come back, we'll think of something else, I promise."

Leia opened her eyes and placed a hand over Major Ematt's before she turned to him and said, "You misunderstand me. Luke may not be ready, but there is still hope. There might be another…another Jedi who could help us."

# # # # # # # #

"Then there has truly been an awakening…" Luke said, looking into the fire as he processed what his daughter had told him about her dream. After a moment, he turned his soft gaze toward Rey, where she sat on the edge of her bed, "You're the awakening, Rey. The others you saw beside myself and your brother…they were once Jedi."

"Jedi?" Rey whispered in awe

"Yes," Luke said with a smile, wrapping his robe around him, "Great Jedi that came before—a line of strength and compassion stretching back nearly sixty years, connected forever to our family's bloodline. Those you saw tonight were Master Yoda, Master Obi Wan Kenobi, my mentor, Anakin Skywalker, your grandfather, and Master Qui Gon Jinn, my father's mentor when he was a boy. Your power, Rey, your conflict between the light and the dark…it called to them."

"I don't understand…." Rey whispered, her eyes narrowing, "How is that even possible?"

"Do you still have my father's lightsaber?" Luke asked with a raised eyebrow

Rey immediately nodded and stood from the bed, walking over to the small wooden stand behind the cavern door.

There, she rummaged through her canvas knapsack and removed the lightsaber she had won from Kylo Ren in the woods.

Luke eyed it in her hands as she walked back toward the fireplace and when she stood before him, held it out for him to take.

"No…" he whispered, looking away, "I told you…I can't."

"Why?" Rey asked, lowering her arm and looking down to the lightsaber in her hand

Luke took in a deep breath then cast his eyes to the saber, too, "In the Old Republic, they used to say that a lightsaber always told the truth. It was an instrument of the force, and thereby, its wielder brought light and justice. The government and the people so believed this that they even based judiciary judgement and law on it—Old Order Justice, they called it—where a Jedi was summoned to witness the crimes of an accused citizen and then, when it was time to pass sentence, the force would pronounce judgment through the Jedi's lightsaber. I've never seen it, but I've read accounts about it in the Jedi archive records. It was said to be a beautiful thing to behold…"

"But, what does it have to do with this lightsaber?" Rey asked softly, looking up to her father, "What does it have to do with—"

"Why I won't touch it?" Luke offered, his blue eyes now meeting Rey's

Rey nodded solemnly

"When you touched this lightsaber, Rey, you saw your past and your future…your destiny….all open to interpretation, of course," Luke said, "But, laid before you, none the less."

Rey nodded

"Understand, Rey," Luke continued, his voice solemn, "That I am in limbo right now, caught between the light and the dark. As I've told you before, there are choices I've made and events in my life that have led me to this island—a prison of my own making. I'm trying to pull myself out of the shadows and back into the light, but every day is a struggle. And, if I touch that lightsaber, it will tell me the truth about myself, just as it told you the truth about yourself…. I'm not ready, Rey…I'm just not."

"You're afraid what you'll see is…" Rey whispered, trailing off, unable to will herself to say it

"Myself," Luke said softly, eyeing the lightsaber again, "Giving in to my hate, giving in to my fear…my fear of pain and loss. Rey, I'll see myself turning into my father."