Master Luke was there when she woke.
She drew a deep breath, raised one weak finger and poked him in the shoulder as hard as she could. He winced.
"Nice reaction. Still know you're not real," she muttered darkly.
"If I didn't know better, I'd say you were drunk," he growled.
"Where am I?" she asked, attempting to sit up. He placed the palm of his hand against her forehead and pushed her back down. As the room began to spin, she decided to stay where she was—wherever that was.
Chewie gave a concerned cry from somewhere beyond her range of vision and the familiar smell of the Falcon registered when she heard his voice.
"Oh good. Great. What now? I suppose Chewie is going to sprout a second head and come raging back here to rip my arm off!"
Luke's brow furrowed as he studied her.
"You're confused. Your brain must have been damaged," he decided.
"You sound exactly like you, but still—you're not you," she informed him.
"She's awake?"
Finn's face appeared over Master's Luke's shoulder.
"He's awake?" Rey repeated the question.
"You've been gone a long time!" Finn rushed excitedly, pushing past Master Luke to kneel beside her bunk. "Everyone was worried, but I KNEW, I knew you'd be alright. You always find a way out and I told the General—"
"She's awake?! Should I get the medic? Does she need the medic?"
Another face, one Rey didn't recognize squeezed between Luke's grave and Finn's happy one. This one belonged to a black-haired girl with bright eyes and an excited grin.
"Rey, this is Rose—" Finn began to explain.
"Does she need a medic? I AM technically the medic still, right?"
"Brick!" Rey gasped, as MT-5927 pushed his way through the small crowd. "But how did you… how… where…"
"Long story," Finn laughed.
"Good Story though!" Rose interrupted.
"How do you think they found you?" Brick grinned.
"I found you, actually!" Finn announced. "You were in bad shape and—"
"— should have seen what was happening to the First Order stormtroopers out there! What a mess! They were fighting each other at one point, and Master Luke said—"
"—told them you were a friend of mine. Didn't tell them about the whiskey though, so don't worry about that—"
"—and then there was an explosion!"
"— fighting these giant beasts with fangs—I was so scared!"
"—the door burst open and I thought I was done for but—"
Their voices became a cacophony of excited words that barely made sense to her. Master Luke had lapsed into silence and was massaging his forehead with his hand. She knew that pose. That was the pose he made when he was close to losing his temper. She was home. It was real this time.
"Where's Kylo?" she interrupted.
The words stopped. Their faces registered shock and something else—something she couldn't put her finger on. They glanced between each other and then to Master Luke who lifted his hand slowly.
"You were all very concerned about Rey," he began in calming tones. "You're happy she's awake, but you've suddenly remembered you have pressing matters elsewhere."
"I was very concerned about you, Rey. I'm happy you're awake, but I've suddenly remembered I have pressing matters elsewhere," they chorused in unison.
Rey managed a weak smile as the three shuffled away.
"But I—" Finn turned around, his brow furrowed in confusion.
"Have pressing matters elsewhere," Master Luke repeated.
"Right… pressing matters," Finn agreed, nodding his head.
Master Luke gave an agitated sigh as Finn left the room. He was impatient with people at the best of times. Perhaps he had always been, or perhaps it was due to his long years of isolation on Ahch-to, she did not know, but it made her feel just the slightest bit better to see him so unchanged. He would, perhaps, not find her so.
"Kylo?" she repeated, lowering her voice. "Where is he?"
"Escaped," Master Luke said, and glanced away from her.
"Escaped? Master, we were wrong about him! He killed Snoke, and saved my life, and he has… he has the ability to care… a great deal even. He's not dark- well, no, he IS dark, but not… not all dark…" Rey tried to explain.
Master Luke was rubbing his forehead again, and he was still avoiding eye contact with her.
"Please, I'm telling you the truth—we have to find him. General Organa will be so—"
"You were damaged on Korriban, Rey," Master Luke began. He was choosing his words slowly and carefully.
"Not by him, it was Snoke. He—"
"Rey… Finn found you by chance. He recognized Kylo Ren's personal transporter as it was leaving, and noticed that it had landed far off from the other First Order transporters. He was suspicious and had the foresight to check around that area. Kylo Ren walked on board that ship and left you discarded on the ground—and make no mistake, you were dying when you were found."
"He must have known that I would—"
"That you would be found? His transport landed on the other side of the valley, far off from where the fighting was, and I cannot stress this enough, Rey- you were very clearly dying. I know how alluring the dark side can be. I know the seductive promises it uses to lure its followers to it. I know, but you were so full of dark power that it was destroying you, poisoning your very life force. The ground turned black around you. I can sense that poison in you still, even now."
"He didn't make me do it, Master, I chose—"
"You really believe that it was all your own decision, I know. Now you'll tell me that it was simply a means to an end. You thought that you could wield the dark force once, because you were in dire need, and then set it down, but that's not how it works. That's never how it works."
Rey heaved a frustrated sigh and cast about mentally for some way to make him understand.
"Snoke was Emperor Palpatine!" she announced. "You didn't know, did you? He survived. His body was destroyed by Darth Vader, but not his spirit. He found a way to survive. He attached his spirit to a clone body but the bodies are constantly destroyed and he was weak—so he used the Dark Moon. The Dark Moon was a ship… it… it had… I don't know how to explain it… a meditation sphere, he called it… and it was… was… there were mass delusions and that's why on all these planets people were… they killed each other, and—and— he did that to us… we had to fight through our own heads, but we did it, and he… with his light saber he…. But in order for him to get close enough to Snoke, I had to… well, I had to take in all of that dark energy. Kylo figured all this out, he planned this, and it took him years and years, don't you see? Don't you see that there WAS good in him? All this he did to defeat Snoke, to… you understand, don't you?" She demanded, but even as she tried to explain, she could see the retreat in Master Luke's eyes and realized that she was sounding more and more crazed and incoherent.
She drew a shaky breath and could feel the tears welling in her eyes.
"He didn't leave me to die, he… he wouldn't do that," she insisted, placing her hand upon Master Luke's.
Master Luke glanced down at her hand, his expression grim.
"I felt him pass—Snoke. There was a great upheaval in the Force, and I knew. So I believe you that he is dead, and if you say that Kylo Ren killed him, then I believe that it was Kylo Ren who killed him, but if you want me to believe that Kylo Ren killed Snoke because he is in some way still clinging to the Light, and that everything he did was simply to rid the galaxy of a great evil, then I cannot agree. I cannot. He is a murderer of children, of innocents, of his own father. He killed Snoke, very well, but he killed him so that he himself could step into the vacuum of power that was left behind."
"No. No, he—"
"He has taken command of the First Order troops. You have been asleep for some time, Rey."
"There must be… some reason… he could have left me in the temple. He carried me—"
"Until he realized that you would likely not survive. You were useful to him. He trained you, used you to minimize his risk and when he realized that you would be too difficult to save, he abandoned you to die."
"That's not what… no," she whispered, shaking her head slowly.
"We are fleeing D'Qar, even as we speak. Heading for an old rebel base in the outer rim that he might not know about. Do you know who sent those troops to D'Qar to destroy us?"
Rey was silent for a moment.
"Kylo."
"Yes. It will take time, Rey. I understand that. I know that you have been through an ordeal, that not just your body, but your mind has been poisoned. You will heal. You will come to see things by their rightful natures again. I understand if you can't accept this now, but I know how strong you are, and I know you will come back to the light."
"What if my true nature is dark? I can do things with the dark force that no one else can. I'm afraid that I'm stronger there than I'll ever be in the light no matter how hard I try," she whispered, remembering Snoke's last words to her.
"People aren't born light or dark, Rey. You either have the strength of will to keep doing what is right, even if sometimes you fail, or you don't."
"Do or do not, there is no try," she remembered.
"Yes," he agreed, and his weary expression softened with the hint of a smile. "Rest now. We'll land soon, and there are many people who will want to see you. I can't distract Leia as easily as I can your friends."
Rey nodded, though her thoughts were still with Kylo Ren. Perhaps on Korriban he had sensed Finn's approach and knew that she had a better shot healing with the Resistance, but still, why take control of the First Order? What was his plan now that Snoke was gone? What had happened to make him attack a resistance base? And was it possible that Master Luke might be correct? Could she trust her own feelings anymore?
"Wait!" she called after him, her thoughts catching up to his words. "Speaking of my friends, what is Brick doing here?"
"Ah…" Master Luke smirked. "Resistance spies picked up a First Order transmission. A message stating that Kylo Ren was sending a very dangerous prisoner- a resistance fighter- under guard to the Finalizer. We thought we'd had an incredible stroke of luck, as we assumed it was you. The transporter carrying the prisoner was ambushed and your friends stormed aboard expecting to find you, but instead—"
"But instead, they found Brick," she guessed.
"Yes. There were… disappointed, but your medic turned out to be more useful than we anticipated. He had seen you, and had overheard Kylo Ren's plans to take you to Korriban. That was how we knew where you would be."
Rey did her best to keep the realization from her face, yet she instantly remembered the way Kylo had known that the Resistance would come to occupy the First Order for them. The Resistance did not learn about the prisoner by chance, and Brick over-hearing Kylo's plans was no stroke of luck. Kylo had moved them all as if they were no more than pieces on his own personal holochess board.
"I'll rest now," she agreed.
But though she closed her eyes, she did not sleep. She had already slept long enough for her allies and enemies to change places around her and now she was not at all sure which was which. Kylo Ren was in control of the First Order—but to what purpose? Did he think her dead? Were they disconnected somehow? He had always been able to speak to her through dreams—ever since she was a child, but she had slept a long time and could not remember even a whisper from him.
She lay very still for a long while, listening to the hum of the engines and the occasional rattle of the loose wall panel Chewie still had not fixed. When she heard footsteps crossing the lounge toward her, she did not have to open her eyes to recognize Finn. He stopped beside the bunk for a moment, which drew the attention of Master Luke.
"She's sleeping again?" Finn asked, disappointment evident in his voice.
"She'll need a great deal of rest yet. Her body is healing slowly," Master Luke explained.
"There was so much I wanted to say! So much I wanted to ask too!"
"There will be time for all that soon enough," Master Luke.
"Are you going to tell Leia?" Finn asked.
Master Luke did not answer right away. When he did, his words were careful.
"Tell Leia what exactly?" he asked.
"That he was trying to heal her. I mean—yeah, Brick says he didn't do a very good job of it, and it didn't help much, but isn't that light-forcey-magic-type-stuff? You know—the stuff that bad guys can't do?" Finn pushed.
"My sister's son killed his father. He murdered my students. You yourself have seen him order the execution of an entire village of innocent people. He gutted the Resistance, destroying our base and almost killing her in the process. All that, and still, she so desperately wants to save him, that holding out a tiny breadcrumb of hope to her—such as he MIGHT have tried to use a light force power and not have failed entirely—to do that, would be a great cruelty," Luke explained in calm voice. "Forget that you know it."
"I can't," Finn complained, though his tone was good-natured. "And if you tell me I have pressing matters to attend to elsewhere, now that no one else is around, I might disagree with you!"
Master Luke huffed at this, and began to threaten Finn with a myriad of other ways he might be persuaded to keep his mouth shut, but his tone had also become light-hearted, and the two were already crossing the room together, presumably to leave her in peace.
And she was in peace, because, like Leia, she would always rather have that breadcrumb of hope than none at all.
I hope you've enjoyed part 1 of The Dark Moon Rises. Chapter 26 will begin part 2 and should be posted in a day or two. Thank-you to everyone who left reviews , favorited, or followed- the encouragement is greatly appreciated!