Trust
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A/N-thank you so much to everyone who read and reviewed the last chapter.
Chapter One-Rey and Luke
As Rey emerged from the hut she was caught unawares by an unexpected torrent of rain. The downpour was so heavy that she was soon drenched to the skin. As she peered into the gloom, the water washed over her skin so strongly that it felt as if she was in the flow of a river rather than a rain shower. Her head was still thrumming with all that had happened between her and Kylo. In her haste, she had forgotten all about Skywalker. But he was soon brought back to the forefront of her mind when she heard his gruff voice calling out to her through the sheets of rain.
"Rey, you were right!"
Straining her eyes, Rey saw the old jedi master crossing the meadow, lightening flashed overhead revealing his eager face. His robes billowed out around him; his shaggy hair plastered wetly to his head.
"I'm coming with you, Rey." Luke called out to her when he finally spotted her standing immobile a few feet away.
Skywalker had shut himself off from the Force for so long that it was like opening pandora's box. The Force was roaring around him in the same way as the encroaching storm. The girl, Rey, had been right all along. She needed him. As did Leia, and the Resistance, and all those desperate for hope. His grief and guilt had made him unable to see that the galaxy needed his symbol, that he had let darkness and despair rob him of taking action. He was ready now. He was ready to place his faith in Rey and teach her all she needed to know. She wasn't Ben. She was her own person. And to think of her as just a vessel was to diminish her strength, diminish her courage.
It was only when he reached the powerful young Force user that Luke realised that something was terribly wrong. Rey looked pensive, unsure. Now that he had opened himself to the Force again, he could sense her churning emotions, her uncertainty. Luke quickened his steps, eager to make up for lost time and make it up to her.
"There's no need to worry anymore. You won't be shouldering the burden alone. I'm here." Luke reassured her, his watery blue eyes roaming her face. She was wearing the strangest expression. "Rey?"
"Is it true?" Rey accused as she thought about all that she had learned from Kylo about his fall. "Did you try to murder him?"
Luke halted abruptly, the eager light in his eyes turning icy. He knew very well who Rey was talking about. He was confused as to why she was bringing this up now, or how she even knew about what had happened that fateful night in his nephew's hut. But he wasn't willing to discuss it with her now. "I don't know what think you know. But you're wrong!" He said through gritted teeth.
"I know enough!" Rey responded angrily.
Luke's nostrils flared and he turned his back on her and quickly walked away-just as he'd done the first day she had arrived on the island, bearing the lightsaber that had called to her.
"You don't get to walk away from me again!" Rey yelled as she hastened after him. "You answer me. You tell me the truth."
"Leave it." Luke shouted over his shoulder as he continued to walk away.
Rey scowled as she followed him, ducking down to pick up her staff as she did so. She curled her fingers around it tightly, pleased by its weight and balance in the palm of her hand. In three long strides, she swung it high and hard, cracking him across the back of the head and knocking him to the ground.
Luke stared up at her in surprise, stunned into silence by her brutal actions. She loomed over him; teeth bared. "Did you do it?" She demanded. "Did you create Kylo Ren?"
Luke climbed unsteadily back onto his feet, the driving rain continued to pelt down on him, sending gusts of frigid air from his open mouth as he struggled to breathe. He couldn't figure out how she had learned about what had happened that disastrous night when he had made the decision to look into Ben's mind. He couldn't, wouldn't talk about it. He backed away, turning his back on her again, retreating to brood in silence and nurse his emotional wounds in private.
Rey wasn't having that. Furious, she swung her staff at him again – but the old jedi master was too quick for her. His hand jerked out, the motion a blur as a length of lightening rod flew off the roof of one of the huts and into his hand. Before Rey could blink, he had intercepted the strike of her staff, the impact sending a jolt up her forearm. This only increased her frustration with him. Soon they were sparring furiously in the rain, with Rey pressing the attack, and Luke countering each of her strikes. He was surprised by the latent skill, the weapon she used, a quarterstaff, was like a part of her. She was quick, light on her feet, and knew how to use it in a way to inflict the most damage.
Luke parried another one of her thrusts, his greater skill winning out in the end as he managed to flip the staff out of her hands to clatter on the stones, leaving her defenceless.
Rey felt the lack of breath throughout her body, that feeling of tiredness and lethargy. For as her lungs worked overtime to bring in the much-needed oxygen, even then she felt as if she was drowning in the air. She couldn't explain where the anger was coming from, it was like a coiled spring inside of her, begging to be unleashed. But it was wearing her out. And now she was wondering if the anger was even hers. Or whether it was some left-over remnant of Kylo's that had been injected into her from their last Force bond.
The Force was alive and hungry around her, the sheer weight of it was heavy on her shoulders. She was surprised she was still standing. Skywalker stood opposite, the lightening rod still in his hand. His chest puffed out cold gusts of air as he glared at her from under his bushy brows.
"I looked inside." He said roughly, his face ravaged with guilt. "And It was beyond what I'd ever Imagined. Snoke had already turned his heart. He would bring destruction, and pain and death, and the end of everything I love because of what he would become. For the briefest moment of pure instinct, I thought I could stop it. It passed like a fleeting shadow, and I was left with shame and with consequence. And the last thing I saw were the eyes of a frightened boy whose Master had failed him."
Rey felt the water running down her face, rain mixed with her own tears. "You failed him by thinking his choice was made." She said tiredly. "It wasn't." She paused for breath. She could feel that Kylo was close to her in the Force. A part of her expected him to materialise out of the darkness. She put it down to her fevered imagination, a quiet longing for him to see her coming to his defence.
"You don't understand, Rey. How could you?" Luke lowered the lightening rod slightly, but still maintained a firm grip in case Rey decided to attack again.
"Its you who doesn't understand." Rey insisted. "There's still conflict in him. If he were turned from the dark side, that could turn the tide."
"How do you know any of this?" Luke questioned sharply.
"I've spoken to him." Rey admitted so softly that Luke had to strain his ears to hear her.
"What? When? Have you been in contact with him the whole time you've been here?"
"More or less." A splash of red tainted Rey's cheeks. She was unwilling to share the extent of it. The how and the way was none of the old jedi's business.
Luke eyed her with something akin to disgust. "You've let yourself be seduced by a pretty pair of eyes."
Rey stared back at him mutinously. "I have not." She denied. "He's on his way here. He's very close. I can feel it."
"You revealed our location?" Luke's jaw dropped in disbelief. "You foolish, foolish girl. None of this is going to go the way you think."
"We'll see." Rey retorted.
Luke felt a rush of exasperation overwhelm him at the young scavenger girl's naivety. He brandished the lightening rod at her, lecturing her about letting her guard down around his nephew. "You have no idea what you've done by placing your trust in him. He won't be coming alone. He'll have the whole First Order fleet right behind him. We need to leave. Now."
The first spectre of doubt began to pluck at Rey's resolve. Luke's gaze was bleak, and for the first time in her memory he struck her as old – a broken man dragged back into a storm he thought he'd escaped.
"I believe in him." Rey said faintly.
"Then I feel sorry for you." Luke replied sadly. He dropped the lightening rod and produced Anakin's lightsaber. It felt much too heavy in his hands. He had wielded it with pride once, until he had built his own. Now the thing just felt cursed. He ignited it, holding the blue blade high, the driving rain hissing and sparking off its length. "You'll need this to defend yourself. I have my own." He made as if to pass it to Rey, but he never completed the motion.
The rain had become a living fabric, each drop was as large as a cartoon tear and they fell like gravity had been turned up a notch. While Rey and Skywalker had been engaged in their heated duel, Kylo had slipped onto the island, using the cover of the furious storm to land his Tie Silencer without being noticed. From a short distance away, through the gloom and the grey, he saw his uncle holding the lightsaber high, its shimmering blue blade highlighting the pale features of the defenceless young woman standing opposite him. Kylo was immediately transported back into the past, to the night he had awoken to find Skywalker standing over him with a lighted blade. He was defenceless then, just as Rey was defenceless now….
Desperate, just like he had been on the night his whole world had gone to hell, Kylo's hand reached out, straight to Luke, to the lightsaber he had coveted ever since he had seen it call to Rey. He simultaneously blasted Skywalker off his feet while willing it into his hand. As his uncle collapsed to the ground a few meters away, the lightsaber resisted his call, just like it had before. It clattered to the ground at Rey's feet instead.
Astonished at Kylo's surprise intervention, she bent down to pick it up, before her hazel eyes rose to meet his. Kylo looked back at her, the depth of his humanity shining in his, but also the fear, fear for her, coupled with his shame and guilt.
Kylo had come. Alone. Just like he had said he would. Skywalker was wrong. She had been right.
Elation swirled inside Rey, even the rain couldn't dampen it. She took a few steps forward, but stopped when a lumbering shadow loomed out of the darkness and charged in Kylo's direction. It was Chewbacca. All seven foot and half of him slammed into Kylo, knocking him backward. Kylo didn't even defend himself as Chewbacca's right hook found its target and rocked his head back.
Rey screamed for the enraged Wookie to stop as she saw the crimson blood pool out of Kylo's mouth and nose. She ran toward them, her soft boots slipping and sliding on the sodden ground. Luke had finally regained his footing, he followed slowly in Rey's wake, trying to catch his breath.
Rey had reached Chewie and Kylo. Fearing the worst, she fell onto her knees beside them, still pleading with Chewie to stop his grief-stricken assault on the person who had killed his best friend in cold blood. It was only as she swept her frantic gaze over them, that she realised that Chewie wasn't fighting Kylo anymore, he was cradling him against his furry body, like he had done when Kylo was a little boy. The tall Wookie was shaking, muttering the same word over and over in Kashyyk – Why?
Chewie's blue eyes were brimming with moisture as they met Rey's. She reached out to him, her hand making contact with his furry cheek. "I'm sorry." She whispered guiltily, caressing it. "I am so sorry." This was all her fault; she should have had the foresight to warn him. She hadn't expected Kylo to turn up so quickly, which meant he must have been nearby all along.
A muffled groan came from Kylo. He was regaining consciousness. Chewie let out a distressed whine, his former anger turning to sorrow. One furry hand found its way to the back of Kylo's head as he cupped it gently, his agonised gaze finding Rey's again.
"Its going to be alright, Chewie." She murmured. "I promise."
A/N-thanks for reading! Please review.