Light of the dawn sun spilled through the window of Rey's hut. Rey herself groaned as she cracked her eyes open. She pushed her blanket off and sat up.
There was something off about the way she felt, but she couldn't place her finger on what it was. Rey shook her head, both to wake herself up and in an attempt to dispell the odd feeling. She wanted to make sure that she was in the best mental state for her training.
Far away, Kylo Ren gripped his knees and kept his eyes tightly shut as a surgical automaton removed the stitches from his face. The bacta had healed the wound splendidly, but a grisly scar remained. He focused on the pain as the knives and claws cut and pulled the sutures from his flesh, believing each fresh wave was an apt punishment for his failure.
Rey rubbed the side of her face as a tingling, almost itching sensation crept up her cheek. She stopped rubbing suddenly, feeling as though she was being watched. Her brow twitched and she looked around.
Kylo's eyes shot open. He wasn't sure how or why, but he sensed the girl. More than that, it felt as though she was in the room with him.
Rey frowned. She knew who was watching her. After everything that had happened in Ilum, she would recognize the animalistic presence of Kylo Ren anywhere. Her hand slowly crept to her bag and wrapped around the broomhandle grip of the revolver that Han gave her.
Kylo blinked his eyes and froze. The girl was sitting right in front of him. She was blurry, but there was no doubt that it was her.
Rey tensed up. She couldn't see him clearly, but Kylo was on the other side of the hut. Rey bared her teeth, pulled her pistol from her bag, and fired a shot at him.
Kylo saw the smoke and fire from the shot and flinched. He grunted in pain, but curiously not the pain he was expecting. He clutched his still healing abdomen and relaxed his muscles. The girl was gone and there was no trace of her actually having been there at all.
Gunsmoke swirled around the hut. Rey's snarl turned to a frown of bewilderment as she saw a hole in the wall instead of a dead or injured Kylo. She lowered her gun.
Kylo Ren stood and took a deep breath. Had he had another hallucination? This hadn't been like the usual fatigue or stress induced ones, though. He actually sensed her presence. Everything about what had happened nagged at him as he left the room.
Rey ran out of the hut and into the village. She slowed to a stop as Kylo's presence returned. When she looked behind herself, she saw him standing there with his back turned.
Kylo spun around and stepped back in surprise. The girl was standing only a few paces away, clear as life. "You'll bring Luke Skywalker to me," he said, reaching towards her.
When she only glared daggers at him, Kylo lowered his hand with a hint of embarrassment. He then cocked his head, fascinated. "You're not doing this. The effort would kill you..." Kylo looked around. "Can you see my surroundings?"
"You're going to pay for what you did!"
"I can't see yours. Just you."
Rey's aggression faded somewhat as Kylo's words sunk in. This wasn't his doing, nor was it hers.
"No," Kylo said, narrowing his eyes. "This is something else."
Rey gasped in surprise at the sound of a door opening behind her and reflexively turned her head. When she looked back to Kylo, he bore an expression of disgust.
"Luke," he said coldly.
"What's that about?" Luke asked.
Rey turned to look at him. He was pointing past her, and it was only when she looked that she noticed a pair of stout bird women in habits repairing the hole she had punched in the wall of the hut. Kylo Ren was nowhere to be seen.
One of the bird women noticed Rey staring at her and her cohort expressed her displeasure in her squawking native tongue. Rey heard more voices from all around the village and was surprised to see so many other avians tending to various duties such as sweeping and weeding. She must have been so focused on Kylo that she missed their arrival.
Rey looked back to the bird women repairing her hut. "I was cleaning my pistol. It went off."
The bird women spoke to one another in irritated tones.
Luke scratched his scraggly beard. "Hm." He turned and began walking. "Let's get started."
One of the other bird women dressed in a matronly garb called out to Luke with clear aggravation as he passed by. Luke raised his hand and responded in the same language. Rey wasn't sure what he had said, but it seemed to take the edge off of the avian's ire. Despite this, Rey was extremely aware of the disapproving gazes directed towards her as she followed Luke.
"Who are those things?" Rey asked after she and Luke had left the village.
"Lanai. Caretakers. Island natives. They've kept up the Jedi structures since they were built." Luke picked a long, strong leaf from a reed plant and continued walking.
Rey glanced back. "I don't think they like me."
"Can't imagine why."
Carved into the highest peak of the crater rim surrounding the Uneti tree was the very first Jedi Temple. From the outside, one would hardly recognize the importance of the site were it not for the rutted stone steps leading to the entrance.
Rey was awestruck by the beautiful simplicity of the Temple. Nearly everything looked as though it had been formed from the stone naturally, from the modest altar, to the doorway and the meditation ledge beyond, even down to the torch sconces on the walls. The sole feature that stood out as obviously artificial was the raised mosaic bottomed pool at the center of the chamber.
Rey stared at the mosaic image with curiosity. It seemed to depict a person of unknown race or sex in a state of meditation. One half of the person was clad in black robes and with a background of white stones, while the opposite was true for the other half. Everything about the piece was a perfect balance between light and dark. After a few moments, Rey headed towards the meditation ledge where Luke awaited.
"Before we begin," said Luke, "I do have one question. How did you find that Lightblade?"
"It was in a box owned by one of Han's friends. It... called to me. With my own memories. When I touched it, I saw things I can't explain. But you were there. And so was Kylo Ren."
Luke frowned. "Hmm."
"Ever since then, I've also had a voice in my head. The first time I heard it, I also saw an old man with sad eyes and a white beard."
Luke sighed. "Obi-Wan. He's the one whose negligence led to the rise of Darth Vader. Don't listen to him. He'll just fill your head with more fantastic ideas on how noble and selfless the Jedi were."
"But he only helped me. If I hadn't listened to him, I probably wouldn't be here."
Luke thought back to the guidance that Obi-Wan had given him over the years. The memories had turned bitter since Luke had exiled himself, but if it weren't for that guidance, he would never have started down the path that would help bring the Empire down.
"If this Obi-Wan has taught me anything," began Rey, "it's that the Jedi can accomplish the impossible. We need you to bring them back because Kylo Ren is strong with the Dark Side of the Force. Without the Jedi, we won't stand a chance against him."
"What do you know about the Force?"
"It's a power that Jedi have that lets them control people and make things float."
Luke nodded. "Impressive. Every word in that sentence was wrong. Lesson one." He patted the top of the meditation stone. "Sit here. Legs crossed."
Rey clambered onto the warm stone and shifted her weight as she took up a meditation position. She took a deep breath and looked to Luke eagerly.
"The Force is not a power you have," Luke said. "It's not about lifting rocks. It's the energy between all things. It's a tension, a balance that binds the world together."
"Okay. But what is it?"
"Close your eyes... Breathe... Now, reach out."
Rey extended her arm in front of her. Luke rolled his eyes and started to tickle the back of her hand with the tip of the reed leaf.
"Ooh! I feel something."
"You feel it?" Luke asked, feigning excitement.
"Yes, I feel it."
"That's the Force!"
"Really?"
"Wow, it must be really strong with you."
"I've never felt anyth-"
Luke smacked Rey's hand with the reed. She yanked it back. "Ow!"
The glare from Luke spoke volumes.
"Oh. You meant reach out like..."
Luke nodded slowly.
"I'll try again." Rey closed her eyes again.
Luke tossed the reed leaf away and guided Rey's palms to the stone on which she sat. "Breathe. Just breathe."
Rey inhaled slowly through her nose and released her breath through her mouth.
"Good. Now reach out with your feelings... What do you see?"
"...The island," Rey whispered. What her vision showed though was not that Ahch-To was a ring of islands with one in the center, but instead only the very top of the mightiest mountain in the entire world, with its volcanic slopes stretching from the inky depths of the sea. This was the world's navel.
As humbled as Rey was by this revelation, she turned her attention back to the surface. In her mind's eye, she saw flowers and grass swaying in the breeze."...I see life."
The bones of countless fish and birds buried across the island. "...Death and decay."
Roots of the sprouts surrounding the bones. "...Which feeds new life."
She saw the sunbaked stone of the island. "...I feel warmth."
The grey waves of the World Sea. "...Cold."
A mother porg nuzzling her newly hatched chicks. "...Peace."
A pair of crabs fighting on the rocky shoreline. "...Violence."
"And between it all?" Luke asked.
"Balance... An energy... A Force."
"And inside you?"
"Inside me, that same Force."
"And this is the lesson," Luke said. "That Force does not belong to the Jedi. To say that if the Jedi die, the Light dies is vanity. Can you feel that?"
Rey smiled serenely as a vision of the Uneti tree entered her mind. It faded as the other visions had, only to be replaced by one of part of the island's shoreline. "There's something else," she said. "Beneath the island, beneath the tree... A place... A Dark place."
Rey's vision became more clear. It was a round hole on some sort of shelf of rock. Black masses of seaweed ringed the hole.
"Balance," Luke explained. "Powerful Light above, powerful Dark below."
Rey's brow twitched. "It's cold."
The meditation stone began to shake and a piece cracked off. Pebbles and chips of stone gently floated off the ground. Luke's eyes widened.
"It's calling me," Rey said, voice trembling with uncertainty.
"Resist it, Rey!"
She couldn't, though. It drew her like the welcoming hand of a friend. Rey was only vaguely aware of Luke yelling her name. Her vision abruptly ended when a surge of water shot from the hole. Rey gasped and doubled over, panting as though she had been holding her breath for some time.
Luke looked at Rey with horror. "You went straight to the Dark."
"That place, it was trying to show me something."
"It offered something you needed. And you didn't even try to stop yourself." Luke turned away in disgust.
"I didn't see you."
Luke stopped.
"I saw the whole island. Nothing from you." Rey's eyebrows raised slightly. "You've closed yourself off from the Force."
Luke's sad eyes looked back to Rey.
"Of course you have."
"I've seen this raw strength only once before, in Ben Solo. It didn't scare me enough then. It does now." Luke left the Temple as quickly as he could.
To Admiral Holdo, the distant cannon fire from the First Order was soothing. She had long since conditioned herself to whenever she heard the roar of cannons remember sneaking off as a child to play in the lowland thunderstorms of Gatalenta. Everything had seemed so simple then.
A chime from one of the scrying stations broke Holdo out of her reminiscing. "Lieutenant Connix, what was that?"
"Nothing, Admiral. Drifting flotsam." Kaydel slowly looked to the door to the bridge. Poe gave her a nod and ducked back into the corridor. So far, everything was going to plan.
Off the side of the Raddus, a boat only just large enough to sport a Hyperion crystal slipped into a gate. Finn relaxed and took his hands off the wheel, letting the stream carry them towards their destination. "At current burn rates, the fleet's only got eighteen hours of coal left. We've got to hurry."
Bibi-Eit warbled mournfully.
Rose nodded and clutched her medallion.
"Still can't reach the Resistance?" Rey asked, stepping under the Millennium Falcon's bridge canopy.
Chewbacca growled softly. He had tried practically everything to boost the strength of the crystal and font, but there were still a few more tricks to try.
"Keep at it. If you get through, check their status. And ask about Finn."
The Wookiee grunted twice, first in acknowledgement, then in frustration as a porg landed on his forearm. When he noticed a second porg ripping apart the dryrotted cover of one of the bridge chairs, Chewbacca roared and flailed his arms to scatter the meddlesome birds.
Rey adjusted her poncho and stepped back off the bridge into the rain. She walked over to the mast where a stream of water was pouring off the furled sails. After rinsing her hands, she collected some of the cool water and sucked it down. Some way out to sea a bolt of lightning hit the surface.
In the vacant observation deck overlooking the Supremacy's mechanic shop, Kylo Ren watched workers toil away, repairing the TIE fighters damaged in the earlier attack. He closed his eyes and listened to the rhythmic sounds of hammers, saws, and sewing machines. After a few minutes, he noticed other sounds that shouldn't have been there. Why did he hear waves, rain, and thunder?
Kylo's eyes opened and he turned to see the girl inexplicably standing there again. "Why is the Force connecting us? You and me?"
"Murderous snake," Rey spat, water flying from the loose tendrils of her hair. "You're too late! You lost! I found Skywalker!"
"Did he tell you what happened? The night I destroyed his temple, did he tell you why?"
Rey curled her lip. "I know everything I need to know about you."
Kylo raised his eyebrows. "You do?" He looked at her closely. "Ah, you do. You have that look in your eyes. From the forest... When you called me a monster."
"You are a monster!"
Kylo took several slow strides towards Rey. "Yes, I am."
Everything about how he had said that caught Rey off guard, from the sadness in his voice to the haunted, scared look in his eyes. Rey blinked and he was gone again.
Kylo frowned. Who exactly was that girl and why was the connection between them so strong? He wiped his face and looked at the wetness on his glove.
