Chapter Fifteen

Return to Ahch-To

Shrieks broke the quiet of the lush green isle. At its base, near the crashing seas, a fire blazed, sending up a plume of black smoke.

Rey stood next to a pile of driftwood, picking up and then flinging each piece into the burning shell of the Knife 10. She paused from her labor and stood for a moment, smoky air filling her lungs. The fire licked greedily at the black ship, its heat warming her face while her hair and hood flapped in a chill sea breeze.

A pair of ash-covered porgs, braver than most of their fellows, stood on a small mound covered in scraggly grass and watched the scene curiously. One of them gave a high-pitched squawk.

Rey drew her lightsaber from her belt and looked down at it. It had served her well these past few years, but now she wanted no part of it. She took the hilt in her left hand, wound up, and tossed it towards the fire.

A hand closed around the lightsaber before it could enter the flames. The hand's owner strode sedately away from the burning ship, the firelight shining through him. He stopped before Rey and gave her a hard stare. "A Jedi's weapon deserves more respect."

"Master Skywalker," Rey gasped. Sparks blew past her.

Luke tossed his head as he asked gruffly, "What are you doing?"

Rey sat upon a wide, flat rock face, cradling the lightsaber, which Luke had returned to her. The tale poured out of her. "I saw myself on the dark throne. With Ben next to me. I thought the way to prevent that future was to defeat him, but I…I gave in to the Dark Side. I wanted to kill him. I would have, if Leia hadn't given her own life to heal him." She shook her head. "I'm never leaving this place, I'm doing what you did."

"I was wrong," Luke said, shrugging slightly. A lock of his insubstantial hair waved in the wind. "It was fear that kept me here." He looked into Rey's eyes. "What are you most afraid of?"

Rey was silent for a space. Waves crashed in the distance. "Myself."

"Because of the pull to the darkness you've always felt. Leia knew it too."

"She still trained me," Rey whispered.

Luke sat down next to her. "Because she saw your spirit. Your heart. Do you know what she told me about the first time she saw you? She said it was like a voice whispered in her ear: balance. You struck down Ben in anger, but then you stepped back. You didn't let your negative feelings control you. You preserved the balance within yourself."

"But Leia died because of me!"

"It's not your fault. My sister knew her time was coming. She was able to help her son with her final breath."

Rey processed this, then said, "It's not only the darkness within myself I fear. It's also that I'm not good enough to be the last Jedi. My parents were just…people. Not heroes or politicians."

"Everyone's parents are just people. Even if they are heroes or politicians." Luke's eyes met hers. He said quietly, "Rey, some things are stronger than blood. You're not like me. Or my father. You're new. Whatever happens, remember: the Force chose you, Rey. This is your story, no-one else's. Confronting fear is the destiny of a Jedi. Your destiny. If you don't face Snoke, it will mean the end of the Jedi. . . and the war will be lost."

Luke stood. "There's something my sister would want you to have."

Rey pulled a grey stone out of the wall of one of the round rock huts of the Jedi village set among the jagged peaks. She reached into the gap and brought out a bundle wrapped in a white cloth. After untying the strap that held it together, Rey unfolded the fabric to reveal a shiny metal lightsaber hilt. She picked it up reverently. "Leia's saber."

Luke stood behind her. "It was the last night of her training," he said.

The saber on the ground rattled, then flew upwards. Across the forest clearing, a figure stepped out into the open, his green blade at the ready, the blast shield of a helmet hiding his face.

His opponent, wearing a similar helmet, activated the saber, its beam casting a blue light. She ran at him, swinging in a wide arc. They dueled, striking and parrying quickly.

Leia kicked Luke in the stomach. He groaned and fell to the ground, then pulled up his blast shield. Leia lifted her own and stared into the forest of Ajan Kloss, a vision of the future flashing through her mind.

"Leia told me that she had sensed death, destruction, and the fall of her son on her Jedi path. She chose to renounce the title of Jedi Knight, instead focusing on her political career. She surrendered her saber to me, and said that one day, it would be picked up again, by someone who would finish her journey.

"A thousand generations live in you now. But this is your fight. You'll take both sabers to Coruscant."

Rey stood up. "I can't get there. I destroyed the Knights' ship."

"You have everything you need," Luke assured her.

Rey had descended the long grassy slope to the foot of the island. Now, she stood atop rocky cliffs sloping down into an inlet. The two lightsabers at her hip gleamed.

The sound of rushing liquid came from below. Rey looked out past a knoll covered in grass, stones, and flowers as Luke's old X-Wing, Red Five, rose out of the ocean, water pouring out of it. The starfighter was draped in seaweed, its top left S-foil missing.

Rey glanced over her shoulder. Luke stood atop a ledge, his left hand outstretched as he levitated his ship. He smiled. An answering smile crossed Rey's face. She gazed back up as Luke began to lower the fighter to the ground.

Rey was welding the wing Luke had appropriated for his hut's door back in place when she heard a low rumble. She looked up. A Star Destroyer was emerging from the thick clouds above.

"Luke!" she called. "It's the Final Order. I brought them here."

Luke appeared next to her. "How?"

"I forgot," Rey breathed. "When I was on the Supremacy, Snoke saw into my mind, saw where you had hidden. I thought the knowledge had died with him, but if he's alive…"

Luke's voice was tight. "I'm not letting anyone destroy this temple, this island, this planet, or the people who live here."

"But we only have a few lightsabers!"

"We have the Force and a few lightsabers."

Captain Chesille Sabrond stood stiffly on the bridge of the Resurgent-class Star Destroyer Derriphan. Supreme Leader Snoke himself had personally commanded her to travel into the Unknown Regions and make this world burn, starting with this insignificant speck of land. It was the greatest honor she had ever received; but a deserved one, she thought. Throughout her career, she had shown herself to be both unflinchingly loyal and efficient to the point of ruthlessness.

A gray-uniformed lieutenant looked out the bridge viewport. He turned to his commanding officer. "Captain. The island is in view."

"Charge primary weapon," she ordered.

The axial superlaser hanging from the cruiser's underside aimed at the island, a red glow building inside its barrel.

Inside one of the stone huts sat a large wooden box containing all of the personal effects that visitors to the island had left behind, carefully gathered by the Lanai caretakers who lived on the island. Luke lifted the lid. Inside were numerous objects and trinkets he didn't recognize, as well as his clothes, Han's golden dice, and a lightsaber.

Rey looked up at Luke, standing high above, atop the cliff where she had first laid eyes on him. The sun glinted on the metal hilt he held aloft. He turned it on, a blade of emerald energy springing forth, and then threw it. It whirled away towards the Star Destroyer bearing down upon them, flying further than anyone could fling it naturally.

The lightsaber struck the base of the superlaser, where the cannon was attached to the ship. Luke controlled its motion, cutting through power cables and computerized controls.

"Primary weapon is charged," reported a technician.

Captain Sabrond said coolly, "Fire."

Nothing happened.

"I said, fire!"

"The superlaser doesn't appear to be responding, sir."

"What?"

Another technician reported, "We're losing atmospheric integrity, Captain. Something has breached the hull."

The Derriphan's axial superlaser splashed into the ocean below the battlecruiser. It had been neatly severed from the Star Destroyer by Luke's lightsaber, which was now cutting through the ship's underbelly, moving towards the bow.

The Star Destroyer's turbolasers opened fire. Spears of green light flew downwards. Some hit the ocean, sending up sprays of water; others struck the land, blasting holes in the rock. Caretakers screamed and ran for cover. A squadron of TIE bombers launched out of the hangars and screeched towards the island.

Luke and Rey stretched out their arms and held back the bombardment, keeping it from reaching the ground. Rey switched on her sabers and threw them. She used the Force to guide them towards the sizzling plasma bolts overhead, deflecting the energy beams towards the TIEs. One after another, the bombers were struck and their explosives detonated, blowing them apart in huge balls of fire. Soon they were all gone. Rey continued redirecting the Derriphan's fire, now aiming it back at the Star Destroyer.

"Sir, our deflector shields are absorbing heavy fire. They're turning our attacks against us somehow."

A starfighter control officer cried, "All of Engulfer Squadron is gone!"

"Who's doing this?" demanded Sabrond.

The Lieutenant motioned to a screen showing a zoomed-in view of the island. One robed figure was just visible on a cliff's edge, another near the shore. "It's Skywalker. And the girl."

"Skywalker's dead, Lieutenant Lenwith. It must be some trick."

"Look!" said a black-helmeted gunner, pointing out the viewport. A green lightsaber was slicing through the Destroyer's top, heading straight for the bridge.

Captain Sabrond realized that she was dealing with things beyond her own understanding, things she had never been trained for. "Cease fire. Take us out of atmosphere."

The Derriphan heaved its bulk away from Ahch-To's surface.

Luke's eyes narrowed. The wind picked up, choppy waves troubling the surface of the sea. In the sky above, the clouds darkened, lightning crackling and flashing within them.

The Star Destroyer rose through a raging storm, electricity stabbing at it. It pushed through the haze, the blackness of space in view.

"Are we out of the planet's gravity well?"

"Not yet, Captain," the navigator informed her, looking up from her station in the data pit. "It'll be a few minutes yet."

"Make the jump."

"Sir?"

"I said make the jump."

"Yes, sir." The stars elongated into streaks before them.

A lightning bolt leapt out of the clouds and struck the rear of the vessel. One of the three massive ion engines exploded. The other two went dark.

The ship lurched. The stars shrank down to pinpricks once more. Alarms blared. Sabrond snapped, "Damage report."

"Electrical overload, Captain. We lost one ion engine. Hyperdrive is shorted out."

"Use the backup hyperdrive. Just get us out of here!" The normally unflappable captain was almost shouting as she struggled to cope with an emotion she hadn't truly felt in years: terror.

The backup hyperdrive engaged. There was a jerk of acceleration and then the Derriphan was back in the blessed blue of hyperspace.

Captain Chesille Sabrond sagged. Then she drew herself up, spun on her heel, and walked off the bridge, feeling an overwhelming need to lie down.

The dark clouds dissipated. A lightsaber hilt fell from the sky into a ghostly hand. Rey pulled her own lightsabers back to her and hung them from her belt once more.

The Lanai rushed down the slope and mobbed Rey, cheering, waving brooms and other tools, and doing surprisingly energetic victory dances. Rey bowed and shook hard-skinned little hands. Luke appeared behind the crowd.

"I think they like me," Rey observed.

Luke grinned lopsidedly as he replied, "Can't imagine why." Then he gave a two-finger salute and faded away.