After months of near-constant study and training on Hjolterum, Rey had built a solid understanding of Shii Cho. But she moved on swiftly, needing to build on the foundation. That took her back to Drallig's holocron and sure enough, the long-dead Battlemaster supplied the next step.
"Form VI, Niman. As you may recall from the very beginning of our sessions, this is known as the Moderation Form. Or, as some would have you think, the way of mediocrity and compromise." Amusement glinted in Drallig's eyes. Plainly, he didn't share that view. "For my part, Niman is not… to my tastes. But then, I am not most Jedi – I am a devotee of saber combat and relish the more demanding styles."
That didn't seem to bode well for Rey. She had to remind herself at this point that the Jedi of fifty years ago had had rather different priorities to her.
Drallig unknowingly emphasised that same point just a moment later. "The Jedi Council maintains that Form VI best suits the role of contemporary Jedi Knights. After all, a Jedi Knight who is overly trained in martial combat might be at a loss to resolve a complex political conflict or a sensitive trade disagreement."
Fair enough, Rey thought. But I need martial skills more than anything else right now. Reading some accounts from the Clone Wars, she knew well that Form VI practitioners had fallen in disproportionate numbers, their fighting style often found wanting by the demands of war.
She ran her fingers through hair that had been left rather short after a mishap with some clippers, and a drastic salvage job by Rose.
"To those more combat-inclined, despair not. Niman does offer an excellent grounding in contemporary saber styles without exerting too great a physical demand on oneself. From a reasonable understanding of Niman, one can progress smoothly to one of the more specialised Forms. Moreover, it integrates telekinetic attacks, a valuable asset in fights where crowd-control is a priority."
Now you're definitely speaking my language. And as Drallig ran through the motions, Rey watched intently. Sure enough, she saw it. Midway through a kata, Drallig would throw a hand and a shockwave would billow out from his palm. Other times, more rarely, the movement would have the sense of catching and reeling something in.
She didn't attempt the Force attacks for the first week she spent learning the new kata. The base moves integrated elements from almost all the other Forms – Makashi seemed to be excluded, however, which must stem from its aggressive bent. There was a greater sophistication at play here, more variety in the direction of attack. Unlike Shii Cho, this was a style which had been conceived entirely for lightsabers, not edged weapons.
She found herself fighting much more cagily when she employed Niman than when she used Shii Cho. It was a more controlled style of combat, mirrored by the calmer frame of mind which the user was expected to fight, and there didn't seem to be a single move that would leave her exposed to a quick response.
Still, Rey couldn't lose the sense that she wanted something more demanding, feeling constrained by the Form. Even Drallig's exhortation that "Form VI, perhaps counterintuitively, demands more creativity than most of the others when facing properly trained opponents. Intuition and improvisation are encouraged, once you understand the basics" was only so reassuring. To her more cynical side, that sounded like a diplomatic – ha ha – way of saying that Niman just wasn't as effective as the more specialised Forms.
Nonetheless, she had to try and reserve judgement until she really understood it. Which meant once she had learned the physical routines, it was time to bring in the other component – wielding the Force as a weapon.
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To deepen her understanding of telekinesis and more besides, she had strengthen her connection to the Force. Once she had lost her initial fear of it, she had found that it was much like building up a new set of muscles.
Some elements of it had, as she had told Luke, always been there – the ineffable sharpness which had helped her when fighting and exploring wrecks on Jakku. So too the vigour she had mustered in her direst moments. Now she could call upon it consciously, but she had the sense that she had was only skimming the surface. There was much more beneath.
To that end, she meditated more often and more deeply, sinking right into the Force. She slowed her breathing, letting her emotions rise to the surface in turn and letting each fall away to drift to the margins of her mind. A cool peace now filled the space they had occupied, and with that Rey could let her consciousness roam.
On one occasion, she sank so deep that she forgot Gial the Porg, who had insisted on accompanying her to practice today, was even there. She didn't remember him until Kaydel came to find her, bringing some lunch.
And she didn't notice Kaydel until she called out: "Uh, Rey?"
Rey started, her eyes snapping open, and realised something was sitting on her head - Gial. A panicked shrilling as the Porg lost his balance and tumbled sideways. Rey caught him just in time, Gial gradually calming down in her arms.
"Hi, Kaydel. What is it? Have I been down here this long?"
Kaydel, her gave a pointed dip of her chin. "That, and you're… Rey, you're levitating."
Rey glanced down and… "Oh." It took some work to not lose her balance and simply drop. She was a good foot off the floor. Taking a breath, she lowered herself to crouch on the floor, still holding on to Gial. Then she got up and turned to Kaydel.
"So the training's going well?"
"It's going," Rey smiled. "That's for sure. But come on, was seeing me float that strange? First time we saw each other properly, I'd just lifted an avalanche."
"We hadn't talked properly back then. You were still just 'the Jedi' to me. This strange girl we'd all seen for about a day and who was suddenly off to find Luke Skywalker." A curious, nervous smile played over Kaydel's face as she handed Rey her ration pack. "Now I know how human you really are, Rey. Which, in a way, makes all the Force stuff more special."
Rey took a first bite. "You're too sweet." Then she wolfed down the rest, and spend a while talking with Kaydel about her work, about Rose's and Chewie's improvements to the Falcon and Finn and Poe's own training.
"Major Rulm had Finn out leading trainee squads again today," Kaydel smiled. "Really impressive results on every exercise. Which we should've expected – Finn's a natural leader and he's smart. Rulm's really taken a shine to him. You should come watch too, next time you're free."
"Maybe I will," Rey replied. Then she raised an eyebrow and grinned. "Say Kaydel, wanna see something impressive here?"
"What are you-" Kaydel's eyes widened as Rey called her staff into her hand. "Oh. Well, do go on," she smiled.
Rey crouched down to the little ball-droid and activated it. "Routine 4, little guy. Kaydel is also here but she is not, repeat not, a target." The little droid burbled its compliance and Rey grinned, already feeling her pulse speeding up.
She'd begun working to wean herself off that preparatory slowing down. In the field, an enemy wouldn't wait for her to be ready, so Rey had to simply be ready as soon as it was required of her.
So it was with the practice droid. Without any preamble, its little blaster lit up, sending a little storm of projectiles her way. Rey ignited the shock-coils of the staff. Then she was in motion.
As she was used to doing now, Rey leaned into the flow of the Force, perceiving the right point to send the bolts zipping back at the droid. Catch catch – a burst came her way – sweep – and a movement of her staff swatted those shots away. Then she slammed her hand forward with a barked "Ha!", and the training droid was sent flying, wobbling as it curved back around. It didn't take it lying down, and quickly whipped around in the air, firing another burst.
Rey deflected those right back, weathered another volley before again using the Force to bat the droid to one side. Then it gave her a brief lull, which Kaydel seized on with a suggestion.
"Say Rey, there's something we could try out here." She drew her blaster, toning it down to practice setting. "There's one thing that some of the old Rebel heroes used to talk about Jedi doing when they fought with others."
Rey looked at her quizzically. "And what's that?"
Kaydel came close, blaster up but putting Rey between her and the hovering droid. "Well, Commander Rex called it 'the old shield and shoot'."
Rey grinned at her. "OK. Let's try that."
This turned out to be a different kind of dance, using the Force to anticipate her friend's movements as well as those of the droid, just as it took Kaydel some time to establish a rhythm. Still it felt good, tangible progress and in an area that Rey could put directly into helping her fellow rebels.
And before long, that was just another part of the routine,
Outside of studying and rehearsing the Form, she was back to regular sparring with Finn and the Scrappers, formation exercises with the soldiers, and regular hours in the base's gym. Trainers on the base had her working through a rigorous program of exercises to build up her endurance. After all, as Poe and Finn both liked to point out, the First Order never willingly called "time out" on a battle.
So Rey did as she'd always done, and toughened up. As the regime ground on, she found herself able to fight for longer. Her prowess with her staff grew as well. Which was just as well – because now the missions began again.
And, quite aside from actually having to fight in earnest, those meant for much more challenging scenarios than a training droid or a two-on-one spar. A labour camp riot, for example.
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The Force around Rey was a maelstrom of fury and fervour, a mirror to the battle which she darted and fought through. Finn, Rose and the Scrappers followed in her wake, leading a few squads of soldiers and pilots.
The breakout was well underway. Behind them came hundreds of prisoners, armed with weapons taken from Stormtroopers or appropriated tools. It felt good to break shackles like this, but the fight hung in the balance. They had to reach the airfield and head off the First Order pilots. If they couldn't do that, the uprising could be blasted off the face of the planet.
"So, Finn," Rey asked as they ducked down in cover. "Where to from here?"
"Cut through that checkpoint." Finn pointed with his pistol. "That'll get us to the airfield. Grab some transports and we can clear the enemy out."
"Plus it gets us our ticket offworld," Rose added.
"I like it," Rey smiled.
"Good." Then Finn gave the order to advance. Blaster bolts snapped through the air, but Rey intercepted them and sent them flying back to drop Stormtroopers. This was going well, she allowed herself to think.
But before they could advance off to her left, came the cry: "Riot Troopers!"
Even amid the din of battle, the words cut through to Rey. Next she saw them, slamming into an unprepared knot of prisoners, lashing out with shock-batons and landing heavy, sizzling blows on their victims. A flanking attack, which would split the breakout force in two if it wasn't halted. Rey couldn't allow that.
Finn looked to her. "We have to push forward."
Rey gave him a hard look. "You push forward. I'll take Nyzar and LM, and we'll intercept." The two ex-gladiators looked to her and nodded, and that was that.
They burst from cover, charging the Riot Troopers, a few shots snapping towards them only to be batted away with Rey's staff. And now Rey let herself fall into the current, her limbs following the Force's flow to deliver her weapon to exactly where it needed to be.
And the first place it needed to be was the top of a helmet. The Riot Trooper dropped like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
He went down before he even knew Rey was there, the second following him before he even hit the ground. The third traded a couple of blows with her, but the Force didn't so much show her the gap in his defences as just pull her leading hand down just a few millimetres, so her staff caught his maul from an unexpected angle and it went askew. Then the Force drew Rey's staff back and brought it whipping around to strike a ringing blow on his chestplate. He cannonballed into the soldier behind him.
The fourth dropped more quickly, quickly overborne by a flurry of strikes. Rey hardly even needed to calculate a strike. Off to the side, she could feel Nyzar and LM fighting. She needn't fear for them here. Riot Troopers weren't about to trouble two veterans of the Magna Leptus Coliseum.
Fifth opponent for her now. She went for a low blow, aimed at his gut. The trooper interposed his baton and blocked the attack. So Rey took the quickest opening she had – she rammed the staff down, into her enemy's foot. The trooper went to his knees with a howl of pain before Rey cracked the weapon into the side of his helmet.
Between Rey and her companions, that left one more. The squad sergeant remained on his feet, and he was already in motion while more troops raced up behind him. Rey threw herself back, using the Force to steady herself and twist around to attack the Riot Trooper from the side. He caught that attack, and her second, but on his own he couldn't match her speed and agility. She intercepted his next attack, letting him extend himself fully. Then she struck back, sending the baton wide, and caught her enemy full in the faceplate with a sharp jab of the staff's crackling tip.
That was the last Riot Trooper down, but Rey didn't halt yet. She wheeled to face the reinforcements who'd come up behind the first squad, putting all that momentum behind her open hand and thrusting forward with a fierce "HA!"
A little shockwave whipped out from her hand, and the Stormtroopers were thrown head over heels, flung into untidy heaps and tangles of white-armoured limbs. Their yelled curses almost drowned out Nyzar's booming laugh. Almost.
The rest of the enemy went into retreat, falling back as the Resistance's commandeered transports rose into the air and rained fire down on the First Order forces.
Rey squared her shoulders and exhaled, taking a moment to reflect before she ran for the airfield. Yes. This is progress.
