Chapter 1 – Rey
The wall in front of Rey mocked her ruthlessly.
With a growl of frustration, she kicked it hard. A spike of pain flashed through her foot and up her leg. A tiny splattering of dust fell from the ceiling at her effort, but the ancient stone wall of the crumbling Jedi temple remained still. Rey sighed and knelt down in front of the book already opened on the floor by her feet. Carefully, she turned the fragile page of parchment, studying the fading writing and drawings. They suggested that simply inserting the key in the correct spot would open a doorway. But she had no key.
Rey plunked down on the mossy ground, swiping her arm across her forehead. Sweat soaked her clothes and tickled her neck as it dripped down from her hair. She'd grown accustomed to the dry, desert heat of Jakku but this heat combined with the overwhelming humidity made it difficult for her to breath. The jungle of this unnamed planet beyond the Outer Rim screamed with all forms of life. It almost seemed like the birds and animals surrounding her knew a trespasser lurked in their mist.
It had taken two years to get to this point. Two years since she and Ben had stood against the Emperor, against her grandfather. Two years alone.
She'd tried to go back to her friends in the Resistance. They'd all been so worried about her, but exuberant when she'd told them all of her triumph against the Emperor. Yet, their reaction to Ben's presence there had been almost hostile. Poe kept going on about Kylo Ren's ulterior motives, while Finn refused to even acknowledge Ben in any way. Only Rose had been willing to listen to her one night as they split a bottle of Corellian spring wine. She'd agreed that based on his actions, he'd turned back to the light. When Rose had said that Ben's sacrifice was a true act of love, Rey had cried pitifully into the other woman's shoulder.
After that, she'd slapped on a happy face and got to work on rebuilding the Republic. Sometimes she helped Finn and Jannah with the deprogramming of other Stormtroopers who'd been kidnapped as children. Other times she flew missions with Poe to weed out pockets of the First Order attempting to hide in bases on outlying planets. Mostly she just worked with Rose to rebuild damaged ships and droids, using her free time to continue her Jedi training and study the few old Jedi texts she'd found.
But inside she was dying. None of the work could fill the void of losing half her soul. Even eating didn't hold the appeal it had before. People would comment she looked thin and it reminded her she needed to eat. She constantly reached out to Ben, trying to get his Force ghost to manifest. She'd seen Luke and Leia as Force ghosts, but Ben never came to her. It was like the loss of his life force to her had truly ended him. It made her sick to think of it.
A little over a year ago, a reference in one of those texts spoke of a lost Jedi device that would allow someone to fix a mistake of the past. What if Luke's mistake of how he treated Ben could be fixed? She dropped everything in pursuit of such a device. Her friends didn't understand why she left, and she refused to tell them her reason. None of them could understand the depths of her emptiness.
With Chewie on Kashyyyk helping his people rebuild, he bequeathed the Millennium Falcon to her. With unrestricted access across the galaxy, Rey went on a rampage of all known past Jedi locations. She'd found books and artifacts that nobody had set eyes upon for hundreds, maybe thousands, of years. Finally, after having to screw up the courage to swim through a flooded temple, she found the book that led her to this jungle planet.
The loud screech of an animal nearby pulled her out of her memories. She glared at the offending wall again. She'd already tried using her lightsaber as the key, and then slashing at the wall when that didn't work. Other than a few scorch marks, the wall remained intake. Then she'd fingered every inch of it, searching for some kind of secret opening mechanism. Nothing. In anger, she'd even tried ripping the wall down using the Force, but her power was deflected back at her, knocking her off her feet.
She studied the picture again and frowned. What were those broken lines at the foot of the crude drawing of a person holding the key? She'd just assumed they were just part of the background. Yet, with generous interpretation, perhaps it resembled a dismantled lightsaber. Her eyes widened.
She unclipped the lightsaber from her belt and pulled out the ubiquitous tool that she always carried in her pocket. She unscrewed the outer casing and carefully removed the kyber crystal. It glowed faintly yellow.
Moving toward the wall, she held the crystal as if it were a key. With a gasp, the crystal flew out of her hand and through the wall. The middle of the wall rippled then disappeared.
Rey whooped with joy. She threw her bag on her back, grabbed the pieces of her lightsaber along with the book and strode through the opening. She took no chances that it could close unexpectedly.
The room on the other side of the wall smelled musty from disuse. At first, it was pitch black, but as she stepped farther in, gentle light pulsed on from an unknown spot in the ceiling. Before her stood a stood a simple, raised platform. Her kyber crystal lay upon it. She quickly reconstructed her lightsaber and clipped it back on her belt.
Opening the book once again, she consulted the next page.
To repair a mistake past
Your mind you must cast
To the specific place
In time and space.
When the task is done,
Home you shall come.
The drawing showed a figure laying on the platform followed by another one with no figure on the platform.
Rey shoved the book into her bag and climbed up on the platform. She stretched out on the stone, clutching the bag to her chest. The hardness of it was mildly uncomfortable but she'd slept on worse.
She closed her eyes and slowed her breathing, attempting to enter a meditative state. She cleared her mind and focused strictly on her destination. Luke Skywalker's training temple, right when Ben Solo would be arriving there. Minutes ticked by as she continued to focus, only the slightest tingle spreading over her skin. Growing alarm clenched her stomach.
"Please, please," she whispered.
The tingle intensified over her skin and she started to smile. The smile froze on her lips as the tingle mutated into a burning sensation. The burning intensified and it felt as though her skin was being flayed off her body. Every nerve ending blazed in pain as her body dismantled in this time and place to be hurled to another.
A moment later, the platform was empty. Only Rey's lingering screams echoing through the chamber remained.
A/N: Thanks so much for checking out this story! I really didn't want to write it, but it got stuck in my head and absolutely refused to leave. I tried writing that crappy little smut story to try to get Reylo out of my head, but it didn't work. With three young kids out of school from COVID and a busy full-time job as an essential workers, it took me over three months to finally finish it. But here it is and I am very happy with how it turned out! My goal is to try to post a chapter a day so stay tuned!
PS- If any of my previous reader out there are wondering what happened to a very popular zombie western I wrote on here (or if that sounds like an interested story), I have answers for you. PM me.
Reviews are so very appreciated.