CHAPTER 3
"What do you mean you can't?" said Rey, her face growing hot. "Of course you can! We found you! We have a ship! We can go right now!"
"I can't," Luke Skywalker emphasized, "because I don't know how to fight Kylo Ren."
"What are you talking about?" said Rey, standing quickly and knocking her head on one of the hanging nets. She pushed away, and pointed the lightsaber at Luke Skywalker. "You don't know how to fight Kylo Ren? Isn't that what this is for?"
Luke stood quickly, silencing Rey.
"No," he said. "No. It is not."
He took a step to Rey's side, and-at last-took the lightsaber from her hands with calloused fingers. Rey shivered all over, seeing him hold the weapon at last.
Luke activated the lightsaber, and brittle blue light seared the small room. The blade was so sharp it cut the air, and the Eeeeoooeeewrrr sound echoed across the stone walls. Rey watched with fascination as he swept the weapon back and forth in smooth blurs, graceful as a dance. He handled it with an expertise Rey had not seen before. She'd seen Kylo Ren use a lightsaber, but it was graceless, hard, and angry. Harsh. This was...beautiful. Rey hardly breathed. R2-D2 made a wistful boop.
"There are times to use a lightsaber," said the Jedi Master, deactivating the weapon so quickly it left a void, "and times when it is useless. This is one of those times."
Rey slowly sat down, still mesmerized by the lightsaber image. Luke sat down as well, and gently set the weapon down beside him.
"Kylo Ren has no skill with a lightsaber," he said quietly. "I trained him, you know. Or tried to. He didn't have the patience for the weapon. Or much else."
Luke clasped his hands together. Rey listened quietly as the Jedi Master spoke and the light seemed to dim and lengthen the shadows around them.
"I started training him when he was just a boy. He had a gift for sensing the Force, it...runs in the family," Luke said, apologetically. He smiled a little. "Ben was an eager student, very bright. And extremely talented. But he refused to control his skill. He was a slave to his passions. His kyber crystal, for example. Ben desperately wanted a lightsaber, but I knew he wasn't ready. He'd lose an eye. Or an arm. Try explaining that to your brother-in-law."
Luke gave a shrug. "So what did Ben do? He found an unrefined kyber crystal and forged his own lightsaber."
"His red lightsaber?" said Rey. She had seen that weapon up close. Very up close.
Luke chuckled.
"You've seen it," he said.
"It's...ragged," said Rey. "And has other blades coming out from the sides."
"That's from the fractured kyber. A lot like him, I'd say. A lightsaber says a lot about a Jedi. Unrefined crystal, unrefined temper."
Luke grew quiet and clasped his hands even tighter. Rey had to lean forward to hear him.
"Ben grew impatient with me," Luke said. His face was lined. "With the Force, too. He began to look for new powers in dark places. I think that was when he found all his dark friends. And Snoke. It's partially my fault-I had a lot of students to train, and couldn't track Ben's every move. But I could see him falling into dark ways. His temper grew shorter. And his anger, deeper. I could see the contempt in his eyes. He was falling prey to the dark side of the Force. Right under my watch."
"What did you do?" said Rey.
"What do you think I did?" said Luke. "I commed for his parents."
Luke stood and paced, ducking underneath the hanging nets of equipment.
"Something...happened when Han and Leia came," he said. "Ben-no, Kylo Ren-did something to us. He reached into our minds. I'm a master at Jedi mind tricks. But this was different. I actually felt the Force reach into my head, sift through my memories, and pull them away from me."
Rey swallowed. That feeling. She had experienced that exact thing at the hands of Kylo Ren. She recalled the sensation of memories flipping through her mind and the wave of a sharp headache, like fingers burrowing into sand and grabbing hold. She shuddered.
"Kylo Ren destroyed many things that night," Luke continued. "The Jedi temple I trained him in. The Jedi order I had been forming-that was gone, too. My students had vanished. I don't even remember who they were. And...I...had a family, I think. But every memory I had of them is gone. Kylo Ren took the things written on my soul and destroyed them as easily as wiping a database from a droid."
In the dim light, Rey could see the immense pain and sadness in the lines on Luke's face.
"The night after we confronted Ben," he said, "shattered everything. Life after that was like looking into a broken mirror with missing pieces. I almost didn't even remember who I was. There was nothing left of the Jedi temple but a landscape of broken stone."
"He killed everyone!" said Rey, aghast.
"No," said Luke. "No, I don't believe he did. I honestly don't believe Ben would do that."
"I do," said Rey darkly, thinking of Han Solo.
"He did something, I will agree with you there. My search for...everything...turned up nothing. Of course, it's hard to search when you don't know what you're searching for. I couldn't even ask Han and Leia, who had been there that night, because Ben did something to them as well. He...broke them. He took the memories from deep from inside them, and they-" Luke shook his head. "They regressed. Captain Han Solo, once the great leader of the Rebellion, turned back to his old life of smuggling. Leia, who had been studying the Force, buried herself into politics. Their marriage fell apart."
Luke sighed, and sat down again. "And Kylo Ren went to Snoke," he said simply.
"And you disappeared," said Rey. It wasn't an accusation, but she wasn't smiling when she said it.
The Jedi Master regarded her mildly.
"Yes," he said, but not unkindly. "I needed to find answers. After the Shattered Night-the night Ben became Kylo Ren-I needed answers. I needed to know how to fight Kylo Ren and this new power he had used against us. So. When a Jedi needs answers, there is usually only one place he can go: A Jedi temple."
Luke looked thoughtfully up into the ceiling of the arch dwelling. In the dim light, Rey noticed that on the ceiling and all across the walls were deep scratches that formed odd designs.
"There were once many Jedi temples," Luke continued, "but each one I found had fallen into disrepair. Most had been desecrated. Breeding grounds for smugglers and spies and Empire sympathizers. The Force was no longer in them. I needed to find a temple that hadn't been touched. One where the Force was still strong."
A realization struck Rey.
"Han Solo said you were looking for the first Jedi temple," she said eagerly. "Is that why you came here?"
Luke smiled.
"That's right," he said.
"The very first one? The one that-the ancient Jedi Masters made?"
Luke, still smiling, nodded.
"Did you find it?" said Rey.
Luke's bright blue eyes twinkled at her.
"I did," he said finally. "And you're sitting in it right now."