Chapter 2

My attacker advanced toward me, raising its weapon high over its head. Armed with nothing but the Force energy tightly woven through my fingers, I crafted a frame of power in front of me to repel the blow. However, at the last second my opponent shifted the angle of the attack so it swept at me from the side. Panic rose in my throat as I yanked my shield over to intercept it, but I was a second too slow. I closed my eyes and braced for the weapon's impact against my ribs.

I felt a tiny pinch as the plastene training weapon zapped me.

"Rey, you are not focusing!" Luke scolded me from across the room. "Keep your mind empty of everything but the Force. There is no emotion, only peace."

I ducked another blow from the sparring droid and grit my teeth. How was I supposed to remain emotionless while being attacked? On Jakku, every single fight meant the difference between survival and death, and my fighting style depended on the rush of emotional instinct that came with it.

The droid and I circled each other. I imagined bundling my emotions together and holding them at a mental arm's length. Then I redoubled my focus, connecting to the Force web and filling my mind with its power. I predicted the droid's next series of movements, planning my own in response, and felt sure that I was succeeding at the exercise. But I had the sudden, sinking thought that I'd never be able to win a real battle this way. My concentration faltered at the exact moment the droid leapt forward.

Angry at being caught off guard, I let instinct take over as I sidestepped, spun around and blasted the droid with the Force so hard its metal arm blew out from its socket and hit the wall. The droid immediately powered down to prevent further damage. I sighed in frustration, feeling guilty for damaging it.

Luke came to stand next to me. "You are an excellent fighter, Rey, but you are missing the point of the exercise. You continue to fall back on your emotions as your source of power within the Force. I've told you many times why this is dangerous."

A voice piped up from the other side of the room. "It's the path to the dark side!"

I frowned and looked over to where Fariya, my fellow Jedi apprentice, sparred with her own droid.

Fariya was the oldest daughter of the Ruu family, human rulers of a large Mid Rim planet and one of the Resistance's more powerful allies. The Resistance had celebrated when we'd learned of her affinity for the Force three months ago, and she'd immediately moved to Emmett II to train with me and Luke.

Coming from a political background, the fifteen-year old girl was talkative and driven to succeed. Though her heart was in the right place, she was determined to turn Jedi training into a contest – and I sometimes had the humbling impression that she was winning.

Fariya stood still, studying her sparring droid as it circled closer and raised its weapon. She stepped forward underneath the blow so resolutely that the movement appeared choreographed. She pressed her hand against the droid's torso and released a controlled flow of Force energy to freeze the droid in place, and then raised up on her toes to pluck the training weapon from its hands.

"Fariya, your control over the Force grows stronger. Well done." I knew that Luke did not intend for his words to hurt me, but his approval of Fariya's skills stung in the wake of my own failure at mastering the exercise. Fariya glowed from Luke's praise, and she shot me a measured smile that stopped just short of being a cheeky grin.

"We are done for the day. Rey, you and I shall leave shortly for our meeting with the–" Luke's words cut off when my gaze snapped downward, as if looking at something on the opposite side of the planet.

It was happening again – an Awakening in the Force. Like I had with Fariya and several others, I occasionally sensed powerful ripples in the Force web: moments when someone connected with it for the very first time.

"Ice planet," I breathed, describing the scene passing before my eyes. "He's hairy, like Chewie. Horns around his face. Carnivore. Doesn't need the Force to be dangerous." I gathered the vision and pushed it toward Luke's mind.

"One of the Brenza race," Luke said a moment later. "He must be on Tehanne, their homeworld. We will change our plans. I'll proceed to the meeting alone. Rey, Tehanne is nearby, in the heart of the Mid Rim. Find the recruit and bring him to the Resistance."

This was the first solo mission Luke had ever given me. I drew back my shoulders and nodded, well aware of the gravity of my assignment. "I will not fail you."

"I doubt you'll encounter any opposition, but make sure you bring some guards with you. Oh, and take Fariya as well."

I couldn't speak because my teeth were ground together, but managed a respectful nod.

The three of us walked to the main hangar, where Luke bid us farewell and boarded the ship we had used a few days prior to meet with the Vwalii. Chewie had taken the Falcon back to Kashyyyk, his homeworld, to restore the legendary ship to perfect working order, though he also needed time to himself after Han's death.

I turned to a guard stationed at the hangar entrance. "Fariya and I are travelling to Tehanne. Are any ground troops available to accompany us?"

The guard spoke into his comm, and a minute later two Resistance fighters in matching flightsuits approached and saluted. "Terrence and Laurie reporting for duty," the woman – Laurie – said. I recognized her from a celebratory lunch we'd hosted for Finn a few months ago, after his release from the med bay. "We're taking the transport over in the corner."

I smiled, pleased that the guard respected my skill as a pilot and had not assigned us one. Our group boarded the transport. Fariya and I moved into the cockpit while the guards strapped themselves in behind us.

"Sit down and don't touch anything," I ordered. Fariya pretended to be deaf – or perhaps she was imagining me as mute, I wasn't sure what went on in her bratty little head – as she poked at control screens and idly flicked switches on and off.

"Cut it out," I admonished, swatting at her hands. "You might break something. This ship is barely flyable as it is."

"Then why are we taking it to Tehanne?"

"Because I'm an excellent pilot. Poe himself told me that. And he would not approve of you touching the console without knowing what you're doing."

Fariya dramatically slumped into the co-pilot's chair. "I want Poe to be our pilot. We deserve a real one for our mission, anyway."

"This is my mission, Fariya. Luke just wants you here for the experience."

I ran through my pre-flight checklist, adjusting dials and flipping switches, happy to be behind the controls of a ship once more. Reviewing the settings one last time, I shifted a lever to engage the main thrusters, but was greeted with unexpected silence.

I glanced at the console output, which didn't show any warnings or alerts out of the ordinary. Confidence failing, I ran through my checklist once more, ensuring all of the usual knobs, dials, levers and switches were in their proper positions for take-off. I flipped the thruster lever several times, but the ship just sat there, mocking me. I hoped that the Resistance guards were unable to see the red flush of embarrassment rising on my cheeks.

Another piece of junk, the only kind the Resistance can afford, I grumbled to myself, leaning back in the pilot's chair to regroup my thoughts. I've flown hundreds of ships in my simulator. This one must have some sort of quirk…

My eyes slid over to Fariya, who met my scrutiny with a smile that was far too pleased to be convincing.

"What did you do?" I demanded.

Her broad smile curled into an impish smirk. "Figure it out, if you're such an excellent pilot."

My eyes narrowed at her ridiculous challenge, and my patience crashed straight into a wall. I crafted a small amount of Force energy into a crackling sphere and flung it straight at her face. She blocked it, as I expected, but it distracted her from my second sneaky burst of Force power positioned behind her head. It passed through her shields and I followed, flying through her thoughts until I found what I was looking for. I drew back into my own head and disengaged an innocuous switch near Fariya's elbow that happened to reroute the ship's power away from the main engine systems and into the auxiliary reserve.

I shifted the thruster lever forward and the ship roared to life around us.

Fariya stared at me, her eyes large and watery. "I'm telling Master Luke," she said, her tone a shade too frightened to be whiny. "It's against the rules to read my thoughts like that! And it's impolite!"

"I warned you not to touch anything, so consider it a well deserved lesson in following orders. Your shields need a lot of work before you're ready for battle. Snoke and Kylo Ren would not find it 'impolite' to tear through your mind."

"How would you know? No one's ever met Snoke, and you've only been in a single lightsaber duel against Kylo Ren."

I pinned her with a somber stare that made her shrink back in the co-pilot's chair.

"Has no one ever told you about Kylo Ren's interrogation methods?" I asked her, my voice falsely calm. "Poe and I could both give you firsthand accounts. The Resistance is at war with the First Order, and though you come from wealth and privilege, you are part of the Resistance now. We fight evil, and as a Jedi, you will be facing opponents who use the Force in ways you can't yet fathom. And they will not follow Luke's so-called rules."

We did not speak as the transport ship bore us through hyperspace to Tehanne. Manipulating the controls felt as natural as breathing when I cut the hyperdrive and dropped into a lazy spiral toward the ice planet's surface. The scanners showed no other ship activity in the atmosphere.

I could sense a faint smear of power far below on the surface: a Force signature emitted by the newly Awoken being. It came from a shallow valley that was too narrow to land in. I exhaled some of my apprehension upon seeing no First Order ships lurking at the top of the ravine. We descended and gently landed on a wide expanse of untouched snow.

"Has the First Order's propaganda spread here?" I asked Terrence and Laurie.

Laurie grimaced. "The easier question is where it hasn't spread. They promise stability and security and have enough cashflow to back it up, at least right now. Some systems buy into it more than others. Brenza's are solitary, though. Don't much care what the rest of their race is up to, much less anyone from off-planet. You should be fine here."

"Please stay and guard the ship, then. You will stay as well," I told Fariya, lowering the boarding ramp while pulling on a heavy Fantabu-wool cloak.

"But I want to come! Master Luke sent us both on this mission for a reason."

"It's my mission," I grumbled once more. However, I knew Luke would chastise me if I left her. "If we run into trouble, you need to be ready to fight and follow my every command. Can you handle that?"

She nodded vigorously, enthusiastic for any scenario where she accompanied me off the ship.

"Keep your blaster close," I told her as we descended the ramp.

The planet was miserably cold, even by ice planet standards. I willed my energy into a sphere around me that held in what little body heat I made. While it did nothing to make me warmer, it kept me from growing colder. I crafted a similar sphere around Fariya, who grudgingly thanked me.

We struggled through the deep snow, following a narrow path that hugged the ravine's edge. The Force user's mental beacon pulsed ahead of me, though I couldn't make sense of his jumbled thoughts when I attempted to peek into his head. We rounded a sharp corner in the path and saw a small hut before us, partially built into the ground to help retain heat.

A blast of cold air struck my face and I grumbled at the weather in this frozen wasteland, but then an itching at the back of my skull made me pause. Something was wrong. The snow around me lay perfectly still, yet I had clearly felt a huge gust of cold wind… it wasn't wind. It was a shockwave from a powerful, uncontrolled use of the dark side. Another blast swept through me, turning my bones to ice, and I bolted toward the ruddy hut with Fariya close behind me.

Right as I reached the door, it snapped open and Kylo Ren stepped outside. I dug my feet into the snow, using the Force to push against the ground and slow me down so I didn't crash into him. Fariya gasped behind me.

Luke and I had barely avoided several run-ins with him during previous missions to collect newly awakened Force users. This was the first time I had seen the Knight in person since our lightsaber battle at Starkiller. He wore a dark tunic paired with heavy banded cloth wrapped the length of his arms. The hood of his cloak was pulled low over his metallic helmet.

My palm prickled as I gathered Force energy, preparing for battle, but Ren wasn't surprised by our sudden presence, nor seem to particularly care that we were there. He took in my appearance – blotchy cheeks, wild hair and gasping breath – and then closed the door so I couldn't see inside the hut.

The mask deepened his voice as he spoke: "You don't want this one."

Behind me, Fariya murmured to herself as she heard the metallic rumble of Ren's voice for the first time. I stared at him, thrown off by his bizarre statement.

"I don't want this one?" I repeated, completely lost to his meaning.

"He's dark side. He belongs with the First Order."

"Oh, does he? I'm sure you're completely unbiased in your opinion," I spat. I scanned for life forms inside the house, but felt only the lone Force-sensitive being inside. "And there's no chance you tortured him or murdered his loved ones to get your way."

He tilted his head and shrugged. "I invite you to speak with him yourself, if you don't believe me."

Invite me? The absolute nerve. "Open the door slowly and bring him outside," I ordered, prepared for my tone to spark a fight.

He didn't draw out his lightsaber, but he didn't open the door, either. He just continued to stare at me, crawling through the air around my head. Though he wasn't using enough power for it to visually manifest, I knew he sought a weak spot in my shields by the itch inside my head.

'Stop it.' I mentally snapped the words at his face, covered by that stupid yet sinister helmet. I wondered what his face looked like now after the wound I'd given him on Starkiller.

To my surprise, he obliged and turned to open the door. I eased my saber – a spare Luke had given me – into my hand and checked the rugged shack more thoroughly. He could have an army of droids hidden in there, invisible to my Force senses if properly cloaked.

My scavenger instincts begged me to attack, or at the very least turn and sprint in the opposite direction, back to the ship. I quieted my mind, tuning into the calm, timeless energy of the Force. My orders were simple: I was here to bring the Force user to the Resistance. Kylo Ren, while an unwelcome wrinkle in my mission, was nothing more than a distraction. My fingers flexed on the hilt of my saber as I assured myself that I had beaten him once and could do so again.

"Daamith, come outside and speak to our guest," Ren called into the shack. My mouth screwed into a scowl. Kylo Ren had a very peculiar definition of the word 'guest.'

A figure emerged from the darkness of the hut, and my eyes widened as I realized the Force-sensitive Brenza was well over seven feet tall. He was covered in shaggy, matted gray fur and a crown of horns spiraled away from his face. His glacial eyes inspected Fariya and me while his lips creased into a ferocious scowl. "Resistance scum," he snarled, revealing a mouthful of white uneven fangs like broken glass.

I stood still, breathing evenly and trying to keep my bewilderment from leaking outside of my head. Scum? Had Kylo Ren tricked him into hating the Resistance? Carefully, gently, I dusted the Force across his mind and searched for any signs of Ren's interference. Mind tricks had a way of leaving rough edges in a person's mental aura, as if their body knew it had been deceived even while the mind was unaware. To my distress, Daamith's mind appeared completely intact. If Ren had tricked him or sabotaged his memories, he had hid it extremely well.

Daamith's mind bucked against my touch and I hastily pulled away, but it was too late. His eyes widened in disbelieving hatred at my mistake.

"Human filth," he screeched, slamming his massive hands against his ears. "In my head, where it does not belong! Poking and prying, just like the First Order warned." He hunched over, as if it physically pained him to speak to me. "You and the Resistance meddle and sneak, stealing lives that rightfully belong to the Silenced Ones. You should be sacrificed to them. They will wring out every drop of blood from your soul and feed it to the true believers. The First Order. Lord Ren," he snarled, kneeling in the snow before the First Order commander. "Give me the order and I will deliver her corpse at your feet."

My jaw hung loose at the waves of anger emanating from this sad creature. I backed up several steps, Fariya at my side.

"That is unnecessary. Supreme Leader has different plans for her," Ren said to Daamith, who regained his feet and waited silently for further orders. The First Order commander turned to look at me, standing there uselessly in the deep snow.

"I told you that you wouldn't want this one," he said to me, his customary detached tone brightened by what must have been a smirk underneath his helmet.

I stood there stupidly. I couldn't go back to Luke empty handed, failing the first mission he had ever given me. Yet to battle Kylo Ren for rights to an apprentice who hated me wasn't a welcome alternative.

'Go, scavenger,' Ren whispered in my mind, his sneer matching his tone. The sudden difference between his voice in my head and the modified one from his helmet caught me off guard. 'Return to your master and tell him you failed. Luke has already suffered the disappointment of having me as his apprentice. You will be no different.'

Memories of my failed training session this morning flashed through my head. Anger choked my heart – furious at him for being so callous, but mostly because I feared he was right.

I gracelessly yanked energy from the air around me, and this motion caused several things to happen all within an instant. Daamith roared and pounced at me, his fangs gleaming as bright as the snow surrounding us – Fariya, apparently itching for a fight, aimed her blaster and shot him – Ren activated his saber, and I shoved a wedge of Force power at him to strip it out of his grasp.

Fariya's aim must have been impressive because Daamith's roar turned into a hideous squeal of pain, but her control over the Force was what drew my attention. Daamith slowed in mid-pounce, buffeted backward by her summoned storm of energy. The power was unpolished but strong, and the Brenza couldn't defend himself from it. Fariya flicked her hands and the mass of power tilted and slammed Daamith into the ground, where he lay stunned and gasping.

Meanwhile, my own cone of power bristled through the air toward Ren, who flung his free hand forward to create a concave mirror of energy that perfectly repelled the blast back at me. I narrowly ducked out of its way, but it clipped Fariya in the side and she went down hard, frighteningly silent in the snow.

As fast as the fight had started, it ended.

My lightsaber belatedly thrummed to life and I rushed to Fariya's side, keeping my eyes trained on Ren. He made no attempt to attack me, nor move toward his own ally who lay panting in pain on the ground. I wondered exactly what kind of orders Ren was following.

Before I could check Fariya's injuries, his resonating taunt floated across the snow. "You might beat me now, had you accepted my offer on Starkiller."

He was trying to distract me, throw me off because it had worked before. I didn't dare split my concentration between him and Fariya, so I stood over her protectively and brandished my saber. "You are wrong if you think I want anything to do with you or the dark side."

"A curious sentiment, considering you have already used its power for your own benefit."

What? I glared at him, the accusation resting heavy in my chest. I was glad Fariya was not conscious to hear his words, which disturbed me even further. "You're lying. I've never given in to the dark side. That failure is limited to you alone."

"Believe what you'd like. But you know how it felt to use the Force against me on Starkiller. Just like you know that Luke's training holds you back. Half of your potential lies dormant and wasted under your skin."

"Training under Luke Skywalker is an honor, one which you have thrown away. It would be humiliating to willingly serve the First Order as you do now."

"Daamith disagrees. Don't you, Daamith?" The Brenza, despite his slumped position in the snow, made a warbling growl of approval deep in his chest. "He is eager to serve the First Order as Snoke's newest apprentice. He's not leaving here with you."

"Nor are you leaving with him."

Ren scoffed, which sounded strange when filtered through his helmet's voice modulator. "And you're stopping me?"

I cursed myself for leaving the guards behind with the ship, though I didn't sense any backup coming for Ren, either. In fact, I wondered how he had even gotten to the planet.

"You talk about Starkiller enough. Did you forget how it ended?" My grip tightened on my lightsaber. I nudged Fariya in her uninjured side with my boot, and she groaned in response.

"You forget how it started. That Wookiee got a cheap shot on me. You would not have escaped me otherwise. My training with Snoke has only intensified since then." He looked at Fariya, who was alert now and gingerly sitting up. "Nor am I currently babysitting," he added pointedly.

That did it. I seethed and dragged energy toward me, ready to blast that helmet off his head and add a scar to match the first one I'd given him.

Ren flexed his gloved hand into a fist, simultaneously drawing power closer but somehow bending it away at the same time, refracting it through his aura. A controlled ripple of dark energy swelled against my mind, bringing an echo of the anger from which he drew strength.

'You were brimming with power at Starkiller,' Ren said for my ears alone. 'The full spectrum of the Force's potential was at your fingertips. And now you struggle, shackled into using it in a way that feels unnatural. It makes you weak.'

And he knew – somehow he knew – how hard it was to keep my emotions in check, and I realized he was goading me into another fight. Black, twisting energy began to leak into the air from Ren's hands. Daamith cackled, the sound eerie and feral, while Fariya stumbled to her feet and glanced at me, uncertain.

I yearned to give in to the blazing emotions pounding through my body – tap into the rage and fear and jealousy which would unleash a devastating assault and prove I was stronger in the Force than Ren.

I recalled the disappointment on Luke's face this morning and backed away from the temptation, for Jedi did not fight that way. No emotion. No passion. Peace. Serenity. I repeated the Code, strengthening my resolve through the mantra.

If I wanted to win, I would have to fight him with every ounce of emotion – both dark and light – that I possessed. But doing so meant slipping ever closer to the dark side of the Force, just like Ren wanted.

Instead I turned, snatched Fariya's arm, and fled through the snow.

Ren's scathing words followed me all the way back to the ship. 'You will make a pitiful Jedi.'

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