Rey, Luke Skywalker, Chewie and Artoo were on their way to the planet of Parellia. They hoped to find more answers there, answers the Jedi Temple of Ahch-To refused to give up.
In the years of isolation Luke Skywalker studied the Jedi Temple of Ahch-To and the teachings it could offer under the form of the ancient holocrons. He had discovered that the Jedi Code suffered little alterations when compared to the first version of it. This code had allowed the Jedi to work in the service of the people, and to keep the dark forces at bay for millennia. Now Luke needed to question the Jedi Code in order to understand exactly why the teachings of the Jedi were no longer effective in keeping the balance between the Light and the Dark.
Out of all the holocrons and texts Luke could study on Ahch-To one single holocron had stayed closed despite his best efforts. He had found it in a secret niche in the wall, floating inside it. Its crystals bathed the room in an icy blue light. It was a unique holocron in shape and energy. It was rhomboid, with blue-grey colored crystals adorning its tips. The energy it had was heavier than normal holocrons, colder and sharper. Interacting with it for long hours gave Luke headaches but he was no closer to opening it. He had even tried opening it together with Rey but the holocron remained firmly closed. Rey had felt it too, the cold energy filling her lungs. Even more, she heard something coming from within the holocron. While concentrating on it she heard a voice, a smooth voice belonging to a boy, singing something that sounded like a lullaby. She could not make out what the child said, she wasn't even sure he was speaking in Basic, but the song was mesmerizing. It made her feel lightheaded and she saw an enchanted forest covered in snow. The next thing she knew, Luke was bringing her back to her senses. She had fainted and was sprawled across the floor. That was the first and last time she was in the presence of the holocron.
Shortly after Luke decided they needed to leave Ahch-To, but to Rey's surprise their destination was not D'Qar. It was the Parellia system. Luke believed it was a good place to look for the key to the mysterious holocron because after Ahch-To the Jedi Temple on Parellia was the oldest. He did not know what he would find there, the Parellian Jedi Temple had been destroyed and rebuild several times over. The system benefited from a constant Jedi presence up until the end of the Clone Wars. Since then a warrior clan had taken up the Temple and its grounds using it as a base of operations.
On board the Millenium Falcon Luke was thinking of the best course of action as he stayed kneeled in meditation in his room.
Rey sat in the co-pilot's seat looking at the stars as they passed them in hyperspace. Chewie piloted while Artoo was making a routine check of the communications systems. Her thoughts were scattered across the galaxy. After 3 months of training she had grown as a padawan, wielding the Skywalker lightsaber with some new found confidence. After the events on Starkiller Base she did not want to wield it again. She feared what she became when she was holding it, and feared all the anger and sorrow the lightsaber seemed to hold in it. Luke had to reassure her that an object can't hold feelings, that it was not a living thing, thus it was deprived of the Force. He taught her about the Force, the Light Side and the Dark, teaching her to control her new found powers. He showed her how to resist the temptation of the Dark Side, encouraging her to let go of fear, anger, hate, everything he knew may lead her astray. But letting go wasn't easy. Not with a lightsaber like that...and certainly not with someone like him looming over her, waiting for her to let her guard down, waiting to invade her mind. Artoo started beeping in a state of alarm.
"What is it, Artoo? Calm down, and say it slowly." Rey told the droid. Artoo started beeping again.
"You received a transmission about a First Order attack? Where?" Artoo beeped beeped again.
"The Selax System".
Rey thought about those poor people and the horror the First Order brought to their system, reaching out to them. A mistake. An enormous mistake. He was there. He was overseeing the attack. And he did not let the occasion slip and leaped in her mind. A wave of emotions hit Rey, making her chest feel on fire. She could feel him creeping inside her mind like in the interrogation room, but like always he was resisting him, denying him access. But this was the first time in happened off of Ahch-To and here he was stronger and she was weaker. Each time it happened she found it harder to resist him. Rey quickly closed her eyes, cleared her mind of any thought about the Jedi Temple of Parellia and concentrated on the technical specifications of the Millennium Falcon.
"Oh, so you're on Han Solo's ship..." Kylo Ren said in a soft, taunting voice. She could hear him clearly but fainted as though he was several parsecs away. Which he was. Several systems away, but still he could reach her.
"It's a Correlian type freighter modified to accommodate..."
"Smuggling compartments. I know. Tell me something I don't know. Where are you going Rey?"
"I'm not giving you anything. Get out..."
"Of my head. Yes, yes, I know that too. We should consider other discussion subjects, this one is beginning to be dull"
Chewie said something but Rey ignored him. Kylo Ren could reach her, but she knew that whatever this was between them worked both ways, which meant she could get to him too. She concentrated her thoughts on the Master of the Knights of Ren pushing inside his mind. She saw hazy images and soon a tall dark room was clear to her. She saw a map, and a mission report, but the text seemed coded somehow, so she couldn't understand what it said. The map was of an unknown system. As Kylo turned away from the table she saw a droid, a green and grey astromech droid, called XR. It beeped as acknowledgment of his master's order and turned around to leave the room. Kylo made a few steps and she saw his scared face reflecting in a window. He had a serious demeanor, made even darker by the giant red scar that branded him across the face from right to left. Beyond the window Rey saw burning houses and dead bodies as far as her, no, as far as his eyes could see. The smoke rose in lazy spirals toward the sky, making it grey. Stormtroopers were patrolling between the houses and labor droids were handling the dead bodies making piles and preparing for their incineration. Another squad of stormtroopers were escorting a large group of younglings towards the structure Kylo Ren was in. New blood. The sight made her feel queasy.
"What is that map about? You're going to attack another system aren't you?" Rey was furious and sick of the man on the other side of the galaxy.
"Well, well, if you don't give me what I want why should I give you what you what? I'm not giving you anything. Get out of my head" Kylo Ren said in low, sarcastic tone, smiling at her in the window's reflection while he was pushing her out of his head.
His image faded away to black. She was back in her head. Rey was angry, she hated him so much she could feel it in her bones.
"Anger is a path to the Dark Side. Didn't Luke Skywalker teach you that?"
"You have no right to speak about his teachings. You forsake them! You betrayed Master Luke. You betrayed everyone! You killed Han!"
"I didn't betray anyone. They betrayed me. Your traitorous Resistance shall fall, and the First Order will bring back peace, justice and order to the galaxy" Ren's voice was flat and hollow.
Silence followed, engulfing both of them. Rey stood tense in the co-pilot's seat, simmering with anger. She felt her hands curl in a fist, ready to fight. Kylo Ren calmly connected again, a heavy, cold touch reaching her mind, creeping between the cracks her fear made.
"You need..." Ren started talking again in a deep, soft voice.
"A teacher. I know. And you know what my answer will be."
"You won't survive this. Join me or you will die"
"I will never join with a monster like you"
"Sometimes we need to be monsters to survive, Rey"
"I'd rather die"
"You will" Kylo Ren sighed with disappointment. "You are stronger than you know. You can feel it, too."
Rey grew angrier. She felt as though she was on fire and Kylo Ren was the wind that fed the flames.
"You're afraid. Of the Dark Side." Kylo Ren said softly, Rey feeling as if he was in the same room with her, whispering in her ear "That's a mistake. You can't outrun your fears, but who am I to teach you about running? Luke Skywalker knows everything about running and hiding"
"You are wro..." Rey started to yell back at him. She wanted to condemn him for talking like this about her master, about the only other person beside Han and Finn, who saw her as more than just a scavenger girl, more than just an abandoned child on Jakku.
"Wrong?" Kylo Ren spat back at her, the cold calm replaced with rage. "How can I be wrong? Where was he in the past six years? He ran and hid on a forsaken rock in the first battle of this war, leaving everyone to fend for themselves. He failed. He admitted defeat. He abandoned his own sister, forced her to fight alone against the might of the First Order."
"Family? How dare you speak of it? You killed your own father! You have no right!"
"And you do? What do you know about family? Luke Skywalker only cares about himself and his precious Jedi Code, do not fool yourself."
Rey had enough. She mustered her strength and pushed him away, as far away as possible, shutting every way he might try to sneak back inside her mind. He was gone, cast away all the way back to the Selax system, and she opened her eyes to come back to the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon. She was fighting to regain control of her breathing, and remove the sweat from her forehead before anyone noticed her distress. The ship was out of hyperspace and slowly approaching a planet. Luke entered the cockpit and he addressed Chewie.
"Chewie, you said we were getting close to Parellia?"
Chewie approved. Luke sat down on the seat behind the wookie and asked Artoo to find out more about the attack on the Selax system.
"Well", Luke said while turning toward his padawan, "we should get ready for landing. Rey, do you remember what I told you about Parellia and its temple? I want to be sure you know everything there is, because I don't know what we'll find on the surface"
But Rey wasn't paying attention to Luke. She could feel her entire body go ice cold, and all she could think of was if Kylo Ren knew wookie.