They landed the Millennium Falcon just outside the Temple.
The planet was a desolate place with a swampy terrain. The grass was short and the mud was thick and sticky. Here and there small twisted trees were growing.
The Temple was a heterogeneous mix of tall and medium buildings, some partially destroyed some newer all enclosed by a tall wall. Rey could see ruins in the swamp, collapsed, corroded and almost engulfed by the vegetation.
A few dozen warriors were watching them from the outer walls and the Temple's windows. They had their fingers on the triggers of their blasters. Rey was uneasy.
"I have a bad feeling about this, Master"
"Relax, Rey. We are not here to quarrel with them. We just want access to the lower levels where we might find something about or from Ahch-To."
"What if they want a quarrel with us?" Rey asked. She felt Anakin's lightsaber weighing heavily on her belt. Calling her. Begging her to be ignited. Rey placed a hand on the lightsaber and a surge of energy passed through her fingertips. She felt it, the foolish bravery, the kind of bravery that made her want to charge head first inside the Temple. Rey felt that with it she could get whatever she wanted.
"Rey, look at me." Rey met Luke's eyes. They were warmer towards her now than the first time she saw him, on top of the island. "If the warriors will want to fight us our obligation is to try to come to a peaceful resolution. Negotiation is key. Jedis do not kill without cause. Any life taken must be taken with the outmost responsibility. We will only draw our lightsabers if we have no other choice. But, I doubt we will need them."
"Yes, Master Luke."
"I told you to call me Luke. Master seems so…formal, don't you agree?"
"I…I couldn't, your teachings are so important to me, you…you are my teacher." Rey remembered Kylo Ren's words to her, "you need a teacher" echoing from what seemed a distant past. She needed one, that was true, but she chose who it would be. Rey smiled at Luke.
When a few steps separated them from the gates a lieutenant stopped them.
"State your business with the Kasinja Warrior Clan" the man demanded in a imposing voice.
"I am Master Jedi Luke Skywalker and this is my padawan, Rey. We came here…"
"No. No Jedi. Jedi not welcome here" said the man, obviously scared by the living legend in front of him.
"We have no quarrel with you. I am not interested in the Temple itself. It is yours. I just want access to a certain level, to study something and then we will be on my way."
"No. We have orders. Form the clan leader. Leave now, no harm. Stay, we kill."
"Fine, we are leaving. Thank you for your time"
Luke turned and Rey followed him closely.
"Master" Rey whispered, "where are not leaving are we?"
"No, Rey. We will find another way inside. "
They went back to the Millennium Falcon and pretended to leave the planet. Instead, they went to the northwest and landed as far as possible so the warriors could not spot them. They had a long walk back to the temple under the cover of the setting sun. They were going to walk with their backs toward the sun, hoping it will offer some minimal cover. Luke decided to leave Chewie with the Falcon and take Artoo with them. The little droid could be very useful.
Rey started to become nervous. If Kylo Ren knew wookie how long would it take him to get there? She was afraid to tell Luke of her connection with his nephew. She did not know how he would react and with each passing day it was harder to confess. It would sound awful to tell him Kylo Ren tried to reach her four times while they were on Ahch-To. It would have been even worse to tell him that he actually managed to enter her mind on his fifth attempt and gain an essential piece of information: their location.
They were close now, just beneath the walls. The gate was unguarded. Artoo started working to get the door open and he succeeded within the minute. They were now slowly, carefully making their way through the courtyard to the Temple itself. The yard was empty but the windows of the Temple were lit.
"We don't have to worry about them too much. We need to get to the oldest part of this temple. This way. I can feel it. Follow me." Luke made a sudden turn to the right, heading towards another section of the Temple, a lower one, build with black stones. Heavy clouds started to gather, ominous and heavy, pressing down on their heads. Rey instinctively touched the lightsaber again. It answered her fears with a new wave of mad courage and overconfidence. She made a few more steps and passed Luke.
"Rey, no…"
Lights were suddenly placed on her. She automatically ignited her lightsaber. She stayed there in the middle of the field watching as the warriors were readying their blasters. They fired, all at once. Rey lifted the lightsaber to dodge the enemy fire. She took down two of them. The air filled with a weird sizzling sound. It was coming from the lightsaber. Rey realized it was raining, the water evaporating on the hot beam of energy that now looked like it was surrounded by a halo. The warriors were watching her, obviously trying to figure out a way to kill her without firing the blasters.
"Rey" Luke's voice was a strained, coarse whisper "keep your guard up. How many are they left?" He was still under the cover of darkness, the men not seeing him.
"Two"
"More will come, we can't afford a full scale battle out here. You take one, I will take one. We'll use a mind trick on them"
"Y…"
One of the warriors lifted his blaster to shoot and Rey did not stop to think. She thrusted her right arm in the air and Force pushed him strongly in the wall behind him. The warrior fell numb to the ground. The other one tried to shoot Luke but died from the ricocheted blaster bolt. Luke's green lightsaber glowed in the dark for a few seconds before it was closed again.
Luke turned to Rey and looked at her in a new way. He looked at her with disappointment.
"What was that? You were reckless. That man shot me and now he is dead because you used the Force to almost kill his companion. You made mistakes."
"Master…"
They were soaking wet from the heavy rain falling down. Rey felt so guilty for her actions.
"We will discuss this and the consequences latter. Right now we need…"
Luke did not have time to finish his sentence. A sudden explosion threw them a few feet through the air. Artoo screeched horribly. Someone tried to blow them up with a grenade but missed his mark. Rey had a hard time adjusting to the situation. White circles were playing in front of her eyes and her ears were ringing. She strengthened her grasp on the lightsaber. "Get UP" she heard a voice. Kylo? No, it wasn't him. Rey looked up and she saw a man standing in front of her. He was blonde with blue eyes, wore black Jedi robes and he was looking at her. "Ahsoka, get UP!" he yelled at her. Who Ahsoka or the man in front of her were did not matter for Rey. She got up and ignited the lightsaber. The bright blue color shone in the large puddles on the ground. A warrior charged toward her. She raised the lightsaber to defend herself and before she knew it, the warrior was dead at hear feet, cut in half. Blaster bolts started coming down on her. She started deflecting them, retreating toward the wall behind her. She couldn't see Luke and the constant attack had her cornered. Rey realized the lightsaber was too obvious, marking her position for the snipers. She closed it, turned around and ran. Reaching the end of the building she turned right and kept running. Six men were in front of her and she didn't hesitate to use the lightsaber. Cutting them down was easy but they were soon replaced by others. It seemed the entire clan was up and in arms. She used the Force to push them away and pass though, running, avoiding them. She was scared. She saw an open door and darted through. Rey found herself inside a large hallway with tall columns on each side. She hid behind one.
"Pull yourself together. It is not as bad as a sandstorm. It's just water. C'MON REY, you have to find Master Luke. I can do this. I can do this"
She left her hiding spot and ran back outside to the last place she saw Luke. There was nothing there and she couldn't hear anything apart from the rain. She kept running and, with the corner of her eye she saw a green light and many other red ones. Luke was surrounded and she went after him, throwing herself in the battle.
"I WANT THEM ALIVE! THE FIRST ORDER WILL PAY A GOOD PRICE FOR THEM!" The clan leader was shouting from higher up.
"Rey, get back to the Falcon!"
"No!"
Rey was just about to join the fight and help Luke when a blast bolt hit her in the middle of the back. All air left her lungs. She fell down. The stun blast left her completely helpless. This was all her fault. Everything. She felt nauseous and then she felt nothing.
Rey woke up in cell, bound at her wrists and ankles. Her body was sore, her mouth dry. She looked around to try and determine her location. The bright light was blinding her. She saw that her cell was like a cage, small, with a large window that allowed the sun to shine. She looked around and saw she was alone. Hours passed before a clan member came to her, a tall woman and she brought her food.
"Here, for you, food"
She wanted to leave but Rey tried to stop her.
"No, come back! Look at me!"
The woman ignored her and left. Rey did not waste time and started eating what she had received. She needed a way to get out of there and find the lightsaber. Eating helped. The rain started again and she found herself wondering what Chewie was doing, if he knew of their predicament or if Artoo managed to reach the Falcon. She did not want to contemplate what a warrior clan might do to a small droid like him. There was nothing much she could do tied up like that. All she managed to accomplish was to crawl to the window where she saw she was in a high tower facing the main entrance. The sun was setting and everything was engulfed in a orange light. Rey slummed back and remained on the floor. She had little hope of getting out of there without help.
She heard them. The screams. Rey wasn't sure if she heard them with her own ears or through him. She dragged herself to the window to look out. Down in the courtyard Kylo Ren was swinging his lightsaber in all directions, killing every single man in his path. Rey soon saw he wasn't the only one fighting because he was accompanied by four black clothed figures. They were not using lightsabers but simple weapons or blasters, killing people in cold blood. She was watching a massacre. From somewhere a ship appeared, a black, Gozanti-class cruiser. What was that doing here? It circled in the air and targeted the low-rise sections of the temple and the walls that were swarming with warriors, firing upon them. Suddenly the door opened and the woman from earlier appeared inside the room. She had the blue lightsaber in her hand.
"You, you and your kind brought death to us!"
"No, I…I..,"
The woman entered her cell, igniting the saber and placing the tip dangerously close to Rey's face.
"He. The lord of the Knights of Ren. He came for you, he asked for you. But he would not pay and the clan leader refused. Death, oh, so much death. My man was down there. I will kill you and leave your body for him to find."
Rey Force pushed her back. The lightsaber fell between them and she called it to her, grabbed it and used it to sever the bonds at her ankles. Before the woman could realize what happened the roles were reversed, Rey holding the lightsaber at her throat.
"The man I came here with. Master Luke Skywalker. I want to know where he is and you will tell me"
"What will you do if I refuse, Jedi? Torture me? Kill me?"
"No"
Rey deactivated the saber. She knew she had to find Luke alone before Kylo Ren did. Rey considered her options and having taken a decision, extended her arms toward the woman. She wanted to trick her to tell her the location she wanted.
"You will tell me Luke Skywalker's location" Rey said concentrating on the woman and the information she wanted.
"The man" the woman said in a hollow voice, her eyes starring blank. "He is in the tallest tower. He surrendered after we caught you"
Rey left the cell in haste, looking the woman inside. She used the lightsaber to cut the restraints at her hands and looked around. She saw a flight of stairs and started running down. She had to pass through the courtyard to get to the tower Luke was in. She did not encounter anyone on her way down. It seemed everyone was fighting the Knights of Ren. Heavy rain had started again, drenching her once she was outside. She started running through the bodies, trying to stay as low as possible. Out of nowhere a lassat staff smacked her in the lower back. She was so concentrated on finding Luke and avoiding Kylo Ren and his knights she did not notice the clan leader running up to her. She fell down on her stomach dropping the lightsaber and looked up. The clan leader has ready to strike her again but something stopped him. A red crackling light burst out of his chest. The man fell down, dead and she saw Kylo Ren. He looked at her and made a few steps in her direction. Rey got up quickly, walking backwards to maintain the distance between them.
"Rey..." Ren started talking but Rey did not want to hear anything. She reached out to call the lightsaber. It flew in her hand and she activated it. She felt like on Starkiller Base again, with the monster chasing her. She waited for him to attack but he did not, he was just walking toward her.
"You need a teacher! Someone who can understand you and what you need. You have both light and dark in you Rey. You and I are the same."
"I am nothing like you!"
Rey attacked him, striking angry at him. He dodged by rising his lightsaber, swinging it and rotating to attack her back. She dodged and counter attacked, hitting hard and fast, trying to push him back. He allowed her the space, moving backwards. Rey suddenly changed the direction of her swings, pushing the tip of his red lightsaber in the ground. She took advantage and used the Force to push him back and slam him on the ground. He got up on his knees quickly enough to catch the blue lightsaber on his. The light from both lightsabers played on his mask as Rey stayed on top of him.
"We are not supposed to fight!"
Rey ignored him and slammed her sword in the cross guard to try to expose him. Her plan backfired because he took advantage of her rotation and got up, slamming his left shoulder in her. Rey lost her breath for a second, she felt as if she got smashed by a heavy labor droid, stumbling a few feet back. She could not allow him to win so she lifted her lightsaber and attacked him again. They continued to fight, following each other in the courtyard, their lightsabers sizzling from the rain that evaporated on them. Ren lifted his left hand and Force pushed her through the doors inside the old structure she hid in earlier, now half collapsed by the aerial strike took out by the Gozanti class cruiser. Ren followed in closely. Before she could raise from the ground he placed the tip of his lightsaber under her chin.
"This fight is pointless"
"It is not. You are my enemy. I should kill you for everything you did, for everything you did to Han and Finn…and me."
"Revenge is not the way of the Jedi, little one"
"Don't call me like that"
"I am not your enemy, I do not want to kill you!"
Rey tried to Force push him but he raised his left hand and pushed back. She strained to beat him but it felt like she was trying to move a mountain. Eventually the tension broke, Kylo Ren flew a few feet up in the air and she glided on the rough surface of the floor further away. Ren fell on his feet and used the force to drag her to him. She ignited her lightsaber when she was inches away and tried to hack off his head. The knight managed to move fast enough to keep his head, but the blue lightsaber destroyed the side of his helmet. Ren quickly removed the helmet and threw it on the floor. He was angry. He snarled and grunted and attacked her with new strength, aiming to cut off her arm. The real fight had just begun. Neither one cared what was around them, they swung their lightsabers with broad aggressive moves, each strike backed by the intent to maim the other. They moved inside the collapsed structure, slamming through doors and leaving deep red marks in the walls. They reached a flight of stairs and Rey pushed Kylo Ren to force him to descend on them backwards. She had the higher ground now, striking with precise, powerful blows at him, each one landing on his red lightsaber, each one forcing him to make another step down, each one cementing the fact she had the upper hand. That was until they almost reached the end. Kylo Ren caught her lightsaber in midair, forcing her to stop with both hands held high. His punch in her stomach made her bend and fall to her knees, rolling on the remaining steps before remaining almost motionless on the floor, grasping for air. The tall man lazily stepped down the stairs to her. His anger seemed diminished as he looked down at her. The hallway they were in now was half demolished, the floor was wet from the rain falling in through a huge hole in the celling.
"If you weren't trying to kill me we would make a good team."
"I…I….I don't find…ple….pleasure….in killing…o….others…"
"And you think I do? I just follow orders."
"Tha…that doesn't…make….you…less….responsible…you….chose….to…follow…look…at…Finn"
"You mean the traitor that was with you in the woods?" Kylo Ren's face betrayed his anger at hearing Finn's name leaving her lips. "FN-2187 is on every First Order operative's list. The orders are to capture him, alive. Trust me, death is far more enjoyable than anything Hux has in store for him" he said with bitterness.
Rey was panting on the floor trying to find a way to hit him, to put him down. She knew she had small chances going against him physically, so she chose to hit him with debris. She concentrated her will on a huge piece of wall, and threw it at the dark knight. He caught it in the air but did not expect Rey to jump up and hit him. She caught his right hand and kicked him in the knee. Ren slipped on the wet floor and went on his knees. The slab fell near them with a thunderous sound. Rey ignited the lightsaber and placed it at his throat. Ren looked her in the eyes.
"So, now I am disarmed. Will you kill me, Jedi?"
"I am not a Jedi. Not yet. I am a padawan"
Rey could not do it. She stayed there, looking at him, incapable of killing him. He was analyzing every centimeter of her face, his eyes stopping on her lips. His mouth was slightly open and his eyes...The attention made her angry.
"I will take you prisoner. I will return you to the resistance and General Organa. You will pay for your crimes" Rey stated, trying to sound confident.
"I would rather have you kill me here in combat than see them judge me and make a spectacle of my execution" Ren replied softly.
She closed her eyes to avoid his intense gaze and before she knew it he Force pulled her over him, caught her hands, and tried to get up, but she kicked him in the groin. He grunted and slipped again, this time tacking her down with him. She landed on her back with him above her squeezing her arms in his grip. He looked maddened, he was frustrated and in lack of any words he grunted at her again. Rey soon realized he had pinned her down in an iron grip. She had no way of physically pushing him back and she panicked. She did not want to think of what he could do to her.
"You fear me, little one. Don't be afraid"
"..."
"Some say fear leads to anger, that in turn leads to hate which leads to suffering. The Jedi Master Yoda told that to Skywalker. He passed down that information to me"
Rey grunted trying to wriggle free of his grasp but it was useless.
"I have learned Yoda was wrong about fear. It does not lead to anger, it leads to desperation. It leads to hopelessness. What do you hope to accomplish now Rey?"
Kylo Ren did not wait for her to answer, he pushed inside her mind. She tried resisting him, closing her eyes but the pain was too much, the fear was too strong so she could barely resist his mind probing.
"I want to leave, I want to run, kick you off"
"Why don't you"
"I...I..." Rey grunted again and tried fighting him again
"You're not just a scavenger are you now, Rey? You are a Jedi padawan."
Rey opened her eyes. What was Ren doing? He must have known she will never join him and the First Order's reign of...terror. She took a deep breath in and forced the connection between them to enter his mind. This time she knew what she was doing, she knew what to search for: fear.
She saw many images and felt his anger, hate, frustrations and then she found something she thought could help her: loneliness and fear. She concentrated on them and she could see a nanny droid taking care of a young boy, the boy eating alone. She saw Han Solo looking at the boy with...fear...the child was surrounded by smashed objects..."He has it Leia, he has The Force. He's using it. He smashed my tool box"..."no"...The images mingled, she saw Chewie but didn't understand him well, she saw the Falcon and then she saw a younger General Organa lifting her gaze from a datapad. She looked at a tall boy with sad eyes, "you're special Ben. You have the Force like Uncle Luke. You remember him, he is a Jedi Knight. You will be one too. I am sending you to him to learn the Jedi way"…."no"….she saw billboards in a city "Revealed! Senator Organa – Darth Vader's daughter? Can she be trusted?"…"no, no" she saw scared people and heard the whispers "that's him, Vader's grandson… he has that power too."…"NO"…. She saw Luke, grey haired and worried "Ben you have to understand why we didn't tell you, we wanted to protect you."
"ENOUGH"
Kylo Ren was on his feet. What she saw from him until then was nothing compared to the anger and hate she felt coming off him in waves. She could barely move. This was the true Dark Side. She got up and ran. She could hear him chasing after her. She ran down the basement corridors without looking behind and she found something that may have been a way out. In a collapsed section the slabs of marble revealed a secret staircase under the floor. Another level in the underground. The opening was small but so was she, and besides, she had squeezed in smaller openings before. Beyond the opening she found worn down stairs, slippery and wet. She started running down in the darkness.
Rey ended up in a long hall with sculpted columns on each side. Each column had different species depicted on it. The only light came from a lamp that looked like a giant crystal protruding from the ceiling. It gave a dim green light. She walked slowly looking at all the different people on the columns, all the old Jedi. They looked different than the ones depicted in stone on Ahch-To, felt different. They seemed different in a way Rey could not define. She stopped beneath the crystal in the celling. She noticed that the floor was strange here, made of metal. She moved the dust with the tip of her foot to reveal something very similar to the Jedi symbol but it...wasn't the same. Something felt strange in the air so she raised her eyes and saw Kylo Ren standing in the doorway. He wasn't looking at her, not now at least. Like she did before, he was analyzing the people on the nearest column to him. He was in awe, and when he saw her looking at him, he started walking to her with long, determined strides.
When he was just 2 steps away from her he stopped. They were looking in each other eyes in silence. Rey felt...almost empty. She felt comfortable and safe. Looking at him, at his scar, his eyes, his lips, all of it left her very calm. Even his intense over-analyzing gaze did not bother her. Kylo Ren opened his mouth to say something but a sudden crack made him stop. The floor fell. They realized too late they were standing on a door and now they were rolling down without control. Rey tried to stop herself but a powerful pain in her thigh made her scream. She kept rolling, trying to protect her head and when she finally stopped she laid motionless on the floor. Her thigh was throbbing and she could feel a warm, sticky liquid on it. She mustered her courage and tried to drag her body to stand in an upright position. She whimpered when she saw the state of her leg. From the middle of her thigh a sharp metal fragment was protruding. Blood was gushing out in waves, pulsating and filling the floor. She did not know what to do, she placed her hands on the metal, thinking she should yank it out of there.
"NO" yelled Ren. He crawled fast near her and caught her hands. "Don't remove it. That thing is stopping you from dying. It's slowing down the bleeding."
"Wha…What do I do then? It's not stopping like this! Where are we?"
"We'll figure that out later, Rey, now we need to solve this bleeding"
"We?"
"Yes"
Kylo Ren looked deep in her eyes to reassure her everything was going to be O.K. and turned around to look for something. He soon found a similar sharp metal object and used it to cut a long thin portion out of his black robes.
"I need to tie this above the injury. It will work as a tourniquet, it will stop the bleeding."
"What…are you trying to do?"
"Save you. Save us"
"No". Rey realized what above the injury meant and she did not want that, she did not want him so close, so intimately close. Ren probably heard her thoughts.
"Rey. I need to save you. If you die, I die with you. I have no way of getting out of this without you, this Temple accepted us together, and we need to leave together. Rey, I am not here as your enemy or your…I don't want you to be afraid…of me…not like that. Rey, that injury will kill you if you don't let me help you.
"Fine, fine, I am…I'm not feeling so well…"
Ren did not wait to hear the rest of it. His left hand brushed between her legs to pass the cloth around her thigh. And then, firmly, he tied a knot so tight and sudden Rey screamed. She raised a hand and squeezed his shoulder.
"It's ok. The worst part passed. I think"
The bleeding slowed down even more and stopped.
"What now?" Rey said faintly. She felt slightly dizzy and started observing Kylo Ren. He seemed so very different form the first time she saw him on Takodana, different even from the last time she saw him, sprawled on the ground on Starkiller. His hair was wet and almost covered his eyes, and his robes were drenched in mud. His face was like an open book, putting every thought on display for Rey. The red scar almost healed, and his gaze was focused with a sad thing about it. Loneliness. They had that in common. Fear, too. "Ren?"
"I need…I need to get out that piece of metal so I…so I can heal you"
Rey found his hesitations disturbing. He, the Master of the Knights of Ren, hesitated?
"Heal…me?"
"With the Force. It is a special technique"
"So…who taught you that?"
"…Skywalker"
"Isn't it a Jedi ability? Can Sith use it?"
"I am not a Sith …but I was once a Jedi Knight…Trust me, it will be just fine."
Rey nodded in approval and Ren removed his gloves. She was shocked to see his right hand replaced with a robotic one. He grasped the shard with his metal fingers and placed his left hand on her thigh.
"1…2…3"
He yanked the shard out and more blood left her body. Kylo Ren placed his left hand over the hole in her leg, and concentrated his focus on the task at hand. Ret was so dizzy and lightheaded she could not understand his mumblings. All she perceived was his low, mesmerizing voice carrying her away to an enchanted forest covered in snow, and then further and further away. She could see it. The island. She could see them there. The last thing Rey saw was Kylo Ren's cocky, annoying, lovable smile as he leaned in to kiss her under the stars.