The End of Excalibur
3 Years Ago
She had changed the focusing crystal. It glowed red in the darkness.
Otherwise, it was perfect. Luke had wanted her to build her lightsaber. Finn had crowed over her with his characteristic childish glee when he finished his own.
Later… much later… Snoke had demanded that she had to get her own to complete her training. It was a weapon for a Jedi. She needed a red blade to show the affiliation she now belonged to.
Rey laughed silently, remembering that discussion. Funny how the color of the blade hadn't stopped her cousin from coveting it.
She had ignored all of them. She didn't need a new lightsaber. Anakin Skywalker's weapon fitted the calluses of her palm like if she had been born clutching it in her hand. Even after she stepped off his son's path and onto his grandson's, she had kept her ancestor's weapon.
Then she fought Finn in the abandoned Temple in Coruscant. Slash for slash, feint for feint, it was almost like their old days practicing before Luke. Almost. Only this 'practice' was not done amid grins and quips, holding back just a little, despite Luke's complaints. No, neither held back this time. And there were no smiles or jokes, but fury in her gaze and determination in his own as they hit at each other again, and again, trying to cut the other down in a duel that lasted for hours due to how closely matched they were.
Closely, but not exactly.
Because Finn had honed his skill from years and years of daily, dedicated practice and he had duelled with her constantly and knew all her moves - but Rey was a child of the Force itself, a walker of the Sky and finally, finally, she cornered him at the precipice and knocked his blade out of his hand.
Finally, she pointed the tip of that blade at his chin, and readied herself to slice him from neck to groin. That was when she made her first and only mistake in that battle.
She looked into his eyes.
One last time, she had told herself. And for a short moment, the red haze of her vision had lifted, her hand had shaken – and he had called his own weapon into his hand, and sliced her grip.
The blow had damaged the weapon, irreparably and ended the fight.
A/N: still based on my own Star War ST fanon. No spoilers.