"Rwawwrrr wrooh wrruh." groaned Chewbacca worriedly, as he stood next to the Millennium Falcon's boarding ramp on one of the many islands that dotted the planet they were now on.
"It will be alright Chewbacca, I'll be fine. My job is to try to convince Master Skywalker to return to the others. But the Resistance still needs help, we've been here too long. I have to stay, but you and R2-D2 need to return." Rey explained.
"Wroo wuh grff wah wahh." moaned Chewie, pulling Rey into a large hug.
"And with you. Safe journey, both of you." Rey said stepping away as the wookiee and the droid entered the ship, stepping back as the ramp lifted and the Falcon took off.
Going over to the winding stone steps she began to climb. But paused halfway up to watch her friends disappear into the clouds. "May the force be with you." Rey said softly.
"Your thoughts linger on your friends and not just the ones that left." came a weathered voice from behind her.
"Master Skywalker, I didn't hear you coming. How long have you been there?" asked Rey with a note of caution in her voice.
"Long enough." Luke said wryly. "You have someone you're close to back there. Why didn't you go with them then?" Luke questioned.
"I made a promise to your sister that I would return with you and I intend to keep that promise. Barring that I intend to become a jedi myself." Rey stated firmly, coming up next to the Jedi master and looking out over the water.
"You have made your intentions very clear since we met. But if you wish for me to return to the galaxy and fight, then I fear you will have a long wait ahead of you." Luke said, gazing at the young woman standing near him.
"You still haven't told me what caused you to come all the way out here when the galaxy needs you more than ever. So will you come with me?" Rey said.
"You've asked that many times now but my answer is still the same." Luke responded tiredly.
"I know it has something to do with Kylo Ren, but what?" Rey asked turning to face the jedi master.
"There are some things better left buried." Luke said quietly, turning and climbing back up the hill.
Watching the retreating figure Rey thought to herself. "Luke Skywalker. The Luke Skywalker." The man she had once thought was only a myth. Amazed that somehow she had convinced him to teach her. It wasn't easy, those first few days had been rockier than the island she was now standing on. At the beginning he even refused to train her, stating that he would never train another generation of Jedi. But for some reason once she told him what had happened on Takodana with the lightsaber and then her duel with Kylo Ren on Starkiller base, he suddenly changed his mind. Not that she was complaining, because as much as she hated to admit it Kylo Ren was right about one thing, she did need a teacher, even if he was more mystery than man.
On a world in the Mid Rim called Colstev, the sun slowly set on a bustling smugglers base, glinting off the cavern walls and the hulls of the ships coming and going, their lights creating their own little ever changing starscape. The woman in charge of it all stood looking out the picture window of her office in the command center, not seeing what was going on but rather seeing what had happened.
And it brought her little joy.
With her red gold hair now lightly shot through with gray and her striking features having become more weathered, not just from age but also from sorrow and strain in the past years.
"This is the third lost shipment Fein." said the woman not even bothering to face the nervous man standing before her. "So I expect you to compensate Blazing Suns for the lost tibbana gas."
"It will be difficult to replace that much, ma'am." Fein said wringing his hands.
"Yes it will so I suggest you had better get going. Oh and I'm sending H'sishi with you, to keep an eye on things." She replied as Fein scurried out the door. Letting out a deep sigh as the comm attached to her collar pinged and she tapped it. "Yes?"
"Ma'am she's here." a filtered voice responded, a hesitant note in the man's tone.
But she ignored it, they had discussed this already. "Send her in." she ordered, cutting off the connection.
The door swished open behind her to admit an old diminutive alien dressed like a spacer with oversized goggles, who up until recently had run one of the most noted watering holes in the galaxy, though maybe not for the best reasons.
"You've changed." said Maz Kanata, intently studying the woman who stood before her silhouetted by the sun from behind.
"And you haven't." she stated, shooting a look at the small being before her, then tuning back to look out the window. "You never were one for pleasantries. Why have you contacted me?"
"It is time. The Force-" Maz started.
Glaring, she cut her off with a sharp wave of her hand. "Don't talk to me about the Force. I want nothing to do with any of it, ever again." Turning sharply, she stabbed a finger at Maz. "Skywalker put his trust in the Force and look what happened."
Maz eyed her intently, the sunlight making the yellow skin of her face glow golden. "I know you can still feel it, even after everything. You can't deny it, no matter how hard you try."
Her features hardened in annoyance. "If you only came here to try and pull me back into this-" the woman began to say.
"She's alive." Maz interrupted simply.
The woman blinked at her in confusion for a moment then realization slowly dawned, shock and denial flash through her green eyes "No, that's impossible, she's dead." the woman breathed, closing her eyes against the memories suddenly bombarding her. "I failed her and she died with him." she whispered, pained.
"I saw her, as plain as I see you now." Maz countered firmly, but not without sympathy. "There is only one person she could be."
"You're wrong." The woman protested, shaking her head. "No one could have survived an attack like that, if she was alive I would know." Opening her eyes and planting her hands on the desk before her, she stared hard into the wizened face before her. "I would know." She bit out.
"She found the lightsaber." Maz said plainly.
"What?" she gasped, sinking into her chair. "How? I thought I told you to hide it away where no one could ever find it. "
"It called to her." Maz stated plainly. "The Force is strong with her, even more so than anyone else in your family. No matter where in the galaxy I might have hidden it, she would have been drawn to it, like a beckon call. Now it is time for you to make a choice, will you continue to deny your true self or will you become what you have always meant to be."
The woman turned away from her, shock radiating from her in waves. Shakily, she raised her hand, tapping her comm.
"Aves, prepare my ship." said Mara Jade.
A dark First Order shuttle streaked through the swirling blue light of hyperspace. One of the passengers was Kylo Ren who was being tended to by a medical droid as he recovered from his injuries acquired on the now destroyed Starkiller Base.
"I'm afraid I can do no more to repair the scaring. Remember I did warn you about wearing restrictive headgear while the tissue was mending." the med droid stated turning away from the patient.
"I will not be ordered around by a droid." Kylo Ren snarled.
"Then you risk your contin-" the droid's words were cut off as a sparking red lightsaber hissed to life and sliced through him.
"I have no more need for your services." Kylo Ren quipped darkly when he felt a tremor in the force. Looking up sharply, an image flashed before Kylo Ren's eyes of a woman with vivid green eyes and red gold hair wielding his grandfather's lightsaber.
"After all these years, at last I have found you." Kylo Ren murmured to himself. Putting his mask back on he stepped up to the door he opened it to reveal General Hux.
"We are approaching Renn." General Hux sneered at Kylo Ren. "Are you ready to face Snoke with your failure to find the Resistance?"
Glaring at the other man Kylo Ren strode over to Hux and looming over him he asked. "Are you?"
In a holo chamber the spectral form of Supreme Leader Snoke loomed over the hunched form of Kylo Ren.
"I beg your forgiveness Supreme Leader" said Kylo Ren kneeling, unusual for the arrogant young man.
"'Forgiveness? You ask for forgiveness while hiding your face from me, the one who gave you your power." said Snoke. "Remove your helmet."
Reaching up Kylo Ren unlatched his helmet to reveal his newly scared face. "I have sensed someone, the former Emperor's Hand, Mara Jade."
"So she lives. . . But not for long. You must earn the right to wear that mask again. Do so by killing Jade and Skywalker and bringing me the girl." Snoke said. "Now leave."