Chapter 22


Luke stood in front of Rey with his hands tucked into the sleeves of his cloak and he waited as her hand sat on the hilt of her Lightsaber. He didn't count down and Rey had a millisecond to react to him drawing his own blade and coming at her with it. Rey immediately put hers into the single blade function and parried and then spun out of the way, avoiding a slash.

He was more aggressive than he had been on both Ahch-To and on D'Qar so far, so the intensity with which he attacked Rey set her off balance for a moment, before she concentrated her thoughts on besting her master.

Rey could say she was happy with her progress. Luke had taught her up to Form VI, despite it being the form he used the least. It supported much of her own skills in wielding her staff and he commended her ability and her decision to create a Lightsaber which had both single and dual blade capabilities. Rey only had perfecting her Lightsaber form left and despite wishing it would happen quickly, she knew that it would be years until she would.

Luke swiftly changed the direction of his strikes and Rey lost her balance, cursing at herself as his Lightsaber skimmed the wraps on her left arm.

'Your concentration on your surroundings needs to be just as strong as on me, Rey.' Luke said lowly, going on the attack again.

Rey pushed away from her master and he jumped at her, slashing down. She blocked the blade, her leg sliding out, tripping him and causing him to land and tumble away. She almost had the opportunity to strike him, but narrowly missed.

Luke lifted his hand mid-attack and a boulder which had sat behind them, came hurtling at Rey. Rather than use the Force against it, she split it in two with her weapon and Force-pushed Luke so that he had to flip backwards.

She attacked him again and caught the edge of his tunic and landed a kick against Luke's chest, which launched him several metres backwards.

He smiled when he regained his balance and went back on the attack, not letting up in his manoeuvres against Rey until their clothes were soaked in sweat and neither could manifest the Force in usefully powerful attacks.

Luke handed Rey her canteen of water and she emptied it in seconds as her master watched her with a smirk. 'You've developed some very interesting strategies, Rey. I'm looking forward to what you come up with when the double-ended blade becomes your mode of choice.'

'I'll be sure to best you within five minutes when that happens, master,' she grinned.

He mimicked her expression, shaking his head lightly. 'Aren't we confident today? I've got a lot of years on you yet, Padawan.'

Rey smiled and bowed to her master, thanking him for his training. He let her go then and as Rey walked away, she turned to see her master sit on one of the remaining boulders, looking out at the jungle with a pensive expression.

There were only a few days left until the mission and Rey was trying to cram as much information about Lothal and the logistics of the operation into her head as possible. By the number of questions she had asked Leia, Captain Cypress and Poe, they were probably very aware of her anxieties. Rey couldn't say she enjoyed being a captain now. Before, she could consider herself a civilian, but now the lower ranks greeted her with salutes and Rey preferred that they didn't.

Her team treated her the same, thankfully. Takada was as dire as usual with his poorly timed jokes and Delina continued to give her the cold shoulder. Rey had thought that after tying up her burnt fingers they would have grown closer, but that had not been the case.

Rey honestly would have preferred if the others didn't have to put themselves in danger this time. For all they knew, the First Order could be preparing for an ambush and they only had stealth and blasters to help them escape. The anxiety she had felt when they had come back from Abafar, though diminished, was still present.

The illusion she had seen as she had slept worried her the most. Rey knew that she could block the images now, yet the fact that it was her anxiety and fear creating them, frustrated her. It was the second time she had create an illusion and both times they had been so horribly violent and she had believed they were real. In those illusions, darkness had been able to take a hold on her mind. Perhaps if Luke had not sensed her and if she had not woken up, she would have descended further into her own imagination. Though the image of Ben plunging the Lightsaber into her stomach could not be easily forgotten, she no longer believed it held any ground in reality. In the first illusion, Ben had been her saviour. The real Ben, her Ben. Even though Rey wanted to deny it and believed she could, darkness was still a lingering spirit in her mind, imagined into a form that at least existed in her head, and it was trying to breakdown her hope. Whether it was because of her connection with Ben, or because she was still untrained, Rey wasn't sure. What she could be sure of was that her own fears were mirroring inside of her and that if she was not sure enough in herself, her progress would be cut off at the root. She was compromising herself by thinking these horrific imaginations into existence, and frightening and convincing herself that something horrible would happen to her and those she loved.

As she walked, Rey tried to reach out as far as she could with the Force. When she'd been on Ahch-To it had been simpler to do so. Just closing her eyes and she could reach the atmosphere, but it was so much harder now. It felt like she was weighted down and the Force wasn't as clear to her as she would have liked. Rey wondered whether it was her lack of dreams and the illusion-blocking meditation that was stopping her from properly seeing or feeling the slight movements in the Force and she wondered whether it would have been better if she had stopped meditating and allowed the dreams to happen. It only took a few more thoughts to realise she was deceiving herself, however, knowing that truly she had just wanted to see Ben and her trepidation when it came to allowing the dreams, was mostly immoral.

As the days had passed and turned to weeks, she had felt her yearning break through into her waking moments, though she could not sense Ben's. It made her think that perhaps it had all been her own deception, that he did not need her, that he did not call out to her. Could he not feel her heart at all and if he did, how could he so easily hide himself and deceive her? All Rey could feel was his presence in that corner of her mind, like a gentle prod of a finger against her temple. Sometimes it felt as if she had imagined it all, with nothing but that connection there to prove everything that had passed in their dreams.

Rey continued on, making her way to General Organa's ready room and she knocked lightly before entering. Leia looked up at the young woman with a smile and gestured to the seat beside her. Once she had sat down, Leia took Rey's hand and squeezed it tightly.

'I know you are worrying. Hell, I can even feel your worry,' Leia began with a smile. 'Though I have faith you'll be just fine.'

'Perhaps you should have left me without a title,' Rey responded, her voice low and a slight frown marring her lips. 'I don't think I deserve it yet.'

Leia smiled and leaned forward, putting a hand against Rey's cheek. 'You have done more than prove that you deserve it, Rey. We all have faith in you, we know your skills, we know what you're capable of.'

Rey nodded and breathed out heavily.

'Now, to give you a final walkthrough before the mission.' Leia sat back, letting go of Rey's cheek and her hand and she picked up a datapad, handing it to Rey. 'You will be landing about one hundred miles from the target point, just outside of the city of Jalath. Yourself and Captain Cypress will lead the transporter ships at a low altitude towards the villages to minimise the chances of detection. Once there, Captain Cypress will begin the evacuation process and you will continue on to the facility.

'Captain Cypress has been doing simulations for the last few weeks to figure out the most efficient method and he has got full evacuation down to forty minutes. This means that you'll have forty minutes until the charges need to be blown. As you see on the datapad, the facility is about 20 miles from the villages. The specs of the Lothal facility show it has a large processing plant in the back and the storage facility faces North. I want the team to blow the stock the First Order have accumulated in the storage facility, but for you to sabotage the plant itself.'

Rey flicked through the schematics, seeing the technology the First Order had installed in the facility and then she paused, seeing machinery that seemed at least thirty years old.

'Are these the correct schematics?' Rey questioned, her brow furrowing.

Leia frowned lightly. 'We've been unable to get updated schematics on the facility and we are using the plans from when the Empire held ownership over the agricultural plant. The people we've had placed in the nearby villages have kept us up to date as much as they can with the general structure, but what is inside, we no longer can be one hundred percent sure about.'

Rey nodded, understanding and being somewhat relieved. As long as the storage hold was where it should be, that was the most important. She could improvise with the plant room if necessary.

'When the explosives are set off, we'll use that distraction to launch the evacuation shuttles and Poe will conduct sky defence, so any incoming TIE-fighters or other First Order ships will be held at bay.' Leia took the datapad from Rey and typed in a few things before giving it back to her. 'You'll be taking the same cargo ship as last time, though naturally because of the terrain, it will be much easier to stay incognito on Lothal than on Abafar. It will be best to leave the planet at the same time as the evacuation is taking place, so I advise organising the logistics of that with your team.

'You'll have open lines of communication with Captain Cypress and Commander Dameron, so if there are any issues, you can consult with them on a solution. Do you have any questions?'

Rey searched her mind for questions as she looked over the resources they would have to their disposal on the mission. There were more explosives and weaponry listed than for the Abafar mission. It was clear that if necessary, everyone would be prepared for open combat if it came down to it.

'I will speak with my team and if they have any questions, I will relay them back to you.' Rey responded, giving the datapad back to Leia. 'There are no expected convoys to Lothal by the First Order, are there?' she questioned, though knew the answer was in the negative.

Leia shook her head. 'It's not on the top list of locations to visit for much of the First Order fleet. The stock is exported directly to fill First Order reserves, though we have yet to find out what location that is.'

'And what of the evacuees? Where will they be taken?' she asked.

'For those who wish to stay and fight, they are welcome to, and for those who do not, we will relocate them to other smaller Resistance strongholds in need of hands, without fighting.'

Rey nodded and took a deep breath before standing. 'I will make my preparations,' she bowed her head and once Leia dismissed her, she left.

Rey couldn't say why, but she was ultimately drawn towards seeing her Master again and when she sensed him in his quarters, she knocked lightly on the door and waited for him to open it.

He smiled seeing her and welcomed her in, already moving to prepare a pot of tea.

'Are you already looking to train again?' he questioned with a smirk.

Rey chuckled and shook her head, sitting cross-legged at the small floor table that Luke had in his room. Her Master seemed to fiddle around for a while as the water boiled and he came back with a brown package and handed it to her as he went to prepare the tea.

'What is it?' she questioned.

'Just open it.' He answered.

She raised an eyebrow but started to untie the small string that held the packaging together and opened the paper to reveal clothing. There was a thick dark brown sleeveless tunic with leather fastenings, grey tabards and loose beige trousers, much like the ones that Luke wore. She pulled the items out, unfolding them and holding them in her hands. When she looked at Luke, he was bringing over two cups.

'What are these?' she questioned.

Luke smiled. 'I wanted to give you something and I thought combat gear would be appropriate,' he responded simply, then gestured to the packaging with the lifting of his chin.

Rey looked down again and saw that she had missed the last item: A deep maroon leather belt, fit with a holder for her staff, a detachable gun holster and a leather tie at the back to tie a water canteen or another blaster to her.

She felt her tears before she could respond to Luke and he only chuckled as he watched her swiftly wipe at her cheeks.

'Thank you Master.'

Luke smiled and put the cup of tea in her hands and he began to drink his own. 'To mark your first mission as an official member of the Resistance…and for a potentially missed birthday.'

Rey couldn't help laughing and wiped the remaining tears away as she sipped at the hot drink. 'Shall I mark today as my birthday from now on?' she questioned.

'If you like, though your friends will not be happy about the suddenness.'

She shook her head with mirth and her fingers glanced across the material of her new clothes. It was the first gift she ever remembered receiving and Rey couldn't say she was anything but happy and thankful to her master.

Once they had gotten through the tea, Rey bid her master adieu and she held her clothing tight to her chest, rushing back to her room to put it away, knowing that she would wear it for her mission. It was the first moment where she felt like she could avoid that corner of her mind that held Ben without qualms, that she would be fine if she never saw Ben again. The love of her friends could fill her.


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