Personally, I'm in love with this chapter because I got to explore some truly wonderful characters from the Star Wars franchise. Let me know what you think!
Yrashu Village, Baskarn
"No, like this," Rose helpfully adjusted Finn's braiding technique. In the last few days, it seemed Finn had become an expert at occupying himself. Every time Rey came back to base he was doing something different: smiling at her, elbows deep in Eata, preparing the nights meal, analyzing old empyreal tech or… braiding plants?
"What are you guys doing?" Rey asked squatting down next to them.
"Oh! ahh…" The two woman head spoken briefly a few times but Rose still seemed flustered around her.
"Rey!" Finn smiled amiably "We're weaving more grass mats together for shelters. Soon we'll be able to get out of Tahna's way in the communal huts," Finn winked conspiratorially at one of the matriarchs of the village, a kind, handsome female who lead with genial ease.
Currently, Tahna was braiding nearby at an awe-inspiring pace but still reached out fondly to rustle Finn's hair with one of her dexterous green feet.
At first, Finn looked stupefied that not only was Tahna physically capable of reaching him with her foot but also that the gesture was affectionate. The absurdity of his facial expression caused both human women to burst out laughing, as his surprise turned into a beaming smile.
The joyful atmosphere, that seemed so prevalent in this society, appeared to relax Rose who was unabashedly making eye contact and laughing with both Ray and Finn. Rey, for her part, had been smiling so much lately that her cheeks constantly hurt. Here with the Force-sensative Yrashu in addition to her budding friendships among the Resistance, Rey was experiencing in an unexpected sense of belonging and community on this remote jungle planet.
"So Rey were you out hunting again?" Rose asked with just a hint of timidity, cheeks still tinged pink with laughter.
"Actually, we were gathering some plants and roots nearby." Rey said excitedly, still staggered that food stuffs could be readily scavenged from their immediate surroundings. "There are so many different kinds of life here! It's like a vast network of intertwining systems, with water and sunlight powering it all." There was a reverent enthusiasm in her description as her gaze wondered, no doubt picturing all the different creatures she'd encountered in the last week.
Finn paused in the braiding efforts to observe his friend with a pleased grin. Even with the chaotic turbulence of the last few weeks she still managed to find contentment, a happy glow coming from her as she talked animatedly with Rose.
Another, different kind of smile spread across Finn's face as he noticed Poe wildly approaching over Rose's shoulder. The pilot raced towards them, yelling in a sing-song voice "We're gonna have a SHOWER!"
Poe was sporting his usual pants and undershirt but today, his upper half was draped in chains of purple flowers, covering his head, neck, and arms. When he skidded to a halt between the two women, sweaty and out of breath, grinning maniacally, they swished around him.
"Rose, Finn, Rey, we gotta go!" He burst out immediately before squatting down next to his friends. "I just heard there's a thermal spring nearby none of us have had a bathed in weeks, we need this but the light will fade in a few hours and it takes two hours to get there so we have to leave right now." He spoke with zealous impatience as if it annoyed him how long his own mouth took to form words.
"What's all this?" Rose giggled, somewhere between a tease and a scoff as she flicked the loops around Poe's head.
"What? Nothing! I'm getting married. Are you guys ready to go?"
Finn and Rose who were a bit more acquainted with Poe's light-speed talking and sarcastic humor just laughed and nodded, "Sure" Finn said shrugging and smiling as he carefully set down the braiding project for later.
Rey was still lost from the random turn the conversation had taken, "Married?" she inquired as everyone stood up.
"That's right. There's a lovely group of six-year-olds over there that have decided it's time for me to settle down. Would you do me the honor of officiating, O wise master Jedi?" Poe quirked an eyebrow at her grinning as Finn and Rose waved to Tahna. Rey, who was torn between despondency and frustration at her lack of experience with complex social situations, didn't respond as the group began to walk.
"Yeah Rey, make it official" Finn meaningfully widened his eyes at her before elbowing Poe in the side with a grin. "What are those really for?" Finn asked indicating the flowers. Changing the subject and effectively ending Rey's suffering as the four strided towards the outskirts of the village.
Shrugging casually, Poe revealed he'd been basically babysitting some of the younger Yrashu children that morning and had agreed to, "Let them litter me with dead shrubs". Which extorted fresh amusement from Finn and Rose.
But Rey wasn't really listening.
Just then, she'd felt an agonized throb in the Force. Coming to a sudden halt, her head twitched to the side, almost as if listening.
But this was a pulse in the Force. A single beat in a chaotic orchestration of life—brief, indistinct and almost impossible to hold on to.
It faded quickly, leaving a hollow impression in Rey's gut. Only one thing she knew felt remotely like that. One person.
Private Quarters, Dreadnot.
There was that nudge again. At first, Kylo had thought it was Rey but now he wasn't so sure. It felt stronger this time.
Shaking his head slightly, Kylo refocused on reading through Hux's latest proposal. It was altogether a grisly reminder that genocide wasn't considered a negative conscience in this overreaching mans plans.
Another aggressive nudge physically pulled Kylo up, making him pause what he was doing and lower the data pad. "Odd." He thought with some trepidation.
"Sir?" Hux asked, eyebrows crinkling. "Is there a flaw in the plan?"
The amount of annoyance one being could cause another by merely existing was unfathomable. Closing his eyes in infinite patience, Kylo spit out "No, I just need more time to consider it!"
The perfectionist didn't take the hint and the nudge was becoming something more. "Sir, we need to move quickly if—"
"OUT!" Without preamble, Kylo seized the general's frame, opened the door, and bodily hurled the offending man from his quarters, never once rising from his seat.
"I once would have reacted the same way." Standing calmly in the middle of Kylo's quarters, was a man in his early sixties with a clean-shaven yet weathered face and a crooked half-smile. A peculiar, blue shimmer enveloped his whole visage and was accentuated by the oddly echoing voice. And he was garbed in Jedi robs.
"I've been trying to reach you for a very long time," He said, sorrow now coloring his tone and face.
Kylo Ren stood, observing the Jedi manifestation through narrowed eyes but saying nothing.
"I would have come sooner… but at the time of my death I was in no way versed in Jedi lore. It toke a great deal of time to learn how to manifest and by then, Snoke had already blocked off your mind from me."
Knowing what he did about the Skywalker past, Kylo had more than a suspicion about who was before him.
"And what makes you think I want to speak with you now?" he said with a sneer. Conflicted didn't even begin to cover Kylo's feelings on seeing the man he'd spent most of his adult life worshiping.
"I don't know what you want any more than you do," Anakin Skywalker said with the same crooked grin. "What I do know, is that despite being used and manipulated by someone of immense power, you managed to make a noble decision that not only benefited yourself but saved the life of a friend." A glint of something like pride was in his eye now.
"You want me to accept the light, embrace it, just as you did in the end." It was a cold, bleak assessment.
But Anakin shook his head, old skin wrinkling in his first true smile "Our paths are different. You're shrewder, more independent and so many other things that I wasn't." He took a step forward, alight with enthusiasm. "You created an opportunity for yourself to do something different, change the pattern."
A flickering in his image caused him to start and look down and his lips twitched in an ironic, self-deprecating smile "I never was very good at patience meditation."
Then a more mild, accepting look washed over his features.
"Ben, you've spent you're whole life denying a part of yourself. First the dark inside, then the light…"
He paused for a moment searching for words and Kylo didn't give him the chance to continue as his outrage flashed hot and bright.
"What do you expect from me! It's one or the other. And I've done too much dark to give up on—"
It was then that the aged Jedi seemed to run out of calming wisdom, "Just fuck what everyone else has said! Why not accept both portions of yourself, light and dark, as just parts that make up the whole?"
The glint in his eye was of one who deeply comprehended conflict and Kylo was slightly aghast at the measure of understanding he saw in their spectral depths.
Then the ghostly figure flickered once again, "Gah!" Anakin grimaced. "I'm getting too emotional to maintain the connection." He reached out as if to grasp Kylo's shoulders but just passed right through, hissing in frustration before he looked back up in desperate purpose. "Ben, thousands will die if you approve the plan Hux proposed. Don't agree to something horrendous just because you're to personally conflicted to make a better call." He stepped closer, earnestly grave, almost commanding, "Don't be me" before his figure vanished.
There were many reactions pulsing though Kylo at the moment. Standing in the center of his room, clenching and unclenching his hands, air snorting through his flared nostrils, he staggered as confusion, pain and frustration all mixed together into one toxic emotion. The only emotion Kylo Ren knew how to effectively channel: rage.
It was like an explosion went off in the ship. The massive craft lurched and Kylo was clutching his head, lost in an incoherent bombardment of contradictory emotions. Ripples in the Force could be felt throughout the vessel, even by those not customarily attuned to its behaviors.
One by one, out of the vortex of sensation he was lost in, Kylo began to pick up and examine things inside himself he knew to be true…
AN: Again, I brought in some Star Wars lore, trying to be as accurate as possible. Hope I was being true to Anakin Skywalker!
Thanks to everyone who reviewed and is following this story :)