The knights rushed Rey, their malignant fury propelling them. Lura the sharpshooter remained behind to lay down sniper fire from a safe distance. Kylo Ren with pernicious intent went after Luke.
Luke called out to Kylo Ren, "I will not fight you, Ben."
"Then you will die," he returned, igniting his crossbar lightsaber.
Gabo charged his electro-knuckles and swung at Rey first with powerful yet predictable attacks. She dodged two swings and deflected a third with her lightsaber, but Tanut with a standard red lightsaber joined the fight and attacked with a downward blow. Rey stymied his bloody blade and pushed him off balance. She spun herself to hit him with the bottom blade of her lightsaber, but Sakiah blocked the attack, her own double-edged red lightsaber sparking under Rey's. Sakiah spun her own lightsaber to take out Rey's legs with the bottom blade, but Rey leaped over Sakiah's blade. The three knights surrounded her, and their attacks were perfectly coordinated to prevent them from injuring each other. Lura crouched to her knee and aimed her precision rifle waiting for an open shot.
Luke parried multiple attacks from Kylo Ren, the blue lightsaber clashing with Kylo Ren's red blade.
"Ben, you don't need to do this," Luke said, always blocking and never offering an attack.
"Shut up, Old Man!" Kylo Ren slashed horizontally.
Luke deflected it effortlessly. Kylo Ren then angled his fatal blade and stabbed. Luke sidestepped and grabbed his arm leaning in close to Kylo Ren.
"There is still good in you," Luke said.
"No!" Kylo Ren pushed him away and attacked with a vertical downward blow. Luke blocked again, the blade of Kylo Ren's grandfather mastering the young assailant.
"Let go of your anger; it is poisoning you." Luke pleaded.
Kylo Ren attacked again. "Save your breath, Skywalker! I am not your Padawan any longer! Snoke has taught me more than you ever did!" Kylo Ren yelled.
Luke had allowed himself to back into the wall but now leapt over Kylo Ren's head, flipped and faced him on the other side.
"Snoke is using you, and you know it," Luke stated.
Kylo Ren screamed and continued his attack.
Gabo swung a few more telegraphed punches at Rey. He was slow and easy to dodge. He jumped, descending with a blow; but he missed, creating a meter diameter dent in the floor. Sakiah swiped over his crouched body for another attack. Rey blocked, returning another attack; but Tanut parried her blow. Rey had to move twice as fast as any of her assailants just to defend.
Rey felt an instant danger through the Force and blindly swung her blade behind her, deflecting a laser blast shot by Lura. Rey quickly grasped the danger. Continuing to block the attacks, she allowed the Force to lead. Lura took aim for another shot, waiting. Her eyes lined down the barrel of the rifle and at Rey's heart, she squeezed the trigger.
Rey Force-jumped into the air, Lura's shot missing her and striking Tanut in the chest. Rey had leapt twenty feet in the air and was coming down directly at Lura. Lura raised her rifle and aimed it directly at Rey's right eye and pulled the trigger. Rey swung downward with her staff, deflecting the blast. She landed in front of Lura. Lura fell over dead, the deflected blast having struck her in the head. She spun around to look at the two remaining knights, who were already coming at her.
Now Rey attacked; two swings on Gabo as she spun her lightsaber. He blocked with his electro-knuckles. She threw a third attack that would have been a fatal blow, except Sakiah had blocked, protecting Gabo. Gabo swung, and Rey side-stepped, pushing him to the side. Rey then stabbed at Sakiah's head, but Sakiah blocked again. Gabo tried to grab Rey around the waist in a desperate attempt allowing Sakiah finally to lunge and attack Rey. Rey kicked and spun, dodging Sakiah's lunge, both blades of her staff slicing through her opponents as she spun. They fell to the ground.
Rey took a moment to huff and catch her breath. Then she looked at Kylo Ren and Luke; and refocused and centered herself in her anger. She surged toward them.
Luke, always backing up from the blows, returned to the center of the room by the open door. Rey rushed in between them. Her lightsaber met Kylo Ren's.
"Now it's your turn," Rey growled at him.
"No, Rey," Luke said.
Kylo Ren smiled. "Out of my way."
"Rey, beware of the dark-" Luke began but could not finish his sentence. Rey had Force-pushed Luke out of the door.
He fell on his back and got up quickly to re-enter the room. Rey used the Force on the control panel to close the door, then she Force-pushed into the door to warp the locking mechanism. Luke immediately tried to use the Force to open the door, but the warped metal resisted him. He then stabbed the door with his lightsaber and began to melt a hole in the door.
….
The corridor was bustling with stormtroopers rushing to the flight bay, because of Boba Fett. However, three people were heading in the opposite direction; Chewbacca, his hands manacled; Finn, dressed as a stormtrooper escorting his apparent prisoner; and a few paces behind, Poe dressed as a First Order mechanic pushing the hovering maintenance cart.
"Why do I have to be the maintenance guy?" Poe complained.
"Be quiet!" Finn whispered loudly.
The star destroyer shook as ion blasts hit its shields from the Resistance ships.
Finn then noticed the oncoming group of troopers. He tensed and straightened himself. In front of him, Captain Phasma marched with two squads of stormtroopers behind her. She approached, eying the three of them. They came up to each other as she marched on. She slowed and looked over at each of them, but obviously studying Finn. He held his breath. She almost came to a stop as they passed, then looked back ahead and resumed a normal march toward the flight bay. Finn could breathe again.
"Hurry," he said to the others and increased his pace.
When they arrived at the engine room, Chewbacca easily knocked out the two guards at the door. They had apparently not expected the Wookiee prisoner to break his manacles so easily. Chewbacca and Finn dragged the guards into the engine room as Poe followed with the cart and closed the door. The room was full of thirty-foot diameter and sixty-foot long cylindrical magnetic turbines, ten in number.
"We need to set the charges on each of these turbines," Finn ordered.
"I would have thought there would have been more of these for a ship this size," Poe commented as he unloaded the packs from the cart.
"There are," Poe said. "These are just the turbines for one of the three main engines. There are eight more small auxiliary engines as well."
"So we won't be stopping this ship?" Poe asked.
"No, just slowing it down and preventing it from jumping to hyperspace."
Poe handed two packs to Chewbacca, "You got it, Chewie?"
Chewbacca vocalized to affirm.
"Both of you," Finn said, "start two-thirds of the way in and work back to the front. I'll get the turbines at the far end. When it's all set, we'll detonate them."
Then he ran off with his heavy pack weighing him down.
It was quick work and Chewbacca and Poe finished before Finn. They returned to the front and started to pack the empty bags back into the maintenance cart.
Chewbacca whined obviously wanting to get out of there.
"I know what you mean, Chewie," Poe said. "The sooner we leave the better."
Chewbacca did not say anything in return.
Poe laughed quietly to himself, "Though I can't believe that ruse pretending you were a prisoner actually worked."
"It didn't," a woman's voice said behind him.
He turned around to see Chewbacca with his arms raised, Phasma and eight stormtroopers holding them at gun point. Poe's face fell as he slowly raised his arms.
"Where is the other one?" Phasma asked.
Poe did not answer.
"FN-2252, FN-2255, and FN-2248 go and search for the third," she ordered.
"Yes, Captain," they replied and ran off, leaving the two others with Phasma.
"What were you doing here?" Phasma asked Poe.
"Spa treatment," Poe said.
She leaned in. "Covering up your fear with insolence, I see. You are right to be afraid. No need to hide it."
Chewbacca growled.
There were series of shots in the back of the engine room, then silence.
"FN-2252? FN-2255? FN-2248?" Phasma radioed.
No one answered.
"He got them," Poe smirked.
Phasma looked at Poe, intrigued.
"He's a good shot, you should know," Poe said.
"Ah, it has to be that traitor FN-2187," she said. "Not much to worry about."
She took off her helmet to reveal a thirty-something-year-old woman's face. Her hair was cut short to a centimeter in length and silver in color. Across the right side of her face and head were three scarred claw marks, that had disfigured her ear and eyebrow.
She called out in a loud voice, "FN-2187! Reveal yourself in the next twenty seconds or I will shoot the Wookiee!"
She turned to Chewbacca and Poe. "On your knees!"
Two of the stormtroopers pushed them forward to the ground in front of the engineering console.
"Fifteen seconds!" she called out. "Ten!"
She raised her rifle and aimed at Chewbacca, her finger on the trigger.
"Wait!" Finn entered into view, his hands on his head.
"Excellent," Phasma grinned. "Get down with the others."
….
Rey leapt with vengeance at Kylo Ren, swinging her staff in a high arc. Kylo Ren blocked and side-stepped, only to have the opposite end of her staff swing at him. He blocked downward and avoided the blow.
"You will pay for what you did!" Rey yelled at him, which gave Kylo Ren an opportunity to attack low. Rey met his blade with hers, crackling sparks spraying onto the dark metal floor.
She attacked again. Kylo Ren shirked the stygian blade with his, but the power of the blow caused him to stumbled back. Her rage was increasing and with it the strength of her attacks. She spun her blade in front of her, trying to take out his feet. He jumped over, the top blade now coming down on him. He held up his blade horizontally, blocked, and pushed. She took a step back, but she was able to maintain her balance.
He held out his hand with crooked fingers. She felt her throat close under the pressure but knew not to fight for breath. A flash of red passed over her eyes. Kylo Ren's grip on her weakened. She threw out her hand and Force-pushed him back ten feet. He landed, but Rey was released from the choke. She was then on him without restraint.
"You killed them!" She cried out. "You killed my parents!"
Flashes of red and yellow became more and more present in her eyes.
Kylo Ren blocked as best as he could but it was not enough, the ferocity of her blows was relentless.
Every attack became more powerful, and arcs of lightning seemed to snap from her clenched fists. Every time their blades connected, it appeared more electricity emitted from Rey's hands.
Kylo Ren continued to step back, fear beginning to be seen in his face.
"It was you!" Rey yelled, "I was abandoned because of you!"
Her eyes succumbed to the red and yellow anger, her brown irises now gone. She swiftly raised her staff and struck Kylo Ren. He closed his eyes. Their blades met. Lightning erupted from Rey's hands and staff, the electricity surging forward and into Kylo Ren's lightsaber and hands. Then the lightning split out into a dozen white arcs, terminating in the wall behind him.
Kylo Ren's lightsaber fell out of his hands, and he fell to his knees under the effort of splitting the lightning. Although he had split most of the lightning attack, his body was still severely injured.
Rey stood over him, holding her black blade to his neck.
"Excellent," Snoke's voice rang out in the darkness. The HoloNets were back on, and it was not certain how long Snoke had been watching.
"You're anger has made you powerful," his voice echoed.
For a moment, Rey could not tell if it was her own thoughts or the voice of someone else. Then Snoke's blue image appeared in his huge hologram, looking down on her with ravenous motives. She looked at him, panting in rage.
"You have done well," Snoke said. "Now kill him."
She looked back to Kylo Ren and raised her lightsaber. Kylo Ren stared in shock at Snoke, recognizing the betrayal.
"Wait! It wasn't me!" Kylo Ren called out holding up his hands in defense.
Rey stayed her blade for a moment of explanation.
"I didn't kill your parents." He looked over his hands. "Luke did."
The tension went out of her shoulders, and she lowered her lightsaber. She looked over her shoulder to see Luke standing there, a red-hot, molten hole having melted through the door behind him. Then a flash of anger again emerged.
"You lie!" she said to Kylo Ren.
"No, no. Your father's name was Ren. He was my friend, and Luke killed him," Kylo Ren quickly uttered. Her eyes returned to their normal shade and her lightsaber extinguished.
"That's not possible," Rey said under her breath.
"It is," Snoke said. "Check your feelings and you will know it to be true."
Luke stood horrified.
"Is it true?" she asked Luke.
"Yes," was the only word he could muster.
"And my mother?" she asked Kylo Ren.
"She was sent away to the Stygeon system where she died in prison," he answered.
She thought a moment as she stared at the floor. She could sense in the Force the truth of what Kylo Ren had said. Her shoulders tensed up again. She lifted her head looking directly at Luke.
"You killed my father!" she accused. Her eyes blazing with red and yellow. "Then you thought you could make it up by training me!"
"You don't understand," Luke began. "You didn't know what kind of man your father was . . ."
He could not finish, Rey interrupting him.
"I didn't know what kind of man my father was!" she screamed at him. Her lightsaber ignited, the dark side corrupting her reason.
Luke threw Anakin's lightsaber down. It rolled toward Kylo Ren, who was still crouched on the floor.
"Yes, Rey," Snoke goaded. "Strike him down with all of your hatred, and you will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."
That was the only encouragement she needed. She charged at Luke.