Star Wars: Rey's Creation
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This one. I confess, is purely for fun, about the creation of Rey's lightsabre.
The Millennium Falcon
In hyperspace
In his co-pilot's seat, Chewbacca growled a query to his pilot, Rey.
"Jedha," she answered him. "We're going to Jedha."
Chewie protested that since the Empire had ravaged it and since the first Death Star had destroyed NiJedha, there was nothing left.
"Not much, no," she conceded, "but there may be a kyber crystal left. I need one to build a lightsabre."
He suggested diffidently that she could make a kyber crystal.
"No," she shook her head soberly, "the Sith used to use them. Artificial kybers are too reminiscent of the Dark Side. That's not me, Chewie...even if I am a Palpatine." She adjusted their course.
Rey tried not to think of that nightmare vision she'd had in the remnants of the second Death Star on Kef Bir. Her dark side, wielding the very type of lightsabre she'd planned to build...with two blood-red blades.
No. Hers, she decided, would be a more conventional sabre. Though each had saved her life, she would not use Luke's or Leia's. Nor would she find Ben's discarded sabre on Kef Bir; it had artificial kybers, generating an unstable blade.
The Wookiee asked her how she could possibly find a kyber, even if the Empire had left any.
"I feel the Force, Chewie," she told him gently. "I'll feel the crystals, if there are any there - the texts say that a kyber is sort of alive. My Jedi senses are more accurate than any equipment a prospector might use, trust me. And," she added bleakly, "no-one ever comes here." As they emerged from hyperspace and Jedha came into view, she finished, "And I can't say I blame them."
Nor could Chewbacca. It wasn't pretty.
The devastation wrought by Grand Moff Tarkin was all too clear. Where NiJedha had stood on a plateau, there was nothing but a deep, black crater, with lava seeping out at the bottom - the Death Star had cracked the crust of the moon. Its weather was violent, the magnetic field permanently and chaotically disrupted by the superlaser blast. Ash hung in the atmosphere, even after nearly 40 years, dimming the light.
Jedha, Rey noted with sadness, was dying. A long, drawn-out but inevitable death.
Soon they landed.
From where they were, Rey saw, the remains of Saw Gerrera's mountain base were visible. She resolved to take his bones back to Ajan Kloss, to give him the decent burial he deserved; a very old Mon Mothma had told her about the most passionate Rebel there'd ever been (except maybe Jyn Erso or Cassian Andor). In the other direction lay the ashes of NiJedha.
The moon was dying and, worse, it knew it. A tear trickled down Rey's cheek.
"I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me," she breathed, echoing the long-ago words of Chirrut Îmwe, the Guardian of the Whills.
She reached out with the Force...and instantly realised her mistake.
Long ago, the Jedi had chosen Jedha because it lived in the Force. Now it was dying.
In her mind, the moon howled at its violation, its desecration.
She fell to her knees, clutching her head, and sobbed.
WHY?! Jedha screamed.
I'm sorry! Rey cried in her mind. I heard it was a test! Not necessary, but Tarkin did it anyway! I -
The moon screamed again. AVENGE ME!
It's too late, even if revenge was the Jedi way, she protested. Your murderers are all dead.
Be at peace, Rey, she heard.
M - Master Yoda?
Hear Jedha's cries, I do, Yoda replied. Heal her you must. Help you she will, but help her first you must.
I - I don't know how!
Trust the Force, Rey, a confident voice spoke.
Anakin Skywalker. The former Jedi turned Sith turned Jedi.
Trust is all, the Korun Master, Mace Windu, told her. He sounded wry as he added, I should know. Had I trusted Anakin when he told me of Darth Sidious, he would have been with the arrest party and we might have triumphed. As you did on Exegol.
Compassion is the answer, Rey, Obi-Wan intoned. Let her cry in your mind. Accept her sorrow. Grieve with her. Soothe her pain.
Her end is inevitable now, Qui-Gon agreed, but she need not face it alone.
Jedha has you now, Ahsoka Tano said gently.
All she desires is not to be alone, Anakin pronounced.
But...I'll be gone soon, Rey murmured in her mind.
Gone physically you will be, Yoda agreed, but always with her a part of you will be.
Yes, Rey enthused. Yes, Jedha, I will help you. The Force is with us, and we are one with the Force.
So alone, the moon sobbed. Once, before the evil ones came, the Guardians of the Whills would speak with me. Chirrut, especially, I remember, she said fondly. He and Baze Malbus were dear friends. I miss them.
They will live on forever in the Living Force, Rey said gently. Look to the Force and you will always find them. You will never be alone.
The moon sobbed again, but in joy now.
Chewie huffed a concerned question, but she reached out and touched his arm. "I'm okay. It was just...just overwhelming at first. The Jedi helped me, though."
He huffed again.
Rey smiled. "Yes. I feel them. All of them. Master Yoda sends his regards," she quipped.
Chewbacca gave a gruff laugh.
Soon they came to an outcrop. There was nothing to distinguish it from any of a thousand such features on Jedha.
But Rey knew what was inside.
Using a traditional Jedi tool she'd made after reading the ancient texts, she began slowly, carefully, and above all respectfully to dig into the rock. It yielded to the tool's touch, almost as if the world wanted her to find a kyber crystal.
At the bottom of the hole, something caught the dim light.
Carefully she reached in, and with equal care she grasped the object and gently pulled it out.
Sure enough, it was a kyber crystal. Unusually it was flawless, apparently missed by the Imperial miners or their Jedha slaves.
It is yours, Jedha told her gently. Use it well.
I swear by the Living Force that I will, Rey promised.
Chewbacca rumbled a query.
"No," Rey shook her head, "I don't know what colour the blade will be. Except not red. Only artificial crystals, or crystals made to bleed, show red blades. It doesn't matter," she decided.
But to her surprise the moon told her.
Yellow, like the sun.
"Oh," she returned, surprised.
Ajan Kloss
The next day
Finn was passing by the workshop when he realised it was occupied. Curiously he peeked in. Rey was working intently on something. "Hey, what's up?"
"Hey, Finn," she smiled, "how's my favourite ex-stormtrooper?"
The former FN-2187 grinned. "How's my favourite ex-scavenger?"
"Almost finished," Rey told him cheerily. She locked a couple of fasteners in place and held up the lightsabre to admire it.
"Uh, isn't that -?"
"- part of my staff, yes," Rey nodded. "A blend of my new and old lives. Seemed appropriate."
"Is that a lightsabre?" he inquired, fascinated.
Rey nodded. "I'm just about to test it. Um, Finn, the texts say that a new lightsabre, especially a Jedi's first, can be dangerous, so I'd back up a bit if I were you. When I switch it on, one of three things will happen. If I've done it right, the blade will activate."
"And...if you haven't?" he asked uneasily.
"Either nothing at all, or...it'll blow up," she told him simply. "There's no halfway house with a lightsabre, what with all the energy stored in the power cell and the kyber crystal. Either it works or it doesn't. So you'd best back up a bit."
Finn nodded and moved back.
Rey gave him an old-fashioned look. "Further back," she advised.
He moved to the door.
"Um, further," she said amusedly. In truth she had absolute confidence in her work - after all, she'd reconstructed Master Luke's lightsabre from its shards and it'd worked perfectly first time. But she saw an opportunity to tease her friend.
Hurriedly he retreated.
Rey chuckled and activated her lightsabre.
Immediately it hummed and produced a metre-long beam. As Jedha had forecast, it was pure yellow, like the sun, and absolutely stable. As Finn breathed a sigh of relief, Rey nodded and executed several Ataru moves, switching to Djem So and then Soresu. Satisfied, she extinguished the sabre, and the blade retracted smoothly with the typical sound.
Now it was Finn's turn for an old-fashioned look. "You knew it'd work."
She nodded.
"You knew there was nothing to worry about," he groused.
Now Rey smiled. "Couldn't resist. You are so easy."
They laughed and hugged.
Over her shoulder, Ben Solo's Force ghost chuckled. "More stable than mine ever was," he joked.
THE END
May the Force of others be with you