APARTMENT ABOVE THE BAKERY
The platter of bakery goods is on the coffee table and half of them are gone. Rey is seated on the couch on the side closer to the empty armchair. BB-8 is at her feet. Zedric is still sitting in one of the armchairs. Loreanna is standing a few feet behind the couch arms crossed and ready to act though she is no longer holding her knives. Finn is next to her. Warden Exivy is standing on the opposite side of the coffee table from Rey looking out the window. It's starting to rain. It's late afternoon. The silence is palpable.
Rey: (breaking the silence) (to Warden Exivy) "What are you doing on Alpha 42?"
Warden Exivy turns and looks at Finn: (coldly) "I see the deserter has been useful in acquiring information."
She takes a few steps and sits with all ease in the empty armchair.
Warden Exivy: (coldness gone) (to Rey) "I'm here on inspection duty. It's my punishment for failing to secure the star chart."
Rey's not sure what to say to that.
Warden Exivy: "Our father was not pleased."
Rey: (confused and then adamant) "Our father? No, he died a long time ago!"
Warden Exivy studies her: "No, the man who stole you from father is certainly dead. Death is sadly the only option for men like him. Our father is very much alive and he misses you Rey."
Rey looks at her stunned, but before she can ask any questions, Zedric goes stiff with pain. He tries to stand only to have his knees buckle under him. His right hand grabs the edge of the wood coffee table and his fingers clench in agony. He grits his teeth.
Loreanna: (as she runs towards him) "Zedric!"
Loreanna drops to the ground and Zedric collapses in her arms trembling in pain. Rey stands and both she and Finn pull out their small hidden blasters and point them at Warden Exivy.
Loreanna (yells to Warden Exivy) "What did you do to him?"
Warden Exivy: "I had heard that Master Zedric Solo was the most powerful of all Jedi. That seems to be true."
Zedric grits his teeth.
Loreanna Solfel: (to Warden Exivy) "TELL ME!"
Warden Exivy: "I have done nothing. Reach out to the heritage you have rejected and you will know."
Loreanna glares at her. Rey lowers her blaster and reaches out to the Force. Moments later, her body stiffens and the blaster falls from her loose grip. She collapses in a controlled manner onto the couch.
Rey: (gasps as she releases the Force) "The Force."
Finn: (he runs towards her) "Rey!"
Rey shakes her head and gestures that she is okay. Her face shows only a minor expression of pain.
Warden Exivy looks at her as if to say "see" while her own face also shows a small expression of pain.
Following a kidnapping as children, Loreanna and Zedric's both nearly died. After that near death experience, Loreanna turned away from the Force and save for her instinctive Force warnings, premonitions, and reflexes; she rarely uses her enormous Force potential. In contrast, Zedric dedicated himself to the Force becoming a master at a young age. Though he has never dueled his uncle in earnest, the prevailing belief is Zedric would win. Zedric has immersed himself in the Force. His Uncle Luke once foretold that Zedric would become more than a master as he had a greater destiny to the Force than any Jedi master could bear. Luke added with humor that that he should have known it would take a Solo to fulfill a Skywalker's destiny. When Zedric became a Jedi Master, he began wearing the emblem he has on the back of his cape.
Rey: "What's happening?"
Warden Exivy: "The Force-bridge has been activated."
BB-8 twills an Uh-Oh.
Warden Exivy: "The only purpose you could have for coming here is to destroy the Force-bridge."
Finn: (defiantly) "So what if it is?"
Warden Exivy: "I will help you."
BB-8 snorts in disbelief.
Rey: (sincerely) "Why would you help us destroy your own weapon?"
Warden Exivy: (to Rey) "I need your help and that is a price I am willing to pay."
ALPHA 42
Rey and Warden Exivy are in a land speeder. Warden Exivy is driving. It's night.
Rey and Warden Exivy are both dressed in identical tan uniforms of a government inspector. The only difference is Warden Exivy's had the symbol of the Supreme Leader on her uniform while Rey's does not. Both are also wearing helmets with a face shield that leaves only their eyes exposed. Warden Exivy is wearing gloves and Rey is not. Neither is wearing a blaster nor lightsaber.
Rey: "Thank you for helping my friends get back to the ship."
Warden Exivy: "Gratitude is unnecessary. What happens between us is nothing more than a business deal."
Rey: (challenging) "Is that really the only reason you're helping?"
Warden Exivy: "Yes. You're a fool if you believe otherwise."
Warden Exivy slows down the land speeder as they approach a guard station. Beyond the guard station is a small mountain and active mine under the mountain. The entire area is fenced. Warden Exivy stops at the gate. A guard dressed in dark blue with a few white stripes to show rank approaches them carrying a bio-scan reader. The guards have blasters. Warden Exivy pulls out and swipes her ID card before removing her glove on her left hand and places it bare on the bio-scanner. The machine scans before beeping all clear. Warden Exivy puts the glove back on her hand as the guard walks around the front of the speeder to Rey's side. Rey throws a quick glance at Warden Exivy who merely gestures for Rey to follow her example. Rey swipes a card given to her by Warden Exivy before place her right hand on the scanner. There is one fearful moment as the machine reads Rey's hand and then it beeps all clear. The guard nods in acknowledgment before waving all clear to his fellow guard still inside the guard station. The guard inside reaches forward and pulls a lever that opens the gate. The guard by the land speeder steps back away from the speeder and Warden Exivy drives forward.
INSIDE THE MINE
Rey and Warden Exivy are inside a vast chess board mine.
Envision an enormous chess board over the mine. A digging crew goes in at a corner and digs out the area under the white squares leaving the black squares as pillars to support the roof. Then after all the white squares have been excavated, the digging crew begins excavating the black squares starting in the farthest corner from the entry. The mine safely collapses on itself as the digging crew slowly removes pillars one by one.
Each excavated area (or white square on the chess board) is about the size of the Falcon with high vaulted ceilings. The entire mine is well lit. Dozens of different mining droids from large ones with great buckets to hold materials to small basketball sized floating seismic scanning droids that are constantly measuring the stability of the area are passing by and moving around the mine as they travel from the current white square being excavated to the processing center near the entrance.
Rey has lifted the face shield on her helmet while Warden Exivy has not.
Warden Exivy confidently leads the way forward until she gets to a spot where the ceiling is much lower—she can almost reach up and touch it—than the rest of the mine and the black squares that should be supporting the mine have either partly or entirely been replaced by metal pillars. There's also a lot more loose gravel on the floor indicating that at one point, this area of the mine collapsed and had to be dug out again. Warden Exivy stops at a pillar that is the original pillar from the ground to almost her shoulders and then metal from there to the ceiling.
Warden Exivy: (points to the spot) "Start here."
Rey steps around and move past Warden Exivy to the spot.
Rey: (as she places a bare hand on the rock part of on a partial rock pillar with a metal top) "There's no guarantee I can sense the memory you want. There needs to be a strong emotional imprint for things to last."
Warden Exivy: "The man was running from an assassin. His emotions were certainly high."
Rey: "….."
Rey puts both hands on different spots of the pillar. She reaches out to the Force and feels nothing, so she moves her hands and tries again—still nothing. Rey begins wandering around the area seemingly randomly touching rocks here and there searching for a past vision. At the base of another half rock/half metal pillar, she stops.
A scientist stumbles to the ground. The mine though not as well lit as present, has the full vaulted ceilings as the area Rey and Warden Exivy first walked though. The scientist thrust out a hand to catch himself while clenching a data disk against his chest in his other hand. He lands hard. He scrambles to his feet and races deeper into the mine.
The Scientist is a European human male in his mid-fifties.
Rey opens her eyes perfectly fine and heads off the direction the man took.
DEEPER IN THE MINE
Rey, with Warden Exivy several paces behind her, again touches several different spots searching for an imprint. She moves her hand higher and has another vision
Mine in the past is not as well lit with a vaulted ceiling.
The same scientist with his hand in the same place as Rey's is gasping for breath. He lifts up the data disk and looks at it while his eyes dart around. Suddenly he hears the sound of a droid. He moves slowly towards it.
Rey opens her eyes and follows after the scientist with Warden Exivy behind her.
OPEN AREA DEEP IN THE MINE
Rey places both hands on the ground. Warden Exivy watches her relax slightly as Rey enters a Force vision. Warden Exivy remains motionless until Rey opens her eyes.
Rey smiles
Warden Exivy: "You look amused."
Rey: "I was wondering if this droid will be more of a boastful hero like BB-8 or a modest one like R2-D2."
Warden Exivy: "What droid?"
Rey: "The one that hid the data disk the scientist had. The scientist reprogrammed a seismic probe droid to hide the data disk for him until he came back with the clearance code: 737648."
Warden Exivy: (whisper to herself) "A droid hid it. No wonder every search was futile."
She turns, walks a short distance away, and speaks quietly into her comlink. She listens to the response. She turns off the comlink and walks back to Rey.
Warden Exivy: (to Rey) "Management of the mine will send the droid here with the data disk once it has been found. We need only to wait."
Rey nods.
Warden Exivy pulls out the landspeeder keys and a data bit from her pocket and throws them to Rey. Rey catches both of them. She looks at the keys and then to Warden Exivy with a questioning look.
Warden Exivy: "Your part is finished. You may leave now and return to your friends with a gift that I think even the Hand will appreciate."
Rey looks at the date bit: (realization) "Then this is."
Warden Exivy nods: "All the information needed to plan a successful infiltration of the Force-bridge."
Rey looks surprised.
Warden Exivy: "A deal is a deal. I will soon have what I want, and if you're prudent, so will you." (she pauses) "Do warn the Hand not to expect lax guards. I can assure you that she would never lower her guard."
Rey studies the two objects in her hand for a moment before securing both of them in a small pouch on her belt.
Rey: "I'll stay here until the droid comes."
Warden Exivy removes her helmet and gives Rey a measuring look as if seeing Rey's true reason: (penetrating) "So you chose to satisfy your own curiosity rather than hasten the completion of your own mission?"
Rey removes her own helmet and stares directly back at Warden Exivy's piercing gaze, "I am following the advice of my master to feel, not think. Trust my instincts."
Warden Exivy: (contempt) "Feelings and instincts? It's a shame you weren't raised by father. If you had been, you'd be far more reasonable."
Her comment suddenly reminds Rey of what she said earlier.
Rey: "That's right. Back at the apartment..what did you mean by I was stolen from father?"
Warden Exivy cocks her head in confusion: "The words are self-explanatory. You were taken from father as a child and raised by an enemy."
Rey: (eyes narrowed-slight frost at Warden Exivy's explanation) "That's a lie. What enemy would raise his adversary's daughter with love and kindness and then die protecting her?"
Warden Exivy looks her twin directly in the eyes: "A lie? A lie is no more than the difference in truth and."
Rey: (finishes the quote) "and truth is multi-faceted."
The two stare at each other with noticeable tension.
Warden Exivy smiles gently: "I see you've become well-read during your time on Coruscant." (sincerely) "You've grown. You're no longer only the sorry survivor from Jakku."
The tension between the pair drain at her words. As Warden Exivy puts her helmet back on her head and settles down to meditate, Rey looks lost in thought at Warden Exivy's assessment of her. She ponders for a moment and then realizes that Warden Exivy is correct. She no longer is only the lost lonely survivor from Jakku.
Rey: (calmly) "Whether or not the man who raised me is biologically my sire doesn't matter. I chose to call him father, and like my father before me, I will defend against tyranny."
Warden Exivy opens her eyes, but doesn't move to look at her: (not emotional—just icy) "Commendable...but you claim to stand against tyranny when you come here in the name of tyranny?
Rey is taken slightly aback by Warden Exivy's outburst.
Warden Exivy: "The Supreme Leader values order and stability for all his citizens"
She stands, turns, and points to the symbol on her chest: "This represents his personal belief that every being has immeasurable potential and value. Snuffing out such a spark is to always be a last option."
Rey: (shocked and yet surprisingly calm) "Then what of the poison capsules embedded in everyone, what of a system that decides one's entire future in a calling at age eight, what of a reality where people live like cogs in a machine?"
Warden Exivy: (calm passion) "Better cogs in a machine with means to remove the faulty parts that provides for all its citizens in the hands of a man who cares than either the mess of a republic that sold it's own freedom and citizens or an empire where even a young girl had to struggle to survive because she lived on a resource poor planet on the edge of known space."
Rey is taken aback realizing that Warden Exivy is talking about her.
Warden Exivy: "During all your time on this world and have seen no crime, no beggars, and no one going hungry."
Rey stops a moment before she speaks: (thoughtfully) "That's right. In a city of this size there has to be a some criminal activity outside your Order" (cold realization dawning) "Unless you kill everyone who doesn't fit the Order?"
Warden Exivy: (sigh and points at the symbol on her chest) "I already said life is precious and death should always be the last option. Those who break Order are properly educated and those who don't fit Order are removed to a place more suitable. Father is always doing research and many blots are sent to help him."
The mention of father draws Rey's attention.
Rey: (calmly) "Who is father to you and what research?"
Warden Exivy: "Father is father, and right now, he's gone back to studying genetics. He was studying emotions, but he returned to an old project when he realized he'd soon have the key he needed to finish."
Rey: "What type of project?"
Warden Exivy looks at Rey measuring her before turning and settling on the ground with her back to Rey: "I'm not inclined to answer further question right now."
She then closes her eyes and starts meditating-clearly indicating that she's keeping to her words.
Rey opens her mouth as if to speak and then decides against it. A couple of emotions from worry to determination cross her face as she also settles on the ground. Then knowing that she needs to be calm to act, she takes a deep breath and reaches out to the Force. A few minutes later as Rey calms down, a few small pebbles lift slightly off the ground.
INSIDE A DROID PART SUPPLY ROOM
A seismic probe droid—the floating ones about the size of a basketball—is reaching a clawed arm into a small crevice between a row of cabinets and the ceiling. It carefully pulls out a data disk before zooming towards the door.
OPEN AREA DEEP IN THE MINE
About half a dozen small pebbles are floating around Rey as she meditates.
An unknown male voice calls out softly: "Rey."
Rey opens her eyes. The floating rocks around her sink slowly back towards the ground.
Unknown voice: "Rey"
Rey turns her head in the direction from which she feels the whispers are originating. She glances briefly at Warden Exivy who is still meditating before gracefully rising to her feet and heading towards the direction of the voice.
INSIDE THE MINE
A seismic probe droid—the floating ones about the size of a basketball—is entering the low ceiling from the vaulted ceiling area of the mine carrying a data disk with its small mechanical arms.
SECOND OPEN ARE DEEPER IN THE MINE
Rey walks across the next open area looking around.
Unknown voice: "Rey."
Rey: "I'm here."
She reaches out and her hand brushes against a spot of what's left of one of the original mine pillars. Her legs buckle and while she can manages to slow her fall and stay conscious, she still ends up on the ground as a powerful Force vision overtakes her.
Mine in the past is not as well lit with a vaulted ceiling.
The scientist—his hand on the wall in the same place as Rey's had been—is staring at a blue lightsaber blade emerging from his chest. He collapses on his left side with his face towards his assailant. The blade deactivates and the lightsaber flies towards the direction Rey had come to land in the right hand of a man who has another ignited blue lightsaber in his left hand.
The man looks directly at Rey: (same voice as the whisper) "The Supreme Leader must not get the genetic information on that disk."
The scientist dies.
The man in the Force vision holding the lightsaber is a mid-40 Galen Marek aka Starkiller.
Emperor Palpatine wished to experiment with cloning and copying memories from one clone to another that exceeded the flash technology techniques currently used to help train the clones. When Darth Vador brought back a young Galen Marek from Kasheek, he presented him to Palpatine as the perfect test subject for the project due to both his age and Force potential. Palpatine agreed and over a hundred unaltered (meaning no age acceleration) and slightly time altered clones were created. A unique chip was embedded in the minds of each clone and the original. (Later, Palpatine order clones without chips to be created to test both an improved flash technology technique and other methods. These are the mindless clones Galen fought in the Force Unleashed II.) The chips could both read and transmit memories. The purpose of this chip was to read the memories of the active unit and transmit those memories to a computer system. The computer system would then transmit the same memories to either all or select individuals of the clones. Thus, the clones involved all grew believing they themselves had experienced and knew all that Galen knew. Vador also sent out different clones who thought they were the same person to test the full limits of the system. The computer system that read the active unit's chip was installed as a sub-code in many Imperial systems, so that if Starkiller died on one of his missions near one, his soon to be replacement would have all memories including up to the point of death; thus convincing the replacement that he had either miraculously survived or been rescued by Darth Vador and was therefore still the same person. If Starkiller died away from a memory reading system, Darth Vador would often set the replacement up in an identical situation to the last memory, which was usually Starkiller getting his orders, and either change his orders or recreate the mission.) The memory reading system was on the Death Star, which is why Starkiller in the Force Unleashed II remembers he died. Over the years, many Starkillers died. While some died on missions, the vast majority either died during additional experiments or were killed outright when it became apparent that they lacked Galen's full Force potential...or any Force potential.
One additional experiment was wiping a test subject's memory and then use memory flash technology to restore all the information. The point of the experiment was to test how much of one's core nature carried over to one who thought he was nothing more than an accelerated grown clone. The Galen from the Force Unleashed II was a test subject of said experiment. He was also the last known (to Vadar and Palpatine) survivor of the original unaltered-time batch. That is why Darth Vador hunted him down with such fierceness.
The overall purpose of the all the different experiments was a to find a way to live far beyond one's own years as oneself. In other words, Palpatine didn't simply want a clone of his to rule. He wanted to rule the galaxy for generations to come. Thus instead of seeking a way to make a being like him, he sought a way to make another him. As Yoda said in the Clone Wars TV show, though the clones look the same, each is different in the Force. Palpatine didn't want different, he wanted to rule.
Rey is crouched down with one knee on the ground shocked.
Rey: (whispers—shock) "Father"
Rey gets to her feet and after only stumbling once, she starts running back to the open area where Warden Exivy is waiting.
OPEN AREA DEEP IN THE MINE
Rey hurtles into the room and sees a very excited Warden Exivy holding a data disk in her hands. Nearby is the seismic probe droid hovering quietly.
Rey: (blurts out) "You can't give that to the Supreme Leader."
Warden Exivy's eyes flicker briefly towards the direction Rey had come and understanding shines in her eyes. Then before Rey can take even a single step closer, Warden Exivy Force throws the seismic probe droid at her face. Rey doges with a twist that ends in a low crouch near her helmet. She grabs the helmet as she stands. Warden Exivy again throws the squealing droid at her face. Rey steps to the side and then bashes the helmet against the droid smashing it against a pillar. The impact heavily damages the droid and its activation light flickers and dies as the droid falls to the ground. Rey whirls around to face Exivy, but the warden in already gone.
MINE NEAR THE EXIT
Vaulted ceilings and no previous cave in from earlier.
Warden Exivy runs across an open area. She gets about halfway across when Rey shows up chasing after her.
MINE ENTRANCE/EXIT AREA
The mine entrance/exit area is larger than any previous "white" chess board areas. There are two lift platforms against a wall (like a window washer box on a high rise building). One of the lifts is large and thick enough to lower heavy machinery, equipment, or loads in and out or the mine. It's currently two stories up level with the entrance/exit. The other can hold about ten people. It has a waist high railing. The smaller lift is currently on level with the mine floor.
Halfway across the chamber, Warden Exivy uses the Force to activate the smaller lift. It begins to rise. The lift has lifted a third of the way by the time Warden Exivy is close enough. She Force jumps and front flips to land perfectly in the center of the lift. She turns back to look at Rey who has reached where Warden Exivy jumped, but the lift is now too high. Warden Exivy removes her own helmet and tosses it to Rey.
Warden Exivy: "Return that in person and I'll be inclined to answer all of your questions."
Rey catches the helmet. Warden Exivy turns and Force leaps to the top. Suddenly Zedric appears leaping down directly towards Exivy with a viroblade in his hand. Rey sees the blade.
Zedric is wearing his standard outfit with the cape rolled up on top of the ysalamiri cage that's on his back.
Rey: "NO!"
Warden Exivy twists as Zedric slashes towards her neck and cuts through a chain. Zedric lands on the still rising platform the blade in his right hand and his left hand clenched tightly with a bit of chain dangling free. Warden Exivy lands unevenly. She throws an arm up to hide her face before scrambling to her feet and running out of the mine.
With a Force thought, Zedric sends the lift back down. Then after quickly sheathing the viroblade, he jumps down to Rey and uses the Force to slow his fall.
Rey: "Were you trying to kill her?"
Zedric holds out his clenched fist and Rey after a moment also reaches out a hand. Zedric drops Rey's locket that he'd cut free from Warden Exivy's neck into her hand.