Rey Skywalker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thatwaslucky) wrote2022-08-29 08:20 am
thatwaslucky) wrote2022-08-29 08:20 am
Kef Bir- Monday
Rey had done as much as she could to fix the landing gear before they touched down on Kef Bir.
It was not enough.
It slowed their impact a lot, but they still crash landed on the moon of Endor, skidding to an eventual stop and leaving deep grooves in the ground. They had to exit out the top hatch because of the fuselage being half buried in the mud. And yet, Rey couldn't help but think that her last crash landing maybe helped here, not that she was feeling the slightest bit bitter about it right now.
From what Threepio had pulled from his databanks, Kef Bir had been almost entirely underwater at one point, but the aftermath of what happened on the Death Star had likely changed the surface of the moon forever. It was still mostly water, and the air smelled strongly of salt, but there were patches of land, covered in grass, and there wasn't much of anything nearby, though they'd spotted some small settlements scattered on the surface on the way down. Along with giving them a rundown of the planet, Threepio was also able to give them the coordinates to where they needed to be: up a steep, grassy slope, on a cliff overlooking a violent sea covered partly by dense fog. Visible through that fog was the second Death Star.
What was left of the Death Star, anyway. It was like a mountain range of metal, its hull tattered, with the remains of the superlaser focus lens pointed up at the sky. It was like the ship graveyards that had littered the deserts of Jakku, only much, much bigger.
"What- what is that?" D-O asked.
"It's the Death Star," Rey said, frowning at the wreck. "It's a bad place, from an old war."
"I don't think General Leia had any idea this was here," Poe said. "A huge chunk of the second Death Star, still intact…"
"The wayfinder's in the Imperial Vaults," Finn said, quoting the inscription. "In the Death Star."
"I hate to be practical, but it's gonna take us years to find it," Poe pointed out.
He wasn't wrong. How did you find something so small in something that had been the size of a moon. If Threepio was right about the moon having been submerged in water, they couldn't even be sure the wayfinder was still there. It could have been washed away, and they didn't even know where to start…
"Only this blade tells," Rey whispered, reaching to grab Ochi's dagger. She had no idea what it would do, but she held the jagged edge of the blade up and moved around slowly, until she realized that the shape lined up perfectly with the outline of the wreck. She peered closer at the dagger. The crossguard was hinged. Keeping the blade exactly where it was, she used her other hand to swing the crossguard down until it clicked into place-
-And pointed out a very specific section of ruin, southwest of the superlaser lens: a star-shaped structure, nestled in a crook of the wreckage. "The wayfinder's there," she announced.
"Heads up," Poe warned.
Rey turned, and Finn and Poe immediately had their blasters out. A young woman about Rey's age rode towards them atop an orbak, which looked something like a furry horse with tusks. The only weapon she seemed to have was a bow, which seemed to be made of salvaged blaster parts. Rey liked her right away. Behind her, more mounted riders stopped.
"Rough landing?" said the woman.
"I've seen worse," Poe said.
"I've seen better. Are you Resistance?"
"Depends…" he said carefully.
"We picked up a transmission from someone named Babu Frik."
Poe lowered his blaster.
"Babu Frik!" Threepio said excitedly. "Oh, he's one of my oldest friends!"
"He said you'd come," the woman said, and glanced at Rey. "He said you were the last hope. I'm Jannah."
Rey really didn't want to deal with that right now. "We need to get out to that wreck," she said, pointing. "There's something inside that we need."
"That could end the war for good," Poe added.
Jannah considered it. "We have fishing skimmers. I can take you there by water."
"Did you see that water?" Finn asked. Some of the waves were higher than the Death Star.
"Not now," Jannah agreed. "Too dangerous. We can get there at low tide. First light tomorrow."
Rey felt a flash of desperation. "We can't wait that long. Kylo Ren's right behind us."
"Kylo Ren?" Jannah said, exchanging a startled look with some of the other riders.
"We don't have time," Rey insisted. They'd already wasted so much.
"Do we have a choice?" Poe asked with a sigh. "Let's get fixing the ship. Do you have some parts here?"
As he and the others headed down the hillside with Jannah and her people, Rey lingered to watch the ocean, and the wreck sticking out of it. She had to get there. They were so close... But she forced herself to follow.
Until she spotted the skimmer.
*****
Water had always made Rey nervous. It was too big, too unpredictable. She hadn't liked being turned into a ray, she'd been uncomfortable watching the vastness of the ocean on Duke's boat, and Silver's story about surviving a hurricane on a ship sounded like a nightmare, and she didn' even hear the worst of that.
Steering a skimmer across incredibly choppy ocean waters to a mental island by herself made her think she'd been right to be afraid. It was too late now, she had to keep going. She had to figure out how to steer while riding waves as tall as buildings, and it took all her concentration to keep from capsizing. She thanked the Force when she made it to the Death Star, half by luck due to getting sucked into the wreckage under the area the dagger had pointed her to. She didn't need it now. She felt pulled by something now. She aimed the skimmer to a section of the wall that seemed to have decent foot and handholds and tied it down as best she could, made sure she had her lightsaber, and began to climb.
It had been a while since she'd done this inside a ship, but she'd kept up practice in Fandom, and it served her well now. She was soaked, and everything in here was slippery, but she had a strong grip and knew all about patience. She needed to be more careful, and it was easy to do here, where she was used to that. She knew how to jump across a cavern of metal. Her muscles burned, but this was the easiest thing she'd done since this started.
She felt she should stop, so she did. Wind whistled through gaping holes in the walls, some open to air. Ahead, the sloped floor led to a huge, half-shattered viewport. Beside it was a dais, holding a large chair. A throne.
This was the Emperor's throne room. She refused to think of it more personally than that. Luke had fought Vader here. Anakin had died here, sort of. Palpatine had died here, sort of. The energy of the battle lingered. She could still sense terror, pain, regret… and a determination to save someone who was deeply loved.
Rey stepped toward the throne. The floor shook beneath her feet, and she jumped back just in time for a large panel to drop away. She didn't hear it land. She crept carefully along the walls, coming to a door. It had a complicated access mechanism that she figured must be a vault. She lifted a hand as if to push and see if that worked, but something clicked and the door opened, like she'd been recognized.
The door slammed shut behind her as soon as she was inside. She jumped, but she had to press on. She could see the wayfinder ahead, hovering between black fittings, glowing red from within. She reached for it, and grabbed it.
Her relief at finally having it gave way to dread as she had the pressing feeling that she was being watched. She turned, and saw a hooded figure in a dark cloak that swept the ground. She could see the shape of a pale face, but she was distracted by the woman pulling a red lightsaber, two parallel red blades that she swung apart to form a fiery quarterstaff, just like the half-finished lightsaber Rey had designed.
The glow from the lightsaber illuminated the face, and Rey saw it was her own.
The dark Rey felt cold and fierce, and Rey herself gasped, stumbling back. This couldn't be real, but she could sense herself, she could smell the ozone from the blade. It felt very real.
The dark Rey looked at her, almost kindly, but there was something off about it. She didn't mean it. It was like she didn't know how to mean it. "Don't be afraid of who you are."
Rey was ready with her own lightsaber to meet the dark Rey's, catching it on her blade before a killing blow could be dealt. She had practiced with a staff like this for as long as she could remember and had never considered needing to fight against it. She was also refusing to lose her grip on the wayfinder, which gave the other Rey an advantage, blows easily forcing Rey back into the throne room.
The dark Rey hissed, revealing sharp, pointed teeth, and Rey was so startled that she stumbled, tripping and falling. She was aware the wayfinder had slipped from her grasp and moved for it, but another black gloved hand got their first.
Kylo Ren stood across the throne room from her. Again. To escape a future dark self, only to collide with him. It was like her worst nightmares coming true.
She jumped to her feet, reigniting her lightsaber.
"Look at yourself," he said, pitying. "You wanted to prove to my mother… to my grandfather... that you were a Jedi. But you've proven something else. You can't go back to her now. Like I can't."
She didn't care. "Give it to me," she said, practically hissing the order.
He seemed surprised at that reaction, but tried again. "The dark side is in our nature. Surrender to it."
"Give it. To me," she said, pushing with the Force. She'd beaten him before, she would do it again. She would force it if she had to-
He lifted the wayfinder, and his expression turned smug. "The only way you're getting to Exegol is with me," he said, and tightened his grip until the wayfinder shattered. The thing she'd come halfway across the galaxy for, risked the lives of her friends for, had been obliterated.
Rey heard herself scream, "No!" but she felt herself propelled by pure rage, erupting forward and swinging her lightsaber.
He hadn't gotten his yet. He was unarmed, and yet he expertly dodged all of her blows like he knew they were coming. Which was somehow more infuriating than him trying to kill her back.
Her attacks increased in speed until he had to grab his lightsaber, blocking hers. They clashed over and over, her slashing like she had nothing else to lose and him countering, but he was losing ground. Then he stepped back and dropped into the part of the floor that had given way earlier.
Without a second thought, Rey jumped down after him.
She fought him from the moment she landed until they ended up outside the wreckage, on a bridgelike hunk of hull only meters wide. A massive gun turret loomed over them, his TIE parked beyond it. The ocean raged all around, spraying them both with water, but she was oblivious. She pressed her attack.
"Rey!"
She was aware that Finn was running towards her, Jannah left behind to watch the second skimmer they had brought. Rey's first instinct was to protect him. She threw out her hand and pushed him back towards Jannah just before a wave crashed down over the bridge between them, cutting him off from her.
Rey had always been better when she felt she was in a groove, and she felt like she was there now, even if it was perhaps not the sort of groove she wanted. She was attacking him constantly. If she felt cornered, she'd leap out of the way of massive waves, forcing him to follow her. She would not leave this place until one of them was dead, and he wouldn't cooperate, he just countered every blow.
Eventually, though, she had to get tired. She was expending more energy against an opponent who was bigger, stronger, more practiced than her. She honestly couldn't remember when she'd last rested, let alone had real sleep. When had she left Ajan Kloss? He'd remained entirely calm, waiting for her to tire out. It was a tactic she'd learned, but she'd never expected it from him.
He was the one attacking now, but somehow his pommel clipped her hand, and she took a split second to realize that it hurt, and he could have killed her right then. It would have been a cheap shot, but he could have done it. Another blow, and he knocked her off her feet, forcing her to drop her lightsaber. He loomed over her, raising his lightsaber. He wasn't wasting this on a cheap shot.
Rey stared up at him. She was going to die on this space station too. But maybe it was better to die now than to give in to the darkness later.
The blow didn't come. Instead he froze, and dropped his lightsaber.
Without thinking, Rey caught it.
She plunged the lightsaber into his gut.
She didn't have time to even realize she'd done it. Instead she was hit with a familiar feeling, overwhelming loss.
"Leia," she whispered. She'd felt this before, when they lost Luke. It had hurt then, but their relationship was much different. It felt like she'd been punched in the soul.
And then she looked down and realized what she'd done. She pulled the lightsaber out of him and shut it down, staring at him slumped on the deck, in shock.
Leia was dead. And Rey had just killed her son. He was still moving, still breathing, but he wouldn't survive what she'd just done to him. His last moments were going to be spent realizing his mother was gone.
Tears falling from her face, indistinguishable from the spray of the water, Rey dropped his lightsaber and knelt beside him, and reached out her hand to his abdomen, her fingers grazing the cauterized wound through the hole in his tunic. She was still tired from healing the vexis. This would cost her at a time she really couldn't afford it, but she had to. She shouldn't have done this, and she had to make it right. She drew on the life all around her, but mostly from herself. She gave.
Kylo's gaze remained on her face as she poured her life force into him until the wound healed beneath her hand.
Rey pulled her hand away, and for a moment they just looked at each other, neither completely sure what happened next. She noticed that the scar she'd left on his face the day they first met was gone.
"I did want to take your hand," she managed, quiet. "Ben's hand."
She didn't wait for an answer. It didn't look like one was coming anyway. She got to her feet, picking up her lightsaber and sprinting for his TIE before anyone could get to her.
She'd never felt out of control before. She'd never been out of control before. But it was apparently to her that the worst was happening. She was a Palpatine. She'd been hurting her friends with alarming frequency just in the last couple days. Kylo had wanted to turn her, but maybe he didn't have to. Maybe she was doing that job all by herself.
There was only one place she could go now.
[NFB, NFI, OOC okay. Taken from The Rise of Skywalker novelization by Rae Carson.]
It was not enough.
It slowed their impact a lot, but they still crash landed on the moon of Endor, skidding to an eventual stop and leaving deep grooves in the ground. They had to exit out the top hatch because of the fuselage being half buried in the mud. And yet, Rey couldn't help but think that her last crash landing maybe helped here, not that she was feeling the slightest bit bitter about it right now.
From what Threepio had pulled from his databanks, Kef Bir had been almost entirely underwater at one point, but the aftermath of what happened on the Death Star had likely changed the surface of the moon forever. It was still mostly water, and the air smelled strongly of salt, but there were patches of land, covered in grass, and there wasn't much of anything nearby, though they'd spotted some small settlements scattered on the surface on the way down. Along with giving them a rundown of the planet, Threepio was also able to give them the coordinates to where they needed to be: up a steep, grassy slope, on a cliff overlooking a violent sea covered partly by dense fog. Visible through that fog was the second Death Star.
What was left of the Death Star, anyway. It was like a mountain range of metal, its hull tattered, with the remains of the superlaser focus lens pointed up at the sky. It was like the ship graveyards that had littered the deserts of Jakku, only much, much bigger.
"What- what is that?" D-O asked.
"It's the Death Star," Rey said, frowning at the wreck. "It's a bad place, from an old war."
"I don't think General Leia had any idea this was here," Poe said. "A huge chunk of the second Death Star, still intact…"
"The wayfinder's in the Imperial Vaults," Finn said, quoting the inscription. "In the Death Star."
"I hate to be practical, but it's gonna take us years to find it," Poe pointed out.
He wasn't wrong. How did you find something so small in something that had been the size of a moon. If Threepio was right about the moon having been submerged in water, they couldn't even be sure the wayfinder was still there. It could have been washed away, and they didn't even know where to start…
"Only this blade tells," Rey whispered, reaching to grab Ochi's dagger. She had no idea what it would do, but she held the jagged edge of the blade up and moved around slowly, until she realized that the shape lined up perfectly with the outline of the wreck. She peered closer at the dagger. The crossguard was hinged. Keeping the blade exactly where it was, she used her other hand to swing the crossguard down until it clicked into place-
-And pointed out a very specific section of ruin, southwest of the superlaser lens: a star-shaped structure, nestled in a crook of the wreckage. "The wayfinder's there," she announced.
"Heads up," Poe warned.
Rey turned, and Finn and Poe immediately had their blasters out. A young woman about Rey's age rode towards them atop an orbak, which looked something like a furry horse with tusks. The only weapon she seemed to have was a bow, which seemed to be made of salvaged blaster parts. Rey liked her right away. Behind her, more mounted riders stopped.
"Rough landing?" said the woman.
"I've seen worse," Poe said.
"I've seen better. Are you Resistance?"
"Depends…" he said carefully.
"We picked up a transmission from someone named Babu Frik."
Poe lowered his blaster.
"Babu Frik!" Threepio said excitedly. "Oh, he's one of my oldest friends!"
"He said you'd come," the woman said, and glanced at Rey. "He said you were the last hope. I'm Jannah."
Rey really didn't want to deal with that right now. "We need to get out to that wreck," she said, pointing. "There's something inside that we need."
"That could end the war for good," Poe added.
Jannah considered it. "We have fishing skimmers. I can take you there by water."
"Did you see that water?" Finn asked. Some of the waves were higher than the Death Star.
"Not now," Jannah agreed. "Too dangerous. We can get there at low tide. First light tomorrow."
Rey felt a flash of desperation. "We can't wait that long. Kylo Ren's right behind us."
"Kylo Ren?" Jannah said, exchanging a startled look with some of the other riders.
"We don't have time," Rey insisted. They'd already wasted so much.
"Do we have a choice?" Poe asked with a sigh. "Let's get fixing the ship. Do you have some parts here?"
As he and the others headed down the hillside with Jannah and her people, Rey lingered to watch the ocean, and the wreck sticking out of it. She had to get there. They were so close... But she forced herself to follow.
Until she spotted the skimmer.
*****
Water had always made Rey nervous. It was too big, too unpredictable. She hadn't liked being turned into a ray, she'd been uncomfortable watching the vastness of the ocean on Duke's boat, and Silver's story about surviving a hurricane on a ship sounded like a nightmare, and she didn' even hear the worst of that.
Steering a skimmer across incredibly choppy ocean waters to a mental island by herself made her think she'd been right to be afraid. It was too late now, she had to keep going. She had to figure out how to steer while riding waves as tall as buildings, and it took all her concentration to keep from capsizing. She thanked the Force when she made it to the Death Star, half by luck due to getting sucked into the wreckage under the area the dagger had pointed her to. She didn't need it now. She felt pulled by something now. She aimed the skimmer to a section of the wall that seemed to have decent foot and handholds and tied it down as best she could, made sure she had her lightsaber, and began to climb.
It had been a while since she'd done this inside a ship, but she'd kept up practice in Fandom, and it served her well now. She was soaked, and everything in here was slippery, but she had a strong grip and knew all about patience. She needed to be more careful, and it was easy to do here, where she was used to that. She knew how to jump across a cavern of metal. Her muscles burned, but this was the easiest thing she'd done since this started.
She felt she should stop, so she did. Wind whistled through gaping holes in the walls, some open to air. Ahead, the sloped floor led to a huge, half-shattered viewport. Beside it was a dais, holding a large chair. A throne.
This was the Emperor's throne room. She refused to think of it more personally than that. Luke had fought Vader here. Anakin had died here, sort of. Palpatine had died here, sort of. The energy of the battle lingered. She could still sense terror, pain, regret… and a determination to save someone who was deeply loved.
Rey stepped toward the throne. The floor shook beneath her feet, and she jumped back just in time for a large panel to drop away. She didn't hear it land. She crept carefully along the walls, coming to a door. It had a complicated access mechanism that she figured must be a vault. She lifted a hand as if to push and see if that worked, but something clicked and the door opened, like she'd been recognized.
The door slammed shut behind her as soon as she was inside. She jumped, but she had to press on. She could see the wayfinder ahead, hovering between black fittings, glowing red from within. She reached for it, and grabbed it.
Her relief at finally having it gave way to dread as she had the pressing feeling that she was being watched. She turned, and saw a hooded figure in a dark cloak that swept the ground. She could see the shape of a pale face, but she was distracted by the woman pulling a red lightsaber, two parallel red blades that she swung apart to form a fiery quarterstaff, just like the half-finished lightsaber Rey had designed.
The glow from the lightsaber illuminated the face, and Rey saw it was her own.
The dark Rey felt cold and fierce, and Rey herself gasped, stumbling back. This couldn't be real, but she could sense herself, she could smell the ozone from the blade. It felt very real.
The dark Rey looked at her, almost kindly, but there was something off about it. She didn't mean it. It was like she didn't know how to mean it. "Don't be afraid of who you are."
Rey was ready with her own lightsaber to meet the dark Rey's, catching it on her blade before a killing blow could be dealt. She had practiced with a staff like this for as long as she could remember and had never considered needing to fight against it. She was also refusing to lose her grip on the wayfinder, which gave the other Rey an advantage, blows easily forcing Rey back into the throne room.
The dark Rey hissed, revealing sharp, pointed teeth, and Rey was so startled that she stumbled, tripping and falling. She was aware the wayfinder had slipped from her grasp and moved for it, but another black gloved hand got their first.
Kylo Ren stood across the throne room from her. Again. To escape a future dark self, only to collide with him. It was like her worst nightmares coming true.
She jumped to her feet, reigniting her lightsaber.
"Look at yourself," he said, pitying. "You wanted to prove to my mother… to my grandfather... that you were a Jedi. But you've proven something else. You can't go back to her now. Like I can't."
She didn't care. "Give it to me," she said, practically hissing the order.
He seemed surprised at that reaction, but tried again. "The dark side is in our nature. Surrender to it."
"Give it. To me," she said, pushing with the Force. She'd beaten him before, she would do it again. She would force it if she had to-
He lifted the wayfinder, and his expression turned smug. "The only way you're getting to Exegol is with me," he said, and tightened his grip until the wayfinder shattered. The thing she'd come halfway across the galaxy for, risked the lives of her friends for, had been obliterated.
Rey heard herself scream, "No!" but she felt herself propelled by pure rage, erupting forward and swinging her lightsaber.
He hadn't gotten his yet. He was unarmed, and yet he expertly dodged all of her blows like he knew they were coming. Which was somehow more infuriating than him trying to kill her back.
Her attacks increased in speed until he had to grab his lightsaber, blocking hers. They clashed over and over, her slashing like she had nothing else to lose and him countering, but he was losing ground. Then he stepped back and dropped into the part of the floor that had given way earlier.
Without a second thought, Rey jumped down after him.
She fought him from the moment she landed until they ended up outside the wreckage, on a bridgelike hunk of hull only meters wide. A massive gun turret loomed over them, his TIE parked beyond it. The ocean raged all around, spraying them both with water, but she was oblivious. She pressed her attack.
"Rey!"
She was aware that Finn was running towards her, Jannah left behind to watch the second skimmer they had brought. Rey's first instinct was to protect him. She threw out her hand and pushed him back towards Jannah just before a wave crashed down over the bridge between them, cutting him off from her.
Rey had always been better when she felt she was in a groove, and she felt like she was there now, even if it was perhaps not the sort of groove she wanted. She was attacking him constantly. If she felt cornered, she'd leap out of the way of massive waves, forcing him to follow her. She would not leave this place until one of them was dead, and he wouldn't cooperate, he just countered every blow.
Eventually, though, she had to get tired. She was expending more energy against an opponent who was bigger, stronger, more practiced than her. She honestly couldn't remember when she'd last rested, let alone had real sleep. When had she left Ajan Kloss? He'd remained entirely calm, waiting for her to tire out. It was a tactic she'd learned, but she'd never expected it from him.
He was the one attacking now, but somehow his pommel clipped her hand, and she took a split second to realize that it hurt, and he could have killed her right then. It would have been a cheap shot, but he could have done it. Another blow, and he knocked her off her feet, forcing her to drop her lightsaber. He loomed over her, raising his lightsaber. He wasn't wasting this on a cheap shot.
Rey stared up at him. She was going to die on this space station too. But maybe it was better to die now than to give in to the darkness later.
The blow didn't come. Instead he froze, and dropped his lightsaber.
Without thinking, Rey caught it.
She plunged the lightsaber into his gut.
She didn't have time to even realize she'd done it. Instead she was hit with a familiar feeling, overwhelming loss.
"Leia," she whispered. She'd felt this before, when they lost Luke. It had hurt then, but their relationship was much different. It felt like she'd been punched in the soul.
And then she looked down and realized what she'd done. She pulled the lightsaber out of him and shut it down, staring at him slumped on the deck, in shock.
Leia was dead. And Rey had just killed her son. He was still moving, still breathing, but he wouldn't survive what she'd just done to him. His last moments were going to be spent realizing his mother was gone.
Tears falling from her face, indistinguishable from the spray of the water, Rey dropped his lightsaber and knelt beside him, and reached out her hand to his abdomen, her fingers grazing the cauterized wound through the hole in his tunic. She was still tired from healing the vexis. This would cost her at a time she really couldn't afford it, but she had to. She shouldn't have done this, and she had to make it right. She drew on the life all around her, but mostly from herself. She gave.
Kylo's gaze remained on her face as she poured her life force into him until the wound healed beneath her hand.
Rey pulled her hand away, and for a moment they just looked at each other, neither completely sure what happened next. She noticed that the scar she'd left on his face the day they first met was gone.
"I did want to take your hand," she managed, quiet. "Ben's hand."
She didn't wait for an answer. It didn't look like one was coming anyway. She got to her feet, picking up her lightsaber and sprinting for his TIE before anyone could get to her.
She'd never felt out of control before. She'd never been out of control before. But it was apparently to her that the worst was happening. She was a Palpatine. She'd been hurting her friends with alarming frequency just in the last couple days. Kylo had wanted to turn her, but maybe he didn't have to. Maybe she was doing that job all by herself.
There was only one place she could go now.
[NFB, NFI, OOC okay. Taken from The Rise of Skywalker novelization by Rae Carson.]