Rey Skywalker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thatwaslucky) wrote2019-08-02 05:40 am
thatwaslucky) wrote2019-08-02 05:40 am
Ahch-To- Friday
Rey awoke to sunlight streaming through the narrow window in the stone wall directly into her eyes. Since Luke had promised to teach her, she'd at least claimed an empty hut for herself; it wasn't any more comfortable, but at least it had a roof. It also meant that she didn't have to be up instantly to make sure she was out before him, so she took a moment to rub the sleep out of her eyes and try to properly wake up.
For a moment she'd thought she'd seen someone in the hut with her- a tall, pale figure, sitting quietly, with a dark bulbous shape hovering over it and touching its face.
And it was almost as if she felt something pulling at her own cheek, tracing a line up from her jaw.
She looked up and her eyes widened. Kylo Ren sat there, his cheek bisected by an angry red line- the wound she had branded him with at Starkiller Base.
Rey picked up her blaster- Han's blaster- switched off the safety, and shot him in the side.
She thought she saw him jump at the blast, but… he wasn't there.
Rey bolted outside, and knew she definitely saw him this time. He saw her, too. He stopped in front of her, hand outstretched. "You will bring Luke Skywalker to me," he commanded.
But this time there was no feeling of anyone sifting through her brain. Unlike on Takodona, her body responded to her commands, not his. They were just words, and held no power over her.
Kylo lowered his hand as he seemed to realize that was dumb, and not going to work. "You aren't doing this. The effort would kill you. Can you see my surroundings?"
"You'll pay for what you did," Rey snapped, still stuck on righteous anger. He'd murdered Han, he'd hurt Finn, he'd tortured her. It was earned.
He was not bothered. This was a curiosity to him. "I can't see yours. Just you. So, no. This is something else."
She heard a voice behind her, and turned towards Luke when he called, "What's that about?" He didn't see Kylo, he was pointing to the hole in the hut, which was being studied by a group of squat lizardlike aliens dressed in white.
Rey had a moment of panic, and either Kylo felt that, or he saw her reaction. "Luke."
But when she turned back to Kylo, he was gone, as if he'd never been there. She thought about telling Luke, but that felt like a bad idea. He was talking to her finally, but their relationship was fragile, and if she told him she'd just seen his dark side nephew here, he'd likely kick her off the island before they could have a first lesson.
"I was cleaning my blaster. It went off," she lied.
That didn't seem to confuse Luke any less, but he shrugged it off and started up the stairs, leaving Rey with the aliens. One of them was glaring, holding her tool like a potential weapon if Rey stepped the wrong way.
Rey followed Luke, asking, "What were those things?"
"Caretakers," he answered. "Island natives. They tend to the structures the Jedi built."
"I don't think they like me."
"Can't imagine why."
The stairway ended in a cave on the side of a peak. She followed Luke inside, where an ancient mosaic was still visible in the middle of the stone floor. Past that was a pair of ledges, one higher than the other, and Luke led her out there, where he stood for a moment, idly twisting a reed in his hand.
Rey waited, and finally said, "So?"
"So."
Rey tried not to scowl. So far the morning when he'd teach her the ways of the Jedi wasn't terribly different than the mornings on which he'd refused to speak to her.
"Well, I'll start," she said. "We need you to bring the Jedi back, because Kylo Ren is strong with the dark side of the Force. Without the Jedi we won't stand a chance against him."
To be fair, she didn't really understand what that meant.
Luke peered at her. "What do you know about the Force?"
Here was the problem: Rey had some previous experience hearing about it… and she had just figured that it wasn't something she wasn't meant to understand, because she didn't get it. She'd had the opportunity to ask deeper questions, and hadn't, because she didn't think it would ever be needed. She especially didn't know how to explain it.
So she faltered. "It's a power that Jedi have. That lets them control people and… make things float."
She knew even as the words left her mouth that that was terrible.
"Impressive," Luke said after a moment. "Every word in that sentence was wrong." He gestured with the reed to the higher ledge. "Lesson one. Sit here, legs crossed."
Rey climbed up onto the ledge, sitting with her legs tucked neatly under her, ready to get to work.
"The Force is not a power you have. It's not about lifting rocks. It's the energy between all things- a tension, a balance that binds the universe together," Luke said.
All right, that tracked with what Rey had heard before. "Okay. But… what is it?"
"Close your eyes," he told her. "Breathe. Now, reach out."
Rey did as she was told and stretched out her arm, waiting. So far everything she'd experienced had just sort of happened. She didn't know what she was supposed to do.
Then she felt a tickle on her hand, and she gasped in surprise. "I feel something!" she said, excited.
"You feel it?" he asked.
"Yes! I feel it!"
"That's the Force."
"Really? I've never felt anything li- Ow!" Pain flared in her outstretched hand, and she yelped and opened her eyes to see Luke standing there with the reed that he'd slapped her hand with. Right. Embarrassed, she placed a hand over her heart and said, "You mean reach out like…"
Luke raised his eyebrows at her.
"Okay," she said sheepishly. "I'll try again."
She closed her eyes, and Luke took her hands, pressing them to the rock. "Breathe," he told her. "Just breathe. Now reach out with your feelings. What do you see?"
The image came to her almost immediately: the island, just as she'd seen it in her dreams before she ever came here. It didn't end there, though. Her first impression was life- life all around her. She could sense herself, and the Caretakers near the huts, but there was so much more than that. She felt the presence of flowers and grasses and shrubs. Birds and insects and fish, and creatures too tiny for the eye to see. Her awareness of all of it seemed to crowd her senses, plunging her into something so deep and intense that for a moment she thought she might drown in it, only to realize that was impossible, because she was part of that life.
"And between it all?" she heard him ask, distant even as he stood right by her.
"A balance, an energy. A Force."
"And inside you?"
"Inside me," she said, smiling, "that same Force."
"And this is the lesson," Luke said. "That Force does not belong to the Jedi. To say that if the Jedi die the light dies is vanity. Can you feel that?"
"There's something else," Rey went on, hearing what he said and moving on from it. "Beneath the island. A place. A dark place."
She could see it now, in her mind's eye. Rocky flats by the sea, ominous and cold. A dark hole in the rock...
"Balance," Luke explained. "Powerful light, powerful darkness."
"It's cold. It's calling me."
The ledge trembled beneath her, and dust and rocks fell from the cliffs around them.
"Resist it, Rey!"
Dimly, Rey heard his voice calling her name, but it faded away to nothing until all she could hear was the roaring of water. She was standing on the cold, rocky shore from her vision, moving as if hypnotized toward a black hole before her- the source of the roar. The sound built, reaching a crescendo as water shot out of the rock.
With a start, Rey found herself on the ledge. She gasped for breath, feeling as if she'd been dragged out of deep water. Her face was wet. She thought it was her imagination, but her hair was dripping.
"It was trying to show me something," she managed.
"You went straight to the dark," Luke said, horrified. "It offered something you needed. You didn't even try to stop yourself."
He turned his back on her, but she was still focused on him, trying to figure this out while it was still fresh. "I didn't see you. Nothing from you. You've closed yourself off from the Force," she said, realizing that she should known figured that from the start. "Of course you have."
Luke didn't answer that, both of them focused on the things they felt they needed to focus on more. "I've seen this raw strength once before, in Ben Solo," he said, very seriously. "It didn't scare me then. It does now."
He turned and walked away quickly, leaving Rey trying to figure out what had just happened.
*****
It was pouring again when Rey made her way carefully down the wet stone steps to the Falcon. She found Chewie in the cockpit, fussing with the hypertransciever. A dozen or so porgs had found their way into the area around him, checking out what he was doing and making themselves comfortable while R2-D2 seemed to be doing his best to avoid them. "Still can't reach the Resistance?" she asked.
He barked a no, frustrated.
"Keep at it," she told him. "If you get through, ask their stats, and… ask about Finn." Maybe he was awake by now. She hoped so.
He promised he would, and Rey made her way back to the landing ramp.
She still liked the rain, which was lucky because the island got a lot of it in sporadic downpours. Snow was a novelty she could take or leave, ice she hated, but after living so long in a place where you had to work to get a single bottle of water for a day, she loved seeing it just fall out of the sky. She stood out under the edge of the ship, holding her hand out to catch the rain and watching the ways the storm kicked up the waves, enough to splash her here and there.
Her smile faded as that buzzing feeling returned, stronger, and suddenly Kylo Ren stood in front of her once again. He sounded puzzled as he said, "Why is the Force connecting us?"
"Murderous snake," Rey spat out.
He stepped forward, but she refused to give him any ground. He wasn't really here, he couldn't hurt her.
"You're too late," she went on, determined to break through his air of detached curiosity. "You lost. I found Skywalker."
"Has he told you what happened, the night I destroyed his temple?"
"I know everything I need to know about you," she retorted.
"You do?" he asked casually, studying her. Was he reading her? It didn't feel like fingers in her brain like before, but was that what was happening? "You do. You have that look in your eyes from the forest, when you called me a monster."
"You are a monster."
He was too close to her, even as far away as he really was. There was something in his eyes- hurt? "Yes I am," he said, but there was no threat in it. It was matter-of-fact. Maybe miserable. Either way, he was claiming it.
And then he was gone, leaving her watching the waves breaking the stone.
[NFB, NFI, some stuff from The Last Jedi novelization by Jason Fry.]
For a moment she'd thought she'd seen someone in the hut with her- a tall, pale figure, sitting quietly, with a dark bulbous shape hovering over it and touching its face.
And it was almost as if she felt something pulling at her own cheek, tracing a line up from her jaw.
She looked up and her eyes widened. Kylo Ren sat there, his cheek bisected by an angry red line- the wound she had branded him with at Starkiller Base.
Rey picked up her blaster- Han's blaster- switched off the safety, and shot him in the side.
She thought she saw him jump at the blast, but… he wasn't there.
Rey bolted outside, and knew she definitely saw him this time. He saw her, too. He stopped in front of her, hand outstretched. "You will bring Luke Skywalker to me," he commanded.
But this time there was no feeling of anyone sifting through her brain. Unlike on Takodona, her body responded to her commands, not his. They were just words, and held no power over her.
Kylo lowered his hand as he seemed to realize that was dumb, and not going to work. "You aren't doing this. The effort would kill you. Can you see my surroundings?"
"You'll pay for what you did," Rey snapped, still stuck on righteous anger. He'd murdered Han, he'd hurt Finn, he'd tortured her. It was earned.
He was not bothered. This was a curiosity to him. "I can't see yours. Just you. So, no. This is something else."
She heard a voice behind her, and turned towards Luke when he called, "What's that about?" He didn't see Kylo, he was pointing to the hole in the hut, which was being studied by a group of squat lizardlike aliens dressed in white.
Rey had a moment of panic, and either Kylo felt that, or he saw her reaction. "Luke."
But when she turned back to Kylo, he was gone, as if he'd never been there. She thought about telling Luke, but that felt like a bad idea. He was talking to her finally, but their relationship was fragile, and if she told him she'd just seen his dark side nephew here, he'd likely kick her off the island before they could have a first lesson.
"I was cleaning my blaster. It went off," she lied.
That didn't seem to confuse Luke any less, but he shrugged it off and started up the stairs, leaving Rey with the aliens. One of them was glaring, holding her tool like a potential weapon if Rey stepped the wrong way.
Rey followed Luke, asking, "What were those things?"
"Caretakers," he answered. "Island natives. They tend to the structures the Jedi built."
"I don't think they like me."
"Can't imagine why."
The stairway ended in a cave on the side of a peak. She followed Luke inside, where an ancient mosaic was still visible in the middle of the stone floor. Past that was a pair of ledges, one higher than the other, and Luke led her out there, where he stood for a moment, idly twisting a reed in his hand.
Rey waited, and finally said, "So?"
"So."
Rey tried not to scowl. So far the morning when he'd teach her the ways of the Jedi wasn't terribly different than the mornings on which he'd refused to speak to her.
"Well, I'll start," she said. "We need you to bring the Jedi back, because Kylo Ren is strong with the dark side of the Force. Without the Jedi we won't stand a chance against him."
To be fair, she didn't really understand what that meant.
Luke peered at her. "What do you know about the Force?"
Here was the problem: Rey had some previous experience hearing about it… and she had just figured that it wasn't something she wasn't meant to understand, because she didn't get it. She'd had the opportunity to ask deeper questions, and hadn't, because she didn't think it would ever be needed. She especially didn't know how to explain it.
So she faltered. "It's a power that Jedi have. That lets them control people and… make things float."
She knew even as the words left her mouth that that was terrible.
"Impressive," Luke said after a moment. "Every word in that sentence was wrong." He gestured with the reed to the higher ledge. "Lesson one. Sit here, legs crossed."
Rey climbed up onto the ledge, sitting with her legs tucked neatly under her, ready to get to work.
"The Force is not a power you have. It's not about lifting rocks. It's the energy between all things- a tension, a balance that binds the universe together," Luke said.
All right, that tracked with what Rey had heard before. "Okay. But… what is it?"
"Close your eyes," he told her. "Breathe. Now, reach out."
Rey did as she was told and stretched out her arm, waiting. So far everything she'd experienced had just sort of happened. She didn't know what she was supposed to do.
Then she felt a tickle on her hand, and she gasped in surprise. "I feel something!" she said, excited.
"You feel it?" he asked.
"Yes! I feel it!"
"That's the Force."
"Really? I've never felt anything li- Ow!" Pain flared in her outstretched hand, and she yelped and opened her eyes to see Luke standing there with the reed that he'd slapped her hand with. Right. Embarrassed, she placed a hand over her heart and said, "You mean reach out like…"
Luke raised his eyebrows at her.
"Okay," she said sheepishly. "I'll try again."
She closed her eyes, and Luke took her hands, pressing them to the rock. "Breathe," he told her. "Just breathe. Now reach out with your feelings. What do you see?"
The image came to her almost immediately: the island, just as she'd seen it in her dreams before she ever came here. It didn't end there, though. Her first impression was life- life all around her. She could sense herself, and the Caretakers near the huts, but there was so much more than that. She felt the presence of flowers and grasses and shrubs. Birds and insects and fish, and creatures too tiny for the eye to see. Her awareness of all of it seemed to crowd her senses, plunging her into something so deep and intense that for a moment she thought she might drown in it, only to realize that was impossible, because she was part of that life.
"And between it all?" she heard him ask, distant even as he stood right by her.
"A balance, an energy. A Force."
"And inside you?"
"Inside me," she said, smiling, "that same Force."
"And this is the lesson," Luke said. "That Force does not belong to the Jedi. To say that if the Jedi die the light dies is vanity. Can you feel that?"
"There's something else," Rey went on, hearing what he said and moving on from it. "Beneath the island. A place. A dark place."
She could see it now, in her mind's eye. Rocky flats by the sea, ominous and cold. A dark hole in the rock...
"Balance," Luke explained. "Powerful light, powerful darkness."
"It's cold. It's calling me."
The ledge trembled beneath her, and dust and rocks fell from the cliffs around them.
"Resist it, Rey!"
Dimly, Rey heard his voice calling her name, but it faded away to nothing until all she could hear was the roaring of water. She was standing on the cold, rocky shore from her vision, moving as if hypnotized toward a black hole before her- the source of the roar. The sound built, reaching a crescendo as water shot out of the rock.
With a start, Rey found herself on the ledge. She gasped for breath, feeling as if she'd been dragged out of deep water. Her face was wet. She thought it was her imagination, but her hair was dripping.
"It was trying to show me something," she managed.
"You went straight to the dark," Luke said, horrified. "It offered something you needed. You didn't even try to stop yourself."
He turned his back on her, but she was still focused on him, trying to figure this out while it was still fresh. "I didn't see you. Nothing from you. You've closed yourself off from the Force," she said, realizing that she should known figured that from the start. "Of course you have."
Luke didn't answer that, both of them focused on the things they felt they needed to focus on more. "I've seen this raw strength once before, in Ben Solo," he said, very seriously. "It didn't scare me then. It does now."
He turned and walked away quickly, leaving Rey trying to figure out what had just happened.
*****
It was pouring again when Rey made her way carefully down the wet stone steps to the Falcon. She found Chewie in the cockpit, fussing with the hypertransciever. A dozen or so porgs had found their way into the area around him, checking out what he was doing and making themselves comfortable while R2-D2 seemed to be doing his best to avoid them. "Still can't reach the Resistance?" she asked.
He barked a no, frustrated.
"Keep at it," she told him. "If you get through, ask their stats, and… ask about Finn." Maybe he was awake by now. She hoped so.
He promised he would, and Rey made her way back to the landing ramp.
She still liked the rain, which was lucky because the island got a lot of it in sporadic downpours. Snow was a novelty she could take or leave, ice she hated, but after living so long in a place where you had to work to get a single bottle of water for a day, she loved seeing it just fall out of the sky. She stood out under the edge of the ship, holding her hand out to catch the rain and watching the ways the storm kicked up the waves, enough to splash her here and there.
Her smile faded as that buzzing feeling returned, stronger, and suddenly Kylo Ren stood in front of her once again. He sounded puzzled as he said, "Why is the Force connecting us?"
"Murderous snake," Rey spat out.
He stepped forward, but she refused to give him any ground. He wasn't really here, he couldn't hurt her.
"You're too late," she went on, determined to break through his air of detached curiosity. "You lost. I found Skywalker."
"Has he told you what happened, the night I destroyed his temple?"
"I know everything I need to know about you," she retorted.
"You do?" he asked casually, studying her. Was he reading her? It didn't feel like fingers in her brain like before, but was that what was happening? "You do. You have that look in your eyes from the forest, when you called me a monster."
"You are a monster."
He was too close to her, even as far away as he really was. There was something in his eyes- hurt? "Yes I am," he said, but there was no threat in it. It was matter-of-fact. Maybe miserable. Either way, he was claiming it.
And then he was gone, leaving her watching the waves breaking the stone.
[NFB, NFI, some stuff from The Last Jedi novelization by Jason Fry.]