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Chapter TextEight remote droids circle around Ben and Rey, whirring through the air like scarlet-and-chrome-shelled insects. They unleash a barrage of lasers that takes all of Rey's skill— her sharpest reflexes— to dodge and parry. The increase in power setting is glaringly obvious; the bolts sizzle. She feels the heat sparking off of them as they fly past her, lending a renewed urgency to her movements.

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These shots are lethal.Lately she's been dabbling in the Ataru form of lightsaber combat, but it's no good in a flat, open space like this, for an exercise that's so focused on defense. She falls back on Soresu— the tight, coiled motions, the steady, shuffling footing. One remote drops a few paces directly in front of her and fires ten blasts in rapid succession; she advances in a series of quick spins, weapon held parallel to the ground, off-hand stretched forward. The bolts clang as they bounce off the sapphire blade, skittering into the jungle's undergrowth.Beside her, Ben's deflections are more casual— almost languid, his strikes generated mostly from the wrist. If she were focusing less on her own affairs, she would find it maddening how much of his body he contorts into a target zone, how much of himself he leaves wide open and unguarded. But, in true Niman fashion, he compensates with prodigious use of the Force— stopping the blasts in midair, flicking the remotes away, manipulating several lasers at once to collide in a multi-point explosion of sound and light.One bolt ricochets off the beam of his lightsaber and zips in her direction. She—— flows with the Force, lets it guide her, shifting her blade sideways just enough to catch the bolt, to send it slanting upwards into the treetops—Her fellow apprentices cheer.

Even the watching Knights look grudgingly impressed. But Luke— Luke beams, and Rey would have puffed with pride were she not in that trance-like Soresu state that mutes everything else but movement and the Force.The whirlwind attack pattern of the remotes soon coaxes Ben and Rey into standing back-to-back in the center of the clearing. Lasers pelt them from all sides; their feet waltz in perfect rhythm— almost heel-to-heel— as they redirect the blasts in a seesaw of sapphire and emerald beams. A remote on her left fires too soon after the one on her right to give her sufficient time to recover. As if sensing her predicament, Ben whirls around; she instinctively ducks beneath his wild deflecting slash and slides around him to block the shots of the droids that he had turned his back to.Adapting to the situation, the remotes' targeting systems start aiming for the spots where the two Jedi's bodies are pressed together, forcing them to spring apart and land on opposite ends of the clearing. Circle of shelter, Rey thinks as several of the spheres surround her and fire mercilessly.

Eye of the storm, she chants as she slips deeper into the Force, using it to predict which direction each bolt will come from, which bolt to dodge or catch first. It's a moving kind of meditation, which means she opens herself to whatever channels are running through the length of space and time.

Which means revelation, and visions.For a split second, the jungle disappears. She's strapped down in a cold metal room, somewhere. A masked, skeletal figure dressed in black looms over her and asks in a raspy, artificial voice, 'Where is Skywalker?' Startled, she jerks free of the trance. Movement at the corner of her eye elicits an automatic response— her arm lashes out. A blue blade hums against green, and she and Ben freeze, staring into each other's eyes as their weapons lock, their evasive footwork having brought them within striking distance of each other.Sound returns— distant birdsong, the ragged edges of Ben's breathing, a smattering of applause from their audience, the beeps as the remotes power down. The world sharpens into focus once more— the tangle of branches and leaves, the burned-out soil, the morning sky, the flecks of gold in Ben's dark irises.He flashes her a lopsided grin.

She wrinkles her nose at him. They switch off their lightsabers and she tosses hers back to Valin, while Luke concludes the exercise by summoning the remotes into his pack.

As they troop back to the academy, Rey scurries to her master's side and tells him in low tones about what she had just seen.He frowns. 'Since the circle of shelter maneuver is executed while in a meditative state, prolonged use can open a Force-adept's mind to visions of the future,' he says slowly, 'but we ever only get bits and pieces. I must confess that I do not yet understand what you saw. However, when you become a Jedi Knight, you will encounter many difficulties, meet many foes. This confrontation waits for you, somewhere down the line.'

'He was looking for you, Master,' she says uneasily.' Story of my life,' Luke sighs. 'I hate to think that you might possibly be harmed on my account, but—' He smiles at her reassuringly. 'You fought well today. I have no doubt that you will be able to face whatever comes. In the meantime, I shall try to meditate on this future that you have glimpsed— perhaps we might be able to find a way to stop it from ever happening.' In front of them, Ben suddenly stops walking and looks up at the sky with a harsh scowl.

Rey follows his gaze. Plunging from the clouds is a blunt-nosed oval silhouette that she has seen a few times over the years— a YT-1300 Corellian light freighter that's her favorite ship in the galaxy, captained by one of her favorite people.Ben refuses to share her views, which is all the more tragic considering his relationship to the man.

'Master,' he grumbles, 'you didn't tell me he was coming here.' His blue eyes twinkle. 'I wanted it to be a surprise.'

.By the time they reach the Great Temple, the Millennium Falcon has already docked on the landing pad, the duralloy-plated hull ticking as it cools and the low drone of the Girodyne sublight drive tapering off into silence. When Han Solo bounds down the ship's ramp, Luke, Ben, and Rey are there to greet him, although Ben hangs back, looking as if he'd rather be anywhere but here.Like Luke, Han has gray strands streaking through his hair, as well as more wrinkles than he'd sported on his rugged features the last time he visited the Praxeum six years ago. But the decades fall off the two men as they hug warmly, with Han then trapping Luke in a headlock while both of them chuckle.Heroes of the galaxy, Rey thinks, with a wry grin.' I was coming from Nam Chorios when I commed you,' Han tells Luke once they've untangled themselves from each other. 'Leia's spies were right— the Imperial Remnant was trying to take over the Meridian sector. Relatively painless skirmish, though. Your Jedi handled themselves well— your boy Kyp, especially.'

'Master Durron was there?' Rey prays that her fascinated tone goes unnoticed. The youngest Jedi Master of the New Republic is something of a legend at the academy; the students regale themselves with tales of his daring and gush over his chiseled good looks.Han nods. 'Flew the Sundance like a dream.

Then he did that. Mumbo-jumbo mind trick thing on the sentient tsil crystals powering Moff Getelles' needle fighters.

The battle was practically over after that.' He nudges Luke in jest. 'You're a pretty decent teacher, farmboy.

Who'd've thought?' 'Your unshakable faith in me is a comfort, as always,' Luke deadpans.Han acknowledges the quip with a short laugh, and then his expression grows more solemn. 'Well, I say it was the Imperial Remnant, and that's what the Republic's officially putting out, but Getelles cracked during interrogation and he mentioned something. The takeover attempt might've had more to do with that other splinter faction, the one that Leia's been getting disturbing reports about.'

Luke rubs his chin. 'We'll have to discuss that later, maybe try to get a hold of Leia if she's not too busy—'Yeah, good luck with that,' Han snorts. 'Between arguing against demilitarization policies and improving trade relations with the Trans-Hydian Borderlands, I doubt Her Worshipness even has time to breathe.' He turns to Rey and pretends to do a double-take. 'Well, kid, look at you! Broken any hearts yet?' 'None worth mentioning,' she primly replies.Han's weather-beaten face splits into a roguish grin.

'Seems like only yesterday when you were this tiny little gap-toothed brat climbing all over my ship.' By contrast, his reunion with Ben is— awkward. The two men regard each other warily for several tense moments, until Han pokes an outstretched hand into the distance between them. Ben stares at the offer for a heartbeat too long, and then closes his own fingers around it in a perfunctory handshake that ends almost the second it begins.' Good to see you, son,' Han grunts.'

Father,' Ben acknowledges stiffly. 'To what do I owe the pleasure?' Rey rolls her eyes. He's just set a whole new record for fastest descent into sarcasm.' Just wanted to drop in and say hi,' Han mumbles, sounding harried and defensive. 'I needed to come out to this system, anyway— to help Lando set up his new operation.'

'What's Lando's scam now?' 'No, wait, let me guess. Starting a space station casino and you're bringing him a shipload of sabacc cards.' 'No,' Ben mutters.

'He's opening a Nerf ranch and wants Father to help him build a corral.' 'Not even close.'

Han points to the great orange sphere of the planet Yavin hanging in the sky overhead. 'He's mining for Corusca gems deep in the atmosphere of the gas giant.' 'Pity, that was going to be my next guess,' Ben snarks.A large, hairy form ambles down the Falcon's ramp. A roar thunders through the air as Chewbacca of Kashyyyk proclaims his greeting to the jungle moon.Ben draws himself up to his fullest height, squaring his shoulders and bracing his feet firmly on the ground. 'Don't even think about it,' he warns, but, despite his attempt to look formidable, Chewbacca charges toward him and scoops him up into his huge, heavily-furred arms.' Chewie, no,' Ben protests as the Wookie tosses him into the air, admittedly with more effort than had been required ten years ago. 'I am not a child anymore—' But his surliness falters when Chewbacca catches him on the way down.

A strange sound emerges from his throat— a strangled, raspy exhale.Rey's heart clenches. Ben only ever laughs when it's startled out of him, and, for a moment— just for a moment, so fleeting that she'd have missed it if she'd blinked— he seems to sort of bury his face into Chewbacca's shoulder as the Wookie ruffles his messy hair. Han and Luke are smiling at the scene, with such rare, unguarded tenderness that Rey wonders if they're seeing a dark-eyed little boy instead of the tall, broad-shouldered Jedi Knight standing in front of them. You are so loved, she thinks as Ben extricates himself from Chewbacca's grasp. Please let that be enough.

Her vision of the Temple of Exar Kun floats before her, a chill foreboding. She has to tell Luke. Ben won't like it, but—Chewbacca turns to her.

We have a gift for you, he grunts in Shyriiwook. We found it in a junkyard in Fresia—'Hey, I found it,' Han barks. 'You just helped me steal—' He catches Ben's glower and corrects himself, 'carry it back to the ship.'

Rey follows Chewbacca into the Falcon. As always, she can't help running her gaze over every nook and cranny of the unkempt interior corridors littered with all sorts of mechanical gear. She knows from previous inspections that there are cargo sections hidden beneath the deck-plates, generators 'liberated' from various yards that provide warship-grade shielding, powerful Carbanti signal-augmented sensor jammers, and a host of other illicit modifications crafted from parts obtained on the black market. It's a smuggler's vessel, in every sense of the word.The main cargo bay smells like speeder fuel, machined metal, and space rations. There is a cloth-covered pile in the corner, secured by straps and webbing. Chewbacca works the fastenings loose and the cloth slides away to reveal—— a dismantled T-23 skyhopper, with a battered blue hull and scarred trihedral wings.What do you think?

Chewbacca asks Rey. Can you get this thing airborne again?' That E-16/x ion drive appears serviceable,' she muses, indicating the engine mounted between the wings.

'Of course, the onboard computer probably needs a system overhaul, and the exterior can do with a bit of body work, but it should be easy to put everything together and fix her up.' Good, says Chewbacca, proudly. She's all yours.' You have the most ridiculous grin on your face,' Ben remarks as he helps Rey levitate the airspeeder's components into the hangar. Han and Luke have disappeared into the temple, while Chewbacca has stayed behind on the Falcon to run long-overdue checks on the navigation computer and life support system.' It's an awesome gift,' Rey insists.

'It's vintage.' 'You,' he says, 'are weird.' Well, maybe if you didn't act like every present your father ever gave you was beneath your dignity, he'd have brought you something this time around, too.Rey blinks. Where had that come from? Such a mean little thought, with no intention except to wound when said out loud. She's no stranger to her own inner nastiness, but she's always assumed that Ben and his strained relationship with his parents were exempt from it.

To compensate, she says, 'It was nice of Han to visit. He misses you a lot, yeah?'

Ben rolls his eyes. 'Want to bet my mother guilt-tripped him into it?' She stops walking, dropping the T-23's cockpit onto the metal floor of the hangar.' The rear passenger compartment that he'd been levitating falls down as well, with a hefty thump. 'You heard him.

He's en route to another crackpot moneymaking scheme. I'm just a pitstop along the way.' She looks at his resentful glare, at the belligerent jut of his bottom lip. Our childhood never really leaves us, she realizes. We can grow up, but the things we carry remain.

'Forget I ever mentioned it,' she sighs out loud.' Yes, instead of speculating on the negligible depth of my father's emotional attachment to me, perhaps you should just stick to swooning over Kyp Durron.' 'I beg your pardon!' Rey squawks.Ben turns away, but not before she catches the smirk playing at the corner of his mouth. He's teasing her.

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She's absolutely mortified. The blood rushes to her face in warm waves.

'You— you great big gob of bantha poodoo!' She sputters at his retreating back as he walks out of the hangar to retrieve the last of the skyhopper's components.' Such language,' he calls over his shoulder.

'You and Master Durron would be perfect for each other.' 'Switch off,' she fumes.Later, when it's time for Han and Chewbacca to leave, Rey helps them conduct preflight checks on the Falcon. Any excuse to hang around the ship, really.

She's inspecting the exterior vents for anything that might have roosted there within the past few hours, when Han moseys up to her, wiping his hands on a grease-stained rag.' Seen Ben around?' He casually inquires. 'He disappeared after lunch.' And what a tense meal it had been, father and son in one corner of the mess hall, picking at their food in silence.'

He probably went up to the living quarters,' says Rey.' Figures,' Han grumps.

'That boy never leaves his room. There was this one time he visited us on Coruscant— he must've been around seventeen or so— Leia and I practically had to drag him out of the palace. We took him to the tauntaun stables in the polar ice caps up north.' 'Tauntaun riding,' Rey echoes blankly. 'Yeah, he hated it.' Han crumples the rag into a ball and tosses it through the open doorway of the Falcon.

'I told Leia it was a bad idea, but— well, I get it, she was trying to make up for lost time. She was Minister when Ben was born, and then Mon Mothma took ill and she had to assume more responsibilities even before she officially became Chief of State. Not like we had much chance to take Ben on family outings. And he left us so early, too.' He trails off, looking wistful in the orange afternoon light.The thing is, Rey actually remembers Ben coming back from the visit that Han mentioned. Yes, he had been seventeen, dour and miserable, stomping into the Great Temple with a blazing desire to rid the galaxy of the tauntaun menace. It had been hilarious at the time, but not now— not with Han Solo, infamous smuggler and Rebellion general, looking so old and so defeated.'

I could get Ben for you,' she offers, and she's already preparing to reach out through the Force, when Han shakes his head.' Probably best like this. I'm always overstaying my welcome with that kid. Always saying the wrong thing.' 'Chewie and I will try to visit again before we jump off-system, but, if that doesn't pan out, who knows— the next time I see you, you might already be a Jedi Knight.' A familiar thrill of excitement rushes through her veins, but it's colored by the dread left over from her vision of the metal room and her dark captor. There is something terrible in store for her, and, despite Luke's assurances, she doesn't know if she'll ever be prepared for it.

How does one fight a creature in a mask?She remains at the edge of the landing pad as the Millennium Falcon pushes off from the ground with a whine of repulsorlifts and then clears the treeline before angling up into the sky. She feels around for Ben, and senses a strange mixture of longing and regret. Tactfully drawing back, she wonders what he's doing now, if he's standing at the window of his room, watching his father sail away.A memory:Han's previous visit to Yavin 4, six years ago, is also the first time Rey sees Leia Organa, gracefully alighting from the Falcon in regal white robes with a golden 3PO unit protocol droid by her side. Rey and the rest of the students are clustered outside the ziggurat as a makeshift welcoming committee; she cranes her neck between Bazel and Natua to peer eagerly at Ben's mother. Now she knows where he gets his commanding demeanor from, although Leia's charm seems to have completely passed her son by.'

Ben is cloistered right now, reflecting on the path he will take,' Luke tells his sister as they embrace. 'You'll see him at the ceremony.' 'I hope he's in a better mood than he was during our last comm,' Leia quips. 'Although, in his defense, this one—' She inclines her head in Han's direction as he bounds up to them— 'was baiting him.' 'I never bait him, Leia,' Han protests.

'If anything, he baits me.' 'Today your son takes his vows as a Jedi Knight. This is a happy occasion,' Luke reminds the couple. 'Let's not spoil it.' More ships arrive, dotting the sky and then coasting down onto the landing pad one after the other.

The students whisper excitedly among themselves as each passenger disembarks— some of them family members who have been invited to witness the ritual, others Jedi Masters who will be participating in it. Raynar's mother, Lady Aryn Dro Thul of the lost planet of Alderaan, stops in front of Leia and sinks into an elaborate, traditional curtsy. The green-skinned Twi'lek Daeshara'cor, the wizened old Streen, and Cilghal of Mon Cala bow to Luke, followed shortly by Kirana Ti, who is dressed in the reptilian leather armor of Dathomir. From her place beside Rey, Jysella breaks formation to rush into the waiting arms of her father, Corran Horn.Luke has painstakingly reconstructed the Knighting Ceremony from ancient texts that survived the Empire's purge. 'The Force speaks through us,' he solemnly recites, his voice echoing through the Grand Audience Chamber. 'Through our actions, the Force proclaims itself and what is real.

Today, we are here to acknowledge what the Force has proclaimed.' He then calls on each candidate one by one, and the audience watches from a respectful distance as the Masters formally induct them into the Jedi ranks. Instead of joining the other students, Rey has scaled the pyramid and is now perched on the ledge of a skylight; from here, she has a clear view of Ben as he takes Eryl Besa's place inside the circle of Masters.If he's nervous, he doesn't show it, although his face seems paler than usual.

He kneels down; all around him, the Masters ignite their lightsabers in a vertical salute. The differently-colored beams blaze amidst the shadows of the vast stone hall, streaking Ben Solo in jeweled shards of emerald, sapphire, amethyst, topaz, and silver.Luke steps forward. His nephew gazes up at him and, for the first time, a flicker of uncertainty shades those dark eyes. How young he looks, Rey thinks.

She darts a glance at his parents; Leia has both hands folded across her heart, while Han has shoved his into his pockets, but they're watching carefully, oh, so carefully, not even daring to blink.Luke is silent for a moment as he taps into the Force, letting it guide the personalized message that he gives each candidate. 'All your life you have looked away,' he finally murmurs, 'to the future, to the past. But you must remember, you who are of my blood, that the present moment is also just as important. I have had to learn this lesson the hard way. Like you, I used to dwell on my dreams. But a Jedi desires neither power nor glory, and you, who are so strong in the Force, must bear in mind that it should never be used to destroy.

Your path will be a difficult one, burdened as you are by the weight of all our names, but remember that our family has always come back to the Light. He lowers his blade onto Ben's shoulders, first the left, then the right. 'By the will of the Force, I dub thee Jedi, Knight of the Republic.' Ben rises to his feet.

It was a boy who had knelt in the middle of the room, within a ring of light; it is a Knight who stands and departs the chamber in the customary silence, to remain in seclusion for a few more hours as he reflects on what has been said to him. Rey thinks that he hovers at the exit, head almost turning as if to search for his parents, or for her, but it seems as if he has already taken Luke's words to heart.

He does not look back.Now Rey wanders the halls of the Great Temple, fixed on Luke's signature which is emanating from a meditation room on the second level. Ascending the staircase, she runs into Alema, who's walking to the ground floor.' Hello, little Jedi,' drawls the Twi'lek. 'You're going the wrong way. Solo just went downstairs.'

'I'm not looking for Ben.' Defensiveness sharpens Rey's response.Alema snorts.

'Well, there's a surprise.' 'What's that supposed to mean?' 'For as long as I can remember, you've always followed him around. Like a second shadow. It's actually kind of cute,' Alema says flippantly. 'He was the one who found you, wasn't he?

Stands to reason that you should be so devoted.' Rey narrows her eyes. 'What's your point?'

'We are always beholden to our rescuers. Like you, my sister and I were plucked from the wastelands. Scavenging is a kind of slavery, isn't it? So was dancing. There, in the ryll dens.' Alema's voice sours.

'Sometimes I wonder if Daeshara'cor knew about the dangers of the life she brought on us. With every mission that Numa and I escape by the skin of our teeth, I wonder that.' 'If not for her, you would still be on Ryloth,' Rey points out.' Of course, who is to say that we could not have broken free on our own? If not for her, I wouldn't be dancing to the commands of the Republic, my powers tugged along by politicians' strings.'

The Twi'lek is giving off the same strange aura that had come from Raynar on the edge of the lake, her green eyes glazed over. Rey is suddenly very afraid; she takes a few steps back, almost without knowing it. All around her, the stones roar with silence.' You have experienced your dangers, too, have you not?' Alema murmurs. 'I saw Solo carry you across the river, into the temple. You were so still in his arms, and he was so exhausted, practically crawling after he'd dragged you all that way.

A few of the apprentices saw, but he told them that you had merely fainted from the heat. Of course they believed him, but he couldn't fool me. He warned me not to tell Master Luke about it, that he could handle it himself.' 'Why did you listen to him?' Rey demands.' Because I understand where he's coming from, and so should you.'

It's almost a growl. 'The Masters hold us back. They think we are still children who can't fight or think for ourselves, even though we are stronger than they can ever imagine.' 'Alema, listen to what you're saying!'

Rey bursts out in frustration. 'Surely you realize that something isn't right. Something's found its way in, it's warping people's minds, we have to tell Master Luke—'This is disappointing,' Alema says coldly.

'I never had you pegged for a tattletale.' 'I'm not—'Solo will never forgive you.' The words slam into Rey's soul, awakening a bright sliver of pain. 'Neither will any of us,' Alema continues. 'if you go behind our backs. This is our challenge, and we will face it on our own terms.'

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She flashes Rey a tight smile as she brushes past her. 'Just something to think about.' Rey is left alone on the staircase, reeling from this unexpected confrontation.

And then she hears it— not a physical voice, more of a disembodied thought that's not her own.She is right. Deep in your heart, you know that she is right.There is a prickle on her nape. Some primal instinct is shouting at her not to look, you must never look, when you are alone in an ancient stairwell where the shadows are so thick even though it's daytime, you must never look behind you—Rey turns around.The Dark Man sneers at her. Notes:For the purposes of this AU, I have condensed the plot of the Expanded Universe novel into the 'relatively painless skirmish' that Han mentions. The gist remains the same: tries to take over the, and flies a light scoutship, the, during the battle of. However, in the EU, it is actually Luke who appeals to the that power the.The.Lando Calrissian's.The.A.The planet of.In the YJK novel, it is mentioned that an enterprising Bothan stable manager had transported a few to the ice caps of, intending to offer tauntaun riding as an activity for winter sports enthusiasts. Not a good idea, as the beasts became stubborn and surly at having been taken away from their.The and the.

Luke's words to Ben are a reference to what Yoda says in The Empire Strikes Back: 'This one a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away. To the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. What he was doing. A Jedi craves not these things.

You are reckless!' It's one of my favorite quotes and I needed to include it here.