Star Wars: Edge of Hope

Chapter Fifty-Nine: This Is Where It Begins....

Rey couldn't stop the fear from coiling in on her as she stood stock still letting wave after wave of Force energy strike against her. Each strike forcing her back farther & farther away from her opponent, the saber jerked & shook as it's master called out to it, while under white knuckles & gritted teeth Rey fought to hold on. Anakin could tell she wanted it. She wanted to be strong. She wanted to be tested. But each time as the weight of the wall of energy knocked against her he could see the fear like a weight pulling her down out of the light.

It wasn't fair.

But then again life rarely ever is for those who fight to hang on to it.

It wasn't fair.

But this was the way things were...& if she couldn't let go of her fear, she would be vulnerable to the seduction of what the Dark Side would offer her. He knew the sweet sound of the voice as it washed over his mind wiping clear any thoughts of pain or loneliness. The Dark Side of the Force had many pathways filled with any number of desirable deceptions. Rey wasn't ready. She still yearned for simplicity, for calm, & for peace. She hadn't been taught the hard lessons as years of war & death had hardened Anakin to the truth.

Sometimes the peaceful were the weakest.
Anakin had come of age in a world where this truth left scars to remember the lesson.
Peace.
Weakness.
It breeds fear & anger, of possession over the life, over the power you were granted.
Anakin had grown up watching the shifts in power change like the turning of the sand dunes beneath a heavy wind.
Peace didn't make people free.
It made them slaves.

As Rey bent under his power her eyes wide & full of tears, he knew the hardest lesson she would need to learn before confronting her destiny.
It was the one he had failed.
Letting go of what you love most, surrendering not to the will of self or others, but to the Force itself.
There was only the Force.
If she couldn't find a way to trust herself she'd never find the strength to face her fears.
The horrible, wicked truth of all life...if you allow your fear to break your resolve, if you resigned yourself to a life of consequence, if you willingly took the yolk of oppression to stall the sting of death. You were not only making yourself a slave to it's whim & will, but those around you as well. He'd not been able to realize what that meant then. He'd not been able to see through the shifting curtain concealing the lies Palpatine had hidden behind. All the many ways he had used Anakin to conceal his desires & create contention between the JEDI & the people of the Republic they were sworn to serve. Palpatine had moved them all like pawns to create the illusion of a world with freedom & peace. The corrupt heart of one man overtaking the wills & lives of every living thing, person, & even for a time Anakain believed, the Force itself. These were the lessons he'd learned throughout his years of imprisonment behind the facade of the Emperor's faceless monster, Darth Vader. Only now he could see how the Force had deemed his punishment to be befitting of his crime.

Rey hit the floor & the energy flattened out disapating as she coughed sucking in heavy breath after heavy breath. Anakin shook as he released his hold on the Force & as little by little the reverberations washed across his skin, he could feel the voice of the Force go mute inside his head. Perspiration wetting his brow & his once dead lifeless flesh blushing at the heat of the energy he channeled up through the earth & rock of the island. Anakin had never felt a connection this strongly  which held itself in complete balance with his own powers. It was becoming exhausting as he forced himself to pull more & more energy from the core of the island to bring to bear against Rey.

Anakin: "Again...Again Rey. Rey? Slow down, remember what I taught you... Catch your breath. Breathe through our nose & exhale through your mouth, it'll slow your heart & keep you from passing out."