The Grey Area

Part Six : The Island

THE ISLAND – TEMPLE REMAINS – NIGHT

He paused a moment. Calculating his response. The creases in his forehead deepened. Thick smoke billowed into the air. The Temple was slow to fall. The crackles and pops of wood and stone, louder than the chirps of the Porgs.

"Tell me what you saw."

I closed my eyes, recalling the memory through a opaque haze. "You were arguing with a girl. She was crying. She's around my age. Dark brown hair. It's raining. You're remorseful... at a loss for words... then you-"

The Temple stood before me, beautifully crafted and resting peacefully. I place my hand on the stones coarse against my palm. Not a scroll out of place. Not a seat without one of my friends on it. Their cherub faces study the parchments before them.

Something caught in my throat. I couldn't greet my friends. I couldn't talk. I couldn't scream. I couldn't breathe. Fire filled the small room. My skin bubbled and gave way.

"Vim." Master Luke grabbed my arm. I pulled away from him. My skin was fine.

"Was she there that night?" He stood across from me. He held a hand out. For support or to strike, I'm not sure. He shook his head.

In whose past? Certainly not mine. I wasn't near any fire that night. My skin didn't bubble, or char or scar. Something got in my eyes. Not my arms. The closest to fire I've been is here, meters away from The Temple.

"You told her what you thought happened." I froze, nearly falling over in the mud. "Who is she?" My tone came out harsher than intended.

"Rey." He took a seat on a boulder. He stretched his legs out. "The Resistance sent her."

If he was to keep his secrets, I will keep mine. I've given him so much and so freely for the nothing he's given me.

He focused his eyes on me. I felt a tightness in my head I haven't felt in a while. Pounding from my heart made it's way to my throat. Then my ears, where it stayed. The rhythmic thumps made his next words nearly inaudible.

"She went to talk to Ben."

Silence.

"Ben." I barely heard it myself. "Where is he? Where is she? She can take me! I have to see him!" I tightened my bag's strap on my shoulder. I ran to him. Time was of the essence. If it meant I ran all over this soggy island, I would.

"We need to figure out what all you can do with The Force."

I couldn't formulate a response. A thought. An action. Move. Do something, say something!

"I need to find Ben. I need to tell him I'm okay. The kids were okay..." I backtracked from him. Scaring half a dozen Porgs as my feet splashed up mud. Was this why Rey had cried? Was he more focused on The Force than on people? Who am I to make assumptions? To project myself onto her psyche?

If I hurry, I can make it back to the ship and track her. Probably. I'd need to figure out tracking and how long my eyesight would work.

Without a word, I turned away from him. I'd come back to deal with him-

"Oh!" I ran into him. He stood before me. The sun shadowed his face. Though not much taller than me, he towered over me. I had never been scared of him. I never knew him to be angry or unjust. I walked around him.

"You will tell me all you know you can do with The Force." His voice, although low, commanded me back to him.

"I can pull myself to object. I can see the past and future. When I touch the ground I can see the layout of the surrounding space. I haven't picked up a lightsaber in a while." I blinked. Back to myself, I curled my lips into a snarl. "You used The Force on me."

"Once you leave this Island, there will be no need for you to come back." He took this tone with Younglings who wouldn't eat their vegetables. He didn't eat his vegetables either.

"Because you'll be with me." The mischievous twinkle in his eye wasn't lost in the serious mask he forced.

"I want to train you."

"You've trained me for fifteen years."

"I trained you at the rate of your peers. Not your capability."

"Train me on the way. Ben would like to see you." I readjusted the backpack. It grew heavier and heavier.

"What if your connection with The Force is so strong here because of the purity of this land? The potential and knowledge it holds."

"I have to help the others. Find Ben." I walked away. Shaking a Porg off the backpack. With or without sight, with or without The Force, I've made it this far. If I can be lead to one planet, I can be led to another.

"You had all this time to help, and you've failed."

"Did that green dust thing possess you?" I turned on my heel. Blood drained from his face. "Whatever you were talking to when this started." I gestured to the fire as it remained strong, but contained.

"That was..." he closed the distance between us. His brows furrowed. "That was Master Yoda."

I opened my hands: an instinctual shaking off the craziness he proposed. The fire died to a mere crackle. I can see ghosts? Is that a normal thing? Maybe I should stay. Learn what I can. No. No. I'm not staying to keep him company. To be his pet. His experiment. It'd take fifteen more years to learn whatever he felt like disclosing... Then what? I'd have all this power and lose it once I left the island?

Without the satisfaction of further conversation, I left him once again. Or tried to, at least.

"One last thing." I clenched my fists. What embers were left roared back to life. "You're controlling the fire."