Hearts of Rebels | Star Wars Fanfiction

Chapter XXII

Rhea blinked the sleep from her eyes, groggily waking up in the cockpit of her ship. The tools were strewn over her and small droplets from last night's dreadful storm spotted the cockpits canopy. She concluded the engineers definitely did not design the ship for sleeping in.

She rubbed her eyes as she threw the tools off her. She shoved the canopy open, breathing in the hot, humid air of the swamp. A week had passed since her arrival to the strange planet. Her foot had healed decently since she had removed the splint soon after arriving. She would choose a limp over an infection as the splint became caked in mud and swamp water.

She also hadn't seen Luke since they arrived, or crashed on the planet. Climbing down, she walked back to Luke's ship, wanting to know what happened at the creatures house. His ship, masked in the thick swampy jungle, was only a few minutes from hers.

She stopped seeing something move. Her hand brushed against her thigh where her blaster remained, but stopped when she saw who it was. Luke, climbing and flipping through the air. Jumping over roots, and racing in and out of the heavy ground fog.

"Run! Yes. A Jedi's strength flows from the Force. But beware of the dark side. Anger... fear... aggression. The dark side of the Force are they. Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight. If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will, as it did Obi-Wan's apprentice," She heard the little creature shout.

She wondered where this Yoda was, the last time she saw that creature it was supposedly taking Luke to him. She made her way to his camp, deciding not to interrupt whatever they were doing.

R2-D2 beeped her a welcome as she sat beside him, stretching out her cramped legs. Much to R2-D2's relief, she began wiping the mud off his domed head just as Luke noticed her. He shrugged his backpack off and jogged over to her, breathing heavily. He took his jacket from a nearby branch and pulled it on as he sat down next to her.

"Haven't seen you for a while," He noted, wiping the sweat off his face.

"Yeah well one of us has to get off this slime ball. Did you find Yoda?" Rhea muttered as R2-D2 ejected swamp water from one of his many compartments.

"Yeah, he's the creature who messed up my camp," Luke almost laughed at what he said.

"Why does that not surprise me, how's your training?" Rhea asked.

"Confusing... underwhelming? I thought I'd be doing more, learning how to fight. How to defeat Vader. Instead, I'm just running around this swamp hoping that thing doesn't eat me when I swing across the bogs," Luke groaned.

"If there's one thing I learned from old Ben, it's that the Jedi are never straight forward,"

"I didn't come here to learn how to run and jump. I need to be able to fight Vader, that's the only way we'll win this war" Luke grumbled, kicking a rock by his foot in anger.

"Don't lose hope yet. This is the path you were meant to follow no one ever said it would be easy or simple. Yoda lived through the clone wars, he must have trained other Jedi he has to know what he's doing," Rhea patted Luke's back attempting to reassure him.

"That's easier said than done," Luke muttered, holding his head in his hands.

"I have no idea what this is like for you Luke, but I believe you can do it,"

"Well that's one of us," Luke muttered again.

"You don't believe in yourself?" Rhea looked at him, slightly shocked.

"I don't believe in all this running around," He lifted his head and waved his hands towards the jungle as if the jungle was to blame.

"Ben told you to come here. To find Yoda. I don't understand how, but I have my faith in Ben. You should too Luke, he's the reason we're still around to fight," Rhea stood up and walked in front of Luke. He sighed, knowing she was right, he glanced down at her and noticed her severe limp.

"Your foot?"

"It's alright, think you can help me with my ship? Kayfive needs to recharge," She held her hand out to him.

"Sure, this Jedi training is wearing. Cmon Artoo," He nodded and took her hand standing up. He slung his arm around her to help her walk.

They made it almost halfway to her ship when something stopped him in his tracks. He shivered despite it being humid and hot in the swamp. A huge, dead, black tree, surrounded by a few feet of water with giant, twisted roots forming a dark and sinister cave, sat ominously across the swamp that somehow went unnoticed by the two rebels until now.

"There's something not right here," Luke stared at the tree, starting to tremble.

Rhea stared at the tree for a few silent moments before her skin started to prickle with fear. Cold washed over her it was almost as if something down in the cave called to her. She could hear a voice, yet neither rebel had spoken.

Luke looked at her worried, then back at the cave, knowing something was unquestionably wrong with it. Yoda sat on a large root near the entrance of the tree cave, poking his gimer stick into the dirt.

"I got a bad feeling," Rhea whispered. She let go of Luke and leaned back on one of the looming trees.

R2-D2 swivelled his head between the two, being a droid he couldn't sense anything about the cave, but he could see Rhea and Luke's rising fear. So he shuffled closer to Rhea giving her a reassuring whistle.

"I feel cold, death," Luke told Yoda, he looked as if he was almost in a trance as he stared more and more at the eerie cave.

"That place... is strong with the dark side of the Force. A domain of evil it is. In you must go," The little Jedi spoke, he never made eye contact with Luke once as he spoke.

"What's in there?" Luke asked.

"Only what you take with you," Yoda said ominously. Luke looked warily between the tree and the little Jedi Master. He started to strap on his belt that held his blaster pistol and lightsaber.

"Your weapons... you will not need them," Yoda made his order more of a suggestion with the funny way he spoke.

Luke gave the cave a long look, before shaking his head in refusal. Yoda shrugged knowing he couldn't stop him. Luke walked up the entrance of the cave, brushing aside some hanging vines as he went into the cave, disappearing into the darkness.

Once Luke was gone Yoda looked at her wistfully. Once she caught his gaze, he shook his head towards the cave. She had the feeling Luke wasn't as ready to be a Jedi as he thought himself to be.

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