Star Wars: The Rise of Ren ✓

Chapter 63 - Saying Good-bye

Early the next morning while it was still dark, the rain continued to pour. A crackle of thunder overhead jerked Luke out of his reverie.

All that remained of the pyre was ashes. Luke's heart broke again. Ragged sobs shook his body.

The pain overwhelmed him. The Padawan. Little Olasah. How could Ben kill her? She was an innocent. He wandered through the destruction, counting the bodies, hoping to find that even one had escaped the massacre.

The sobs transformed to heaving as his body could no longer bear the loss. His family. The Padawan. The Jedi. His kids. They were all his kids. He shook his head. There's too many of them. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I wasn't here. I'm sorry I can't—

"Artoo, how long since we arrived?"

The droid beeped back a reply, swiveling his dome.

Only an hour left.

When he glanced again at the burning academy, he realized what he would have to do. Grabbing the nearest body—Kalder's—he hauled it across the small culvert to the opposite hill where the academy still burned.

Holding his cloak in front of his face to filter the smoke, he pushed his way through the smoke to the burning courtyard. One look told Luke this was not a natural fire. Even the stones were burning.

He laid Kalder at the base of the flames and returned for Kallay.

An hour later, the bodies formed a circle around the central fire of the courtyard. Luke intoned the funeral chant, waving his arms in ritual. He watched as their spirits floated from the fire into the otherworld.

When the fire grew, pushing him back into the smokey corridor, Luke gathered his bearings. The northeast wings were engulfed. The wind was whipping the flames into a frenzy, but the pouring rain fought against it.

He crawled down the corridor to the west wing. The study was gone, but he had a few things he could salvage from his quarters.

He closed the hatch behind him, cutting the smoke and the roar of flames from his consciousness. He stood up. The smoke was barely perceptible here. He gazed at the bed, imagining Naluma there, waiting for him, teasing him. His heart contracted once more.

He shook the image from his head. He pulled the holograms of Naluma and Anakin's pre-natal imaging from his nightstand, tears returning to his eyes. He groaned at their images.

Grabbing a pillowcase from their bed, he stuffed the holos into it. He kneeled and grabbed a heavy metal chest from under the bed. He positioned his eye in the retinal lock. The lid popped open, revealing a velvet-lined coffer.

He hefted a velvet bag, feeling the synthetic Kyber crystals jingle. The rest of the box held a variety of lightsaber parts . . . the ones he and Naluma were going to use to build Anakin his first saber. He slammed the lid shut and shoved the box in the pillow case.

The smoke wafted through as the walls of the suite caught fire. Luke grabbed a towel from the refresher. When he turned on the tap, only a few drops spluttered. The water pump was down.

He covered his nose and mouth with the towel and headed to the hatch. Flames licked through the walls now. The dresser blazed.

Preparing to leave, he burned his hand on the hatch. "Oww!" He shook the pain away and used the Force to blast the windows behind him.

A sudden crash deafened him. Pain. Darkness. Smoke.

Long minutes elapsed as the flames licked at his arms and legs. The charred timbers directly on top of him offered some protection. The crash had smothered the flames so that they only smoldered now. The rest of the fire still raged.

Luke coughed and looked for his towel. Gone. Nothing but ashes now. When he touched his face with his prosthetic hand, the metal digits burned his flesh.

He pushed up against a timber with the Force. The pain would not let him focus. Nothing moved.

Taking as deep a breath as he dared in the midst of the inferno, he thrust his metal hand through the timbers. Grabbing onto the wood, he pulled himself out of the debris and crawled from the wreckage toward R2.

When he reached the droid, a large fireball burst forth from the academy. Luke dropped his bag and turned as the flames consumed the towers from the inside. With no more strength left within him, he collapsed to his knees. His heart pounded. His sobs penetrated the thunder storm and the fire storm. Nothing left to lose.