Star Wars Episode VII: The Search For Skywalker

The Dark Cave

"Master Yoda, please give us the map," Ben pleaded.

"The map, I cannot give you. Hehe. Find it yourselves you must," said Yoda.

"Can you at least tell us where it is?" Han asked, a little impatiently.

"Defeat the purpose, that would," Yoda answered.

"But how can we find the map, if you won't help us?" Ben asked.

"Yeah...this planet is huge, and covered in thick forests..." said Han.

"And stinky swamps," Finn added.

Han pointed at Finn, and nodded. "We can't forget those."

Finn nodded.

"The map could be anywhere. It could have sunk to the bottom of a mud hole," said Han.

Ben nodded. "We'll never find it."

"Find it, you will," Yoda answered. "Food and rest, first you will need."

"Food and rest sounds good to me," said Finn. The others nodded in agreement.

Yoda offered Finn a plate of strange looking food. Finn wasn't sure what it was, but it didn't look very appetizing to him.

"On second thought, I'm not hungry," said Finn.

Ben looked around, Rey was gone. "Where's Rey?"

Han looked around. "She's gone," he answered, concerned.

"Gone to find her past, she has," Yoda answered.

Han looked at the little Jedi, he was confused. What did Yoda mean, that she had gone to find her past?

"Why did she go by herself?" Ben asked. He was concerned about Rey's safety. "Who knows what kind of creatures live on this planet? I saw two snakes between the ship and Yoda's house. What if she got bit by one? Or got stuck in a mud hole?"

Han, Finn and Poe all stared at him.

"Ben, calm down," Leia said. She gently rubbed her son's back. It had always calmed him down as a child. His breathing returned to normal but his eyes were still filled with concern.

Ben took a deep breath. He didn't know why he was so worried, he was beginning to sound like his mother.

"A journey she must take alone, this is," Yoda answered.

Han looked out of the window. The light was fading. "It's going to get dark soon. And I don't think it's safe for her to be out there by herself after nightfall," he said. "Ben, go find her. The rest of us will go get some supplies."

"Supplies?" Yoda asked.

"Yes," Han answered. "Food...water."

"Food I have," Yoda answered, pointing to the plate of strange looking food. "And water, yes, water also." He pointed to jug of greenish water.

Han's eyes widened with disgust, but he didn't answered. He just turned to leave, Chewbacca was right behind him.

Finn stared at the water. The memory of the water he had drunk from the trough on Jakku returned to his mind. "Solo, wait for me," he exclaimed as he hurried to follow him.

"Me too!" Poe jumped up from his seat.

Han shook his head, he wondered if he would ever get this kid to stop calling him Solo.

The voices became louder as Rey made her way between the trees. The farther she went, the thicker and eerier the fog became. Through the thick fog, she could see a large dark shape just ahead of her. She gripped her staff tighter, part of her wanted to run in the opposite direction, but the voices called her forward, pulling her towards them. She felt like her feet had taken control, and she was just a passenger.

As she walked closer to the dark shape, she saw that it was an old tree. It appeared to have died long ago. Vines grew on the branches and hung down on the path before her. She could see a dark cave through the thick curtain of vines. She carefully pushed the vines aside and stepped into the cave.

A small crack in the cave's roof allowed a thin line of light to shine on the cave floor. Rey followed it deeper into the cave. She could feel something calling her there. She felt alone and afraid, but she felt like the cave held the answers she had been searching for her whole life. Who her parents were... who she was.

Suddenly she heard a voice. It sounded like a little girl's voice, crying out. "Come back! Come back!" She knew the voice all too well. It was her own.

She turned to see herself as a little girl reaching towards the sky. "Come back!" she cried with tears on her face.

Rey turned to look at the sky where she knew her cries were directed. She saw a ship flying away. It got smaller and smaller, as it flew farther an farther away from her. She knew this scene all too well, she had lived it a million times. She closed her eyes tight, hoping for the painful memory to disappear.

"Please, show me my parents," she whispered.

She opened her eyes to see two dark figures walking towards her. Would she finally get to see her parents? But as the figures came forward, they merged into one figure. As the image cleared...she saw only herself.

Tears filled her eyes. She was all alone. The only thing she had seen from her past was herself... all alone, just as she had always been, and always would be. That's all her future would hold, loneliness. Was she destined to be alone?

She turned away from the image. But what stood behind only made her feel more alone and afraid...On the ground in front of her were two graves. They were marked with two blank stones, but Rey knew who was buried in the graves... her parents. They were dead. After all of these years of waiting... they were gone. She collapsed to her knees in front of the graves and wept.

When she looked up again, the graves vanished. She looked down on the ground to see a small device, next to her knees. She reached down and picked it up. She looked at the device in her hand. It was a piece of the map. She put it in her pocket. She stood up and looked around. She could feel a darkness in the cave around her. It frightened her and she wondered why she had come there in the first place.

Suddenly tall dark figure towered over her. His face was badly scarred and disfigured. It was Snoke. "Come to me child, and I will show you the power of the Dark Side," his deep, menacing voice echoed in her mind.

She was not one to scream, but that was all she could seem to be able to do. She backed away as quickly as she could. Then she hurried out of the cave as quickly as could. She didn't know who the figure was, only that she wanted to be as far away from him as possible.