Rey stood blindfolded amongst the trees of Batuu's forest. Her breathing was shallow as she focused. Despite her blindness, she knew the location of the silvery globe the size of a man's fist. It was floating mere metres from her as it slowly circled, but Rey remained stationary. She sensed its newly assumed position before it abruptly executed a lightning-swift lunge before freezing a meter away. Still, Rey remained frozen, failing to succumb to the training ball's feint. Rey sensed it back up, and she tightened her hand around the hilt of her lightsaber. Suddenly, the orb darted behind her and, with one of its fine instruments, prepared to strike her with a thin pencil of red light, but she blocked it and jumped up and over it.
"Good," Leia sat watching her, congratulating her as she oversaw the training session. Rey removed her blindfold and turned to Leia, wrapping the red cloth about her left hand. The seekers with which she had been training went back to Leia like harmless pets.
"Good, you've done well. Remember patience, always patience, feel the Force, let it flow, only strike when it's necessary and never in anger."
Patience, anger, Rey was struggling with both these things. To wait and not strike, to not allow her emotions to control her during a fight. To not allow her emotions to make her decisions for her, to reign in her impulsive desire to act. She was improving, and Leia was pleased. Rey stood calmly surveying her new mentor. Was Leia her master? Had Luke really been her master? Luke had not wanted to train her; three lessons were all he'd been willing to give her, and the third had been the lesson that the Jedi do not always act. Luke had taught her this particular lesson by lying to her about a raiding party coming to the caretakers of Ahch-To. The Jedi of old allowed events in the universe to unfold as they would. It was not their place to interfere; Rey felt she could not adhere to that lesson. Her departure from Ahch-To to go to turn Ben Solo was testimony to that belief system and Rey's issues with self-control. Leia had offered to help train Rey after Crait, as Luke had once trained her before she became pregnant with Ben. Ben, Kylo Ren. Ben had been there when Rey was scared and alone. He'd taught and listened to her when Luke turned her away. With Ben, there had been an understanding, an understanding no one else could or would ever really come close to. She'd felt a sense of belonging when they'd touched hands; completeness was something she'd sought her whole life. She had friends now, a family with Finn, Poe, Chewbacca and Leia. She was not alone, but that memory of Leia's son haunted her, a memory she could not share. The bond had been more powerful than ever after Crait and kept threatening to open fully, repeatedly sparking into existence. Rey had tried to keep it closed, but it wouldn't stay shut, and for a time, she somehow cut herself from the Force, just as Luke had done. She hadn't wholly reopened it, too afraid of seeing him again, seeing that softened pleading expression, but she now felt more alone than ever. She surveyed Leia, who was smiling at her kindly. Rey knew to keep the truth of her link with Leia's son. Their enemy was wrong, but how could she tell them, any of them? No one, not even Leia, would understand it; she didn't understand it herself.
Rey recalled how she'd closed the hatchway door as she stood on the Millennium Falcon boarding ramp. Kylo Ren had been kneeling on the floor of the operations room from where the Resistance had just fled. His face was awash with different emotions he looked heartbreakingly sad, but he was also angry. Angry, his duel with Luke had been purely a distraction. Angry, the Resistance had escaped due to his folly and anger at her. How she'd felt about him was of no consequence; he had made his choice for power, and it was a path she could not join him on. They were enemies, complicated enemies, but still enemies. Her vision when they'd touched hands through the bond across the stars had shown him turning from the dark, and that hadn't happened. Ben had been there for a fleeting moment as he killed Snoke and fought at her side, but then Kylo Ren had returned. He was her enemy, but it was so much more complicated than that.
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Star Wars IX- The Rise of Skywalker
Fanfiction"We've passed on all we know. A thousand generations live in you now, but this is your fight." A familiar voice, Luke's, whispers. Luke Skywalker stands net to R2-D2 the sky around him burns shades of orange, yellow and red and behind him a Jedi t...
