Belonging. Star Wars story. Episode 10 X. Sequal to TROS.

2. Trials

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Some time has gone by after Rey buried Luke's and Leia's sabers on Tatooine and left with resistance. Rey felt loneliness nagging and gnawing at the back of her mind since she left Exegol.

Rey started to search for clues of force trials. Only thing that Rey found in ancient Jedi texts was reference to grey scrolls. It all was confusing and tiring, she was searching for impossible, that she desperately needed to be possible. That's why she needed to continue her journey to outer rim planet named Tuell, that's filled with poisonous atmosphere known for its deadly capabilities, and exactly the place where ancient Jedi padawans went to Jedi trials.

The planet is special, all in all Rey couldn't find any information, how Jedi did stay alive there, and it was pretty clear that staying alive was each padawans secret for it was form of a trial itself. For time being Rey had found only one option.

To be able to stay alive on Tuell, one must make coctail of few ingredients: banthas horns powder (basically many big mammals would do, bantha is ideal because it was easy to find one), Acklays egg shell and the last one - black mineral known as crescent or Nightstone that was known to be found only in Mustafar. As first two were common enough and easy to find, the last was challenge.

Nightstone was rare even on Mustafar and it couldn't be found anywhere else. Usually it was hidden deep into the planets caves in which air is filled with poisonous gases.
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Copper mask felt tight for the last days. Rey kept moving on, knowing if she'll meet another dead end, the desperation in her heart will grow again.

But something was different in this cave. For the second time already Rey sees the rocks in cave walls that emits the fading blue light.. In the first caves there were non of these and the last ones had max one place of glowing rocks, but this time, Rey hasn't been here for more than two days but already has found two!

The cave started to shrink and Rey went on her hands and knees to keep going. At once wall that Rey touched bent and Rey blindly stretched out other hand trying to find anything in darkness.

"Another intersection.. very well, firstly I will take the left turn".

Rey took out handmade wayfinder that she made of dry wood and some grass she could find on the planet and sticked it in the cave wall to find her way back. She kept crawling in the low cave. "If I will find it today, I will accept invitation to drink with Poe. Hell, we could drink all the Dorian Quill that's left in the Falcon from Poe's last trip..". Rey was trying -if I promise destiny something, destiny gives something in return- tactic that she picked up from new resistance member back in base.

And for the moment it was peaceful, cave stretched out in front of her and grew larger. Rey stood up and kept moving on feet.

And then there was nothing. The floor was gone.. or at least it seemed so.

Rey was tumbling/rolling/flying down the slope.

-"No! Nooooooo..", she flied right into the opposite wall, hitting her head hard. Rey lied, where she fell, for a long time. Her muscles ached, cuts from sharp edges were everywhere, her head was dull.. and something was not right with the helmet.

The memories came like a flood.

Throne room- Rey floating in the air, Snoke pulling out every bit of information in her head. Rey in the old AT-AT on Jakku fighting with loneliness, and crying for her lost parents. Rey in the cave on Ach-To looking in the mirror and afterwards in the hut, dead-wet tugged in the blanket, the fire, the touch.. Reys vision of her sitting on the Sith throne..
bit by bit she forced the memories to stop and freed her mind.

Rey unclipped the mask and took it off. By touching the masks surface it was clear that there were small holes in the back of it. -"No, no, no.. I can't go back, not yet!". Strapping the mask to her belt, she streched out the hands trying to touch the walls. Another dead end and there was only about one standart hour left before she passes out from poisonous air in this cave. The way back was about half of that time, but she had to get to the other path on the intersection. And she had to get back up from where she fell.

Rey started climbing back up from where she came from. "I cannot die here."

Coughing started just after Rey climbed up from the pit. At the beginning it was just once or twice, but when she reached intersection and turned left to unexplored cave part, the cough was constant. Rey still managed to stumble further and further in the cave. And something was definetly different here.

Rey reached a little widening in the cave where there were more of the blue light emitting minerals in the walls, it had to be good sign. It had to. She pushed on and few moments later she stumbled and fell down in the dust in the huge opening of the cave.

Thousands and thousands of blue minerals were shining from the walls. Everywhere you could look there were light, dimmed but light! And if you looked closer- between the blue ones, there were the black ones, that almost absorbed the light that shone.

Rey was in awe. She did the part of first trial. She actually did it!

"Now is no time to waste", picking up a tool from her belt, she started to carve one of the closest and biggest Nightstones. It wasn't hard because rock itself was soft. It fell easily in her hands after just a few moments.

"Now I just have to get out of here with my life intact".