Star Wars: Duel of the Fates

Chapter 38

Rey was running the training course that Leia made for her through the jungle.

She had been sat in her tent for too long, stuck somewhere between grief and anger.

The air was humid and heavy as she raced across the long ridge overlooking the base and ignited her lightsaber. She let the force guide her feet, avoiding the overgrown roots and undergrowth.

Reaching a thin gully, she placed an old pilot's helmet on with the blast shield down. Slowly, carefully, she started to cross the thick rope laid over the gap. She activated the training droid that hovered around her, shooting small blaster bolts which she deflected. The droid angled upwards so she nimbly switched her saber from one hand to the other, blocking bolt after bolt.

Once she was safely across, the droid returned to its cradle and Rey deposited her helmet on the ground.

Running deeper into the jungle she began diving and jumping over the fallen trees, before leaping from broken branch to broken branch until she was above the treetops. She admired the view for a moment before hooking her foot through the loop in a pulley rope and letting it lower her to the ground. Releasing it, the rope retracted back up and through the leaves.

Coming into a narrow clearing, she stood at the base of a tree and used the force to lift three metal spheres into the air. They spiralled towards a hole in the bark at the top, but just as the first was almost perfectly aligned she saw a flash behind her closed eyes.

Rey jolted backwards, the spheres tumbling down to the thicket around her.

The image appeared again: the remnants of a Death Star surrounded by troubled waters, the clouds parting to let the light rest on an inner chamber somewhere in the vessels heart. The shadows shifted and she could see a darkened room lit only by a red glowing pyramid about the size of her palm on a podium in the middle.

She eyes flew open and she caught her breath.

Somehow she knew what she needed was there.