Star Wars Episode X: The Shroud of The Dark Side

Chapter 2:Rey Solo

Rey sighed as she flew to Yavin 4. She hated that she had to leave Ben stuck in that old house on Tatooine. She wished he understood exactly why it was so important that he stays low. Though she got why he was so angry, it had been 2 years and they were no closer than they were back then to find a way for him to be safe in the Galaxy. What he said to her this morning wasn't exactly wrong. Poe really did not like Ben. She had tried to explain to Poe how the darkside works and that Kylo Ren was a different person than Ben Solo and that Kylo Ren was just a corrupted Ben. Poe however had refused to listen and only saw him for the crimes he had committed as the second in command and later the Supreme Leader of the First Order. She didn't blame Poe for how he felt but she still wished he would hide those feelings a little bit.

When She arrived at the new Jedi Temple she walked up the steps and into the main hall. Rey couldn't help but smile. It wasn't much, there were only 4 masters being her, Finn, Alastor who had trained under Finn and Delilah who Rey had trained. She was very proud of Delilah who had been one of the easiest people to train and made Rey's job of stepping into the role of Grandmaster of the new jedi order much easier. They had 6 Jedi Knights. Bruno, Colton, Harper, Piper, Stella and Zeke. There were about 4 or 5 padawans and Rey honestly didn't know their names. Her and Finn didn't have an apprentice right now and she had been so busy the past few months with the rise of drug cartels and human trafficking as well as working through helping Ben that she didn't think it would be fair to take anyone on right now. She walked toward her office but before she could make it she was stopped by Finn.

"I did some looking into these random bouts of trafficking coming up. I don't think they're random." Finn said, clearly out of breath like he had ran to find her.

"What do you mean not random? It makes a lot of sense for it to be random, the lack of a centralized government means that the rules that usually keep those types of people in bay didn't exist..." Rey argued back, crossing her arms.

"No no no listen. There has been this mark left at the last few places that we raided. Look at this and tell me if this looks familiar to you." Finn's voice was starting to sound annoyed. He pulled up a datapad and showed her the mark. It was a black circle with a black spiky ring around it. At the top was a large black triangle that shoots outward. Rey looked at the mark for a second but couldn't see anything from it. She looked at him blankly and shook her head.

"I've got nothing. Is it a random First Order mark? Something from the Empire?" Rey Guessed.

"It's an old criminal syndicate marking. They're called the Black Sun. They rose to power during the Clone Wars because the Jedi and Republic were more focused on the war. They had old bases on Mustafar and Ord Mantell, but from what I could find those bases are deserted. They actuallyformed a nice relationship with the government that the Empire ran. Focused a lot on human trafficking. I'm sure they died out after the Empire disappeared. It looks like they've used the gap in a reasonable government to form back up and get some smaller gangs in with them."

"Ok, well that's horrible, where is their new base? How can we stop them?" Rey asked, very alarmed at the possibility of a new power force. This is exactly how the First Order came up. The New Republic didn't do anything about a massive military force and then couldn't stop them when they took over. Rey would not allow this to happen again.

"That's the problem. I have no idea where the base is. It's untrackable, anyone who has any information is either unwilling to give it up, or dead. But lucky for us I've found a lead. It'll take us back to Tantooine, so I thought you could come with me and we'll go surprise Ben."

Rey smiled at the thought of that. "Sure, we need to prepare just in case something goes wrong and I have some Padawan tests that I need to watch, when do you want to leave?"

Finn paused. "Why don't we keep it safe and leave in a few days. 2 days from now. That'll give us time to get everything we need if this gets out of hand or we need to go somewhere else without coming back here."

"Good idea. I have somewhere here to be, Alastor said he thinks his apprentice is ready to take one of the tests for moving to knighthood." Rey said, already moving away from Finn.

"Ok, 2 days, don't forget!" Finn basically yelled.

Rey went through the rest of the day with everything going like a blur. The good news was that everything did go really smoothly. Alastor's apprentice named Jackson, did a great job with his obstacle course. He wore a helmet that blinded him and he was sent through a course with a maze, gaps to leap over and some Marksman-H combat remote to test his reflexes against blaster bolts. She had a few meetings with some of the masters and knights about upcoming missions to find some more force sensitive people in the galaxy. If the new Jedi order was going to thrive and become an order of peace in the Galaxy they needed to be larger and stronger. The last day before leaving back to Tatooine went very fast, so fast in fact that Rey couldn't even remember what happened. All she knew was she was going to see Ben tomorrow. It seems odd to her, to be married to the same man that she was fighting just a few years ago. They had fought on Starkiller base, where Kylo Ren had tried to get her to join him and in response she cut his face. Or when they fought on Crait and he managed to cut her leg open. Rey hadn't let that wound heal and so it took over 3 years. Their last fight is what ended their feud. Kylo Ren turned back into Ben Solo and helped her beat the returned emperor Palpatine. After a long day, Rey went back to her quarter and fell asleep.

"Hey, get up. It's time to go, you ready?" Finn looked down at her.

"I'm ready, I'm ready. Did you get everything we need?" Rey asked

"Uh, yea I got everything we'll need. Grab what you want to bring with and I'll meet you by the Jedi star fighters we got. It would have been great to take the falcon, but Chewie still has it on Coruscant.." Finn rubbed his forehead and walked out of the room. 

Rey got up and packed some food, extra clothes just in case she needed it and grabbed her double bladed lightsaber. Running to meet Finn she boarded her ship and they took off for Tatooine.

When they arrived at Mos Eisley Finn led the way to meet the correspondent. They went into a random sketchy bar and found a man at the bar. He was wearing all black and only had his piercing blue eyes showing. He didn't say a word. Finn sat down next to him and the man slid him a datapad. He got up and ran out of the bar very quickly. Finn and Rey looked at each other confused.

"What's his problem?" Finn quietly asked Rey.

"I have no idea... You said that everyone who knew where the Black Sun's real base was located died. Probably just fear." Rey responded.

"You're probably right. Damn it... this data pad tells us nothing new. It talks about the small base they have formed on Onderon. We already know the Black Suns have something there." Finn scowled. "This was a waste of time"

"Not necessarily. If it was so important that it was on this pad and someone felt we needed to know, then maybe it's more than just a small base and we can get even more info if we take the base now." Rey exclaimed excitedly

"Good point. Let's stop by and see Ben and then leave for Onderon. Do you want Ben to come with us?" Finn asked

"Not this time. I know he's itching to get out, but if this base is bigger than we thought it was there might be something or someone there that could expose him" Rey responded as they walked across the city to get a landspeeder to borrow. Finn drove and as they got closer to the old Skywalker home Rey's excitement turned to fear. The extra ship she had there was gone. Rey jumped out of the ship and sprinted into the home. There was no sign of Ben, his lightsaber was gone and her desk was open with datapads everywhere. She had no idea where we went but one thing was certain. The number 1 most wanted man in the galaxy was gone and she had no idea where he was.