Confronting Fear

Kef Bir

So if you love me let me go
And run away before I know
My heart is just too dark to care
I can't destroy what isn't there

Snuff - Slipknot

Rey eased the shuttle down on the edge of rocky shore of a small island on the ocean moon. The massive wreckage of the Death Star laid out before.

How am I going to find anything in all of that? Why did Kylo want to come here? He didn't need the wayfinder, maybe just to keep anyone else from getting it?

She held the blade up in front of the wreckage, what she was looking for, she didn't know. She noticed a tiny rectangle on one side of the hilt that looked very out of place. It expanded outward like a drawing compass, but with odd edges.

Wait, they line up.

She carefully overlaid the odd edges with the wreckage before her, the red rectangle pointing towards a spot in the very center.

That must be the Emperor's vault.

With her destination in mind she carefully guided the small shuttle towards the wreckage, looking for something among the massive wreck that was big and sturdy enough to land on. Swinging in low, she found two long, wide strips of the outer wall that weren't submerged. She carefully guided it down on to one of them.

Her clothes were soaked with sea spray the second she exited but didn't care. She had only one thing on her mind; finding that vault.

It would occur to her later that she might have actually temporarily lost her mind. She was incredibly weak from the Kyber ritual and could still feel Kylo tearing away at the walls in her mind with the ferocity of a rancor, it wouldn't be much longer before she was too weak to fight him. She'd become so focused to the point of mania on retrieving the wayfinder that the rest of the universe ceased to exist. She didn't even know what she was going to do once she found it, she only knew she needed it. She climbed and lept as though in a trance until she stood in the very center of the wreckage.

This place. He had once stood here, my grandfather.

She turned on her toes scanning the small space, jumping when a door automatically opened in front of her. She would later wonder why it had opened for her, but not then. She cautiously ventured inside, eyes wide with wonder.

This was his vault, where his most valuable possessions were kept.

A chamber of jagged, broken mirrors reflected Rey's ragged countenance back at her. A few steps in she found the wayfinder, suspended in a magnetic field. She quickly placed it in her bag and prepared to leave, her task completed. As she went to exit she heard a whisper, the same whisper she had heard in Maz's castle.

She turned and ventured slightly further into the room, passing several broken pedestals that had once held objects of value. Suspended in another magnetic field was a box. Rey felt a calm wash over her just looking at it. It appeared to be made of blue light that reminded her of Anakin's saber contained by the metalwork around the edges. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen and it was singing to her, calling her to it. She didn't know what it was but she knew it was important. It was warm to her touch and weighed next to nothing. She quickly placed it in her pack, turning to leave.

As she was about to exit the vault she felt a light hand on her shoulder. She turned and found herself face-to-face with Palpatine, his desiccated face wore a twisted smile. "Well done my grandchild." he cackled, sending her stumbling backwards out of the vault. Her bag went flying from her shoulder as she hit, adding another layer of damage to her healing shoulder, spilling the wayfinder onto the ground where it was caught by none other than Kylo Ren.