Star Wars: Edge of Hope

Chapter Fifty Two: Battlefield of the Fallen (Part Two)

Rey: I know who you are....

The white light burned, the long sparking flames of it bursting in the rapture of the open air as it stood there in front of her, hand out stretched. Rey's eyes watered as she smiling lifted her own hand and tentatively met the embrace of the fire. The white light peeled away from the finger tips, then up the long smooth arms, and then to the shoulder. Piece by piece the flame revealed her like the turning pages of a book. Until Rey was standing there seeing her face become revealed as the white opaque eyes of her mother became the same deep russet as her own.

Reham: Rey.

Rey: Buir...

Reham: You...you remembered...even after all this time?

Rey: The story of who we are lives in us...You taught me to remember even when others chose to forget...I always remembered. I still remember...every word, every breath, you've always been there whispering to me...How could I ever forget you, mama?

Rey fell into her arms exhausted and weary, she felt her catch her, pulling her into her embrace rocking her like she were the child from half a lifetime ago. She could feel the warmth of her skin on her face as her hand gentle traced the curves of her dimples and then wound up to the arch of her brow.

Reham: Shhh...Everything will be alright. Everything is going to be alright now. I've got you...I've got you, Rey. Shhh...it's going to be alright.

Across the stars, the thread that bound Rey to Ben was beginning to whine under the strain of Umbra's will to keep her hold on a body that was foreign to her. Her hissing breath echoing off the empty carcass of the wreckage followed Ben as he made his way up towards the surface. Jumping from swaying overhang up through the endless maze of metal as it shifted and crashed around him. The sea was beginning to wake up, beneath the white capped waves the water was deep, the blue yawning emptiness reaching up to crash against Ben's skin. As he broke the surface another wave crashed hard against the wreck, as he ducked back beneath the overhang he saw flickers of white moving up from below him, as the wash flooded down and away from him Ben pulled himself up into the open air of Kef Bir. But as he moved away from the opening a flash of white flew into the air coming to land behind him. As he turned there she stood, her hand shaking as it clutched onto the worn grip of the old saber, the blade burst to life, and slowly Rey's face began to change into a mask.

Ben: I don't know what you expect the outcome of this to be. I won't fight you...

Umbra: Then you will die...just like rest of your pitiful family! Either way, you'll never see her again...Rey is gone.

Ben: Nooo!

A roarlike laugh exploded the air around Ben, overhead the skies turned black as the shadow of the DARKSIDE reached out across the heavens turning the once bright blue, a pale grey. Ben's eyes focused in on Umbra's menacing glare as she held the saber out in front of her. She began to stalk forwards, he gait jerking almost as if she were being pulled back from beneath her skin, with an expression as if she were walking through broken glass she swung the sword at him. Ben jerked back out of the reach of the glowing blade, then jumping over the lip of a section of the bobbing heap he spun around his saber glowing brilliantly against the white roaring waves crashing all around them over the carbonized steel.

Umbra: You're a lot lighter on your feet than I had anticipated. But you lack the conviction of action and that leaves you vulnerable...

She swiped out at Ben coming close, but he was able to lock the blue blade with the tri-blades of his saber pushing Umbra back to where she'd bagan. She rose again relishing the feeling of the pain in her new muscles, the way the bone and sinew moved fluidly, and the lightness of her new frame made each swirl twist feel like she were flying.