Star Wars: The Last Jedi Alternate HISHE

==Plot==
The Last Jedi
Part 1
Rey's mouth began to gently tremble with her eyes watering. With a growing feeling of something stuck in her throat as she gazed upon Luke holding his saber outreached to him to take. All of her trials and tribulations from Jakku to Starkiller base topped with loss of Han who in the short time she had known him had been the only father figure she had known. Luke's eyes were not what she imagined at first gazing upon her sizing her up but with a second take he now looked at her with a sight of both fear and acknowledgement. She could tell he knew who she was. Both of their faces giving off a flurry of emotions that neither could conceal all leading to the point Luke reached out taking the saber from her. His mind beginning to drift as old memories came back to the surface.
"My name is Rey, your sister Leia sent me to find you. She needs your help defeating the First Order and Kylo Ren." With that last name Luke flinches bringing back his mind on focus to her. Looking out past her he could see the "Millennium falcon". Instinctively he walk past Rey handing her back the saber with great haste.
"Han!" Luke calls out to his old Friend.
"Luke?!" Rey shouts to him. "Luke Skywalker!" She tries to get his attention. Then before Luke could enter the Falcon Chewie exited.
"Chewie where's Han?" With a simble growl from his mouth Luke's heart ached as he stepped back turning to Rey.
"Please...you're our only hope." She begs of him. The words piercing Luke causing him pain he hasn't felt in many years as he gave his quiet yet powerful answer that stunned Rey to her core.
"No."
Nearly three days had past since Starkiller base's destruction Kylo on his flag ship "The Finalizer" stood before his meditation room's doors silent and still. He could feel the muscles in his hand tense as he balled a fist. His mind retracing the last week of his encounters with Rey, FN-2817, and Han...Han. The thought of his father's look in his eye's stained Kylo's mind. The pull of the light he often felt but since killing Han he now felt an emptiness in it's place. A void...a loss of self. To him he was taught to embrace the dark side and cut his ties for they were chains that kept him shackled yet when cutting this tie he felt nothing. Why; was it him? Does he simply not command the dark side so masterfully as he thought?
What could have caused him such confusion and loss of power that while even toying with the traitor FN-2817 he would be struck in the arm. Making a mockery of him, surely the traitor is no longer laughing now most likely dead from his wounds. This slight thought gave Kylo some comfort as he finally began to take a step when suddenly he's stopped. Looking forward he see's the scar across his face in his reflection. The fight against Rey should've easily been his yet he lost. To girl who had never even wielded a light saber let alone know of the force defeated him. This embarrassment was now fully on his mind. No longer could he go into his room, no longer could he face...him. Fear; Kylo felt fear. The feint sound of a respirator began to grow louder and louder. Making his whole body tense up.
"Sir are you ok?" Kylo snapped out of his trance to see a stormtrooper to his left. It was then he felt the sweat slide down his forehead. Kylo quickly drew his saber cutting down the trooper dispatching the witness with haste. No one would ever see him in that state again. He was Kylo Ren heir to the First Order and nobody escapes his wrath. Not this trooper and definitely not the Resistance.
Beep. Beep. Activating his holo-ccommunicator Kylo answer to see General Hux.
"Kylo Ren; Supreme Leader Snoke has summoned you to his command ship. It involves matters with the resistance."
"Inform him I'm on my way." He answers walking away towards the ships hangar only as he walks he can hear it. The chill echo of a respirator once more causing the hair on his body to stand all the way until he leaves the ship.
Blood Red; this was the first thing that always stood out to Kylo as he entered the massive throne room. Exiting the lift he could see in the corners of his helmet two of Snoke's guards follow closely behind. This caused Kylo to smirk under the protection of his mask. Could it be that perhaps his Master was nervous of his growing power?
"Don't flatter yourself." The deep voice protruded the room. "Hehehe, you think I'm really worried about a boy who lost to girl whose never even held a light saber hahaha." His master mockery of him began to fuel Kylo's rage as he finished walking up to the throne. "Ah yes there's the power rising. I can feel that hatred, tell me where was it on Starkiller Base?" Kylo's head twitches up to his master. "You let a girl wound you many times with out even putting a scratch on her, tell me doe's any of it even hurt?"
"It's only a scratch." He attempts to down play as if showing his strength.
"Fool!" Snoke Stands firmly tall towering over Kylo even causing him to step back. "Don't play tough for me boy; those wounds should echo into you for the rest of your life fueling your anger, hatred and power not shrugged off to show off some bravado!" Snoke could easily tell Kylo's expression on his face behind the mask. "Kneel my apprentice." For a moment Kylo stands defiantly. Snoke flicks his right index finger up and with power never seen by Kylo He forced to the ground. "I said kneel!" This act amuses Snoke greatly. "Now take off that stupid helmet." Reluctantly his apprentice removes his helmet from his face showing his master the scar across his face. staring from his bottom right cheek moving all the way to in between his eyes. "What a shame; perhaps I was wrong to put my faith in you. Obviously you weren't ready for the task. Now look at you just a farce to the name Kylo Ren. you're no Vader just a pretender in a mask." instinctively Kylo reched for his saber only to be frozen instantaneously with Snoke's hand fully out reached. "Remember who it is that let's you even breath in this room boy." Snoke calmingly returns to his seat releasing Kylo. "Now go; get out of my sight and don't come back until you've proven you're worthy by killing the Resistance and bringing me the girl." The Supreme leader commands his apprentice.
Picking up his helmet Kylo enters the turbo lift with two guards following close behind. With all three entering Kylo's anger and patience began to boil. To him the mask didn't mean being Vader; no. No one understood. He wasn't going to become Vader he was going to be better. The guards began to feel a tension within the small confined space. Their armor flaps lightly trembling. the two glance at each other then back at Kylo who opens his eyes at the two. With in an instant the crimson red blade pierced the guard's back to his left and out his chest. Before the other could act Kylo took his helmet and smashed it against his face and into the wall. With a roar Kylo began slamming the helmet into the guards head with sparks and shards of metal shooting out. The lift opens showing on guard on the floor dead with Kylo walking over his body putting back on his helmet which now fashioned a crack along the side reminiscent to his own scar. Behind him as the door shuts the other guard's headless body slumps down to the ground.
Bang! Bang! Bang! "Luke I know you're in there; please open up!" Rey pleaded. "The Resistance needs you!" The door finally opens with Luke no longer in his robes but now in normal clothing and rags.
"You don't think I know that." He states bypassing her.
"Where are you going?" She questions unable to get an answer from him. Following him all around the island as he goes through his daily routines.
With the day dragging out Rey's patience began to tire as Luke never spoke a word to her. So much so that as when the next day came she didn't even try to talk to him instead she chose to wander about the island and learn about the temple she was on. Coming across an oddly shaped tree. From its base that was the size of Luke's own hut were three pronged tips like trident making up the rest of tree. Seeing an opening on the side she slowly crept in. The sides and floors of the tunnel was covered in roots all leading her inward. Following she came to the center of the tree open with nothing inside except a single shelf. On it were a handful of books nine in total. Picking one up she couldn't really tell how old they being written on paper a form yet they seemed burnt, torn and filthy with dirt; yet at the same time so preserved. On the cover of the book she held was the symbol of the seemed to be a saber held up.
"Careful with that, please be." She heard a croaky like voice behind her speak. Whipping around she is met with Luke behind her entering.
"Please be careful with those." He states walking over to her.
"What are these?" She questions handing over the book she held.
"The first texts of the Jedi order. They're ancient and very old yet as you can see still very resilient aren't they?" He explains to her. Looking up once at Rey, Luke could feel some sort familiarity with her. It was as if he had already met her once before many years before.
"Please Master Skywalker I can't leave here with out you're the only who can defeat Kylo Ren." Rey once more attempted to recruit him. "We need the Jedi to come back."
*scoff 
Luke turns away from heading out of the temple. "Foolish girl the Galaxy doesn't need the Jedi it's better off with out them." He tells her to her discomfort.
"What do you mean better off?" Rey demands storming after him. "The First Order's armies far out match what little the Resistance has. Especially after taking out all of the New Republic's leaderships. The Hutt's and other Gangs still control most of the outer core worlds. Now more than ever is the time of the Jedi to return!" She screams out to him. Her rage boiling up inside her.
"Leave me alone I have important matters to attend too." Luke simply responded shrugging her off once more.
Now Rey had enough Han was dead, who knows if Finn will wake up from his wounds. She was on the verge of losing everything at the hands of Kylo and First Order and this Legendary hero she was sent to bring back to help them was just being a stubborn old fool. Important matters? "What important matters?!" She called out to him.
All she had seen Luke do was fish, and spends all day in his hut for that past two days. Rocks slowly began to rise as the ground began to subtly shake. Luke could feel the force around and turned to Rey who was just as amazed as he was. This was the first time in nearly a week she actually attempted to reach out in the force that she was not used to the power she possessed that it still scared her a little bit. The two of them crossed eyes unsure of what to do next when Luke finally smirks.
"Who are you?"
Confused Rey once more began to tell him. "My name is Rey i'm with the Resistance your sisters-"
"No. I mean who are you; where are you from?" He asks walking over to her."
"I'm from Jaku."
"Jaku?" Luke turned and pondered before facing her once more. This time with small chuckle.
"What's so funny?"
"There's no coincidence only the Force." Luke answers with Rey still befuddled. "It's an honor to finally and formally meet you Rey."
"Y-you...you know who I am?" Rey questions with the two of them now in Luke's hut gathered by around by his small fire that lit up the room.
"More like I know of you." Luke replies leaning to his side picking up a small journal. "Many years ago when I was running my order there was probably around two dozen or so of us. all under my tutelage ranging from children to adolescents all eager to learn the ways of the force and I eager to teach them. We had so much room to grow the only other Masters at the time were two very close friends of mine. One who once my enemy during the War against the Empire his name was Kreel he was not force sensitive in any way but had become very proficient lightsaber. After many duels we had come to respect one another greatly and after the empire fell I was able to convince him to join me. The other was Mira..." Luke fell silent as his mind began to drift with memories of his past. Rey could tell that whomever this Mira was she very important to Luke as a whole.
"Please continue." Rey encouraged.
"After sometime we three felt comfortable enough to expand once more we discovered a number of children with a connection to the force, but unlike my predecessors of the past we only kept in contact with the families checking in waiting for the day they would be inducted if they so chose. You were one of those children Rey."
"So you kept in contact with my parents; please could you tell me who they were?"
"While I didn't know there true names as they using aliases they did present me with this." He tells handing over the journal.
"What is it."
"That my dear is the Journal of the Whills." He answers. "The Guardians of the Whills have always walked the path of the middle line of the Force guarding and protecting the knowledge and intentions of the Whill's." He goes on to explain.
"Who are the whills?"
"Possibly the oldest beings in the galaxy itself, they're manifestations of the Force. While many do not believe in such stories, I've become a believer in such things."
"Do you know where I could find my parents?" All of Rey's questions so far had been met with straight forward answers but this last one caused Luke to stop entirely. "What is it?"
"Rey, you're parents are dead." Luke tells her his voice colder and filled with sadness before looking down in shame.
"How?" She begins tearing up.
"My nephew, when he killed the other Jedi. Ben."
Nearly 15 years ago it happened...
With the heavy rain washing over. Blaster bolts ricocheted away as they slammed in to the sparking crimson red saber. A number of men and women continued to open fire as they held a perimeter in front of ship still being loaded by one hooded man leading a group of children into the ship assisted by another young woman bearing a resemblance to Rey. 
"Take off!" The man commanded seeing Kylo and the Knights of Ren approaching.
"Not everyone is on board!" The women shouted back. 
"If you don't leave now then your daughter will die!" He stated whipping his head back around to the sound of a scream. A knight of Ren known as The Heavy had slammed his massive cleaver into one the female fighters. Flipping over him the Armory whipped out his pistols blasting away three more. Pressing forward one fighter tries to jump him from the side only to be countered with The Armory hitting him with his own gun flipping over his shoulder and blasting into his chest before twirling around and shooting another attempting another sneak attack. While three more fighters attempted to retreat to the ship The Rogue leaps out from their right flank. Taking the lead by the neck kicking the second back into the third. With a quick pull from his hands the Rogue snaps his captive's neck. quickly taking his gun and opening fire on the other two. The Monk came right to the ship with his staff swiping what seemed to be two children before charging at the last two on the ships ramp. 
"We have to go!" The pilot screamed.
"No wait!" The woman shouted. One last woman came over the hill rushing over with young girl in her arms. 
The hooded man whips out a green saber taking off his hood to reveal it is Kreel who had lost an eye. Leaping into the fray he began his duel with the Monk clashing their weapons together. As the women got closer to the ship a sudden shock of pain hits her as a blaster bolt rips right through her chest narrowly missing the child. One fighter looks over to see the woman drop to the ground the child crying out.
"Mama! Mama!"
Slowly moving up to her was the Sniper. As he raised his weapon to the young girl he's quickly tackled by the fighter who shouts for the child to run to the ship. Raising his weapon he's suddenly stabbed in the back by Kylo's saber. "Papa!" She screams frozen still only to be picked up by the women and carried off to the ship which was finally taking off. With Kreel kicking back the Monk he suddenly finds him self frozen when suddenly Kylo walks by slicing off his head.
"Is the tracker placed?" He questions the Sniper. 
"It is no matter where they go we'll find them." He responds. With the others gathering around watching the ship flee.
Present day...
"It was nearly four days before I arrived on the planet to see what had become of everyone. I thought you were all dead." Luke tells the now weeping Rey. "I'm sorry."
"You have to stop him." She speaks up. "Kylo you have to stop him. Stop him from doing it again. you have to stop him form killing your sister and everyone else in the galaxy."
"Rey."
"No! You have to confront him and beat him!" She yelled.
"I can't!"
"Why?"
"Cause I've already tried!" He shouts. "I lost every thing back then; my students, my friends, and even the woman I loved who carried my child still in her belly!" He begins to open up. "I had walked the line of the dark side before yes, but this time I was devastated, destroyed for small span of time I only wanted revenge so in my foolishness I set out after Ben. I knew his growing power in the force was monstrous but I could take him." Luke goes on. "I was foolish I had felt the growing darkness in him before and never knew what it was; that was until i faced him and his fellow knights of Ren on Mustafar. I was the legendary Luke Skywalker a man on a mission and in that brief time, in my hubris I blind myself to the obvious trap that awaited for me."
"What happened?" Luke reached his non mechanical hand out and with a use of the force he opened up his memories to her.
"I came face to face to Ben's so called new master, Supreme Leader Snoke."
"Snoke?"
"I could not tell by his scared body who he was only that he was the apex panicle of the dark side. His power massive so much it so I began to think this man was darker than the Emperor himself."
"What did you do? What happened next?"
"I was stupid; I stood my ground and for a time I matched Snoke in the force, but soon I found myself attacked on all fronts by the Knights of Ren. Forced into a corner I battled taking my saber into flurry of hand to hand combat. On that day I killed five of the most skilled warriors I had ever faced. But by the time I turned my sights to Ben and Snoke it was to late. Everything up until than was all apart of Snoke's plan. The men I killed were actually sacrifices to a ritual and I offered every single one of them up. I felt the force ripped out of my very body. Using what little power I still felt in my body before it was sucked away I was able to collapse the cave narrowly escaping with my life. My power was gone and I knew my mistakes had now left the Galaxy open for the taking to Snoke." Luke finished explaining bring Rey back out of his mind.
"But wait you just used the force? I thought you said it was ripped out of you?"
"It was but one thing that it always true with the force and it is that it is in all living things." He responded. "My power was stripped away yes, but the force was still in me I could feel it like a wound that hurts when it rains. For years I searched for a way to regain my power that is what brought me here. For a decade my power has slowly returned to me but I've come to learn that this planet a powerful source of the force is the only thing still keeping me alive. If I were to leave and set out with you now I would die and there would be no one left to take one Snoke." Luke finishes.
"Then there's nothing you can do to help then; it's hopeless?" Rey states getting up feeling her world just crumble under her feet.
"I'm sorry." Luke responds as Rey leaves the hut.
Making her way through the old temple Rey suddenly found herself seeing a familiar figure. Kylo looked out into the Hangar of his ship when he oddly felt a presence behind him he turned to see her.
"What is this?" Kylo questioned.
"How are you here?" Rey fired back.
"Where are you I only see black around you?" Kylo continued when suddenly he noticed Rey's face growing with anger. She quickly draws her pistol with Kylo raising his hand hoping to stop the shot with force but unable to feel her as she fires single shot. The shock snaps Kylo out who for a brief moment felt fear again sending him into a rage. Back with Rey she lowers her weapon seeing she only shot a pillar of rocks and heads to the Falcon to sleep.
With the following day arriving Luke looked out over the hill to see Rey working on her staff exercises. Finishing her sequences she opened up the Journal Luke had given her and began to read along. Luke continued to watch as Rey then took out Luke's old light saber attempting to practice the light saber techniques and sequences of form 1 Shii-cho. If Luke wasn't going to be able to help her or the Resistance then she would have to learn the ways of the Jedi and take his place. Seeing the determination in her gave look a small warm feeling he would often get seeing his old students practicing. Turning away Luke made his way to the Falcon. Chewie was out hunting some porg leaving the ship open to him.
Entering he felt a calm sadness rush into him as he remembered back to his old friend and their adventures together. As he entered the cock pit flicking on the lights he sat himself into one of the seat placing his hand over his face. "Han I'm sorry."
"Beep. Boop." 
"R2?" Luke looks up to see his old partner rolling over to him. "I've missed you my old friend." He smiles.
"Booop. Beep. Boop." R2 responds.
"I'm sorry buddy but I cant come with you." Luke tells the droid. R2 then spins his head and projects the old message he came across so many decades ago. It was of Leia still young girl during the galactic civil war.
"Many years ago you served my father in the Clone Wars. Now he begs you to help him in his struggle against the empire. I regret I'm unable to present my father's request to you in person, but my ship has fallen under attack and my mission to bring you to Alderaan has failed." Luke sat up listening more intently as a spark that had not been lit in many years began to flicker once more. "Help me Obi-wan Kenobi you're my only hope." With message ended and Luke glances over at R2. "That was a dirty trick." He smirks. Some time later he exits the Falcon to see Rey and Chewie heading over to the ship to see Luke coming out.
"Does this mean you're going with us?" She asks him.
"I'm not leaving." He responds to her annoyance. "And neither are you." He catches her off guard. "If you mean to fight my nephew then you'll need to be trained right."
"You're going to train me?" Rey smiles.
"Begin!" Luke shouted.
Luke and Rey stepped towards each other each with their light saber in hand the initial clash sparked the beginning of their of duel. For the past five days straight Luke had been drilling the various light saber forms into Rey. Everyday non stop she would learn the ways of the force only resting to eat and meditate. The Meditation being used as a way for the force to replenish and reenergize her. While at first needing Luke's assistance with the meditation, his guidance and the easy connection to the force the planet has allowed Rey to adapt and increase her connection.
The duel itself quickly turned to Rey using the aggressive form of Form 4 as she began to swing her blade in varying angles from above Luke's head to his feet. shifting him back into Form 3. With Luke moving farther and farther back Rey's attacks began to feel heavier when for a moment she blended Form 5's heavy attacks into her sequence. though this was still Luke Skywalker he began to read Rey's movements and with a single parry deflecting her blade and using her momentum he's able move around her with a quick spin bringing his saber behind himself blocking another attack.
This time Luke pushed with simple Form 1 attacks that Rey could read but were still fast enough that Rey was fully defensive. The blade in her hand had now by this point become an extension of herself as it's weight and other quirks of the grip were so familiar and easy to handle. The constant dueling every other hour was not just adapting Rey to the saber but to all the forms of light saber combat and how to blend them into one another. Her knowledge was limited yes, but this was Luke's plan instead of her focusing on one form at a time and hoping she master it he instead constantly had her dueling making her into an adaptable fighter able to not just read her opponent but come up with unorthodox ways to beat them.
Luke switched to Form 2 a technique mastered by the now infamous count Dooku. The elegant stance and movements of the Jedi Master made it increasingly difficult for Rey to defend. A scenario similar to that Obi-wan and Dooku. Rey attempted to switch up going offensive with a leap over Luke landing a little ways away from him. Calling on the force she attempted to push him but Luke held out his hand halting the push. This part of Rey's plan as the dust and dirt clouding up created a distraction. Out from the cloud came her saber spinning right at Luke who deflected the saber up dispersing the cloud with the force. Shocked he sees Rey above him catching her saber landing behind him already preparing her swing. Luke taking his saber twirls it into a reverse grip catching the blow.
"My child I'm impressed." He complements her.
"It's because of your fabulous teaching." She tanks him.
"Oh I know." He smirks to. "Now how about we stop seizing one another up and really get this show on the road?" To Luke this wasn't about teaching Rey this about getting him back into shape as well.
"My pleasure." The two step back from one other pacing in a circle letting the force flow through them allowing a feint respite. The two finally stopped moving and reignited the sabers. "Begin." The two once again resumed their duel as the blue and green blades clashed.
Day 1 of the Last week
"So why am i blind folding myself again?" Rey questioned putting the cloth over her eyes.
"It is because you need to learn how to feel the force around you." Luke answered handing over her saber. "Now we'll start off easy with some rocks."
"Rocks; what do you mean rocks?" It is then a small stone pings Rey in the head. "Ouch!"
"Come on feel the force." Luke chuckles. Igniting her saber Rey stood ready. Using his power Luke sent another rock at her this time at her side. Feeling the force Rey twists her wrist deflecting the stone.
"Oh?! I did it! Did you see that I-" Once again she's hit this time in the shin.
"Don't lose focus. If you do it could be then end of either you or someone you care about." Luke instructs her. "Now concentrate hard and feel the force." With day dragging on Luke would send the rocks one at time allowing a chance for Rey to pick on the skill randomly sending two or three at her at time. Slowly Rey began to grasp the feeling Luke was talking about it was at first feint but as the day and training went on it became familiar. Her saber swings no longer barely deflecting a few stones she was now swatting them away with accuracy by the time the sun began to set.
Luke and Rey's duel continued on as Luke using the force to augment his speed slightly rushed over towards the hill getting a high ground advantage. Rey followed after with excitement seeing her master use the force more and more in front of her. Luke sheathed his blade for a brief moment taking both his hands he raised rocks and clumps of dirt out of the ground from the surrounding island. His face red from the exertion launched forth his flurry of the earth. Rey at first attempted to dodge and get close but with no option stood her ground and began to twirl both her blade and body deflecting and incinerating the flinging earth.
With a quick reflex she catches one of the rocks and chucks it at Luke. To which the great master swats it away with the force.
"Come now did you really not have anything else." Luke taunts her.
Luke and Rey both stood on a cliff watching the sun rise over the crystal blue horizon. "It is time we begin your next lesson." Taking his mechanical hand he gestures over to stone slab for her to sit on. "Yesterday was meant to not only train you in your saber skills but your connection with the force it self."
"What is today's lesson?"
"Now I'll have you reach out to the force to it's self entirety." Rey is puzzled to this as she didn't quite know what to expect. 
"What should I do?"
"Close your eyes." Luke answers. "Now reach out to it." Shockingly to looks amusement Rey extends her arm reaching out for it. Not wanting to miss this chance Luke calls over a leaf over to him. Gently he touches her hand with it. "Can you feel it?" He asks.
"Yes!" Rey smiles with glee. 
"Tell me what does it feel like?"
"It feels, It feels-" With that moment Luke slams the leaf in her mouth causing her to flinch and jump as he giggles.
"Really?"
"Come on try again this time for really." Luke states watching her sit back down. "Now clear your mind and really feel it." Rey concentrated hard and began to feel what she felt the other day. Seeing a few of the stones begin to lift and the air gently pick up like a swirl around him Luke could feel Rey reaching out to the force.
"Can you feel it?"
"Yes..." Rey responded feeling everything around her.
"Tell me what do you see; what do you feel?"
"Warmth...life everywhere...the Light. It's massive so massive." She answered. A feint voice reaches out from the light and speaks to Rey 'Hello there.' Rey couldn't help but smile.
"Now Rey i want you to keep going." Luke told her. As Rey continued on she felt it. "You see it now don't you; The dark side." Luke pointed out to her seeing her face change expressions. 
"Yes." She answered her breath was cold as she felt so much pain, suffering and malice ooze out of it. To Rey the Dark side was equal in size to the Light.
"Now you only need to go a little further." Luke informs as he guides her. "Focus now."
"What am I searching for?" Rey questions.
"Trust me you cant miss it." Luke informs her.
"Wait i think i see it." In Rey's mind she could see the two sides of the force pressing up against one another but in the center there was line a...force.
"Yes that is the balance of the two now feel it."
"I-is this real?"
"Oh it's very real. This line that separates the light from the dark is so much more expansive and wider than the other to. this the Force in it's purity and at it's strongest." Luke explains.
Rey finally made it up the hill and began to clash sabers once again this time leading into the old ruins themselves. Moving through the ruin narrow tunnels their sabers sliced all around them leaving smoldering traces of their skirmish. Eventually Luke while on the defensive is able slip past Rey who had been pushing until now and swapped places with her. Rey pacing back kept her saber well gripped in both hands as Luke pronged at her his blade in one hand. The two then find themselves back out in the open. Looking back for just a moment to find her footing Rey is caught off guard by Luke's next lunge towards her.
The enter a few quick parries of one another but Luke had already gained to much of an advantage and with a spin of his blade disarms Rey sending her saber flying into the air. Rey how ever quickly reacts leaping back into the air and reaching out with force calls her saber back to her.
She looks back look with sweat running down her face with a huge smile catching her breath. "Alright considered me impressed." Luke acknowledges her for her quick thinking. "Now can you do it again?"
With the third day of her training beginning Rey started off with meditation back on the slab she was on the day before. A sense of familiarity for her. Reaching out she found herself examining the island around her. The natives taking care of the land and temple. The fish swimming in the nearby water. The Porgs watching Chewwie eat one of their own. She even felt Luke watching the horizon as he held a pair of dice in his hand. All in all it was peaceful but then she heard something call to her. Following it she came to a dark crevasse the hole pitch black radiating with darkness but at the same time it was attractive to her. Going closer to it she felt more alive as it pulled her closer and closer to it. It was promising her; no showing her the peace she could have. The life she truly longed for. 
"Rey!" She heard faintly in the back of her mind as she began to fall in ready to be truly happy.
"REY!" This time the voice as if it was right in front of her then she felt the mechanical arm of her master shaking awake. The ground beneath them cracked as she fell to the ground and Luke is pushed back by the force she exerted. 
With Rey gasping for air she looks back at her master. "What was that?" She questions him.
"That was a place of darkness on this island. I can understand the temptation but you, you didn't even fight you dove right in." Luke begins to scold her. "I've seen this kind of power before it didn't scare me before; it does now." He ends walking over to her helping her back up. "My child from now take it easy don't be hasty and shoot yourself in the foot."
With the daylight passing Rey entered her hut to the shock of seeing Kylo once more. The two faced each other seeing only black behind one another. "I figured this would happen again." Kylo attempts to talk. Though he's quickly told to get out by Rey. "I'm not the one doing this." He fires back.
"Does it look like I care?" She begins to storm off.
"My offer still stands." Kylo calls out to her.
Rey turns back to him annoyed and appalled by this statement. "Offer; you mean to become you apprentice after you've committed so many atrocities and killed Han!" She can see the cord in Kylo struck as he lowered his head and stared at the ground. 
"I thought I did what needed to be done." Ha quietly tells her as the connection once again ends.
'Thought?" Rey pondered for a moment.
Kylo exited his turbo lift entering a sparing room where three Praetorians stood at the ready. Furious he ignited his saber marched towards the three.
"You've done good today Rey let's say we call it for the time being." Luke suggested. Rey feeling exhausted nods her head in agreement. Sitting down she was hand a canteen by Luke who sat next to her. "I must say this past week you've come far."
"Really? Thank you."
"Your trust in the force and skills with a blade are coming along quite nicely." Luke adds.
"I have a good teacher." She compliments him.
"That is also true." Luke stands and begins to leave his student. Rey being left alone looked around thinking back to an encounter she had with Kylo Last a few nights before.
Kylo having gone through another sparring session with the Praetorians took off his shirt showing his new cuts on his back and arms along with the wounds both Fin and Rey gave him. Turning around reaching for a towel he see's Rey standing before him. She see's how his pants come above his waist and even his stomach causing her to snicker. "Can you put on a shirt please?" She asks of him avoiding eye contact. As Kylo puts on his knew jacket resembling that of the dressing he wore on Star killer base he begins to question what she wants from him.
"I wanted to know something."
"Which is what?"
"Why did you turn to the dark side?"
"Why do you wish to know?"
"Because I need to make sense as to why."
"Why what?"
"Why you killed Han, and more importantly why you killed my parents." She informs him. Kylo looks up stunned. "After you killed off the last Jedi order you came after my parents and I along with other force sensitive children with the Knights of Ren; why?"
"It was Snoke's order he didn't want any able to rise up to his level of power or at least close enough to challenge it." Kylo easily answers her to her surprise.
"Why?" Rey presses Kylo could see her anger.
"I just told-"
"No; why did you turn?"
"Did Skywalker not tell you yet."
"How did you-"
"I can feel him close to you." Kylo again is quick to answer. "He's probably to ashamed to tell you isn't he?" Rey could see the growing hate in Kylo's eyes.
"Ben what happened to you?"
"My name is Kylo."
"Ben is dead I killed him."
"Tell me why?"
"Because Luke Skywalker was afraid of my power and he couldn't handle it anymore. So he did what no master should done."
Picking up her saber Rey began walking down the temple stair in front of her was two walk ways one lead to the falcon and the huts she and Skywalker were using while the other she hadn't gone down yet but knew where it lead to. The hole she felt days ago that she was warned against. While Luke was teaching her many things and even opened up a great deal to her she still felt as if he was holding something back. Kylo eluded to it once before that Luke could have been his reason for turning she doesn't to believe it, but she couldn't get the thought out of her head; she had to know.
Making her way she felt the warm tropical like air turn cold as she got closer to her destination. Coming upon the hole she could see it covered with black vine and in the center pure black. She was out side but even then it was as if some one had put he world through a tinted piece of glass.
"Are you sure this the choice you wish to make?" A voice called out. Looking all around she couldn't see anything.
"Who said that?"
"Well I did." The voice once again speaks.
"Are you the Force?" Rey questions.
"I am not but merely one with it." He explains.
"Right?" Rey responds still a little confused slowly going to her saber.
"Trust me my dear I am no threat to you. Though I would advise you caution in the choice you are about to make."
"Who are you?"
"I was once a Jedi but now I am jus tone with the force. From time to time I have crossed back over when my guidance was needed."
"Ok, do you have a name?"
"My name is Qui-gon Jin." He began to materializes his body was hazy and grey as if made from air.
"Tell me Qui-gon if i went down there would I get the answer I'm looking for?"
"If you go down this path you will find a truth. Whether it will be the full truth or a half truth is up to you." He answers.
"What is that supposed to mean?" She questions him.
"Frankly it comes to how you will react to the information you're given." He explains. "Will you try to forget what you would have seen, or will you take action on the knowledge given to you?"
"What would you have me do? I can't sick back and do nothing with these doubts I'm having." She begs.
"Doubt is a natural consequence when not all of the seeds of knowledge have been planted. If you truly feel you must go i can not stop you i only caution that you trust in the Force believe me it will guide you." Qui-gon finishes before disappearing. After hearing him out Rey was still undeterred and after taking a moment to think it over she finally decides to dive into the black.
Coming out from the top of the cave Rey fell about a dozen feet into water below her. Climbing out the water she felt a little irritated because she believed something different might have happened. It was just a cave nothing dark or scary about it there was nothing. What was the Luke and the stranger so afraid of? Taking a few spins she couldn't see anything around her that was until she saw mirror in place of where the water was. Looking around she saw another had appeared behind her.
"Oh not again." Rey was beginning to have an idea what was going on. This was similar to what she experienced when she first touched the light saber. She could see an infinite loop created by the two mirrors of her self. Going up to one she began to notice it fog up swiping the fog away she saw her eyes glowing yellow as her reflection was gritting her teeth in anger. Her reflection took her saber slashed at Rey causing her to flinch back. With her opening her eyes she soon found her self in her hut looking at both her and Kylo sitting across from each other. Their hands were touching when suddenly she heard "Enough!" Rey once more was pulled into a new vision this time she was in a different place unfamiliar to her. Suddenly the spark of a green saber igniting caught her eye. It was of Luke his face red with rage holding his blade above Ben. Suddenly the whole building collapsed around them. She couldn't believe what she had saw Kylo turned to the dark defending himself from Luke. with in a blink of an eye she was back in the cave with a clear exit out.
"You were right." Rey spoke to Kylo. "You turned because of Luke attempting to kill you." Her eyes were teary as she didn't know what to do next.
"It hurts knowing that someone you looked up to would even commit such an act doesn't it." Kylo replies.
"I feel so alone here on this planet now." Rey tells him. "I don't trust him not anymore."
"You're not alone." Kylo responds. "Rey about your parents...I'm sorry." This act of kindness that she hadn't asked for completely blew Rey's mind. Up until these past few days she only had anger and contempt towards Kylo fro all the things he had done but it's possible that maybe he wasn't completely lost.
"I'm sorry for what happened to you." she responded to him. "Do you regret any of it?" She then asks seeing him close down not wanting to remember. With most of the day having gone by with no sight of Rey Luke began to grow curious of his students whereabouts.
"I've already chosen my path." He answers with guilt on his face.
"You're not alone either." Rey tells him reaching out to him. As their hands get closer the two grow more and more nervous when finally they feel each others hands. Rey's smooth hands of warmth with a few blisters from her training in the palm of Kylo's larger more colder hands from space. It was both an odd yet rewarding sensation for the two. Suddenly Rey's door opens with Luke seeing the two in the same room.
"ENOUGH!" With s great release of the force he hadn't exerted in years Luke cut the connection between the two in an instant destroying the hut. Seeing the anger in looks face similar to that of the vision she saw Rey drew her saber and followed after Luke as turned away. Back on his ship Kylo grinned.
"Liar!" She screamed enraged.
"What are you talking about?!" Luke shouted back at her furious at what he had just witnessed only to then see Rey's incoming saber swing. Not having his saber with him Luke calls forth a metal poll swiping her blade away.
"Rey! Stop!" Luke called out to her as the two began to fence to no avail. Rey continued her flurry not realizing she was manipulating the weather around her. Rain began to fall as thunder rain out with lightning striking all around.
"You tired to kill him!" She pressed on her attacks becoming heavy as her anger grew. "You turned him!" Luke was astonished by her speed and flurry using the force to augment his speed. "You! Got them all killed!"
"Enough of this!" Luke ordered once more his weapons being sliced out of his hand.
"You killed HAN!" Luke could see in her eyes where yellow as she swung for the kill.
"I...SAID...ENOUGH!" Luke caught Rey's blade mid swing with hand. Using the force power of Tutaminis with such mastery and skill. Rey was stunned as she began to realize what she tried to do. It was just as Luke said she didn't attempt to resist the dark side she just gave in. Her eye's returned to normal only it was to late as Luke ripped the saber at of her hand and force pushed her back into the ground. "You know nothing of which you speak." Luke told her. "That day Ben had crippled one of the students in his rage. That night I looked into to him to see what had happened and what i saw scared me to my core. Ben was already turned to the dark side. He had been for weeks planning to kill the other students. I saw what Snoke had in store for him and as I gazed on i found my self surrounded by my friends and family all dead...slaughtered." Luke explained. "The Emperor was killing my wife before my eyes so ignited my blade and began my duel with him." He explained. "Taking my blade I was ready to end the Emperor once and for all but at that point it was to late. My mind cleared and I was moments from killing my own nephew. Snoke had poisoned my mind. I felt so much guilt and sorrow for what i was about to do then he woke up."
"Ben! No!" 
"Ben believed I was trying to kill him so when he escaped he enacted his plan. The Knights of Ren and handful of other students he help turned killed everyone else while I was incapacitated." Luke finished. "I'll admit at first i was heart broken but even in that split moment I still thought he could be saved that was until he killed my wife and unborn child."
"He can still be saved. I felt the good in him." Rey spoke up.
"Good for you, however my way of saving him now is going to be more of an aggressive negotiation." Luke finishes leaving Rey in the rain. Once out of sight Luke drops to his knees coughing up blood.
"General Hux we've located the Resistance to the planet of D'Qar" An officer of the bridge of Hux's ship informed him.
"Very good prepare the rest of the fleet and send word that I request the Dreadnaught also take part in this battle."
"Yes sir." the officer replied.
"The Resistance dies today."
----
The warmth of the flames, the thrum of rain falling on shingles, the tingle of the Force at her fingertips—hshe was reaching out with everything she had!
And then—
The door burst open, in came Luke, and there she was—Rey—with her spectral boyfriend, Kylo Ren.
Rey screamed. "You can't just walk in on me like this, Dad! You're invading my privacy!"
The Last Jedi
How It Should Have Ended
Rey didn't actually say that out loud, but as her boyfriend disappeared and the bricks of her hut flew away in all directions, letting the cold rain of the night steal in upon her, she wished she had, well, yelled something like that at least.
She pursued Luke up the mountainside, berating him with questions, screaming—"IS IT TRUE? Did you try to kill Ben Solo? Is ALL of this your fault?"
Luke was just about to respond, saying, "Rey, look," but before he could get out any more words—in an instant of rage—Rey struck out with her staff and hit him in the back.
But Luke simply turned around and responded in kind—not with words, but with his staff.
And they dueled, there in the night, in the rain.
Finally, Rey struck him down to the cold steps, Accio'ed her lightsaber from her now soaking bag, and, flaming it into his face, shrieked, "LISTEN TO ME!"
But Luke whipped out his own lightsaber from beneath his cloak, and as it flared green he batted hers away. He stood like lightning, face to face with her now, and bringing his lightsaber up to eye level, locked with hers, he snarled, "No, you listen to me!" Suddenly he bashed her away from him and attacked, and so they dueled again, there in the black rain upon the ancient bricks and steps of the First Jedi Temple, green and blue flashing as the blades crackled and smashed. " You're just some silly brat from nowhere," he sneered, "who thinks she's a no it all Jedi warrior—thinks she's good enough to duel Luke Skywalker!"
"I didn't even know you had a lightsaber! And—"
"Ha!" spat Luke, swinging his lightsaber with Jedi strength which she could only barely block. "Not feeling so smart any more, little girl, are you? They probably told you that's my lightsaber, didn't they? You probably felt drawn to it, didn't you?"
"Yes," she gasped, parrying another thunderous strike, "I—I did. And it—it showed me things."
Luke lashed at her once more. "Oh yeah?" This wasn't like fighting Ren had been. Skywalker was a different kind of monster! His skills were mad—!
Again, another near hit sent a shock through her system. "Yes!" screamed Rey. "It showed me this place! It showed me you—your memories! And my own! Past, present, and future! Are you saying it was all a—a lie—?"
"I'm saying you should have thought a little longer before you tried to duel me, missy!"
Rey was desperate. "Please believe me—ah!" She was totally on the defensive—he was driving her up against a temple ledge! "I didn't want—I don't want to fight you!" This burst of anger gave her the strength to give a sudden surge of power, and blasted her way out of Skywalkers trap. She danced away from him backwards into the rain, face lit blue by her gently buzzing 'saber. "I was only trying to get your attention! I didn't know you had a lightsaber of your own!"
She was pleading with him now, hot tears mingling with the cold rain on her face, but suddenly he was right on her—his flashing 'saber held high—crashing down on her—!
"Not much of a doubt in your mind anymore, is there, princess?"
Rey growled. "Don't call me—PRINCESS!" She gave a guttural shriek and plunged breathlessly back into battle with Luke, but he hadn't broken a sweat. "Didn't you hear any of the stories about me?" he asked her as he allowed her to take the upper hand and force him backwards down a flight of stairs he knew well. "Didn't you ever hear of how Darth Vader cut off my hand?" He held up his black-gloved hand for the fleetingest instant for her to appraise anew in the blended glow of their lightsabers, but Rey thought it was curious Luke didn't refer to Vader as his father, as he always had in their few talks up till no.
But he was going on… "How he sent it falling down—with my lightsaber into the abyss under cloud city? Didn't you ever wonder that if I fell down there, too, and I ended up coming out from under the place, it might have, too?"
"You built a new one," she breathed, but in that moment of thought and realization Luke performed a stunning flip-twist move, landing deathly inches behind her. It was all she could do to allow him to maneuver her darkly into the blackness behind her as he beat on her lightsaber like a mongrel, forcing her over a narrow, slippery support strut connecting the edge of the Temple grounds to a cliff wall across a short chasm; the black waters churned and swelled far below..
"Cleverly put, girly!" he said, meanly. "Any other 'inspired words of wisdom' you'd like to share with the class?"
Rey just yelled out, half due to the pain that shot up her left arm after breaking the force of Skywalker's last hit. "I'm just so confused!" she cried. "I just want—"
"You want answers!" bellowed Luke, and with that swatted her back with her lightsaber so hard she flew through the pouring water into the mountainside behind her, her lightsaber hanging meekly at her side, darkened and sheathed as she panted up at his greenly-lit, dragonish face. "You're just a teenager, a silly girl. You have no patience. You want all your questions answered now, now, now—well, I've got news for you, missy! Maybe I was going to tell you what you've been wanting to know, but—oh no! You're not getting nothing outta me tonight! Not anymore!" His eyes were flaming! He was crazy!
Rey's wimpish caving-in boiled over into rage, and her tear-smeared, bleary-eyed face contorted into the most horrible mask of rage Luke had ever seen, and her new shriek of wrath was more pronounced than any sound she'd uttered that night—more terrible than any animal sound she'd ever heard, for that matter. She ignited her saber one more time, for a crashing finale atop that narrow bridge which led nowhere, and swinging it up against Skywalker's with all her might, she yelled, "Well then I have nothing left to lose!"
Skywalker was not prepared for this. Her power, when unleashed, was beyond him! She beat him back, now, to the middle of the bridge, where he finally gave way and fell—not over the side of the bridge, he Force-steadied himself enough to avoid that, but down onto his back in front of her. She raised her blade, growling out from gritted teeth—h
But Skywalker's eyes flashed, and he lunged up from beneath her and slashed down on her raised blade harder than ever he had done yet—her 'saber went flying, still ignited—and with all the air in his lungs, Luke Skywalker said, "ENOUGH! DON'T MAKE ME HURT YOU, RAY!"
And she scowled up at him from where she was, now crumpled in a heap at his feet from the earth-shattering force of his final blow, as he glared down at her, lightsaber still shining prone in his hand. Then, after what seemed a long silence, he began to growl, barely audible over the violent wind of the storm.
"You want answers, Rey? Well, I'll give 'em to you."
And so, the duel won, they spoke. And when Rey had heard all her master had to say—at dawn—she departed the planet with Chewie aboard the Millennium Falcon.
"Where there was weakness, I now sense strength. Where there was hesitancy, I now sense resolve…"
(Door of elevator opens and Rey and Ben are totally making out! No, just kidding… That could never happen...)
Rey was kneeling again, this time in the throne room of the Supreme Leader of the New Order, Snoke, before Kilo Ren, her nemesis, and now her executioner.
"I see him turning the lightsaber," breathed Snoke in a giant's voice whisper which carried and filled the whole chamber, "to slay his true enemy…"
And then Ren cut Snoke in half force-using the perfectly positioned lightsaber which had once belonged to his uncle, and cut to pieces all the red guards in the room with Rey.
Then Ren began to talk to her, in a voice which needed no Bane-like amplification. "Join me, Rey. We can rule the galaxy together. It's time to let old things die, Rey…" He held out his hand to her, and she reached out to take it…
But in the last minute flung it out and grabbed Ren's throat, pulling her face down near to hers to snarl—"I'll never join you, Ben, you snake!"
And then she tossed him away from her, force-grabbed her lightsaber, and igniting it, dueled him.
As they dueled, Ren crooned, "What did Master Skywalker say when he saw us, Rey? Did he give you answers?"
Rey flashed back for an instant to that conversation above the churning waters, then quickly came back to the present. There were more important things. Don't let him distract you. "He told me the truth, you animal! He told me how he never meant to kill you! The instant he ignited his lightsaber he regretted it!"
But Rey's voice was cracking and tears were welling up in her eyes as she said it, and Ren was not oblivious to it. She was holding something back; hiding something.
"Oh?" he whispered to her in that deep, epic voice of his. "Is that all?"
An instant's hesitation as they battled, then Rey gnashed her teeth at him, "Yes! That was it!" she said. "He told me everything I need to know about you!"
Ben shook his head. "Rey, I know you're lying to me. I know there's something more. It's okay. You can put down your lightsaber. I won't hurt you anymore. Just talk to me, Rey. That's all I want. There you go… good girl…"
The beam of her lightsaber had wavered; then she had lowered it; extinguished it; and now it had slipped through her fingers, falling to the floor with a magnified crash and rolling away, leaving Rey standing there, crying, sobbing, sobbing silently as Ben walked slowly up to her, his lightsaber extinguished as well in truce.
"Oh, oh… Poor thing," he said softly, looking softly into her eyes. She tried to look away, to deny the tingling feeling deep within herself that was stirring within her at his nearness, but the effort was worthless. She fell to her knees at his feet, sobbing out loud now.
When Luke had smashed her to the ground to cower before him (in a scene surface-level like the present one, but in reality wholly opposite) and sent her lightsaber flying into the abyss, he had said, "Enough. Don't make me hurt you, Rey. You want answers? Well, I'll give them to you."
Then he had held out his hand, and the lightsaber, now a hundred feet beneath them and still ignited, had stopped its fall towards the waters, halted like a glowing blue star in the blackness of the storm. Then it slowly began to float upwards toward them till, extinguished, it slapped down between them onto the wet stone bridge.
Holding his green lightsaber prone before him, angled downwards, its green glow lighting his scarred and scowling face from below, his long hair a black mop in the rain, falling over his face and blowing in the torrential rains, he said,
"I'm your father, Rey."
Rey's eyes had widened, there on the bridge leading to nowhere, in the torrent, above the black and boiling waters. She was bewildered! Confused! Elated! Terrified! This man? HIM? My father?
Then he had gone on to explain how the thirty years that had elapsed since the slaying of the Emporer, the defeat of the Empire, the victory of the Rebellion, and the institution of the New Republic—all this time had not been spent by him in solitude. He had rejoiced with Han, Lando, Leia… He had been han's best man at the wedding… He had given his father a proper Jedi funeral… He'd been there when little Ben was born...
And he began to teach Leia the ways of the force, and others with her. A whole new generation of Jedi was rising!
"And then I met her…" Luke said over hot tea back in his bungalow, the fire raging nearby in the hearth, both wrapped warmly in blankets after the cold rain as he addressed his tale alternately to the floor and the flames. "Mara Jade…
"I was young… foolish… She attempted to assaassinate me and I fell in love with her immediately. It was wonderful… I knew that Jedi were not allowed to be married, but I didn't care!" His old youthful zeal seemed to be coming back to his voice now. "We were in love! Anything was possible! I was contemplating a whole new way of things… a new order… One where there didn't have to be balance! Not between—light and darkness, good and evil! Where Light could win over the Darkness, not just hold it at bay…"
For the first time, Luke looked up at Rey, and she saw his face was glowing even brighter than the fire under all his shaggy, gray, adolescent hair.
"And then you came along. Our little ray of sunshine…" He was beaming.
"But…" And here a little of the darkness—the tiredness—stole back over his face again with a sigh…
"But, we knew that if we were really going to raise up a whole new Order of Jedi to defend the Republic, we were going to have to get serious." Another sigh, another level added to the veil of darkness covering over the young face again and making it old. "And so we brought you to Jakku. It seemed like the perfect place! Well, not real nice, but… symbolic. In the old days it had been called Scarif, and they say it was a beautiful place—a real paradise. But, that's all—ancient history. Nobody remembers the stories except… Old Luke."
"What do you mean?" asked puzzled Rey.
During the days of the old Empire, a rogue rebel squadron had led a makeshift assault on an Imperial base on Scarif to steal the plans for the original Death Star, leading to one of the first ("if not the very first") battles of the old Rebellion. Many Bothans died in that battle.
"Unfortunately though, the very same Death Star was used on the planet in an attempt to stop the rebels from succeeding. And though the plans were successfully stolen, it wasn't without cost to the planet itself. You know, the Death Star wasn't fully operational yet, meaning a blast from it wasn't going to obliterate the entire planet; but that one blast still destroyed the planet's ecosystem. The seas dried up, the trees were incinerated, and nearly the whole planet became nothing but desert."
Rey finally began to comprehend. "Like Tatooine." The old Scarif had been completely wiped from memory, and the newly dubbed desert world of Jakku was all anyone in the galaxy remembered.
Luke nodded. "Exactly. Just like my childhood home, which lent some… sentimentality to the decision to leave you there."
"Okay, okay," said Rey, attempting to bring Luke back to the present, "But what about your promise. You haven't gotten yet to the part where you tell me why you never came for me."
Luke became grave. "This, Rey, is where you cousin reenters the story."
"Ben Solo."
"Ben indeed," agreed Luke. "When we left you there, it was only supposed to be for a couple of years, until your mom and I could set up the temple. Then we were coming back for you. You were three, and Ben was eight. Well, there was a lot to be done, and two years stretched into five years, and five years into eight years, and by now you were eleven, and Ben was sixteen. I was just getting ready to return for you when Ben finally turned.
"Your mother believed in him though. 'There's still light in him,' she said. 'We can turn him back,' she said. She sounded a lot like you actually," he said, his tone darkening further to deep bitterness. "But it didn't turn out that way. I tried to kill Ben against your mother's wishes—secretly. In the night. And brought the stones of his hut down on top of me. He must have thought I was dead. Meanwhile, he went and killed my Mara, slaughtered every last one of the other students, even those closest and most loyal to him, and burned the temple to the ground."
"At which point," clarified Rey, "he fled the planet in a spaceship and met up with Snoke and his Palpatine's old followers in the Outer Rim and started his 'new Order.'"
"Exactl—" started Luke, but Rey wasn't finished.
"And in the course of beginning a new Empire and a reign of terror as the Crown Prince of Snoke the Conqueror, our Kylo Ren put a bounty on your head and forced you into exile before you could save me."
Luke sighed. "I was about to tell you you were exactly right. Now I have to tell you you're perfectly wrong."
"I am, am I?" exclaimed Rey.
Luke nodded darkly. "Rey," he began, "I was a Jedi Master. The son of Darth of Vader. I could've gone back for you without getting caught."
"Then why didn't you?!"
Luke was silent for a long moment. Rey listened to the rain beginning to die on the roof until he said, "Rey, when Ben Solo turned on me and slaughtered my wife, I realized that all my New Order ideas were a bunch of crap. There is no defeating the Darkness. You just have to wait until—until it passes. But you can't beat it."
"And that's why you left me—?"
"No, Rey, I left you there because I knew you would be alright. I knew your path would lead you off of that rat's nest of a planet. I just hoped it wouldn't lead you to me."
Rey's temperature began to rise again. "So, let me get this all straight. I'm the daughter you never wanted, who you basically forgot about for eight years until your very first attempt at building a school failed, at which point you entirely gave up on life and left me to die with no parents in the middle of a giant dead desert planet—and you didn't even feel sorry about it?"
The young Luke had now entirely died, with the rain. He looked passively into her eyes from behind his long, gray hair, and suddenly smiled down at her. "Incredible," he breathed, and for an instant she thought she was about to heat him say something kind. But then the smile dropped completely. "Everything you've said is completely right."
Morning was coming outside and Luke was ready to be finished with this long, emotional confession, but just as he was putting his hand to the door Rey started fuming.
"HOLD ON!" she yelled. "So you've—been—LYING TO ME—this whole time?"
Luke nodded simply, as though she had commented on the sky's being blue.
"Pretending you didn't know why I was here, where Jakku was—Who I was—?"
"Oh, I couldn't be sure at first," said Luke scathingly.
"No, really! 'Girl' shows up on your planet with your old lightsaber, with hair which is, as you yourself said, just like your own late wife's! And you couldn't be sure!"
Luke nodded as if it was self-evident. "Are… Are we finished? Yet? Do you think you've got enough answers for one morning, Daughter?"
Rey broke. "YES!" she shrieked. "Yes, we're through! I hope you do die here! Just as alone as you deserve to be!"
"Thank you, I do, too," said Luke.
"Aaaaaaaar-aaaaaaaagh!" screamed Rey. "Chewie, we're leaving!"
Chewbacca began to protest, but Rey was not to be denied. "No, Chewie, no buts! NOW!"
Chewie sadly acquiesced, and as the Falcon sped off into the dawn, Luke slammed the door of his hut and Rey sobbed uncontrollably on Chewie's shoulder.
She was sobbing again, on her knees before the same Ben Solo, hugging his legs, her story told.
Ben finally knelt down with her, stroked her hair. "Say it, Rey. Let it out, it's okay," he murmured.
Through uncontrollable convulsions of sorrow, she stammerred, "I-I w-was… I was nothing to—to him…"
"That's right," said Ben. "You're nothing. To him, you're nothing but an accident. A nobody." He took her hands, and gently guided her again to her feet. He held her, brushed her hair from her tear-streaked face with his left hand; she wiped her eyes with her right hand, but allowed him to keep her left hand held firmly but gently in his right. He leaned in, his lips brushed her hair. "But not to me," he whispered.
Rey wiped another tear from her leaky eyes and stared up at him; that tingling within her was becoming uncontrollable now.
He brought his lips from her ear and looked her in the eyes. "You're not nothing to me," he said. "I see you for who you really are. It doesn't matter to me who your father is. I love you for you, Rey. Please, forgive me for everything."
She was starstruck, wide-eyed. A schoolgirl.
He was murmuring again.
"You need a teacher; let me teach you. You need a protector; I will never betray you. Marry me, Rey. Marry me."
She stammered. "Ben…"
"No," said Dark Prince Kylo Ren. "Hush. Just hush. It's okay. I love you… my Princess."
And so she let him hug her there in the flaming, broken throne room, and she returned his embrace and placed her still, wet face in his soft shoulder.
"We lost Finn!"
It was Captain Po, running back into the command center in the bunker in the old Rebel base. Leia shook her head in dismay… She'd liked that boy… Snap out of it… What was coming over her?
"Who else?" she croaked.
"Well, his girlfriend Rose died, too, as well as almost all of our pilots. We have just one bleeding alien left."
"So… Let me get this straight, Captain," said Leia. "You ordered a full retreat, and still, every single one of your pilots dies?"
"Well—"
"Oh, right. Except for you, of course."
Po whimpered, "And the bleeding alien."
"What a loser," said Leia. "Now you're really fired."
The attack run had been a success, though; no thanks to Po. He'd ordered all to fall back, but Fin and launched himself directly into the Battering Ram Cannon. Whether Rose had died in the massive explosion caused by the destruction of the cannon, or had been picked off by an AT-AT whose captain was her as easy bait, was unknown. However, the explosion was so spectacular that in itself, it destroyed on of the AT-AT's nearest it and wounded another critically. Great job, Fin.
But the First Order had been prepared for this contingency. They ordered their attack line to fall back—at first the Resistance thought they were retreating! But really it was to give their Dreadnaughts an open target to fire on the door—from outer space! So the attack run had bought us a little extra time… And now there was the sound of a continual pounding, pounding, pounding on the door…
Until at last—presently—
BANG! CRASH! DOOM!
The entire door—or what was left of it—caved in and was slashed off its hinges onto the hanger floor… A crumpled, melted wreck of space slag, like the Resistance itself. And now the attack line was advancing again…
But then—
"General!" cried one of Leia's pretty aids. "What's-that?"
Over the crunch and boom of oncoming attack vessels over salty snow, a light buzzing and wirring could be heard… growing louder…
Leia's eyes were distant. "I know that sound…" she murmured.
"That's—"
"Is that—"
"That's an X-Wing!" exclaimed Po, beaming!
"But who-?"
And then it swept into view, landing in the quickly narrowing space between the oncoming First Order attackers, and the defenseless Resistance survivors.
And the attack line stopped.
The cockpit opened.
"I know that ship…" said Leia.
And out from the lone fighter, stepped-
"Master Luke!" cried C3PO, with un-robotic glee.
"Luke!" Leia rushed out to him, despite the dangers. Po put out his arm when they went to stop her, saying,
"Let her go."
When she flung her arms around his neck like a schoolgirl, she cried, "Luke! You're real!"
And so siblings embraced, there on the red and white striped battlefield. Now she knew what that feeling was earlier… They were connected through the Force, of course! She had been sensing Luke's pain and exertion across all those lightyears of the cosmos as he had lifted his X-Wing a last time from water, to make his final voyage through the stars…
"But really, Leia." Luke was stern. "The First Order is kind of about to, well, I don't know, wipe out the last of the Resistance forever? Maybe there's not a lot of time for a weepy reunion between siblings. I mean, I was going to apologize for something, but…"
"Oh—" gasped Leia.
"No, I might be wrong—" said Luke, dragging out the moment with sinister, Sithlike sarcasm.
"No, no, you're right," said Leia mollified. "We'll just have to… catch up another time…"
Then she retreated to the hanger, and all was silent out on the battle field as the one dead AT-AT smoked behind the lines, unwanted…
Luke stared up at the command ship with a Force stare…
And then—
Ever. Single. Gun. On the battlefield. Began to fire on Luke.
The booming of AT-AT cannons' continual barage totally obliterated the sound of Luke's X-Wing exploding violently.
"Oh no!" cried Po. "His X-Wing!"
"What do you mean, 'His X-Wing?'" Leia sounded stern. "That's my brother!"
"No," said Po, "I mean… There could've been valuable secrets left within that X-Wing to help us defeat the First Order once and for all… If only Luke had of left his X-Wing on his secure secret planet which no one in the entire Universe knows how to get to but us, and not come in person. I mean, he's like, the most powerful Jedi warrior ever—in like, the History of the Universe. Surely he could've sent like, a 'Force-hologram' or something instead, in his place?"
Leia turned away in disgust. "Now you're just making things up, kid. Don't be so silly, that's impossible."
Then the cannons ceased, and the smoke and the dust began to clear… and there stood Luke!
Again Leia cried out. "You're alive! How…?
Luke thre a quick ink over his shoulder to C3PO, then turned back again to face the command ship now setting down upon the snow.
Within it, Ben was preparing to exit for battle, but turned first to say over his shoulder to a masked, shadowed figure, "Wait in here till my signal. It'll make it more… impactful, for him." The black figure nodded its assent, as with blowing smoke and steam the door opened, and…
Out from the darkness into the blinding white cold stepped the Dark Prince Kylo Ren.
Each raised his lightsaber, Kylo Ren's with the cracked crystal purring crazily and crackling bloodred, Luke's soft and green. "You've come!" shouted Ben. "...Uncle."
"I'm here," agreed Luke with a nod.
"I don't know how you survived that," sneered the Prince, "but—"
Luke cut him off. "Force-field!" he yelled across the distance. "DUH. Didn't you I ever teach you that one? Oh, right. You turned to the Dark Side, didn't you. There not as fun over there."
"I turned because you—you failed me!" shrieked Ren. "But—Ah! Quit distracting me."
Luke put up his hands as if to say, Point taken.
"As I was saying," growled Ben, "However you survived that barrage, you'll wish you hadn't."
And they dueled. Quickly. Harshly. Insanely. Crazily. It was the most incredible, epic lightsaber duel ever in all recorded history in the galaxy. The bangs and crashes of their swords rang out over the long distance into the bunker and flew high into the white sky. Their swords moved so fast no one could watch them. The way they moved… Luke was like a man far younger… Like a young boy staring up into the horizon…
They were evenly matched, and the battle climaxed into a 'saber lock in which the two Masters faced eachother eye to eye inches apart between their swords making a giant electric "X". And then the first round was over, and they flung apart from one another to regroup and pant, and stare each other down dramatically.
Then Luke was saying, "...If you cut me down in anger…"
But suddenly Ben started laughing at him. He extinguished his lightsaber and clipped it violently to his belt and flung his arms up into the air as if being crucified, and began to circle slowly to the side."No, Uncle!" he cried. "I know who I am now… What I'm about… What I've got to do…"
Luke followed him with squinted eyes, even lowering his lightsaber a few degrees as he racked his brains—What was Ben doing? Seeking stalemate? Declaring Luke the winner of their duel?
But then Ben suddenly screamed—
"No, Uncle—it is not MY place to kill you!"
Luke realized what was going on too late. He had turned 90-degrees to watch Ben Solo, but only now did he realize what he had been up to—Ben had not been giving up; he'd been distracting him! He'd been giving a signal!
Luke wasn't quick enough to lift his lightsaber, but he had just enough time to turn his eyes before—
Enough time to see a black form stepping out from the gaping shadow of the interior of the command ship—out onto the ramp—raising his hand high—
—Lightning arced from her fingertips!—
"NOW, DO IT!" shrieked Ben. "KILL SKYWALKER, COMPLETE YOUR TRAINING—!"
Luke fell into heap in the snow after that first blast, and looked up pitifully as the black, hooded, masked figure, which he could see now was a girl, stepped forward further into the light, though still elevated atop the ramp leading down from the vessel… watched painfully as she pulled back her hood, removed her mask…
No… It can't be…
"Do it, do it now," said Ben. "Complete your training… Rey."
The instant Rey had released Luke from the sting of her lightning Ben had immediately outstretched his own hand to lock Luke gaspingly in place and retrieve Luke's fallen lightsaber from the ground in front of him; it had flown into Ben's hand without a sound while Luke had no choice but to stare upon the dark beauty of his daughter: The beauty which had come from her mother, and the darkness which he had created by rejecting her so violently and foolishly.
The black mask and dress had been created by Ben's men long ago in preparation for this very moment. The mask was not a copy or duplicate of his own, but rather a compliment to it, and the dress was ravishingly perfect upon Rey's form. The skirt was cut rebelliously diagonal, and underneath it her legs were sheathed in form fitting black leather. Her arms were bare from the shoulder to the elbow, in direct mimicry of Rey's own old styles, and the revealed skin was supernaturally pale as though the evil powers of the Dark Side of the Force were having a drastically pronounced life-sucking effect on her. This pale effect was highlighted even more severely in her face, which had been painted white to accent the goth black makeup styled over her eyes, lips, and cheekbones. Her hair, too, had been dyed to a greasy charcoal black, and permitted to fall seductively over her face and shoulders. Her black cape was taught in the wind.
She made the perfect Sith Queen.
Everything Luke had wanted to say to her since his discussion with the Force-ghost of Yoda was trapped half-way up his constricted throat due to Ren's powerful Force-choke—then Rey put her hand out again and began to shock him once more, even more severely now—continuously, for minutes on end, as she slowly, slowly, slowly padded further down the ramp towards him.
As she shocked Luke violently, Ren screamed to her as an instructer to a pupil—as her Teacher— "Kill your father as I killed mine! It was YOUR lightsaber that slew the old Supreme Leader, and his powers have passed onto you! Kill your father—he HAD his chance, but did he take it? NO! He rejected you! He is nothing to you! Let him die! Let the Past DIE, Rey! Let REY die this day, too, and take up your new name as a Sith Lordess—"
Abruptly the crashing and thunder of the lightning was silenced. Rey turned her head to look at her bridegroom Ren, and said quizzically, "New name? New name? What shall I be called then?" Ben started to answer, but with a look Rey silenced him, too. Luke, frozen by pain as well as by the Force, was left simply to watched this strange interaction between the seemingly newly betrothed couple as Rey then swiftly continued, "I will not be called 'Kylo Rey.'"
Ben was at a loss. He opened his hands as though in surrendur, and, looking down and shaking his head just slightly, "Well, whatever you want, I guess, Hon." Then he looked up at her and smiled, and she smiled to and nodded her head to her own beat as she surveyed the horizon.
"'Whatever I want…'" she murmured. Then, sharply again, "I know. If I am to rule the galaxy beside you, and be a Dark Sith Lordess, my name shall Cadia. The Lady Cadia."
She locked eyes with Ben as he said, "I like it."
"Me, too!" she smiled, and went back to shocking Luke. She had not quite reached the snow yet, and wanted eak out every little bit of pain she could out of this descent, for her one-time father.
Then she reached the snow, and walked slowly up to Luke, her one hand still in the air frying his brains. Then she dropped her hand and everything was silent and still, even the wind, which suddenly stopped blowing and allowed her hair and cape to fall down freely again over her face and shoulders. She took a final step up to Luke's stiff position, where he was forced to stare up at her against his will and choke out his last breaths under the powerful eye of Kylo Ren. But with that final step, she looked down into Luke's ghastly pale face with blood stains under his nose and thick black circles under his eyes from her assault, and murmured again to her beloved, "Release him. I have him."
So Ben put down his hand as well and Luke was allowed to fall once again to the cold, salty snow and rub his burning, sore, red-marked throat, but she was right. He couldn't look away, nor, still, could he speak. It was as though simply her eyes upon had put him under a sort of trance or spell, as though with the powers of Supreme Leader she was already paving the way for new reaches and uses of the Dark Side of the Force.
He struggled through the spell, though, to say, pitiful and weak, "Rey…"
Ben raised his flaming sword to Luke's face and spat, "Silence, old fool—" but Rey, for the third time, quieted him with a hand raised.
"No," she said, in that new silky, murmury voice of hers, "It's okay. I want to hear what he has to say." She had not once taken her eyes off of Skywalker. Solo retreated once more. "Go on, then, Skywalker. What have you to say?"
"Rey…" bled Luke, "I'm—I'm sorry…"
Rey looked almost troubled, almost confused. "Is… Is that all, then?" she asked, softly, like a murmuring stream. "Oh, well. Perhaps you should have taken your chance to say it to Rey when she actually cared." Now she finally tensed her arm, palm up, from its fallen position by her side, and placed him into an even more powerful Force-choke strangle-hold. "Because, Rey isn't here anymore. I don't actually have any idea why you've been saying her name like you have. My name is Cadia. Dark Lady Cadia. Nice to meet you."
would you… That's so exhausting…"
Their eyes met again, and a shivering smile raced between them at once as Ren so gladly raised his hand to again strangle Luke, now again sitting up perfectly stiffly. Then, as Cadia returned to her electrocution, he placed his other hand beneath his cloak and drew out the lightsaber which had slain Snoke, which had once belonged to Luke and then to Rey Skywalker, but now was possessed by Lady Cadia of the First Order. He held it out to his bride.
"Do it, Rey… Cadia… It's time. We've… You've waited long enough."
But Sith-witch Cadia met his eyes now grinning slyly. "Thank you, love, but I prefer the more… personal touch."
And with that she raised her other hand high well—her left hand—as hot blue lightning began to pour out of it as well. As she held her two hands up above the head of the greatest Jedi Knight in the galaxy ever—the warrior Luke Skywalker, she looked up towards the gaping, gasping Resistance survivors looking out from their cavernous bunker, and said Darkly in a giant, force-magnified voice, "Are you watching?"
And the she looked down at the now purple-and-black spotted face beneath her (Luke had now closed his eyes, at peace with the Force), and began to slowly move her hands closer to Luke's face. And then it happened, all in a moment. Her lightning-streaking hands touched both his temples, and the man erupted into flames. She shrieked with gleeful laughter stretched her right hand directly outwards towards Kylo, from whose jacket then flew her lightsaber (the lightsaber which had once belonged to the man before her) into her long-nailed hand, and as its blade erupted forth from it, she slashed—
—and hacked off the head of Luke Skywalker—
—and the blade flashed all at once into blood-red—
—and—in the instants left before the flesh of Skywalker dissolved into the Force—the stretched out her left hand over the snow and the flaming head soared directly upwards into her hand, and she grasped the head by its long, burning hair—
—and she shrieked, laughing hideously, to the ones in the bunker,
"DO YOU SEE YOUR LEADER? DO YOU SEE YOUR DOOM?"
—and then—
And then Luke Skywalker rested with his fathers and his flesh became at peace with the Force, and it was over.
The body, the head disappeared, and all that was left of him was a cloak burning fitfully on the snow.
**
And with the death of Luke Skywalker, the death of Rey was done also, and her transformation into Lady Cadia was completed. The prophecy seen by Kylo Ren had come to pass. She had turned. The Last Jedi… was dead.
"Come, Lover," said the Dark Mistress Cadi, black hair and black cape whipping in the wind, as she turned and walked back towards the gaping black mouth of the command ship whose tongue was her ramp into glory, and her soon to be husband followed at her side. "We are finished here. Make them round up these rebels and let us go and be finished with their filth and the stench of all this gore and be wedded and make love together in your spaceship."
Finally at the top of the ramp, as Storm Troopers poured forth around them and from every attach vessel on the planet, Lord Ren stooped to enter the darkness of his warmaking chamber (which soon would be eclipsed by his lovemaking chamber as his favorite place in the galaxy) and murmured, face awash in the red glow within, "As you wish, my—
"My love?"
She had not followed him in, but stood there on the ramp, straddling the line between the light and the darkness, face hidden from him.
Again, he said, slightly more forcefully this time, "My love?"
Another moment passed in which she did not respond to him…
But then she looked up at him, and he could see that what had been stealing her attention from her beloved was not doubts as to her place in the Darkness, but—
Her mask, which she had Force-retrieved from its rest in the snow as they walked up the ramp. She had been inspecting the visor of the mask with much thought, as though looking into the reflection of her own eyes. Presently, though, she met Ren's gaze, and said,
"You know, Darling, you were right about these things. They're not stylish at all. From an entirely dead generation."
And with that, she stretched out her arm once more and the thing flew from her touch as the cruiser, now emptied of troops (and, upon her request, of the presence General Hux, as well, whose lifeless form had been cast to the snow after Ren had snapped his neck for his Dark Bride) ascended to the heavens.
The last of the Resistance had been captured.
They counted none more than a handful of broken leaders and hopeless pilots.
Rey had taken Cadia for his bride.
Leia was a lifeless wick, a snapped reed.
But as she sat in the dungeon of the Star Destroyer, she thought she heard something pass quickly by the skin of the ship before it jumped to lightspeed.
None of the others seemed to have heard it, though, so she slouched down to the dirty floor with them to await their arrival at the Homeworld Base of the New Empire (Cadia thought "First Order" was far too dull and boring, and her first action as Supreme Leader beside Lord Kylo Ren was to wipe away that wretched name). But just the same, a spark of hope had been ignited within her once again…
It was true. Leia had heard a craft outside, or rather sensed it through the Force.
It was an Action VI smuggling craft, invisible to First Order (or rather New Empire) sensors, the only ship to respond to the distress signal sent from the rebel base far below…
A ship in which sat a single occupant… A woman as old as Leia… with friends: smugglers, arms dealers… assassins… a woman with long, dark red hair that was still just as beautiful as it had been when she was young… who was looking down at an uncharted planet with a dead military base from an Old rebellion…
"I failed you…" she murmured, turning the craft slowly around, tired of seeing the dry white glow beneath her…
"But I will not fail our daughter…"
...finally ending the turn, looking out from the viewport before her into the stars, where several Star Destoyers had just jumped into Hyperspace with the last remnant fighters of the Resistance…
...and accelerated into lightspeed, flying off into the stars behind them.
Category:Alternate Endings