Rey’s whole face whitened to the point she almost looked like a ghost.
“What do you mean?” she asked the hooded man hovering before her.
“I took your abilities away when I transported you here.”
“Why?” Rey had a callous time believing the man stripped her powerless. Then again, she returned to the question of why she felt drained in the first place. What if the man did take away her Force abilities? Just thinking about it made her cringe.
To answer her question, the man used the Force to free her hands and feet from the sand. He dragged the powerless girl to the dune's edge and hovered beside her.
Lifting his hand, he pointed across the dry, sandy landscape and explained, “Across the dunes, a new power awaits you. Find it, and I will return your Force abilities.”
“What power?” However, Rey never received an answer because the dune broke under her feet, and she rolled with it as it fell. She landed in a heap at the foot of it and quickly moved out of the way of the falling sandy waterfall. When everything calmed down, she no longer saw the hooded figure. He’d vanished.
There Rey was—all alone in the dunes of Jakku. She could run away, but simultaneously, she was curious about the “new” power the hooded man mentioned. What power waited for Rey out there? Would it help her find her place in the galaxy?
Rey was trapped in her failure. What happened with Kylo Ren crushed her. Who was she? If she sought out the power the man mentioned, would she finally learn her true destiny?
“Destiny is not a horse. You must learn to trust yourself.”
With so many unanswered questions swarming through her brain, Rey pulled up the hood of her cape and wrapped it tightly around her body. Putting one foot before her, she started toward her destiny.
Rey did not get far before she collapsed from dehydration in the sand. She felt weak. She couldn’t move, and she shivered with pain as her arm cried out in agony. She knew it was infected. Dust from the dust storm on Phonolukamy was in it.
Rey told herself she might as well just let herself die. There was no light left in her. The Resistance did not deserve a monster like her. They deserved somebody like Finn and Kylo Ren. Ben was gone, though, and Rey knew it was her fault. At least, that was the message going through her head.
Faith shaken, she reached for her lightsaber and pulled it off her belt. She ignited it, and the red glow shone on her face. Her fist turned white as she tightened her grip on it. Then she saw something in the everlasting heat wave. A Luggabeast and a figure sat on top of it.
Rey tried to yell at it, but sand was in her dry throat. Using only her left hand, she clenched her teeth and dragged herself toward the Luggabeast. Something happened to her on Phonolukamy, but she was scared to find out what. Just like she predicted, she was not the Rey she remembered.
As she lay there, something crossed her mind—Luke’s words.
“This is your fight.”
Just hearing them again, Rey reminded herself that she was Rey. She’s survived her whole life on Jakku. She was a fighter—no, she was a scavenger—no, she was Rey. Just like Leia mentioned with Luke, she had her falls, but the most important thing was getting back up. Rey could not let Jakku—nay, the Dark side of the Force kill her. She had to fight, and she had to win.
Closing her eyes, she pushed herself to her feet and peered at the Luggabeast. A blast of hot Jakku air blew her cape, and she glanced down at the Dark side weapon she held.
“No more,” Rey told herself. Then, just like that, she chucked the weapon. It soared through the sky and landed in a dune further away. “I am not going to turn to the Dark side,” the young woman said out loud.
Unfortunately, only a few seconds after she said that, a wave of excruciating pain overtook her entire body. Screaming, she fell to the ground on her side. The man. He was punishing her. Rey had never felt so much pain in her life. It even beat her arm injury. She continued to scream as the man turned excessively violent on her.
The Luggabeast heard her distressed cries, as did its rider, and quickly turned its head toward all the noise.
At the sight of the young woman in trouble, the Luggabeast’s rider urged it forward. “Come on! She needs us!” With that, they hurried in the direction of Rey.
The man continued to punish her. With eyes closed, she rolled onto her back and held her arms out to her sides. “Someone, please! He’s killing me!” As she yelled that, the Luggabeast made it to her.
Right when it did, the figure atop it leaped off, and she held her hand out to the invisible force punishing the girl.
The last thing Rey saw before she slipped into darkness was a bright green light, and it sliced the air above her. Then, just like that, she entered a state of near-death unconsciousness.
***
Kylo Ren did not expect the trip back through the Phonolukamy Wormhole to be fun, but there he was. Rey needed him. The Force told him she was back on Jakku, and a dark force was punishing her, so that’s where he was headed. Aerolin loaned him The Robin Hood since the earthquake swallowed his TIE Silencer whole.
With a serious look on his face, he steered for the mouth of the wormhole.
Up above, P4-3 suddenly burst into a frenzy of panicked beeps.
“P4-3, what’s wrong?” Ren asked, but he gasped when The Robin Hood suddenly stopped. That threw him into its control panel, but he quickly shook his head. “What did we hit?” he asked P4-3, but he stopped when he heard something outside—a deep, familiar growl.
A shadowy face appeared before The Robin Hood, and its eyes glowed red. The Beacerika had caught Kylo Ren.
Both man and creature stared at one another for a good long while. Neither of them spoke or even made a move on one another. They just stared.
Finally, Ben asked, “Do you feel it, too?”
The Beacerika nodded.
“A dark force is expanding across the galaxy,” Ben continued, “and Rey is between it all.”
He was half right but also half not. Why? The Beacerika knew the answer but would only tell him once Ben proved himself worthy. And the only way to do that was through a test.
***
What was this place? Was it the Otherworld? Was Rey dead? At that point, she had no idea whether she was or not. All she knew was that she was floating in outer space, and beside her was the creature who injured her in the first place—the Beacerika. She looked over her shoulder at it but gasped when she saw it vanished.
When it appeared again, it floated before her like a kite let loose.
Gulping, Rey lifted her right hand and held it out to the creature. She closed her eyes and looked away as she waited.
The Beacerika studied her hand. It felt the girl’s aura. While there was a lot of dark in her, there was also light. At the end of the day, Rey was just a conflicted child trying to find her place in the galaxy. The Beacerika knew that. It felt Rey’s light, as well as her darkness, and moved closer to her.
She waited a little longer, and then she felt something. She felt a lump, as well as skin. The Beacerika had its forehead against the palm of her hand. No longer did it feel like an enemy, but an ally instead. It told Rey there was still hope.
Even though the hooded figure forcefully pulled her to the Dark side, she was not yet an official part of it. Rey had to find a way to change her destiny. That was the Beacerika’s message, which stuck with her even as she woke up from the confusing dream. The first thing she saw was the face of her rescuer.
***
The Beacerika, with one last roar, disappeared in the shadows of the Phonolukamy Wormhole.
Ben held his breath when The Robin Hood suddenly jerked and started upward. He tried to control the ship, but nothing worked. Even P4-3 couldn’t get anything working, and she was P4-3. The Beacerika was the one controlling the ship.
It led Ben and P4-3 to another section of the Phonolukamy Wormhole—a section full of Dark side energy—the Beacerika’s home. If Ben indeed was part of the Light side now, then he should be able to handle the tunnel like it was nothing. He should be able to take out whatever awaited him there, but there was only one way to know. He had to risk returning to the Dark side of the Force.
The Beacerika let him go. Using its abilities, it dropped The Robin Hood into the mouth of the tunnel, where Ben’s destiny awaited, but only his Light side energy would determine whether he was successful.
ns 15.158.7.119da2
