"'Destiny is not a horse. You must learn to trust yourself,'" Rey repeated to herself while she sprinted down Emarin Beach in the warm nighttime atmosphere of Supher. "The natives of Phonolukamy need me." However, the only way to reach the planet was by traveling through the Phonolukamy Wormhole. Only a few ships successfully passed through it, so it was unsurprising that most of Phonolukamy's inhabitants combined farming with machinery.
As Rey drew closer to the Resistance base, she stopped and practiced lightsaber moves at the water's edge. She had to be well-prepared for whatever was waiting for her on the horizon, and the only way to do that was by practice. Perhaps that was why the Beacerika got a hit off on her so easily. With so much interstellar travel and teaching lately, Rey did not have much time to practice independently. Therefore, she must have been a little rusty when she fought the Beacerika earlier that day.
She tried holding her saber in her right hand, but her arm still ached from its claws cutting into her skin. As a result of that, Rey had to primarily use her left hand during her training session. She practiced for ten minutes and then turned to face the ocean. Behind her, the palm trees waved with a small zephyr. She held the lightsaber to her eye, much like Shudu when he pretended a branch was one. Behind her, rocks and coconuts lifted off the beach as she wrestled with the Force.
Her eyes did not leave the lagoon. She felt it—the Beacerika. Once again, it was coming for her. Rey sensed her second battle with it was just around the corner, so she acted out a sideswipe with her saber to prepare. Waves slapped against the toes of her boots while she waited. When the time came, she got in a ready position.
A huge whirlpool exploded from the water and climbed like a beanstalk toward Supher's stratosphere. Down below, Rey bent her knees and held her right arm behind her, waiting for the familiar ugly face to show itself. When it did not, she made a move. The young Jedi clenched her teeth and stabbed at the spinning whirlpool. The second the tip of the saber touched it, things became extra spicy. The whirlpool crested over and became a wave. When it did, it came at Rey from behind and snatched her straight from the beach. Within seconds, it was empty. There was no more Rey.
She flew through an underwater tunnel and front-flipped continuously. She yelled the entire journey until smack! She landed in an underground cave under the No'Ela Lagoon. It made no sense, but that was what the Force was trying to get across to the young woman. If she had any chance of defeating Kylo Ren, she had to learn to control her emotions, and what better way to do that than to place her in both a Light and Dark setting? That was exactly what the Beacerika did with her.
Soaked, Rey leaped to her feet and grabbed her lightsaber. "All right, show yourself!" she shouted at the creature, but it refused to fulfill her request. A good teacher was not all lecture. A good teacher believed the students should experience something themselves.
The Beacerika pulled Rey into Force visions that portrayed all sorts of emotions. The first one infuriated her.
Rey stood in pouring rain (she could feel it just as well as she could feel her hair sticking to her face). In front of her, with his mask on, was Kylo Ren. Wait a minute, the image looked familiar. That was because she had the same one during her Force vision in Maz Kanata's casino when she started her journey. Except, for this round, the image of Kylo stabbing Han Solo replaced the image of the soldier he originally stabbed. Just witnessing it all over again, Rey screamed in agony and anger. She lashed out at Kylo with her lightsaber. However, the second she ran him through, the image faded.
Rey now found herself standing in a desert back in Jakku. How did she go from pouring rain to a steamy desert in less than five seconds? What did Jakku have to do with Kylo Ren? Within the Force vision, forms of desert people rose out of the dunes and danced around Rey like a bunch of ballerinas. They smiled at her. They were the Light side calling out to the young woman. Unlike the last image, she did not stab. Instead, she rubbed tears from her eyes and danced with the dancers. A sand woman grabbed her hands and spun her in a circle. Was she Rey's mother? Was that why she felt so happy around her? She had so many questions, but there was so little time.
Things changed again. The sand woman playfully let go of Rey's hands and tossed her off to the side. Jakku's desert image faded away to reveal a much more sinister one. Rey stood in a black and gray room, and layers and layers of clones and images of Dark side users replaced the dancers.
The clones reached out with their skeletal hands to the girl, while the Dark side users also reached out, but their hands had flesh on them. That had to symbolize something, but what?
Fear flashed across Rey's face as she turned to face each eerie, ghost-like figure. Yelling in pain, she grasped her head as she tried to find the Light in the image, but it was difficult. The clones and Dark side users edged closer.
Finally, Rey saw it. The Light. She thought about the first time she met Finn and how quickly they became friends. Just when she did, two clones stepped aside. A ball of white light appeared in between them.
Rey approached it and picked it up. With it in hand, she held it up to the sky. When she did, beams of light exploded from it and ran all her enemies through in a domino-like effect. She did it! Even though the Dark side surrounded her like the oceans of Supher, she found the Light and used it to take out the Sith. That meant that she could tune in to the Light side of the Force if she really tried. It was a huge stepping stone for Rey and enough to satisfy the Beacerika's request.
There she was, once again flying through an underwater tunnel. She moved backward instead of forward. The wave dropped her off on Emarin Beach. Under the bright moonlight, it slid back out to sea. All was quiet on the island of No'Ela. The Beacerika did not show his ugly face because Rey managed to touch into the Light side of the Force during its test. Just who was the Beacerika? How was it connected to Rey? Was it a good connection or a bad one? It was not up to the Beacerika to decide that. Rey had to herself. After all, the fight was hers.
When Rey came to, she gasped. Her head shot up from the sand. Grains covered the whole right side of her body and her face. Peering over her shoulder, she looked in the direction where she first saw the Beacerika before it took her away. Other than the gentle slapping of the waves, it was utterly still. It was as if the test never happened, but Rey knew it did. Thanks to it, she knew what she had to do next.
The last vision the Beacerika gave her, with the Dark side users and clones, represented Kylo Ren's potential to turn back to the Light side. Rey's vacation was over. It was time she got out there and confronted him again. No matter the consequences and no matter the temptations, she had to try. A serious look crossed her face, and she stood.
The young Jedi marched down Emarin Beach, lightsaber in hand, and headed over to the Resistance base spaceport. Behind her, a huge wave splashed into a pool of salt water, and a slew of it spewed up behind her. She ignited her lightsaber and took off.
Rey ran, ran, and ran—Leia's words tingled in her mind—and did not stop until she reached the spaceport.
It sat in a wide-open area filled with tropical plants and fruits that overlooked the No'Ela Lagoon.
Turning off her lightsaber, Rey sprinted over to a new kind of ship. A mix of an X-Wing and A-Wing, it took the name The Resistance Proud. How appropriate was that for Rey? She climbed a ladder into the ship and lugged herself into the cockpit. Setting her lightsaber down beside her, she lowered The Proud's top and booted it up. Its engines roared to life and did not burst into flames, unlike Lando's A-Wing. Rey pressed the button that lifted the ship's landing gear and peered forward to the cliff she would take off from. She rose into the sky and thought about what she told Luke back on Ahch-To.
"'Kylo failed you. I won't.'"
Leia's words echoed for a second time. "My Ben needs you. You are the only one who can save him."
Once The Proud was in the air, Rey shot across the No'Ela Lagoon. She acted out a sharp curve, which sent her flying straight up Supher's atmosphere.
Back in the spaceport, somebody saw her taking off—Temiri. His eyes did not leave the ascending Proud until it disappeared into the sky. He felt what Rey felt: determination and newborn confidence. He hoped that one day, he would be just like her.
The spaceship escaped Supher's tropical atmosphere and now floated in space.
In its cockpit, Rey looked back to the shrinking planet. She flew further and further away from it. She waited a bit, then typed the coordinates to the Phonolukamy Wormhole in her computer. Rey had to be brave. Where she was going were some of the most dangerous territories in all the galaxy. With the help of their technology, the First Order could take advantage of the space life and objects that resided there and use them against the Resistance. The territories were so dangerous that they took the name the Suicide Territories.
The name alone caused Rey to cringe. She shivered when Suicide Territories popped up as the location of the Phonolukamy Wormhole. "Well, that looks inviting," Rey mumbled. She wished she had her friends to help her out, but no. She had to do this herself. The fate of the galaxy rested in hers and Kylo Ren's hands. She's hidden out on Supher long enough. Now, she had to sacrifice herself to both the Light and Dark sides of the Force.
Rey jumped into lightspeed, but she heard something in her head. Laughter. Evil laughter. Palpatine called out to her.
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End of Part I: Supher
Word Count So Far: 13,230
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