"What's a Star Destroyer doing here on Phonolukamy?" Rey was highly curious. She had to look closer at her discovery, but then she realized she stood on the edge of a cliff. She fell to her knees and looked over it to the drop below. Rey would jump, but she knew she would become a pancake if she did. Therefore, she climbed down the cliff's face to start her journey to the wrecked starship. Rey had no idea if she was holding her breath the entire time. Her boot hit a loose platform, and it broke under her weight. Yelping, the young woman glued her body to the wall. She watched as the platform pieces crashed into the desolate landscape below.
Teeth clenched, she peeped over her shoulder to the Star Destroyer. "I have to go there," she told herself. The wreck called her. Did it expect her?
While Rey helplessly hung from the wall, she wished she was back on Supher. She would choose Supher's tropical atmosphere over Phonolukamy's dystopian one any day, but she knew she could only return once she completed her mission. Perhaps something in the Destroyer could give her a clue about how to approach Ben the next time she saw him. She knew he was coming after her, and she had to be ready when he reached her. What Rey needed was a little more Jedi training. She felt she would get that if she took a day trip to the starship. With that thought in mind, she continued down the wall.
Rey climbed for she didn't know how long, but eventually, she reached the bottom of the cliff and hopped off it. Now, the Star Destroyer was directly before her. Just staring at it, Rey felt an overwhelming amount of dark energy. She looked up to a broken window and nodded to herself. Just when she finished her climb, she had to take another one. Standing beside the Star Destroyer, she looked like a speck of dust. A huge moon hovered behind it, taking up the length of the sky.
Rey thought she heard someone say, "Come, child," from the window frame she wanted to enter. Was it a ghost? Rey had no idea.
She rested her hand on the hilt of her lightsaber and started toward the starship.
"Reach out to your destiny, or I will do it myself," the voice told her.
"The Beacerika is not going to capture me," Rey explained, "so you can stop using it as a weapon against me. Just watch. I will turn Ben Solo, and you won't get in my way."
"Oh, so you know who I am?"
"I have a pretty good feeling about it."
"Very well then. I'll meet you inside." Just like that, the presence left Rey's head. That told her it had gone inside the Star Destroyer.
She stopped beside it and climbed onto the ship's nose. Rey hiked across the top of it and headed for the broken window. Eventually reaching it, she hopped onto the window frame—where the presence was—and peered into the interior of her find.
What she was looking at was the Destroyer's bridge. Old, busted computers had been scattered on the floor, as well as broken astromechs and droids. An old, black cape rested on top of one of the droids. Seeing it, Rey headed inside to the dark bridge and came within reach of it. She picked up the cape and wrapped it around her shoulders. She had to admit that Phonolukamy was extremely cold.
The young woman took her lightsaber off her belt and ignited it to prepare herself for whatever she was about to get herself into. With it in hand, she studied the Destroyer's bridge. There was something in there; she just knew that. Whatever it was, it was going to change her forever.
***
Kylo Ren could see and feel everything Rey did from his headquarters. He did not need to be on Phonolukamy to do so. Like the days leading up to the battle in Snoke's throne room, the Force connected the two youths.
"What are you going to do to her?" he asked a seemingly invisible presence in the room. "We're not trying to kill her. We just need to lead her back here." That was when he saw the cape Rey just put on. "Hold on, that cape. I know that cape. Why did you give it to her?"
Before long, the same eerie voice who spoke to Rey from the broken windowsill talked to him. "That cape is filled with the energy she needs to complete her training."
"To complete her training? You don't think I can do it myself?"
"The light you wield is too strong."
***
"Attention, First Order," Lando Calrissian called from the Millennium Falcon's cockpit just outside The Limpton, "this is Lando Calrissian. I request an appointment with Supreme Leader Ren."
However, he heard General Hux instead of Ren's voice on the intercom. "This is Hux. I am the Supreme Leader now."
What? Finn mouthed behind Lando. "Since when did he become Supreme Leader?" he asked out loud.
"Any communication you have with the First Order, you clear with me first," Hux demanded. "Tell me why you wish to seek out Ren, and maybe I'll let you through."
"It's personal and has to do with Yamo," was Lando's answer.
"Yamo?" asked Poe." Wait a minute." He furrowed his brows and suspiciously studied Lando Calrissian.
"Personal or not, I will not let you through until you tell me." With each passing second, Hux sounded even more annoyed.
"Hey, look, pal," Lando communicated back, "I did this once, and I intend to do it again."
"Not on my watch. Kylo Ren belongs to me!" Hux, who stood on the bridge of The Limpton, approached a line of technicians. "Release the Beacerika! Destroy that ship and feed it to the wormhole!" he yelled.
"Yes, sir!" Right at his command, the technicians rapidly typed into their computers.
***
Outside, in the heart of the blockade, a huge, shadowy face appeared behind the Millennium Falcon.
Rose noticed it from the side window. "Uh, guys?" she nervously asked.
"We are so dead," was the first thing Finn said. The Falcon was going against the same creature Rey fought in the Phonolukamy Wormhole. It was the Beacerika's Space Form.
***
Kylo Ren had enough of all this sissy business. He was tired of people telling him he could not train Rey in the Dark side of the Force. The fact that all their hope had gone from him to a mere cape enraged him.
Yelling, he chucked his lightsaber to the other end of his headquarters and stormed out.
Stormtroopers quickly moved off to the side and let him through.
Kylo hurried to The Limpton's ship hanger and climbed into his TIE Silencer. Starting it up, he punched the accelerator and took off. The only thing he didn't have with him was his lightsaber.
***
Finn and Rose took over the Millennium Falcon's guns, while Lando, Chewie, Poe, Temiri, and the droids remained in the cockpit.
The Beacerika launched its tail at the ship, but the Falcon quickly spun out of its way. Surprisingly, Temiri made that move.
"Well done, kid!" Lando laughed. He high-fived with Chewie.
Poe tried to take the wheel from the young boy, but the veteran pilot merely slapped his hand away.
He pointed Temiri toward the meteoroid belt Rey and Kylo fought from earlier. "Head for that meteoroid belt. Oh, isn't this exciting? Where are you going, 3PO? You're missing out on all the fun," Lando said.
"I think I should just check on Finn and Rose," was 3PO's answer, but he yelled when the face of the Beacerika appeared beside the window he passed. Freaking out, the droid quickly made a run for it, even though he did not move that fast.
"Rose, shoot it!" Finn yelled from one of the gunner seats. "It's on your side!"
"I'm trying!" Rose wasn't exactly used to the Falcon's gunner chair yet. She jerked back and forth and spun in circles. It felt like she was riding in an aerotrim, and she did not enjoy it. However, she went for the shot. Rose struck the Beacerika in the side, and it cried out. "I did it! Yes!" she cheered, but she celebrated too soon.
The Beacerika smacked the Millennium Falcon in the side, which sent it flying out of control.
All occupants screamed and tried not to toss their cookies.
"Rose!" Finn said. "Are you all right?" He noticed that a meteoroid headed straight for the Falcon, but he blasted it to bits before it could disable the ship.
Even though she had a small cut above her eye from crashing into the gun with the impact, Rose was fine. "Yeah!" she shouted at Finn.
He sighed with relief, but then he noticed that the space surrounding the Falcon was empty. "Wait, where's the overgrown chicken?"
"It just vanished?" Rose asked in a panicked voice. Right when she said that, the entire ship shook.
The Beacerika came at it from above and set its body down on top of it.
In the cockpit, 3PO again yelled when the creature's ugly face overtook the whole windshield. "It's got us! We're doomed!"
Even though he saw no way out of this, Temiri remained brave. "Now, what do we do, Mr. Calrissian?" he asked Lando.
For the first time, Lando did not have an answer. Temiri gave him a desperate look, but all the veteran pilot could say was, "I don't know."
Now, it was Poe's time to grow nervous. "It's got us," he said in a low voice as Finn and Rose reentered the cockpit.
The Falcon shook again.
At the sight of the ugly face on the windshield, Finn explained, "There's no way out of this. The Falcon may have made the Kessel Run in twelve parsecs, but it cannot escape the clutches of the Beacerika. I think it's safe to say the bad guys have won."
"It pains me to say this, but I think he's right," Lando said. "There is no way out of this."
"We've lost all hope," Temiri cried. A few tears ran down his cheeks. However, he froze when he heard a Force message in his head.
"We'll see about that!"
Boom!
A blaster bolt hit the Beacerika smack in the face. It peeled its body away from the Millennium Falcon.
Rose, Poe, Finn, Lando, and Temiri gasped, Chewie roared, and the astromechs beeped when a TIE Silencer emerged from deep space. Kylo Ren.
***
"Ahhh!" Rey felt the Beacerika's pain. She grabbed her head and collapsed to her hands and knees. Tightly closing her eyes and clenching her teeth, the young woman punched the ground. She again ignited her lightsaber. She rose and violently ran it through astromechs, droids, screens, and the bridge's computers. It was as if she were having a nervous breakdown.
Just like Kylo Ren, Rey chucked her lightsaber. Its blade cut off a massive piece of the Destroyer's wall. Rey lifted her hands above her head and punched the ground with both fists. Right when she did, scraps of droids, astromechs, and computers lifted into the air. They crashed into the walls of the wrecked Destroyer. With the assistance of the Dark side energy she wielded from her cape, Rey blew up the entire ship.
A huge explosion bit into Phonolukamy's atmosphere, sending scraps to pollute it. Within seconds, there was no more Star Destroyer: only scraps and a cloud of smoke that looked like it came from an erupting volcano.
Rey emerged from the destruction, totally wiped out. She inhaled breaths of air, but it wasn't long until she closed her eyes. The young woman swayed to one side, then the other, and fell unconscious on the ground. Right when she did, an evil laugh overtook the entire area.
Off to the side, a shadow appeared. It made its way toward the wiped-out, unconscious girl.
***
"It's Kylo Ren!" Poe shouted in pure amazement when the TIE Silencer zoomed by the Millennium Falcon and chased after the crippled Beacerika.
"He's helping us?" Finn screamed. "What the heck is going on?"
"Move!" Poe hurried to the empty pilot seat and plopped down in it.
"What are you doing?" Lando asked behind him.
"What does it look like? I'm going to help him!" With that, Poe urged the Falcon forward.
***
The Beacerika zoomed around space and tried to escape the Silencer, but Ben kept striking it with his gun. "You're nothing but annoying!" he shouted. He quickly moved out of the way of the creature's tail. Behind him came the Millennium Falcon. Ben watched as the younger pilot in it shot its webbed toes.
Kylo Ren delivered the next blow.
Screeching, the Beacerika backed away from the two ships. Its membrane started to sizzle and burn.
With one last devastating strike, Ben knocked it back into the Phonolukamy Wormhole, where it belonged, and accelerated out of the gravity field surrounding it. He listened as the creature's screeches grew quieter and quieter until they disappeared altogether.
Under Ben and off to the side appeared the Falcon.
Finn, Rose, Lando, and Temiri looked like statues. Their jaws touched the ground, and their eyes looked like they were about to burst out of their sockets.
***
On Phonolukamy, where the wrecked Star Destroyer used to be, a shadowy figure carried the unconscious, Force-sensitive Rey away. They disappeared behind a rock pillar, leaving nothing but scraps, including her lightsaber, behind.
ns 18.68.41.177da2
