Luke steps through the mountain, carefully listening for the other entity. He reaches a cave, and steps inside. A familiar yet distorted voice calls to him. “Luke...”
Luke winces in pain. It’s the voice he heard back on Etilma, and when he was on his X-wing on Inimoni. The voice speaks to him again. “Trust your feelings. Stay true to what you believe in.”
Luke fights the pain and steps in further. The soul object is just ahead. But there is something in the way.
“Show yourself,” Luke declares.
The entity laughs. From the darkness of the shadows, a figure, cloaked in all black and breathing heavily, steps forward. It is wearing a mask that Luke had never seen before- skeletal, sharp, but commanding. The figure takes its helmet off. And before him, with menacing yellow eyes and a deep red scar, is another Luke Skywalker.
“No... no, it can’t be,” Luke says in disbelief, “Who are you?”
THE armored stalker’s ship flies with incredible speed towards Finn.
“Poe, he’s almost got us!”
“Not if I can help it!” Cognition Poe thrusts forward, and the ship heads out of the portal, and Finn is hit with a pounding crash- he’s blinded and can’t see anything anymore. He sees and hears nothing. But he gradually regains his sight and his hearing. He wakes up and is in a warm home, lying on a furnished fuzzy carpet.
“I take it you must be Finn.”
Finn gets up, turns around, and sees a woman sitting down on a sofa, dressed in household robes. He sits down across from the sofa. There is something vaguely familiar about her. And then Finn realizes who it is: “You’re Paige. Rose’s sister.”
Cognition Paige replies, “I am. Look at us- two heroes of the Resistance, sitting together, in my sister’s house. Rose will be ecstatic when she comes back home.”
Finn remembers how he lied to Rose, claiming that he was trying to regain the trust of the Resistance. “No. I’m not who Rose thinks I am. Not like you.”
“Well, I don’t know you that well, but from what Rose has said, you’re the kind of guy who always tries to do what’s right. Even if it means losing everything.”
Finn looks up. “She still thinks I’m a good guy?”
“I knew the risks of becoming a pilot,” Paige tells him, “I had to take care of my sister, but I also had to fight for what’s right. And I knew that if I died, Rose would be alone. But I still did it.”
“Because if you didn’t, you wouldn’t be someone Rose could look up to.”
“Deep down, Rose wants to do what’s right. But she doesn’t know who to follow. The heroes everyone wants to be, the ones on the Resistance posters? Or someone else?”
Suddenly, there’s a knock on the metallic door. “It’s here,” Finn says in a panic. “Paige, how do I get from this place to someone else’s world?”
“Take this.” She takes a necklace off of her, and says, “Think of where you want to be. You will be guided there.”
Finn grasps the necklace, and concentrates hard. Merilia. How do I get into her soul world? I have to connect to her, to want to understand her. How does she see the Force? What does she want it to do?
The door opens, and in steps the armored stalker. And now that it is fully in his view, Finn sees the unexpected: the stalker is wearing a red pendant inscribed with three fangs, the exact one he had seen on Fortuna. It raises a gun towards Finn.
“GO!” Cognition Paige steps in between them, and the armored stalker shoots her. Suddenly, Finn is transported out of Rose’s soul world, and again, into blackness. He opens his eyes, and he’s standing in a dimly lit circle, and six figures stand around it, facing away with their backs towards him. They don’t utter a word. Outside of the circle, there is only darkness. “This is it,” Finn whispers, “Merilia’s.”
THE massive First Order and Tatoonie ships charge at the Incendiaries, blasting them to pieces easily. The children are confused and crying. Incendiary soldiers drop from aircraft and land down to fight the Sera guards. But the thick wisps of smoke permeate through, and many are incapacitated. Others hold a scarf over their face to stop themselves from inhaling it. But all of them, dazed or not, are quickly slaughtered by the army of First Order soldiers.
The villagers are now screaming, trying to shut themselves in. But they can’t escape the impacts of the bombs, and several houses are destroyed.
“We have to minimize civilian casualities!” an Incendiary pilot shouts, “Those are Tatoonie natives down-”
But before he can finish, his ship is blasted by a thin, spiraling beam. “AAGH!” the pilot screams, and his ship crashes and explodes. The culprit flies into the picture: a gigantic, sleek and sharp ship, with a frame resembling a Naboo royal starship. The Aquilian. It has a long tail and rounded head, and is smooth black with dark, Oxford blue linings. Ten Incendiary ships fire towards it, but beams fire from the Aquilian’s legion of cannons, evaporating all of them at once.
Hux laughs, “See this? This is what TRUE power is! Can your miserable little Force do this?”
Serei and Hailden trail behind Hux in their own ships. Serei’s face is deadpan and annoyed.
A whole fleet of ships now attack the Aquilian, along with a gigantic battleship. The Aquilian shapeshifts: Its tail flexibly bends and separates into many prongs that face outwards in several directions. As the Incendiaries approach, each of the prongs blazes out white hot lasers, crushing the fleet with ease.
Rey narrowly dodges the beams fired upon her by Tie Fighters. She still has her surrogate on, and can hardly reflect anything back. I need the Force, she thinks to herself. But she knows she can’t let it down. Luke told her not to.
Just then, towering above the puny humans, Sarlacc-like monsters with six legs burst out of the sands, consuming Incendiary ships flying above. One of them spots Rey, and charges at her. She tries to run, but she’s not fast enough. A tongue lashes out from the monster and grabs her by the neck. She screams in anguish, shuts her eyes, and relinquishes her surrogate- but not all the way down.
Darkness. Rey is not in the physical world anymore, but she’s choking in so much pain, that she can hardly see anything. Her vision is blurred. A low voice speaks to her: “You need it?” Alstaire says.
“Just... a little,” she gasps.
Suddenly she’s thrown back into the physical world, and a surge of power flows through her. She throws her lightsaber behind her and slashes the tongue of the monster, and it roars in agony. She reaches out and the lightsaber returns to her hand.
I can’t believe I took some of my surrogate down, she thinks to herself. But she has no time to contemplate. More monsters charge at her, and she uses the Force to jump away from them.
LUKE stands steadfast in the dark cave, facing his grinning counterpart. It speaks:
“I know this is what you fear the most. To turn to the dark side.”
“As I should,” Luke says with powerful conviction, “Its selfish nature is unnatural.”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The yellow eyed Luke laughs. “So is becoming a selfless savior.”
“It may be an ideal, but it’s an ideal I will always strive towards!”
“And will you drag others into your forlorn endeavors?”
“All I try to do is help them find the good within themselves. Everyone has to try to understand each other.”
“Then why did you not try to understand Ben?”
“I saw the good in him. I couldn’t let him give in to his darkness.”
“But he did. It was inevitable.”
“So what was I supposed to do? Just let him roam around killing people?”
The Sith-inflicted Luke grins. “Do you stop the carnivores from killing? Rise and fall. Boom and bust. If you cannot live with the fact your utopian ideal must be sacrificed for the greater good, then you are not living in reality. To even strive for such a difficult ideal is risky and foolish.”
Luke refutes him, and declares, “You’re saying that I should just let one side stomp all over the another, because for the winner, it’s safer that way? Even though the truth is there’s good in both of them? No. Never. Jedi don’t give up.”
“Your ideal is a paradox.” The scarred Luke walks closer, and says, “You force yourself to be the quintessential hero, and yet don’t realize that you are nothing more than a hypocrite. You mislead others to do the same. They will succumb to the pressure.”
“Not everyone! The Jedi won’t!”
“You are obsessed with debating with me,” the scarred Luke smirks, “Why... it seems you think I have all the answers.”
Luke reaches for his lightsaber. He doesn’t want to hear it. He doesn’t want this fiend to take his optimism away. When his fingers touch the cold, hard metallic surface of the saber’s handle, he remembers what he felt that one unspeakable night. The night he gave up. All those failures, all of them telling him that he was wrong. It was foolish to strive towards it. In that one moment, he was tempted to relinquish his virtuous ideal. Because deep down, he knew he was never fit to assume it.
The other Luke speaks again, “Deep down, you don’t want everyone to be at peace. Those who tend to the darkness are too dangerous to be left alive. Even if they do not harm anyone yet, you fear them. And now, you realize that if you are to keep everyone else safe, you must kill those with too much darkness within, before they commit their crimes! Now you understand how I truly feel- even if those consumed by darkness have good in them, they will destroy everyone you love!”
Luke swiftly reaches for his lightsaber. Outside of the cave, an ignition cries out.
THE sarlacc-like monsters continue to pounce on four legs towards Rey, fighting off the Incendiary ships that pester them like flies. Rey sees a clear route to the circle, and runs as fast as she can towards it. She sees the children cry out for her, but the guards continue to keep them in place. The mist spreads even further into the crowd. Rey blinks, and sees ghostly figures emerge out of the mist, wearing little but adorned with jewelry all over, and carrying knives. She blinks, and they’re gone, as if they were mirages.
She cries out, “Litha!” A young blonde girl shuffles past the other children, and reaches the edge of the circle. “Rey!” she shouts. Before Rey can get to her, a tall, large gigantic creature steps in between. Rey tries to slice it, but the creature swats her out of the way. Then it charges towards her, and she dodges it. She tries to Force push it, but it barely budges. Rey manages to roll past it and run towards Litha, and nearly grabs the girl’s hand. But from the corner of an eye, she spots a guard a few feet away firing a blaster towards her head. He shoots, and Rey closes her eyes, and is transported out of the physical realm. Now, her surrogate is more than halfway down.
Everything is still blurry, but she sees an outline. It’s Kiyla. Rey pleads with her, “I have to save her! I need more of it!”
Kiyla speaks to her: “We will never let them hurt you.” A power surges within her, even greater than the last.
She is shot back into the physical world, and just before the blast hits her, she freezes it in place, and dissipates it. She Force pushes the guard out of the way and grabs onto Litha. The young girl whispers, “I kept on believing in it. The Force.”
Rey tells her, “I did, too.” With fierce determination to protect Litha, Rey slashes through the guards who try to attack her. She grabs onto Litha with one arm, and starts running towards an Incendiary ship that has landed, and a soldier motions for them to board. But the Aquilian destroys it before they can get near.
Rey thinks to herself: I have to keep my surrogate up again. She tries to restore it, but it’s beginning to wear down and slip away. She thinks again: But is that what’s important now? Why is keeping the surrogate up so much more important to Luke than saving Litha?
FINN walks carefully towards the figures. Alright, he thinks to himself. This is it. In a commanding tone, he sternly tells one of them, “I need Merilia’s work on those records.”
The figure suddenly turns around, and it is wearing a mask. “How can you be trusted?” it says.
“Why not? Because I used to be part of the First Order?”
Another masked figure turns around, and says, “Such is the life of a spy. One cannot know who to trust. You must prove yourself with evidence.”
Finn scoffs. “This again? Why’s that so important?”
Yet another masked figure revolves and faces Finn, “Isn’t that what Citho did to accuse you?”
Finn presses his fist into his skull, fighting the thought. But he admits, “Yeah. I guess so.”
The first figure speaks again. “So why are you accusing Citho when you have so little evidence?”
“Because I know there’s something going on, but I don’t have any answers so far!”
A fourth figures revolves around and speaks, “So you use him as a scapegoat?”
“No. I don’t want to say it’s Citho. I just want to know who’s a traitor or not.”
There is silence. The figures slowly begin turning around again, their backs facing Finn. And then, Finn realizes that during all this, he hasn’t been truthful to himself.
He speaks up, “I lied. I want to accuse him. I hate him for all the stuff he’s put me and others through. Throwing accusations left and right, lumping everyone he doesn’t like as a ‘traitor’. I just want him to get a taste of his own medicine.”
The figures don’t move. But then, a fifth figure turns around. It says, “But do you also want to find the true traitors, if any, for the sake of the Resistance?”
Finn pauses. And then he says, “Both. I want to do both.”
“Then you must be prepared for what you are about to see. If you want to fight for the Resistance, you must strive for the truth, and only the truth- you cannot live in a world of denial and lies.”
“I know.”
“Then take it, and see.” The figure opens its fist, and in its palm is a hologram, teeming with information. Finn walks near it, its light illuminating onto his face. He hovers his hand over his chest, and a pyramidal artifact apparates. The hologram begins vibrating, and there is a burst of white light- the hologram has infused itself into the artifact.
Just then, a plasma sword stabs through one of the figures, and it gasps, then collapses. Finn turns around to see the armored stalker. He says to it, “You can’t stop me. I will find the truth.” And then, the world around him breaks apart. He falls farther and farther down into the darkness, until at last, he wakes up.
He’s back in the Resistance base, in the isolated room. HQ-7 is right next to him. Finn is holding a pyramidal artifact in his hands, and then, it suddenly turns into an electronic drive. Finn looks at a heatmap next to him. Someone is approaching. “It can’t be... is it in the real world too?”
He places the drive inside of HQ-7. “Finish the job, HQ-7!”
THE green lightsaber drops to the cavern floor. Someone is standing over it, and someone else falls. The victor steps through the cave, and emerges in another area.
It is dimly lit, with harshly pressed stones, but the sound of flowing water echoes somewhere far away. As Luke walks through, he sees strange plants all around him, trying to grow. But the weeds are suffocating them, constraining them from thriving. By instinct, Luke grasps onto the weeds, and pulls them out. The plants suddenly start growing again.
But then he sees other plants. Ones with thorns all over- they’re a danger to others. But as of now, they aren’t constricting anything. He goes to touch them, but stops. From the shadows, someone emerges. A short, mousy being, dressed as a gardener.
It says, “The Jedi tend to a garden. They must pull the weeds away, yet they cannot stop every plant from growing. They must learn the difference between the weeds and the thorns.”
Luke responds to it, “I wanted everyone to have the Force. To have their own freedom. But how can I let these thorns roam free, and possibly harm others?”
“The light and the dark. Is that all there is to it?”
Luke ponders for a moment, and then, a thought sparks inside. “Gardeners. Negotiators. Everyone deserves to have the Force. But the Jedi are there to keep the peace, to make sure each plant lives in harmony, not taking up the entire garden for themselves.”
The short creature looks at Luke, and tries to smile. But sadness cannot leave it.
Luke remembers what he came here for. “The soul object. It’s nearby.”
At the center of the garden, he sees a lotus-like plant. He walks over, and waves his hand over it. It slowly unfurls. But once it is open, Luke’s eyes widen. He sees a small golden seed, and picks it up. It is only when it is in his hands does he realize what really happened. He whispers, “No...”
He turns to the short creature. “This is a fake.”
The short creature replies, “It planted it here.”
“This... this was all a trap to lure me here. It wanted me to see what I’d done to Tatoonie. To destroy me. Where is the real one?”
“It was stolen from me long ago.”
Luke runs outside of the garden, to where he met his Sith-inflicted nightmare. But nothing is there anymore. He kneels down. The small guardian slowly walks next to him.
Luke tells it, “I thought Rey and I could find a power to reverse everything that’s been done. But we’ve already found all that’s left, and there’s no such thing. Was it all for nothing?” Luke says, hopeless.
The short creature puts its hand on Luke’s shoulder, and mourns with him. But then, Luke shakes his head. “No.” he states. Gradually, he stands up again, and looks back to the garden. “I’ll never stop saying it. Jedi don’t give up. And so won’t she. I have to go back. I can’t let her face that entire army alone.”
The gardener thinks for a moment. And then it says, “She may be the key to all this.”