In the distance, Luke feels a searing pain. He rushes out of the cave, down the cliffs, and towards the bloodied battlefield. As he crosses the grim aftermath in disbelief, Incendiary soldiers stare at him, their expressions empty and comfortless. A shiver runs down his fingertips. It’s telling him that he’s needed, that there’s no time to waste, so he dashes towards it, only to find Rey reaching her hand out to touch a young child’s hand, with all the other children lifelessly looking at her in awe while bodies and blood pile all around them. The pouring rain drips down on their faces. Rey and the younglings seem oblivious to the surrounding chaos.

As Luke walks through, not knowing what just transpired. Rey suddenly senses something, and without seeing Luke, she puts up the surrogate again. She feels the immense power that just surged through start rapidly draining, and then, she is left barren. Luke steps in the ceremonial circle, and Rey tries to act as if the surrogate had been up the whole time. But it’s too late.

“How did you do this?” Luke asks. He spots the jade lightsaber handle in her hand. “That resonance. It’s fading fast, but it’s still strong. It’s different from anything I’ve ever felt before.” And then, the truth descends upon him. “You got your powers back. They reacted with the crystals.”

“I had to,” Rey sternly replies.

“You actually did it. I didn’t think you were foolish enough to do it, but you did. You spoke with the Watchers!”

“And why’s that so bad? Don’t you realize there was no other way? Did you want these children to die?”

“No! How could you ever think I would? But all this must have came at a cost. Why did the Watchers give you back your powers?”

Rey is silent. It slowly dawns on Luke what happened. “What did they ask for?”

“It was only one soul artifact.”

“You gave them one?” Luke is furious. “Rey, after all we worked for? After all we’d done?”

“Do you even know what those soul artifacts do?” Rey asks ruthlessly. Luke doesn’t respond. She continues, “Do you even know what the Watchers want? They’re trying to help defeat the First Order and save the galaxy!”

“At the expense of the Force!”

“That soul artifact was a danger to everyone! I couldn’t let it fall into the wrong hands.”

“You just did.”

“No. The Sith, the First Order. The Sera. Those are the ones who would make the Force suffer. How could you let them have it? The Force should only be allowed to help those it wants!”

“You don’t get to decide that!” Luke yells back.

“And why should they? They’re just being selfish! They have to let go of their attachments, too!”

Luke is paralyzed. He had hoped she would be the key. The answer. But now, he realized that she had been hiding something from him this whole time. “I can’t believe what I’m hearing. It was a mistake to give you a second chance. This is just like with Ben all over again.”

“Or maybe it was my mistake to have trained under you. Do you remember how I was able to save Inimoni? That was all the Watchers’ doing. I’ve... I’ve been talking with them ever since we went there. And now they’ve helped me save everyone here! Who’s going to stop the First Order, if not the Watchers? You? You care more about being a Jedi than about saving people. You couldn’t even save Tatoonie.”

The entire village has come out. Parents run towards the children when they see Luke; not because they feel safe now, but because they fear him. From afar, they gaze at him with worry. Luke, in pain, sees all the distraught and disappointment etched in their faces. At the same time, the people look towards Rey, their savior, who is standing tall. But she doesn’t feel proud at all. She feels cut by the words she just said.

When she notices Luke’s anguish, she feels a sense of guilt. She got what she wanted- proof that she is not a nobody, that she has the power to fix all those horrible atrocities that were out of reach before- but at the expense of her teacher. A turmoil brews inside of her. Selfishness, selflessness. It was so clear for one moment. But now, it is collapsing back into a muddled mess.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“It’s true I couldn’t choose sides,” Luke says, his tone quiet and subdued, “But it wasn’t because I was indecisive. It was because I believed there was good in every one of them. I was so naive. I couldn’t see that they were often just using me. I wish I knew earlier what you truly felt, too.”

“Don’t say that!” Rey cries out, “I’ve always wanted to believe in Luke Skywalker. Ever since I was a child, I’d always dreamed of training with you. I just didn’t know who you really were.”

“And now, who do you think I am?”

Rey wants to lie, but she can’t anymore. With a sincere, but soft whisper, she tries her hardest to tell the truth. “Someone who couldn’t let go of his selfish ideals. Those were ideals I wanted to believe in, too. Even though I had so many doubts, I still had faith in you. But how could I pretend that everyone would just get along?”

“It’s not an easy thing to do.”

“This whole time, I couldn’t let that belief go. But you taught me that I had to give up what was closest to me for the greater good. At first, I didn’t know what was holding me back. And then I realized: I was so selfish. I wasn’t thinking about everyone else. I was just thinking about you.”

Luke shuts his eyes. The rain drops down, heavy and light. Then he tells her, “I was wrong in saying you were a mistake. You did what you thought was best. But I can’t ever agree with the Watchers. I’m sorry I couldn’t make you see the Force the way I did. I failed my students. And now, I have failed my home twice.”

Rey, now holding back tears in defiance, tries to speak, but her conflicting emotions push her to look away from Luke. Unlike other times, she does not run away. She walks away into the village, leaving Luke to stand there as the villagers gaze upon him. Slowly, they turn away and depart too, leaving him alone in the blood stained battlefield. The rain stops. The sun sets.

As Rey walks through the barren landscape, she wipes her tears with her hands, but almost suddenly, she stops crying. She remembers who she did all of this for.

“Litha!” She calls for the girl, asking Incendiary soldiers and villagers if they had seen her. But they haven’t. She runs through the markets, getting lost in the crowd of villagers. Luke walks back into the village, but Rey has gone so far, that he can’t find her. With her surrogate up, he can’t see her. With her soul transmitter blocked from him, he can’t talk to her. “Rey!” he shouts. But there is no response.

Rey pushes through the crowds, asking everyone she comes across. And finally, a thin woman in rags says, “I saw a girl... someone whom I had never seen before. She went there. Into the Abandoned."

Rey asks, “You have to tell me where that is.”

The woman slightly trembles. “We dare not go there. It has such a terrible history. Massacres, wars, genocides. We had lost everything. The Sera, too. Some say there are even ghosts.”

“Then she can’t be there. I need to find her. Please.”

The thin woman nods. She tells Rey how to get there, and lets her borrow a landspeeder. Rey races into the Abandoned, not knowing what lies there.

WHEN she arrives, she is surrounded by ruins. There is no sound, no chatter; only a haunting breeze. As she steps through the broken stones, she feels someone watching her, as if there really were ghosts. Rey shivers, but presses on. She imagines what Litha must be feeling. She can’t let her be alone.

And then, she sees someone. From far away, in a dark alleyway, there is a figure. As she approaches, she can see who it is. An ashen face. Long, blonde hair.

“Litha!” Rey calls out. The young girl turns around. But when she sees Rey, she doesn’t smile. There is no emotion on her face.

Rey is struck with a sudden coldness. She looks around her, and realizes she is inside of the alleyway. There is something dreadfully familiar about it. The narrowness. The solitude. She realizes what it reminds her of: the place where she was cornered as a child on Jakku.

She tries to get it out of her thoughts. She turns back to the young girl. “Litha,” Rey calls out again, “I’ve been looking all over for you. We need to leave. It’s not safe here.”

The little girl doesn’t respond. Something seems off. As Rey moves towards her, she reaches out to try to touch Litha’s hair, like she had always done, to reassure her that she’s safe. But just as she does, she gasps. Her fingers fall through and touch nothing. And Litha is starting to fade away.

“No, no, please come back!” she begs. But it’s too late. Litha is gone.

Suddenly, it all starts to come together. This whole time, none of the villagers knew who she was. No one did. She didn’t even have a record in the registry.

“She couldn’t have been,” Rey whispers. “She couldn’t have been a Force disruption.” But she knows it’s true. Litha was an apparition.

And then, Rey realizes that she is alone. There is not a single soul in sight. Only remnants of tragedy echo through the corridors. She shuts her eyes, and can only see the harrowing figures of the men who cornered her as a child. She opens them again.

Who can she call? The Watchers? Luke? She is torn apart, not knowing whom she can truly trust. In deep isolation and torment, she longs for an answer.

“There’s only one place I can go to now,” she whispers to herself. The Resistance. She can’t stand the possibility of losing her only remaining family.

“Finn,” she speaks into her soul instrument, “Finn, I need to talk to you.”

But there is no response.