Star Wars | Episode IX: Rise of the Dyad

Chapter 35: Valley of the Jedi

REY'S POV:

I turn to Chewie next to me.  Those big brown Wookie eyes stare at me knowing I am troubled by something.  

"I'm alright," I tell him wistfully. 

Chewie utters his language back to me.

I see a flash of Ben. He feels me and I can feel him faintly touch my lips.  I know he is angry at me. Tears slightly fill in my eyes as the thought of Ben heartbroken from my disappearance. My heart longs for him.

"Rey," I hear him say. 

"Ben," I trail off as I grab his cheek through the force in my mind. I hear Chewie bark back at me. 

"I don't want to talk about it," I reply shortly.

He stares at me with his empathetic eyes, he senses my sadness. I feel as though he knows my tears fall because of Ben.  

After what feels like ages, our ship finally breaks from light speed.  Up ahead we see a small green and yellow planet surrounded by an asteroid belt that clouds the image of the planet. We begin our journey through the planets orbit.

Pressure surrounds our bodies.  Every movement, every thought, takes what feels like a lifetime to complete. The loose items in the Falcon start floating in the air around us as gravity has disappeared.

With heavy eye movement, I turn to look at Chewie.  The hair rises off his body as he tries turning his head to me.

I hear the echoing beeps from BB8 behind me, so slow reaching my ears.

I can't turn the wheel fast enough to avoid asteroids.  The large rocks make contact with our ship but don't cause damage; they just bounce slowly off as if they weigh nothing.

"Wwwhhh...aaa...ttt isssssss haaa...pppppeeee....nnnnn....iiiinnggg?" I vocalize against a great resistance to Chewie, he is frozen from the pressure in the cabin.

I push against this unknown force to turn my head back to the helm.  The ship pushes out of this mysterious belt resuming our normality and approach the planet's atmosphere.

Chewie screams in the air.

"I have no idea," I say panting back to him.

We begin our descent through the lower atmosphere.  The terrain is gold from the sea of sand and rock formations.  

"Over there!" I yell to Chewie, directing him where to land.

The Falcon begins landing in clearing below. Chewie gracefully hovers the Falcon over the sand and delicately lands the ship.

I look out around us, "Something is here," I turn telling him. He looks at me and gives a reassuring call.

A powerful force circles around my mind, beckoning me to follow its call. I can't sense Ben anymore. 

I hit the release button on the door. Walking over to the storage compartment and placing the Jedi texts inside a bag.  I throw the bag over my shoulder as I make my way out of the ship.  I hear Chewie call to me and BB8 rolls down behind me.  

"He'll guard the ship," I look down to tell BB8. "Come on, let's go," I finish. 

Despite the sandy terrain, the heat was nothing compared to Jakku. Gentle breezes hit us and you can hear streams flowing off in the distance.   We trek across the rocky hillsides and after what feels like hours, we hit a clearing. 

"Woah," I say to BB8 in disbelief.

Ahead of us lie several gargantuan statues that are facing the same way and look to be holding something. 

I look down at BB8, he lifts his head up and makes a few clicks of uncertainty to me.

"We are here," I say looking up ahead.

I am being pulled harder by the same energy that courses through the planet.  I feel it running through my veins like a river; unyielding.

We keep walking, after some time we reach these statues; they are holding a sword downward in their hands and all are cloaked, covering their faces.  These are as ancient as the force itself.  

We walk past the upper-level statues on the ground.  Whispers, I hear them, but... I don't know what they are saying.  Hundreds of voices speaking in my ear all at once in different tongues. They are calling me to something ahead. 

"What is this place?" I utter to BB8, my eyes are transfixed on the large fault the statues appear to be staring at. 

We walk along the fault and notice up head the ground drops and becomes less steep.  It appears that the ground declines and creates a path to the center of the fault.   We trek to the decline and start our descent, BB8 rolls behind me as we carefully make our way down.

Our pathway ends at the floor. Up ahead we see ruins scattered and broken around the center. BB8 scans the surroundings, he discovers no unique carvings or symbols that tell us anything about the place. 

The whispers become stronger.  

"It's not here, it's...hidden...near us," I say turning around trying to find the source of the voices.

That same pull is grabbing hold of me.  Its strength gains as is pushes me towards the fault wall. I am being guided by it now.

I reach the wall on the side of the fault and touch the rock in front of me---I trail my hand across it until I find where the voices are directing me.  The wall starts moving and a door shape begins forming, the wall that once sealed it slides into the rock side. This startles me as I jump back, BB8 rolls behind me.  He makes some beeps at me trying to warn me not to go in.  

"I have to...this is where... I'm meant to be," I respond to BB8.

The whispers are louder. Without hesitation, I begin walking through the hidden door that was revealed to me by the force.  BB8 turns on his light and follows suit.  He is lighting our path through the unknown door.

The walls are laid with stone carvings of Jedi and symbols that I feel I understand somehow.  I feel like I have seen these before.  Somewhere between dreams and reality.  I run my hand along the wall, following the call. The whispers are getting louder and thicker with each step I take.

The voices are guiding me to turn left.  As I turn around the corner, I see a light glowing in a distant room.  I walk through the lit doorway into what looks like a gathering room of some kind.  The center of the room holds a rounded circular rock on the floor, guarded by Jedi Knight statues.  An orange light illuminates upwards from the center of the rock and it is glowing brighter the closer I get to it. 

BB8 coos behind me.  I carefully walk into the room, making my way to the center rock.  As I get closer to the center the same pressure we felt in the Falcon starts forming around me. I look down and see a smallish gold pyramid.  There is wording on the bottom that I can't make out.  An orange light that looks like a small sun glows inside.

My head slows. I look up and see thousands of Jedi spirits surrounding me at the center rock.  Their bodies are illuminated and I can make out every detail on each one of them.  All different species and from different ages. 

I am not afraid of them.  Their presence is somehow comforting.   All are staring at me with familiarity; they know me, they have been waiting for me.  Their faces are emotionless and all stand at attention while I look at the glowing light.

They want me to touch the relic.  I reach my hand out to the light and feel my hand is on fire. 

The whispers go silent, the room fades and all I see is a white light.