CHAPTER NINE
[ training! ]
Asteria sat cross-legged on a rock on a cliff overlooking the water, eyes shut. Rey was sitting beside her, mirroring her. "Close your eyes," Asteria commanded, knowing even with her eyes shut that Rey's weren't, that the girl was eyeing her out of the corner of her eye to be sure she was doing it right.
Rey's eyes snapped shut, and Asteria almost let out a laugh. "Now," she said, "empty your mind of your thoughts, and reach out."
Even with her eyes closed, she knew what Rey had done. She'd reached out with her hand and Asteria then actually did let out a small, short giggle. Rey turned pink and set her hand down at her side.
"You meant reach out, like. . ."
"Yes." She laid her hands on her knees, palms turned up to the sky, and Rey did the same. "Reach out with your feelings. Before you train with a lightsaber, you must become one with the Force. Breathe, and reach out."
Asteria took in a deep breath and listened to her padawan describe what she felt. "I see. . . the island. Life. Death and decay, that feeds new life. Warm. Cold. Peace. Violence."
"And between all of it?"
"Balance. And energy." Rey smiled, feeling the Force course through her. "A force. And inside me, and in you, that same force."
"Yes," Asteria breathed, smiling along with her. She opened her eyes and swung her legs over the side of the rock, sliding off and moving to stand in front of Rey. "You feel it now. Inside of you. It is from that place of balance and light that you must draw your strength. Where all Jedi must draw their strength."
Rey opened her eyes. "I've felt it before. When Ren was interrogating me, getting in my head, I pushed him out."
"You did?" Rey nodded her head in response. "That's wonderful."
"And I— well, I don't know what you call it, but I made a stormtrooper let me go. Told him what to do and he did it."
"A Jedi mind-trick." She couldn't hide her amazement. "I suppose learning under stress is effective. Very impressive. Though I must ask: where did you hear of them?"
"Stories. People on Jakku talk a lot. I never knew if it was real, if the Jedi were real, but. . ." She trailed off, shrugging her shoulders.
"But they are," Asteria finished for her. "We are very real. Always have been. It's only our diminishing numbers that cast doubt on whether we exist or not."
She waited a moment in silence, letting out a short sigh, before looking up at Rey with a glint in her eye. Rey looked at her questioningly. "How would you like to try your skills with a lightsaber?"
She grinned back at Asteria eagerly, and nodded her head.
Master and Padawan went down off of the cliff to a patch of rocks that formed a flat surface for them to stand on. Rey held Luke's lightsaber in her hand, and Asteria held her own. She ignited only one side, and Rey imitated her every movement down to her stance.
But she still seemed unsure. Asteria could feel it radiating off of her. She knew exactly why, too.
"It's all right," Asteria reassured her. "You won't hit me. I promise."
Rey let out a long breath, and nodded her head. She attacked. Asteria ducked out of the way easily.
"You can't use pure force," she explained. "Power alone doesn't work. Use the Force. Feel it inside you, guiding you."
Rey listened, and when she swung the lightsaber again, Asteria had to raise her own lightsaber to meet it. She smiled encouragingly at her padawan, and Rey attacked again. Over, and over, and over, until both were tired.
"Good," Asteria praised, "very good. I think you could almost stave off an attack from both sides of my saber."
"I'm not quite ready for that."
"I know." Asteria sat down on a large rock to rest, and Rey sat down on another across from her. "You know, I once fought a cyborg who could fight with four separate lightsabers."
"Four?" Rey's eyes widened.
"Another Jedi and I fought him. He was well trained by a Sith Lord, and difficult to beat." She rolled up her left sleeve to show Rey the scar from where General Grievous sliced it open. "Almost cut it clean off. Thank the stars Obi-Wan was there."
"Wow," Rey breathed in response. She stared at the ugly scar, marvelling at it.
"I've got another, from the first Sith I ever fought. He was the first apprentice to Darth Sidious, called Darth Maul. Cut across my stomach." She traced a line across her stomach over her clothes where she knew the scar was.
"The first time you ever fought a Sith?"
Asteria nodded her head. "Yes. He was the first person, Jedi or Sith, that I saw with a double-bladed lightsaber. I lost mine that day, and decided that I would make one like that— completely unique."
"I've never heard of it before. And not of one being purple."
"There was only one other that I know of that chose purple. The crystals just. . . called to me. Like these two were the ones I was meant to have." She turned her lightsaber in her hand, then took hold of it by both ends, and snapped it in half.
Rey took in a sharp breath, thinking it was broken, but no, now it was two separate sabers. "I used to fight like this, during the Clone Wars. With two separate ones. Useful, but more challenging to wield."
"How will I make mine?" Rey wasn't asking her, she knew, just wondering aloud.
"You will know when the time comes, as all Jedi do." Asteria stood, hooking her lightsaber onto her belt as she did. "Train some more. Become familiar with the lightsaber, meditate, get to know the Force."
"Yes, Master."
Night fell, and Asteria sat with Chewie near the Falcon while he ate what looked like a native animal from the island. They sat in silence, both only reminding each other of the loss they'd witnessed. The only time they spoke was when Chewie handed her a piece of the meat he was eating and she thanked him.
While she was eating, she spotted a shadow walk past them and enter the Falcon. She smiled a little and popped the last bit of meat in her mouth, excused herself from Chewie, and went into the ship after the shadow that she knew was Luke.
She walked up the ramp into the Falcon, and watched Luke as he looked over the ship. When he turned back and saw her she smiled and glanced around once, quickly. "She's seen better days."
"When?" Luke retorted, making her laugh.
"Fair enough."
Luke sat down at the Dejarik board, only for a whirring sound to start from behind them, followed by a series of beeps and lights. "R2," Luke said happily, laughing a little.
"Oh, he'll start up for you, but not for me." She shot the droid a look and he beeped as if to say 'sorry.' Asteria then looked to Luke and sighed. Now or never. "Luke, I've got to ask you something."
"What is it?"
"I spoke to Ben Solo."
He froze for a moment, then shook his head at her. "Ben Solo is gone."
"No," she disagreed. "No one is ever really gone. Ben Solo is alive. I felt it. He told me something, showed me. About you."
Luke said nothing, though he stayed completely still. She continued. "He was a padawan. You stood over him, your lightsaber ignited. You. . . you tried to kill him. Was it true?"
Luke did not speak, and the look of guilt was enough to tell her what she needed to know. She shook her head in disbelief, backing away and then turning and walking off of the ship so fast she almost broke into a run.
Her mind flooded with thoughts. How could he do this? Who has he become? How could he try to kill a boy?
She had no answers. She only knew that she had to get far away from him.