Chapter Text
She moved through the shadows in silence, anchoring herself to the walls as best as she could despite her sweaty palms and the blood pounding at her temples. His black silhouette remained invisible, lost in an ocean of darkness below, but his presence enveloped her like a shroud, and she wasn’t ready to get down and face him yet.
Trying to remember what happened after her abduction from Ahch-To only brought nausea and a sharp pain, like a beamdrill at the back of her head. She had visions of bright lights, clashing sounds, and a humming. A terrible voice, like the void itself calling to her, and a battle? She shook her head. Best to concentrate on the present for now anyway. Dwelling on the past wouldn’t get her out of this place.
Master Luke lived. That, at least, was a certainty, and it gave her hope for the future. However, the realization bore more questions than answers. Had he been captured as well, or had he managed to escape?
With no guarantee her mentor would ever find her again, she secured her footing and leapt to the nearest cranny, calling onto the Force to give her the push she needed to avoid falling to her death or worse, right into Kylo Ren’s arms.
A short breath escaped her when the ledge crumbled beneath her boot. For what seemed an eternity she scrambled to regain her balance, cursing wordlessly at the Force, at Kylo Ren, and at whomever had left her on Jakku. It would be a miracle if her nemesis hadn’t spotted her by now.
She shut her eyes tight and held her breath. Would she suddenly be pulled into the abyss by an invisible power or would the enemy emerge from the shadows to skewer her with that dreadful red blade of his? To her surprise and relief, nothing happened, so she kept going until her fingers went tight and hot.
At long last, she reached a space wide enough to sit down and rest, and glanced around to try and make sense of her surroundings. To say her captors had a flair for the dramatic would be an understatement. The crypt was pitch black, except for occasional rays of light that peered through apertures in the cavernous ceiling. Whoever the owner of this sepulcher had been, he (or she) must have exercised enough power, on top of being pretentious, to have their tomb carved right into the mountain. On either side of the passageway, severe and rigid in cloaks of stone, giant statues cast frightful expressions to inspire awe and fear in the hearts of visitors. She couldn’t name the race they represented, but they were humanoid enough to convey that they had nothing but contempt for the living unfortunate enough to roam these empty halls.
Something dark lingered among them, something terrible and ancient. The stern figures wanted her to feel defeated, alone and scared, but something at the heart of her defied their silent judgment. They knew nothing about her upbringing if they believed she would give up so easily.
A smile formed at the corner of her mouth. Wherever light was touching the ground below, vegetation was flourishing, engulfing the stone and creeping towards the sun. Indifferent to the laws of man, nature could reclaim the most sterile environment. Inch-by-inch, patiently. How did that happen? Could it be that a solitary seed, carried in by the wind, had fallen on the floor of this harsh and cold habitat centuries ago, and decided to take root against all odds? Or had it been transported by adventurers looking for treasures? Perhaps even dark apprentices in search of power, unaware that they were carrying life on their dusty cloaks? The idea that life will always find a way gave her courage.
She looked down before catching hold of a trailing plant that spread its large green-and-reddish foliage against the wall, testing that it wouldn’t give way under her weight. In order to progress in the dark without her usual equipment, she made use of the Force as much as her own eyes, jumping gracefully from corners to ledges. The knowledge that Kylo Ren waited patiently below for her to make a mistake added urgency to her every move.
Thankfully, climbing here wasn’t much different than climbing a derelict destroyer back on Jakku. The walls weren’t oxidized metal, but a dense stone that felt rough under her palms. However, the principle remained the same: ensure you have grip, find the right balance, reach for your next target, and first and foremost, never envision the fall.
Eventually, an opening in the ceiling appeared above her. She looked up scanning for an escape route but saw none. The gap between the top of the statue and the crack in the ceiling spread too wide. Jumping would only result in a painful death.
If only she’d found ropes and tools, she would be out of this tomb and twisted mind game in no time! But her kidnappers had left her equipped with only a lightsaber and her wits.
Below, an awful humming started off, followed by a burst of red light slashing through the dark. She clutched the stone tighter, trying to make herself as flat as possible, and held her breath. Had he finally sensed her presence?
A few seconds passed and, as before, nothing happened. If she didn’t know better, she’d think the man had jumped at his own shadow.
She exhaled slowly before resuming her progression into the unknown. As impressive as this mausoleum was, she reckoned that soon they would reach a dead end, leaving them only two options: continue playing hide and seek until one of them died of starvation, or fight.
Her jaw clenched in determination. She needed to prepare herself.
After the loss of Starkiller base, Snoke had resumed their training, demonstrating the power of the dark side, before offering guidance and words of wisdom. The physical pain endured during their long sessions of sparring was nothing. The Supreme leader’s words always cut deeper than blades.
“Such a disappointment.”
These had been Snoke’s first words to him when he had regained consciousness on board a shuttle, bare-faced, bloodied, defeated and overwhelmed. To add injury to the insult Hux, the simpleton, towered over him with a mixed look of disdain, disgust and something like…amusement?
To Malachor with him! No doubt that force choking that smug rat-face would considerably improve his mood, but killing the General would only anger his master further. Besides, teaching Hux a lesson would accomplish nothing. His time, like the others, would come. Later.
Instead, he managed to sit up, feigning ignorance of the gaping wound on his side. Embracing the pain was the only way he knew how to remind the despicable ginger that he, Kylo Ren, Master of the Knights of Ren, surpassed him, his officers, and the band of stolen children that he called soldiers. Hux ought to remember that.
He turned his mouth into a grin and tasted the blood trickling down his burning face.
The General’s already pale complexion turned as white as the snow on Starkiller base as he moved aside, retreating to a corner of the shuttle in a hurry.
Message received loud and clear, so it seemed.
The pain had been excruciating, though, and he probably would’ve passed out if he hadn’t called on the Force to refrain from screaming his lungs out. Pain still tasted better than humiliation.
“I have failed you, my apprentice.”
“No. I… I did not follow your advice. I should have listened to you.”
They didn’t need to face one another to communicate when necessary. Snoke was always there, somewhere, at the back of his head.
“Once your training is complete, you will not fail again. This, I promise.”
As always, the Supreme Leader had been true to his words.
He knew the scavenger followed him from above, and that she’d claimed the higher ground from the start. Patience was all he needed. Like a fruit when ripe, she would fall at his feet. He had prepared for this moment. His determination would not falter. He would not throw away more than twenty years of his life, his destiny, for a girl, a nobody, with no roots and no future.
“Compassion,” Snoke had told him in the assembly chamber. Although only a few weeks had passed, it felt like a distant memory already.
The Supreme leader had it wrong about that fateful day anyway. It wasn’t compassion. It was curiosity.
Until he met her, everything had been perfectly aligned, laid out, predictable, right. Then, something unforeseen had happened. He needed to know, he wanted to understand why Snoke himself had not perceived the scavenger to be such an important piece of the puzzle until she’d defeated him. Humiliated him.
Things changed. Snoke’s last spoken words before he embarked to Ahch-To with his Knights left no room for interpretation: it did not matter who came out victorious at the end of the day. Either way, the new Jedi would be destroyed. Luke had lost his brightest student once more, and with her, his last hope to rebuild the Jedi.
Although he had made peace with the idea his life meant naught to Snoke a long time ago, he couldn’t help but wonder if Rey, the scavenger, could ever truly supplant him at his mentor’s side. She was powerful and fierce, but the light inside her burned too bright. Him? He was born to rule and impose his will upon others. Her? She came from a backwater world and only knew how to take care of herself.
Snoke didn’t want – didn’t need– a desert rat, did he? How many times the Supreme leader cooed about the birthright of the heir of Darth Vader? On the other hand, the scavenger? Nothing special. Just an anomaly, a mistake of the Force. Killing her would simply adjust the natural order.
His train of thoughts was interrupted when the end of the hallway appeared. Before him stood a gaping maw of darkness.
He ignited his saber, producing just enough light to study his surroundings, when he noticed a flight of stairs descending to what must have been the final resting place of the tomb’s long-dead, long-forgotten owner. Like numerous times before, Snoke hadn’t confided in him the reasons why he had specifically chosen this place for his ultimate test. Only one thing mattered. The scavenger would die here, and he would finally be complete. With any luck, Han Solo would also stop haunting his sleepless nights.
He’d taken his last step down the stairs when a thousand-year-old mechanism came to life in an alarming scream of rusty cogs and an ominous rumbling beneath his feet. Chains moved far above him, and a faint beam of light appeared, piercing through a circular opening similar to an iris. It was just enough to illuminate the sarcophagus sitting on top of an elevated platform in the middle of the room. A simple square box with no carving, no name, no epitaph.
A mystery. An invitation.