The Forgotten Hero: A Star Wars Story

Old Ghosts

Rey steps down into the basement corridor. BB-8 follows her. Walking carefully and confused, she is not sure why she's down here. She can hear the echoing sounds of a young girl crying. She heads down the hall... to the very end, where there is a door. It is almost as if a soulful vibration draws her closer. She looks at the door lock and the door opens.

Hesitant, Rey enters. Rey moves into the dark, small, vaulted storage room. Old treasures line the floors and walls, but there is something specific Rey is drawn to: on a table, an old wooden box. She moves to it, unsure, afraid, as if an energy from inside the box has been calling her here. BB-8 nervously follows.

Rey reaches out, very slowly, to touch the box. A moment heavy with tension. She gently opens the box and sees inside, Luke Skywalker's original lightsaber. With hesitation, she reaches towards it, but she cannot resist. As her hand makes contact with it, there is the piercing sound of a lightsaber igniting.

She moves her hand away, as Rey hears a mechanical breathing sound. The lighting suddenly changes and behind her she sees something incredibly confusing. The hallways from deep inside Cloud City. Disembodied voices fill the air.

Young Girl: NO!

She jolts to her feet and looks around, confused by all she sees and hears. Rey runs down the corridor as all of the lights flicker eerily, but the hallways tilt and turn and Rey lands on one of the walls which becomes the ground. She lays on dried grass at night and looks to see the new light source. The fire that burns down the Jedi Temple. Rey looks over and sees R2-D2 as a robotic hand is placed on his dome. Luke Skywalker kneels in agony at all he's lost.

Rey looks on in horror as rain begins and it gets darker. The first disappears and Rey turns to see a warrior battling through the weather. He is stabbed through with a fiery lightsaber. The warrior screams in pain and his body is tossed to the ground. There stands Kylo Ren and his knights. She gets to her feet, frightened by what she sees. All of the bodies are soaked in the torrential downpour as Ren moves towards her.

She hyperventilates and suddenly the rain stops, the sun is out and she is dry as a bone. She hears another shout and turns to see a little girl. Rey as a child. She is sobbing, hysterical. Unkar Plutt's meaty hand holds her thin arm. She is on Jakku, watching a starship fly into the sky, abandoning her.

Young girl: No, come back!

Unkar: Quiet, girl!

The ship flies towards the desert sun, which is strangely eclipsed, bathed in red light, as if being eaten by darkness. Rey looks around her to see she is.

Now she stands in the barren, snow covered woods at night. She's losing her mind, confounded and lost and she gets to her feet, her breath seen in the frigid air and then. She hears the sound of clashing lightsabers. She moves through the woods, toward the sound.

Rey runs, heart pounding, when Kylo Ren emerges from behind a tree. She stops, screams, tripping over a root, falling back and landing in...

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She falls back, out of the room, suddenly sitting in the hall, out of breath, alarmed and perplexed. She hears something and turns to look. Maz stands at the end of the corridor, realizing what has just happened.

Rey: What was that? I shouldn't have gone in there.

Maz: That lightsaber was Luke's. And Darth Vader's before him and now, it calls to you!

Rey stands fast. Still overwhelmed, emotional, speechless.

Rey: I have to get back to Jakku.

Maz: Y/N and Han told me. (reaches out, holds Rey's hand) Dear child. I see your eyes. You already know the truth. Whomever you're waiting for on Jakku, they're never coming back. But... there's someone who still could.