Star Wars: I Am a Slave ✓

Chapter 54 - Rey

As the Falcon pulled out of hyperspace, blue octagons changing to streaming pins of light, it broke through above a blue planet. Rey piloted the ship through the clouds, gasping when she saw the planet below. It's the ocean from my dreams. The ocean . . . and the island, thought Rey, hyperventilating. She brought the Falcon in low across the water, generating a wake in her path, bring the ship into land at the bottom of the island—the only place it would fit.

Chewie stayed back with the ship and Artoo as Rey took her staff and headed up the six hundred plus steps. She could feel the Force strongly here; she could feel him here—Grand Jedi Master Luke Skywalker—her uncle—at the top. She could feel his pain as she climbed, his longing, his . . . fear.

After the first hundred steps, Rey stopped to catch her breath, looking at Chewie and Artoo below. Chewie roared something, encouraging her to keep going. Rey remembered these steps

She had climbed them hundreds of times before in her dreams. She knew right where her calves would start aching. She knew where she would find the box on the landing. She knew when she would start to pant. But one thing she did not know was what she would find at the top. Her dreams always stopped right before she reached the summit.

Rey pressed on past four hundred steps, her breathing coming harder, her calves burning. Five hundred. She had to stop. She could not move another muscle. This was so much harder than in her dreams.

"Rey, keep going, don't stop," encouraged Ani.

"I can't," she panted.

"You can."

"Can't. Too tired. Legs won't move," argued Rey.

"Then don't use them," stated Ani.

"The Force?" asked Rey, finally understanding.

"The Force."

Rey pulled in the Force from around her. It's everywhere here! These rocks. Even the grass. Is this normal, Granddad?

"For here, yes," answered Ani. "Rey, everything here will be a test, even these steps. Don't ever try to pass these tests in your own strength."

Rey nodded her understanding. Rey continued her climb, 550, 575, 600. Just a few more steps . . .

When she reached the top, she climbed the rest of the hill toward a plain of green turf. She stood about 30 meters from a grey-robed figure. His shoulders were bent over with care. Rey could see his blue aura blazing around him. He was looking at something out in the ocean, and then he bent his head down . . . and turned to her.

As he slowly turned to her, Rey moved a few more steps closer, her satchel around her waist, her staff in her right hand. Words were not necessary between them. They both knew why she was here. They both knew each other. Rey could feel through the Force their bond already, could feel what he had already started with her during those lost years of her life . . . her life before Jakku.

He removed his hood, revealing a mechanical right hand. The metal gleamed in the fading sun light. His grey beard and weather-beaten face revealed his years of anguish.

Rey shouldered her staff and reached into her satchel, removing the lightsaber. Rey held it forth, as an invitation—no, as her plea—to train her. They stood there for a long time, Luke staring her down, seeing into her. Rey knew he was seeing if she had what it would take—not just the training, but to finish this once and for all—to remove the evil thing from the galaxy.

Under Luke's intense gaze, Rey was tempted to look away. But she remembered Ani's words: everything is a test. She would not look away. She had no one else to go to. If he could not train her, then this galaxy would perish—it would be consumed by the dark. Billions would be enslaved to the worst kind of slavery . . . slavery to the dark side and Plagueis.

And then she saw it. He moved his head. Was that a nod for yes? He's breaking. He's accepting it. He can't deny it. This is his saber. And then she heard it. She was not sure if he actually voiced it or spoke in her mind, but she heard his voice filled with longing, "Rey."