Star Wars: The Rise of Ren ✓

Chapter 62 - Love You More

*passing another box of tissue*

"Gentle Beings." Luke waved his hand toward them. "I'm sure we can come to a reasonable compro—"

The Jedi Master clutched at his chest as he felt a Padawan die. What's going on? Naluma! He collapsed into his chair as two more died. Then Fraynal.

"Master Skywalker, Master Skywalker."

The voices around the room sounded so far away. The deaths kept coming.

"I'm sorry, I have to leave." Luke staggered out of the room, headed for his X-wing, not even pausing to change into his flight suit.

Rain pelted against his canopy. Khalkha was dark, except for a bright orange light coming from the academy. Luke reached out, feeling nothing.

R2 beeped a query.

"I know. I'm not getting any life readings." Tears poured down Luke's face as he landed his fighter at the upper landing pad.

Rain drenched him as he hopped from the craft and staggered across the slick grass toward the academy. Bolts of lightning lit up the area, striking a tower of the academy building.

When he opened the main doors to the facility, a fireball jumped out at him. He pulled himself away with the Force, his cloak singed.

Coughing from the smoke, he reached out for Naluma with the Force. He called her name over and over. "Naluma! Where are you?"

Luke sent out a specific tendril for Naluma, but he could barely sense her aura. He ran quickly in the direction of it. It led him to the other side of the academy building, to Bald Mountain.

Rain poured in sheets. He slipped on the black shale. The wet clay sucked at his boots as he trudged through the mud.

When Luke reached the top of the hill, the sight was staggering—bodies strewn everywhere, Jedi cut down in their prime. Wei'ahht. Zeke. Fraynal. Kalder. Luke's heart crashed again, but he pressed on, turning the bodies over, looking for Naluma.

Her life-Force faint. The direction uncertain.

But he felt an evil taint. Many. It overlaid the destruction. Snoke. Snoke was here.

He reached out again for Naluma. He felt it. He saw the overlay.

It was not just Snoke.

Ben. It was Ben.

Another Purge.

Luke kept moving, searching for anyone who was still alive, anyone who had held out against Snoke and his minions. R2-D2 stayed close behind him, rolling silently over the muck.

He pressed on. He could feel Naluma just ahead.

Naluma—sprawled in the middle of the hilltop, bleeding out her life-force.

He fell down and clutched her to his chest, wiping the rain from her face. "Naluma, my love."

She looked up at him. "Luke. It was Ben." The words came at a price. Her breathing ragged. Her face pale.

Luke looked at her through tears pouring down his face. "I know." The anger swelled up in him as he held her.

Naluma strained, "Luke, don't. Don't give into your anger. Please. It's what Snoke wants. He wants you. He wanted our son. I couldn't . . ."

Luke clutched her to his chest. "Please don't leave me, Naluma. I can't live without you." He stroked her hair and pressed his lips to hers. He wailed in torment. "I love you."

He heard her voice in his head. Love . . . you . . . more.

He let out an incredible howl of grief as her head fell back and her heart stopped beating.

For the third time in his life he built a Jedi funeral pyre. After hours of cutting down wood in the dark night of rain, he laid the body of his wife on the logs. He kissed her lips one last time before igniting the fire with her saber.

His grief knocked him to his knees, his hand on R2 for support. His soul felt as it had been ripped from him in its entirety. There was no light, only darkness left.

Luke reached his hand toward Naluma's face to stroke it one more time before the flames took her away from him. His nerves did not even register when his cybernetic hand caught fire. The plastic covering his hand melted, revealing the gold and steel infrastructure. He mourned the entire night as the embers reached the sky and mixed with the stars in the black sky.