Bonded

Chapter 11: Special

CHAPTER SUMMARY: Rey goes on a search for her kyber crystal.

Darkness.

That's all there is. That's all there seems to be. At least, it would seem that way to most people.

But not to Rey.

It's true her eyes see nothing but blackness.

Yet she knows to step around the jagged boulder just ahead. She knows there's a large opening in the ground not far and that if she fell, it would be a long way down. She knows this tunnel will soon curve sharply to the left.

And she knows she's not far, not far at all.

Her heart quickens.

Only half an hour earlier, she'd been cursing herself for coming here. So stupid. She shouldn't even be on this wasteland of a planet, nothing but grey skies and rocky, barren terrain. She should be back at the training base with the others.

And why had she come?

To chase a rumor from an extremely unreliable source, a conversation between two traders at a bar. She doesn't even know why she eavesdropped in the first place, but when she did, she heard something that's been eating at her for days.

There's kyberite on this planet, buried deep in its labyrinth of caves.

Kyber. The strongest substance in the galaxy, force-attuned crystals used to power lightsabers.

It easily could've been a dead end. Thirty minutes ago, she thought it was. Traders love to share secrets that aren't true, and kyber might just be the rarest substance there is. The likelihood the man was lying or misinformed was astronomical.

Yet she came anyway. She can't explain why.

She didn't give much explanation to her friends either. She didn't even say goodbye, just left a recording with BB-8 saying she had something urgent to attend to and would return in a couple days.

It's as though she was drawn here by something beyond reason, just a feeling, an itch in the back of her mind. She couldn't ignore it any longer. She needed to know, one way or the other.

And now she knows.

The deeper she gets, the more she senses it— there's something here, something calling to her through the Force.

Could it be? Could it be her crystal beckoning her to claim it?

She hates to admit it but... Ben got to her. It's been months, but she's found herself thinking about it more and more. What was it he'd told her?

"Find your crystal. Forge your destiny. Don't fall back on someone else's."

At first, she was annoyed. She has a crystal— Skywalker's. And it's because of him that crystal is now useless, tucked away on the Falcon, still lodged in a broken lightsaber.

But then she started thinking about it...

And maybe he was right. Skywalker's crystal did call to her, but is it really her crystal? She didn't find it. Not in its natural state, anyway. And she's no Skywalker.

Maybe there's something else out there, something better, something just for her...

Rey turns with the tunnel, beginning to slow, walking more carefully as the ground beneath her slopes down. It's growing uneven, jagged crevices, some large, cutting through the earth. She touches the cave wall as she goes, a small comfort to steady her.