Across The Stars // Star Wars (Sequels)

✰Chapter 40✰

"Whoah, whoah, whoah. Back up a bit," Poe says, halting me. "You and Rey are doing what?" 

"Force-Healing. Pay attention, will you?" I ask with a roll of my eyes. 

"Yeah, I got that. But isn't that, like, dangerous?" he asks. 

"I don't know. I mean, it's just transferring Force-Energy from one life form to another," I say with a shrug. "I'm sure it's fine, Poe. We'll be safe." 

"Okay, I hope you know what you're doing. If anything happens to either of you, I'm telling your mom," he points out. I giggle. 

"Oh, no, not my mom!" I dramatically exclaim. He chuckles at me, shaking his head. We continue our journey through the base. Both of us are on break for a few minutes until we have to go back to our responsibilities, so we fill our time talking about our day. 

"All right, I should go find Rey. We're going to experiment a bit. If you don't hear from me by the end of the day, you should start to worry." I send him a wink before skipping off. 

"That's not funny, Rave!" he calls and I grin broadly, blowing a kiss his way. He looks at me with annoyance before shaking his head and jokingly catching the kiss, tucking it in his pocket. I giggle and wave before heading into the woods, where I find Rey sitting on a tree trunk, the thick book on Force-Healing in her lap.

"Hi!" she greets me. "I already began reading. Hope that's okay." She scoots over so I can sit down next to her, but I choose to sit on the ground, preferring to sit on grass that is alive rather than on a dead tree. She quickly follows my example and hands me the book. 

"Okay, it says here that Force Healing was a power that used the Force to accelerate the natural healing process rapidly, and could be used to heal the most fatal of wounds and injuries. It is a power used by wielders of both the Light and the Dark Side. Good." I chuckle the last word to myself. "All right. You're going to try first," I say, drawing a dagger from the pocket of my robes. Rey's eyes go wide. 

"What? No, what if I mess up?" she asks, panic lacing her words. 

"You won't," I say, dragging the tip of the dagger down the top of my forearm, creating a thin cut. I bite back the stinging pain. "Close your eyes," I say, but she keeps staring at my arm. A small stream of blood drips from the wound. "Rey, close your eyes." She swallows thickly before doing as I say. "Reach out with your mind. Reach into my pain, into the injury. Find the Force and mend the injury." I watch closely as I feel her Force-Presence. The cut begins to tingle as a familiar warmth wraps around my arm. Minutes go by and slowly but surely, the skin knits back together and the blood seeps back into my body. I smile softly. 

Rey's eyes open again and she breathes in deeply. "Did I do it?" she asks in disbelief. I trace my hand over my arm. 

"You did it," I say. "Good job, Rey." 

She smiles at my praise and I can see the immense relief in her eyes. "How are you feeling?" I ask. 

She clenches her fists shortly and I can see them tremble. "A bit tired, but okay, I think," she tells me. 

"That's good. You can take the rest of the day off to rest," I say, getting up off the ground. "Oh, and Rey? Please don't try this when I'm not around." 

She nods. "Understood, Master," she says. "Is it okay if I work on my Lightsaber for a bit?" 

I smile, nodding. "Of course. I'll see you around." 

"Oh, Raven, I wanted to ask you something," she calls before I can leave. I turn back. "It's nothing Jedi related, though." 

"Sure, what's up?" I ask. 

"Is there something going on between you and Poe?" she asks, tilting her head to the side. Her question throws me off and for a second, I don't know what to say. 

"W-Why would you think that?" I ask, uncomfortably folding my arms. Poe and I agreed to keep our relationship as private as possible, so unless Finn told her about it, there is no way Rey could know.

She shrugs. "Every time you're around him, your heartbeat quickens. Your Force-Energy is usually very calm, but when you're with him, it's not." She curiously awaits my reaction. I immediately reach into the Force to hide my true thoughts while I search for the right words to say.

"Well, Poe and I were friends before I left to train with Master Skywalker and getting to reconnect with him has been very exciting, but there's nothing else going on between us," I tell her, carefully voicing my thoughts. "Plus, I think he's really annoying." 

"How so?" she asks me.

I mentally groan. She knows she's onto something. "For starters, he always tries to get me to learn how to fly an X-Wing, even though he knows I hate flying. He talks to me about technical things all the time and I never understand a word he says. He's a night owl and he has the annoying habit to wake me up in the middle of the night just to talk. We'll spend all night talking about anything and everything and the next day I'm really exhausted but I don't care because we had fun. He worries about me more than anyone in the Resistance, even my mom. He always checks up on me and when I'm feeling down, he always manages to cheer me up." Once I finish my sentence, I realise what just happened. Rey wears a smirk on her face. "Oh, who am I kidding. Yes, there's something going on between Poe and I," I groan, sinking down on the ground and running a hand through my hair. "Please don't tell anyone." 

"I won't," she says. "But I thought Jedi weren't allowed to have relationships?" 

"No, we're not. At least, the old Jedi weren't, and since you and I are the last remaining Jedi, I thought it wouldn't hurt. Besides, forming attachments is all I've ever done. Back with Master Skywalker, there was this girl, Jaz. We were inseparable for years until Ben- Until Kylo ren killed her," I mutter. After not talking about Jaz for months, my words bring tears to my eyes. I bite down on the inside of my cheek to calm myself.

"Do you miss her?" Rey asks. 

I nod. "Every day," I say. "I try to find her presence in the Force but I can't find it." 

"I'm sorry, Raven," she says softly. 

I inhale sharply, sitting up. "It's fine. It's all in the past, anyway," I say. "I'm gonna go meditate for a bit." 

"Okay," Rey says. "Actually, can I come with?"

"Sure," I say and in silence, we travel down the trail to the shore of the lake. I sat down in the sand, running my fingers through it before closing my eyes, breathing in deeply. I dive into the Force, feeling it wrap around me like a blanket. Rey follows shortly after and her presence intertwines with mine. I watch as she remembers her scavenger days on Jakku. The day she met BB-8 and Finn. How she met my dad, Chewie and I after we took the Falcon. 

Then, the tone changes. 

I watch her battle with Kylo Ren, the sense of familiarity she felt when she first saw him. Their connection through the Force. I open my eyes and glance at Rey, seeing a single tear slide down her cheek as she smiles to herself.

I soundlessly rise to my feet and travel back to the Temple.