Rey was crushed. She felt like a failure. Ben sacrificed himself to save her, to save the Resistance, and she did nothing about it. Why did everything have to happen to her?

        Rey moped in her room, contemplating whether or not she should leave the Resistance for good. There was no light left in her. The hooded figure told her so. She had put everybody in danger, including her friends on Supher.

        For the rest of the day, Lando Calrissian tried to find a town that had a mechanic in it for the Millennium Falcon. He wanted to see if she could make one more trip through the Phonolukamy Wormhole, but that was to no avail. Towns on the planet were so spread out. By nightfall, the ship landed in a field next to a small forest. Lando told everybody they’d continue their journey in the morning.

        Chewie went outside and whipped up a fire for dinner, while Finn tried to pull Rey out from her room.

        He knocked on the door and said in a gentle voice, “Rey? Dinner is ready.”

        “I’m not hungry,” Rey replied.

        “But, Rey.”

        “Finn, just leave me alone! Please,” Rey begged.

        Finn let her be. Rey had a lot going on, and she needed some time alone. He left the door and joined Temiri, Lando, Rose, Poe, Chewie, C-3PO, R2, and BB-8 outside for dinner.

        Temiri, Lando, Rose, Poe, and Chewie sat around the fire. Each person held a plate of food. They saved spots for Finn and Rey. 3PO sat on a rock behind them, but R2 and BB-8 were in the charging station.

        Poe, Rose, Lando, and Chewie turned their heads when they heard Finn creep up behind them.

        “Well, how is she?” Lando wanted to know.

        Sitting down, Finn picked up a plate of his own and admitted, “She doesn’t want to be disturbed. She is absolutely crushed.”

        Rose, who sat next to the ex-stormtrooper, lowered her plate and said, “Poor Rey.”

        “Poor Rey?” Temiri asked in an angry voice.

        Rose, Finn, and Poe jumped when he chucked his plate to the ground.

        “None of this would be happening if you just listened to Leia!” Temiri snapped. “She clearly said you weren’t supposed to interfere with her training. Yet, you did.”

        “The kid has a point.” Lando used a dead leaf as a napkin. He set his own plate down next to his ankle. “I thought we were going to let her turn to the Dark side.”

        “As if!” Poe crushed his plate in between his hands, throwing it into the fire. “I can’t imagine what would’ve happened if that hideous figure on the throne took her away.”

        “It’s her destiny,” Temiri explained. “Rey is a descendant of evil. Ben would not be gone if you guys just listened to Leia. It’s your own fault we failed our mission.”

***

        “Ugh!” In the Falcon, Rey chucked her new lightsaber to the other end of the room. She pulled her knees close and sniffed. “Ben’s gone, and its all my fault. I’m such a horrible person. The Resistance does not deserve somebody like me.”

        Wrapping her cape around her body, Rey hopped to the ground and came within reach of the lightsaber she just threw. She stopped over it and looked down. A few tears splashed onto its hilt while she kneeled and picked it up. Rey had to leave. She could not bear to put her friends in anymore danger.

        With that in mind, Rey attached the lightsaber to her belt and opened the door to her room. She headed over to the Falcon’s ramp and started down it, but she stopped at the sight of her friends sitting around the fire. Just seeing them, another lump formed in her throat. She tried to hold back tears, but it was impossible. She was too depressed.

        Rey refused to say goodbye to her friends. She turned on her heel. While she left the Millennium Falcon and her friends, she said just one thing: “I don’t belong here.”

***

            Aerolin hummed as she whipped up a pot of stew in her hut’s kitchen. She set the table for her guest. “Where is that boy?” she asked herself when she saw he had not come in for dinner. Aero grabbed a cane and used it to support her balance. She stepped outside to Phonolukamy’s dry, rocky landscape. Her eyes landed on a hill, where a figure kneeled.

        Ben Solo watched the sunset, with P4-3 next to him. He rubbed dirt off her eye, focusing back on the sun.

        With the help of her cane, Aero climbed the hill and joined him. “What are you doing up here, lad? As thanks for saving your life, I thought we were going to have dinner together.”

        Sure enough, it was Aerolin who saved Ben from the Moceka Earthquake. The bright light he saw from the rock sled belonged to her ship, The Robin Hood. She went and got it with P4-3 when she learned Poe, Rose, Finn, and Ben were going to chase down Rey. After all, the space heroes ran into her on their way to her village.

        Ben sensed Rey was nearby, so he volunteered to get her, but he could not do it without Rose, Poe, and Finn inviting themselves to join him.

        They merely said, “Rey is our friend, too,” and followed him.

        Ben did not look at Aero. He continued to stare at the sunset and answered, “She’s somewhere out there. Now that I am alone, this is the only time I can chase her down without anybody getting in my way.”

        Aero examined the sunset with him, nodding. “I understand,” she said, getting down on her knees. “Come here, my boy.” She gestured for Ben to join her.

        He did. P-43 rolled up on him from behind.

        Looking Ben in the eyes, Aero patted the dry soil between her and him and ordered, “Put your hand here.”

        Ben was nervous. At first, he did not do it, but Aero forced him. She took his hand and pulled his glove off, setting it down on the small section of soil between her and him. “What do you feel?” she inquired, as she rested her hand on top of his.

        “Light,” Ben spoke in a shaky voice, but it balanced out the longer he was with Aero. “I feel light. Something is coming to life under us.”

        “Do you feel balance?”

        “Yes.”

        “That is the Force calling out to you.” The second Aero said that, a green stem with two leaves rose out of the ground in-between Ben’s fingers. He removed his hands.

        Ben and Aero placed their palms on their thighs and admired the newborn plant.

        “There is still hope, just as there is hope this planet will one day become the beautiful, green planet it used to be,” Aerolin explained. “You must do what your heart tells you is the right thing. That is the beauty of the Force.”

        Next to Ben, P-43 bumped his side and beeped.

        He glanced at her, asking, “Are you ready, P-43?”

        P-43 nodded.

        For the first time ever, a small smile crept across Ben’s face. He rested his hand on top of P-43’s box-shaped body and added, “Let’s go save Rey.”

***

        Cold wind blasted Rey while she stumbled across another cracked, desolate landscape surrounded by tall rock towers. She tightened her grip on her cape, trying to stay warm. Her lips cracked and started to bleed. The wind picked up speed, causing a dust storm.

        Rey fell to her knees. Her lightsaber plopped down next to her. She had to find some water, but there was no sign of a watering hole on the desolate landscape. That frustrated her.

        A glare moved across Rey’s face. The second her fingertips touched her lightsaber again, her hazel brown eyes flashed a quick yellow. It vanished after she re-attached it.

        The dust storm trapped her. Coughing, Rey rose to her feet and covered her nose and mouth with her hand. Her arm stung as her injury sucked in the dust. She struggled through it, but the force of wind almost knocked her off her feet. A dust cloud came to life in front of her. Rey gasped when she recognized the figure in it. It was the same, hideous man who tortured her in the Star Destroyer.

        He circled the frightened, conflicted girl and told her, “Come with me, child, for you are all I have left.”

        “Why won’t you leave me alone?” Rey tried to punch the dust man, but he dodged her fist and appeared behind her.

        “The power you hold exceeds even mine. The galaxy needs a new leader, an Empress, and you are next in line.”

        “What are you talking about?”

        “I will take you Jakku, where you shall learn more.” The man leaped in front of Rey before she could run away. He offered her his hand. “You do want to know who you are, right? At this point, it is only necessary for you to join me. A conflicted girl like you... I will show you your place in the galaxy.”

        Just seeing the man’s hand, Rey remembered Snoke’s throne room, when Ben did the same thing. That time, her mind wandered to another place. She seemed to fall under a trance. Did the man control or, or did she control herself? The wind howled around the two individuals as Rey lifted her injured arm and reached for the man’s hand.

        Before she could change her mind, he snatched her wrist and pulled him close to her.

        Shaking from fear, Rey tried to release herself, but he held her tightly.

        “You’ve made your choice,” the man hissed in her ear.

        A second dust cloud appeared behind Rey. She peered over her shoulder to it. Her body continued to tremble, and she whimpered when she saw the cloud creeping towards her. Nevertheless, she nodded. This was her destiny.

        As Leia said back on Supher... “Destiny is not a horse. You must learn to trust yourself.”

        Rey knew she would find a way out of this. She was Rey. She stopped fighting the man and closed her eyes.

        He cackled when the dust cloud devoured both him and her, whisking them away from Phonolukamy.

***

        “I knew we never should have left Rey behind!” Finn kicked the Falcon’s wall.

        Next to him, Lando rested his elbow on it. “Well, she certainly does not like to stay in one place. Don’t you agree, Temiri?”

        Temiri did not answer him. He felt a great disturbance in the Force, which caused him to stare blankly ahead from where he sat in the common room. “This should not be happening,” he whimpered.

        Finn overheard him. “What’s happening?”

        “We need to get to Jakku as soon as possible,” was Temiri’s answer.

        “What’s happening?” Finn repeated, but Temiri said no more.

        He got up from his seat and returned to the Falcon’s cockpit. “Do you feel it, too?” Temiri asked Chewie, who also stared into space.

        Nodding, the Wookie let out a low, sad growl.

        Temiri took his furry arm and peered into his face. “We can still fix this. Jakku is where we will get all the answers to our questions. Then and only then will we form alliances with friends, allies, and enemies. A battle is just around the corner. I can feel it. This battle will determine the fate of not only the Resistance, but the whole galaxy.”

***

        Drained of power, no longer did Rey feel cold. She felt heat, which told her there had been a change in scenery. Sitting up, she saw that she rested on a huge dune. Where was Phonolukamy’s cracked, dry landscape? What happened to the Lukaemians who combined farming with machinery? Just like the man told her, she was back on Jakku, but he trapped her in the dune.

        Rey clenched her teeth and tried to free her buried hands and feet in the sand, but she failed. She sat in a very uncomfortable position, with her knees bent and her arms behind her.

        The hooded man returned, but that time, his appearance was a sand figure, not a dust cloud. It was similar to the sand figures Rey saw during her vision on Supher.

        The man brushed by her right arm and floated in front of her like a ghost. “Now that we are here, I have a mission for you.”

        “What mission?” Rey narrowed her eyebrows. “You can’t keep me trapped forever. I can easily use the Force to pull my arms and legs free. I did it when Kylo Ren captured me, so there’s no way I can’t do it again.”

        “Oh, really? Sorry to disappoint you child, but–” Rey’s supernova shook his head–“you no longer have your Force abilities.”

 

End of Part 2: Phonolukamy

End of Novella #1!

Word Count: 34,053