Title: The Order of Eternity
Author: Vivid_Scripts
Characters: Rey, Luke Skywalker, Finn, Kylo Ren, Leia Organa, Poe Dameron, Snoke, Rose Tico, Lando Calrissian, Han Solo
Timeline: begins during The Last Jedi, right after the Resistance bombing run on the Dreadnought
Summary: Kylo Ren seeks to wipe out the Resistance and the at the bidding of his master, Supreme Leader Snoke, who is not who they appear to be. Luke Skywalker reluctantly agrees to train Rey, but is weary of her dark side tendencies and fears training another unworthy apprentice. Rey seeks knowledge of her mysterious parents.
Author's Notes: It's been eight or nine years now since I spent any significant time writing Fan Fiction and I had considered myself more or less 'retired' from this hobby. After watching ROS a few weeks ago though, I was so disappointed by the direction (or lack thereof? lol) that Disney had taken with the franchise that the FF bug bit me and I started working on my own AU rendition. Features KOTOR/TOR Lore and Legends/EU Characters. TLJ-AU. Please R/R!

Chapter 1

“Tied to a string indeed, General Hux,” Snoke said. “Well done. The resistance will soon be within our grasp.”


The General gave a nod. “Thank you, Supreme Leader.”


He turned from the throne and looked directly at Kylo Ren. A smug smirk appeared on his face for a moment then passed as he finished the full turn about and trotted out of the throne room. Behind his mask, Kylo Ren rolled his eyes. Hux’s competence made him indispensable to the First Order’s military operations but the man’s arrogance was matched only by his ignorance of the limitations of his true role.


“Captain Phasma, the traitor, FN-2187 is aboard one of the rebel ships.” The Supreme Leader stroked his chin thoughtfully as he considered the chrome-armored stormtrooper captain. “Do everything in your power to bring him to me.”


“As you command, Supreme Leader.”


“I want him alive. No disintegrations.”


The deserter was a hindrance on Starkiller base, but a minor one. Why would his master take such an interest? Would it really be worth the effort to make an example of him? Surely it would be better to vaporize him along with the rest of the rebels when their cruisers run out of fuel…


Captain Phasma left the throne room. A second set of blast doors closed after her and the security locks twisted and clamped into place with a whiny that echoed across the chamber. The eight elite praetorian guards, statuesque in their red armor, shifted for the first time since Kylo had entered the room. Their stances widened as they relaxed and rested their electro-bisentos on the ground. Kylo Ren knelt down on one knee.


Snoke’s jaw slacked and his eyes glassed over. He slouched lifelessly in his throne. Kylo suppressed an urge to shudder. It was always unsettling to see the life drain out of him. Snoke was an automaton--a sock puppet manipulated through the Force to speak and give orders. It was an effective emulation of Palpatine that reminded the First Order officers of the Empire they were fighting to restore. But it was a lie. The nature and identity of the true Supreme Leader was a secret known only to Kylo Ren and the Elite Praetorian Guards.


“These awakenings in the Force have caused a massive disturbance,” she said.


Kylo had sparred with the Elite Praetorian Guards on many occasions. Fighting them three at a time was a great challenge and one of his preferred ways to hone his saber skills. The guards were as secretive as they were well-trained. He had never seen them unmasked and they were deadly in hand-to-hand combat. One of the eight was his master in disguise. The others were decoys.


“Many new pieces have been added to the board,” she said. “Significant changes must be made to my plans. They must be sped up--”


Kylo scowled. “What changes?”


“You’re speaking out of turn. You are still not ready to comprehend the grand design. Your training remains...incomplete.”


“I’ve done everything for you. Found every treasure, retrieved every artifact.” His protest was hollow against her indictment. It stung worse than the lightsaber burn across his cheek. “I’ve given everything to you, to the dark side.”


“You killed your father, but what difference does that make if his heart is still in you?” Her voice was a hiss that felt like cuts between his ribs. “He’s gone, yet you still allow him to hold you back from your destiny--”


“No!” Kylo barked. “I hold nothing back!”


“Your might has been matched, Kylo Ren. By a girl that never held a lightsaber before--and your response to this adversity is rather telling.”


“I burned the academy. I killed all of the Jedi.”


“Except the one that mattered. Leaving the deed unfinished renders all of that strength and display of power...irrelevant.”


Kylo trembled. An old grievance, almost as old as his apprenticeship to her. It was his first failure, one that had defined the terms of his servitude. As time passed on, it widened the gulf between them. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been alone in her presence. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen her face.


“Skywalker lives. The seed of the Jedi Order lives. As long as it does, hope lives in the galaxy. This new vergence in the force--if she were to become Skywalker’s apprentice--”


“I would crush her.” Kylo took some deep breaths. “Like I crushed all of Skywalker’s students.”


“And your performance on Starkiller base was evidence of this capability?” Her tone was mocking. “Regardless, that is not your decision to make. The scavenger shall be turned. She will be a powerful ally.”


Kylo looked at his hands. They were shaking. His whole body was shaking.


“Ah, there it is. The power I saw in you--that I’ve seen in you--since you were a child.”


His muscles seized up and his mind began descending into that familiar and terrifying fugue state. “No,” he whispered, too quiet for the vocalizer of his helmet to amplify. He’d been under control for a long, long time. He thought this streak would go unbroken. He thought he was past this. Past these tantrums. The entire room was shaking now and the Force itself was vibrating.


“Was it my failure, or was it Skywalker’s?” Her voice was distant. The sound of her boots clacking on the marble floor was inaudible against the deafening buzz in the Force. “That you could never learn to harness this terrible power?”


One of the Elite Praetorian Guards was standing over him now. His helmet opened with a snap-hiss and was removed from his head. Tears were streaming out of his eyes. His vision went red and the tears started to turn into blood. A gloved hand stroked his face.


She was singing. He didn’t hear her start. He never heard her start. After so many years, he’d never heard the beginning of the lullaby, only the middle, and the end. What it meant and what language it was, he did not know. It made the seizures stop.


The gloved hand ran fingers through his hair, which was slick with sweat. It tilted his head back until he was looking up at the red blast shield of the Praetorian Guard helmet. The tears of blood dried to brown iron streaks on his cheeks. He was as vulnerable as the day he’d met her.


“The consolidation will begin soon, my young apprentice.” She brushed back rogue strands of his hair. “Go, sweep away the last remnants of the Resistance.”

 

Thanks to everyone that's liked the story thus far!

Chapter 2


Rey presented the lightsaber with an outstretched hand. The wizened Jedi Master considered her for a moment, then raised a brow as he reached out and took the lightsaber. He looked at it closely, studied it for several moments without saying a word. When he looked up from the lightsaber, his body brightened, then flickered like a hologram. Rey flinched and the Jedi Master disappeared. The lightsaber fell to the ground.


“Master Skywalker!” Rey ran forward to where the Jedi had been standing and bent down to pick up the lightsaber. She searched the ground for a holo-projector and found nothing. There was, however, a fresh set of bootprints where Luke had just been standing. She stood and looked around the peak, scanning the horizon for any other signs of life on the island crag. A figure appeared in the distance. It was a medium-build older man in a hover chair. He was floating towards her from another rocky island in the distance.


She scowled when the figure was close enough to recognize. It was Luke Skywalker, though he looked very different from the man that had just disappeared before her. His hand was burnt with ugly scarring, as was the right side of his face. He hovered towards her and floated at eye-level before moving his hand from the controller of the hover chair and placing it in his lap.


“You were much more excited to meet my projection than my actual person,” the Jedi said. “You did come here to see me, correct?”


Rey looked down at the lightsaber and presented it to him again.


He took it from her with his robotic prosthetic and studied it closely. “I haven’t seen this in a long, long time. You know what this is?”


“It’s...Anakin Skywalker’s lightsaber.”


“My father’s lightsaber,” he corrected. “You came all this way to return it to me?”


“I’m here with the Resistance. Your sister, Leia, she sent me. We...we need your help.”


“Exactly what is it that she expects me to do?” He looked at the lightsaber again, then to his legs and the chair before looking back at her.


“We need the Jedi Order back. We need Luke Skywalker.”


His lips spread in a mirthless grin. “You don’t need Luke Skywalker.”


Rey frowned and shook her head. “We need your help!”


“You think...what? I’m gonna walk out with a laser sword and face down the whole First Order? I’m sitting in this chair because I can’t walk. I’m not very good in a fight, not anymore.”


“There is no light left in Kylo Ren--he’s only getting stronger.”


“So he’s stronger now than he was when he crippled me?”


“If nothing is done, the First Order will control all of the major systems within weeks.”


“You just destroyed their super weapon, Starkiller base,” he said dryly. “And you defeated Kylo Ren in hand to hand combat.”


Rey frowned. “How did you know that?”


“I’m crippled, not blind.” He returned the lightsaber to her. “Are you really sure that I am the hero that the Resistance needs right now?”


Rey blanched. Silence between them stretched for several minutes. She sighed as she took the lightsaber. “I went to Takodana with Han Solo...that’s when this lightsaber called out to me. When I found it, something woke within me. Something that I never knew was there.”


His eyes were fixed on her now, and she knew the Jedi was peering through her like glass.


“When I fought Kylo Ren, I didn’t know what I was doing, or how I was doing it.”


“You were acting on instinct?” He asked.


“Not instincts that I’ve ever had. It was just happening--happening so fast.” She had the feeling like her eyes were swimming in their sockets as she looked at the ground, then at the horizon then back at Luke. “I was feeling, not thinking.”


“And how did it feel when you knocked him down?”


“Good.”


“Did you feel powerful when you landed blows on him, when you slashed him across the face?”


She blinked. “Yes.”


“And you enjoyed that power.”


“I did.”


The Jedi Master leaned back in his hoverchair and considered her ruefully. “If the planet had not separated the two of you when it split apart, would you have stopped?”


“I don’t--” The hairs on the back of her neck stood up. “I don’t know. I don’t understand what’s happening to me.”


His gaze hardened. “Are you ready to tell the truth?”


She nodded.


“Why are you here Rey?”


“I’m here for myself,” she said. “I’m here because I’m afraid. I’m here because I need your help.”


“Thank you.” He took in a deep breath and straightened his posture. “For your sake, for mine and for the sake of the entire galaxy I can train you, to understand and control these powers that the force is manifesting within you.”


She looked up at him hopefully. “You’ll train me to be a Jedi then?”


He shook his head. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Becoming a Jedi requires the deepest commitment--”


“Obviously, I’m ready for that.” Rey shook her head. “I’ve--I’ve come all this way. The journey to get here--”


“I know. Your awakening in the Force was a disturbance the likes of which I haven’t seen in a generation. I’ve seen raw strength like yours before but just because you have these powers doesn’t mean that you should wield them.”


Rey scowled. “Train me! I’m willing to do whatever it takes to defeat Kylo Ren and the First Order.”


“Then consider this your first lesson: ‘whatever it takes’ is not part of the Jedi way.” His jaw clenched. “You have a lot to learn. Go back to the Falcon and rest. We’ll start your training in the morning.”

 

This is off to a great start! Love how Phasma is present in the throne room as well and Luke and Rey's dialogue exchange.

 

Thank you!
A lack of introspection and internal development were some of the main shortcomings I saw in the ST films, particularly with Rey, so I want to make it a focus of this fic.

 

Chapter 3


A somber silence settled upon the briefing room. With General Organa incapacitated and Admiral Ackbar and most of the rest of the Resistance leadership dead, no one was quite sure how to open the meeting. Poe Dameron caught the gaze of his pilots and wondered if it was time for him to step up but Vice Admiral Holdo rose first.


“By now I’m sure all of you know that we’ve lost Admiral Ackbar,” Holdo said. “He was on the bridge with the rest of our Fleet Officers when those bombers came in for their run. There will be time for memorials in due time, but we have to figure out our next move. Options are limited here--the Supreme Leader’s flagship caught us completely unawares and we’re running low on fuel.”


“How the hell did they track us through hyperspace?” Poe asked. “Everything I know--everything I’ve ever known--says that that’s impossible. The only way they could’ve come in behind us is if we had a spy on one of our ships.”


“There’s no way a spy aboard could have sent a transmission without us knowing,” Holdo replied. “All comms have been shut down except for the cluster on the bridge. And that was just blown up, which raises some concerns about how we can communicate with our allies in other sectors.”


Finn looked up at her. “Is anyone coming out to help us?”


Holdo looked across the room to the one remaining comms officer, who looked down and shuffled her feet. “Even before the bridge was bombarded, we hadn’t received any new transmissions from our allies in the outer rim.”


“What about from Rey? Or Luke Skywalker? The Jedi?” Finn asked.


She shook her head. “No encrypted messages from our underworld contacts, either.”


“Vice Admiral, if I may?” A young female mechanic raised her hand.


Holdo nodded to her. “Yes, go on, petty officer…”


“Rose Tico, sir,” She said with a curt nod. “When I was in school, I saw an article about a possible way to track things through hyperspace. A complex interlinking algorithm...highly theoretical, because the computational power necessary to run it...you’d need a subatomic computer plugged into a fusion engine the size of a small star.”


“So you’re saying there’s a possibility that they have a tracking technology?” Poe asked.


Rose shrugged. “Maybe? I guess there’s a pathway. I just don’t see how they could do the calculations…”


“We only have enough reaction mass to either make another hyperspace jump or continue evading them at sublight speed with our ion engines,” another engineer added.


“Basically, you’re saying that if we jump, and they can track us, we’re done for?” Poe asked.


The engineer nodded, then looked to Rose.


“Hey,” Rose protested. “I just wanted to let you all know it’s possible. Theoretically. But unless the First Order has invented a new kind of computer...how could they have possibly done it?”


“How could they have possibly built Starkiller Base?” Poe asked. He sighed. “I think we keep running at sublight speed. What other moves can we make here?”


“Vice Admiral!” The comms officer stood at her post. “Report from the Medical Frigate--they’ve been hit! They’re crippled--We’ve...we’ve lost them, sir.”


A silence passed over the room as the Resistance fighters absorbed the latest loss.


“We only have one option: we must evacuate to Crait,” Holdo said. “There’s an abandoned base in an old mining installation on the surface. It’s a deep burrow with many side escape tunnels. It will be secure from orbital bombardment.”


Poe scowled. “But the First Order fleet will shoot us to pieces before we get there, Vice Admiral--”


“I will create a diversion with the Raddus.”


They fell silent again as they all knew what this meant. She was going to sacrifice the Resistance Flagship.


“I will stay here and man the controls to draw their fire,” Holdo said.


“No,” Poe hissed. He gritted his teeth and fought back tears. “No, Vice Admiral, please. This can’t be how it ends. Not like this.”


Her grim expression didn’t budge. “We have no choice, Commander--”


“And what are we supposed to do once we get to the surface,” Finn asked.


“Setup the last emergency beacon,” Holdo said. “Maybe someone out there is listening. It’s our only hope.”


The lights in the briefing room suddenly cut out, replaced by crimson tones of the red alert lights.


“Report!” Holdo shouted to the comms officer.


“Vice Admiral, we’re reading multiple bogeys coming in from six o’clock. Fast movers.”


“More TIEs coming in for a bombing run?” Poe asked.


“No sir...the signature suggests they’re troop transporters. Twelve of them.”


Poe scowled, then looked to Finn, who was equally perplexed.


“If they’re sending boarding parties then we have no time to lose,” Holdo said. “Commander Dameron, arm your pilots and the rest of our marines around the breach sites and get ready to hold a firing line. The rest of you begin evacuating immediately. I will hold the ship from here.”


The two dozen or so resistance fighters in the briefing room darted out the doors to get ready for the final evacuation. As they ran down the hall towards the armory, Poe tapped Finn on the shoulder.


“Finn, does any of this make sense to you?” Poe asked. “The First Order has to know that we’re at the end of our rope here, why would they bother boarding us?”


“The First Order isn’t the type to take prisoners,” Finn said. “Especially when it’s going to cost them this many troops.”


“Our turrets are pretty accurate,” Poe said with a nod. “We’re going to hit at least five of those transports before they can even breach.”


“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Finn said with a grimace.


Minutes later they were at the first breech site, couched down behind some chairs and tables flipped down to make a makeshift barricade. Sparks sizzled through the bulkhead and moved outward until they formed an outline of a door. The Resistance fighters didn’t wait for the Stormtroopers to knock in the makeshift door to start firing. Blaster bolts sizzled through the air and the stench of ozone permeated the closed space.


The Stormtroopers came through the breach one by one, holding tactical deflector shields before them to help ward off the incoming fire. The rectangular tower-sized shields absorbed a couple dozen blaster bolts before the capacitor overheated and the crimson-tinted shield flickered out. After that, the bolts went clean through into the holder, pulverizing the Stormtrooper’s armor and killing them.


In a sequence that couldn’t have lasted more than a minute but felt like hours, a dozen Stormtroopers came through the breech and fell. Each trooper used the previous as a human shield, before the body slumped and the blasterfire started hitting his deflector shield.


“Hold the line!” Poe shouted between blasts. His rifle ran hot in his hands then he ducked as the Stormtroopers on the other side of the breach sent out a volley of return fire.


“Grenade!” A Resistance marine shouted before kicking the cylinder away from his makeshift barricade.


Poe winced as the grenade exploded then frowned at the odd lack of explosive force. “Was that a stun grenade?” He shouted at Finn. Finn shrugged and let off another salvo of blasterfire.


The Stormtroopers had widened the breach and were now coming in two-by-two. Soon there was three and then four of them lined up side-by-side with the deflector shield barrier forming its own firing line.


“Grenades! More grenades!” The warning was late, the explosives started to pop one after the other. In between blinding blasts, Poe caught sight of white blurs running towards his firing line. He closed his eyes, pointed his rifle towards the charging Stormtroopers and fired indiscriminately.


“He’s here! We found the traitor!” A stormtrooper shouted before Finn shot him in the face.


A rocket flew in from beyond the breach, hitting the bulkhead behind Poe about three feet over his head. The explosion sent a stinging shower of debris across his face and neck. Poe fell forward into a prone position, hands over his head and neck and a pillar of flame filled the room, moving across the Resistance firing line. The screaming was almost as blood curdling as the smell of burnt flesh.


Poe lifted himself up to a crouch from the prone position and a blur of chrome cut through the smoke. The armored boot connected with his side and knocked the wind out of him. He crumpled to the ground, tumbling side-over-side as Captain Phasma kicked him again and again. The cacophony of blasterfire grew more distant and dreamlike as his concussed brain blinked out of consciousness.

 

Love how you gave Rose a voice here! And what an action scene at the end..looking forward to more

 

gizkaspice - Yes, Rose will continue to have a supporting role throughout the story. You'll see her again, don't worry. And thanks! =D

Chapter 4


“Rey, these are your first steps.”


She woke with a start. The vision was replaying in her dreams again. The lights in the Millennium Falcon’s cargo bay flickered on as it sensed her sitting up in her cot. The past week of training included running up and down the steps of the rocky islands, climbing cliff faces and swimming against the tides and waves. As much as her muscles ached, her mind was equally sore.


There were hour-long sessions of telekinetic practice, where Luke assessed her ability to lift and rearrange black and white stones in different patterns and sequences. She had a perfect track record thus far, and could complete the sequences with speed and accuracy. Each Force challenge and assessment he presented, she rose to and met. Oddly enough, each challenge felt easier than the last.


The time in between was also difficult. Luke allowed no questions--instead, he instructed her to “clear her mind.” It wasn’t possible. While she was here, training on the islands of a far-flung planet, the Resistance was struggling against the First Order. They’d received no communications from the D’Qar. The meditation portion of the day’s schedule had become a time to think about Finn.


Sleeping was the hardest. The lightsaber vision robbed her sleep of any restfulness.


“This is a new day, a new beginning.”


Each time the vision replayed, a new voice spoke.


“To answer power with power--the Jedi way this is not.”


Together, they were a chorus.


“Your focus determines your reality.”


Six distinct voices, echoing in the Force.


“Jedi fight for civilization, because only civilization creates peace.”


They each offered some kind of vague advice or insight, except the last.


“You can destroy the Emperor.”


The last voice was the newest--and it sent a chill down her spine. Emperor Palpatine was killed thirteen years before she was born. What sense was there in prophesying his destruction?


Rey put on her clothes then triggered the cargo ramp on the Millenium Falcon. It was several hours before her normal wake up time but she needed fresh air to clear her head. She walked up the carved stone stairs to the top of the bluff and looked down at the dark waves crashing against the sea cliffs, leaving a foamy salt spray.


She thought of her parents, and wondered where they were--who they were--and if they were going back to Jakku for her. Had they returned in her absence? Did they mourn when they couldn’t find her? She closed her eyes and tried to visualize their faces and drew a blank. The only thing she could remember was a hand in a durasteel gauntlet gently pushing her during a trek through the desert.


“This is the way.”


Her father’s words. She tried to remember the context of the statement. There was a fight. Bright flashes. Blasterfire? She was so young, she couldn’t have been more than three or four when he left Jakku. Time leached away the details of her memories. But she remembered his voice. It was smooth and restrained, with an undercurrent of confidence that was reassuring, even in her darkest moments.


Rey opened her eyes and sighed. Something glinted in the waves and as she peered closer, she made out the shape of an old T-65 X-wing in a cliff hollow beneath the waves. When Rey wiped the tears from her face, she saw light flickering atop the next bluff. It looked like a signal fire, dancing against the night sky. She drew her jacket tight for some protection from the piercing ocean breeze and paced up the stairs.


She stopped when she was close enough to see clearly what was going on. Luke Skywalker’s hoverchair was sitting on the ground and inactive next to the large fire. The Jedi Master was doing some floating meditation. Several pebbles orbited around him. His eyes were closed, but his lips moved. He was...talking?


“Yes, Master Yoda, I know there is a danger...

Qui-Gon, you’re exaggerating, there will always be another hope. Listen to Obi-Wan. Time is on our side!

Father, I don’t--I don’t know where she came from. I never did.

Master Windu, we will end the threat posed by the Sith forever.

I can do this. She doesn’t--she was never in my plans...”


Rey backed away from the signal fire and slunk down the stairs back to the landing pad with the Falcon. She crawled back into bed and fell into a dreamless sleep that lasted until her alarm went off.


In the morning she met Luke Skywalker atop the bluffs. He hovered next to the dead signal fire in his chair. He motioned for her to follow and she did. They paced across the spine of the ridge, down some more steps and into a large chamber hewn from the rocky island. Within, light from the twin suns shone in from multiple openings onto a large seal etched onto the floor.


“This is the first Jedi Temple, where the Jedi Order was born and first organized. For over a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Republic.” Luke was staring at a seal of the Jedi Order etched on the stone floor. “It’s remarkable that they were able to perpetuate themselves as long as they did. The gift of Force-Sensitivity is very rare and they needed an entire division of sentinels to identify and find Force-Sensitive children.”


Rey pursed her lips and raised her brows. “So I must be pretty lucky to have this gift then?”


“There is no such thing as luck.” He stretched out his hand, palm first. “These flesh and blood bodies we have are just vessels. The Force is an energy field created by all living things. When we die, our essence returns to the Force. And the Force has a will of its own.”


“And Jedi Knights serve this will?”


“Yes,” Luke said. “At least, they did before the dark times. Before the Empire...before my father was born.”


Rey looked around. The temple wasn’t much more than a cave, hollowed out from the rocks. Apart from the seal etched on the floor at the center of the chamber, there were no significant markings. She looked back up at Luke and saw that a gloom had settled on him. His eyes were downcast as he stared into the distance.


“I thought there would be answers here,” Luke said. “That’s why I fled here after Ben’s betrayal. All I found were ancient editions of the first Jedi texts. Books I already had copies of.”


Rey looked at a small nook in the wall he pointed out. There were four old leather bound books of varying size and color.


“I know you have questions, Rey.” He looked up from the floor and at her. “Now is you chance to ask. Have a seat.”


Rey nodded, then sat down in front of the seal. Luke hovered closer in his chair. She took a moment to gather her thoughts. She’d had so many passing thoughts over the past few days, but only one question that burned in her heart. It was the question that had stalked her entire life.


“Did you know my parents?” Rey asked.


Luke considered her quizzically. “Should I have?”


“No--I just figured, since Force-sensitivity is rare and maybe it’s hereditary that you would have maybe run into them?” She tried to tamp down her feelings but the disappointment kept bubbling up.


“You’ve spent your whole life wondering about them?”


Rey fidgeted at the question. “Yes. I have. They left Jakku when I was a child. I don’t even remember what they look like, just that they wore armor.”


Luke’s eyes went wide for a moment. “You grew up on Jakku?”


“Yeah, around Niima Outpost,” Rey said. “I spent my whole life there, surviving off scraps.”


“I had a student from Jakku.” Luke stroked his beard. “She would have been twelve yesterday.”


“What happened to your students?”


He pursed his lips. “My academy?”


“Yes.”

“According to Jedi tradition, each Jedi Master can train one apprentice at a time. That was my sister, Leia, but she was so involved in politics and government that a commitment to the Jedi path was not really feasible for her. So after a few months Leia returned to the New Republic and I found another apprentice.”


“Ben Solo?”


“This was many years before he was even born.” Luke looked to the horizon through the large walkway carved in the rock. “For many years, we traveled the galaxy together, we learned about the Force together. Those were...good years.”


Rey nodded. “How did they end?”


Luke turned the hover chair around to face her after several minutes of silence. His jaw clamped and unclamped several times before he spoke.


“During his reign, Emperor Palpatine conducted a purge and captured and executed Force-Sensitive children from across the galaxy. He saw them as the biggest threat. But the Force always finds a way and about thirty years ago, new Force-Sensitives started being born. The Knights of Ren emerged from the Unknown Regions and started kidnapping them. There were several high profile cases before Leia and the New Republic asked me to protect these children. I did, but it wasn’t enough to protect them. I had to train them. So I started a Jedi Academy on Tython.”


“And that’s when Ben Solo entered the picture?” Rey asked.


Luke nodded. “Leia had her own ulterior motives in pushing me to start a new Jedi Order. Her son, Ben, was one of those Force-Sensitive children. She was terrified that the Knights of Ren might kidnap him so she trusted me to keep him safe. I hid him and trained him alongside my other students.”


“How did he become Kylo Ren?”


“He was a sick kid that would have seizures often. It freaked Han out. And Han had a hard enough time connecting with Ben because…” Luke sighed. “He couldn’t use the Force. After a while, I realized that those seizures were a manifestation of a Force power that Ben couldn’t control. Ben learned to stop the seizures but he never learned how to use that power. His anger and his frustration with it built up over the years. Snoke corrupted him with promises of unleashing that power. He was seduced to the dark side by his own potential. And that all happened right under my nose. His fall to the dark side was my failure.”


Rey folded her hands together and put them over her mouth. “What did he do?”


“First, he betrayed and murdered my apprentice.” His voice went hoarse at the end of the sentence. He placed his hand on his forehead and started rubbing his temples. “She was more than just my apprentice. She was my wife.”


Their eyes met over a long silence. A fleeting emotion that looked like a combination of fear, regret and guilt passed over his sullen expression and she flinched. “I’m sorry,” she said. She sheepishly averted her gaze like she had walked in on him getting dressed.


“Why? It was my failure.” He bit his lip. “I paid the price. The people that trusted me...they paid the ultimate price. Ben stabbed me in the back, he severed my spine and used the Force to bring the academy down around me. Artoo dug me out of the rubble and by the time I came to, Ben and the Knights of Ren had butchered my students and stolen all of my artifact. These were powerful relics. The Traya crystal, Darth Sidious’ holocron…”


Rey’s expression hardened. “How many students did you have?”


“Sixty-seven.”


That awful moment when Kylo Ren’s lightsaber burned through Han Solo’s chest played through her mind again. “He’s a monster. You have to train me so I can stop him.”


“I’m far more concerned about you becoming him.” Luke gave her a wan look. “Time defeats all tyrants, but violence is a cycle that perpetuates itself through the generations. Hatred outlives the hateful. Remember that, Rey.”

 

This is really nifty -- I love the twist with Snoke being just a cover for this mysterious master of Kylo's who hides among the guards. Those guys in the red suits always did seem like they were up to something shady, even in the OT. And the backstory that you've crafted for at least a part of how Ben Solo became Kylo Ren is intriguing and feels a lot more twisty and complex than the story we get in the ST. Finn, Rose, and Poe are having a bad day, and I'm curious to see where that goes with the First Order already having found them! Whatever they're so eager to find Finn alive for, it can't be pleasant. The conversations between Rey and Luke have been really interesting as well, and I can only wonder if they'll be able to build enough trust that Rey might tell him about those ghostly voices in time. There's something dodgy about at least one of them...