Star Wars: 30 Years Later The Real Story - Chapter 16

Rey saw Finn abandon the cantina with the two aliens without being able to do a thing. She wanted to go and grabbed him and put some sense into him but then, she realized that it was not her bussiness and that she could not interfere in his decision. So she just stayed there motionless while crying. She was extremely sad and she still could not understand why she was feeling like she was. It was true that Finn had been a good companion, but they had just known each other for a too short time. Even so, she felt a deep frustration when she thought that she could not convince him to stay. She felt she had failed, and she started to have silly ideas like maybe if she had told him something better or if she had just accepted to go with him. The rapid mix of emotions she was experiencing was too overwhelming for the young girl and she just started to move.

– “I’d better find Han”- she said in a whisper before relizing that there was none to hear her. She sighed and tried to find the way back to where Maz was.

After ten minutes of wandering aimlessly she finally accepted that she had gotten lost and decided to ask for directions. She was feeling sick and heavy. It was the first time she had this kind of sensation that felt as if the air around her was heavier and thicker than usual. This only added to her frustration and was about to get close to the bar when she heard voices coming from stairs which went down in spiral.

– “No! Let me go!”- she heard clearly the distant voice of a girl which seemed to be in desperation.

She immediately followed the voice since she could not ignor the pleads for help of an innocent child. Slavery was a terrible thing, Rey was after all, someone who had been enslaved by Unkar Plutt and despised anyone who took another being’s freedom.

– “Please!”- she heard the voice clearer this time and it was followed by the sound of someone hitting wood and Rey had the terrible idea that the poor child was being held in a box like an animal.

She ran into the different corridors which were so many that Rey had the impression she was inside a laberynth, but the voice guided her. The strange feeling of heaviness increased with the time and not only she started to feel the air around her was thicker but she had this strange idea that she could perceive more things than before. She felt her senses were sharper now and she could feel people around her even though she knew there was none here with her.

– “I’m becoming paranoid”- she said and she started to doubt her own senses and she wondered if the voice of the girl she was hearing was real or just a product of his sadness and frustration to be unable to help Finn.

– “Come back!”- the voice resounded again and this time Rey knew she was very close.

– “Is someone there?”- called Rey and the hits continued stronger than before.

– “I’m here!”- said the voice and for some strange reason, the voice sounded extremely familiar to Rey but she could not recall where she had heard it before.

She arrived to a locked door which had a panel control that needed a password. Rey got closer to examine the door and thought about opening it. Without even touching it, the panel control changed to a green color and the door opened by itself. Rey felt surprised and looked around to see if there was someone trying to play a prank on her or worse.

– “Hello!”- she said while carefully entering the room which surprised her since she felt she had to. Rey had always been very cautious and she would never risk behaving as she was doing now but in this moment she only wanted to help the little girl and get out of there as soon as possible.

The room was kinda small in comparison with what Rey had imagined but it was full of tokens and objects piled all over in a way that looked as if the person who had organized the place wanted to use even the last centimeter. The objects stored in this place were so diverse and strange that Rey thought she could spend all her life studying and investigating them and not finish discovering anything at all. Some looked broken and others new, some in great conditions and others so ancient that Rey felt they would crumble if she just touched them lightly. Some were shiny and ŀustrous while others seemed ugly and so dark that Rey first thought they were just holes on the wall. However, her initial curiousity dimmed down when her attention was caught by a very common and regular ċhėst that had been placed in the center of the room being surrounded by the other objects. Rey wondered why Maz had set the ċhėst in that position as if she was trying to give it a predominant place. Wasn’t that just asking people to take it?

– “Open it…”- said a voice in her head and Rey was surprised to notice that it was her own voice. She just wondered what was this idea in her mind which was compelling her to do as told.

The ċhėst was not special and the material could be consider of the most common and cheap kind, nothing that would call your attention in comparison with the many other objets present in the room. However, Rey’s attention fell on this ċhėst and for some reason she felt a connection with it. She had this crazy idea that inside she would find something extremely important and necessary for her to advance so she needed to acquire it whatever it was.

– “Take it…”- said the same voice in her head once again.

Rey gulped and knelt down and placed her hands on the ċhėst. She felt the surface of it and she saw that the surface had accumulated sediments of dust and that the metallic parts were rusted so Rey could tell that this ċhėst had been here for a long time. She blew the dust away and grabbed the lock which for some reason was opened. She did not believe Maz to be this negligent with her treasures which could only mean that whatever it was inside was really not that valuable. She slowly removed the metalic lock and opened the ċhėst without knowing what to expect.

In the interior of the ċhėst there were some pieces of clothing that seemed to be wrapping something, so Rey started to take the clothes off and finally she found a long metallic object which looked like a kind of lantern. Rey had never seen anything like it so she did not know what it was. In any other ocassion , she would have just closed the ċhėst and go away, but this time she couldn’t, the object was so shiny and alien that Rey felt charmed by it. Once again, this compelling dėsɨrė caught her and without even thinking about it, she reached out his hand to the object to take it. For some reason, she felt that this object was hers and was the key to discover her fate.

She touched it and she heard a strong and alien sound which was similar to an electrical turbine being ignited and for some reason her instincts told her that she was in dangerand should move, but it was so surprising that she couldn’t help but shout in surprise.

}Then she heard a cold mechanical breathing like the ones made by someone breathing through an oxygen tube and she felt this cold shiver running through her body when she heard this rythmic but creepy inhale and exhale sound. She saw around her how the lights had gone off and she felt a terrible cold that was so intense she could feel it to the bones. She felt she was being observed and hunted, like if she was being watch by a terrible and undefeatable predator who was just waiting for the correct moment to attack.

Click….

For a reason she was not in the chamber she was before, but in what looked like a corridor inside of a space ship which extended endlessly. No matter how much she ran she could not find the exit which made her feel claustrophobic and helpless. She started to hear battle sounds like soldier shooting blasters at each other and screams of people dying, then she saw the roof collapsing on her and she just managed to jump forward trying to avoid the rocks that fell on her.

She rolled and noticed she was on the outside and she was lying on the ground of a rocky place. When she raised her head she saw a bonfire not far from her position. The camp was small and the firte permitted to distinguished two figures. One was an astromech of white and blue colors and the other figure was a hooded man who was kneeling and seemed to be weeping. He placed a hand on the droid with great care and Rey noticed that the hand was a robotic one.

– “Its energy… surrounds us… and binds us…”- she heard this voice which sounded ancient and which seemed to be the incarnation of wisdom whispering to her ears.

– “”Nooooooo… noooooo!!”- she heard a terrible and desperate scream which seemed to be given in the most absolute anguish.

– “The Force will be…”- said another voice which sounded powerful and yet gentle.

Immediately the weather changed again and now Rey was in the middle of heavy rain. She heard the same laser sound that she had heard when she had touched the strange object at the begiinning behind her and she turned around to see what it was. She saw a man trying to escape and then being stabbed by a red light laser. The man fell dead and Rey saw the responsible for the murder.

– “No! Come back!”- Rey recognized the voice of the girl which had brought her here.

Rey turned around and saw little version of herself, she looked around and noticed she had returned to Jakku but now she was watching her little self the day her family had gone away and left her in the hands of Unkar.

– “Quiet, girl”- said Unkar while grabbing the arm of the small girl strongly and Unkar started to dragged her while she saw to the sky trying to reach something.

– “Noooooo!!!!”- the little Rey shouted in desperation trying to free herself for Unkar in vain.

She saw an airship taking off and going out of Jakku. Rey did not know if she was the little girl again but the pain and frustration were very real. Rey noticed that she had tightly locked those memories to avoid the terrible suffering she was experiencing now.

Then again all changed and she was in the middle of a snowy forest and a gentle and familiar voice called her name. She felt so overwhelmed that she just started to run without direction trying to escape the place. However, the leader of the black armored guys blocked her path with the light weapon activated. He started to advance to her so fast that Rey did not have any time to even ȧssimilate the situation.

– “These are your first steps” – said the gentle voice again and she noticed she was in the Maz castle chamber once more.

However, she was sweating intensely and she felt her legs had no strength. She was confused but she knew all she had seen was real. She heard steps and when she looked at the source, she saw Maz Kanata who was looking at her with tender eyes.

– “What was that?”- asked Rey with a weak and terrified voice.

– “It seems today there have been too many surprises”- said Maz while getting close- “I had only noticed the other boy but you… you’re even stronger…”

– “I shouldn’t have gone in there”- said Rey thinking she was referring to her being there and enter without permission. She tried to stand but her legs seemed made of jelly so Maz supported her and helped her keep her balance.

Rey felt mentally exhausted. She felt as she had run for hours non stop and the thickness of her surroundings was even more evident now.

– “My dear child…you still do not understand how fantastic what you experience is”- said Maz who was looking at Rey with impressed and even one could say, envious eyes- “That lightsaber was Luke’s. And his father’s before him. And now… it calls to you.”

– “I have to get back to Jakku”- said Rey who felt that the desertic planet was the safest place for her now.

– “Han told me…”- Maz said looking at Rey with pitiful eyes. She grabbed her hands tenderly- “Dear child. I see your eyes. You already know the truth… Whomever you’re waiting for on Jakku… they’re never coming back.”

Rey felt a stung in her heart and started to cry since deep inside she knew this was true but it would be impossible to make Rey say this out loud.

– “But… there’s someone who still could…”- said Maz and Rey felt a strange wave of hope in her heart as if she knew who she was talking about. It was a name that should not mean anything but she automatically felt the words being articulated by her.

– “Luke…”- and the name came out so naturally that she surprised herself. She cried even more but the pain she felt was less than before.

She did not know why but something was telling her that Luke Skywalker knew more about her and he was the key she needed.

– “The belonging you seek is not behind you, my child… it is ahead”- said Maz ċȧrėssing Rey like a mother would do- “I am no Jedi, but I know the Force. It moves through and surrounds every living thing… you can feel it, don’t you?”

When she said this, it was as if a door had been opened before her as if light had been turned on before her and she could now see something she could not before. She started to undertand what was the sensation she had been feeling since before. Was this… the Force? She could not be sure and to be honest she was feeling too shocked right now to really care.

– “Close your eyes… Feel it… The light…”- said Maz closing her eyes and smiling at what she was feeling- “it’s always been there. It will guide you.”

Rey did not need to close her eyes since she could easily feel something around her but she was too terrified to go deeper on it since she knew that the thing had forced her to see those things and she did not want to see them again. However, Maz seemed relaxed and even pleasant to feel it and Rey wondered if different people would feel different things since for now she was scared of the thing Maz called the Force, if that was really what she was feeling was.

– “The saber… Take it…” – said Maz and when she said these words, she remembered what had happened before.

She felt this abundant energy inside her which seemed to wrap her and fill her. It felt nice but also alien since she had never felt anything like this before. She did not only feel light as Maz was describing but also she also felt this intense darkness which seemed to be inviting her to go deeper but there she could see that man with the red laser and the sound of the oxygen tube. Rey felt absolute terror and immediately opened her eyes and freed her hands from Maz’.

– “I’m never touching that thing again. I don’t want any part of this”- said the overwhelmed Rey and she just started to run out of the place.

– “Hmm” – Maz wanted to stop her but she knew that it would only cause her more confusion so she just let her go. If that girl was really destined, she would follow the path sooner or later, she just prayed it would be in the light.

Rey ran and ran trying to forget and ignore what had happened but it was as if those images had been branded directly on her soul. Also, the thing surrounding her and filling her stayed there and there was no way she could stop it. She gave a last look at Maz castle and kept running trying to forget about everything that she had experienced.

– “Just forget everything!”- she said while running into the forest- “forget that lightsaber, forget the Force, forget Han, Maz, and Finn and if possible forget yourself!”