Rey sat alongside her master, her mind frazzled by the day's overwhelming events. She was supposed to be meditating with him, but she couldn't focus. They had spent the last two or three hours between the thing she found out was a Force tree, and the enormous, Jedi temple she struggled not to stare at through the thin lashes of her peeking eyes.

This is was what was left of the first Jedi temple, and one of the last remaining. How was she not supposed to look at it. Her glance shifted to, Master Luke, who appeared to be having no trouble at all ignoring the town sized building. He was maybe five feet from her and so clearly focused, that the large flat rock he currently sat on, was literally levitating a good ten feet off of the ground. Of course she had seen him levitate objects with the Force before, but never while meditating. Somehow, Rey could understand it though, maybe because she could feel it too; this place was a clear focal point for the Force.

The temple was so wondrous that her attention kept being pulled back to it, even with the nearness of the "should be distracting" floating boulder to her left. She'd spent months on this Island, climbing nearly every peek she could find, walking miles along it's shorelines, and exploring dozens of caves, and still there were so many hidden throughout the natural tunnels of this place, that she'd have to dedicate at least double the time she'd already invested into exploring, just to briefly skim through the rest of it's secrets. Imagine, doing all of that and still, only just finding out about an ancient, outpost sized, Jedi temple, hiding right under her nose.

Rey had been left so numb after the Force vision she'd experienced upon touching the book, and the breakdown that followed, that when, Luke had shown her the temple only a short distance further up the mountain, she hadn't even been surprised. In fact, she had been eerily calm. It wasn't until they had settled to start meditating that everything really started to set in.

She couldn't believe just how strong her, Master truly was. The temple emitted a sort of pulse. Like a heart beat in the Force, and she felt it moving around her, pumping and pulling from every direction all leading to the temple that, Luke was easily able keep from her. She surmised that at one point the lines of power had probably led to the tree instead. She could almost see it moving around her now, similar to the way she had seen her Master's Force the first time she'd welcomed his help and they had linked in meditation. In all of the time she'd spent here, even the time she had flown around the island before landing, she'd never seen or felt, this place. He had the power to cloak the entire area and it left her brain hurting as it tried to wrap around that notion.

"You're very distracting." A voice came from the side of her, breaking Rey's introspective thought process and causing her head to jerk in Luke's direction just in time for her to see the large slab of rock touching down on the ground below it. He was already standing on it's surface. She had been so lost in her thoughts that she hadn't even noticed the movements which should have been otherwise startling to witness.

"I'm very sorry, Master Luke." She apologized.

He bent down, his left palm flattened against the rock and he vaulted over the edge, quietly landing on his feet.

"No, it's ok." Luke grunted as the pads of his feet touched down. "It's a lot to take in." He continued trying to reassure her but then, as though only just really noticing her there, his eyes focused in on her and his face scrunched up in deep thought. "You know, eventually we're going to have to work on that title." He finally said, after some thought.

Her brows pulled in confusion. "Title?" She encouraged, hoping the open question would lead him to explain his seemingly random words.

He shook his head, his eyes taking her in like he was mentally weighing her. "We both know you and I don't have that bond." He admitted flatly.

Rey's core heated. From anger, embarrassment or maybe both? She didn't know. But she knew she couldn't give up on her training that easily. That training and his mental aid had kept her demons at bay and she wasn't about to give that power up.

"There has to be a way that we can still form that bond! You said yourself, that a Padawan could have more then one Master training them at a time." She tried.

Luke shook his head.

"There can be many instructors, but only one Master during an apprentice's formal Jedi training." He informatively explained.

Rey could sense his disconnection with the topic, as though he had already accepted the words that he plainly laid before her like facts carved in stone. She wasn't as easily convinced.

"There has to be a way to break the bond! Anakin Skywalker had more then one Master at a time." She pushed, following close behind his heels as he strode away from her up the hillside.

"Anakin Skywalker's first Master was slain, and his second was a Jedi who'd shared the same Master with the young apprentice. Because both Padawans trained under the same instructor before he was killed, the two already had a sort of bond. After the death of their shared Master, it only made sense for the Master-Apprentice bond to shift to, Obi Wan and Anakin." Luke elaborated.

"But, that wasn't Anakin's only Master at the time." Rey cleverly, pointed out.

Luke half turned to face the girl but then he froze, and instead of saying something, he just stared at her and blankly waited for her to elucidate.

Realizing she must be navigating through what must be a sensitive topic for him, Rey bit her bottom lip before pushing forward to make her point, which she was sure, Luke already knew, but was making her verbalize it anyway. Having a family history like that of the Skywalker's couldn't have been easy, especially once it became public knowledge that Darth Vader was once The Light Side Jedi, formally known as Anakin Skywalker, husband to a Queen, and father of two, one prince Luke Skywalker and Princess by both blood and adoption, Leia Skywalker-Organa.

"He simultaneously had a Master on the Light, and Dark side." She closed in on him and pressed the point further. "—Emperor Palpatine." She finished, purposely positioning herself just ahead of him on the hill so she could be eye level with him.

For a moment Luke just stared at her blankly, leaving Rey unsure if she should feel victorious or if she'd been way off in her Jedi history... Then, the old Jedi nodded, side stepped past her, and calmly finished his ascent up the hill, eventually disappearing into a hidden entrance along the cliffside. Waiting for a response, for any kind of acknowledgement, a declaration of confirmation, or even denial and some kind of explanation or clarification about how she had her history wrong, Rey silently followed the path Luke took, her stomach turning as she carefully treaded up the same narrowing cliff walk her Master had seemingly vanished at the end of while she staggered behind him, staring down at her feet so she wouldn't trip and topple over the edge.

Her knowledge of his lineage and the inter workings within it, had somewhat surprised him as he realized she clearly paid close attention to their lessons together. Maybe he'd been to thorough when explaining the trails and errors of his family's past...

There really could only be one dominant Master for an apprentice, and he had tried assuming the role himself... As far as he could tell, Rey had wanted him in that position too, but there was some strange power that held she and Ben... Kylo Ren, he corrected his mind set, —together.

Luke wondered if it had something to do with the Force-bond they shared as children...

Of course, he hadn't lied about not having that bond with her, though it didn't make him as incapable of instructing her as he was intentionally leading her to believe; it was possible for him to successfully train her, but not with even a fraction of the ease with which his nephew would be able to. The bottom line was he needed her to want what he wanted, and he found that the best way to achieve this, was for her to come to the same conclusion that he had; and so he didn't budge in his resolve.

"Master Luke?" Her voice calling after him derailed him from his thoughts and he swallowed nervously as she slide between the nearly hidden mouth of the cave.

He popped out from behind a bend in the stone wall with a lit torch grasped in his mechanical hand, the shiny metal of it reflecting against the orange glow of the lively flames, causing tiny oblique shapes to reflect off of the dark cave walls —and Rey, to jump at his unannounced presence.

Ok so maybe he didn't pop out, she supposed it was more of a casual step, but maker if she wasn't wound up tight right now! She admitted to herself.

"Anakin didn't have a Force-bond with either of his Masters." He turned back down the path and led her further in.

They stopped in an open cavern. There were shelves built into the walls and columns constructed out of stone reinforced the high ceiling. There were display stands that each had something special it was responsible for. Trinkets, glowing crystals of all colors, she assumed that these were kyber crystals like the one he wore around his neck, helmets, and lightsaber hilts of varying shapes and sizes were all on display throughout the room. There were long rows of shelves in some walls that stretched from the length of the room and were layered from top to bottom that also housed more artifacts. Rey's eyes didn't know where to look and she had to jolt her brain back on topic before she could continue.

"So how do we break it?" She stubbornly inquired.

She couldn't see his faces but he was smiling inwardly. It wasn't a happy smile, not even close, but it was one of victory.

—Tread carefully. His inner conscience, warned.

"You can't just stop teaching me." She said, exasperated by his silence. "I didn't ask to start this, but I certainly intend on finishing it." Her fists where balled at her sides and her chest was heaving when he turned to face her. She didn't mean to be so childish but she could feel the desperation creeping up. She couldn't explain why but she felt like the fight was getting closer to her and she was completely unprepared.

Luke set the torch into the wall mount before turning back to her.

"My intensions aren't to stop training you." He moved to a shelf at the far end of the room and removed a holo pad from the structure. It seemed so foreign and out of place in the room of relics but she didn't question it when he handed it to her.

"I've been doing some research on our... problem." He said, upon activating the device in her hands. "This is all of the data I've collected on the subject." He flipped through and opened up a few different applications before finding the right text. "There's more... but I haven't finished deciphering it all yet."

She skimmed through the subject matter until she found what she needed. Her eyes froze over the words. They looked larger and bolder then anything else on the page, but they weren't.

"A Force-bond between two,
will then create one.

If the bond between them,
the dominant resolves to abuse.

They may force the will of the lesser,
to which ever Force-side they choose.

The dominant will control the lesser,
if this is the desire they should wish.

For the dominant to hold all of the power,
the lesser's will and mind may extinguish.

The lesser until freed,
will remain forever lost.

If one or both wishes to break the bond,
It will come at great cost.

Reversing one back to two,
only death can renew!"

There were a few more lines about the subject but it hadn't been translated yet and Rey didn't know what language it was in. She was sure of one thing though, she'd read enough to be terrified. She stood there for what felt like a long time re-reading the words and blinking like an idiot. What in the Force was she going to do now? 

"Only death can renew.... only death can renew.... only death can renew..." The words just kept replaying on loop in her head.

One of them would have to die for the bond to be broken. And she was sure one of them would die the next time they met, but she also expected it to be her, rather then him.

Could she kill him? —More specifically, could she kill him... to free herself?

Kylo Ren is a murderer. —Doesn't that make it justifiable?

But then, killing him —for her benefit, would make her a murderer, too.

She had killed before. It may not have been as personal as what she'd seen him do to his father, and it was always out of self preservation, but she did kill several storm troopers. Yet, for some reason the thought of killing, Kylo Ren did feel personal. Maybe that was because she felt the need to assuage the hurt he caused, or for the vengeance she felt she was owed over Han's death... Maybe it was because deep down, she was terrified of how much that monster, felt apart of her since their bond had opened up.

—But wasn't that just it?

The feelings were only there because of the Force-bond they shared; So it wouldn't matter after he was gone... would it?

Luke touched her arm and, Rey jumped. "Don't worry about it right now. Lets just focus on your training. We have to at least give you a fighting chance." He said, almost sounding confident but his words just falling short. As gently as he could, Luke freed the holo pad from her hands which were turning white from the death hold she had on it.

"Your going to train me to be a Jedi?" She questioned, suddenly hopeful.

He turned to exit the cave but stopped to promptly answer her inquiry. He shook his head. "No." He said just at the mouth of the cave. Rey rushed after him.

"How am I supposed to beat him?" She yelled. "He's going to destroy me one way or another." She admitted, tears glistening in her eyes. Suddenly she missed the simplicity of Jakku. She missed just waking up, working, salvaging, repairing, and going to sleep. At least she would have made it through the month, —probably.

"I said I wouldn't train you to be a Jedi. At least, not in the sense that you know of them." He had stopped walking and they had nearly collided before his voice halted her, brining her back from her wondering thoughts of a distant past that seemed light years behind her now. She hadn't noticed that they were back in the old Force tree until they were there.

"If I train you, it will be in a way I have never trained another student before. You will become one with the Force in it's entirety. Not just in the light but in the dark as well." He stared at her. His face was unmoving. His eyes never wavered. He was a statue before her, giving nothing away of his emotions. She wiped her eyes free of the beading tears that gathered at their corners. He ran his hand over the open page of the Journal of Whills.

"You will be a balance of both. You will be the first of a New Jedi Order. If you are up for the challenge?" His words were a test. A question as to wether or not she understood and accepted what he was asking of her. He had spent the afternoon in the temple with her explaining how his former teachers had been misguided as to what the Force was as opposed to what it should be. What it was meant to be, was a balance between both the light and dark. There cannot be one more pure or powerful then the other and to think other wise was blasphemy according to the true Jedi ways.

The balance was crucial to securing a Future for the Force. When all was said and done he would make sure she was all that was left. If she could remain balanced then she would survive to lead a new era of Jedi... if she didn't, well then he would deal with that after every thing else had been taken care of. He had to admit when he devised his plans originally, he hadn't expected any light side users to be involved. After all, there had been none left. It weakened his endgame resolve but for now he was happy letting this play out. If he could train her properly then he had no reason to think she couldn't keep the balance.

He didn't seek Rey out, what ever happened to her now was mostly out of his control. The Force had brought her here to him and only days before he would have made his move. That had to mean something. He could have one last hope... he had fought hard enough for that right. Surely he had given enough up to be allowed this last chance. Perhaps as a best case scenario she could do what he feared he could not, she could put an end to his fallen nephew. Perhaps this time she could finish what she started.

He could feel the darkness pulling at his soul then. He wanted to have hope for, Ben, but after everything he'd done... Luke cursed the Skywalker blood that ran through his veins. It seemed there sickness passed like a genetic disease that had no cure. Rey was the only antidote left that could help with the eradication of their bloodline. Luke new he wouldn't be around long enough to see this through and he wanted to believe that she could persevere in the end. Still...

Could he really let this girl carry that burden? He didn't have a choice... he'd already seen how it would end if he challenged his nephew... and if Luke fell, there would be no one left to restore the balance. Everything...all of it... would have been for nothing. He scolded himself away from the notion of guilt and pity. This is how it had to be! If he failed with her then his Force vision would come true, and he'd be out of options anyway.

"Well I don't see what choice I have, not that it matters. Count me in." Rey said, through a weary yet determined smile.

"Very well then..." Luke nodded and moved to the opening of the Force tree they stood in. He traced along the mouth of the trunk with his hand and his silhouette faded onto the shadowing trunk, as the light in front of him blocked out all she knew of her former Jedi Master.

"It's time then, for the Jedi to end!" He finally said, as he walked into the blinding light, leaving her to stand alone in the darkness of the hollowed out tree. A shiver ran through, Rey, and she felt it shake her to her core. Something about the way he looked, or sounded, or both... made her feel suddenly ill.

*Hey guys n' gals thanks for reading! Please comment and vote if you liked it. *
   -DarkGuardian-