Lord of the Wars

Chapter 1

Another green line exploded a rock floating before her, to the left. Rey swerved the Dart to avoid a rock and delved deeper into the asteroid field. She had hoped to lose the TIE Fighters on her tail in this dangerous maze, but the First Order persisted. The pilots were excellent—none had crashed, and there wasn't enough room for her to engage them in a dogfight.

She'd have to use the Force, then.

While steering her ship, Rey concentrated on the Force. It came to her so easy now. Spending months isolated on Er'kit training with Master Luke Skywalker's ghost and the Jedi texts she had taken from the tree on Ahch-To gave her everything she needed to know. Complete knowledge of the Light Side—and even some of the Dark Side. The realization of becoming a Gray Jedi: someone who balances both sides for the good of the Force. Absolute control over the Force. Unshakeable peace.

Master Luke called her the Jedi Master now.

Feeling the ship's surroundings—picturing the layout of what was behind it: a few asteroids and the three TIE Fighters chasing her—she zeroed in on two rocks in particular, raised her hand, and brought her thumb and pointer finger together quickly. The asteroid field lit as an explosion sounded behind her. Because of the rocks sandwiching the TIE Fighter, another blast lit up the dark space—debris of the force of the explosion knocked another ship into an asteroid.

Only one left.

"Well, isn't this exciting."

Rey's lips twisted. Master Luke had physically died near a year ago, but had become a Force Ghost. Dipping into the Force had drawn him out, intrigued. He complained all the time about having nothing to do. Even dead, he's still as grumpy and aloof—he wouldn't admit it, but he enjoyed spending time with her.

"I'm running for my life," Rey said. "That's not thrilling enough?"

Master Luke scoffed. "You're hardly being threatened. You could've taken care of all three TIE Fighters at once, but noooo... You want to play with them; show how great of a pilot you are."

To further irritate him, Rey put on a burst of speed toward a small asteroid, quickly took a nosedive once she reached it, looped over it, turned and shot the last black TIE Fighter before the pilot could react.

"Showoff," he grumbled.

She laughed as she steered around to leave the asteroid field. Rey had been showing off, but it was fun. She hadn't flown in a while.

Ever since she had piloted the Millennium Falcon full of Resistance survivors from Crait nearly a year ago. Her good mood dropped as she fell into reminiscence. She had almost lost all her friends; the Resistance was decimated; and Master Luke fought his nephew through a Force Projection of himself, and died.

Kylo Ren. Ben Solo.

Rey sighed heavily.

He seemed so close to turning to the Light when he killed Snoke—his Master—to save her. But all he did was replace Snoke as Supreme Leader of the First Order. Then he had the gall to ask her to join him in ruling the Galaxy.

And she was ashamed to think that she nearly accepted. Being by his side... forever...

The thought of her friends, though, stopped her. Knowing the First Order's ruthless domination would only worsen with two Force-users at the reins helped her refuse too.

"Thinking about Ben again?" Master Luke asked.

Once her ship cleared the asteroid field, Rey inserted the coordinates to land on Batuu for fuel, turned on the autopilot, and looked over at the blue transparent image of her mentor sitting in the co-pilot's chair—his so-called seat.