The Shadows of the Past Trilogy
Episode 9: Nemesis of the Force Part 6
The Falcon rests at a mining
outpost on Mimban. It is pouring, but
Rey is far from the ship. She has trekked
through the swamp to the Temple of Pomojema.
Entering through its doors, Rey sees a light shining in the
distance. She follows it, curious as to
what it could be.
In an inner chamber that can be seen even from as far away as the main entrance, a beautiful
blue flame hovers above a dais.
Four other flames burn on pedestals around the far chamber. It is identical to the one that the being
formerly known as Snoke emerged from on Uratsixo.
As Rey approaches, entering a larger hall, she
does not see the shadowy figures that emerge behind her. Just before they pounce, Rey senses them and
whirls around. The first come at her
with primitive weapons; axes, spears and swords. She dodges deftly from a flurry of attacks
coming at her from various directions.
Then she ducks and rolls through a gap between two of them and comes up
behind them, igniting her double-bladed yellow lightsaber. Its handle is made from materials from her old
staff on Jakku.
The attackers, the Coway
primitives that inhabit the swamps of Mimban, come at her again, and she spins
and twirls her lightsaber defensively, trying to keep them at bay as she backs
towards a statue behind her. “I don’t
want to hurt you,” she tells them. “I
mean you no harm. I'm exploring a lead. Nothing more. Please!”
But they rush in regardless of
her words, trying to swarm her and overwhelm her with sheer numbers. Rey flips backwards and lands atop a stone
statue that is about human height. She
then grabs a tattered tapestry hanging from a pillar behind the statue, and she uses it
to swing over their heads as they throw their weapons at her. She lands on another statue and vaults her
way along, flipping again, over the last group of her attackers. Finally she lands nearer
to the center of the hall, twirling around to face them with her saber.
On the Falcon, Finn is standing near Chewie and Rose on the outside of the ship, fighting the rain. Finn
supports a large umbrella-like canopy in place over the other two, ensuring that the wind doesn't blow it down.
“I can’t believe she brought us to a swampy
world riddled with torrential rains,” complains Rose. “I thought she understood mechanics. Does she even know how hard it is to repair
anything in the pouring rain? And the
Falcon’s got more holes in it than I can count.”
Chewie growls in
affirmation, but Finn seems suddenly drawn away, as if he can sense something
in the distance. The canopy begins to
droop, allowing rain to pour down on Chewie.
Chewie growls at him angrily, and Finn snaps back to attention. “Rey,” he says with swiftly growing fear. “I think she’s in trouble. We have to go. Now!”
Then he throws the canopy aside and bolts for the edge of the
Falcon. Stopping at the edge, he calls back, “Come on!” Then he drops down off
of the Falcon leaving Rose and Chewie both very wet, shocked and angry.
“Rey, Rey, Rey,” grumbles Rose. “All I ever
hear about is Rey. What besides being
incredibly cute and athletic - and the fact that she has the Force - makes her so
special anyway?” Chewie shrugs and huffs
as he grabs his tools and heads for the edge of the Falcon as well. Rose follows, but first she runs after the canopy.
In the Falcon, Jacen has also
sensed Rey’s danger. He hurries to the
cockpit, but R2 has followed with several of his tools armed and ready to be
used. He seems to be suspecting Jacen of
sabotage. Instead, however, Jacen looks
out through the viewport off into the distance.
“Rey’s in trouble,” he says to R2.
“We have to go.” He then drops down into the pilot’s seat, but when he starts trying to switch on the Falcon’s engines, nothing happens. "Quickly. I need you to unlock the controls. We need to fly there. It's the only way we'll make it in time."
R2 chirps at him threateningly,
and Jacen only looks down at him in disdain.
“Really? Do you honestly think
you could stop me if I decided to kill you?” R2 chimes in again
with another threatening chirp. Jacen tilts his head to the side as if a bit stunned by R2’s comments. “Then we’d all be stranded here, wouldn’t
we?” R2 responds again in the same tone,
much to Jacen's frustration.
However, before he can say
anything additional, Finn, followed by a very wet Chewie, charges into the cockpit. “We need to get to Rey,” Finn says to Jacen. "Move out of the way."
Jacen looks up at him
curiously. “How do you know that?” he
asks, and Chewie unlocks the controls, powers up the engines, and begins lifting the Falcon into the air as they continue their conversation.
"I don't know," says Finn. "I just do."
"I thought I sensed something in you previously, back when we fought on the Death Star," Jacen says, eying him thoughtfully. "You also have the Force."
The Falcon groans and several alarms
sound, cutting them off. Chewie growls and Rose is heard
in the back screaming. “I know! I know!
Water’s gotten into the stabilizer units. I’m doing my best here. Give me a break. I just got back into the ship.”
“Do you even know where you’re
going?” asks Jacen to Chewie. Chewie
responds with a simple growl, and Jacen grabs the controls. “Let me fly it, then. I’ll guide it to where she’s at.”
“Why didn’t she have us park by
where she was going in the first place?” asks Finn.
“Probably no decent landing area
there,” Jacen replies. “Just sit down and
shut up and let me handle it.” Then the Falcon soars across the swamps and
the temple rises up in the distance, set upon a cliff side.
Back in the temple, Rey bolts
out of the chamber and into another with a fountain at its
center. This one is adjacent to the chamber with the flames. The Coway pursue, hot on her
heels. She reaches the fountain, and just
as she does, a hulking Coway emerges from under the murky waters, pouncing on her
from her right side. At the last second,
she ducks and leaps sideways, and he barely misses her. He hits the ground and rolls to his feet,
brandishing a menacing looking polearm.
The rest of the Coway, seeing their champion now facing Rey, swarm
around the two combatants in a circle.
Their only goal now is to prevent Rey from escaping.
The Coway Giant lunges at her
and she swipes at his weapon with her saber, expecting the polearm to be cut in
two. She is stunned and thrown backward
by the force of his blow as his weapon deflects her lightsaber effortlessly. Leaping back to her feet before she even
stops sliding across the floor, Rey barely dodges sideways, avoiding another of
the Coway’s vicious swings.
The Falcon drops down to the
temple area, but indeed there is no place to land. Behind the controls, Jacen growls in
frustration. “Just hover here,” he says
to Chewie. “I’m going out there.” Then he bolts for the exit.
Finn jumps in his way. “I’m coming too,” he says, a look of sheer
defiance on his face.
Jacen grits his teeth and fumes
at Finn as if he is about to cut him down right then and there. “We don’t have time for this,” he says
instead. “Where’s my lightsaber?”
“Why?” says Finn. “So you can cut me down again - or maybe it’s
Rey you’d like to stab in the back.”
Jacen continues to glare at Finn. He seems about to lose it when Chewie barks
at them both, and the Porg also squawks, echoing him.
Jacen glances back at the Wookiee out of the corner of his eye and then
locks eyes with Finn again. “He’s
right.”
“I still don’t speak
Sheeri-wokie or whatever it’s call, so it’s lost on me.”
“While you’re blocking my way,
Rey could die before we can get to her.”
Finn then seems to realize that
Jacen is right, and he backs off. “Fine,”
he says. “But I’m coming with you, rifle
at your back.”
Jacen pushes past him and out of
the cockpit, obviously annoyed. “Do
whatever you want. It matters little to
me.”
Rey and the Coway continue their
duel around the fountain. She mostly
continues to dodge as she takes a swing or two here or there. “I REALLY don’t want to hurt you,” she says
again. He takes a swipe at her and she dodges. “I'd also appreciate it if YOU didn't hurt ME.”
He takes another swing at her
head, nearly clipping her. She is thrown
off balance, and he suddenly lurches forward at her, shoulder aimed for
her face. Rey, not expecting this
attack, is knocked backwards, tumbling into the murky fountain water.
She is back on her feet a moment
later, but to her amazement, the Coway Giant extends his left hand and
rips the lightsaber from her grip with the Force. Tossing it to the floor as if it is
insignificant, he bears down on her. She
dives to the side just as the polearm swings outward, clipping her in the back
and tearing a gash through her outfit.
Rey gasps in pain and tumbles into the water. The Coway Giant then drops down on her from
behind, pinning her beneath the surface in an attempt to drown her.
Jacen and Finn burst onto the
scene. Jacen begins swinging his saber
about, cutting down the unsuspecting Coway while Finn blasts them from a
distance with his rifle. A moment later,
the Coway give out a battle cry and swarm towards them. Jacen continues to spin and twirl, lashing out
with his saber and cutting down enemy after enemy. Finn begins withdrawing away from them
towards the exit as he fires over and over in an effort to keep the
swarm from reaching him.
Finn takes a moment to tap his
headset com. “Chewie! Need backup. Maybe Rose can…”
But there is a Wookiee growl nearby, and Chewie charges onto the scene.
He fires several shots with his bowcaster before the Coway are upon them. Then the Wookiee bashes one with his
weapon, grabs another’s axe by the handle as it tries to decapitate him, and he rips the axe
away and begins to use it himself on the Coway. As this is happening, Finn ducks back away from the Wookiee and the Coway as he
continues to shoot now in rapid-fire mode.
Rey tries to use the Force to
push herself up, but she is forced back down again under the weight of the big
alien. “Rey,” Luke’s voice is suddenly
heard. Rey opens her eyes and ceases to
struggle for a moment. “Don’t fight
him. You can’t win against him in a
physical match. Use the Force. Calm your mind. Connect with his. Remove his desire to harm you. This is a place where the Force is channeled. It is stronger here. Fill the entire temple with the Light.”
Obeying Luke’s voice, Rey closes
her eyes again and slowly begins to let go.
As she does, the hulking giant puts an even tighter squeeze on her. You can see the pain on Rey’s face, but she
seems to be tolerating it now and remaining calm. The flames in the adjoining room brighten and flare.
Then, all at once, the hulking creature
begins to loosen his hold on her until he stands up straight and releases
her. Rey calmly rises out of the
water into a kneeling position, breathing heavily and gasping for air as she grips the side of the fountain for support. She wipes the water
from her face and slicks her hair back as she turns to look up at the Coway
Giant. More and more, color begins to
return to her face as seen in the ever-brightening light from the flames in the adjoining chamber. The Coway Giant just
stares down at her as if he has lost a great battle against a worthy
opponent.
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