So much had happened while he'd been gone. Perhaps looking for the lost Jedi Temple hadn't been the best thing, Luke thought. He looked around the Falcon, saddened by the absence of so many. Han, Leia. Ben had been gone for so long, and Luke still missed his nephew.
The Resistance had grown while he'd been on Actch-Toh, but so many had fallen. It had taken many tearful nights for his sister to confide it him, to learn how Kylo Ren had killed Han. And now Leia, too, was gone.
Luke had fought his internal struggle, knowing that love was more powerful than isolation. And yet after he had lost Ben, he disappeared to a distant planet. Like Ben Kenobi before him, Luke sought solitude from the galaxy. Living alone on a deserted planet, he thought that being cut off would prevent further damage being done. If he hadn't kept Ben away from his family...but what was done was done. Look to the past, but live in it, do not, he could almost hear the old Jedi Master.
Look into your heart, Luke.
His whole family was gone. His mother died when he was a baby. His aunt and uncle murdered by Stormtroopers. His father, tainted by the Dark Side, dying moments after embracing the Light. Old Ben, killed by Vader. Han, killed by the very Darkness that Luke thought he'd eradicated when he'd saved his father. Leia... He could not accept that his sister was dead. Ben was all the family he had left.
And Rey... He knew the girl; the Force was strong with her. Or rather, Leia had known her. Han and Leia both. Luke believed in destiny. How could he not? His father had been the Force's Chosen One. His father had brought balance to the galaxy. Destiny had played a significant role in his life, and Luke's own.
His sister and her husband were gone. Nothing Luke could ever do would change that. They had died for what was right. But Ben Solo was still alive. And if he had learned anything, where there was life, there was hope.
