Part of a lyric challenge between myself and feathered moon wings, I owe them this one, and several more.
Set during The Last Jedi, but with a more positive and Luke Skywalker-ish, Luke. Written partly as a way to give them a more meaningful relationship.
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Luke's eyelids felt heavier than they had last night. Just another sign he was getting old. His bed, while hardly comparable to those found in the royal palace of Naboo, was comfortable, and while the ocean breeze brought with it a nip of cold in the mornings, his worn blankets managed to make him feel perfectly snug.
Perhaps, Luke reasoned, perhaps he could close his eyes again and go back to sleep, his eyelids were ever so heavy. Yes, he would go back to sleep and postpone todays problems and worries for a few more hours. The riddles of the Force could wait.
Opening his mouth, Luke let out a yawn before rolling onto his side. Pulling the old covers up to his chin, the Jedi could feel himself slipping away into dreams.
A series of knocks followed by "Master Skywalker?" bared Luke's way into sleep. Rolling over, the Jedi opened a single eye and leered at his hut's door.
"Go away." He groaned, but the knocks only continued.
"Master Skywalker the suns are up. We've got to get started."
For a moment Luke felt anger towards the voice, how dare she lecture him about the time? She hadn't been there for more than a day and already she was more nagging and prodding than the entire village of fish nuns.
For a moment there was silence, and Luke deluded himself into thinking that she had gone and left him in peace. Until the sound of heavy footsteps announced that another visitor had graced his front door.
A short series of Wookie growls and cries shattered any hope Luke had of returning to sleep, before another series of sharp knocks echoed throughout the hut.
"He says he'll knock your door down again if you don't come out here."
"I know what he said," Luke growled, throwing his worn covers from his body. "I've been speaking Wookie for the last thirty years and believe me I know exactly what he said." Rummaging around in the dark, with only a few stray rays of light peeking through the window guide his hands, Luke slipped on his worn brown boots before stomping towards his hut's door.
Opening it, Luke came face to face with the island's newest residents.
"Do you have any idea what time it is?" Luke asked, looking from Wookie to Nobody in annoyance.
Rey Nobody, seemed for a moment lost, and she turned to stare at the rising suns in the distance, still obscured by the early morning fog coming in from the north. "No. But the suns are already ri-"
"That." Luke interrupted, "was your first mistake. Never wake somebody up unless you know exactly what time it is, otherwise you appear foolish and deserve whatever cold remarks they hurl at you."
Rey nodded a little, before stepping back and allowing Luke Skywalker to emerge from his hut. Rubbing his head, Luke looked towards the two rising suns in the distance. They had a long day ahead of them, and right now the temptation to run back inside and curl up under the covers was a call almost as strong as the darkside.
But one look at Chewbacca let Luke know that any hope for a peaceful doze was dead and buried.
"Fine, let's get started."
Rey Nobody completed her third lap of the village, her face was red, her clothes were damp with sweat and she was starting to regret not having a proper breakfast before she awoke the sleeping Jedi Master. Despite all this, she kept running knowing that Luke was tracking her every movement, and that any sign of weakness or would be called out on.
"I've seen Bantha's run faster than that!" Luke yelled from his rock, perched halfway up a hill overlooking Rey's course. He was enjoying the chance at payback. From a short distance away Chewie shook his head at Luke's behaviour, believing this wasn't quite how Jedi training was meant to go.
Seeing Rey begin her forth lap, Luke took his attention off her, knowing that she would push herself to complete his spur off the moment challenge, and looked towards the rising binary suns. He was surprised by the coincidence, from the moment he set foot on this little world he was reminded of Tatooine.
It shouldn't have mattered, thousands of worlds orbited binary stars, and he had visited several on his travels and yet here, despite the hundreds of complete opposites with that dusty old sand ball Luke felt so very much at home on Ahch-To.
Perhaps it was a trick of the heart, or the head, but as he watched the twin suns slowly climb into the sky he could almost taste the hot winds of Tatooine on the morning breeze.
Detecting the approach of dragging feet, Luke watched Rey of Jakku make her way slowly towards where he sat, for a moment the old Jedi thought about teasing her, challenging her to a spontaneous race just as she was about to sit down, but a side glance from Chewie made him rethink it.
Flopping down at his side, Rey took in several shallow breaths' trying to hide what the force made oh so clear to him. "I did it." She managed to say, keeping her voice steady.
"Oh really? Sorry I wasn't watching you may need to do that last lap again." Rey didn't rise to meet his challenge, instead throwing the Jedi master a dirty look. "Oh you think this is bad? Try running around the swamps of Dagobah carrying your master around as he lectures you on the nature of the force, while avoiding leeches the size of a Loth-cat."
Luke smiled at the memory, remembering how Yoda had pushed him on and that every time he thought he had found his limit the ancient Jedi had given him the drive needed to take that next step and prove himself wrong.
"Say that's an idea do you think you could carry me?" Chewie bellowed something obscene that made Luke chuckle. "Ah! Temper, temper." The Wookie turned away, grunting softly. "Chewie seems pretty attached to you."
Rey nodded her head. "He's a good friend."
"That he is." Luke agreed, recalling a dozen or so times the walking carpet had saved his life and never once brought it up for bragging or gloating rights. Unlike a certain smuggler. "What was Han like?"
Rey looked at the Jedi master, but he was once more staring off at the rising suns. "You should know he was-"
"I meant what was he like before…" Luke trailed off.
Rey thought hard about it, she had only known Han Solo for a day or two at the most, and while she had spent years admiring him as a legendary racer and pilot, the real Han Solo, the one that had given her more trust and encouragement in only a few short hours than the entire population of Jakku ever had was so different from the stories she had heard. He was in a way very much like Luke Skywalker, a legend that people continued to add to, growing its power and creating myth and fiction among the actual battles and races and moments that really happened. Han Solo had been transformed into a shining idol that somehow failed to stand up to the real deal.
Han Solo was so much more than a skilled racer and pilot or war hero, but Rey hadn't been allowed to get to know more about him, now she could only learn through those same stories and legends that obscured the man he had been.
"He offered me a job." She finally managed.
Turning away from the rising suns the Jedi Master assessed Rey from Jakku carefully, she didn't look like much, but then again that could be said for many prodigies, Luke had to wonder what Yoda had first thought off him covered in the grime and muck of the swamp.
"Han always had an eye for talent."
Rey agreed. "He managed the Evening comets for three years, they won every cup, no matter how beat they looked."
"Yeah, but how many of them did he offer a job on the Falcon?"
Sharing a moment of silence Luke turned back to the suns, they were climbing ever higher into the sky and the village was beginning to grow active as the caretakers of the island got to work on dozens of chores.
"Let's say we get breakfast, and then start something else?"
"Okay," Rey smiled, getting to her feet and began walking down the hill towards the village. "No more laps?"
"No more laps." Luke promised. "I have something else I want to show you."
The Jedi master didn't follow at first, watching as Rey was joined by Chewie. The Wookie's loyalty in the young woman told Luke that Han must have also seen something special in her, and if Leia had sent her to find him personally then that meant for sure she was the real deal.
Training another Jedi, Luke wasn't sure if he could do it.
The temple, the other students, Ben, it had left him with a bitter taste in his mouth, so much light and hope had been destroyed and the blame could only be placed upon his shoulders, his and Snoke's.
He wasn't the man the stories said he was, the unstoppable Jedi who had single handily fixed the galaxy of all its wrongs and destroyed the Empire. Luke knew that taking another padwan on after what happened would be tough, he would see in her face the faces of all those happy students he had loved all so dear. He would know their names and their fates and his failings at her every achievement.
But he would try again, not for the chance of redemption, or to bring balance to the force for the gazillionth time. Luke Skywalker would do it for Han and Leia, for Chewie and Lando, for R2 and 3PO, for Ben and Yoda and all those who had trusted in him so long ago when he was so unsure of himself.
He would try to teach Rey for everyone he had ever loved.
And for those no longer with him.
Swan dive down eleven stories high
Hold your breath until you see the light
You can sink to the bottom of the sea
Just don't go without me
Go get lost where no one can be found
Drink so long and deep until you drown
Say your goodbyes but darling if you please
Don't go without me
C'est la mort by Civil Wars