Note: Hello everyone, old and new. :)

This fic was originally posted on April 24th, 2016. Last year. In January 2017, my account was hacked and my fics were removed without my consent. Instead of returning and reposting immediately, I took a bit of a break from the fandom entirely to recuperate and heal. I'm now back, and started reposting some of my other old works almost three weeks ago. I don't know quite why I didn't start with Mitzvah, but ah well, here I am. :P

I did also start a new Reylo baby fic, by the way! I'm very excited about it. :D It's called 'I'd start a war for you'.

Thanks goes out to my lovely betas, Annaelle and Perry_Downing. I can't do anything without you ladies. I love you. xoxo

Disclaimer: I do not own any Star Wars characters or the universe they reside in. Original characters are mine, as well as the planetary system where the majority of this story takes place, although they are influenced by Star Wars.

Oh and P.S. The rating will increase to M a little down the road.

Mitzvah: a meritorious or charitable act.

"We are responsible for the world in which we find ourselves, if only because we are the only sentient force which can change it."

- James Baldwin

Rey and Luke's heads both shot up at the same time when the sudden roar of an engine filled the air. They were locked together, lightsabers flaring against each other, but they both froze at the sound, staring into the sky surrounding Ahch-To.

Suddenly Rey found her legs swept out from underneath of her, her lightsaber flung away, and Luke's held inches from her throat. "You mustn't let anything distract you, Rey," Luke said teasingly as he helped her stand up. "That could have cost you your life were this a real duel."

"Yes, Master Luke," Rey grumbled, though there was no real bite to it. She knew that he was right.

"Now… let's see who has come to visit," Luke said as he clipped his saber to his belt, adjusting his robes around him from where they'd been disarrayed from their training session.

Rey stared up at the sky with increasingly wide eyes. "Master Luke? I believe there's something more than a visit going on…"

Above them, she and Luke could see at least a dozen gleaming silver and gold ships shooting towards their island, aiming straight for them. At the front of the formation, however, was a familiar sight – the Millennium Falcon – closely followed by what appeared to be General Organa's command shuttle.

"It appears you're right, Rey. Let's go see what's going on."

By the time they made it down to the base of the island, the Falcon, the General's shuttle, and one of the sleek, foreign spacecrafts had settled on the rocky beach. The remaining ships were flying in a holding pattern overhead.

Rey and Luke stood side by side on the bottom step of the rock stairs leading to the island's heights, watching as passengers unloaded from all three ships. Rey was delighted to see Leia Organa again, who was closely followed by Chewbacca, Poe Dameron and his little droid BB-8, as well as a coterie of advisers and Resistance soldiers acting as guards. She shot a quick smile towards them as they came closer, but her gaze was quickly pulled away to the foreigners.

She'd never seen a sight quite like it before; even in the few holovids she'd had access to over the years on occasion. There were a half-dozen men – or women; she couldn't quite tell – arrayed around a man who was taking point as they strode forwards. All of them had a helmet on that matched their resplendent silver and gold armor, except for the man in front. He carried his helmet tucked under his arm, and he wore a purple sash across his chest that set him apart.

"Master? Do you recognize the ships or the people?" Rey queried softly.

"No," he answered quickly.

Rey looked up and saw that his lips were pursed as he pondered the sight before him. She returned her gaze to the two groups, watching as both groups came to a halt a dozen or so paces away from the two Force users.

Leia and the leader of the other delegation walked the rest of the way together, though they were both clearly trying to leave space between them.

Leia greeted her twin brother with a hug and a small smile, drawing back after only a brief moment.

"Leia," Luke greeted her, "It warms my heart to see you again, sister."

"It's only been a month, Luke," Leia teased, "Though if you hadn't disappeared for years, we might not have so much to catch up on, even now."

Rey caught the bitter twist to her Master's lips before he plastered on a smile for the benefit of the stranger observing them. "What brings you here? We've only been training a couple of months and I thought we would have the remainder of the year," Luke directed at the General.

Leia opened her mouth as if to speak, then closed it again. Rey had only met the General a handful of times, but she had never seen her look as out-of-sorts as she did in that moment.

Luke gazed concernedly at his sister and was about to speak again when the stranger took a step forward.

"I believe I can answer that," he announced.

He hadn't taken his eyes off of Rey since he'd stepped off of his ship, but Rey was only just now feeling uncomfortable at the attention. She glanced at Luke, who was looking back and forth between Rey and the strange man, his gaze sharpening the longer he looked.

The man was thin, though muscular, and seemed to be in his mid-forties. His hair and neatly-trimmed beard was a reddish-brown that contrasted nicely with the vibrant purple across his chest.

Leia gestured for the man to continue, blanking her face.

"Would you rather talk somewhere we can sit?" the other man asked first, still staring at Rey.

Luke shook his head. "I'd rather we get this over with so that we can return to our schedule as soon as possible.

The man shifted uncomfortably. "That… may not be possible," he said gruffly.

Luke simply raised an eyebrow.

"I am Lieutenant Miron Tavi," he announced, his voice firming up. "I come from the planetary system of Itamar. Suffice it to say, it has been a long journey from our home. But we had to come when we saw this young woman's image being circulated."

Rey didn't need to ask what he meant – she'd seen the wanted posters put forth by the First Order… everyone had.

"Look, I'll just come straight out and say it all. This is going to sound vaguely unbelievable, but please try to let me finish before you say anything." He glanced at all three of them for the first time since arriving, before settling his gaze back on Rey. "When we saw pictures of you, especially of your hair style," he gestured towards Rey's three buns and she couldn't help but lift her hand self-consciously towards them, "we were elated. We've been looking for a girl around your age for over a decade now, and when we saw you… we just had to track down all possibilities, so we set up a meeting with Princess Organa. We were able to confirm our suspicions that you are, indeed, the girl we've been looking for. The DNA that the Resistance had on file from your lab work matches our samples, and the hair style is very common for girls to wear in our culture. Your mother was… she was my sister."

Rey nearly sobbed as she listened to this man explain easily what she had been struggling with for over a decade. These people had thought she was important enough to look for, for so long? She was important enough to track down, to have her DNA tested, to… to… there were people who had cared about her all along, even when she had thought she'd been abandoned? To learn she hadn't been abandoned after all? For why would they have looked for her if she'd been left there on purpose?

She couldn't help but believe that everything this man was saying was true, and to hear the word "was" being used, linked to the word "mother"… confirmation that her mother was dead… a mother she'd never had, but had dreamed about nearly every day of her life…? How was she killed? It must have been the only thing that had stopped her from coming back for her child, Rey told herself. She had to believe that. Sadness welled up inside of her, nearly consuming her, until Leia reached over and picked up her hand with her own. The touch of skin to skin, and a pulse of comfort sent from the other Force user, was enough to calm her.

Miron had stopped speaking, looking at her in concern. His kind eyes nearly set her to spiraling again, but Luke gripped her other hand and halted that before it could even begin.

As soon as he saw her calming down, he continued. "It's hard to hear, but your mother and father are both dead. They were assassinated over fifteen years ago, and the same plot attempted to take your life. You were saved by your personal guard, my brother, your uncle Saul… he was killed shortly after, but we were able to piece together that he had left you on a planet – we didn't know which – temporarily, in an effort to deal with your pursuers. That tactic failed, as he was soon after killed by the same assassins. We had no confirmation on if you were alive or dead, however, and our guard's task transferred from protecting your family to finding you. We have been searching for you ever since. When the events of Starkiller occurred –" Rey flinched. "– we had never felt so much hope of success for our task as we did then."

Rey stared at the man. This man was her… uncle? She had a family? She had no idea what to say to him, or about any of this. She was frozen, locked inside of her mind, caught between the desire to cry at the loss of parents and an uncle she didn't even remember, and the desire to fling herself gracelessly into the armored arms of the man before her.

As if sensing her conflict, Luke spoke up. "You say 'assassination' and 'guards' as if they are words commonplace to you, and yet they are not to us – not in this context. Are you trying to tell us that Rey's family was some sort of dignitaries?"

Miron looked as if he wanted to take a step towards Rey; as if he wished to gather her in his arms and comfort her as tears slipped silently from her eyes and down her cheeks. She was glad that he did not, however – she needed her space desperately at the moment.

Instead, he answered Luke's question. "Yes, Master Skywalker," Miron replied gravely. "In fact, they were part of the royal family of Itamar. Omet Ammiel took my sister, Darrah, to wife nearly twenty-five years ago. He was the only son of the King, Abimelech. Now there is just him… and you. I have been tasked with finding you and returning with you, and it has been my mission for fifteen years to do so. At last, my search is over."

He sounded so happy, that Rey couldn't help but smile at the man, though fleetingly. Her head was spinning, however, and she found herself staring off into the distance, a frown creeping across her features. Rey completely ignored who her family was purported to be, instead focusing on the fact that she might have a family at all. She had been burned so many times with false hope in the past, on many different topics and occasions, and she couldn't help but doubt what this man was telling her. But… she wanted to believe. The Force, though new to her, was humming happily in her mind, and seemed to be wrapping her in comforting layers. It had not led her astray these last few months of training… why would it now?

"I…" she started, and then closed her mouth again. Miron was looking at her, expression open, honest, and expectant. "Can I please have a few minutes to discuss this with my Master and the General, my lord?" She didn't quite know how to address him, but she would rather err on the side of caution and politeness.

He nodded and then bowed to her, turning around and marching towards his group of guardsmen to give them space.

Rey squeezed Luke and Leia's hands one more time, and then dropped them before wrapping her arms around her torso. "What do you think?" she asked faintly. She wanted their opinions – she trusted them, especially when she was having trouble thinking in an unbiased manner.

"I can't sense anything but truth coming from the man," Luke replied, his mechanical hand coming up to stroke his beard absently.

Leia spoke up, sounding in turns resigned and happy – happy for Rey. Rey smiled at the older woman. "I did some fact-checking before we came here – I'm sorry for that, by the way, Luke," she directed at her brother.

He waved her off. "It's alright. I was going to move us back your way soon enough. You didn't meet with him at the base, did you?"

"I might be getting old, but I'm not senile, Luke," she glared at him. He raised his hands in surrender. "Anyway," she said as she turned back to Rey. "As I said, I did some fact-checking. He is from Itamar, that much is for certain. And the DNA tests – his and ours – came back positive. There's no doubt about it. You are his niece, and you are related to all of the other samples he provided. I suppose congratulations are in order, but I can tell you're a little overwhelmed so we'll skip that part for now… I knew the royal family – your family, I suppose – back in the day when my father, Bail, would bring me on diplomatic missions, and to the occasional Senate session. Only vaguely, though – just enough to open a reasonably courteous dialogue if need be. I don't remember this Darrah that Miron is mentioning, but I looked her up and all of the facts check out.

"They definitely did lose their Crown Prince and his consort to assassination around the same time that you gave us as an estimate for your… abandonment on Jakku. They had a daughter, who is the right age to have been you. And… there is this." Leia reached into her pocket and pulled out a datapad. With a few taps of her fingers, she pulled up an image and passed it to Rey, Luke peering over her shoulder.

The image was of a small girl, about three years old, held by what looked to be a younger Miron, dressed in formal clothing. There was no mistaking it… the girl, buns and all, looked like how they'd all pictured a younger Rey to be.

Leia continued speaking. "They're a rich system, owning the entirety of their solar system as well as two nearby, for a total of twenty-six planets falling under Itamar domain, and over seventy moons. They're extremely resource-rich and self-sufficient, you can imagine. They follow a monarchical leadership, and have for millennia with very little trouble, oddly enough. They broke from the Republic before the Empire rose to power – though that didn't stop diplomacy, of course – and have never rejoined. Instead, they've chosen to remain independent of any conflict; or at least as neutral as one can be. Their position near the Unknown Regions has allowed them to remain apart from any conflict, really, which accounts for their growth."

She finally trailed off, realizing that there was only so much information that Rey would be able to process at this time. They stood around in silence for a few minutes as Rey chewed her bottom lip, thinking.

Turning to Luke, she asked, "What do you suggest? I believe him, and the information, and… and I've found my family, Master." She didn't know what she was pleading with him for, but she couldn't stop herself. She realized that she did, truly, believe Miron. She was still completely overwhelmed, but for the first time in… well, ever since she could first remember… she felt pure, unadulterated hope.

"I understand the draw of family, Rey…" Luke began, looking at Leia before returning his gaze to his padawan. "Of course I do. Yes, Jedi are technically supposed to give up their families and attachments, but I would be awfully hypocritical if I forced you to do so. The choice… the choice is yours, Rey. You can go with him, even if it's just on a temporary basis to see what you'd like to do, then make your decision at a later time."

"What about you, Master? What about our training?" Rey asked.

Luke flicked his gaze towards the Itamarans and replied, "I have a feeling I wouldn't necessarily be welcomed there; not right now. Plus… I have some things I've been putting off doing for Leia and the Resistance. I can do those while you reunite with your family, and then we can see where we're at after a few months."

Rey nodded thoughtfully. "I'll still be sure to meditate and train as best I can, Master."

"I'd like you to take someone with you," Leia interjected.

Rey looked startled. "Do you think he wishes to leave now?"

Luke smiled softly at her. "Itamar is over three weeks away, even with the hyperlanes, and it seems they have just found the sole heir to the throne… so yes, I imagine they are eager to return home. I'm sure he wouldn't object to a few hours here, however. That is, if you plan to go? If you don't, we'll support and protect you. You know we will."

Rey was shocked. She hadn't even made that connection. She was… the heir? To such a vast system? She'd never had much to call possessions before, and now… now she had a planetary system at her fingertips?

No. Family. She'd never thought that having a real family would be a safer topic to dwell on, yet here she was, thinking on the topic rather than getting lost in an upwelling of confusing thoughts on… whatever that was.

"Rey?" Leia queried gently.

"What?" Rey looked up, snapped out of her thoughts.

"Do you want to go with them, or stay here?" Leia asked. "Or if you need time to decide…"

"No," Rey interjected quickly. "No. I… I want to go. I… I feel like I've been waiting for this for a long time."

Luke nodded. "I understand. Well… let's go tell the Lieutenant about your decision."

They stepped off of the stairs and moved towards Miron and the guards. As one, the six guards accompanying Miron dropped to one knee and bowed their helmeted heads. Rey was brought up short, looking at them, startled. She didn't know what to do, or how to handle the situation. Lacking anything better to do, she stuck her hand out towards her… uncle. Well, that would take some getting used to.

Instead of gripping her hand in a handshake like she had intended him to do, Miron bowed low over her hand and placed a kiss to her knuckles.

Rey pulled her hand back in shock, and Miron slowly straightened, flashing her a grin.

"You better get used to it, Princess," he teased her lightly, familiarly.

She felt warmed at the smile and the genuine care in his voice. The fact that it was her uncle doing so was probably the main reason why. It just seemed so unbelievable.

And… princess?

It seemed there would be more than one thing she'd have to get used to. At least there would be a three week journey to work through some of these things.

"I… can they please stand up?" Rey asked, growing increasingly uncomfortable.

The lieutenant made a small motion with his hand and the other six guards stood. Rey let out a sigh of relief. Leia took the opportunity to motion her group over, and Chewbacca and Poe greeted Rey warmly as they strode forward. She nodded at them before she continued, wanting to get this over and done with.

"I've decided to come with you, Miron… uncle… Lieutenant," she announced, voice quavering slightly.

"I had hoped you'd say that," he breathed, smiling happily.

Rey gestured towards her companions. "I would like to bring someone with me, however, since my Master has other things to see to, and I would like to see at least a slightly familiar face for a little while."

Before Rey could finish, Chewbacca stepped forward and growled that he would happily join her for a little while. Rey simply smiled at him and nodded her thanks and acquiescence. She wished that Finn could accompany her, but he was still in a coma back at the base, and Chewbacca would make a wonderful companion – one who could protect her and himself if it came to that.

Leia let out an abrupt whistle, and then yelled out towards her shuttle. "BB-2! Get out here!" Miron looked startled, as if he hadn't expected the woman he obviously viewed as a princess to be yelling rather gracelessly over the top of his head.

A dark green and white BB unit made its way down the ramp of Leia's shuttle, rolling towards them at full speed. It came to a full stop at Leia's feet and she crouched down in front of it. "Hey BB-2, you're going to go with Rey here," she pointed at Rey, "and make sure she's okay. Do whatever she asks of you, be a good companion, and transmit stuff our way once in a while. She'll want to talk to her friends sometimes. Sound good?"

BB-2 trilled at her in binary, accepting its mission happily. Rey grinned. She'd always loved droids. She'd never met this one, but it seemed to have nearly as much attitude as BB-8 did.

"Well, that's settled," Leia announced as she stood up. "Poe, think you can pilot the Falcon back?"

Chewbacca growled and Poe lifted his hands towards him in supplication, expressing without words that the wookiee shouldn't be blaming him.

"Well you can't really take it with you if you're to be keeping an eye on our Rey here," Leia grumped at Chewbacca. "We'll have someone – someone you trust – fly it out to Itamar when we decide on a time and place to meet up. Remember it's technically my ship," she added when he seemed about to disagree.

Miron let out a laugh, but quickly stifled it as the wookiee turned to glare at him. He blanked his face.

Rey spoke up again. "Could I have a few hours before we leave, please? I figure you'd like to get going as soon as possible, but I'd really like to say my goodbyes."

Miron looked at her for a moment, his face still blank, before he let an understanding, soft smile spread across his features. "Of course, my lady. I will tell the remainder of my ships to wait in orbit, and you have only to tell me when you are ready. I understand the desire completely, but I thank you for your understanding of my impatience as well. It's not every day that you…" His eyes took on a faraway look and he stopped, blinking a few times before shaking his head. "It's not every day that you meet your niece who is supposed to be dead, let alone the princess you were tasked with finding for the last fifteen years."

Rey smiled at him in return, not sure what to say in response to that. Instead, she settled for telling the man what she would be doing. "I'm going to catch up with my friend here, as well as with the General, and have some final words with my Master to prepare some lessons while we're apart. I'll… I'll be back in a few hours," she stated firmly, trying out an authoritative tone. Miron simply raised an eyebrow at her and smiled softly.

Obviously she'd have to practice that.

Yet he gave no protest and she chose then to nod and turn back to Poe, gripping his elbow as she towed him towards the stairs and up them to her favorite spot to meditate. Leia and Luke could be heard following shortly afterwards, bickering softly between themselves. Rey smiled at the sound, knowing it meant that they were at peace with one another.

"So, Poe… tell me everything about how Finn is recovering. I miss him."

Note: The entire story is outlined, and written to chapter 10 already. This one will not be quite as introspective as Codega or Gradations, as I am trying to make it a bit of a shorter story.

As far as continuing this story goes, I'm waiting until I get near to the end of reposting the fic to sit down and see what I want to write next, other than my new fic. So bear with me! This fic will be finished, but it's just a matter of when, y'know?

I am trying out a different style, and I hope you like it! I am still definitely going to make sure everything makes sense character-wise. There's nothing I hate more than characters being OOC, especially when I'm the one writing them! haha. :P

Needless to say, this is going to be slightly odd. AU feeling, but still set post-TFA and as canon-compliant as I can make it.

Special thanks to the folks who I had offer their opinions on this story. Muah!

Comments are always loved and appreciated. xoxo