Luke didn't know how long they had been moving, but when the respite came he insisted on taking it.

Rey sat across from him in the slight corridor – legs crossed, the Force wrapped around her. She looked so confident, so sure of herself and the path that lay ahead. It took him aback. How had he not noticed it? When had this young woman come into herself? Even in all the chaos, he couldn't have missed it. Shouldn't have missed it.

He was her master, after all.

He sat, watching her quiet meditation. As these thoughts flickered through his mind, he saw what seemed like a glittering web of…something rise off of her and float down the hall. It reached the corner and coalesced into a slight figure of a woman, at once familiar yet unknown. She turned an imploring gaze towards him and then disappeared around the corner.

Without thinking, he followed. She was waiting for him halfway down the hall. Dressed in a black sleeveless tunic and similarly loose pants, she stood barefooted and seemingly unaffected by the cold chill in the air. Black veins delicately traced across what skin was visible, seeming to dance around strange tattooed symbols on her arms. Red-gold curls drifted over bare shoulders, adding to the illusion.

But the eyes… It was the piercing jade gaze that had his memory frantically searching…

"Do I…? I know you…"

She gave a slight smirk to that. "So quickly do the great forget those they've condemned to the dark…"

The memory snapped to focus in his mind.

The woman he'd set out to find…

The feeling of his beloved students falling…

The light held out to him like a beacon of aid…

The hint of a pain he never knew he had…

"The child of Palpatine."

"I didn't like that name when you first threw it at me. What makes you think I'd like it any more now?" He looked away from the memory to find jade fire glaring at him. She paused, visibly reining in anger on the verge of exploding. "I've come to give you a warning Master Skywalker."

"A warning…?" His mind was still reeling, still trying to catch up.

"You have to learn to embrace your dark if you expect to defeat Snoke."

That snapped him back. "Embrace the dark? No. No, that is no way to-"

"Your dark." She sighed. "You still don't want to listen, do you?"

He cut off the rest of his argument, confused slightly by her wording, and waited for her to continue.

"There can be no light without the dark. They are two halves of the same coin. In order to fully be one with the Force, this is something you must understand." A pause. "There is no light side or dark side. There is just the Force, and what each heart does with it."

She said it with such quiet conviction, it was hard to not take it in. Balance. True balance of the Force. Not on a galactic level, but the individual one. Each being a master of themselves. And yet…

There was a hesitance. It couldn't be that simple. That straight-forward. He was the son of Vader, after all. Even if Anakin was able to redeem himself and return to the light, that dark was still there. If he were to let it out…to embrace it…surely…

"Your fear has already destroyed one life. Very nearly another." The fire was back. "Will you let it continue to rule you? Will you take the galaxy down with you?"

The black along her skin seemed to pulse, and he remembered again that light. The light he'd clung so desperately to, like a tractor beam pulling him away from the dark hole the destruction of the academy had dug.

He remembered how the light had faded into dark. How he'd drained that star into a black hole.

A black hole that was staring at him now.

He could do nothing but stare blankly back at her, seemingly worthless apologies running through his head.

She waved a hand, as if brushing those same apologies aside.

"You have to move past this fear, this hesitation, if you are to defeat Snoke and save your nephew."

"Ben…?!"

She nodded. "His light continues to dim, but an ember remains to be flamed. He needs only reassurance that he can be redeemed, that he can live with his dark. This isn't something you can encourage if you don't believe it of yourself. Even your apprentice understands this, but she hesitates because of your lessons."

He took it in. This woman – so full of dark it pulsed through her – talking of internal balance and peace. He looked back over his life, appraising decisions and moves that could have been easily changed or aided by simply accepting himself, and all that involved.

There was something more… He reached for it, trying to grasp memories slipping through his fingers like water…

He hadn't realized he was reaching out towards the woman standing in front of him until his hand moved through her. A sad smile curved her lips.

"Life is the greatest of teachers, but some learn the lesson faster than others."

"Oh…" He tried to speak her name, but it wouldn't come and the sound seemed empty. He didn't know what to say. Suddenly his fear and hesitation was back. He had done this. He had taken this person away from the world through his own need to avoid the dark…

"It's like you said – a child of Palpatine cannot be suffered to live." She smiled again at his unspoken incredulous thought. "I offered. You can't take all the blame." Her figure drifted to right in front of him, the air seeming to buffer around her. "Do not fear for me, farmboy. Don't be sad. My light is still a part of this world. And it has grown beautiful and bright. My time is come. If you truly feel the need to make amends, I only ask one thing of you…" She leaned in close to whisper in his ear. "Love her as much as you once loved me…"

She laid a chilly wisp of a kiss on his cheek as she moved back. With a last piercing, yet tender, look she moved down the hall, fading as she went.

"Wait! Don't go!" Luke was frozen to the spot, fighting to follow. "No!" Fighting to bring her back and keep her there.

"Mara!"

He woke with a start and found himself still sitting in the corridor across from Rey.

Rey…

A fog lifted in his mind and memories flooded in. Moonlit walks, heartfelt discussions, slight touches and passed subtle thoughts – a light blossoming from love.

He looked at the young woman sat across from him with new eyes. How had he not noticed it…? He felt a memory of the pain Mara felt when he pushed her away. Felt his own growing pain at the thought of what could have been – the three of them… The family they could have been…

But with all that, there was still love. And peace. A contentment Mara left him with.

Hazel eyes met blue. An understanding passed wordlessly.

What had been had been. It was time to continue. It was okay to continue.

Life still had its lesson to teach.