Disclaimer: Disney and Marvel—I mean, Lucasfilm—own it all. But you own your imagination.
Author's Note: This chapter picks up directly after Act I. If you haven't read that one, doing so would probably help.
ACT II
CRESCENDO
"I'm your father, Rey."
Rey's eyes had widened, there on the bridge leading to nowhere, in the torrent, above the black and boiling waters. She was bewildered! Confused! Elated! Terrified! This man? HIM? My father?
Then he had gone on to explain how the thirty years that had elapsed since the slaying of the Emporer, the defeat of the Empire, the victory of the Rebellion, and the institution of the New Republic—all this time had not been spent by him in solitude. He had rejoiced with Han, Lando, Leia… He had been han's best man at the wedding… He had given his father a proper Jedi funeral… He'd been there when little Ben was born...
And he began to teach Leia the ways of the force, and others with her. A whole new generation of Jedi was rising!
"And then I met her…" Luke said over hot tea back in his bungalow, the fire raging nearby in the hearth, both wrapped warmly in blankets after the cold rain as he addressed his tale alternately to the floor and the flames. "Mara Jade…
"I was young… foolish… She attempted to assaassinate me and I fell in love with her immediately. It was wonderful… I knew that Jedi were not allowed to be married, but I didn't care!" His old youthful zeal seemed to be coming back to his voice now. "We were in love! Anything was possible! I was contemplating a whole new way of things… a new order… One where there didn't have to be balance! Not between—light and darkness, good and evil! Where Light could win over the Darkness, not just hold it at bay…"
For the first time, Luke looked up at Rey, and she saw his face was glowing even brighter than the fire under all his shaggy, gray, adolescent hair.
"And then you came along. Our little ray of sunshine…" He was beaming.
"But…" And here a little of the darkness—the tiredness—stole back over his face again with a sigh…
"But, we knew that if we were really going to raise up a whole new Order of Jedi to defend the Republic, we were going to have to get serious." Another sigh, another level added to the veil of darkness covering over the young face again and making it old. "And so we brought you to Jakku. It seemed like the perfect place! Well, not real nice, but… symbolic. In the old days it had been called Scarif, and they say it was a beautiful place—a real paradise. But, that's all—ancient history. Nobody remembers the stories except… Old Luke."
"What do you mean?" asked puzzled Rey.
During the days of the old Empire, a rogue rebel squadron had led a makeshift assault on an Imperial base on Scarif to steal the plans for the original Death Star, leading to one of the first ("if not the very first") battles of the old Rebellion. Many Bothans died in that battle.
"Unfortunately though, the very same Death Star was used on the planet in an attempt to stop the rebels from succeeding. And though the plans were successfully stolen, it wasn't without cost to the planet itself. You know, the Death Star wasn't fully operational yet, meaning a blast from it wasn't going to obliterate the entire planet; but that one blast still destroyed the planet's ecosystem. The seas dried up, the trees were incinerated, and nearly the whole planet became nothing but desert."
Rey finally began to comprehend. "Like Tatooine." The old Scarif had been completely wiped from memory, and the newly dubbed desert world of Jakku was all anyone in the galaxy remembered.
Luke nodded. "Exactly. Just like my childhood home, which lent some… sentimentality to the decision to leave you there."
"Okay, okay," said Rey, attempting to bring Luke back to the present, "But what about your promise. You haven't gotten yet to the part where you tell me why you never came for me."
Luke became grave. "This, Rey, is where you cousin reenters the story."
"Ben Solo."
"Ben indeed," agreed Luke. "When we left you there, it was only supposed to be for a couple of years, until your mom and I could set up the temple. Then we were coming back for you. You were three, and Ben was eight. Well, there was a lot to be done, and two years stretched into five years, and five years into eight years, and by now you were eleven, and Ben was sixteen. I was just getting ready to return for you when Ben finally turned.
"Your mother believed in him though. 'There's still light in him,' she said. 'We can turn him back,' she said. She sounded a lot like you actually," he said, his tone darkening further to deep bitterness. "But it didn't turn out that way. I tried to kill Ben against your mother's wishes—secretly. In the night. And brought the stones of his hut down on top of me. He must have thought I was dead. Meanwhile, he went and killed my Mara, slaughtered every last one of the other students, even those closest and most loyal to him, and burned the temple to the ground."
"At which point," clarified Rey, "he fled the planet in a spaceship and met up with Snoke and his Palpatine's old followers in the Outer Rim and started his 'new Order.'"
"Exactl—" started Luke, but Rey wasn't finished.
"And in the course of beginning a new Empire and a reign of terror as the Crown Prince of Snoke the Conqueror, our Kylo Ren put a bounty on your head and forced you into exile before you could save me."
Luke sighed. "I was about to tell you you were exactly right. Now I have to tell you you're perfectly wrong."
"I am, am I?" exclaimed Rey.
Luke nodded darkly. "Rey," he began, "I was a Jedi Master. The son of Darth of Vader. I could've gone back for you without getting caught."
"Then why didn't you?!"
Luke was silent for a long moment. Rey listened to the rain beginning to die on the roof until he said, "Rey, when Ben Solo turned on me and slaughtered my wife, I realized that all my New Order ideas were a bunch of crap. There is no defeating the Darkness. You just have to wait until—until it passes. But you can't beat it."
"And that's why you left me—?"
"No, Rey, I left you there because I knew you would be alright. I knew your path would lead you off of that rat's nest of a planet. I just hoped it wouldn't lead you to me."
Rey's temperature began to rise again. "So, let me get this all straight. I'm the daughter you never wanted, who you basically forgot about for eight years until your very first attempt at building a school failed, at which point you entirely gave up on life and left me to die with no parents in the middle of a giant dead desert planet—and you didn't even feel sorry about it?"
The young Luke had now entirely died, with the rain. He looked passively into her eyes from behind his long, gray hair, and suddenly smiled down at her. "Incredible," he breathed, and for an instant she thought she was about to heat him say something kind. But then the smile dropped completely. "Everything you've said is completely right."
Morning was coming outside and Luke was ready to be finished with this long, emotional confession, but just as he was putting his hand to the door Rey started fuming.
"HOLD ON!" she yelled. "So you've—been—LYING TO ME—this whole time?"
Luke nodded simply, as though she had commented on the sky's being blue.
"Pretending you didn't know why I was here, where Jakku was—Who I was—?"
"Oh, I couldn't be sure at first," said Luke scathingly.
"No, really! 'Girl' shows up on your planet with your old lightsaber, with hair which is, as you yourself said, just like your own late wife's! And you couldn't be sure!"
Luke nodded as if it was self-evident. "Are… Are we finished? Yet? Do you think you've got enough answers for one morning, Daughter?"
Rey broke. "YES!" she shrieked. "Yes, we're through! I hope you do die here! Just as alone as you deserve to be!"
"Thank you, I do, too," said Luke.
"Aaaaaaaar-aaaaaaaagh!" screamed Rey. "Chewie, we're leaving!"
Chewbacca began to protest, but Rey was not to be denied. "No, Chewie, no buts! NOW!"
Chewie sadly acquiesced, and as the Falcon sped off into the dawn, Luke slammed the door of his hut and Rey sobbed uncontrollably on Chewie's shoulder.
She was sobbing again, on her knees before the same Ben Solo, hugging his legs, her story told.
Ben finally knelt down with her, stroked her hair. "Say it, Rey. Let it out, it's okay," he murmured.
Through uncontrollable convulsions of sorrow, she stammerred, "I-I w-was… I was nothing to—to him…"
"That's right," said Ben. "You're nothing. To him, you're nothing but an accident. A nobody." He took her hands, and gently guided her again to her feet. He held her, brushed her hair from her tear-streaked face with his left hand; she wiped her eyes with her right hand, but allowed him to keep her left hand held firmly but gently in his right. He leaned in, his lips brushed her hair. "But not to me," he whispered.
Rey wiped another tear from her leaky eyes and stared up at him; that tingling within her was becoming uncontrollable now.
He brought his lips from her ear and looked her in the eyes. "You're not nothing to me," he said. "I see you for who you really are. It doesn't matter to me who your father is. I love you for you, Rey. Please, forgive me for everything."
She was starstruck, wide-eyed. A schoolgirl.
He was murmuring again.
"You need a teacher; let me teach you. You need a protector; I will never betray you. Marry me, Rey. Marry me."
She stammered. "Ben…"
"No," said Dark Prince Kylo Ren. "Hush. Just hush. It's okay. I love you… my Princess."
And so she let him hug her there in the flaming, broken throne room, and she returned his embrace and placed her still, wet face in his soft shoulder.
"We lost Finn!"
It was Captain Po, running back into the command center in the bunker in the old Rebel base. Leia shook her head in dismay… She'd liked that boy… Snap out of it… What was coming over her?
"Who else?" she croaked.
"Well, his girlfriend Rose died, too, as well as almost all of our pilots. We have just one bleeding alien left."
"So… Let me get this straight, Captain," said Leia. "You ordered a full retreat, and still, every single one of your pilots dies?"
"Well—"
"Oh, right. Except for you, of course."
Po whimpered, "And the bleeding alien."
"What a loser," said Leia. "Now you're really fired."
The attack run had been a success, though; no thanks to Po. He'd ordered all to fall back, but Fin and launched himself directly into the Battering Ram Cannon. Whether Rose had died in the massive explosion caused by the destruction of the cannon, or had been picked off by an AT-AT whose captain was her as easy bait, was unknown. However, the explosion was so spectacular that in itself, it destroyed on of the AT-AT's nearest it and wounded another critically. Great job, Fin.
But the First Order had been prepared for this contingency. They ordered their attack line to fall back—at first the Resistance thought they were retreating! But really it was to give their Dreadnaughts an open target to fire on the door—from outer space! So the attack run had bought us a little extra time… And now there was the sound of a continual pounding, pounding, pounding on the door…
Until at last—presently—
BANG! CRASH! DOOM!
The entire door—or what was left of it—caved in and was slashed off its hinges onto the hanger floor… A crumpled, melted wreck of space slag, like the Resistance itself. And now the attack line was advancing again…
But then—
"General!" cried one of Leia's pretty aids. "What's-that?"
Over the crunch and boom of oncoming attack vessels over salty snow, a light buzzing and wirring could be heard… growing louder…
Leia's eyes were distant. "I know that sound…" she murmured.
"That's—"
"Is that—"
"That's an X-Wing!" exclaimed Po, beaming!
"But who-?"
And then it swept into view, landing in the quickly narrowing space between the oncoming First Order attackers, and the defenseless Resistance survivors.
And the attack line stopped.
The cockpit opened.
"I know that ship…" said Leia.
And out from the lone fighter, stepped-
"Master Luke!" cried C3PO, with un-robotic glee.
"Luke!" Leia rushed out to him, despite the dangers. Po put out his arm when they went to stop her, saying,
"Let her go."
When she flung her arms around his neck like a schoolgirl, she cried, "Luke! You're real!"
And so siblings embraced, there on the red and white striped battlefield. Now she knew what that feeling was earlier… They were connected through the Force, of course! She had been sensing Luke's pain and exertion across all those lightyears of the cosmos as he had lifted his X-Wing a last time from water, to make his final voyage through the stars…
"But really, Leia." Luke was stern. "The First Order is kind of about to, well, I don't know, wipe out the last of the Resistance forever? Maybe there's not a lot of time for a weepy reunion between siblings. I mean, I was going to apologize for something, but…"
"Oh—" gasped Leia.
"No, I might be wrong—" said Luke, dragging out the moment with sinister, Sithlike sarcasm.
"No, no, you're right," said Leia mollified. "We'll just have to… catch up another time…"
Then she retreated to the hanger, and all was silent out on the battle field as the one dead AT-AT smoked behind the lines, unwanted…
Luke stared up at the command ship with a Force stare…
And then—
Ever. Single. Gun. On the battlefield. Began to fire on Luke.
The booming of AT-AT cannons' continual barage totally obliterated the sound of Luke's X-Wing exploding violently.
"Oh no!" cried Po. "His X-Wing!"
"What do you mean, 'His X-Wing?'" Leia sounded stern. "That's my brother!"
"No," said Po, "I mean… There could've been valuable secrets left within that X-Wing to help us defeat the First Order once and for all… If only Luke had of left his X-Wing on his secure secret planet which no one in the entire Universe knows how to get to but us, and not come in person. I mean, he's like, the most powerful Jedi warrior ever—in like, the History of the Universe. Surely he could've sent like, a 'Force-hologram' or something instead, in his place?"
Leia turned away in disgust. "Now you're just making things up, kid. Don't be so silly, that's impossible."
Then the cannons ceased, and the smoke and the dust began to clear… and there stood Luke!
Again Leia cried out. "You're alive! How…?
Luke thre a quick ink over his shoulder to C3PO, then turned back again to face the command ship now setting down upon the snow.
Within it, Ben was preparing to exit for battle, but turned first to say over his shoulder to a masked, shadowed figure, "Wait in here till my signal. It'll make it more… impactful, for him." The black figure nodded its assent, as with blowing smoke and steam the door opened, and…
Out from the darkness into the blinding white cold stepped the Dark Prince Kylo Ren.
Each raised his lightsaber, Kylo Ren's with the cracked crystal purring crazily and crackling bloodred, Luke's soft and green. "You've come!" shouted Ben. "...Uncle."
"I'm here," agreed Luke with a nod.
"I don't know how you survived that," sneered the Prince, "but—"
Luke cut him off. "Force-field!" he yelled across the distance. "DUH. Didn't you I ever teach you that one? Oh, right. You turned to the Dark Side, didn't you. There not as fun over there."
"I turned because you—you failed me!" shrieked Ren. "But—Ah! Quit distracting me."
Luke put up his hands as if to say, Point taken.
"As I was saying," growled Ben, "However you survived that barrage, you'll wish you hadn't."
And they dueled. Quickly. Harshly. Insanely. Crazily. It was the most incredible, epic lightsaber duel ever in all recorded history in the galaxy. The bangs and crashes of their swords rang out over the long distance into the bunker and flew high into the white sky. Their swords moved so fast no one could watch them. The way they moved… Luke was like a man far younger… Like a young boy staring up into the horizon…
They were evenly matched, and the battle climaxed into a 'saber lock in which the two Masters faced eachother eye to eye inches apart between their swords making a giant electric "X". And then the first round was over, and they flung apart from one another to regroup and pant, and stare each other down dramatically.
Then Luke was saying, "...If you cut me down in anger…"
But suddenly Ben started laughing at him. He extinguished his lightsaber and clipped it violently to his belt and flung his arms up into the air as if being crucified, and began to circle slowly to the side."No, Uncle!" he cried. "I know who I am now… What I'm about… What I've got to do…"
Luke followed him with squinted eyes, even lowering his lightsaber a few degrees as he racked his brains—What was Ben doing? Seeking stalemate? Declaring Luke the winner of their duel?
But then Ben suddenly screamed—
"No, Uncle—it is not MY place to kill you!"
Luke realized what was going on too late. He had turned 90-degrees to watch Ben Solo, but only now did he realize what he had been up to—Ben had not been giving up; he'd been distracting him! He'd been giving a signal!
Luke wasn't quick enough to lift his lightsaber, but he had just enough time to turn his eyes before—
Enough time to see a black form stepping out from the gaping shadow of the interior of the command ship—out onto the ramp—raising his hand high—
—Lightning arced from her fingertips!—
"NOW, DO IT!" shrieked Ben. "KILL SKYWALKER, COMPLETE YOUR TRAINING—!"
Luke fell into heap in the snow after that first blast, and looked up pitifully as the black, hooded, masked figure, which he could see now was a girl, stepped forward further into the light, though still elevated atop the ramp leading down from the vessel… watched painfully as she pulled back her hood, removed her mask…
No… It can't be…
"Do it, do it now," said Ben. "Complete your training… Rey."