The shift happened while Rey cooked breakfast for herself and Luke. As she looked into the pot over open flames, it seemed to dim. It happened suddenly and then corrected itself, and Rey told herself it was from staring into the fire and continued to cook. A strange itch came over her skin, like she had stuck her hand too close to the fire, though that one seemed to linger on her skin. But then it happened again, and Rey stood quickly from the flames, wondering what the hell was happening.

"Everything okay?" Luke asked. He had been telling a story about how he blew up the first Death Star from the advice of a Force ghost. Rey had been engrossed in the story, wanting to ask about the ghosts, but the color change had startled her too deeply.

What was worse was how the colors seemed to flicker. For a few seconds they would be dimmed, and then they would shift back to normal, and then they would dim again. Her heart pounded and blood roared through her ears. The itch on her skin began to feel like a burn.

"It's…" Rey began, but then the colors corrected themselves again and seemed to hold steady for a minute.

The colors had become so natural to her that Rey had forgotten about even asking Luke about why they had happened. Even on the rare moments where her curiosity grew, she pushed them away, instead decided that she would neglect to get involved with any topics that didn't relate to training.

She was busy, after all.

"It's nothing. Just thought I saw something in the pan," Rey said, sitting down. She was shaking and pressed her hands into the grass to cover them up. Luke raised an eyebrow at her.

"You can tell me anything, Rey," Luke said. And Rey knew this. She knew that he would sit with her all day and tell her what color the sky and flames were and he would tell her why she had gained the ability to see in color.

But Rey wasn't ready to hear why. An odd feeling her chest rose whenever she thought of sharing with Luke, and every time, the feeling grew so strong that she shut the possibility away. Luke had taught her to trust her feelings, to know that it was the Force telling her something. And it seemed that the Force wanted the colors to remain a mystery for some time.

"Yes, Luke," Rey said, and she forced a smile, "I know." Her skin still burnt, but it was quickly fading, turning into a discomfort.

They ate breakfast in silence.

X

Rey dangled from one hand off the edge of the highest cliff on the island. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried not to panic as the wind pounded against her sides. Luke sat above her, watching intently.

"Remember Rey, the Force will protect you. If you let go, you can slow your fall into the water. If you cannot hold on for any longer, you can launch yourself up next to me," Luke said, only a note of concern lacing his voice.

"Have you ever had a student do this?!" Rey yelled over the wind. Luke said nothing for a moment.

"Only one of my students possessed powers as strong as yours, and when I trained him there was a shortage of cliffs, so we used other exercises," Luke said somewhat awkwardly. Rey knew which student he was referring to.

"So you haven't," Rey said.

"You have no reason to be afraid if you can use the Force," Luke said instead of a reply, and that was confirmation enough. But Rey needed to believe in him. He had once been the last hope in the galaxy, he had destroyed a Death Star, trained under two of the greatest (and final) Jedi the galaxy had seen, and redeemed Darth Vader. She had to put her faith in everything he taught her.

And so she tried to block out her fear, but she kept feeling her fingers slip further to the edge of the cliff, and her heartbeat rock her whole body. She thought of how she could slow her fall into the ocean, but that she couldn't swim. Unless Luke knew of that problem or could think incredibly quickly should she fall, she had no choice but to pull herself up to keep from drowning.

Drowning was a common fear on Jakku. No one could swim there, and Rey knew that never in their wildest dreams could her fellow scavengers even imagine enough water to think of an ocean.

She wanted to land next to Luke. Not too far to his left or she would slip off the side, and not too far to the right or she would land on some painful looking rocks. Rey pictured herself pulling herself up and soaring through the air, only to land in a crouch beside Luke. It was a simple enough scenario to imagine, probably much harder to execute.

Rey kept thinking of it—the jump, the leap, the landing—and felt the Force slowly wrap around her, enveloping her in its safety, saying that it would carry her. All she had to do was pull. And so she did.

She felt lighter than she ever had been, and she felt herself in control, guiding herself to land. There was no flip, though Luke seemed to be fond of them, as she flew through the air and landed softly in the grass next to Luke, who only looked at her and smiled.

"Were you scared?" Luke asked. Rey could still feel her heart hammering in her ribcage.

"Of course. I can't swim and you've only done something like that with Kylo Ren," Rey said, and she instantly regretted it. Luke's face seemed to drop and he looked out over the cliff, away from Rey as she sat down. When they spoke of his nephew, they never mentioned his past. Only what he was planning to do and how to stop him. Never about how Luke had trained and loved him. Never.

There was a heavy silence between student and teacher as they looked over the ocean. The distant sun glowed a warm color, one that comforted Rey.

"You are allowed to be afraid," Luke finally said. "The old Jedi tried to eliminate fear, saying that it was only for the Dark side. But the truth is, Rey, that everyone is afraid, Jedi and Sith alike. The difference is how you react to the fear." Rey shifted so she was facing him, though his eyes remained on the horizon.

"What are the reactions?" Rey asked.

"Jedi—new Jedi, at least—learn to control their fear and recognize that it's a normal emotion that should be handled like one. We face our fears and gain strength from them," Luke said. "To overcome fear is the way of the Jedi."

"And the Sith?"

"The Sith give into their fear and let it consume them. They draw strength from it and let it win instead of trying to overcome it. My father gave into his fear of losing his family, and it drove him to become Darth Vader. Everything he did, he did because he was afraid of losing my mother, of losing me and my sister. What he did as Vader, killing millions and causing so much pain, I cannot forgive," Luke said. "I will never forgive him for what he's done to Leia and her people, to children lost and to the Jedi slaughtered. I cannot forgive him for what he did to Obi Wan Kenobi. But I have made my peace with him. I have forgiven the man he was before. I talk to him sometimes, but Leia doesn't. I don't think she ever will, especially after what the Dark Side did to Ben."

Tears welled in Luke's eyes, and Rey knew that she should let him have his peace on the cliff. He had spent so much time on his own, but perhaps he needed it. But a question burned inside of her, and before she could think otherwise, she asked Luke, "Do you think there's still good in him?"

Luke said nothing. He rubbed his mechanical hand absentmindedly, still staring away from Rey. He was so quiet that Rey thought he wouldn't answer her, and she was prepared to leave and go back to their camp and practice her telekinesis.

"My father died a Jedi, even after killing so many and causing such imbalance to the Force. In the end, he rejected the Dark in him and saved me. No one is entirely made of Light or Dark, and my father proved that it is never too late to turn back," Luke said. "My nephew always admired him, though never for the right reasons. But if his obsession with Darth Vader tells me one thing, it's that he longs to bring out their similarities. And my father did everything for those he loved, even change his alliances and give his life. He lived so much of his life in the Dark, but he pulled himself back to Light.

"My nephew can do the same. I know he can."

And Rey left him there, sitting alone, appearing as nothing more than a hermit, staring off into the sun.

X

Rey had trouble sleeping that night. She slept in a cave, dark and small like her home on Jakku, and every time she awoke from her light sleep she would stare at the walls of the cave and think.

In the dark Rey could see no colors. Everything was black and gray, and she tried to remember what her world had been like before colors. Had she really seen nothing more, nothing less? What did Jakku really look like, with its ruins and inhabitants?

At long last, the question wormed into her mind, and try as she might to fight it off, it still nagged her: why could she see color? Why did this strange power come to her?

She pushed the thought away and told herself that it was a Jedi power, that she unlocked it in that interrogation room because of Kylo Ren invading her mind. She repeated the thought so many times that she came close to believing it, but deep down, she knew there was more to that answer. Her feelings told her that there was more to her theory than she knew.

Her dreams were confusing and disjointed.

Amid a grand throne room made of stone, she heard shrieking. Though it was human, it sounded so close to an animal. It was a scream of pure agony and pain, and Rey felt that something in her chest break and shatter. The shrieks echoed off the walls, and Rey turned to leave, only for the scene to vanish.

Leia sat on a couch in the center of her chamber, her hair down and untidy. Across from her, in the couch opposite hers, was a handsome young man not much older than Rey. His hair was long and unkempt, his right eye scarred, his face full of trouble. He didn't seem to be entirely with Leia, though. He glowed an odd color, the same one the Skywalker lightsaber glowed. Leia looked at him coldly, but with familiarity in her gaze. The man was apologizing, begging for forgiveness, promising to do all he could to help, but when Leia opened her mouth to reply, Rey moved somewhere else. And she instantly ducked to avoid losing her head.

Rey heard the telltale hum of Kylo Ren's lightsaber as he raised his weapon again to strike the wall before him, the wall where Rey had appeared. He stuck it several times, screaming as he did, until the stone was carved with the marks of where he hit it. Rey looked at him, that something inside of her growing and swelling and taking her breath out of her lungs.

His eyes were bloodshot and marked by dark purple bags beneath them. He looked paler than when she had previously seem him, almost sickly, and the bruises on his face and jaw stood out more clearly. A few were fresh and dark in color, but others had faded to earthy looking colors, close to healing completely. Everything about him—from his eyes to the way he grabbed the wall to support himself after deactivating his lightsaber—screamed exhaustion to Rey. She almost came close to feeling pity for him.

And then a voice spoke to her.

Rey, it said. It was a man's voice, with an accent similar to her own.

Rey, you're learning quickly. I'm proud. You're continuing along the path I once took. Do what I failed to do, he said.

Rey awoke before sunrise and watched the final night stars fade away. They were a close color to the sun, and Rey was almost sad to see them go.

By breakfast, she memorized every part of her dream, but she most clearly remembered the final words of the voice.

Do what I failed to do.

A/N: so I accidentally posted 'Green' before this chapter, and that's not the correct order! You're not going crazy, I just had to upload this one to save the order!