"I need to return to Jakku," Rey stated firmly as she entered the room. She had been training with Luke Skywalker for more than a month and their relationship had developed. He treated her as a peer rather than a child, though they both knew she still had much to learn.
"Need to or want to?" He asked, looking up from the maps he had been studying.
'I'm an idiot' she thought to herself. She had practiced her speech several times, carefully choosing each word and phrase, and already he had dismantled the entire thing. Of course he would see this this as self-serving , she had to convince him it was more than that.
"I want to go to Jakku," she corrected. "There might be something my father left behind. Some artifact, or a treasure of my mother's, or maybe a hidden message for me to find."
Luke had told her everything. Her mother, the bastard daughter of Anakin Skywalker, a child he never knew existed. Her father, a bounty hunter who once served Darth Vader and tried to kill Luke, later turned Resistance fighter to help keep his wife safe. Rey wasn't even her birth name, but it was the only one she could remember so she preferred it. She was Darth Vader's granddaughter, Kylo Ren her cousin, Luke and Leia her half-uncle and aunt. Together they had managed to keep her a secret for 22 years. With her parents dead there was only one other person in the galaxy who knew her true identity.
"Living in the past will not help you," Luke explained. "The best memories of your parents are with those who knew them."
"But you still live in the past," Rey accused. She didn't want to be petty but it was true. Luke was afraid to face his sister. His future was unclear and that frightened him. He could not bear to be responsible for more death.
"You are not wrong," he admitted. He firmly believed that the Jedi should be both teachers and students. Every day he was learning from Rey as none of his Padawans had ever reached this level of maturity. She was almost ready to become a Jedi Knight. "Perhaps we should leave this island after all."
"Really?" She hadn't expected it to work.
"Not for Jakku," he added. "We'll go to D'Qar."
The thought of seeing Finn again made her heart skip a beat. She had sensed that he was awake and was grateful that he was safe. She had been forced to clear her mind of him in order to focus on her training, but when she was alone memories of that smile and his hand on hers crept back into her conscience. Things wouldn't be the same though. A Jedi had to keep their emotions at a distance. Caring for someone too much made you vulnerable. Luke had tried to explain that while love wasn't inherently bad, it created a weakness that could be exploited. He passed on the story of Anakin's love for Padme, and for his mother Shmi, which Darth Sidious used to pull him towards the Dark side. Luke had failed the people he cared most about. Rey was not going to let that happen. She was disappointed that she wouldn't get closure on her family, but there were new opportunities if they were going to join the Resistance.
"It's time for you to build a lightsaber," Luke said, smiling at her with pride. "There are no parts here."
