After the destruction of Ben's lightsaber, Luke watched as Rey studied the pieces with reverence before she tossed them from the cliff into the ocean.
Now hours had passed and it was mid-afternoon, with neither saying much about what had transpired, but both feeling the residual energy of the blade's destruction through the force.
But, as Luke patiently taught Rey basic saber skills and gave her a set of foot work steps to master while wielding her blade, he couldn't help but feel something else…relief.
Rey was safe, for now. That is all he could ever hope for.
No, that wasn't true.
There was one more thing he could hope for...
That she wouldn't leave in just two days time.
That she might consider staying on the island with him, safe from the reach of the First Order, where they could make up for all the time that was robbed from them.
"Are you alright?" Rey suddenly asked, breaking Luke's thoughts
"What?" Luke replied as if pulling himself out of a haze, narrowing his eyes as he now beheld Rey's bewildered face where she stood across from him, retracting her lightsaber as she studied him and he realized that his mind must have wandered off in thought.
"You stopped yapping and I knew something must be wrong…" Rey teased as she walked toward him, then narrowed her eyes in concern as she moved closer
"No. I'm—I'm fine," Luke said, giving her a soft smile to try and quell her fears, "I think it's just time for my afternoon meditation, that's all. You have the footwork down, Rey, just continue to focus on the smoothness of your actions as you swing the blade. Lightsaber dueling shouldn't look like wood chopping, it should look like…well…like dancing."
Luke smiled as he circled her, came up behind her and lifted her arms, turning them in toward her body in different configurations.
"Remember, elbows and chin up, wrists lose…" he said, then shook her arms and they flailed a little, "No flabby arms. We want a steel cage with two swinging doors. Rigid, but flowing movement—"
"Okay…okay…I've got it," Rey smirked, pulling her arms gently out of her father's grasp and turning toward him, "Your analogies are getting stranger by the second. You go take your Jedi nap and rest your mind. I'll stay here and try to master 'The Steel Dancing Cage' or whatever you call it, alright?"
Luke smiled as he raised his hands in defeat, then turned on his heel and started toward the cavern.
Just inside the door, he looked back over his shoulder at Rey, watching her ignite her lightsaber and start dancing with an invisible foe.
It was in that moment, that Luke realized how much he missed being a Jedi.
# # # # # # # #
Time passed as Luke breathed methodically, his palms open and the back of his hands resting on the knees of his legs folded beneath him.
His mind wandered…
Then it came back.
Suddenly, he opened his eyes and found himself standing in the cavern, looking into the hearth as the fire burned, watching the flames dance and flicker.
"Luke…" a familiar voice whispered nearby and Luke closed his eyes, relishing the sound
"I've missed you…" Luke said in a quiet voice, opening his eyes before he turned from the hearth toward the center of the room and the beautiful young woman standing there.
She wore a dress of white linen under a grey robe...the same outfit he had last seen her in thirteen years before.
Her auburn hair fell soft on her shoulders as her dark, chocolate brown eyes looking deep into his soul.
"I don't know how…" his wife smirked, "I've been with you the whole time."
"Well, I just did…" Luke replied, his eyes soft as he studied her, then moved forward toward her
"You look different," Mayla said, looking him up and down before her eyes rested on his face, "I like your beard…"
Luke scoffed and a small smile crossed his face as he brought his hand up to his chin and ran his fingers through the growth there.
After a moment, though, he lowered his hand and looked up, focused intently on his wife as he now stood before her in awe, "You look exactly the same."
Absentmindedly his hand reached out to touch her face, but only went through her mirage
"I'm sorry…" Mayla relented, looking at him with sad eyes as he pulled his hand back slowly
"It's alright," Luke said, trying to keep the emotion out of his voice, "It's just enough that I can see you."
There was a long silence between them before Luke spoke again
"Mayla, Raiyah found me," Luke said softly, nodding toward the open door of the cavern behind his wife
A look of quiet surprise crossed Mayla's face before she turned on her heel and looked behind her through the door, beholding their daughter outside on the cliff, practicing her saber skills where Luke had left her.
She smiled to herself, letting the relief and love for her daughter wash over her before she whispered, "Of course she did. She's your daughter… always more yours than mine. From the day you first held her, you two were like magnets, two sides of the same coin. Of course she was meant to find you. That is because she is like you, Luke—she's a survivor."
"I'm afraid I'm not doing a very good job of surviving…" Luke sighed, "Not without you."
"Luke…" Mayla whispered, turning back to him now, her eyes worried
"And not without her," Luke continued, turning his back to her and walking back toward the hearth, "She's leaving soon."
"And you are just going to let her go?" Mayla asked, stepping forward
"I can't make her stay," Luke replied, closing his eyes, "I don't have the right to ask that of her."
"You could go with her," Mayla offered, "Whoever she is destined to be, whatever she is destined to do ahead, she could use your guidance."
"I can't…" Luke replied, shaking his head, opening his eyes as Mayla suddenly appeared in front of him, "I'm not a Jedi…not anymore."
"Luke, this isn't about you being a Jedi…" Mayla said, trying to meet his gaze, "This is about you being a father—this is about your daughter needing you, not your Jedi skills."
"I'm afraid…" Luke whispered, looked down at her, his eyes filling with tears
"That doesn't sound like the man I fell in love with," Mayla said, cocking her head and smiling at the memory running through her mind of the day they first met, "He wasn't afraid of anything—"
"He was young and arrogant," Luke interjected
"No," Mayla insisted, "He was young, yes, but he was strong, confident and capable and wise beyond his years. Only a man like that could survive falling in love with his enemy."
Luke gave a small smile at those words, studying her face for a long moment before he said, "I did love you…right from the very beginning...enemy be damned."
"And I hated you," Mayla stated bluntly, then chuckled and Luke scoffed, smiling bigger, "Then…after a while, I fell in love with you, Luke. And I became a whole different person because of you."
"And just look what we made together…" Mayla continued, smiling as she nodded toward the door and, through it, Rey.
Luke looked over his shoulder, following Mayla's gaze to their daughter, then whispered, "I just can't lose anyone else…"
"There are no guarantees in this life," Mayla said softly, "Long ago, you broke the rules, Luke, you made a choice—"
"And I don't regret it," Luke interjected adamantly, his eyes softening as he whirled back around to face her again
"Then you have to know that giving in and loving someone means that there is always the fear of losing them. But, you can't just stay here and continue to give in to your fear, Luke. You may have stumbled and in your anger and your fear and your grief, let the darkness in…but that doesn't mean it has to defeat you."
Luke closed his eyes at her words as they touched his soul, warming it like embers from the nearby fire in the hearth.
"Please, Luke," she whispered now, almost a plea, "Let the light back in—the light that makes who you truly are—the light that saved me and guided so many others and gave them direction. It is the same light that you have passed on to your daughter. Just because you fell, doesn't mean you can't get back up."
Mayla's gaze turned back to Rey, "Especially, now…when you have someone who is offering you their hand."
# # # # # # #
"My Lord—"
"Go… away…" Kylo Ren said in a stern voice, keeping his dark eyes trained on the solitary window in his room, his back to the First Order Lieutenant now standing in the doorway.
"But, My Lord Ren, the Supreme Leader wishes an audience in—" the officer said, lingering as close to the exit as possible.
"No." Ren responded without letting him finish
"But… My... Lord," the officer choked, his voice filling with fear before he suddenly opened his mouth and found his voice box silent.
He gasped as an invisible force field took hold of his neck and his face immediately flushed as he struggled for air.
Soon that same force was pulling him up off of his feet, his boots kicking as they searched for purchase.
The Stormtroopers guarding the door could only watch, unable to do anything.
"I no longer answer to the Supreme Leader," Kylo Ren said in a steady tone, then raised his left hand and flicked index finger, snapping the man's neck.
The officer's eyes rolled into the back of his head and the force field left him, leaving his body to fall hard into a sprawl on the marble floor.
Kylo Ren curled his lip as he lowered his hand, his eyes closed as a tear streaked down his face and he tried once again to control the anger and the grief that continued to roll off of him in waves.
"Guard," Ren said in a hard voice and one of the Stormtroopers came nervously through the threshold, stepping clumsily over the officer's dead body.
Ren opened his eyes and turned toward a nearby table and with the force, drew his lightsaber to him.
When it was in his hand, he eyed it for a moment before he put it on the floor beside him then, with a resolved shove, slid it behind him and across the room toward the Stormtrooper.
ST 4785 looked down at his feet in awe behind his helmet, beholding the weapon of a Sith Lord up close for the first time as it rolled to a stop upon hitting the toe of his boot.
"Give that to the Supreme Leader," Ren said, "And tell him his apprentice is dead."
