"Let's take a look at your lightsaber work," Luke said to Rey the next morning. "Come on, let's see it."
She ignited the legacy saber, and waited. Luke drew his own emerald-green one. He was waiting for her first move. She tried a slash, but her stroke was too broad and too far away to actually connect. He gently jabbed, but Rey managed to block that. Then Luke struck, quick and gracefully, and it was all that Rey could do to block it.
In a bout of frustration, Rey tried an overhead strike only for Luke to block it with a sophisticated saber spin like the ones Ben could do. Another spin, and the lightsaber went flying from Rey's hands. Luke summoned it to his hand with the Force and offered it to Rey. She reluctantly accepted.
"You'll need some work," Luke said gently. "You're used to fighting with a quarter-staff, no? Well, your strokes show it. You overestimate the length of your blade, and that ends in you missing severely. You also treat your lightsaber like a stick, not a feather. Ben Kenobi always told me to treat a lightsaber as such- it is a much more elegant weapon than most."
"For a more civilized age, according to you," Ben said as he walked up the hill.
"Ah, Ben, how nice of you to join us," Luke said as if this were an ordinary day in the Academy that no longer existed. "I was lecturing Rey on the fine points of lightsaber dueling. Your specialty, if I remember correctly?"
"I have little to teach her, for she's already beat me in a duel," Ben said stiffly.
"She can't do a saber spin, Ben," Luke said. "And she won your last through diplomacy, not lightsaber work."
Rey glared at Luke, despite the fact that it was true. She hated being bad at something, especially a skill she'd thought she'd mastered.
"I guess I could show her," Ben said with a shrug.
"How nice of you," Rey said, rolling her eyes.
He ignored her and illuminated his lightsaber. The fiery crossguard sprang to life, spitting and hissing sparks.
"Ben, we can make a better lightsaber than that," Luke chastised. "You made a better lightsaber at eleven."
"Well, I was working with a shattered crystal and the worst kriffing materials," Ben snarled. "The Supreme Leader didn't want an apprentice that was too dangerous."
"It's alright," Luke said, placing his hand on Ben's wrist. "I realize that. But we can rebuild it with better materials and better crystals. Remember Mirax Terrik? She made one like this."
"I'll be fine," Ben said coldly. "Let's work on saber-spins, scavenger."
Rey bristled at the mention of what she was- what she used to be. She was no longer no one. She watched as he twirled his lightsaber with a simple flick of the wrist and copied. She tapped into the bond between the two of them and began doing the moves just as he was.
"Very good, Rey, Ben," Luke said approvingly. "And the use of your bond is a good one. A Jedi must use the resources they have."
"Very clever," Ben admitted. Rey could sense admiration from him- strange, considering their uneasy alliance and rivalry, but she could work with that. Admiration was a stepping stone.
Finally, they stopped as the sun rolled high over the island.
"We'll have a lunch, and then we'll work on meditation," Luke said.
Rey looked to Ben. "You're good."
"So are you," he said.
A small smile flicked up her face before she was aware of it. This was a monster complimenting her. But one that was trying, it seemed, to find redemption. She felt a pang of loneliness. She could have turned out like him, and still could.
He hurt Finn. I can't forgive him for that.