Ben smiled to himself as he followed Rey to the same courtyard he practiced in. He knew that she also utilised the place for practising her katas. He stopped a few feet away from her and bowed, indicating that he was ready.

She returned the bow. Ben raised his guard, and not a moment too soon because Rey lunged at him. He parried her swing. He knew how she fought. He would not be caught in a sword lock again.

Rey was fast, recovering from his parry and swinging her practice blade towards him again. He could tell that she was still quite angry from his earlier insinuation that he only let her win their last duel. Her moves were sloppy and weak, nothing like their life or death duel at all.

He side-stepped and batted her blade aside, shaking his head as he did so.

"Is that the best you can do?" he taunted.

"Not quite," she replied, using the Force to push him.

It was only years of practice that kept him from stumbling to his knees. He would have called her out on her dirty tactic, but he decided against it.

Every bit of energy she expelled in this fight was a bit less she would turn on herself when she returned to her room.

Rey was still on the offensive, swinging her blade using both hands. Ben defended himself, letting her vent her anger.

His uncle had taught him to release his emotions into the Force. As he grew older, he found out that releasing it into the Force while beating up a practice dummy felt much better than meditation. He had caused much harm to Rey over the course of the war, being her practice dummy now was just a drop in the bucket compared to what he owed her in apology.

Still, he wasn't about to stand still and let her beat on him. He wasn't that self-destructive.

"Fight me!" she said, disappointed that he was only defending. "This isn't a spar!"

"As you wish," Ben replied, twisting his practice blade in a move that caught her on the leg.

Rey startled, not from pain, but from surprise that she hadn't blocked the blow. He could see that she realised that anger was making her slow. She took deep breaths.

"That won't happen again," she swore.

They circled each other, neither one attacking. Ben feinted, intentionally giving her an opening. Rey stepped back, unsure as to why he would do that.

Ben made another move, gave Rey another opening. This one she took, landing a blow on his shoulder. Rey's brow furrowed.

They danced around each other again. When one lunged, the other evaded. Rey had several weak spots that Ben noticed, but he didn't take advantage of them. This spar was for her.

He purposefully gave her another opening. She saw it and raised an eyebrow.

"Why are you doing that?" she asked, lowering her blade.

"Doing what?" Ben asked innocently.

"That," she pointed out. "Leaving yourself vulnerable on purpose."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Ben replied, lunging rather recklessly at her.

She easily evaded and gave him a light tap on the back with her training blade. Ben twisted and righted himself, lifting his blade in an attack position.

Rey narrowed her eyes at him, looking him up and down as if that would help her figure out what he was doing. She knew how he fought. Whatever he was currently doing, it wasn't fighting.

"Why won't you fight me?" Rey asked crossly. "You drag me from my room to spar and you do nothing but block and get hit. Why?"

"You're angry," Ben smiled in approval, stepping forward with a quick downward swing of his blade. "That's good."

Rey blocked, but only because of her fast reflexes. He had just been playing with her earlier, now he was serious.

Ben swung his blade to the right. Rey caught it with her sword and stepped back.

"But anger," he said as he continued his attack. "Makes you weak."

To emphasise that, Ben knocked the blade out of Rey's hand.

"Anger," he said as he walked towards her, causing her to back away. "Makes you sloppy."

Ben swept his practice blade at Rey's legs, making her fall to the ground.

"Anger is better than where you were earlier," he said as he pointed the practice blade at her neck. "But it won't take you very far."

He lifted the blade away from her and offered her his hand to help her up. Rey stared at it for a moment before she took it. He pulled her to her feet and summoned her blade to offer it back to her.

"Shall we try again?" Ben suggested.

"Yes," Rey nodded, taking her blade from him.

Their spar after that was better, more controlled. Rey still had her aggression, Ben felt it in every hit that she landed on him. He tried to hold back when he attacked her, but every time he did so, she would hit him harder.

Afterwards, they were exhausted. They sat on the ground, panting. Ben looked over and assessed her. He made sure not to hit too hard, but she might have bruises because of this. He knew that he would.

She must have felt him staring, because she turned to look at him with a shy smile on her face.

"Thank you for this," Rey said in a small voice.

"It was the least I could do," Ben replied.

"You didn't have to," Rey shook her head. "You don't owe me anything."

"Yes, I do," Ben admitted. At her confused look, he elaborated. "On Ryukk, Kira could have chosen to corrupt me with the Dark Side. I… I may not have been able to resist it."

"Ben?" Rey asked.

"Even with just the pulse I felt," Ben continued, not appearing to have heard her. "The call to the Dark was there."

Ben's eyes glazed over as he remembered how seductive the lure of the Dark Side had been. He had spent years in the First Order honing his skills in the Dark pretending to resist the Light. It had been a challenge to return completely to the Light after the end of the war.

It would have been so easy, so very easy to slip back to the Dark Side.

"Ben?"

Ben shook his head. He reminded himself of where he was. The war was over, the Light had won. Rey was staring at him in concern.

He rubbed his eyes with the back of his head. He was supposed to be doing this to get Rey out of her funk, not get into one of his own.

"Thank you Ben," Rey said. "For this."

Ben smiled at her. His plan wasn't a complete failure after all.

Luke smiled as he felt the shift in Rey's Force Signature. He had been keeping an eye on her ever since they had returned from Ryukk. To say that she had been sad was an understatement. He was relieved that she seemed to have pulled out of it.

"Do you have anything to add Master Skywalker?"

Luke kept himself from jerking in his seat. It wasn't his fault that watching the Force was more interesting than whatever went on during these meetings that Leia insisted on dragging him to. If he didn't need their permission to build a school, he wouldn't even be here.

"None," he said, making sure that his tone did not sound like he had been caught with his mind elsewhere. "Please, continue."

Leia shot him a sidelong glance. She knew that his mind had been in the Force. He just shrugged at her. She may have been his twin, but she had also grown up in this environment. No matter how long he had been a Jedi, his roots would always be the moisture farm on Tatooine.

After the meeting had adjourned, Leia cornered him.

"What was that?" she asked.

"What was what?" Luke replied.

"That," she said gesturing to his face. "For most of the meeting you had this distracted look on your face."

"I did?" Luke was surprised. "Did anyone else notice?"

"Of course not," Leia waved a hand. "I only knew because you are my brother. And I could feel your mind in the Force."

Luke chuckled. He was worried that it had been obvious to the whole room that he wasn't listening. But Leia was more observant than most. And she was cheating because she had to use the Force.

"Where were you then?" Leia asked.

"In the Force," he answered. "I was monitoring Rey."

"Oh?" Leia said. "How is she?"

"Better than yesterday," Luke said. He could see that she was relieved by the news as well. "Something happened that helped her."

"That's good news," Leia commented. "But did you really have to keep an eye on her the whole meeting?"

"Leia," Luke explained calmly. "It was either that or fall asleep. I have no idea why I have to sit in on trade meetings."

As Leia launched her usual speech on how trade talks affected the Jedi, Luke zoned her out. He knew the gist of that speech and when to nod and grunt in reply.

He wondered if he should tell her that Ben was the reason that Rey was better. Luke decided against it. Even though Ben was her son, Leia was oddly protective of Rey. She probably would not have approved of the measures that Ben took.

Then again, Ben did just get out of the Infirmary recently. Leia wouldn't like to know that he put himself in harm's way.

Luke sighed. He knew that no matter how much he reassured himself that Leia didn't need to know some things. She would always find out.

"Luke are you even listening?" Leia asked, crossing her arms.

"Of course Leia," Luke smiled to placate her. "Trade routes will be essential to the livelihood of the Jedi."

"Oh good," Leia replied, apparently appeased. "Then-"

Luke smiled at his twin as she continued her speech. Rey was fine. Ben was fine. The trade talks were fine.

He just knew that something was going to happen soon.

Rey made her way to her 'fresher. After the spar that she had, she reeked.

She rolled her shoulders, trying to get the kinks out. Despite the fact that Ben took it easy on her, the hits she took from him still hurt.

It was all training of course, so she didn't mind. It wasn't as if he went the extra mile to hurt her. A hot bath would do her loads of good.

After she had finished her bath, she felt much better.

Ben had been right. The spar did help her deal with what had happened on Ryukk. As thankful as she was towards Master Luke and General Organa, their help only lasted her a short while. If Ben had not come and drag her to spar, Rey didn't know how long she would hold herself in isolation.

She still felt disappointed in herself, but she no longer blamed herself for what had happened to the children. Kira had gone over to the Dark Side, Elliot was already beyond their help when they arrived. Rey did what she had to in order to defend herself. She would not stay guilty for that.

She checked her chrono and saw that it was still too early for anything else. In the past weeks, she used her afternoons to practice her katas.

Given that her body was still complaining from the spar, she decided not to do them. Instead, she sat down cross-legged on the floor and proceeded to meditate.

The experience of being locked in her mind was fresh, but Rey wasn't afraid. When she was locked in her mind after the battle she was alone. It was a cold place, devoid of anything and everything.

In meditation, she could feel the Living Force flowing all around her. She felt one with everything in the universe. Meditation brought her peace.

"Rey."

Rey tilted her head up, keeping her eyes closed, and smiled.

"Grandfather."

A/N: I am so sorry this chapter was boring. The spar might have seemed a bit sloppy, I wrote half of it while on a caffeine high, and the other half while I was crashing. T.T

Luke and trade talks bc the economy is important. But it's still boring.
And oooh. Rey's grandfather! Who could it be? Yoda? (Yes, I'm currently on a caffeine high.)
Anyway, comments are appreciated!