Twelve Years Later

The wind picked up as she ascended the interminable stone staircase, carrying with it the briny vapor from the sea below. To Leia, the salty air was more oppressive than refreshing. She crossed her arms, wrapping her cloak tighter, and felt a violent thumping in her chest that had little to do with physical exertion. Nearing the top of the mountain island that was home to the ruins of the first Jedi Temple, her eyes flickered from one domed hut to the other. Crafted with care and precision centuries before from slabs of stone, the beehive-like structures that dotted the summit lay in various states of decay.

Her heart doubled its manic rhythm when she saw smoke curling from the roof of the dwelling closest to the cliff. Leia looked down the staircase feeling a twinge of vertigo. The light from double moons of Ahch-to illuminated the outline of the Millennium Falcon, docked on the rocky shore. She closed her eyes and let her breath out in slow hiss.

Rey had contacted her at the base on D'Qar within hours of landing on the planet that had become the final destination of her brother's self-imposed exile.

"General Organa?"

Leia was well-practiced at hiding her anxiety, but she was grateful for the grainy quality of the transmission that would filter out the tremor in her reply.

"Rey, did you find him?"

The image nodded, but wide eyes belied the girl's uncertainty.

"Is he okay?"

"Yes General. I have done what you said. I returned his lightsabre and asked him to join us on D'Qar."

"He won't come," Leia stated.

Rey shook her head.

"He says he has more work to do here."

Leia's jaw tensed and she swallowed the retort, demanding what work he could possibly be doing in an abandoned monastery.

"Also…"

"What is it, Rey?"

"I asked him if he would be willing to take me on as a student. He said that I had potential, but he couldn't. He said… he said that there aren't going to be any more Jedi."

"Oh Luke," she sighed.

"General Organa-

"Rey, please…"

"Sorry, Leia," Rey corrected herself with some hesitation. "I don't know what to do. I'm not used to this sort of thing. Master Skywalker has been very kind, but I think his mind is made up. I don't know what I can say to convince him."

Leia nodded.

"It's okay," she reassured her. "I should have expected that it wouldn't be so easy."

"Should Chewie and I return to the base?"

"No," Leia decided. "Not yet. Let him sleep on it. He may feel differently in the morning. It's a lot of information to process."

Rey let out an impatient sigh, but nodded her acquiescence.

"I'll contact you tomorrow, Rey."

"Yes ma'am. Goodnight… Leia."

"Goodnight Rey."

Now, after over a decade of separation, her twin was less than twenty feet away and it was taking every bit of strength she possessed not to fly down the steps back to her ship. There was too much to say and not enough time. He was supposed to come to her. That was how she had rehearsed it in her head over a dozen times. Leia knew she had it in her power to convince him to train Rey and return with her. The reasons she would give him, however, were too painful and would be told too late. Gods, was he ever going to forgive her?

She imagined her daughter, safe and asleep, on board the ship docked below her and steeled herself for the task ahead of her. She pulled up the hood of the white cloak, shielding her face against the unrelenting gale and closed the distance between her and her brother's home.

The glow of a fire filtered through the rough fabric of the curtain that had been drawn over the entrance to the hut. Leia pulled back the veil and stood in the doorway, blinking and peering into the shadows. As her eyes adjusted, she made out the form of a hooded figure seated behind the small campfire.

"I waited up for you."

The figure looked up and blue eyes met hers from beneath the umbra of the cape.

Her answer was something between a gasp and a laugh. She found that her knees had turned to water and she swayed on her feet.

"Leia!"

Luke was on his feet beside her before she could stop him and assure him that she was alright. For all the good it would have done. One look at his face and her composure shattered. Twelve years of separation and all of the loneliness that accompanied them overwhelmed her at once. Twelve years of choking down anger and swallowing her sadness welled to the surface. She could drown in all of the anguish she had dammed up inside of her.

Leia returned his tentative touch with a crushing embrace. She buried her face in his shoulder and screamed. Sobs racked her body and she collapsed on the hard earth, dragging him with her. He held her close and murmured into her ear. Her breath came in ragged gasps as she tried to make out his words.

"I'm sorry," he repeated over and over. "Leia, I'm so sorry."

"Why?" She whispered, when she could speak again. The single word carried with it a thousand questions.

Why did you leave me? Why didn't you come back? Why are you sorry? Because of Ben? Because of the children who died at his hands? Because you feel like you failed? Because of Han? Because you left me to fight a war alone?

Luke pulled her away from him so he could look her in the eye. He studied her face, hearing all of her unasked questions, considering every one.

"I miss him too," he said at last. "I didn't know how much until I knew I'd never see him again."

Han.

Leia winced.

That, at least, was my fault.

Luke opened his mouth to contradict her and Leia cut him off. She did not want to talk about Han right now. She did not have enough time.

"Rey told me that you won't come back," she accused.

"I can't," he said. "Not yet."

"What are you looking for, Luke? What can possibly be here on this empty planet that is going to help us to defeat Snoke?"

"It's not some thing, Leia," he insisted. "It's what happened here. This is where it first happened. The division of Light and Dark. This was the first Jedi Temple. And Snoke was the first Jedi to fall."

"How do you know?"

"I can feel it, Leia," he explained. "When it's quiet here, sometimes late at night, I can hear them, feel them, the Jedi who witnessed Snoke's turn to the Dark Side. I'm so close to figuring out the source of his power and how to turn it against him. He's not like the Sith. He's a much older evil. He feeds on those with a connection to the Force."

Leia withdrew in revulsion.

"What do you mean?"

"Snoke takes students that have potential. He instructs them in the ways of the Dark Side and when they are at the height of their power, he drains it from them to sustain himself."

"That's how he's managed to survive for all of these years. That's why he wanted Ben," she muttered. "A Skywalker. Someone strong in the Force. Han knew he was just using him. He tried to tell him…"

Luke swallowed.

"Snoke has been doing this for a long time. Millennia. He has learned how to manipulate students to his side. He knows how to tell them what they want to hear."

"So how do we stop him?" Leia asked.

Luke shook his head.

"That's why I have to stay. I still have much to learn here."

"And Rey?" Leia continued. "Why won't you train her? You've sensed how strong she is. She needs guidance."

"I can't, Leia."

Her heart sank. Was he still punishing himself after all of these years? Did he really believe himself to be a failure?

"Luke," she started. "Stop holding yourself accountable for what happened with Ben. You have to know I don't blame you for that. I've blamed myself and Han and Vader, but in the end, Snoke sunk his claws into him from a young age. He twisted my son into someone I no longer recognize. Even once he's defeated, I don't know that Ben will come back. It'll be his choice. But whatever he chooses, you did your best. We all did. "

Luke gave no reply to that.

"Please tell me that's not the reason you left," she implored. "Tell me you weren't running away from me. I must have sent a dozen transmissions on our classified frequencies. Wherever you were, you had to have intercepted one of them. I told you it wasn't your fault."

"I heard them," he admitted. "But it took me a long time to believe it. Even if you didn't blame me, I still believed I should have seen the signs. I still believe that there were things I could have done to prevent him from going to Snoke. But I came to understand that even the Jedi of the Old Order couldn't have perceived the threat that he posed. He eluded them for centuries. Once he is defeated though, that'll be the end of it. And it will be the end of the Jedi as well."

"Why?" Leia demanded.

"Because every time someone lights a candle, they cast a shadow," Luke answered. "The Force is a power of Light and Dark. It creates its own balance. When Snoke is gone, the balance will shift to the Light. When I'm gone, that balance will be restored."

"And you think that it will really stop there?" Leia asked. "There won't be any other children born with abilities they don't understand? Who won't wake up in the middle of the night hearing voices that others can't hear? Children who will shatter every window in their house when they get angry or hurt people they love when they don't get their way? Luke, if you end the Jedi Order now, the only thing that will change is that people with that power won't have a teacher."

"Maybe you're right," she continued. "Maybe balance will be restored and the galaxy will forget the Jedi. But then what's to stop it all from starting over again? A new order of Force-sensitives will emerge, without any direction, like right here on this island."

"Maybe they'll get it right," Luke said softly.

"Until one of them falls," Leia retorted.

"Why…?" he let the question fall away, but Leia heard it just the same.

"What does it have to be you? Because you are a Skywalker," she answered.

Luke laughed bitterly, but she ignored him.

"We are born with a power we didn't ask for," she said. Of all of the times she had practiced this speech, it had never gone quite like this, but she was stumbling across a truth, discovering it as she spoke. She continued, trusting this innate wisdom to speak for her. "Sometimes we don't understand it and sometimes we fall. We do terrible things and we hurt the people we love."

He looked at her closely.

"But the few of us who have managed to get it right have to help the ones who can't," she said. "You taught me that, Luke. You know it better than any of us. It might be a curse, this power that we are given, but it's ours to bear. Yours, mine, Ben's… and Rey's."

The pink tinge colored her brother's cheeks and his eyes grew wide.

"What do you mean, Leia?"

"She's one of us, Luke," Leia said. She could hardly hear her own voice over the hammering of her pulse. "She's my daughter. And she's yours."

Time stopped at that moment. Luke blinked rapidly, trying to clear the sensation that his vision was shrinking to a pinpoint. What did she mean Rey was his daughter? And hers? That was impossible. There was that one time… but that was long before Endor. Years before Rey would have been born.

He studied her face, searching for an answer, some sort of hint as to how what she claimed could be possible. He saw only trepidation, anticipation. Fear radiated off of her in waves. She was afraid of how he would react. She was terrified. That scared him. If Leia had ever been afraid in her life, she had hidden it behind a resolute visage and layers of mental barriers.

What alarmed him the most, however, is that she was telling the truth. And now, once again, he felt the world being yanked out from under him.

"How?" He asked finally.

Bile churned in his stomach and welled in his throat as he listened to his sister explain what had happened while she had been a prisoner of the First Order. Disgust turned to horror as she told him about Snoke's plans to create a Force-sensitive from the bloodline of Anakin Skywalker, in the event that Ben proved a less-than-satisfactory apprentice.

"How- how did Snoke have access to my DNA?" He asked.

"I didn't know for a long time," Leia admitted. "Until Rey showed up with your lightsabre. There's still a lot I don't know. But whoever retrieved the lightsabre-

"My hand," Luke realized, cutting her off. "My hand would have been with the lightsabre."

The corners of Leia's mouth turned down and she nodded, taking in the stark gruesomeness of the situation now that he had given a voice to her suspicions.

"All they would have had to have done would be a DNA check on your hand through a non-secure server," she said. "Your gene sequence would have been stored in a government database, where it could be accessed, and replicated, if you didn't care about legal or ethical violations."

"Gods…"

"Rey is healthy," Leia added. "She might not have been, because we're… She doesn't have any genetic disorders."

Luke put his head between his hands and he sucked down gulps of air into oxygen-starved lungs. It was beyond grotesque. That his sister had been made into an incubator for some experiment of Snoke's was unthinkable. That he used Luke's genetic material to do it was monstrous and sadistic.

"Why in the worlds did you go through with it, Leia?"

She looked away from him. He cursed himself inwardly. It wasn't her he was angry with. He just needed to understand. Why go through all of that suffering, be subjected to that kind of psychological and physical pain, if she had a choice?

"Because I love her," Leia said softly. "I hated how she came to be in this world and I hate Snoke for what he did to me and to my family. But I could feel her and I knew she wasn't his. She's strong and full of Light. She's like you."

A moan escaped Luke's lips and he felt his strength fail him. She had had the child because it was his. Because she loved him. After he let Snoke seduce her son into Darkness with lies about Vader, she still loved him enough to bring his child into the world. And now she had brought her here, to give him another chance.

Not for the first time, he chastised Ben Kenobi. With all of his wisdom, the old man had still made the wrong decision. It should have been her rather than him. Leia would have been a far better Jedi than he was. She showed strength of character and compassion far beyond his own understanding.

"That's not true," her voice broke into his thoughts. "If it were up to me, Vader would have never been redeemed. I would have cut him down as soon as I got the chance. I probably still would. General Kenobi made the right choice, Luke. You've never given yourself the credit you deserve."

"Luke," she asked. "Can you forgive me?"

His head shot up. What could he possibly need to forgive her for?

"Forgive you for what?"

"For not telling you about Breha. Rey, I mean," she answered. "I wanted to tell you every day for the last twenty years. But, I couldn't give you a child just to take her away. I had to hide her somewhere Snoke could never find her. Also, I didn't want you to do what you are doing now."

"What am I doing?"

"Blaming yourself for something else that isn't your fault."

He gave a wet chuckle and his eyes spilled over.

"I don't need to forgive you. You were put in an impossible position. I'm only sorry that I wasn't there."

She inched over until she was seated beside him and he let himself relax against her shoulder. Silence hung in the air between them, punctuated only by the intermittent pops of wood burning in the fire.

"I missed you, Leia."

"I missed you, too."

The fire cooled to embers as the night wore on. Luke threw of kindling on and reshuffled the coals as Leia told him about Rey. She explained that she was born at the first proper base that the Resistance had and that she kept her for three weeks before giving her to a family with ties to the former Alliance. After that, she had gone to see her as often as she could get away without being detected by the First Order. She continued her story with Rey's disappearance, along with the Falcon.

"Han promised that he would bring her back," she said. "It took fifteen years. I don't know what happened to her exactly, but she doesn't remember anything from before. She doesn't remember me or Han or Chewie. But he brought her back to me just like he promised. She became quite attached to him in the short time they were together. I think he liked her too."

"Of course he did. She's yours."

She smiled tightly and looked up at the ceiling. He watched as she blinked back the tears she was determined to not let fall.

In the late hours of the night, he held her tightly against his chest as she slept, feeling the reassuring rhythm of her heartbeat. After over a decade of solitude, the intimate proximity, and the love that accompanied it, was almost painful. Even more so, since he knew that she would soon be gone. He felt the familiar tug in his gut that heralded another departure. They had had to say goodbye too many times. Who knew how much time either of them had left?

As the first light of day peaked through the hut's entrance, he pressed his lips to the crown of her head and she stirred.

"Mmm, is it morning?" She asked.

"Almost," he whispered.

"I have to go," she said. "She shouldn't see me here. I docked my shuttle at the other edge of the island. I should go before she wakes up."

Luke nodded and released her. A chill crept in and settled in the pocket of warmth she had occupied.

He joined her outside the hut in the dim, pink light of morning. Although she had only slept a few hours, she seemed more relaxed than she had the night before. Years seemed to have melted away from her face and her eyes seem to shine like they did in his memories of her.

She turned to him and wrapped him in one last embrace.

"Take care of her, Luke," she murmured in his ear.

"I will," he promised.

"Please, don't blame her because of what was done to me or because of where she came from. She doesn't know any of that. It's not who she is."

He pulled back and made sure to look her in the eye to reassure her.

"I don't and I will not," he said. "But what do I tell her, Leia?"

"Tell her about the Force," she replied. "Be her teacher. That's what she needs right now."

"I hope it's enough."

"It will be," she assured him. She squeezed his hand and turned to go.

"Leia!" He called after her. "I—Thank you."

"For what?"

"For her," he said.

"I love you," she answered, smiling in the morning sun. "And I expect to see you again soon."

"You will," he agreed. "Until then, I'll look after her."

"I know."

He watched her steps until she was out of sight. From the far end of the island, he heard the whir of her shuttle's sub-light engine. Moments later, the ship punched through the atmosphere of the small planet, leaving a vapor trail in its wake.

Luke sighed and turned his attention to the still form of the Millennium Falcon docked in the bay. Rey would be getting up soon. He had to get ready. They both had work to do.