Rey felt warm sand under her body, rubbing against her neck and sinking into her hair. She had just woken from the most wonderful sleep, and she longed to return to it, but something was nagging at her mind, something important. Knowing she wouldn't be able to sleep with such a feeling, Rey pulled herself into a sitting position and opened her eyes.

A scene of an endless desert spread out before Rey. But she instantly knew she wasn't on Jakku. Jakku didn't have two suns dancing in the horizon.

"You are very incredible, you know," the voice said from behind her, and Rey jumped to her feet. She turned, and a handsome man stood behind her, with unbound hair to his shoulders, a scar over his eye, and a devilish smile that Rey knew could have charmed old women at the market into giving him free portions.

"Where am I?" Rey asked, taking a step toward the man. She instinctively reached for her staff, ready for a fight, but it wasn't on her back. Feeling very bare and on edge without it, Rey desperately tried to remember where it was. Had she lost it on Naboo? What had even happened on Naboo after she had killed Snoke? Had she been kidnapped and taken here? Something was wrong, something was very wrong, but Rey couldn't place it.

"You are on the wonderful desert planet of Tatooine. I am impressed that you didn't automatically assume you were back on Jakku," the man said with an approving nod. "I would have, considering all the sand lying around."

"Jakku?" Rey echoed. The man before her nodded, his half-smile not slipping. "How did I get onto Jakku? I was…I was just on Naboo. Where's Ben?" Rey reached out into the Force to find her soulmate, but she couldn't feel the Force, couldn't bend it to her liking. Rey's eyes widened as she took a sharp breath. It was as if the Force was gone. She looked to the sand below her feet and tried to move it by controlling the Force, but nothing happened.

"Don't panic, Rey," the man said, he stepped closer to her and planted his hands on her shoulders. Rey looked up at him, jolted by the sudden contact. He was much taller than her, as tall as Ben.

"Why can't I feel that Force?" Rey asked, panic making her voice shake.

"You're part of the Force right now, Rey. More than you usually are, I mean," the man said. Rey felt like the world was pressing down on her as she realized that she was seeing the world in only black, white, and grey. She couldn't see one single color, and she immediately thought something horrifying. She was going to vomit, she was going to vomit right there, because she wasn't seeing color, and that meant…

"Where's Ben?" Rey gasped. "Where is he?" Her knees gave out from under her and she sunk into the sand, breathing so quickly that she hardly took in any air. The man knelt in front of her and placed his hands on her shoulders again, but this time she hardly felt it.

She couldn't remember what happened after Naboo. What if she had lost Ben? What if she couldn't remember losing Ben? The bond in her chest felt hollow and for a moment, Rey did truly feel like she was going to vomit.

"Ben is alive, he's fine," the man said. Rey still shook and hyperventilated. She couldn't process what the man was telling her because she could only focus on how he looked grey instead of flesh-toned. "Rey, I swear to you, he is fine. He is on Coruscant with his mother and uncle right now."

Rey took a deep breath. She let his words sink in. Rey calmed herself slightly but not that much. Because she knew that for all of her colors to have gone out for such a long span of time one of them had to have—

In a very small voice, she asked, "Am I dead?" The man shook his head.

"No, you are very much alive," a second voice said. This one Rey recognized, and she looked behind her to see her grandfather standing in the sand. He didn't glow, and he looked as solid and real as Rey when he took a step toward her. Her grandfather, in the flesh.

"You are alive, and I am so proud of you," Obi Wan said, and Rey scrambled to her feet and ran forward into his arms. He felt solid as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. His beard scratched her forehead. She kept telling herself to breathe, because she wasn't dead and neither was Ben, and she needed to not hyperventilate.

She couldn't remember being held like this as a child. Maybe she had needed this for a long time.

"Did you not explain anything to her?" Obi Wan asked over her shoulder. Rey pulled away from him and looked at the other man, who had his hands raised in defense.

"I was going to, but you showed up," the man said, and Obi Wan frowned.

"We discussed this. If you appeared to her first, you were supposed to introduce yourself and clarify neither she nor Ben wasn't dead first and foremost," Obi Wan said, and Rey watched the man roll his eyes, his grin still shining on his face.

"My apologies, Master. She first asked where she was, so I just answered her question before anything else," the man said, and something clicked in Rey's mind. Master. Obi Wan only had one padawan, and that padawan was—

"Anakin Skywalker," Rey breathed, remembering now a vision from months before of Anakin speaking to Leia. Now, knowing who he was, with him standing clearly in front of her, she was able to pick out all of the little similarities that proved all the Skywalkers were related to him: his light eyes were the same as Luke's, his confident look mirrored Leia's, and his entire ensemble reminded Rey deeply of Ben— from the hair, to the scar, to the all-black clothes. But that smile was his alone.

"In the flesh," Anakin said, dipping his head. "Well, I shouldn't say that."

Obi Wan smiled affectionately at Anakin, and Rey remembered about her grandfather's soulmate bond. There, looking onto his face as he looked to Anakin, Rey could plainly see the love written on Obi Wan's face. Anyone could, though they might not have attributed it to the soulmate bond. But Rey knew, and because she knew, she could see just how deep and true her grandfather's love ran, and she wondered if she looked like then when she saw Ben.

"Did you not tell her where we were?" Obi Wan asked.

"I told her we were on Force-damned Tatooine," Anakin said. Obi Wan rolled his eyes, but Anakin still smiled. Rey wondered what it would take to get that grin off of his face. And, privately, she wondered how her grandfather resisted grinning back at Anakin.

"Rey, right now you are on Tatooine and also not. You're inside of the very Force," Obi Wan said. "Your physical body is back on Coruscant, but mentally, you are far, far away."

"What happened?" Rey asked. All she remembered was leaving Ben behind and beginning to look for Chewbacca, but after that… nothing. Her back began to hurt as she dug through her memories.

"On Naboo, you were hit from behind with a pulse canon," Obi Wan explained. "The First Order designed that weapon as a one-hit kill, but the Force wrapped itself around you and protected you. It kept you alive. Now, you have been lying in a deep sleep on Coruscant as you aimlessly drifted through the Force for several weeks. This is the first time since Naboo that you've been lucid— in the Force or in your physical body."

"That's why you two look solid," Rey said. "I'm in the same place you usually are." Obi Wan smiled at his granddaughter and nodded. "And…why are we on Tatooine?"

"Well, let me ask you: did my son ever teach you about the nature of the Force?" Anakin asked, and Rey had to really wrap her head around the fact that man was Luke Skywalker's father. Then of course, she realized this man was also Darth Vader, but she decided to put off making that connection until later.

"Of course. He taught me that the Force is infinite and ever-lasting," Rey said, and Anakin nodded in approval.

"Excellent. As Force ghosts, Anakin and I are able to view the past occasionally. We can't interact with the people or events, and it's a fairly useless thing to do, quite frankly," Obi Wan said. And Rey looked around again at Tatooine.

"Why are we here?" Rey asked, and at that moment, she heard the sound of a speeder approaching. She looked to her left, and she saw several figures approaching rapidly.

"Podracing was a much better activity," Anakin said, and Obi Wan scoffed. The figures grew closer, and Rey heard laughter ripping through the air over the sound of the speeders' engines. One driver sped ahead of the pack, and just as they grew close enough for Rey to make out their faces, the leader stood atop their speeder's handles, held out their arms, and laughed as they attempted to keep their balance and maintain their speed.

As the rider passed Rey, she heard a very feminine laugh come from the rider, and the rest of her group whooped and howled as she continued to go through the desert. Her head was wrapped in cloth to ward off the desert sun, and Rey was unable to see her face.

"Quite the daredevil," Anakin said. "Reminds me of the time you jumped out of Padme's window to catch an assassin."

"That was one time, Anakin. I was hardly this reckless," Obi Wan said, and Rey gasped.

"Wait, is this—?" Rey began, but the rider took a spill from her speeder and rolled in the sand, still laughing. Her group, cheering, pulled off to a stop in front of her as she got to her feet. The cloth around her head had come unraveled, revealing a young, pretty face.

A face that looked very much like Rey's.

"This is your mother when she was your age. Rey, I'd like you to meet Laila Ayii," Obi Wan said, and Rey's breath caught in her throat. Her mother laughed and shook the sand out of her hair, and Rey felt tears swim to her eyes.

That young woman— that young, daring, wild woman— was her mother. Laila Ayii was there, and Rey looked on her mother for the first time. Rey couldn't move past how similar they looked, and Rey walked closer to get a better look at her mother. Yes, just as Rey had imagined, Laila looked like Rey, but she had Obi Wan's bright eyes, which, had Rey been able to see color, would most likely appear as the same blue.

Her mother. Rey was looking at her mother.

"You have no memories of your parents, so I thought that perhaps you'd like to see what they looked like, at least," Obi Wan said, and Rey heard the slight tremble in his voice, because he hadn't know Laila either. This vibrant woman was a stranger to both of them.

"Thank you," Rey breathed. As she did, one of the group hopped down from his speeder and helped Laila adjust the cloth covering her face. His own covering had come slightly undone and Rey could see his beaming smile as Laila let her hands brush his.

"That's my father. That's Zavil," Rey said. She didn't ask, because she knew just by the way he and Laila looked at each other. Soul mates. It was the same way Obi Wan looked at Anakin, Poe looked at Finn, and Ben looked at her.

Her father was tall, towering over Laila. Rey could see long hair falling out from the cloth wrapped on his head. She wished she could see color so she could truly look at her parents. She wanted to see them as they really were when they were alive.

But, stars, they were so alive right then. They were young and wild and bold. Rey wold have never seen her parents like this if they were alive. She would have never seen them so carefree. She watched her mother wink at her father, and he leaned down to kiss her on the cheek. The group around them made teasing noises as they hopped back onto their speeders and took off into the desert once more, their laughs echoing back to Rey as she wiped a tear from her eye.

"Rey," Obi Wan said, "I know you want to return to your body, but I need to offer something to you." Rey looked back to her grandfather, she she could see that he was wiping away a tear as well. Anakin loomed behind them, his face unreadable.

"If you'd like, you could stay here. With us," Obi Wan said. "I know that you'll turn down the offer, but should you stay, you'd be able to see more memories like this. You'd get to watch your parents as they grew up, and then as you grew up, and then you'd be able to go to Luke, Leia, and Ben as a Ghost and guide them."

"I thought I wasn't dead," Rey said.

"You aren't. But if you wanted to, you could leave your mortal body behind and become part of the Force. You could die," Anakin said.

"We know that it isn't a very appealing offer," Obi Wan said, "I just felt that you needed to know all of your options."

Rey thought for a moment. There was no doubt in her mind that she wanted to return to her body, the Galaxy, and Ben. But she allowed herself to wonder what it would be like, spending an eternity with her grandfather and all the Jedi before him. She would never suffer pain again, never know loneliness. She would be able to see any where and any time she wished.

But that was a life without adventure. It was a life without risks or dares or challenge. It was a life of watching from the outside, always looking in and wishing she could be a part of it all. It was a life without Finn, Poe, Luke, or Leia. It was a life without color. It was a life without Ben.

"I think it's time that I returned to my body," Rey said. She looked up at her grandfather, and she saw him smile. He held out his arms and pulled her into a hug once more, and Rey knew that until she passed away and let the Force claim her, she would never hug Obi Wan like this. He would never be solid and warm like he felt then.

"I am so proud of you," Obi Wan said, and Rey felt fresh tears burning her eyes. Obi Wan would still be with her, Rey told herself. He just wouldn't be able to hold her, but he'd still be able to guide her and speak with her. But Anakin…

"How come I can even see you?" Rey said, breaking away from her grandfather's embrace and looking to Anakin Skywalker. "I thought I needed to have a direct connection to you in order of your Ghost to be visible."

"Well," Anakin said, "I am your soulmate's grandfather, and that must be worth something."

"That's a bit of a reach," Rey said.

"The Force sometimes isn't too picky," Anakin said, and he put his hand on Rey's shoulder. His hand was gloved, but Rey could feel his mechanical hand underneath. She supposed that she had helped Ben earn his spot as a true Skywalker by severing his hand.

"Try not to let Ben get into too much trouble," Anakin said, and Rey rolled her eyes.

"I'm not in charge of him, and really, between the two of us, I think I might be the one to look out for," Rey said, her mind imagining the adventures and trouble she and Ben could get into once she returned. The Galaxy was theirs to explore, and she'd be damned if she didn't have a ship of her own to explore with.

"Oh, you are wonderful," Anakin chuckled, squeezing her shoulder once. Obi Wan joined at his side, and Rey looked back and forth between the two Jedi before her. She gave her grandfather a smirk, and he must have gotten her message of so this is your soulmate because he shot her a look that very clearly said don't mention it. Anakin didn't notice this.

"Now, Rey, just let go and let the Force carry you," Obi wan said.

"Let go?" Rey asked.

"Just… let go of everything. Completely relax," Anakin said. Rey nodded, putting her trust in him, and she closed her eyes. She let go of every thought, every worry, every question in her head. She let go of the images of her parents, of Obi Wan's warmth, of the feel of Anakin's mechanical hand. She let the Force take her, let herself become the Force, and she felt herself slipping away, and yet, she was calm.

—

Before Rey even opened her eyes, she knew she was back in her physical body. She felt clean sheets around her body and tubes stuck into her left arm. More importantly, she could feel the Force moving around her, wrapping around hundreds of people in the same building as her.

There was someone in her room. In fact, she could feel a slight dip in her bed where this person was resting his weight. She knew it was Ben. She would know him anywhere, just by how her chest felt when he was this close.

He mumbled to himself, and Rey strained to hear him, still not moving or opening her eyes. He evidently hadn't noticed that she had returned to her body. She just, for a moment, wished to observe him as he'd been for the previous weeks.

"Come back to me, Rey," Ben mumbled. He sounded so, so tired. "I miss you so much. Please. I love you, just come back to me."

Rey's heart stopped for a second, but the monitor didn't change its beeping to show this.

I love you

I love you

I love you

"I love you, too," Rey said, her voice a hoarse whisper. Ben's weight left the side of her bed quickly, and Rey peeled her eyes open to see Ben standing over her bed, completely bewildered. He was fleshed out with color, and Rey cracked a weak smile at him.

"Rey," Ben said, too stunned to move, but Force, he was gorgeous. Rey looked at him like it was the first time she'd seen him, drinking in every detail. His hair was completely brown and pulled away from his face, exposing the gruesome scar courtesy of his and Rey's duel on Starkiller Base, what felt like a lifetime ago. He was thinner, with bags under his eyes, but he didn't look hurt. Rey looked to his right hand, but what she saw appeared to be flesh. She knew better, though, and knew it was as mechanical as Anakin and Luke's, just in better shape.

"I'm back," Rey said, still whispering. And before she could say more, Ben held her, his body shaking, and Rey didn't even complain about how she couldn't move her arms to hold him back properly.

She was back, she was home. She was with Ben.

"You've been unconscious for weeks," Ben said, clearly crying. Rey felt tears running down her face as she buried herself in Ben's shoulder. "We didn't know what happened to you. Our bond, it felt like our bond was ripped out of my chest. And there were no colors. None."

"I have quite a story to tell you later," Rey said, her voice a bit stronger, but she didn't want to talk. She just wanted Ben to hold her, to prove she was there with him, and then she wanted to hear him say that he loved her again, and she would say it back. Then Rey wanted to kiss Ben until she was dizzy for air.

A gasp from the door interrupted Rey's plans, and when she and Ben untangled themselves and looked to the door, she saw Finn standing there, his mouth open, completely dumbstruck.

"Hi," Rey said, grinning from ear to ear. This time it was Finn who jumped onto her bed and wrapped her into a tight hug, laughing so hard that Rey thought he might have been crying.

"You have no idea how much I missed you," Finn said into Rey's shoulder.

"Payback for your coma after Starkiller Base," Rey said into his shoulder, and Finn laughed and let her go, holding her an arm's length away. Tears shone in Finn's eyes and his smile was blinding. He moved to the foot of her bed, and Ben squeezed into the right side of Rey's bed. Rey leaned on Ben's shoulder and bumped her foot into Finn's leg, and she knew that no matter what the Force could have offered to her had she remained with her grandfather, this was the greatest gift she had ever received. Alive, whole, with the two people she loved most in the Galaxy.

"What time is it?" Rey asked.

"Middle of the night," Finn said.

"The droids won't be doing their rounds for about another hour," Ben said. "Until then, the Galaxy still thinks you're sleeping and won't trouble you for anything."

Finn and Ben shared a looked that Rey could only call scheming. Friendship? Between Finn and Ben? Rey smiled and laced her finger's through Ben's. They all had a lot to catch up on.

"So," Rey began, settling in for the one hour of serenity she would be granted, "tell me exactly what I've missed."

A/N: Well, everyone, this is the second to last chapter. I honestly cannot believe that I made it here. I'll save the sappier stuff for my note at the end of next chapter, but I want to thank you guys again for reading and leaving such kind comments. I really do read every one and screenshot them and send them to all of my friends.

I hope you've enjoyed this wild ride as much as I have, and I'll see you in the next chapter.