34 ABY, The Island, Ach-To
He'd felt the Awakening deep in his bones. It had been soft at first, like the first warm days of spring following a long and bitter winter, the snow melting off the trees and the sun beginning to peek through the heavy clouds. At first it was difficult to know exactly what had caused it, in his isolation Luke was only dimly aware of what was happened in the galaxy he'd left behind.
His days were mostly spent in meditation, seeking answers amidst information that seemed endless. Sometimes he felt like a student in a library, desperately searching for a line of text without knowing which book it would be in, and so needing to methodically read them all. The Force was strong on Ach-To, and Luke grew stronger with it every day but seemed to grow no closer to the enlightenment he sought.
He'd long since come to believe that it was simply not the right time yet, and so Luke continued to wait. Whatever else he'd lost, he still kept faith in the Force which had become his only companion.
He went about his daily routine on the small island that had become his home, fishing in the sea, tending to the small garden outside his hut, watching the birds fly above and then hours spent in meditation and thought. Every moment that passed the Awakening grew stronger and although Luke tried to reach out through the Force to see exactly what it was but strangely found the way blocked, as if something was resisting the call.
What he felt later was like a splintering in the Force, the scales being tipped towards the dark side. Luke went to the Temple to try and make sense of what was happening, but in his heart he knew the truth, he recognised the pain that cut deep and left a lingering ache that could never be relieved. Sorrow and regret flooded him with the knowledge that he would never see his friend again, never shake his hand, never hear him call Luke "kid" out of stubborn habit.
But that pain was soon outshone by a brilliant burst in the Force, the walls around the Awakening shattering as her light came forth. This was what he'd been waiting for, Luke realised, what the Force had waited to reveal to him. The light soon subsided, no one able to sustain such energy for a prolonged period of time, but now Luke knew enough to be prepared.
He stood at the peak of the Island waiting, his heart racing with anticipation. When the Millennium Falcon made its approach Luke almost forgot to breathe - he'd suspected when he felt her reconnect to the Force, but hadn't let himself believe it until he could be sure. But now she was close, he could feel her presence - vastly altered but still as familiar to him as the day she had been born. How was it possible? Luke's mind raced with questions as his heart ached with the vacillation between agony and joy.
He wanted to rush down to meet the ship as it landed but didn't quite trust himself not to break down in front of her. He had no idea if she even remembered him, or what she had been through to get to him. He reached out to the Force to compose himself, looking out at the ocean to calm him as he felt her climb the steps. When she was behind him Luke finally trusted himself to turn around, but wasn't prepared for the swell of emotion on seeing her.
She was a woman now, and it suddenly hit Luke all the years he'd missed watching her grow. He remembered a sweet, exuberant child of five and before him stood a capable, serious nineteen year old. She was beautiful, more like her mother than ever, but in her face he saw hope and felt as if it was his own soul reflected back at him.
When he didn't say anything to her Rey reached inside the pack she was carrying and removed a lightsaber, and it took a moment for Luke to recognise it. How had she come across that? A million more questions ran through Luke's mind as she held out the handle to him. For a moment he was confused - didn't she know him? Did she think she was simply seeking him out to return his lightsaber, to bring him back to the galaxy?
Luke felt tears well in his eyes as he saw Rey's expression falter, and perhaps there was a flicker of recognition there. So many thoughts were racing through his mind but he didn't know which to voice first, and he felt fear grip him at ruining the moment each of them had waited so long for. They stood staring at each other for what felt like an eternity until Luke found to courage to speak.
"Rey," he whispered. "Do you know me?"
"I…" Rey's forehead creased and she swallowed heavily. "I'm not sure. Are you…"
"Yes," Luke stepped towards her, knowing that the Force was whispering the truth to her. "I'm your father, Rey."
Her hand still holding out the lightsaber shook, and her face crumpled as she was overwhelmed. Luke pushed aside her hand, the lightsaber falling forgotten to the ground as he drew her into a firm embrace. She accepted it gratefully, tears falling from her eyes as she pressed her face into Luke's tunic.
"Rey," he whispered against her hair. "I thought you were dead. He told me…oh, Rey. My darling child."
"I don't understand," Rey said through her tears, but she clutched his robe with her hand and pressed her cheek tighter against him, just like she'd done as a child.
"I'm not sure I do either," Luke told her, stroking her hair and holding her close. "But we'll find out together."
Rey was in shock when they made the trek back down to the Millennium Falcon, still processing everything that had happened. The great Luke Skywalker, the one she'd heard about on Jakku like the hero in a fairytale, was her father. She'd found her family at last, but there were still so many questions and she wasn't sure which to ask first.
She watched as Luke greeted Artoo, his old droid who was rocking from one metal foot to the other in excitement. Luke laughed and conversed with the little droid, patting his dome fondly. Chewbacca drew Luke into a great hug, tousling his hair and scolding him for being away so long.
"I know, I know," Luke patted the Wookiee's arm, his expression turning serious. "How is Leia?"
Chewie told him that she still didn't understand why Luke had left, and that she'd needed him. There was a twinge of judgement in the Wookiee's growl, and Rey didn't blame him. She'd felt overwhelmed by Leia's grief when they'd met on D'qar, the loss of Han shared between them as they'd embraced. Rey realised that this meant Leia was her aunt, and in hindsight the kinship she'd felt with her made sense. Had Leia known in that moment who Rey was? She certainly hadn't given any indication that she'd known, other than the insistence that it be Rey who go to find Luke.
The lightsaber had chosen her, Leia had explained, the Force wanted her to be the one to find Luke Skywalker. Rey wished that Leia had told her the truth instead, then she would have been prepared rather than shocked by it when Luke had lowered his hood and she'd felt his familiar presence in the Force hit her like a shockwave. But if Rey was honest with herself, she'd known the truth since the moment she'd touched the lightsaber on Takodana, from the moment Maz had all but spelled it out for her. The belonging you seek is not behind you, it is ahead. She'd run from those words, the idea that she could possibly be important, be a Jedi like in the stories that had travelled from the campfires of the Church of the Force to those of the scavengers. But she wasn't running anymore.
Rey turned her attention back to the conversation where Chewie was still scolding Luke lightly, explaining that Leia had been searching for him for years.
"I know, I have a lot to make up for." Luke nodded solemnly. "And how are you, old friend?"
Chewie gave a mournful little moan, and Luke patted his fur gently. "I wish I could have been there, maybe I could have stopped it."
"Why weren't you?" Rey spoke up, the joy of finding her father fading in the reality that he'd been gone so long. "The Resistance needed you, and you just left."
Luke sighed and turned to face her. "I'll show you tomorrow," he promised her. "There is so much to explain, and I suppose I should start at the beginning."
They went inside the Falcon and sat around the dejarik table. As he sat down Luke ran his real hand over the black and white patches, smiling strangely to himself. But then he visibly checked himself, his expression turning solemn again as he recounted the tale of Rey's abduction, the years he'd spent searching for her, and Kylo Ren's final turn against him.
"He told me you were dead," Luke he said again, his face a picture of agony and regret. "I thought you both were gone, and with all my students killed, I gave up hope." Artoo spoke up in his peculiar binary dialect - Rey had trouble understanding it but she gathered that he was attesting to the truth of Luke's words.
"And my mother?" Rey asked. If Luke was her father and he hadn't known she was alive, what role had her mother played?
Luke looked away, his bottom lip trembling slightly and his face contorting in pain. "Her name was Valara."
It was clear that it was too painful for Luke to say any more, and despite Rey's desperate desire to know more about her she resolved to raise it again at another time. She pushed aside all of her questions and recriminations and doubts, for the moment just wanting him to smile - not wistfully, but truly, to show her how happy he was to find her again.
He was her father, she reminded herself, and clearly loved her, had missed her and was ready to welcome her with all the affection she'd ever imagined in those long, dry hours on Jakku. She'd conjured up fantasies about when her family would return for her, each more elaborate than the last as they explained how she'd been left behind and promised that she would never know loneliness again. Luke had taken her in his arms just like she'd dreamed her father would, and if she found fault with the way he had then been subdued since then she told herself not to be so harsh on him. He might not know how she was reacting to it all, and so Rey hesitantly reached out to him, placing her hand over his on the table.
She felt Luke flinch slightly, it must have been a long time since anyone had done that, but then Rey heard him sigh and he turned back to her. His eyes were so vividly blue, not the grey clouds she'd seen on the cliffs above. The pain on his face melted away, and although he did not smile his expression was soft and warm. He placed his free hand - the artificial one - over hers and she didn't mind the cool touch of the metal in the slightest.
"So will you come back?" she asked. "The Resistance needs you now more than ever."
"Yes," Luke nodded. "But I must show you a few things here, first. I've spent a long time on this island learning its secrets, and there is vital knowledge for the wars to come."
"Alright," Rey agreed. After seeing the island so much in her dreams she wanted to explore it a little herself.
"Rey." Luke gazed at her as if trying to memorise her face, or perhaps simply trying to reconcile it with the child he remembered. "I've missed so much of your life, there is so much I want to know."
Rey shrugged, withdrawing her hand and shifting slightly in her seat. "There isn't much to tell. Every day on Jakky was the same, I worked, I ate, I marked the day on my wall, and I slept."
"I'm so sorry," Luke shook his head. "I'm sorry I wasn't there for you, but I promise I'm here for you now, every day."
The crew quarters on the Falcon were cramped and while Luke suggested that he would head back to his hut halfway up the island Rey insisted that he stay. After all, it must have been a long time since he'd slept in a real bed, and he'd almost smiled and said that he remembered what the ship's bunks were like and it would still be a while. But he'd acquiesced due to the late hour and Artoo's insistent beeping that he wasn't going to leave Luke alone. Rey wondered if the little droid would ever let Luke out of his sight again, and sure enough he set himself up outside the crew quarters keeping a watchful electronic eye over them all.
Rey felt overwhelmed by the day's events and curled up under the blankets, still not used to the climate-controlled air which still felt cold to her after years under Jakku's relentless sun. She said goodnight and turned to face the wall so neither Luke nor Chewie could see that she was still awake and listening, curious as to what they would discuss. For the most part they shared old stories, keeping their voices soft so not to wake her. Chewbacca gave Luke a summary of what had happened the past six years - Han hadn't been able to cope with his son's turn to the dark side and returned to smuggling, thinking that it was better for Leia that way.
"But he came back," Luke said. "Whatever Han else did, he always came back." Chewie agreed, saying that finding Rey had finally made him realise he couldn't hide from the fight any longer.
"How did you find her?" Luke asked. "Jakku...she was there the whole time, if I'd gone to see Lor San Tekka myself rather than trusting Ben...but of course that was why he'd been so eager to do it himself."
Chewie told him the story of how the Millennium Falcon had ended up in the hands of Unkar Plutt and then how they'd been able to track the ship once it had been activated. Quite a coincidence, he pointed out.
"No, not a coincidence," Luke said. "It was the will of the Force, for some reason it chose this moment for everything to converge. Perhaps this boy Finn was the catalyst, a sign of the First Order weakening."
Rey still didn't understand the Force - even though it had come to her aid in the fight with Kylo, she didn't understand how it could have intent or control over things that happened. If so, why had it left her on Jakku waiting so long?
"I'll never get to thank Han for looking after her," Luke spoke up again. Chewie softly growled that Han would know, that he would be thankful that he played a role in returning Rey, especially when his son was the one who had taken her away in the first place. For that most of all Han had never been able to forgive the boy who had become Kylo for that, even if he'd tried to bring him home for Leia. Chewie added that his only other regret was that they hadn't found Valara as well.
"I tried reaching for her." Luke's voice was thick. "I thought if Rey survived then perhaps...but there was nothing, still. In Ben's memory I saw a ship crash, that had to be based on reality, he couldn't have conjured it entirely. Valara would have glady given her life to protect Rey in such a fall."
Rey searched her own spotty memory to see if she could recall it. But even with the knowledge that Luke was her father she couldn't recall anything of the time before she was five. She'd only seen glimpses in her lightsaber-induced vision, Unkar pulling her away while she begged someone to come back, a ship flying away. That must have been Kylo, her own cousin, abandoning her and then convincing his family she was dead. Rey felt a simmering rage towards him, he must have known who she was the whole time. When she thought about the way he'd pawed through her mind trying to find the map, how he'd sullied her thoughts of the Island...
Chewie spoke up again, saying that at least Luke had Rey now. Luke agreed, but she heard him shifting in the bunk as if uneasy, and Rey turned her attention away from Kylo Ren and instantly felt calmer.
"She's dreamed about finding her family for so long," he said. "I only hope I'm not a disappointment."
Rey hoped the same thing, but continued to feign sleep as Luke and Chewie's conversation moved on to reminiscing over Han. She relaxed as they told stories from the Rebellion long ago, and she eventually drifted off to the sound of Luke's soft voice.
When she woke up the room was empty, and Rey ventured outside to see it was just past dawn. Luke was seated on a nearby rock, legs crossed and eyes closed, the cool morning breeze rustling his hair so a few strands drifted lightly in the air. Artoo was nearby, and his domed head swiveled to acknowledge her. Rey looked up behind her and saw Chewie on top of the Falcon, probably working on the neverending repairs the ship seemed to require. The Wookiee gestured to her: go on.
She turned back to Luke and his eyes snapped open almost immediately. "Are you ready?" he asked, gracefully coming down off the rock.
"Sure." Rey grabbed her staff from where she'd left it by the ship, remembering how difficult it had been to climb all those steps the previous day. For a moment Luke stared at the staff in her hand, and Rey followed his gaze.
"What?" she asked.
Luke cleared his throat. "Nothing." He shook his head as if to dismiss a thought, and gestured for her to follow him. "Come on."
But instead of taking her back up the same path she'd walked the previous day, Luke lead her to the other side of the island. It was much steeper than the side the ship was docked, and there was another staircase built into the earth although these stones seemed much older, worn by the wind and rain and ten thousand footsteps before them. Rey could feel it as they climbed higher, something ancient and powerful which only grew in strength.
Even though Rey was in peak physical condition from years of scavenging and climbing around inside star destroyers, she wasn't used to the altitude and sparse air, and was soon out of breath, using her staff to help her keep pace with Luke who seemed unaffected.
"Not bad for an old man, right?" Luke called over his shoulder, and Rey quickened her pace to keep stride with him and tried to hide her puffing.
"You're not that old," she said, and or a moment she imagined she was a normal child out for a pleasant hike with her father, trading jokes and trying to outpace each other. But it was only for a moment, Rey knew they couldn't so easily slip into those roles after so many years apart. She didn't know Luke at all, and he remembered a small child not yet hardened by the harshness of life.
They soon reached their destination, a large quarry which had been carved out of the mountain's face. But Rey couldn't see a building which would classify as a Temple, instead the ground was soft with green grass and there was a large tree growing out of the earth. Rey had never seen trees before Takodana, but even she knew that this was no ordinary plant; it had a thick trunk, at least a six metres across, and three large branches; one reaching directly up into the sky, and two on either side which almost had the appearance of cupped hands. There were several stones with smooth surfaces littered around the tree, almost as if they were students in class gathered around a teacher.
"Is this it?" Rey asked, walking towards the tree to inspect it. As she drew closer there was no doubt the the power she'd felt was emanating from the tree. And yet it looked almost dead with no growth or greenery.
"Yes," Luke told her. "A Temple is simply a place of worship and reflection, it has no need of walls. This was once a site of pilgrimage, where adherents of the Force would come to seek enlightenment and guidance."
Rey touched the bark of the tree lightly, it was rough under her fingers but strangely warm. "And that's why you came here?"
"I'd been researching it for years," Luke explained. "Tracing the history of the Jedi out of interest, but also because I felt drawn to do so. When Ben turned to the dark side and destroyed the Temple on Devaron I knew that what I had learned in my life so far was not sufficient to combat the evil that had taken hold of him. My father had turned back from the dark side because he could not bring himself to harm me, but I thought Ben was past even that as I believed he'd killed you both, or at least done nothing to save you."
"You were right," Rey said stiffly, that moment of the red blade plunging through Han's chest, and his long fall into the smoke below. "He killed his own father."
"So I've been searching for the answers," Luke told her. "The key to fixing all of this, asking the Force to guide me here where it's the strongest."
"And has it told you?"
Luke gently cupped her cheek. "It sent you back to me."
Rey looked down at her boots, biting her lip. She too had come for answers, although she had yet to find them, unsure whether she even wanted to accept the power inside of herself. She didn't want to be just a weapon against the dark side or the First Order, something to be used and wielded with no choices of her own.
"Look," Luke said gently, touching her shoulder to urge her to lift her gaze. "The tree is ancient, who knows how many millennia it has stood here. It represents the Force, you see?" Luke pointed to the right branch. "The light side." His finger moved towards the left branch. "The dark side, and in the middle." Luke gestured to the thickest branch pointing directly upward. "Balance."
Rey nodded, the general concept easy enough to grasp, but what did it really mean? How would that help them fight the First Order? She looked to Luke for answers, and found him looking wistfully up at the tree.
"Long ago the Jedi took clippings from this tree and planted them in the grounds of the Temple on Coruscant," he said, "so they would grow and thrive in the Core of the galaxy, and so members of their Order could meditate there. As time passed the pilgrimages stopped and this place was relegated to legend. All but two of the trees on Coruscant were destroyed by the Empire, and I managed to liberate them after the Battle of Endor. One is on Yavin IV, where the first Death Star was destroyed, and the other on Devaron, replanted after the Temple there was destroyed. When I married your mother she arranged for clippings to be taken from that tree and planted on New Alderaan, and I gave one to every Jedi knighted at my Temple so they could plant them where they felt it was needed."
"That's all very interesting," Rey said, feeling restless. "But I don't see what gardening has to do with anything."
Luke gave her an amused smile. "It means that we're all connected, that there is still life and hope left in the galaxy. That the Jedi aren't extinct, because this tree survives."
"I don't understand." Rey shook her head, trying to wrap her mind around what he was saying. "I thought you said this tree was the light and dark sides, so how can it represent the Jedi?"
"Because this was the birthplace of the Jedi," Luke told her. "Where the first of us sought wisdom and learned to turn their raw power in the Force into a force for good. This is your heritage Rey, not only because you're strong in the Force, but because this is also where your family came from."
"What do you mean?"
Luke took a deep breath but she could see his eagerness - he'd been waiting to tell her this ever since she'd arrived.
"My father Anakin was born of a woman named Shmi Skywalker, who had been sold into slavery by the Hutts," he told her. "I spent many years searching for her history, tracing the family line back generation upon generation until it brought me here, to the first Jedi. Nellith Skywalker."
"Nellith Skywalker?" Rey repeated the name - her ancestor, the founder of the Jedi Order. She turned away, her cheeks flushing. "As if being the daughter of Luke Skywalker isn't enough, now I'm the descendent of the first Jedi?"
"Why does that upset you?" Luke asked, clearly hurt and a little confused. Rey turned back to face him wringing her hands together.
"It's just...pressure," she explained, anxiety clawing at her. "I didn't even know I had the Force until a few weeks ago, and now I'm the key to stopping the dark side and the First Order? All I wanted was to find my family, I thought how nice it would be that they would take me home to some green planet where I would have a soft bed and lots to eat and I wouldn't have to go crawling through the maintenance shaft of a ship ever again. But now I've got this destiny," Rey threw her hands up in the air. "Do you know how hard that is to live up to?"
Luke was very calm. "Yes," he said. "I didn't know it when I decided to become a Jedi, all I knew was that my father had been one and I'd never known him but wanted to be just like him. And then I found out that my father was the one who'd turned against the Jedi and helped destroy them all. Not only that, it was my responsibility to defeat him, knowing that if I failed the Jedi would be truly extinct and it would be my fault."
Rey stared at him for several long moments. "And if you had the choice again?" she asked. "Would you still become a Jedi?"
"Yes," Luke nodded. "Because I had talents and a power others didn't, and not to use them would have haunted me. But this is your decision Rey, no one else's. If you wish to learn the ways of the Force," he added. "I can teach you."
"That's what Kylo Ren said." Rey felt her anger flare at the thought of him. "He said I needed a teacher."
"I'm not going to tell you what you need," Luke said, and she saw him bristle at the thought of what Kylo had said to her. "You're my daughter, Rey, and I've already failed you so much. If you ask it of me, we can get in the Falcon right now and fly as far away from the First Order as possible. We can find a green little planet and start a new life."
Rey felt the sincerity of his words, but knew she would never ask that no matter how much she wanted it. She couldn't run away, the reach of the First Order would only grow, and she wouldn't abandon her new friends. But not could she immediately agree to become a Jedi either.
"What about my mother's family?" Rey asked, searching for another option. "Where are they?"
"Valara never knew them," Luke told her. "She grew up in an orphanage, and even after the civil war ended she never wanted to try and find out where she'd come from. She liked to look to the future rather than the past."
Rey stalled, pressing her staff into the earth and then realised Luke was staring at the object again.
"You mother carried a staff," Luke gently took it from her, examining the joins. "She was strong in the Force but never wanted to become a Jedi. A lightsaber was still a weapon designed to kill, whereas a staff was defensive."
Rey was surprised. "Was she a pacifist?"
Luke laughed, the first time she'd heard him do so. "No," he said. "It's complicated, but your mother worked for the Empire. She'd been raised to believe that was her duty, to enforce and eliminate on their behalf."
"Like Finn," Rey said, her thoughts dwelling on the last time she'd seen him, prone in the Resistance medward. "He said that in the First Order, they raised him to kill."
Luke nodded. "And like your friend, Valara broke away. She defected to the Rebellion, and that's where we met. She was injured in the war and eventually lost her vision."
"She was blind?"
"She used the Force to see - in a manner of speaking. She made herself a staff like this, to help guide her as well as defend herself."
"When I was young I worked with the other children for Unkar Plutt," Rey told him. "He gave us food and shelter as long as we scavenged for him. When I was old enough I broke out on my own, even though I still had to trade with him - parts for food. I soon realised I needed to protect myself, and so I built the staff out of scrap and taught myself to fight with it."
"Maybe your subconscious retained the knowledge," Luke suggested. "Your mother had been teaching you basic defence with a staff for a while before you were taken. She thought I didn't know, but she forgot to tell you not to practice when I was around. I remember one day I walked past your room and you had this stick you'd found in the jungle, waving it around and practicing the various moves Valara had shown you."
Rey smiled, although she felt slightly hollow since she couldn't recall it herself. But the knowledge her mother hadn't been a Jedi either gave her comfort.
"So you see," Luke told her. "You have options, I can teach you the Force but you don't have to be a Jedi in order to use it."
"What's the difference?" Rey asked.
"A Jedi lives by a certain code," Luke told her. "To always use the Force for the good of others. We pledge ourselves to the light side."
"I want to learn," Rey told him. "Maz Kanata said that there was a light inside, guiding me."
"I can teach you to listen to that light," Luke told her. "To control it, and direct it. But that means we can't go back to the Resistance just yet, we'll both get drawn into the battle and true training requires discipline first."
Rey bit her lip. Her mission had been to bring Luke back and she'd fully intended to return immediately, wanting to be there when Finn woke up. But there was still so much she did not understand about the Force, her own past and the power that had awoken in her. When she'd slashed her lightsaber through Kylo Ren's face and kicked him to the ground she'd felt a surge of something dark, and a voice whispering to finish him. Rey shuddered even thinking about it, and knew she needed to learn what instincts to listen to so she didn't lose herself in the sudden rush of power.
"What about Chewbacca?" she asked. "That means he'll have to stay as well."
"We can ask him," Luke said. "But I imagine he won't mind, we're not talking years. Just not the schedule I imagine Leia was hoping for but don't worry, I'll take her wrath if it comes to it."
Rey was glad to hear that, she found General Organa intimidating enough. "Alright," she agreed, nodding and taking back her staff. "But do I have to climb these stairs every day?"
A broad smile appeared on Luke's face and Rey's heart lightened to see it. "Consider yourself lucky," he said. "I had to train in a swamp."