Ahch-To, Unknown Regions

There was little life on the rocky islands of the small, watery world. The oceans teemed with creatures great and small, but the fauna of the land was sparse. Small birds, smaller bugs, some snakes. Miniscule lizards with skin the color of rock. Small crustaceans that split their homes between the land and the seas.

One old Jedi Master. A sunken X-Wing snubfighter. An old Corellian YT-1300 stock light freighter, recently landed. A tall Wookiee. A short astromech.

And one hopeful girl with her arm outstretched holding a lightsaber.

Luke Skywalker stared at her, his face slack with disbelief.

Into the silence of the wind and the waves, Rey spoke. "Master Skywalker," she said, her voice fast and desperate and pleading. "I've been sent by your sister. I'm - "

"Breha." Luke's voice was a croak, heartbroken and hoarse.

A faint, anxious smile opened beneath the worried frown that furrowed Rey's brow. "Yes," she said. "That's - I'm Breha. Your niece. Please, you have to come back. Your sister has been searching for you for so long. She - "

The rest of Rey's words were lost as Luke suddenly lurched forward. He reached past the lightsaber as though he did not see it and grabbed the skinny young woman in a hug.

"Breha," he gasped, burying his lined face in her shoulder.

Rey tensed. She wasn't used to affection, to physical touch that wasn't an attack. She had been trying to learn - since Finn, since Chewie, since Leia - but she was only a few weeks away from Jakku. She had not yet had time to become accustomed to love.

Before she could unclench her rigid limbs enough to return the embrace, Luke was already pulling away. He held her out by the shoulders at arm's length and frowned at her.

"You died," he said. His voice was full of pain and shadows.

"No," said Rey. "Kylo Ren - Ben - couldn't kill me. Or maybe he thought I would be more useful alive. I don't know. But he didn't kill me. He took me with him when he left, and he scrubbed my memories, and he dumped me on Jakku."

"What?" It was more of a breath than a word, as though Luke could barely force the air from his lungs. His hands - one flesh, one metal, both cold - fell away from Rey's arms to hang limp at his side. His cloak fluttered weakly in the wind. It was the only part of him that moved.

"I think...well, Leia thinks that he left a sort of Force-compulsion on me, to keep me there?" Rey continued, her words hurried and as uncertain as the troubled look on her face. "I...I think she might be right. I only managed to leave Jakku because I was literally chased away, and I kept wanting to go back - part of me still wants to go back - even though there was nothing for me back there, and everything I'd always wanted right there in front of me. But I…"

Rey's voice trailed off. She stared at Luke, who looked shaken.

"I brought you your lightsaber," she said, her voice small. She held it out towards him again, hopefully. "I found it. And brought it back to you. Please...will you come back with us? To Leia, to the Resistance?"

Luke stared at her as though he couldn't believe he was seeing her, hearing her.

"You're alive," he said.

A tremulous smile fought its way through Rey's uncertainty. "Yes," she said.

"You're alive," Luke repeated. Wonder filled his face, settling on his haggard features like a bright sky after heavy stormclouds rolled away.

Rey laughed, the sound as uncertain as it was happy. "Yes," she said again. "I'm alive. Please, will you come back with me? To the Resistance, to Leia?"

Luke reached out. His metal fingers were cold on Rey's cheek but she did not flinch away. She had spent too much of her life scavenging scraps from broken starships - depending on those scraps for her very survival - to find the touch of metal off-putting against her skin.

"You're alive," Luke said again. The wonder slipped slowly into hope, and he smiled.

# # #

At the bottom of the cliff an old droid waited beside an older Wookiee. Luke stepped from the stone path onto the sand and spread his arms. Rey, still anxiously clutching the lightsaber that Luke hardly seemed to have noticed she had brought him, paused at a distance as Chewbacca swept the long-lost Jedi up in a fierce hug.

"Han - " Luke began. Chewie warbled, raw and mournful, and Luke nodded. "I know," he said. "I felt it. Leia?"

Chewbacca barked an uncertain response, his tone fluctuating between hope and concern. Luke nodded. "And you?" he asked softly.

Chewie stepped out of the hug and looked away, folding his long furry arms across his chest. After several seconds, he gave a soft little yip.

Luke, his face drawn with sorrow, nodded. "I'm sorry," he said. "I should have been there."

Chewie shrugged, not meeting anyone's eyes. He mumbled evasively and turned to look out at the water.

Luke patted him on the arm, then turned to look at the little astromech.

Artoo stood in stiff silence until Luke smiled. "Artoo," he said, "it's been too long, old friend."

As though those words had unlocked a restraining bolt, the droid straightened up onto his two core legs and began rocking back and forth. The whistles and trills he emitted frightened an entire flock of the nearby nesting birds away. They tweeted angrily at the disruption but Artoo, now switching from happy whistles to scolding beeps and blatts, drowned them out.

Luke held up his hands in surrender under the deluge. "Okay, okay, yes, you're right," he said, raising his voice to be audible over the tirade. "I should have known better than to get on any ship without you. I'm sorry. It won't happen again."

Artoo subsided with a surly sequence of beeps. One did not have to be fluent in binary to understand that they were the equivalent of a grudging, it had better not.

Rey, for all the worry still tugging at her face, couldn't help smiling.

Luke reached out and touched her arm and then Chewbacca's. The Wookiee cleared his throat and turned around, chin held defiantly high. Luke smiled at him, then turned back to Rey.

"Come with me," he said. "I need to get something. Then we can talk."

One by one, they made their way inland, Artoo rocking awkwardly on his stiff legs and helped alternately by Chewbacca's strong arms and Luke's gentle nudges with the Force.

Rey, at the rear of the group, paused and looked back as though she might be able to see the stars behind the bright, thin clouds, and beyond them, the friends she had left behind. But there was nothing but empty sky.

She turned back and joined the climb.