Rey sat anxiously as Luke moved around her, collecting wood for a fire. The two were sheltered under the wing of a ship bearing the name Red Five. She recognized it as an X-wing starfighter, and began to review the schematics in her head to distract herself from the pressing questions that Luke seemed in no rush to answer.
It was only after the Jedi had set the fire, pulled out strips of a variety of meat and had begun cooking them on a spit that he refocused on Rey.
She jumped at the opportunity.
"Where is Ben?" She asked desperately. "What happened to him? Why did we-"
Rey stopped, as it occurred to her that he still might know about the switches. Luke, however, seemed to read her mind.
"I am well aware of your unusual connection with my nephew," he told her. "I was back then as well. Unfortunately, I didn't understand it as I do now. Or I would never have severed the bond."
Rey felt like she had been slapped in the face as realization dawned on her.
"You grabbed my wrist - Ben's wrist, and said 'get out' you… that's when everything stopped."
Luke nodded solemnly.
"Make no mistake, Rey. I did not mean to cause either of you harm."
"You keep saying my name," she noticed as panic began to well up inside her chest. "How do you know my name?"
Luke regarded her with sorrow.
"I found his journal afterwards. If I had known before…" he sighed. "Three years have gone by and I can still feel that if I had just-"
"Three… three years?" Rey questioned. "No, that can't be right. It's only been a few months since we stopped switching."
Luke paused.
"I see. I think I have the full picture now," he paused to take the meat off the fire, offering a portion to her. "Please eat, and I'll explain from the beginning."
"From the beginning, Ben was…" Luke took a deep breath. "A troubled child, to say the least. At an early age, he was demonstrating destructive force capabilities beyond our understanding. My sister and her husband were afraid, and Ben knew it, and it hurt him. I believe that's when he began to hear the voices."
"The voices?" Rey questioned.
Luke offered her a sad smile.
"You were not the only one who established a presence in my nephew's mind," he told her. "Before you, there was a darksider named Snoke."
Rey felt like she had been slapped in the face. She might be from Jakku, but even she knew that name.
"You don't mean… the Supreme Leader? Of the First Order?"
"The very same," Luke confirmed. "He wanted Ben as his apprentice, so I made him mine. I brought him to my Jedi Academy at the age of 10, convinced that I could counteract the influence of the dark side with my teachings. But I was arrogant, and I was wrong."
He was silent for a moment, as Rey waited anxiously for him to continue.
"Things took a turn for the worse when Ben found out the secret of his heritage," he glanced at Rey's perplexed expression. "I assume you've heard of Darth Vader?"
"Of course I have," Rey replied, thoroughly confused. "You defeated him and the Emperor and restored balance to the galaxy."
"Darth Vader defeated the Emperor," Luke corrected her. "He sacrificed himself to save me. Because he was my father."
It was all Rey could do to keep her jaw from dropping. Sure, the legends about Luke Skywalker's battle against Darth Vader varied, but she had never heard this version.
"If he is… was, your father, then," the realization hit Rey like a speeder. "Ben is Darth Vader's grandson."
"Yes," Luke replied simply. "And we kept it from him. The secret was revealed shortly after I severed your connection. My sister's political enemies became aware of our parentage and used it against her. The news got to Ben before we could. He was 23 at the time."
Rey was dumbfounded. She had been in the body of the grandson of the most hated man in the galaxy, and the nephew of the most revered.
"The pressure," she whispered. "I can't even imagine."
"I thought the same thing," Luke told her. "I knew Ben was being influenced toward the dark side, and knew that this revelation could be the tipping point. One night, I came to his hut and peered into his mind."
Rey was filled with a sense of horror as Luke met her gaze.
"He would bring destruction, pain, death, and the end of everything I love because of what he would become," he told her. "And for the briefest moment of pure instinct, I thought I could stop it. It passed like a fleeting shadow. And I was left with shame and with consequence. And the last thing I saw were the eyes of a frightened boy whose master had failed him."
"You tried to kill him."
It wasn't a question, but rather a statement.
"Yes," Luke replied, and she felt a wave of shame from the former Jedi master. "He defended himself, and brought the hut down on the both of us. By the time I emerged, the temple had burned to the ground, and every single one of my students were dead."
"No, that's not…" Rey faltered. "I know him, I've been him. Ben is a good person, he… he would never do that. He wouldn't kill anyone."
"Perhaps the Ben you knew would never commit such atrocities," Luke conceded. "But he is known by a different name now. One you might know."
The shadow of something that had been trying to surface in her mind rustled, growing more and more ominous.
"He is known now as Kylo Ren."