Published March 5, 2019

A Teacher

Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. ~ 1 Corinthians 1:26-29, New International Version

After checking the Holonet, Ben sent a hologram to his parents to let them know he was going to stay on Takodana for another day and night. He did not see the point in going back to Hosnian Prime only to return the following night. Han and Leia probably would not be pleased, but there was little they could do about it.

Ben set up some mats to serve as a bed on the floor of the cargo ship, resolving to sleep for as long as he could during the day. He wanted to catch up on his rest after spending the previous night awake, and prepare himself to do the same tonight. But Ben could not sleep soundly after such an astonishing discovery.

Eventually, hunger convinced him to get up sometime in the afternoon. After a meal improvised from the cargo ship's small store, Ben tried to occupy himself in the remaining hours of the day, reading, meditating, practicing calligraphy, drilling lightsaber forms. The problem was that he could not focus on anything. He was only waiting to see Rey again.

He had to know if what had happened the previous night was real, and if so, what could be done about it.

He had hurt Rey and wanted to make up for that, it was true, but he also sensed something bigger going on, perhaps hidden to him or even to her. The Force was at work in and around her. For some as yet unknown reason, it had drawn her to the Skywalker legacy saber. That had to mean something. Maz Kanada and the sorcerer, or whatever he was, both seemed to think this meant she had some role to play in a larger story. But by all accounts, including her own, she was nobody important, just a scavenger.

Ben wanted to do something to help her. It was a new feeling for him. He had always been a bit sensitive, able to read people's emotions—Luke said that had to do with the Force—but it was not often that he felt empathy for others. Yet there was something about her … something he could not quite identify. Part of him pitied her for being in such a miserable situation. But what he felt was more personal than pity or sympathy. Maybe it was compassion. Whatever the reason, Ben could not be at peace just leaving her in her situation.

There might be something to be gained from consulting his uncle. Luke Skywalker knew more about the Force than anyone else now living, having spent the past quarter of a century seeking knowledge about it. If the sorcerer who cursed Rey had used the Force, Luke might be able to help her learn how to break the curse.

Ben also needed to figure out how he would explain the situation to his family. He could just imagine their reactions if he began by saying he had met a girl: his mother's premature excitement, his father's amusement and teasing, his uncle's suspicion and stern warnings. The thought made him cringe.

Ben decided to find out two things before he told anyone about her. First was whether it had really happened, whether she was real. He needed to confirm that he was not crazy before he got anyone else involved. Second, it was probably best to ask Rey what kind of help she wanted and was willing to accept.

He had not told her about his family, and now he wondered whether he should. Ben did not want to get Rey's hopes up and risk disappointing her. She had talked about Luke as though he were a legend—he must have seemed like one to her. Ben knew too well that the people in his family did not live up to the legends that had developed about them.

Rey had been defensive and mistrustful due to the violent circumstances of their meeting, but she knew nothing about Ben personally. She had no expectations for him, for good or for ill. That could be refreshing. So he made up his mind to put off telling her about his parents as long as he could.

Ben waited until about an hour after nightfall before he went back to Maz's castle. Maz took one look at him and barked, "You're still here."

"That's right," Ben said evenly.

"Are you staying because something is keeping you here, or because something else is keeping you away from elsewhere?"

Ben grunted. "Both, I guess." He would have welcomed any kind of distraction, any excuse to not go home right away.

Ben ordered two drinks and enough food for two people. He was just sitting down when some instinct told him to turn around. He looked at the corridor leading further into the castle, and saw Rey enter the cantina.

When she saw Ben, her face seemed to light up with recognition and surprise, but not of an unpleasant kind. He stood up as she approached him. She stopped in front of him, and for a moment they just looked at each other.

"You came," she said.

"I said I would, didn't I?"

"Yeah, but …" She stopped midsentence. She seemed to be holding some emotion at bay, though Ben was not sure what. Then she looked at the two table settings, and something in her expression shifted. "Are you expecting someone else?"

"No. One is for you. If you want it."

Rey considered him, and the food, and then said, "Give me a minute." She went behind the counter and talked to Maz, who looked at Ben with those big, knowing eyes. Finally she waved a hand, apparently dismissing Rey, who returned to the table and sat next to Ben. He slid one plate and drink in front of her.

"Is this still to make up for shooting me?" she asked, already helping herself to a fruit.

"Something like that." Ben glanced at her arm-wraps and saw that her wound had a fresh bandage. "How is your arm?"

"It's alright." She flexed her hand, rotating her arm to show him.

Ben regarded her softly. "I wondered if I'd dreamed the whole thing."

Rey smiled in a way that might have been shy. "So did I, the first few days, until I changed back and forth a few times."

"I'm glad it wasn't a dream."

She looked at him oddly. "You are?"

Realizing that could be interpreted a few ways, Ben tried to justify himself. "It means I'm not going insane."

That made Rey laugh a little. The sound filled Ben with a warm feeling, which he guessed must be relief. If she was laughing, she must have been feeling well and decided not to hold a grudge against him.

Ben noticed again how ravenously Rey ate. Thinking back on her behavior and their conversation yesterday, he could better understand why. Rey had grown up on Jakku, a desert planet where food and water were scarce. She was probably used to being hungry and in the habit of accepting whatever food she could. He felt somewhat ashamed for judging her the day before.

"When we're done here," Ben said, "could we go for a walk? I have some questions, and maybe some suggestions."

Rey swallowed a mouthful of food and nodded. "Alright. But since I told you my story, I want to hear yours."

"Mine? It's … not really that interesting."

"You said you're a Jedi padawan. That's pretty interesting to me."

Ben thought carefully and spoke nothing but the truth. "I grew up on Chandrila, but my family is from … a few different planets, actually. My mother is a politician. My father runs a shipping company—that's why I came here, to drop off a delivery for Maz. They both fought in the rebellion. They sent me to train with other Jedi wannabes. We're on a vacation now."

"What's that?"

"What—a vacation?" Ben tried not to smile. "It's … a break from your usual routine. Ours is about two weeks long." He did not add that he was trying to decide whether or not to go back when it was over.

When they left the castle and started walking to the lake, Ben brought up the subject he really wanted to talk about. "I've been thinking. You said you're a porg during the day and a human at night."

"That's right."

"But the whole time that's been happening, you've been here on Takodana?"

"Yes."

"Do you think the change is tied to the rotation of this particular planet, or to whatever planet you happen to be on?"

At this, Rey's frown became thoughtful. "I don't know. I haven't tried to leave."

"Do you want to?" Ben tried to sound casual, just idly curious.

She shrugged. "I don't know where I would go. Maybe if I had my own ship, or a job working on one."

That reminded Ben of something. "Maz said you're a mechanic. Are you good with ships?"

Rey laughed at the question. "Am I … well, I've never flown one, but I know all about how they work. Jakku is a starship graveyard, and I had to go looking in wrecked ships for parts to sell. I had to learn how things work so I could fix them. Once, I even found a flight simulator game, so I taught myself how to pilot a ship, even though I couldn't actually fly one."

Ben tucked that information away, thinking it might be useful someday. His father's company could always use more pilots. Returning to more pressing matters, he asked, "Have you ever used the Force before? Like, did you ever make things happen—sense something before it happened, or make objects move without touching them?" He remembered when he was angry as a child, before he started his training, he had sometimes caused machines to malfunction or made objects float or fall around him. It was episodes like those that made his parents worry so much and eventually decide to send him to the training temple, hoping Luke could help him control his powers.

Rey's brow furrowed as she thought about this, but then she shook her head definitively. "No. I would have remembered."

"You don't think you tapped into the Force at all before you found the lightsaber?"

"Yes."

By now they had reached the other side of the lake, almost out of sight from the castle. Ben stopped walking and turned to face Rey. "Are you even sure you can use it? Could Maz and this sorcerer have been mistaken?"

"Well …" Rey shifted a little. "I've been trying to use it on my own. One time, one of the porgs took the lightsaber and ran off with it. I used the Force to stop him in mid-air and pull him to me."

She glanced at the forest, and then walked up to the line of trees. Ben followed her to a small pile of rocks, apparently left in an arrangement. Rey knelt in front of it and extended her hand. Ben watched, knowing what she was trying to do, wondering if it would be easy or difficult for her.

It took a moment, but as Rey concentrated, the rock at the top of the pile rose slowly into the air. She moved her hand to the right, and it followed before she released it gently onto the ground.

That was something, Ben thought. She had enough power, and enough control over it, for telekinesis. Perhaps the Force had helped her in other ways without her realizing it—led her to shipwrecks with good parts, helped her know intuitively how to fix things, enabled her to survive among other desperate scavengers. But that still did not explain why Maz and the sorcerer believed her to be such a threat to the evil in the galaxy.

Suddenly he realized Rey did not have the Skywalker lightsaber with her. He glanced left and right, and thought he recognized the tree with the hollow where she had stashed her belongings. He stepped backwards onto the beach and reached out toward the tree, trying to sense what he could not see. He thought of his grandfather, Anakin Skywalker, a Jedi Knight and a general in the Clone Wars, and imagined him constructing the saber. Ben thought he could feel the kyber crystal inside. He saw light glinting off metal in the tree hollow, and then the saber came rushing out—but it missed him by a few feet, and Ben turned in surprise to see it land in Rey's outstretched hand. She looked surprised, apprehensive, and more than a little hurt. Ben just stared at her, awed, until she held up the lightsaber in both hands and ignited it. The plasma blade was a light blue.

"Did you come here to try to take this again?" Rey asked.

"No, I just—I had to see."

"See what? That I know how to use it?"

"Well, if you're offering …" Ben drew his own light saber from his belt. Rey's eyes widened as he ignited it. He twirled his wrist, making two opposing circles with his saber. Rey tried to imitate the motion.

Ben had sparred with the other padawans and even, on a few occasions, with Luke, but never with someone with so little training. That being said, Rey did not fight like a complete amateur. She was a bit clumsy, lacking the finesse of a trained Jedi, but she managed to block Ben's attacks, and even pressed back, going on the offensive and forcing him to retreat slightly on the beach.

"Physically, you're a lot stronger than you look," Ben said, panting slightly.

Rey's brow crinkled, but her lips formed a smile, parting slightly to show her teeth. "Thanks … I think." She was rather proud of herself. And well she should be, holding her own against Anakin Skywalker's grandson. If only she knew.

Part of Ben wanted to put her back in her place, show that he was still the superior. So he charged again, but Rey ran around him and forced him to pivot and defend himself against her attack. Ben was going as easy on her as he could, trying to tame instead of hunt, but she kept reversing the dynamic, keeping him on his toes—until, in a sudden burst of determination, she pushed her hand out and sent him flying backwards into the air, his lightsaber slipping from his hand.

Ben fell on his back near the lakeshore and barely avoided falling into the water. The blow knocked the wind out of him, and he lay there for a moment, shocked, reeling, impressed, and mystified. He sat up slowly, propping himself up on his elbows, and saw Rey standing near his feet, looking remarkably formidable for a scrawny slip of a girl. She turned off the Skywalker lightsaber and tilted her head with a kind of wary concern. "Are you all right?"

"I don't understand it," Ben said, getting to his feet. He summoned his lightsaber back to his hand, returned it to his belt in a huff, and turned to face Rey directly. "How could you be so strong in the Force and not know?" He found the whole situation increasingly strange and even unsettling. Why did the lightsaber call to Rey and not him? If she was as powerful as Maz and the sorcerer said, why did her power lie dormant inside her all her life, not manifesting itself the way Ben's had throughout his childhood? Was there something wrong with him?

Rey must have felt that way when she first tapped into it—as though she were a freak. No wonder she had felt frightened and tried to run away.

She broke his gaze and looked down, as reflective and troubled as he felt. "Something inside me has always been there," she said quietly, trying to find the right words to explain. "But now it's awake. And I'm afraid. I don't know what it is, or what to do with it." Her voice was little more than a whisper now, almost breaking as she confessed, "And I need help."

Ben supposed he ought to ask Luke to take on Rey as a student, and invite Rey to train under Luke … but something inside him resisted this idea. If Luke feared Ben's raw, unpredictable power, he was bound to suspect Rey's even more. On the other hand, he could imagine his family doting over Rey, who was simultaneously fierce and fragile, too experienced and too innocent, with a hard shell but a soft heart—like the war heroes in their younger years. Ben could see it already: they would get along with Rey much more easily than they did with him. His mother had always wanted a daughter …

Brushing aside that train of thought, Ben considered another alternative: What if he taught Rey himself? He did not fear her power the way Luke surely would. And it was unlikely that Luke would ever give him a position of leadership or even mentorship. This way, Ben could try his hand at teaching, help her reach the same level of mastery someone her age should have, and not have to share a master's attention with a student more gifted than he.

"You need a teacher," Ben said. "I could show you the ways of the Force."

Rey looked at him skeptically. "You? I just beat you."

"In a little sparring match. I wasn't trying to kill you."

She stuck out her chin. "I've fought off people who wanted to kill me before."

"What if the sorcerer comes back—would you have been able to do that to him?"

At the mention of the sorcerer, Rey grew still and seemed a shade paler in the moonlight. She seemed to deliberate for a moment, then looked back at Ben. "What would you want in return?"

There she went again, wondering about prices, exchanges, and debts. "Nothing."

"I don't believe you."

"Why not?"

"Why would you bother to teach me without getting anything in return?"

It was a fair question. Ben was not even sure he had a satisfactory answer. But suddenly one poured out of him, gaining strength as it came. "My grandfather was a Jedi master. From what I've heard, he was one of the most powerful in the whole Jedi Order. He had two children, my mother and my uncle, but he didn't raise them, so they didn't know they had any kind of power until they were almost grown—maybe around your age. My uncle decided to learn as much as he could about the Jedi and how they used the Force, but my mother didn't—she was too busy rebuilding the political sphere after the war. And my father … he just doesn't understand it. He didn't even believe in the Force before he met my mom and uncle. So neither of my parents were able to help me when my powers started to manifest."

He looked sideways at Rey, whose face had softened with empathy as she listened to him. "I guess … I see myself in you. At least to a certain extent. I may not turn into an animal," he said with a wry smile, which Rey returned, "but I know what it's like to have more power than you know what to do with. I can get you caught up to the level the other padawans are now. There are about a dozen of us living at a training temple. When our vacation is over, I could take you there. You know who runs it?"

"Luke." Rey's eyes were full of wonder and the most tentative kind of hope, the kind that is afraid to grow.

Ben nodded, and then extended a hand toward her, inviting an agreement. "What do you say?"

She regarded him, her eyes shifting from his face to his hand and back. Then she slowly lifted her hand and placed it in his, allowing Ben to close his fingers around it.

Something like an electric shock seemed to pass through both of them—first a jolt, then a kind of warmth spreading from their hands to the rest of their bodies. Their eyes met as they shook and then released each other's hand.

Ben had never felt anything like this—like simultaneously wanting to be closer and farther away. He could sense, somehow, that Rey felt the same way, like there was something dangerous but also enticing about what they had just done, what they were agreeing to do.

He cleared his throat and gestured to the ground, inviting her to sit. "Shall we begin?"

Author's Notes

Disclaimers: Rey's backstory of finding a flight simulation game is from the book Before the Awakening by Greg Rucka. The event Rey describes, when the porgs took her lightsaber, is based on the Star Wars: Forces of Destiny short "Porg Problems."

I thank guest reviewers Dream Plane and El Droide for their kind reviews! I especially appreciate El Droide giving this story a chance—if you have any knowledge or insights about the story from your ballet training, I'd love to talk with you about it! To answer the common question about which version of Swan Lake this is based on, I'm not sticking to one particular adaptation, since there are so many that all tell the story differently. I drew on the 2003 film Barbie of Swan Lake for Rey's backstory because the characters and situations matched up so well—that was the main thing that inspired this project.

I'm posting this on Mardi Gras because I usually take a hiatus from posting fan fiction during Lent, which this year is March 6 until April 21. After Easter I'll try to resume updating every month or so.