Reaching out beyond the horizon, the sand plains lay quiet in the hazy purple of evening. The binary suns had set not long ago. Blazing heat gave way to sudden cool, and whatever miniscule amount of moisture not sapped away by the daytime heat immediately condensed on the closest solid surface.

One of these surfaces was Rey's face, serene and still, eyes narrowed, gaze far away, beyond the horizon, beyond the atmosphere, light years away. Even if she had not been lost in meditation, she wouldn't have wiped the moisture away. That water was precious, a welcome, cooling silk on her sunburned skin.

It had been so easy when Master Skywalker had taught her to relax into the currents of the Force. From the moment of her awakening, she had fought the current, tried to run against it, frightened by its wild twists and turns, currents pulling in different directions, never knowing where they would lead.

Or if she would drown.

And now? There was a stillness, a balance in the energy of the Force. The galaxy celebrated the fall of the First Order, the light had triumphed over darkness, and the Sith had been condemned back into the dark corners of the universe.

But for Rey, this balance came at a price. In the moments after Ben Solo had poured his energy into her wounds, without hesitation, in a complete act of selflessness, Rey had seen a future in which they had lived quietly together, here at this homestead. A future different from the vision Snoke had smuggled into her mind, a future in which Ben could not redeem himself in the eyes of the galaxy, but could have lived his life quietly by the side of the one person in the galaxy who believed and fought for him to come back into the light.

But that future faded as Ben vanished into the Force, leaving Rey alive and alone, in the eerie quiet of the destroyed Sith palance.

A steady shhh of sand drew Rey from her thoughts, and BB8's inquisitive warbles drew her eyes from the horizon and towards the orange and white droid as it rumbled towards her.

"It's okay; I'm done meditating," Rey assured him gently, placing a hand on his domed head, and eyeing his antenna out of habit.

BB8 rocked back and forth, and the tones of his beeps and whistles sounded an awful lot like whining.

"Well," Rey said, smiling despite herself, "I don't know if you ever get to the point where you enjoy the sand. You just get used to it. Come on, then. Let's get indoors."

There were still places in the homestead that felt haunted. Rey was convinced that the surfaces in the home held memories. Placing her hand on the table would bring the briefest image of a sandy-haired boy running through the room with a model starfighter, whispered worried conversations, and sometimes, a jolt of terror and pain and the acrid smell of smoke.

The kitchen, however, held the warmest memories, like the exhausted, contented sigh after a day's good work. Rey delighted in this space, having never had a kitchen before, and spent much of her waking moments here. Learning to cook the foods she brought home from the market or from travelling vendors had filled her with an unexpected joy. She was convinced Finn and Poe visited just for the food.

Chuckling at the recent memories of her friends sitting around the table, sipping their cups of blue milk, Rey finished preparing her dinner. As she sat down at the table, BB8 piped up from the doorway.

"Oh sure thing. Go ahead and power down for a charging cycle. I've got everything in hand."

BB8 scooted away towards the speeder bay, and Rey's reassuring smile faded.

These quiet moments were the worst.

She wasn't sure if Ben's final sacrifice still lived inside her. After all, the Force was a flow of energy, but she had never felt entirely alone after he had saved her life. The memories of her battles with Kylo Ren, of the moments she saw glimpses of Ben Solo, of the times she tried desperately to bring him back to the light side, of those last few moments when he had really come back to himself, flooded her mind in these quiet moments alone. They were overwhelming.

"Rey, you have to go on," the familiar, weathered voice of Master Skywalker said gently.

Rey opened her eyes, not realizing she had closed them, and Master Skywalker was there, his Force ghost sitting across the table from her, one stern eyebrow raised.

"I am," Rey said, realizing immediately how defensive and childish she sounded. She cast her eyes on the table's surface, not even able to meet her own eyes reflected there.

"No," Luke said firmly. "You've gone back. You're trying to be Rey from Nowhere."

Rey's gaze shot up, her eyes narrowed in fury, "I'm no-"

But the words died on her lips as she realized how ridiculous she sounded. She faltered, sighing out the breath she would have used to argue with him, and set her mouth in a grim line instead.

Master Skywalker watched her carefully.

"Where is Ben?" she demanded suddenly, her voice rising in volume and pitch. She was embarrassed by her agitation and anger, but it all came tumbling out of her before she could stop herself. "He became one with the Force when he died. I saw it. Why isn't he-" she choked on an unexpected sob, feeling anger rise in her as tears filled her eyes. "Why isn't he here?!"

"He's not ready," Master Skywalker said gently. He saw the rage rising in her, and said more firmly, "and neither are you."

Something deep inside Rey snapped. She didn't remember standing, but heard her stool clatter as it tipped over onto the floor. She slammed her hands down on the table, ignoring her stinging palms, and glared daggers across the table at the Jedi before her.

'How can you tell me I'm not ready?!" she cried. "I helped the Resistance defeat the First Order, I–"

"Defeated a dark lord of the Sith? Turned his apprentice back to the light side, only to have him die in your arms?" Master Skywalker asked calmly, knowingly, but not unkindly. His words gave Rey pause, and something shifted her anger towards understanding. "I think I might be the only one in the galaxy qualified to tell you you aren't ready."

"This is different," even as the words left her mouth, Rey knew they weren't true. Defeated, deflated, she picked up her stool and sat back down, head in her hands, furious at herself as she broke down in tears.

"Rey," Master Skywalker said gently, after a moment. "The Jedi got many things wrong, and I think one of them is their insistence on detachment. Your capacity to love, to believe, to care, is what brought Ben back from the dark side. That is how I brought Anakin back, too.

"You did it, and now you need to let him go. He is not coming back, not in the way that you hope."

Rey sighed, and her breath shuddered with sobs. She wiped her eyes.

"I feel so alone without him," she said miserably.

"You are not alone," Master Skywalker said firmly.

The sound of the comm made Rey jump. She turned to look at it, and when she looked back across the table, Master Skywalker had vanished.

She wiped her eyes furiously, took a sip of blue milk to help clear her throat, and answered the comm. Finn and Poe's faces appeared, and their smiles quickly vanished at the sight of her.

"Yep, I knew something must be up. We're coming to visit. See you in the morning," Poe said with authority, and abruptly left the frame.

"He's right," Finn said before Rey could protest. "What's going on? Are you still having nightmares?"

"I'm fine," Rey protested, but even she didn't believe it. "I just need time."

"Yeah, time with people who care about you. We'll bring some ronto, and we'll be there by sunrise," Finn insisted.

"But what about all the hearings? You're supposed to be testifying in the war crime trials," Rey insisted.

"We'll do it over hologram," Finn said simply. "There are plenty of good, intelligent people taking the reins. They can make do without us for a few days."

Rey nodded, unable to argue further.

"Go get some sleep," Finn told her. "See you in the morning."