Inhale
Exhale
Stepping onto Ahch-To again is painful.
First she came here seeking help and instead met an old man set on running away and hiding from all the turmoil in the galaxy.
Then she came here running from herself while fleeing the truth of her blood, what she had wrought because of it, and what she feared she might further do.
And finally, at the end of it all, she came here to die.
Inhale
Exhale
Even with Ben at her side, the raging storm inside of her refuses to calm.
"He's been here all these years?" Ben asks in stunned disbelief, turning in a quick circle and obviously noticing the distinct lack of other islands nearby. "How did he not go mad? There's no one else here!"
"There are caretakers," Rey says dully, wrapping her arms around herself. "Not that they're much for company."
Ben immediately crowds up against her, tucking her firmly to his side. "Rey, you don't—"
"I do." She sucks in a shuddering breath. "I don't want to even begin to imagine what Luke might do if you're the one who walks up there to him. It has to be me." She just has to remember not to punch the man on sight.
Inhale
Exhale
She starts up with the stone steps with Ben following right behind her. Han and Chewie, while they came with, elected to stay in the Falcon. Rey thinks it might have something to do with the quiet fury slowly building up inside of her. Han probably doesn't want to be nearby when she finally lets loose, and she can't really blame him. She's already born witness to what happens when she lets her emotions get the better of her.
The stone huts are just as she remembers.
It's a bit disconcerning to realize that they're younger than what she remembers.
She shakes those particular thoughts away, and makes for the hut where she knows Leia's lightsaber is tucked away. Ben hovers in the hut's doorway as she reverently pulls the bundled lightsaber out of the hole Luke had stashed it away in. She unties the strings holding the leather around the lightsaber and lifts the blade up. The kyber crystal hums happily in her hand, and she can almost feel a subtle harmony from Anakin's in her satchel.
"I'd wondered where you'd gotten that," Ben murmurs.
"Master Luke showed it to me after I tried to throw your grandfather's into the burning wreckage of your TIE whisper," she says, rocking back onto her heels before straightening up.
Ben blinks at her in befuddlement as she turns to face him. "You crashed my ship here?"
"No, I burned it," she corrects him while stowing Leia's lightsaber away in her satchel. "I wanted to strand myself here. I was running from everything at that point, certain I would be the reason we lost the war. Instead, he convinced me to face my fear and we won." She reaches out and takes hold of his hand to assure herself that he's here with her.
Inhale
Exhale
"We'll need to go to the tree library before we leave and collect the books," she continues once she's centered herself again.
"I feel it, I think," Ben says, looking across the island in the direction of the tree. "It's a powerful beacon of Light. I'm impressed Snoke never felt it in all his searching for my uncle."
Rey huffs out a shaky breath. "I think the planet shields itself, what with the balance of Light and Dark here."
"It is like a siren call," he murmurs, giving her hand a squeeze to let her know that for all that the cave and its depths are calling to him, he's not going to succumb to their offered temptation, "but I understand what you mean about the balance. They do steady each other if you pay close enough attention." He turns to face her again. "Are you sure you don't want me to come with you?"
She steps forward to press her face to his shoulder. "I'm sure," she whispers. "Wait for me here?"
He wraps his free arm around her and holds her close to his steadily beating heart. "Of course."
Inhale
Exhale
The climb up to where Luke is is just as annoyingly long as she remembers it being the first time. Only now she's not a fearful young girl seeking a teacher. Instead she feels more akin to the stories she remembers from her childhood of the desert goddess R'iia from Jakku. A building fury that no mortal can hope to tame.
"I almost feel sorry for my son," Anakin says conversationally, appearing beside her and matching her step for step as she climbs steadily upwards.
"You're not going to try and stop me?"
Anakin snorts. "I know a building sandstorm when I see it, little one. I might have left the desert behind when the Jedi claimed me, but that doesn't mean I completely forgot all the tales I learned as a child at my mother's knee. Apparently, though, my son has elected to ignore the ones he was taught. I learned my lesson long ago of standing in the way of desert justice."
"I won't kill him," she offers, because for all her fury and turmoil and rage, she wants to see Ben and Luke reconciled. She wants to see Luke and Leia reunited for more than just a few moments via Force Projection. She wants things to be right for the Skywalker clan, and that won't happen with Luke dead again.
"The thought that you would never crossed my mind." And then he fades back into the Force as she approaches the last turn before she'll see Luke.
Inhale
Exhale
Her former master is just as she remembers him.
With his back to her, Luke stares out across the vast waters that cover the majority of the planet's surface. And while he's cut himself off from the Force, he still manages to turn around as she approaches on near silent feet. He's just as haggard and tired as before, appearing for all intents and purposes as if he alone carries the weight of the universe on his shoulders for all that he won't kriffing act.
She stops just shy of him before she offers him his father's lightsaber.
He stares at it, then her, as he had the first time. He's a well of infinite sadness and heartbreak that both grates against her nerves and makes her want to cry.
A step forward and Luke takes the offered saber.
Anakin's kyber crystal hums uneasily as it leaves her hand.
Luke almost lovingly turns the weapon over a few times in his hands before glancing back up at her again. The utter dismissal in his eyes has her temper peeking. And then, of course, he flings his father's lightsaber over his shoulder and off the cliff like it means nothing to him.
So she gathers up the full strength of the sandstorm raging inside her and brings it down unerringly hard onto the man.
Inhale
Exhale
"Sleep."
And he drops like a stone.
ATS
Rey is even more upset coming back down than she was going up.
Ben feels her temper near explode for all that she still keeps a tight leash on it, and then she issues an order so powerful he sways where he stands as sleep tickles at his mind. He fights the feeling off, as it's not directed towards him, but he does cast a worrying glance back towards the Falcon while wondering how his father and Chewie fared. However, he'd promised Rey that this would be where he'd wait for her, so it's here he stays. He finally sees her descending on the stone steps, and starts forward to meet her at least half way only to come to an uncoordinated halt when he can really see her.
Luke is flung over Rey's shoulder as she comes stomping towards him with a fierce scowl twisting at her lips.
"Rey?"
"He threw it away again," she spits out through gritted teeth.
He blinks at her in confusion, not sure what she's referring to. "Threw away what, exactly?"
She dumps his unconscious uncle onto one of the stone benches, and he's a little impressed that the man doesn't even stir a bit at the rough treatment. "Anakin's lightsaber. I gave him a kriffing chance to do better than last time, but what does he do? Throws it away like it means nothing to him!"
He stares at her in stunned disbelief, remembering how often Luke mentioned needing to respect his lightsaber. "He threw it away?"
"Tossed it over his shoulder and off the cliff we were standing on. And that's not even getting into the fact that he's bloody cut himself off from the Force!" She exhales sharply, still a raging yet tempered storm bound to human form. "He's marooned himself here, in case you hadn't figured it out yet. His X-Wing is in the ocean."
Ben sucks in a sharp breath, shocked beyond reason at how far his uncle has sunk. When no one could find him before, Ben had assumed that Luke had sequestered himself away to train more before trying to best him, to try and call him back.
Luke, apparently, had had no intentions of chasing down his wayward nephew dipping into the Dark Side. He'd left him to his fate, for all that he dug his heels in and pulled his drowning father back into the Light at the end.
Ben feels a rather abrupt need to sit down.
"Ben!" Rey yelps as he drops unceremoniously to the ground.
"He wasn't even going to try and save me," he whispers hoarsely. "He just—he wasn't—"
Rey hits her knees in front of him, heedless of the stone they're standing on, and gathers him up in her arms. "He was running from everything, not just you. That doesn't excuse him, but it wasn't just you."
Ben barks out harsh laughter, pressing his face into her shoulder as he fights to keep from falling apart again. "I don't know if that should make me feel worse or better."
Rey doesn't try to offer any other commentary, she simply holds him and lets him work through his grief as much as he can at the moment. Ben knows they can't stay like this forever, even as much as he wishes they could. He sort of understands the desire to just run from the chaos of it all. To just forget all the grief and strife plaguing the galaxy. To not have to constantly worry about who's going to try and slip a knife between his ribs because of who he was and who he followed, or who might try and seduce him to do their bidding again.
However, that doesn't mean he will.
Neither of them will.
They are both too invested in this fight to do anything but stand and face the Darkness looming over them all. They've faced their fears and conquered them.
Footsteps come hurrying up the stone steps, and then an out of breath Han demands, "Are you alright?" Faintly, over the crashing of waves, Ben can make out the sound of the Falcon's engines revving in preflight readiness. "Kid, are you—kriffing hell, that's Luke." His father fumbles to a stop to stare wide-eyed at his brother-in-law and friend. Then his eyes go hard as he looks to Ben and Rey still sitting on the ground. "What'd Luke do?" he demands. A few steps puts him between them and Luke, and his hand rests by his blaster with the deceptive ease of one ready to draw at a moment's notice.
Ben barely hangs onto his just rallied emotions when he realizes that Han just put himself in front of his friend for him. He's made himself a barrier between Ben and Luke while taking Ben's side. He looks liable to shoot Luke if Ben gives the word, no further questions asked. There's a steadied determination about him that reminds Ben that for all his father was a flighty bastard for much of his youth, he still stood beside his mother and uncle to face down the Empire terrorizing the galaxy.
"He failed my test, so I put him to sleep," Rey states flatly.
Han blinks, the battle hardened warrior disappearing as he looks at her with impressed disbelief. "That'd be why Chewie and I felt woozy there for a moment?"
Ben feels more than sees Rey's brief moment of sheepishness through their bond. "I wanted to make sure it stuck."
Han snorts out a chuckle. "Well, I'd say it did. We stickin around till he wakes up?"
Rey shakes her head. "No, I won't be able to surprise him like this again anytime soon. We need to get him onto the Falcon and leave before he does wake up, otherwise we're not going to get him off this planet without a fight."
An eyebrow rises as Han regards his friend with obvious disappointment. "That so? Well then, I'll just go get Chewie so he can lug Luke to the Falcon. Any reason to stick around after that?"
Rey pulls away to get to her feet, and Ben misses the heat of her the instant she moves. She offers him a hand that he takes, easily helping him up as well. "There is one place I need to check, but after that we'll be able to go."
"Be right back then." Han starts back towards his ship, clapping a hand on Ben's shoulder as he passes.
They watch him go until he disappears into the ship before Rey exhales loudly. "Do you want to come with me to the tree library?"
Ben wrenches his eyes away from the Falcon where he'd been waiting for the Wookie to appear back to where his unconscious uncle still is. If he doesn't go with her, he'll either be waiting here with Luke or trudging down to the Falcon by himself where he'll be alone with his father, something he doesn't quite think he's ready for just yet.
"Please."
ATS
When Luke comes to, his head hurts.
His head hurts, it tastes like there's grit in his mouth, and he's very rapidly realizing that he's no longer on Ahch-To given the faint humming sound only found on a ship. And he sunk his X-Wing first thing when he landed on Ahch-To.
Abruptly sitting up turns out to be a bad idea, as it just makes his head hurt even more. When the pounding somewhat dies down and he can actually look at his surroundings, he's very startled to realize that he recognizes them.
He's on the Millennium Falcon.
Last he heard, Han had lost this ship to Ducain.
And the girl who'd approached him, while worn, hadn't seemed smuggler worn. She'd been desert worn and desert tempered. Much like he had been in his youth. He does wonder where exactly she found his father's lightsaber.
The thought of his father's weapon reminds him of his own, and he belatedly wonders if it got left on Ahch-To along with Leia's. Because while the girl might've managed to make him sleep through sheer force of will, he can't imagine she'll have been able to find his sister's saber in addition to his own. Then, just to prove him wrong, his eyes go and actually spot his saber. Because of course it's got to be sitting innocently beside the bunk she put him. He gingerly picks it up, wondering with more than a bit of self-loathing how much the crystal must be yelling at him. He almost wants to open himself back up to the Force if only to hear, but he can't bear the ache in his chest if he does. Instead he places it back where he found it to contemplate later.
And then he catches the faint sound of two people talking, so he levers himself off the bed and makes himself walk towards them on slightly unsteady feet.
"—fine, Master. Snips is with them, as is Master Jinn. They won't let them do anything too stupid, and would you look at that, my wayward son is finally awake."
Luke stumbles to a halt at the sight of his father and a young Obi-Wan Kenobi from the days of the Clone Wars sitting calmly in the main hold of the Falcon like they visited all the time when in truth Luke hasn't seen or heard from either of them since Endor. "Father?" he chokes out past the lump in his throat.
"Hello son." Anakin is sporting a desert sharp grin as he rises from where he'd been lounging. "I've gotta say, I was impressed Rey managed to knock you flat on your ass like that. It really was a thing of beauty."
Luke blinks in befuddlement, wondering at the familiarity in his father's voice when he mentions the girl who'd apparently managed to successfully knock him out with the Force for all that he'd never heard of her before. "You...You know the girl?"
Anakin inclines his head. "I do. She's as much a child of the desert as you and I were. I helped her when I could, taught her the stories of Tatooine in return for her stories of Jakku, and showed her some pretty neat Force tricks along the way."
"I do recall Master Yoda and Master Windu had a few choice words for you after that particular incident," Obi-Wan interjects dryly, "mostly because we do not need another Skywalker running around with your insane abilities. The galaxy can only take so much Skywalker drama at a time."
"Skywalker?" Luke all but yelps because what? "Leia didn't—"
"Rey is not a Skywalker by blood," Anakin interrupts. "However, she had no family name to claim as her own growing up, so I didn't protest when she started using mine."
"She gets into enough mischief to be one at any rate," Obi-Wan says blandly. "You were a handful growing up, Luke here drove the Lars' near to distraction on many occasions, Leia apparently was a precocious little girl in her youth, and Ben has repeatedly displayed a rather horrifying mixture of your family's odd style of luck to go along with Solo levels of recklessness. Given the vast majority of stunts young Rey has pulled, she fits right in with you all."
Amusement and a fair bit of embarrassment flood Luke at the listing of his family's history for shenanigans, but the casual mention of Ben, his great failure, is like a punch to the gut. "Father, I—"
Anakin immediately cuts him off. "Oh, we're not going to get into that just yet. That'll have to wait until your sister joins us."
"Leia's coming?" It's both a thrilling and terrifying thought. He hasn't seen his sister once since he lost her son six years ago. Even cut off from the Force, he still aches for his sister in ways he can't even begin to describe. However, he's not sure he can handle her disappointment, not after all this time.
The look his father gives him is very obviously questioning his intelligence. "Of course she's coming, she's been looking for you for years." Luke gulps at that rather intimidating knowledge. Leia's probably on a warpath by now, and woe unto anyone or anything who stands in her way. "In any event, you'll have your chance to say your part once she catches up with us. For now, I'd suggest going to introduce yourself properly to your new companion."
Luke grimaces, but knows his father speaks the truth. The girl, Rey, is a very powerful Force user, and it would be a bad idea to leave her unattended and unguided, no matter how much the idea of taking on another padawen grates at old injuries. "Hopefully she won't put me to sleep again," he says a touch ruefully. He's impressed with that despite himself.
Neither Obi-Wan or Anakin cracks a joke at his very poor attempt at humor. Instead, both regard him with such intense levels of scrutiny that he's rather alarmingly reminded that both men were Generals once upon a time. Just like Leia, a look of condemning judgement from them can rattle even the steadiest of men to their bones, and Luke is feeling very judged right now.
"She should be just outside," Anakin finally says in a soft yet flat tone. "And son? I'd suggest not provoking her."
With that somewhat terrifying warning ringing in his ears, Luke crosses the main hold to find the boarding ramp already lowered. He pauses at the top of it, sucking in a deep breath as he steels himself for what he's about to do.
And then the sound of something he hasn't heard in years registers.
The humming buzz of lightsabers clashing.
Heedless of the loud thunking of his boots on the steel ramp, he hurries down to a sight that immediately stops him in his tracks.
Two figures circle each other, one in sand-stained white and the other in dusty black. Both wield blue sabers that they handle with an ease born of years of usage. As they move, Luke realizes that the sand-stained white person is Rey. She's sporting a look of fierce concentration, eyes locked unerringly onto her opponent. They charge with no visible prompting, sabers locking together only to rickashay off as they weave around each other. It's then that the person in dusty black's face finally turns towards him.
"Ben?!"
At his startled exclamation, the two fighters freeze before almost warily turning to face him fully.
And it is Ben. Luke would like to think that he knows his nephew and he definitely knows the Dark Side. There's a certain air about someone messing with it, a sort of haughtiness that's hard to replicate, and his nephew shows none of those signs.
Instead, he stares at Luke wide-eyed and chest heaving.
Luke takes a hesitant step forward, unsure if what he's seeing is actually true for all that he wants it to be.
Ben stumbles backwards a step, lightsaber falling from limp fingers.
Rey is between them as Ben hits his knees. She follows him down, gathering the fracturing boy up into her arms as he starts to cry. Great heaving sobs tear their way out of his throat, and Luke finds all he can do is stare. Stare in dawning horrified realization that he is the reason Ben is like this.
It was the sight of him that broke Ben.
It was the sight of him that drove his nephew to his knees like this.
It was the sight of him that has him crying out what seems like a lifetime of emotions into the welcoming arms of a desert girl who holds him like he's her whole world.
"Well that could've gone better."
The familiar drawl of his friend and brother-in-law is what finally makes Luke look away.
"Han?"
The man is standing beside his ship, arms crossed, shoulders tense, and scowling heavily. "What'd ya do this time, kid? This is the fourth time in two days my son has had a meltdown like this, and I gotta say, I'm gettin real sick of it. So what'd ya do to make him start crying again?"
Luke finds he can only sputter. "I didn't—I didn't do—"
"He tried to approach Ben, and my grandson was apparently not prepared to see my son awake anytime soon," Anakin states blandly, appearing between the two of them. "Rey is soothing the panic attack that produced."
"Father!" Luke yelps, wondering at how Han doesn't seem the least bit surprised to see the Force ghost of Anakin Skywalker.
Han does swear under his breath, but he relaxes the rigidity of his stance. "Great."
"What—?" Luke's eyes dart between the two. "I don't understand."
"Yeah?" Han scoffs. "Welcome to my life."
