Apologies for the wait, just went through a strange period in my life. Also, is the switching between Ren and Ben confusing? Either way, it is intentional haha. enjoy ~

Sofie sat in the ship's chair and zoned out. She felt completely helpless. Her mind filled with worse-case scenarios and any drive she had was now replaced with dread.

She decided that the only thing she could do for now was to go home.

Sofie returned to the Resistance base on D'Qar and tried to ensure that her arrival had minimal fanfare. She tried not to blame anyone except Ben for Lana's abduction, but it was hard to ignore the 'what-ifs'.

Sofie returned Leia's ship, put on her best poker face, and made her way to her room with minimal conversation. Once she made it to her room, she flopped into her bed, held onto her pillow tightly and cried.

She gave herself a moment to miss Lana, be furious with Ben, and be disappointed with Leia. She also scolded herself, thinking of all the things she could have done differently.

Then, her emotions subsided as she fell into a deep sleep.

Knock, knock.

"...yes?" Sofie woke up and said sleepily, trying to regain her composure. She wondered how long she had been asleep.

"Sofie? It's Leia, can I come in?" She heard the voice say through the door.

Sofie got up in a rush and a pit appeared in her stomach. She opened the door and saw Leia standing with her arms folded. Sofie guessed that she already knew how her attempt to retrieve Lana had gone.

"I wanted to see how you were doing," Leia told her.

Sofie let Leia inside and they both sat at the standard table and chairs provided in each room.

"I'm doing… not too well." Sofie told Leia. She avoided eye contact with her.

Leia sighed. "I'm sorry I didn't do more," she started. "I had no idea. I trusted Sadiana." Sofie shook her head in understanding.

"I know. I did too, and she was so supportive of the Resistance." Sofie said.

"Sofie," Leia started bluntly. "I know that rescuing Lana is your top priority right now, but I have a proposition that might benefit both of us."

Sofie eyed Leia curiously. Admittedly, while consumed with issues that were personal to her, she forgot about the conflict that had started to overtake the whole galaxy.

"I have intel coming in that will tell us where Luke went. If we convince him to come fight with us, maybe he can help find Lana as well." Leia told Sofie.

"You think he'll listen to me?" Sofie asked her. She knew she could probably make an emotionally-driven case for Luke to come back, but she reflected back to him leaving the Jedi Academy after it burned down. He didn't care.

"At this point, we're getting desperate and anything is worth a try. Besides, you were one of his students." Leia told her.

Sofie thought of Lana, and decided that Leia was right. It was worth a try.

Within the week, Leia had successfully located Luke, and once Sofie heard the news, she was ready to go to him within the hour. She grew more anxious for Lana with every passing day.

She borrowed Leia's ship once again and began to travel to the coordinates given to her.

Sofie landed on a lush, green archipelago surrounded by a seemingly endless amount of water.

She exited the ship and took in the air. For some reason, it reminded her of the Jedi Academy.

She walked carefully across the island, taking in the sight of the cliffs and ocean. A short walk from where she had landed, she found a cluster of huts. She walked through them and eventually spotted a figure standing near a cliff. Sofie walked faster towards the figure.

"Luke!" She called out to him once he was in earshot. The figure turned towards her. She could tell that it was him, even from afar.

Sofie walked up to him but stopped a distance back. She tried to gauge what he was feeling, but was puzzled by his solemn expression.

"What are you doing here?" He asked her with amusement in his voice.

Sofie crossed her arms. "I'm sure you have a few guesses."

"I could," Luke remarked, "But you won't like any of my responses to them." Sofie frowned. She had to be transparent.

"There's a lot of conflict happening out there," Sofie began to explain. "And Leia… she said you could help us out. You could come help and fight for the Resistance."

Sofie struggled to read Luke's face.

"You could come and help us fight Ben- or rather, Kylo Ren." Sofie said somewhat meekly. She knew that Ben was the reason for his self-isolation.

Luke stepped closer to Sofie, a look of regret flashed on his face.

"I would only make it worse, trust me, Sofie." Luke said to her.

Sofie felt frustration building in her. She felt like she was talking to the same exact Luke she had seen at the Jedi Academy. One that had lost hope in Ben and the Jedi as a whole.

"I know I went against you at the Jedi Academy. But, there's a reason I also need your help." Sofie pleaded with Luke. He narrowed his eyes at her, slightly expecting a tirade about saving Ben.

"I have a child. She's two and Ben's." Sofie felt an anxiety rising in her. "And they took her. The First Order did, Ben did. They tricked Leia and I."

Luke looked at her with slight interest, he knew he had failed to stop their relationship, but he was surprised by the outcome, nonetheless.

"I'm sure they're not going to hurt her, at most maybe they'll use her as leverage— but either way, I still want her back." Sofie bit her lip. "I know Ben is a lost cause to you, but Lana isn't to me."

Luke quickly walked past Sofie. Sofie turned around and watched him head towards the huts.

Sofie laughed in disbelief.

"You're giving me no answer?" She yelled towards Luke. He just motioned with his hand to follow her.

Sofie sighed but followed him anyway.

On Supremacy, Ren tried to make arrangements for Lana, but Snoke, who originally had immense interest in Lana, but was now brushing her off.

He assured Ren that they would eventually place her in their academy for Force-sensitive youth, but told him to teach her to the best of his ability for now.

Ren was annoyed. He had other responsibilities and was under the impression that Snoke would take care of Lana. Instead, he had pawned her off onto him.

But Ren was also not surprised, it fit a pattern he had been seeing recently. He was being brushed off again and again.

Ren ordered a couple of stormtroopers to bring a youngling bed to his quarters.

This is absurd, he thought to himself in full gear while watching the stormtroopers build the tiny bed in the spare room he previously used to meditate. He wondered if this was an elaborate test from Snoke, but he also couldn't imagine what he would learn from the experience.

Once the bed was built, the stormtroopers asked if there was anything else he needed. Ren pondered for a moment.

"Find me a caretaker," he said to them through his mask. "I don't care who it is." The stormtroopers nodded and left.

Ren took off his mask and made his way to Lana who was napping on his bed. He stood in front of the bed and rubbed his temples. She was a handful, but it was hard for him to ignore her whenever she cried about something.

Lana rustled and Ren perked up, wondering what she would want this time. It took forever to get her to sleep, she cried nonstop and refused to lay down. She only slept after exhausting herself.

Instead of waking up, she fell back asleep. Ren sighed in relief and let her be. It would give him a few more moments of freedom. He did not want to deal with putting her to sleep again.

On Ahch-To, Luke resisted Sofie's pleadings for help. Between their seemingly endless debates, Luke continued chores as usual. Sofie doubted that he was taking her seriously. She wondered if he actually arguing with her and hearing her case.

Now desperate for any help, Sofie tried a different angle while watching him clean up his hut.

"Look, I understand your issues with the Jedi and I know that you coming to help the Resistance could be against whatever values you have now," Sofie was exasperated at this point, but still determined to get something. "Could you at least train me so that I can be properly matched against Ben?" Sofie asked him.

Luke looked at her, he seemed confused.

"You almost matched him at the academy, didn't you? Besides, what could I teach you? You were already my student for years." Luke asked Sofie. She sighed.

"I did fight Ben a couple of years ago after the academy collapsed. But we knew each others' fighting styles too well. Besides, he's been training as Kylo Ren all this time. I rarely get a chance to train." Sofie explained to Luke. This seemed to resonate with Luke. Maybe he would be fine with her almost as a proxy.

"Fine, I'll train you a bit more, and I guess we'll see how much you remember."

With the remainder of the day, Luke and Sofie trained in the basics. At nighttime, he let her stay in one of the huts.

Sofie did not enjoy being alone with her thoughts in the hut. She sat on the uncomfortable bed that attempted to cushion rock with grass.

She tried to close her eyes for sleep, but then jumped upon hearing a too familiar voice.

"What is this?" It was Ben, of course. His words implied he could see Sofie's surroundings. She prayed that he couldn't tell where she was.

"You have a lot of gall showing up here." Sofie said to him, sitting up in her bed.

Nothing from Ben.

"She's fine. She's acclimating perfectly over here." Ren said to Sofie, ignoring her comment.

"Really? I expected her to cry all the time, especially since you couldn't possibly know how to take care of her." Sofie mocked and crossed her arms.

"And I would have expected a good mother to be looking for or have already found her child." Sofie frowned, but he continued, "Also, we have the best caretakers here, for the record." Ren shot back.

This feels so petty, she thought. She contemplated trying to imitate him into confessing something. She kept quiet for a moment instead.

"She needs a stuffed creature to fall asleep quickly." Sofie stated. Ren looked at her blankly, but she could also see an understanding in his eyes.

"Okay," was all he said. Sofie fumed silently and resisted ranting. She had yelled at him enough, and he knew that she wouldn't hesitate to strike him down if given the chance.

"Why did you connect with me, anyway?" Sofie asked him.

Ren was surprised at the change in her demeanor from last time. He had connected with her because he had expected her on Supremacy already. Instead, the Resistance as a whole had been quieter than usual.

"I'm just getting intel." Ren replied.

Sure you are, Sofie thought. She tried to sit comfortably on the bed.

When she looked towards Ben again, he was gone.

Her heart sank slightly as she looked around the empty hut.

She was alone.

Luke made sure to wake up Sofie early the next morning. She groaned at the sound of his voice.

They shared a simple breakfast and set out near the cliffs to practice.

On the walk over, Luke decided to be blunt with her.

"I could tell yesterday that you're out of practice, but you'll have plenty of room for improvement." Luke said to Sofie. They sat next to a cliff.

"But I can still incorporate my tricks, right?" Sofie asked with a smile.

Luke sighed. "Flipping around like that just distracts yourself." Sofie opened her mouth to speak but Luke quickly put his hand up, "Let's meditate on it first."

Sofie sighed but knew that Luke was right. She was in desperate need of meditation and she had not done it properly since the Jedi Academy.

Sofie closed her eyes and figured that the Jedi Academy was a good place to pick up her meditation so she could resolve her feelings.

The stormtrooper hesitated as he stood in front of the towering, fully suited Kylo Ren. The stormtrooper was afraid to repeat what Ren had said, because he figured that he had misspoke.

"Sir, you said that… you need a stuffed creature?" The stormtrooper finally mustered the courage to repeat Ren's request.

"Did I stutter?" Ren said back to him, hiding his embarrassment.

"No. I will get that as quickly as I can for you." The stormtrooper said and continued down the hall nonchalantly.

Ren also continued down the hall. He was tense and anxious to return to his quarters. Earlier in the day he had met with Hux and Snoke to discuss their next steps against the Resistance. They had suspected that the droid they were trying to capture had made it to the Resistance and revealed Luke Skywalker's location. This was a major issue for them.

Ren felt an anger rising in him as he thought about Luke. However, he knew he needed to channel the anger properly. Snoke had ordered them to destroy the Resistance's base, he needed to focus on that first.

Ren opened the door to his quarters and was greeted by the sight of Lana riding piggyback on one of the two stormtroopers in his room. He had ordered them earlier in the day to watch her while he worked.

The stormtrooper dropped Lana at the sight of Ren. He ordered them both to leave.

Lana started to cry. She had actually been enjoying herself.

Ren grunted in anger. He was trying to be tolerant of her, but he did need to remove himself occasionally. He called the stormtroopers back in and ordered them to stay and put her to sleep.

He took a moment to seriously contemplate moving her somewhere else.

Luke had Sofie meditate religiously over the span of three days. As he suspected, she had allowed herself to let some of her resentment, anger, and anxiety consume her.

He figured it was simply a symptom of the previous events and recalled his own process of dealing with what happened after the Jedi Academy.

At the end of their training session, Luke addressed Sofie seriously.

"Sofie, your attachment to what happened will always be your weakness, no matter how much you train." Luke said to Sofie at the end of their session for the day. However, he also admitted to her that he was impressed by her progress.

Sofie and Luke walked back to huts and engaged in a bit of small-talk about their days at the academy.

They were half-way there when Sofie suddenly stopped. She clenched her chest. A headache consumed her. Her knees went numb and her eyes blurry.

Luke rushed to her, but then felt it too in a weaker form. He helped her steady herself.

"You… felt it too?" Sofie asked Luke weakly. He nodded at her.

Sofie managed to get to her hut, still bewildered from the experience.

Exhaustion quickly consumed her.

She slept for several hours until something disturbed her.

Sofie slowly awoke, and immediately thought that her eyes were tricking her. She sat up and rubbed her eyes, realizing that it was Ben in casual clothes sitting in the hut.

"God, you scared me," She breathed out. He said nothing. His figure sat on the chair in the hut with his hands in his face. Sofie shuddered.

A realization dawned over her.

That disturbance, she thought to herself, was it him?

"What happened?" She finally asked Ben. He looked up at her. His eyes conveyed misery. Sofie felt her stomach drop. Was he trying to manipulate her? Trick her?

"I did it." He gasped out. "I killed him."

Sofie gulped and squeezed her palm. She could feel his pain, and it disturbed her.

She took a moment to feel it.

"Han." She said quietly under her breath.

She tried not to silently judge him, but it was hard not to. Tears appeared in the corners of her eyes.

She was shocked equally by what he had done, and his reaction.

"I did it, and Snoke still didn't care. He said that he could still feel the conflict inside me." Ben said, his voice shaking.

Sofie didn't know what to say. She was afraid of saying the wrong thing and moving him further away from his true self.

She stood up and carefully moved towards him. She placed a gentle hand in his shoulder.

What he had done was undoubtedly wrong, but what Sofie saw in front of her reignited a spark of hope.

Ren felt Sofie put her hand on his shoulder. He closed his eyes and breathed in deeply.

He knew she wouldn't join him without a fight, but in the moment he felt something that told him she would be easier to turn than he had previously thought.

Sofie heard sudden crying in the distance. She whipped her head to the right but only saw the wall of the hut.

"Lana?" She called out into the air. Ren looked towards the spare room.

"Ben, please. I need to see her." She gripped his shoulder and locked eyes with him. She hated herself in the moment, overlooking a murder for her own daughter.

However, they shared something in the moment. Something they both understood.

"...something can be arranged." Ren said quietly.

Sofie was packed to leave before the sun came up. She contemplated telling Luke that she was leaving, but decided it was best to keep a low-profile.

She started up Leia's ship once again. Several messages flooded into the ship. She figured that she could listen to them while following the coordinates given to her by Ben.

He instructed her to fly just outside the range of Supremacy. From there, he would fly his shuttle to her and pick her up.

Sofie was nervous. Factually, what she was doing was wrong, despite her gut urging her on.

Sofie became tense while listening to the messages sent by Leia. The messages recapped everything that had happened while Sofie was training with Luke. Leia narrated the infiltration of Supremacy to stop D'Qar from being destroyed. She also explained that they had left the base and relocated to Raddus.

Sofie stopped at the coordinates given to her by Ben. There was nothing around her. She hoped it wasn't a trap.

Finally, a shuttle appeared. Sofie let the shuttle connect. She also placed her hand on her lightsaber as the lock opened.

Ben walked through, helmet under his arm.

He eyed her hand. She moved it to her side.

"Sorry," she said to him. "You can never be too safe."

They shared a moment of silence, both feeling the awkwardness of such a neutral meeting.

Ben stepped towards her and handed her a set of clothes.

"Wear this, barely anyone in the First Order saw you the first time, but this will help you blend in. But... everyone finds Lana annoying and will avoid you anyway." He said to her. She shot him a look.

The clothes Ben gave her consisted of a dark cloak, long sleeves and pants.

"Also," he looked at her seriously, "You have to call me Ren. Nobody is allowed to call me Ben here." Sofie begrudgingly nodded.

She couldn't wait to tell Lana what she sacrificed for her once she was older.

"What's your new name?" Ren asked her. She narrowed her eyes.

"Aya Zel." Sofie said confidently. She could tell that Ben was indifferent with her choice.

They boarded his shuttle and Sofie looked back at Leia's ship sadly. She wished that she could tell her that everything was going to be okay.

She needed to protect Lana, and she could sense a mutual understanding with Ben.

They both needed something from each other.