Chapter 2 – Rey
The sound of birds twittered over her head, rousing Rey from unconsciousness. A soundless scream pressed out of her as she squeezed her eyes shut. She rolled to her side, gagging and retching as her stomach knotted in pain. Tears streamed down her face until her body finally calmed and she shifted onto her back again. She wrapped her arms around her body protectively. The memory of the intense pain of traveling there only gradually faded from her mind.
She squinted her eyes open slightly. Her blurry vision revealed green trees surrounding her, and for one moment, panic gripped her at the thought that she still remained on the unnamed jungle planet. In the past, she'd have no ship there, no form of communication. She'd have been trapped.
A cooling breeze wafted over her, smelling like the ocean. It reminded her of Ahch-To, which calmed her since there was no ocean anywhere near the temple she'd just come from.
She groaned when she finally sat up. Her lightsaber remained clipped to her belt but the bag with the book in it was nowhere to be seen. She slowly got up on her feet, but her head was so dizzy and her legs so wobbly she had to cling to a tree until her muscles were ready to start working again.
"Are you alright?"
Rey startled and turned to see a boy with bright blue hair behind her. He looked young and dressed in brown robes. "I think so."
He frowned. "I was out for a walk and I think I felt a disturbance in the Force. How did you get here? There isn't a village anywhere near here and no ships have come in."
Rey ignored his question. "This is where Master Skywalker's training temple is, right?" She felt steadier so pushed away from the tree and walked over to him.
The boy's gaze touched on the lightsaber at her side and his eyes almost doubled in size. "Y-Yes," he stammered, never looking away from the lightsaber.
"I must speak with Master Skywalker on a very urgent matter."
His bright blue eyes, matching his hair, touched hers for the first time and he nodded. "This way."
She followed him out of the woods. As she looked across a large field, she gasped at the structure beyond. It amazed her to see a Jedi Temple new and humming with life, rather than all the dead ones in ruins she'd been searching through. A great domed building made of dark stone loomed in the middle of the complex. There were little huts off to one side serving as rooms for the Padawans. A garden bloomed beautifully behind those. People, many of them children, dressed in the same robes seemed to be enjoying the atmosphere.
"Are you really a Jedi?" the boy leading her asked. "I thought they were all killed during the Clone Wars and Master Skywalker was the last one."
Rey sighed. "What's your name?"
He smiled shyly. "Alkos."
"Nice to meet you, Alkos. I'm Rey. And the answer to your question is that it's a long story." She noticed people looking at them now that they got closer. Her eyes widened as she watched Luke Skywalker walking towards them.
Obviously, he was much younger than when she trained with him on Ahch-To. His hair was brown and his beard short, far fewer lines on his face and his shoulders weren't yet slumped with the weight of his failures. He said something to those following him that Rey didn't catch, but they all stopped in their tracks and only he approached them. She saw him sizing her up, his eyes lingering on her lightsaber before turning to Alkos.
"Alkos, will you please inform the others to prepare for sparring while I attend to our visitor. I'd like you to lead the class if I'm not there in time."
A huge smile spread across the boy's face. Rey noticed even his teeth were tipped in matching blue. "Really?" Then, realizing he'd forgotten himself, his face grew serious. "As you wish, Master Skywalker." He jogged back to the waiting Padawans, who scattered after that.
Luke turned back to her. "How may we be of service to you?"
Suddenly self-conscious, Rey bowed deeply. "Master Skywalker, I've traveled a very long distance to discuss an urgent matter with you."
His brows drew together. "Most of the civilization on this planet doesn't use spaceflight, so we can detect the few ships that arrive. None have. Did you walk here?"
"Not exactly."
He nodded to her lightsaber. "Buy that on the black market? My brother-in-law is a smuggler and he's seen a few for sale."
"I crafted it myself."
Luke's eyebrows rose.
Rey held up a hand before he could say anything more. "I promise to answer all your questions. I intend to tell you everything. Is there somewhere private we can talk?"
Luke nodded and led her inside the temple. Rey couldn't seem to look at everything fast enough before he ushered her into his private office. He gestured to a couple of straight chairs in front of a large window looking out over the ocean. Rey sat down on the edge, filled with nervous energy.
"First, tell me your name," Luke asked. His voice was softer than outside, and it helped to take the edge off her nervousness.
"Rey."
"It's good to meet you, Rey. Are you a Jedi?" Again, his voice was more curious than the almost accusatory tone outside.
"People think I am. Sometimes I even think I am. But I never actually finished my training."
"Yet, you heard the call of a kyber crystal and were able to craft your own lightsaber."
"Yes." She pulled the lightsaber off her belt.
"That alone suggests you are a Jedi. Would you be willing to ignite it?"
"In here?" She glanced around, knowing there wasn't much room to swing it without hitting anything.
He held up a finger. "Just for one moment."
Rey stood up and took a step back. She pressed her lips into a thin line and ignited it. The yellow blade blazed free. Then she immediately shut it down.
"Yellow!" He stood up, a look of fascination on his face. "I've only ever heard of that color, never seen one myself. The color of Jedi sentinels." He tilted his head in question. "Who trained you?"
She met his eyes. "You did."
He frowned. "No."
"You did," she stated with more emphasis. "You started it, and Leia continued it. But I never really finished."
"My sister trained you?" He sounded incredulous. "She never finished her own training."
"Because she had a premonition that if she did finish, her son would die. Turns out, he dies anyway." She closed her eyes, unable to suppress the stab of pain.
"None of this is true!" he roared, offended. "I never trained you and Ben is not dead. He's only nine years old and he's arriving here tomorrow."
Filing that information away for later, she stepped closer to him. "Ben's not dead yet! That's why I'm here. To save Ben Solo's life!"
"Who are you?"
"I've come from twenty years in the future to fix a grave mistake." It felt good to get the truth out.
He stared at her. "That's impossible," he muttered.
Rey let out a long breath. "I would have said the same thing a few months ago. I know the coordinates of the planet with the device. We could go there." She paused. "Or what if I can tell you something about yourself that nobody else knows? Will you consider that what I say is true?"
He licked his lips as he studied her. Then he nodded.
Rey swallowed. She was going to show him her best cards. If he didn't believe her, if he turned his back on her, her mission was in jeopardy of failing. That couldn't happen. But this was her only choice.
"Luke, you are the son of Anakin Skywalker, who is better known as Darth Vader." He sucked in a breath, but she kept talking. "It was you who turned him away from the dark and back to the light. It was for you that he killed Emperor Palpatine, Darth Sidious." Then she whispered, "At least you thought he killed Darth Sidious."
His head whipped back as if she'd slapped him. He sat down heavily, contemplating as his fingers absentmindedly stroked his beard. After a few minutes, he looked back at her. It seemed as if he'd resolved any conflict in his mind.
"Tell me everything."
She nodded, sitting back down. Everything came spilling out, starting from when BB8 found her on Jakku up to finding the traveling device on the jungle planet. Everything except for her accursed lineage.
He remained silent as she spoke. There were some physical reactions. A shift in position, a few gasps, even a tear escaping his eye and running down his cheek as she told him of his attempt to murder his own nephew. But no questioning or comments.
When she finished, they both sat lost in thought for several minutes.
Finally, he broke the silence. "You and Ben are a Force Dyad. There hasn't been one documented in over four hundred years."
"I didn't believe him when he first told me. We were still enemies at the time. But he was right. When he died, I lost half of my soul."
"I'm sorry, Rey. What do we need to do to fix this? It can't turn out like that. Not for him. Not for me either." Luke rubbed at suddenly tired eyes.
"I've been thinking about it ever since I found that book. You must not keep secrets from him. I'm not saying lay everything out to a nine-year-old, but tell him the family secrets as he gets older. Either you or Leia must tell him about Vader. Snoke used his ignorance of that knowledge against you." She huffed. "By the time I met him, he was hero worshipping Darth Vader, striving to be as strong with the dark side as his grandfather had been!"
Luke stared at her with wide eyes. Then he asked, "What do I tell him about you?"
The question caught her off-guard. "I... I don't know. Let me think about it. But there is another thing. He must stay close with his family."
"That's not Jedi protocol."
She shook her head. "I don't care. Change the protocol. Ben felt abandoned by his parents and betrayed by you. He was alone and only had Snoke to turn to. It was Leia's greatest regret, not being there for her son when he needed her. She died never getting to see him come back to the light."
"Oh, my poor sister," he breathed out. "Weekly comms. He could talk to one or both of them every week."
"Good start. But he needs to spend time with them all together as a family. Like at a holiday or vacation."
"Yes! Two weeks during the stormy season here would correspond nicely with summer at Leia's lake house on Naboo. I can insist that both of them must be there for him. Han will grumble and Leia will try to make excuses but I can be very convincing." Luke smiled at her.
Rey smiled back. "Perfect."
A/N: I definitely disliked seeing Luke as the bitter old man crushed by his own failures in the movies. There's also a lot of fanfic with him as the bad guy. I enjoyed having him help Rey to save Ben's future here.
Thank you so much for reading and reviewing!