-Finn-
We stand in a group, looking down at the ground in silence. The scene before us is bizarre to say the least. Rey and Kylo Ren are laying in front of us on the floor of the Falcon, side by side, for all intents and purposes looking dead. I tried to put them together in a bunk, but the man is so big that the only way Rey would fit was if I put her on top of him and I was having exactly none of that. I settled on moving the mattresses from two bunks to the floor and laying them on them. I have Rey hooked up to my med pack analyzer and after some maneuvering, I discovered I could separate them by about two feet without her readings starting to plummet. But she did seem to do better when they were closer together and had the strongest readings when they were actually touching which is...just...great. I tied their feet together in case things get bumpy in space. I'm considering tying their arms together, but I can't quite seem to bring myself to do it.
"What is going on?" Lando asks incredulously. "Is that really Kylo Ren?"
I look down at the man lying at my feet and I want to kick him.
"Yup, that's him alright. I saw him on Kef Bir and I've also caught some random sense memories from Rey once or twice," I state feeling suddenly drained. "Plus look at him. Doesn't he look like a bad guy?"
I'm met with silence until Lando says quietly, "He looks like a kid. I remember seeing some holos way back when...but he was so young. Now that I take a closer look...he does look a bit like Han." His voice trails off at the end.
"Yeah well, he's not a kid. He killed Han in cold blood! Let's not forget that, okay!" I exclaim, feeling my sanity begin to fray.
Chewbacca grunts in agreement. But I know what I saw today. When I'd set them up on the floor, I'd given Rey bolsters and a blanket to try to make her as comfortable as I could. When I left the room to look for more medical equipment, I returned to find Chewie putting a blanket over Kylo as well.
I'd said nothing, though it occurred to me that both Han and Leia would still be here if it wasn't for their son. But who am I to judge if Chewie is feeling nostalgic about the last remaining piece of his lost friends?
Jannah asks hesitantly. "Sense memories? What do you mean?"
I sigh. I'm in no mood to discuss the Force right now because I've had it up to my eyeballs with the Force and its nonsense, but I forge ahead because I have a feeling it is going to be coming up a lot as we figure this out.
"Rey told me a few things about her experiences with the Force. I don't claim to know what any of that is like. But I do feel things from time to time. Connections. And Rey and I are close. I could have sworn I felt her die on Exegol…" I trail off, reliving that terrible moment when I'd felt her light dim and then then go out. I clear my throat before continuing. "Rey had a lot of stuff going on before all this happened. Complicated stuff that I don't want to talk about. But it was tied up with Kylo Ren, and when she'd talk to me, I'd get flashes of her memories of him. Not images exactly, more like impressions. It's hard to explain," I finish.
I don't want to betray Rey's confidence by telling them details about what she's shared with me about the dark side and her pull toward it. It isn't my story to tell. From the looks of the chamber we found her in, something big and bad happened. She clearly had some kind of major confrontation and judging from the fact that Palpatine had vanished, my money is on Rey having something to do with that. I'd found two lightsabers on the ground near her and Kylo.
Oddly, neither of them was his. And where was his armor?
Had they fought Palpatine together?
I want so desperately to dismiss this thought, but something in my gut, probably the blasted Force, is telling me I am right.
"What do we do now?" Chewie moans.
"I think," I begin slowly, finally putting into words the fragments of my mostly unformed plan, "that we need to get the Jedi texts from Ajan Kloss. I don't know if it will help me to understand what is going on, but it's at least somewhere to start. Also, I want to talk to Maz. She is definitely in tune with the Force on some level."
Lando is nodding his head. "So, we are going to Ajan Kloss."
"No. I don't think that is a good idea," I state and point to the pair at our feet. "If people see this, even if they don't know outright who he is, I think they'll start putting two and two together. Especially if they knew Leia and Han in the old days. I don't know what is going on with them, but I won't take any chances of letting this make Rey look bad. I won't have it, not after everything we've been through together. I think we should meet Maz somewhere and she should bring the texts."
Lando looks less pleased with this answer but agrees. "Okay...I'll get on the comm with Poe."
"No!" I say quickly, and everyone looks at me. I hedge for a moment. "Poe has the weight of the whole republic on him right now. I mean, damn, we should all be there with him," I trail off, looking at Rey.
And he hates Kylo Ren.
My resolve solidifies. "This will be a distraction he doesn't need right now."
"So, what do you want me to do?" Lando asks in an exasperated tone.
"Rose," I state, "I need to talk to Rose."
-Rey-
"Master Luke!" Rey exclaims. Her relief is buoyant. "Where are you? I can't see anything!"
"Yeah, that's my fault," he answers gruffly. Suddenly the mist disperses, and Rey is standing on what appears to be Ahch-To. She spins on her feet taking in the green of the land and blue of the sky. Relief breaks over her as she hears the crash of the waves. When she sees him standing before her she smiles so hard that it hurts.
"I didn't know what to think...what was that place? I felt so lost!" She looks at her master's weathered face imploringly.
"Leia was right as usual," he mutters apologetically. "I should have helped anchor you to a place at the moment of your arrival. When I got to...well...someplace like this place, I was traveling alone, so to speak, so my mind naturally took me to a familiar place to help me acclimate to the shift in my...uh, situation."
Rey furrows her brow. "Master Luke, I don't know what you are talking about," she states. "Traveling alone? When you got to someplace like this place...where?"
"You'll have to give me a minute on the traveling alone question. But regarding where, when I died, I returned to a place that was my mind's construct of Ahch-To for a time. I don't know for how long of course, because things like time sort of lose their meaning."
"So, I am dead," Rey says softly, her eyes scanning the horizon. She concentrates on trying to not feel sad. "Well, I had a good death I suppose. Killing Palpatine. At least it has some meaning, right?"
"Yes," Luke says emphatically, but then starts shaking his head. "But you aren't dead, Rey."
Rey stares at him for a moment, unsure of what to say.
"What do you mean? I felt myself die."
"Yes, and you did die, for a little while. And then things got complicated."
He is silent and Rey waits for him to resume talking. She waits for close to a minute before she asks in an irritated tone, "Are you going to explain that last bit?"
Luke looks pained and a little abashed.
"Okay. But you are not going to like a lot of what I have to say, because the truth is that I don't have a lot of answers for you about what is going on. As far as I know there is no precedent for what has happened with you two, so for the most part we can only offer speculation at this point."
"You two? We? What is going on?" Rey exclaims. "Are you talking about Ben? Where is he? Why are we…"
"Ugh, I am making a total mess of this. I really should have had Leia just speak to you both at the same time," he sighs, running his hands over his beard before continuing, "This is what we think we know. Are you ready?"
Rey nods emphatically with an aggravated look on her face.
"You know you and Ben are a Force dyad. When you died, Ben tried to bring you back by giving you the dyad's energy. Except that apparently you can't do that, at least not completely. It may be because the dyad is all about balance, and the two of you create that balance together."
"But when I died the dyad left me," Rey states questioningly, a furrow forming between her brows.
"Yes, well, and again, this is all theory at this point, apparently natural death will cause the dyad to collapse in on itself and inhabit the survivor. But if that survivor tries to force it out, to give it all to the original partner...for some reason that we don't understand the dyad energy doesn't seem to want to do that. It reentered you, brought you back...but not all the way back."
"Sooooo...Ben tried to bring me back, but the dyad did something wonky so I'm not dead, but I'm not alive. Got that part. But you still haven't answered my questions. Who is "we"? And where is Ben?"
Luke eyes her reluctantly before continuing.
"Remember what I said about traveling alone?"
"Yeah," Rey says apprehensively.
"Well, you didn't travel here alone. Whatever Ben did when he tried to bring you back seems to have affected him in a similar way. He's here...with Leia."
"What?" The question leaves Rey's mouth explosively, mostly due to her mounting number of concerns and questions about the situation she's suddenly found herself in. She is beginning to think that her master is in fact making a mess of explaining things and at the same time she feels a slight spinning sensation at the back of her head that she recognizes as being overwhelmed.
Luke starts to speak, but Rey raises her hand.
"Wait," she says quietly, shaking her head. "I'm sorry Master Luke but I need a minute." She walks away from him and looks out over the endless sea.
Be with me.
Be with me.
Be with me.
She takes a few breaths.
What was Ben thinking trying to bring her back like that? He's lucky he didn't die!
The thought smashes into her like a fist. She turns on her heel.
"Master Luke?"
"Yes?" He approaches her, hands folded in front of him with an obliging look on his face.
"So all this," she points to the sky, her wrist rotating slightly, "isn't the netherworld?"
"No. We aren't sure -," but she cuts him off.
"And Ben," she says through slightly gritted teeth, her tone dangerously calm, "has gotten himself stuck here trying to save me?" She wears a tight smile and takes a step toward Luke. Of course, he holds his ground, but has the grace to look troubled.
"Yes," Luke says, narrowing his eyes a little, like he's trying to get a read on her intentions.
"I think it's time we go see Ben and Leia. Can we do that?" She asks, her voice struggling to maintain control.
"Yes," Luke says. "Absolutely, let's go see Leia and Ben...get this whole thing sorted out."
-Ben-
"So where are we exactly?" Ben asks his mother for what seems like the tenth time.
Leia gives him a withering look. "The answer isn't going to change, Ben. I don't know yet. When I died, I came to on a plane of existence that looked like Alderaan when I was a child and when I'd adjusted from being a physical presence to pure Force energy, the illusion of being there just vanished and I found myself in the netherworld. But this isn't that. I don't know what this is," she finishes exasperatedly, flourishing her hand at the sky.
Ben is pacing and he can't seem to stop. It seems that movement is the only way for him to maintain any semblance of calm.
"And you and Luke decided it was best to speak to us separately?"
"That was our thought," Leia says, irritation suffusing her tone.
"And why was that?" He asks, his own irritation making itself known even as his voice becomes quieter.
A knowing look comes into Leia's eye.
"Okay, enough!" she snaps. "I thought we could help soften the blow, give you each a chance to process this situation without being…"
"What? Being what?" He is really beginning to lose his temper.
"Overwhelmed by the other!" she exclaims. She takes a breath, appearing to find her center. She continues in a calmer tone. "The two of you are so volatile. Every minute that you have ever spent in one another's presence has been so fraught with emotion. I mean, Ben, you just rushed in and tried to give her the dyad. If it worked, it would have likely killed you." When she looks at him it is with tears in her eyes.
His anger subsides when he sees his mother is so vulnerable, a state he rarely saw in life. When his parents argued she was alternately blazing and then glacial, her voice turning quickly to frost. She'd been gentler with him when he was very young, and the look on her face right now reminds him of those earlier times, before he grew into a sullen teen, scaring her and everyone else with his rages and his power.
But I was still me.
He knows it's a childish thought, and unfair to be sure. He cast off Kylo Ren with Rey's killing blow and subsequent healing, letting that past die in a fashion, but the visage still exists in him on some level, and he viscerally remembers becoming positively unhinged frequently as an older child. Is it fair to judge his mother for seeking to get him help from someone she trusted?
Ben shakes his head. It doesn't erase the pain of abandonment he endured, but now that he has distance from both that time and Kylo Ren, he sees her for who she is. A mother frightened for her child, both then and now.
"So, you and Luke can manipulate the environment here?" He asks quietly.
"Yes. I thought this place would be calming...soothing. In case you were...upset or…," she trails off.
Ben chooses to sidestep what he believes she's implying. If he had responded less like Ben and more like Kylo to being trapped in this strange state of semi existence with no clear path out.
"So, is it fair to say I can probably manipulate it as well?"
"I don't see why not," Leia answers cautiously.
"Good," he says, closing his eyes and focusing on the only place he wants to be. At Rey's side.