Chapter Nine

The stars were distorted. Her vision blurred. She could practically hear her heart hammering out of her chest, it was pounding so hard. Her hands grew numb, and she began to breathe heavily. She had been standing on the rocky ground when he told her, but now she didn't even think she could support herself. She leaned against the rocky side of the mountain, and slunk down to her knees.

Immediately, Luke snapped to attention, and knelt down in front of her.

Her breath was now coming sharply, and she didn't think she could control it anymore. Tears streamed silently down her face and glinted in the moonlight.

"Rey," Luke said, tilting her chin up with his fingers. "Breathe, like I taught you." Luke mimicked the Jedi breathing technique. At first she did nothing, but with great effort, she caught on, and within a minute, her breath had slowed. Still, she felt too shaky to stand.

"That can't be true," she said. She could feel her stomach turning. She thought she may be sick. Luke smoothed her hair with one of his hands and touched her cheek with his thumb. Through the Force he calmed her, bringing her down enough to stop her tears.

"I can't be like him," she pleaded. "Please tell me I'm not like him."

"You are not." Luke sincerely believed it. "Rey, the Emperor cannot make you do anything you do not want to do. He is gone."

"But how can you be sure? That it won't come out in me?" Rey searched Luke's blue eyes in the pale moonlight.

He breathed a moment. "I have every reason to believe you favor one grandfather over the other. And the one I believe you favor," Luke smiled sadly, "was the most honorable and noble man I ever knew."

"And he—" she swallowed. "He taught you?"

Luke nodded, and pulled Rey to his chest in an embrace. They stayed like that for several minutes, Luke holding Rey and using his influence over her to calm her. He wished he could take all of her doubt and pain away, but he couldn't. It would be a struggle for Rey to come to terms with who her grandfathers were. For her to have been conceived of both the Light and the Dark was unheard of. What it meant for Rey, he did not yet know.

Luke knew both of her parents. He knew that they were both good Jedi. Luke had every reason to believe that any of the evil that Palpatin carried in his veins could not touch Rey now. But still, her heritage could not be denied.

He would have to watch her very closely.

When she had calmed down enough, Luke brought her back inside, and made her tea. She sat on the floor, her arms wrapped around her legs. After a long silence, Rey spoke.

"How is it possible that their children… my parents… were together? Of all the people in the galaxy?"

"It is a very long story, Rey. It is very late, and you must be rested for your training in the morning."

"No," Rey said. She was resolute. "I want to know now. And if that means I can't train tomorrow, then that's what it means. I need to know."

Luke sighed, crossing his arms and gazing into the embers of the fire that he had just stoked. "Very well."

Luke began speaking with his face to the fire, so that Rey only saw half of him.

"Obi-Wan was my mentor. In the time that he was alive, I had no idea that he had a child. He watched me grow up, from afar. By the time he revealed he had a wife and a son, they were no longer on Tatooine. Obi-Wan came to me through the Force—as I have told you is possible."

"Does he still come to you?" Rey asked, hopefully.

"No. No, apparition through the Force is not a natural occurrence. It was time for Obi-Wan to become one with the Force, but before he did, he asked that I seek out his son and train him. I did. And he was a wonderful student. Not much younger than me, in fact. We were very good friends."

Luke looked over at Rey. "You look very much like your mother though."

"Was she… Dark? Like her father?"

Luke looked back at the embers. "No. She was more reckless, that much was true, but she was not of the Dark side. No, I think that after her father died, she wanted to undo the deeds of the past. Her father kept her a secret from those around him. Kept her hidden on Naboo, but trained her in the ways of the Dark side nonetheless. She sought me out after Endor. Wanted to help me rebuild the Jedi."

"Did she?"

The corner of Luke's mouth twitched in either a smile or in sadness, Rey couldn't tell which. "Yes. And that's where she fell in love with your father."

"What were," Rey's lips began to twitch, threatening her composure. "What were their names?" She covered her mouth in disbelief that she had to ask such a question.

"Reyna was your mother. Ferrus was your father."

"Reyna? I'm named after her?"

"Yes, although when I had heard you were born, your name was Reyna as well, not Rey."

"We never met?"

"No," Luke gave up standing, and sat on the wicker chair in front of Rey. "Your parents had you on Naboo. You were to come to me to train just before Ben betrayed us. But something happened, and your parents left you on Jakku."

"What happened?"

"I do not know, Rey," Luke said, truthfully. "Your mother died some time before your father came here to Ahch-To. He died shortly after he arrived, of his wounds. They did what they did to keep you safe. Alive. Whoever did that to them must have wanted you dead too."

"They did it. They took my memories from me," the reality sobered Rey. "What did they want me to forget?"

"I don't know, Rey. They certainly didn't want you to forget them, but I am sure they thought your safety was most important. They loved you very much. They must have weighed the options, and determined it was best that you not remember."

Rey was quiet a moment, drinking her tea that had cooled significantly. She set it down. "When you found out that Vader was your father… how could you bear it?"

Luke regarded his padawan. "I knew there was still good in him. I had to believe it, or I don't know if I would have survived facing the Emperor."

"You must take solace, Rey," Luke continued, "in the fact that despite your mother's parentage, she was good. And you must find solace in the fact that you are a Kenobi. Let that side guide you."

"You're not afraid I will go down the path that Kylo… Ben did?"

"I think every Jedi is tempted by the Dark side at some point in their lives. I believe you already have been, and I believe you succeeded in resisting Ben's offer to teach you. You came to me. That speaks volumes." Luke smiled, and rubbed at his eyes. "I think that is enough for the evening, don't you?"

"Yes," Rey said soberly. "I suppose you're right." Rey stood, and bid her teacher good night as she disappeared into the small alcove in the back of the altar room. As she lay on her cot, she thought briefly of Chewie and Artoo down on level ground, guarding the Millennium Falcon. She felt guilty that they had been down there so long, but Chewie said he did not mind the rest.

Rey thought briefly about running to the Falcon and leaving Ahch-To, hiding somewhere in the galaxy. But she knew her place was with Luke until he believed her training was over. Her last thought before sleep took her was that she didn't know how in the galaxy she would ever be ready for what awaited her off Ahch-To.

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