Author's Note: Here we go again!

When I wrote The Third Lesson almost three years ago, I thought that was the end. But it seems not. As I was rewatching TROS the other day, I found myself wanting to rewrite it and tell a continutation of that story. Not the use of 'continuation' rather than 'sequel'. This is fanfiction after all and, while some things will be echo that story, it's not quite in the same dimension. This story has grown since then, encompassing ideas I've had about how to rewrite the sequel trilogy and is now bigger than I imagined. It will cover quite a lot of what I think was wrong with the film: Palpatine's return (a greater idea which was so very badly handled, although it was amazing to see Ian McDiarmid return as the Emperor), the connection between Rey and Ben Solo, and Rey's parentage.

I hope you enjoy it.

Bad0Wolf

Ben's Hand

Beggar's Canyon,
Tatooine,
35 ABY

Ben, the word cut through the Force; soft and slight as a whisper, strong and unavoidable as a storm.

The voice of a mother.

The final lesson of a teacher.

It reached them in the haze of their battle among the distant rocks and sands of the desert world where once, a young boy had risked his life to help a Jedi and a queen. It would slice through their focus to reach them. And it would hurt; hurt to know that they had lost something they had shared even they did not know it, a hurt that not even their blades could inflict on each other.

But confronting pain was the destiny of the Jedi.

On a forest world far away, in the small chamber she had carved for herself, the last princess of Alderaan lay back on her cot as she allowed the last of her strength to flow into the intent behind the word.

-0-

Ben.

Kylo Ren heard the word as he prepared to bring his crimson bladed lightsaber down on a defenceless Rey… and something broke in him.

He felt her presence, her entire being, in that single word. For the briefest instant of seemingly frozen time, his mother felt so real he could have seen her presence rather than just sensing it. It was keener than ever, and he knew what it must mean. The act of projecting oneself through the Force; he knew the cost of such a feat. He remembered the void left in the Force after Luke had projected his image from the distance of Ahch-To to the battlefield on Crait. And he knew that emotional projection was no less dangerous than the physical manifestation which had claimed his uncle. And he felt her mind as clearly as he had during the attack on the Raddus, the moment when he had almost killed her. There was no anger, no disappointment; there never had been. Only sorrow and forgiveness.

He felt it all in that single instant and, as the realization washed over him finally, in a way he hadn't allowed it to on the Raddus…

… the moment passed, broken by the sound of a lightsaber. And followed by searing pain.

-0-

Ben.

Rey heard the word just as her lightsaber sundered Kylo's blade hand. She reached into the Force to push him away from her. But the kinetic blast turned into the searing lightning she had previously conjured when grappling for control of Chewie's ship. The lightening hit Kylo and sent him back into a small ledge of rock.

The intensity of Leia's presence hit her as surely as it had hit her adversary. She felt it through the Force, but she also felt it through the bond they shared. And, with it, she felt the whole range of emotions Kylo Ren had supressed for years. And she also felt her own emotions as the realization hit her as surely as the oppressing heat of the desert. The anger and the despair which had powered the lightning from deep within her faded as sadness and grief washed over her.

'Leia', she whispered.

Once again, she had lost her Master.

-0-

The hand Kylo Ren had once offered to Rey, still gripping a now extinguished lightsaber, fell from the ledge the two adversaries had been fighting along, tumbling down into the ravine below.

And, on a forest world far away, Leia Organa's hand slipped from the medal she had been clutching and fell limp at her side.

Kylo collapsed into the sand, the pain in his severed hand bad. But the pain in his heart far, far worse.

Rey felt it, just as surely as he felt her own distress. Her sadness at Leia's death; her lingering rage from the duel; her fear of what it all meant. She looked down at him as he rested against the rock. He cradled the cauterized stump which had once been his sword hand against his chest; his clothes were charred and sizzling from the lightning she had used to repel him. And she could see, as keenly as she felt it, the physical and emotional pain melding into one on his face. And, as she saw the familiar uncertainty she had once glimpsed in him in their talks on Ahch-To; the same one she had not seen since they had fought Snoke's guard together and their galaxywide chase had begun; she saw once more the ghost of who he had been, the boy desperate to be anything but a Skywalker or a Solo, to be anything but a lie told by the legends he had been born to.

She saw a glimpse of who she wished he was.

And she had hurt him.

Rey knelt beside him, and he looked up into her eyes. There were tears welling up in his just as there were in hers. Around them, the wind blew sand over the rocks and into the distance, revealing parts of wreckage from the long-ago disastrous results of speeders and podracers.

For a moment, neither said anything. They were in each other's heads; they knew what they felt and what they meant to say without the need to speak. And Kylo felt Rey's intention, the resolve she was building herself towards. But there was something she needed him to know first. And she needed to actually say it.

She reached out and lightly placed her hand over the stump. He flinched, even though he knew what she meant to do and there was no surprise or fear in him. Just reflex. Her fingers lingered over the wound and closed around thin air, where his hand had once been.

The tears started to fall as she spoke: 'I did want to take your hand.'

'Ben's hand.'

There was sorrow in his eyes as he looked up at her, the same thought conjured in their joined minds.

And now, I never will.

Rey rose and turned her back on Kylo. She started to run towards the TIE he had brought with him, the Force powering her stride as she tried to reach it, eager to escape the desert world and the rest of the galaxy.

-0-

Kylo looked at her as she ran. He wanted to stop her; more than anything, he truly did. But he had sensed her intent and knew that he could not stop her. He wasn't even sure if he could. He wasn't sure about anything anymore. For the past year, he had been so certain, so clear about what he wanted. He wanted her, at his side. No matter what happened. No matter whether the phantom Emperor's minions found them or not, he had known that he wanted the scavenger from Jakku to be by his side. As friends. Maybe something more. He hadn't really cared; as long as she was with him.

He felt it again.

The pull of the light. The uncertainty, the weakness, of Ben Solo.

But, this time, Kylo Ren provided no comforting certainty.

Ruins of the Death Star
Kef Bir,
Endor system

A ripple of lightning ran along the ruined bulkheads and durasteel contours of what had once been the Empire's mightiest weapon. It ran along the rusted metal, coming from different points but all travelling to the same one.

In a large hangar, the lightning came together before a gathered pile of floating sentinel droids with dark globes for heads and clad in the red robes which had once been the pride and symbol of the Imperial Guard. Now, the once proud robes were patched and torn, battered by the unforgiving elements of Kef Bir. The lightning ran through the sentinels, illuminating their eyes, powering their repulsors to raise their torsos from the floor, and turning their photoreceptors to the forming phantom before them. Motivated by a single will, they bowed, the trailing tendrils of their robes giving the impression of a kneeling crowd.

The spectre of the figure the lightning had once been steadied, revealing a hunched man in robes. Two bright eyes shone from beneath the appearance of a hood. The crackling of the lightning was unmistakable, even over the crash of the giant waves around the ruins of the Death Star.

A voice spoke from the figure to its mechanized acolytes.

'The princess of Alderaan has disrupted my plan. But her foolish act will be in vain. Gather the faithful to me. The time will soon be upon us. They will all come. Vader's descendant. The scavenger. The First Order. The Republic. All those who still have faith in the Jedi. Their coming together… will be their undoing.'

The crowded sentinels, his once and future Messengers to the galaxy he would rule again, answered in a single voice. 'WE CARRY YOUR WORD, OUR ETERNAL EMPEROR.'

Abandoned homestead,
The Jundland Wastes,
Tatooine

A domed homestead stuck out from the sand amid long forgotten skeletons of stripped moisture vaporators, a home that had laid abandoned for years.

In the distance, a figure materialized in the haze of the desert's heat, brought back from its vigil in the netherworld of the Force.