It was dark, where Rey was. Dark and cool. She turned a circle, desperate to get her bearings. Under her feet, she felt the familiar shift of sand. She could hear the faint whisper of it. Was this the desert? Tilting her head back she saw nothing but black. No stars rippled above her. The only light she could see was a warm glimmer in the distance.

Turning, she made her careful way toward the promise of light.

As Rey got closer, she could see the light was produced by a campfire. Across the flames sat a figure dressed all in black. A young man, she noted, with wheat colored hair and eyes. . .

When she stepped into the circle of light, he looked up and she felt the wash of certainty. She observed, "You're shorter than I remember."

This younger version of Luke gave her one of his dry glances, so strangely like Leia, "The measure of a Jedi lies not in their stature." He told her as though he was quoting someone.

She stared at him. At the familiar line of his jaw and the unfamiliar aura of . . . peace. He sat lightly on the sand, comfortable but limbre, like he could flow into motion at any second.

Rey settled down on the sand, and stared into the fire. She asked quietly, "Am I dead too?"

"You're. . . in between."

"Then what are you doing here?"

He smiled.

Rey blinked but the smile stayed on his face. And he was answering her around the curve of his mouth, "Consider it a Jedi tradition."

"What?" She demanded, "Visits from dead masters?"

"Yes," He agreed with a little chuckle.

The sound shook her. The Master Luke she remembered had been so grim and bitter. Was this who had been as a young man? Was this who he really was under all his disappointments? She asked, "What do Jedi masters traditionally say during these visits?"

Ignoring her question, Luke leaned back on his hands and looked up into the black sky, "Death is a matter of perception. When you live you are bombarded by desires and fears- the cacophony of living in a mortal body. But when you die, all that falls away. You see the universe clearly for the first time. You see yourself." He sighed quietly, "And you see your mistakes with terrible clarity."

"What mistakes?"

He turned toward her. His eyes were a shade of blue she had only ever seen in print ads and the paint of starships. "Once, I stood before my father as you stood before Kylo Ren. I told him that I sensed the goodness in him, the conflict. I knew he longed to embrace the light again. I had faith. I let hope guide me."

She demanded, "What happened? What changed in you-" How could a person lose their way so completely-

He looked old for a moment. Light from the fire moved across his face but everywhere it didn't touch seemed shadowed and cold, "So many things."

Rey hesitated, staring as the years advanced and retreated over his skin, "What do you mean?"

Still he watched the fire. His voice was soft when he began, "On the eve of my nephew's nineteenth birthday, I had a dream. I saw Ben clutching a lightsaber the color of a dying star. He stood at the hand of a dictator and he wore a helmet like my father's. I saw all the terrible things he would do from behind that mask- lives taken, liberty extinguished-"

Rey could feel her heartbeat, sharp and painful in her chest- the only part of her that felt fully real in this strange place. Still Luke's voice continued, implacable as nightfall.

"-an insidious voice whispered in his ear. I could hear it and the twisted things it promised. I woke in horror. It wasn't the first dream I had, you understand, but it was by far the darkest. I couldn't let that future come to pass. I had to stop it."

Rey whispered, "What did you do?"

"I wanted to take him unaware. He was already a superior fighter. The best among my students. His hut was dark. I knew he was sleeping. I could feel the shape of his dreams-"

Her heart would not survive this. Every beat shook her like a blow-

"I snuck inside and I raised my lightsaber-"

"No!" Rey shouted, stumbling up and away from the fire. "No," She repeated, pressing her hands to her face, "I don't want to hear any more."

"You know the rest."

"I know Han and Leia trusted you with their son- trusted you to care for him and teach him-"

"In that moment, I didn't see the son of my friend. Or my nephew. Or even my student. I saw only a dark future. And then I gave birth to it."

"You were a coward." She whispered.

He nodded, "Yes. I was."

They stared at each other across the fire. The light was changing. The fire seemed to shrink and the sky above them drained of darkness.

Luke told her in his young, measured voice, "Fear is a chain, Rey. We forge it link by link. We become so accustomed to its limits that we forget what it is to move freely. Its weight becomes so familiar we mistake it for comfort."

In the distance, the sky was growing light, blushing and golden against the horizon. Rey frowned at the speeding dawn. She had never seen the day come on so fast-

"What do you fear, Rey?"

She turned toward him in shock and the light overwhelmed her, filling her eyes, washing away everything-