Rey stepped back a little, reverently, as Jedi Master Luke took the lightsaber.

His lightsaber. It had been his father's, then his, and now it was his again. And-

-he threw it away.

Rey just sort of stared for a moment.

Master Luke may have said something. He may not. Rey simply didn't process a thing for at least ten seconds.

"...what was that for?" she demanded.

"Did you think I'd come out here into hiding because I didn't have a lightsaber?" Luke asked, looking at her like she was a bit odd.

"But – I brought your lightsaber back," Rey objected, not really sure how to handle this complete inversion of her expectations.

Luke shrugged. "It's not mine, anyway," he said. "It's my father's. I have a strong attachment to my lightsaber, which I built by myself, while brooding alone on a desert planet."

"Like Jakku?" Rey asked.

"...I guess, yeah, like Jakku," Luke allowed. "Weird one to bring up, though. Why Jakku?"

"I grew up there," Rey explained. "With no idea who my parents were… all I really had were stories and the knowledge that I wanted to leave Jakku as soon as possible."

Luke didn't reply, favouring her with a strange look.

"I suppose I did learn some technical skills, at least," she went on. "Then I had to help a droid get to safety with plans the First Order wanted, plans vital to the survival of the Resistance."

Luke looked like he was going to say something, but refrained.

"You remember the Millennium Falcon?" Rey asked. "My friend and I had to flee the planet in it, just ahead of First Order fighters and starships… then one thing led to another and I had to help in destroying the most vulnerable point on a First Order superweapon. And I'm trying to deal with my connection to the Force."

"I know the feeling," Luke muttered, almost too quiet to hear.

Rey frowned slightly. "And… I don't know what it is, but I have this weird feeling that I might be related to a really evil Sith somehow-"

"Okay, okay, I get it!" Luke shouted.

"...sorry?" Rey apologized, nervously.

"Not you," Luke assured her. "I was speaking to the Force. I get it, you don't need to be this blatant."

He reached out his hand, catching the blue saber as it flew back up the slope, then tossed it underhand through the air to Rey.

She caught it, automatically, and Luke examined her with a critical eye.

"All right," he said. "So, let's see… have you got any friends in imminent trouble? Recent escape from a Resistance base?"

"Not yet, when I left, but the evacuation was going to have to be soon," Rey answered. "I assume they've already done it… I hope they've got away safely."

"Yeah, probably hasn't happened," Luke said. "They're in trouble somehow. Could be they escaped to somewhere the First Order is already waiting, could be that they're being chased directly… could be they're in trouble to lure you into a trap."

He shot her a grin, and it transformed his whole face, all his body language.

"The Force is not being subtle," he said. "So I'm not going to be subtle back. What's your name, anyway?"

"Rey," Rey introduced herself.

"Well, Rey," Luke said, lacing his hands together. "I'm going to make you into a Jedi. And then we are going to redeem the kark out of whoever your Sith ancestor is."

Three very eventful weeks later, Sheev Palpatine existed in timeless harmony with the Force.

This was an enormous surprise to him.

"How, exactly, did that happen?" he asked the air, or the world, or the Force itself. "How in the kriff did Skywalker convince me to redeem myself by sacrificing myself to stop myself?"

"Not that I'd have an idea," Anakin Skywalker said, fading into perception behind him. "But I'd guess it's something he got from Padme's side."

"Oh, shut up," Palpatine muttered.

He couldn't even be properly angry any more, though it seemed that redemption did not prevent testiness.

Though meeting Obi-Wan Kenobi would probably have made that clear anyway.

AN:

I apologize about the previous chapter. I got the snippets out of writing order, so Ikrit actually hasn't shown up before.

He will.

Anyway… parallels!