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"Let the past die."
Those words haunted Rey Skywalker's mind as she made her way back to Jakku.
Ten years had passed since she'd fled this planet. Since the fall of the Final Order, most of her time had been spent on Tatooine, training, mediating, waiting… She'd managed to fully restore the Lars Homestead, rendering it fully functional as a moisture farm and potential home.
Her intention was for it to house children whose families had been torn apart by the war, in an environment that allowed force sensitives to develop their capabilities. When her proposal was presented at New Alderaan, it was met with rapturous applause. Rey remembered anxiously grasping Leia Organa's lightsaber in hand as she spoke. She felt pride and gratitude radiate in the Force through the artefact, right up until the moment she presented the artefact to the New Alderaan council, completely relinquishing ownership of it.
She'd sobbed in Finn's arms on the journey back to Tatooine.
Over the course of his training, Finn demonstrated an affinity for interpersonal applications of the Force. Though they had initially planned for Finn to be Rey's first padawan in her attempt to reconstruct the Jedi Order, they soon discovered that his strengths were better utilised in the rehabilitation of former Stormtroopers. They mostly travelled the galaxy separately on their respective missions, but regularly re-united when needed. Finn spent most of his time with Jannah, who was concerned with re-uniting ex-Stormtroopers with their families, and Poe Dameron, who for some reason had yet to take her best friend's hand in marriage. Rey simply cared about Finn's happiness, and did not want to examine her irritation at the situation any further.
Her time was better spent travelling the galaxy, spreading word of the Jedi, the Force, and the Skywalkers most of all. Through my stories, through my teachings, through the titles I bestow, they would all live on, she told herself. She, and all those who followed her, carried the burden of their legacy now.
Six months ago, there was a ripple in the Force, something Rey felt whenever a force sensitive child was born or displayed their powers. After years of tracking such disturbances through the galaxy, she was able to pinpoint them to the system level. To her dismay, the system that hosted the potential force user was Jakku.
She decided to make a pit stop at Niima Outpost before assuming her regular course of action. Rey consulted with the leader of any culture that was home to a possible force sensitive entity. The purpose was to build a decentralised network that would be able to support force sensitive children without having to remove them from their families.
Her meeting with Niima the 4th was at nightfall. Until then, she spent her afternoon perusing the old trader's huts in town, letting her hands turn raw at the memory of furiously scrubbing scavenged parts in the hopes of securing more portions. Something guided her westbound, away from the residence of the Hutt matriarch, and towards the Goazon Badlands where she had made her home, a lifetime ago.
She arrived at her old AT-AT, and stepped into the past.
Many of her old trinkets remained in place. There was food stocked in an icebox, and a recently used food bowl left out on a work bench. Someone had been here recently, the thought of which caused Rey to hum to herself.
And then she saw it. Her calendar.
She stared at her old wall. Her markings had not been touched or added to, preserving all the days spent waiting for people who would never return home. She considered making similar markings on her time on Tatooine, and slipped into the habit of tracing her fingers on the wall instead. Rey traced her finger on the furthest marking, smiling at herself. she made it without knowing it would be the last one she made before leaving, before learning the truth about everything, her parents, her heritage, and him.
He too lived a life of solitude, to find some moments of peace and belonging with her on Exegol. Rey was eternally thankful to be blessed with the chance to spend those moments with him. To know what it was like to belong, to truly belong. They shared that together, a memory that would never fade away from her.
A coil in the Force around her indicated the presence of someone, force sensitive but not (yet) force capable. Definitely harmless. She thought nothing of them - until they spoke.
"The person who lived here before me marked the wall to keep the passage of time. Maybe they were waiting for something? I hope they found what they were waiting for"
She hadn’t heard that voice in just under a decade. Not in her mind, and not out loud, through the air they used to share.
Her feet were planted firmly where she stood. She can’t bear to look at him again, not just yet. Rey steadied her breathing - it could be a vision or a trick, even though at this point in her journey, she knew it was nothing of the sort. It was a longer than polite pause before she responded.
"Yes. She did."
He chuckled and she could only imagine the face. A face she had seen on him only once. She longed to hear it again, to see his face again, but she couldn’t bear to turn around, not just yet. His footsteps signalled his approach, and through her cursed memory and her blessed force powers, Rey could envision his exact position in relation to her own.
"Well then I’m glad for her, wherever she is. Did you know her? I gathered that she was terribly lonely here."
Her eyes began to well up. She needed to keep talking.
"Yes. S-she’s, um, she’s doing great. Fantastic job, and so many new friends. No more sand. Definitely an improvement." Rey nodded while she spoke, as if her voice wasn't cracking all the same.
Overall, it is an improvement. Especially when she doesn’t think about what she’d lost.
"The sand isn’t so bad."
Rey offered a bitter laugh in return.
"I’m Ben. Nice to meet you?"
Rey managed to uproot herself to turn and face him. He does not look a day older since she last saw him, since he left her on Exegol. The most striking difference is the tan one would most definitely develop after spending a few months on a desert planet. He was dressed in light layers of practical clothing, all too similar to what she wore on her time here.
The look on his face was friendly, but also apprehensive - as if he was addressing a total stranger. With that considered, he still looked calmer. Like he was at peace.
"Ben?"
"Yeah. Just Ben."
Ben’s force signature was drastically different from what she remembered. Light, humming instead of raging. Like one of a child and not a Skywalker with years of training as he had.
"Just Ben. I’m Rey. Rey Skywalker."
His eyes widened in awe and Rey blushed. Of course he would have heard about her. Even someone living under a rock in the middle of nowhere would have heard about her by now. She was used to the admiration, but his response in particular threw her off.
"Wow, it's funny because I’ve heard so much about you. But meeting you in the flesh… it's almost as if I know you, somehow."
His cheeks redden at the admission.
Oh, Force help her.
"R-really?"
"I woke up in the sand a few months ago, and I couldn’t remember a thing, still don’t. Except for a voice, that almost could have been yours, telling me something.’I wanted to take your hand. Ben’s hand.’"
Rey wept.
Like a dam had burst, rivers of pain and sorrow spilled down her cheeks. "I did. I did."
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry for making you upset, I didn't mean to, Master Rey."
Ben crossed the room to her, hands held up with palms facing her. He was standing directly in front of her when Rey managed to compose herself. Her tears still clung to her skin.
"I still don’t really know who I am, and I don’t understand what is going on, but I could be Ben. For you." He smiled at her and her heart stopped. The same smile he gave her moments before his death.
Rey would not squander the opportunity that fate had once more delivered unto her.
He reached out.
Ben reached out.
And she finally took his hand.