After Rise

Ghosts

REY

A cave. I see a cave with sunlight shining through somehow. I look down at my feet and there's sand. There's noise. Humming almost-like. It calls me. I follow further in. I get that weird feeling I'm being embraced again.

That's when I remember being in my room meditating.

Am I dreaming right now? Or better, will Luke or Leia talk to me?

"Rey Skywalker." says a man making all the hair in my body stand up.

I turn around to find a tall and handsome man in force ghost form; the same way Luke and Leia presented themselves back in Tatooine.

"Rey Skywalker," he says again with a smile and tilts his head.

"Who are you? Where am I?"

"Those are always the big questions. Who are you? Where did you come from? Where am I?"

He laughs and continues, "My name is Anakin Skywalker."

"Ana–Anakin Skywalker?? You're Luke and Leia's father. You..you were also Lord Vader." I say the last part very quietly.

"Yes."

"I'm so sorry I adopted your last name. I'm just Rey from Jakku. Master Luke and Leia taught me about the Force and I picked it up. At the end of her life, Leia also began to call herself a Skywalker. Just to her close loved ones."

"Rey Skywalker. I like the sound of it. It rolls off the tongue. I committed so many sins and heartbreak to my daughter to last a lifetime. It was hard to gain her forgiveness. I wasn't even aware she'd use the last name even if it was at the end. Leia Skywalker. That makes me happy. It would've made my wife really happy."

"But Rey, you were bound to be a Skywalker. Ben's full name is Ben Solo Organa Skywalker."

I look up alarmed at the fact Anakin Skywalker is telling me this. Do they all know of the dyad? Of my feelings, I keep hidden away? What does he mean I was bound to carry the name?

"Rey. A dyad in the force cannot be hidden away. It is the perfect balance. You were bound to each other. Since before your births, it was chosen for you two to be the dyad. That isn't random. The force works in mysterious ways. It is life and gives to those who listen to it. My daughter was an amazing person who deserved for her son to be given his equal and balance in the force and you Rey, you've been so kind and strong. You deserved someone who could understand and value you. Who could make you feel you weren't alone. You were bound to be a Skywalker."

"What does that mean? He was taken away from me. We...we...I think we were going to love one another. Someday. He had come back. He wasn't Kylo anymore. He was Ben. He came to fight Palpatine with me. He was beside me and I was beside him. But everything went wrong. I got drained and he got hurt and then he used up all his energy left to give me back life. We...we were supposed to walk out of Exegol together. It haunts me. Ben Solo was supposed to come home."

"Home? What was home to Ben Solo? The Resistance?" he tilts his head again and almost smirks.

"Home...home wouldn't - it wouldn't have been the Resistance. He let me know it'd never be."

"Ben Solo's home was you, young Rey. As Padme was to me. Home isn't a place; it's a person. He knew the risks of following after you in Exegol. But he understood you were his answer somehow....didn't know exactly how to name it but knew you were it for him. He knew before you did. My grandson was much smarter than I ever was."

"Anakin...I was lost and scared. I'd never felt such emotions before. But believe me when I say that if we would've walked out of Exegol together I would've held his hand. I would have taken his hand this time. I promise. I know the Resistance wouldn't have been enough for him. We would have made our own path. However, I tried to not think much about the future given the circumstances we were in. It's not like it even matters now because he was taken from me."