•LEGACY - A Reylo Story•

EPISODE II - MY MOTHER?

"I think you're done for the day." Luke steps back as R2-D2 crashes to the ground.

"Are you sure?" Rey pants. "I think I can keep going-one more-"

"Rest, Rey."

"Okay then." She flops down on the grassy, shoulder snagging against some pebbles. "Ow!"

There's so much green, Rey thinks as she looks up towards the sky. And so much blue. Waves pound the shore in the distance, lulling her into a doze.

She hears Luke's voice in the distance, chatting amiably. Expecting to hear a Wookiee moan in response, Rey is taken aback when a gravelly voice answers.

Bolting upright, Rey turns towards the Jedi temple, seeing Luke engaged in conversation with what looks like an old man, clad in Jedi robes. The man stops and looks at her, with recognition almost, and with a soft smile.

And then he vanishes, and Rey shrieks.

"Rey!" Luke charges towards her.

"What was that? Who-"

"Rey, I'm sorry-the Jedi temple-Force ghosts-"

"Ghosts?"

"Yes-sometimes Jedi preserve themselves, for a time, in the Force, and we can commune with them."

Rey scans the horizon. The setting sun suddenly looks sinister, like it's bleeding onto the water, and the cliffs look like looming, rabid luggabeasts. "Are there more of them?"

"Oh yes. But don't worry. They won't hurt you. That was my old mentor. Obi-Wan Kenobi." Luke lowers his eyes. "Though for most of my life I knew him as Ben."

Rey shudders as she remembers the other man she knows with that name. The Dark Side gnaws at her, tempting her with anger. "Why did he come? To advise you in advising me?"

"No. He came to watch you."

"Watch me?" Rey turns to Luke.

"Rey-" Luke crouches to the ground. Rey copies him. "He was your grandfather."

My grandfather. She searches her memories and can't find one. "I don't remember a grandfather."

"He died long before you were born. My father, Darth Vader, killed him."

"But if he was a Jedi, how did he-"

"My father had a relationship, too. I don't know the details. I just know that when I saw you, at the academy, I knew."

The academy. Rey still can't recall what happened there, the massacre, despite Luke telling her about it. She was the only survivor, and she was hidden on Jakku. By Luke himself. Why me? Did the Force protect me somehow? Or was it this mysterious ghostly grandfather?

"If he's my grandfather," she says. "Why didn't he talk to me?"

Luke shrugs. "He will, I imagine. In good time."

I know all about waiting. But it's frustrating to be so close. "What planet was he from?"

"Stewjon."

Rey's heart leaps. "And my mother?" Luke's already told her he never met her.

"I don't know. Possibly Tatooine. Possibly Stewjon. I can't tell."

Could someone who remembers her mother still be there? Luke claimed she was dead, but if someone remembers her... can describe her face...

"You're not ready to leave yet," Luke says quickly, as if reading her mind. But he's not, because Rey knows what it feels like to have someone in her mind.

"Why did you keep this from me?" she demands. "Someone might remember her-might-"

"We don't know that, though, Rey!" Luke sighs. "Impatience was my greatest fault, too. Yoda said so."

"I am not impatient," she snaps.

"I, too, grew up without my parents."

"You had an aunt and an uncle," she reminds him. "I had Unkar Plutt." The very thought of that leering monster turns Rey's stomach. Although... now that she thinks about it, Unkar Plutt might remember more about her past than he'd claimed.

They left you to me. I taught you to scavenge. That's all!

Rey shudders. But if going back to Jakku gives me answers...

"If you stay with me another ten days, we'll go."

Rey blinks. "What?"

Luke smiles at her. "I tried to be a demanding taskmaster once. It didn't work out well. If you practice with me for ten more days, we'll go, and we'll look for anyone who remembers your mother-while still training, of course."

Rey throws her arms around him.