The World between Worlds

Chapter 3- Back to the Island

Rey stood staring at the charred remains of Kylo Ren's Tie Fighter as the wind of Ahch-To buffeted her hood. The Lanai hadn't cleared away the husk of the ship from where she had burnt it after fleeing Kef-Bir. Burning it at the time symbolised her vow to leave it all behind. She'd never wanted to be part of this legacy; she'd do as Luke had done and live on this island in exile. That view had been short-lived, and she'd have been stuck on this island if Luke hadn't raised his old X-wing from its watery depths.

She recalled the events of her fight with Kylo on Kef-Bir, what he'd said to her and what she'd said to him. She'd found the Wayfinder, but she'd had a vision, and as she fell out of a hidden chamber there, he was, yet again, Kylo Ren. He'd been calm, and again he tried to reason with her to join him on the darkside.

"You can't go back to her now. Like I can't."

He'd crushed the Wayfinder when she'd refused, and once again, they'd fought. He could've killed her; he hadn't held back, and she was about to be beaten when his mother had reached out to him. He'd felt it before Rey did; consumed by her anger, she'd grasped his cross-guard lightsaber as he dropped it in disbelief, and she'd speared him before feeling what he felt. Leia, Leia was gone.

Kylo had fallen to the Death Star floor's remains, accepting and resolute of his impending fate: his death. She'd kneeled at his side so remorseful of what she'd done as tears of saltwater both from the sea and her eyes intermingled as they ran down her face. She'd stretched her hand out to him; his face at that moment, uncomprehending of what she was doing and why she would deem to give him any empathy. As he watched her heal him, she watched his scars disappear, the long scar she'd given him fading until it was gone completely. He was full of light, and now his face was perfect. Suddenly, she'd been able to see his father and mother in that face. As Kylo Ren, he'd never understood, and so he'd sat and searched her face, blind to her reason for saving him. Rey told him the truth, a truth that she'd hidden but at that moment had to admit not only to him but to herself.

"I did want to take your hand. Ben's hand."

She saw it then, the realisation dawn on him, that he hadn't been wrong, that she had wanted to join him, but only as Ben. She couldn't let him die because that would mean letting Ben die, and Ben was who she held out hope for, Ben who'd she come to the Supremacy for, Ben who she wanted. As she ran from him, stealing his ship, she could see and feel the inevitable return of Ben Solo.

A solitary tear rolled down Rey's cheek as she relived those moments.

She walked up the steps past the burnout ship towards the cave at the top of the island. She paused at the mosaic shimmering beneath the surface of a shallow pool of water- the original Jedi, before making her way to the cliff edge. She stood dejectedly on the cliff where she'd first truly opened herself to the Force. The crack within the cliff where her awakening had occurred now contained moss, wildflowers, and grass. She knelt and traced it with her finger and let out a sad sigh.

She sat cross-legged and began to meditate.

Reach out with your feelings.

"I'm one with the Force; the Force is with me," she whispered as she breathed in deeply and allowed herself to float in the Force. Introspection followed. Her breathing became measured and deep as though resting in peaceful sleep, but she was active. Rey drifted above the surface of the cliff, around her rocks and began to hover.

"Be with me," she whispered.

Within the Force, Rey could feel the island's Porgs, the Lanai, attending to their daily chores unaffected by her presence. She felt in between dark and light elements, sensations of death, decay, life, love and peace—the Force.