Us Against the World

18

Smouldering balls of fire fell as the flames began to eat away at the room. I wanted to take his hand. I desperately wanted to take his hand and go with him, try and coax him away from all this. The conflict that he had felt was now tearing me apart. Everything in me was telling me to refuse his offer, but my heart was pleading with me to take his hand, saying that I couldn't take another year apart.
"We can rule together, Lowla, side by side with Rey." He looked to me sensing that I'd be the easiest to convince.
"Don't do this, Ben." I couldn't choose between him and the Resistance, a cause that I believed in with the entirety of my soul with people who had helped through too much to give up on them. Rey said the same, telling me not to go where he was heading.
"You're still holding on! Let go!" Ben said, feeling me slipping away from right in front of him. After killing Snoke, after slaughtering the guard, he was still denying the light. It made me feel as though I wasn't enough for him, as if what I could provide, the life I could give him, wouldn't bring him the happiness and satisfaction he craved. "Do you wanna know the truth about your parents?"

He started telling Rey about her 'parents' how they were nobodies who were residing in a grave. Ben had turned to Rey when he couldn't face the depression I felt, hating the fact he was trying to use that over me. After Rey had been told she was nothing, I called Ben's name.
"You're despicable." I opened my mind to him, showing him exactly what I thought of him. He knew how devastating his words would be and he was willing to say every word he could to break the girl just so he could have another asset. He knew my heritage and was trying to hold it against me in order to persuade me to join him. There were better ways to talk to me and Rey, he had been raised better than this.
"You don't mean that, Lowla. You'll never mean that." He replied. It was true. No matter what Ben did, he would still be the man that held my heart and the boy that would rather be tortured by jawas than hurt me. He raised his hands again, asking us to join him before locking eyes with me.
"Please." The whisper was a desperate cry for help. He was scared to be alone.

I was reaching for his hand. I wanted to stop the broken look on his face and wipe away every tear that fell. In a brief moment, I needed him, in whatever form that was. Rey tried to pull the lightsaber to her, it was my weapon, being held by Ben. They were locked, the weapon not moving and my eyes were in shock. Rey was just learning the ways of the force, getting used to how to manipulate it while Ben was trained, weaker in the mental ways. I couldn't move, stuck watching it with my arms open in shock.

Suddenly, not taking it any longer and seeing my weapon strained, I jumped at it. The moment my hand held the metal both Rey and Ben were thrown to opposite sides of the room. In that same moment, the ship shook violently, sending me to my knees, my white dress nothing but grey. All the energy dropped from my body, as if pushing the two apart had drained everything. Darkness covered my vision as I let my mind drift away.

I opened my eyes to see Luke. Within 30 seconds of looking around and seeing the island and the temple, I knew I wasn't really here. At first I imagined it to be where people go when they die, but I knew if that were true, Han would be greeting me. Instead, I moved over to wear what Luke was, sitting on the same rock Rey had. Then I sat down.

"I thought it was about time I told you a story." Luke said. The man didn't look at me. He was dressed in his old Jedi robes and he seemed to look a lot younger than he had the previous day. There was something about him, a serenity that hadn't been there before. I knew this was my time to be quiet, my time to listen.
"In the years between Anakin leaving and me finding him, Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kendobi had a daughter. This daughter was taken away, trained in the ways of the force but with no weapon. She was entrusted with the protection of a child, and it was protecting that child that meant she met a mandalorian. Years later, they had a child, a daughter who took her mother's family name." I felt tears begin to form, finally getting the answers I had wished for, the answers I had been seeking for as long as I can remember. "This daughter had amazing powers, far greater than her mother, and they had to leave her on Stewjon, hiding her from the dark side that wanted her dead. They knew the dark side would follow them to seek the girl, and they were happy to die to allow for the child, and you to be safe." At this story I was amazed.

I looked to the sun, watching it slowly drop closer to the sea, it's light turning orange and warm. My shoulders no longer felt heavy, weighed down by unanswered questions. It didn't matter what my parents were called, they were mom and dad to me. I knew in my heart they weren't in this galaxy anymore or Luke would have told me where to find them. But I felt like I could breath. I knew who I was. A Kenobi."Why did you tell me now?" I asked. Looking out to sea, it didn't feel like there was a war on. I didn't feel like I was fighting against or for anyone. It was just me and Luke sitting on a rock, talking, looking to sea. Nothing unusual. No danger. "Truth? Yoda told me to." I felt myself begin to chuckle at this. Of course it was. If anyone could get Luke to do something it was him. Yoda was a legend that I idolised. Luke's stories about him always had me on the edge of my seat and I think the man sitting next to me knew that. It sounded impossible. But with the force, it seemed anything was possible. "Apparently your grandfather said it was time you stopped only going by Master Lowla."My eyes widened. It sounded like Luke was saying I was finished, finally at the same status as him officially. "You've completed your training, Lowla Kenobi." Luke announced, still looking at the sunset. I thought this moment would never come, that I had gone long past Jedi training. I didn't know what had been the final test, no for sure. But I had a feeling it was me not taking Ben's hand, taking hold of my saber and pushing them apart, showing Ben we wouldn't be joining him. "This is goodbye. Isn't it?" I asked him, already knowing the answer. Luke wouldn't have told me that, or called me here if it wasn't. He turned to me and I commited his face to memory, imprinted this look in my mind. There was no fear, no malice, only calm. It was like he had completed his final mission and was ready to face the end. Luke didn't have to say anything and he knew that. "May the force be with you." I said. I felt myself fading back into darkness and I wanted to hang on for as long as possible, trying to savour as much of this moment as I could. "You must do what you feel is right, of course. Your grandfather said that." Luke replied, looking at me. Then he took a deep breath and blew the air towards me. He pushed me away and back to my own body, leaving me with the words of my grandfather spinning in my head.