The World between Worlds

Chapter 5- Time passes strangely

Rey had much time to learn; familiar with a solitary life, she ploughed herself with renewed fervour into all of Luke's ancient books. Days and weeks passed as she slowly read through the pages she had not covered before. Not for the first time, she wished her childhood had been different in order to read faster. Before, Beaumont and C-3PO had helped her to translate the archaic languages into Galatic Basic. Even the parts already translated, Rey found difficult to understand. The ancient Jedi favoured metaphor over facts, and attempting to decipher meaning made Rey's eyes ache and head pound.

Rey passed each day in this way, tracing the ancient words and diagrams of the thin and ancient pages of the books, looking for anything Ahsoka had told her about the vergence scatter. At night, she barely slept; no longer haunted by Ben, but her dreams were nightmares and fitful, and she often woke with her lightsaber having been drawn to her hand. Time lost all meaning as she drifted in this way. Days and moons merged into a seemingly unending flow.

Rey was unsure how long she'd been on the island when one of the island's native inhabitants beckoned her. The Lanai had been wary of her on her second arrival, and given her past behaviour, she could not blame them. This particular caretaker was the Lanai leader, Alcida-Auka. She had taken Rey to one of the huts, a store where all the belongings of past inhabitants were kept. Alcida-Auka had shown Rey belongings that she instantly knew belonged to Luke. His robes, a star compass and a pair of golden cubes on a chain. Rey remembered these cubes; she'd seen Ben holding them as he knelt on the floor of the Rebellion outpost on Crait.

"Thank you."

Rey would hold the little golden cubes close to her chest at night, hoping to stave away the dark dreams and sleep peacefully. She missed reliving that last moment with Ben; reliving that bittersweet moment was better than the unending questions that caused her nightmares. Somehow, the linked dice worked, a talisman for sound sleep, and she hung them on a cord about her neck. When she had Ben back, she'd give them to him.

It took much consolidating of her reading, but eventually, she found what it was she sought. Maps linking worlds containing vergence, she could traverse the pathway between these worlds using the Force if she wished. According to the text, the Force was like a ribbon between these points, on the edge of reality. Deep within Exogol was a vergence, and according to the Rammahgon where she'd learnt about the Sith Wayfinder, there was a chain of hyperspatial waypoints linking the vergence there to the vergence here on Ahch-To, the mirror cave.

Rey stood staring into the blowhole, leading her to the mirror cave. Absent-mindedly, she brushed the golden dice about her neck. She felt afraid but focused. She would do as she had before. It didn't matter what the mirror showed her; she was not there for that. She was there to practise to centre herself and open the door. She could not save Ben yet. More, much more was needed. It wasn't a simple matter of pulling him back, but she had to open the gateway before she could consider any of those things. Ahsoka could not say how the padawan Bridger had done so on saving her, only that Vader himself was a vergence, and so Rey would have to figure it out alone. She took a slow, measured breath, tensed her fists, then stepped forward and fell through the hole. The cave hadn't called to her this time; she hadn't fallen into its cold, dark depths; she had stepped willingly. The water was cold and shocked her body. Rey rose out of the dark water, gasping for air before she swam with some difficulty to the cave's shore.

She walked towards the icy mirror and went to touch it. As before, suddenly, everything changed, and she could see herself behind and in front. She understood now what this was, the Dyad. She and Ben could transcend both space and time. Multiple times, they had connected across space- their hands touching, him taking the necklace, her handing him the lightsaber, and she understood, standing here once more, that they had connected through time, too. She'd felt his fall to darkness, she'd seen images of Ben's past on touching Anakin's lightsaber, and because she'd seen his past, he'd seen her in those moments. It explained how he knew her before they'd ever met. He'd seen her past, who her parents were, through Vader's helmet and connected with her. She closed her eyes, reached forward, and touched the mirror. The multiple versions of herself disappeared, and she stood alone. The mirror's reflection seemed as it had before the blurred image of a figure: Ben, and maybe it was. He was on the other side, within that world. The mirror had shown her before what lay ahead rather than her past and who her parents were. It had shown her her place- alone as she was now. Rey had to remind herself that this was a centre of dark energy; it would show her what was necessary to make her fall, but she would not. The shadowy image before her cleared; this time, it wasn't her reflection she saw but Ben. She knew the truth, but it didn't stop her breath from hitching in her throat. The image before her didn't speak; just stood silently as Ben often had.