Chapter Text
Getting Rey back hadn’t cured his depression, but it had given him something he hadn’t had in a long time. Hope. She was something to live for, something to fight for. Having her around made him think about the possibility of a future, one that he wanted to be a part of. That was new. In the many years he’d spent alone he hadn’t had any positive view of the future. Rey had shaken him out of that.
He’d missed the majority of her childhood. He wanted to make up for lost time. He wanted to repair the damage to the galaxy so that they could all enjoy the peace he had imagined when he had made the decision to have her.
His heart was so full of love for her. On the island he had watched her working on the Falcon with Chewbacca and Artoo, the three of them laughing and joking with each other while they worked on the old ship. She was so full of warmth and happiness, and it was infectious to anyone she was around. She’d been patient yet persistent with him, and she’d helped him weather out bad days. She was hungry to learn more about the Force, and in teaching her he found distraction from what had been relentless anxiety and regret. She was a bright presence and kept him steady when he started to falter. He had to do better. She needed him to. He knew she had been desperate to get back to the Resistance, she’d told him about how her friend Finn had brutally injured by Ben, and somehow her need was enough to get him to push through and return to the rest of the galaxy.
He’d been anxious about reuniting with his sister. He still blamed himself for Ben’s fall. He wouldn’t blame Leia for blaming him too. Seeing her at the bottom of the landing pad though had made that worry melt away, at least temporarily. It had been far too long since they’d seen each other. He could feel in the Force that her joy at seeing him again was genuine, and their sibling bond in the Force flared back into life after being dormant for so long. He regretted having ever left.
Leia was firm that she didn’t blame him for the loss of her son. Luke still felt guilty. Especially when he noticed Leia watching him with Rey, and he knew she was longing to be with her own child. He hoped that Ben wasn’t beyond redemption. He couldn’t be. Anakin had been able to return to the light, Ben could too.
Nothing could bring Han back though. Knowing that he had been sulking on an island while Han Solo confronted his son and died trying to bring him home hurt. At the very least he wished he could have been with Leia when it happened. He hadn’t though. He’d told himself he needed to stop agonizing over “what ifs.” Well, you can lead a Jedi to wisdom but you can’t make him drink.
Luke was incredibly grateful that Rey had been able to see her uncle again. Luke had confirmed with Leia that Han had guessed correctly that the sandy, wide eyed kid he’d picked up who happened to be named Rey was in fact his niece fourteen years older than the last time he’d seen her. Rey had told Luke of her adventures with Han leading up to their trip to Starkiller base, and Luke was happy that she’d had more time with Han even if he couldn’t.
Now on the Resistance base Luke watched Rey move through the crowds, amicable with nearly everyone, and close to a handful of people. She was happy, and that made him happy.
She was closest to Finn. Finn had a heart of gold. He’d been through so much, and come out of it gentle and kind. He was incredibly loyal to both Rey, and to the Resistance as a whole. Luke was glad that the budding romance between Finn and Poe that they were bumbling their way through as young people did had not put a strain on Rey’s relationship with Finn. Both Finn and Poe still had time for her, for which Luke was incredibly thankful. Finn and Poe’s relationship was nothing like Leia and Han’s had been. For starters neither of the two young men flirted by yelling like Leia did, but the way their trio worked smoothly without Rey becoming a third wheel was much like how he had always felt welcome and comfortable around Han and Leia.
Poe was a good man, so much like both of his parents. He was glad Rey had him as a friend. Poe was good grounding for both Rey and Finn. Luke knew that while Poe was primarily helping Finn adjust to the differences in life out in the galaxy away from the First Order, he was also a good dose of normalcy in Rey’s abnormal life as well.
Rey’s third closest friend, Jessika, was feisty and had proved ready to fight anyone on behalf of her friends. She’d originally been a little awkward around Luke because like many of the Resistance pilots she venerated the Rebellion’s pilots who had come before her. That had changed when she’d confronted him about not properly educating Rey on her rights as a clone. If this is how she defended her friends to someone she saw as a hero, he pitied any First Order ships that got between her and her loved ones.
Rey had a handful of other friends amongst the pilots as she had inherited his love of flying. So far Poe had been teaching both her and Finn how to fly, but Luke knew Jessika had been dropping hints that she’d like to get him into a cockpit as well. He wanted too, but not as a spectacle as he was sure it would become. He hadn’t flown in years, and part of him was afraid of how rusty he was. No, he needed to practice a little first before showing these kids how it was done. The idea of flying made him feel more like his old self again.
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The rumor mill was swirling on who Rey’s mother must be. He found it rather amusing to be honest. It was her birthday soon, and he knew that was probably going to bring all of this to a front. He’d stopped caring about what other people thought of him on that matter, but he could tell Rey wasn’t doing well under the spotlight. He didn’t want to make that worse.
He had decided that he should give her the chance to build her own lightsaber. Among other things, her current saber didn’t have the best track record for keeping both of your hands, and he honestly didn’t know how old it was, or how long lightsabers could safely function. He wanted her to have the chance to gain the experience and confidence that came with building her own as well. They wouldn’t be able to go on a proper expedition for a crystal. There wasn’t time, and the few remaining sources of Kyber he’d found in the Jedi archives were all well known enough that the First Order was probably watching them.
He had one crystal that he’d found while exploring the ancient temple on Ach-To. It had called to him. He hoped it would work for Rey.
Luke had decided to take the opportunity of her birthday to return Rey’s pilot doll to her as well. When Rey was a toddler Wedge had been gleeful when presenting it to him along with the rest of Rogue Squadron, and Rey had taken to it instantly. That doll had rarely left her side, and when he thought he’d lost her he’d taken it with him. He’d kept meaning to give it back to her, but never really had the right words to go with it. Her birthday was a good opportunity.
He was feeling nostalgic about all of this. Twenty years ago he’d felt pretty invincible to the galaxy. He had imagined his child growing up in the new Jedi Order he’d created, safe and confident to take on the galaxy. He’d wanted to take her so many places that he’d never gotten to see in his youth. Leia had helped him with research on both their mother and father, and Luke couldn’t wait to show his daughter the beauty of Naboo architecture, and the quiet majesty of a Tatooinian twin sunset. There was so much of the galaxy that he’d planned to show her. There was so many things that he’d wanted to help make right in the galaxy with her and his students at his side. That was all gone now, and instead they were in another full scale war.
Leia had been apparently feeling nostalgic as well and had sent him some of Rey’s baby holos she had kept in her personal databank. They were bittersweet. While Rey was back with him, many of the holos also showed the faces of his students, long dead now. There was one in particular that was a candid that his student, Cella, had taken of him when he’d fallen asleep while reading on one of the couches in a common area with Rey asleep on his chest. Rey had been so small. Cella had looked small to him too when he found her dead after Ben’s attack on his Academy.
Death was one thing he couldn’t fix. He frequently debated with himself whether if once this was all over he should formally start teaching another group of Jedi, or if he should figure out some other method. He had a lot of doubts about his abilities after having lost Ben. Leia still firmly insisted that Snoke was to blame for that, and he tried to convince himself that was true.
Rey’s training was going well at least. She was proof that there was a future for the Jedi.
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Rey was nearly dancing with excitement as the two of them left on their expedition for her to build her lightsaber. Luke realized that the two of them needed to go off together like this more often. He hadn’t fully been himself on the island, so that didn’t count. He thought again of his desire to take her to Tatooine, Naboo, Yavin, and all of the other beautiful places in the galaxy once this war was over. Leia had been gently chiding him about the level to which he doted on his nearly fully grown daughter, but blast it, he was making up for lost time.
They took a speeder bike into the foothills then began to ascend the mountain on foot. Luke was discovering that while he’d hiked around the island on Ach-To, he wasn’t as young as he used to be. Rey flitted around him like an excited bird poking at the flora and occasionally fauna of the forest while they made their way up into the mountains. Like he was at that age, she had trouble with focusing on the 'here and now' as Yoda liked to say. Luke shifted the conversation to the history of the Jedi hoping that it would put her into a better mindset for what she was about to do.
The nights were warm enough that a campfire was more for ambiance than necessity. Looking across the crackling flames at his amazing daughter Luke was struck by how incredibly lucky he was to have her. After everything that had happened to her she was optimistic, compassionate, and full of the light. His Rey. His miracle. Rey sensed him staring at her and looked up from her dinner.
“What?”
Luke felt himself smiling. “I’m just so proud of you. I’m grateful the Force brought us back together.”
“Thanks dad.”
Sometimes exchanges like this were hard. They’d spent a lot of time apart and sometimes it was difficult to really put these things into words. Their bond in the Force made things easier. Sometimes just sharing an emotion over that was easier than finding the right words for it. There was something ironic about that, because when Rey had been first learning to talk he’d had a hard time convincing her to actually use words when she greatly preferred simply poking at him with the Force instead. Some nineteen years later, what had once been a parenting headache was now something he was happy to just go with.
Luke continued to watch Rey across the fire. She’d gone back to being absorbed with her food, but Luke gave himself a moment to just soak in the serenity of this moment. The galaxy was at war again, a war that he and his daughter would be drawn into again very soon. It made moments like this all the more precious. He didn’t know what the future would bring them. He hoped that his family would all make it through this war, but he knew the chances of that were slim. They’d already lost Han. There would most likely be more losses before the war was over. The Jedi of old probably wouldn’t approve of it, but he clung to moments like this. The night was beautiful, and his daughter was safe and about to complete an important step on her path to becoming a Jedi. Luke was at peace.
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The following day was when the Force really called to Rey and she took off, a woman on a mission to where the Force was calling her. He tried to keep up with her and eventually told her to go on ahead since he could feel her nervous need to follow where she was being led. He didn’t fall too far behind, and was amazed that she had found what must have been a sacred site to the Jedi of old.
He watched her work, silently cheering her on as she fiddled and got frustrated with trying to make everything just perfect. He knew she was fully into the task at hand when she declined his offer to come down to have something to eat. Since they had reunited on Ach-To Rey had never refused food when it was offered to her. Luke took this as a sign that he needed to not be so much of a mother bantha at this moment and let her do her thing.
Night was falling, and the temperature was dropping more quickly than it had in previous nights. Stars were beginning to come out when he felt a shift in the Force as the final pieces of the lightsaber clicked into place. Rey slid off the boulder beaming. She held out the hilt to him and Luke was struck by how similar, and yet completely different this scenario was to how it had been some months ago on Ach-To. His heart swelled with pride in his daughter as he took the hilt from her and turned it over in his hands. It was incredibly sturdy, but also beautiful. Just like his daughter. Reaching out with the Force he checked the inner circuitry and found it to be sound. The crystal was in perfect harmony with the rest of the saber. Luke couldn’t have been happier as he handed her lightsaber back. Parental instincts that had been placated while she was constructing the blade could no longer be pushed aside and he allowed himself to let the mother bantha come back out and tell her to go warm up by the fire and have dinner. Grinning, she started to turn away.
But-
“Wait, Rey.”
She stopped and turned back to him.
There really weren’t words to express to her what he’d been trying to say the last time around the campfire. He tried anyway, and then pulled her into a hug. She was nearly as tall as he was, he desperately wished he had been able to watch her grow, but just as fiercely he thanked the Force that she was with him now. His Rey. His miracle. He opened himself fully to the Force and let that pass between them so he could convey his love for her even as words failed him. He was so lucky to have her. Even with everything that had happened, he truly felt that the Force had blessed him. He had found peace, and so much happiness. No matter what the future held, the Force was with them both, and he would always be with Rey.