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When Ben woke up he did not see Rue. This wasn’t unusual, sometimes she would wake up before him to make breakfast or to meditate. When he entered the main living section of their cave however, he did not find Rue. Ben frowned. Then he found a piece of flimsi. He walked over and picked it up. He turned it around. It was a note, written in English not Aurebesh. Written by Rue.
He began to read the note:
Dear Ben Kenobi,
Thank you, for everything.
You took me in when I had nobody. You showed me a place to call home when I had lost my own. I am grateful to have been your student. To have been your daughter.
She was talking about how he had rescued her when she appeared in The Clone Wars. How he had taken her to the Jedi Temple and she had been his padawan. A feeling of dread came over the once Jedi Master.
Why did this feel like a goodbye?
He continued to read:
I’m sorry I couldn’t change your story. I couldn’t stop this from becoming our ending. I’m sorry for all the pain you’ve had to endure. And I’m sorry for leaving you alone.
It was. Rue had left him.
There was still more:
I can’t stay here any longer. We both knew I wouldn’t. I went with you for comfort. I wasn’t ready to face the galaxy alone. Especially not as it had become. I needed to find my story, so I decided to figure out my next chapter in your company.
And I have discovered that chapter. A chapter where I will once again fight against the darkness. Where I can save as many lives as possible. As long as there’s the slightest chance. I’ve left to join the rebellion.
“The rebellion,” Ben echoed in a whisper. It was like Rue to do so. She had joined The Clone Wars when it had never been her fight, and nobody had ever asked her to. He had told Rue that there were those who could still fight while they couldn’t. He supposed he shouldn’t be surprised that she had joined them. It was the type of person she was. The Jedi she was.
He read the ending of the note:
The Clone Wars may have ended. The Jedi may be gone. But the war has only just begun. I have to fight.
I hope you will discover your next chapter as well. Your story doesn’t have to end. Not yet.
May The Force Be With You,
Grim Kennet
Ben read the ending over several more times. She had signed with her real name, but hadn’t opened with his. This didn’t feel like a move she didn’t think of. She didn’t seem afraid of revealing their past in this note. It had been intentional.
Ben Kenobi is what he insisted he was called. What he had said his name was. Even when it was only him and Grim he had gone by Ben. And so for the same reasons Grim had only gone by Rue.
Obi-Wan had died on Mustafar with Anakin. Killing his brother had killed a part of him.
Grim had survived that day. Even when hiding as Rue, Grim was still whole, and yet broken too.
Her name stared at him. Along with the way she had signed it.
“May The Force Be With You, Grim Kennet”
That held all the words she couldn’t fit on one page, and Ben caught all of them.
Another line from the note stood out to him.
“I hope you will discover your next chapter as well. Your story doesn’t have to end. Not yet.”
A tear fell down Ben’s cheek. “No, Grim, my story has ended,” he said to the daughter who had left him. He held the note and read it over again and again. He tried to make sense of it all.
Ben of course knew that Grim would leave. They had decided that before they had gone into hiding together. Still, he hadn’t expected her to leave when she did. How she did. For her to leave without ever saying goodbye.
Grim knew what this did. What she had done. The last member of his family was gone.
“And I’m sorry for leaving you alone.”
She hadn’t just left him alone. She had abandoned him to his grief.
“Goodbye, Grim,” he said. “May the Force be with you.”