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Chapter Text

Rey sat by herself in the cargo hold, listlessly flipping through one of the Jedi textbooks, far enough away to escape the sounds of celebration coming from the group in the main area of the Falcon.

She didn’t want to be around anyone just now.

Oh, it had been nice at first- the Life Day preparations and the friends around her had been so distracting that, for a little while, she had almost allowed herself to forget.

But then she’d seen him again.

Ben, just as he was a year ago-alive.

And she couldn’t even pretend to ignore the agonizing memory that gnawed at her heart: an all too brief love lost to death, and a smile that still haunted her dreams.

Blinking away the sting in her eyes, she caught a shimmer of blue light.

It wasn’t unusual anymore-former Jedi appearing to guide her on her way-so Rey barely even glanced up before returning to her text.

Master Yoda, the source of the soft blue glow, slowly took a seat beside her.

“Troubled you are, young Rey”, he murmured, nodding thoughtfully.

“Yes Master”, she sighed.

“A listening ear, many a problem solves.”

“Not this one”, Rey mumbled, her voice rough with unshed tears.

“Oh? So sure, are you?”

She sighed.

What could it hurt to talk about it? Even if it wouldn’t help, maybe it would finally let her sleep at night.

“It’s just... it was harder than I ever thought. Seeing him again.”

“Strong emotions for Ben Solo, have you.”

“I miss him Master,” Rey whispered before she could stop herself.

She could feel Yoda’s reproof in the air, and countered it before it came.

“I know, I know... I need to let go of the past”, she huffed, feeling sure of the inevitable lecture.

But Master Yoda seemed to be in a mood to surprise her.

“Not always so, that is. The past, defines us it does.”

“But… but the Jedi teachings say-“

Yoda waved his hand disparagingly. “Many Jedi teachings, left in the past as well, they should be.”

With a wave of his raised hand, the ancient books crumbled to dust.

Rey felt her heart give a sickening thud.

She grasped at the pages in vain, shrieking as she saw them disintegrate before her eyes. “The sacred texts!”

Yoda prodded her gently with his walking stick.

“Heard nothing I said, have you? The answers you seek, those texts had not. This you have seen.”

Rey felt herself even closer to the verge of tears, dropping to her knees and sifting her fingers uselessly through the texts’ powdery remains.

“Where am I supposed to find answers then? I don’t know who I am, what I’m meant to do… why I lost him…”

Her voice rose to a desperate pitch, the tears flowed freely now, and she didn’t even try to stop them.

Yoda tucked his stick under her chin, tilting his head sympathetically, guiding her eyes to his. “The key to the past, you already have. Mistakes, made they were. Wrongs, righted they must be.”

Rey fought for breath through her sobs, and suddenly something clicked. The key. It could bring her to different times.

Master Yoda nodded approvingly, sensing her understanding. “Go, young Rey. Ben Solo, you shall find. The past, you may change. The present-you will make right.”

A sudden wave of calm washed over her like a cool rain. She knew what she had to do.

“Thank you master Yoda”, she whispered, fresh tears streaming down her face as he smiled sagely and faded from view.

Chapter Text

Rey rushed through the main compartment of the Falcon, causing everyone to abruptly halt their festivities, but she didn’t stop to answer any of the questions called after her.

“I’m sorry, I’ve got to go!”

Finn caught her arm as she ran past him, unwilling to settle for her quick excuse.

“Where?”

She pulled away impatiently. “To fix something.”

“Can’t it wait?”

“He’s waited long enough.”

A chorus of voices rose up-Poe, 3P0, Rose, Chewie.

“He?” “What is she talking about?” “Rey, what’s wrong?” “HrrghhHh??”

“Nothing-everything’s right. Don’t worry!”

She raced down the ramp and outside before anyone could ask any more questions.

“We’ll save you some tip yip!” Poe called after her.

“Enough with the tip yip already”, she yelled back.

Finn caught up with her just as she was climbing into her X-Wing.

“Rey... where are you going?”

She paused for a moment before climbing down and gently taking his hand.

“I think you know”, she smiled.

Sensing the soft ripples in the Force, she knew he understood.

Finn nodded slowly, but she could see him grit his teeth.

“You really sure he’s worth it?”

“I have to try.”

“Rey.” He pulled her into a warm hug.

“Just... be careful? I need you to be ok.”

She hugged her friend tighter. “I will

be. I promise.”

It didn’t take her long to retrieve the key.

In the quiet cave on Kordoku, Rey squeezed her eyes shut, once again seeing the picture that had never once left her mind.

Ben. Smiling, at peace, looking at her with love; finally redeemed.

With a trembling hand and a silent plea, she waved the key in front of her, and a portal opened.

Taking a long, shaky breath, she stepped through.

Chapter Text

Rey immediately found herself swamped in cold water.

Lungs screaming for air, she thrashed her way to the surface, taking in her surroundings.

They were all too familiar-a different dark, humid cave, with rocky walls surrounding the deep pool of water she had just emerged from.

“No! This is the wrong place!”

She grabbed for the key, but it was gone.

“No no no!”

Trembling from a combination of cold, anger and fear, she slammed a hand against the rock wall to steady herself.

Just as once before, she saw a shadowy, obscured figure approaching from the other side.

She started to turn away. She didn’t want to face herself again, alone, taunting her with failure.

A soft, deep voice stopped her in her tracks.

“Rey?”

She felt a shiver go through her that had nothing to do with the cold.

“Rey...”

“Ben?”

She put her hand to the wall again as the figure slowly became clearer, barely daring to breathe for fear that everything would be the same as before, that she would only see herself, and that she had let her hopes get the better of her once again.

But no.

His hair was longer, he looked wan, tired, but he was real. Alive.

“Ben!”

Tears welled up, choking her. “Where are you?”

“I’m right here. Come find me Rey. I know you can.”

“Ben!”

She shouted his name over and over again, pounding uselessly against the unyielding crystal rock, but his image began to fade.

“No don’t leave!”

“Come find me sweetheart…”

Rey clawed at the rock until her fingertips  began to bleed, before she came to her senses and fumbled around again for the key.

Where was it?

The water.

Leaving all thought behind, she dove under the surface.

She could see it drifting, shimmering just out of reach, and her chest burned and she grabbed for it desperately.

With one last kick her fingers closed around it, and she willed one thing with every power in her being.

Take me to him.

The last thing she remembered was pain as her head struck the rock wall.

And then everything around her was gone.

Chapter Text

When her eyes opened, she wasn’t in a cave any longer. 

The hard surface underneath her was smooth, shimmering, and all around her were pinpricks of light. It was as if she were floating in an endless night sky.

Master Yoda was there, looking on, but Rey barely noticed.

It felt like she was standing amongst the stars, with ribbons and portals and windows of time flowing around her, shifting and blending together, a tapestry of infinite possibilities flashing before her eyes.

The past she knew, people she’d lost, all there.

She didn’t exactly understand, but somehow she knew-she was in another place, a place that defied time. Maybe here she had a chance.

“If I can get to the past… I’ve got to get to the time of his death. Maybe if I do something, anything differently, I can save him.”

She was babbling now, desperate.

Yoda approached, placing a tiny hand on hers.

“Find Ben Solo in the past, you will not. Think, young Rey. On Tatooine, who did you see?”

“Master Luke... and Leia.”

“Gone from this life, they are. One with the force they have become. But Ben Solo, he has not.”

Shakily, she stood up, fully taking in her strange surroundings.

“The past, this is. The future, this is. All times, as one, they are. The world between worlds, this is.”

Rey’s eyes grew wide. “I thought that was a myth...”

It could have been a year or a moment as she walked along the narrow path, seemingly suspended on nothing.

Peering into the visions flowing beside her, she saw the history of the galaxy play out.

She saw the Jedi, the rising of the Sith, planets and cities burned, years of war.

The people she knew, younger, older. Herself. As a baby, a child, alone on a hellish desert planet.

She saw her parents.

If she’d been given this opportunity only a few years ago, she would have gone to them in a second, erased all of the hardships she’d had to endure.

Now? It couldn’t have been the furthest thing from her mind.

She’d made amends, if not peace, with that part of her life a long time ago.

No, everything in her life had led her to now.

Taking her eyes away from the past, she stared straight ahead, walking towards what resembled an archway made purely of light.

She could see the tall figure of a man, hazy and shadowed, just as he’d been in the cave.

But this was different.

The window seemed to shrink, receding and forming a corridor around the figure until only the stars remained behind him, and he stood on the path in front of her, clear as a picture.

Ben.

Her heartbeat echoing loudly, Rey stretched out her hand to him, fully expecting it to pass through.

But instead her skin touched his. Warm, solid, alive.

Her hands felt over his beautiful, smiling face, touching the tears that streamed down his cheeks.

Those tears mingled with hers as Rey crashed their lips together, and it seemed to her that they were rising together, higher, higher, until the white light enveloped them, and the strange world around them disappeared.