Saga - ST "More than a Jedi" - L/M, Rey vig

Title: More than a Jedi
Author: ginchy
Time Frame: Just post TFA.
Acknowledgements: Thanks to taramidala and JadeLotus, as always!
Disclaimer: These characters and situations do not belong to me, but to Lucasfilm and Disney, of course.
Note 1: Between grad school, my little one, work, and life I have been away from TFN, but I’m trying to catch up!! I also really hope that I have tagged this correctly.

More than a Jedi

Luke Skywalker raises his arm, almost as if he is going to wipe at his eye. But he drops it before he can make contact, and continues to stare at her. Rey can see the dampness about his eyes, and feels an answering well of tears sting at her own. Casting about for something to say to this living legend, she finds that she is unsure. Through hyperspace she had practiced and spoken eloquently to the Jedi in her mind. Now she could only stare back at him, speechless, her unspoken hopes foremost in her mind. Her stomach is tight, nervous.

He reaches out, finally, and takes the saber, clenching it in his mechanical hand. He drops it to his side, barely paying it heed, and steps closer to her. “It’s true,” he says, stopping to clear his throat. He presses his lips together, as if it is hard for him to speak.

“What’s true?” Rey’s eyes dart from the saber, back to his face. The dampness threatens to spill from his eyes. Rey blinks her own to keep her tears at bay. Around her the island is alive with sound and scent. She knows this place. It’s like something out of her dreams. And Luke. She knows Luke.

“You.” A smile tugs at the corner of his lips. “Rey. You look just like her. I always knew that you would.”

“How do you—?”

“What do you remember?” Luke interrupts. “Your mother?”

Sweetheart . The endearment, in her mother’s voice, races through Rey’s mind. “She left me when I was young. Five or six. I’m not sure. She left me to save me, I think.”

Luke smiles again, gentle and sad. “I never knew where she went with you. We thought it was safer that way. And then she was gone forever, and you with her. Or so I thought. I don’t know what happened after she left. It was when you were five years old. So little.”

The stinging in Rey’s eyes release, and tears roll down her cheeks. The tightening in her stomach doesn’t ease. “You’re my…” she shies away from the word. “You didn’t know that I was alive?”

Luke reaches out as if to touch her, but stops short. “I would not be here had I thought you lived. Nothing would have kept me from you.”

A smile threads across Rey’s face. “Really?” She wipes at the damp tracks on her face.

“Really,” he answers, his voice gruff with tears. “Becoming your father was the happiest moment of my life. Eclipsed only by this moment.” He reaches out again, touches her shoulder.

With a sob, Rey crashes into him, relieved, happy, and sure. His arms close around her, and nothing has ever felt so real, and so safe. She cries against the rough fabric of his robe, and feels his body shaking through his tears, even as he holds her tighter.

Rey gradually becomes aware of the flitting and calling wildlife over the crash of the ocean water, and pulls back, peeking up to look at Luke again. She studies him, wanting to see herself in him. She wants to see a holo of her mother, and to hear him talk about her. Her mind races with questions. “You called me by my name. Is it ‘Rey’? I was never quite sure.”

Luke allows her to step back, and his face draws in on itself. “You didn’t remember your name?”

“I’ve called myself Rey. I thought I took the name from an Alliance helmet I once found.”

“Reyna is the name we gave you,” he says, eyes bright as if tracking back in time. “But I always called you my little ray of light.” He pauses, as if unsure if he should continue. “Your mother was never quite sure of her own real name either.”

“What—how—what was her name…the name she used?” Rey’s body buzzes, the surreality of it all catching up to her.

“Mara.” He speaks her name as if he hasn’t spoken it in years, as if it is hard for him to utter.

Rey repeats the unfamiliar name, wondering about the woman who wielded it. “She’s not coming back.” Maz Kanata had confirmed that much.

“No,” Luke agrees, his eyes wet again. “Only until this moment I had thought her completely gone from the galaxy. And yet, here you still are. Holding yourself as straight and as poised as she ever did. You’re as lovely as she remains in my memory.”

Rey’s cheeks burn, and she ducks her head, another smile breaking across her face before she can help it. She looks like her mother. Her father has twice confirmed it.

Luke turns and looks out over the water again. Rey can feel his sense in the Force. He feels more alive than anyone she’s ever met, his presence hums, calls to her. She walks to stand next to him, sharing his view. “I heard a story once that you grew up on a moisture farm,” she says, remembering Jakku’s bright light and coarse sand. “I felt a connection to you, and to all of the heroes of the Alliance. I would imagine your life, and how you came from sand. Like me.”

He turns back to her, his eyes searching hers. “Not Tatooine, but you’ve known the life of a desert dweller. I never wanted that for you.”

She looks around his lonely island. “The sea, the salt, the green…it’s overwhelming. I told Han that I never knew that there was so much green in the galaxy.”

“Wait until you see the rain.” His smile is gentle, even with the tears that still light his blue eyes. “Green is familiar to me now. I want it to be for you, too.” He holds his hand out, indicating the land behind him. “The Force is at its purest here, Rey. I have discovered things that I wouldn’t have out in the galaxy. The Force is on a precipice of change, and I think that change begins with you. But for now, I just want to know you. I want to know my daughter again. Will you stay here with me?”

“Leia sent me with Chewbacca and Artoo-Detoo, to bring you back. She didn’t she say it to me, but I think she knew that I was her niece.”

“She would know. Leia and Han loved you, and, well, Mara is written all over your face,” Luke says, smiling. “We’ll go and speak to Chewie and Artoo before the afternoon is gone. And we will go back to Leia. Soon. But I want time with my daughter. Also,” he pauses before raising the lightsaber for her to see once again. “I can feel the Force in you, Rey. It’s bright, vibrant, but you’re so young. Master Yoda felt that I was too old to begin the training when I wasn’t much older than you are now. But looking at you I wonder if you’re not too young for such a burden.”

Rey thinks of Kylo, her cousin. “I’m already burdened.”

As if he can see a shadow on her face, Luke nods in agreement. “It will be even longer before we can return to Leia, then. If you wish to learn the ways of the Jedi, like your father…and your mother…before you.”

“She was a Jedi?” Rey’s eyes water again.

“She was my first student.” He hands her the lightsaber. “You will be my last. My daughter,” he says, his voice breaking slightly, “it will be my honor to train you as a Jedi Knight.”

Rey looks down at the saber in her hands. Her father is a solid and comforting presence at her side as she contemplates her birthright to the sound of the pounding waves of the sea. She looks at him, and sees her emotion reflected in his eyes. “I want to be a Jedi. But more than that, I want to know what I’ve missed. I want to be your daughter.”

Luke grasps her shoulder and squeezes her in a one-armed embrace. Rey smiles and moves closer to her father as they watch the ocean below continue its never-ending lap against the small island’s shores.

-end

Note 2: Obviously Mara as we know her from Legends wouldn’t fit as Rey’s mother, but you totally know Skymom is going to be a mix of our girl Mara and new character traits, just with a new name. I can’t wait to meet her, but Mara herself will always hold a place in my heart.

 

Oh lady, what a treat to see your work back on the boards. And this scene is gorgeous. I completely can imagine that is what Luke would say. To see the face of his beloved, so young and innocent and full of hope and potential, must have overwhelmed him. The mixed emotion of seeing his daughter and remembering her mother - so bittersweet. And yet, if Rey is alive, it's like some part of Mara has come back to him.

Loved the "Ray of light" reference - Rey from Luke.

Such a pure and majestic place to rejoin their bond. The idea of Mara being his first student and Rey being his last is fitting as well.

So much to say and learn from each other, but it has the sense that finally they have come home at last.

 

ginchy - Oh I have missed! missed missed your! Luke! No one can touch it! They can only wish. Beautiful and poignant reconnecting. Bittersweet of course but moving more towards sweet as they form happy memories.

 

I am glad to see you back. You always write the best Luke/Mara (and now Rey) stories. This was an emotional read. It is sad that Luke lost so much time with his daughter and now he knows Mara is not coming back.

 

You know I love this gal, and it's such a treat to see you posting fic again!

I love Luke and Rey's meeting, the love and hesitance, the bonding over growing up on a desert planet, of Mara being his first student, and Rey being his last. Love it so much!

 

Yeah, you are around again. Actually, with a tale that makes me cry immediately. And you have Mara mentioned in it. As Rey´s mom.

 

Lovely. I'll never get bored of these Luke and Rey meeting find, and this is a particularly lovely one

 

Beautiful scene! Love that Luke and Rey have found each other again.

 

I love it! And your writing! The idea of SkyMom being Luke's first student and Rey being his last is lovely, perfect, and tearjerking. Wonderful job as always.

 

That was so bittersweet.

Love seeing Luke and his daughter reunited but how sad Mara can’t be a part of their new life together.

Great job on this

 

I love this. So glad to see you writing again.

 

Glad to see you around again. This is just so unbelievably sweet and cute. I want it to be canon!