Rey had seen many, many sunsets on Jakku and a few on D'Qar, but this was the first that she'd seen one set over an ocean. The sun reflected on the water, golden red light on shimmering waves. All the green and all the water was overwhelming by itself, but the figure who sat silently across the fire was overwhelming in his own, silent way.

When she'd seen him, memories long buried had resurfaced, and Rey had burned with a thousand questions and a low, simmering anger that was only now beginning to cool. It was replaced by a sharp pain in her chest and tears that threatened to spill out at any moment.

They ate in silence, Rey devouring her food as if there wouldn't be a meal tomorrow, and Luke taking a steadier approach. He could sense her questions, her unspoken accusations. He set his bowl aside, voice gravelly from disuse. "I know you have a lot of questions. I have many of my own."

All of Rey's emotions boiled over into one unsteady word, spoken with a quivering voice and accompanied by hot tears streaking her cheeks. "Why"

Her throat bobbed, and she found more words, each as painful as the last. "Why did you leave me?"

The pain in Rey's voice tore at Luke's heart. She deserved the truth, she deserved so much more than what she'd been given in her life. "It wasn't because I wanted to."

Rey folded her arms, changing to a cross legged sitting position and staring at Luke as she waited for him to continue.

"Through the Force, we are often given glimpses of events. Past, present and future." Luke gestured with his hands, as if to draw attention to the world around them. "Sometimes, they're warnings. But they're rarely clear."

"You… saw something. The future. What did you see?"

"That someone would betray me. I didn't know who, and the domino effect that would lead to that event were obscured." Luke lowered his hands, and rested them on his knees. "With every choice I made, that reality became clearer, and clearer. I had those who were already advanced in their training go into hiding. Others I hid, or had those I trusted hide."

"Like you hid me?" Rey's face contorted. There was anger there, dangerous anger. Emotions that would have to be worked through before any true lessons could begin.

But unlike those of the past, Luke knew that emotions weren't a weakness to be repressed and that there would be more danger in Rey burying her feelings than accepting them.

"Yes, and no." He waited, but Rey remained silent. "I sent you away to protect you."

"Why Jakku? Why that wasteland?"

"I saw a woman in the desert. Alone and lonely, but with durasteel in her core. I let the Force be my guide." And for the first time, really, Luke's face gave way to what he was feeling inside. Regret and sadness, but also pride. Luke had grown up in the desert, but the desert had raised Rey and some day she'd be better than him. In all the ways that counted and so many more. "There hasn't been a day since that I haven't thought about you. Tried to watch over you."

Rey studied him. Fresh tears pricked at her eyes and she realized the bowl she was holding was shaking in her hands, so she set it aside. "I used to dream of the ocean, and of an island. This ocean. This island. That was you. Reaching out to me. It was the only time I didn't feel alone."

"Rey, you have been watched over all of your life. And not just by me."

And Rey remembered some nights, where she'd be sitting on her AT-AT shelter, and she'd see a figure or figures in the distance. Soft blue glows, wavering in the night. Sometimes they were taller, and other times they were shorter, but she'd always felt safe when they were around. "I used to see things when I was younger. But in recent years it hasn't been as often."

"The Dark Side is clouding everything, again. It makes it harder for old friends to visit."

"I felt it, the Dark Side," Rey whispered. "It was so cold. And yet it felt like a promise of home. All I had to do was kill Kylo Ren where he lay."

"How and why you kill someone is often as important as the act of killing them itself," Luke explained. "In combat, in a fight, it happens. You deal with it as it comes. But in anger, or hatred, or when your opponent is already beaten and injured that's where you can lose yourself. That's where the Dark Side is strongest."

Rey hugged her legs, closing her eyes. "But he killed Han Solo. He deserves to suffer for it."

"I know what he did." There was pain in Luke's voice. The pain of losing a friend, a brother, of a man he'd loved. But there was also sympathy. "But that doesn't mean he should suffer. Kylo..Ben, is lost. Confused."

"But he destroyed everything! The Jedi! Everything you worked for!"

Luke stood slowly, and approached Rey. He held out his hand. "Not everything. As long as I have love and forgiveness in my heart, as long as there are others who understand the same, then there's hope."

Rey looked at his hand, then took it and let him help her up. She wanted to hold onto her anger. She wanted to hate him for abandoning her, for not being there. But he'd always been there, she'd just made herself forget it. Rey let go of Luke Skywalker's hand,then embraced her father. And both father and daughter wept.

He'd always known that he couldn't run from his past forever. That his daughter would actually find him one day and that she'd need training. But training her in the Force, training her to be a Jedi, brought back many memories, painful and otherwise. One surprising difficulty was in thinking of her as "Rey."

Once she'd seemed calmed enough, Luke started by having Rey show him what she could do already. How she fought with her staff, and what she could do with the Force. He listened intently as she told him of Starkiller Base. Using a mind trick and calling the Lightsaber to her. She spoke haltingly of the vision she'd had when she'd first touched it. There were questions in her eyes, but she wasn't ready to ask them yet.

On the third day, Chewbacca scaled the steps with the droid on his back. The Wookie's hug was rib crushing, but so was Luke's. Chewie was a friend. Was family. And seeing the little droid who'd been through so much with him nearly brought the old jedi to tears.

"He's really missed you," Rey said, poking at a pot over the fire, and beaming over at Luke and the others. She meant R2, but it was clear that Chewbacca felt the same way. He roared in agreement.

"This little droid has seen more than most people." Luke replied. "He and Chewie are both family."

Rey's smile shifted, becoming a little sadder. "It feels like my family keeps growing." And it had lost one before she'd really gotten to know him. Han had been her...Uncle. That was still something that didn't quite fit yet. She sat down on a stone slab, and hugged her legs. Her father was a Jedi, her aunt a General, and her Uncle had been the best smuggler the galaxy had ever seen. But she knew absolutely nothing about her mother. She didn't know how uncomfortable a subject it might be, but she wanted to know.

Still uncomfortable with calling him 'father', Rey asked, "Luke...what was my mother like. Did you love her?"

Luke exchanged a look with the Wookie, then sat down across from Rey. "You know, I wanted to ask the same of my father. I never got the chance while he was alive. And it's harder to ask him now, with the Force so clouded. And back then I don't know if he was ready to talk about her yet, or not. But R2 knew her. And he knew my father before he fell."

The droid beeped excitedly, rocking back and forth. It was hard for Rey to keep up. "She was a queen? My grandmother?" Did that make her a princess?

"Queen of Naboo, and later Senator. With R2's help, Leia and I found as much information about her as we could." It felt like they'd come to know their mother through her deeds, and through the people who'd known her. She became more than the woman who'd died giving birth to them. Padme Amidala was the woman who'd fought against Tyranny every step of the way. She was an inspiration.

Luke smiled, and reached for the pot. "As for your mother...she was a pilot for the Rebellion. We met after Yavin and the Death Star. Flew on a few missions together. Great pilot. The Rebellion would have been lost without her."

Rey didn't like the past tense, but she didn't say anything and simply let Luke talk about his mother and her mother. She picked up her bowl to fill it from the pot.

R2-D2 beeped again and Rey started, then turned and stared at him. Her voice was filled with awe and disbelief. "She was the one that stole the Death Star plans?"

"Yes, though she wasn't alone," Luke confirmed.

Her parents were heroes. Legendary heroes. And who was she? Just some scavenger from Jakku. Rey looked over to her pack, where the lightsaber had remained since she'd first offered it to her father. She lifted her gaze back to him. "...where is she now?"

Meeting her gaze, Luke's face was a conflict of emotion. "I don't know. She was the one that took you away. She never came back."

"But you must have felt it. With the Force, if she was dead."

"I would have, and that gives me hope." Luke fell silent, finishing his stew. He still hadn't answered the other part of Rey's question, and he didn't know how to do so, exactly.

Rey still had more questions. If Luke was a legendary Jedi, how had she come to be? "Aren't the Jedi supposed to be above love? Isn't what what doomed them, and doomed my grandfather?"

"Love is what redeemed Anakin Skywalker, not what destroyed him." Luke stood, and held out his hand. "Walk with me."

They walked to the outskirts of the camp, and towards the cliffs where moons hung low over the sea. Rey wrapped her arms around herself, shivering in the cold. But at least her feet were warm. "I don't understand."

"I loved your mother. She taught me many things about myself," Luke explained. "But my love for her was not the same as Leia's for Han. Nor the same as how I love Leia. Love can take many forms. Family. Friendship. Lovers. Comrades. Love isn't a weakness, it's a strength. By denying themselves that strength, the Jedi Order lost their way." Luke smiled at her, watching her out of the corner of his eyes. "There are people you're thinking about."

Rey stiffened, then looked down at her feet. "Yes. Finn. He's a stormtrooper who defected. We've saved each others' lives several times. He's a good man, with a good heart. I wouldn't have lived if he hadn't used your lightsaber to protect me."

Luke raised an eyebrow at that, and filed that knowledge away. "Anyone else?"

She glanced back at Chewbacca. "Our fuzzball there. … Han. I almost… I almost started to see him as a father, before he'd died."

Her vision blurred as she looked at Luke, half in grief and half in guilty apology. Luke simply smiled again, and put his hand on her shoulder. "I know what that pain is like. I felt the same way when Ben died."

"And Leia..the General, she's been fantastic to me. And Finn's pilot friend, Poe. He's my friend now too. And there's this woman. Jess. She makes me feel light and fluttery inside." Her vision had cleared, but emotion still colored her voice. "I've never had so many friends before. There were...two once, but leaving Jakku was more important to them then I was."

She hadn't wished either of them any ill will, and could only hope that they'd made it and were out there somewhere, safe. "I guess...I love each of them in different ways." Rey felt Luke put his arm around her, and she leaned into the embrace. Maybe she could learn to love him, too. "...can I call you father?"

Sudden emotion swept Luke up like a storm. His voice shook, and tears threatened to spill down weathered cheeks. "I don't know if I deserve it...but I'd like that."