Rey feels a kinship to the little BB-8 unit. It has a personality all its own, and- well- after so long of only speaking to Grandpa, Grandma, the harsh traders at the settlement, and Mr. Dollie, she just- wants a friend? And it (he?) is a very friendly droid.

Also a dangerous droid, considering the events which occur the day after she finds it.

She meets a man named Finn. There are stormtroopers- stormtroopers, all white armor and black edges and impassive masks, and she can feel the revulsion radiating off of Grandpa as he trails after her. Her instinct takes her to the Millennium Falcon, though there are sturdier ships nearby. Finn shoots well. He says he's with the Resistance. Grandma tuts and shakes her head, and Grandpa says that Skywalker women always know when someone is lying, and Rey resists the urge to smile. She knows Finn is lying, but she doesn't feel the Dark in him, either- determination, yes, and something like hope, but no evil. She lets BB-8 tell her the location of the Resistance base while they try to repair the ship. There is a tractor beam.

Han Solo and Chewbacca climb aboard the Falcon.

"I didn't know there was this much green in the whole galaxy."

The planet is bright and lush and beautiful, and the sun glints off the still blue waters with a tranquility Anakin sought his whole life but could never quite grasp. Maybe it's something about being born of the desert. The scene grows larger through the viewport of the Falcon's cockpit; Rey has never seen anything like it, has only heard the stories of faraway planets that Anakin has told her, has only heard the stories of Naboo from Padme. She was not borne of the desert like he was, like Luke, but he knows that she's either forgotten with age or blocked away her childhood memories of Yavin and the New Order; the desert has shaped her, turned her into who she is.

Her eyes have gone wide, lips parted slightly in shock. Finn, behind her, looks on with a brimming curiosity that a lifetime of conditioning couldn't quite stamp out.

Anakin stands slightly to the left of Finn and slightly behind Rey and Han in the copilot and pilot seats. Rey, lost in awe and wonder, misses the look that Han sends her way- something uncharacteristically soft and concerned for the smuggler. He thinks that might have been a look Han had given to Ben as a child.

He can almost see the connections failing to form in Han's brain. A girl named Rey with a map to Luke Skywalker and an uncanny ability for piloting and fixing ships, brown hair so like her aunt's and her grandmother's, hazel-green eyes like Mara Jade's- it's a willful denial. He understands not wanting to hope out of fear that those hopes will just be crushed again.

Still, he recognizes the look.

"Yeah, you're gonna take care of her," he agrees, and then glances over at Finn. "That one, too."

Some people and some creatures try to kill them. They jump to lightspeed from inside the hangar of another ship and manage not to crash. Han Solo refuses to take them to the base, takes them somewhere they can pick up their own transport instead, because he doesn't know and Rey can't find the words to tell him. Doesn't want to tell him? She doesn't know. Finn finds transport to the Outer Rim instead, and Rey- she thought, just for a moment, there was someone living and breathing who wouldn't leave her.

Finn has held her hand.

Han Solo offers her a job. She accepts. Grandpa smiles; Grandma reassures her, says not to worry, says Finn will be back.

There is a lightsaber in a box and a sudden bombardment of memories not her own and a Force vision so powerful that she falls into a panic and runs until she isn't sure where she is, and she's managed to lose even her grandfather- but she hasn't lost BB-8. Or, rather, BB-8 hasn't lost her.

There are stormtroopers out for their blood. Rey's instinct takes her back, but she sees the mask of her cousin and her cousin gives no indication that he recognizes her. Grandpa begs him to see reason, and he sees nothing.

The world goes dark.

Long after Kylo Ren has left the cell in which she is trapped, clamps around her arms and legs, pinning her down, Rey feels as though she will vomit at any moment.

He has been inside her head.

This isn't supposed to hurt you, Rey-Rey, just get out of here and it'll be fine-

Whatever Kylo Ren is, he is no longer Rey's cousin. Her cousin may be inside that somewhere, warring against the Dark, but the creature which ripped his way through her mental shields and rifled through her thoughts, plucking out memories at random until he found what he was looking for, is not him.

When you can't sleep, you imagine an ocean of water and a green island...

You're so alone.

Kylo Ren's eyes are not the hateful, vitriolic amber of the Sith. They are brown.

He is not lost.

But with her tears drying on her cheeks, with her stomach churning, with nausea bubbling up in her throat, Rey finds it hard to remember that.

Grandpa appears at her side the moment she gets out of the cell and doesn't leave. She runs back into Han Solo and Chewbacca and Finn- Finn, who came back- Grandpa, he came back-! and he stays with her as they go through the wintry terrain of the Starkiller base (even desert nights don't get so cold as this) and into the compound which needs to be blown up. Chewbacca and Han Solo have already gone ahead. Grandpa seems far too excited at the prospect of explosions. They rush in, the dying sun sending a dim ray of light into the chamber, only a long catwalk crossing the abyss underneath- Han Solo stands face to face with his son, and Rey can feel the conflict within him.

Grandpa looks down at the pair and flickers out- flickers back in at Han Solo's side and pleads along with Han.

Han Solo rests his hand over the lightsaber.

Kylo Ren sees the face of his grandfather-

-and wrenches the lightsaber free from his father's grip and vanishes into the shadows- Chewbacca fires, only intending to wound, and his aim is true, and Kylo Ren doesn't slow, though the blast has enough force to shatter stormtrooper armor. Rey sags in relief. Grandpa looks up and nods, and Rey nods back, and he vanishes. Han Solo shouts up to them: "I'll meet you at the Falcon!"

She fights her cousin in the woods. Finn nearly dies. Kylo Ren pounds his fist against the blaster wound in his side, blood splattering in the snow underfoot.

The Dark preys on anything and everything, Rey. Pain isn't a weakness, but the dark can latch onto it, feed off of it. It's easier to hate when you're in pain.

Rey, still dressed in her wraps designed to protect her from the sand and wind on Jakku, thinks she has never been so cold in her life.

Grandpa is still at her side, not visible to Kylo Ren, a steady pillar of Light for her. She closes her eyes and lets the Force flood her mind- a scar across her cousin's face, but he is not dead and she will not kill him, not when he can still be saved- and the ground splits between them.

Chewbacca carries Finn to the Falcon. They return with what is left of the X-Wing Squadrons.

Stepping off the ship, there is nothing but an exuberant crowd sprawling in front of them. Sometime takes Finn- General Organa (Auntie Leia-?) is hugging Han Solo (Uncle Han-) and looking as though she might cry, and Rey-

Rey has nowhere to go.

She stands in the crowd and feels them surge around her- feels their elation- feels Finn, the point of light that encompasses his presence very dim but not fading- feels his pilot friend, Poe, and his worry- feels the relief of Han Solo and General Organa and Chewbacca-

She finds quiet holed up next to a little stone spire on the sloping roofs of the ancient buildings that the Resistance has commandeered for their current base of operations. Grandpa sits down next to her and says nothing. Grandma sits on her other side and says nothing. The three of them look out at the night sky and the stars.

"I couldn't have done it without either of you," Rey says. She can hear the sounds of what must be celebration coming from somewhere inside the base, but she feels little desire to join them. Too many people makes her feel claustrophobic, she realized that when she and Finn and Han Solo and Chewbacca had stepped into Maz Kanata's watering hole and she felt a near-overwhelming desire to get out- too many people, how was there enough food for them all? Enough water? And also, she's never wanted to be the child of legends. She's just Rey. Rey with no last name. Rey, who forges her own destiny. She doesn't want to be legend, either, though that is inevitable if she sides with the Resistance, and she can't not side with the Resistance. She will become legend, and she has accepted that, but for now- here, in the quiet, away from their noise and their rumors and their congratulations, she is still just Rey. "I couldn't have."

"Rey, you're one of the strongest kids I've ever met," Grandpa tells her. Then he amends: "One of the strongest women I've ever met. And I'm so proud of you."

"We didn't give you anything you didn't already have," Grandma says on her other side. "All that strength, that courage, that determination- that's you, all you."

Something warm unfurls inside of her.

"When I die, I'm going to hug you for a week."

Grandpa throws back his head and laughs. "I look forward to it, kid- but take your time. Please."

"I will, Grandpa. Promise."

Grandpa teaches her the ways of the Light and explains to her the ways of the Dark. It's easier to fall prey to something when one knows nothing about it, after all- easier to fall prey when there is only fear of one's enemy and no understanding. She still thinks having a red lightsaber would be kind of cool, but red is the traditional color of the Sith. Blue and green are traditional of the Jedi, but Grandpa agrees when she says that those are kind of boring.

Grandpa's lightsaber- her father's lightsaber- Luke Skywalker's lightsaber-- the lightsaber Maz Kanata had given her is blue. Rey likes the way it fits in her hands and the faint, almost imperceptible hum of its blade. She tracks down the locations of crystals she can use while the Resistance plans their next move. Most of the time, while she's researching and making little notes on a datapad that she would have needed to save for decades to trade for back on Jakku, she's sitting at Finn's bedside with the pilot Poe. Grandpa joins them occasionally.

Poe reminds her of Mr. Dollie. She doesn't dare say that out loud, but she does add another note, go back to shelter pick up things.

He's nice, too. Friendly, kind. He smiles easily, though it's strained when he does. He's only known Finn for such a short time, but he cares for him deeply. Rey wonders what it must be like to have a person- a stranger, not family- who would do anything and everything for you. After nearly two standard weeks of sitting by Finn's bed, after Poe brings lunch from the mess hall, she realizes she'll do anything for Finn and Poe, and maybe- the same can be said of them for her.

And then the waiting is interrupted when the R2 unit tucked away in one of the halls of the base suddenly powers back up and provides the rest of the map needed to, along with the piece she and Finn and Poe had brought back, that leads to Luke Skywalker.

Rey doesn't want to be the child of legends. She just wants to be Rey. Not Rey Skywalker, not with the weight that name carries, not when she still doesn't know why her father left her on a faraway planet and never sent a soul to check on her, to make sure everything was still okay. Not yet, not yet.

Finn still isn't awake, but Poe had started filling out his medical work for him and put Dameron down as his last name, for lack of anything else. When he finds out that Rey doesn't have a last name- she hasn't told them, hasn't told a soul, and maybe she should, but- he says he can share the name too, if she wants. Rey Dameron carries less weight than Skywalker. She thanks him.

"Rey Dameron-Skywalker," Grandpa suggests when she relays the story to him later that evening, only half-joking. He knows the importance of names all too well.

Slaves are nameless or have names forced upon them. There is no sense of heritage when families are divvied up and sold to the highest bidder.

"No," she replies with a wry smile, closing a panel on the back of BB-8's dome head and putting away her tools. The droid rolls into her kneecap affectionately before darting off to find Poe. "My name's Rey. I'll figure out the rest of it later."

The base changes planets. Leia stops to see Han before she leaves to find her brother. She's tried to convince Rey to be the one to go, for obvious reasons- if anyone could get Luke back, it would be his daughter, but the young girl seems determined to avoid her.

"I'll look after her," Han says. "If I can find her. She's awful good at hiding."

He's the one who pieced it together first. Leia had sat down, weak in the knees, but- it made sense, but- how? Her niece had died when her son laid siege to the Jedi Temple. And Rey knows, she has to know, because she speaks with Poe and Finn (now awake, much to the Poe and Rey's relief) and the pilots and the mechanics but makes herself scarce whenever Han or Leia or Chewie tries to speak with her.

It feels like a rejection, and it hurts, but Leia doesn't want to force anything. Just wants to tell her she didn't know, and Han didn't know, for all the little comfort it will bring. It's why she gives up on trying to find Rey and send her to Luke, because that would definitely be forcing the matter.

"I know you will, Han," she replies, and stands on the tips of her toes to kiss him. "I just wanted to say I love you before I left."

Rey is sick, and Anakin is stressed and kind of wishes he could impale himself on his own lightsaber because he's really kriffing stupid.

Rey, who grew up on a desert planet, all alone and removed from civilization. Rey, who never received any inoculations past the age of six- inoculations that hadn't mattered, not on Jakku, so far away from people and with her never leaving the planet. Rey, who had been staying in a crowded Resistance base on a jungle planet for the past few standard months while the search for Luke Skywalker and a new base continued- Rey, who is now staying in an equally crowded Resistance base on another jungle planet, surrounded by more people than she has ever seen gathered in one spot in her life and more species than that which are native to Jakku.

He should have thought of this- should have remembered- he got sick himself, not long after arriving on Coruscant. Midichlorian counts are an extra boost to the immune system, but they can't do everything.

Come back!

Rey's distress ripples outward in the Force and outweighs his own feelings; even as a ghost, the familiar pattern of self-loathing is easy to fall back into. But Rey-

No! Come back!

He thinks of a shuttle taking him away from his mother and how he finally saw her again. He thinks of Padme's agonized face in his visions as she suffered in childbirth- of his daughter's horror rippling outwards as Alderaan burned- of his son convulsing on the ground under the Emperor's dark lightning. He thinks of the eternal peace of death in the Force disrupted by a child's desperate cries.

Come back! Papa!

Leia has taken Artoo, Threepio, and the fastest shuttle the Resistance can offer to find her brother. She sends a message saying Luke has refused to come back- Han sends a message saying Rey has fallen ill. It takes a few standard hours for encrypted transmissions to be delivered over such a distance, but it's only six standard hours later when Leia replies with, On our way back, Luke is with us. A near instantaneous response.

He can feel the light of his children growing closer with each passing moment- pain, at the situation which has brought them to this- relief, at seeing one another again- even joy, however muted, that old sense of friendship still present after everything they've been through.

Anakin murmurs old Tatooine blessings under his breath and keeps his mind open, letting his granddaughter's despair crash into him with all the raging fury of a sandstorm. He keeps his feet firmly planted and doesn't let the winds drag him away- he will be her bedrock. It's the least he can do.

Poe and Finn don't notice him when they visit. Anakin doesn't mind.

Rey still hasn't woken up. Anakin minds very much.

He can feel her presence in the Force flickering wildly, a candle ready to extinguish at a moment's notice. There's only so much medicine can do- there's talk of moving her to other facilities off-planet. Sweat soaks her clothes and the bedsheets and pools in the hollow of her throat. When she opens her eyes, they are glassy with fever, sightlessly staring.

Luke is back. Anakin knows that every Force-user in the quadrant can feel Rey's mind reaching out desperately for something that has never come- knows that Luke can feel his daughter's pain and he isn't here.

He wants to march off and demand that his son get himself over here before Anakin drags him here himself. But Rey- Rey, his granddaughter, who fully accepts being his granddaughter yet is still reluctant to take on his name- she doesn't want to be forced into a reunion. She's had every opportunity to seek out her family and has taken precisely none of them. Anakin is leery of ignoring the choice she has made, old memories stirring in the back of his mind from where he's tried to forget them.

Poe mops the sweat from Rey's brow with a cool cloth and Finn takes her hand in his own.

"She's freezing," he says, and Poe pauses for a moment. "How are her hands so cold when her fever's so high?"

"I don't know," Poe tells him, and he sounds weary. Anakin knows that tone of voice- it's the voice of a soldier who has seen too many good people die- the voice of a soldier who knows he's about to see even more. He remembers his own voice sounding much the same, once upon a time. "Get one of those med droids over here, would you? I want to know what dosage they have her on, see if they can increase it."

Finn lets go of her hand. Anakin feels her spike of panic, muddled all the more by fevered delirium.

Come back!

And the words slip past her lips, little more than a moan and just barely enough to be audible- but audible, all the same.

Finn sits back down without a word and takes her hand.

Poe bows his head, shoulders tense.

Anakin has prayed more than he has ever prayed in his life, these past several days.

"I'm gonna find Skywalker and yell at him," Poe says after a tense silence.

Finn looks baffled, an expression out of place in the dreary scene. "Luke Skywalker?" he repeats.

"Luke Skywalker," Poe agrees. "He's been on base for a while now, and he's not here. He's not here, Finn, and look at her."

Anakin hadn't realized Rey had told them, but he knows then that when- if- when Rey pulls through, the three in front of him will have a bond not even the Dark can break.

He falls back into the Force. When he returns, Finn and Poe have not left Rey's side, and Luke still isn't there.

He can feel his children's turmoil, and- no, pleased is far from the right word, but they're coming to a consensus.

"Gra'pa..." Rey slurs, eyes half-open, fixed, unseeing, at some point far beyond the confines of the room. Her lips keep moving, but no words come out.

"I didn't think," Finn whispers, like he's afraid a louder noise will break her. Poe has moved a cot into the room. Anakin thinks, in theory, it's so one of them can sleep while they other stays awake with Rey, but the cot hasn't been touched, and it's tucked into the corner, out of the way for the med droids when they come over. Poe is sitting on the edge of the mattress while Finn has taken the chair. "They taught us this kind of stuff, you know? In the- the First Order."

"Wasn't your fault," Poe tells him.

"My fault," Anakin informs them both, even though he can't see him and even though he knows Padme will be chiding him the moment he goes back to what passes for the afterlife. "I've literally lived through this. Ought to be able to prevent people from repeating my mistakes."

Kylo Ren comes briefly to mind. Anakin pushes his wayward grandson temporarily out of his thoughts and continues his vigil over his granddaughter. She's lost too much weight.

He feels anger flare up in the Force, strong and righteous- Leia, Leia- and shame, from Luke- and-

Movement.

Anakin turns to the door. It's closed, for the moment, but he doesn't think that will last for much longer.

He starts talking, because he knows Rey is calmer when he talks.

"So I built C-3PO," he tells her. "I was... I grew up a slave on Tatooine. I've told you that. It's hard to say, even now- I hate the word." But Rey is his granddaughter, and quite easily one of the few people alive that he trusts. Words come easier with her. "I'd scavenge scrap, just like you did. See, I always figured that my mom and I would get separated. I was young, and people would- pay a lot for me. So I wanted to build a droid that would be able to help her and last a long time, even in such an awful climate. So I took all the things that other people thought were useless- I spent years building him, Rey. He was mine. First thing that was ever really mine. Took ages to get the right power cells for him, but one day I found..."

Luke slips in the door to the room when Anakin moves from waxing poetic about his droids to waxing poetic about spaceships and flying. Leia and Han aren't far behind, but he can feel them slowing, waiting-

Finn looks up and stammers out something to the man of legend, but Poe just tilts his chin up with the same defiance he had shown the First Order and says, "Took you long enough," and he takes Finn by the arm and leaves.

Anakin chatters on about Coruscanti traffic and bounty hunters in an all-too cheerful tone of voice. Rey's panic has gone down to a low simmer, though her fever is still at the boiling point.

"Father," Luke says hoarsely.

"...and then I jumped off. Obi-Wan's face was priceless, it really was." Anakin looks at his granddaughter's face, and his heart twists painfully in his chest. He stands. Turns, slowly. His son looks old and tired and grey. "Hello, Luke."

"She was staying with friends of mine," Luke says, like Anakin doesn't believe him.

"I know. They died in a sandstorm, and your daughter was five years old, and you had no precautions put into place." Luke cringes. Anakin keeps talking. "Running from your problems and abandoning your children- people have done enough damage emulating my mistakes, Luke!"

His voice has shot up in volume, and Rey starts to grow panicked behind him. He freezes, and Luke does too, but then Luke pushes past and takes her hand in his own and bows his head, and she calms at the physical contact. Anakin looks at Luke for a long moment before leaving.

Outside, Han and Leia are watching Poe and Finn leave, and Han looks impressed. "Kid's got guts," he comments.

"Yes," Anakin agrees, not expecting either of them to hear him, except both of them do, and they turn to face him in shock. "Oh. Huh. You can hear me. That's- new. Hm. You should go sit with your niece."

"Wait," Leia says before he can leave. Anakin thinks he knows what she's going to say. "Ben. Why...?"

The question she trails off with is open ended, tinged with a bitter anger- why did my son turn- why did it happen- why didn't you stop it- why-

"He doesn't think I'm real. A trick of the Light, so to speak." A pause. "I tried, Leia."

She doesn't answer- what is there to say, in the face of the unimaginable? But she nods, she understands, even if she doesn't like it, and goes into the room where Rey lies

Leia drags the story out of Luke bit by bit, word by word, on the shuttle back to the Resistance base. His daughter, hidden from Kylo Ren while he and Mara left to defend the New Jedi Temple, except there wasn't much of a temple left to defend by that point, and Mara didn't make it out. He'd seen the horror unfolding in front of him, and for the longest time he'd blamed himself- didn't dare raise his daughter out of some uncontrollable fear that she might turn out like Kylo had-

Leia slaps him, then, but he kind of deserves it.

The shuttle lands, and the three old friends, once so close to have been family, see one another for the first time in close to twenty years. Han says Luke should go and see Rey, and Luke digs his feet in, and then they argue.

Most of the base knows Rey's name. Rey, the resident Jedi from Jakku. Han doesn't know why he never put the pieces together- looking back, he remembers another Rey, much younger and more carefree, a little girl with a bright smile and wispy brown hair who loved her cousin and chased Chewie around the halls of the Falcon, shrieking with laughter whenever she 'caught' him, throwing her tiny arms around his leg and hugging him tight. But Rey says she had been raised by her grandparents, who had taught her the ways of the Force- and he knew it wasn't their Rey, because their Rey had no grandparents to speak of. They were a family because they had no other family to go home to.

But the ghost of Anakin Skywalker runs into them leaving the infirmary, and he looks a little pissed off, probably because Luke's been back on base for a while, and then he looks surprised, and Leia goes in to see her niece and Han just kind of stares at him.

"You took care of her?" he asks suspiciously.

"And Padme," the ghost replies. "My wife."

Han doesn't trust the ghost, but- Rey's a good kid. That's enough for him.

Luke sits in a chair at Rey's bedside, holding her hand with his flesh one, staring at her face, and his mind a wild mess of emotions in the Force. Leia works from her datapad, sitting on the cot in the corner, and Han tinkers, and no one speaks.

Rey seems to be the only one at ease in the room, the tension from before gone from her features.

He doesn't trust himself around his daughter.

Leia slaps him when he says that, and he knows he deserves it- and even if he were blind, he still has the Force, and the Force speaks volumes more than Han's glance when he thinks Luke won't notice and Chewbacca's low growl at the thought of a cub left alone.

But he doesn't trust himself. He can't even fully explain why-- he didn't bother following in the footsteps of the Old Jedi Order beyond some of their teachings and traditions. They had a building dedicated to their training and they built their own lightsabers to suit their needs and they immersed themselves in the Force to search for that elusive calm it could bring. Emotions were not something to be feared.

But Ben- Kylo Ren- had fallen to the Dark, and Luke doesn't know how except that it had to have been his fault. That failure had shaken him to the core, and he just- he couldn't-

He and Mara had split to find the students left, but Kylo had brought help. Some were his students, twisted and fallen to the Dark- there were at least half a dozen of those so-called Knights, and the similarity is not lost on him, the Knights of darkness tearing down his attempt to bring back the Jedi Knights of old- and Mara had found Kylo first, and Luke had arrived just to see her die.

All around, the pinpricks of light that were his students were snuffed out, one by one. He hadn't been able to save a single one of them- not one-- and he had found Rey where she was hiding, had taken his daughter and fled with Artoo into the pouring rain-

He gave his old lightsaber to a friend of Han's. He sent Artoo back to Leia with instructions on how to find him should the need ever arise. He contacted old friends from his time served with the Rebellion and begged them to keep his daughter safe. If he hadn't been able to keep his nephew from falling, what was to say he couldn't prevent the same from happening to his daughter? And with Mara gone- gone-- it had been all he could do to pilot the ship- he couldn't have kept her safe, not then, not like that-

And when he had finally come back to his senses, when he finally felt stable enough to think that he could take care of her again- but how to explain to a daughter who almost certainly didn't remember him why he had left? How to explain what had happened to her mother?

He doesn't trust himself around his daughter, but here, with Han and Leia in the room, he can't run any longer.

People have done enough damage emulating my mistakes, Luke!

He is seeing his daughter for the first time in fifteen years. He is touching his daughter for the first time in fifteen years. Her skin is coarse from desert wind and sand and tanned by the desert sun. She's too pale and too thin, in part from the illness and in part from the harsh life that comes from desert worlds, but he can see some of his face in her's- he can see Mara's nose and Mara's lips- he can see his chin and his jaw- and she has her grandmother's hair. Freckles. Her presence is strong in the Force, even as her body weakens, and it is Light- soft and warm and bright and harsh at the same time. He closes his eyes, unaware that he is crying, and lets his mind brush against her's.

Rey.

Confusion. Then, shock. Then, confusion. Then-

A hesitant tap against his mental shields, recoiling as quickly as it had come.

He opens his mind to her.

There are no words offered up- instead, he feels a barrage of images and sensations and feelings- hope-love-warmth and sun-sand-heat and the feeling of grit under his fingernails after a sandstorm- a trickle of water over parched lips after a long day- darkness, and the howling wind outside, and a blue glow and laughter in the face of the storm- loss-fear-alone and an ever-present undercurrent of sadness, even in the thrill of adventure- joy of flying- a full meal after a week of next to nothing-

Han and Leia have left. He doesn't notice. They'll come back in a few hours to check on him, but he won't notice that, either.

He lets his thoughts free instead- the pain and regret and the apologies he knows he will never be able to put into words, but will try to do so all the same, because she deserves it, deserves that and so much more than he can give her- the love he has never stopped feeling, though he knows he does not deserve her love in return, a feeling of safe-protect-care he knows she does not need but offers anyway-

-and she recoils for a moment, confused- afraid, even- he fathered her but he is not her father, he is a stranger-

-and she responds, slower this time, growing tired already. A memory, fuzzy around the edges, diluted with the passage of time- carving a mark into a metal wall and chattering excitedly to a figure Luke cannot see but can guess the identity of- she puts down the tool she was using and snatches up a doll- Luke's heart aches, because he remembers her and Mara making it, his wife's eyes sparkling with mirth as she sewed a tiny pilot's uniform- and excitement- tell me a story, grandpa! and how did you and grandma meet- and the blue glow again and the feeling of love-

The memory recedes, and Luke can't breathe, and his daughter's mind brushes against his one more time before she sinks back into unconsciousness.

-and he bows his head.

It starts with Finn saying, "We oughta go to Jakku," and Poe staring at him like he's lost his mind.

They're out of the medical complex in the Resistance base and nearing the shipyards, though that's just because the shipyards are en route to the mess hall, and Poe is always hungry. He's not expecting the suggestion, especially considering the personal grudge Finn seems to have against the barren desert planet.

"What," he says eloquently.

"Rey's got stuff there." Finn shrugs. "She's mentioned wanting to go back and get it. And she had BB-8 when I found her, or when she found me, so that means he'll know where she was living. Figure she'll want it back when she wakes up. It'll be a nice surprise for her."

Poe bites his tongue and refrains from saying that the whole reason the two of them practically moved into her room in the medical complex is because they don't want her to die alone. Finn is nothing but optimistic, even if he frets every second of the day that he's awake- Poe has seen too many good soldiers and pilots die to think that Rey has a good chance of making it out of this unscathed.

But Finn was a soldier, too. Poe forgets that a lot. Finn was a soldier- Finn said he watched his best friend bleed out on the ground in front of him on Jakku, and he hadn't been able to fire a shot- Finn knows what death looks like. Finn may be in denial, and Poe won't blame him if he is, but it could just be that same absurd hope that Poe hasn't been able to let go of yet.

And also, they're talking about Rey. Bright, shining, smiling Rey- Jedi Rey- Rey, who went toe-to-toe with Kylo Ren on more than one occasion and survived-- if anyone can do this, it's Rey.

"Food first, buddy." Poe squeezes his hand. "We're short on pilots, you know, I can't just go hopping across the galaxy on a whim. But I'll see what I can do about getting leave. Then we'll go."

Anakin and Padme sit at Rey's bedside. Luke hasn't left since he stepped in except to sleep. Rey isn't getting better, but she isn't getting worse, and that's more than anyone expected at this point. Leia still has a Resistance to run, and not all of it can be done from a datapad. Han is a large part of that, now that he's back. So's Chewie.

Padme looks up at the sound of voices, and Anakin's gaze drifts towards the door, and Poe and Finn come in a moment later, lugging a container between them. A potted plant sits on top of it, sandblasted and wilted but still alive, just barely.

"I'm just saying, if you didn't want to go back there, you shouldn't have suggested it."

"There is sand in my shoes. These are new shoes, I didn't even wear them on Jakku."

"Sand gets everywhere," Anakin says helpfully. "You just gotta deal with it."

"Come on, help me put this stuff out." They set the hovercontainer on the floor, and Finn takes the plant, and Poe opens the case.

They take everything out, though there isn't a lot to take, and then proceed to crash in their bunks for the next forty hours. There's an ancient pilot's helmet, caked in sand, sitting on the cot in the corner. Rey's doll is tucked under her arm while she sleeps.

He and Padme don't need to say anything. There isn't really anything to be said. He leans against his wife and closes his eyes and feels the ebb and flow of the Force around him, and his granddaughter's presence at the center of it all, never dimming.

It's surprisingly easy to separate the legends from the people who should have been her family. Han Solo and Chewbacca and the Millennium Falcon-- legends. Leia Organa and Luke Skywalker- legends. Anakin Skywalker- legend. Padme Naberrie- legend.

Han Solo, infamous smuggler and pilot and war hero, is different than her Uncle Han. Uncle Han is calloused hands and a lopsided grin and loud yelling that didn't mean he was angry, he just yelled a lot- ships and stories and the hum of an engine she can feel through the floor. Aunt Leia isn't the grey-haired general and senator, she's laughter and proper and a gentle chiding when Rey plays with her food and nimble fingers carefully braiding her hair. Mara Jade isn't Mama because Mara Jade is just a name and Mama is dead. Luke Skywalker isn't Papa, because Luke Skywalker is a hero and a Jedi and Papa is both of these things, but Papa is also human, and Papa left her, and Papa is kind and patient and sad.

They are legends and she walks among them daily, but they aren't her family. Not yet.

She opens her eyes, feeling very tired- throat dry, body heavy- tendrils of sleep trying to drag her back into oblivion- it had been warm there, at least, and it didn't hurt quite so much.

She sees Grandma and Grandpa sitting in chairs. She sees a stranger sitting cross-legged on the floor, eyes closed, breathing slow. He has a beard. His hair is gray.

She closes her eyes.

She is not the child of legends, she is Rey. Nothing more, nothing less.

And yet, as she falls back asleep- asleep, this time, not unconscious, not comatose- she feels a part of her soul ease.

So ends the first installment of the found families 'verse.

As of right now, eight of these stories have been uploaded to my account on AO3, the link to which can be found in my profile, if you're looking to read ahead. I'm currently in the process of transferring them here for easier access by readers, but updates to the series will be to both sites. If you want to be notified for future stories in the series, you can subscribe to Flora Obsidian down below on FFnet, or floraobsidian on AO3, or bookmark one of the pages and check back periodically if you don't have an account.

As always, thank you very much for reading, and I hope you all enjoyed!