Sheltered Courtyard

Palace in Theed

Naboo

Late evening

34 years after the fall of the Empire at Endor

"Uncle? Uncle! You should be sitting down, Uncle!"

The old, nay, ancient Gungan turned slowly, leaning with care on his stick. With some effort, he kept his voice light.

"Meesa fine, my nephew. Great honor it is to be here, great honor."

The younger (though still elderly) Gungan gazed at his uncle in concern, "We are honored indeed to welcome Queen Amidala's children, but Uncle, you aren't supposed to be walking. Please, let me call a hoverchair and you can come to the receiving hall inside where the Queen waits."

The old (old, old) Gungan lifted his eyes. The shuttle had landed, the ramp was down, a slight figure was descending, and behind her, behind her ...

"Get me the hoverchair, yes, Nephew. Meesa be thankin' you."

Leia Organa, the last princess of Alderaan, stepped forward, illuminated by the gentle light balls hovering in the courtyard. Even at nearly 60 standard years, she was a beauty, her dark hair, threaded in silver, piled high on her head, her carriage elegant and regal.

Almost there. Just another few steps ...

Organa smiled and nodded at the small crowd of courtiers waiting to welcome her. One of the queen's handmaidens gestured toward the palace behind them all, and Leia Organa walked closer.

A couple more steps ...

A sudden movement from the robed man behind Leia Organa, and a cry of fear, "Leia!"

With a vicious smile, and a flicker of suddenly yellow eyes, the aged Gungan pushed the button concealed in his hands.

Things blew up.

/-

Crait

Luke Skywalker gazed sadly at his nephew, "I failed you, Ben. I'm sorry."

Kylo Ren wore his typical look of half demented rage, "I'm sure you are! The Resistance is dead! The war is over! And when I kill you, I will have killed the last Jedi!"

Luke squinted one eye slightly, "Amazing. Every word of what you just said was wrong. The Rebellion is reborn today. The war is just beginning. And I will not be the last Jedi."

If possible, Ren looked even more demented and irrational, "I'll destroy her ... and you ... and all of it."

"No. Strike me down in anger, and I will always be with you. Just like your father."

Ren screamed in rage, charged toward his uncle, and cut him in half with his lightsaber.

Except that he didn't. The saber passed cleanly through his uncle's form without the slightest catch. Luke Skywalker was ... was ...

"Nooooo!" the tall, dark clad, crabby man howled in astonishment as he beat his light saber against the ground over and over.

"See you around, kid," Luke said with a sad smirk, and disappeared.

/-

Ahch-To

Luke Skywalker, exhausted, grabbed the giant rock and pulled himself to his feet. He stood staring out at the binary suns and released his exhausted body to death.

His body disappeared into the ether. His robes fell to the ground.

/

Unknown Place

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

Jedi Master Luke Skywalker groaned.

He had trained for years and even decades to be patient. But beeping was boring. Boring. Boring. Boring. Weren't 19 years on Tatooine enough boring for any man, even a supposedly wise and stable Jedi?

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

Beep.

He sighed softly to himself. He wanted to stop the beeping. He needed to stop the beeping. Before he lost what was left of his ... of his ...

Mind, that was the word, mind.

Words were not forming easily right now.

Ok, beeping something. If he opened his eyes, maybe he could see the beeping and kill whatever annoying person or ... or ... droid, that was the word, droid, which was making the ... the beeping.

His eyelids felt incredibly heavy, like a particularly flexible baby rancor was balancing carefully on his lids keeping them from opening.

But he had killed a rancor once, in Jabba's palace. He could lift a baby rancor.

But then, he didn't really have a baby rancor on his eyelids. That was just a ... a ... a simile. He was just ... something was wrong. Why were his ...?

Why were his what?

Focus, Luke.

Eyelids needed to open.

With an effort similar to the time he had carried his broken father across the Emperor's throne room floor, into an elevator, down a few corridors, and into the hanger bay, where his father had collapsed, and Luke had removed his mask, and they had exchanged loving words, and Anakin Skywalker had died ...

With a similar effort, Luke Skywalker opened his eyes.

The place, the room, was a hazy soft white. The beeping was ... was on his right. On his right. Yes.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

Beep.

The Force, usually so obedient, was like a sinuous and reluctant vine snake in his mental hands. He reached out toward the beeping, slipped as he lost focus, then managed to strike out with one focused blow. The droid, or machine, or whatever it was, let off one last indignant electronic shriek before subsiding.

There was a sudden exclamation of surprise and a dark figure rose rapidly to its feet on the left side of the bed. Luke turned his head and frowned. The figure grew closer, closer still, until the old Jedi found, to his utter astonishment, that he was staring into the face of ...

"Ben?"