Kissing Rey felt unreal. He lost himself in the feel of her lips against his and he wanted the moment to go on forever.

But Luke showed up and Rey pulled away.

"Let's find out what he wants," Ben said. He was frustrated by the interruption, but he knew that he would feel better if he found out what Luke wanted now than if he waited.

Rey nodded and stood up. She was still holding his hand, which helped subdue the feeling of dread that was overtaking him. Her lips were red and her cheeks were tinged with pink; she captivated his full attention as she always did.

He stood up and was surprised by Rey standing up on her toes and pressing a soft kiss against his jaw. He wanted nothing more than to wrap her back up in his arms, but the thought of Luke outside stopped him. Knowing that she was with him and that she was on his side gave him the strength he needed to face Luke.

Ben stepped outside and he missed the warmth he had felt inside the hut. The rain had stopped and there was a cold breeze that was made worse by the dampness of his clothes. He looked at Rey to see if she was too cold, but the blanket she was still wrapped up in must have shielded her from the wind.

Luke was pacing and looked like he was lost in thought. Ben was about to announce their presence when Luke sharply turned his head in their direction.

"You wanted to see us," Rey said, squeezing Ben's hand.

He felt comforted by her support.

"Yes," Luke said, "I've decided to help you."

Ben felt his eyes widen, and he saw Rey's mouth open, both of them caught off guard by Luke's words.

Reading the expressions on their faces, Luke clarified. "I won't go with you, but I'll help with the books." He held his hands out in a placating gesture.

"You were pretty adamant that we wouldn't learn anything from those books," Rey said.

"I may have been… too hasty in my judgement." Luke said. He looked like it pained him to say the words. "Even though I am done with the Jedi, they may have something to teach you both."

Ben swallowed. "What changed your mind?"

"You did," Luke said, his eyes on Ben. "I thought over what you both said… and Han spoke with me."

Ah, Ben thought, my dad guilted him into helping.

The walk to the temple was silent and Luke led the way.

Rey gave Ben a small smile and squeezed his hand again. Once more, he was grateful that Rey was with him in this time, on this island, and while he had to deal with Luke. Her presence kept him grounded in the present instead of ruminating about the past.

They followed Luke into the temple and Rey let go of his hand to pick up the book. She showed Luke the pages they were translating. "Have you read this one before?" she asked.

"No," Luke said, taking the book. "But that pattern of circles is familiar." He traced the drawing with his finger.

"Where else have you seen it?" Ben asked, wondering if they had both seen it in the same place before. Ben wished he could remember why it was familiar.

"I'm not sure," Luke said slowly.

Rey looked between Ben, Luke, and the book and then she settled her attention on Luke. "How much do you know about the early Jedi?"

"Not a lot." Luke sighed, slumping his shoulders. "Most of the information I have about the Jedi is from when there was a Jedi Council." He pointed at the book. "This predates that."

"Have you read any of the books?" Rey asked.

"Bits and pieces," Luke admitted. "They aren't exactly page turners." He gave a wry smile.

Ben snorted. "And you thought you could help?" Luke could have left them to do this on their own if he had no more experience with the books than then did. He had doubts about how helpful Luke would be if he hadn't read the books before. Considering how long he had been alone on this island, Luke had the time to read all the books. The Luke he remembered prioritized learning more about the Jedi above anything else.

"I know more about the Jedi than anyone else still living," Luke said, giving him a fixed stare. "I'm all you've got."

Ben rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. While he hated to admit it, Luke had far more knowledge of the Jedi than he did. Throughout his time with Snoke, most of his Force education focused on the dark side. That wasn't because there was nothing to learn from the light side – he had never been a Sith – but it was because the light side had been too tempting. He struggled with embracing the dark side the way Snoke had wanted him to.

He was starting to come to terms with how manipulated he had been throughout his entire life. Luke and his parents pulled him in one direction, while Palpatine and Snoke pulled him in the other direction. Who would he have become without all that pressure? Who would he become now that he was making choices independent of Palpatine's influence?

Rey took the book from Luke. "Let's translate some more to see what else the book says. This is where we left off." She looked uneasy about the amount of tension in the room and positioned herself between him in Luke, which meant that every time he looked at Luke he saw her.

Rey put down the book on the raised platform, turned the translator on, and placed it on the section following where they left off earlier. The sound of the stilted Coruscant accent filled the room.

"The eyes see, the ears hear, the nose breathes; they are informed by the Force. To become one with Force requires that you remove yourself from the distraction of emotion. Renunciation of material possessions, renunciation of carnal desires, and renunciation of self-importance are virtues that make way for the understanding of the Force."

Ben turned off the translator. "This book won't give us any of the answers that we need."

Luke raised his eyebrows. "Because it's not giving you the answers you want?" he asked in a tone that was familiar to Ben. It was the tone he used when he was teaching and was displeased with the answer a student gave, and that student was usually Ben.

"This is nothing more that useless Jedi platitudes," Ben said, scoffing. The Jedi always preached about discipline and removing yourself from base desires, which set their students up for failure.

"Platitudes wouldn't exist unless they held some truth. Maybe this is exactly what you need to hear," Luke said, taking a step towards Ben. "It's arrogant for anyone to think they can master the Force. The ancient Jedi had the right idea, but they didn't go far enough" – Rey walked over to Ben and took his hand, which Luke glared at – "Not only is it necessary to remove yourself from emotion and passion, it is necessary to remove yourself from the Force. Using the Force inevitably leads to temptation and the dark side." Luke shook his head. "You of all people should know that."

Tired of Luke's judgment, Ben rolled his eyes, feeling like a teenager again. "You're just saying that to justify your asceticism. You've isolated yourself from the world and feel superior because of it." Luke was a typical Jedi. He warned his students against selfish desires while using his powers for nothing except his own self-aggrandizement.

Don't let Luke get to you, Rey projected the thought to Ben. The Force is meant to be used.

"I have done the right thing," Luke said, sounding certain. "The world would be better off without the Jedi." Luke sat on the platform with his elbows on his knees and leaned forward.

"The world is better off without the Jedi," Ben said, agreeing with only part of what Luke said. "But the world is not better off without the Force."

"The choices you've made in your life are evidence that the world would be better off without the Force. Convince me otherwise," Luke said with a scathing voice.

"The point is to live," Ben said, letting go of Rey's hand and standing in front of Luke. "You've willfully blinded yourself to the Force. How have you made the world better by refusing to live in it?" Ben felt tension radiating throughout his body.

"I may not be making the world better, but at least I'm not causing more harm." Luke stood up. "The two of you are playing with fire and you are risking burning the world down." Luke gestured between Ben and Rey.

"You're wrong." Ben said, dismissing Luke's words. Being alone fueled the darkness inside of him more effectively than anything else. Having connections and living in the world helped him care about the consequences of his actions.

"You're risking the entire galaxy with that belief." Luke shook his head and then narrowed his eyes. "What evidence do you have to prove that any good can come from using the Force? I believed in you once and I won't make that mistake again."

Ben's heard was racing. "You haven't changed," he said, his voice shaking with anger. He stepped towards Luke and then shook his head, thinking better of his actions, and turned around and left without a word.

He heard Rey calling his name, but he kept walking, putting distance between himself and the sound of Rey and Luke's raised voices.

Ben's anger was overwhelming. He felt the need to take it out on something, but he refused to give Luke the satisfaction of gloating about how unstable he was, so he clenched his hands into fists and squeezed his eyes shut. His face was damp from the involuntary tears of frustration that he hadn't noticed until now.

Talking to Luke had always been like slamming his head against a durasteel wall; it never got him anywhere.

Does he even want to help us? Ben asked himself. Or is it a ruse to convince us that we are wrong to try?

Ben sat down on the ground with his legs crossed, not caring about the dampness getting his almost dry pants wet again, and inhaled a deep breath. He held the breath and then he exhaled. He continued until his heart rate returned to normal and his hands stopped shaking.

The Force told him that the book was important and it even showed him where in the book to start. From the beginning he was resistant to listening to what the book said because it reminded him too much of the worst of Luke's teachings. It didn't help that the man himself was there defending those same unrealistic and misguided views.

The Jedi claimed to listen to the Force, but how was the denial of half of it the will of the Force? The Jedi attempted to control the Force by embracing the Light and denying the Dark. It was such an unnatural way of living that the Sith rose in response. But the Sith were also wrong. Ben spent so long trying to extinguish the Light within himself, but he never succeeded; it didn't matter what atrocities he committed, the Light remained.

The light and dark sides were both the Force. Luke was correct in his belief that the dark side would always tempt light side users, but his solution of cutting himself off from the Force entirely was wrong. The Force was in everything, so the attempt was futile.

Ben decided that he would go back and find out what the book had to teach him. He hoped that Luke would be gone by the time he got back, but he doubted that he would be that lucky.

He inhaled another deep breath, held it, and slowly exhaled.

Standing outside the entrance of the temple, Ben heard Rey and Luke talking. They were no longer as loud as they had been when he left, but it didn't sound like a friendly conversation.

"—needs balance," he heard Rey say. "Cutting yourself off from the Force is one way to maintain balance, but you can also use the Force and maintain balance."

"I don't see how. Everything I have seen and experienced points to the dark side being inevitable," Luke said.

"Maybe it is, but that doesn't have to be a bad thing," Rey said.

"You're new to this. You'll see that there are too many risks associated with the dark side," Luke said.

Tired of listening and hovering at the door, Ben walked inside drawing Rey and Luke's attention. "You should listen to her." Ben nodded at Rey. "She has a more intuitive understanding of the Force than anyone else I've met."

"She's ignorant." Luke crossed his arms.

"No, she just hasn't had her mind poisoned by Jedi or Sith teachings," Ben said.

Luke looked thoughtful for a moment, but didn't say anything.

"We should get back to the book," Ben said, ignoring Luke and speaking to Rey alone.

"Are you sure?" Rey asked. "You didn't seem to think we were learning anything useful."

"There's something in that book that we need to know," Ben said, trying to sound more confident than he felt. He walked over to the raised platform where the book was sitting. The stone mosaic at its centre caught his attention for the first time. It showed a Jedi sitting with their legs crossed and their lightsaber pointing to the sky. In the background there were two suns, one dark and one light. Each side was a mix of dark and light stones. On one side the Jedi and the sun were dark, while the background was light and the other side showed the opposite.

Rey came over and looked at the mosaic. "What's this?" she asked, her brows pinched together.

"That's the Prime Jedi," Luke answered.

"This isn't what I would have expected," Rey said, still looking at the mosaic.

Luke walked over to the mosaic and looked down at it. "How so?"

"Both sides of the Force are represented." She turned to Luke. "I thought the Jedi only used the light side?"

"Maybe that wasn't always true," Luke said. He let out a deep breath.

Not wanting to talk to Luke, Ben picked up the translator and set it over a small passage in the book at the end of the page on the right. The handwriting looked different from the rest of the writing and the ink was darker. He wondered if this was added at a later date, but he had no way to find out if that was the case. He turned the translator on.

"All life has the Force within and the Force has the potential to heal all life. The power of life is the most difficult to master because it requires true balance, and there can be no balance if there is ignorance."

This passage was different from the other ones they translated. Ben had been taught some Force healing at Luke's temple, but it was not something that he excelled at. His mom occasionally used that Force power, and she had more success with it than he had.

"The vision… it showed healing," Rey said to Ben.

"What vision?" Luke asked, sharply.

Rey turned to Luke. "I had a vision after I looked in the mirror," she said.

Luke's eyed widened. "Don't trust it. That whole cave is seeped in the dark side." His expression was serious.

"Have you looked in the mirror?" Rey asked, raising her eyebrows.

"No," Luke admitted.

"I was afraid of it too at first," Rey said with a soft voice. When they went to the mirror Rey hadn't been phased by the dark side energy of the cave.

Luke leaned back. "I'm not afraid," he said.

"You are," Rey said, stepping towards Luke. She said like it was a fact and without judgment.

"Tell me more about your vision," Luke said.

Rey told Luke about them holding hands in the mirror and how the vision started when she touched Ben. She didn't go into detail, but she mentioned the flash of images and the healing, leaving out the screams and Palpatine.

"That doesn't make sense." Luke furrowed his brow. "Why would the vision connect the two of you," he said looking between Rey and Ben.

"We're a Dyad," Ben answered. He was reluctant to share information about their connection, but after a year of research, he still knew so little about what the connection meant. He wondered if Luke knew more.

"Ah, that explains a lot." Luke continued in a lower voice as if speaking to himself. "I wonder if that means…"

"Means what?" Rey asked.

"Nothing." Luke shook his head. "I need to go check on something." He sounded like he was still speaking to himself. Without looking at them, Luke abruptly left the temple.

"He's hiding something from us," Ben said. Whatever Luke realized, Ben had a feeling that it would be important.

"Definitely," Rey agreed.

They translated more of the book, but it was only that one short passage that had anything useful.

Rey turned off the translator and closed the book. She was sitting close enough to Ben that her arm brushed his as she set the book down. "Have you leaned to heal?" she asked.

"Some," he said. "You?"

"The same," Rey answered. "Maybe that's what we should focus on."

"I don't see how that will help us against Palpatine," Ben said. They would need a lot of power to survive the fight against him. Palpatine was cloaked in darkness in a way that Ben hadn't seen from anyone before. His presence was so much larger than Snoke's.

Rey sighed. "We're not going to figure this out tonight. We should go back to the Falcon and get some rest."

"You're right," Ben said, but he didn't want to go back to the Falcon yet. He wanted more time with Rey without distractions or interruptions.

"About earlier…" Rey said.

Ben's heart sunk at her words. He had kissed her before he had a chance to think better of it, but she had reciprocated. He had thought they were on the same page, but he may have misinterpreted that. She had no reason to share his interest.

Rey placed her hand on his thigh drawing his attention. "I can tell that your mind is racing," she said. Rey leaned towards him. "I wouldn't mind if it happened again."

Ben let out the breath he didn't realize he was holding in. "You wouldn't?" he asked, feeling relieved.

Rey smiled, "But not now. We should get some rest."

His dad and Chewie were sitting by the fire that was lit outside the Falcon. It had gotten so dark that the fire was the only light other than the stars in the sky.

"There you both are," his dad said. "We wondered when you'd be back."

Chewie growled his greeting. He sounded tired.

"We were translating the ancient Jedi texts," Rey said. She looked over at Ben and then looked back at his dad. "Luke came by to help."

Han raised his eyebrows. "Huh, and did he help?"

Rey shrugged. "He tried. I think he knows something he's not telling us."

"Of course he does." Han snorted. "Ben, could we talk?" he asked, gesturing towards the Falcon.

Ben agreed. He looked at Rey and Chewie to see if either of them knew what this was about, but neither of them gave any indication that they did. He followed his dad up the boarding ramp.

His dad stopped walking once he was on the Falcon. They stood close enough to the boarding ramp that Ben could still see the light from the fire outside.

"Talking to Luke… how are you?" his dad asked.

"Fine," Ben said.

"He was helpful?"

Ben gave a short laugh. "Not really, but he attempted to help. Whatever you said to him had an impact."

"So he told you about our conversation," his dad said, sounding surprised.

"Only that you talked," Ben said. He wanted to know more about how that conversation went. He guessed that it didn't go well for Luke.

His dad nodded. "Ben, there's something else I wanted to talk to you about." He was fidgeting and now that they had the light from the Falcon Ben saw that there were dark circles under his dad's eyes. "It's about—"

His dad stopped talking abruptly.

Ben looked in the direction his dad was staring and saw Luke at the base of the ramp.

"What are you doing here?" his dad asked as soon as Luke met them at the top of the ramp. His arms were crossed and he narrowed his eyes at Luke.

"I'm here to give this to Ben," Luke said, and he passed Ben a lightsaber.

Ben automatically took the lightsaber from Luke. It was lighter than his and even though he had never seen this lightsaber before it felt familiar. He looked at Luke with curiosity.

"Since you insist on using the Force and going after Snoke, I figured you'd need a lightsaber," Luke said.

"I don't want your lightsaber," Ben said. He tried to pass it back to Luke, but he refused to take it.

"It's not mine. It belonged to your mom, and I'm sure she would want you to have it," Luke said.

So that is why it felt familiar, Ben realized. He looked back down at the lightsaber and without igniting it, tried to get a feel of it, balancing it in his hand. He wondered what colour the blade was. His old lightsaber was blue, but he'd had a red lightsaber for so long.

"I'll be outside," Luke continued. "I keep interrupting you," he said, giving Ben a pointed look.

Ben felt his face redden.

His dad raided his eyebrows at him, but didn't say anything.

He was alone with his dad again. "You were trying to tell me something earlier," Ben said, prompting his dad to talk.

"It can wait a bit," his dad said. "I can tell you want to try that thing out." He nodded at the lightsaber.

Ben did want to try the lightsaber out, but the way his dad was acting made him apprehensive. Whatever it was, Ben could tell it was important, but he knew his dad was stubborn. He would have to wait to find out what he wanted to say.