faderift | [semi-open] I will be your shining light

Entry tags:

[semi-open] I will be your shining light

WHO: Rey, Obi-Wan, open
WHAT: a reunion, and open
WHEN: after the rifters get to Kirkwall, and throughout Cloudreach.
WHERE: the docks, the Gallows
NOTES: will add if they become relevant

The Docks - Obi-Wan

Rey is tired after the trip to Orlais and looking forward to taking a bath and sleeping in her own bed for a change. But she can't help opening her senses as she disembarks, feeling out the Force, looking for Ben. What she doesn't expect is to sense someone else, someone she had grimly accepted she would never feel again.

She stops where she stands, Padawan looking at her quizzically as she freezes, trying to zero in on where he is. Obi-Wan.

When she determines the direction she takes off running down the docks, the Force guiding her. She catches sight of him and pushes herself faster, even as her vision blurs from tears welling in her eyes. She doesn't slow down until she crashes into him, throwing her arms around him with a sob. She's been so unsure of so much lately, but she can't help the profound relief washing over her as she feels the presence of her master once again.

Open - Training yard

She's back to one lightsaber, not that she minds. It's easier to control one than two, and she's more comfortable this way. The lightsaber that she had come to think of as hers in her hand, her first line of defense against demons and whatever else stands in her way.

For the moment she's running through her forms, things she learned under Obi-Wan, and a few she'd improvised, modified from Kylo Ren's fighting style. She holds the ignited saber in front of her, sweeping it in a slow arc, pacing her breathing, before speeding up, taking herself through motions she's practiced what feels like a thousand times, now.

Her chosen training spot is a little out of the way, but the low hum of the saber usually attracts some attention.

Open - Rey's Workshop

Often in the evenings, unless Rey is working on something or wanting private time, she'll leave the door to her room open so that Padawan can come and go, and so that others who might need her services can pop in. Or just so friends can pop in. The usual organized chaos of her room stands regardless of the day, and she is usually sitting at her desk, bent over something or another.

Her current project is another series of mini trebuchets that can be used in the obstacle course, and they sit around her desk in a varied state of disarray, some fully constructed, others waiting to be finished. She will look up when someone walks in, and if it's someone she doesn't recognize her tools will go down and she'll stand, asking who they are. If it's a friend they'll just get a smile and a wave as Rey finishes whatever she's in the middle of doing. She can talk and tinker, she's good at multitasking.

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She's not angry so much as worried, and when he offers her the lightsaber she relaxes, tentatively taking it from him and holding it gently.

"He's not a Sith," she replies automatically, her eyes on the lightsaber before she looks back at Obi-Wan. "A lot has happened, since you've seen me last. I'm... not sure where to begin."

"No," Obi-Wan agreed, eyebrow back in full force, "He isn't."

What was her relation to this boy? Was he trying to pull her to the Dark side, make her... make her... that. Obi-Wan frowned, as if thinking, but what came most to mind wasn't Kylo Ren, but Anakin Skywalker. And the smell of sulfur.

But she was defending him.

"Why don't you start with Kylo Ren. Or was it... Ben? From what you've told me, the two of you were unlikely to get along."

Rey lets out a short laugh, shaking her head.

"Things changed." She bites her lip, her hands absently turning the black lightsaber in her hands before she shifts, opening up her satchel and placing it gently inside. She then adjusts it so it's resting against her hip again. This movement is to give her a moment to try and think about how to phrase, this, how much to tell Obi-Wan. She hadn't told Luke about the bond, should she hold that information back from Obi-Wan too?

No, she shouldn't. She didn't tell Luke because she hadn't been sure she could trust him. She knows she can trust Obi-Wan.

"How familiar are you with Force bonds? Ben and I are connected. I remembered things from my time home while you were gone, like I had gone home though physically I know I never left Thedas. We couldn't hurt each other through the bond, so talking was all we had. He's deeply conflicted. It's like he wants to embrace the light, but he's been so abused by the dark he doesn't think he deserves anything good."

Obi-Wan starts to answer, but then she continues, and his frown only grows deeper. A Force Bond that clear, that open? Dangerous. But also unprecedented-- could it ever be enough to bring someone clinging to the Dark back from that brink?

"Well, whoever his teachers were," He says, slowly, still ruminating, "They haven't done him any favors."

The lightsaber itself was proof enough of that. The cracked crystal, the improper power-bleed, all of it. And his technique could only suffer, with such a weapon, even with a flexible teacher... not that he seemed to follow any reasonable school at all, simply lashing out.

In a world with no Jedi to counter him, wouldn't that be enough? A Lightsaber was elegant and deadly, even that pained, crippled blade could overwhelm. But in a world that also had Rey...

"You're trying to turn him."

"You don't know the half of it," Rey replied a little bitterly to his comment about Ben's teachers. They had failed him in profoundly different ways. Luke had failed to believe in his nephew, Snoke had failed to teach Ben in any other way, he'd only hurt him.

She exhales and meets Obi-Wan's eyes as he says she's trying to turn him, and after a moment, shakes her head. She had thought she could turn him. In some ways, she does still hope for it. But she's decided to stop pushing him towards the light, because that only makes him resist her more. Considering the other night, this method seems to be working the best.

"I tried. But he needs to do it himself. I can't do it for him."

Obi-Wan is quiet for a long few moments, simply looking at her. It's difficult, once you've come to care for someone, to look at them objectively. That was the Jedi way, to pull back, resist connection, to be cold, and compassionate, and alone.

He tried, damn it. He tried.

"Walk with me," He says, because he can't stand quiet among the wavesound and the gulls and the chatter on the docks and remember any longer. He is, as Master Yoda would have said, mired in the past. He offers her his elbow, "All my life, whenever I have met a Sith, or any other practitioner of the Dark Side, I sought to understand them. To befriend them, if I could-- which wasn't often. What you're attempting here, and your understanding of how to do it..."

Anger and pride demanded they be enemies. Compassion and peace demanded one other other: that one side of the conflict should die, or that they should join forces. There was always a losing side, always sorrow to match joy. Balance.

"I'm proud of you, Rey. But I'm afraid... I don't know if there's much left I can teach you. It's a dangerous path you're walking, and I've never really seen the end of it."

Or rather, he had, and it was the wrong end.

She's worried he's disappointed in her. That he'll reject her the same way Luke did. In those moments of silence, that much may show on her face. She can't give up on Ben, not really. She's too deep in with him. But she doesn't want to lose Obi-Wan because of that.

When he asks her to walk with him, offers her his elbow she relaxes somewhat, looping her arm through his as they walk. She listens to what she has to say, and can sense the wisdom in what he says.

"I think he can turn. He's never fully embraced the dark, has always been conflicted. When his master ordered him to kill me... he turned on him." Even after everything that had happened after that, even if the act of striking Snoke down in itself was a violent act, he had risked everything in that moment to save her life. If Snoke had sensed his true intentions, they both would have died.

"He's Anakin Skywalker's grandson. If he was able to turn back to the light after everything he did as Darth Vader, surely Ben can too."

If this goes badly wrong, that Bond could kill her.

That's what he wants to say. That if Kylo can't be saved, he'll leave a wound in her like the one Obi-Wan still carries from Qui-Gon. He wants to say so many things, wise and cautious and careful. Instead, he stops walking and stares straight ahead, blind to his surroundings in every way that matters.

Anakin Skywalker's grandson.

Anakin's grandson?

Luke. Or Leia? The babies. Which? Did it matter? He'd been so angry, and Obi-Wan had... but how? No. No, this couldn't be happening, not a second time. Not again.

"What?" is all he says, finally.

She stops when he does, because they're tethered together, but she isn't sure why. She doesn't know what she said, though she knows they'd talked of Luke Skywalker before and his relationship to Anakin.

Ben's parentage had never come up, of course. Rey wonders if that's it. And then she realizes she's never mentioned Anakin or how he became Darth Vader. Is that it?

"Oh Obi-Wan, I'm sorry. I never talked about what I knew of Anakin Skywalker because I knew you hadn't... I don't know all of it, there was a scandal several years back involving General Organa, a senator exposed Darth Vader as her father to ruin her reputation. I know the story of Luke, he believed in the good in his father, and was able to turn him back to the light. Ben might know more, it's his family. He's Leia's son."

"What?" Obi-Wan repeats, though as she speaks he breathes, and is slowly able to master himself.

The Republic fell. And Anakin-- Anakin. Anakin... Vader. He'd killed the children. Fought Obi-Wan. Hated, hated, so much, and so strongly, that in the end, even in that extremity, Obi-Wan had turned away. And the babies had grown, Luke and Leia, and from there had come... there's someting else there, and he blinks, staring at her in pure consternation as she says it, and he hears, but doesn't believe it.

"...Back to the light?" his voice is hoarse with grief, stricken, and he knows he must look a sight. This is a terrible thing to happen on a public thoroughfare, "They were just babies, when last I saw them. Vader isn't-- I gave her to Bail. Bail Organa, of Alderaan."

Rey can tell she's piling a lot of information onto him, but she doesn't know how to help. But then he mentions that Luke and Leia had been babies, and that gives her... some idea of how much time has passed for him, since last he was here. Not exact, timelines of the end of the Clone Wars don't exist anymore, but she knows enough of the stories.

She tightens her hold on his arm, turning so her body is shielding his from the casual passerby. He's a little taller than her, but not so tall that he towers over her like Ben. She can be a passable shield.

"She grew up on Alderaan. Luke grew up on Tatooine. They found each other as adults, and Luke studied to become a Jedi so he could fight Vader. He became a legend for what he did."

Obi-Wan sags against her, needing the support, needing to be held up.

"Then it wasn't for nothing. She didn't die, for nothing," He says, speaking to himself more than Rey. He closes his eyes a moment, and it's so clear in his mind's eye. What Leia would have grown to be, fiery as her father had ever been, shrewd as her mother, with Bail's steadiness, and a Jedi twin. Luke.

He would have trained Luke. That was the plan, and his student-- the son, brought the father back to the Light. And here, another generation, another struggle for balance.

And the Force, living on, through them.

"Thank you, Rey," He's calm again, or close to it. He can breathe, at least, and stand up under his own power, "I'm sorry, I-- I'm not all I once was."

"It's happened for you, hasn't it." It isn't a question. She knows. Had known, from almost the second she'd seen him. "The fall of the Old Republic."

It's so far in her past, she doesn't know a time in her life without the New Republic, up until recently. It had always been in the distance, something that didn't really impact her one way or another, because criminal activity still reigned on Jakku. But before Obi-Wan had been confused when she'd spoken of the New Republic and the Galactic Empire. Part of her wished he'd never have to go back to that. That he could grow old here, away from it all.

"Yes. Vader..." He took a breath, opened his mouth to speak of dead children, of lost brothers and the agony of it all vibrating through the Force like a terrible discord, harp-strings plucked until broken, screaming. In the end he says nothing, merely repeats, "Yes."

There's nothing really to say. He is suddenly very, very tired.

"Rey. I think I would like to sit down, and have a drink. Do you know somewhere nearby?"

She hesitates a moment before nodding.

"The Hanged Man. It isn't far." She gestures in the general direction, and will start leading him, if he could manage to move again. She's worried about him, and if he wants a drink, he gets a drink.

"Thank you," He murmurs, and is able to be led, at least. Moving helps, and by the time they get to the Hanged Man, Obi-Wan is practically steady on his feet, once again.

The room is ugly and cramped and full of the noise and smell of people. It's filthy, sticky underfoot, and the woman walking drinks between tables looks overworked and undervalued. Despite the early hour, at least one person is slumped over his table, drunk. It is, put simply, a near cousin to every other bar between here and Coruscant.

And that familiarity, is comforting. Obi-Wan settles where Rey puts him, and simply lets the weight of life around him wash past, steadying and easing his grief. It's a temporary panacea, but not invalid.

"...I'm worrying you," He tells her, when she's found her own place, "I apologize. I've have a... very trying year."

Rey tries to steer them to a less crowded corner of the tavern, a table without too many people nearby. There are private rooms, she knows, but she doesn't have the coin to flash to get one. Once Obi-Wan is settled and Rey has settled too she furrows her brow, reaching out for his hand.

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to." She knows it's not always easy, talking about things that bring you pain. She'd pushed down the truth of her family for so long that she'd managed to successfully lie to herself that they were coming back for years.

"I'd rather hear your story," He replies, breathing in the dubious atmosphere. It's been a long time, and parts of him he thought discarded are waking up, "The rest of it, if you're still willing to tell me."

Galaxy-shattering news notwithstanding, Obi-Wan isn't as fragile as all that. Not really. He wants to know.

"Please."

Rey presses her lips together, before nodding. She'd jumped around a little, before, so she needs to go back to the beginning.

"I found Luke Skywalker on Ahch-To. He felt it was time for the Jedi Order to end, and tried to convince me of that. Meanwhile I was talking with Ben through our connection... Eventually I learned that Luke wasn't going to help me, and I saw a vision of Ben's future. So I went to him." She's skipping things, leaving things out, but there's some things that she isn't sure are hers to share, and other things she doesn't know how to put into words yet.

"Ben's master, Snoke, tortured me to get Luke's location. Then he ordered Ben to kill me, and instead Ben killed him. But... Ben was afraid to let go, I think. He stayed with the First Order, and I ran to the Resistance."

Obi-Wan let this sit for a moment, turning it over in his head like a puzzle. Who was Luke Skywalker? The more Obi-Wan thinks about it, the less he thought he knew. Except, of course, there was one thought.

"Do you want to know what I think?"

To tired and shell-shocked to care any longer, Obi-Wan flicks a hand and casually steals a silver coin from the table next to theirs. It slides into his hand with the barest thought and when the barmaid makes eye contact, he shows it to her. She passes a pair of thick-bottomed drinking vessels to them and takes the coin without a word. Obi-Wan drinks his, makes a face, then drinks again.

"I think. That it's possible the entire Skywalker bloodline, is crazy," He says finally. Not want to train Rey? The very idea, "I have a question."

Rey watches Obi-Wan's casual thievery fairly impassively, if only because she's done a few similar things. Usually not stealing money, but she's used her persuasive talents to get discounts from miserly shopkeepers. She accepts her drink and takes a sip without much complaint, she's gotten used to the ale in this place. It's not great, but the care in making it is something that impresses her. At his comment about the Skywalker bloodline she does nearly spit out a mouthful, covering the laugh with her mouth. It's absurd, and yet not entirely off base.

"What's your question?" She asks, once she's recovered.

He drinks to fortify himself against her answer. He watches, though, over the rim of the tankard, eyes clear and thoughtful. When Obi-Wan puts it down, he pauses yet more, to underline the gravity of the question, and to give her time to finish coughing.

"Are you a Jedi?"

If Obi-Wan had asked her that question a few months ago, her answer likely would have been similar to the one she's about to give him, but for very different reasons. She had felt like Obi-Wan had given her the tools to start on that path, but Luke...

She doesn't want to end up like him. Part of her wants to be a Jedi, wants that definition of where she belongs. Even a nobody can be a Jedi. But she'll never be able to stand aside when people are being hurt simply to preserve balance.

"I don't know. If I am... I can't be a Jedi like they were before. Like Luke was. I want to help people."

Obi-Wan tosses back the last of his ale in a gulp, and then nearly spits it out when the last of her words filters through. He regains his composure after a momentary wheezing fit, coughs once, and drinks again to clear his throat.

"Why would being a Jedi preclude," He stops and thinks for a minute, "...helping people."

What. Kind of Jedi.

"Sorry... I don't mean," she sighs, shaking her head. She hadn't worded that right. She knows the Jedi have helped people, but from what Luke had said, that was only if they were sure they could maintain balance.

"Luke-- when he was trying to convince me that the Jedi order should die with him, he said that a Jedi only acts if balance would be disrupted by them not acting. So... if a village were under attack by a neighboring village, we shouldn't interfere, because the next time the village is attacked with larger numbers we may not be there to help." She uses the lesson he'd given her, a lesson that had been a lie, and one that had cemented her decision to leave the Island.

[semi-open] I will be your shining light

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