REY

The stone bench seeps cold into my side, despite my heavy cloak. But I didn't come here to sleep anyhow, nor to wait on Master Luke to train me, like I did the first time I was here, when I took vigil in front of his small stone hut.

I curl my knees up to my chest. Why did I come here the first time? Was it really to bring Luke back to the Resistance? Or was it actually to ask him to train me, so I could become a great Jedi Master like him? To train me, the way he did Kylo Ren?

I shiver.

Would Master Luke still be alive if I'd listened to him and not gone in search of Kylo Ren?

I sit up, feeling the presence of hundreds of tiny life forms around me. The little penguin-like creatures, Porgs, which greeted Chewy and I when we first came to Ahch-To, sit silently in the darkness behind me. I turn to see all their eyes looking back at me, curious yet afraid, reflecting the light of the moons in an eerie way. For cute creatures they sure look creepy at night.

I hear the cry of the massive sea creature that lives in the waters, then the distant splash of its nighttime frolic in the waves.

Ahch-To is still alive. The animals, in and out of the ocean; the island and the fog, they're all still here. And Luke too. I feel him in the life around me. Isn't that why I returned, to say goodbye to him?

No. To say sorry.

I sigh. Everything is the same as when I left, except for the old tree cave, with the sacred Jedi texts. It's been burned down, but I took the books with me, in secret. I'd wanted answers and I didn't think Luke would give them to me. But I can't make sense of the many proverbs. I need a teacher. I shiver as a cool wind blows over the small stone village, kicking up dust. Who would have burned the tree down. Did they know the sacred books were kept in there? Could it have been some enemy?

I look down at my dusty boots. I'd hoped to pay my respects to the last Jedi, Luke Skywalker, who died here to save the remnant of the rebel Resistance. But no body was found. I felt it when the great master passed on, even from where I was, on the far away planet of snow and ice, at the Resistance Base where Kylo Ren was defeated, for now, and where I helped the rest of the remnant escape.

I clench my fists, remembering how few of the Resistance there were left. Enough to all fit onto the Millennium Falcon. The rest had all died, fighting for freedom. And Snoke is now gone, yet it doesn't feel like a victory to me. In his stead, Kylo has risen as Supreme Leader. Not as a loathsome Lord like Snoke, but something far worse, a man whose passion and pain, and persuasion, almost turned a scavenger from Jakku over to his side, with one simple word... "please."

"Rey?"

I jump at the voice in the dark. Finn steps out into the moonlight and I blink back tears of gratitude at seeing a friendly face. He approaches slowly as though afraid I'll get mad that he's followed me here. But I'm not mad. I need a friend.

I wipe at my tears and make room for him on the bench beside me.

"Master Luke is dead because of me," I say, unable to hold back the truth anymore. "He told me not to go to Kylo Ren. I should have listened to him. It was a trick, I thought Kylo Ren..."

Another shadow joins Finn's and Rose steps out, the girl who saved Finn's life.

I slide down further on the bench but I don't continue talking. Finn looked so worried when she was recovering in the infirmary. He had once looked at me the same way, when he thought I was hurt, a long time ago. But I'm glad Rose is okay. And I'm glad she saved Finn from sacrificing his life.

"It wasn't your fault, Rey," Finn says, quickly sitting down beside me. I turn my head away to look out across the moonlit waters. A breeze blows over my face and I catch the scent of oncoming rain.

"Master Luke showed me the true power of the Force," I say softly. Finn doesn't respond, so I continue. "It's balance."

"Balance?" Rose asks. She's on the bench too and I keep my gaze ahead, at the small stone hut in front of us, Luke's home for so many years. The place he came to run from what he'd done, instead of facing it.

"Balance," I repeat. Suddenly an image of Kylo Ren enters my mind, his gloved hand extended towards me. "Join me," he'd said. "And we'll rule the galaxies together." His voice is as clear in my thoughts as if he were here right now.

My chest aches and I shut my eyes tight, unable to stop the memories of what he said to me when we were connected through the Force. "You're not alone."

I shake my head. I am alone. Even with Finn and Rose sitting beside me, and the hundreds of curious little eyes watching from the dark. I'm still alone. I will always be alone. 'You're looking for your parents in everyone, in Han and now in Luke,'

"Stop!" I yell at the words that Kylo spoke to me and won't leave me alone.

"Rey?" Finn's voice snaps me back to reality. "Are you okay?"

I nod, unable to speak for a moment

"What did you mean, by balance?" he asks.

I sigh. "Kylo Ren wants me to join him." I clutch the edge of the stone bench tight. "But I would never join the Dark Side." Not for Kylo Ren. Not for an ocean of loneliness as great as the waters of Ahch-To. My fate is to bear this power inside of me, alone. "I will never be a Jedi now that Master Luke is gone. He was the last, true Jedi."

Suddenly I gasp, jumping up from the bench.

"What is it?" Rose asks.

I shake my head, the realization hitting me. "He can't turn to the light."

"Who?" Finn says.

"Kylo Ren. Don't you see? We are the balance. Me and him. If either of us turn to the other side, there will no longer be balance. We are equally matched, the Dark and the Light, at a standstill. As long as neither of us turn..."

I stop.

He will never stop trying to turn me to the Dark Side.

The sound of the waves splashing up against the rock island fill the night. The wind rises and rain begins to fall.

Kylo Ren will never stop hunting me. The Dark Side can't fully rule the Galaxy as long as I'm alive and on the side of the Light. So he won't stop, until he has turned me to the Dark Side.