Chapter Text
A World Made Anew
Chapter One: The Generals go to the Jedi
Rey had awoken that morning with a heavy heart. Her guests would be arriving later in the day, and she knew they would bring a combination of news and requests, both of which would be unwelcome. They had sent word of their visit a few days prior, and while they had not told Rey their reason for coming, it didn’t take the Force to predict what it would be.
But a moisture farm did not run itself, and so she set about her normal tasks for the day. Sometimes, when the going was especially tough, she found herself sympathizing with Luke’s choice of planet to exile himself to. Ahch-To didn’t have a lot going for it, but at least there wasn’t any sand. Sand in your eyes, sand in your clothes, sand in your food, sand in your teeth. But the cities needed water, and so she needed to collect it. She made herself a small morning meal at dawn and then set out to collect the vaporators’ nightly harvest. She picked up her toolkit, as at least one of them would have likely broken down since her last circuit. She might also need the tools to get the droids going. They weren’t keeping a charge like they used to, and when they sometimes did a hard shut down out in the desert, they had trouble starting up again the next day.
But that day she was in luck, at least when it came to the droids. They all started up and loaded themselves into the speeder’s trailer. The speeder was almost as old as the droids, and Rey did not have the luck with it which she had with them, at least not that morning. The time spent getting it running again would, she knew, mean that she would still be out collecting the water during the midday heat. So it was with a sigh that she set out that morning. It would be hours after midday before she returned, dirty and tired. She had just gotten the water loaded into the cellar storage area and was slowly peeling off her sweat soaked headwrap when she saw the New Republic ship coming in for a landing. There wouldn’t be time to do anything about her stench, she thought to herself.
The ship was a holdover from the Old Republic days, red and white and ill-suited for the armor and weaponry that had been attached to it. Poe would, she knew, have hated travelling in that ship. Rey busied herself getting some food and drink ready below level while her illustrious guests walked to the stairs in uniforms entirely unsuited for the climate. Rey smiled as she heard Finn complain about the heat.
“Hello there!” she heard Poe call from above. “May we descend?” Rey looked up at the pair of them with a bemused grin.
“Why do you always ask it like that?” Finn asked him.
“It’s classic,” Poe said.
“It’s every time is what it is,” Finn said as he walked past Poe to the stairwell.
When they reached the bottom of the stairs the three exchanged hugs. Rey invited them to the table where she had a light lunch ready for them. When they saw the traditional Tatooine fare, Poe said, “We actually ate on the ship already. Not long ago.”
“No we didn’t,” Finn said, shaking his head. “We haven’t eaten since yesterday.”
“Ok, knowing that, and knowing that I know it, why would you do that? Why embarrass everyone on purpose?” Poe said.
“I’ve got nothing to be embarrassed about,” Finn replied.
“Why didn’t you eat yet today?” Rey said, smiling as she brought her cup to her lips.
Poe shook his head at Finn before sitting down and answering, “We had to spend more time on Quellor than we thought and…No!” Poe interrupted himself to yell at Finn, who had made to sit down next to him. “You sit on the other side.”
“Fine,” Finn said dramatically. “I don’t mind sitting with my oldest friend, Rey.”
“I met you first!” Poe said indignantly.
“I know,” Finn said as he started eating.
“Why were you on Quellor?” Rey asked.
“Fuel,” both Finn and Poe said at once, before looking up annoyed at each other. “The New Republic depot didn’t have enough on hand, so we had to wait for a delivery.”
“I suppose I mean why did you go that way? Corellia was sure to have fuel and it’s a faster way to get here,” Rey said, leaning forward.
Finn raised his eyebrow at this question and Poe sighed.
“What?” Rey asked.
“Corellia would have had fuel, but none for us,” Poe said.
At Rey’s puzzled look Finn said, “Corellia just voted to leave the New Republic.”
Rey leaned back and said nothing while taking in the significance of what she had just been told.
“We saw it coming, or we should have,” Poe said ruefully. “They had been complaining for years about how weak the central government was, how high the taxes and requisitions were, how much money was being spent on the reconstruction of Coruscant, and rebuilding the fleet.”
“They knew that was how it would be when they signed the Convention,” Finn said bitterly. The years of worry and work had taken their toll on the brash young man she had met all those years ago on Jakku. Poe, more used to command, had borne the burdens better, but even he seemed tired, sapped of his usual energy.
“Did they?” Rey asked gently. “Did any of us really understand what the galaxy was going to be like, after the First Order died?”
“It’s not even dead,” Finn said disgustedly, pushing himself away from the table and towards the wall.
“Yes it is!” Poe shot back. When he saw Rey’s worried look, he said, “Some would be warlords got a hold of some shipyards the First Order constructed. It’s nothing to worry about. I’ve got it under control.” He gave Finn an annoyed look.
“It’s just another thing on the list now. Whatever they really are, they are telling the galaxy that they are the First Order. They’ve got Star Destroyers and soldiers in Stormtrooper armor. I don’t think the people fleeing from their home planets are worried about what they believe in,” Finn said, sounding even more tired than before. The thought of Stormtroopers being trained again made him understandably angry.
“Yeah, another thing on the list,” Poe said dejectedly.
“A long list?” Rey said, sipping her drink.
Poe smiled and nodded. “A new system hasn’t joined in three years. Coruscant is still a mess. The Hutts keep grabbing more territory, and they are the least disruptive of the criminal syndicates, because they mostly don’t try to penetrate other sectors. The rest of the syndicates have set up shop on every major world and we can’t get anyone to publicly help us against them. There are at least twenty different warlords out there claiming multiple systems, and that doesn’t even count the Mandalorians or whatever the Corellians are going to call the state they are going to form. We were having trouble maintaining a fleet before Corellia left and now we are down to one functioning shipyard, the one on Mon Cala. Not that we have the money to pay for the ships we have anyway. So yeah, quite a list.”
“You seem pretty busy. Makes me wonder why you took the time to come all this way,” Rey said coyly.
“We don’t want to ask you again to…,” Poe started to say.
“We’re asking you again,” Finn interrupted.
Poe looked at Finn and shook his head. “Thanks buddy.”
“I can’t start a New Jedi Order by myself,” Rey said softly.
“Luke Skywalker did!” Poe answered energetically.
“And it didn’t work, and the whole galaxy paid for it,” Rey said. “There can’t be one master and dozens and dozens of Padawans. The old Jedi had a reason for making it so that one master had one apprentice. It’s a difficult thing, shepherding someone, especially a young person, through the process of becoming a Jedi. Luke tried to do too much,” Rey said.
“Because the Republic needed him to,” Poe said. “And it does again. Palpatine’s gone this time, really gone. It could work.”
“You’ve trained a few students over the years,” Finn added. “Maybe they’re ready to help you.”
“If I take another Padawan, and they each take another Padawan that’s four Jedi and four Padawans. Is that really going to make a difference?” Rey asked.
“It could,” Finn said, clearly not convinced himself yet.
“It would be a symbol, Rey,” Poe said. “The Old Republic had the Jedi and that made the whole thing seem more solid.”
“So you want to distract people from the fact that the New Republic is bankrupt by waving space wizards in their face?” Rey said with a grimace.
Finn smiled and looked at Poe as though to say, ‘I told you so.’
Poe looked at Finn and said, “Are you here to help? Because I thought you came to help.”
“I told you we didn’t have a good pitch,” Finn said, folding his arms as he leaned back smugly. “That was me helping, letting you know that you needed a better pitch than ‘Things are even worse now than last time you said no.’”
“Not everything is worse!” Poe shot back. “We are making real progress all over the place.”
“What kind of progress?” Rey said, more out of a desire to get them to stop bickering than to hear the news.
“The lower levels of Coruscant are, if anything, better than they were in the Old Republic. Ord Mantel is up and running again, and we have pushed all the old Imperial remnants out of our territory,” Poe said.
“Pushed out?” Rey said, squinting a bit as she did.
“Yes...yes, they mostly just left to go join one of the warlords, but they still gave up worlds they had been holding for years. They decided they didn’t want to stay and fight us. That’s an accomplishment,” Poe said.
Rey nodded and smiled. “I heard you say that very same thing to the Senate, over the holonet.”
“How’d I do?” Poe said hopefully.
Rey looked over at Finn subtly, who smiled anxiously and nodded, and then said, “I thought it was great. I think it’s a tough situation and no one could do any better.”
Poe sighed and said, “I probably wouldn’t sign on with our crew either.”
“Maybe for old time’s sake,” Finn said, looking into his cup.
“Yeah,” Rey said sadly.
“You think it's already too late, don’t you?” Finn asked her.
“No. I think...I think you can still succeed. I think the New Republic can still work. I hope it does. I just don’t think you appreciate the dangers involved in rushing the training of new Jedi,” Rey said. She gave the two of them a long look and then continued, “And while I think you have a shot, I don’t think the odds are good enough to justify that kind of risk. I don’t think the galaxy, as it is, could stop a new Kylo Ren.”
“And what will the galaxy do without a Republic?” Poe asked.
Rey looked to her left, out of the dining area and into the main part of the house, focusing on something in the darkness her two guests could not see. She looked back at her two friends, worn down, in the years since the fall of the First Order, by the attempt to rebuild the New Republic. But the New Republic itself was just an attempt to rebuild the Old Republic, an institution that had failed the galaxy. Palpatine had not found a healthy system of governance, or a robust galactic society and managed to scheme his way to its destruction. He had found a system that barely had its head above water, that floated along through a kind of inertia, and pulled ever so slightly down. And the Republic had pulled the Jedi down with them.
“The galaxy found its way to the Republic once before. It can find its way again,” she said, with more confidence than she felt.
The two generals nodded. Eventually the three of them moved on from the official reason for their visit. They spoke of old friends, shared memories, and many a non-political development over the years since Rey had settled down on Tatooine. As the night wore on it was Poe who eventually pointed out that he and Finn needed to start their journey home.
On the way to their ship Poe turned to Rey and said, “I am sorry to have to ask this, but what if we approached your apprentices? They are Jedi Knights now right?”
“More or less,” Rey said worriedly.
“And they can train Padawans of their own, if they choose, right?” Poe asked. Finn, who had kept walking towards the ship had stopped when he heard Poe’s question. He listened and looked at Rey with what seemed to her an inscrutable expression.
“I taught them to follow the rule of having one apprentice at a time,” Rey answered as she pulled her shawl tighter around her. “But they get to make up their own mind, and if they want to work for the New Republic I am not going to stand in their way. I will wish you all luck.”
Poe nodded and said, “Thanks. I think that could really help. Do you mind if I tell them you said that?”
“I am sure they already know,” Rey said as she stepped towards Poe to give him a hug. When they let go of each other she saw Finn coming towards her. The two friends shared an even longer embrace. As they parted she whispered, “Be careful.”
Finn nodded and smiled sadly. The two General said their goodbyes and made the standard promises to stay in touch and visit again when it was practical to do so. Tatooine was not part of the New Republic, so all knew that this promise was somewhat empty, but no one said so.
Rey watched as their ship took off and then started the process of closing the homestead up for the night. The Sand People had learned, in the years just after Rey’s arrival, not to come near the Lars homestead, so she had no fear of attacks. But if a storm kicked up during the night, she knew she would be spending most of the next day cleaning out the sand.
As she was locking down the garage she sighed and leaned her forehead against the doorframe. She closed her eyes and said, seemingly to no one, “What do you think is going to happen?”
From the darkness a voice said, “The Republic will fall.”
Rey turned around, leaning back against the doorframe now, and looked to her right at the walkway back to the main area of the house. “Again,” she said.
“Yes,” the voice said calmly.
“I should have done more,” Rey said, still looking resolutely to her right, not to her left into the garage, where the voice was coming from.
“There is nothing you could have done,” the voice said. “It was doomed from the start.”
“Maybe,” Rey said, now looking down. “Or maybe you are just saying that to spare my feelings. Maybe I should have trained more students. Maybe I should have re-established the Order on Coruscant.”
“It would have made no difference,” the voice said. “The Jedi could not save the Republic from Palpatine, they would not have saved it this time.”
Rey now turned to her left and said, “They didn’t save the Republic from Palpatine, but they could have, couldn’t they?”
“They could not,” the voice said. As Rey watched a blue figure appeared in the darkness of the garage. The Force Ghost of Anakin Skywalker looked at Rey and said, “But I could have.”
Rey did not respond with surprise, but slowly nodded. “I think it’s time. We have to try it.”