Skywalker Rises

Epilogue

Ahch-To became the galaxy's only training school for Force-sensitive children. The Skywalker School raised a new kind of Jedi. Just as Master Yoda had predicted, children arrived from all over the galaxy for training. Poe had a hand in it, and Rey was thankful for his trust. Those gifted with the Force were trained, and returned to their families and communities. They no longer cloistered themselves and attempted to act in the best interest of the Force throughout the galaxy. 

Rey Skywalker and her husband Ben Skywalker ran the school. The children who came and went viewed them as surrogate parents. They were exacting teachers, and demanded excellence, but they invested deeply in their students and in return, they sent Force users into the galaxy who understood their value, and their responsibilities. The students may have considered dabbling in the dark side. After all, exploring power is natural. But none ever strayed from the light.

No more Palpatine, Solo, or Skywalker heirs appeared. Rey knew they would never really know for sure if they had cousins out there somewhere. She hoped they didn't.

Ben Skywalker did not touch the dark side again. He thought about it, sometimes. Fleeting thoughts that came and went as time progressed. Temptations. But he resisted. And as he said no, over and over, no became easier.

Ben and Rey had three children. Ben did not die during childbirth, but he thought he might a couple of times. Their two sons were absolutely, unarguably, without one bit of Force sensitivity. 

"That's Han's fault," said Ben. 

Rey laughed. She was delighted with their children, whether they could use the Force or not. 

Their daughter, the youngest, named Leia, had inherited both of their abilities. Rey was terrified for Leia's future in the same proportion that Ben was delighted. The parents managed to balance each other and treat their daughter with gentle care, just as they did all of the other Force-sensitive children they were entrusted to teach and release to find their own paths. 

"It's the men in the Skywalker line who go bad," said Ben. 

Rey agreed, but it didn't allay her fears completely. "I can only do what I can do. I cannot control the future." She had learned that lesson long ago. Her single foray into changing the future had proven to her just how fragile and flexible it really was. 

Though older than any of the residents of Ahch-To by decades, Little Yoda learned with the other children. He developed deep, lasting friendships and shared his love of tricks with his peers. Rey spent plenty of time teaching her students how to reprogram K2s as a result of Yoda's games. They found several talented mechanics through the process, and the new galactic government welcomed the expertise with open arms. 

Little Yoda became Yoda, and then Master Yoda. It felt deeply right to Rey that this boy continue the work the Ghosts had started when they first began to teach him as a child.

The Mandalorian lived a long, happy life. Even after death, Yoda refused to remove the man's helmet. "This is The Way." He was interned deep in the core of Ahch-To, where good men and women for millennia before had been laid to rest. He had never returned to his people, and Rey knew that the past Jedi would approve of such a noble soul joining them in his final rest. 

Finn and Rose came and went. Finn never developed more than a passable use of the Force. Rey suspected it just wasn't strong in him to begin with. Had he learned as a child, it may have been different. They had a child, a boy named William, who followed Leia around like a lovesick puppy. William, "uses the Force like a Skywalker," as Ben said. Which annoyed Finn. 

Finn and Ben never became friends. But they stopped being enemies, which made Rey happy. 

Poe led the galaxy in a continued state of peace. The last Rey heard, Zorii had finally agreed to come to Coruscant. Rey hoped they could work it out. 

The galaxy took a deep breath and relaxed, enjoying a lasting peace it had not seen in a very, very long time. 

******Thank you for sharing this story with me! :) I hope you liked it. I enjoyed writing it, and I greatly enjoyed your feedback. I was aiming for a novella, and so here we shall end. This story brings to mind so many others I would love to explore. Now, I am stepping away from fanfic for a while and working on another story. I love these characters, and I love Star Wars. This story has helped me recover from the disappointment of the end of TROS. May the Force be with you.******

I wrote a Reylo AU prior to this story: A Star Wars Reylo AU: The Taming of the Professor. Check it out if you're interested. 

28 November 2020 - now that we know our darling Baby Yoda's name - I am not going to go back into this story and edit as Star Wars canon evolves. My relationship with canon has always been somewhat flexible, anyway. 🤣 I thought about it, but I don't have the time. Happy reading! ♥️MonsterTam3r