Chapter Six: Lightsabers

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Ben gestured to the portals. "We need to find the right portal, but it shouldn't be too hard, because the Force puts the important ones close to you." He reached for Rey's hand and their fingers intertwined. Holding hands, they walked along the row, calling out to the Force to show them the way.

It wasn't long before Ben stopped. "Here it is."

She could just make out Luke's homestead through the shifting surface of the portal. "How do you know it's the present day and not thirty years ago?"

"Practice. I've found that the Force shows me portals pretty easily if they're relevant to my life and I need them."

"How do I get back out once we have the sabers?"

"I think that we'll need to initiate our bond and keep it open as long as we're in any world. That way you can come back through the portal to me like you did the first time on Exegol. I don't have a body, so in the physical world I'm invisible and don't make any noise. I'm hoping you can hear me talk to you in my thoughts, or at least get the general impression, through the bond."

"All right, here goes." She closed her eyes as she began to initiate their bond, and Ben followed suit. Once the bond was open, she stepped through the portal and stood on Tatooine at the Lars homestead, right where she had been just days ago. The place was deserted. She looked around, and was startled to see Ben. He was somewhat transparent, but not bluish and glowing like a Force ghost.

"Ben! I can see you! I thought you said you'd be invisible! Wait, I know. I'm seeing you through the bond!"

"Excellent. This will probably turn out to be very helpful." Ben's mouth moved, but no audible sound came out, only thoughts echoing in her head.

"I can hear you in my mind loud and clear!" Her excitement shone on her face. "All right, down to business." She looked around carefully and determined the location of the buried lightsaber hilts the best she could. "Right around here."

Rey started moving sand with the Force, but it was a lot more work to get all that sand out, and then keep it out, than it had been to simply sink the sabers down in it. And she wasn't seeing any sign of them, either.

Rey felt Ben using the Force and noticed her hole getting bigger. "I thought you said it was hard for you to interact with the material world," she said.

"It's harder than it would be if I were fully alive, yes, but the fewer other events I disturb or change with my interference, the easier it is. This is the present day, and digging up these sabers affects no one right now, so it's not too hard."

The two of them continued to work in companionable silence for awhile, but it was taking a lot longer to find the sabers than they had anticipated. "Ben," Rey began. "Why aren't we using the power of our bond to find the sabers? Why don't we just call them to us?"

Rey heard his voice in her mind again. "You're right. The dyad is supposed to be really powerful, and we're going to need to learn how to put our power together if we're going to accomplish everything I have planned."

"All right, let's both concentrate on finding the sabers and calling them to us." Rey closed her eyes and reached out to Ben. Ben did the same, and all of a sudden she felt extremely powerful! They directed their thoughts towards the sabers, and now they could feel exactly where they were buried, not far from where they had been digging. They both began to reach out in the Force to call the package to themselves. The sabers came directly to them, and it was so effortless, despite the heavy layers of sand on top of them. The ease with which the task was accomplished was like the difference between trying to pick up a very heavy object all alone and picking it up with the aid of someone very strong.

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