(Song: Flower of the Universe - Sade)
"I will stay.
I will stay until my time is needed.
For all, we have lost and for all, we may lose.
Teach me, show me what I have to do.
I'm ready to be who I'm destined to be.
I'm ready."
– Mae Skywalker
Caleb and Ezra stand there in shock.
"What happened?" Caleb pleads. He was so confused.
"I–I don't know." Ezra stumbles back in shock. Caleb turns to face Ezra. "I've never seen anything like that."
"Maybe then she's not dead," Caleb says, hopefully. "She's a Skywalker... she's special right?"
Ezra sighs, "I don't think so Caleb." He puts his hand on Caleb's shoulder. "She was gone. She's gone."
They stand there in silence. Caleb holds her lightsaber in his hands.
"What do you want to do, my boy?"
"We have to find the Resistance. We have to tell Leia what happened, maybe she'll know. We need to tell her mother, Mara, too."
"It's been a long time." Ezra thought about the last time he saw Leia and Luke.
"I know, but they will need us," Caleb says as he picks up Mae's cloak and her bag.
"So we rejoin the fight. Find Luke." Ezra agrees.
"Mae would want that. She would want me to be strong." Caleb tightens his grasp on her lightsaber and the cloak. The tears were threatening to fall, again.
"She would." Ezra agrees. He felt his heartbreak for his son.
Caleb takes Ezra back to the ship. He makes sure he has all of Mae's belongings, all that was left of her. He places her lightsaber on the counter next to the music box. He planned to give Mae that music box as a surprise one day when the war was all over. He would've followed her anywhere she went if she wanted him the same way he wanted to be with her. They talked once about what they wanted to do after the war was over when they slept overnight in Lothal. She had big dreams, she wanted a life.
"I want to see as many planets as I possibly can before I settle down. As a kid, I used to say I would fly to all of them. What do you want to do when this is all over?" Mae chuckled laying back in her little cot.
"I'm not sure. Maybe I'd join the Royal Republic Fleet with Poe, we talked about it once. Or maybe I'd go to medical school. I can imagine you settling down," he said with a curious tone. His feet were on the control dash and his arms were crossed behind his head.
"Maybe. I think I deserve a vacation at least."
"Do you want kids?"
"How would I know? I'm only 20. Besides, I don't know if the galaxy could handle any more Skywalker children. I think it would actually end."
Caleb laughs. Mae smiles slightly.
"I think I would like my own family someday in the future," Caleb sighs. "I hope they'll have normal eyes though." He laughs a little.
Mae shakes her head. "To me, blood, names, and vows aren't what makes a family, a family. Ahsoka is my family, Chewy, even the droids. Friends can be family too."
"Am I in the Skywalker family?"
She takes a second to think of an answer, as she turns her body the opposite way from him. He waits, feeling like he overstepped. "You said... so I was just–"
"You should run while you can, or you'll end up like the rest of us," she mumbles with a tired sigh.
He turns his head to face the woman who changed his life in a way no one else could and he whispers, "Legends?"
She doesn't look at him the same way. She doesn't look at him at all in the deafening quiet of the room. The word floated in the air with her response ready to crash down to the ground.
"Gone."
Caleb put his hand on the ship controls. They had to go back and ask Leia what happened. She wasn't gone. He knew it somehow.
Mae's body appeared in fading glowing light on a planet in the middle of nowhere, hidden, and kept secret by the Jedi for many years.
Ahch-To.
On Ahch-To, Luke felt a strange feeling and saw the island keepers start to panic. He followed the loud noises and chaotic running. Had someone found him? Impossible. They would have to have found R2D2. He told Artoo that once he was safe with the Resistance, to power down. He gave them a map to his location only for Leia to contact him in emergencies. It was a slightly flawed idea but it made him feel less guilty about not returning to the Rebellion.
Luke had not only retired from the Jedi, but he retired from the Force itself. He felt out one last time the day Ben had destroyed the temple. He made sure Mae was safe. Now, he was more grateful than ever Ahsoka had finally come to the temple to meet her. Ahsoka knew how to survive better than anyone. He thought Mae would be okay. He thought Mae would give up the Jedi ways, settle down and live safely on Naboo. Maybe she would live a normal life.
Luke walks down the steps to see the islanders crowded around something or someone.
When he walked over to see who it was his eyes widened at the sight of his daughter. He immediately picked her up and brought her inside one of the huts.
"Mae? Mae? Can you hear me?" He inspected her body, looking for serious damage. He only saw bruising that was slowly fading away. Whatever had just happened to her, there was no proof of. He put two fingers to her neck below her jaw, feeling for a pulse. There was nothing. He put his ear to her chest, listening for a heartbeat. He waited and waited until he heard it. It was so quiet he barely heard it. She was alive but barely.
Luke tried teas, herbs, medicine, anything to wake her up. But her eyes did not open and her heart beat at the same slow pace. Luke pulled up a chair beside her, and held her hand in his, she was a young woman now. He noticed the wooden flower pendant still in her hand.
Oh, Mae. What happened to you? How did you get here? Open your eyes, let me see that smile.
Luke knew there was only one place to find the answers. He got up and asked a few of the kind islanders to change her out of her bloody clothes and give her any medical treatment she needed. They obliged and got to work cleaning the blood off her back where there used to be a gash wound and cleaning to blood out of her hair too. Mae was left with only a scar. It was a vertical line on her back that ran up to her neck. It had been where her body had been broken in her fall. Luke left the hut and walked toward a different one. This one held what books were left of the ancient Jedi texts. Luke pulled out a book and began to read, looking for anything on Mae's condition. Then he found it. Mae was in a Jedi Coma. She was in a self-induced state of near-death. The texts did not say how long she could be in the coma. Luke wanted to reach out to Master Yoda, Master Obi-Wan or even his father but stopped himself. Luke has cut himself off from the Force. He had chosen to leave the Jedi in the past. As far as he knew, all the Masters were dead and the rest who survived were being hunted down like animals again. Mae was safe here, with him. When Mae wakes up, he will be there and get the answers. If she woke up, Mae needed to be protected, why else would she be sent here by the Force, she needed to disappear. Luke closed the book and walked back to Mae. He heard the island people start pointing to a strand in her hair. They had put Mae in a loose blue dress. She looked beautiful.
"What is it?"
They pointed to the strand. It wasn't her strawberry blonde. It was a light blonde, so blonde it was almost silver.