Chapter 1: The First Night of the Rest of Her Life

Rey watched as the last rays of Tatooine's twin suns sank towards the horizon. Her expression was wistful, and for the first time since her true love had collapsed in her embrace, she allowed tears - tears shed by the thought of him - to flow freely. Bowing her head into her hand, she wept bitterly, the sobs strangled and loud.

Concerned beeping mixed into the chorus of hiccups, and Rey felt BB8 nudge her calf. She waved him off. She needed this moment, and to grieve for as long as she needed to...

...which would probably be forever. And in yet another desolate desert world. Perhaps that was punishment enough for her. She may have come here initially for the express purpose of burying the lightsabers of the Skywalker twins, and Luke may have told her on Ahch-To to not run away and hide as he did... but right now, that was all Rey wanted and needed to do. Rebuilding the Jedi in her image would come in due time. She already had her first recruit. She had been speechless when Finn had told her he was Force sensitive... and then had internally winced when the implications sank in. She knew best friends shouldn't hide things from each other, keep secrets, and yet that would be harder to do with Finn from now on. He could sense her feelings, and had - maybe not as strong as Ben had, but still. More than once, the ex-Stormtrooper had asked her if she was all right, why her tears refused to abate. Rey had merely said that her weeping was of relief, that she and Finn and Poe were alive. And that had been the truth... partially.

Whether the rest of the truth would ever come out, Rey was uncertain. Poe and Finn had never known about her Force Bond with Ben. Their star-crossed Force Dyad. Maybe they never would need to. Rey could only feel so much from other people and still have her own feelings left for herself.

No question: she needed to mourn. Reflect.

The Tatooine horizon was a deep, dark purple now, the first stars appearing. She tapped BB8's spherical head. "Come on, little one." And Jedi and droid turned back to their new home.

Rey could feel the presence of the Skywalkers, her adoptive family, here. Renouncing the family of her birth - Palpatine - in favor of them had been the first and surprisingly easiest step on the long, hard road to closure. Coming to Tatooine, fairly simple also. Whether she would stay... Rey was leaning heavily towards the affirmative. Perhaps that was due to her lingering urge to stay near desert lands - nothing less than violence had compelled her to flee Jakku after 13 years. And in the desert, she was comfortable. Despite loving what else the galaxy had had to offer once she had ventured beyond her front door, it was what the galaxy had taken away that behooved her to go back to what she knew. It seemed no less than what she deserved. Maybe that was indulging in self-pity, but Rey craved some self-pity right about then.

She had failed. In her greatest mission, greater even than defeating the Emperor and saving the galaxy, she had failed to save the life of the man she loved. The first and only man she had ever kissed. Her soulmate in the Force. She had redeemed him, but the future she had seen when they had touched hands on Ahch-To a year ago would never come to pass. Not now.

The metal toboggan slid to a stop at the bottom of the open-air courtyard. The faint echo of a Jedi from decades past pulsed throughout the place - Anakin Skywalker, Ben's grandfather and now her adoptive grandfather. He certainly was a step up from her biological one, a level step at worst when taking into account Anakin's alter ego as Darth Vader. Stronger still was the presence of Ben's uncle, Luke Skywalker, as she stepped through the hydraulic door that led into what had clearly once been a kitchen. Rey illuminated her golden lightsaber as true night finally took hold. There was charring on the hardened sand walls... had there been a fire here? Perhaps. Touching one blackened mark, Rey almost immediately jerked her hand back, as a truly gruesome memory of the past attacked her through the Force. Poor, poor Luke... Still, she felt closer to him, knowing this was the boyhood home of her adoptive uncle.

And maybe she was just imagining it, or clinging to silly girlish hope, but she felt just the tiniest flicker of her...

She daren't finish the thought, but Rey burst into tears all over again just the same. Why dwell on a dearest wish denied? But she didn't want to let it go. Taking the name of Ben's family was one thing. But taking his name... did she even have the right?

Ben had been her soulmate in the Force. Her other and better half in their Dyad. Not long after flying back from Exogol in Luke's X-wing, Rey had needed to borrow a holo dictionary from Poe to look up what those words meant. Deep in her heart, she had known what words like soulmate and Dyad meant to her. And indeed, the definition of the latter - a pair of individuals (such as a husband and a wife) maintaining a sociologically significant relationship - had made her heart palpitate ectopically. Had threatened the tears to fall anew.

She had no doubt that she and Ben would have married had he lived. And if we would have had her. Ben's kiss, the way he had held her tightly, left no doubt in Rey's mind that he would have agreed to a proposal.

Except there had not been, nor would there ever be, a wedding ceremony. So, Force Bond or not, Dyad or not, soulmates or not, did Rey have the right to think of Ben and call him... husband?

Perhaps in the creation of their Bond, the Force had married them. Proclaimed them man and wife before their hearts could even reach that acceptance. But could a confession of love too late (Rey's heart cleaved in two that she had never said those three little words to him), could a broken heart professing sole fidelity to a man just dead... could those alone declare Rey wed? Could she take a married name by fiat as easily as she had taken an adopted one?

Huh. Maybe when that woman had asked her for her name outside the homestead, she should have answered, "Rey Solo."

Solo... the surname an eternal reminder that Rey was once more, well and truly, all alone. Rey took a deep breath.

"Start with what you know is true," she whispered to herself. "I am Rey Skywalker. I was born Rey Palpatine, but am now Rey Skywalker. Their ancestors are my ancestors..." At that moment, for the first time since Exogol, a wave of peace washed over her, as she concluded, "And Ben Solo is my husband. I am the wife of Ben Solo. The Force itself willed it."

She felt the energy field's approval. And with it, there it was again: the tiniest brush from her... husband in the Force. Rey could almost see Ben's smile. Hear his laugh.

She whimpered, another tear slid down her cheek, as she opened another door, this one leading into a bedroom. She felt BB8 roll after her, as she circled the bed. It appeared built for two, and it made her wonder if she and Ben would have shared a bed, maybe even this bed, if they had settled here - likely in secret, of course. Surely they would have. How... romantic...

Breaking down into sobs anew, Rey let her body strewn itself across the dusty mattress and buried her face into the pillow to weep. BB8 chittered forlornly, but she could not be comforted. Newly widowed before her honeymoon could have even begun, Rey cried herself to sleep over her lost love.