Chapter Text
Ben stood at the top of a wooded hill overlooking the clearing where a thriving community stood. Stone and wood houses sprawled around a large central gathering place with a communal well at the center. Beyond that, a wide, slow-moving river meandered out into grassy plains where fences kept grazing animals out of planted fields and gardens. The air was filled with happy voices as the people below cooked, studied, and trained.
“Papa, Papa!”
Ben smiled at the tiny voice, turning to see 2-year-old Anakin climbing the hill beside Leia. He gripped the older girl’s hand, a wide grin splitting his round-cheeked face.
“Papa!” He squealed, toddling away from Leia at a lurching run, arms outstretched.
Ben swooped him up in his arms. He’d thought he’d never get any happier than the first time Leia called him Papa about a year after they’d welcomed her into their family. Having both of them call him that was even better.
Leia smiled at them as she finished climbing the hill at a slower pace. For Anakin to still be this happy and have this much energy, she must have carried him most of the way. Ben’s mother’s lightsaber hung from her belt and she carried a gathering basket in one hand.
It had been less than a year since Rey and Ben took Leia to the Jedi temple on Lothal to search for her own kyber crystal. Rey and Leia had opened the temple, and Ben had waited anxiously with baby Anakin and Uncle Chewie on the Falcon for them to come out.
About three hours later, a dusty little Leia marched into the Falcon without a crystal. She’d placed her hands on her hips, looked up at Ben and said, “Why didn’t you tell me Princess Leia was your mother? She says I can have her lightsaber.”
He’d disappointed his mother enough during her life; he certainly was not going to go against her wishes after death if she cared enough to communicate them in a young padawan’s vision. And so Leia Organa’s lightsaber now went everywhere with the girl Ben considered his daughter.
“Isn’t it almost naptime?” Ben asked Anakin.
“No,” the little boy shrieked, right before he collapsed on Ben’s shoulder with his thumb in his mouth. He blinked sleepily with eyes that looked just like Rey’s.
“We were hunting mushrooms,” Leia explained, holding up her basket. “We spotted you on our way back.”
Ben started down the hill. “Alright, little mushroom hunter. Let’s get you in bed.”
“Mama,” Anakin mumbled sleepily.
“Yup,” Ben agreed. Anakin would only nap if Rey was the one who tucked him into his little bed.
They took a well-traveled path down to the village filled with Force-sensitive people, most training as Jedi, and their families. They passed two teenage padawans sparring with wooden training sabers, a Force healer working to mend the arm of a little girl who’d fallen while tree climbing, and an elderly man using the Force to juggle the parts of an engine he was rebuilding while a gaggle of younglings clapped.
Jod Na Nawood met Ben’s gaze as they walked by and gave him a friendly nod, which Ben returned. He’d been suspicious of the older man when he’d arrived shortly after Ben and Rey established the community. Nearly a year after that, the man had finally confided in Ben about his past as a pirate and his desire to just have a quiet, simple rest of his life. Ben couldn’t begrudge anyone the opportunity to change, and there wasn’t anything here to interest a pirate. Jod had become an important part of the community, and the few times Ben heard him talk to anyone else about his past it was a warning not to misuse their gifts from the Force for personal gain.
“Mama, Mama, Mama,” Anakin chanted, trying to launch himself out of Ben’s arms as he spotted Rey.
Ben let the boy go, catching him with the Force and flying him to his mother. Anakin shrieked and giggled with glee.
Rey stood from where she’d been sitting with one of their newest arrivals, a young woman and her Force-sensitive toddler. She caught Anakin and covered his cheeks and forehead with kisses. He giggled, kicking and screaming. She deftly shifted him, keeping him from kicking her belly where the newest member of their family was growing.
“Did you find lots of mushrooms?” Rey asked.
“Mama,” Anakin mumbled, nodding his head into her shoulder.
Leia held up their full basket and Rey gave her a beaming smile as she started carrying Anakin toward the round wooden home their family shared.
Ben watched her, marveling again that this was his life. They’d spent nearly three years helping Engell, Poe, and the others stabilize the galaxy, but when Rey had gotten pregnant with Anakin they’d decided it was time to shift their focus. The galaxy didn’t need them in the spotlight anymore, but it did need a safe place for Force-sensitive people to learn about their powers. Rey and Ben’s reimagined Jedi Order found a home on a lush temperate planet just remote enough that no one had settled it yet. The only existing inhabitants were a water-dwelling race in the planet's oceans, lakes, and rivers. They had not minded some land-based neighbors, so long as the Jedi community promised to trade with them for fish rather than fishing for themselves.
He didn’t deserve to be this happy. To have a life filled with so much love and hope after all the terrible things he’d done. Each year, though, the memories hurt a little less and the nightmares lessened a little more. He sensed no dark influences on Leia’s or Anakin’s minds, and the two attempts to revive the First Order had been swiftly dealt with years ago. The galaxy finally had peace again. He finally had peace again.
Ben moved to meet Rey as she stepped out of their home. She lingered in the doorway, looking back inside at Anakin. Ben slipped an arm around her and pressed his lips to her hair as he looked past her into the home. Anakin lay in his little floor bed already asleep, dark curls just like Ben’s framing his chubby little face.
Rey moved his hand to her belly. Ben felt a tiny, and surprisingly powerful, foot kick his hand.
“I think this one’s even stronger than Anakin was.”
Rey gave a fond grimace. “She kicks all day.”
Rey had been right about Anakin being a boy, and Ben did not doubt she was right about this baby being a girl. They still hadn’t settled on a name, but “Hope” was the one they both agreed on liking so far.
Rey left the door open so Anakin could come find them when he woke up. She slipped her arm around Ben as they moved back toward the pavilion just outside their home where she often met with community members. She’d teased Ben when he insisted on building it for her, but now she didn’t seem to mind the shaded place to rest.
She nodded to the woman and toddler, who were sitting on a bench and tossing a small cloth ball back and forth. In a low voice, she said, “Her husband kicked them out when he found out the baby was Force-sensitive.”
Heat burned in Ben’s chest and he pressed his lips tight together. He knew it would take time to change perceptions of Force-sensitive people. They’d been hunted for so long–first benevolently by the Jedi to take them and train them, then malevolently by the Empire to exterminate them or twist them to the Dark Side–that even now many viewed them with suspicion. For every parent that hid their Force-sensistive child and tried to help them manage their abilities, there was at least one other that wanted someone else to deal with the unknown challenges that child represented. Ben knew all that, yet he still wanted to punch that woman’s husband in the face and sentence him to one of the rehabilitative labor camps Engell and Poe set up for the unrepentant First Order agitators. Maybe a few years dismantling old Star Destroyers would give him time to reflect on his ridiculous prejudice.
Maybe if fathers stopped being scared of their Force-sensitive sons and didn’t run off to find new smuggling jobs or pack them off to train with their uncle so they’d be someone else’s problem, they could avoid creating new Kylo Rens.
Rey leaned against Ben’s side. “Breathe,” she whispered. “I don’t like it either, but they are here now. They’re safe.”
His mind came back to the present. He pulled her close. Every time he thought he’d made peace with his past something else would bring back another memory. Again, he reminded himself he forgave Han Solo for his understandable inability to deal with a powerful Force-using child. Again, he wrestled with the guilt he still carried from killing his father. And again, he let the chest-tightening fear that he would fail his own children pass through him, then let it go. He would fail them if he gave into fear, anger, and hate.
Rey patted his arm, giving him a knowing, compassionate smile. It was often like she could read his mind.
“I’m here,” she whispered. “Our children are safe. The people who’ve come here are safe. We are helping the galaxy heal.”
Her reminder, oft-repeated over the past couple of years, soothed his soul. He kissed her, long and gentle, not caring who saw.
“I know.”
Again her eyes twinkled at him, though he could see exhaustion behind her smile. She didn’t resist as he guided her to the nearest shaded bench and hovered over her as she sat.
“I heard from Poe this morning,” she said, patting the bench for him to join her. “They want a Jedi outpost at the new capital city.”
Ben shook his head as he sat. “We’ve only been here three years. That’s not enough time.”
“Vinon and Ra'synda could go,” Rey said. “Ra’synda is already training her own padawan, and Vinon has been here almost as long as she has. They were both fairly comfortable with their powers even before we helped them. They’re ready for this.”
Ben frowned, considering the human man and twi'lek woman. They’d both arrived as older teens shortly after Rey and Ben founded the Jedi settlement, and both had already been working with their powers before they arrived. Now, each had earned their own lightsabers and Ra’synda had started training a human girl whose family had joined them a year ago.
“It’s a lot of pressure,” he said.
“Yes, but they’ll know that. I think we should let them decide. And I think they will go.”
Ben nodded slowly. “They probably could manage an assignment like this.”
She replied with a satisfied nod and snuggled against his shoulder. He followed the direction of her gaze, looking out over their growing settlement. Across town, Vinon had his hands raised, using the Force to stabilize a roof beam someone else was hammering into place for another new home. Just beyond that in the training field, Ra’synda sparred with her apprentice. Leia was there, too, moving through saber forms with her inherited blade.
“It will be good for people to see someone other than us carrying lightsabers again,” Ben added. “For them to start getting used to having Jedi around.”
Rey nodded against his shoulder. He felt her relaxing as her breathing deepened. He shifted slightly, snuggling her more cozily against him. She hadn’t been sleeping well as the baby grew, and he’d happily stay right where he was as long as she wanted if it meant she could get a nap.
“I’m so happy being with you,” she whispered sleepily.
He pressed a kiss to her head. “Me too.”
Peace settled over him, filling his heart until it felt like it was overflowing and spreading over the whole town. The Force was strong in this place, particularly now with all the new Jedi gathered here. The settlement and the surrounding land hummed with light and life. It was special, and it would grow. When people left here–likely starting with Vinon, Ra'synda, and her padawan–they would carry that peace and light with them into the galaxy. A galaxy of hope.