After the end

Contains MAJOR spoilers for The Rise of Skywalker. Stop reading now if you haven’t seen the movie.

It was over. After so much, the galaxy was on the road back to peace. The scent of ozone still lingered in the air, Palpatine’s lightning having scorched almost all they could see.

And Rey’s eyes fluttered open to see him, the one whose helped she’d hoped for, but not really expected, staring at her with a silent desperation.

And then he fell to the floor. She saw the life fading from his eyes, given freely, one last defiant act against Palpatine. He’d saved her. This was how life could be restored, and yet keep the balance, but at that moment all Rey could think of was how wrong it seemed.

This just wasn’t fair.

She’d healed people before though. She didn’t want to be stuck in a loop of one of them dying and the other bringing them back, but maybe she could half-heal him, put them both in worse shape but both alive, with hope and able to get out of there.

She leant into Ben. His body faded away, but she grabbed for where it had been, calling upon the immeasurable power she’d felt flow through her not long ago.

Rey closed her eyes. She’d be able to heal him, she promised herself that, she felt the restorative power emanating from her. If she could bring him back…

There was a bleating sound. Rey opened one eye, bewildered, as she saw a large animal, round with fluffy brown fur. While she was lying down, it was a little higher than her.

She knew what it was, most people could identify a nerf, but it was hard to imagine Palpatine keeping one. Was it for food? Why was just the one free, then?

While she pondered the creature’s arrival, distracted from her efforts to heal Ben, it extended its long fleshy tongue and gave her back a friendly lick. Rey stiffened. She shouldn’t have felt that. There was a trail of moisture from her shoulderblades to center-back, which was impossible, her clothes would get in the way.

Slowly, Rey turned her head downwards. Laying atop Ben’s own discarded clothes were a few green stalks, dotted with pink flowers. She didn’t recognize the flower, but botany had never been an interest, growing up on Jakku.

And there was nothing on her. She was naked.

Rey quickly sat up, a squeal escaping her lips, and she moved back across the blasted floor. The nerf regarded her with a curious, friendly eye.

“What,” Rey began, talking to no one.

She hesitated, confused beyond words.

“Looks like a cranoran cotton plant,” a voice mused.

Blushing, Rey quickly turned around, and was so relieved she forgot to cover up when she saw who it was. The translucent, gently glowing ghost of Ben stood not far away from her. He looked at his own clothes, unneeded in his spectral state, and at the nerf.

“You’re here,” Rey said.

“I… suppose I am,” Ben said. He looked down at himself, as surprised as she. “I thought only Jedi managed so… pleasant an existence.”

Rey smiled. Then remembered that she had concerns other than pride in her -bondmate as she looked down at herself, and decided it was much too soon for him to be seeing her breasts. Things shouldn’t move that fast.

Her eyes widened as she caught up with what he said.

“Cranoran cotton?” she said. “You’re sure?”

“Mom used to keep some. She liked the flower,” Ben said.

“And the nerf…” Rey said. “Oh no.”

“What happened to your clothes?” Ben said.

Wait, he was only just noticing now? She’d been in front of him and forgetting to cover up, and it took this long, after she remembered to, for him to comment?

No, Rey, wrong thing to get mad about.

“I think I healed them,” Rey said, blushing.

“What?”

“I was trying to save you,” Rey said. “But you weren’t there, so I guess… my clothes are back to the cotton plant, and the nerf-leather of my boots is currently staring at my bum.”

“It is a very nice bum,” Ben said.

“Time and place!” Rey said.

She took a deep, shaky breath.

“I don’t suppose you know an easy way to turn a cotton plant back into fabric?” Rey said.

“Afraid not,” Ben said. “I did ask, Uncle Threepio said it took a lot of weaving, and Cranorans are exceptionally dexterous.”

“Sorry, what?”

“They’ve much finer fingers to weave with, a human couldn’t match it,” Ben said.

“No, not that bit,” Rey said. “Uncle who?!”

“Threepio. You’ve met him,” Ben said. “Droid, gold, rather annoying.”

“Uncle?!”

“Well, yes,” Ben said. “Leia’s my mother, Vader was her father, and Vader built C3PO. He’s my uncle.”

Rey stared at him.

“I think that’s almost worse than being naked,” she said.

Not that she didn’t desperately want some way off Exogal with her decency intact.