Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The truth was that Rey didn’t know if it was a good idea just to take a whole group of people to find the Key. Not a good idea, a part of her told herself, but at the same time, she couldn’t help but think that it could be worth it in the end. After all, she had started with that possibility to make Poe happy, as well as get her cousin back. To get the family she never knew back, for that matter. There was so much that she wanted back, now that she really thought about it. She had never really gotten to know her family. She had lost pretty much all of her family, for that matter, now that she really thought about it, and the unfairness of it all was threatening to overpower her. When she really thought about it, it struck her that this was an idea that, if she was asked to explain it, would have begun with, “Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time…”

Which was why she was taking the Millennium Falcon to that same planet where she had found the Life Day crystal. The Key. It was something where Finn had come along, as well as Rose, Jannah, BB-8, Chewbacca, even Zorii Bliss. (Zorii’s reasoning was, “I was a shitty friend to Poe in the past, and I’d throw sixteen year old me down the stairs if I could. Can we leave it at that?" Rey decided not to push the matter further, though she wondered what was so bad that Zorii Bliss would want to do that much harm to her sixteen year old self)

It was originally supposed to just be her and Poe. The Force had a talent for throwing a hydrospanner into the best-laid plans. Then Finn had to insist he came along. Then Rose, Jannah and Zorii, as well as BB-8 and Chewbacca, also had to insist on coming along.

Rey was glad others hadn’t. As much as she regretted leaving, say, Lando behind, she also doubted she could take bringing pretty much half the galaxy with her. There were limits.

***

”So this Key is basically a time-traveling thing?” Poe sounded hopeful even as he disembarked from the Falcon with the others.

Rey nodded. “Basically.” She sighed. “It’s unpredictable as hell, I should say. We should be careful. Let’s say you never know what you’re going to get. I ended up on Dagobah first time I got in here…”

"Was Luke as annoying as he was when you first met him?” Finn said.

Rey, despite herself, had to bite back a laugh. Then, “Definitely starting out.” Then, “Hopefully, the Key is back where I left it.”

It was exactly where she’d left it. And even going back into the portal…it took a while to encourage her motley crew that what they saw was real, but they had no problems grudgingly stepping through.

***

The problem with the Key was that it was unpredictable. Rey already knew that, such as when it had showed Rey Dagobah and Luke Skywalker training, for that matter. She already had a feeling that she and her crew were going to end up at some place that she never expected.

But this…

What struck her first was how cold the floor felt, and how much it felt as open as an arena, for that matter. Even as Rey stood up, she was struck by the sound of a quiet yet powerful voice.

”…do not heed the words of the Jedi Council. The Republic will fall if we do not act now. Already the Mandalorians have taken systems along the Rim…”

Rey furrowed her brow even as she got to her feet. Finn gently brushed her off, and it was Poe who filled her in.

”Rey,” he said, “I think we just landed in the wrong era.”

”…no shit,” Rey could only say. “Is that…”

”The Mandalorian Wars. Recruiting.” Poe said. “Ben told me a bit…”

Rey’s breathing hitched. Already, she found, that she already knew what was going on. Leia had told her. “I sympathize with Revan more than my father,” Leia had said. “Revan…for all the errors in judgment he made, he had a lot of love to give. He only wanted to help the downtrodden. It’s just a sad outcome he ended up going off the deep end…”

Rey could see them. Revan, a man with shoulder-length shaggy brown hair and a height that surprisingly reminded Rey of Poe or Finn. Alek Squinquargesimus, who still had his own shaggy black hair. Alek did the talking here. A quiet voice, though Rey had heard it had gotten more sinister after he’d lost his jaw and had to have it be replaced.

Alek seemed to have noticed the portal opening out of nowhere. Then, “Revan…I don’t think we knew that we had new recruits. The Force must truly be with us.”

It seemed that this was the moment, Rey thought, where her understanding of things skidded to a screeching halt.

When she got back to her own time, she mused darkly, she was going to kill the Key.

Chapter Text

Revan of Londas wasn’t used to things going right for a change. Ever since the Mandalorians had ravaged his homeworld of Londas, among other planets, he had been used to many things, including how he was increasingly certain that the Jedi Council couldn’t be seen as perfect anymore. When he was a youngling…well, then again, he’d learned after Master Kae had left the Order when he was six that the Jedi were not perfect. It was something that was already nagging at him, that the Jedi already painted him and those who followed him as monsters for trying to do what was right.

Then the portal had opened.

Master Kae had told him about it, about the Life Day legend. “Of course, Revan,” she’d said, a faint smile playing at her lips, “The future is a relative construct. I would say that you can make it whatever you want.”

"You can see the future though.” six year old Revan had said.

”Yes, Small One, but it doesn’t mean it isn’t flexible,” Kae had said.

Now…well, it was definitely a literal interpretation of Life Day coming early, Revan would say that. If the situation wasn’t so dire — and if Alek and Arawn didn’t hate him for it — he would have made some terrible pun. 

For now, he looked at them. A young girl with her hair in three buns, dressed in a hooded robe that was almost off-white in color. A black-haired man with tawny skin and something that looked like a pilot suit. A man with umber brown skin dressed in an almost scoundrel-like jacket, a woman with olive skin and black hair in a ponytail, dressed in an off-white shirt and mechanic’s pants. A woman with umber brown skin and a bow on her shoulder, dressed in scoundrel-like clothing. A woman in a metallic suit. A Wookiee, and a droid…an odd shape, a figure-eight shape, orange and white, one of a kind.

It was quite the motley crew.

"Welcome,” Revan said. Then, “I can only assume that ‘welcome’ is the best word to use in these circumstances. Nice of you to drop in.”

”Revan,” Alek said. “You should be ashamed of yourself."

The girl laughed, a bit nervously. "We didn’t expect to see you.” Then, "We…well, we were meant to be somewhere else…”

It was Arawn who spoke up. “I can talk to them,” she said.

”I think,” Alek said, “We could all use some time to talk.”

***

It should have been exciting, talking with Revan, Alek and Arawn, and Revan’s old master, Arren Kae. Except Rey already remembered what would happen to them. All of them but Arawn would become Sith — Arren Kae, the future Kreia slash Darth Traya, would go down in history as a terrorist to some, liberator to others. And Arawn would temporarily lose the Force.

How would she ever explain how she already knew all the eyes that they would all shut forever.

”I doubt we need much of an explanation,” Arren Kae said. "The legends are true. They are time travelers. Well, then again, you don’t need my observations for that; the portal opening made it rather blatant. But these ones…I can tell by their stance, their walk, that they have an agenda. Their walk is heavy; they carry something that weighs them down.”

”You can tell our intentions from our walk?” Rose said, wryly. “That’s just…creepy.”

”I am Echani, Mechanic. I think I can sense the surface, but…nothing more.”

There was something about Arren Kae that reminded Rey, unpleasantly, of Kylo in his worst moments. When she met him. It was something where she still appreciated the slivers of kindness her cousin gave her, but the creepiness he had still lingered. It made her even more jealous of Poe; Poe had seen Ben in much better moments. Though she did not mourn Kylo Ren, she would have loved to get to know Ben Solo.

She envied Poe just for that.

"Master Kae,” Revan said. “We might need to try a different route. Just be kind to them. Because you are right; it looks like they have been through a lot." 

Rey knew at least, she could trust Revan. Even if she didn’t know how such a friendly, kind, likeable man could become the Sith Lord that became a shorthand name for talking about tactical geniuses.

”Thank you.” Rey said. Then, “I…would keep it a secret, but I don’t think the portal opening up in the Council room really leaves much room for covering our arses.”

Revan actually did laugh. That was a good sign, Rey thought; they were endearing themselves to the group. 

"We were…" Rey paused. Then she said, “My cousin passed away. He was taken from us. Me and Poe, that is.” She gestured towards Poe, who gave a tentative wave. She continued. "But…I was thinking of trying to change the course of events to try and save him." How did she describe things without blatantly giving away the timeline?

Revan frowned. He was clearly disappointed, but also concerned. "What happened to him?”

***

Summarizing the course of events without giving away too much of the timeline was difficult. But Rey managed. Mostly.

”Interesting,” Arren Kae said. “So all this, in your fragment of the timeline, happened because a specific Sith wanted to commit familicide.”

Rey nodded. "The only reason I’m a Skywalker is a technicality,” she said.

”Don’t say that,” Poe said. “You are a Skywalker. Good as. It’s not your fault that dear old granddad was a sadist."

Alek spoke up. ”All things considered,” he said. “It is understandable why you used the Key.” Then, “I…sympathize with you. We all do. But we need help dealing with the Mandalorians.”

It was Arawn who spoke up. “She has the Key,” she said. “Surely we can do both. She can help us and when the time’s right, hopefully the Portal can take her where she needs to be.”

”That…” Rey nodded. “It can work. It has to. Not to mention…the four of you could use help of your own.”

It was the from-a-certain-point-of-view kind of true, Rey thought darkly. She’d hated it when Luke Skywalker had done it. Now, though, she knew why, to some extent. Sometimes telling the whole truth was hard to even think about, and the idea of Revan and his band becoming their own antitheses was something scarcely worth thinking about.

It didn’t mean that they couldn’t change it. They would say “not today” to the Force. Because they had to.

”That much is obvious,” Revan said. “The group of you have something to offer. Well, I’ve learned even as a Jedi that everyone has something to offer."

***

They had decided as much just to set out. It was just then that when they headed back out, the murmurs of unrest, of disquiet, went through the crowd.

"I have a bad feeling about this,” Revan muttered to himself. Not exactly an uncommon feeling among others, but this crowd…he could hear snippets of arguing, of unrest, not quite turning into a brawl but threatening to. He sighed; apparently he, Arawn, Alek, Master Kae and their new recruits had to play the mediators.

”The lot of you, calm down,” Revan said. “I don’t know what is going on, but back off…”

It was then that a familiar voice, Bastila’s voice, echoed through the crowd. "You can’t just defy the Council, Revan! It’s not wise.”

The crowd parted like a sea to reveal Bastila standing there, and Revan swore that an airlock had opened up in his stomach.

”Bastila,” he said, slowly, “What are you doing here?