Who: Xander and Rey What: Ghosts show up When: Oct 29, morning Where: Xander’s Place Rating: low
Spending the night was something Rey enjoyed, whether it was at Xan’s or the other way around. She slept better and had less nightmares too. It also helped her feel closer to Xander and it was something she always looked forward to.
This morning she had snuck out of bed, wanting to surprise him with coffee and pancakes. They might be pancakes from a box, but she hadn’t managed to burn them and she thought it was the thought that counted.
Walking back into the bedroom with a tray, Rey began to speak before she stopped abruptly, “Xan, I’ve made –”
She stood and stared.
Xander, for his part, had rolled over when Rey left the bed. He didn’t worry too much, because generally his girlfriend would return, either with a glass of water, or with coffee. He appreciated his girlfriend.
He’d just sat up, sleepily, when Rey entered the room carrying a tray. And his eyes widened when he saw …”Ben?” Why was the ghost of his best friend here? Wait, was Ben a ghost? They all assumed Ben had died, but nobody could prove either way what happened to Ben.
“What is happening?”
Rey didn’t realize Xan meant his Ben. She had a Ben too. Her chest ran cold suddenly and despite staring at Leia and Luke, she asked, “Ben?” She had no idea what was happening, but why could she see Luke and Leia and not Ben? Why had the man she loved show up to the man she currently loved? This was all sorts of confusing.
“I’m… not sure. I -”
“We’re not really here, and yet we are.” Luke explained.
If Rey had doubted her eyes, at least the half-answers told her he was real. She could also feel the subtle pulse of the Force from them, though not too strong like it might back home.
Rey managed to stammer out. “Your… father is here.” Anakin. She’d have to tell him.
Xander plucked one of the coffees off the tray and realized, belatedly, he hadn’t thanked her. “Thank you.” He required caffeine for whatever the hell this is. To Ben, his Ben, he said, “We didn’t know what happened after the war. When you didn’t reappear, Ryn and Maddie.” Xander stopped, now realizing Rey currently found herself in a completely different conversation. “Maddie couldn’t handle the loss of you and her dad.”
“Okay, are we seeing different…people, but we can’t see each other’s?” Xander took a long sip of coffee.
She might be dumbstruck at the moment, but she was able to catch the words of others from his world that this wasn’t her Ben. She realized she was both relieved and sad at the knowledge. It made more sense, of course, since it didn’t make much sense for ‘her’ Ben to show himself to Xander.
Her eyes slide from her mentors to her boyfriend, the coffee temporarily forgotten, and nodded. “Luke and Leia are here for me.” She realized they seemed to be in different spots in the room as if her and Xander’s ghosts could exist together in their own world and not be on top of each other.
“Why are you here?” She asked her mentors.
Leia shook her head. “We don’t know. But we know we’re caught off from the Force and we’re tied to you. Even if we wanted to go see our father, he cannot see us.”
Rey tried to read Leia and Luke’s face to see how they felt about it, but they were unsurprisingly unreadable. Should she tell Anakin then?
Xander watched Ben’s face as the words registered. “Maddie lost her dad?” Ben sounded distraught at the revelation. Possibly because Maddie’s dad had been an ally and an overall good guy their entire lives. “We couldn’t get the antidote to him quickly enough.” It still broke Xan’s heart that he became sheriff because they couldn’t save Sheriff Bishop. “Maddie left Ryn and me.”
He focused his attention on his girlfriend again. “Tell them it’s nice to …kind of meet them?” Xander managed to keep his fanboy from going too overboard given he couldn’t see them.
Rey couldn’t see Ben’s reaction, but she could see Xan’s reaction to Ben and it made her frown. This was obviously not a great revelation to tell someone so suddenly, but how did you lie to a ghost? Rey felt a little bad for ‘eavesdropping,’ as it were, on something so important.
Then she had to wonder how this was working. Ben was a ghost, but Luke and Leia weren’t technically dead in the same sort of sense. Or perhaps it was how Madison defined ghosts and death.
Xander didn’t particularly enjoy this conversation either, but he knew it wasn’t Rey’s fault. The conversation could, at least, be worse. And no, Xander wouldn’t like to lose one of his oldest and closest friends.
To be fair, this was the only clue Xander had that his friend died back home. They assumed he had, but they never found his body. Perhaps they did after Xan’s arrival, but he hadn’t been privy to that information.
Rey sat down on the edge of the bed finally. She was definitely thankful she was in clothes this morning otherwise she’d have been utterly mortified. “...I still have your lightsabers. I’ve been keeping them safe. I’m unsure of what to do with them.” Rey almost didn’t say it since it was drastically different than the conversation that Xan was having with Ben. Rey had so much to tell her mentors, but she didn’t think gushing at them right now, even over Xander himself, was the right call.
She looked at her boyfriend. “Does Ben know why he’s here…or how he got here?” Neither Luke or Leia did. “I wonder if this is just us or if everyone is waking to people from home.” Which was a better way than saying ‘dead people from home’.
Ben shook his head. “I don’t know why I’m here.” For the first time, Xander noticed Ben still bore the signs he’d taken some of the merfolk DNA as he could see faint outlines of gills. “I’m…sorry Xan. I just wanted to do what I could to save Ryn and Maddie and you.” Xan nodded.
“It’s Madison Valley. I’m guessing it’s not just us.” Xander couldn’t see how it would be just them. He felt badly that they were both trying to have conversations with ghosts without talking over the other.
“It’s cruel if Luke and Leia are here for me, but Anakin cannot see them.” Although after she said it she had to wonder if meeting them as they were would be harder as it would remind Anakin of what he never got to experience. Since she wasn’t a parent herself, she couldn’t know.
She looked at the empty space and listened to her mentors before turning back to Xander.
“Would you be alright with me going for a run?” She didn’t want to leave Xander if he needed her here. “They… are asking to see how I’ve grown.” Which made her a little worried herself as she wasn’t sure she had grown at all here - at least by way of a Jedi. She wouldn’t deny their request, though.
Xander didn’t think it was fair for Anakin either. But, perhaps it was for the best? He couldn’t be positive, though.
“Yes. Definitely go for a run. I’ll see you after.” Xan sat up and kissed Rey’s cheek. “I appreciate the coffee and pancakes.” This would give him time to converse with Ben anyway.
She nodded. The pancakes would even taste good too - much better than when she first arrived in Madison. “I’ll see you after.”