"I can't get near Palpatine when all of that mess goes down," said Rey. "There's no clear path. It's chaos, everywhere."

"Alright," said the Mandalorian.

He didn't seem convinced. And that was fine. Rey had been told over and over to trust her instincts. Now, her instincts told her that she didn't need to get near her grandfather and take back the life essence he had stolen from her. She didn't think it was a finite resource, to be used and lost forever. Since then, hers had been restored.

She still had to consider Little Yoda's safety. Putting him in harm's way for an outside chance she could reclaim what Palpatine had stolen was not worth it.

To be honest, she didn't want to get anywhere nearer that old creeper than she had to.

"We just need to snatch his body and get out of there," said Rey.

"Won't the past you think something is wrong?" said the Mandalorian.

"I don't think so. I think if we coordinate it right, Ben goes invisible, and then we return. Past me doesn't understand what happens to him at first, only that he disappears."

I was so shocked and numb when it happened that I don't think I would have noticed.

"What are you going to do when you get back here?" said the Mandalorian.

"Try to revive him. He'll only have been dead for a few seconds. How long can a body go without breath and heart beats before it is truly dead? I must have lain there for at least a few minutes before Ben revived me."

"A handful of minutes. Five or six, at the most."

Five minutes wasn't a long time to puzzle her way through restoring life to a body.

The Mandalorian noticed her hesitation. "You don't have to do this now. The past isn't going to change."

"I do have to do it now."

She couldn't explain her urgency any more than she could explain her working understanding of life essence being infinite and replenished over time. The Ghosts disappearing indicated to her that she couldn't wait. The past might not change, but the future was in constant flux.

When she and Little Yoda stepped back into time, she placed herself near the spot where her dead body would fall.

They revisited three times, to make sure they had timing just right. Ben disappeared so fast after his death.

Rey held onto Little Yoda with a vice grip as he reached out and placed his fingers on Ben, rendering him invisible. Rey touched Ben's shoulder, already pouring healing into him. She sent it in a torrent, with no thought but to restore his life. She had plenty of her own to give.

"Ready to go back?" she said to Little Yoda.

The boy nodded. It was tricky for him to vanish the body and not the clothing around it, but as Master Yoda had said, he was talented and powerful. Rey couldn't tell that any of them were invisible. She had to trust this child.

She gripped Ben's shoulder tightly, pushing the last of the life essence she had except for the barest sliver she needed to remain alive, and returned to Ahch-To.

The Mandalorian caught her before she fell. Her body was limp. He laid her down on the ground and removed Little Yoda from her arms.

"Ben?" she said, looking around as best she could.

Little Yoda hugged the Mandalorian's leg.

"It's just the two of you," said the Mandalorian.

Rey struggled to sit up, frantically searching around her.

"Is he still invisible?" she asked, swiping at the air around her.

Little Yoda took her hand, and shook his head. "Let's go back. Let's see what happened."

They returned to Exegol. Stood back again and watched it all over. This time, when Little Yoda put his hand on Ben to Cloak him, he looked up at Rey with wide, alarmed eyes.

"He's not there," said Little Yoda. To demonstrate, he pushed his hand through the neck hole of Ben's shirt. It entered with no resistance.

Rey returned herself and Little Yoda to Ahch-To. She choked down a sob. No, no, no! This was all wrong. She had put enough life essence into him that he should be here. Alive, and here. But he was not here, and he wasn't there, either.

"Master Rey," said Little Yoda. "I'm sorry. I think I did something wrong."

"It's not your fault," she said. "I couldn't bring him back. I failed."

I failed. I failed, I failed, I failed. She buried her face in her hands and wept.

Little Yoda put his head on her shoulder and cried with her.

"Let's try again," said Little Yoda.

But Rey knew they couldn't. If she kept stepping back into the timeline and trying to change it, she would make a mess. She'd heard enough caution from Leia and Yoda that she understood the gravity of that kind of behavior. She understood that she didn't have even the slightest idea of the consequences of her actions.

She lay down on the ground and stared up at the overcast sky. Little Yoda left with his father, who had mercifully not asked any questions. He would try to figure out what had gone wrong. He was a tactician at heart, and a plan gone askew was a worthwhile puzzle.

Why could she move Little Yoda through time with her and not Ben? Or Ben's body, she supposed. She'd given enough intentional life essence meant for healing that he should have been alive. He should have been alive and here with her.

It was time to stop focusing on this before it became an obsession and drove her mad. She had done her best. She couldn't justify exposing herself or Little Yoda to any more risk in this long shot.

Rey allowed herself another few moments of self-pity, stood, and shook it all off. The Force was not something she understood well. It seemed to do as it pleased, despite the user's best effort to control it. She was weak from her expenditure on Exegol. Weak, and defeated.

A crippling pain exploded in her belly, and she doubled over and dropped to the ground, the wind knocked out of her.