Rey Skywalker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thatwaslucky) wrote2019-07-26 09:56 pm
thatwaslucky) wrote2019-07-26 09:56 pm
Takodana- Saturday
The planet was called Takodana, and it was green and perfect. Han had a friend here that he said could get BB-8 back to the Resistance, so settled the Falcon in a landing area near a castle, set by a lake. As soon as the ramp was down, Rey was off the ship with BB-8 following, taking it all in. For a year, all Rey had seen was sand, and seeing something new, something else, was like being able to breathe again.
A few minutes later, Han followed, stopping next to her and offering her a blaster pistol. "You might need this."
"I think I can handle myself," Rey said, a little dubiously.
"I know you do. That's why I'm giving it to you."
She took it, closing one eye and aiming it out over the lake where she could get a feel for it. She'd never held a gun that wasn't meant for paintball. There'd never been a reason to when her staff was enough. The blaster was not the most natural thing for her, but it seemed easy enough.
"You know how to use one of these?" Han asked.
"Yeah. You pull the trigger."
"There's a little bit more to it than that. You got a lot to learn," he said, reaching over to flip the safety on. "You got a name?"
"Rey," she said, lowering the blaster.
"Rey," he repeated, and paused, maybe a little too long. "I've been thinking about bringing on some more crew, Rey. A second mate. Someone to help out. Someone who can keep up with Chewie and me, appreciates the Falcon."
She found herself getting oddly hopeful at hearing that. "Are you offering me a job?"
"I wouldn't be nice to you," he said quickly. "It doesn't pay much."
"You're offering me a job."
"I'm thinking about it."
Rey never would have thought she'd be someone who could be a smuggler, or do… whatever it is Han did with himself, but she was excited at the possibility. Maybe excited that someone wanted to actually take a chance on her, and that that someone was an actual legend.
But that excitement quickly vanished as she remembered reality.
"If you were, I'd be flattered," she said, more seriously. "But I have to get home."
"Jakku?" he asked, disbelieving.
"I've already been away too long," she said. She'd had years away, and lived every day with the fear that her parents had come back and she'd missed them and had no idea. She couldn't do that again. She couldn't.
He nodded, and called up the ramp, "Chewie, check out the ship the best you can." Then, to Rey, he said, "It's too bad. Chewie kind of likes you."
*****
Fandom High was located in a castle, but it wasn't like this. This was ancient, with stone bricks crumbling with age and the flags of dozens, maybe hundreds, of different places hanging around, and a giant statue of an alien whose species Rey didn't recognize standing out front. It felt old.
And as Han walked Rey and Finn towards the castle, Finn asked, "Solo, why are we here again?"
"To get your droid on a clean ship," Han answered.
Rey frowned. "Clean?"
"Do you think it was luck that Chewie and I found the Falcon? If we can find it on our scanners, the First Order's not far behind. Want to get BB-8 to the Resistance? Maz Kanata is our best bet."
"We can trust her, right?" Finn checked.
"Relax, kid. She's run this watering hole for a thousand years," Han said, though that didn't really answer Finn's question. "Maz is a bit of an acquired taste, so let me do the talking. And whatever you do, don't stare."
At once, Rey and Finn both asked, "At what?"
"Any of it," he said.
Inside was a loud, crowded mess of a hall, full of humans and aliens alike. Some were gambling, or drinking, or arguing, all oblivious to the new arrivals. At least until suddenly, someone yelled Han's name from the back of the hall, and everything else stopped.
"Oh boy," Han muttered, and gave a faux cheerful wave. "Hi, Maz!"
Maz turned out to be the same figure as the statue outside, but she stood at a diminuitive four feet tall. She was small and wrinkly, wearing large goggles, and she pushed her way through the crowd towards them as the music started again and people returned to ignoring them.
"Where's my boyfriend?" she asked.
"Chewie's working on the Falcon," Han answered.
"I like that Wookiee," Maz said, which, given that exchange, might have gone without saying. "I assume you need something, desperately. Let's get to it."
She gestured for them to follow, but Rey and Finn didn't move until Han did. He was the one who knew what he was doing, and it made Rey feel a little better that Finn seemed as unsure about this as she was.
Maz had some food put together for them, and Rey practically inhaled it, leaving Han to tell the story of how they'd ended up here. Rey wasn't even paying attention. She knew the story, and while she'd learned to live on what she could get, she'd also been literally starving for months. To their credit, no one said anything, or even looked at her funny for it.
"A map to Skywalker himself? You're right back in the mess," Max said once Han had finished the story.
Han ignored that. "Maz, I need you to get this droid to Leia."
"No," Maz decided after a moment's consideration. " You've been running away from this fight for too long. Han, nyakee nago wadda. Go home!"
"Leia doesn't want to see me."
Now Rey was listening, interested. There was another name she knew! She didn't know the backstory, though, and felt very lost in this part of the conversation.
"Please, we came here for your help," Finn told Maz.
But Rey asked,"What fight?"
"The only fight: against the dark side," Maz answered. "Through the ages, I've seen evil take many forms.The Sith. The Empire.Today, it is the First Order. Their shadow is spreading across the galaxy. We must face them. Fight them. All of us."
"There is no fight against the First Order!" Finn argued, more forcefully than expected. "Not one we can win. Look around. There's no chance we haven't been recognized already. I bet you the First Order is on their way right-"
His words trailed off when he saw Maz adjusting her goggles and watching him with suddenly huge eyes.
"What's this? What are you doing?"
Maz didn't answer, but adjusted the goggles again and climbed onto the table, knocking over food and plates without caring, crawling towards Finn.
That only freaked him out more. "Solo, what is she doing?"
Han, meanwhile, wasn't bothered at all. "I don't know, but it ain't good."
"If you live long enough you see the same eyes in different people," Maz explained. "I'm looking at the eyes of a man who wants to run."
That had apparently hit a nerve with Finn. "You don't know a thing about me. Where I'm from. What I've seen. You don't know the First Order like I do. They'll slaughter us. We all need to run."
Rey couldn't help but be stunned watching this. That didn't fit at all with the resistance fighter she'd met, the one who wanted to get back to base.
Maz crawled back to her seat and pointed to a couple of pirates in the corner of the room. "You see those two? They'll trade work for transportation to the Outer Rim. There, you can disappear."
When Rey looked over at him, he was clearly considering it. "Finn!"
"Come with me," he said, turning in his seat towards her.
That didn't dull the shock any. She couldn't have had two people ask her to come with them on the same day. That didn't happen. "What about BB-8? We're not done yet. We have to get him back to your base."
"I can't," Finn said, and it felt like there was more behind that, but instead of explaining, he stood and offered his borrowed blaster back to Han.
The older man shook his head, far too calm. It was like he'd expected this. "Keep it, kid."
With a nod of thanks, Finn headed off towards the pilots, and Rey finally shook off the shock and got up to follow him. He'd just sat down with the pirates to talk to them when she interrupted, demanding, "What are you doing?"
"Don't leave without me," Finn told his new friends, and got up to talk to Rey, pulling her away from the table so they could have at least a little more privacy.
"You can't just go. I won't let you." Interestingly, Rey was finding that this wasn't even just about BB-8, or the Resistance. She didn't want him to go. She hadn't even known him for long and she just knew that she didn't want to watch him walk off and never see him again. That couldn't be what happened here.
"I'm not who you think I am," Finn said, his voice not much above a whisper.
"Finn, what are you talking about?"
"I'm not Resistance. I'm not a hero. I'm a stormtrooper."
Those words hit her with the force of a punch.
"Like all of them, I was taken from a family I'll never know. And raised to do one thing…" he went on, very serious. "But my first battle, I made a choice. I wasn't going to kill for them. So I ran. Right into you. And you looked at me like no one ever had. I was ashamed of what I was. But I'm done with the First Order. I'm never going back. Rey, come with me."
He'd lied to her this whole time. He'd up until recently been part of the same group that had labeled her a fugitive and shot at her. She should have been angry. She had no reason to trust him.
What she said was, "Don't go."
He looked as if he'd expected that answer, and said, gently, "Take care of yourself. Please."
Rey watched Finn return to the table to make his deal, and then watched him leave with them, feeling far more disappointed than she wanted to let on. She didn't even know what she'd expected. She'd told Han she couldn't go with him because she had to get home, and Finn absolutely didn't want to be on Jakku, so what had she even been expecting? It didn't make sense, but it hurt anyway.
She didn't have time to wallow in that, though, because from somewhere else, she heard something that sounded like a child crying. She turned at the sound, not looking to see if anyone else had heard it, and began following it to the source. She was vaguely aware that BB-8 was behind her, but she didn't pay attention. The cry took her through some corridors, down some stairs, into the dark basement of the castle, where there was no child. In fact, she hadn't realized when the sound had stopped. It was silent here, and maybe she should leave, but for some reason Rey felt drawn to the box sitting alone on a table among all the other random items in the room.
It was an ordinary wooden box without any markings. Absolutely nothing special. There was no reason for it to stand out, but Rey found herself opening the lid. Inside was a lightsaber.
She'd been around them before, of course, but even watching Kanan train with one most weeks for months, she'd never even been tempted to ask to try it. They were Jedi weapons, and she wasn't a Jedi. Yet right now, her hand reached for it without her thinking about it-
The instant she made contact with it, it was like she was transported elsewhere, or everywhere at once. The images and feelings came to her in an overwhelming rush, and she had no control over it.
She heard heavy, mechanical breathing-
She was in a strange hallway, and as she made her way down it, it tilted, landing on the wall as it collapsed into stone, which became dried grass-
It was night, and in front of her, a building was burning. A temple? There was an older model astromech, and a cloaked figure beside it, placing a mechanical hand on its dome-
It began to rain.
Some kind of warrior screamed as a lightsaber struck him through the chest, and Rey was in the middle of some sort of rain-soaked battlefield. She was surrounded by bodies laying still in the mud. There was a figure in black, with a silver metal mask, flanked by several others-
It was day again on Jakku, and she turned to the sound of the returning sound of the girl yelling, "Come back!" and sobbing, and Rey saw herself at five years old, being pulled away from a fleeing ship by Unkar Plutt. The ship disappeared, swallowed in the image of an exploding sun-
It was nighttime again, and snowing in a forest, and she could hear the sound of clashing lightsabers. She ran towards the sound, and the man in the mask stepped out from behind a tree directly into her path-
She screamed, and fell back-
Rey broke from the vision, and fell back on the ground, out of breath and near tears. She hadn't ever left the room, but she'd felt it all as if she'd been there, in every location, at every time, simultaneously.
She looked over, and saw Maz standing there, watching her. "What was that? I shouldn't have gone in there."
"That lightsaber was Luke's," Maz said, walking over to her. With Rey on the floor, they were almost at eye level with each other. "And his father's before him and now, it calls to you!"
She sounded far too excited about it, given that Rey was still shaking.
"I have to get back to Jakku," Rey said. The only thing she wanted right this second was to get back to her terrible home, away from this. This was too much. Everything was too much, and it wasn't for her, she had to go back-
"Han told me," Maz said, and reached for her hand, sounding almost motherly. Sympathetic. "Dear child. I see your eyes. You already know the truth. Whomever you're waiting for on Jakku, they're never coming back."
Rey knew that. Deep down, she'd known that for a long time, but it felt like the worst thing imaginable to have to face that. She'd even returned there after Fandom because the possibility of throwing her life away on a hope that her parents would come back was better than having to admit that she'd been left, that she was really alone, and no one was ever coming for her.
She kind of wished she wasn't crying at hearing that, but didn't care enough to stop it. It wouldn't make it hurt any less if she didn't cry.
"But," Maz continued, "there's someone who still could."
"Luke," Rey managed, blinking back more tears.
"The belonging you seek is not behind you. It is ahead. I am no Jedi, but I know the Force. It moves through and surrounds every living thing. Close your eyes. Feel it. The light... It's always been there. It will guide you. The saber. Take it."
Rey stood abruptly, and shook her head. "I'm never touching that again. I don't want any part of this."
She ran, with Maz calling after her.
She didn't know where she was going, she just had to get away, and ended up in the woods past the castle. She was overwhelmed and felt like she could crack right open, and the last thing she wanted was to be around anyone. From the day Kanan told her she might be Force sensitive, Rey hadn't believed it. It was a nice thought, one she'd entertained more than she was going to admit, but obviously he'd been mistaken. She absolutely hadn't thought that finding out he wasn't would be terrifying.
She ran until her body was as exhausted as the rest of her felt, finally stopping and leaning against a stone. She'd never actually been on an emotional brink before, but she was pretty sure this was what this was. She didn't have anywhere to go. She couldn't go back to the castle, but that was the only way out of here that she knew of. And if she did leave, where would she go? She couldn't go back to Jakku now. There was no point. So… now what?
The beep behind her startled her, and she whipped around to see that BB-8 had followed her through the forest. "What are you doing?" she asked. "You have to go back!"
He beeped at her again, note insistently this time that he was coming with her.
"BB-8. No, you can't… you have to go back, you're too important. They'll help you."
Before she could argue further, another sound distracted her. This time it was the roar of a fleet of ships overhead, visible through the trees, headed towards the castle, where her friends were. Han and Finn had both warned that they'd be found, she just hadn't thought it would be this fast.
Automatically, Rey took off running back towards the castle, BB-8 rolling along quickly behind her.
Once they got in view of the castle, they saw star fighters shooting at the edifices. Stormtroopers had landed and were firing on aliens that were running out of the building to what they thought was safety.
The sound of a radio distracted her from that thought, and she turned to see that stormtroopers weren't far away. They hadn't spotted her yet, but they wouldn't be able to move without alerting them to their presence, and the First Order could not get BB-8. So Rey picked up the blaster Han had given her and fired-
Or, tried to fire. She'd forgotten the safety. As she was fumbling to try and switch it off, one stormtrooper spotted her and fired, missing her. She was startled, but rallied, firing and sending a blaster bolt through his helmet.
She'd just killed someone, probably. She'd never done it before. She'd been prepared to do it on Jakku when necessary, but she'd been very lucky there. And while she was horrified by what had just happened, she didn't have time to freak out now. Instead, she fired at the other trooper and started running, with BB-8 at her heels as more started chasing them. Maybe other people could be cool about running with blaster bolts being fired next to their heads, but not Rey.
They were fast, though, propelled by terror, and once they'd gotten enough distance, Rey stopped them, leaning down to talk to the little droid.
"You have to keep going, stay out of sight, I'll try to fight them off," she told him.
He beeped at her.
"I hope so too," she said, shooing him off, and then running in another direction to throw them off his tracks.
There had to be more people around, and the troopers would find her easier to spot than a knee-high droid, so even when it was quiet, Rey knew she was still in trouble. When she finally stopped, taking cover by a moss green wall of rock, she kept her blaster out, ready to fire at anyone who came into sight.
She knew the sound of a lightsaber switching on. It was scarier in this context, especially since she recognized the unique, sizzling hum to this one. It sounded angry. She'd heard it in the castle. And then, just like in the vision, that dark figure in the mask stepped out from behind a tree, moving towards her. The setting was wrong, the movement and the feeling was right.
Rey fired and tried moving back away from him, but he deflected every bolt with his lightsaber, and suddenly she was paralyzed where she stood. She tried to move as hard as she could, but her body betrayed her, frozen in place. Her heart was pounding, and the masked figure began walking around her, like he was studying her.
"The girl I've heard so much about," he said. His voice was metallic and artificial, and sounded as distorted as the lightsaber. "The droid."
He brought his lightsaber up dangerously close to her neck, and Rey thought she might have stopped breathing.
"Where is it?"
She didn't answer. Maybe because she was too scared, maybe because whatever he was doing to her prevented her from talking. She wasn't sure. He switched his lightsaber off and lowered it, brought his gloved hand up to her face, and she struggled futilely to move away from him. Somehow what he was doing now was worse than the lightsaber. It felt like fingers poking into her brain.
"The map," he said. "You've seen it."
Rey was stunned. He was pulling information from her head. She hadn't known that was possible, and didn't know how to stop it. She tried to cringe back when he tried it again, but he was interrupted by the sound of explosions in the woods.
"Sir, Resistance fighters!" a stormtrooper called. "We need more troops."
The man lowered his hand, and Rey felt relief. "Pull the division out. Forget the droid. We have what we need."
He gestured with his hand, and the relief disappeared as Rey fell unconscious.
[From The Force Awakens, still. NFB, NFI, bashing of Kylo Ren a-okay.]
A few minutes later, Han followed, stopping next to her and offering her a blaster pistol. "You might need this."
"I think I can handle myself," Rey said, a little dubiously.
"I know you do. That's why I'm giving it to you."
She took it, closing one eye and aiming it out over the lake where she could get a feel for it. She'd never held a gun that wasn't meant for paintball. There'd never been a reason to when her staff was enough. The blaster was not the most natural thing for her, but it seemed easy enough.
"You know how to use one of these?" Han asked.
"Yeah. You pull the trigger."
"There's a little bit more to it than that. You got a lot to learn," he said, reaching over to flip the safety on. "You got a name?"
"Rey," she said, lowering the blaster.
"Rey," he repeated, and paused, maybe a little too long. "I've been thinking about bringing on some more crew, Rey. A second mate. Someone to help out. Someone who can keep up with Chewie and me, appreciates the Falcon."
She found herself getting oddly hopeful at hearing that. "Are you offering me a job?"
"I wouldn't be nice to you," he said quickly. "It doesn't pay much."
"You're offering me a job."
"I'm thinking about it."
Rey never would have thought she'd be someone who could be a smuggler, or do… whatever it is Han did with himself, but she was excited at the possibility. Maybe excited that someone wanted to actually take a chance on her, and that that someone was an actual legend.
But that excitement quickly vanished as she remembered reality.
"If you were, I'd be flattered," she said, more seriously. "But I have to get home."
"Jakku?" he asked, disbelieving.
"I've already been away too long," she said. She'd had years away, and lived every day with the fear that her parents had come back and she'd missed them and had no idea. She couldn't do that again. She couldn't.
He nodded, and called up the ramp, "Chewie, check out the ship the best you can." Then, to Rey, he said, "It's too bad. Chewie kind of likes you."
*****
Fandom High was located in a castle, but it wasn't like this. This was ancient, with stone bricks crumbling with age and the flags of dozens, maybe hundreds, of different places hanging around, and a giant statue of an alien whose species Rey didn't recognize standing out front. It felt old.
And as Han walked Rey and Finn towards the castle, Finn asked, "Solo, why are we here again?"
"To get your droid on a clean ship," Han answered.
Rey frowned. "Clean?"
"Do you think it was luck that Chewie and I found the Falcon? If we can find it on our scanners, the First Order's not far behind. Want to get BB-8 to the Resistance? Maz Kanata is our best bet."
"We can trust her, right?" Finn checked.
"Relax, kid. She's run this watering hole for a thousand years," Han said, though that didn't really answer Finn's question. "Maz is a bit of an acquired taste, so let me do the talking. And whatever you do, don't stare."
At once, Rey and Finn both asked, "At what?"
"Any of it," he said.
Inside was a loud, crowded mess of a hall, full of humans and aliens alike. Some were gambling, or drinking, or arguing, all oblivious to the new arrivals. At least until suddenly, someone yelled Han's name from the back of the hall, and everything else stopped.
"Oh boy," Han muttered, and gave a faux cheerful wave. "Hi, Maz!"
Maz turned out to be the same figure as the statue outside, but she stood at a diminuitive four feet tall. She was small and wrinkly, wearing large goggles, and she pushed her way through the crowd towards them as the music started again and people returned to ignoring them.
"Where's my boyfriend?" she asked.
"Chewie's working on the Falcon," Han answered.
"I like that Wookiee," Maz said, which, given that exchange, might have gone without saying. "I assume you need something, desperately. Let's get to it."
She gestured for them to follow, but Rey and Finn didn't move until Han did. He was the one who knew what he was doing, and it made Rey feel a little better that Finn seemed as unsure about this as she was.
Maz had some food put together for them, and Rey practically inhaled it, leaving Han to tell the story of how they'd ended up here. Rey wasn't even paying attention. She knew the story, and while she'd learned to live on what she could get, she'd also been literally starving for months. To their credit, no one said anything, or even looked at her funny for it.
"A map to Skywalker himself? You're right back in the mess," Max said once Han had finished the story.
Han ignored that. "Maz, I need you to get this droid to Leia."
"No," Maz decided after a moment's consideration. " You've been running away from this fight for too long. Han, nyakee nago wadda. Go home!"
"Leia doesn't want to see me."
Now Rey was listening, interested. There was another name she knew! She didn't know the backstory, though, and felt very lost in this part of the conversation.
"Please, we came here for your help," Finn told Maz.
But Rey asked,"What fight?"
"The only fight: against the dark side," Maz answered. "Through the ages, I've seen evil take many forms.The Sith. The Empire.Today, it is the First Order. Their shadow is spreading across the galaxy. We must face them. Fight them. All of us."
"There is no fight against the First Order!" Finn argued, more forcefully than expected. "Not one we can win. Look around. There's no chance we haven't been recognized already. I bet you the First Order is on their way right-"
His words trailed off when he saw Maz adjusting her goggles and watching him with suddenly huge eyes.
"What's this? What are you doing?"
Maz didn't answer, but adjusted the goggles again and climbed onto the table, knocking over food and plates without caring, crawling towards Finn.
That only freaked him out more. "Solo, what is she doing?"
Han, meanwhile, wasn't bothered at all. "I don't know, but it ain't good."
"If you live long enough you see the same eyes in different people," Maz explained. "I'm looking at the eyes of a man who wants to run."
That had apparently hit a nerve with Finn. "You don't know a thing about me. Where I'm from. What I've seen. You don't know the First Order like I do. They'll slaughter us. We all need to run."
Rey couldn't help but be stunned watching this. That didn't fit at all with the resistance fighter she'd met, the one who wanted to get back to base.
Maz crawled back to her seat and pointed to a couple of pirates in the corner of the room. "You see those two? They'll trade work for transportation to the Outer Rim. There, you can disappear."
When Rey looked over at him, he was clearly considering it. "Finn!"
"Come with me," he said, turning in his seat towards her.
That didn't dull the shock any. She couldn't have had two people ask her to come with them on the same day. That didn't happen. "What about BB-8? We're not done yet. We have to get him back to your base."
"I can't," Finn said, and it felt like there was more behind that, but instead of explaining, he stood and offered his borrowed blaster back to Han.
The older man shook his head, far too calm. It was like he'd expected this. "Keep it, kid."
With a nod of thanks, Finn headed off towards the pilots, and Rey finally shook off the shock and got up to follow him. He'd just sat down with the pirates to talk to them when she interrupted, demanding, "What are you doing?"
"Don't leave without me," Finn told his new friends, and got up to talk to Rey, pulling her away from the table so they could have at least a little more privacy.
"You can't just go. I won't let you." Interestingly, Rey was finding that this wasn't even just about BB-8, or the Resistance. She didn't want him to go. She hadn't even known him for long and she just knew that she didn't want to watch him walk off and never see him again. That couldn't be what happened here.
"I'm not who you think I am," Finn said, his voice not much above a whisper.
"Finn, what are you talking about?"
"I'm not Resistance. I'm not a hero. I'm a stormtrooper."
Those words hit her with the force of a punch.
"Like all of them, I was taken from a family I'll never know. And raised to do one thing…" he went on, very serious. "But my first battle, I made a choice. I wasn't going to kill for them. So I ran. Right into you. And you looked at me like no one ever had. I was ashamed of what I was. But I'm done with the First Order. I'm never going back. Rey, come with me."
He'd lied to her this whole time. He'd up until recently been part of the same group that had labeled her a fugitive and shot at her. She should have been angry. She had no reason to trust him.
What she said was, "Don't go."
He looked as if he'd expected that answer, and said, gently, "Take care of yourself. Please."
Rey watched Finn return to the table to make his deal, and then watched him leave with them, feeling far more disappointed than she wanted to let on. She didn't even know what she'd expected. She'd told Han she couldn't go with him because she had to get home, and Finn absolutely didn't want to be on Jakku, so what had she even been expecting? It didn't make sense, but it hurt anyway.
She didn't have time to wallow in that, though, because from somewhere else, she heard something that sounded like a child crying. She turned at the sound, not looking to see if anyone else had heard it, and began following it to the source. She was vaguely aware that BB-8 was behind her, but she didn't pay attention. The cry took her through some corridors, down some stairs, into the dark basement of the castle, where there was no child. In fact, she hadn't realized when the sound had stopped. It was silent here, and maybe she should leave, but for some reason Rey felt drawn to the box sitting alone on a table among all the other random items in the room.
It was an ordinary wooden box without any markings. Absolutely nothing special. There was no reason for it to stand out, but Rey found herself opening the lid. Inside was a lightsaber.
She'd been around them before, of course, but even watching Kanan train with one most weeks for months, she'd never even been tempted to ask to try it. They were Jedi weapons, and she wasn't a Jedi. Yet right now, her hand reached for it without her thinking about it-
The instant she made contact with it, it was like she was transported elsewhere, or everywhere at once. The images and feelings came to her in an overwhelming rush, and she had no control over it.
She heard heavy, mechanical breathing-
She was in a strange hallway, and as she made her way down it, it tilted, landing on the wall as it collapsed into stone, which became dried grass-
It was night, and in front of her, a building was burning. A temple? There was an older model astromech, and a cloaked figure beside it, placing a mechanical hand on its dome-
It began to rain.
Some kind of warrior screamed as a lightsaber struck him through the chest, and Rey was in the middle of some sort of rain-soaked battlefield. She was surrounded by bodies laying still in the mud. There was a figure in black, with a silver metal mask, flanked by several others-
It was day again on Jakku, and she turned to the sound of the returning sound of the girl yelling, "Come back!" and sobbing, and Rey saw herself at five years old, being pulled away from a fleeing ship by Unkar Plutt. The ship disappeared, swallowed in the image of an exploding sun-
It was nighttime again, and snowing in a forest, and she could hear the sound of clashing lightsabers. She ran towards the sound, and the man in the mask stepped out from behind a tree directly into her path-
She screamed, and fell back-
Rey broke from the vision, and fell back on the ground, out of breath and near tears. She hadn't ever left the room, but she'd felt it all as if she'd been there, in every location, at every time, simultaneously.
She looked over, and saw Maz standing there, watching her. "What was that? I shouldn't have gone in there."
"That lightsaber was Luke's," Maz said, walking over to her. With Rey on the floor, they were almost at eye level with each other. "And his father's before him and now, it calls to you!"
She sounded far too excited about it, given that Rey was still shaking.
"I have to get back to Jakku," Rey said. The only thing she wanted right this second was to get back to her terrible home, away from this. This was too much. Everything was too much, and it wasn't for her, she had to go back-
"Han told me," Maz said, and reached for her hand, sounding almost motherly. Sympathetic. "Dear child. I see your eyes. You already know the truth. Whomever you're waiting for on Jakku, they're never coming back."
Rey knew that. Deep down, she'd known that for a long time, but it felt like the worst thing imaginable to have to face that. She'd even returned there after Fandom because the possibility of throwing her life away on a hope that her parents would come back was better than having to admit that she'd been left, that she was really alone, and no one was ever coming for her.
She kind of wished she wasn't crying at hearing that, but didn't care enough to stop it. It wouldn't make it hurt any less if she didn't cry.
"But," Maz continued, "there's someone who still could."
"Luke," Rey managed, blinking back more tears.
"The belonging you seek is not behind you. It is ahead. I am no Jedi, but I know the Force. It moves through and surrounds every living thing. Close your eyes. Feel it. The light... It's always been there. It will guide you. The saber. Take it."
Rey stood abruptly, and shook her head. "I'm never touching that again. I don't want any part of this."
She ran, with Maz calling after her.
She didn't know where she was going, she just had to get away, and ended up in the woods past the castle. She was overwhelmed and felt like she could crack right open, and the last thing she wanted was to be around anyone. From the day Kanan told her she might be Force sensitive, Rey hadn't believed it. It was a nice thought, one she'd entertained more than she was going to admit, but obviously he'd been mistaken. She absolutely hadn't thought that finding out he wasn't would be terrifying.
She ran until her body was as exhausted as the rest of her felt, finally stopping and leaning against a stone. She'd never actually been on an emotional brink before, but she was pretty sure this was what this was. She didn't have anywhere to go. She couldn't go back to the castle, but that was the only way out of here that she knew of. And if she did leave, where would she go? She couldn't go back to Jakku now. There was no point. So… now what?
The beep behind her startled her, and she whipped around to see that BB-8 had followed her through the forest. "What are you doing?" she asked. "You have to go back!"
He beeped at her again, note insistently this time that he was coming with her.
"BB-8. No, you can't… you have to go back, you're too important. They'll help you."
Before she could argue further, another sound distracted her. This time it was the roar of a fleet of ships overhead, visible through the trees, headed towards the castle, where her friends were. Han and Finn had both warned that they'd be found, she just hadn't thought it would be this fast.
Automatically, Rey took off running back towards the castle, BB-8 rolling along quickly behind her.
Once they got in view of the castle, they saw star fighters shooting at the edifices. Stormtroopers had landed and were firing on aliens that were running out of the building to what they thought was safety.
The sound of a radio distracted her from that thought, and she turned to see that stormtroopers weren't far away. They hadn't spotted her yet, but they wouldn't be able to move without alerting them to their presence, and the First Order could not get BB-8. So Rey picked up the blaster Han had given her and fired-
Or, tried to fire. She'd forgotten the safety. As she was fumbling to try and switch it off, one stormtrooper spotted her and fired, missing her. She was startled, but rallied, firing and sending a blaster bolt through his helmet.
She'd just killed someone, probably. She'd never done it before. She'd been prepared to do it on Jakku when necessary, but she'd been very lucky there. And while she was horrified by what had just happened, she didn't have time to freak out now. Instead, she fired at the other trooper and started running, with BB-8 at her heels as more started chasing them. Maybe other people could be cool about running with blaster bolts being fired next to their heads, but not Rey.
They were fast, though, propelled by terror, and once they'd gotten enough distance, Rey stopped them, leaning down to talk to the little droid.
"You have to keep going, stay out of sight, I'll try to fight them off," she told him.
He beeped at her.
"I hope so too," she said, shooing him off, and then running in another direction to throw them off his tracks.
There had to be more people around, and the troopers would find her easier to spot than a knee-high droid, so even when it was quiet, Rey knew she was still in trouble. When she finally stopped, taking cover by a moss green wall of rock, she kept her blaster out, ready to fire at anyone who came into sight.
She knew the sound of a lightsaber switching on. It was scarier in this context, especially since she recognized the unique, sizzling hum to this one. It sounded angry. She'd heard it in the castle. And then, just like in the vision, that dark figure in the mask stepped out from behind a tree, moving towards her. The setting was wrong, the movement and the feeling was right.
Rey fired and tried moving back away from him, but he deflected every bolt with his lightsaber, and suddenly she was paralyzed where she stood. She tried to move as hard as she could, but her body betrayed her, frozen in place. Her heart was pounding, and the masked figure began walking around her, like he was studying her.
"The girl I've heard so much about," he said. His voice was metallic and artificial, and sounded as distorted as the lightsaber. "The droid."
He brought his lightsaber up dangerously close to her neck, and Rey thought she might have stopped breathing.
"Where is it?"
She didn't answer. Maybe because she was too scared, maybe because whatever he was doing to her prevented her from talking. She wasn't sure. He switched his lightsaber off and lowered it, brought his gloved hand up to her face, and she struggled futilely to move away from him. Somehow what he was doing now was worse than the lightsaber. It felt like fingers poking into her brain.
"The map," he said. "You've seen it."
Rey was stunned. He was pulling information from her head. She hadn't known that was possible, and didn't know how to stop it. She tried to cringe back when he tried it again, but he was interrupted by the sound of explosions in the woods.
"Sir, Resistance fighters!" a stormtrooper called. "We need more troops."
The man lowered his hand, and Rey felt relief. "Pull the division out. Forget the droid. We have what we need."
He gestured with his hand, and the relief disappeared as Rey fell unconscious.
[From The Force Awakens, still. NFB, NFI, bashing of Kylo Ren a-okay.]