Hello. Welcome to my new little story. This idea came to me as a one shot but ended up being a multi-part, 30k word story. I hope you enjoy. Please leave me some love, it's like crack for writers.
Part I
Jakku was a barren desert wasteland of a planet located in the Western Reaches of the Inner Rim. With a population less than 25,000, a small child being left in a non-consequential Outpost was hardly cause for concern.
Such was the story of a young woman named Rey.
She had been abandoned by faceless, nameless people, who she had always assumed were her parents, but she couldn't even be sure that Rey was her real name. All she remembered from her time before Jakku was a voice, soft but deep, offering whispers of reassurance.
Until her twelfth year, Rey lived under the care of a creature that she had been surrendered to, a Crolute by the name of Unkar Plutt. His body was bulbous, swollen as if he had been stung by hundreds of plague wasps. His nose took up much of his face and his mouth seemed to hang in a permanent frown. But he had maintained control over Niima Outpost for over thirty years and his thugs were feared for miles around.
But when Rey had started to become more trouble than she was worth, Plutt let her branch out on her own, knowing that she would always be dependent on him in some way or another as he controlled all of the food distribution on their little corner of Jakku.
Rey had found a downed AT-AT Walker on one of her scavenging missions and while it was almost completely hollowed out by previous pickers, it would provide shelter from the harsh Jakku sun and the even darker and colder nights. This is when she started to mark the walls, one scratch for each day she was free. Three hundred and fifty-two would signify a year.
She did her best to make the armored cavalry vehicle feel like home, bringing in items that she had found within the wreckage of the two Star Destroyers that ended up buried in the desert after the Battle of Jakku which took place ten years before Rey had even been born.
A woven canvas hammock was suspended in the belly of the AT-AT which served at her main living quarters. She had pieced together parts to create a stove and had even been able to drag in a flight simulator, which served as her entertainment when stuck in her home during sandstorms.
To increase her security, Rey had welded shut all of the hatches except the one at the walker's belly and an escape hatch at the rear of the vehicle. She was safer out away from the city where very few people ventured, especially after dark. But being out in the desert, with nothing but dunes for miles around, also made it so no one could hear her scream if she was in danger.
So she had pieced together a quarterstaff and practice forms that she had studied on the holonet, connecting her steel staff time and time again against the one exposed foot of her AT-AT home. By the time she was fourteen, she felt competent enough to protect herself from almost any threat.
There were dangers that her staff could not protect her from like sickness and injury. Salvaging on the downed Star Destroyers was risky and she always pushed herself to get into higher and smaller places to find pieces that would fetch her a better price in town. But when she could not work, like when she had sprained her ankle or when she had come down with a sweating sickness, the threat of starvation was very real.
But Rey had always come out the other side. She always had just enough portions and just enough water, to get by. She always found the untouched converter or the wiring harness that the stranded craft owner would offer six portions for. If she hadn't been abandoned on this sandy hell hole, growing up abused and alone, Rey might even consider herself lucky at times, but there was nothing lucky about her current circumstances.
By age fifteen, Rey had been able to piece together a speeder. It didn't run all the time and often shot out large plumes of black smoke, but it was hers and it awarded her more freedom. She was able to get to and from the wreckage fields and the Outpost quicker, which left her more time to explore further away from her home.
On one outing she stumbled upon the little village of Tuanul. There was a small tribe of people there, completely peaceful and pooled their collective resources for the betterment of the community. This was so far removed from the 'every man for himself' mentality of Niima.
She found one of the village elders to be quite fascinating. He spoke in a way that stirred something inside of her, perhaps it was hope, perhaps it was her thirst for knowledge of anything outside of the sand pit she called home. He spoke of a power larger than any one person, a connection between everything in the galaxy, from the tiniest grain of sand to giant wroshyr trees on Kashyyyk.
This is where Rey learned about the Jedi and the notorious Luke Skywalker. She learned about the battles between the Empire and the Republic. Rey was captivated, and she found herself in the village once a week for a new history lesson. It also didn't hurt that she was fed a whole portion during these teachings.
It was on one of those nights, when she had been in Tuanul until Jakku's two moons were high in the darkened sky, that she pushed her speeder to the limits. A sand storm was rolling in and she needed to take cover or would possibly perish in the unforgiving desert.
She was able to sling her speeder into the rear hatch of the AT-AT and tie down the tarp that covered the open area before she started to hear the roar of the wind coming her way. She scampered over the half-buried walker and then dove into the belly of her home, sealing the hatch behind her.
Rey sighed with relief as she heard the first part of the storm hit, the sound of sand rubbing up against metal was almost therapeutic and she propped her staff by the entrance of the living quarters. She closed her eyes for just a moment and imagined the rushing of sand was really the sound of waves crashing against the jagged rocks of a solitary island. Dark water churning before spraying against black shores.
What happened next was something that she thought she had prepared for. As she stood in the middle of her living area, eyes closed and thinking of a place that was always in her dreams, she had no idea that she was not alone until it was too late.
Behind her water storage in the shoulder of the AT-AT hid one of Plutt's thugs, Jaryn Bene. He snuck up behind her and clapped of his dirty hands over Rey's mouth while the other wrapped around her chest, pinning her arms to her sides.
Rey tried to scream, tried to bit down on the palm of her attacker, he squeezed her tighter and his breath smelled of spice as he spoke into her ear, "The more you fight, the more I will enjoy this."
Usually, Rey could sense danger. Something the back of her mind would almost tingle when the gangplank she was on was about to fail or if her climbing gear wasn't attached to a secure hold. She cursed herself for being distracted and not assessing her home for an intruder. She had been in a hurry to escape the storm and then her mind had drifted to her special island.
She tried some simple self-defense moves, dropping down and becoming dead weight, attempting to kick back at his shins and knees, stomping down on his feet. But all of her efforts just made him chuckle as he pressed his arousal into the small of her back. Her stomach pitched and she wanted to be sick.
Jaryn moved his hand from her mouth, not caring if she screamed and pressed her throat into the crook of his elbow, trying to cut off her airway. "I've been watching you for a while little Rey," he partly cooed and partly sneered into her ear. The hairs that had come undone from her set of buns tickled his lips.
Rey's eyesight began to blur and black spots appeared around the outside of her visual field. She wasn't getting enough air and if she wasn't careful she would soon pass out. So she stopped fighting, hoping that if she seemed compliant that she could get in a better position to defend herself.
Her knees were kicked out from behind her and she fell forward, coughing for breath. Jaryn as behind her again, grabbing a fist full of her hair and yanking her head back, she cried out in pain at the strange angle he was forcing her into.
"Plutt always told us not to touch you. That you brought in the best parts and weren't to be messed with." His eyes were calculating. "But you aren't going to tell anyone about this are you, girl?"
He was leaning over her, his breath warmed her face, and Rey's gaze narrowed at him. "Kriff off," she spat.
"Now, now little Rey. Don't be like that. I've noticed the way you look at me in the Outpost. I was just waiting for you to come of age before acting on our shared desire."
Rey could hardly consider herself 'of age'. At fifteen most civilized girls were entering secondary schooling, worried about getting speeder permits, or which boy would take them to the solar celebrations.
But she had grown up too quickly on Jakku. There was no schooling, she had built her own speeder out of necessity, and there were simply not any boys that caught her fancy or any need for juvenile fraternization. She couldn't think of a girl her same age from the Core Worlds surviving in her situation and she defiantly would feel out of place on a mainstream planet.
The act in which Jaryn was implying to, the one that she was now old enough to participate in, was something that she never expected to be taken from her, against her will, without her choice. This moment should not come about with violence. She at least knew that much from holonet films.
She wasn't naive to the practice of sex. While she had never engaged in the act herself, there were women in the Outpost who used their bodies as a business. It was a quick way to earn portions, but Rey had always been too young, not developed enough to catch anyone's eyes. Well, except for Jaryn apparently.
He still had his hand fisted in her hair as he stepped around her and started to unfasten his pants. "Open your mouth," he demanded.
Rey clenched her teeth, the muscles of her jaw flexing under the pressure. She looked up at him, refusing to let him see her fear.
Before she could react, he backhanded her, his knuckles connected across her cheek, splitting her lip with the force of the blow. Some of her hair was ripped from the root as she fell to the side, catching herself as her hands sunk into the sandy floor of her home. His slap was followed by his boot kicking into her abdomen.
Her breath was knocked from her as she flipped on to her side, clutching at her stomach as it screamed in pain. Again she was surprised when Jaryn advanced on her, his left knee coming down on her chest, turning her onto her back and pressing on her rib cage, not allowing her lungs to fully inflate.
"This isn't the way I wanted this to go, Rey," Jaryn almost sounded apologetic. "You could make this all better if you would just comply."
"No," Rey wheezed out between still gritted teeth.
"You stupid girl," Jaryn's gentle tone changed as his eyes darkened again. He started to pull at her slacks, becoming more upset as she pressed her thighs together, halting his ability to rid the stubborn girl of her clothes.
The prickle at the back of her mind finally caught up and a shiver ran down her body. "You don't want to do this," she almost begged.
Jaryn shifted his weight, pressing his right knee into her hips, now trying to focus on undressing her top half, "No, I think I really do."
Another shiver ran through her and her mind screamed for her to try again. "Jaryn," she said his name, forcing him to look at her. "You don't want to do this," she said with more conviction.
The man's eyes glazed over and the greedy expression fell from his face. "I don't want to do this," he parroted.
Rey sighed, but this wasn't over. He was still pressed over her, his hands stilled just over her breast band. "You will get off of me," she firmly suggested.
"I will get off of you," Jaryn rocked back on his heels, removing his knees from pinning her into the sand.
Rey scrambled to her feet, moving over to her door and grabbing her staff. The sudden movement appeared to startle Jaryn and he rounded on her, some malice back in his expression. Rey wasn't going to take any other chances and swung wide with the staff, connecting with the side of his head.
A sickening crack echoed off of the durasteel walks and the thug went limp, falling in a tangle of limbs on the floor. Rey nudged him with the end of her staff and sighed when there was no movement to the stimuli, knowing she had knocked him out.
The storm still raged on outside of the AT-AT and Rey knew the consequences of opening the hatch at a time like this. So she just hunkered down, her staff at the ready for when Jaryn came to.
Not daring to let herself sleep, Rey spent the remainder of the night thinking about what had happened. Her mind didn't necessarily fixate on the physical and almost sexual assault, she knew that Plutt's thugs were horrible people who she truly wouldn't expect more from, hence why she had moved away from the city and also learned to defend herself.
What her mind kept cycling through was the way that she was able to convince him to stop his advances. How she was able to get him to comply with her words. The sensation at the back of her head was at it again, trying to show her something and she started to consider that the warm feeling and her ability to save herself tonight had something to do with one another.
As the sun rose on another day and the storm had passed, Rey made another tick mark on to the wall of her home. This mark had more meaning than the rest. She had survived, she had lived another day to make that mark.
She also made two other realizations.
One, she had been able to influence someone else's actions with just making verbal suggestions and two, she had made her first kill, since Jaryn was still unmoved, his blood having soaked deep into the sand.
AN: What do you think of the start?