A/N: So this is an AU with Disney's Star Wars (the movies, I know kill me but it helps me by minimizing content) and the Legend of King Arthur (obviously not an accurate retelling of the story). Full on Reylo trash compactor here so that's what this is for. Anyway, all reviews and favorites and such are beloved! Enjoy.
It was a typical day in the trading post Niima. Typical in the sense of another group of powerful people trying to take the outpost closest to Jakku's borders to gain a foothold in the desert that was a graveyard of rumored riches.
Rey watched them approach in the hazy distance from the canyon ravine that separated the scorching desert from the green world to the west. She hadn't traveled far enough east to know if there was green in that direction. All her life, she's only known the browns of the world. Even the water in the well was muddy with the fine sand that spread to every crook and cranny when the dust storms rolled in. The only blue Rey has witnessed in her nineteen years that she can remember is the harsh pale of the sky.
As she watched this small army approach bearing red and black banners, Rey ate the last gravied biscuit she'd earned from the blacksmith of the town. That's how her life was: food for metals or other resources she could scavenge from the mines miles to the south of the outpost.
As the red and black banners drew closer, Rey could start making out the details of these wanna-be conquerors. Pikemen and various other types of soldiers filled the ranks in leather armor and white tabards, a few bearing the banners of a red sun against a black sky. Rey couldn't find a pleasant feeling to surface from a sun that was crimson like blood. Leading the foot soldiers were three knights on horses that struggled with their footing in the sand, obviously used to solid ground rather than a shifting one. All three knights wore black leathers and imperial helms, hardly recommended in the desert.
The side of Rey's mouth quirked up in a half-hearted smirk. They would not survive the desert like this.
She was licking the gravy off her fingers when they made it to the post. The three horses remained in rank with each other, the soldiers behind them pausing at the edge. The knights were heading straight to Unkar Plutt's, the blacksmith, canopy and thus straight to Rey who was still sitting on one of the overturned crates in the shade of the tarp. When Rey looked up to blatantly watch their approach, two of the knights ignored her.
Of course they ignored her. She was just peasant drabble after all, clothed in rags and hands calloused from her life of scavenging. But the knight in the middle turned his head towards her. A chill ran down her spine under his gaze but she held it, jutting her chin out in determination. She would not be put down by these knights who probably didn't know her struggle. There was something that flashed in his eyes but it was gone along with his attention before Rey could place it.
"Scram." Unkar commanded her when the knights dismounted, injuring Rey's puffed up pride by making her seem like even more of a lesser being after she had just stared down one of the knights. Not letting her displeasure show, Rey coyly took the scarf covering her head and covered the lower half of her with one of its tendrils. She stood as the knights approached and felt even smaller. They didn't exactly tower over her but all three were a good head taller than herself.
Trying to avoid sizing them up again before she could provoke them, Rey walked away. As she passed their horses, she noticed scabbards attached to the saddles. Rey paused when she saw the dark hilts, recognizing the rarest metal that could gather enough coin from Unkar to escape this junk hole. The metal ore was called kyber and it was forged into blades that would be runed by the Mages that wielded them. Rey turned to look at the knights, their backs facing her. Her eyes widened in realization. They were Mages. The middle Mage had taken off his helm, revealing long obsidian hair. Even with the temptation of being able to leave Niima right next to her, Rey feared that these Mages wouldn't let her touch the hilt so much as run off with it. As if sensing her thoughts, Ser Dark Locks turned his head to eye her over his shoulder. Rey immediately turned and started walking away again.
She heard Unkar say, "What can I do for the Knights of Ren?" before she was out of earshot. Of course the blacksmith would know of these Mage knights. Rey wasn't even sure if he could be considered a blacksmith since he had more connections with the back markets and other trade figures. She'd yet to see him forge a kyber blade in her years at the outpost but it shouldn't surprise her that he would know Mages in case he ever did or in case they brought the materials to him. Rey didn't really know much of these Knights of Ren or their bloodied sun. She only knew they came from a place from here in the west, Camelot.
Camelot was a well known in any corner of the world. It was the seat of legends and, at one time, the Empire. Anakin Skywalker had been a conqueror as well as a Mage. What Rey knew of him was that he'd been a Mage and dark one at that. There was a time when he wielded Excalibur, the runed kyber blade forged and enchanted by himself when he was King of England. When he became Emperor after slaying almost all Mages, or commonly known as Darth Vader at that point and no longer Anakin, he somehow could not use Excalibur and had thrust it into the stone floor of his throne room where it waited for a worthy Mage to pull the blade from stone. Many came to try and all failed.
All, except Luke Skywalker.
Darth Vader's downfall came at the hands of Luke Skywalker and his sister Leia the Fay of Avalon. For a time, there'd been peace in Camelot. Luke did not become King and let his sister take the throne with her husband. He secluded himself to Avalon where he was teaching a new generation of Mages. Leia was wasn't able hold her throne or the round table together for long for reasons that are argued about over the campfires of Niima. Some say a Mage named Mordred betrayed her. Others say it was because her husband abandoned her. In whatever case, Leia was grasping at straws to get her throne back from the leader of the new empire.
And here was Rey, having just recently been within arms length of one of the Knights of Ren who were the most trusted of the leader of the budding empire. Rey looked to their banners. They could easily be swallowed in the desert or decimated in a well-planned ambush if they didn't succumb to the heat and dehydration first.
It seemed so simple to cripple this new empire but not everyone held views like hers. They all tended to look down to keep their heads. Rey followed that example but only to an extent. Unfortunately, by being true to herself, she'd gotten herself into trouble in the past. The positive outcome for that however was that she was now quite proficient with wielding a staff and that was enough to keep her from being beaten like when she was young.
Sighing through her nose, Rey pushed rebellious thoughts from her mind as she headed for her shack that lay on the outskirts of the trading post. It wasn't her fight. That war was half a world away it seemed, even if the Knights of Ren were here now. They weren't waging war as they talked in hushed tones with the blacksmith. Rey's fight was that of a survivor's. She needed to scavenge the mines in exchange for measly food she was grateful for. Her diet consisted mostly of dried green beans, porridge, sausage gravy and biscuits. On rare occasions was she given fruit. Unkar still ate better than her and all the other scavengers at the outpost. He was the dictator of dishes in these parts.
Her shack was really just various planks of wood leaning against the cliffside of the canyon with a tarp door to protect the small little cave she had claimed as hers from sun and storm. The floor was hard hear but sand still made its way in and there was nothing Rey could do about it. The cave was bare except for her sleeping mat, few supplies, a rusted helm, and the countless marks all over the cave walls. She picked up an arrow head she had found years ago and made another mark. Another day and nothing from her family. Her hope usually waned at this moment of reflection but Rey drove it back furiously as she fed the small, faltering flame of hope in her chest.
There was always tomorrow.
She settled down for the night, having had earned herself a fair meal that day. Rey watched the sun set over the horizon and from her shack, she could see the banners of the crimson sun move out into the twilight. So they weren't here to conquer. Perhaps they knew of the repeated failures by other organizations in the past. Their banners disappeared into the dark, going deeper into the desert and further from the mines that supposedly held jewels in its bosom. She couldn't help wondering what they were trying to accomplish and let herself imagine the various probable concepts until her eyelids grew heavy. Rey crawled into her cave and slumped half-heartedly on her sleeping mat. As her eyes closed, she whispered the words like a prayer to the dust. "There is always tomorrow."
In Rey's dreams she's flying in the pale blue sky. She has wings the size of horses and shimmering like opals. She soars from Niima, from the deserts of Jakku. Her imagination takes her to a place where there's water everywhere and a solitary island hidden by the mists. Rey has been here before in her dreams, just not recently. It thrills her to lay her eyes on this imaginary place where there is no hardship, only green and blue. And a lot of puffins.
Rey descends from the skies like a swooping hawk and pierces the mists. She can't see anything but the fog until a cliff rears itself before her. Her wings expand and Rey is quickly moving up, flying dangerously close to the dark and unforgiving face of the cliff until she is above it and a the green of the ground greets her.
Slowly, she drifted down until her bare feet touch the cool grass and her wings are tucked neatly against her back. As always, her head turns to meet the breeze coming from her side. And, as always, she sees a figure rising above the ridge of the hill. It's a man and somehow he now strikes Rey as someone familiar compared to the past recurrences of this dream. He pauses when he's on top of the hill at level with her but still a distance away from Rey in his dark clothing. He holds out a hand to Rey.
Usually, Rey walked over and took it. This time, she was wary. How is he familiar? Where has she seen him? And why, when all the other times he was wearing grey, was he now clothed in black?
She was about to take a step towards him, to question him but the island cracked. Literally cracked with a bone chilling sound. A line drew itself between them and the island began to divide, the earth under feet shuddering from the movement and the noises it made...it was as if the island were alive and being split into two was killing it. As if some balance in it had been upset. Her side of the island began to descend into the water, the roar of the island muffled by the waves lapping over it. Before she could fall with it, Rey flew into the mists and looked down to see where the man was. He just watched as her half of the island crumbled into waters that now surged.
That was when Rey realized that she wasn't flying anymore. Her wings were gone. Fear gripped Rey and she clawed at the air, trying to get back up, trying to summon her beautiful freedom back but it was to no avail. Rey fell into the water and descended to its depths as if she were a stone. When she looked up at the fading light of the surface, she glimpsed the face of a woman. Rey threw out an arm, mouth opening to the water for a plea of help. The woman smiled gently and flowed to her as if she were water herself.
Just as the woman's surprisingly warm hand wrapped around her wrist, Rey woke up.