Disclaimer: I do not own, merely playing. Probably will be AU at some point, but hey, I need to get my fix somehow. The next movie isn't coming out soon enough. Title taken from the song Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down) from Hamilton the Musical.
Rey knew two things. One, that something was horribly wrong, and two, her best friend wasn't there anymore. All the comforting presences she had known before she woke up were gone, and in their place was horror. She couldn't feel anyone she recognized, and the calm, swirling feeling that usually surrounded her here was no longer calm, and she could hear screams but there was no one to yell.
She was five years old, and alone, and cold, and wet, and confused. She waited, next to the body of her friend who wouldn't wake up. She pulled her knees up, tucked her head down, and wrapped her arms around her knees. What was it Master Skywalker said? Open herself to the Force, let it guide her?
She didn't know enough, she'd only started learning about the Force. She didn't know how to open herself, or let it guide her. She started rocking, fighting the tears that were threatening to come down her face. She just wanted everything to go back to the way it was before. The tears fell down her face anyway and she cried herself to sleep.
Three days later, when someone was able to get out to the Academy to find out what was wrong, she was discovered. She didn't really remember much, just fragments. Someone in an orange flight suit, white helmet leaning over her and shouting something. More faces, peering at her. Voices, talking in languages she didn't understand or couldn't understand. Someone telling her it would all be ok. A place that looked impersonal, where she could see someone floating in blue liquid. Hushed whispers, disjointed words: 'solo', 'skywalker', 'too bad', 'evil', 'him'. When she left, she noticed the man in the blue liquid was still there, even though someone had told her it had been a week. He was missing his hand.
She was five years old, and her whole world had been destroyed. The man in orange was sitting next to her when she asked where they were going.
"Somewhere far away. You need to be protected."
"From what?" Hadn't the world already ended?
"Don't worry."
She began to worry when he started to walk away and left her on a desert planet by herself. She began to call back to him when he was several feet away. She began to struggle when it was clear she was being left.
"Someone will come for you."
Rey knew two things. One, that she hated sand, and two, that her family was going to come back for her. She only really had hazy memories, of someone in orange with a helmet smiling at her. Because of that, she kept the helmet she found that looked like it, and made a doll just like him. That was her father. Her mother, her mother hadn't dropped her off and she no longer remembered her.
She was twelve years old and alone, and sweating, and dusty, and waiting. Waiting for someone to come for her. She had learned to protect herself, to scavenge. She was able to determine what was useful and what wasn't. And any day now, her parents would come for her.
She sat next to the AT-AT she had claimed as her home, and looked up at the sky. Her parents would come for her. Her dad was a pilot in the Rebellion. Maybe he knew more of the stories of Luke Skywalker, mythical hero (she no longer sensed the Force, and so did not feel any reaction to her thoughts of Luke Skywalker). Her mother, her mother was a doctor? Rey remembered blue and impersonal along with orange and helmet, so blue and impersonal was her mother.
But her mother couldn't be impersonal, that wasn't what mothers were supposed to be. So it must have been her job. And from what few medical areas she had scavenged from, they looked pretty impersonal. Therefore her mother was a doctor. And soon, they would come back for her. Right now, they were busy saving the galaxy from the First Order, because they had already defeated the Empire. Or her mother was developing the cure for something on a far off planet where it wasn't safe for twelve year olds. Or… the possibilities were endless. Until they came back. Which would be soon.
She was twelve years old and her whole world was whatever she could carry with her. She was ready to go at a moment's notice.
Her parents were going to come back.
Soon.
Rey knew two things. One, that her family was going to come back, and two, that flying was freedom. She had been scavenging the same area for so long she had needed to find a way to travel farther. The speeder had cost her a lot of rations, but it was worth it. Even if she had to fix it up on her own. She had learned a lot about mechanics from scavenging. She was fluent in binary, Huttese, and Basic. She was able to survive on her own.
She was nineteen years old and alone, and fierce, and free, and waiting. Waiting for her parents still. She had learned to fly, because her father did and she wanted to have something in common with him when he came back. And it was useful. She could climb up a Star Destroyer with her bare hands, even though installing the rope was one of her better ideas.
She took a brief break from finding parts and looked around. She was in something that had once been in space. More than that, it had once fought the Rebellion, and housed stormtroopers and officers and ships. It was one of the biggest ships she had ever seen. And here, in this large ship she could appreciate how large space was. On her bad days, she might tell herself that this would be the closest she got to space if she kept waiting for her parents, but the rest of the time she viewed it as just the beginning. One day, she would take to space in her father's ship to go to her mother's job. One day.
But that would happen when it happened, and she needed food. So Rey went back to scavenging parts, trying to make the decent parts of this ship last as long as she could. It was getting harder and harder to find things that hadn't been completely scavenged and were within a day's travel. Rey was hoping the Star Destroyer would last a long time. There was no way she would be able to explore it all any time soon.
She was nineteen years old and her whole world was Jakku. She knew the planet, the dust storms, the seasons. This was her home.
Until her parents came.
Eventually.
Rey knew two things. One, that she would meet Finn again, and two, that she would figure out what the Force was trying to tell her. Now that she could feel it, she wanted to understand what her vision had been. Whose voice had she heard? What did it mean?
She was twenty one years old and not alone, and cold, and hurting, and confused. Why her? Why did the lightsaber chose her? Why had Han died? What was the Force? What could it do? Why could she use it? What else could she do?
She sat in the pilot seat of the Millennium Falcon. The actual Millennium Falcon. Next to Han Solo's co-pilot, Chewie. They hadn't said much to each other, both still processing what had happened on Starkiller base. Rey didn't know what she would even say to him. Sure, she had felt attached to Han Solo, and beyond pleased that he had been willing to offer her a job, but she had only known him for a few days. Chewie had known him for over thirty. What could she possibly say to help him? She could hear the droid, R2, behind them, alternating between excitement to see his old master again and anger at being forced to power down for so long. From what Rey could understand, the droid's master had done something to R2 to prevent him from following and had therefore spent the last decade without anyone capable of being sensible.
Everything had changed in such a short period of time. Rey couldn't remember any other time in her life so much had changed in so little time. She barely remembered when she first came to Jakku, and memories of leaving were rapidly replacing the other memories. She had discovered that Luke Skywalker was no myth, she was Force-sensitive, and she had meet her first friends. BB-8 and Finn. And she had almost lost one of them, and lost someone she never would have guessed would become important to her in just a few days. She had left Jakku, probably for good. And now she was headed to find answers to the questions she had, and the galaxy had.
She was twenty one years old and her world had turned upside down. She was ready to see what the galaxy had to offer.
Her parents were not going to come back.
But she could. To the Resistance, to Finn, to BB-8 who had cemented a place in her heart.
Her world had turned upside down, and she couldn't wait to find out what would come next.