"I hate sand," I sighed to myself as I trudged up yet another dune on this god forsaken planet.

I could feel the sand filling my shoes, getting between my toes, grating on my nerves.

"You're just exfoliating, that's all," I muttered to myself, sweat trickling down my back. "Just exfoliating."

Even at twilight Jakku was unbearably hot, I hated everything about this planet. Why did it have to be here? Of all places? Both the girl and the map were here, which was convenient, but that was where the convenience ended.

I had to find Lor San Tekka which wasn't too hard, he was part of a religious village, if you asked the right people they could point the way. Convincing him to part with the map would be harder. I could tell him I was taking it to Leia, that would probably work. Stealing it was another option. I'd hate to do that to him, but he wouldn't understand what I was doing anyway, and the less people who did know, the better. After this I'd just have to track down the girl. That was the easy part because I could just-

I'd just reached the top of, like, the thousandth sand dune, and ran right into the nose of an Xwing. What the heck was this doing here? How did the resistance beat me? I threw my head back at let out another long sigh.

"Let's go see just how ruined my plans are," I muttered before sneaking up on the village.

After a lot of crawling around, getting more sand in my shoes, and listening in at various huts, I finally found the conversation I was searching for.

"Without the Jedi, there can be no balance in the Force," Lor San Tekka's voice reached my ears and his words made me roll my eyes.

"Well, because of you, now we have a chance. The General's been after this for a long time," came the voice of the X-wing pilot.

"Oh, the General?" San Tekka repeated. "To me, she is royalty."

I heard the pilot chuckle.

"Well, she certainly is that."

I was not so distracted by the conversation as to miss a familiar sound growing stronger in the distance. My fears were confirmed when a droid burst into the hut, beeping in alarm. The First Order was here. And they were early. I hadn't gotten the map let alone got the map to the girl. I suppressed the panicked feeling in my chest and took a deep breath. This was just a minor set back, I could get this plan back on track. There are many ways to reach a goal, I just had to think.

Near the entrance of the hut was a basket just barely large enough for me to hide in, and thankfully empty. I dove over to it and used the opportunity of everyone being distracted by the incoming ships to hop right into it.

I poked my fingers through the weave and tried to make a peep hole. Through the gap I could see the two men and the droid outside out.

"You have to hide," said the pilot, blocked by San Tekka's back.

"You have to leave," the latter replied before turning and going back into the hut.

I got a glimpse of the pilot finally. Dark hair, strong features, and a bit on the shorter side. His thick brows were knit together and he looked like I do when I try to do any sort of math in my head, then finally took off, kicking up sand as he went in the direction of the X-wing.

The ships were landed already and the doors were opening when I realized that this poor village was doomed. So that part of my plan was an absolute failure.

The Storm Troopers were, well, storming in alright, and villagers returned fire. An explosion to my left sounded particularly bad and I created a new peep hole to get a better look. They'd hit the Xwing. The Pilot was kneeling down in front of his droid and giving him... it was the map! If I could just get my hands on him I'd have a shot at my plan turning out semi okay. But wait...

"And he's rolling off into the desert," I muttered to myself as I watched the pilot head back to the fight.

I was about to sneak off after the droid when another ship approached. My guts constricted when the recognition hit me.

Kylo Ren.

My new plan was to hunker down and hope he wouldn't sense me. So I was stuck here just watching the slaughter that was all my fault. The two things that distracted me slightly from my guilt was the pilot, who actually cut quite a heroic figure for someone his size, and a Storm Trooper who was having what looked like an identity crisis.

In a split second decision after quickly, and I mean quickly, weighing the possible outcomes, I gave the Storm Trooper a little nudge back into reality. It was a stupid, hardly calculated risk that I immediately kicked myself for since Kylo might easily have sensed it, and for what? In hopes that the Trooper might break the pilot free if he was captured? What were the odds of that working out?

After that I resigned myself to sitting there like a brick and focusing on not being detected. However, when Kylo's ship landed and he stepped out, my heart beat was probably audibly shaking the basket.

His menacing figure squared up to the old and feeble San Tekka, the villagers surrounded by Storm Troopers behind him.

"Look how old you've become," the voice was distorted by his helmet but sounded familiar all the same.

I closed my eyes and focused on keeping myself calm and invisible.

"Something far worse has happened to you," San Tekka replied.

"You know what I've come for," Kylo Ren breezed right over that comment.

"I know where you come from. Before you called yourself Kylo Ren," San Tekka went on, not letting him off that easy, but the younger man was just as stubborn.

"The map to Skywalker," he went on, completely ignoring the older man's attempts at guilting him. "We know you found it. And now you're going to give it to the First Order."

"The First Order rose from the dark side. You did not."

'Oh come on old man,' I thought to myself. 'Don't push him.'

"I'll show you the dark side," Kylo threatened.

"You may try. But you cannot deny the truth that is your family."

My eyes squeezed tighter, knowing that he'd gone too far.

"You're so right," Kylo Ren agreed with a deceivingly genuine tone.

I didn't need to open my eyes to know what happened next, however they did spring open at one unexpected thing. The pilot leapt up with a shout and fired off one shot with his blaster. Both were stopped dead in their tracks by Kylo Ren. Two Storm Troopers retrieved the pilot who threw a look of bewilderment over his shoulder at the crackling bolt hanging in midair still. The Storm Troopers shoved him to the ground in front of Kylo who bent down and stared at him unnervingly.

"So, who talks first? You talk first? I talk first?" The pilot's immediate go to in the face of danger was sass.

"The old man gave it to you," Kylo finally concluded.

"It's just very hard to understand you with all the... apparatus," the pilot was cut off by Kylo ordering him to be searched.

When their search turned up nothing, Kylo ordered him to be put on board just like I'd expected in the quarter of a second I'd thought about it.

"Sir," spoke up a silver Trooper with a feminine voice and dramatic cape. "The villagers?"

No. No, please no.

"Kill them all."

A tear slipped out of my tightly shut eyes as I tried my best to not do something foolish like jump out of this basket and try to save everyone, which, as I heard the pilot screaming 'No!' as he was drug on board, was exactly what I wanted to do. Call me cold, call me cowardly, but I knew my end game and I couldn't risk it. So yes, I sat there, hiding in a basket as an entire village was slaughtered by all but one Storm Trooper.

I kept my eyes closed until the last ship finally left. I knew the first order was thorough, but I still had to check for any survivors before going after the droid. To my shame, there were none. I made a torch out of the debris and looked for the droids tracks in the sand. Once I'd spotted them, I turned on my beacon for my ships auto pilot to meet me.

With the threat of Kylo Ren detecting my presence gone, and no one around to witness me, I watered the desert sands with my tears over all those dead behind me. The first step in my mission and already the number one thing I didn't want to happen, happened. But it wasn't going to stop me.

My ship finally landed nearby and I boarded it, wiping the tears and sand off my face as I made my way to the controls and set it to track the droids signature. However, a sand storm was picking up, making all of that easier said than done.

Did I mention I hate sand?