Rey walked down some steps and along a stone corridor. It felt colder down there than upstairs where the atmosphere was warm and welcoming as opposed to the damp walls that encased the dimly lit corridor. The sound of the spherical droid struggling to get down the dented stairs behind Rey sounded almost distant. As if she was hearing it from behind a wall of glass.
Rey came to an archway which was the entrance to a room significantly cluttered with objects ranging from big wooden crates balanced haphazardly on top one another to small models of Imperial AT-AT's that would have once belonged to a small child. The objects were probably of some value and were being held in storage for what looked like years judging from the thick layer of dust that blanketed most of them.
Rey stepped into the room. Although she was intrigued by the origins of most of the objects she ignored them all and treaded cautiously as she stepped deeper into the room, she walked subconsciously to a wooden box that was mounted atop a crate. She wiped her hand across the lid of the box expecting to see an emblem of the resistance or the First Order, something that would give some explanation of where this could have come from, but there was nothing. She looked at the small chest tentatively. Finally reached her final decision and opened it.
Inside lay an old silver object with wires poking out of it. Rey reached a delicate hand inside, under her nails were black with dirt lodged under them, she did not care; she had been through worse on Jakku.
As soon as her fingertips touched the cold metal the room around her faded and was replaced with a dark corridor that was lit dimly with white lights. The corridor did not look like the one she had walked down to reach the damp storage cupboard, but was modern with a slick black floor. The corridor was an unusual shape, angled like a triangle. Rey stood up abruptly, all remnants of the room she had been in before had disappeared, she could no longer hear the beeping of the concerned BB-8 unit but now she could hear only the sound of her own rattling breaths. She began to jog down the corridor but did not get far since the scene changed again. This time it was as if the world had fallen on its side taking Rey with it.
Rey fell ungracefully onto her side and hit cold, uneven rock. She felt a sharp pain in her head but ignored it. She began to climb to her feet when she noticed that she was not alone, in the desolate landscape of an unknown planet there was a cloaked figure who, unaware that she was watching, reached out a metal, skeletal hand and placed it on a blue and white R2 unit that looked like it was from the Imperial days. When the hand made contact with the droid the previously blue light flashed red. The scene changed once more.
Rey had regained her footing and looked around, her hair felt damp as rain battered her skin. There were puddles and bodies all around her. Clouds consumed the sky and rain made her vision go blurry. A dark figure stood in front of her for a second before she heard an electrical crackling sound and a red Lightsaber plunged straight through the man who collapsed on the floor. Several cloaked black figures stood out from the equally dark landscape behind them. The only light was from the red buzzing Lightsaber. She stumbled backwards as the tall, thin figure holding the weapon turned to face her, he lunged forward and Rey shut her eyes expecting to feel a red hot pain as he impaled her.
But the pain did not come instead the goose bumps that riddled her skin disappeared when they faced the harsh, unforgiving Jakku sun. She opened her eyes but almost immediately shut them, she squinted as she waited for her eyes to adjust. When they did, it was not a strange vision she saw but a familiar one, a memory that she had gone over many times in her head. A memory she had tried to forget.
A young girl stood looking up at a ship flying away, out of the planets atmosphere. A rough hand held the girls arm as hot tears ran down her face as she yelled at the aircraft "Come back!". The ship was quickly travelling out of sight, the only traces of it ever being there was the young girl, maybe six years old with brown hair in three messy buns. Her small hand reached out as if maybe if she could grab the ship and bring it back to her. The ship thrust into light speed and disappeared. The girl cried louder. "Be quiet girl." A deep voice said from beside her. The girl did not stop crying out. The scene changed once again.
Rey was in a cold frosty forest. Snow coated the ground and the tall trees. It was dark and foreboding. Rey stumbled forward a few steps until she heard a voice call her name "Rey!". It was a voice of a man, she frowned slightly and started to run forwards. A twig cracked beneath her foot and she stopped abruptly as a tall dark figure immerged from the darkness brandishing a red Lightsaber, the same one she had seen a few moments earlier being thrust through a man. She stumbled backwards as he walked towards her, totally at ease. There was no implication of where he had come from but that did not matter now as he stood above her with the buzzing Lightsaber. She tripped and fell onto the cold hard stone floor.
As she looked around she was no longer in a dark, unforgiving forest but now back in the dimly lit hallway. As she looked around Maz Kanata was walking towards her quickly, her footsteps echoed around the corridor. Rey looked at the small humanoid.
"I shouldn't have gone in there." Rey said in a stricken voice. She could feel beads of sweat start to slip down her temples. Maz was only about three feet away from her now and her big calculating eyes were boring into hers, it gave her the sensation of being X-rayed.
"That Lightsaber was Luke's and his fathers before him, and now it calls to you." Maz was not questioning Rey but stating a point. Rey could feel her heart still thundering in her chest, her brain was trying to make sense of the visions that she had just witnessed.
"I have to get back to Jakku." Rey said quickly. She just wanted a way out of this. An escape. She did not want to be a part of whatever this was. Maz looked at Rey with a pitying smile. The small humanoid reached up and moved her thick glass goggles up and away from her eyes. They were small and truly conveyed her old age.
"Han told me." Maz said in a wise voice as she took Rey's small, rough hand in her own wrinkly one. "Dear child I can see it in your eyes, whoever you are waiting for back on Jakku… They are never coming back." Maz said with pity in her voice. Rey could feel tears begin to sting her eyes and she could do nothing about a stray one that began to fall down her cheek. "But there is someone who still could." Maz said knowingly.
"Luke." Rey said with slight awe in her tone.
"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." Rey did as the small humanoid commanded and only opened them again when she heard Maz speak again. "The light. It's always been here. It will guide you. The saber. Take it."
Rey was about to accept the offer but then she remembered the vision and an indescribable fear seeped into her very being. She shook her head and stood up quickly, she quickly wiped away her tears.
"I'm never touching that thing again. I don't want any part of this." Rey said in a strong stubborn voice.
(===||===)
Rey ran through the forest and did not stop until she felt as though she was a safe distance away from the bar.
The trees acted like a roof above her and as she looked up she slowed into a walk. She was playing the recollections from the lightsabre over in her head and wondering subconsciously who the figure in the metal mask was. She could not remember much about it now as the memories slowly drifted out of her reach. She stopped in a clearing to catch her breath. She could see the castle through the trees but only just. She clutched her side holding a stitch for a second before she looked up at the sound of frantic beeping behind her.
"What are you doing?" Rey questioned the BB unit. BB8 responded in a series of beeps and mechanical noises.
Rey crouched down beside the orange and white droid, it's antenna was bent just like when they had first met. She looked into his black camera, and felt, although she had known the droid for less that forty-eight hours it was as if she had known him her whole life and it saddened her that he could not convey his feelings as acutely as a human.
"You have to turn back… I'm leaving." She could feel a fresh wave of tears try to break free as the little droid spun his head from side to side as if trying to shake his head. "You have to go back you're too important… They'll help you…"
She did not finish her sentence as she heard a humming of aircraft passing above them. She looked up to see the black and red First Order Tie Fighters and big ships that evidently held Stormtroopers in. Stormtroopers… She remembered her friend, Finn, the ex-Stormtrooper. She felt her stomach lurch at the thought of Han, Chewie and Finn back at the castle. She began to run back in the direction she had ran away from in the first place, but this time with even more urgency.
Twigs and leaves cracked under her feet as she climbed up a steep incline. As she looked on she saw the impressive castle and statue of Maz Kanata begin crumble under the heavy fire of Tie Fighters. The statue version of Maz's head began to tumble off and hit the colourful flags around the courtyard. As it crumbled Stormtroopers were marching out of the big ships, hundreds of them. As Rey looked on she saw a black, bat like ship begin to descend, it's wings folding up by its sides. As she watched it touch down smoothly the back hatch opened and one solitary masked, black cloaked figure stepped out of it. Rey felt like a hole had opened in her stomach. She watched from the safety of the trees as the figure walked into the rubble of the castle.
Rey looked around the wreckage of the once bustling waterhole now in absolute chaos. She was torn as to whether she should enter the fray and possibly meet the dark foreboding figure but save her friends or to stay here and shoot Stormtroopers from afar. She decided that staying here and at the very least injuring Stormtroopers was more use than getting herself killed.
She was so deep in thought that it was at the last minute that she noticed a Stormtrooper walking in her direction. Rey raised her arm and pointed the blaster at the polished armour. She pulled the trigger but there was no flash of light coming from her gun. The Stormtrooper turned and faced her he yelled something that was muffled by his mask. She fiddled around with some switches until she heard a click. She clutched her arm close to her chest as a flash of red light missed her by inches. She held the blaster out again and shot a couple of times this time she hit her target. The Stormtrooper fell to the ground in a crumpled pile of white armour.
She looked down at BB8 who held out a small blowtorch to imitate a thumbs up. She smiled down at the little droid for a second. She looked up again and saw that the Stormtrooper had contacted his compatriots who were making their way over in her direction. She shot a couple of times and hit her mark once or twice but knowing that she would be overwhelmed she darted back into the depths of the forest. A red shot of light singed a tree where she had been a few seconds earlier.
(===||===)
Kylo Ren was standing on a fallen piece of wall, surveying the defeat of the Humanoids and Aliens alike. He watched as many of them held up their arms and dropped their weapons. He watched as the Tie Fighters now swooped around skilfully destroying airships. Kylo stood motionless as many of the Aliens sent him glances of fear and disgust. He watched on and did nothing.
A Stormtrooper made his way over to Knight of Ren to report.
"We spotted a droid heading west, with a girl." The Stormtrooper pointed in the direction of the forest. Kylo said nothing but looked in the indicated direction. He gave one last fleeting glance at the chaos that was ensuing. He gave a brisk nod to the Stormtrooper and began to make his way to the forest. He was intrigued by this girl who had evaded the Order many times. But not again. Kylo had almost forgotten about the droid when he reached the border of the forest.
(===||===)
Rey crouched down by a mossy log, she glanced around frequently checking if they were being followed. BB8 was beside her watching her, waiting for her to talk.
"Keep going, stay out of sight, I'll try and fight them off." A querulous beeping prompted a brave, defiant reply from her: "I hope so too."
The BB unit began to roll past her but he turned his spherical head to take one last glance at her. "Go!" She said with an urgency in her voice now. BB8 rolled into the shrubbery and disappeared into the green.
Rey was in a small crevice of rocks that were towering either side of her. She held out her blaster, prepared to shoot at any moment. She heard an electrical buzzing. She backed against a rock, she was shaking but did not call out. The forest was closing in as she went deeper into its depths. The leaves were blocking most of the sunlight. The buzz was getting closer. Her heart began to race. She could hear the blood pumping through her ears. She knew that whomever was coming after her was trying to scare her. Make her afraid. It was a tactic that many of the bandits back on Jakku used. But now the circumstances were completely different. She heard a twig break behind a great rock.
A dark cloaked figure immerged from behind it. She began to panic as the figure began to advance towards her. She stumbled backwards, shooting carelessly. Any of her shots that would have inflicted damage on the figure were easily deflected by his red lightsaber. His saber was different to the ones she had heard about. The ones she had heard of had the burning light very well contained but the masked menace that stood before her, his lightsaber seemed to only just be controlled, it looked more like a flame on a blowtorch. At the hilt of the saber two smaller light blades jutted out. He deflected her shots easily.
Rey glanced to her left and saw a small incline, she saw an escape. She quickly scrambled up it closely followed by the figure in black. She backed away from the figure, still facing him. She shot again and again. He deflected them almost lazily. It was as if he thought this was a game. Kylo was getting bored of this. He held out his hand. Rey could not move; he had forced her hand that she was holding the blaster with behind her back. She could only breath and blink. She fought against the force that was holding her but nothing happened. She was breathing heavily as she tried with all her might to move. He walked towards her, swinging his lightsaber at his side at ease.
"The girl I have heard so much about." He said as he surveyed her form, frozen in front of him. His voice was modified by the heavily scratched and dented silver mask; Rey could tell that the figure was male. He held himself up straight, he was about a head taller than her. He walked around her, like a shark circling his prey. He stopped when he was directly behind her.
"The droid." The man drew his lightsaber and held it up to her cheek, it did not burn her but illuminated her features in a red light. She could feel the heat radiating off it. "Where is it?" the man said calmly. Rey did not answer.
The man took his saber away from her face and walked back in front of her. He held out a gloved hand close to her face, his black gloves scraped her skin slightly. He began to search in her mind. He saw many memories that meant nothing to him. He looked in her more recent ones. He smiled under his mask.
"The map… You've seen it." He said in a low, calm voice as though conveying a secret. He studied her face from under his mask. A Stormtrooper was standing a few metres behind the pair, he watched for a second before giving his report.
"Sir… resistance fighters. We need more troops." The Stormtrooper stood, waiting for a command.
"Pull the troops out. Forget the droid… we have what we need." He said calmly as he walked behind the girl once more. He held out his hand and waved it at the girl and she fell unconscious. Kylo scooped her up before she hit the floor. The Stormtrooper stood nearby, expecting his superior to give the girl to him but the general walked towards his own ship as he carefully carried the girl. He looked down at her and brushed a stray hair out of her face.
(===||===)
Thank you all for reading my first chapter!
I hope you enjoyed reading this first instalment, the next chapter will be up next week. A quick note that the first couple of chapters will be drabbles.
In my story we are going to say that BB8 got destroyed and the resistance never got the last piece of the map. Also the First Order do not have the rest of the map from the Imperial archives.
Anyway, thank you for taking time out of your day to read this. I hope you have a great week!
Days until Rouge One: 333 Days
Days until Episode VIII: 494 Days
