The erratic beeping was loud in his ears as he struggled not to panic and fix the problem. He could not crash. Not now, not on this backwater planet. If he did, it could be days or even weeks before the First Order found him. Their tracking sensors often did not work on Jakku. He could already see the smug look on General Hux's sharp face, standing there in the entryway to the rescue ship. Gloating that the great Kylo Ren needed saving.
That, and he technically wasn't supposed to be there. Stormtroopers and other First Order grunts were the ones whose job it was to find the piece of the map to Skywalker. Being an impatient person though and generally untrusting of the First Order's efficiency, Kylo decided to go find it himself. And now his ship was failing and he had to prepare himself for the inevitable.
As irritating as it was, Kylo found himself channeling his father as his fingers moved across the ship's buttons and levers. He hated the thought, but Han Solo was someone who could fix anything. So what would he do in this situation?
Abandon ship like he abandoned his son, Kylo thought bitterly. No, he could do this himself. He didn't need his father's help to solve this.
Then there was a loud explosion and the ship lurched so hard that he almost banged his head against the control panel before him. Kylo cursed. That was the fuel pump. There was no fixing it now, the ship was definitely going down. All he could do next was just brace for impact.
Rey was exhausted. She had been picking the remains of a ship all day for parts to bring back to Unkar Plutt. And after nearly ten hours of scavenging, all her hard work had only added up to a measly quarter portion. As she dismounted from her speeder, she thought about tomorrow's work. The ship she'd been working on all week was nearly picked clean. Soon she would run out of parts and have to find a new ship to scavenge. Maybe if she went further south, a new one might turn up. Either way, she had to find something. If she didn't, she would starve.
As if on cue her stomach growled. The quarter portion wasn't much but at least it was food. And at the moment, it would satisfy her enough for the evening. Rey decided to worry about everything later. It was easier to think on a satiated stomach anyway.
She was just about to go inside her home in the broken down AT-AT when she heard the rumbling. Rey froze, now on high alert. She would recognize that sound anywhere: The sound of a ship about to crash. Sure enough, when she looked up she saw the sleek black vessel barreling downwards. It was close, but luckily not headed for her. She watched as it sailed over the AT-AT and then vanished from sight on the other side of a sand dune.
Rey's exhaustion was gone in an instant. Grabbing her staff from the speeder, she took off towards the crash site. She had two reasons for running to investigate. One, to check on the pilot and see if there was anything she could do to help them. And two, if the pilot didn't make it then their ship was free game to be scavenged from. Either way, she had to get to it first before someone with less empathy for the survivors did.
As she reached the top of the dune, she could see the smoke rising from the wreckage not too far away. When she got closer, the sight of the red emblem on the ship's side brought her to a halt. That was the First Order's symbol. Rey had heard stories of what sort of people were part of the Order. She was told they were ruthless and would kill anyone who opposed them without as much as a second thought. That alone was enough to make her want to turn around and go back.
But I'm here to help, Rey thought. Surely they won't kill someone trying to help them. Her grip on her staff tightened and she pressed forward anyway, although at a more cautious pace this time.
She hadn't moved more than five steps before the door to the cockpit was thrown open. Rey stopped once more and watched as a dark figure emerged, cursing and heading immediately around the ship to assess the damage. From what she could tell he was tall, wearing black clothes, and had some sort of mask on. Curious, she watched as he circled the ship, clearly frustrated with the outcome.
Rey wondered if she should go back since he seemed to be alright. He looked like someone she would do well to avoid getting involved with. Still, he was stranded in the middle of the desert and it was going to get dark and cold soon. In spite of how much he intimidated her, she decided to try and offer help anyway. Taking a deep breath, she continued to move towards him.
When she was just a few feet away, the stranger suddenly looked towards her as if he had heard her approach. He held out his hand in her direction and Rey had no time to wonder what he was doing before she felt her entire body freeze up. She tried to move, but found she could no longer do that. It was as if an invisible rope had been wound tightly around her body from head to toe and held her where she was. Now she was more than intimidated: She was afraid.
"Who are you?" the stranger demanded right away. His voice was deep, almost mechanical beneath the mask. There must have been something in the helmet that changed his voice and to make it more frightening to his enemies.
It had worked on Rey. She felt extremely unsettled when he spoke. But at the moment, she was more concerned with why she couldn't move. "What did you do to me?" she demanded, defiant in spite of her fear.
"Stopped you from getting any closer than I am comfortable with," he returned sharply. "Now answer the question or I'll send you back to wherever it is that you came from."
On one hand, she could continue to defy him and see how far it got her. Probably back in the direction of her home, and probably not gently. From what she gathered he seemed to have some sort of power to control objects. If he could stop her from moving, maybe he could lift her up and toss her as well. She was tough, but she didn't think her body would survive being thrown so far. So Rey decided to just be open and honest with him.
"My name is Rey," she began. "I'm a scavenger here on Jakku. I saw your ship go down and thought I could be of some help."
The stranger was quiet while he processed this new information. "A scavenger?" he repeated, and for some reason the way he said it made Rey feel somewhat ashamed of what she was.
"Yes," Rey confirmed, doing her best to look indignant even when she couldn't move the rest of her body. "I find usable parts in ships and turn them in."
"A noble profession," said the stranger and she could hear the sarcasm in his tone.
Rey glared at him. "I do what I have to do in order to survive. Those ship parts are the only thing keeping me fed each day." She felt herself becoming no longer frightened but angry at the man in the mask. He had no right to talk down to her in such a way.
Apparently he sensed her anger, because when he spoke again it was in gentler tones. "And how would a scavenger help me, a member of the First Order, exactly?"
"I'm good at fixing ships," Rey explained, bitterness still clinging to every syllable. "I thought maybe I could help fix the ship so you can be on your way and go insult someone else in the galaxy."
Rey thought at first he might throw her for that quip. To her surprise, she felt the hold on her body vanish. She lifted her right arm and stretched out her fingers, testing to make sure everything still worked.
"I don't need your help, scavenger," he muttered, waving her off. "I can fix ships too. I'll have this back in the air in no time."
"Your fuel pump gave out, didn't it?" asked Rey. She stuck her staff upright into the sand and approached the ship. "I saw it smoking on your way down. Do you have an extra one on board?"
He stared at her from behind the mask for a moment, perhaps taken by surprise at her boldness in approaching him. Then he turned away to head towards the back of the ship. "These models are supposed to have extras in their cargo hold in case they give out. If they run for too long, they can overheat. But I don't think it was the fuel pump originally that was giving me trouble."
"Was it sputtering and making screeching sounds when you pressed down on the joystick?" Rey inquired. She was at the cargo hold now, trying to pry it open. After a few moments of struggling, she heard the stranger sigh and hold up his hand again. When he did, the door to the hold immediately popped open.
"Yes, so I think it had something to do with the secondary alternator." He looked inside the hold then cursed. "It doesn't have its extra. Someone must have already had to replace it."
Rey winced. "No fuel pump and your secondary alternator has given out. You sure it's going to be back in the air in no time?"
He rounded on her, and she was sure that underneath the mask he was probably fuming. "Look, girl, I could kill you in an instant. Doesn't that frighten you?"
"It did at first, yeah," Rey replied. She folded her arms across her chest and stood up as tall as she could before him. He may have over a foot on her in height, but she was not going to let him scare her anymore. "I live on Jakku. I see things scarier than you every day. You may have magical powers, but I'm only trying to help. Would you really kill someone who wants to help you get off this planet?"
The stranger considered her. Apparently this was not the answer he'd been expecting. "You'd help me…even though I'm with the First Order?"
Rey clenched her jaw. She could just walk away right now and let the man sit until his friends in the Order found him. She was a compassionate person by nature though. Even if he was with them, she couldn't just abandon someone in need.
"I may not agree with what you stand for," she said quietly "but you're still a person who needs help. And I can't just ignore that."
"Compassion will make you weak," he warned. "You'd be better off just looking out for yourself."
She shut the cargo hold door. "If you want a new fuel pump, Niima Outpost is your best bet," she explained, ignoring his advice. "Unkar Plutt has several, but don't go to him. He will cheat you and his stock isn't always up to par. I would recommend Shumar Khan on the outskirts. His stock is limited, but he's fair and you can haggle with him. As for the secondary alternator, that should be something you can fix on your own." Rey turned away from him and walked back over to wrench her stick out of the sand.
The stranger watched her silently. He seemed to be thinking. "You need a Favarian wrench to fix alternators. I don't have one on board."
Rey ran her fingers over her staff while she thought about this. "Do you have a Krybite?"
"There might be one in there."
"You will have to mess with the attachments a little bit, but it should do the trick."
There was silence as the two stood there, both unsure of what to say next. Rey didn't know whether to tell the stranger good-bye, good luck, or see if there was anything else she could do to help. He seemed to know what he was doing, and Niima Outpost wasn't too far away. He should be fine.
She looked at his ship. It was small, and the cock pit didn't seem to have much space in it at all. No room for him to lay down to sleep anyway. There was nowhere else in the ship for him to go either. And he couldn't stay outside, because the temperatures on Jakku got very low during the night.
Rey groaned. She kind of hated herself for what she was about to say to him. "Do you need a place to stay?"
"No," he replied. "I'll just sleep on the sand. I don't mind it."
"You'll freeze, even wearing those robes," she said. "My home isn't far from here if you want—if you need somewhere to sleep for the night."
He looked at her and she could almost sense the confusion emanating from him. "Weren't you angry with me a moment ago? Why are you opening your home to me now?"
"Look, if you want to freeze out here I'm not going to mourn your loss," she grumbled, turning away and heading back in the direction of the AT-AT. "I'm one of the few people on this planet with a conscience though. I wouldn't sleep well tonight if I didn't at least try to save you from a terrible fate."
He didn't reply, and Rey continued to head home. If he followed her, fine. If not, well good riddance then. Either way, she had done her part and offered help. Whether he took it or not was on him.
She didn't look back the entire way back. When she returned, she began to unload her speeder. Her supplies, she stored in a small cargo space around the back of the AT-AT. She stuck her staff into the ground beside the door to her home and the speeder she parked around to the back of the AT-AT by the cargo hold.
As she was about to go inside and prepare the portions for dinner, a movement at the crest of the dune caught her attention. She got an odd feeling when she saw that it was the stranger coming towards her. Relief? Hope? Disappointment? She wasn't sure what it was. Either way, it looked as though she was going to now have some company at her home.
"I accept your offer of hospitality," the stranger said when he was within earshot of Rey. "And I thank you for it."
She was surprised by his sudden politeness, but shrugged it off. Maybe he was polite once he got his way. "I don't know your name," she informed him.
"I go by Kylo Ren," he replied as she stood aside and let him enter her home.
"Very well, Kylo Ren. You can stay here for tonight, but in the morning you go."