My absence has been noted and life is just kinda coocoo at the moment, but I ain't gone, but updates are gonna come sporadically. However, I just am typing this story because I love Star Wars The Force Awakens, but I always like to rewrite the story with my character, Blaze Marko/James Kentic, and change history cuz that's what he's best at. This is the first chapter so...enjoy!

I'll continue based on the reviews I get as well as the number of views I get as well! :)

Also, if it hasn't been clear already, there are spoilers from here on out!

SPOILER ALERT!

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars or any of the songs I put in there or any of the quotes. But, man, would that be pretty freaking sweet! :D

Oh, and one last thing, Rey is 19 to clarify the age difference between her and James as well as Finn being 20. Ren is still the same age, 29 or 30. Rey's original age in the movie is like 23 or something and Finn is a year or two older so I wanted to change it up.

Luke Skywalker has vanished.

In his absence, the sinister FIRST ORDER has risen from the ashes of the Empire and will not rest until Skywalker, the last Jedi, has been destroyed.

With the support of the REPUBLIC, General Leia Organa leads a brave RESISTANCE. She is desperate to find her brother, Luke, and gain his help in restoring peace and justice to the galaxy.

Leia has sent her most daring pilot on a secret mission to Jakku, where an old ally has discovered a clue to Luke's whereabouts.

But, unbeknownst to them all, a young man whom they've never seen before holds the key to everyone's objective. The choice is up to him: the destruction of the First Order, the destruction of the Resistance, or the discovery of Luke Skywalker. The future of the Force is up to him…

Chapter 1: A Burning Meet

"My makeshift savior left me right here in my chains." Darkest Part, Red

"Ugh, my head."

That was the first thing I realized.

My head pulsated like a massive earthquake was going on inside, ripping apart the very tissue that was my brain. The pain was excruciating, overwhelming my senses and causing me to involuntarily spasm.

My hands opened and clenched one their own as I rolled around where I was, I couldn't see where exactly due to my eyes being shut tight. But, when I felt something grainy between my fingers, my brain registered it as foreign ground, making me twist a bit more at the feeling of unfamiliar land.

With much strain, I willed my head to slow its rapid expansion of pain and let me open my eyes. That proved to be a stupid decision as hot sunlight burst through the sky and blasted me in the pupils, burning my eyes.

That only made things ten times worse for me.

"Fuck me!" I shouted to the air, shutting my eyes and focusing back on why I was beneath sand. I felt my throat start to close in panic, but I controlled myself almost an instant later as I remembered what you were to do in these situations.

Replay what you remember.

The last few things I remembered were completely and utterly clear.

I had been alone in my room, on my computer as rain poured down outside. The hurricane's effects had finally reached us, even if we were farther inland. Within an hour of it being there, the rains got heavier and heavier, bigger droplets of acid rain hitting the house with loud clacks.

Then, the rain put me to sleep some time later, my computer still on and hot on my lap. The last story on my lap was some Star Wars story I was writing…

My eyes snapped open as I made it to my knees, "Dammit, I'm in a dream."

I frowned to myself a moment later as I regarded my hands. My right hand in particular.

Along my palm were marks from my nails from clenching so hard, and they were bleeding a bit. And, I felt that pain.

I hissed as a few specks of sand made their way into the shallow cuts. In a not so graceful manner, I uttered a few curse words and smacked my hands together a bunch to get the sand out, only succeeding in driving them farther into my appendage.

"Well, this dream is pretty realistic if I can feel pain." I muttered to myself, the last of my headache fading away into the recesses of my mind. I held my hand up and groaned, "Why am I feeling pain?"

Something sparked inside of me, something like recognition of the situation I was truly in.

"Wait, pain would cause a jolt in my sleep." I said to myself, for the first time looking around at where I was. "This dream should be over."

It was true. I was surrounded by sand on all signs with nothing in sight on any of my sides.

I turned my attention to the sky, surprised when I only saw one sun burning down on me.

"Oh, so, I ain't on Tatooine?" I asked myself, looking away from the sun but keeping it within my peripheral vision. "So, where the hell am I?"

Tatooine was the only planet with this much sand and this kind of heat. But, the lack of a second sun confirmed that it wasn't the desert planet. No, this was somewhere else. Somewhere I was unfamiliar with.

A planet that might not be inhabited. I couldn't help but think, but I shook my head, chuckling to myself, "This is a dream! Why am I thinking about populations of planets haha! Any minute now I'm gonna wake up." I sat on the sand, cross-legged, "I'm gonna be drooling on my pillow with my computer half falling off of my bed. Mom will probably wake me up and tell me off for having it like that."

That wasn't a surprising thought at all for me. My mother was exactly like that. Though, if she was caught at a bad time, then she would end up grounding me or my brother for being lazy or incompetent. Sometimes, I had to admit, we were a pack of lazy bones waiting for our next meal to be dumped in front of us as we played with whatever we had.

For me that was my phone and my computer.

"Hey!" I exclaimed, reaching into the pocket of my jeans, surprised but elated to find my iPhone there with my headphones wrapped around the middle. I pulled it out and unraveled the wires around it, "Lucky me! At least I dreamt up this thing with me!"

I quickly put the earphones in and opened my phone via my birthday code. I quickly accessed the music app and scrolled over to my playlist full of just rock songs by various artists.

Soon, I found the song I wanted to listen to.

As I was about to press play, my hand stung again with the same pain as before. I looked at both my palms, laying my phone down on my leg, "Oh, come on. It's just a little sand."

And, yet, it is pain and you are still sleeping. The pain is real.

That voice was mine, but it was a voice of reason and of understanding, but also one that didn't deal in incompetent theories such as it was just a dream. But, the dream theory was the only one that made any plausible sense. There was no way at all that it was possible to be on a different planet in real life.

"Maybe I'm just in a desert on Earth. Like the Mohave." I reasoned with myself, feeling my conscience lighten a bit at the suggestion. The inner turmoil I was feeling was starting to fade away slowly.

I chuckled at myself, going back to my phone, "But, it's still probably a dream and I'll wake up any minute." I cracked a smirk, "But, I should enjoy myself with my music until then. No harm in that, right?"

In one quick click, I pressed the song title.

The song started slow, an eerie atmospheric melody settling into my ears and into my mind. Soon, a piano key signaled, gently adding a new light on things as whispers filled the background along with the ambiance that had already been established.

You dragged the depths of my soul
Until you found it
A darkened room locked away
I let you in

Then the drums came in in full, thumping a heavy beat mixed in with a symphony of light winded guitars that added into the fray. The slowness changed into a faster pace, instilling a burst of excitement that the song always gave.

As well at the amount of emotion it inspired.

You looked inside then you turned away
My makeshift savior
He left me right here in my chains
But still I whisper
(I'm calling out)
Still I call you

I never wanted you to see
The darkest part of me
I knew you'd run away
I waited but you never came

So afraid to be alone
I tried to let you go
Still I find you lost inside the darkest part of me

The band was Red. I had loved the band for all of a couple of months. Their song, Breathe into Me, seemed like a fantastic song to make an AMV for. Particularly a Star Wars AMV or a Dragon Ball Z AMV, or maybe even a Matrix AMV.

The song continued on, and I loved every moment of it like it was the best thing in the world to listen to. It never lost its touch, its special element that made it such a good song to listen to.

Addictive even.

Eventually, the song ended, but I just kept replaying it, letting the song start off again and again and again, closing my eyes and just listening to the lyrics. Soon, however, that wasn't enough and I was growing tired of just sitting in the hot sun with rays of heat pounding from above.

I got to my feet, rummaging through my other pocket, "What else did I dream up?"

Suddenly, something found my fingers and I pulled it out.

I smiled, "My gum!"

Then, I stared at the pack of 5's gum with interest. If I recalled correctly, and I knew my memory served me well due to its photographic properties, there was a pack of 5's gum in my pocket before I found myself in the desert. And, after concentrating on the exact number, I knew that it contained six pieces before – an incredibly specific number for a dream to copy over.

Right?

Carefully, I opened the flap and counted the pieces.

"Six pieces here too." I muttered, raising a hand to my forehead to wipe off the sweat accumulating. Damn that heat is scorching.

I turned back to the gum, "Kind of a big coincidence, I guess."

Dreams were a world all their own and had possibilities that numbered up to the billions beyond billions. It was a world completely thought up by the subconscious due to previous thoughts or fantasies as well as external sources, such as television, games, or just everyday life. Each dream could be something marvelous or something terrible.

Those were called nightmares.

Yet, dreams were dreams.

And dreams could be broken by two ways. One, by an external source such as someone waking the person up to destroy the dream. And, two, by suffering from a massive jolt caused by an action being taken for or against the person having the dream. That could come from a bullet, a scream, or even just scaring yourself in the mirror in your own dream. There was no clear, definitive way to say exactly what jolts the person awake due to the fact that after waking up in that manner, the person that had the dream will start to forget the dream quickly, including the thing that made them lose grasp of the exciting experience.

My heart pounded as realization finally dawned upon me, "I…I'm not dreaming. This is fucking real!" I looked around, still not seeing anything in my vision. "I'm in a damn desert somewhere! How did that happen!?" I clicked pause on the music in my ears and wrapped the earphones around my neck, tucking the buds into my shirt so they wouldn't fall.

Seeing one place one second and another the next moment wasn't necessarily possible by just normal methods. Someone had to knock him out with some type of drug, then they had to get him out of the house, then put him on a plane or something and transport him here.

But, why?

Why take me and put me a random ass desert. Makes no damn sense. I thought, sourly as I took a few steps forward, feeling the sand shift under my weight.

I groaned, "I forgot I hate walking on sand."

Several years ago it was no problem, but as I got older it seemed to get more and more irritating to always trip because the sand wasn't stable. Or, perhaps, I had just gotten clumsier as time progressed.

I wouldn't have put it past me.

I held on hand up to my eyes, shielding my vision from the rays of sunshine so I could properly see what was in front of my face. And, as luck or fate would have it, there was something way far off in the distance. Easily a dozen miles away or more, but it was the only thing I could see within walking distance.

If that could be called walking distance at all.

"More sand walking." I grumbled, pushing play on the music and letting Darkest Part sing to me. Then, quickly, I pulled out my phone and checked the battery, finding it at eighty-five percent charged.

"Well, I don't have a charger so I better conserve batter for who knows what." I said, opening the settings app and switching it to power saving mode. Once the green battery bar turned yellow, I locked the phone and pocketed it.

A couple of hours later, and about a hundred songs later as well, I arrived at what I saw. It was a large tower of some sort and there were dozens of small little towers with a pointed design pointing to the skies. But, the design wasn't lost on me at all. I knew exactly what they were.

"Oh damn." I said, falling flat on my butt, staring straight at the metal structure a few feet away from me, "It's a moisture collector."

But, again, that didn't make sense.

This obviously wasn't Tatooine, so where was it?

I took my sweat-soaked shirt off of me and wrapped it around my shoulders, "Ok, think, think." I groaned loudly, wanting nothing more than to punch something as hard as I could, but I knew that would hurt so I thought better of it and stayed where I was, angry and confused.

And a bit scared.

I sighed, "On one hand, I'm in my favorite fandom, but on the other hand I'm stuck on a planet I have no knowledge of and it's hot and I'm thirsty and I'm lost. Wait, I basically already said that." I grunted, pausing my music. "First, where am I?"

Then, it hit me like a rock to the head.

"I'm on Jakku!" I shouted, getting to my feet, nearly losing my balance, "That's why I didn't recognize it! I haven't seen the Force Awakens yet and I'm thrown into the movie."

Or was I?

I knew I was on Jakku, but I had no idea of a time period. Jakku was a real planet in this universe so it had been around for a long time. There was no telling when I was.

"And I don't see no Star Destroyer." I said, grumbling to myself as I looked off into the distance in front of me. "May not have seen the movie but I did watch all the trailers. There is supposed to be a downed Star Destroyer somewhere around here if I'm in that time period."

Then, stress over took me as the gravity of my situation fell upon me like a thousand pounds of lead.

I fell onto my back, not caring about the hot sand beneath me, "I'm stuck here. Shit. Shit. Shit." My curses died off into whispers that suddenly bore no fruit coming from my lips.

I sat back up, taking my shirt and wiping the sand off my back then wrapping the shirt back around my shoulders, "Well, think again, J. Just think." I crossed my arms, taking in a breath of hot air, "This place is obviously a moisture farm. So, where there are evaporators, there are people who own them. So, there has to be a farm somewhere around here."

I cast a look around, but before I was able to fully circulate, I heard it. An engine. A roaring engine. And it was getting closer every second.

I flashed around, seeing a large, speeder heading right for me. It was junky and didn't look all that sturdy, but it was certainly traveling at a decent speed.

I quickly got behind the nearest evaporator and stayed there.

I had no idea who these people coming were and if they were driving something that looked so out of date, then I was pretty sure they weren't the best of company. They probably had a bottle of booze and several itchy trigger fingers when it came to strangers.

If Star Wars taught me anything, it's that strangers on a desert planet didn't like to play nice.

Soon, the speeder past and I heard a lot of hollers and shouting coming from it. It made it a couple meters past my direction before suddenly stopping, causing my heart to stop as well.

Slowly, the clucky speeder started to go in reverse. That's when I knew I was utterly screwed.

"Shit." I muttered before leaping out and dashing in the opposite direction. I was on full sprint. Lucky for me, the speeder had smoothened out the sand into hard tracks that felt like concrete. That meant better traction and a hell of a lot easier on the feet.

But, it didn't matter. That I knew.

I turned my head, looking at the vagabonds behind me, only to see their speeder cruising off where it was heading, not even bothering to come at me at all. On one hand, I was glad. On the other, I was insulted that they thought I wasn't good enough to be chased.

I smacked my face with my hand, "Complaining about not getting killed is the last thing I should be doing."

As if on cue, I heard another noise. This time the noise was higher pitched and sounded a bit wobbly, like it was hovering at all times.

I turned to where I was originally running to and saw a small blip speeding off towards me. Within moments, it was in front of me. It was a red, smoothed out rectangular speeder with a net attached to the side. There were an assortment of metal objects within the net, some that looked like machine parts and others that looked like utter scrap metal.

It stopped quickly once it saw I wasn't moving from my spot.

"Can you please move?" A kind, British female voice asked, "I'm kind of in a hurry. I have to get to town before the sun sets."

I looked up to meet eyes with the girl that helped me understand that I really was in the Force Awakens.

Rey.

"Uh…" I barely uttered a response before I realized that I was shirtless in front of her. The dust had settled so it was obviously visible now. I was never embarrassed to have my shirt off because of my body. My body was nice. I knew that and everyone else did too. My friends had always thought I was a bit too eager to have it off when I could.

I just told them they were just jealous they didn't have my abs.

But, when I made eye contact with Rey again, her face changed from in a hurry to utterly…girly.

I know that look. Oh, shit. She thinks I'm hot. I thought, then felt a smile tug at my lips. Well, she's hot too. Shit! Not what I need to be thinking right now. I just need to get into town.

"I'm actually in bit of a predicament. You see, my speeder broke down after my buddy dropped me off in the middle of nowhere." I gave a laugh, "Some friend. Anyway, I'm kinda stranded. Do you mind giving me a lift?"

Rey's face lit up with a smile, "Of course. I don't mind. Just climb aboard."

I smiled and gave her a nod, "Thank you." I walked up behind the speeder and had to use every fiber of my being not to nerd out at that moment. I was about to ride with Rey on her speeder into a town on Jakku in the Star Wars universe.

Oh my best friend would be so jealous.

I leaped upward and flung my leg around the seat and sat down with a slight shift in the weight on the vehicle.

Rey leaned forward on her controls, "Might want to hang onto something."

Realizing there was nothing else to hang onto but her, I uttered a small, "The only thing to hold onto is you."

Rey was quiet for a moment before she laughed a bit, "Then just hold onto me. I'm not gonna smack you, I promise."

"That's a relief." I chuckled, gently, but firmly enough to hold me still, grabbing her waist. "I've had enough bad luck today. Getting slapped woulda just added onto it."

Rey uttered a small giggle that almost went unnoticed by me, "Well, you won't have to now."

Before I could say another word, the speeder lurched forward, its engines firing up half a second later as the sand beneath us blasted in different directions. Suddenly, the fear I had not too long ago disappeared into the wind, making everything else seem insignificant in comparison as well.

I just closed my eyes and let the wind hit me full force and I felt my troubles fade.

For now.

The ride was pleasant and soon we were arrived at a fairly big junk gated town of some sort. There were plenty of tarps set up all around with various different stations that served as some sort of working corps. There had to be at least a hundred or so people around at the moment, but there wasn't any singularly concentrated congregation of them. They were all spread around.

Rey flipped a switch and the speeder slowly settled onto the ground, hoping off a second later. I followed suit, looking around at what was on the other side of the installation.

There were a bunch of ships on the sand, but most looked like giant land speeders. There were a few quad jumpers and gully hoppers as well as a very distinct T-16 skyhopper. However, no ships really stood out besides that one.

I craned my neck, walking over to the other side of the speeder to get a better look at the ships, "Oh, looks like theirs one more on the other side." I saw the dish of one of the satellites atop, but I couldn't see the hull to identify the ship.

"Can't be that important." I said to myself, looking up into the sky, "But, if this is when I think it is – and I knew it was – then the Millennium Falcon should be coming into play at any moment." I turned back to the small junk town, "Of course, this could be days, maybe even weeks, before the appropriate time." I grabbed my head, "Oh that hurt."

"Are you coming with?"

Rey's nice accent knocked me out of my rambling fit.

I cast my eyes upward to meet hers and I gave a nod, "Right, sorry. Was just talking to myself."

Rey smiled, "That's fine. I do need to hurry though. Plutt won't give me full portions if I don't get there before the late shift."

I gave her a strange glance. Damn, yet another thing I don't know. "Who's Plutt? Even from just the name he doesn't sound like the nicest person in the world."

Rey frowned, the first frown I'd seen, "He's not. He's more of a bully than anything, but he runs the ration counter and trade center here in Cratertown."

I wanted to punch something again. I was hearing names that I didn't recognize in the slightest. The trailers for the movie didn't give names at all, just the basic stuff that would be included as well as little hints and pricks at things that gave the viewers excitement.

Stupid J.J. Abrams.

"Then, we better get a move on." I said, moving to go into a fast walk toward her and her makeshift travois.

Once over her contraption, I looked down at it, quickly taking in everything she had with her.

Under the black fiber net, there were a couple power converters and a few major components for oscillators. But, the power converts are the things that got me. They were military grade.

For half a second, I looked back at her, then drove my eyes back down to the parts she had acquired.

It was no surprise that I was quite the Star Wars fan and I had read quite a bit of books about the technology that existed within that universe. Power converters were very widely used in transportation to regulate power within the craft to regulate it and make sure there were no upsets in the energy drive. The ones that Rey had were a little banged up, but they were definitely from a starship's engine.

"So, you're a scavenger?" I asked, looking at her as we started to walk at a quicker pace.

"That's right. Been that way most of my life." She responded, the smallest tip of defensiveness in her tone.

"That's cool." I said, "Wait. You said most?"

Rey nodded, keeping her eyes one on particular shack with a brown tarp over top of it. Even from this distance I could see the cleaning supplies aboard the brown, metal and wood top along with another being. An old alien type creature that actually made me lose my breath for a moment.

Again, this shit is real. I thought, waiting for an answer. When I didn't get one, I pressed a bit more, "What were you before?"

"I don't know." Rey said in a way that said she didn't want to talk about it.

But, if she doesn't talk about it then I can't get to figure out who she actually is. I have lots of theories, but it would be better to get a grasp on why she's here. Alone. I thought, continuing to walk the line.

We approached the shack and there was a person beside it. It wasn't the old lady alien thing, it was someone else. He was wrapped in some type of cloth and actually looked pretty menacing.

Rey leaned her head to me, "Unkar Plutt also has a sort of rule over what happens in this town. He likes to think of it as his town, but he doesn't really own it, but without him the people would starve."

"Interesting." I hummed, looking around towards the center of the town and saw another shack, much bigger but still small with people lined up in front of it, all types of metals in their hands. "And that's the trading station?"

Rey nodded once she followed my line of sight, "Yes." She pulled her travois full of components around the small cleaning station and sat down.

Noting the situation, I went over to the net and helped pull it off, then bundled it and set it aside, "Gotta make it look pretty before you show it to Plutt, huh?"

"Makes him more accommodating sometimes." Rey said as almost an afterthought, then I caught her gaze again as I rose up. Again, there was that posh, girly look she had.

Then, it was replaced by a look of helpfulness and kindness, but it also held the look of a scavenger and who did what it took to survive but didn't compromise morals. They had a set path and they didn't waver, but they got whatever job they had done before they reveled in anything.

Times like this reminded me that the eyes really were the windows to the soul.

"What?" I gave a smile, actually feeling a bit weird to be under her gaze like that. "Do I have something on my face?"

I wanted to die at that point. Or smack myself silly. Smooth…smooth…

Thought, instead of laughing at me or giving me this look of disdain, Rey merely shook her head, finding her gloves a moment later and putting it on, "N-No, you still have your shirt off and you'll get scorched in this sun."

I looked down at my body and, for the first time since meeting Rey, found that my back did feel a bit hot. I grabbed the shirt around my shoulders and put it on, finding it to be dry again. I even felt the shirt between my fingers for a moment, actually marveling at how the sweat had gone away.

The heat really was intense.

"Thanks for the advice." I said, taking a seat next to her and finding a pair of gloves on the table. I put them on, grabbing a piece of her findings and getting to work on it immediately, scrubbing off the blackened dust and burns of a battle long since fought.

"What are you doing?" Rey asked, quite surprised by my actions to say the least. I guess she just expected me to hightail out of there without a second glance. Perhaps a thank you and then she'd never see me again.

I smiled, "You gave me a lift. This is the least I can do."

Rey opened her mouth to say something, then closed it. When she opened it again, she said, "Thank you. I don't even know your name though."

I stopped, contemplating her question far more than I should have, but I did.

My name was part of me. A part of me was my name. My name came from my parents and my family was back on Earth, wherever Earth was. But, I was here, so something happened and I was put here. Either by accident or on purpose, I was here.

And, I still hadn't decided yet it that was a good thing or a bad thing.

Without becoming saddened by the prospect of being away from home forever, I thought about her question in a different way. She was asking me for my name, yes that was true, but was it the wisest decision to use my real name?

Or create one? I looked at the metal chunk in my hand as I unconsciously turned it around and around. That would be lying. If I lie, I could drastically turn my fate inside out. Anything I do could screw up what's supposed to happen.

"My name is James." I looked up finally, feeling like I had been silent for a long time, but I was sure it was only a couple of seconds from the look in Rey's eyes.

She smiled, her white teeth shining as brightly as the light in her eyes, "I'm Rey."

"It's nice to meet you, Rey." I hummed, not breaking eye contact until the garbed dude beside the shack kicked the table, saying something in a different language.

Rey glared at him, but went back to working, but not before she uttered a soft, "It's nice to meet you too, James."

It wasn't very long before we had about four of the pieces cleaned and Rey said that was enough. She didn't want to get all her portions in one go because then she wouldn't be able to resist it when they were in front of her. She knew she would eat them all without thinking of saving them.

She even gave me one seeing as I wasn't in the best position, being left by my friend.

Ok, so maybe I lied once, but no more. I thought as we got in line.

As the line progressed, I took a look around again, finding that there was a lot of commonplaces set up with stands that sold different things. But, this place seemed to really lack something: money. I didn't see any credits being traded anywhere. Not even a single chip left a hand.

"Strange." I muttered quietly, turning my head and looking at the ships again. Each of them were in small little stations built in for probably downloading the standard flight data as well as monitoring any anomalies whether it was cargo or stowaways or even a leak in the ship's cooling tanks.

Soon enough, Rey and I stepped forward.

Rey reached up and put her part down on the counter. But, before he took it, Unkar Plutt looked at me, giving me a stare, "Hey…I haven't seen you around here before."

I stared at the fat abomination for a ration man – or bully – and I gave him a shrug, "Well, there's an explanation for that."

"Which is?" He narrowed his eye sacks at me.

Rey spoke up, "He's with me. He's my friend."

"A friend of Rey's huh?" Plutt's voice was laced with suspicion.

I cast Rey a grateful smile, then turned back to Plutt, feeling excitement rise in my chest, "Indeed. Now, this is the trading center right? Or do I have to go to the other guy across town who's trading for double what you are?"

Plutt seemed confused and enraged by this at the same time. He quickly swiped Rey's compactor off the desk, "This piece is worth…one portion."

Rey regarded Plutt with irritancy, and it looked like she'd worn that face many times before when in his presence. But, nonetheless, she took the portion and wormed out of the line. She didn't make it far before she just stood aside, waiting for me.

I pushed the power converted onto the desk and spoke. I was normally good with people of all ages and races, but this was a bit out of my comfort zone. However, it was still talking. And I excelled at running my mouth. It would either make them like me, or make them annoyed enough where they would give me what I asked and send me away.

"What you've got there is a military grade power converter." I jumped up, putting my elbows on his desk as I pointed to the shaft within the core, "This little thing will put out about twenty times the power of a regular converter because of the density of the core as well as the metal surrounding it."

Plutt gave a snarl and I jumped back down.

I crossed my arms, "I'm gonna guess that it's worth at least ten times what you gave Rey."

"I'll give what is due." Plutt said, spitting as he spoke.

He's like my mother. Stubborn as a mule. I thought, holding a hand up, "I could always go find another person to trade with."

"I'm the only one with the portions." Plutt said, dismissing what I had said mere minutes ago. I wondered if he had even heard my comment at all.

"Perhaps, but other people stockpile." I said, putting my arm back under my other arm across my chest, "People are smart like that."

"These people scour for their next meal. They wouldn't dare stockpile as you say. They don't have the audacity to do so. They are too wild for that." Plutt laughed, casting a hand backwards towards the line, "Just look."

I did just that. What I saw were poor people, scavengers, thieves, and just ordinary sad people who wanted to eat. Men, women, old people, and aliens alike looked at Plutt with the same look. The look of utter submissiveness. They would do what they had to in order to eat or feed who they cared about. Greed, sorrow, sadness, and hunger stared back at me.

I turned back to the alien, giving him a hard stare, "Looks can be deceiving, Plutt."

"But, these people only know one thing: that I control whether they live or die." He said, his rumbling voice only amplified by him leaning his face forward at the gate.

I looked down for a moment, then smirking, "You wanna take that bet though, Plutt. You've been right for so wrong…" I jumped back up, causing the alien to step back a bit inside of his box, "What if you're wrong?"

Plutt was silent, the skin above his eye flattening at an angle to resemble a glare, but it did not intimidate me. I had seen scarier faces from my thirteen year old brother. Hell, my dog.

The people behind me started to murmur things, but I could not heart them. I was sure they were praising me, or cursing me for upsetting the system like I had. Maybe they were afraid of Plutt taking his anger out on them, or they were afraid that Plutt wouldn't show them the same act of kindness as to give them what they deserved for their parts.

Regardless, it was a stare-off between me and him.

And it continued to be like that for a minute longer before he pulled out seven flat packets with some blue and silver dust inside them. He scooted them over to my arms, grumbling angrily, "Take them. But, if you try to make a mockery of me in front of these people again, I'll have your head."

I felt the gravity of truth in his words, but I just gave a smirk, "I hear you, Plutt." I quickly scooped up the packets and hoped down, looking at Rey with a victorious smile.

I had only gotten a few steps before Plutt shouted out again at me, "I mean it, outsider!"

I waved a hand at him, "I know you do." My tone was that of an older sibling dismissing the younger sibling because his talking was irritating.

Rey's face was shocked. She didn't say anything till we started walking, "I've never seen anyone stand up to Plutt like that. Not even I do it for fear of him denying me the portions."

"And that's how he controls people, Rey." I said, looking at the packets in my hands. "Through fear."

"I see." She said, staring at my hands too.

I smiled at her and took three of the packets and dumped them into her hands, "Here. It was your part so we should share what we got."

Rey's face, even though already a bit red from the heat exposure, turned a bit crimson as she could do nothing as the packets flew into her hands, "T-Thank you."

I chuckled, feeling at ease even though I was in a strange environment, "No problem, Rey. It's the least I can do for you." You did kinda save my life.

As we approached the speeder, I looked up at the sun, or rather diagonally at the sun. It was going to be dark soon. It was only a matter of time.

"I didn't think about that." I muttered to myself, casting my eyes to the sand now. "Didn't think about that at all. Was so focused on the dream theory that I didn't think of having a place to stay."

Rey leaped atop her speeder and started the engine. I stood beside the speeder, thinking of a way to approach the subject gently, "Uh, Rey?"

Rey was in the middle of putting her goggled hat on when she turned to me, with that look in her eyes returning, "Yeah?"

"You mind if I dine with you?" I said as chill as I could be, when in fact I was, again, slapping myself mentally with how much of a dork I sounded.

Rey hadn't put her goggles on, so I saw when she blinked her long eyelashes at me.

Oh, geez, she's never eaten with anyone before. I realized. She's been alone this whole time. Fending for herself.

That accounted for a lot of things, some of which I had already theorized but hadn't come to a consensus yet.

"I'm sorry if that's asking too much but it would be cool if I could." I said, words expelling from my brain, and therefore my mouth, "You did give me a ride and one of your parts, and you said I was your friend and friends have dinner together!" I ended with an awkward laugh.

Rey just stared at me for a while, then her face broke out into a wide smile, "I think that's a great idea!"

Without another word, I leaped on the speeder, "Well, let's not waste any more time! Let's roll."

Rey laughed, then flipped the speeder around, the engines roaring back at her just before it lurched forward at top speed. I nearly fell backwards, but I latched onto her mid-section, laughing a bit but my heart thumping at a hundred miles an hour.

This is gonna be one hell of an adventure.