The first thing the medic did was remove the mask. All Rey had been able to see before was his eyes, but now she saw a handsome young face that belonged to a boy about her age. Eighteen or nineteen, much like her, she guessed.

"That'll help him breathe easier," the medic said. "He's got some bad burns on his hands, see how they burned through gloves?"

Rey nodded as her eyes widened in horror. The medic removed the cloak first, and then the shirt. Burns spread up and down his arms, and there was a hydrospanner, albeit a much more updated version, lodged in his abdomen.

"Thank the Force it isn't too deep," the medic murmured as he pulled it out and applied one of their sacred bacta strips to heal it. Rey took the burn salve that was much more common and easier to cultivate off of the shelf, and helped the medic spot it and wrap the heavy bandages around his hands.

"He should wake up soon," the medic told Rey. "You did the right thing, coming straight here first rather than trying to salvage. The others are out at the crash site right now, putting out the fire and taking some parts. You did good, kid."

A smile came to her face as she blushed. It wasn't often that any villager ever praised her for her work. It was nice, to know that maybe she would belong for once, that she could be one of them.

The Vicar, leader of the village, came in.

"We've decided what to do about this stranger," he said.

"You held a meeting without me?" Rey asked, disappointed.

"We wouldn't have wanted you," he said harshly. "Besides, if you wanted to advocate for your haul, you will be quite pleased. Your fellow colonists on Jakku unanimously agreed that this young man will be your responsibility. That means his food portions, water allowance- it will all come out of yours."

Rey winced. She had the least in the village, everyone knew that. But she couldn't argue with the Vicar. She was just an orphan. The little girl that nobody wanted that lived in the AT-AT on the edge of the colony.

"Yes sir," she said.

"Be careful, Rey," the Vicar said. "Something doesn't feel right about the stranger you have brought into our way of life."

With that, the Vicar exited.

The medic sighed, and stared at Rey apologetically. "I'm going to have to use a lot of your water allowance to make sure his internal systems are still working."

"That's fine," she lied. Nobody cared about her anyway. It was enough to almost make her cry. Water was precious, so she bit her lip and held back the sobs she wanted to release.


The last thing before the darkness for him was the pain and the heat. He'd been trying to run for the escape pod on his command shuttle, when he'd been hit again, and the shudder had sent him violently into a spare hydrospanner, and his head had hit the floor hard and everything had gone. Damn you, Hux, he'd thought before he'd lost consciousness.

Everything came back in a blinding fury, pain, heat, memories, as he sat up, heart racing. He was shocked to find his shirt and mask were gone, there were bandages all over him, it seemed, and the pain was a dull, aching throb. His lungs were practically burning and his mouth was dry.

He was very aware of the girl sitting right next to him in tattered clothing the color of sand. About his age, dark hair, dark eyes, sun-tanned skin, a serious expression on her face. Very pretty, in his mind.

Enough of that, he reprimanded himself. Focus on your surroundings. Try to figure out where you are. He could see the rusting interior of. . . an A-Wing? He also saw a tattered cloth over the doorway, and could feel heat seeping in from the entrance.

"We were wondering when you were going to wake up," the girl said to him. He was surprised to hear a Coruscant accent out of what looked like a desert farmgirl, a female Luke Skywalker, almost.

"Where am I? Who the hells are you?" He demanded. He was displeased to hear how vulnerable his voice sounded. How weak.

"You're on Jakku, and my name is Rey. You're the first outsider we've had for some time," the girl said.

"Outsider?" His thoughts were spinning. Jakku? Outsider? Rusted A-wings? Where exactly was he?

"We've had no off-planet contact for nineteen years," Rey explained. "I was just a baby aboard the Star Destroyer when it crashed onto Jakku, making me the oldest child here."

He groaned. The story was now familiar. He was close to Endor, for kriff's sake, and this must've been that missing Star Destroyer. If they had no way to contact the outside world, he would be stuck on this Force-forsaking world forever!

"Who are you?" She cocked her head to the side. "Where are you from? What's it like? Do you have a family? Are you a pilot? Who for-"

"Whoa!" He shouted to interrupt. "Why all the questions, lady?"

"You're the first person from outside that I've ever met," she said simply. "I was just curious."

He groaned inward again. "Well, the name's Kylo. Kylo Ren. Mean anything to you?"

She frowned. "No. Why should it?"

Kylo lay back down and groaned audibly. These out-dated imbeciles didn't even know the Knights of Ren! There went the reputation card.

"Come on, we'd better get going," Rey said after a minute of silence.

"Go where?" He asked.

"My home," she said simply. "The others don't want you on their hands, so you've gotten stuck with me, I'm afraid."

Home. The word stuck in his mouth. It was a foreign concept, something that he never completely understood. It wasn't exactly a type of word the Knights of Ren encouraged, a safe, warm, familial place.

Ignoring his silence, she tossed a sand-colored wad of cloth at him.

"You're going to want this," she said.

He quickly put on the shirt and gathered up what was left of his old clothes, including the mask, and followed Rey outside to where her speeder bike was parked.