The night air outside the AT-AT was frigid and still. Inside it was a little warmer, but not much. Things had gone cold between Rey and Kylo Ren. He had not spoken a word to her since she brought up the Jedi, and she had not tried to initiate any more conversation with him. What was the point if it was just going to end like this? Even though her question had seemed so innocent, Rey couldn't help but feel that she'd crossed a line.

As she lay there on her bed, staring at the broad back of Kylo Ren on the floor nearby, she tried to wrap her head around it. Why was he upset? If he didn't want her to know about his powers then he shouldn't have used them on her. She wondered what had happened between him and the Jedi in the past that made him shut down at the mere mention of them.

If the Jedi were real, that is. For all Rey knew, they were just made up stories told by passing merchants to draw in crowds and sell goods. But Kylo Ren's power was definitely real, and if it was the same power as a Jedi…

Stick to what you know—scavenging. His words still rang in her head and made her stomach ache. She rolled over to face the wall instead so she wouldn't have to keep looking at him. It hurt when he said that word with such disdain. As though she was worth nothing because of what she was.

And maybe she was worth nothing—after all, her own family had left her there to fend for herself. In the entire galaxy, she was still just a sad, lonely little girl. She didn't really matter to anyone or anything.

Suppressing a sigh so that Kylo wouldn't hear the expression of her sadness, Rey closed her eyes. She continued to hurt throughout the night, even when she slept. The hurt crept into her dreams and soured them so that every so often she would have to force herself to wake up, just to get away from the bad. But deep down, she knew the truth: There was no escaping the bad.

Kylo Ren woke somewhere in the early hours of the morning. He had gone to sleep early to avoid any more of the girl's personal questions. She had hit too close to home when she mentioned the Jedi. He had a rocky past with them, a past that he preferred not to dwell on. Dwelling on it made him weak, and weakness would be his downfall.

When he woke, he sat up and looked around carefully. The blue light of dawn was peeking through the window of the AT-AT onto the floor near him. He turned to look at the girl and saw she was still curled up on her own bed, sound asleep.

Good, he thought. I need some air. Kylo reached up and pressed the button on the side of his helmet to lift up the front of the mask. He then pulled it off his head and felt the sweet relief of having the cool air on his face. With his right hand he dragged his fingers through his hair, shaking it out a bit. His left hand took the helmet and set it down gently beside him.

The girl made a noise and he nearly leapt to his feet to hide his face again. But when he looked carefully around at her again, he was relieved to see that she was still sleeping. She looked different now though. Her brow was furrowed and he could see a sheen of sweat clinging to her forehead and shoulders. She made a noise again, and this time he realized what it was.

"No," Rey moaned. "Please—no."

Kylo found himself watching her, curious as to what it was she was dreaming about. Whatever it was, it didn't look good. He was tempted to wake her up, and his hand was actually reaching out for her before he realized what he was doing. His fingers pulled back and he let his hand fall to his side. No, he couldn't wake her up and have her see him like this.

"But I can make things a little easier for you," he murmured thoughtfully. He knew he was showing compassion and it was going against everything he had been taught by the Supreme Leader. But in this moment, he would forsake his training for her. For the girl who made him want to pull away, but at the same time drew him in. Quietly, he made his way over and knelt beside her bed. With as much gentleness as he could manage, he laid a hand on her head and closed his eyes.

He saw what she was dreaming about when he went into her mind. She was a child, sitting alone in the sand on Jakku. Her shoulders shook as she sobbed into her knees.

"Come back," she cried softly. "Please don't leave me behind."

In spite of himself, Kylo felt his heart going out to her. He understood that feeling of abandonment, of helplessness. He saw himself in her small, crying form. A child forced to deal with hardships that no child should ever have to endure. It wasn't fair—for either of them.

"They're coming back for you," he told her. "It's not too late for you."

The girl looked up. She didn't see him, but she looked past him at two figures in the distance. Two figures that Kylo Ren had conjured for her to make the bad dream go away. Two figures she had been waiting years to see again.

Rey scrambled to her feet, tears still in her eyes but no longer streaming down her cheeks. The figures in the distance were blurry, but she knew exactly who they were.

"Mommy…daddy," she choked out. She couldn't believe it. They—they'd come back for her! Not wasting time, she took off in a run towards them.

Kylo Ren smiled as he watched her go. His work here was done. He pulled himself out of her mind and stood. Looking down at her, he was pleased to see that she looked peaceful and serene in her sleep. Then he turned and went back to retrieve his helmet. A small bit of compassion wasn't going to change anything in him. His plans were not going to change because of this scavenger girl. But for a little while longer before she woke up, he still smiled a bit whenever he looked back over at her.

Rey opened her eyes to the golden light of the morning. She was surprised to feel well rested despite the amount of times she woke up. Then she remembered—she'd had a good dream. A dream in which her parents had come back for her. Rey smiled into her cloth pillow. That was a thought that made her feel warm inside.

"Are you ready to work?" a voice asked suddenly, making her jolt. Rey rolled over and saw Kylo Ren, sitting there on the floor looking at her. He still wore his helmet, which irked her quite a bit. Was he ever going to take that thing off?

She sat up in bed and yawned. "Give me a moment to wake up first," she grumbled to him.

He stood and made his way over to the door. "Do what you need to, girl. Eat something and meet me at the ship when you're finished." With that, he opened the front door and was gone.

Rey slid off the bed and made her way over to the bag of food next to the table. She tore off some of the bread and selected some fruit that looked like it would be pretty good to eat. The bread didn't disappoint, and the fruit was an amazing burst of juice, sweetness, and flavor that she couldn't get enough of. She only ate a little of each though. Again, she did not want to hurt her stomach.

After washing up a bit with some water she had in the AT-AT, Rey put on some new cloths, grabbed her staff and some tools she had laying around and headed for the crash site. The morning air was still cool and the sun wasn't all the way up yet. They still had some time before things got hot.

Rey wondered if Kylo Ren would be alright inside his helmet and with all his dark clothing on. Perhaps he would cook like the slabs of meat they sold at Niima Outpost. She smirked at the thought. It would serve him right for refusing to take the stupid helmet off.

When she arrived at the site, Kylo had cleared the sand from the wreckage and was already taking things apart with his Krybite tool. There was an open bag of tools near the cargo hold, and Rey crouched down to dig through it.

"Your First Order has some pretty good tech," she noted as she pulled out various tools to examine them closer. "We should be able to get things done easily with these."

"Easily is not the word I would use," he shot back at her. "A lot of these parts are in bad shape. It may be more than just the alternator and fuel pump that need replaced."

Rey stood and headed over to examine the mechanisms he was referring to. She winced when she saw how they looked. He was right…this wasn't going to be as easy as she thought.

"Well, good thing we're both good mechanics, right?" she offered with a forced smile.

Kylo Ren looked at her for a moment, then returned to working on taking out the busted fuel pump. Even though he was wearing a mask, Rey couldn't help but feel like he had smiled at her statement. At least, she liked to think that he had. As closed off as he was, maybe he did have a heart. He was human, after all. Maybe if she tried harder, she could draw that side out more often.

The day grew hotter as the morning rolled into the afternoon. Rey had set about working on the secondary alternator while Kylo focused on getting the fried fuel pump out and repairing the other damaged parts. It was hard work, but they were making progress.

Rey felt the sweat running down her back. She couldn't help but keep sneaking glances over at her companion. She marveled at how he could work in this heat in such coverings. At any moment, there was a high probability that he would collapse from heat stroke.

When the sun reached its highest and the day was at its hottest, Rey couldn't stand it anymore. Setting her tools down, she bravely approached Kylo Ren.

"You've got to take off your helmet," she said firmly.

He ignored her and continued with his work. Frustrated and not thinking straight from the intense heat, Rey actually put a hand on his arm.

"Hey! Are you listening to me?" she nearly shouted at him. "If you don't take off that helmet and those clothes, you'll die!"

He stopped working and turned to look at her. Realizing she was still touching him, Rey immediately retracted her hand to her side. But she clenched her fists and stood her ground before him. She wanted him to realize the seriousness of the matter instead of brushing her off.

"You want me to take off my clothes, scavenger?" he said slowly through the mask.

Impressively, Rey felt her face get even hotter when he said this. "Not like that," she growled impatiently. "Dark clothing and the sun do not mix out here. You've got to wear something else or you're going to get heat stroke."

He brushed her off. "I will be fine."

"No you won't," she argued. "You're going to bake like a bantha loin in that bucket if you don't take it off."

Kylo Ren made a sound that Rey thought might have been laughter. "I didn't know you worried about my well-being, scavenger."

She opened her mouth to make a counter statement but the words never came out. Rey's eyes locked onto something in the distance behind him. Something that made her heart drop into her stomach.

"Scavengers," she breathed.

Kylo Ren stood there in confusion for a moment before turning around to see what she was looking at. The two of them watched as a band of about a dozen Jakku scavengers made their way towards the ship. Rey started to run for her staff but Kylo stuck his arm out and pulled her back.

"Wait," he said in a low voice.

"They're going to tear us to pieces over this ship," she hissed back at him. "I need to fight them off."

Pulling herself away from him, she ran to her staff, snatched it out of the sand and stormed over to face the approaching band.

"Back off!" she bellowed to them. "There's nothing for you here."

The leader of the band, a lumpy green alien with few teeth and goggles on his face laughed at her. "Well if it isn't the orphan girl. Unkar Plutt told us to come look for you on our way over. He's been wonderin' why you didn't show up today."

"This is a First Order vessel," Rey warned. "I'm helping one of their members do repairs on it."

The band shifted uncomfortably at the mention of the Order, but the leader remained undeterred. "So what? You know the rules around here, girl. Everything is fair game, whether the owner is alive or dead."

She brandished her staff defensively. "If you want this ship, you'll have to fight me for it."

"Gladly," he replied, taking out a rather nasty looking club. While the rest of the band sat to watch the outcome, he charged at Rey. His club raised up to strike her, but it was met by her staff. She pushed him back and made him stumble, but he came back at her with another blow. Rey tried to get a few hits in, but this alien was quicker than he looked. Her blows kept getting blocked whereas his blows she was just barely dodging.

It wasn't long before she stumbled and the club got her in the ribs. Rey cried out in pain as the barbs sticking out of the weapon tore her flesh open and the force of the hit nearly fractured her ribs. She fell onto the burning hot sand, but climbed back to her knees to get up once more. She saw the club rise again and managed to roll and dodge it, but not before it clipped her arm. Another wave of agony shot through her body. She grabbed her staff and raised it up. Rey might be hurt, but she grew up in this environment. She was going to keep fighting until she no longer could. Giving up was not an option.

"What a worthless piece of garbage," the leader remarked as he approached the injured girl. "I'm sure Unkar Plutt will be glad to be rid of you. You're a waste of his time."

"Eat shit," she snarled back. Her eyes watched as his club raised above her once more, and she braced herself for the impact. But it never came. The club stayed in the air, frozen along with the leader's arm and the rest of his body. Rey was confused for a moment, but then she realized what had happened.

"Enough," came the voice of Kylo Ren from behind her. He was approaching her and the leader, walking calmly as if he had all the time in the world. His head turned towards Rey and he asked "Are you alright?"

She was quiet for a moment, stunned by such a gentle question from such a harsh person. It was a question no one had ever asked her before. She shook her head. "No, I'm not."

Kylo Ren nodded. Then he turned back to the leader. "You just injured someone under the employ of the First Order. This girl was helping me fix my ship and you hurt her."

The green alien paled at his words. "Wh-what are you?" he croaked in frightened tones.

His question went unanswered. "Do you know what the penalty is for going against the First Order?" Kylo questioned darkly.

"N-n-no I d-don't," the leader replied.

"Well, you're about to find out." Rey watched as the green alien was lifted into the air and suddenly launched like a stone into the distance. He sailed over the sand dunes and was gone from sight.

"Now then," Kylo continued, turning to face the rest of the frightened band. They had been watching the events unfold in stunned silence and were now slowly backing away from the masked figure before them. "I need a volunteer to get me some things from Niima Outpost. Any takers?"

When there were no replies, Kylo Ren selected a thin human man and pulled him over with his power to where he was standing. "You'll do. I am going to give you a list of parts that we need. You're going to get those parts, no matter what it takes, and you're going to bring them back here. Then you're going to forget any of this ever happened, understood?"

The thin scavenger nodded rapidly. "Understood," he repeated in a small voice.

"The rest of you, I suggest you do the same," Kylo Ren called to the band. "Or else…well, you've seen what happens when you go against the First Order."

The scavengers turned and high-tailed it back the way they came. After they were gone, Kylo Ren went about dictating the list to the remaining scavenger while Rey checked out her injuries. There were some gruesome-looking gashes on her side and some deep scratches on her arm. She felt queasy looking at them. They also worried her greatly. After all, she didn't have much for treating injuries back home.

When the last scavenger scampered off to do as he was told, Kylo Ren walked over and knelt down beside Rey. "You shouldn't have done that, girl," he chastised.

"It's how we do things out here," she replied passively.

"You should have just let me handle it," said Kylo Ren.

Rey turned away. She was in too much pain to argue the subject any further. Besides, her bigger worry was how she was going to treat her injuries now. It had to be soon, otherwise they would get infected and she could very well die. And she couldn't die now—not yet, not until her family came back for her.

She heard her companion sigh. "You're a lot of trouble, girl. Lucky for you, these ships carry very good medical kits." He stood and made his way over to the cargo area. Opening it, he reached inside and pulled out a large blue case.

Rey felt hopeful at the sight. This meant that she stood a chance at getting better now. She gave him a grateful smile. "Thank you," she said sincerely.

He turned away from her. "I think we've done enough for today. Here, take the kit and go home. I'll clean up here and be back soon."

She stood, but didn't move. "But…the ship…you're supposed to go back home today."

He looked down at the ground. "You're in no shape to help me out, and I can't fix it as quick by myself. I suppose…one more night won't hurt."

Rey went to pick up the kit, but winced when her arm stretched out towards it. Still, she was not going to let him see her weakness and try to help her any more than he already had. She could at least do this part herself.

She was no more than a few steps away when Kylo Ren called to her.

"Scavenger," he said.

She scowled at the ground. She'd been through enough hurt that day, and she was done just taking it. Looking over her shoulder, she called back to him "Stop calling me that. I have a name, and that name is Rey. Use it."

"Fine then…Rey. I just wanted to say that you fought well earlier."

His compliment was nice, but her side and shoulder were stinging to no end. "Thank you...Kylo," she replied. She then turned and continued to make her way back home.

Underneath the mask, Kylo wore a small smile as he watched her go. It seemed like no matter what he did to push her out of his mind, she was always making her way back in. She had entwined herself into his emotions, making him do and say things that were completely out of character for him. There was a charm to her, a likeableness that he couldn't shake. He wasn't sure what he wanted of her at that point in time, only that he was impressed by her forthright attitude, her fighting skills, and her courage. Perhaps one more night with her wouldn't be so bad after all…