Ch. 3
Daniel and Rey had spent most of the evening practicing Rey's ability to levitate objects and move them around. What started with just a few pieces of scrap metal quickly turned into Rey lifting her speeder high into the air.
"Well I'd say that you're definitely getting better at moving things around," Daniel said in amazement.
"Really," Rey asked excitedly.
"Rey, you just lifted your speeder into the air, you're definitely getting the hang of it, in fact, I'd say that you're picking it up faster than anyone I've ever seen," Daniel told her, making Rey blush at the praise. "Now, I'm going to put a piece of scrap over in the sand and what I want you to do is use the force to guide it into your hand. Now I know that it sounds similar to what you've been doing, but this once requires a little bit more concentration," Daniel said as he set the piece of metal a few feet away from Rey, before returning to where she was standing and stood behind her looking over her right shoulder.
Rey looked at the scrap and raised her right hand and focused on it, using the technique that she had been using while practicing levitating objects. She manipulated the force around the scrap and it started going toward her slowly, until it landed softly in her hand. With a triumphant smirk on her face she turned to look at Daniel.
"How'd I do," she asked him, while bouncing the piece of scrap in her hands.
"Well, you did ok, but you'll need to have it go faster if you ever lose your lightsaber in a fight, it could be the difference between life and death," Daniel said as he took the scrap out of her hands and put it back to where it was originally. "Now do the exact same thing except… faster."
Rey nodded and at him and turned to face the scrap and began to focus again. She took a deep breath and concentrated on moving the Force around the piece of metal. Rey saw the path that she wanted the scrap to go along with and moved the piece of scrap as fast as she could along it… unfortunately she may have overshot it and the scrap may have gone over her right shoulder and hit Daniel in the face.
"OH NO," Rey shouted when she heard Daniel yell out in pain from the impact. "Are you ok?!"
Daniel was holding his bleeding nose and was stumbling around but managed to steady himself instead of falling down.
"Yeah, I'm… I'm fine Rey," Daniel said as he tried to stop his nose from bleeding. "You uh… you did good, just uh… just make sure it gets into your hand next time," Daniel told her.
"I'm- I'm so sorry," Rey said before dissolving into a fit of giggles.
"I'm glad my pain is a joke to you," Daniel joked as BB-8 brought him a rag to help with the bleeding.
"No, it's not that, it's just that… I really thought that I was going to do it, and for a split second I thought I had it, and then the next thing I hear is you getting hit with a piece of scrap," Rey told him before beginning to laugh like a maniac.
"Well, if I've been enough entertainment, then I think that's enough for today," Daniel said as he wiped his nose and started to head into the walker.
"Daniel wait," Rey yelled as she ran to him. "I- thank you, thank you for teaching me how to do this. I would have never thought that this would have been possible for me, so… thank you," she told him sincerely.
"No problem Rey, and honestly I'm happy to be doing it. I haven't taught anyone in five years," Daniel said as they both entered the AT-AT.
"You've taught other people," Rey asked surprised.
"Yeah, I mainly just taught advanced force techniques, and a few lightsaber combat classes," Daniel said, taking a seat near his backpack.
"So, do you still teach, or are you strictly a Resistance pilot now?"
"Uh, it's a little… difficult to talk about right now. I-I would rather keep it to myself."
"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring any bad memories up," Rey told him.
"No its ok you didn't know. I shouldn't have said anything, it's my fault," Daniel said with a pained smile.
The two spent the rest of the night talking, about a multitude of subjects, whether it was about the Force, life of Jakku, life off Jakku or even how the two came to learn how to communicate with droids with the series of beeps and chirps that they made. Though the time, and events of the day eventually caught up with them and they were forced to retire for the night.
"Hey Rey, before you got to sleep, could I ask you a question," Daniel asked as he laid out a mat that he kept in his pack in case of missions like this.
"Sure. Ask away."
"Will you really come with me if it meant you could continue learning the ways of the Force," Daniel asked as he laid down on his mat so he was facing Rey.
Rey was silent. She knew that she really wanted to go, in fact she felt like she was… destined to leave. But then her thoughts went back to her family. She would always remember the last moments with her family, her father's last words to her. That they would come back and they would be together, as a family.
"I-I'm not sure. All I've ever wanted to see was the different worlds out there in the galaxy, but… but what if my parents come back and I'm not here. What would they think? Their own daughter giving up on them," Rey said with tears filling her eyes.
"Do you think they would want you to give up on yourself though? Do you think they would want you to just stay on this planet and let you waste your potential, salvaging scrap metal for tiny portions of food? Because I don't think that any parent should want that for their child," Daniel told her as he looked at her.
"I… I don't know. I'll think about it. That's all I can say right now. G-Good night," Rey said as she rolled over on her makeshift bed, facing the wall.
"Good night Rey," Daniel said as he followed her example and rolled over, only to come face to… top part?... with BB-8.
BB beeped quietly, and rolled around in front of Daniel who only looked at the droid with amusement.
"It's her choice if she wants to come with me BB, I can't force her," Daniel whispered to the droid, who in turn let out a small series of slow and lengthy beeps. "Oh come on BB, yeah I want her to come with us, but only so I can teach her the ways of the Force," Daniel said looking at the droid in shock.
BB simply let out two slow whistles before turning and moving into a corner to go into stand-by while the two humans slept.
Daniel was dreaming, he knew he was dreaming but he couldn't control anything. Instead he saw a light, it was faint, but he began to walk towards it.
"Daniel," A slightly familiar voice said.
"Hello?! Who's there," Daniel yelled out, as he continued to walk towards the light.
"Yes," a voice that sounded like his but much younger said.
"I need to talk to you," the voice said.
"Who are you?! Where are you?!"
"About what," his voice asked.
"We have been friends ever since you came to train with the Jedi, and I have seen you grow into a very powerful Jedi. And because of that, and because I respect you, I am going to give you a chance to join me," the voice that Daniel now recognized said. "I have been contacted by someone who has told me that he can teach me things that Master Skywalker cannot. He told me that, there is so much of the force that Master Skywalker won't teach us, and that he would teach me and, anyone that came with me," the voice of Ben Solo said.
"What do you mean teach us what Master Skywalker, won't teach us," Daniel's voice questioned, as he remembering the curiosity that he had felt when he first had the conversation. Thankfully Daniel woke up before he was forced to relive one of his greatest regrets.
Daniel opened his eyes and sat up as he remembered his dream, or memory, or whatever it was. He got up and began to walk out of the AT-AT to try to clear his head when he noticed that Rey was starting to wake up. Pushing his nightmare to the back of his mind Daniel got some of the rations out and began to eat while he set Rey's out for her.
Rey got up from where she had slept and stumbled over to the "table" where Daniel had put her food and muttered something that sounded like a, "good morning."
"Seems like she isn't much of a morning person, doesn't it BB," Daniel said to his friends droid who made a nodding like notion.
"It's not that I'm not a morning person, it's just that I don't usually stay up that late practicing my newly found telekinetic powers," Rey told him sarcastically.
"Welcome to being Force sensitive," Daniel said with a smile while raising a glass in Rey's direction. "So, what's on the schedule for today," Daniel asked making Rey look up.
"What do you mean, I thought you were going to leave today," Rey said and BB-8 beeped in agreement.
"Well I am. But I told you that you had time to think about it, and a few hours, plus time spent sleeping is not a lot of time to think about it. So, I'm giving you today," Daniel said as he took a sip of water. Rey looked happy while BB-8 began to beep wildly, a few of the beeps being swears, at Daniel, and rolling around on the ground of Rey's shelter. "Calm down BB, Poe will be fine, he's a survivor, and an incredibly good pilot, not to mention extremely lucky, if anyone can survive First Order interrogation, it would be him," Daniel said managing to get BB to calm down, then he turned back to Rey. "So, what are we doing today?"
"Well, I was just going to take a few pieces of scrap to Niima Outpost and trade for some supplies," Rey said as she began to eat some of the food that Daniel had given her.
"Alright then once you're done lets go," Daniel said with a grin.
"Uh, one problem, I only have one speeder, and it only has one seat," Rey told him.
"We'll figure it out," Daniel said with a small smile.
It was not a comfortable ride to Niima Outpost for Daniel. He had to hold onto the side of the speeder the entire time at high speeds and unfortunately Rey only had one pair of goggles, so needless to say he was glad when the speeder finally stopped.
"You ok," Rey asked Daniel as he began whipping sand off of his face and rinsed some out of his eyes using water from his canteen.
"Yeah, I'm ok, it's just that a lot of sand got into my eyes," Daniel said as he finally opened them and blinked out the remaining sand.
"Yeah well, that tends to happen when you don't have goggles," Rey joked.
"In my defense, I didn't plan on spending more than an hour on this planet… and I forget them in the ship," Daniel said making Rey laugh.
The trio made their way to Unkar Plutt's station and stood in line waiting for their turn to trade. Daniel took this time to look and see all the different types of people that inhabited the outpost. Most of the people just seemed like they were trying to get by, but there were a few who were obviously taking advantage of the scavengers.
Soon it was Daniel and Rey's turn to talk to Unkar and trade whatever scrap Rey had left for a few portions. Rey handed the three pieces of scrap that she had to Unkar who grabbed them and began to examine them, trying to determine what he thought their worth in food would be. After a minute he sighed and told Rey that they would equal out to one-half portion.
"What? But you gave me a half portion for each one last week," Rey told him.
"What about the droid," Unkar asked, before Daniel stepped in front of Rey.
"Droids not for sale," Daniel told Unkar harshly.
"I don't believe I was talking to you."
"The droids not for sale," he repeated.
"Even for… Sixty portions," Unkar said as he began to place several piles onto the counter in front of him.
"Droids not for sale," Rey said from behind Daniel and grabbed the half portion before walking away, BB-8 following her.
"Give all these people good deals as long as your station is here," Daniel said as he waved his hand in front of Unkar.
"I'll give these people a good deal as long as my station is here," Unkar repeated, hazily.
"Good boy," Daniel said before walking away.
Daniel was refilling on water while BB-8 was with Rey, when he heard a man come running into the outpost pleading for water. Daniel's Jedi goodwill kicking in, he was about to go give him some of the water that he had, when he heard BB-8 beep loudly, signaling that he was in danger. Forgetting all about the man that was dying of thirst, Daniel ran toward Rey and BB-8, only to find the two thugs he had beaten, and the one he mutilated, trying to steal BB-8 and Rey was managing to hold two of them off, granted one of them didn't have a hand, but she held two off.
Jumping into the fight Daniel punched the man who had tried to capture BB-8 knocking him out, before taking out his blaster and pointing it at the two remaining thugs. Seeing as how they were out matched the two ran away like cowards.
"Well that was fun," Daniel said to Rey as he freed BB-8.
"Your Definition of fun is very strange," Rey told him when BB-8 began to beep erratically saying the same thing over and over again. [THEIF, THAT'S POE'S JACKET!].
Daniel turned and say a man with dark skin standing there looking at them. Daniel immediately looked at the man's jacket, and by the Force it was Poe's. Daniel began to walk towards him with an angry look on his face, and the man began to run.
"Rey go around, cut him off," Daniel told her as he began to chase the man.
The man ran as fast he could and turned into a tent and he really thought that he might get away from him when- WHACK! Rey hit him under the chin, and sent him sprawling on the floor.
"Where do you think you're going, thief," Rey asked the man, just as Daniel entered the tent.
"What?! What do you mean, thief," he asked with a shocked look on his face, which then turned to pain as BB-8 shocked him. "OW! What was that for?!"
"How did you get that," Daniel asked him, his voice sounding dangerous.
"Look, I've had a pretty bad day so why don't you all- OW," he shouted as BB-8 shocked him once again.
"Answer my question. Where. Did. You. Get. That. Jacket?"
"I, got it from Poe, Poe Dameron, that was his name right," he asked looking between Daniel and BB-8. "He got captured by the First Order, but I helped him escape… but, he didn't make it."
"Liar," Daniel said.
"I'm not lying! We crashed and the Tie fighter got sucked up into the sand," he said.
"I don't care what you think happened, if Poe died I would have felt something, we have a brotherly bond. If he dies the Force would have let me know since were close," Daniel told him.
"Are you a Jedi," he asked.
"That's not really important," Daniel said to him.
"So you're with the Resistance," Rey asked changing the subject.
"Obviously," the man said after thinking for a moment.
"What are you doing out here," Daniel asked having a very strong suspicion that he wasn't part of the Resistance.
"Uhh, c-command sent me looking for you, Poe and BB-8, since you were… overdue," he told them.
"What's your name and rank soldier," Daniel asked with an emotionless face, while Rey looked at the two with amusement.
"Uhh… S-Sargent Finn, Resistance Special Forces, so you better watch your mouth soldier… what about you," Finn questioned with false authority.
Giving an overly dramatic performance of being distressed Daniel gave a sloppy salute. "Oh please forgive me Sargent Finn, I'm just a lowly Lieutenant. Lieutenant Daniel Antilles, Resistance Starfighter Corps, and ground forces."
"Oh… you're a Lieutenant… I'm sorry sir I didn't know," Finn said becoming more and more nervous.
"It's ok soldier, just don't let it happen again," Daniel said with a smile making Finn feel at ease. "By the way, did you hear anything about Orion squad and their mission to Raxus Prime, has anyone heard from them yet," Daniel asked with what seemed like genuine concern.
"Uhh no, when I left there was no news on Orion squad," Finn told him.
"Damn… hopefully soon. Oh and you said that you're SpecOps," Daniel asked receiving a nod from Finn. "Oh ok, Osiris, or Saber division?"
"Saber," Finn said confidently.
"Ok, ok," Daniel said quietly… before grabbing Finn by the throat and holding him against a solid wall in the tent they were in.
"Daniel what are you doing," Rey yelled.
"He's lying to us Rey," Daniel told her, putting up an emotionless mask as he loosened his grip slightly.
"What do you mean I'm lying," Finn managed to get out.
"You want to know? Ok, First of all, Poe and I aren't overdue for about two more days, Orion squad didn't get deployed to Raxus Prime, and neither Osiris or Saber division exist in Resistance SpecOps," Daniel said as he turned to look at BB-8 and Rey. "Did I get everything," he asked, to which Rey nodded with a small smirk, and BB-8 beeped.
"Good. Now who are you," Daniel asked.
"Ok I'll tell you just put me down," Finn said. Daniel considered it and decided to put him down since he figured it would be annoying to hear what Finn had to say while holding him by the throat. Setting him down Daniel took a few steps back and placed his hand on his blaster just in case Finn tried anything.
Taking a deep breath Finn began to tell his story, how he was conscripted from birth and trained to fight for the First Order, but that after the massacre that Kylo Ren had ordered Finn saw what the Order was truly like and left. He told them how he had helped Poe escape, about the crash, and then finally meeting them.
"Quite a story," Daniel told him.
"It's the truth."
"I never said I didn't believe you just that it was quite a story… sorry," Daniel said, his emotionless mask dropping," for the whole chocking you thing, it's just, you never know who you can trust."
"It's ok," Finn said.
Suddenly BB-8 began to beep wildly and led them to the entrance of the Tent where they saw two Stormtroopers asking a scavenger a question, who in turn pointed towards the tent the four were in.
"Shit, we gotta go," Daniel said as he grabbed Rey's hand and ran with BB-8 and Finn right behind them.
"What are you doing Daniel," Rey asked right before the troopers began firing at them. The four kept running from the troopers until they ducked into another tent.
"Why are they shooting at us," Rey asked Finn, as she motioned to Daniel, BB and herself.
"It's because they saw you with me. I'm sorry but you guys are marked now," Finn said making Daniel and BB laugh, or do whatever sound droids made to represent laughter.
"Finn, I get that you think they're here for you, but I think the map to Luke Skywalker is a little more important," Daniel told him with a small smile before he turned to Rey and became more serious. "But he is right though, you are marked now," he told her.
"What does that mean," Rey said dreading the answer she knew he would give her.
"Welcome to the Resistance Private Rey," Daniel told her with smile as he put his hand in front of her. Scared but also excited, Rey shook his hand with a smile gracing her face.
"This is very nice but in a few minutes, were going to have a lot of Stormtroopers and Tie fighters all over this area," Finn said, sounding very panicked.
"Right. Umm, Rey, where are the ships," Daniel asked as he took out his blaster and his lightsaber.
"Just on the outside of the outpost," Rey said just as screeching could be heard outside of the tent they were in. "What is that," Rey asked as it started to grow louder.
"Oh no," Finn said as he recognized the noise, and so did Daniel.
"TIE FIGHTERS," they both yelled. Daniel grabbed Rey's hand once more and dragged her out of the tent and the four companions ran as fast as they could towards the ships.
"We can't outrun them," Finn yelled as he began lagging behind.
"Yeah no shit! That's why we're running towards the ships," Daniel yelled as he saw the Tie fighters coming in for another attack run. "Rey which ship?!"
"The Quad Jumper," Rey yelled out, as she began to lead her companions to the ship.
"What about that one," Finn asked as, pointing to another ship he continued to follow her.
"That one's garbage," she yelled to him just as a Tie fighter blew up the quad jumper.
"Well now it's a flying palace," Daniel yelled as they turned and ran for it.
"Agreed," Rey said, and BB-8 beeped in agreement.
As they boarded the ship Rey and Daniel went into the cockpit while ordering Finn to get on the gun.
"Have you ever flown something like this," Rey asked him as the ship powered up and she checked several of the controls.
"Well, it's not the first time I've flown an unfamiliar ship in an escape attempt," Daniel told her.
"Is that supposed to make me feel better," Rey asked as she stopped working and looked at him.
"If you want it to," Daniel told her before laughing nervously.
The ship began to power up and shuttered as it got off the ground. Not even ten feet off of the ground and the ship tilted to one side and hit the ground.
"Told you," Rey said as she and Daniel looked at each other," garbage."
"No she just needs a little… encouragement," Daniel said as he closed his eyes.
"What are you doing," She asked when she felt the ship even out and begin to fly upwards.
"That should do it," Daniel said as he opened his eyes and noticed Rey's confused face and simply said," Force." Daniel then took control of the ship. "Rey make sure the shields are up. I don't want those Ties to shoot this thing down just as we got her up," Daniel ordered as he began to maneuver the ship. "Why it that gun not firing," Daniel yelled at Finn.
"I'm can't get a clear shot," Finn yelled back.
"Neither can they but they're still shooting at us! Start firing," Daniel ordered.
"We need cover, NOW," Finn yelled.
"Rey, this is your area where to," Daniel asked her.
Rey began thinking about areas where they could fly with cover, when it hit her. "Graveyard of Giants," Rey said as she took the controls, and flew them to where most of the scavengers worked.
Avoiding most of the shots that the Tie fighters were throwing at them Rey managed to get them to the scrap fields. She began to weave in and out of the wrecked ships, providing some very much needed cover for the ship. Rey had managed to separate the two fighters and just as one of then was about to circle back Finn managed to shoot it down. Crashing in the sand Daniel gave off a small smile.
"Looks like the scavengers are going to have some new scrap to trade. Good shot," Daniel said.
"Uhh guys we got a problem," Finn said.
"What," Rey asked.
"The turrets stuck in the forward position I can't move it," Finn yelled to them.
"Don't worry I got an idea," Daniel said as he saw an opening in a wrecked Star Destroyer, and took the controls from Rey.
"Please tell me you're not about to do what I think you are," Rey said with a nervously.
Smiling Daniel got on the intercom and said," Ladies and Gentlemen this is your pilot speaking, if you haven't already done so, please buckle up."
Rey gave a small whimper and strapped herself in while Daniel began to focus. Putting the engines at full power the ship he flew into the Star Destroyer with the Tie fighter close behind,
"Are you really doing this," Finn asked in shock.
"No Finn this is a dream," Daniel said sarcastically, as he turned and saw a dead end coming up.
"OH NO," Rey said in a panicked voice.
"Don't worry Rey, only a fifty-fifty chance that we'll die today," Daniel said as the ship kept going for the wall.
"WHAT?!"
"Nothing," Daniel said as he pulled out of the ship back outside. "When I say now you cut the engines, ok?"
"Why," Rey asked him worriedly.
"Trust me Rey," Daniel said as he made the ship climb high into the air.
"Ok," Rey said with a determined look. Daniel continued to climb and then the Tie fighter showed up behind the ship.
"NOW!" Rey cut the engines and the ship flipped and began to fall towards the ground giving Finn the perfect shot, destroying the fighter.
"Bring 'em back on Rey," Daniel yelled as Rey brought the engines back to life, and keeping the ship from hitting the sand bellow them.
Daniel brought the ship into orbit and sped out of the system
"That was fun," Daniel said as he and Rey left the cockpit.
"Once again, your definition of fun disturbs me," Rey said with a smile.
"Hey great flying," Finn said to the two pilots.
"Great shooting," Rey said to which Daniel nodded in agreement.
"How'd you do that," Finn asked Daniel.
"Practice," Daniel said simply making his companions look at him with shocked faces.
"You've done that before," Rey asked.
"Well, it was in a Y-Wing but… basically the same concept," Daniel told them, to which the three of them laughed, but them heard BB-8 beep inquisitively at them.
"Don't worry BB, we'll all be back to base soon enough," Daniel said as he knelt down on one knee and patted BB.
"So where to now," Rey asked, as they heard a hissing and smoke began to rise from the floor.
"That's not good," Daniel said as he ran to lift up a grate on the floor. However Rey jumped in and began to check what was wrong. "What is it," Daniel asked.
"It's the motivator, get me a Harris wrench," Rey told the boys who began to look for one.
"So where are we headed next Daniel," Rey asked him as he handed her a Harris wrench.
"Were going to the Ilynium system," Daniel told her.
"The Ilynium system," Finn asked.
"I need the engine tape," Rey shouted to Finn, who began to look around for them.
"Look I'm going to set a course for Ilynium, I'll be back," Daniel said leaving the two humans and one droid alone to fix the motivator.
"So how long have you know him," Finn asked Rey as he continued to look for the tape.
"Since yesterday. I really need that tape," Rey told him. Finn grabbed and showed her another roll of tape and she shook her head and pointed to a few other rolls.
"So what were you two doing on Jakku," Finn asked.
"Can we do this after we're not in danger of getting killed by toxic gasses," Rey asked. Finn kept grabbing the wrong tape, and remembering that she had the Force, Rey summoned the correct roll, and disappeared into the floor to fix the motivator.
"How'd you do that," Finn asked with wipe eyes.
"I'm Force sensitive, like Daniel," Rey said as she fixed the damaged part. Suddenly the ship rocked and started moving.
"Uhh, guys… I think we're in trouble," Daniels voice shouted from the cockpit, making his two companions run to his side. "I think someone found us," Daniel said as a large ship began pulling them in.
"Hostile or friendly," Finn asked as he began searching the cockpit for a weapon.
"I don't know but that, red light is giving me a bad feeling," Daniel said as he grabbed his lightsaber, and held his blaster out for Rey.
"Oh no, I-"she began to protest.
"Take it. Finn can handle them hand to hand and I have my lightsaber," Daniel told her, while gently placing the blaster in Rey's hand. "Remember we don't know if they're on our side, or hostile, so be ready for anything," Daniel told them as they took up positions near the door.
They waited for about a minute before they heard the pressure return to the room outside of the ship, and footsteps making their way toward the ramp. They heard a few growls that Daniel thought were Wookie but he couldn't tell since the ships thick walls made them sound muffled.
The ramp lowered slowly and in came two figures, one was a Wookie with a Bow-Caster, and the other was a human male with an old, but obviously modified DL-44 blaster pistol.
"Were home Chewie," Han Solo said as he returned to his beloved Falcon.
Well here you are, don't forget to review,and I apologize if it is terrible- Pacco1