Gravity
NotSoJollywood
Disclaimer: If I owned Star Wars, there would be a hell of a lot more Reylo smut in The Last Jedi, just saying.
Summary: She tried for five years to push him out, to forget about the connection that they had. Five years, and Rey had all but moved on to find her place in the galaxy, at the heart of the Resistance. But, like gravity, he kept pulling her back in.
Author's Note: I'm so sorry that it took longer than expected to bring you all chapter four. I had a really difficult time writing this chapter, and I think I rewrote it around four times. The writer's block hit me hard this chapter, but I have to say that the awesome feedback I received from each and every one of you really helped me to push through. Please continue to let me know what you think.
Also, for those of you who were a little worried about how heavy the Damerey is in Gravity, just know that I haven't forgotten my true OTP!
Chapter Four
The first thing Rey noticed when the Stargazer finally docked on the rebel base of Naxos was the harsh humidity. As soon as the doors to the massive cruiser swung open, before she even stood from her seat, the atmosphere of the jungle planet hit her both suddenly and hard. She momentarily choked on the heavy air as her lungs adjusted to the planet's dense atmosphere. Of course, she had read the briefing on the Resistance's newest temporary home. She had been made aware of the planet's weather systems.
And yet, she had not expected it to be so debilitating.
Mother of moons, it was oppressive. She had grown up with overbearing heat in the deserts of Jakku, but that air had been dry and arid, not sinking in moisture like Naxos's.
For the briefest of moments, Rey found herself longing for the simple desert planet that she once called home.
She swallowed hard, suppressing both the lump in her throat and all thoughts of her former home. Now was not the time to dwell on such things —the Resistance was on the move again after another successful mission. With the aid of the medical droids, she gingerly stood from her seat on the transport. Grabbing the aluminum crutches from their place at her side, she ambled off of the ship's platform grate and onto Naxos' lush soil. Immediately, she could feel the base of her walking aid sink helplessly into the mud.
Rey groaned as she looked down at the damage —it was just her luck that her support sank two inches deep into the dense sludge. Leveraging all of her body weight onto her uninjured leg, she heaved the aluminum contraption loose. But having overestimated the amount of force needed to free herself from the mud, she tumbled gracelessly over —falling on both of her knees and into the muck in the process.
"Ah, kriff!" She cursed as a sharp pain radiated once more through her injury. Although it had been a week since the successful commandeering of the prothium freighter —and they had successfully escorted it to its destination at Naxos —Rey's injury had not yet fully healed. The medic droids required her to remain in the medical wing on base for daily monitoring until they decided she was healthy enough to be released. But Rey could not help the sinking suspicion that Poe had ordered the machines to keep a watchful eye on her and ensure she did not disobey his direct orders.
Sometimes, if her prison wardens were merciful, she could enjoy a blessed walk on her own — although, if her current predicament was indication, she was struggling to do even that.
"Wait," a familiar voice called out, and Rey could feel her face flush pink at the thought of anyone seeing her helpless like this — let alone him. A coarse hand was offered to her. "Let me help you."
Rey shook off Poe Dameron's hand, her wounded pride getting the better of her. It had been the first time that she had seen him since he reprimanded her for her successful saving of the freighter mission. As she made her resentment of his decision no secret, he avoided coming to see her in the medical wing for the entire week. While Finn, Rose, and Chewbacca all visited her, Poe was the only one who claimed to be too busy. She could not say that she had minded all too much, as her own anger towards him hadn't yet faded.
And, yet, here he was — offering her a helping hand.
Rey stubbornly turned from the extended hand, ignoring the crestfallen look on Poe's face as she grabbed the crutch that had landed two feet in front of her. Standing the crutch up, she used it as leverage to pull herself from the ground. She found herself cringing as excruciating pain shot up through her injured leg when she put her body weight on it. But she ignored the discomfort, determined to prove that she could take care of herself without any help. She managed to lift herself up, only swaying occasionally as she attempted to balance herself on the unsteady ground.
When she was upright and steady with the crutches gingerly under her arms, she looked to see Poe's eyes fixated on her. There was a well of sadness in his feature, coupled with an expression that Rey could not quite place. He brought his hand to the back of his neck and sighed heavily. "Rey, I— "
But the last thing that Rey wanted to hear were the barrage of excuses she knew were about to come out of Poe's mouth. Rey hobbled along on her crutches, getting stuck in the mud with each passing movement. Poe caught up with her as she once again struggled to get her walking aid free from its stuck position. "Rey, will you just talk to me?"
For the first time in a week, Rey finally met Poe Dameron's gaze — she returned his concerned expression with a hard stare of her own. "That depends. Are you going to take back my discharge from duty?"
Poe closed his eyes and exhaled, "It's not that simple. What you did was a—"
But Rey had heard enough, and she began her clumsy trek to solid ground once more. She hobbled, one step at a time, until she reached the edge of pavement that would lead her out from the humidity and Poe's penetrating gaze. Against her better judgement, she threw a glance over her shoulder to see Poe rooted in the spot where she had left him. He watched her with that same sad and disappointed expression chiseled onto his features as when he had come to relieve her of her duties. When he noticed her eyes on him, he offered her a small, sad smile.
Don't just stand there, a voice from deep inside gnawed at Rey, do something.
She wondered if she should forget her anger and resentment. Let the past die, Ben's words echoed in her mind, causing a shiver to run up her spine. But instead of heeding the advice, Rey only hardened in her resolve. She turned her back on the general, and staggered inside.
This time, Poe did not follow her.
Rey stared at the blank white ceiling of the medical wing, exhaling sharply as the droids cleaned her bandages for the day. She couldn't help but feel annoyed at the intrusion on her time, especially when the droids ignored her insistence that she was absolutely fine. Her injury was feeling much better than it had days prior, and it was getting easier for her to walk without aid — or at least, that was what she told the machines tending to her. She wanted to be free of the constraints placed on her by the injury, as well as by the leadership in the Resistance.
In truth, since landing on Naxos yesterday, Rey had already grown bored of the humid jungle planet. She had not stepped foot in the lush greenery that the planet had to offer since disembarking from the Stargazer — not that she particularly wanted to repeat the incident with her crutches any time soon. But even now, getting stuck in the dirt seemed as a preferable alternative to the confines of the hospital bed.
With a gentle pat on her injured leg, the droid finished changing her bindings. "Now, was that so hard?"
Rey ignored the droid, knowing full well that if she opened her mouth to reply only sarcasm would come out. Without another word, the machine finished up its work, leaving Rey alone to finally relax.
She continued to stare at the ceiling above her for a few more moments before the boredom began to set in again. And so her eyes darted from the pristine white ceiling to the small window on the other side of her. She looked enviously at the others just beyond the glass pane. It was true she had absolutely detested the humid planet upon her first arrival, but something had changed in her as she continually stared out of the window for hours on end. Even in her days on Jakku, where she was deprived of both shade and water, she never shied away from adventure. Like the strongest of magnets, the jungle seemed to call to her.
Picking up her aluminum crutches that had been carelessly dropped on the floor when she first arrived, Rey steadied herself. She clumsily exited the medical wing of the base, turning random corners until she found the nearest exit. People passed her by, offering small smiles as they did. No one mentioned the unfair relief from duty that had been thrust upon her, and for that she was grateful. The last thing she wanted as she tried to forget her worries was to be reminded of them. But she was fortunate enough to be left alone.
A small devious smile lit up her features as she gently tapped the button to open the air locked doors, and it only faltered slightly as the sultry atmosphere washed over her. She would not let the balmy atmosphere deter her any longer. Moving the crutches first to guide her steps, she planted her feet on the ground.
Mercifully, she did not sink in.
The planet was alive with noise —something that she had not noticed upon her first arrival the day before. Resistance members were chatting excitedly as they passed by, or calling across open fields to one another, and she could hear the thunderous booms of X-Wing fighters as they flew overhead. But beyond that, there was the ambient noises of life — creatures that communicated to one another in unfamiliar squawks and caws. And even beyond that, she could hear a faint and gentle hum beneath the ground.
Naxos itself was calling to her.
Carefully, so she did not have a repeat of her fall from yesterday, Rey moved along the unpaved ground. A thrilling sense of adventure washed over her as she neared the treeline, and her heart thundered in her chest as she crossed into it. The magnetic pull she felt while confined to the hospital bed only intensified as she reached the jungle itself.
As soon as she crossed into the canopy covered jungle, it was as if she had entered a different realm altogether. The sounds of the Resistance faded into silence, as if they were not there at all, and all she could hear were the ambient noises of the surrounding wilderness. Somewhere nearby, she could hear the faint sounds of running water — a spring, perhaps. She could hear the caw of bird-like creatures overhead, and her eyes darted upward to see a scaled species flying above her.
The wings of the creatures lit up into a brilliant shade of green, and Rey's eyes widened like a child at the bioluminescence. In all of her travels around the galaxy, she had never seen anything like that before. A small laugh escaped her throat as she watched the creature circle around the canopy overhead. She could have stayed there watching the magnificence before her all day, but she could still feel the gnawing sense that she had to explore further.
She had not reached her destination yet.
Tottering onward with her crutches, Rey took in the different sights and sounds of the jungle floor. It appeared that many species on Naxos shared the luminescent properties, and Rey marveled at them all. As she walked deeper and deeper into the greenery, the canopy of trees above seemed to grow thicker and thicker and the dark grey sky all but disappeared. And with her progression, the call that she felt deep in her bones only grew stronger and stronger.
Following that gut instinct that told her to push deeper into the jungle, Rey found herself at an outcropping of rocks. Her brow furrowed — the formation seemed out of place in the lush greenery that surrounded it. Unthinkingly, she moved toward it. And, upon closer inspection, she could see eerily familiar carvings etched into the deep gray stones that appeared to be faded with time.
She let out an audible gasp as the realization dawned on her; the faint carvings before her were similar to markings found in the Jedi texts she kept hidden away on the Millennium Falcon. Her shocked expression quickly devolved into a deep frown — she had no access to the books at the moment, and she was unable to translate the etchings before her. Her shoulders collapsed sadly, but she stared long and hard at them, hoping to commit them to memory.
Curiously, she ran her hand delicately over the faint engravings. Closing her eyes, she tried to picture just what this place had been eons ago, and why she felt so completely drawn to it. But as she did so, she could feel herself being pulled violently from her present state and into the unknown.
When she opened her eyes again, the grey skies of had been replaced by utter darkness — far too dark for her liking. She could not see further than a few feet in front of her, even after her vision adequately adjusted to the blackness. And it was cold. Mother of moons, it was so cold. She could see the whiteness of her breath dance in front of her with each exhale and the hair on her arms stood as chills radiated up and down her body.
Something was not right —she could feel it deep in her bones, a truth that she was certain of as if it were her own name. She could feel it through the Force, an upset in the delicate balance that tethered the very universe together.
Carefully, she took a step — one foot in front of the other. With one hand gripped tightly around the saberstaff at her hip, she began to explore the immediate area around her. The jungle certainly looked like Naxos, with the same familiar vines and canopies that she had been exploring only hours earlier. Only this time, the planet was void of any life. The brilliant creatures that she saw throughout the jungle floor were all gone now, leaving Rey entirely alone.
You're not alone —
Neither are you.
The words seemed to reverberate through the jungle and the trees, until she felt the planet's core — and herself —shake with them. The echoes soon died down, leaving the faint sounds of a vibrating pulse in their wake. Her eyes darted through the forest floor, desperately searching for the source of the faint heartbeat.
Her pace quickened as she tore through hanging vines and fallen tree limbs. She stumbled over rocks and sunk deep into the mud, but she paid no mind to the obstacles in her wake. The pulse was getting louder now, desperately calling for her to find it.
It was summoning her.
Just how long she had been searching for it, she did not know. Minutes could have passed, but for her it felt like hours. Eventually though, her hunt for the source led her to a deep cavernous structure made long ago. The faint pulse grew into a thunderous heartbeat as she neared the entrance to the structure, and instinctively, she knew that this — this temple — was where she needed to be. She could feel the weight of ages past hang heavy over her head as she entered it, and she shuddered.
But Rey's curiosity got the better of her, and she passed through the mouth of the cave. She walked for several minutes through the opening, her hand gliding along the walls as she did so. She could feel the raw power radiating through the walls, an energy she hadn't felt since her time on Ahch-To. Her own pulse quickened as the cave walls opened into a deep cavern, and the thundering heartbeat that had summoned her to this strange place abruptly stopped.
In the center of the cavern was a raised dais —an altar unlike one Rey had ever seen before. It was less grand than the ones she had seen on her missions on Coruscant, and much more practical. Gliding towards it, she let her fingers gently dust the top of it. The stone was rough and cold underneath her tender touch. Her eyes darted all over, drinking in the sights before her. A forest of radiant kyber crystals hung from the roof of the cave, and she marveled at the beauty of it all.
She could have stared at the iridescent beauty for hours, but the gnawing feeling that she was there for a specific purpose tore her away from natural magnificence. She followed the sound of dripping water until she reached the back of the cavern. In the darkness, she could see water trickling down from the roof of the cave and into a large bottomless pool at its base. Rey stepped over to the natural fountain, and gazed deeply into it.
The pure blackness of the water below gave way, and Rey found herself being pulled in.
She didn't fight it; pure instinct told her that all attempts at resistance would be in vain. Allowing the Force to guide her, she allowed herself to fall. And as she descended, she could see, hear and feel different echoes —echoes of past Jedi, a voice from the back of her mind corrected —as they surrounded her.
The scene around her shifted from a chasm of nothingness to blinding sunlight as it reflected off a sea of sand. Her breath hitched; she was instantly reminded of Jakku, although she did not recognize any of the traditional landmarks of Niima Outpost. In front of her, she could see a young, sandy-haired slave boy — her heart panged as an unexpected sense of familiarity washed over her — accompanied by an older gentlemen and the echoes of the promise of freedom, sweet freedom. she could feel the unmistakable wave of compassion that his master felt for him. The sentiment was only fleeting, but welled deep inside of her core.
The scene before her changed, and she witnessed an archaic circle of council member discussing what Rey could only assume were matters of great importance. She couldn't hear what they were all saying, but she could so potently sense that they could not see what was directly in front of them — all blinded by their own hubris.
She was falling again, this time through a series of spectacular temples and extravagant libraries. The Jedi Archives, she knew where she was instinctively —she had heard about this place from unquenchable thirst for knowledge and justice in the galaxy was so palatable here, and it left Rey awestruck as she passed quickly through the fleeting images. When she finally stopped her descent, she landed on the cold, hard ground at the center of the same council chambers she saw only moments earlier.
Next to her stood the same sandy-haired boy from earlier, only now he was a man grown.
One of the council members leaned forward in his seat. "You are on this Council, but we do not grant you the rank of Master."
Rey could sense the tension in the room, as well as a rise of indignation from the young man beside her. She truly could not blame him, as she felt the same sensation in her own gut. A burst of anger exploded from the him. "What?! How can you do this? This is outrageous, it's unfair . . . I'm more powerful than any of you. How can you be on the Council and not be a Master?"
But the stoic Jedi did not budge at the impassioned plea. "Take a seat, young Skywalker."
Skywalker. The name hit Rey like a blaster to the chest, but before she could even react, the scene changed around her again. The young man was still there, alone in a darkened room. Rey could sense his anger and uncertainty as it overtook him. She wanted nothing more than to reach out and extend a comforting hand to him, but as she lifted her palm to do just that she could sense another presence in the room.
A young woman, whose features reminded Rey so strongly of Leia, fluttered into the scene before her. Although her belly was swollen by pregnancy, she was positively radiant in a blue satin dress and elegant braids. Suddenly, Rey was overwhelmed with another emotion that swelled in the young man next to her — love. Love, mixed with the same rage and fear for the future that had been with him just moments before.
"Anakin," the woman's face furrowed with worry as she cupped his cheek in her hand. "People are beginning to speculate. It won't be long before the Jedi Council finds out and separates us."
The Jedi's hands gently closed over hers, as he whispered promises that no matter what transpired, the Council would not be able to tear them apart. Anxiety flooded Rey's senses as the woman's word's sunk in — how could the Jedi deny something so pure? She felt indignation on the part of the young couple before her and her own anger began to rise.
It is time for the Jedi to end. The words that she heard once before broke her from her reverie, leaving her choking and gasping for air.
When she finally came to, her hand was outstretched, tracing the ruins etched into the beautiful stone. Her crutches lay forgotten at her side. Sound and life had returned to the jungle on Naxos, and there was no sign of the kyber cave and its hidden temple that she had found earlier. All traces of the Jedi had disappeared, leaving Rey with no explanation or clues to make sense of it all.
Nothing but Luke Skywalker's words echoed in the deep crevices of her mind.
Rey bolted out of the dense jungle and back to the Resistance base as fast as her injured leg would carry her. She ignored the greetings and smiles from her peers as she approached the center of activity —she was a woman on a mission.
Upon limping through the doors of the medical bay, she darted for the small space between her assigned bed and the cold floor. With a single hand reached under the crevice, she pulled out a weathered, moss-colored satchel. Breathing a sigh of relief, she opened the bag to reveal the ancient Jedi texts she had stolen from Ahch-To.
The texts were not something Rey perused often. Soon after taking them, she realized that the archaic teachings they held were confused and muddled, and oftentimes opened to a vast array of interpretations. She had set them aside in recent years, instead letting her own feelings and instinct guide her practice in the Force. But as she thought back to the familiar stone markings from deep in the jungle, she hoped that they would provide her with some answers.
She delicately opened the smallest of the ancient books, but the spine nevertheless cracked from use. A small wave of dust wafted from the cover, and Rey's nose tickled from the flecks in the air. Gingerly, she turned the pages as her eyes scanned for anything that resembled what she saw earlier that day.
She had not gotten very far into the first book before a presence disturbed her concentration. She could sense Poe Dameron before she could see him. Shutting the book in front of her with a small snap, she tucked it carefully back into her satchel before he could see what she was doing. Aside from Chewbacca, no one else knew about the hidden texts. She preferred it that way.
When Rey turned around to face Poe, she was greeted first by a small, apologetic smile. He took a cautious step towards her before raising his eyebrows in inquiry. "Can I sit here?" motioning to the hospital bed in front of him.
Rey hesitated for only a moment before giving him a deliberate nod. He joined her, sitting on the edge of the carefully made bed. Rey regarded the man in front of her cautiously, wondering if she should say something to him. After the muddled vision from the jungle, Rey simply did not have the energy to waste on yet another fight. But before she could even piece together a sentence, Poe cleared his throat. "I just wanted to say that I am sorry."
She had not been expecting that.
Her brows rose, as she asked incredulously, "You mean you're putting me on active duty again?"
The general smiled sadly before shaking his head. Rey was about to speak up, to direct her anger and indignation towards him once again, but Poe continued. "I'm sorry that I didn't fully explain why I made the decision that I did."
Rey only furrowed her brows.
"It was something that Leia said to me not too long ago," Poe ran his fingers through his dark curls, and Rey momentarily bristled at the mention of the great general's name. "She was worried about you."
"Worried about me?"
"'She's important' she would say all the time, usually slapping me upside the head when she did so," Poe's face lit up in a half-hearted smile at the memory, and Rey could not help but do the same. "You're the last of the Jedi, Rey. Leia never let me forget it. And, if I'm going to be perfectly honest, I don't know what we — what I — would do if you-"
"-if I died." Rey finished the morbid thought for him, but the words sounded strange and bitter on her lips. Poe nodded as all of Rey's anger and indignation seemed to momentarily dissolve. She had faced the prospect of her own mortality many times, most recently in the battle that had taken Leia from them. Even she wondered what would happen to the Jedi order if —if she—
Rey shook the intrusive thought from her mind.
A sense of understanding washed over her. It was, after all, her duty to study the ways of the Jedi and pass on what she knew so that their traditions and knowledge did not die out.
It is time for the Jedi to end. Luke's words from her vision echoed loudly in her head, causing her to involuntarily shudder. Her thoughts momentarily drifted back the books hidden under the hospital bed. What secrets about the Jedi Order did they hold? The thought gnawed at her, as remnants of her vision flooded her mind once more.
"Rey?" Poe called gently, bringing her attention once again back to the present.
Her head snapped in his direction, and she a blush of embarrassment covered her cheeks. But the indignation at her unceremonious demotion still ebbed at her. Taking a deep breath to regain her composure, she calmly replied, "I am still not happy about being sidelined. I'm not some precious sandstone that will crumble and break easily."
Poe nodded, as if he had been expecting her to say that. "I know that, Rey. We all do. But I can't have any of my officers disobeying direct orders, even if they are perfectly capable of handling dangerous situations. I have to treat you the same way that I would anyone else."
Deep down, Rey knew that he was right. In fact, if she had been in his position, she would have done the same thing.
"But—" Poe continued, as his right hand dug into the pocket of his uniform, "while I can't have you return to active duty just yet, I was thinking that there was another way that you could help."
From out of the front pocket of his uniform, Poe turned over the palm of his hand. Inside, Rey could see a tiny black and silver computer chip that glistened in the harsh light of the medical bay.
Her brow furrowed as she looked at the small device. "What is that?"
"Data files," Poe explained as all of the energy and charisma that he had been lacking these last few days finally returned to him. "And there are a lot more where this came from. One of our last recon missions returned with boxes full of these files — all from the time of the Empire and even the Old Republic."
"And what do you think is on these files?"
Poe bit his bottom lip. "We aren't entirely sure. We know that the First Order has been adapting a substantial amount of technology from the Galactic Empire, so we were hoping any information on the weapons systems or any indication of what they might be doing with all of it. The new class of dreadnoughts are equipped with defenses we suspect are imperial in nature. We need to know how to take them down."
Rey could recall perfectly well just how deadly the new class of weapons were, and how difficult it had been to escape her last encounter with one.
"Research," Rey grumbled, and she could not help but think that her talents were being wasted. "You want me to do research." But despite how she felt about this assignment, she grudgingly accepted the small computer chip from Poe's outstretched hand. She was not happy with her busy work, but the books tucked away underneath her bed would just have to wait — the Resistance had to come first.
Whether Poe did not notice her hesitation, or simply chose to ignore it, Rey could not be sure. But as she took the data files from his outstretched hand, his expression lifted into his signature charming smile, and he brought his lips down to Rey's cheek. She leaned into the gentle peck, attempting in vain to let go of the anger and resentment that had built up inside of her the past few days.
Research wasn't her first choice, but she was obligated to follow orders no matter how incredibly boring they were. Besides, this would give her the opportunity to clear her head and get a feel for what she was going to do next.
She was going to bring the First Order down one way or another, that much she was sure of. They were the spark that would light the way to a new order.
Yes, a pair of brown eyes appeared in front of her, followed by the dimming of noise around her, you can certainly try.
