Rey awoke excitedly, leaping out of bed. Today was the day the new apprentices would be coming. She wanted new friends, and she couldn't wait for more company, and a shipment of sweets.
Ben, sensing her excitement, chuckled and got out of bed with her. She quickly dressed and ate. The day seemed to drag on for her as she waited for the ship to arrive.
Indeed, at noon, two X-wings were escorting the large passenger ship, Amidala.
Rey, Finn, Ben, and Luke were standing in the pavilion, ready to see their new company. The X-wings landed first, revealing Poe and Jessika Pava. Finn ran to Poe and embraced him. Jessika Pava marched up to Ben.
"General says welcome back," she told him. "Also said congratulations for actually eloping. You and Kira Skywalker."
Ben winced at Rey's birth name, but smiled and put his arm around Rey.
"Thank you, Pava."
"Any time, Solo," Jessika said with a salute. "Wedge made a run- he's driving the Amidala."
"Ah, I'll have to catch up with him," Luke said reminiscently. "Thank you for making the trip."
"It's all good," Jessika said with a shrug. "Poe wanted to reunite with his lover and I wanted to see Solo and maybe punch him in the face for all the bantha poodoo he put the General through."
Luke nodded, although his shoulders shook as if he were fighting off laughter.
The Amidala landed, and Rey tried to keep herself from bouncing like a small child in excitement. Out of the ship exited several people. Rey counted seven humans, three Twi'leks, a Togruta, and a strange feathery being.
Excitedly, she rushed over to say hello. Immediately, she was greeted by two sullen-faced teenagers, one wearing a CorSec jacket and her hair in a braid, the other in colorful armor with blue hair.
"Hi, I'm Rey," she said. "Who're you?"
"Jysella Horn," the girl said with a proud air.
"Mical Bridger," the boy with blue hair answered.
"Really?" Rey asked, having heard similar names before. Of a Mirax Terrik-Horn who had occasionally done business with Plunkett on her big red ship. And she'd heard legends of Ezra Bridger. "Wouldn't be related to Mirax Terrik-Horn or Ezra Bridger, would you?"
"My mom," the girl answered.
"My dad," the boy said dryly.
"That's nice," Rey said, slightly miffed by the stuffiness of the teenagers.
A beautiful woman in a black evening dress with a beauty mark and flowing curls approached Rey from behind the teenagers.
"So the rumors are true," the girl said, looking Rey up and down. "My baby cousin came back!"
"Who're you?" Rey asked out of curiosity.
"Of course, you don't remember, do you?" the girl said sympathetically. "I'm Isolt Naberrie- I would be Queen Amidala's great-niece. I guess I'm your second cousin, once removed. And you're Kira. You look like your mother- I remember from when I attended the Academy before Ben. . ."
The air fell eerily silence at the implication of what Ben had done.
"Lunch is being served," Luke declared, his voice carrying over the pavilion. "Jessika, Poe, you're invited."
Rey sat with Ben, Finn, Isolt, Jessika, Poe, and another human girl- well, not fully human. She resembled Jessika slightly, but had fuller cheeks and a rounder body. She wore goggles on her face and had blue-green thick, wavy hair. Looking further, Rey thought she saw some webbing between the humanoid's fingers.
"This is my cousin," Jessika had said when the two girls had sat down.
"Jynnifer Pava," the girl said. "Half-nixie, you see. Native to our home planet."
"Cool," Rey said. "Why do you wear those goggles?"
"Vision problems," Jynnifer said. "Can't fix them at a medbay, there's some problems involved with being half-nixie, you see. Plus, they look cool."
"That they do," Rey said, fascinated by the design. They reminded her of the goggles she had in her home on Jakku that she'd made with a stormtrooper helmet and spare leather she found in the Finalizer.
She realized that she missed making those things. She didn't miss the endless waiting, the mindless waiting on Jakku as she fought to survive another day. But she did miss the crafting. Her little doll was probably still sitting on the table in the AT-AT.
"Excuse me," she murmured, and she scurried away up to the top of the hill, where she had first met her father. Sobs stuck in her throat. There was so much she didn't remember and so much she wanted to forget at the same time. She wanted to forget the hungry nights as a little girl, the endless work, the time she'd gotten her period and thought she was dying. But she wanted to remember who she was before that.
She cried atop the mountain, not sensing the one who stood behind her, the one who had once been that lonely too.