Hi all, I would love to update more often, but summer holidays as a teacher means a lot of travelling. So I'm still keeping up with my weekly updates, whilst having to write blogs for Educational Riddle Hunts, yay! Ergh, adulting. I feel like a 14 year old who has been set homework for summer; I wish I could just ignore work and write A Sky of Troubles. Anyway, please review, favourite or follow.

Chapter 2.3

Rey had only spoken a handful of words to Commander Dameron since their first meeting after the escape from Crait. He was not what she had expected. Finn, of course, had told her all about how he had rescued Poe from the Finalizer and how Poe had been incredibly grateful when Finn had come up with a plan to disable the First Order's hyperspace tracker. She had also heard from many people that Poe was a brilliant pilot and a good friend to rely on, but so far all of this information had been second hand and she still needed to form her own opinion.

As a result of this 'hearsay', she was surprised to find Commander Dameron bolshie, impulsive, and a little bit intimidating. His demeanour didn't quite fit her assumptions. Maybe it was because she found men difficult to read. She had spent most of her life alone, and her early opinions on the opposite sex had been formed through her encounters on Jakku - most of which had ended with a knee cap to the groin or a quick escape and hide tactic. She tried not to dwell on those memories.

However, since leaving Jakku, Rey had been introduced to many new people and many new social rules. She still could not fathom as to why males held doors open for her or asked to carry her backpack, especially when most of them had seen her lift those boulders with her mind… So when Poe Dameron ordered her to keep up with the group or be left behind, she was surprised.

Rey shivered in her light clothes. It had looked considerably warmer from the Falcon. How could it be cold on a place with so much sand?

When the Falcon had breached the atmosphere, Rey was instantly reminded of the hot wastelands of Jakku: the barren deserts and lack of civilisation reminded her of home. Once again she doubted her decision not to return to Jakku. What if her parents did turn up? Stranger things had happened in the past year.

They were filthy junk traders that sold you off for drinking money. Her memory of Kylo's voice was so clear in her mind that she was half expecting him to be there, behind her, ready to strike.

She turned around. She was still alone.

I've found a new home now; a home where I am needed, wanted. She walked away from Falcon's windows and memories of the past, ready to explore somewhere new.

Rey knew little of Jedha, she knew that its Holy City had been destroyed over thirty years ago, and that apparently this was where many Jedi had made a pilgrimage to eons before, but otherwise she was quite ignorant. Looking around as she descended the ramp, she was surprised that this waste of space had actually been a spiritual gathering point for the Jedi of history, although the only Jedi she had met had chosen to live on an isolated island drinking Thala-siren milk. Maybe she shouldn't have been so surprised; the Jedi were a hard bunch to pin down. She was however, quite disappointed not to feel an overwhelming connection to the Force when her feet touched the ground. This was supposed to be the moon that was named after the Jedi after all! Yet she felt nothing more here than she had back on Jakku or in the Falcon. She tried to push down her disappointment and tore her eyes away from the rocky sands around her.

'Oi! Rey! Keep up or be left behind,' Poe's voice called out from the front of the group that were making their way to a distant mirage of buildings.

Rey shivered and jogged a little to catch up.

The expedition group was made of six people. BB-8 had been left back on the ship with Finn as the droid was too easy to identify - the First Order were still after them. Poe and C'ai, the insepeparable pilots were upfront, whilst Leia was conversing with the two soldiers, Nonna and Jaydill, just ahead. Even though the real mission was to get Leia and Rey to Ahch-To, the others would still need to collect supplies and organise the refuel in order to keep up the facade of the stopover. Rey and Leia would only have a few hours on the island before they had to return.

Nonna saw Rey trailing behind: ever the loner.

'Don't worry about Poe, he treats everyone like that. It's one of the reasons that everyone likes him. He doesn't have favourites really,' Nonna said in a quiet tone, not wanting to seem like a gossip.

Rey had not spoken to many of the Resistance members. Most had asked her questions about Luke and the Force that she could not answer. Some had asked about the First Order and her capture, which she did not want to remember. All had looked at her as if the shattered lightsabre on her belt might be used to cut them down at any moment. She was used to being an outsider, but she had never been feared like this before.

Nonna seemed to fall amongst those whose interest in Rey outweighed the threat of the unknown. Her footsteps quickly fell into the same pace as Rey's.

'I can't believe that all of this was once the Holy City.' Nonna's hand stretched out across the echoing crater as though swiping a display to view the past. She looked towards Rey to try to gauge her reaction.

Nothing. Rey thought it best not to get too close to people. She only seemed to hurt them or lose them.

Nonna, however, was not one to give up easily. 'Did you know that this was where the Jedi and Siths harvested crystals for their lightsabres?'

'What?' Rey asked, her curiosity betraying her.

Nonna smiled. 'Well,' she skipped ahead a bit and walked backwards so that she was facing Rey. 'I know there aren't any Jedi left now, but my grandmother was a data analyst when she was younger, and she spent part of her life working at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. She knew a lot about the history of the Jedi and she loved helping young Padawans - that is what they called young Jedi in training,' Nonna explained seeing Rey's wondering expression. 'My father told me that she loved those youngsters almost as much as him. He wasn't old enough to join and didn't show any connection to the Force. It was lucky really, considering…' Nonna went quiet, her unspoken words stretching into the void of the crater.

Although sometimes it felt like Rey had lived most of her life underneath a rock, she was not oblivious to the stories. As a child she would sometimes sneak into the kitchens of her first master's household and steal scraps of food.

When she was around the age of seven, there had been a particularly kind cook who had a young daughter of five years. Occasionally the woman, whose name was lost to Rey's memory, would tell bedtime stories into the night, well aware that little Rey was hiding in the corner with wide eyes and keen ears. Stories of princesses and slaves falling in love, of magical Jedi that could control a person's mind with their words, of thunderous battles in the sky and hundreds of men all with the same face.

Yet, there was one story that was repeated numerous times to the many children who dared to disobey their parents: if you don't behave, the dark man in the black mask will come with his sword of fire and take you away. The colour of the sword changed in different versions, from blue to red, sometimes it was purple even, but the description of the man stayed the same, the child killer wore a black mask and if you listened very carefully, you could hear his slow, deep breaths in the nighttime. BANG! The parents would nearly always end the story by jumping their children and tickling them in their beds before tucking them in.

But there was no-one to laugh with Rey, no one to tuck her in. She would return to her corner and scratchy covers, still listening for the deep breaths of the masked man, thinking that maybe it wouldn't be too bad if he was to take her away.

'Anyway, she was reassigned to a new data job on another planet, where she met my grandfather.' Nonna had returned to her chatty self and looked thoughtfully at the crater that the team were now edging, stretching miles across the land. 'Grandma was never the same after Coruscant was destroyed. A lot of her old friends had stayed there.'

Rey looked at the woman beside her. It seemed that everyone had their own reasons for joining the Resistance, perhaps she should try to trust them a bit more.

After what had seemed like hours of Poe's 'encouragement' to set a faster pace to avoid the dropping temperatures, the group had finally reached the large shanti town on the east side of the crater. The light was now beginning to fade behind the distant mesas, casting long shadows across the rusting and crumbling walls of the town.

'Are you sure this is the place, Threnalli?' Leia frowned past Poe towards the Abednedo pilot.

Threnalli stroked his dangling mouth tendrils and looked at the sky and then at the shadows. 'I'm sure this is near the meeting point. In fact we are a bit early, let's head to the inn and wait for him there.'

Leia looked at Poe and was greeted by a shrug of the shoulders and a best foot forward.

They passed the small community that had insisted on staying near the Holy City ground after the desolation caused by the Death Star. A community of sceptical and isolated survivors who were stealing glances at the strangers as they passed through the streets.

C'ai eventually stopped in front of a crude entrance that had been hacked and carved into the side of a small mesa. There was no door, just a dark corridor and the faint orange glow of a fire inside.

Rey longed to be out of the bitter cold and took a step towards the entrance. Her chest bumped into a strong forearm blocking her way.

'We'll go first to check it out. We don't want to walk into a trap.' Poe moved across her path and he and C'ai led the way, their blasters concealed under their heavy coats.

Rey opened her mouth to argue back, but a hand on her shoulder made her pause. Leia was wearing her patronising expression that made Rey feel like a child again.

'Let them go. They want to be useful, and we must allow them to do their part too. Besides, if C'ai's contact is already here, it's best that he goes first.' Leia looked around at the cold desert and huddled further into her fur jacket to wait for Poe and C'ai's return.

Rey could see the shadows of people flickering on the corridor walls as they passed by the fire out of was in there with them? She needed to learn more about this world outside of Jakku. She had been thrown from battle to battle, and her world was limited. These shadows were like her view of the world, undefined and unclear.

I have to see the world for myself. I cannot live my life being controlled by others.

Rey pushed past the other guard, Jaydill, and headed into the darkness in search of the light.