Chapter 1: Fight and run
Rey- point of view
She was descending the ruins of a Star destroyer. Her arms hurting a bit as she was slowly climbing down a wall full of gaps. Some gaps were made from scavengers climbing, some from aging and some from the debris of the ship itself.
She could remember the first day she began her job as a scavenger. She was afraid to climb up on high places and this wall, she was descending was her greatest enemy to overcome, but now she almost had no fear of climbing it, accept for the fear of her hands slipping from the extra sweat that was now gathering at them because of the heated air that blew inside the wreckage.
She descended slow and steady, careful not to slip.
She came to a stop upon suddenly seeing something she believed was valuable inside one of the gaps on the wall she was descending.
She had never notice this item before so she reached inside the gap and soon realized she can't even get to it.
After a few tries of stretching her arm as much as she could, the girl pulled her arm out of the gap. She began scanning the proximity of herself for any other gaps she can hold on to forming a plan how to get there and how she intended to reach for the valuable item.
She climbed up a few gaps and held herself tight at the gaps before she lifted her leg and reached inside with it.
She kicked the metal item a few times and heard it fell down. It hit a few times against some other metal before it landed in the sand.
She pulled her leg out, to check inside the gap what item fell.
Her valuable item was nowhere to be seen so she assumed it must have fallen onto the sand on the bottom of the hanger room she was in. She decided to climb down and check.
In a few minutes she was at the bottom where her feet landed in the sand.
The girl looked around and found the item she was looking for. Walking towards it, she picked it up and observed the metal piece. The girl wiped the sand away with her shirt before putting it in her bag.
Satisfied with her scavenging for the day she pulled out of the bag a metal bottle and drank what little water she had left. The water had slight taste of tea which she cherished a lot.
Scowling at the bottle for not giving her more water she closed it and put it back inside the bag. While walking out of the Star destroyers' hanger bay she closed her bag.
She looked at her right beside her feet at a small sand hill half a meter away from the ship itself and smiled, knowing none of the other scavengers managed to find her morning scavenging treasure even today.
Thank gods none of them were here anymore at least she didn't hear any in a close proximity for at least twenty minutes.
Kicking at her small sand hill the small metal parts on top of the big metal slide were revealed to her.
She brushed the sand away with her hand and pulled them towards her speeder standing near-by, where she loaded the smaller parts in her bag and placed the metal slide in the net which was tied to the speeder.
Turning back towards the ship she ran to some other wall of the ship where she normally hid her big findings which no one, since she invented this technique of hiding her scavenged parts ever found till now.
Noticing from a far a few dragging lines coming from her sand hill, panic began to rise within her. Running towards her hill, she jumped on top of it and began digging and wiping sand away with her bare hands until she found a few pipes, but there was nowhere to be seen a big piece of a blast door which she spent at least three hours jumping on top of it to tear it down.
Suddenly she heard dragging sounds across the sand that coming from behind a corner of the ship. She decided quickly what she wanted to do so she picked up her pipes and ran to her speeder. The girl placed the pipes in the net and pulled her staff out of it. She threw the staff over her shoulder where it stayed on her back. She made sure the pipes were secured and could not fall down.
She reached in her bag and pulled out the speeder keys and started the engine.
The speeder came to life and she jumped on it and hurried towards the sound.
She raced around the corner of the Star Destroyer and saw a humanoid male dragging her piece of a heavy blast door towards his own speeder.
She hurried past him and stopped two meters away from the males' speeder. She jumped from her own and ran to the thiefs' speeder.
Pulling out a sickle like knife from her pocket she stabbed it at the speeders controls which dropped the speeder down at the sand, showing she destroyed its' up lift.
Satisfied with her small revenge she jumped from the speeder as her angry thief approached.
The girl now noticed the humanoid male was a human.
She was only praying the thief was not a skilled fighter as she would try to steal it back from him.
The man approached closer as he dragged the blast door in one hand and pulled out a blaster from his pocket with his other.
He aimed and pulled the trigger.
She always felt there was something out there telling her how to survive. With this feeling guiding her she managed to survive many encounters and this one was no different.
She dodged the blaster bolt to her right.
He fired again and again until he ran out of ammo, with the girl only receiving a few scratches of the bullets on her arms and legs as she dodged the rest.
Throwing the blaster away he pulled out a knife from his other pocket as he dropped the blast door near his speeder.
The thiefs' speeder was now standing between the two as they stared at each other intensely.
Observing him closely while she backed away slowly. The man with his somewhat sun burned and exposed face walked around his own speeder, approaching her as he swung his knife, going through his knife swinging exercises.
She was afraid this would happen but she wouldn't run away from the money that piece of a blast door could give her.
She had a staff hanging over her shoulder and chest, resting on her back she remembered. She put the knife in her pocket and pulled her staff over her head.
The girl took a battle stance with her staff in hand.
Her self-training was now paying off as she stood as a somewhat skilled opponent.
She tightened her grip as he charged at her around the speeder.
Remembering he doesn't have any sand goggles on him she put hers over her eyes before she swung her staff into the sand, lifting it up towards the thief, blinding him.
The thief screamed from the burning feeling in his eyes which stopped him in his tracks. The girl used this opportunity to hit him with the end of her staff in his stomach.
The man fell to his knees and began screaming from pain and cursing the girl for doing this.
She ran around the mans' speeder and began dragging the door piece over the sand, while carefully watching his movements and reactions to the sound.
"Fine take your piece!" he shouted as he allowed the girl to drag her reward to her speeder.
Once she dragged her piece she attached it to the back of it where she activated the magnet.
The door piece was lifted up in the air and stayed levitating by a magnet field.
Making sure everything was secured before she jumped on her speeder and thanked the man.
Feeling pity and a bit angry she speeded towards the way she came from without looking back.
"Thieves, why don't they scavenge for their own junk?!" she shouted, talking to herself, as she speeded across the desert, observing the falling apart Star destroyers which she passed many times by.
How many years has it been since her parents left her, a nine-year-old girl, on Jakku in such a hurry? She had grown to believe it was because they wanted to protect her. She knew her parents were bounty hunters. She suspected they were hunted by their peers because of jealousy, knowing they made quite a lot of money because of the expansive silk they wore just before they both hugged her and flew away on a star ship.
She believed they could overcome their peers and so she waited for days. Soon days turned into months, months into years.
How many years has it been? Eight, nine? Or has she lost time all together? No she hasn't, she scratches one line on the wall for every day that passes since they left her. Every day she grew inpatient and nervous, thinking of where her parents were and if they were even alive. Sometimes she would imagine them putting her to sleep as she slept in a Walker not far from the city she was approaching.
Every day she needed to work harder. Wake up before dawn and scavenge for the most valuable parts she could still find and bury them in sand before any of the morning scavengers come.
She spotted a city wall in the distance. Hurrying towards it before the sun gets too high and the air too hot to breathe.
She just hoped the thief she encountered this noon will be clever enough to stay in the shade of the Star destroyer and try not to fix his speeder in this heat.
Growing closer and closer to the city she directed her speeder towards one of the houses outside of the wall.
Around the house that was build out of scavenged parts she saw many scavengers cleaning their parts.
She would soon join them.
Stopping her speeder and parking it near the other scavengers' speeders. Before jumping from her speeder she observed her surroundings for any city thieves.
Once she saw no one dared to approach her she hoped she would not get robbed later today.
Jumping into the sand she walked to the back of her speeder and deactivated the magnet. The heavy blast door fell into the sand startling all the scavengers to look at her direction.
A few seconds of silence passed but soon after most of the scavengers continued whatever they were doing.
The girl untied her net and took her keys from the speeder while she was still watching her surroundings.
She began dragging the heavy door and the net towards the counter hoping she could get money exchanged before they rob her.
The buyer was shocked to see her drag a piece of a blast door to his house.
Of course she could not lift it so the buyer called three alien males that came from his shop to help her hold it up lift so he could inspect it from all angles to tell her how much is it worth.
The shop owner came from behind his counter outside from his comfortable cooled room.
Her buyer inspected it closely and spoke after a few circles around the valuable piece.
"You got yourself a small fortune." He said and went back inside his room to start counting the credits she deserved.
The man came back with the largest credit pouch she have only seen the rich walk around with.
Once he gave the pouch in her hands one of the scavengers pulled out a blaster and shot at it.
The credits scattered all around her.
Suddenly all the scavengers rushed towards her credits, shooting at each other and a few came in her directions as well.
She dodged them gracefully while she picked up her credits and placed them in her bag but was soon surrounded by the scavengers that survived the shootings.
Surrounded by all directions accept her back that was protected by the shop, she began to fear for her life.
All of the scavengers talked amongst themselves agreed they will shoot her and split the credits equally.
Her stomach dropped and she was filled with dreaded fear.
Truly fearing her death now as they all aimed at her, she crouched down, cover her head with her hands as she screamed: "P- please take my credits, s- spare my life!"
The only thing she heard was: "So you could get revenge on us? No way." One of the scavengers said and removed his safety lock from his blaster, revealing he joined the fight recently.
Panic rose within her as she couldn't take it anymore and began screaming. Screaming from panic and fear for her survival.
Suddenly she felt a strong wind surround her and only heard bodies falling in the sand one by one as if they were pushed by something.
She rose her head to see what happened.
The scavengers were all growling in pain as they rolled around the sand on their backs, while some were still in shock, but all of them watched her with shocked eyes.
She didn't know what was going on but she only knew that if she intends to run in the city she would need the credits.
She began shoveling the credits in her bag along with the sand.
Taking almost all the credits she received she got up and began running towards the door that opened to the shop. Running full speed through the shop she bumped into a few things and tripped at least twice, but she managed to run out of the front and into the crowd.
She bumped into a few people there before she decided to run in one direction and disappear into the crowd.
She ran and ran until her legs began hurting. Turning a corner, she decided to stop and take a breath, hoping they lost her trace.
She put her hood on and walked into one of the bars near-by.
She knew this bar and sometimes drank cold tea here, but right now she needed help.
She entered and the loud music hit her ears.
She observed the rich dressed guests talking among themselves sitting at the tables and many bodyguards along with them who were now eyeing her and seeing her as a potential threat.
She watched them reach for their weapons, which made her terrified from the trauma before. She hurried to the counter where she sat down and began to play with her fingers.
This was a secret message to the bar tender instantly telling him she needs help right now.
He whistled to one of his waiters and as the waiter approached, the bar tender said: "Give this lady a private room."
The bar had a few private rooms for the ones that reserved their seats and for the rich customers. But she was none of the two, though she could call herself somewhat rich now but she didn't know how much of credits she managed to shove in her bag.
The waiter escorted her to one of those private rooms and asked her what she would like to drink as she sat down on the couch behind a table.
She ordered some cold already prepared tea and the waiter soon left the room and closed the door behind.
She quickly ran to the door and locked it, making sure that no one could get in.
She ran back to the couch and slowly moved it away from the wall and it soon revealed an air vent. She removed the bolts by unscrewing them with her sickle like knife, not caring how much sound she produces because it is all covered by loud music coming from the speakers in every private room.
She placed all the screws in her pocket as she removed the cover of the vent and placed it next to the hole that will soon be her escaping route.
Knowing that the waiter will soon return she jumped over the couch and pushed it all the way to the wall. She heard the waiters' footsteps and quickly ran to the door to unlock it.
She stepped beside the door and began walking up and down the room.
The waiter entered and believed she got so bored of waiting for her tea that she began walking around.
He placed the tea cup with a half a liter opened bottle on the moved table and turned towards the girl who stood at the corner looking angry. He bowed with his upper torso and began apologizing for the long wait. She sent him off with a wave of a hand and he soon left the room again.
She drank her tea cup and closed the opened bottle and placed it in her bag. In a hurry she left the exact amount of credits to pay for the tea on the table, before she unscrewed her staff in three parts and placed them all in her bag. Once she checked the hallway and made sure he left, she removed the couch from the wall once again, but this time a bit less.
She climbed in the vent backwards as she needed to pull the couch back to the wall and screw the cover of the vent back on it. Thank the gods the vents had large openings for her hands to pass through so she could do it without a problem.
Not even one of the screws fell out of her hands as she screwed them back onto the vent. She practiced it well.
She was glad the bartender turned off the ventilation as the whole bar would smell of her sweat if he hadn't.
She was flexible and small enough to climb around the air went and the sweat even helped get through some corners that she would else need a few minutes to maneuver herself in a position so she could move pass them.
She was in the air vent for at least half an hour until she reached the exit on top of the roof.
Once she climbed out of it she inhaled deeply, happy to finally breathe fresh air, but the air was heated and the sun was highest, so she needed to move fast if she doesn't want to have a sun burn. She jumped from the roof of the bar and landed on the roof of the building next door.
She repeated the same on this roof and kept jumping from roof top to roof top running across the city.
She was glad the gaps between the roof tops were small yet they were large enough to fall through and crash down to the street if she hadn't had that fast pace of running.
Meanwhile she ran across the roof tops of the city, she made sure to not run into any glass pottery or get tangled up in the clothes that were hanging there blocking her way.
She needed to run to a specific house at the other end of the city where she would hide in the attic of an old womans' apartment and wait out those greedy scavengers. The apartment wasn't just a hiding place for times like this, but also a hiding spot for the times when the sand storms would hit the city.
During the sand storms she would often think of an old abandoned rusty building, somewhere there outside of the city walls, hidden in the vast sands of Jakku, that she somehow found, by allowing a feeling to lead her there.
She could finally see the house and the attic, but it was just a main street wide gap between her and her goal, so she slowed down her running and came to a stop and observed the busy street below.
She was searching for any familiar faces and style of clothing of her fellow greedy scavengers. When she found none, she jumped down on a balcony and then jumped over the busy street on top of the fence of the balcony at the other side.
She somehow managed to land on the balcony fence and stepped down upon the balcony itself. Beside the balcony was a rope that was attached to the window of the attic above the balcony.
She climed up the wall with the help of the rope and climbed inside the attic through the window.
Finally, at her destination she sat down to calm herself and observed the public down below, not just for the scavengers, but also for entertainment, as she had nothing to do but wait them out.
Growing bored, she emptied her bag upon the sandy attic floor. It was full of sand, small scavenged parts, credits, her empty water bottle, the full glass bottle of tea and a few fruits she managed to steal on her way to the bar as she ran through the crowd.
She knew she can't return to that scavenging house nor to her Walker home at least not for a few days so she decided she will sleep here. She slept here at the sandy floor attic countless times through out the years she has been on Jakku so sleeping here would not be a problem.
After running across half a city she started to feel fatigued as the heat made her sleepy.
She emptied her bag of the sand that didn't wanted to drop on the floor in the first shake of her bag, emplying it compleatly.
The girl picked up her scavenged parts and shake them of sand and placed them in her bag. She did the same to the fruits but began eating one of them as she placed the rest inside. When she ate her fruit she began counting her credits carefully placing them on the floor in stacks of ten as she remembered she is not alone in this apartment and one floor below lives the old woman who is blind but can still hear.
She counted enough credits to get her off world and to see the galaxy again like she used to do with her parents, but where would she go? She knew there was a high chance that her parents will never return but didn't wanted to believe they were dead.
Her heart began racing. While she screwed her staff back together she imagined sitting in a ship leaving Jakku and stop being the girl who wants her parents back.
She stood up as she gathered enough courage to decide that tomorrow or maybe after tomorrow she will go to the ship port and ask for a shipment off world. She didn't know where she would go but she would at least go off this hot shitty planet and visit the galaxy, she remembered was so colorful.
She would at least be happy to do something different in her life than scavenging and trying to not get robbed. There was a time she helped a store owner but didn't liked to wait for the buyers or that time when she helped as a waiter in a bar for normal citizens unlike the bar for the rich she visits for tea. She didn't enjoy the stares and seductive looks she gained so she quit and returned back to scavenging.
Yes, she would make herself happy by exploring the galaxy, with this thought in mind she packed the rest of her things back into the bag and laid her head on it as she slowly fell asleep under the window on the floor of a half sandy attic.
Kylo- point of view
He stood behind his officers as they listened to all frequencies of their force sensitive spies all around the galaxy looking for force sensitive children and Jedi.
He was growing inpatient as he observed the screens.
How long has he been standing here? Twenty minutes, an hour or more?
He can't tell as he walked up and down the room full of intelligence officers. Many of them were middle aged but some, where old.
He always despised adults but he can't go by and not admire the loyalty and effort these people put into their work.
It's almost as if they love what they are doing.
He has been here a week, waiting for them to find any force sensitive for him to hunt down and bring him or her to Snoke.
Suddenly a message came through.
On one of the tables those men were working, a hologram of a weird dressed man appeared.
"I shot the bitch as much as I wanted but I couldn't hit her!" His face seemed sun burned and pissed off.
"Where are you?" Kylo jumped between the two officers to get closer to the hologram.
"Jakku." And he added the coordinates of the planet and at what city she was hiding in.
The officers whispered among themselves. One sentence was all he could hear from all the whispers of the older officers: "Where our Empire had its last stand."
He turned to that officer who looked proud and sad at the same time.
"He must have truly be loyal and dedicated to the Empire." Kylo taught to himself and turned back at the hologram and thanked the man from Jakku before received a data chip from the intelligence officer and so he rushed out of the room, excited.
Once the ship went into Hyperspace to jump to that planet, Kylo went to their small diner on the ship where he felt two of the dark side Warriors that will be his company throughout his first mission.
He entered the room and he called their names. He walked to the two Sith discussing their missions they had and placed the micro- chip at the table and interfered: "The coordinates of a city on Jakku and we will soon arrive to our destination." He said a bit in hurry.
While still discussing the two warriors looked sursprised for a moment upn hearing the name of the planet. One was a red and black skinned Zabrak, while the other was a buff human, the two of them stood up. The young Zabrak picked up the chip and placed it in a pocket of his pants as they followed Kylo and kept the discussion going.
He grew distracted by their talk of adventures and what failed mission made them to end up here babysitting this kid.
At that Kylo felt embarrassed to be called a kid, but it was the truth. He is nineteen and he can't argue with that.
The two Knights walked through the hallways like they have all day to get the mission done, well they actually are not limited at how long this mission will take, but Kylo is stressing his brains out and anxiously jogging forward and stopping at every corner of the hallway to check if they are following him, too excited to control himself.
"Look at him… acting like an anxious dog waiting for his master to go for a walk in the park."
The human whispered at the Zabrak as they watched him run forward to wait for them at another corner.
"He should be barking along." The Zabrak whispered back and the two giggled.
He heard that and wasn't happy, but he calmed down a little bit and quickly forgot about it as he saw his X- wing and two TIE fighters parked at the hanger bay of the ship.
The three of them got into their fighters and waited for the ship to jolt once which would announce to them that they jumped out of hyperspace.
A few moments later the ship jolted and they started their fighters and flew out of the hanger bay. They flew around the ship and a huge planet appeared before their eyes.
He could never get enough of the whole planet view, no matter what planet he looked at, but now he needed to get serious as they descended into the atmosphere of Jakku. The two older Sith were leading the way as they knew how to read coordinates of the micro- chip they shared to one another.
He never learned how to read them as no one taught him, back in the time he was trained as a Jedi, but for some reason he was reminded of his father.
His father showed him how to fly a starship.
He shook his head making sure the thoughs of his father would not distract him.
Kylo heard the two began speaking and he decided to listened to the two warriors as he was getting bored of flying, until…
He heard the two talking about performing a few maneuvers in the sky, before getting to the city of Jakku, because they felt like it. The boy didn't understand those fancy names so he didn't done any of the maneuvers as he only flied in a straight line, while he watched how the two began performing before him as they all flew through the sky of Jakku.
He knew how to repeat those maneuvers himself once he saw the two perform, but didn't felt any urge to show off, because he took his first mission very seriously.
The two Sith flew around the sky like two kittens playing among each other flying in harmony but with fancy twists and turns.
He soon got bored of hearing the words he didn't understand and began feeling angry as he wanted to focus upon the mission, but each time he wanted to, the two fighters flew across his field vision and distracted him.
Soon he got enough and shouted: "Stop it you two, you behave like Loth cats!"
"Loth cats… what are these?" The Zabrak asked as they resumed to normal flying.
"Cats from Lothal." The human answered his question before Kylo even opened his mouth in attempt to answer it.
"Oh, never been to Lothal, but I heard they have a fancy city there." The not knowing Sith said.
Kylo has been to Lothal and many major planets that many speak about, such as Korriban, Coruscant or Yavin, but never got to visit Endor.
Endor, a planet where the Second Death Star was destroyed and with it many humans loyal to the Empire died, which Luke told him he sometimes feels remorse for killing them at the first Death Star, and Lando, Hans' friend, killing them at the second, but not for killing the Emperor.
He also remembered that Luke buried Darth Vader there. His uncle told him he was a fierce opponent and an enemy he came to respect, so he dragged his body to Endor and gave him a proper burial.
"Oh, look, the city." Said the Sith that has never been to Lothal.
The sentence brought Kylo back to the present and made himself focused.
"So how will we find this girl?" the Zabrak asked "Any plans?" he added.
Kylo began to panic as he just remembered he didn't think about that, but gladly the other Sith warrior had an idea.
"You know I was thinking we split the city into three sections and each of us walks through the streets and feels through the Force for the force sensitive girl." The man sounded casual.
"Holy fuck a brilliant idea." Kylo said happily as his panic began to disappear.
"So that means I will take the leadership?" the human Sith asked.
"Sure." The other Knight agreed as well did Kylo.
The three of the Sith landed outside the city walls on a landing platform where the other ships were parked.
They exited their ships and that spy with a burned face approached them.
"You're the spy right?" Kylo asked before the older Sith decided to kill the man for prolonging the mission.
"Yes. I heard from my scavenger friends she used the Force to push them away, before she escaped into the city with a fuck ton of credits… I mean a pouch of credits." The spy corrected his language, not that any of the Sith cared.
"Ok, so she definitely has someone who would help her in the time of crisis cuz a girl does not survive on her own on a planet full of outlaws and thieves." The leader Sith came to a conclusion as he observed his surroundings.
They stood on a landing platform full of parked ships that each of them had their own guards watching for any thieves.
Kylo followed his gaze and noticed it too, while the other Sith asked for some information on the girls' appearance, what she wears and what she buys.
"Tell me does each ship bring their own guards or are those guards payed from Jakku to guard the ships?" the leader asked still eying around.
"Um some are payed while others bring their own." The spy was first confused but then remembered he needed to pass a few guards before he was allowed to enter the landing platform.
The three Sith stood there in silence as each of them came up with their own solution to solve the problem.
After a minute of silence, the leader spoke to no one in particular still observing his surroundings: "I was thinking we call for some Storm troopers to guard our ships what about you two?"
"I taught about hiring some guards from the platform owner." Said Kylo.
"Well, I taught about I stand here with the spy and guard the ships in case you two would need an aerial support." The last Sith spoke and smiled.
The leaders' eye twitched as Kylo felt anger coming from the leader through the Force.
The teenaged boy watched one Sith and then glanced at the other, curious of what will unfold.
"You are one lazy son of a bitch; you know that, right?" the leader asked the Zabrak.
"Yeah, I know." The man scratched the back of his head under the hood feeling ashamed.
None of the three Sith didn't had any helmets on so the emotional expressions were all visible under their hoods.
"Kylo, we don't have the money so we throw your idea away." Suddenly the leader said and eyed Kylo with his yellow eyes.
"Fair enough." Kylo raised his shoulders and released them showing he is fine with the idea.
He really wondered where they would get the money for the guards or if they would just threaten the owner.
"So since I'm the leader I chose my own idea as our plan." He turned to his comrade older Sith and smiled back.
The other just exhaled and bowed his head as he agreed to come along.
The two older Sith suddenly began to play rock-paper-scissors and began confusing the younger one.
"Fuck." Said the leader as he lost and began walking back to his ship where he called the troopers and asked them to bring some credits to pay for the landing platform.
He came back and asked Kylo why was he confused.
"Why did you two done that game?" his words didn't really come out as he wanted to, because he was caught off guard.
"We played it to decide who will call the troopers to stand guard." The other answered and surprised Kylo as he never expected for the Sith to decide peacefully for the plan and respect one another.
He guessed that the two were getting along well was because they had time to know one another over the last day as Snoke send the two Sith warriors to make sure he will learn something from the two punished warriors. Due to that he was very grateful for Snokes' decision otherwise he would be now ordering the troopers around and leading them himself. Only the Force knows how badly his mission would fail if that would have been the case.
"Well, lets' go hunt that girl of yours." Said their leader as he winked to Kylo who got embarrassed and looked away as they passed their spy and headed towards the city.