Chapter Seven – Ben
Nightmares plagued his sleep, making him toss and turn restlessly. Most of them were just flashes of Rey and a large man, his face completely covered by an ominous mask. He pursued her through a forest as she shot at him with a blaster. He froze her in place, shoving a red lightsaber at her threateningly. Rey strapped to an interrogation chair as he stood over her. The two of them battling, his red lightsaber colliding into her blue one. Surely this masked man was a Sith, but his movements were disturbingly familiar to Ben. He struggled to help Rey, but he couldn't do more than observe.
He awoke sweaty and panting with a slight headache. After downing a cup of caff and taking a cold shower, he felt more himself. He fiddled around the ship until he thought it a more appropriate hour to venture outside. He poured hot caff into two portable cups and headed down the ramp off the ship. People were just getting out, opening the few shops along the thoroughfare. Most of them greeted him kindly and he nodded back to them. Only a few gave him the side-eye of suspicion.
Pulling open the door to the inn, a man at the front desk greeted him.
"Good day, Master Jedi!"
Ben smiled. "Good day. I'm looking for one of your patrons who stayed here last night. Her name is Rey."
"Of course. Allow me to check the registry." He flipped open a large book, then frowned. "Rey? I don't see anyone by that name having checked in."
"Are you sure?" Ben glanced at the book upside down but he also didn't see her name.
A coarse voice spoke up behind him. "Pretty girl, brown hair, dressed like a scavenger?"
Ben turned to see a scruffy man sweeping the floor in the hallway. "Yes, that's her."
"She's sleeping in the stable out back." He thumbed the door at the end of the hall.
The man at the front desk huffed. "You know you're not allowed to let the sand rats sleep in there! It looks bad to the paying customers."
The scruffy man shrugged. "She mucked out every stall with a thissermount in it last night. I wasn't going to say no to that."
The man at the front desk made a noise of frustration.
"Thank you," Ben told the scruffy man and headed to the stable. He was perplexed that Rey had chosen to muck stalls to sleep in a stable than take his offer for a room on the ship.
Some of the thissermounts stirred as he strolled through the stable, but most of them were too occupied with their breakfast to pay him much attention. He found Rey in the empty stall at the far end, curled up sleeping in the long grasses they used as bedding. Warmth spread over his body at seeing her, although he noted that she curled her body into what seemed like a protective cocoon. It made him wonder what had happened to her to train herself to sleep in such a defensive position.
She stirred. Keeping her eyes closed, she stretched out her body. Her arms reached over her head, arching her back and twisting her neck to the side.
Ben had seen enough holoporn to notice how closely her position resembled a woman's in the throes of passion. His mouth watered to see her body move like that. He clenched his jaw shut to keep from drooling.
She opened her eyes and smiled at him. "Good morning." Her smile widened. "You brought me caff. My hero." She stood up, brushed off several piece of grass sticking to her clothes and swung her bag over her shoulder. Then she happily accepted the cup he held out to her.
"You seriously turned down my offer for a room on my ship to sleep in a barn?" He said it jokingly but he really wanted to figure it out.
She shrugged. "It's really not so bad."
"Why didn't you stay inside the inn?"
She swallowed the caff in her mouth. "I don't have any credits."
That answer confused him. "None? How do you live here without credits?"
She smiled again. "I don't actually live here in Remiton. I live at the Niima Outpost, about three hours east of here. I used the last of my credits on the shuttle to get here when I heard the Jedi were looking for Force-sensitive people."
He froze, stopping in his tracks. His uncle had been right. He could tell when she lied to him, and she'd just done it.
She froze as well, looking at him almost hesitantly, like a child realizing they'd been caught. Then her eyes focused on the cup of caff in her hands. "I...I'm a scavenger slave."
Not a lie. "Rey, are you saying that your mother sold you into slavery when she abandoned you here?"
Her teeth bit into her lip and she still refused to look at him. "My parents had good reason. They were trying to protect me."
A connection in his brain light up. "That woman yesterday, the one you called Adalinah, said she was going to tell Plutt you were here. Is he the one who owns you?"
"Yes." She finally looked up at him, a sparkle in her eye. "But you don't have to worry. It'll be at least another day or two before he sends his thugs after me. They'll either haul me back or I'll be gone from here by then."
Ben had no intention of anybody hauling Rey off. He changed the subject instead. "I'm guessing there's no room service in the stable. Come have breakfast with me on the ship."
She squealed with excitement. "Yes! Anything's better than the ration bars I've been eating." She shifted her bag and opened it to show him the few bars she had left.
He couldn't help grimace. "Yuck! Those are disgusting. Let me feed you something better than that."
"Yes, please!"
He led her up the ramp and into the kitchen on the ship. He fed her meiloorun fruit and sunberries, which she ate with relish. As she bit into the fruit, juice ran down her chin, making her laugh and swipe it off with her forearm. Ben found himself having the absurd wish of wanting to lick the juice right off her skin. He had to shake his head to clear such thoughts when Alkos wandered in. His fellow Jedi cooked up some eggs, which he made the mistake of offering some to Rey. She devoured most of them.
As breakfast wrapped up, Ben struggled to make a decision about what to do for the rest of the day. He wanted to have a very frank conversation with Rey regarding her actual identity. Yet, the image of some thugs hauling Rey away from him haunted his mind. As much as he didn't want to leave Rey, he had to put that thought to rest.
"Hey," Ben interrupted Alkos showing Rey the contents of the refrigerator.
They both looked up at him.
"I've got an errand to run and it's going to take most of the day. Alkos, I'm taking one of the speeders we've got below. There will probably be some more people wanting to be evaluated. Rey, could you please stay here with Alkos?"
Rey stepped close to him, big eyes on him. "Maybe I could come with you?"
Ben shook his head. "Unfortunately, this is something I have to do alone. A delicate situation."
Rey pouted until Alkos spoke up. "What if I let you test people with the pebble? I wouldn't have you touching minds, but just seeing if anyone could push that pebble. If so, even just a wobble, you'd pass them over to me. It's how we start Padawans' training for these evaluations."
She tilted her head. "Yeah? I'd be like a Padawan?"
Alkos nodded.
Sweetening the deal, Ben added, "And I'll cook you dinner. We've got all the right ingredients for Nerfsteak sandwiches, even the red nebula onions."
Rey laughed. "Deal!" She leaned up and pecked him on the cheek before going to Alkos' side.
The contact of her lips to his skin prompted a blush to spread across his cheeks. Alkos wiggling his eyebrows at Ben behind Rey's back as he guided her to the training room. That heightened the heat in his face. A good heat. His fingertips touched the spot on his cheek.
Taking a deep breath, Ben set off on his mission. He filled a large water bottle and grabbed some ration bars, better tasting ones than Rey carried. He made sure he had a handheld pad secure in his pocket and his lightsaber at his hip. Descending down the narrow stairs behind the kitchen into the cargo area below the ship, he found two speeders by the cargo hatch. He checked them both and was please to find them both fully fueled. Some people got sloppy when putting them back. Just in case, he grabbed an extra fuel cell and a portable comm unit. He didn't dare get stuck out in the middle of the desert. He slapped some goggles and a helmet on and opened the cargo hatch. Then he climbed on and took off heading east. He opened himself to the Force to guide him to the Niima Outpost.
He enjoyed the rush of the wind around him as he sped on across the sand. But after a while, his thoughts turned to Rey. A storm of emotions swirled inside him over her. She'd briefly walked into his life at nine years old and made such an impression on him that it had saved his life. Now, she's walked back into his life as an absolute mystery. A lovely, intriguing mystery. The thought of her being a slave, owned by some slave master, made him sick. The nightmares he'd had the night of her being plagued by that almost familiar masked man still bothered him.
Only having to stop twice to relieve his parched throat, he made good time to Niima. He pulled up to the tent marketplace and marveled at how tiny and desolate the outpost was. He thought Remiton was a backwater town, but it looked like a thriving metropolis compared to Niima. Not the ideal place to grow up.
He secured his speeder, pulling off his helmet and goggles. He felt eyes watching him intently from all around. He approached an old woman at the nearest tent. "Pardon me, can you direct me to Plutt?"
She squinted at him with cloudy eyes. "Jedi?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"I survived the Battle of Jakku, but is this really surviving? Lost both my sons in that battle. We never recovered here after that. The New Republic forgot us. Have the Jedi come to help us?" She leaned forward, waiting for his answer.
Ben blew out a breath. "I am one Jedi, here to help one life. But my mother is a diplomat in the New Republic and assure you I will inform her of the conditions here. She'll be better able to render aid. Here, I can at least give you this." He handed her one of the ration bars from out of his bag.
She nodded to him. "Thank you, Jedi. Who are you helping here?"
"Rey."
She grasped his hand briefly. "Oh, she's a nice girl. Been a sand rat for too long. I'm glad someone has come to help her." Then she pointed to a squat, awning covered building at the end of the marketplace. "He's at the Concession Stand."
"Thanks you." He moved on, resolving to contact his mom about getting these people some help.
He stopped in front of the building, one of the few permanent structures at the Outpost. A filthy Crolute occupied the inside, his massive bulk moving slowly as he grabbed several pieces of scrap from a skinny, teenaged boy. His beady eyes flitted to Ben for a moment before doling out a few portions to the boy. The boy pressed them protectively against his chest, not acknowledging Ben at all as he rushed off.
"Jedi." Not a question, just an invitation to speak.
"Are you Plutt?"
The Crolute regarded him suspiciously. "What would a Jedi want from a simple scrap dealer as I?"
Ben stepped closer, right up to the window covered with protective wiring. "I wish to pay off the debt on one of your scavenger slaves."
Plutt's eyes widened and his fat lips smiled. "Need a slave for your Jedi Temple? My scavengers are worth quite a lot. Over a hundred credits for some of them. Which one caught your fancy?"
"Rey."
Plutt frowned. "My best scavenger. She's expensive. And she's difficult."
"Two hundred." Ben pulled the pad out of his pocket. He deliberately brushed his fingers against the lightsaber. He wanted to get this over with.
"I don't know." Plutt shifted on his feet. "She's turned into such a pretty thing. I've had a few offers for her for other services. Some of them like it when their slaves are difficult."
Rage boiled up in Ben at the mere suggestion of Rey being sold as a sex slave. A growl ripped from his throat. His arm flew out in front of him, fingers pulling and squeezing.
Plutt smashed into the wiring in front of the window. His thick, dirty hands pawed at his throat as his airway cut off. The beady eyes practically bulged out of his head.
Ben immediately dropped his hand, releasing the Crolute. Shame replaced rage at his loss of control. He'd spent years learning to tame his temper, but it flared fiercely in defense of Rey. His outburst had only lasted a few seconds but he regretted it. Well, most of him did.
Plutt landed hard on the floor out of Ben's view. He heard distressed coughing and wheezing. Then one of those meaty hands gripped the edge of the window and hauled the enormous body back to his feet. The other hand still clutched at his throat. "Two hundred," Plutt gasped out.
Ben almost laughed, but he held his tongue. The Crolute was still demanding payment after being choked out. Gutsy.
He typed into the pad and turned to Plutt. "Your thumbprint signs the release papers, ending Rey's service to you. It will also transfer the credits into your account."
Plutt quickly pressed his thumb into the screen. Then he lumbered away from the window, collapsed in a chair that barely looked able to contain his bulk and closed his eyes. He still rubbed at his neck.
"One last thing," Ben spoke up.
No reaction. Did he fall asleep?
Ben continued anyway. "Where was Rey living? I want to collect her things."
A fat arm stretched out, a finger pointing behind him.
Ben turned and squinted. He could just barely make out a structure mostly buried in the sand off in the distance. "Thank you," he said over his shoulder as he strode through the sand. The sand annoyed him as it drifted into his boots.
He stopped when he reached the structure. It looked vaguely familiar. He circled around it, realizing it was part of an All-Terrain Armored Transport, nicknamed AT-AT. Obviously, an Empire remnant from the battle so many years ago.
He ducked through the opening, which had been cut too small for him to stand upright. As he raised his head, his stomach clenched. The space was dark, cramped and not inviting in the least. The thousands of scratches lining the far wall spoke volumes of her loneliness. There wasn't even a real bed. She'd slept on old cushions sewn together along with a threadbare blanket. His heart ached thinking of Rey living here. It made him more determined that she would never come back here.
He glanced around but saw nothing of value, either sentimental or monetarily. He left quickly, taking long strides to his speeder. Throwing on his helmet and goggles, he left the sad Niima Outpost behind.
Unlike on the way there, his mind stayed steady with only one thought, getting back to Rey. He needed to know the truth about her. With his ability to decipher truth from lie, he hoped for a very frank discussion.
Misery
The overwhelming sadness slashed through him, heartbreaking in such a way that his hand clutched at his chest.
Then, for just an instant, he saw her right in front of him. She was lying down, curled around something, crying miserably. Tears streame down her face as she quietly sobbed.
He almost crashed the speeder. It wobbled dangerously and he gripped hard to keep from being thrown off. He got control and put the brakes on. Ripping off the helmet and goggles, he leaned forward to press his head into the handle bars.
What the hell was that? Why was Rey crying like that? He closed his eyes, replaying the scene in his mind. She hung on to a pillow. His pillow.
He scrambled off the bike, ripping open the fuel cap and shoving the extra fuel pod in. He'd be able to drive faster with the extra boost. He was even more desperate to get back to Rey now.
A/N: Thank so much for reading! Loving your reviews so much!