Part VI
This time, when the Force bridges them, she knows she's asleep. They stand together upon the desert dunes. The sands now still. The air so calm it seems to hang without the slightest movement of breeze.
Ben faces her; arms at ease by his side, legs slightly apart, face devoid of expression. No tell to give away his thoughts. For one who wears his emotions so fully, Rey finds the facade unsettling.
"Have you done this?" she asks, stepping forward until they're a scant few feet apart. "Have you brought me here?"
"Do you think me so powerful?" he raises his brow, a smile toying at his lips; cracking his cool veneer for just a moment. With one stride he narrows the gap. "Or could it be a power that manifests only when the two of us seek each other out?"
Why would I care to see you? The lie teeters unspoken upon her lips. She opens her mouth to broach it aloud, but the wind chooses its moment to pick up with a twist; peppering sand across her face and whipping Kylo's hair into a frenzy as it dances between them.
Perhaps he hears her anyway. She almost misses the shadow that crosses his face; fierce and frightening. Her stomach wrenches suddenly. In fear of him. In fear of the sudden desire to reach out and smooth his brow with her fingertips.
She stays her hand and holds her ground. Holds against every instinct that urges her to step into his space. Instead, she steps back; blinking against the sudden onslaught. Both of wind and emotions. "Ben, please tell me where you are."
It's like the last time, all over again, she thinks.
"Shouldn't I be asking that of you?" he returns. "Isn't that how this game usually plays out?"
There's something off about his mannerism. Something that seethes in a way she hasn't seen since Starkiller Base.
"I came here to talk to Ben Solo," she squares her jaw, challenging, "not Kylo Ren."
"You came because I commanded it," he snarls, the eye-twitch starting at last. Except, it's more than just a muscle spasm. It's a shift. A contortion of something terrifying...
"This isn't you." The words burst from her as soon as the realisation hits.
He lunges.
She slams the bond shut.
This time when she wakes, there's no trace of sand.
"You can't be serious about doing this."
"I can, and I am."
Dragging the last box of goods down the cargo ramp, Rey turns to Finn and Rose. "You'll be safe here until I return. And your task is important. The people of this planet are sensitive to the Force. You'll find someone here who can help us. I can feel it."
"You can feel it, huh?" Finn hisses. "Well then, I guess you can feel the way the people here are looking at us, Rey? Cause I sure can! They feel like picking up sticks and swinging them at us. That's the kind of feeling I'm feeling!"
"The Bardottan are a peaceful race…"
"I feel like they think we're here to steal their children!" Finn continues, voice rising in pitch until Rose, bemused, places a hand upon his arm.
Rey tilts her head to one side, considering. "Actually, from what I recall of one of Leia's Jedi history lessons, you could be right." And then before he splutters further protest, "look. If all else fails… Trade some goods. Take a break. Enjoy the art."
"And where are you going?"
Biting her lip, Rey prepares to make a quick retreat, "back to Jakku."
"What!"
There are certain risks that need to be weighed when covertly landing upon Jakku. On the one hand, Carbon Ridge offers the best pick of places to hide from anyone who might steal, scavenge or report the Falcon back to Unkar Plutt. On the other, being in the territory of ripper-raptors and dead-enders is not ideal if one wishes to live long enough to fly out again.
Then there's the Goazon Badlands: Relatively safe from winged predators and human crazies, but teeming with the above-mentioned thieves, scavengers and informants.
In the end, it's the data relayed from the probe droid that prompts Rey's decision.
While she was making the round trip to Bardotta, the old Imperial probot covered forty kilometres of the Goazon; transmitting information of little significance until it reached the Ridge and began combing the cliff faces. That's where it found traces of recent starship debris and human habitation. That's where something activated its self-destruct function, and the information stopped.
Perhaps there isn't anything of importance to be read into that, Rey thinks as she sifts through the data. After all, the only reason why sane folk steer clear of Carbon Ridge is that only the insane folk go there. And there's a fair few of those who wander the canyons.
Likewise, there's likely nothing unusual about the droid's final transmission regarding a fresh disturbance of cliff face on the northern mountainside. If there's one thing Carbon Ridge is famous for - asides from the carnivorous lizard-birds, white-haired crazies, and wash table rumours of a secret base built by the last Emperor - it's rockslides.
But still, something about it gives Rey the feeling that this is exactly where she needs to be. To find Kylo Ren. To reclaim Ben Solo. To find answers to questions she doesn't even know how to ask yet.
Jakku's stratosphere remains her refuge until three hours before sunrise, when she lands the Falcon within a shallow canyon and waits for the tangerine fingers of sunlight to stretch across the sky. Then, with provisions stashed into a backpack and a few mechanical booby traps put into place to keep sticky hands off her ship, she makes her way through the Ridge. Towards the last location the droid pinged back before its demise.
An hour of hiking through what has become an ever-narrowing gorge and the Ridge offers little retreat from the sun except for slit-eyed caves that likely hold as much danger as the threat of exposure itself.
Two hours in, and the fine hairs at the back of her neck prickle with the warning that she's being watched. The sensation ripples down her spine until she almost twitches with the effort to not turn and study the surrounding cliffs.
Three hours in, and a guttural squawk overhead alerts her to the presence of a ripper-raptor. Two, she realises when she dares to glance up. They ride the thermals in slow lazy circles, their leathery wings stretched wide as they tilt their heads to scan the landscape below with sharp eyes.
Perhaps they haven't seen her, she tells herself as a small knot of worry tightens in her stomach nonetheless. Besides, two is nothing. She can handle two with her eyes closed.
Of course, it would be easier if she were back on solid ground, rather than partway up a deteriorating cliff in search of a cave that may indicate Ben was here. That he's still here.
Gritting her teeth, Rey takes a moment to rest her head against the sandstone before cautiously continuing her ascent. The rippers haven't swooped in for the attack yet. That's a good sign. And she's so close to where the probe droid reported the cave to be.
Another squawk, long and challenging, causes the knot of worry to twist tighter. This call does not come from high above but from somewhere closer. She knows this sound. It's a call to arms. And the call is soon answered by a clamour of screeches that pitch in excitement until Rey can feel every last hair on her body stand on end.
"Rey, what's happening? Where are you?"
The voice punctures through the cries of the creatures. Not from above or below, but inside her head.
"Ben?" She spares a moment to glance about, even though she knows her gaze will fall upon nothing but chalky cliffs and wheeling rippers. She feels that strange sense of being pulled into a liminal space, but this time it's different. This time it's as if his conscience has brushed against her own and made a connection inside her head.
"I can sense you, Rey. I can sense your fear. You need to let me help you."
His voice seems to echo between her ears. She shudders at the alien feeling of having someone else's words - someone else's feelings - reverberate through her body.
"I'm not afraid," she protests aloud, "and I have everything under control."
"You're on Jakku. You're searching for me."
She feels his surprise as if it's her own. He's not asking for confirmation. He knows it to be true.
"Get out of my head," she grunts as rock crumbles beneath the toes of her boots and her fingers dig painfully for purchase.
"I can feel your fear, but I can't get a fix on you." A note of urgency seeps through her. Whether it's her own, or his, she's not sure.
"Rey, I need you to describe your surroundings. A landmark. Something."
The image of a tall cluster of pillared rocks she recently passed rises to the surface of her mind and she squeezes her eyes shut with the effort to press it back down. "How do I know it's really you?"
There's a long pause. For a moment she thinks the link between them has been broken. He replies at last with an edge of curiosity. "Who else do you expect me to be?"
Not Ben Solo. Not Kylo Ren. Someone else. Something else, her mind offers silently, recalling the dream. Not that it matters. Regardless of what she chooses to call him, he's still the Supreme Leader of the First Order. He's still a monster. With or without the mask.
"I'll find you, Rey," he says tightly, the words resounding through her with a sense of resignation so heavy she realises there'd been no need to answer aloud - her thoughts had been bared to him anyway. "Like it or not, I'm the only one who can."
And then he's gone. And her mind is her own again. And the screech of the ripper raptors hit her in an explosion of sound as they gather themselves and swoop in for the attack.
Moving without attempt to stay discreet now, Rey throws herself up the steep slope, pushing herself to reach some kind of safe ground where she can make a stand to defend herself, as stone gives way in her hands and cause her to scramble. The sharp press of jagged rock scours her palms and she grits her teeth, almost snarling with the effort to drive herself onwards. Upwards.
The beating of wings sends a flurry of dust around her as a ripper swoops in, it's snapping jaws revealing double rows of needle-sharp teeth that catch at strands of her hair before she pushes out with the Force; sending it hurtling away before turning her attention to the next creature that takes its place. Soon the blowback of crumbling grit overcomes her, forcing her to tuck her face into the crook of her elbow in search of a clear breath.
Leathery wings beat at her skin. Clawed feet sink into her back. She yells out in outrage, pain blinding her as much as the dust. Jaws snap at her legs. Claws tangle in her hair. The rippers shriek in excitement as they close in.
Fighting to quell the panic, Rey gathers the Force to her and throws the creatures off with a great shunt of cosmic energy that causes another three to topple from the sky. Pain and rage surge as she bares her teeth and prepares to fend off the next wave of creatures that circle.
"Up here!"
The modulated voice comes from above. Rey peers through dust-powdered eyes to see a black-gloved hand reaching for her. Ben? She throws herself into the distance between them; ignoring the shrieks of the oncoming attack as his hand encloses her own.
"Lucky for me you don't weigh much."
Rey stares, aghast, at the stormtrooper who stands before her. Ignoring her expression, he rotates his shoulder as if pulling her over the ledge has all but dislocated his arm. Two troopers flank him, sending bolts of plasma energy into approaching ripper raptors with blasters that look like they've come straight from the Imperial era.
"Who -" She swallows the question, unsure if she wants it answered. Not Ben. But stormtroopers. Not First Order. But soldiers wearing armour as old as their weapons. Which means...
"Sir, the birds are retreating." A trooper lowers his blaster and turns towards her rescuer.
"Time we do too," he replies, turning from Rey as if her presence has already been forgotten. She sees a cave entrance behind him and understands suddenly what the probe droid had been reporting to her. Not fresh evidence of Ben, but of old men dressed as soldiers.
Dead-enders.
As a scavenger, she'd heard stories of these guys. None of which ended well. Dead-enders were crazy at best. Barbaric at worst. So it makes no sense for them to save her. Unless they're saving her for themselves.
The chill of childhood fear coils in Rey's stomach. But it's nothing next to the realisation that her efforts have been for nothing. Ben isn't here. He probably never was. And she's wasting time. She steps towards the ledge. Better to take her chances with the rippers.
"Hold it right there."
Fists clenching, Rey feels the Force build within her. Don't give in to your rage, a voice within her cautions. She closes her eyes; fights to relax her fists. Fights to breathe steadily. Fights for calm.
A movement to her left. The clunk of tired old armor. "We have orders to bring you in."
"Orders from whom?" she manages from between gritted teeth. A movement now to her right. The dead-enders flank her.
"Our leader," the first returns with reverence, "the grandson of Darth Vader."
NOTES:
Dead-enders: Rey's Survival Guide has been a great reference for understanding more of Jakku. Dead-enders are not my creation, although I've taken my own liberties with them - they're Imperial soldiers who survived the Battle of Jakku and spend their days shuffling around Carbon Ridge, guarding a secret base that may or may not exist and waiting for... Rescue? The return of their Emperor? The washtable stories change with the telling, but check the book out of the library if you don't already have it, or just... Wookieepedia :)
Bardotta: No wonder Finn thought the Bardottans were distrustful. At one stage the Jedi Order used to take Force-sensitive children from this planet to train as their own, until the people of the planet called it abduction and forced their return. Again, Wookieepedia. Man it's annoying that FFNET doesn't allow me to post links.