It was late afternoon by the time Rey parked her speeder in front of the four-legged, armored walker she called her home. The half-buried, derelict war machine lay on its side in the sand, a relic from the final battle waged between the Empire and the burgeoning New Republic nearly thirty years before. The AT-AT might've once been the terror of ground engagements, but now its thick armor found use not in protecting the troopers held within the transport, but in protecting Rey from the sandstorms of Jakku.

Disengaging the straps that held Jenny's body against hers, Rey slowly dismounted from the speeder, taking care to avoid jostling the injured young woman. Once she'd found a relatively stable balance with which she could hold Jenny, the scavenger began a slow pace toward her shelter.

As she approached the entrance to her home, she glanced down at the woman in her arms and grimaced. At some point, the cut on Jenny's forehead had reopened, and like all scalp wounds, was bleeding profusely. Blood trickled from it and sprinkled the sand in Rey's wake. Though she knew the cut and the blood were likely to be superficial, she walked faster, anxious to treat the wound.

Once inside the internal compartment that functioned as both kitchen and bedroom, Rey gently laid the young woman upon a makeshift hammock in the corner. Looking down at the blond woman's limp form, she quickly tightened the knots that held it secure.

'Wouldn't do to have my patient panic and fling her concussed self onto the metal floor, now would it?' she mused.

After taking off her goggles, staff, and pack, Rey spent the next several minutes hunting down a ragged strip of cloth and wrapping it tightly around the young woman's head wound.

Once her work was complete, Rey finally allowed herself to relax.

She turned from the hammock and busied herself with preparing a food portion. Soon the food was inflating into existence inside its bowl. She fished it out and held it in her fingers, licking her lips. Her mouth watered as she stared at the fluffy, bready ration. It was her last one, and she wouldn't have time to find anything of value from the Graveyard of Ships that day to trade for more.

Despite the hunger gnawing at her belly, she couldn't help but glance guiltily over her shoulder at Jenny's limp form. Sighing disappointedly, Rey knew she had to save the ration for her injured guest. Who knew the last time the injured girl had eaten?

Rey's mind boiled with curiosity about this young woman named Jenny. Although Rey couldn't leave Jakku until her long lost family came back for her, that didn't stop her from dreaming of the myriad of planets and moons she'd heard spacers describe. Which one of them had Jenny come from? Why had she crashed? Where in the galaxy did she get such a backworld ship? As a resident of Jakku, her incredulity was especially notable when one took that junk heap Unkar Plutt kept around into consideration.

Rey examined the younger woman with renewed interest. Even after a more thorough study, Rey still didn't think the girl was any older than her. Her body was lean and slender, but muscular in a way that mirrored Rey's own form. With a pang of envy, Rey couldn't keep herself from staring at the young woman's full breasts hidden beneath her form-fitting green tank top.

Ashamed at her lingering stare, Rey returned her attention to the girl's petite face. Her fair skin glowed softly in the compartment's dim internal lighting, giving her an almost ethereal aura. She appeared so peaceful, Rey worried she might never wake up.

"Where did you come from?" Rey whispered.

To her surprise, she realized the fingers of her hand had begun stroking the young girl's cheek. Noting the softness of the girl's skin, she pulled her hand away in embarrassment.

Clenching her teeth in frustration, she grabbed her staff and left the compartment. Climbing onto the roof of her home, she stared out over the wastes of Jakku and wondered, as she often did, when her family would be coming back. This time, however, she also contemplated something, someone, new and what changes she might bring to her life.

The sun hung low on the horizon when she first heard the bestial growls coming from the shadows in front of the walker.

A sick feeling overtook her when she saw a pack of six hound-lizards stalking toward the entrance to her home. Long snouts sniffing the stained sand, the predators crept closer, rough tongues lapping at every patch of sand laced with Jenny's blood. Already, one of the lizards was shuffling closer as it followed the blood trail, mere paces away from the walker's entrance.

Silently, she cursed herself for her carelessness. She should have known better than to leave a trail of blood leading straight to her front door.

Rey inhaled deeply, her heart beating faster as adrenaline began pumping through her veins. Sometimes the hound-lizards of Jakku could be frightened off, if one was intimidating enough.

Taking a running leap from the AT-AT, she landed in a roll, nimbly flowing to her feet and assuming a protective stance in front of her home's entryway. She shouted out a battle cry and waved her staff over her head with both hands.

The hair on the hound-lizards' bristled, their eyes widened, and they bared their dagger-like teeth in feral snarls. But they didn't retreat.

Apparently, she wasn't intimidating enough today.

Fear coursing through her, she shouted wordlessly and swung her staff into the head of the nearest hound-lizard. She knocked its body onto its side in the sand.

Whipping the staff back into her hands, she brought her staff into a defensive position just as another hound-lizard leaped toward her. Rearing back onto its hind legs, it swiped at her face with razor-sharp claws. Rey deftly blocked the creature's attack with her polearm, planted her feet and pushed the overbalanced creature off its feet, catapulting the hairy beast through the air.

Now the hounds attacked in quick formation, three more leaping at her in unison. Crying out in rage and distress, she ducked and rolled beneath them. She rose rapidly to her feet and swung her rod viciously down onto the spine of the nearest hound-lizard. Bones cracked under the force of the blow, sending the hound snout first into the sand with a muted whimper.

Sensing danger near her left flank, she hopped to the side and felt air whisk past her calf. The hound-lizard there completed its paw swipe and followed through the motion, kicking out with its hind leg. She stumbled in retreat.

Before she knew it, two more of the creatures were already in mid-pounce, blurs of dark fur rocketing toward her. She rolled beneath them, scrambled to her feet, and swung the end of her staff into one's hind leg. Again she heard the crack of splintering bones. She spared a glance at the whimpering hound-lizard, dragging itself across the sand in an effort to escape before turning her attention back to the threat.

The remaining hound-lizards, including the one she'd stunned before, had formed a circle around her. Their snarls were louder than ever, slavering as they bared their fangs.

Rey's heart pounded in her chest as she confronted a veritable wall of tooth and claw. She knew her last thought before being torn to pieces would be regret for not meeting her family when they returned to find her.

Without any warning, one of the hound-lizards was blown off its feet, rolling through the sand until it lay unmoving in the dirt, a gaping, smoking hole in its side.

Whipping her head around, Rey was astonished to find Jenny, standing upright with her arm raised, a blaster-like object zeroed in on their unwelcome guests. The blond woman swung the pistol in an arc, squeezing the trigger and sending energy bolts streaking through the air.

Having seen enough brawls escalate into firefights, Rey instinctively crouched low to the ground to avoid getting shot. She watched the bolts fly over and around her, surprised by the deadly accuracy with which Jenny wielded her odd blaster.

Pivoting, the blond girl brought her arm swiftly through the air, picking targets and firing in the blink of an eye. In what felt like half a heartbeat, her shots pegged the three remaining hounds one after another. Within almost no time, none of the hounds remained standing. The ones Rey had downed still twitched on the ground, but not for long: The young woman strode forward and shot any hound-lizard that moved point blank in the head as she walked.

Breathing deeply both to calm herself and catch her breath, Rey eyed the blue and violet pistol in the girl's hand. Blasters weren't exactly a rarity on Jakku, but she'd never seen one as exotic as Jenny's. She gazed at the firearm's thin body and flat edges, marveling at how so small a weapon packed such large a punch.

Then there was Jenny herself: awake at her eyes were steady and focused, her feet faltered and her legs visibly shook with each step. Beads of sweat were rolling down the girl's face, but Rey wasn't sure if it was due to the heat of the Jakku sun or the lingering weakness in the girl's body from the crash.

Trusting her instincts, Rey rushed to the girl's side just in time to catch her by the shoulder before she collapsed into the sand. She placed a hand on the small of the Jenny's back to steady her. Jenny hung her arm over Rey's shoulders and leaned on her for support.

"Well this is complete rubbish," huffed Jenny, staring down at her trembling legs. "I'm not making a very impressive entrance am I?"

Chuckling slightly at the other girl's comment, Rey glanced meaningfully at the lifeless, smoking hound-lizard bodies.

"Yeah," Rey said, summoning some rare sarcasm, "not impressive at all."

The blond woman chuckled, too. Easing her weight off of Rey, Jenny stood on her own feet, trying to gauge her strength. Her legs still wobbled, but...

"I...I think I can do..." she began but immediately fell into Rey once again.

"You need to rest some more," Rey explained. "You took quite the hit on the head, and I don't know how long you were in that ship before I found you. Some food and water would do you some good as well, I imagine."

The other girl's eyes widened as Rey's words registered. "My ship! I need to get back to it!"

"Not tonight," Rey replied firmly. "In the morning, maybe, if you're actually up to it."

"But I have a..." the girl's voice trailed off.

"Let's get you back inside," Rey interjected.

They made their way back to the overturned imperial walker, Rey guiding and supporting Jenny every step of the way.

Glancing at the blaster swinging from the end of Jenny's arm, Rey was unable to hold in her curiosity any longer.

"Where were you keeping that thing?" Rey asked. "I didn't see any sign of it on you when I found you, and you don't appear to have many pockets in those clothes."

Jenny gave her a mischievous look and chuckled. "I usually keep that answer pretty close to the chest, if you take my meaning." She tapped the pistol lightly against the front of her tank top a couple times, then winked at Rey.

Rey stumbled in her steps and stared at the other girl in astonishment.. "You had it hidden in there?"

"Well, it's as safe a place as any, isn't it?" Jenny replied. "Unless they're a super perv, anyone who frisks me isn't likely to dig too deeply in there, are they?"

The nonchalance of the girl's explanation elicited a wild grin from Rey, who was unable to stop herself from shaking her head in mild disbelief.

Guiding Jenny back into the walker's compartment and the waiting hammock, Rey carefully helped Jenny climb inside to rest.

Jenny squirmed to make herself comfortable and placed her hands on her stomach, letting out a deep sigh of contentment, gun still clutched in one hand.

"Here," Rey offered, proffering the leftover bread ration. "Eat this; doesn't taste like much, but it'll fill you up."

Jenny complied eagerly, stuffing the ration into her mouth and munching it down within only a few moments. Satisfied, she flopped back into the hammock.

Despite her initial hesitation, Rey was unable to stop herself from asking, "What happened to your ship? What are you doing on Jakku?"

But already the other girl's eyelids were closing as exhaustion caught up with her.

"I...I got shot down," Jenny mumbled. "Some bloody...enormous triangular ship did it."

"The First Order," Rey guessed darkly. "They're always out for blood."

"Can't blame...them this time," Jenny murmured, her voice nearly a whisper. "My ship emerged on a collision...course with theirs. Was about to run smack into them."

"Really?" Rey asked, interested.

"Y-yeah," Jenny breathed so quietly Rey had to lean in to hear.

Then the other girl's eyes closed and she lay silently in the hammock, unmoving aside from the gentle rise and fall of her chest with each breath.

Rey watched her for several more minutes, a myriad of emotions swirling within. Retrieving the single threadbare blanket she owned from its corner, she draped it over Jenny, careful not to wake her.

Returning the staff to its proper position on her back, she returned to the area in front of her home and began cleaning up the mess. One by one she hauled the hound-lizards' corpses to the top of a steep, nearby dune and kicked them over its edge, sending their lifeless bodies rolling down the tall dune. She did her best to scatter and cover up any remaining blood in front of the walker, (Jenny's blood and the hound-lizards'). When she finished, she cleaned her arms and hands using chemicals from a tub stored in the walker's overturned cockpit.

Afterward, she came inside once more and checked briefly on the peacefully slumbering form of Jenny. Then she huddled next to her power and heat source, closed her eyes and tried to ignore the chill from the darkening desert night that managed to seep through the metal walls of the AT-AT and make her shiver.