Poe motioned for Finn to follow him, but Finn remained rooted where he stood. "You sure this is our best bet?" Finn huffed. He wanted to continue interrogating people in the port town.
Poe and Finn had encountered a tall, intimidating Trianii who'd offered to give them a ride to the settlement nearest the port town in exchange for a healthy sum of gold. They were being blatantly overcharged, but neither Finn nor Poe were inclined to argue the price; even the nearest town was almost an hour's ride away, and no one else had seemed willing to take them there.
"What else are we supposed to do? There aren't exactly any security centers on this godforsaken planet," Poe spat. He sighed heavily, staring dejectedly down at the ground. Poe then stepped forward, firmly gripping Finn's shoulders. "Finn. We're going to find her," he said. "She'll be okay."
The two had spent the past two hours scouring the village for Rey, retracing their steps many times and talking to the hundreds of coarse people that milled about, but no one claimed to have seen her. Everyone they'd talked to had been either reclusive or had ignored them completely. As if they were all in hiding in the Outer Rim, Poe had thought to himself facetiously.
Finn's watery eyes met Poe's serious gaze, and he slowly nodded. He remembered how capable Rey was of looking after herself, thinking back to when he'd first encountered her on Jakku. "You're right. She can fend for herself. Let's go," he said.
Poe nodded, giving Finn a grim smile. Despite their words of hope, deep in their hearts they both feared the worst.
...
Rey experienced interweaving periods of semi-consciousness and deep sleep. She first awoke to a bleary orange light, perhaps that of a fire, when she felt herself pressed upright against something cold and hard, perhaps metal. A hand pulled her wrists up away from her head, and she jumped as she heard crackling sounds above her. She winced as she felt a quick burst of intense heat near her palms, but her hands were subsequently released, her wrists dropping weakly back down to her sides. She returned to immediate blackness.
Rey woke again briefly, this time in pitch-blackness. Something—a hand— held her upright, and something cold and round was pressed to her mouth, parting her lips. A slick coolness filled her mouth, and Rey was slow to realize it was water. She gripped the flask in her own hands, ignoring the stinging of her wrists as she gulped all of the water down in mere seconds. The vial was taken from her hands, and the last thing she knew she was being lifted back off of the ground.
At one point Rey felt that she was lying upon something soft, like a cloud. Something warm and damp was pressed repeatedly to her face, her neck, then her wrists. She felt a pressure at her head, in her mind, and she grimaced as she instinctively pushed it out.
Rey began to writhe and contort in pain as she felt a thick but indescribable pressure at her burning wrists. After what seemed like a long while, the pressure suddenly stopped, and a warm bare hand gripped her lower leg. She attempted to kicked back several times, but the hand did not release from her limb.
"Stop fighting me," a deep voice said, but Rey continued to push against the grip. Had she heard this voice before?
She sucked in a sharp breath as a wet compress was again applied to each ankle. She contorted in pain, dazedly tossing from one side to the other, but again the grip on her legs did not release.
"Be still," the voice hissed.
Several times Rey awoke in the dark, nauseous, stumbling her way off of her cloud, feeling along a wall towards a dim light. She stumbled into a connecting wash room, where she threw up several times before groggily drinking out of the sink water. Each time Rey limped straight back to the soft cloud, passing out immediately after climbing back atop it.
Rey continued to drift in and out of consciousness, her mind filled with dark and terrible dreams that were hard to distinguish from reality. After having several of these nightmares, Rey felt a slight pressure at the forefront of her mind. Sensing its mildness, she hesitantly allowed the presence. As she did so, her dark dreams began turning to light ones. Her dreams became scenes of natural foliage, rolling, lush landscapes, and images of stunningly beautiful galaxies and bright stars. She felt as if she were floating through the galaxy itself.
...
Eventually, she awoke to a soft yellow light. She blinked repeatedly, her eyes slowly coming into focus as she took in her surroundings. She was in a rather plain room, lying atop a large grey bed. A thick furry blanket had been placed on top of her.
Whose home is this? She wondered sleepily. Warm sunlight filtered in between billowing plant fronds outside through the small window to her left. Rey's eyes moved over the large but sparsely-filled bookshelves that lined the walls around her. She slowly stretched, wincing at the pain that surged through her wrists and ankles, her throbbing head.
She gently lifted her wrists to examine them, and was surprised to see some sort of white gauze wraps wound around them. She removed the blanket and saw the same medical wraps around her ankles. Her feet were red, but no longer swollen.
Rey noticed a side table to her right where a tall vial of water sat next to a small blue fruit. Rey grabbed the water, finishing it quickly as she feebly sat up in the bed. She then picked up the bright-blue fruit, eagerly biting into its soft flesh. Her eyes widened at its incredibly sweet flavor, and she hastened to take several more bites.
Fruit in hand, Rey carefully stood up. She leaned back against the bed momentarily for support, her ankles stinging as she placed all of her weight on her feet. She gingerly rubbed a hand along her warm forehead and recounted what had happened last night.
Or...had it been last night? How long had she been out? Time seemed to be completely lost on her.
She shivered as the flashes of her memory came back to her: the bearded man forcing himself upon her, injecting her with a drug, ripping her blouse open...she looked down and begrudgingly saw that she was still wearing the same dusty outfit, without the scarf and cloak. And my lightsaber, she thought despairingly. Rey's torn blouse hung off of her shoulder, and she shuddered again at the thought of the bearded man.
Rey looked towards the slightly-ajar bedroom door, wondering what person or creature had saved her, so benevolently taken care of her. She had blurred memories of the thugs' violent screams, a figure lifting her from the ground, carrying her through the cold night.
Rey slowly, silently pushed the door open, peering out into a dimly-lit, curved hallway lined with several other doors. She crept down the hallway, listening for any sign of movement. As she turned its corner, she blinked against a bright, sunlit foyer, bereft of decor save for a circular table in the middle with an expensive-looking vase atop it. She limped through into the large entryway, admiring the tall double-doors at the left end, presumably the front doors to the house, flanked by tall, narrow windows through which Rey could only see thick, waving blue foliage.
It was so quiet in the house, Rey figured no one was probably home.
Rey turned around the corner to her right, entering into a small, neat kitchen area with a gleaming counter. She moved closer to the countertop as she hungrily eyed a bowl of more exotic-looking fruit, taking a few moments to examine their bright, appealing colors.
She turned and walked into the sitting area facing the kitchen, which featured a couch, a few chairs, and a low table atop what looked like a large animal pelt. The table featured a single stack of books. Looking around the room again, Rey realized that the place looked unfinished, so empty, as if the house's owner had never taken the time to properly decorate.
Surrounding the living area were expansive windows that reached from floor to ceiling. Rey walked up to the glass, marveling at the brilliant view. She was awestruck by the blue and purple forested hills that rolled on before her for miles. She thought of the beauty of Takodana, but this landscape perhaps surpassed even that.
"Enjoying the view?"
Rey jumped, the remaining half of her blue fruit dropping to the stone floor. She turned and immediately froze in place as her bright eyes met the unmistakable dark ones of Kylo Ren.