- Rey -

The next day is a daze to me, a hazy timeline of hiding in my bunk or nagging General Hux, whilst doing my best to stay out of the way. Hux, having taken an immediate dislike to the fact that I was following him along his daily duties, has fled my presence before noon, leaving me to explore the shuttle to no avail, as most rooms are locked anyway.

I trail down the empty hall, tracing my fingers along the walls in lazy patterns. Crinkling my nose, I stare down at my clothes, dirty and stained and ripped in places. I still don't have the guts to ask for a shower, but my hygiene is not my top priority at the moment.

Finding my way back to the command station of the shuttle, I step inside and watch the bustle of Stormtroopers and the pilot rushing about. Everyone is too busy to notice the dirty scavenger in the middle of their workday.

Spotting Hux, I make my way over to him, just now noticing the person, a man, he is deep in conversation with.

"We'll arrive at the Finalizer in twenty minutes, general," says what I assume was the pilot of the command shuttle. He holds a tiny tablet in his hands.

"Good," Hux says, observing the room around him. The pilot's gaze drifts over to me before snapping back to Hux.

"We'll be docked within fifteen minutes of arrival. We've already contacted everyone there. They're ready for us, and the meds are ready for Ren."

His gaze drifts over to me again, and I am surprised to see a bit of fear there. Hux noticed the direction of his stare and follows it over to me. Hux scowls and stalks over to me, gripping my arm in a tight vise.

"What the Force do you think you're doing?" he growls angrily, leading me out of the room and tossing me into one of the nearby hallways. "I don't have time for you to follow me around like a lost animal."

"Well, what do you expect me to do?" I ask, tossing my arms in the air. "I'm here of my own free will, I'll do what I want."

"I don't care if it's on your own free will," Hux snaps angrily. "This is still my ship and you'll obey as ordered. Find something useful to do, or I swear I'll obliterate you."

"Empty threats, General," I snap back, feeling all of a sudden very brave in his presence. Foolish, but very brave all the same.

"General Hux, I want a status report ASAP," says a computerized voice, and I turn to see a stormtrooper - or what I assume was a stormtrooper, only dressed in silver and a red cape instead of white and black - coming towards us. I press myself against the wall, making myself as flat and small as possible. An air of superiority and danger flows out of who I thought was a woman.

"I'm on it, Captain," Hux says, giving me one last icy glare before he turns on his heel and follows the silver trooper away. I sigh, knowing I am left to my own devices until who knows when.

In all honesty I wish to return to the medical ward, but there was a part of me that truly believed Ren will use me as target practice for the stormtroopers, and that fear is keeping me away well enough. Well, that and the fact that I've been denied access to see him. According to Hux, I would be a tremendous strain on Kylo's journey back to full health.

Sighing, I stumble down the hallway, my hands sliding over the grates on the walls, the cool metal soaking into my palms as I search for something, anything, that will keep me from that place. He has no reason to see me just as I have no reason to see him. But I feel a calling, as if I need to be beside him, just to know that he is breathing and alive and I didn't, in fact, injure him all that badly.

Rey.

My head whips from side to side, but further inspecting reveals that no one is in the hall with me. Still, I call out, voice shaking, "Hello?"

Nothing. Silence. Empty air.

I slide onto the floor, wondering to myself if I am going crazy.

The command shuttle docks in twenty minutes just as the pilot had said it would, and within the next twenty minutes I am found and being led off the shuttle by several stormtroopers, blasters already trained on me, even though they know I don't stand a chance against so many of them.

I wait until I spot Hux trailing behind several stormtroopers, observing what I now know as the Finalizer. There is nothing cozy about the place, and I rub my arms, missing the stuffy cockpit of the Millennium Falcon. The way you could feel how it had been cherished and been through many adventures. All I can feel here was empty space and a darkness I couldn't quite put my finger on. A darkness that seemed to surround everything and everyone, almost as if it had a presence of its own.

"Rey," Hux calls from across the walkway. "Come."

Shuffling forward, I keep guard as I am led deeper into this so-called Finalizer. As we pass countless troopers, I make sure to hide Luke's saber in the folds of my clothes. Trust no one. Don't let it out of your sight.

"Where are we going?" I ask Hux. I am so tired of not knowing where I am going next. An endless unknown, it's making me weary.

"Somewhere," Hux replies.

I scoff and say, "You could be a little more specific."

Hux glances behind his shoulder at me. "I'd prefer you not speak."

"I have a mouth," I say, "and I'll use it as I please."

Hux scowls. "You're lucky Ren ordered me not to kill you."

I shudder and shut my mouth.

"Speaking of Ren," I say, venturing far enough that he'll let me speak, "how is he?"

"You saw him earlier," Hux says.

"Yes, but that was earlier."

"It's classified information."

"His health?"

"Everything, Rey."

I shudder again. I hate when he says my name, like it's an insult thrown in my face, distant somehow.

"Can you at least tell me if he's breathing? If his vitals are normal?" I ask hopefully.

"Why do you care anyway?" Hux grumbles, straightening his back. He tenses when I near him closer.

"I have a right to care, you know," I tell him. "And for Ren."

"How so?" Hux asks, raising a brow at me.

I look defiantly back at him and say, "For his father."

Hux lets out what sounds like half a laugh and half a scoff as he stalks forward.

"Ren hasn't had a father in a long time, Rey."

"I hope you find your accommodations. . . Suitable," Hux says, gesturing to the bare room ahead of me. What I assume used to be a bunk room for troopers is now my "room." Devoid of anything except an uncomfortable-looking bunk, a table, and a rack that was big enough to hold stormtrooper suits.

I nod, and Hux leaves before I can tell him anything, or further demand he take me to see Kylo.

I unlatch Luke's lightsaber and set it down on the table, then reach behind me and pull the blaster out from my waistband, setting it beside my other temporary weapon. I'm surprised they weren't confiscated as soon as I stepped aboard, but I guess with hundreds of stormtroopers in the area, it wouldn't really matter if I pulled out a weapon or not. Nonetheless, I stare down at them.

My only belongings. Quite sad, I wonder what has become of my home in Jakku.

Perhaps there is no home to go on Jakku, as I found myself thinking about awhile back, but now I know there is no home for me anywhere.

No home. No family. And until recently, I had had no friends.

Friends who I had so easily abandoned for my own selfish reasons. A reason that perhaps would help me accept Han's death, or at least honor him by it.

Stupid, Rey. So stupid.

I drop onto the bunk, spreading my sore limbs out and arranging myself into a somewhat comfortable position, closing my eyes for a quick rest. Maybe some refreshing will do my mind some good.

I doubt it.

I close my eyes, and try to think of all the good things I've encountered. But all that comes to my mind is the haunting image of Kylo Ren in that bed in the infirmary. It's enough to scare me from both sleep and my mind, and I spend the rest of the restless hours staring blankly at the far wall, until finally, somehow, I find enough peace to fall asleep.

First came the images.

"He was training a new generation of Jedi. One boy, an apprentice, turned against him, destroyed it all. Luke felt responsible. He just walked away from everything."

"Do you know what happened to him?"

"A lot of rumors. Stories. People that knew him best think he went looking for the first Jedi temple.

"The Jedi were real?"

Hans looks at me, and opens his mouth to respond, but they fade from mind. In their place, an untouched snow-capped forest.

Brown eyes piercing into mine, blue and red reflections in his irises.

"You need a teacher."

Hans, with a lightsaber through his abdomen before he falls from the side of the bridge.

"I can show you the ways of the Force."

Finn, unconscious, lying in the snow.

"You. . . don't. . . touch her."

Chewbacca as he cries out for Hans.

"You. You're afraid. That you will never be as strong as Darth Vader."

Kylo Ren.

The forest disappears, and in its wake - the basement, reaching for Luke's lightsabers.

"Rey? These are your first steps."

As if I'm grabbed away, I'm back in that chair, strapped down, defenseless.

"You're so lonely... So afraid to leave... At night, desperate to sleep... You imagine an ocean... I see it... I see the island... And Han Solo... You feel like he's the father you never had. He would have disappointed you."

Imagine an ocean.

The island.

The father you never had.

Hans grasping his son before falling into blackness.

"Rey, wake up."

No!

"Rey!"

My eyes flew open and my hands reached for my throat as ragged breaths forced their way from my mouth. I adjust to the unsettling darkness of the room, pressing one palm to my forehead. Real. The dreams felt so real, as if I was there just now. I shakily stood from the bunk and stumbled over to my lightsaber.

Had someone been calling my name? To wake me up?

No, it's not possible. I look around the room. It's completely empty. No one was ever in here, I've been asleep for who knows how long and it was all just a terrible, terrible dream.

I can't stay here. I can't stay locked up in a glorified cell while the whole galaxy continues on, while my allies are out of reach and in danger and I'm in enemy territory. I can't allow to be a sitting, waiting target. Not when the only thing keeping those stormtroopers from busting down the door and cutting me from where I stand is Kylo Ren's command when he was half-conscious and probably delirious from pain. Any moment now I could be dead. Any moment could he send Hux or someone else to kill me.

I reach for the lightsaber, its warm metal familiar in my hand. I stare down at it, grip it tightly, and my dreams come rushing back to me again. I close my eyes, but when I do the darkness behind my eyelids are plagued by images. I attach the lightsaber to my belt and cover it with fabric, then shove the blaster under the mattress.

As quietly as I can, I creep over to the door and place my ear against the cool metal of the door, and for a moment I relish the cold against my cheek. I listen for the signs of stormtroopers posted outside my door, but the only thing I can hear is the hum of the ship's engine running through the interior walls.

Barely cracking open the door, I peek into the hallway to see it utterly empty. I slip out and shut the door without a sound. I'm faced with the decision of which way to go, glancing both left and right. Both directions branch off into even more hallways, and the chances of me running into someone, specifically stormtroopers, is far too great to just run off in whichever direction.

I close my eyes and concentrate, trying to bring all my focus into one spot.

Focus, Rey, I tell myself. You have to focus. Concentrate.

There.

Maybe I'm just imagining it, but I feel a sensation similar to a tug, as if my instincts having taken a mind of their own. Or something else has. I turn left, determined to just do something, go somewhere, and not wait around for my inevitable death. Escape isn't an option, not when surrounded by so many enemies ready to kill me instantly, but perhaps I could a way to contact the Rebellion or the Millennium Falcon. Let them know I'm alive.

Force knows what Finn must be feeling right now.

You're the one who left him on the other side of that chasm. You're the one who chose Kylo Ren.

I silence my thoughts, knowing that my dreams have only inflicted pain onto me. I just need to stay focused. Center myself on that invisible string tugging me away. It's so faint I can barely feel it, but its pull is undeniable.

I squeeze my eyes shut, taking shuddering breaths as the images from my dream race by, one after the other. There was no ocean for me this time, no island to swim to. There was only the feeling of being alone, and knowing that Kylo Ren has taken that island from me. That it will never belong to just my mind now.

It is because I'm distracted that I don't hear the murmuring of voices up ahead, and it is not until I turn into the next hallway that I am faced with General Hux, the silver stormtrooper that I had seen him with earlier, and following behind them, half a dozen stormtroopers.

Facing them, I am struck dumb and unable to move my feet. I can only stare at Hux's reddening face, and the reflection of my face in the silver trooper's helmet.

"You must be Kylo Ren's new prisoner."