With her head firmly wrapped and her body covered in her new and grey practical garb, Rey brought her goggles down to cover her eyes. Deft fingers secured the cable around her waist and she nimbly began climbing down into an old abandoned relic of the Empire. The small light on her goggles was not really enough to light the way, but she could feel her way just as easily. She didn't want to think about the reason why that was.

Her voice had been earnest in its conviction. "I won't fail you. I'm not afraid."

They were the foolish words of a foolish girl, and as soon as she had uttered them, she had felt disingenuous, as if those words belonged to another. However, that was Rey's fate; scavenging things that belonged to others, even their very words, it seemed. Haring off against all advice from her Jedi master had been anything but prudent. However, Rey was hanging everything on a feeling. Such feelings had always kept her alive before.

She had received no borrowed words in return. It punctuated her guilt and made it seem like a personal failing on her part. She resented it. She could admit that to herself, at least.

A niggling, yet resolute, push had encouraged her to move forward. It was slow, but it was consistent. The feeling was overwhelmingly maddening in its compulsion. To even entertain the notion only served to increase it. It frightened her in its intensity. Her light was small and it only punctuated the maw of the dark beneath her feet.

The vast chamber echoed around her as her feet finally touched ground and she disengaged the cable from her waist. The faint taste of methadrine was suddenly on the tip of her tongue, the very memory of it causing bile to form in her throat. She had never told anyone about the time she had used it to keep her hunger at bay, and how pathetically desperate she had been. To Rey, it felt like more of a warning from the Force than the actual substance lingering in the air, and that was a worry in and of itself. She closed her eyes and stifled the urge to gag on the acrid taste. One could never stave off such hunger. It was always futile in the end.

Reaching her hand out in a desperate effort to steady herself, she touched the cold metal of a control panel. It was familiar. It was Imperial. She was used to Imperial relics. They had been the only consistent things in her life. The idea of such cold comfort was a disturbing thought, but she found herself letting out a sigh anyway.

Blue lights and static noise suddenly illumined the darkened chamber.

Rey flinched, her eyes quickly scanning to the center of the room. Her heart rate increased and she could feel her blood pounding in her own ears. She had triggered the machinery. She fought the urge to scoff at her own pathetic response.

The lights flickered and then filled the chamber, coalescing into a holo that was larger than any she had seen before. It was life sized. Perhaps it was larger than life. Despite herself, Rey was intrigued. She ripped her goggles off to get a better look. How often had she wanted to, just once, see an intact and working remnant of the old Empire?

A woman's voice rang out in the chamber. It was the perfect Coruscanti accent. "This Empire Day, declare your loyalty to our Emperor and the Galactic Empire by joining the Imperial military…"

A man behind the cockpit of a TIE fighter, looked up from his navigational check. "This is my Empire."

A smiling woman looked up from a holopad. "This is my Empire."

A man in an Imperial uniform, engaged in talking to his subordinates stopped, turned towards the camera, and smiled. "This is my Empire."

A man in dark robes that covered most of his face, save for a twisted grin, leaned forward in a chair on a raised platform, hands gripping the armrests. His voice was an eerie sibilant hiss. "This is my Empire."

Rey's very heart leapt into her throat and she angled her body away, ready to run. It felt as if the holo of the man, the Emperor, was looking right at her. Her breathing turned heavy as if she could never get enough air again. Was it her imagination or did she hear a respirator fill the room, keeping time with her own respirations? Placing her hand on her hip, she fingered a cylinder of metal resting there; the lightsaber she had once ran from as soon as she had discovered it. The irony that it was now the first thing she clung to when she felt threatened wasn't lost on her.

«Rey, these are your first steps.»

Those words, that tangible audible memory of her Force vision, did nothing to take away the ominous feeling that threatened to choke her in that moment.

However, the lost relics had moved on, and Rey could see that this was truly only a piece of Imperial propaganda. It was, she silently admitted, impressive. Even she was awed by its ability to inspire. It inspired fear, but also other feelings she wasn't willing to delve into either. It must have been truly effective in its day. She had never seen the like.

Stormtroopers, slick uniformed officers, sleek ships, genteel manners covering an iron fist, and impressive military march music—it was darkness personified. It was—Rey didn't know what it was. Rey knew all too well what it was. It was tempting. She was only lucky such an Empire no longer existed for her to be tempted by. Rey shook her head in an effort to clear her thoughts. Leaving her training had come with numerous warnings about the dark side. Not surprising, considering Master Skywalker had never taken a real shine to her in the first place, only reluctantly telling her anything of the Force at all.

The holo coalesced into a tall dark man in a mask. It was another monster. Darth Vader. He was the one Kylo Ren allegedly looked up to. The figure ignited a red lightsaber and pointed it at her in challenge.

The vocodor hissed at her in a deep tone. "I have brought peace, freedom, justice, and security to my new Empire."

No longer certain if it was a vision or a holo, Rey was determined to ignore the creature's words. She had never known such things in her own short life, yet she craved them. The very thought that any words from such a creature could remind her of it made her angry. The fleeting thought that her unfortunate life had only been lived during the time of the New Republic was treason itself.

The holo abruptly shut off, leaving her swathed in the darkness. Rey shivered, thoroughly unsettled. For the first time in her life, Rey did not think about exchanging these intact and working relics for rations or for even more rare credits. Despite her growing fear, Rey bared her teeth and fisted her hand tightly around the weapon at her side. She ignited the blue blade into the darkness, its hum buzzing loudly through the air as it made contact with old, useless relics.

This entire story was inspired by an old song by Sisters of Mercy called Lucretia, My Reflection. So, for those of you that happen to like soundtrack types of things- here you go.

Anyway, this is a Rey that never was interrogated by Kylo Ren. They've never met. The Hosnian system being destroyed by Starkiller didn't occur. The First Order attacked Takadona, but only after Rey had left. I thought it would be interesting to write a story picking up from there. So, I'm doing it. I can't wait for someone else to do this for me because it will likely never happen.

Enjoy! Please review and let me know what you think.