Genre (s): Fanfiction/Science Fiction

Written When? 12th Grade

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

Part 1

From an early age to her age now, nineteen, Rey always felt something was different about her. She had no idea but something amazing, yet dangerous, swirled deep inside her. After living many lonely, unsettling years on Jakku while waiting for her family, when the First Order started their search for the map that led to Luke Skywalker, Rey felt the power inside her grow. Her instincts told her a village on Jakku was in danger, by someone who was strong with the Force. For the sake of her people, she, a scavenger, attempted to find a way to stop the attack herself.

***

Like most days on Jakku, the morning was hot, but Rey had grown used to it. She was taking a break from scavenging, in a wrecked Star Destroyer, when the Force told her an ambush was en-route to the Desert Resort.

The young woman sat on an old, rotating seat and snacked on the little food she had. It was quiet. Nobody else was in the Star Destroyer. While Rey snacked, she went through the valuables she found that morning. Would any of them be worth more than one quarter portion?

A few minutes later, she heard a loud bang which echoed throughout the whole Destroyer.

Jumping, she immediately pulled her goggles off her eyes and hopped down from the seat. Rey grabbed her quarterstaff, which had been propped up against it, and jogged forward. "Who's there?"

A draft wafted through the ship. In it, came a mysterious voice. "You're the light, Rey, the darkness–the Force."

Rey didn't understand. What was that voice? She held her staff out, for protection, and questioned, "Who are you? I have a weapon. If you're a voice in my head, I guess I can't really hit you, but if you're a person, I'd watch out." Cautiously, she wandered through the Star Destroyer's corridors and searched for whoever spoke to her.

"Rey," he/she said again.

Rey gasped and hurried forward.

The voice took her outside to Jakku's dry landscape and explained, "The Desert Resort, young'un. It needs your help."

"The Desert Resort?" Rey asked. "What's wrong?" A sickening feeling invaded her insides. Innocent lives were in danger. "Oh no."

The scavenger wasted no time. She started down a dune, without thinking about getting her sand sled. That caused her to trip over her own foot and fall. Rey rolled down the dune and landed in a heap next to her speeder. Her staff slipped from her hand and landed a few feet away.

She remembered the entire time she rolled, she heard the same voice in her head calling, "Rey."

The young woman inhaled breaths of air as she rested on the sand. Once recovered from her fall, she leaped to her feet and brushed herself down, retrieving her staff. Rey slipped the strap of it over her shoulder and hurried to her speeder. Climbing aboard, she pulled her goggles down and started it. She sped forward and headed in the direction of the Desert Resort.

It was a haul to get there but possible. The journey took just under three hours traveling by speeder. Rey drove in between a herd of Luggabeast but didn't stop to admire them. Luggabeast were a type of cybernetic, enhanced beasts that forever hid their faces under armor.

As the Desert Resort drew closer, the young woman felt something–something strong. A headache. It was like something or somebody was probing her mind. She fought the pain, though. The sun disappeared behind a cloud, but its rays showered Rey, who continued to drive.

"You're getting closer, Rey," the voice in her head elucidated. "Feel the light, the darkness. Feel the Force."

Rey did not expect for her headache to grow worse, but it did. She tightly closed her eyes and shook the old noggin. The Desert Resort was really close, as well as the Force user she felt.

Suddenly, as if something had frightened it, the young woman's speeder screeched to a stop and chucked her over its handlebars. She lost her staff for the second time and crashed into another sand dune. Rey front-flipped down it, and the sand buried her. Only her hands and legs were visible.

Rey remained hidden for a few moments, but then the rest of her sand-covered body emerged from the sand. She shook the grains out of her hair and felt her body up and down. When she didn't feel her staff, she gasped and immediately started a manhunt for it. That staff was very important to her. Young Rey frantically felt around in the sand for it. Luckily it didn't take her long to find it. As soon as she did, she picked it up and hugged it to her breasts. A gust of wind blew sand past her, and she shakily stood up.

Rey's hazel brown eyes landed on her speeder. She frustratingly puffed out her cheeks. Marching to her speeder, she pointed her hands at it and angrily yelled, "Curses, you speeder! Why did you throw me like that? Not cool! Do you expect me to rot and die in this barbaric desert? I've had it!" Irritated, the young woman lifted her foot and kicked her speeder. As soon as she did, she flinched and grabbed it. "Ow, ow, ow."

The Force kicked into action again. As if she were put under a spell, Rey turned in the direction where it was strongest. With her staff held tightly in her hand, she shuffled over to a much larger dune and hiked up it like she was climbing a mountain.

What she witnessed at the top was quite nice. Over the dune and across a small, sandy field was a cluster of buildings. Those ones were much cleaner and more prominent than the ones she was used to seeing at Niima Outpost.

Rey immediately knew she had made it to the Desert Resort. She had heard of it, but she never actually saw it. It was proof that maybe, just maybe, a teeny bit of beauty was on Jakku. The lovely village couldn't be destroyed! Rey had to move fast.

Carefully, she slid down the dune and crossed the field towards the resort. Just the thought of being at a resort excited her, and it wasn't long until she jumped into a jog. However, it turned out it actually was much tougher to get there than she thought. Halfway to its entrance, a stone arch, Rey's foot hit a patch of quicksand, like the Sinking Fields just outside of Niima Outpost, and it pulled her down.

Her eyes widened when she realized she was sinking. "No, no. Not good. Nobody likes quicksand." She set her staff down. Rey attempted to pull herself out, but the more she struggled, the more she sank.

Finally, she stopped struggling, and her eyes landed on a lone Luggabeast wandering the field not far from her. The unusual power in her soul came to life. She took a deep breath. It felt like someone was training her in her head. She wondered if it was the mysterious voice.

Rey calmed herself down and focused on the Luggabeast that continued to roam. A few moments passed, and then, in a spellbinding voice, she told the cybernetic creature, "You will pull me out of this pit and escort me safely to the Desert Resort."

The Luggabeast got her message, even though she spoke it kind of quietly. It lifted its head and glanced in the direction of the trapped scavenger. The Luggabeast fell for her spell. It moved its legs and sauntered towards the quicksand pit.

Rey was surprised when she saw it approaching. How did she do that?

The Luggabeast stopped a few feet away from the pit, on the high ground, and met eyes with the young woman.

She nervously lifted her hand and waved. "Hi." Picking up her staff, she offered it to the creature. "Here. You can grab the other end of my staff and pull." In her head she heard a new voice–the voice of the Luggabeast.

It was communicating with her telepathically. "I will pull you out of this pit and escort you safely to the Desert Resort." It grabbed the other end of Rey's staff and jerked on it.

She grunted and peered back to her stuck body. "Hurry," she begged.

The Luggabeast pulled as hard as it could.

Before the scavenger knew it, she was free. "Whoa!" she yelped as the creature twirled her around in a few circles and dropped her onto its back. "What are you doing?" Rey asked as she sat up.

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"I will pull you out of this pit and escort you safely to the Desert Resort," repeated the Luggabeast.

Rey's eyes widened. She couldn't believe what was going on. She was riding on the back of a Luggabeast! Just like it said, it safely escorted her to the Desert Resort's entrance, by avoiding the other pits of quicksand.

The resort was surrounded by a gate,–possibly to protect it from the sinking sand–and the bright rays of sunshine rained down on it.

Within ten minutes, the Luggabeast reached its stone arch and slid astonished Rey off its back.

She landed gently on the sand and stared at it, her words totally cluttered.

The Luggabeast next offered her, her staff, and she took it. Nodding, it turned and started to march away.

All Rey could do was sit and stare. When she recovered from that interesting phenomenon, she stood up and turned to face the stone arch. Unusually, she didn't see any villagers roaming the resort's streets. It almost seemed like a ghost town. Was Rey's trip out there a total waste? No, it couldn't have been. The Force itself told her the Desert Resort needed her help.

Rey heard a loud roar behind her, and her jaw dropped open. "I have a bad feeling about this." She peered over her shoulder to the quicksand-filled field. What she saw frightened her, and she slapped her palm over her mouth. Her day just kept getting better and better. Rey could not escape the sand.

A huge sandstorm headed straight towards the Desert Resort, in the form of a blast wave. If Rey was caught in the middle of it, then she would die, and she most certainly did not want to die. She still had to wait for her family.

The young scavenger sprinted through the resort's arch and headed in the direction of one of its buildings. Blowing sand whipped into her face and slowed her down. It wasn't long until she held her hands in front of her to protect it. Her staff wiggled on her back.

A sudden blast of wind threw it right off her shoulder, and it stabbed the sand about two-hundred feet away from her.

"Come back! Don't leave me! Please!" Rey shouted. She held her right hand out to her staff, while her left one continued to protect her face. By that time, she was right next to one of the buildings of the resort. What happened next, though, totally blew the young woman's mind.

Suddenly, whoosh! Her staff was thrown out of the sand, and it landed right in her hand.

Rey tried to comprehend what happened, but just before she could, the door of the building she stood next to blew open, and another blast of wind pitched her into it. It slammed shut as the worst of the storm hit the resort.

Rey made it just in time. Unfortunately, she slammed down hard on her back, and the force of the crash caused her to bounce and flip onto her front.

The sandstorm roared outside, like the engines of a starship. Before she knew it, Rey's world went black. By the looks of it, it wasn't going to clear up any time soon. For now, the teen was stuck.

Inside the building, she heard the same voice from before in her head, "Wake up, Rey," and Rey did.

She squirmed as she came to. Lifting her head, she rose to hands and knees and massaged her arm. The young woman looked around the empty building. Honestly, it was kind of suspicious that no villagers were around.

Rey hopped to her feet and held her staff at the ready. She curiously started to explore the building. She followed the voice in her head–the voice that had the same atmosphere of the building. Dark. Rey started to have second thoughts about the resort. She felt a presence; she definitely wasn't alone.

All of a sudden, something picked her up and threw her. It was a force of energy... a Force push. The Force user Rey felt... They were in the room with her. Flying back, the scavenger slid on the floor and almost crashed into a wall. She leaped to her feet and did a forward thrust with her staff, trying her best to not show her fear. "All right! Show yourself! Who are you?"

Movement was heard in the room.

Rey glanced in every direction, but nothing showed itself. Her feet took her towards the exit, but just before she could reach it, a blaster bolt flew by her head. She gasped and whirled around in the direction the bolt came from. Her eyes widened when she saw a cluster of stormtroopers that had just appeared from out of nowhere.

One pointed at her and said, "There she is." Lifting his blaster, he shot at Rey again, but she dove out of the way and rolled on the floor. She was lucky because stormtroopers had really bad aim, but unlucky because they were proof the First Order had gotten to the Desert Resort first.

The young woman ran as fast as she could towards the exit, but another cluster of stormtroopers blocked it.

"Halt!" they yelled.

Rey built up her confidence. She decided to fight back. Even though she didn't have a blaster of her own, she did have her staff. Why not use it? Rey did. She turned on an angry face and lifted her quarterstaff, smacking the blasters out of the troopers' hands.

Rey fought as hard as she could. She attacked out of pure anger, but she had to be careful. According to Master Yoda, fear and anger were paths to the Dark side. Rey hadn't had enough training to know that, though. She just continued to viciously attack the stormtroopers. Kicking one down, she smacked him across the head with her staff and instantly knocked him out. The young woman clenched her teeth and angrily shouted. With a few more blows, she defeated the rest of the stormtroopers attacking her. She even went as far as almost killing them.

Rey picked up one of the troopers' blasters and pointed it at them. Her finger rested on the trigger. It was strange. She wanted to kill.

The dark training voice in her head spoke up once again. "Well done, Rey. Now finish them."

It took a few moments for Rey to realize what she had just done and what she was about to do. She wasn't a killer. She was a survivor. "What am I doing?" the young woman asked herself. Why was the voice tormenting her? What did it mean?

She spared the stormtroopers and dropped the blaster she held. Rey didn't come to the Desert Resort to kill. She came to save it and the villagers from the First Order.

Part 2

Force-sensitive, nineteen-year-old Rey hadn’t been at the Desert Resort for long, but she knew she came to complete a mission–to stop an attack the First Order had in mind. Little did she know that the mysterious, dark voice she had been hearing that day belonged to someone familiar... someone who recognized her Force abilities. Who was that someone? Rey would find out eventually. For now, she had to find the villagers of the Desert Resort and save both them and it from total destruction.

***

Not a single light glowed in the building she explored. The only sounds heard came from the sandstorm outside.

Rey left the stormtroopers she knocked out–the stormtroopers who tried to kill her–and tiptoed through the building, with quarterstaff clutched tightly in her sweaty hands. “Hello?” she whispered into the darkness.

Her Force abilities took her to a door, but she didn’t know it was the Force. Rey kicked it down and entered what looked like a run-down laboratory or control room. Old computers and droids surrounded her. They raised an interesting question, to Rey at least. Was the Desert Resort something else before it became the Desert Resort? What if one of the computers still worked? That would allow the scavenger to pinpoint where all the villagers were.

With that in mind, she put the strap of her staff over her shoulder and approached one computer. Rey scrambled around with the buttons, to see if any of them would turn it on, but none did. She didn’t give up, though. Something told her a computer still worked in there and that it could make her mission much easier. The young woman scurried towards another one across the room, but she bumped into an old droid–an R2 unit. It rested right in the center.

Rey jumped when she felt it, afraid she had been caught. “Excuse me,” she spoke. She gently pushed it off to the side so she could reach the computer the Force drew her towards. Her eyes scanned it up and down, and she asked, “Why do I feel this is the computer I need?” Rey shuffled over to a latch and grabbed it. She took a deep breath and pulled it up.

Amazingly, all around her, the computers booted up at the same time, including the one she was next to. Each computer screen glowed blue, and the blue showered the scavenger. A part of her didn’t shine, though.

“Wow,” Rey stammered. Would she finally be able to find the villagers? Rey thought so. To test her theory, she shuffled over to the computer the switch was next to and glanced into its screen. It showed cameras of six different rooms of the building. The scavenger’s eyes landed on one of interest. There were the villagers. The camera showed a cluster of dark figures, behind bars, in the basement. Rey found them! She just had to find a way into the basement.

While she left the room, the lens of a video camera near the ceiling landed on her, and a red light flashed in it.

Rey sauntered through a dark, shady corridor littered with more old droids and other junk as she searched for a way into the basement. She still felt like she wasn’t alone. Her toe hit something. Gasping, Rey jumped back a few feet. It turned out it was only an old Rebellion helmet.

Rey’s eyes brightened at the sight of it. “Look at this,” she said, kneeling. Picking up the helmet, she tried it on, but it was a little big for her. The young woman didn’t know why, but something about the Rebellion pilots always intrigued her. She decided to keep the helmet. Maybe it would protect her head if she got shot at again?

With a new accessory on her, Rey continued her journey down the dark corridor, with the palm of her hand sliding on the wall. Her ears caught the sound of footsteps, and it wasn’t long until she was attacked again–by more stormtroopers, nonetheless.

They appeared on either side of the corridor and pointed their weapons.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me!” Rey groaned. She glued her feet to the ground and glanced at each stormtrooper cluster surrounding her. “Well, are you going to shoot?”

It turned out these stormtroopers had a bit more heart than the others. They refused to shoot her. The main reason was because she was a girl.

Their hesitation allowed Rey to make a run for it. It also gave her a chance to test her inner power again.

The voice in her head returned. “Destroy them, Rey. Destroy them all. Use the Force.”

Rey found herself pulled into its trap. She had no idea what she was doing. It felt like the voice was controlling her mind. Before she knew it, she wound up experiencing another hateful rampage.

With one hand, Rey drew her staff, and with the other, she waved it in front of one cluster of stormtroopers. She really had something against them. The young woman used the Force to throw the blasters out of the troopers’ hands and shove them down the corridor. Her rampage came from every bit of strength she had. Rey had no idea how powerful she was.

“Destroy, destroy,” the voice whispered.

The scavenger’s mind went completely blank. Someone was definitely probing her brain. She narrowed her eyebrows to an angry position and forced the old droids in the hallway to come to life.

They fought on her side. Before the stormtroopers knew it, a mini droid army emerged from the shadows of the hallway and attacked them at the same time. Rey controlled them by holding her hand out. Thanks to her abilities with the Force, they weren’t the only things she controlled. Scraps of old metal lifted off a few piles of junk and slammed into her enemies.

Yelling, they tried to run away, but the droids made sure they didn’t get far.

The intense power was way too much for Rey to bear, because she had no idea how to control it. Within a minute, it weakened her, and she fell unconscious on the floor. The Rebellion helmet slipped from her hand and rolled a few feet away.

The droids immediately shut off again when they no longer were being controlled, and they cluttered the floor. The scraps of metal slammed down on a few of the troopers’ helmets. Everything turned dead silent in the hallway.

A few of the stormtroopers stared at Rey, amazed. Two left the crowd and approached her.

One trooper picked up the helmet, and the other one kneeled to her. “We’ve got one in custody,” he announced to something down the hallway, taking Rey’s arm. “Do you want me to throw her in with the rest of the prisoners? She’s too dangerous to be left running free.”