Saga - OT Requiem for a Dream (Title Challenge) Rey

Disclaimer: I own nothing, just playing in Uncle George's section of the Disney theme park...

Requiem for a Dream

**Part One**

The hour before dawn was the best time to be out. In those predawn moments, with only starlight as a guide, the hills and dunes of the surrounding desert looked like sleeping giants. Rey loved to take her land speeder out then; it was the only time of day when she could feel a cool breeze rustle over her as she swooped past the wreckage of pillaged spacecraft hulls half buried in the Graveyard of Ships.

She passed by a small convoy of Teedos and their luggabeasts who were preparing to enter the semi-cannibalized hull of a small battle cruiser, and for a fleeting moment, wondered what valuables might still be left there. Rey had been inside that cruiser many times in the past, wriggling through utility ducts and under tight crawlspaces looking for sensor arrays and power converters, utility cables and magneto-drives. She was fairly sure that the ship had already been stripped of all the valuables it had held, but then, you could never be sure with Teedos. They were a strange tribe of creatures, and perhaps they might be able to find some use for bits left behind that others had deemed useless.

Rey had no time to worry about what the Teedos might find there, for she had her own mission this morning. Just yesterday, in the late afternoon, she had come upon a jagged piece of metal in the sand dunes out just a few clicks from the first of the Sacred Villages. She had almost missed it, but there was something in the shape of the metal that stuck in her mind, reminding her of a gun turret from a Jetta Sonostar. They were rare in this part of the Galaxy, but prized. Rey remembered hearing the story of a scavenger who has traded in gun turret like that one for enough ration packs to buy his way off the planet.

But even if she had enough ration packs, Rey knew she would not leave Jakku, strange as it might seem to the others of her acquaintance. She could not risk leaving and losing her only chance of finding her family...the family she could barely remember, the family that was now the only hope that sustained her through the long nights and harsh days on this forbidding backwater planet.

She could sometimes recall glimpses of gleaming, deep set brown eyes, a swish of chestnut brown hair, a smile, a tactile sensation of being held and hugged. A voice promising to come back for her. For that promise, she would willingly wait as long as need be.

Still, there was a part of her that yearned to explore the stars, to escape the gravity well of this dust hell and visit other planets, see other sights. She rarely met off world travelers, but the ones she met occasionally told such fantastic and wonderful stories of gleaming cities and lush jungles, of vast oceans and teeming wildlife. Once, a family that had stopped near Niima outpost had even given her a small pack of fresh oranges. The first bite had brought tears to her eyes. She had been eating nearly tasteless military rations for so long she’d almost forgotten what real food tasted like.

The starlight was starting to fade when she came upon the wreckage near the village of Halba. She rarely ventured toward the village, as the inhabitants tended to be fairly hostile toward outsiders, but an emergency had forced her to head toward the small oasis that sat on the outskirts of the village. From years of experience, she knew never to leave her home without packing at least two water bottles, and yesterday was no exception, but as she was preparing to do a last flyby of the wastes past Egryphon, she noticed that the magneto-carburetor on her speeder was acting up and she had stopped to check it out.

The blaster shot came at her over one of dunes out in the direction of the Carbon Ridge, missing her but hitting her spare water bottle and soaking her. Rey had not waited around to find out who was firing, instead, flinging her repair kit into the speeder hold as she leapt onto the seat and zoomed away. No one had given chase, which led Rey to think that perhaps she had strayed too close to some illicit activity or some particularly good find out in the desert wastes.

With her spare bottle destroyed, Rey knew she needed to find water fast. The blistering sun was as deadly as any blaster out here and Rey needed to make sure she had enough for a safe journey home in case her speeder developed any more problems and she was forced to find shelter for the night.

The oasis near Halba was small, and very few people other than villagers knew of its existence, but Rey had used it once when she was younger and had run errands for Unkar Plutt to earn food rations. Rey hadn't been out this way in months and many of the local landmarks had changed as happened often after sandstorms that blew fairly frequently at this time of the year. She pulled out her compass from her pocket and checked her heading. Even with her goggles on, she found she had to squint against the glare of sun on sand, but she finally found the oasis with its rare, beautiful patch of purple and orange barybary trees. She took a long drink of water at the spring and refilled her primary water bottle. She had been so tempted to sit beneath the barybary trees and enjoy the cool breezes that wafted through the place, but a grumble in her stomach had reminded her she was hungry.

Rey remounted her speeder, but took a more southerly route back home, hoping to avoid the worst of the sunlight that way, and a half dozen klicks out from the oasis she had come across the metal shaft. She stopped her speeder and approached the shaft, looking around to make sure she was alone. Satisfied that no one had seen her, she examined the rod, with its curious designs engraved into the metal.

“You’re a wonder,” she had murmured, wondering if some sort of message was in the engravings or if it was merely an idle doodle. The sinking sunlight had reminded her that it was time to hurry home, and she left reluctantly, mentally marking the spot and promising herself she would come back the next morning.

Now, as she approached the spot again, straining to make out the outlines of the metal shaft against the dunes in the faint early dawn light she stilled suddenly, realizing she was not alone.

“What are you doing out so far, young one?” a voice asked.

Rey whipped around in the direction of the voice. She saw no one, and she shivered, for she had heard that voice before. She had dreamed that voice.

It was the voice that promised to come back for her.

 

Wonderful and truly in character for what we know and believe for Rey. Her longing and barely recalled memories of family etc. Her wish to be out amongst the stars ... I love the title you got, it is perfect for the tone/mood.

 

Fantastic. I love the descriptions and the way you wove the necessary backstory and exposition into the actual plot. Great cliffie there!
I'm looking forward to the next chapter already!

 

Very interesting start. Wonderful descriptions and world-building. I can't wait to see where this goes!

 

Ohhhh just lovely!!! I love how you made me feel so many sensations--the tang of an orange, water splashing down on me!!! Beautiful!!! And this voice...who is it? I'm super stoked to see where we go from here! Will you tag me when you update (if you're doing that)?

 

This is a fantastic start, LadyPadme! Like others said, your characterisation of Rey is wonderful, but I think that what I liked even better was your description of life on Jakku -- the remoteness, the isolation, the scarcity of just about everything, the tiny communities lost in the desert the Wild West way of life... No wonder Rey would be hearing voices, with or without the Force. She could be forgiven for speaking to herself out there!

I wonder if there is a reason for her to be hearing this voice in this specific place. Is there something special about this ship she found? Or is it because she's so far out, so alone, and her life is about to change?