Star Wars Redemption #1: Across The Stars

Chapter 2: Jakku

Ben had to admit he had more than one reason for flying all the way to Jakku. This is where she grew up. This is where she came from. And maybe, just maybe, this is where he'd find her.
    He insisted he go alone. There was enough First Order presence on Jakku already that Hux didn't bother to argue more than his usual amount. But he didn't want Stormtroopers with him because if she was here, he needed to talk to her. Alone. In person.
    Ben started with Niimi Outpost, the only major town on Jakku. He approached Unkaar Plutt, the largest scrap trader in the area, and if he was lucky, Rey's former employer.
    "Rey, the scavenger?" he snorted. "I practically raised her."
    "Could you tell me where she is?" Ben said. hopefully.
    "Listen, I'll tell you what I told those Stormtroopers when they asked a while back. I don't know anything. I haven't seen her. Even if I did, I wouldn't still be buying scrap metal in this junkyard, I'd be spending the bounty on Canto Bight living it up."

    "Scum," Ben thought. Aloud he said "Is there anyone else I could talk to that might know more? Do you know where her house is?" Ben reached out with the Force, probing his mind. But Plutt was unaffected.
    "You can talk to Rëgan," he said, gesturing to an old woman scrubbing a grimy hunk of metal a few tarps down. Ben started to leave, but Plutt stopped him. "What will I be receiving for my cooperation?"
    Ben stared back at him witheringly. "Your life." He left, headed for the old scavenger.
    "My name is Kylo Ren, Supreme Leader of the First Order," he said. "I'm looking for Rey."
    "Well, you won't find her here," the wrinkly woman responded, not at all afraid. "She left a long time ago, on a ship she stole from Plutt- the Millennium Falcon I think it was."

    "Yes, I know. Can you tell me where she used to live?"
    Rëgan didn't answer. Instead she stared up at his face in confusion. "Who are you? Have we met?"
    Ben leaned forward menacingly. "I already told you who I am. Answer the question."
    "Ah, now I see it," said the old woman, putting a hand up to his face and staring deep into his eyes, smiling. "You're a Skywalker, aren't you?"   
Ben jerked back, slapping her hand away as if she'd hit him instead of touched him. He pulled out his saber, igniting it right under her nose. "I'm no Skywalker."
"No," Rëgan said, staring down at his dark saber only inches from her face and slowly raising her hands in a gesture of surrender. "Not anymore." Her eyes flicked back up to Bens and hardened. "She lived in the Goazon Badlands, in an old AT-AT walker."
    "You've been most helpful," he said sarcastically, retracting the blade and tucking his saber back into his belt. Rey wasn't here. Ben sensed she hadn't been anywhere near this outpost for a long time.

But, commandeering a Speeder from the Imperial outpost nearby, he flew across the desert sands, looking for the fallen AT-AT. The sun set as he searched, falling behind the golden sand dunes and dyeing the land a million shades of orange and purple. He spied the ancient machine as the sun dipped behind a dune for the last time. Ben slowed the speeder and jumped off. This was it. He could feel Rey's presence all around him as he entered the machine's monstrous belly, but she was nowhere to be found.

Ben looked around the single room, noting that everything was covered in sand. Most of the furniture was missing, taken by fellow scavengers who probably believed her dead. He clenched his fists at the state of the house. He wondered if Rey had ever done the same to other missing scavengers. She must have- she was desperate just like the rest. Ben sat on the old hammock in the corner and ran his hand along the worn cloth. Scavengers were just like the rest of them- poor, desperate, trying any way they could to make a living.
    Ben got up and dusted sand off the table and hammock, doing his best to straighten up the dingy little house. His eyes fell on an old pilot's helmet in the corner. He knelt and wiped what dust he could off the visor. She had wanted to be a pilot too, just like he had once upon a time.
Ben raised his eyes to the wall in front of him, noticing for the first time that the marks on the wall weren't a natural part of the walker's interior. He stood and wiped the dust away with the corner of his cape, gasping softly. They weren't just scratches, they were tally marks. Ben stepped back, looking at the whole wall squinting as the light slowly faded outside. There were thousands, tens of thousands of tiny marks. She had been waiting years for her parents. Years upon years for them to come back and they never did. They never loved her, never cared about her. No wonder she was still haunted by their faces. She felt alone and abandoned, just like he had when his parents had sent him away.

Ben turned and left the house. She would not wait endlessly on some other planet a galaxy away from him. He would come back to her. They would see each other again. Because he cared for her far more than he ever thought possible.
If only she would join him.