The Chosen One: A Reylo Story

Chapter 3: To be Human

The Falcon is quiet. Dead quiet.

Usually, Rey can hear the hum of the ship all around her, but not now. The ship is docked and in low power mode.

Rey hunches over, curled up in a nook—her nook— with a bright, focused light streaming down on the open book before her. On one side is a course, wizened page of the Jedi text. On the other is a smooth, mostly blank page except for a few scribbles at the top. She lies back on a slight incline, her knees bent close to her chest, feet propped up. Frequently, she turns her head up to the computer above her, entering data, searching existing records... her neck is sore from looking down at the text and up at the computer, again and again... Every so often, she jots a few marks on the page to the right.

She's translating.

It is a slow, painfully slow, process...

When she took the Jedi texts from the temple in Ahch-To, she did it because she felt compelled to learn about what Master Skywalker was so reluctant to teach her. It never occurred to her that she wouldn't be able to read most of what was in them.

Learning languages, translating between them... that's something that has always come easily to her. But this... what she is doing now... this is something else entirely.

The texts are comprised of multiple languages, many of which have been dead for centuries. In order to piece them together, she must draw from scripts that look like they might have developed from them. But languages evolve... the few existing scripts she's found that look like they might be ancestors of the Jedi originals have precious little in common with the marks she sees scrawled across these pages. Much of what she comes up with is pure guess work... a chilling thought considering the vital knowledge locked in these pages. What if she gets something terribly wrong?

On top of everything, she's working from incomplete archives. Last time she saw her, the General told Rey she would help her gain access to better, more complete archival records that might give her new scripts to work from. But she hasn't seen the General since she gave her the Sith crystal a week ago...

The Resistance moves around a lot these days. That's the advantage of being a much smaller outfit... mobility. They barely stay more than a week in one place. Often, one or two of them go off on an independent mission to shore up support for the Resistance or throw road blocks in the First Order's path. But they are little more than a buzzing nuisance to the First Order's progress...

After the death of Snoke, General Hux wasted no time in tightening his grip on the star systems under First Order control, which, after the destruction of the Republic, is the vast majority of them. If the First Order's reign seemed brutal before...

They've heard rumors. Entire planets purged of all life because of the deeds of just a handful. Razed and reborn as massive First Order production centers and bases... all the more readily if the planet is home to precious natural resources.

This has made it difficult for General Leia to find new allies. Most everyone living on a planet left more or less alone by the First Order is focused on surviving, preserving their way of life by whatever means possible.

Rey can hardly blame them. She's spent most of her life focused on survival. It does something to people... that razor-sharp focus on just remaining alive. It makes people do selfish things. Despicable things. Living in a world like this... it makes you turn inward and build a wall of distrust to protect yourself from theft, treachery, rape, and much worse.

So, no. Rey cannot feel resentment towards people for turning down the Resistance's request to take up arms, to fight... so many of them... so many of them just want to keep the ones they love alive. Joining the resistance is a surefire way to put your family and friends in danger.