BY-Universes: Star Wars - Book 1. The Kyber Surfaces

Chapter 8. Nightmares

Elena could feel the sand engrained in her skin. And in her mouth. She spit it out as she tried to familiarize herself with her surroundings.

Sand blew everywhere and even though the sun wasn’t beating down, there was still miserable heat. This was nothing like the Sand Dunes in Rexburg. There was no ending in sight. It was merciless. She could see a mound in the distance. A person-shaped mound. With curly black hair.

Without thinking, she ran towards it. It was Poe. It had to be. But, where was Hayley? The thoughts ran through her head as she came closer and closer to him.

“Poe!”

His face was buried in the sand. His jacket was missing. He wasn’t awake. Elena pulled on his shirt until his face was in view. She brushed the sand off of him as she tried to keep calm.

What if he somehow didn’t wake up?

Her hands cupped his face as tears of frustration emerged.

Why was this happening? She was supposed to be focused on graduation. On her jobs. On anything but this crazy world that she had entered. On anything but this man that she feared wouldn’t wake up.

His long lashes fluttered and she quickly removed her hands from his bloodied face.

“Please wake up. Please.”

She could see a grin spread over his face.

“Well, you said please. I wouldn’t want to disappoint you,” Poe said as he started to have an uncontrollable coughing fit.

The words he spoke made Elena want to crawl into the sand and never come back out. He couldn’t say things like that and expect her to not catch feelings.

No. She was catching feelings.

“Hey. Hey. Sit up, all right? It’ll help you breathe better.”

Poe was now in an upright position and at least didn’t sound like he was trying to cough up a lung. Stray grains of sand mixed with dried blood made his face look like some kind of twisted face mask.

“We crashed on Jakku, right?”

“I’m guessing so.”

“Guessing so? Aren’t you from here?” His sly smile faded as the silence continued.

“You are from Jakku, right?”

Elena looked down at the sand and then back at him.

“I’m not from here. I’m not even from this galaxy. I was just with my friends and we found some Kyber Crystals on my home planet. Next thing I know, I’m in the middle of a massacre on Jakku about to be captured by Kylo Ren.” Elena pulled out the white Kyber Crystal in her pocket and held it out to him. Their fingers brushed as he took it from her hand and examined it.

“How do you even know who Kylo Ren is if you aren’t from here?” Poe said as he handed the crystal back.

Elena sighed as she shoved the crystal back in her pocket. “Once I touched the crystal, I found myself flooded with information. Suddenly, I knew about this galaxy. I knew about BB-8. I knew about you.”