The Land Which Bears Your Footprints

Chapter 4 - And You Know What It Means

Author's Note: Rey has a nightmare, bonds with Ben, and has a decision to make. :)

~ Amina Gila

Towering rock structures surround her on all sides, but she can make out Obi-Wan through the darkness, though he looks far older than in the... lava dreams.

And her... helmet is broken. She can see him with one eye, but the other everything is hazed over red, and most of all, she can hardly breathe.

"The same way I will destroy you."

"Then my friend is truly dead. Goodbye, Darth."

She has the sudden sickening feeling that he's about to leave, but then she's somewhere else entirely, holding.... Sidious, even as lightning from his fingers hits her, a blinding agony coursing through her body like she's burning inside out. She throws him down a... shaft before collapsing next to it, and she can't breathe.

Again.

She has a brief flash of a boy crouching next to her – he looks almost like a young Luke – and she's jolting awake.

What – what was that?

It still feels like she can't breathe, her heart hammering wildly, tears burning her eyes. Yes, she's seen brief flashes of a fight on that rocky planet before, but she's never seen the ending with – with Sidious so clearly.

Sometimes, she's had nightmares of being electrocuted but she never clearly saw... not that. He was hurting her. She couldn't even breathe; it was even worse than what happened on that lava planet. And what she did... That could've killed him.

Wait.

This... was that real? If her dreams are of something real, does that mean that – that everything she's seen with Sidious actually happened, too?

"You will always be mine," he had promised, possessively, and he's never hurt her, but –

She can't shake the feel of the lightning burning through her, and it feels too real to doubt. But – but her grandfather would never do that to someone. Right? He's... That doesn't make any sense. And did he used to know her, too?

Rey's breathing catches at the sudden movement in the doorway of the small side room in the Millennium Falcon. She looks up to see Ben hovering in the doorway, frowning.

They decided to stay on the Falcon overnight for... no reason, really. Besides, Rey found that thought a little more comfortable than sleeping in a mansion like that.

"Is... everything alright?" he asks, crouching next to her.

Great.

Somehow, she managed to wake him up, because she's clearly incapable of calming down from just a dream. Sidious is always upset about that, and she doesn't really want him to be, too.

"Just a dream," she mutters, wiping her eyes on her sleeve, trying to focus on breathing in a failing effort to calm herself down. "Sorry."

He blinks, looking confused. "What for?"

"Disturbing you?"

"That's not something you need to apologize for," he reassures, touching her shoulder. She can't help leaning into it, aching with the childish desire to just be held. "Was it... something from the past?"

Rey nods, drawing in a shaky breath.

The grip on her shoulder tightens. "I have nightmares of that too, sometimes," Ben admits, "It's easiest to distract yourself from it."