Fractured Silence [Star Wars: The Force Awakens Fanfiction]

Old Faces

Keeping our heads down as Luke asked, we pushed our way through the crowd. Whenever anyone started staring at the Magicae for too long, Luke waved a hand toward them and they turned away, muttering to themselves.

The boy kept glancing behind us, looking for someone he hoped would never come. I placed a hand on his back, attempting to calm his apparent fears.

We made our way quickly enough without interruption, but the Felucian that watched the ship-lot almost caught us.

"Hey, isn't that --" she began slowly.

"You will walk away into the forest," said Luke. "After two hundred paces, come back to your post. Forget our faces."

Eyes glazing over, she turned around and began to walk toward the dense trees. Together, we boarded the ship. I stayed near the boy as Rey and Chewbacca started the ship's engine. As we lifted off, his whole body went rigid. As we jumped to lightspeed, he moved closer to me until we were soaring at a steady pace.

"Are you okay?" I asked him. He didn't answer, just stared at the stars flying past us. "You've never been in a spaceship before?" He shook his head, not looking at me. "What's your name?" Pulling his eyes away from the glass, he turned to me.

Pulling out a metal necklace, he showed it to me. On it was a charm with four letters engraved upon it.

"Your name is Kerr?"

Kerr nodded again.

"Do you talk?"

He shook his head.

"Why not?"

Kerr looked away, eyes downcast.

"It's okay. I don't need to know." I looked at Rey. "Where are we going?"

"I was going to ask you that," she explained. Flipping the chair around, she stared at all of us. "We just added another crew member to our ship, who's apparently named the Magicae --"

"Kerr," I interrupted swiftly. "His name is Kerr. But he doesn't speak."

"Oh," Rey said, her eyes landing on Kerr. "That's fine. But we need a plan now."

"I say we had back to Leia and Han," I stated, mulling our situation over. "We could ask them what we should do next." Chewbacca gave a happy roar at the prospect of seeing his life-long friend again.

"No," Luke cut in. "We should go back to Ahch-To."

"Why not?" asked Rey. "We could use the back up."

"We're fine by ourselves." Luke turned away, reaching his hand to the console. "I'll put in the coordinates."

Rey caught his hand, staring at him hard. "Why don't you want to go back?"

The Jedi closed his eyes, his face a mass of emotion. After a moment, he spoke, "I turned my nephew against his family. If what I heard is true, Kylo tried to kill my closest friend, and I have no doubt he would kill my sister too if he had the chance." Taking a breath, he looked Rey in the eyes. "I can't face Leia and Han. Not after the amount of pain I've caused them."

I shook my head. "It's not like that at all. They miss you, Luke."

"They know what happened isn't your fault," added Rey. "Leia and Han both want to see you again."

"Just talk to them. Please."

Luke licked his lips, his face unreadable. Pulling his hand out of Rey's grasp he punched coordinates into the console.

A mechanical voice rang throughout the ship. "Destination: D'Quar."

A smile stretched across my face as I turned to Luke.