The Sands of Jakku

Jakku Nights, Jakku Days

Seven years later

Rey perched atop the dying machine. Its parts were still warm as she stood, elbow deep and pulling. It wouldn't be long before the other scavengers caught wind of her discovery. But for now, Finn stood a few feet away, watching the desert for any intruders.

"There's someone coming," he said as she finally pulled free the heart of the great mechanical beast beneath her.

"How long?" she asked, grabbing and yanking wires with seemingly wild abandon. But Finn knew better.

Rey understood machines on a level no one else he had ever met could reach, and he had spent the last seven years of his life in Jakku, where the street rats and scavengers made it their business to take apart and destroy machines with precision. Rey was the best at her craft. She had honed her skills over the years she had been left alone there. Which, from as far as he could tell, had been nearly her whole life.

He had seen the marks on the walls of their home, had seen how she had dutifully marked every day as the sun came and went over the horizon. There were too many marks for him to count even when he had joined her seven years ago.

"Five minutes," he told her. "Eight if we're lucky."

"Should be enough," she said with a grunt, pulling free another part coated in machine oil and depositing it in her bag.

They tried to avoid fighting with the other scavengers in Jakku. Any small amount of action on their part might give Finn away as a deserter of the Royal Army.

Rey already knew his story. She had known almost immediately when she laid eyes on him all those years ago. She also knew she would get an obscene amount of money and praise for turning him in, but she never tried. Not even when Finn had been nothing more than another mouth to feed. He had no training or understanding of machines like Rey did. She was the brains behind everything, and Finn was just there to be her eyes - and her best friend.

Even now, his training was so ingrained in him that he found himself falling into it easily when threatened. However, he let Rey handle any physical disagreements. Her untrained scrappy way of fighting made more sense for the streets of Jakku. She held the attention with her violent bursts and attacked, and he stayed unnoticed in the background. He had only ever had to step in twice in seven years. For that he was grateful.

"Four minutes," he said, turning from the desert to eye her as she pulled free another handful of wires.

"Almost done," she said, her voice strained and distracted. He turned his attention back to the clouds of dust and sand that surrounded the fast approach of other scavengers.

Finn felt almost useless when he thought about his relationship with Rey. He could fight, but he didn't dare. He couldn't scavenge, all he could do was stand guard. Rey was an awful lookout, though; she got distracted easily, her mind wandering elsewhere. And while he often let his mind wander, he was trained to keep his senses engaged and active. He supposed that alone made this a somewhat mutually beneficial relationship, particularly because Rey hadn't yet clocked him over the head and returned him to the Palace Guard for his "decommissioning".

"They're almost here, Rey, come on!" he called when he saw the outline of the vehicles.

"Just a second, Finn," Rey shouted back.

"Teedo's with them!" Finn yelled, annoyed. Teedo was the only scavenger to come close to finding out his secret. He was also the only one he had ever had to help Rey fight against. Teedo fought dirty, using his men as a shield. Rey couldn't take on that many people at once, talented as she was.