The Sands of Jakku

Street Urchins

Poe took them back home.

Most of the metal surfaces inside of their tiny home were littered with machine parts. Some of them were worth something and some of them weren't. If Poe had any issue with the clutter, he said nothing.

The spectre that followed them from the Cave of Wonders hovered in the doorway, taking in the small hovel they called home with some uncertainty. Rey was too exhausted to care much about his expression.

"I'm Rey," she told him finally, sitting on the edge of the small metal alcove where she made her bed. Finn and Poe had already headed toward the other side of the machine to settle down and sleep off the day. Rey wanted nothing more than to do the same.

"I know," the spectre said with a nod and a slight smile. "I'm Obi-Wan."

"What are you?" Rey asked, her curiosity getting the better of her after all this time of watching him.

He paused for a long moment, not looking at her. Several expressions passed over his face. He looked mostly conflicted, overwhelmed by her question.

Rey's eyelids drooped closed, her body hunched over her makeshift bed by the time he responded.

"I'm a genie," he responded finally, choosing his answer carefully. Rey yawned and straightened up when she heard him speaking.

"A genie?" she asked, her voice sounding far away.

"Yes," he told her, his voice soft when he realized she was falling asleep.

Rey's eyes fluttered closed and Obi-Wan watched her, a smile on his face despite himself.

"What's a genie?" she asked, her words slurred together as she lay down on the hard metal of her bed, pulling a scrap of worn fabric over her to act as a blanket.

Obi-Wan didn't respond; Rey was too far gone to understand him. She was asleep the instant her head touched the cool metal beneath her.

*

It was midday before any of them wake up. Obi-Wan didn't need to sleep; he'd been asleep for too long inside of that lamp. Now he needed to figure out why he was released. Of course, he knew the answer, but it didn't seem feasible.

He stared at the girl who freed him from the lamp. He was drawn to her, could feel the power dormant inside of her. She was powerful, much more powerful than she knew. He knew what being drawn to her would mean, but it wasn't something he was willing to admit.

He'd made so many mistakes during his life, and even in death he had to bear witness to what his choices had wrought. Now, this poor girl, so young and lost in the world, was forced to pay for a war he was part of.

Even though they'd won, eventually it was as if they had lost. When he had been locked away in that lamp with Anakin, he had thought the world was in a better place. The Skywalkers held Jakku and its provinces, creating a land of prosperity even in the wake of the great machines dying off in the war.

When he woke, he had expected the machines to have made a return. He expected Jakku to have prospered, but when he saw how Rey lived, he knew their effort to provide had failed. Leia was no longer on the throne, her entire lineage erased and replaced. By what, he didn't yet know, but it had to be a monster to let their subjects live in such blatant poverty.

Rey jolted awake under his gaze, jerking up into a sitting position. She glanced around the room with eyes wide, fists clenching at the edge of her tattered blanket. Her gaze settled on him.

Her eyes were startled at first, staring at him as though she couldn't quite remember where he'd come from. Then, a soft knowing smile settled over her lips, and he knew she remembered.