Star Wars: Edge of Hope

Chapter Nine: The Message...

The feeling rockets through Rey's body, she shakes as if she's trying to fight of the poisonous touch of the images, of the memories haunting her. She jolts up from the small cot in her room. A collection of broken parts to repair, bits of parchment and maps of rare lost galaxies strewn everywhere. But as the world begins to come back into focus she hears him whisper her name...

"Rey..."

The last syllabel gets drowned out by the abrupt disruption of the connection which sends a cascade of objects falling down around her. The small desk lamp she'd put together for Leia plummeted to the floor, but she caught it and moved it into her protective grasp. She looked around at the new constellations of broken things as they came to settle. Sitting the fragile lamp down, she rises and stands under BB-8 helping him dislodge himself from the cargo net above her. He beeps to her in a cooing sound which catches her off guard.

Rey: Ben? I'm..I'm sorry, BB-8. I don't know what's wrong with me. I don't know anything anymore. I thought I would be able to tell the Will of the Force by now...I thought I'd be able to hear it speaking to me, but I guess maybe I'm supposed to be alone. Every time I reach out, every time I think I'm getting closer to answers...I just end up right back where I started.

BB-8 beeps kindly to her and then as his angle changes he begins to beep more insistantly at Rey.

Rey: What? What is it?

She looks down at the ground at the debris arranged in almost a concentric pattern she'd never noticed before. She helped BB-8 out of the tangled strings and then turning her head slightly from her vantage point went to climb higher holding onto the ropes for security.

Rey: BB-8...Maybe I was wrong about the Force not hearing me...Maybe it's been trying to tell me something all along...I just didn't know it.
And she was off like a flash, she raced into the command center and made her way over to the newest star maps they'd manage to collect. She poured over them, recalling the pattern as detailed as she could, but she wasn't see it there. But she knew she'd seen it before. She was sure of it. But it wasn't there...in frustrated anger Rey banged her hands against the illuminated plexiglass viewing table cracking the display. When she looked up there were dozens of eyes on her.

Rose: Alright, everyone back to what you were doing! Nothing to see here! I need a tech to the mapping station as soon as possible.

She walked up to Rey and took her by the shoulders leading her out of the gallery before she could fully break down. They walked together back to Rey's room...half laughing and half crying Rey tried to explain to Rose what she was trying to do.

Rose: Well, how do you know you're not right? Just because you didn't find it doesn't mean it's not there, Rey. Alot of the Star Charts we have are hold overs from the Old Republic days...Or what we could savage from the safe houses on the outer rim planetary systems. There's alot we don't know...and I don't think you should stop looking Rey. Leia, has always told me sometimes we see signs in things that are nothing. But sometimes they can lead to bigger things. I'm no Jedi, but I think anything that brings someone hope is a good thing. And while it may not lead you to something bigger. Maybe it was the Forces way of telling you not to lose hope...to keep looking until you find the sign that takes you where you need to be.

Rey: I hope so. I'm used to feeling so sure of everything, but now...it feels so tenuous. Like the Force is waiting for something, waiting for me to make a choice, or to find some clue as to what I'm supposed to do next. But I don't know what I'm supposed to be looking for...I don't know anything anymore. I'm really lost, Rose. And I don't know how I'm going to find my way back.

They sat there in the still quietness letting the words sit there as they leaned on each other. Rey had gone from having no family to having people she knew she could trust and count on no matter what came. But she also knew they saw her as their greatest weapon against the First Order. The Jedi had all but gone extinct. Now there were only two left...Rey and Ben Solo...and the time was fast approaching when choices were going to have to be made. She didn't know what she would do if it came to it. Her anger at Ben's refusal to accept the possibility that there could be more for them had driven her to say things she wished she hadn't. How could she make him understand? The thought had never come to her that perhaps all the time and the distance, or the silence she'd left him with on Crait...were what had strengthened his resolve and pulled him farther away from her. Rose sat with her, but seeing her begin to crumple from the exhaustion of her racing thoughts...Rose waited for her to close her eyes and then laid her back down.