Star Wars: Episode X - The Rescue Mission

Chapter One: Dreams

Tatooine is so like Jakku, Rey thought as she boarded the Millennium Falcon. I've had enough sand to last me forever. She started up the ship's engines and headed away from the planet as quickly as possible. She would return to Ajan Kloss, where Finn was waiting for her and hopefully practicing what she'd told him to work on during her solo trek to Tatooine. The Resistance headquarters was as much a home to them as any place, yet she still felt unsettled. It wasn't really home. But nowhere was.

At first, she'd taken Finn to Ahch-To. It was so easy to connect with the Force there, and it was there that Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Qui-Gon Jinn had spoken with her, teaching her in a way no one living could. She'd given Finn his initial lessons there. But it was a lonely place with just the two of them and the caretakers, and both she and Finn, having been starved of real companionship with others for most of their lives, wanted to return to their friends in the Resistance.

Still, as they'd left Ahch-To for Ajan Kloss, she'd been suddenly slammed by a memory—the memory of how she'd felt when Han Solo had offered her a job way back on Takodana. She'd wanted nothing more than to take it, but to do so would mean abandoning all hope that she'd ever reconnect with her family. She knew Jedi spirits could appear anywhere, but it seemed most likely Ben would appear to her on Ahch-To as the others had. She'd called for him more times than she could count, and there were a few times she thought maybe she sensed his presence, but always when she looked around, or strained to listen, there was nothing. Ben. Ben...

Tears fell from Rey's eyes. Once in hyperspace, she made her way back to her bunk. Pulling open a drawer, she removed a set of black clothing. Leaning back in the bunk, she lifted the clothing to her face. One day soon, these clothes would no longer carry his scent, but for now she inhaled deeply and closed her eyes. Lying down fully, she clutched the clothing to herself and fell asleep.

"Rey! Rey!" The call came from far away. She was standing in the cave on Ahch-To.     

"Ben!" she yelled, as she looked around wildly.

"Rey! Can you hear me?" Yes, yes, she could her him, but he didn't seem to be able to hear her.

Her heart beat a mile a minute. "Ben! Where are you?"

"Rey! I need you. I need you!"

Rey woke and sat up with a start, breathing hard. A dream! It was only a dream, she thought bitterly. But though she was now awake, the lingering dream did not evaporate. Trying to recall a normal dream was like attempting to grasp smoke, but she could remember this one clearly.

She had already had six dreams like this one, all exactly the same except for the location. In the first one, she'd been on Jakku. It had been so vivid that she'd had half a mind to fly off to Jakku, just to see if Ben would show up there for some incomprehensible reason. But she'd abandoned that crazy idea after having another dream the next night. In that dream, she'd been on Starkiller Base in a control room. There were people all around, but none could see her or hear Ben's voice. Since Starkiller Base no longer existed, she concluded there was nothing real about either dream.

A week later, she'd dreamt she was on Exegol when she'd heard Ben call her name and tell her he needed her. Over the following weeks, she'd dreamt that she was on Naboo and in Luke's Jedi temple, places she'd only seen in pictures and holos.

Finally, five days ago she'd dreamt she was on Alderaan, but how she knew that, she didn't know. She'd seen many pictures and holos of Alderaan, particularly as she'd gotten to know Leia, and Leia had shown her images of her old home. But the place she had been standing in the dream wasn't any of those. Immediately upon waking, she'd looked up images of Alderaan, especially places associated with the royal family, and discovered that she had been standing in the gardens of a rural manor house belonging to the family. She could easily have believed her mind was just dredging up places associated with Ben and his family and inserting them into her dreams, but how could she dream of a real place which she had never seen or even knew existed?