Let the Light In

Chapter 1: Awakening

Chapter 1: Awakening

Rey was lying on a stretcher in the Falcon.

They weren't on the exploding base anymore, no. Neither were they hurtling through space at lightspeed. Oh no, the Millenium Falcon was safely docked in one of the many hangars in the Resistance base on D'Qar.

It had all happened so fast.

Han calling out that man's name- Ben? Han falling.

Chewbacca bellowing.

She had been screaming.

Then she was in the forest, running for her life from the man with the red lightsaber. Kylo Ren. Ben.

There had been so much blood.

But Finn was safely in the infirmary now, and though he was in a coma, the medics were sure he would be fine once adequate cybernetics were fitted to account for his spinal damage. Poe had managed to get her out of the infirmary, but Chewbacca had been the one to force her to rest.

So, here Rey found herself, staring at the gunmetal of the Falcon's bulkhead, with no rest to be found. However, Chewie would come to check on her every now and then to make sure she was still lying down, so she was trapped. Trapped between her stinging mind and a heartbroken Wookiee who seemed to make her wellbeing his life's new purpose. Rey couldn't fathom why he would care so much, so she wrote it off as being a distraction from the pain of losing his lifelong friend. Idle minds, and all that.

Rey heard movement in the hold and turned her head just in time to see brown fur fleeing from the doorway. A fine pain pierced her heart at the sight. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to escape in some manner, but she only found herself faced with the ghosts of the past few hours dancing on the backs of her eyelids.

Rey had been captured by a masked monster, who had turned out to be so glaringly human. Even when he had intruded on her mind, and she discovered that new muscle- that new extension of herself that had enabled her to push back- that monster in her mind had fear enough of his own to rival hers. And she had mercilessly used it against him, enjoying the horror that had flashed across his face at her display.

Han had fallen, and Rey had used the hate for the monster that had built up within her to fight back against him, and strike him down, even outmatched and backed against the cliff as she was. She had used her hate, it had stoked the fires of her new energy, and she had liked it. It had made her strong. But, when Rey saw the monster Kylo Ren lying in the snow, beaten; only a wretched human had looked back at her. He would have been so easy to kill in that moment, but the hate had sickened Rey then, and she ran from it. But the monster had started something in her, this she couldn't deny. She could still feel that energy, and she was ever so slightly scared of what it could do.

Rey's head was spinning, and as she tossed and turned the vertigo only got worse. The pain in her chest increased, and spread across her face as she screwed her eyes closed, pressing her cheek into the rough pillow of the stretcher to try and put out the flames that scorched her nerves.

Rey felt such incredible pain. Rey heard screaming. At first, she thought it was herself, for surely it was coming from her mouth. But no, the screams were male, and Rey wasn't lying down any more. She was leaning against the medbay wall of an unfamiliar ship, heavy black glove on one hand and cauterising instrument pressed against her gut with the other. The edges of her vision where heavily blurred, and she was shirtless, but this was not her body. The agony across her face become intense, but it was nothing compared to the toil that broiled in her mind. She gasped again before lifting the instrument from her side to reveal a knotted burn.