Star Wars Episode 9: A New Order by J.R.Wittig

Chapter 10 Together

 Rey's eyes open, but she can tell it's the middle of the night, so she forces them closed again. She feels Ben leave the bed but pretends to still be asleep. Ben puts on a robe, taps his droid and looks back at the bed as he leaves their quarters. Rey leaps out of bed and puts on her coat in the dark hall as she follows him around the corner. Ben walks briskly. Droid trails him, looking left and right as if keeping watch. She avoids the view of Droid, keeping her distance. She runs her finger along the corridors as she goes. Turn, down, turn, three passages, turn and a small door closes behind Droid. Rey approaches the door she saw them enter at the end of a narrow hallway.

As she walks in Ben draws his saber in her face, which flickers. He holsters it and continues pulling out the items he needs. He isn't angry. Of course he knew she was following him.

The room is roughly the size of her large sanitation chamber in the quarters they share. There is a nook at one end with thin firm cushions and a small window. Shelves and odd drawers line the walls. There are many pristine tools hanging just higher than the storage cubbies.

"So, this is your real room?"

Ben glances up, "It's more like a modified closet."

"Hiding on your own ship?"

Ben shakes his head, cocking a subtle grin and sits to work. Droid hangs on a wall hook.

"What's that amazing smell?"

"That door at the end of the hallway is the back entrance to the kitchen. They start baking around now."

"This ship is so much smaller than Snoke's." Rey strains to see out the window behind him.

"I didn't feel the need to cart the entire First Order around with me everywhere I go. It's one third the size and four times as fast."

Rey looks around. She sees Darth Vader's helmet and the pieces of his own crushed helmet. Luke's robe. A few bits here and there. Supplies to make things with. A long saber sits on a small work table, which she picks up. He gestures for her to try it which she does. She is delighted to find it is double bladed and long like a staff, but one side is shorter and flickering and she can see it isn't finished. She retracts it and puts it back down near the bits of things he has in a tray on a protruding shelf.

"I'm better at building than fixing things," Ben unhooks his saber and sets it next to him, "It's easier for me to just start from scratch."

Ben begins working on the staff-like saber. Rey picks up his weapon, "Easier isn't always better. Who else knows about this place?"

"I'm good at breaking things too, I took it off the system." Ben gestures to a few wires hanging out of the wall near the ceiling.

He reaches down low in a drawer and pulls out a small wooden ancient looking light saber. She marvels at it but can't see how to turn it on. He points to her head and she feels it and then it draws forth. It is a short green blade and she sees things like the visions she had when she first touched Anakin's blue saber in Maz's castle.

It is a happy memory and she is relieved. Scavenging on Jakku, Rey would spend hours imagining the scenes and action taking place in the large ships now sinking in the sand. Only, she knew now it was not her imagination. She could discern the feelings and the events that had taken place from inanimate objects, a gift of the Force.

This crude wooden saber's second owner, she could feel him now, a tiny green alien with pointy ears. His family gathers around him celebrating his acceptance into a training academy. His mother presents him with the weapon. His father urges him to ignite it which he does to the great joy of the family around him.