Innocent Little Stars

~ Rey goes AWOL after laying the lightsabers to rest on Tatooine.

~ There’s still tension in the galaxy with the FO in complete chaos so the resistance still needs Rey.

~ Poe hears through their extensive network of a lone person on a desert planet with mysterious powers.

~ Thinking that it must be Rey, he, Finn, and Rose take off to bring Rey back.

~ Of course the mystery person turns out not to be Rey, but Ben, who is just trying to live the rest of his life in peace without harming anyone else. Ben is not dead because reasons.

~ Intelligent dialogue goes something like this:

Finn: What the fuck? You’re supposed to be dead!

Poe: We thought you were Rey!

Ben: What do you mean you thought I was Rey?

Rose: We may or may not have lost Rey. . . 

Ben: What do you mean you’ve lost Rey?

~ Once they begrudgingly tell Ben what’s happened since Exegol, Ben demands to come with them. The Gang obviously hates the idea but what choice do they have? Ben has a network of his own. . .

~ They fly off to a different planet to speak to his network of spies (don’t ask me how they know he’s alive/on his side I didn’t promise a well-thought-out outline). 

~ Vir (the spy) asks to meet in an underground fighting arena, because why not?

~ The Gang doesn’t like shady business (and honestly the place isn’t exactly Ben’s cup of tea either) but Vir is the best.

~ While waiting for Vir, Ben and The Gang notice the audience getting riled up by the current fight. The reigning champion has rarely been beaten, but Finn overhears someone say this is their tenth fight of the night and they’re running out of juice. 

~ When Ben finally pays attention, he can’t believe he’d missed it. Even with the head wraps, and even without the Force, her movements are so distinct. Despite the exhaustion he can see in the set of her shoulders and the sloppiness of her footwork, she weaves in and out of her opponents reach, using her size to her advantage. Despite her quick thinking, she’s not going to make it. She takes a punch to the gut and a knock to the head. She falls and her opponent is on her in an instant, his hands around her throat.

~ Ben moves without thinking, the Force coming to him like he’d never pushed it away. The guy is away from the small form on the ground and up in the air before he ever even sees Ben, his hands now scratching at his own windpipe. Ben drops him before he suffocates, and turns his eyes downward.

~ Rey has regained her breath and is staring up at him, eyes wide as if she’s seeing a ghost. 

~ More intelligent dialogue in 3. . .

Rey: Ben. . .

Ben: Rey. . .

“You’re not alone.”

“Neither are you.”

Rey bounced around foster homes until she was 16 and landed a job at Skywalker Bakery. She’s not the only orphan Luke Skywalker has taken in, and she grows to love her SB family: Finn, Rose, and Jannah. And of course Luke. Four years later, she’s still working at Skywalker Bakery and can’t imagine how she’ll ever repay Luke for what he’s done for her.

One day Luke walks into the bakery in a less than stellar mood, and Rey needles it out of him that he ran into his estranged nephew and things...hadn’t gone well. Rey’s heard about said nephew before, a few times, when Luke was willing to mention him, but he’s pretty much still a mystery to her. Rey asks Luke to tell her what’s really going on, but Luke just gives her a knowing look and shakes his head. 

Rey is content to respect Luke’s privacy and move on with her day, until the door chimes a minute before closing. She curses from the back, throwing together the last of the ingredients for the bread she’ll need to bake early tomorrow. She throws open the door to the front preparing to tell the customer that they’re closed when her gaze sets on Ben Solo. And she doesn’t know that name, she can’t, because Luke never told her his nephew’s name, and yet Rey automatically knows both of those things. Quick as a strike of lightning, a headache splits Rey’s skull in half and she cries out, her hands slamming into the counter in front of her.