SHADOW SHINE

Chapter One: Dust to Dust

"We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time."

― T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets

Rey

For as far back as she could remember, an unseen power had been guiding Rey's life. It hummed softly in the space between heartbeats, so constant she hadn't recognized its subtle vibrations until crisis had called it into full manifestation. Before that, it quietly shaped her days. It made her sharp, perceptive, careful. It hinted at things to do, and things to avoid.

And now, she saw, it had helped her stay alive in a world meant to kill her.

Jakku hadn't changed at all in her year and a half away from it. But then, it hadn't changed in her nearly twenty years on it either. Change did not exist under the bright, unrelenting sun. The sand shifted around some in the season of scalding windstorms, but everything else sat perfectly preserved by the arid heat. Unable to grow, unable to decay.

At the bottom of the Millennium Falcon's loading ramp, Rey stopped, swallowing hard and reeling from a sudden blow of emotion that struck her chest. It had been her idea to come here, and she believed she'd be fine returning to the world that had imprisoned her for so long. But she hadn't anticipated the assault of sounds and smells on her senses, exactly as she'd remembered, dredging up memories and emotions long buried. The sights, however, were not quite unchanged. Upon closer inspection, she saw that things were different — at least a little. Some of the structures that stood before were now rubble, and some of the tents looked like they had been relocated.

Still, all in all, Niima Outpost had recovered rather well from the First Order attack. Life resumed its normal, rugged routine. But then, of course it had. The people here lived in a brutal refiner's fire, and they knew how to survive when logic wanted them dead.

The scene transported her back in time, to grueling, endless days and even longer nights trying to stave off the gnawing loneliness eating at her soul. So much sadness here. So much emptiness. So much waiting. Even now it clawed at her throat, squeezed her heart, made her shudder. It threatened to drag her back into that feeling of quiet, persistent despair that had accompanied her every day until BB-8 showed up.

Jakku wasn't home. Jakku was nothing. And she, as a child of its empty sands, was nothing.

A hand found the small of her back — a touch so light but so reassuring and perfectly suited to the act of comfort. She turned to find Ben Solo's long, beautiful face set along the edges with concern, two dark eyes observing more than just her surface reaction.

Rey drew in a long breath. "I'm alright," she assured him.

The words sank into the hot air, useless and unnecessary. Ben could feel everything happening inside her. He was there in her psyche, his own mind woven into hers through so many threads of mystical connection it was impossible to untangle them. What began as a strange, accidental bridge between two lonely souls had, over the last couple months, become a tightly knit, constantly humming bond. They so rarely tried to close themselves off to each other these days. They'd grown used to the steady transfer of emotions between them. Without the other, both felt split in half. Incomplete.

"Rey." The name fell from his lips in a gentle prompt.

She lifted her chin, forcing her mind to focus. She was here for a reason.

"Let's go," she told Ben, mustering her resolve. "Business seems to have resumed, so either Plutt made it off Takodana or a new junk boss has set up shop."

As they headed away from the Falcon, Ben's concern faded into the background of his thoughts, and she felt curiosity replace it. His gaze moved over the sights of Niima with mingled distaste and interest. She saw it through his perspective, and found the scene less impressive than remembered. The outpost was a dirty little scrap of canvas in the sand, a pit of black market wares and thin notions of prosperity. He was right, of course. Having seen other places in the galaxy now, Rey now understood how small and seedy her childhood village really was.

"What an unlikely place to spawn a champion of good and light," Ben observed, a wry note coloring his deep timbre.

She barely heard him. Her mind was busy taking in the sameness of everything. As they threaded their way through the modest bazaar, she saw a Teedo arguing with Lerux Talley, the tinkerer. A hapabore guzzled greedily from a large trough while his handlers traded lewd stories with Devi and Strunk. Even Crusher was there, dragging his net full of gear towards Plutt's concession stand. Bitterness and fond nostalgia fought for supremacy in the pit of her stomach.

Again came Ben's touch, grounding her back to reality.

"Rey, I thought you said you were alright."

She glanced at him. "I am — I just — it's very strange."

The Crittermonger approached them, the trusses on his back swaying with dead animals of slim variety. He squalled at them in broken Basic.

"Welcome, travelers! Long journey makes you hungry. I have what you need."

Rey caught herself reflexively glancing around for Plutt's thugs. Scavengers weren't supposed to talk to the Crittermonger. He was only allowed to sell to off-worlders. It took her a moment too long to realize — she was an off-worlder.

Ben waved him off with a curt, "No."

The strange creature with his strange wares shrugged and trundled off, searching for the next visitor to solicit. Rey watched him go, the sound of Ben's voice the only thing drawing her out of her distant thoughts.

"I take it by the look in your eye you never purchased anything from him?"

She shook her head. "Not allowed. I always wanted to, though. It seemed like such a luxury."

Ben did not attempt to disguise his clear revulsion. "Trust me, it isn't. Now that you're a verified spacer, Rey, you need to learn that there are limits to what food should be eaten. Meat hanging from a rack, baking in a desert sun all day, is not advisable, I don't care what planet you're on. And the first food offered to you at a space port is usually suspicious."

This coaxed a smile out of her, and she nodded. "Thanks for the tip."

"I know this goes against your every instinct, but try not to worry about food while we're here. We have everything we need on the ship."

It did contradict her instincts, running on overdrive now that she was back on this planet, surrounded by the same environment that had so long tried to crush her will. Still, Ben was right. She was comfortably situated now — no need to let this place get the best of her.

They continued on. As they went, Rey marveled. Stranger than the sameness of everything was that no one recognized her. Though there were a few unfamiliar faces, probably of new scavengers who had arrived after her departure, she still knew most everyone in Niima. Some of them had known her all her life. She'd commanded a strong reputation for a long time, yet now everyone looked right past her, as if she were just another traveler passing through.

"You look different now," Ben replied, answering these unspoken thoughts.

"Not that different."

He glanced at her briefly. "More than you realize."

She wore her hair down these days. Was that the major difference?

"You are clean. Your clothes are clean. You aren't swathed up in protective fabric like everyone else. You don't have your staff." Ben ticked off these observations coolly. "Shall I go on?"

Rey brushed a strand of hair back, suddenly self-conscious. "I'm still me," she tried to protest.

"More or less. Before you were like them, now you're not."

She frowned, turning to face him, planting herself in front of him so he was forced to stop walking. His mouth twitched in amusement. She ignored this and gave him a demanding look. "Explain yourself, Ben. What does that mean? That I was poor and dirty and repulsive?"

Ben's chin lifted a little in that hint of defiance she'd come to recognize as a prelude to his unfiltered honesty. "These people. They're a lot like the girl I glimpsed on Takodana. Tough, tenacious, fierce. Determined to survive. Now you're still all those things, but also more. You have grown, and they haven't. More than tough, you're strong. More than tenacious, you're full of purpose. More than fierce, you are powerful. You aren't the girl who left this place, and the Jedi before me is a stranger they cannot recognize."

She blinked, heat rising in her face which had nothing to do with the glare of the sun. It wasn't the kind of response she'd been expecting. But she also knew he wasn't just saying it to be nice. Ben didn't do that. Her gaze dropped to the sand, not sure how to respond.

He smirked and stepped around her, a slight touch on her arm drawing her with him. "Can we proceed?"

They continued on, Rey still searching for some kind of rebuttal or reply. She tried to meet the eye of someone - anyone, certain that if even one of them met her gaze, they'd recognize her and prove Ben wrong. Because of a part of her was certain he had to be wrong. For all the claims that she'd grown, for all the changes she had experienced over this last year, deep inside she still felt a lot like the girl waiting in the sand. Surely one of them would see that too.

A long line of scavengers stretched from the concession stand, and Rey heard a familiar grumbling voice. She'd know it anywhere. It was the one and only voice that had accompanied her from childhood to adulthood. A voice that meant salvation, a voice that meant subjugation. A voice she hated.

Unkar Plutt sat in his modified cargo crawler, as he had done for more than twenty years, and doled out survival rations in exchange for scavenger haul.

But something had changed. Rey noted his mechanical arm, replacing the one Chewie had torn off in Maz's castle.

Ben made a soft, derisive sound, reacting to the memory passing through her mind. "That would have been amusing to see."

"Had you arrived a few minutes earlier, you would have." She tried to keep her voice light as she referenced that awful day. Compared to the First Order attack and the specter of Kylo Ren, Unkar and his vicious threats had been the smallest of worries. He was easily dispatched by Chewie. The rest of the day's menaces were not.

Rey's stomach tightened at the sight of him, tense with disgust more than fear or hate. Ben sensed this.

"Did he mistreat you?" he asked.

She heard the warning in his deep voice, and barked a sardonic laugh. "Yes, but that's just the way he treats everyone. I was his favorite, until I stole the Falcon from him."

Rey had earned that favor through hard, thankless work and the understanding that the devil you know is better than the one you don't. Not that being Unkar's favorite had ever been a particularly coveted spot. He didn't go out of his way to demonstrate his preference. He cheated his favorites just as often as he cheated his enemies.

She eyed the line of scavengers waiting for their turn to sell their wares. On all of them hung an expression she recognized. Apathy. This was life, day after day, unchanging and unrelenting as the harsh sun. Some of them gabbed to each other about the latest gossip — inflated tales about the battle of Naboo . They exchanged conjecture about the new, no-doubt-more-valuable salvage that would be littering that green world. Some declared their intent to get off Jakku and go there, where they could get paid better.

And they all nodded in agreement because they all shared the same vague dream, but they all equally knew how impossible it would be. No one left Jakku except the extremely lucky. For most, there were no greener pastures. Just endless seas of sand.

Rey fought back a wave of pain.

Ben took her hand, drawing her glance up to him once more. In those warm, dark pools she saw her home.

"Shall we get this over with?" he prompted. "So we can get out of here?"

She swallowed and nodded, pulling him with her to the back of the line. It took a minute too long for her to let go of his hand — he didn't seem inclined to do it himself. It was strangely comforting to have his long fingers wrapped through hers, reminding her that she had an ally and partner. But Jakku wasn't a place for softness or sweetness, so a moment later she let him go, feeling too keenly that such demonstrations were entirely out of place here. She crossed her arms and moved forward as the line thinned.

Plutt did not spend a great deal of time trying to recognize her. His tiny eyes passed over Rey only briefly before focusing on the much more commanding presence of Ben.

"Not one of mine," he assessed. "What are you looking for, then?"

Ben's voice rang strong and authoritative. "Interceptor parts. Whatever you've got."

Plutt smirked. "An aficionado of the Empire, are we? Well, you're in luck. I do have what you want. Rare stuff, very valuable. It wont be cheap."

Rey was prepared for this. She knew he would take one look at their fine clothes and ratchet up his price as much as he thought he could get away with.

"Careful now," she warned. "We know the value of these parts, and we don't deal lightly with swindlers."

Now his attention did fix on her, gelatinous body startling at the sound of her voice. He squinted with unveiled suspicion. "The value is flexible. This is the only supplier of genuine Imperial Interceptor parts left in the galaxy, and supplies are limited."

"Show us what you have," Ben demanded, "and we will determine what is fair."

Plutt's gaze remained fixed on Rey, his scowl deepening in puzzlement. She tensed, braced for what she knew would come eventually. Unkar knew her face better than anyone. He would figure it out sooner or later.

"What's the matter?" she asked, unable to stop the taunt from surfacing. "Afraid conditions have changed?"

His puny eyes widened at this echo of words long ago spoken. Words that began his string of troubles. "It can't be..."

"I'm surprised you got out before they bombed the castle," Rey said mildly.

"It is you! How dare you show your face, girl!"

Outwardly, she maintained a steady glare. Within, however, she flinched at the too-familiar epithet. It was the only thing he, and pretty much everyone else, had ever called her here.

"How's the arm?" she asked. Maybe it would have been better to let Ben handle these negotiations on his own. Unkar would have dealt him the parts he wanted, Ben would have deftly maneuvered the traps and haggling methods usually employed by the junk boss, and they could have been on their way. The second she decided to show her face here, she'd chosen to entangle them in trouble.

But beside her, Ben seemed more fascinated than annoyed. She detected that he was less interested in the parts than watching her confront the demons of her past. His curiosity piqued, he watched Unkar with studious intent.

"I'll get every man at my disposal to arrest you, thief, unless you've come to give me back my ship," the Crolute snarled, eyes flashing with a wicked, deadly gleam.

"It isn't yours," she said. "It belonged to Han Solo, and now it belongs to me."

Ben leaned forward, fixing Unkar with a narrow look. "We are here to conduct business, not quarrel over the ownership of the lady's freighter."

"That ship is mine," Plutt said, his voice rising. "And she is no lady. She's trash, just like the idiots who sold her to me, just like the rest of this sorry lot."

Rey felt a ripple in the scavengers around her as they started to piece together the bits of information being expelled from the Blobfish. The tension mounted within her, a tight knot coiling and burning somewhere in her chest. She hated him. Hated his saggy, blobby face and his shrewd, cruel eyes. He who acted like he owned Jakku. Who lorded over everyone with his ability to decide who survived and who starved. He held the reins of every scavenger and merchant here. Of everyone.

"It isn't. I'm not," Rey growled. "And neither are these people."

Ben stirred beside her. His gaze swept out over the dusty denizens who had stopped to watch.

Plutt sneered. "You want those parts? You'll have to give back what you stole and pay twice what they're worth. Otherwise, no deal."

The Force around Ben flexed, shifting with power and wrapping around the Crolute's greedy mind. "You will give us what we need," he said coolly.

Unkar laughed, utterly unperturbed by the attempt, and fortunately just as unaware. "You'd be mad to believe that. Congratulations, girl, you found yourself a new master to keep you alive. But don't get cocky. It doesn't mean you're free. You'll always be the scavenger scum I raised in the sand. You'd be dead without me."

"And you'd be dead without me, wouldn't you?" Rey countered.

Beside her, Ben's psyche began to buzz with genuine anger. It filtered through her, hot and familiar, as only he and Leia could radiate. Something about this exchange had annoyed and offended him.

"You were generously rewarded for that," Plutt said, his already pink face and bulging neck reddening further. "I owe you nothing. But you owe me a ship, and an arm, and a droid."

Ben's hand lashed out, calling down the segmented hatch that crashed down from the top of the cargo crawler's window and cut Plutt off from view. He held it there with the Force, despite the banging and shouting from inside indicative of Plutt's efforts to raise it. Turning to Rey, he drew a deep breath to steady his anger.

"What are our other options?" he demanded. "We're not doing business with this bloated maggot."

Rey glanced at the hatch and knew Plutt's thugs would be on them in a moment. They were no match for the two powerful Force users, she knew, but still — the last thing she'd wanted to do here was bring more trouble to these already troubled people.

"Let's go," she muttered, ignoring the startled murmurs and glances thrown their way by a quickly retreating crowd.

Ben dropped his hand and followed her. She saw the dark, indulgent fantasies playing through his mind — various ways to kill Plutt that would satisfy them both. Usually this instinct for violence disturbed and alarmed her. Today it gave her a grim smile. Ben's murderous scenarios were amusing and gratifying.

"But we can't kill him," she sighed.

"I was able to see into his mind, Rey. It's no less than he deserves."

She nodded. "He is awful, but I've also seen the kind who could replace him. Trust me, it could be worse."

At the Falcon, two Teedos astride luggabeasts were poking and prodding the hull with great interest. Ben sent them flying back with a vague gesture and an unseen blast.

As if this were a routine occurrence that did not warrant an interruption of conversation, he turned his attention back to her. "Does that insight have something to do with why you bothered to save his life?"

"It's a long story," Rey deflected, in no mood to recount it. "It's too bad your mind trick didn't work on him."

"He's hardly weak-minded," Ben said, shrugging. "And I didn't try very hard. Revenge seems more satisfying than manipulation."

"Yes," Rey agreed. "It does."

Once inside the familiar freighter, Rey felt the tightness in her chest begin to ease a little. These surroundings were comforting. They reminded her that life was so much different now. And Ben, subtly attentive to her every ache, reminded her that she wasn't alone anymore.

"What do you want to do?" he asked. "Remember, I can always requisition a new craft, or new parts. We can leave here if you want."

Rey sat heavily in the pilot's seat, deliberating. She knew they could go, but she felt unsettled and dissatisfied. This homecoming — of sorts — had not been a good one. It made her feel worse about her memories of this place, and she struggled to embrace the triumph of her escape.

She wasn't ready to leave, but she didn't know how to go forward either.

Ben motioned for her to move over to the copilot seat. This unusual request caught her off guard, and she did so with only a vaguely curious glance in his direction.

Outside, Plutt's thugs headed towards them. Neither of them observed this with even a flicker of worry. Ben sank into his father's seat and fired up the engines. With a few deft flicks, he had them airborne. The thugs beat the air with their clubs and Rey could almost imagine their screams of rage as their prey lifted off. She smiled. Ben eased the controls and sent them gliding away from Niima, arcing high over an endless ocean of sand.

"Where did you live?" he asked, though he didn't need to. He could have found the information in her memories.

"The Goazon Badlands," she said, pointing. "That way. But it's been so long. Without me there defending my territory, it's probably been looted by scavengers and Teedos."

Ben's intentions felt pure, but Rey didn't know if she could stomach seeing her little refuge destroyed. She didn't want to go there. At least, not yet.

His presence within her mind tuned into this, and his purpose shifted, even if their trajectory didn't. The ship dipped low over rough, empty terrain, sweeping along paths Rey used to travel with her speeder. The last time she'd been in this ship on this planet, she'd not had time to contemplate anything except keeping away from those TIE Fighters on her tail. Now, Jakku looked strangely peaceful and almost, almost, pleasant from the glass refuge of the cockpit.

The Falcon seemed to sail effortlessly in Ben's hands, singing as she'd never done before.

"Ben," Rey breathed, heart skipping a beat at the undeniable change she felt in both man and ship.

He didn't glance her way, but his warmth wrapped around her in the Force, affectionate and deeply pleased. This first flight in his father's place made his ego stir with pride. The Falcon responded so beautifully to his lightest touch, as if she'd been awaiting his attention all this time.

A smile teased over his full lips and he glanced at Rey. "I can see why you like her."

She grinned. "More power than you expect, isn't it?"

He nodded, giving them a bit more juice so they skimmed along the planet at an exhilarating speed. "You know," he announced in a tone far too casual. It didn't sound like him. She gave him a sharp, suspicious look. "The only time I visited your world, it was night, the circumstances were unfortunate, and I left when I got what I needed. It didn't give me a chance to look around."

So simple, this reference to such a terrible massacre. Rey frowned and waited for him to reveal his point.

"I believe you wanted to undertake a study to find the most beautiful place in the galaxy, didn't you? So here we have our first candidate. Who better to give me a proper tour, and introduce me to the beauty of Jakku than a native?"

Rey almost laughed, though it would have been bitter and mirthless. "Beauty? Ben, this place is the armpit of the galaxy. And a tour doesn't solve our problem of the Interceptor parts. I'm afraid I brought us on a fool's errand."

"We could go in there and take whatever we want." Ben didn't sound concerned. He barely moved the controls and the Falcon soared, giving them both a fluttering thrill that echoed between them. "Forget the parts for a moment and show me your planet."

"It isn't mine," she said, setting her jaw in stubborn defiance. "I hate this place."

"Ah, Rey." Ben sighed. "Still deceiving yourself, I see."

"I'm not!"

He rolled them lazily through the sky, directionless and wandering, eating up miles and miles of sand. "Captain, our heading?"

"You're the captain here, Solo." Despite her obstinance, Rey experienced a ticklish bubble of amusement at Ben's mood. It reminded her, just a little, of the laid-back attitude she'd discovered in his father. Even if coming here was a mistake for her, it was having a strange effect on her companion.

He ignored this jibe and leveled them out again, nudging the nose towards a distant, flat horizon.

So she rolled her eyes, mostly for show, and pointed out the viewport. "Fine. Start over there. It's called the Graveyard, and I think you'll find it particularly interesting."

{AUTHOR'S NOTE}

Hey guys! It's heeeeere! This is my sequel fic to Day Follows Night; Dark Follows Light.

If you haven't read that, just know that this story takes places after those events. The Resistance has defeated the First Order in a battle on Naboo, and our two protagonists are sorta-kinda-togetherish, or at least acknowledging and sometimes acting on the chemistry between them.

If you're coming over from that story, yay! Welcome back! Updates with this one probably wont be as quick as last time (at this point I can't imagine a two-chapter day) because I've resumed a lot of boring life-stuff, now that my arm is fully functional again. Plus I'm knee-deep in writing a non-Star Wars novel and it's sucking a lot of my creative energy. But there's so much I want to explore with these two, and I have fun, fluffy plans for this fic, so let's do it!