A year had passed and Rey still survived.
The sun had barely risen, but Jakku's desert heat pressed relentlessly against Rey's small shoulders. She hunched over a busted droid chassis, twisting wires with meticulous care, when a sudden tug in her mind made her stop.
A voice. A boy's voice. Rough, anxious, almost pleading.
'Who…?' she thought, heart skipping. She didn't recognize the voice but instinctively understood it. The System buzzed softly in her peripheral vision:
[DYAD STABILITY PROTOCOL ACTIVE]
[Connection shielded. Emotions suppressed to prevent detection.]
Rey blinked. It was like reaching for something she could feel but not touch—a strange warmth, faint as a whisper, pulsing at the edges of her consciousness.
Across the galaxy, in a meditation chamber atop Luke's temple, Ben Solo stirred. Shadows of Snoke pressed into his mind, whispers of anger and destruction. But something small, human, had appeared in his dream: a tiny child, crying in the sand, alone.
He sat upright abruptly, chest tight, eyes wet. 'Was that… a vision?'
Rey, still crouched in the desert, dared a single thought, one soft reply.
'I hear you. It's okay. I'm here.'
Ben gasped, nearly falling off his meditation bench. The Force around him shivered and hummed. He clutched at his chest, convinced he had been visited by a vision—or perhaps by the Force itself—but the clarity of the feeling lingered: safety, warmth, and… someone else.
---
The next night, while hiding in a scavenged shade structure, Rey felt the tug again. Her mind, small yet intuitive, reached out:
'You're not alone. Breathe.'
Ben's eyes fluttered open, tears slipping down his cheeks. He whispered, more to himself than anyone else, "Little Star…"
Luke, standing silently, noted how unusually calm Ben seemed, the first real steadiness in months.
"He's being influenced by something," Luke murmured. "Something I can't see."
---
Three nights later, Rey paused while scavenging a broken speeder near the edge of the canyon. She felt the pull stronger, warmer, and instinctively whispered:
'I'm here, Ben. You can let go of the fear.'
Ben sat cross-legged in meditation, unknowing why his chest no longer ached with panic. His emotions, usually a storm, felt grounded. He didn't understand why the visions of a small desert girl kept echoing through his mind—but he didn't resist them.
Rey smiled faintly. The Dyad pulsed faintly between them, suppressed by the System, hidden from the galaxy but undeniably alive.
Her bracelet pinged:
[SECRET MISSION COMPLETE:
Stabilize Dyad Level 1]
[Reward: +25,000 SC
Ability Acquired: MCU — Spider-Sense (Enhanced Situational Awareness, Mid-Rank)]
Rey's eyes lit up. This would help her detect threats, anticipate danger, and maybe… understand him better.
[Balance: 130,000 SC]
Rey crouched back behind her dune, brushing sand from her hands. Machines hummed faintly, the healing device ticked on her chest.
A shiver ran down her spine, because somewhere across the galaxy, a boy was calmer because she existed.
And for the first time, she wondered, just a little, what it meant to make someone else survive too.