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May the Force be with you, they tell her.
Rey’s not entirely sure what that means. Or how she’s supposed to respond to it.
Leia’s said it, Finn said it, a handful of what’s left of the Resistance has said it to her more than once. Some random child on a backwater Outer Rim world said it as she was walking down a dusty street. Completely unprompted. Just right up to her with a gap in his teeth acting as cheery as can be.
So Rey nods, mumbles a thank you, and awkwardly extracts herself from the exchange and tries to go about her business.
She’s used to be alone, and ignored. Now, there are piles of people who try to catch her attention and hang on any word that exits her mouth. She wishes they wouldn’t, but it’s not their fault that they’re desperate for hope. Rey can feel it like it’s rain just hanging in the air—the palpable fear and tension. They’re looking to her for guidance, and Rey wonders who she’s supposed to look to.
For awhile, she had Han, but he’s gone now. Then there was Luke, if only briefly. Leia, she thinks, she’s under too much pressure, too much stress. It’s all too much for her and Rey wonders if soon the original galaxy saving trio will once again be reunited. This time in the Force. It’s a terrible thought and guiltily, Rey tries to push it away.
There are times, though, when she feels like the Force is truly with her. When she held Luke’s lightsaber, in the pit on Ahch-To, even her strange connection to Ben Kylo. She knows that it’s always there, permeating through all life. And maybe, on some level, she always feels it, but it’s not the same. It’s not a switch she’s figured out how to flip, and she thinks that maybe that’s an important skill to master.
With a sigh, Rey slips off the rock she was trying to meditate on and plops down onto the grass. Up in the blue sky, with its puffy pink clouds, there are a couple X-Wings and a Y-Wing taking turns racing across the sky. She laces her fingers behind her head and watches as they go back and forth. The Falcon is fun to fly, but it’s not nimble like she imagines a starfighter to be. She thinks about it often—has her entire life, actually. The way her hands would feel on the controls, the forces of gravity as it spins through the atmosphere.
Hmm, she thinks, and hops back up to her feet.
“Oh. Hello, Rey.” Poe looks startled as he pulls the helmet off his head, obviously not prepared for her to be standing right behind him as he climbs down the ladder of his X-Wing. It’s an older model, one she’s heard him complain is a little clunky and the firing sights are several degrees off. “Is there something I can… do? For you?”
Her lips twist as she thinks about how to ask. She knows he’s quite protective of the few ships they’ve managed to find. (And knows he still stings from having lost several previous X-Wings.)
His head tilts, he grins with only half of his face, and raises an eyebrow. “You want to take her up?”
She squints at him and wonders how he’s figured it out. Is he reading her thoughts, or is she just that obvious? “Yes,” she says. “I think it will help me with something.”
“Something?”
Rey doesn’t know how to explain it. It barely makes any sense to her—she has no idea how to even try to put it into words. But there’s something—she felt it on the Falcon, though she had almost forgotten about it. It’s the way machine and organic sing together and move with a grace that shouldn’t be possible. Ships don’t have the Force, but… well, there has to be something. Rey wants to find it. Whatever it is.
“Okay…” Poe says slowly, though his half-grin never leaves. “Keep your secrets, scavenger.
“Beebee-ate,” he turns and calls up to the droid. “Stay up there. Rey’s gonna take her out.”
There’s an excited beep and whistle from the X-Wing that finally makes Rey’s excitement push through on her face. She smiles and nearly bounces on her heels. Poe’s grin spreads across his whole face which makes her smile even wider. He jerks his head towards a tent they’ve set up as a make-shift staging area.
“There’s extra flight suits in there.”
When she’s all kitted up and ready to go, Poe hands her his helmet. It’s just a little too big, but it smells like him and she finds that oddly comforting. She settles into the seat and looks up at Poe who climbed the ladder to make sure she had everything she needed.
“Going to tell me to take it easy?” she asks because she’s been waiting for him to say something.
“Nah.” He grins again and taps her on the helmet. “Fly it like you stole it.”
Rey laughs out loud—a bark of laughter that catches her off guard because it seems that’s about the only way she knows how to fly.
“Hey, Rey,” he says just before he climbs back down and lets her loose. He pauses, like he’s studying her for a second. Then, another one of those half-grins, and this time, a wink. “May the Force be with you.”
Rey laughs again and it hits her that she can’t remember the last time she laughed twice in the same day, let alone same minute. “Yeah,” she says with a glint in her eye that maybe she’s finally figured some of it out. “I think it will be.”