Chapter Text
Rey woke up before the sun broke over the horizon. True she couldn’t see the sun, but that didn’t mean her internal alarm clock was going to let her sleep in.
Sometimes there were moments when she woke up in the morning all groggy and confused. With sleep still fogging up her mind, she would struggle to register her surroundings.
Today was not one of those days.
The moment she came to consciousness, Rey was hyper aware of the fact that she was not in any of her desert hidey-holes scattered around within walking distance of Niima Outpost, nor was she in her big abandoned AT-AT that served as her general base of operations.
Rey blinked her bleary eyes before wriggling around in her makeshift bed so that she was laying on her back, staring up at the thin sheet that made up the roof of the pillow fort. The fairy lights were off, she noticed. The Droid-man must have turned them off at some point in the night, or they ran out of battery.
A beat passed, and Rey felt a movement a few paces away. She heard a tiny little yawn to her right, and a bright happy burst of colorful swirls flitted across her vision.
Apparently, the baby was also an early riser.
Rey quickly pushed herself up so that she was sitting crisscross applesauce just as her little brother lifted his head and let out an adorable coo.
Rey cooed back, giggled, and then cheerfully said, “Good morning to you too!”
Then she poked her head out of the compartment with a ‘Good morning, Mr. Man, Sir!’ ready on the tip of her tongue. But when she glanced around the main living space of the Razor Crest, the Droid-man was nowhere to be seen.
With the exception of the baby and Rey herself, the area was devoid of life.
“Huh,” Rey said with a furrow of her brows, and then ducked her head back into the pillow fort “Did ya see where Mr. Man, Sir went?”
The baby blinked and adopted a vaguely confused look on his face. But he didn’t seem too concerned about the Droid-man’s absence, so Rey didn’t think she needed to get too worried.
She hummed to herself and nodded sagely. “You’re right, he’s probably busy somewhere. Maybe out getting breakfast or something.”
But then a realization hit that left Rey feeling slightly frantic. “Wait, Mr. Man, Sir fed us yesterday so now I gotta go out and get food for us today or else it won’t be a fair trade. Did he leave to get the morning scrap already? I need to go too! I’ll go grab my boots and then I’m gonna try and catch up with-”
Rey was interrupted before she could hop out of the smuggler’s compartment by an odd buzzing in her ear and a shimmer on the edge of her peripheral vision. She fell silent and glanced around wildly. Then she felt a tug on her wrist and she zeroed in on it.
There was a soft blue mass of what Rey could only describe as energy wrapped around her hand like a lazily wound up cloth. Except it wasn’t really like a cloth, more like a rope or a thick woven thread, wispy and light, that hung loosely from her limb.
Rey's eyes trailed up the length of the thread, tracing it back to its origin. She gasped.
Blue spider-web like tendrils floated up from the little baby’s very essence. As if moved by an invisible hand, the tendrils wove together, wrapping and overlapping themselves until it resembled something akin to a big fluffy energy blanket.
The glowing blanket fluttered above the two, creating a small canopy over them and the little nook gained a soft blue tint as the artificial light of the ship filtered through its ethereal fibers.
“Woah,” Rey breathed as she had a moment to marvel at the display. Her fingers twitched, wanting to reach out and touch the woven threads of glitter above her, but Rey worried that she might unravel the whole thing by doing so. So she stayed her hand.
Then, very slowly, the baby exhaled and the blanket floated down onto Rey’s shoulders as lightly and gently as a falling feather.
Emotions and feelings rushed out of the little green baby, bounced around concentrated points of rainbow glitter in the air before soaking into the blanket and trickling down to Rey’s very heart.
Comfort. Safety. Warmth .
A constant and steady pattern. Comfort. Safety. Warmth . Rey felt an overwhelming sense of calm.
It was nice. A moment of peace. A moment to be.
The glitter bloomed like a desert lily. It curled around them, changing shape, changing color, molding itself into images, sounds, and sensations.
Rey leaned forward as she watched the display, soaking in the wonder before her like a sponge.
A soft voice tickled her ear. It was hard to make out at first, but the more Rey concentrated, the clearer it became. Someone was calling her. No, calling her brother. It was light and calming, the sound of an old woman calling to her young children.
“Grogu,” Rey murmured under her breath, tilting her head curiously.
That was the baby’s name. Grogu. He didn’t say it, and yet somehow Rey knew.
A happy little trill echoed in her mind, and the universe harmonized.
She brought one hand up to clutch at the energy blanket, wrapping and twisting the otherworldly fabric between her fingers. The color rippled, changing from a soft pastel to an electric blue, to a searing white wherever she touched. The motion left a sweet taste in her mouth, almost candy-like in flavor.
Then with her other hand, she reached up into the air, and let her fingertips brush against the path of one of the glitter trails. It felt cool, and left a sensation akin to having a chilled glass of water on a scorching summer day lingering within her very bones.
Rey inhaled slowly. Paused. And breathed her emotions to life.
Thank you. Happy. Calm.
Almost immediately, Grogu bounced those same sentiments back, mixing them in with his constant stream of Comfort. Safety. Warmth.
Then after a moment of deliberation, Rey did something that she had never tried before. Something she didn’t even know if it would work.
With a little bit of effort, Rey tugged at the connection. Just a little bit. Just enough to project her own thoughts into the glitter.
Hello, there!
She gathered the words, wrapped them up tight with threads of light, and sent them up and out to the trail. They floated along, meandering their way in the sparkly dust. Rey blew on them to speed it along. And then Rey watched as her words pooled in front of Grogu, and without a moment of hesitation he accepted her message.
A gentle, unspoken coo echoed in her mind, and she could almost hear an excited little Hello! chime.
Rey responded by bursting out into a fit of laughter and clapped her hands at her success. The glitter around her expanded and contracted in sync with the movement of her chest, changing colors from blue, to purple, to pink, and back to blue with every giggle that passed her lips.
And suddenly there was green, green, green, and more green than Rey had ever seen before in her life. Critters chittered in her head, a pleasant breeze brushed against her hair, and a group of children laughed as they ran through a tiny little village that looked so cozy and so very different from Niima Outpost. It felt so carefree and happy, that Rey was just about to burst.
Rey stared at the scene in awe. She got the distinct impression that Grogu was puffing out his chest in pride, the little show-off. But in all honesty, his pridefulness was well deserved. Whatever this was, it looked incredible.
Grogu nudged the trails without even moving a muscle, sending a thought down the line for Rey to unpack. It was information, an explanation. These were scenes, reconstructed from memory. Visions, if you will.
Rey didn’t know something like this was possible. But then again, she had never met another who could interact with the universe on a level like Grogu could. At least, not that she remembered.
The glitter blurred.
They were in a forest of weeping trees, crystalline waterfalls, smooth stepping stones, and elegant rainbow fish. No, it wasn’t a forest. It was a room. A large room could have been as big as a Star Cruiser as far as Rey was concerned. A room that had so many plants, so many fountains there must have been hundreds if not thousands of them. The whole place was swaddled with a sense of serenity. There were other people there too, sitting around crisscross applesauce just like Rey, watching the glitter ebb and flow alongside her.
There was another shift.
Suddenly the sound of soft blaster fire rang her ears. the sulfuric taste of a volcanic planet touched her tongue, and a scene of an epic battle filled her field of vision. There was an odd looking assortment of people exchanging fire, and it seemed so intense! So exciting! And suddenly there were others who looked just like the Droid-Man! Flying through the air, and taking out the bad guys!
It was so cool!
Blasters went Pew! Pew! Pew! Jetpacks went Fwooooooooosh! And the bad guys went Aaaaaaargggggg!
But the scene flickered for a moment, like a corrupted hologram. Then there were ‘troopers. A whole lot of them in their white armor and scary weapons.
Rey stopped moving, stopped breathing for one terrifying second as her brain struggled to process the sudden and unexpected shift of environments. Her thoughts flooded with memories of sneaking, running, hiding, doing everything possible to escape the notice of the stormtroopers.
She couldn’t focus on anything else.
The fight faded, and the glowing blue blanket on her shoulders gave a comforting squeeze, and hummed like a smoothly running engine. Little pulses of emotion filtered through the lines of glitter. Sorry. Comfort. Safe.
Hesitantly, Rey reached back up and touched the trail again.
I’m alright , she sent through the connection even though she wasn’t sure that she was, I’m alright . And she hoped that sentiment carried through.
Rey blinked and a new scene played out in front of her.
One centered on the Droid-man walking across sand dunes as a silhouette in the orange glow of a desert sunset with a blaster in hand and cape whipping in the wind. And suddenly he was fighting troopers, punching, kicking and shooting them down, not letting a single one get too close. And even when the Droid-man got hit with what should have been a lethal blaster bolt, his silver armor just deflected it as if the bolts were nothing. A sharp whistle sounded off, and a dozen tiny little rockets launched out of his gauntlet, taking out the whole group.
In the image, the Droid-man was the last one standing, holding his weapons up in a defensive position. He was looking a little rough, but determined to his core. He was there, and not going anywhere.
The entire scene was wrapped in the sentiment of Protector. Guardian. Parent. And one word that meant all three of those things.
Buir
The Droid-man was Grogu’s Buir. He protected him. And the Droid-man would do the same for Rey.
Grogu seemed to be insistent on that point. He believed it with all his heart.
Rey wasn’t sure if she could believe in the Droid-man as strongly as Grogu did. Sure, he was nice. He let Rey into his home, he fed her, and even wasted medical supplies just to treat a bruise on her head. That wasn’t something a bad person would do.
That wasn’t something a person from Jakku would do. For anyone.
And Rey felt the tendrils of guilt slowly creeping up on her. It made her feel squirmy, and weird. It also made her skin itch, so she scratched at her forearm to try and relieve the sensation.
Here was this little family she was intruding on, consuming their valuable food and drinks, and taking up space on their ship. Rey knew, intellectually, that the Droid-man said that it was alright for her to stay and the little baby made it clear that he wanted to be around Rey and play with her.
But it felt strange to be on the receiving end of such hospitality after being on her own for so long.
And it bothered her that her debt was mounting. She hadn’t even done anything to start repaying it. It was a constant weight on her mind, and she kept going back to it.
The thing was, Rey didn’t know the Droid-man. Not well at least. She had the basic impression, a sense, of who he was. But Rey didn’t think it was enough for her to fully trust him. Not yet at least.
Rey didn’t know what to do.
But the universe had brought Rey to Grogu.
They were meant to meet. Rey was as sure of this. And if she looked closely enough, and concentrated hard enough, she could see the thin outline of a silvery string that kind of reminded Rey of a fishing line that flickered in and out of sight. But there was no question that it existed. It was there.
The delicate silver string was a thread that connected her heart to Grogu’s heart.
Like the connections that once tied her to her parents, only fainter, newer, and with plenty of room to grow.
That meant something. Something big. Something important.
So, if Grogu believed that the Droid-man could protect Rey from bad guys, then Rey was willing to give that idea some merit.
Rey twisted her hands together, cracked her knuckles, and then drummed her fingers against her knee.
This was important.
She mulled over the thought.
This was important.
Important, important, important.
What is important?
“What?” Rey asked out loud, startled at the sudden intruding thought in her mind.
Grogu hadn’t moved. His eyes were closed, and he looked completely relaxed. But the glitter around him bubbled with his curiosity. And then Rey realised that she must have accidentally projected her thoughts. Passed it along through the glitter without her notice.
His question came once more. What is important?
“Oh,” Rey breathed, and then she gestured at the silver string, “This is.”
There was a pause, then Grogu’s eyes fluttered open. He squinted as if he wasn’t used to the light, and gave the space in front of him a puzzled look. He let out a high pitched warble, giving voice to his confusion.
Rey tilted her head, glanced down at the silver string, glanced up at Grogu, and then glanced down again. She scrunched up her nose as she tried to figure out what was wrong.
“You can’t see it?” Rey asked, just as bewildered as Grogu. But how could he not see the connection? Sure it was a little difficult to pinpoint it exactly, but it was also kind of hard to ignore when it was literally right there.
Rey only got a blank expression and a ??? from Grogu.
“Look, it’s over here.” Rey tried again, pointing at the physical embodiment of the connection. Then for good measure, she tapped the silver string with her index finger as if she were pressing down on a piano key.
That got an almost immediate reaction from Grogu.
He quickly closed his eyes once more and latched onto the movement. Rey wasn’t really sure how to describe it, but it was as if his essence had wrapped itself around the string and began to vibrate with energy.
Words that were not Rey’s own began to swirl in front of her, excitedly brushing against her mind.
Force Bond! It’s a Force Bond!
Rey tilted her head, “Is that what it’s called?” she asked, scrunching her face up.
Grogu was quick to send an affirmative through the glitter. Can sense the bond.
It was a weird name. Force bond.
She knew that in order to get the force of an object you had to multiply mass by acceleration, just like her Mommy taught her in their physics lessons, but how was force supposed to bond? Could it even bond? Was it like how itty bitty particles can bond, or was it more like slapping some glue on a couple pieces of paper and calling it a day?
Rey eyed the silver string skeptically, then ducked her head to inspect it from a different angle. It didn’t look like it was accelerating anywhere, and it didn’t seem to have any mass or weight.
The silver string didn’t seem like any force at all.
Why call it a Force Bond then?
But Rey’s little brother seemed dead set on calling the silver string by that name. His feelings on the subject was strong enough that Rey could feel skin tingle as his intent leaked into the glitter. So Rey decided that she was just going to put those questions on the back burner for now. She could figure out how physics factored into glitter magic later.
Besides, there were other matters Rey wanted to explore.
She tugged at the string, and Grogu tugged back. They repeated the exchange for several rounds, like a modified version of tag.
“So you can’t see the connection, right?” She asked, when they started to get bored of the little game, “Only feel it?”
With his eyes still closed in concentration, Grogu nodded his head.
“Is it invisible to you then?”
The silver string pulsed, and another message filtered its way through the network of glitter trails.
Visible in the Force. Invisible to the eyes.
“Then how come I can see it?”
Grogu didn’t have an answer to that.
Rey hummed to herself. Then with a dramatic sweep of her hands, she put on her imaginary thinking cap, and she concentrated very hard on her thoughts.
Finally, she clapped her hands together and grinned.
“I’m gonna try to show it to you!” she announced before she started grabbing at the glitter, left and right. She gathered it all up and began squishing, pulling, and molding it like clay. Willing it to take the form she wanted it to take with every fiber of her being.
Grogu was oddly fascinated by her actions.
As Rey worked, she could occasionally feel a slight tapping at her shoulders, and a persistent inkling of a Whatchya doing? Whatchya doing? Tickled the back of her neck.
She gave the sensation a mental flick and a stern Shhh! I’m almost done!
Or at least as stern as she could be with her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth as she focused on putting together her own glitterized construction.
“Haha! There! Finished!” Rey loudly proclaimed, tossing her hands in the air in celebration. Then she grabbed a handful of the blue trails out of the air, and plugged them into her glitter glob like she would plug a wire into a socket.
There was a momentary pause, where the swirls and whirls seemed to freeze in place.
The glitter blurred.
And dispersed.
On the surface, there seemed to be no change. The silver string was still there. The energy blanket remained as a comfortable weight on Rey’s shoulders. And the free-floating glitter still ambled along lazily around both Rey and Grogu.
But that wasn’t what Rey was paying attention to. She stared unblinkingly at Grogu, waiting for his reaction with growing anticipation.
There was a brief flutter of Curious. Confusion. What?
Rey could practically hear the gears turning in Grogu’s head. But then a moment turned into a minute, and Rey wavered slightly, “Did it work?” she asked tentatively.
A beat passed, and Grogu sent a very definitive Nope!
Well, that wasn’t what Rey was hoping for.
Something must have gone wrong, maybe when the glitter spread out all over the place? Was that supposed to happen? Maybe something got messed up when she plugged the trails in? Rey had no clue she was just kind of winging it and hoping for the best.
“Ummm,” She shifted her sitting position so that she was kneeling, and she poked a few more of the glitter trails. “Hold on, give me a minute. I’m gonna redo this,” she decided.
Grogu let out a little warble in acknowledgement, and settled back down.
Rey had no plan, not even an inkling as to how she was supposed to get the result that she wanted. She knew that she should do something like what Grogu had done before, with all of the scenes and imagery that he had shown her earlier. But those were visions of memories, of scenes that had already happened. And Rey had tried to recreate that pattern in the glitter with modifications to create a sort-of-vision experience of what she could see in the presence.
But that apparently backfired, so she needed to try a different way.
Rey exhaled harshly, letting all the air she possibly could out of her lungs until they burned. Then very slowly and deliberately, she inhaled. The glitter responded, clumping up and moving together to form the shape it held before.
Then with a fine eye, she looked the blob up and down, clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth as she judged the glitter blob. The glitter blob judged back. Rey didn’t like that so she blew a raspberry in retaliation.
“Alright, maaaaybe if I do this,” She said, sticking two glitter trails into the top of the blob in a way that made them look like bunny ears. She paused for a moment to appreciate the sight before she got right back to work.
Rey pulled down more and more trails, sticking them all over the blob, twisting them around, and tying them up in neat little bows to fasten it all together.
When she was done for the second time, Rey leaned back, put her hands on her hips and inspected her messy creation. It looked like a giant pufferfish. Large, spikey, and with a big ol’ smiley face that Rey had carved out with her thumb onto one of its flatter surfaces.
“Ok, ok,” Rey said holding her hands up with her fingers spread out as if she was acting as a spotter for the blob, “Seems like it’s holding together. Alright, you try reaching out this time.”
Grogu was quick to oblige, expanding his essence and wrapping it around the glitter blob.
They waited. Nothing happened. Grogu retreated, with the sentiment of a sheepish apology dancing in the air.
“Urg! This is so frustrating!” Rey scowled, clutching at her hair. She blinked as she sensed a sudden shift in the air, “No, I’m not mad at you Grogu. You’re perfect. I’m mad at myself and this stupid dum-dum of a blob that doesn’t. Do. What. It’s. Supposed to. DO!”
Then before she could think better of it, Rey reared her arm back and punched the blob as hard as she possibly could.
It exploded.
A cascade of dust rained down on the two children as Rey watched in stunned silence.
“Whoops,” She squeaked, shocked by the consequences of her own actions. Rey opened her mouth, ready to apologize herself and offer up some more solutions when suddenly-
!!!
Pure, unadulterated shock pulsed through the trails, leaking into the very air itself before turning into a wave of overwhelming excitement.
“Do you see it? Do you see the string?” Rey asked, her excitement rising to match Grogu’s burst of exhilaration.
I see it! Grogu trilled in Rey’s mind, The Force bond! Everything!
Rey let out a happy squeal. “It worked!” Then her smile widened as a gleam reflected in her eyes. “I guess violence really is the answer!”
Grogu cooed in agreement.
“This is so cool! I have no idea what to do next but let's experiment while this vision thing still works!”
Almost half an hour later, the Droid-man climbed down the ladder that led up to the cockpit of the ship. He paused on the last rung with his foot hovering just above the floor as the sound of laughter flooded the cargo hold.
He turned his head and was greeted by the sight of two little children, huddled together in a makeshift pillow fort within the repurposed smuggling compartment.
One sitting quietly in a meditative stance, with his eyes closed and his ears perked attentively. The other bouncing on her knees, flapping her arms around like one of those inflatable arm flailing tube men that were prevalent at used spaceship dealerships.
Very quietly, the Droid-man lowered himself to the ground, making sure to step softly so as not to disturb anything or bring attention to himself.
He crossed his arms, and leaned against the metal wall. Content in observing as the kids played their games.