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He woke up at the rustle of his tent flap, but wasn’t truly awake till he felt the metal on his neck. Light enough pressure not to break the skin, but enough to feel the indent and adjust his breathing to keep it from digging in further. He moved his neck just enough to see who had him at such an advantage. As one of the oldest padawans currently training at the compound, 16 year old Ben was surprised to find one of the younger trainees had been able to sneak up on him so successfully. A young, brown haired curl peered over at him, her hands holding the blade close while keeping her torso arched as far from grabbing distance as possible. The darkness obscured her face but even so, Ben knew she wasn’t one of the padawans in the 9-12 collection.
While still thrown by her ability to surprise him, the fact that she hadn’t continued to cut his throat and only seemed to want to stare at him intrigued Ben, while his much taller frame and overall teenage cockiness led him to believe he wasn’t in as much danger as he initially believed upon waking.
“Who are you?” He asked the young girl.
“Your worst nightmare” the young girl said, seeming to believe it with every heartbeat, while not effectively looking the part with her dimpled cheek and ears still slightly too big for her head.
“You’re me in my underwear failing a training session with my uncle Luke while a chorus of Ewoks laugh at me before I’m fed to a Wampa?
“What? No? Wait- what’s a Wampa? I mean, no! That’s your worst nightmare? That’s so stupid. You’re supposed to be my biggest enemy, the balance of my power. And your worst nightmare is Ewo-“ He cut her off quickly, using her apparent rage as a distraction to knock the knife out of her hand and across the room before grabbing her wrist to secure behind her back. Only he wasn’t able to finish the maneuver as she used his inertia to to flip him instead, further tangling him amongst his sheets before he found the young girl sitting no his chest, triumphantly declaring, “I’m Rey Palpatine, the future Empress of the Galaxy and you are disappointing me!”
At this point, Ben was shocked, tired, and so done with this kid interrupting his sleep. Grabbing her with a force push, Ben set her at the end of the bed, containing her while sitting himself up. “What in the worlds are you talking about?” He asked, rubbing his head and thinking this may just be a dream trying to get in the running for worst nightmare. Maybe his green milk from the night before was actually blue milk that had turned the wrong corner and this kid was a manifestation of his dread about his test the next day. While his lightsaber building skills and swordplay were coming along well, he knew his agility needed work and that being a head taller than average wasn’t helping his coordination.
The girl took a breath, seeming to try to center herself. “My grandpa told me that the force requires balance. That the light and the dark will rise to meet each other until one side is snuffed out entirely.” As she spoke the rage slowly crept back in. “So I won’t be able to rise to my highest potential unless you get your act together and get better!” With the last two words, Rey broke free of Ben’s force hold and rushed him, pounding him with her fists and yelling.
Her screams seemed to have woken a few others in nearby tents though, and Ben heard Sasuki, who’s tent was nearest to him, calling out asking if everything was ok. Ben force pushed Rey off him yet again, though this time on to the floor by the edge of his tent. He walked to the door flap to call out, “everything’s fine, go back to bed.” But when he turned back to Rey, he received a force push to the head, knocking him to his back and blacking out.
When he woke up, he had a colossal headache, and Rey was gone.