and with a stroke of her saber

[strongerthanblood]

Things have been going well. That probably should have rung in her head like warning bells, but it didn't. Maybe this place is making her too soft.


Rey is on the Falcon one night, because she got in an idea in her head about how she might be able to repurpose some a parts to try and make a repulsorlift for her bike. She kind of likes it how it is now, with its primitive rubber wheels, but an upgrade might be nice. Plus, she did tell Anakin that she would try.

She becomes so focused on her task that by the time she comes out of it enough to check the time, it's already so late at night and she's so tired. After checking in with Ben through the bond to let him know her plans, she goes to crawl into her preferred bunk. She'll get a few hours of sleep, and then go back to town at dawn.

Sleep comes easily to her, but it does not stay peaceful.

Rey dreams. This is not unusual, except for the fact that she's had this dream before, and it wasn't a dream. It was a vision.


Rey is on Exegol, dressed all in black. There is a hood over her head and a saber in her hand, and she walks with purpose. She strides, really, with her chin held high and a smile on her face. She makes all the way up to the top of the Sith throne without hesitation, and takes her seat next to Ben.

No, not Ben. It's Rey and Kylo Ren. Empress and Emperor.

Thousands of Sith rise up below them, and their cheer sounds more like a roar. A declaration of intent. An oath. Rey ignites her lightsaber and smiles, teeth sharp and face lit up in red.

The world belongs to her now.


A scream is what finally wakes Rey up, and it takes her a long moment to realize that it's coming from her. Even as she wakes up, the vision doesn't stop. It keeps on going, plaguing her mind with images of her tearing apart worlds just to watch them burn. She grabs her saber and stuffs her feet into her boots, runs out of the Falcon and into the misty rain, and it keeps going.

Palpatine's laugh rings in her head so loud that it makes her dizzy. It feels like it's pressing in on her from all sides, like it's echoing throughout the entire city.


The time has come. You will ascend.

You will take the throne. It is your birthright to rule here. It is in your blood. Our blood.


I wanted you here, Empress Palpatine.



Rey lets out a wild scream into the rain, chest burning as she keeps running, feeling compelled to do so. Her feet know where they are going before she does, but maybe she just doesn't want to acknowledge it, because it can't be true. It can't be here.


You will take the throne.


She tears through the forest, tripping over gnarled roots and fallen branches, and when she finally makes it to a clearing overlooking the sea, near where her and Ben sometimes train together, she sees it. There under the glowing light of the moon, shining in the rain, it sits.

The Throne of the Sith, with all it's cruel, horrible points carved into stone. It's not something that Rey thought that she would ever see again, and she lets out another cry of terror as she falls to her knees before it. She destroyed it, once. She'll just have to do it again.

She can practically hear the chanting of the Sith as she throws her hand in front of her and sends out a burst of electric energy. The tendrils of lightning curl around the stone but do nothing, and Rey screams louder as she forces more of her power into the act. She wants it gone. It has to be gone.

Her teeth grit against the onslaught and she yells through it, even as the lightning shoots up from the throne and into the sky like a beacon, crackling through the air like thunder claps.

It is in your blood.

"No!" She cries out into the night, into the Force, to anyone who will listen. "I don't want it!"

Comments

[larger_world]

The sudden disturbance in the Force yanks Obi-Wan from sleep. Acting only on instinct, he throws out his hand and his lightsaber flies into his grip, igniting in an instant and held in front of him.

But the bedroom is empty. The disturbance is much further away and he extinguishes his lightsaber as he climbs out of his bed and begins to dress. He can hear Rey, can feel her, and she in deep distress, enough that Obi-Wan hurries as best he can, following the path of her anguish out of their shared building and into the street.

She isn't in her usual apartment. She's already drawing him out of the city, toward the dense woods. Obi-Wan's talents with speaking through the Force are not nearly as strong as some, but he tries regardless. It will be several minutes before he can reach Rey physically and he feels as if he must do something.

Rey. He focuses as he moves, his concentration down to nothing more than the sound of his feet on the pavement and his attempt to reach her. Rey, I'm on my way. You're not alone.

[strongerthanblood]

These are your final steps, Rey.

Obi-Wan's voice was the first one she heard on Exegol, the first to finally answer her call of be with me, and for one long, terrifying moment she thinks that she really is back on Exegol, and she'll have to have this fight all over again. But then it continues. You're not alone.

I need help, she sends back, but she finally lowers her hand and the lightning unravels from the throne, disappearing from the night sky with a series of crackling sparks as she plants her palms into the wet earth, gasping for breath.

Be with me, she sends again, even as her body quakes with a deep, aching sob. I can't do this again..

But she can. She knows that she can. She just doesn't want to have to.

[larger_world]

I'm here. You're not alone.

The connection is clear as day, he can feel her as easily as he does Anakin, as he had Ahsoka, and Obi-Wan sprints, faster than he has since he'd been in the midst of a raging battlefield. The lightning fades from the sky, but he can still feel her and he follows that feeling through the trees, dodging branches in the dark without realizing he's done so.

His lightsaber is still out, still ignited, though when he comes to a stop beside her, she's the only presence he can feel.

"Where?" he asks, standing over her protectively, blade raised. There is a throne, awful and horrid looking, but no physical threat he can sense.

[strongerthanblood]

Obi-Wan is suddenly there, standing over her while she sobs in the wet dirt, and for a moment she feels spectacularly foolish. It's just a piece of stone, and shouldn't make her react like this.

"There's no one," Rey gets out, pulling herself to her feet. She wants to go to Obi-Wan and crash into his chest, but she stays away, turning as she takes a step closer to the throne.

"Do you know what this is?" She asks out loud, but there is one thought screaming in her mind. Do you know who I am?

[larger_world]

"You're Rey," he answers aloud, hearing her thoughts almost without effort. His blade is still lifted and he still scans for a threat, but it seems that the throne is what has truly rattled her. He has never seen it before, not that he can remember, but the galaxy is a vast place and what might hurt him would not upset another.

Whatever it is, it means something to her.

"Rey Skywalker," he continues, then slowly lowers his lightsaber, although he doesn't extinguish it yet, instead using the light to really look at the throne. He reaches one hand out, lays it on Rey's shoulder. "What is it?"

[strongerthanblood]

Rey lets out a humorless laugh at that, sniffling as she wipes her face with her forearm. The hand on her shoulder makes her jump slightly, but she doesn't pull away. She stares at the throne and the glinting blue light of the saber only amplifies the eerie familiarity of the situation.

"I told you that Skywalker was my chosen name," Rey says after a long moment. Obi-Wan would know about Palpatine, she's sure. Maybe not all he's done, all the havoc he's wrought, but he'll have heard of the man.

"It's the throne of the Sith, where the Emperor sat," she continues, brow furrowing as she swallows hard and stares at the throne instead of him. "Just before I came here, I found out that this throne-- is my birthright."

A small sob escapes her, and she closes her eyes. "I'm Rey Palpatine."

[bring_balance]

The last time Anakin was awakened like this, he dreamt of Padmé dying in childbirth. His heart beating so quickly he could hear it in his ears, the restfulness of sleep wrenched from him in an instant.

This time, the vision isn't his own.

Padmé is sleeping soundly next to him when he slips out of bed and into his clothes, his lightsaber clipped to his belt. He doesn't have to concentrate to know where to go, Rey's presence is tearing at the Force itself in Darrow. He hurries through the rain, the hood of a cloak pulled over his head, letting the Force guide him.

And then there's a voice. He hears is almost as clear as it if was a vision of his own, though he wishes he hadn't. It's familiar, but cold and evil, drained of the warmth that he remembers. It can't be what he thinks. It can't be, no matter what Obi-Wan has told him.

Anakin is pulled out of his thoughts when he sees the streak of lightning shoot into the sky, and pulls out his lightsaber in an instant, illuminating the blade as he enters the clearing.

"Rey, what's going on?" he asks, looking for the threat, though he senses only Rey there. The stone chair looms over her, and Anakin suddenly has a very bad feeling about all of this.

[strongerthanblood]

When Anakin bursts into the clearing, Rey lowers her hand to grab her saber instead, igniting it as she whirls to face him. The lightning fades from the sky, crackling around her fingertips before disappearing entirely.

Seeing Anakin right now stokes the rage inside of her, because Darth Vader is a part of this. She thinks of what Vader did to Leia, to Ben, to nearly everyone she loves. She heaves out a shuddering breath as she stares at him in the blue light of their twin sabers, and then blinks.

This isn't Vader. This is Anakin Skywalker, and she reminds herself that perhaps the two of them are not all that different. She could have gone to the dark side as well. She could have easily stepped up onto that throne.

She'll never admit that there was a brief second where she almost wanted to, like maybe it would have been easier to give in.

"Do you recognize it?" She asks through gritted teeth, finally lowering her saber from her offensive stance. "Do you know who sat on it?"

[bring_balance]

Anakin feels it in the Force, that brief flash of rage from Rey, that glimpse of power that begins to fade into the background almost instantly. It feels familiar, reminding of moments he's lost himself in it.

Anakin deactivates his saber and frowns, turning to look at the stone chair for a long moment. It looks ancient and evil, and he doesn't think he's ever seen anything quite like it.

"No," Anakin replies, "No, I don't."

He pauses, and a knot forms in his stomach before he speaks again.

"Do you?"

[strongerthanblood]

Rey clicks off her own saber and watches Anakin as he stares at the throne, taking in his reaction. He truly doesn't seem to recognize it, and she swallows hard as she steps up next to him. Again, she has to work out what exactly she can tell him, while making sure to lock away what she can't somewhere deep in her mind. She doesn't think that Anakin would pry, but she doesn't want to risk him picking up on a stray thought.

"I do," she says after a long moment, jaw working as she blinks the rain out of her eyes. "It is the Throne of the Sith. The Emperor's throne."

Her grip tightens on the hilt of her saber, and her other hand curls into a fist at her side. He doesn't look at Anakin, only the throne, and grits out the name. "Palpatine."

[bring_balance]

The night he arrived in Darrow, Obi-Wan had told him about the Chancellor. That he'd orchestrated the war, turned the Clones on the Jedi and the Republic, naming himself Emperor. He'd sensed no deception from Obi-Wan then, but time and time again, Obi-Wan and the Council had lied to him. Even now, Anakin has been skeptical of the full truth behind what Obi-Wan had told him.

Perhaps it's all because he hadn't wanted to believe it.

But Rey doesn't know the Council, she was never a part of that world. He's not sure why she would lie about something like this.

If what Obi-Wan told him is all true, if what Rey is saying now is true, then that means years of lies and deception from one of the people he trusted the most.

There's an uncomfortable knot forming in his chest, and he feels sick and angry all at once.

"Don't fear what you're feeling, Anakin. Use it! Call upon your fury! Rage is your weapon!"

"I knew him as the Chancellor," Anakin says, trying not to think of the memory, trying not to think of the horror and shame he'd felt when he listened to the Chancellor, abandoning everything he'd been taught to take Dooku's life on the Invisible Hand.

He fails.

[weakandfoolish]

Ben couldn't sleep.

Before her restlessness became tangible, he felt the hum of it beneath his skin, and attributed it to his own disquiet. But as the night wore on, it became clear enough that it was coming from outside of himself, her fitful sleep crashing like a wave into his wakeful mind.

Dressing, Ben set out on foot, intent on joining her at the Falcon, his restlessness quickly turning to distress. Something was wrong, something big, and by the time he made his way into the trees, her fear and her fury overwhelmed him— hollowing him out and filling him up until there was only her.

His mother's lightsaber in hand, Ben broke into a run, her screams cutting through the Force, calling to him. When he saw it in his mind's eye, the vision of them there, side by side, he nearly lost his footing. His heart hammered in his chest, a sick twist in his gut at the echo of the ecstatic relief he'd felt in the moments when she'd felt close to accepting this destiny.

"Rey, stop," he said, breaking through the trees. Somehow, it wasn't a surprise to find the throne there, waiting for them.

[strongerthanblood]

As soon as Ben's voice cuts through the noise, Rey looks over her shoulder to find him, even as lightning continues to climb its way into the sky.

She meets his gaze, blue saber in hand, and for a moment she's afraid that she will have to relive all of it all over again. The fear of losing him makes her chest seize up and she chokes on a sob, sending a bright surge of light up into the sky before she drops her hand and it all crackles away entirely, leaving them bathed in nothing but the light of the moon, and Ben's saber.

"Did you see it?" She pants out, voice ragged as she sags against the earth. She's referring to the vision, and she squeezes her eyes shut tight as a fresh set of tears spill out to mingle with the rain.

[weakandfoolish]

"I saw it," he murmured, cutting off his saber and clipping it to his belt.

Mud squelching under his boots, Ben crossed the distance between them and dropped into a crouch at her side.

There had always been something bracing about her power, the enormity and rawness of it, and whether she called down destruction upon them both, or spent the rest of the night sobbing in the dirt, he would've been no less awed by her.

"He's not here, Rey. It's just an echo, can't you feel it?"

[strongerthanblood]

“He’s always here,” Rey cries out, slamming her palm against her own chest as she turns to look at him. “He’ll always be here.”

She isn’t sure why she struggles so much with this. Perhaps it’s just the utter disappointment and revulsion of finding him at the end of a fifteen year search for meaning and purpose. After all that, and she’s a Palpatine. It feels exceedingly cruel, and after a lifetime of cruelties this one is especially hard to come to terms with. She is not only her blood, she is so much more than that, but sometimes she cannot help but to be disgusted. Or terrified.

“I just want to be free of it,” she says raggedly, forcing herself to draw in a breath as she looks up at the throne. “But he’ll never leave me.”

[weakandfoolish]

"No, he won't," Ben agreed, falling silent for a moment as he stared at the throne. A part of him, perhaps, would always long to sit with her at his side, but the desire was eclipsed by something stronger. Something that was theirs alone, apart from Palpatine or the Sith, or even the Jedi.

Perhaps he ought to have hesitated— she was so raw with anger, but he reached for her, undeterred, broad hand sliding along the side of her neck.

"Listen to me, Rey. He's a part of you, you're not wrong. He always will be. And yet, you've rejected him, every time. He's put the full might of his power into tempting you, using me to do it, and it doesn't matter. You're still you. And that's always been enough, despite him."

[nabooqueen]

Padmé's grown used to Anakin's tendency to get so caught up in training that he completely loses track of time. This isn't the first time she's fallen asleep before he's come back, but it is the first time he hasn't come back at all. Perhaps it's just the memory of East Hallow making her nervous, but when she wakes in the night to find the other side of the bed empty and no messages telling her he'd gone somewhere else, she finds herself dressing quickly and slipping out of the apartment to go find him.

She's at the edge of the forest when lightning explodes from beyond the trees, and then she runs.

It's not Anakin, but Padmé doesn't have time to be relieved about that because Rey's kneeling before some sort of horrible stone chair and screaming, and Padmé's no Jedi but she doesn't have to be to know that something is very, very wrong.

"Rey?" Touching her might be a bad idea when she's like this, but Padmé risks it anyway to put a gentle hand on one shoulder. "Rey, what's wrong?"

[strongerthanblood]

It is a true testament to just how lost in her rage she is that she doesn't notice anyone approaching her.

The hand on her shoulder startles her enough that she gasps, dropping her hand as she yanks herself away to grab her saber instead. By the time she rolls up onto her feet and ignites it, she realizes that it's Padmé standing there, staring at her in shock.

"Padmé." Rey immediately turns off the saber and clips it to her belt, putting her hands up in apology as she takes a step back. She wipes her eyes, which is useless due to the light rain that continues to fall, and feels mortified as she looks from Padmé to the throne, and then back again.

"Do you know what this is?" Rey asks, feeing her chin wobble as she tries her best not to burst into sobs. This is what she wishes her family could be, this woman standing here in front of her, but her lineage lies in the awful thing behind her, and she can't seem to get rid of it.

[nabooqueen]

Padmé takes half a step back when Rey ignites her saber, but it's purely an instinctual reaction - she may not know what's going on here, but she truly does not believe that Rey means her any harm. She steps closer again a second later and takes a long look at the stone chair that's made her so angry.

"I don't," she says slowly, thinking it over, but as much as she tries she can't think of what the thing might be. "But it can't be anything good, if it's made you this upset."

[strongerthanblood]

"It is the throne of the Sith," Rey explains, and she can't bring herself to say anything more, not yet. She doesn't want to talk about Palpatine, or anything that might give away Anakin's fate back home.

"The dark side seems to keep following us around," she says, referring to her and Ben. Rey reaches up to push her wet hair back from her face and leaves her palms on her temples as she lets out another sob, staring helplessly at the throne. "I just want to destroy it."

[nabooqueen]

"Well, it's just going to have to find someone else to follow around from now on," Padmé says calmly. It's not the same situation, not nearly the same, but something about this moment reminds her of comforting Anakin back on Tatooine, after... well. If she needs to stay calm and reassure one of the kindest people she knows here that she's not a bad person for being followed by the dark, she can do that. It's easy, even, because it's true.

"I've met a few Sith back home, and you, Rey Skywalker, are no Sith." She has no idea how Rey feels about hugs in general, but she slides one arm around her shoulders in a careful half-embrace, leaving plenty of room for Rey to pull away if she wishes. "If you want to destroy it, we can do that."

[nextchance]

Jyn hasn't slept well since she was a child, and tonight is no exception. She wakes with a start to the sound of rain pattering on the window of the room where she's been staying for the past couple of days, the past bleeding into the present in such a way that she knows she won't be getting back to sleep, at least not for a good while. The noise is what did it, she thinks. It's not that she's a light sleeper, although that is the case too. It's the weather, rain bringing back memories of the landing platform on Eadu, her father's face still seared behind her eyelids. As stupid as she thinks it is to be thrown by a little storm, she thinks there's no sense in pretending she'll be getting any more rest, so she changes out of her pajamas, stuffs them back into the duffel bag she keeps her belongings in, and decides to head back to the Falcon. Even out in the rain, a little fresh air might do her good.

She's hunched in her too-big raincoat when she makes it back out to the countryside, raindrops dripping off the top of her hood. As she nears the Falcon, though, a flash of light from out past the treeline, bright and shooting up from the woods, catches her attention, and while the safer thing would probably be to ignore it and get inside, Jyn has never been particularly good at choosing the safer options. Whatever's going on, she ought to see what it is.

Her boots crunching over wet leaves and twigs, she makes her way into the forest, cautious but sure. She has a knife in the side of one shoe, another sheathed against her forearm, hidden by her sleeves. They aren't much, but they'll do in a pinch if necessary.

When she steps into the clearing and sees Rey there, the bursts of crackling light coming from her, Jyn immediately reconsiders that assessment, and hopes it won't matter anyway.

"Rey," she says, her voice lifting almost into a question, eyes wide and voice wary. She keeps a bit of a distance, staying at the edge of the clearing, taking in the sight in front of her. Most likely, she ought to be a little more worried, but her main concern for the moment is her clearly distraught friend. "What's going on?"

[strongerthanblood]

It takes a moment for Rey to register that someone is speaking to her, and not from inside her head. When she finally does, she drops her hand and the lightning stops, crackling way to nothing, and the throne remains unchanged.

She rises up onto her knees and looks over her shoulder to see Jyn, blinking away the rain and the tears as she takes in the look on her face. She wonders if Jyn is afraid of her. She wonders if she should be.

"This just arrived," Rey says as she rocks back onto her haunches, suddenly exhausted as she stares at the throne. She doesn't expect Jyn to know what it is. "It's Sith, and I want to destroy it."

[nextchance]

A chill runs down Jyn's spine as she takes that in, and not because of the cool autumn rain that's falling. She only knows a little about the Sith, and it's hazy now, faded now with the stories her mother used to tell her about the Jedi when she was a child. It's enough, though. Even if it weren't, Rey's reaction would be. She's still tense and on guard, old survival instincts having kicked in, but she trusts her friend. As strange and unsettling as the scene may be, if Rey wants it gone, then it's with good reason, and at least Jyn doesn't have to worry now about startling her.

She takes a step closer, then kneels so they'll be on the same eye level, looking from Rey to the foreboding chair. What, if anything, she might be able to do about it, she has no idea, but she won't just leave Rey to deal with it alone.

"We'll get rid of it, then," she says, quiet and sure. "I don't know how, but we will."

[strongerthanblood]

The quiet, steady reassurance Jyn gives her makes Rey smile, just barely, and she looks up at her friend. She and Jyn have gotten close, and Rey doesn't think that Jyn will care where she comes from.

Rey stands up and sniffles a little as she holds out a hand to help Jyn to her feet. She puts her hands on her hips and takes another long look at the throne.

"Does the name Palpatine mean anything to you?" She asks quietly, turning her head slightly without turning to look at Jyn.