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

[strongerthanblood]

Rey lets Obi-Wan's words settle over her as she rests her head against his shoulder. It only solidifies what she has already been told, and she feels herself grow calmer, and more resolved. She let this sudden arrival shake her, but it doesn't have to last.

"I heard you before, when I faced Palpatine," Rey admits, sniffling as she pulls back to look at his face. "I-- I had almost given up, because I thought I had been beaten, but I heard you, and Anakin. I heard many Jedi, and you all helped give me the strength to take him on, once and for all. She smiles at him and it's a bit wobbly, but it's genuine. "You all were with me, and together we ended the Sith."

[larger_world]

He can't help but wonder what that truly means. If an end to the Sith means an end to the Jedi, too, at least as he understands the Order to be. There will always be those who are Force sensitive and they will always be drawn to the light or to the dark.

Sith. Jedi. Those are only names. The light and the dark will both always exist. They must in order for there to be balance in the galaxy. With Palpatine gone, someone else may seek to take his place, but that doesn't mean the battle should not have been fought. The Jedi will always seek to preserve the good in the world, just as Rey has done.

"We'll always be with you," he answers, then smiles. "The Force is everywhere. You can feel us, we can feel you. Palpatine couldn't change that."

[strongerthanblood]

Rey doesn't mean to take a peek of Obi-Wan's thoughts, but she's so on edge and so curious as to what he's feeling about all of this that she sort of picks up on it without really trying. And he's right. The light and the dark will always exist, no matter what, and there will always be a need for balance.

But the Jedi and the Sith both no longer exist the way Obi-Wan knew them, and that can't be easy to sit with.

Still, he smiles at her and reassures her and Rey feels overcome with affection for him. She knows that she looks for family everywhere she goes, especially when it comes to father figures, but Obi-Wan really does feel like family. He's another on a short but very esteemed list of men that Rey has come to admire, and she's so grateful for him.

"I'm glad." She hugs him again, clutching at him for a moment before pulling back to give him a smile that looks almost shy, and reaches up to put her hair out of her face. "I guess we should get out of the rain. And away from this stupid chair."

[larger_world]

Because that is all this is. A chair. The thing itself has no power, only that which they give to it, and for Obi-Wan is means nothing at all. For Rey it could be the sort of thing that might cause her to stumble, but only that.

Because it's merely a chair.

"Come," he agrees. "Let's get dry and if you want, we can talk about it more. Or we can decide how to get rid of it."

He thinks a lightsaber or two should be able to take it apart.

[strongerthanblood]

"Getting dry would be a nice start," Rey tells him, turning away from the chair. Ben's voice is echoing in her her head, and Rey smiles a little. "Hold on, I need to tell Ben that I'm okay."

She pauses and closes her eyes, smiling a little as she accesses their bond, and sends him a message. She tells him that she is okay, that she's with Obi-Wan, and that she'll see him soon. Once she's done, she opens her eyes and takes another breath, nodding a bit as she does.

"Okay, he's okay." She gives a bit of a shiver from the cold, and uses her lightsaber to ignite the way as they start to climb back down toward the city. "I fell asleep at the Falcon. I was there when I-- well. When I heard him."

[larger_world]

The connection between Rey and Ben is stronger than any Obi-Wan has seen before and he watches, fascinated, as she reaches out to Ben. Even with Qui-Gon, with whom his connection had been as strong as any, he doesn't think he would have reached him in such a direct way.

"Palpatine?" he asks. "You heard him? Was it a dream?"

He suspects it was, or some residual energy from the throne, but he needs to be sure. He thinks they all need to be sure.

[strongerthanblood]

"A memory. Nothing more," Rey clarifies, expression twitching in discomfort. That voice will always live in her head, but she doesn't have to give it attention. Instead, she focuses on something that brings her joy.

"Ben and I are a dyad in the Force," she says in response to Obi-Wan's questioning look. "Two halves of one. We can appear to each other anywhere and it's just as if we're actually there."

Rey has never gotten a chance to explain the bond that she and Ben share before, and the happiness that bond brings her momentarily overshadows everything else.

"It may have been a difficult journey," she says, which is probably the galaxy's biggest understatement, "but we are very lucky to have found each other."

[larger_world]

"I don't know that I've ever heard of such a thing before," Obi-Wan says, thinking back to everything he's read about those who are Force sensitive and the presence they have within the Force. The only thing he can come up with is how the Sith believe in the power of two; one Master, one Apprentice.

But that isn't what Rey is describing. The Sith Master and Apprentice couldn't appear to one another, it was just a selfish and self-indulgent way of maintaining themselves as more important than others.

"That must be a very intense connection," he says.

[strongerthanblood]

"Apparently it's very rare," she tells him, and then laughs softly. "It was much more intense when we were enemies." Her expression softens into something more thoughtful. "But then again, if we hadn't had our connection, I'm not sure that would have ever changed."

Their shared bond is how they learned about each other, and what led to the ending of the war. It's also what makes her feel whole, and finally understood.

"I've read about something like it in some books here, but it's usually fiction," she tells Obi-Wan, smiling softly. "They call it soulmates."

[larger_world]

"Hm," Obi-Wan says, wondering what exactly such a term implies. It seems to suggest there is only one person, one person in all the galaxy, which seems utterly impossible. The galaxy is too vast, far too vast, and such absolutes feel too restrictive to Obi-Wan.

But perhaps that isn't what it means. Besides which, he's not going to fault Rey and Ben for having found happiness.

"I haven't heard that term either," he admits, then smiles at her. "But I'm glad you have one another. Truly, I am."

[strongerthanblood]

"Me too," she replies, biting her lip thoughtfully as she walks beside him. The rain has let up a little, and a lot of it gets caught in the canopy of trees, creating an atmosphere that's misty and almost dreamlike, in a peaceful sort of way.

"He died," she says after a long moment, brow furrowing as she holds out her hand to lift a fallen log from the path, sending it aside with a small nudge of energy. "Well, I died, actually. The power I used to defeat Palpatine took everything I had, but Ben healed me. He gave his life for mine. He told me that he knew that he had to give me back to the galaxy."

She takes a stuttering breath, and looks over at Obi-Wan with watery eyes. "But then he came here. This place is his second chance. I am grateful for every day I get to spend with him."

[larger_world]

"It's a second chance for man of us," Obi-Wan agrees, laying his hand on Rey's shoulder and offering her a smile. Better than most, Rey and Ben know what became of Anakin after he and Obi-Wan fought on Mustafar. There is no hiding his failures here in Darrow, not from everyone, despite the fact that he hasn't yet told Anakin and he isn't sure he ever will.

But Rey knows. He was not the Master he should have been.

"You two are very lucky," he says. "To have found one another and to have this chance."

[strongerthanblood]

"So are the two of you," she says, referring to him and Anakin. It isn't the same kind of relationship, obviously, but a very important one. She knows that Obi-Wan must have deep regrets for how things turned out, but Rey does not blame him for that.

She knows what it feels like to go up against someone under the pull of the dark side. She knows how deeply it can hurt, and she can't imagine feeling that on top of years of sharing such a bond. Having a second chance must mean just as much to him.

They make it down to the actual trail leading into the park, and she hops down into the lush, manicured grass. "To second chances."

[larger_world]

"Second chances," Obi-Wan agrees with a small smile and a nod. "May we make the best of them."

In his case, it means sifting through his years of training and trying to relearn what it means to be both a Jedi and a mentor. He'll never not be a Jedi, despite there no longer being an order, but because there is no order, it means he has a chance to revisit what he's been taught. From what Ben has told him, Luke tried to rebuild, only to fall into the same traps as before.

He won't make those same mistakes again.