strongerthanblood | and with a stroke of her saber

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!"

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Anakin pulls away from her and almost instantly feels a shift in the Force. His rage stokes her own, makes her feel as if she's been set aflame, and she has to take a breath to try and calm herself. A fresh set of tears spill from her eyes as she looks around the clearing with vague panic.

"Stop it, Anakin," she cries out, lurching after him to grab at his arm. His rage burns bright and Rey concentrates to try and meet it with calmness, cresting and splashing like cool water to his flame. "I know how you must feel, but you got away from him. He has no hold over you now and look at all you have, even here."

Rey moves until she's facing him, reaching out to grab both of his shoulders. "Think of Padmé. Think about Obi-Wan and your daughter. Your grandson. They're here. The important ones are here and you're free to make your own path. Do not give him this power, Anakin."

As she says it, she realizes that she must heed her own advice. He's gone now, and they're all free of his influence.

Rey grabs his arm, but it barely registers, and Anakin is glare white hot as he looks on the throne that would become the Chancellor's. A mentor, a father, a friend. All of it had meant nothing. And all of it was leading to this.

Call upon your fury! Rage is your weapon!

You are the most gifted Jedi I have ever met. I see you becoming the greatest of all the Jedi, Anakin.

Anakin's own eyes well with tears as Rey grabs him by the shoulders. She reminds him of Padmé, Leia and Ben, and the fire in his heart still burns hot as he thinks of what the Chancellor's plans meant for them. What if the Republic hadn't fallen? What if the Jedi hadn't been wiped out? Could they have grown up in a galaxy where there was peace?

"I trusted him!" Anakin shouts, and the ground seems to shift, the air electric. He feels Rey in the Force, but his rage clouds his focus, and her calming presence feels small and far away.

How many times had he doubted Obi-Wan because of a word from the Chancellor? Anakin can't even begin to count the number of times since the war began. He'd killed for the Chancellor, fought countless battles... Obi-Wan had nearly died. He'd played with their lives and won.

"I trusted him over Obi-Wan, over the council... it was all lies!"

And there it is, that legendary Anakin Skywalker rage.

His presence in the Force swells until it's almost all that Rey can feel, like it's burning within her. She grits her teeth and steps in front of Anakin, building up her own power to swell up and meet his, trying to calm him down.

"Anakin, stop!" She cries out, reaching out to clutch his robes in her fists. "This solves nothing! Do not let this consume you, Anakin. Or you'll regret it."

"Regret? What do you know of regret?" Anakin argues, because all he can think of right now is regret. He regrets trusting the Chancellor, putting his and Obi-Wan's and Ahsoka's lives at risk for his false war. He regrets having even a small part in the thousands who'd died.

He regrets the lives his took with his own hand.

Anakin can feel Rey in the Force, her presence swelling to meet his own, no longer small and far away, but the knot in his chest is still there, the fire in his heart still burning.

"Plenty," she spits out. Rey may not have amassed the number of regrets that Anakin has, but she has a fair few of her own, starting with suffering on a desert junk planet for fifteen years all because of a lie.

"And I know that this tantrum won't help anyone," she continues, giving him another shake as fresh tears spill from her eyes. This cannot be the thing that sets Anakin off, not now. "You have family who loves you, Anakin. And they're here, right now. Focus on that."

Rey takes a breath and pushes against that anger again, infusing it with the peace she feels when she thinks of family. She thinks of Ben's soft, rusty laugh and Obi-Wan's patient smile, and even Luke and Leia, as she knew them, loving and strong. "Calm down, Anakin. Please."

In front of Anakin, there's a precipice. While he may not be immediately aware of it, there's some part of him that knows he cannot allow himself to tip over it. He'd pushed that part of him aside on the Invisible Hand, just as he'd done on Tatooine, leaving behind a decimated Tusken camp, and a fallen Sith.

He'd looked over the edge then; it was easy to give himself over to it. It's almost the same as right now. The anger, the betrayal... he knows how it feels to simply give himself over to it.

But again, a wave of emotion rises to meet his anger. A calmness and a peace that he finds himself unable to ignore. Not as he sees the vision of Obi-Wan, of Leia... and of man he has yet to meet. He reminds Anakin so very much of Padmé, that Anakin knows instantly who it must be.

He calms, the ground around them settling, Anakin's own anger subsiding. He doesn't bother to wipe the tears from his eyes as he finally turns away from the throne, unable to look at it for a second longer.

When Anakin's anger starts to subside, Rey feels it. The swell of it recedes and Rey takes a breath, nodding to herself as things around them start to settle. There are tears on his face as he turns away and Rey lurches forward, hesitating for only a moment before she throws her arms around him in a tight hug.

"I am sorry for what he did to you, Anakin," she tells him, swallowing hard as she hooks her chin over his shoulder. "He-- he stole my whole life from me. He killed my parents. He's the reason I was stuck in that forsaken desert for so long."

She pulls back to look at him, gripping him by the shoulders. "We cannot let him be the end of us. If we do that, he wins."

It almost takes Anakin by surprise, Rey reaching out to hug him. There were never really a lot of those in the Order. But he hugs back, wrapping his arms around Rey for a long moment, grateful for the anchor.

This won't be the end of him. Of that, Anakin is certain.

He frowns as he looks at Rey, not bothering to wipe the moisture from his cheeks, then turns to look at the throne again.

"We should destroy it," he decides.

"I tried," Rey tells him, brow furrowing a bit. She wonders if he saw the lightning, if he knew it came from her and so, why.

"I destroyed it along with him, back on Exegol." She crosses her arms over her chest as she stares at the throne, jaw working. "It took everything I had. And then I came here."

and with a stroke of her saber

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