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.

[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.

[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.

[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?"

[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?"