Rey flew through space, feeling her heart beating as fast as the navigational system was beeping. It was getting to her head and she hated how she matched everything to the red dots pace. Her fingers wrapped tightly around the steering of the X-wing. It was shaky, her boots soaked with water, but somehow, the old broken down ship had Luke's comfort still in it. Even after years of being submerged in the water, his force presence seemed to bring all the life back to it.

Then, for a brief second, a thought past the front of her mind. Her eyes shot down to the path leading to Exegol. Luke had said she wouldn't be alone. Was he implying that she needed to-?

She didn't want to put them in danger. 

But they had been training for this.

She flipped the switch on the console to the right of the triangle piece. 

***

Rey knew she was approaching Exegol by the shiver which ran down her spine. 

Then came the lightning.

Large bunches of it crashed all around the X-wing, just missing it. She veered out of the way of some strikes, the fog not helping her already stinging eyes. She landed just outside of the massive square shaped base. 

"You're not alone," she reminded herself as she climbed out of the X-wing. "Everyone's waiting."

She could feel her grandfather from outside of the square. She slowly walked underneath the square, being consumed by darkness but sheltered from the lightning. It still flashed underneath, lighting her way. She held her breath as she made her way through the fog. Her grandfathers presence wasn't anything like Ben's. It was a fierce beating on her skull as if someone was hitting her. She felt his ach all through her body and it was worse when he was angry. 

Just when she thought she would be walking for all eternity to get to this place, her foot missed the ground and she was plunged into darkness. She held in a scream as she twirled in the air, her hair falling out of their buns and wrapping around her throat, the wind blowing straight into her eyes and rocks raining down upon her body. She squeezed her eyes shut, extending arms and opening her legs in a weak attempt to get herself to stop spinning, but everything was spinning. 

Finally, she called out, reaching out to every presence in the dark room for energy. 

She froze in mid air. 

Her hair fell from her neck and she felt her fingertips tingle with power. She opened her eyes slowly and was frightened to find herself an inch from the ground. She clenched her fists, falling from the small height with a gruff huff of annoyance. She got to her feet and ble a strand of hair out of her face, brushing herself off. Making sure she still had both lightsabers with her, she let herself relax as she looked around the large place. 

Her fall had been from a great height, ten stories at least. The large hole she had fallen from looked as though it had been broken into by a giant's hammer, the edges ragged and sharp. But her eyes quickly wandered down to the large statue's who created a line to the flickering lightning in the distance. She gulped, knowing it was her grandfather waiting for her. She could almost feel the throne's pulse from here.

She was horrified at how familiar it felt.

The statues were crumbling, looking ancient just like everything else in the large room. They all wore stone robes, their faces looking forward with their chins held high. They all were alien like, some having horns, some with makeup popping out from their stone skin. Somewhere missing noses, some heads being knocked off and others were missing toes. 

Rey continued on but soon found herself rounding the corner to see a large mechanical arm jutting out of the ceiling, holding a cloaked figure. They were shaded by the large hood but Rey could faintly see the eyes of the Emperor. His horrible icy laugh echoed against the stone walls as she approached him. 

"Long have I waited," he said and she could finally see his skin. Pasty white, inhuman. His eyes had no color, they were just white. He had no features to say that it was him besides his proportions and his voice. Rey knew that voice, it had haunted her dreams ever since her parents didn't come home. 

But, his voice was far from being compared to the beating against her head which still remained. It wasn't coming from the Emperor, it was coming from something behind him. 

The Dark Throne. 

She locked eyes with the thing which had almost stopped her from coming. A shrieking sound came from behind her, but she stayed frozen in her place, paralyzed as her vision flooded back to her. She saw herself sitting on the large black throne, her eyes blazing with the anger and paralyzation of a Sith. 

"For my grandaughter to come home," he finished, grinning at her fear. Her eyes shot to him and found his hands coming together as if he was pleased. 

"I never wanted you dead," he said. "I wanted you here, Empress Palpatine."

Rey felt a shiver run down her spine at the name. He smiled as she stiffened in her stance, the whispering voices loudening from behind her. His white eyes moved to the throne.

"You will take the throne, it is your birth right to rule as a Sith, it is in your blood," he said. 

Some things are more than blood, she said to herself, clenching her fists together as she rapidly repeated it until the words were slurred.

He smiled at her.

"Our blood."

"I haven't come to lead the Sith," she said, closing her eyes as she tried to desperately pull away from the wanting of the throne. It was tugging at her, pulling at her. She planted her feet, flinching her head to the side to stop the constant banging of her head. But it called to her so loudly, pleading for her to bend at it's will.

"I've come to end them," she said, hoping the force of her own words would make their way into her own head.

"As a Jedi," he said, almost amused as he stared down at her.

"Yes," she responded, finally opening her eyes to meet his. His smile made her feel humiliated.

"No," he said. "A Jedi would not long to murder for game," he said. She flinched again.

"This isn't a game!" she snapped back. Her hand shook with rage as the throne nipped at her skin, its presence wearing her down bit by bit.

"But it is true," he said. "It is what I want! Kill me and my spirit will pass down into you, and as all the Sith live in me, you will become Empress and we will be one."

Rey felt herself shake in rage and horror, not sure which emotion was going to over take the other. 

"With your hatred and rage you will take my life and ascend," he said. The whispers behind her turned to breathless cheers, the cloaked figures in the stand excited to see what happened next. 

"All you want for me to do is to hate but I won't," she forced. "Not even you," she said, not trusting her voice. The throne's pull turned stronger but she resisted, flinching her head the other way. 

"Weak, like your parents," he said.

"My parents were strong," she said. A flutter erupted in her chest at the mention of them. Everyone had said they had left her behind, but she had kept fighting for them. It was for this moment, this moment which all hoped had been lost that she would do what her parents started. She would put all that time of waiting into good use. "They saved me from you."

"But Master Luke Skywalker was saved by his father and the only family you have here is me."

A shiver ran down her spine at his victory with words and the throne's tug snatched onto the ropes in her mind. She felt her teeth barring behind her lips but she shoved the pull away, not giving in yet. 

Suddenly, the ground rumbled and Rey quickly steadied her shaking legs. She looked up to where the vibrations had come from to see a hatch opening in the ceiling of the dark room, revealing a dark blue sky. Triangle silhouettes floated above and tiny ships buzzed around them like annoying bugs. She immediately recognized those bugs to be her friends fighting for their lives. But they were nothing compared to the ginormous star destroying ships above.

"No one is coming to help them," he said. "And you are the one who led them here, are you not?"

Rey felt another blow come to her head at the sound of his victory. Guilt flooded her gut and the throne's aura wrapped tighter around her. Hope was almost unimaginable now and her mind was getting weaker by the second as the Emperor took more control over her, just as she had predicted. 

"Strike me down, take the throne, rain over the new empire and the fleet will be yours," he persuaded. He paused for a moment, his white, emotionless eyes looking up at the hatch, the green explosion of an X-wing reflecting in them. "Then you will have the power to save them."

She blinked the tears in her eyes and turned back to the ground, her mind panicking as she imagined Finn's smiling face. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to drowned out the sound of his voice as she searched for a memory of Poe laughing. But all she could see was their argument, how she had met him and left him. 

"Refuse," he offered. "And watch your new family perish."

She felt the bubble of panic spread through her stomach until she felt queasy. She needed to make a decision because if she didn't soon, she would lose everything. 

As she looked up at the Emperor, trembling with fear and regret of her not yet made actions, she gave the smallest, numbest nod to his first request. He grinned.

"Good."

As he began to speak once more, Rey's hearing went in and out. It sounded like the roar of the oceans waves and at first she thought it was Luke, the waves coming from his island. But an all to familiar silence followed the sound and she realized who she was feeling. 

Ben.