Finn felt like his heart had snapped in two. Giving up Rey was one of the hardest things he’d done. If not, it was the hardest. He was a traitor. He’d never seen Rey that hurt before, but he could do nothing to help her. A good friend never walked away when something happened to their BFF. Finn couldn’t accept that Rey was on the Dark side now. He was confident she wouldn’t turn, but she proved him wrong.
Finn wanted nothing to do with the others. He spent a good few hours reading the ancient Jedi texts in the Millennium Falcon’s lounge, hoping he could find something to bring Rey back to the Light side. There was nothing. Or rather, Finn couldn’t find anything because of his lack of Jedi knowledge.
Strangely, something happened to him while he was studying. He heard Rey.
Rey called him through the Force, her voice saddened but also excited. “Finn.”
“Rey? Rey!” Instantly, Finn jumped to his feet. Was Rey honestly talking to him? But how? He thought only Force-sensitive people could communicate with a Force bond.
Rey apologized to him. “I’m sorry, but I don’t belong in the Resistance. My destiny lies with my grandfather.”
“Rey, don’t say things like that! We’re going to save you!” Finn cried out.
“You don’t need to. This is who I am,” said Rey.
“Don’t give up hope.” It took Finn a second to figure out he was speaking in a desperate tone.
“I’m sorry, Finn.” Then, just like that, Rey left his mind.
Finn was so confused, but he knew Rey had talked to him. Wait a minute, did that mean he was Force-sensitive? Was that why he felt so connected to her? Just thinking about it gave him a headache.
He looked like a zombie when he returned to the Falcon’s cockpit.
In a sweet voice, Rose asked, “Are you okay, Finn?”
“Yeah. I’m just trying to figure something out,” Finn responded. He slumped into the seat behind Chewie, Lando, and Yamo. Finn touched his chin and tried to understand what had happened in the lounge. If he was Force-sensitive, he could devise a plan to help Kylo win back Rey. Was there more hope than he thought there was? Finn did not know.
***
Rey did not want to wake, but then she told herself that sleeping would not help the war. After the Emperor captured her, he took her to The Limpton. After all, it was he who highjacked it in the first place. The room he gave her was dark but comfortable. She had a view of space, a decent-sized bed, and a chest of blasters and lightsabers.
Rey breathed steadily from her bed as she started to shuffle and stir. It took her a minute to understand where she was, but when she did, she sat. A blanket fell from her shoulder, landing on her thighs. Around her shoulders was the cape she found on Phonolukamy, and a black cloth now covered the Beacerika’s wound on her arm.
Rey felt the Dark side of the Force, but it did not hurt her. This was who she was. She was Rey Palpatine. However, she still couldn’t help but feel scarred by her true lineage. Palpatine frightened her, but maybe she would learn to like him the longer she stayed there. She highly doubted that. How could she be related to someone as heartless as him?
Rey knew she was on the Dark side now but still felt light. A lump formed in her throat, and she gulped when an eerie figure appeared in her doorway.
“Long have I waited for my grandchild to come home,” Palpatine cackled.
Rey had to be brave, but goosebumps still appeared on her arms. Sweat trickled down her face, and her breathing intensified. Knees knocking together, she slid out of bed and backed away from Palpatine.
“You don’t need to be afraid,” he told her. “We are more alike than you think. You hold the gift of all the Sith within you—a ‘thousand generations’—something you share with me."
“What do you want?” Rey asked in a brave voice.
“Not much. To complete your training, you must travel to Supher and take out the Resistance base.”
Destroy the Resistance base on Supher? But Rey’s friends were there!
“Can I at least save my friends?” she asked Palpatine.
“Your friends are your weakness,” was his answer. “Either you destroy the base, or I will kill you.”
Kill her? Would Palpatine really kill his own granddaughter? Knowing the kind of man he was, Rey had a pretty good feeling about it. He didn’t care about her. He just wanted to use her to create a new Galactic Empire. “Did you kill my parents?” she asked.
Palpatine did not need to speak for her to understand his answer. His cackle said it all, and that was when Rey struck.
She attacked out of anger, fear, and stress. Rey lifted her hands and launched Force lightning at Palpatine. However, it didn’t even faze him since he was a Force ghost. Instead, the lightning destroyed the chest of blasters and lightsabers in the corner of the room. Rey tried again, ensuring that the round of Force lightning was even more potent than the last. Again, nothing happened, and Palpatine floated toward her. Rey sensed what he was about to do. He would try to take over her body like he did with Hux and force her to become Empress.
“No, please,” she whimpered. Rey held her left hand out to the pile of sabers and blasters and called one saber over. It landed in her palm, and Rey ignited its red blade.
To her surprise, Palpatine ignited a red lightsaber of his own. Hold on, did that mean Force ghosts could still handle a weapon? Rey did not have time to ponder the question because Palpatine thrusted his lightsaber at her, and she had to block it.
The two blades met.
Rey fought with all her strength, but it was difficult with her injured arm. She took a defensive approach to Palpatine rather than an offensive. She ducked under his lightsaber blade and slid behind her bed to hide.
“A Sith does not hide from her enemy. She fights whether she wants to or not,” Palpatine explained.
He was right. Rey couldn’t cower before him. She had to fight, and she tried, but he overpowered her.
Palpatine snatched her lightsaber from her hand and used a Force shove to chuck her into the room’s wall.
Broken and bleeding, Rey fell to the ground and groaned. This was one battle she was not going to win. She may have beat Kylo Ren on Starkiller Base but could not beat Palpatine.
“You’re going to become Empress,” he snarled. “‘It’s in your blood. Our blood.’”
“And I thought Kylo Ren was a monster!” Rey snapped. “You can possess me, but the Last Jedi will save me!”
“Not while I’m present. You’re going to destroy him, as well as the whole Resistance.”
“I’m not talking about Kylo Ren! He is not my final hope!” Rey could say no more because Palpatine made his move.
While she was down, he flew into her body, possessed her, and turned her into the next Empress. The battle was lost. Evil had won, but Rey did not scream. This was her destiny.
She knew it was, but she also knew the true Last Jedi would free her from this Hell. She just had to be patient.
Her eyes flashed yellow as she sucked in her grandfather’s life form, turning her into not the Last Jedi but the Last Sith. It turned out the cape she possessed belonged to Palpatine all along. He left it on Phonolukamy for her to find because, as he said, it had completed her training.
More and more power found its way into the young woman’s body, giving her the strength to stand. No longer did she hold the lightsaber she started with in her hand. Instead, she held Palpatine’s.
She used her new powers to destroy her room and stepped outside to The Limpton’s hallway, where a group of Sith Troopers confronted her. They looked like regular stormtroopers but wore red instead of white.
They bowed to their new Empress and welcomed her into their home.
Rey, who wore her hood, demanded, “We leave for Supher. Now!”
“As you wish, Empress Palpatine,” said the Sith Troopers. Quickly, they scooped up their weapons and followed behind Rey as she made her way to The Limpton’s bridge. She could hear Palpatine laughing inside her, confident that he had won when deep down, she knew he was far from winning. The Last Jedi would come to her rescue. It wasn’t her, and it wasn’t even Ben.
***
“Seriously, Finn, what is wrong with you?” Rose asked Finn during the last leg of the Falcon’s journey back to Supher.
“Nothing. I’m just fine.” But Finn was far from fine. Something inside told him that Rey was no longer the kind orphan scavenger he met on Jakku but the new Empress of the galaxy.
He wasn’t the only one who knew that. Temiri did, too.
***
“You feel it, too?” Temiri asked Finn, who later sat in one of the Falcon’s gunner chairs. It was easier to think there than in the cockpit.
“Temiri, I need to ask you something,” the young man nervously told the child. He peered outside at space and took a deep breath as he tried to find his words. “Am-Am I Force-sensitive?”
Temiri was quiet for a minute. He could not bring himself to say anything.
“Please, I need to know,” said Finn.
“I know, but I wasn’t going to tell you until we returned to Supher.” Temiri sighed and settled down beside Finn’s arm. “Yes. You are Force-sensitive.”
***
Kylo Ren also knew Rey had just become Empress.
In the cockpit of his ship, he tightened his grip on his steering wheel right when the Force message entered his brain. No, there was still hope. Rey would not destroy the Resistance. Not if three Jedi took her on. She may have been Palpatine’s granddaughter, but she was not invincible. There was definitely light in her. If Ben could redeem himself, so could she. He just had to devise a plan to defeat the dark entity that made her the Empress and the most feared person in all the galaxy.
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