Rey Skywalker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thatwaslucky) wrote2022-08-30 05:43 am
thatwaslucky) wrote2022-08-30 05:43 am
Exegol- Tuesday
Getting Luke's X-wing ready to fly was the closest Rey had come to meditating in days, and it felt like it helped. For as much as she was worrying about who she was, that was exactly who she was. He'd also encouraged her to actually get some rest, and while she was still too anxious to sleep, she had time to reflect. Refocus.
She needed it. The way to Exegol was treacherous, with solar winds and magnetic crossfields, and if she hadn't had the wayfinder she was sure she wouldn't have survived the journey in. When she started, she sent a transmission to the Resistance to get them the course-marker signals, so maybe they'd have a chance, too.
Hopefully. When she dropped below the cloud line, she gasped at the sight of the Sith fleet. It was more massive than she could have imagined, primed and ready. These were based on the models from the days of the Galactic Empire, but so much bigger than what Rey was used to. It was more than they would be expecting, and she couldn't warn for that. She just had to hope they could handle it. Or that she could end things before that.
Once she was landed, she pulled off the helmet and took a moment. This was both to calm her nerves after the scariest flight she'd ever had, and to calm her nerves for what lay ahead. She felt malevolence radiating here, and she was horrified to realize that it was somehow familiar.
Confronting fear is the destiny of a Jedi.
Rey hopped out of the ship. The air was hot, and the ground beneath her feet was dry and cracked. It was dark, though flashes of lightning occasionally lit up the sky in a way that felt threatening. Before her was a dark building that stretched up into the clouds until she lost sight of it above. She couldn't say she wasn't deeply intimidated, for several reasons. She wasn't ready, for several reasons. And yet she kept walking inside anyway. Fake it till you make it, maybe.
She removed her lightsaber from her belt and and ignited it. She startled it a bit when the section of floor she stood on detached from the rest and began to descend. It was silent as death until a rumble sounded, too distant to identify.
The lift settled, and Rey stepped off. Her lightsaber lit up the huge stone faces lining the walls. She knew, without knowing how she knew, that the statues commemorated Sith Lords who had come before. This place must have been here for centuries, maybe millennia. Figures scurried in the shadows, but she didn't sense an immediate threat, so she ignored them. She walked past a dizzying array of lab equipment- monitors, tubes, some kind of tank, all empty and abandoned. She knew exactly what they were for. She wondered if any of them had been used on her father. She could practically see him here, sneaking around without notice when he was young, even though she hadn't remembered his face before a couple of days ago.
She came to a narrow stone corridor, and directly ahead was the dais from her visions. She'd been seeing this for months, and now she was here. On the dais was a chair with spikes curving up and around it, like a halo of giant thorns. The throne of the Sith. The throne she'd seen herself upon.
The hall emptied out into an amphitheater as big as a hollowed-out mountain, brimming with robed figures. Religious disciples, awaiting the return of the Sith. As she approached, the rumbling grew louder, swelling as if in a welcome.
"Long have I waited."
Rey turned towards the voice, a deep, resonant, slow voice, like he had all the time in the galaxy. A robed figure was suspended from strange machinery. He was monstrous, repulsive, with red-rimmed eyes, skim barely clinging to his skeletal form. One of his hands had half rotted away. She wondered how long he'd been like this.
It was her grandfather, spirit trapped in an artificial form, his power too devastating to contain.
"My grandchild has come home!" he declared, triumphant.
He felt like ice, the terrifying cold of the bottom of an endlessly deep ocean, where there was no light, no hope, a cold so absolute, so ultimate, that all life withered in its presence. He radiated evil on a level Rey couldn't even comprehend, and yet she couldn't look away.
"I never wanted you dead," he said, continuing even though she'd yet to say a word. "I wanted you here, Empress Palpatine."
Oh. Oh no. This was worse than she'd ever considered. She'd set a trap for herself, hadn't she?
"You will take the throne," he went on. "It is your birthright to rule, here. It is in your blood. Our blood." Several robed figures, in crimson, like Snoke's guards, stepped forward. She remembered Snoke's throne room, and had a feeling this was going to be much more difficult.
She forced herself to sound strong, even as she backed away from him. "I haven't come to lead the Sith. I've come to end them."
"As a Jedi," the Emperor said, his voice dripping contempt.
Rey hadn't ever been able to call herself a Jedi. She'd always thought she was unworthy of it, that there was something she had to do before she could accept that title.
If there was ever a time, this was it. "Yes," she said, chin lifted.
He smiled, which was less a human smile and more an excuse to show off rotted teeth. "No. Your hatred. Your anger. You want to kill me. This is what I want. Kill me and my spirit will pass into you. As all the Sith live in me. You will be Empress. We will be one."
Oh. It got worse. And Rey was beginning to wonder just how much free will she was going to be allowed in this situation.
"The time has come!" he boomed, and the disciples fell to their knees, chanting in a language she'd never heard. "With your anger, you will take my life. You will ascend. As I did, when I killed my master, Darth Plagueis. Now. Raise your saber and strike me down."
"All you want is for me to hate," Rey said, forcing confidence. She meant what she said. She just wasn't sure she was getting out of this. "But I won't. Not even you."
"Weak!" he snapped. "Like your parents."
She'd walked in here remembering a father she couldn't recall. He'd grown up here, shunted off into the shadows until he'd made his escape. He and her mother had died to protect her. How could anyone who'd done that ever be weak? "My parents were strong," she insisted. "They saved me from you."
The cavernous room shook. Light poured down as a vast stone ceiling opened, revealing Star Destroyers silhouetted against a furious sky. The Resistance fighters were gnats in comparison, darting in and out, dodging fire from cannons and TIEs. Explosions lit up the sky. And she could sense some familiar presences… presences that she hadn't expected to be here…
"They don't have long. And you are the one who led them here," the Emperor pointed out, mocking.
They were losing badly. The Emperor was manipulating her, yes, but he was doing it with truth. This was her fault.
"Strike me down. Take the throne as Empress. Reign over this new Empire and the fleet will be yours to do as you wish. Only you have the power to save them all. Refuse and your new power dies."
Rey didn't know how to get out of this. The guards would keep her from running. All she could do to help in the fight above was to get back to Luke's ship, which was flightworthy but couldn't handle a battle. She had to actually consider whether she should take this offer. Would she actually be able to help them? Could this be a situation where she tried to use that power and that title for good, like Jaina? Could she bring peace that way? Or would it be a lost cause? Would all that power just corrupt her before she had a chance to even consider it? Because the being in front of her was literally rotting.
Yet she didn't know what her other option was here.
In that moment, she recognized another presence here, which she immediately and very calmly shielded her reaction to. Kylo Ren had given her lots of reasons to practice shielding her thoughts.
She turned back to the Emperor, filling her mind with thoughts of surrender. Resignation.
He smiled again. "Good. The ritual begins!" he cried out, and the followers around them responded with a chant so loud Rey was sure it was shaking the ground. "She will strike me down, and pledge herself as a Sith."
The lightning struck again, and Rey took a step toward him, and another. She just had to stall a little bit longer.
"She will draw her weapon," the Emperor intoned.
She unhooked her lightsaber and ignited it.
"She will come to me!"
She stepped closer still.
"She will take her revenge!" he cried. "And with the stroke of her saber, the Sith are reborn! The Jedi are dead!"
Rey lifted her lightsaber as if to strike-
-and for a moment, everything else faded away.
She could see Ben as if he was in front of her. He looked a little beat up, and there was a strange, ordinary thought that she'd never seen him in normal clothes before. This wasn't Kylo Ren. This was Ben Solo. He'd come for her, to help her. Rey's eyes welled with tears. This was right. This right here was what it should have been all along.
He nodded at her.
It only lasted a second, but it was enough for Palpatine to get impatient. "Do it!" he screamed. "Make the sacrifice!"
Rey lowered the lightsaber behind her back, as if readying for a massive blow. The Emperor leaned forward with gleeful anticipation.
She handed Luke's lightsaber off to Ben, wherever he was, and she raised her empty hand.
The Emperor's face dawned with horror as he realized his mistake.
Rey grabbed Leia's lightsaber from where it had been hooked at her back, and ignited it. Suddenly she was surrounded by the guards. She deflected one blast with her hand, sent it careening into the abdomen of one of the other guards, whipping her lightsaber around to block the rest. She drew on the Force, on Ben's strength, on her own, and just like before, they were separate but also together in their fight. She'd wondered how she could take out this many guards without Ben, but she was managing, maybe because he was there.
When she got to the final guard, Ben got to him first, tossing him aside like a piece of garbage.
They stood facing each other for a moment. This was what it should have been. She'd seen shadows of Ben before, enough to know who he was, but so much about him now was different when he was unguarded. And as one, they turned to face Palpatine, dropping into their own fighting stances, raised their lightsabers.
The Emperor snarled. "Stand together, die together," he said, and raised his rotting hand to impale them with the Force.
This was something Rey had never thought to prepare for. This wasn't lightning. This was taking. The pain was breathtaking, and she heard both their lightsabers hit the cracked ground around the same time.
The Emperor yanked them toward himself, and they slid across the floor, helpless as he took, and took, and took. This reminded Rey of Snoke's torture, held in midair and unable to move as he rummaged around in her mind, only worse. He'd been looking for information. Palpatine was taking her. Them.
He stared at his hands, which had begun knitting themselves back together, bones regrowing, flesh closing over them. "The life-force of your bond," he said, actually sounding surprised. "A dyad in the Force! Unseen for generations, and now the power of two restores the one true Emperor!"
When he'd taken all he needed, he dropped Ben and Rey both. The Emperor released himself from the harness that had been holding him suspended. He didn't need it anymore. He was strong now. Invincible. He raised his voice to the masses. "Look what you have made!"
Rey hadn't found the strength to move yet, but Ben had, struggling to his hands and knees.
The Emperor was not impressed. "As once I fell, so falls the last Skywalker."
He lifted Ben with no more than a thought, and thrust him away with such force that he tumbled through the length of the cathedral, then disappeared into a flashing abyss below.
Rey could only scream internally. She could barely draw breath.
"Do not fear their feeble attack, my faithful!" the Emperor told his followers. "Nothing will stop the return of the Sith!"
Rey kept telling her limbs to move, but they would not. She wondered if she was dying right now. It didn't hurt, exactly, but it felt like there was nothing left. All she could do was watch the battle above as Palpatine lifted his hands and released Force lightning into the sky, flooding Resistance ships as he cackled.
This was her fault. She couldn't let it happen. His laugh would not be the last thing she heard. She'd spent this entire mission fearing losing people, but this was something deeper than fear. This was conviction.
What would Leia do?
She had to give. She had to give everything. She reached into the Force, and steadied her mind, murmuring, "Be with me. Be with me."
The battle above disappeared to her eyes. She saw a perfect sky, vast with stars. Peaceful. Light-filled. It was like she was staring through a window to somewhere else, a place between places.
She embraced peace and calm, the way she'd been taught.
Through the calm, came a voice. These are your final steps, Rey. Rise and take them.
More voices joined his. She didn't recognize them all, but somehow she knew them the moment they made themselves known to her. They'd been with her all along. She just needed to know how to hear them. Rey.
Rey. That was Kanan, and for a moment her heart clenched. It wasn't the version she knew. It didn't matter.
Anakin- some version of him- said, Bring back the balance, Rey, as I did.
Find the light, Rey.
Kanan again. You are not alone, Rey.
Alone, never have you been.
Every Jedi who ever lived, lives in you now.
The Force surrounds you, Rey.
Let it guide you…
As it guided us.
Feel the Force flowing through you, Rey.
Let it lift you.
Rise, Rey.
Palpatine had wanted Rey for himself. But she chose to be their conduit. Their vessel. She was a Jedi.
She moved an arm. Then a shoulder. She let the voices surround her, fill her, strengthen her. She turned over, placed a palm to the ground, and pushed up.
We stand behind you, Rey.
Rey.
Rise in the Force.
She got a knee beneath her, leveraged herself up onto her toes. She gasped for air. Her muscles didn't want to ovey. Every movement turned her bones into knives of pain.
In the heart of the Jedi lies her strength. It didn't hurt to hear Kanan anymore. It was comforting.
Rise.
Rise.
And Luke, louder than the others. Rey, the Force will be with you. Always.
She rose, and summoned Luke's lightsaber to her hand. She ignited the blade, and she stood, knowing exactly how many people had her back now.
The Emperor gasped, and his lightning ceased. He rose from his throne and stepped forward. "Let your death be the final word in the story of the Rebellion."
He reached out, and directed the lightning at her this time.
She brought up the lightsaber to block it. She felt like the impact might knock her off her feet, but she stood her ground. She hadn't come this far with this many people to not see it through.
"You are nothing!" he yelled. "A scavenger girl is no match for the power in me. I am all the Sith!"
"And I," she said, reaching for more strength, for Leia's lightsaber. "I am all the Jedi."
She brought the second lightsaber to bear, crossing its blade with the first, creating an impenetrable shield. She stepped forward, pushing back against his onslaught. Then again. Every step was anguish. It was taking everything the Jedi had given her, everything she had.
The lightning began to feed back on the Emperor. It ravaged his face, and he tossed his head back in agony. Rey pursued mercilessly, one foot in front of another. Finally, she was ready. She gathered her strength, her faith in the Jedi past, her love of her friends, the half-memories of her parents, and she threw it all at the Emperor.
He staggered backward, his own power reflected against him. It devoured him completely, ripping away his skin, his very bones, until he disintegrated. What remained of him coalesced into a single point, which exploded with a massive shock. The throne shattered. The ceiling began to collapse around her, crushing thousands of disciples in the amphitheater. All Rey could do was watch, barely on her feet, amazed that nothing collapsed onto her.
It was quiet now. The Emperor was no more. If any of his followers survived, she didn't know. If she were stronger she thought she could know what had happened to Ben, but she wasn't.
She couldn't feel her arms and legs. She couldn't feel much of anything, really. She heard the clank of one lightsaber hitting the ground, then the other, and wondered when she had dropped them.
She didn't realize what was happening when she collapsed, but she'd known before that it would. In the moment she had left, she tried to reach out in the Force, to Finn, to Anakin, to Ben if he was here, wondering if they'd take it as a goodbye.
Then she exhaled her last breath, and… nothing.
[Warning for character deaths. NFB, NFI, OOC okay. Taken from The Rise of Skywalker novelization by Rae Carson, with some bits from Shadow of the Sith by Adam Christopher because I got new canon and I can.]
She needed it. The way to Exegol was treacherous, with solar winds and magnetic crossfields, and if she hadn't had the wayfinder she was sure she wouldn't have survived the journey in. When she started, she sent a transmission to the Resistance to get them the course-marker signals, so maybe they'd have a chance, too.
Hopefully. When she dropped below the cloud line, she gasped at the sight of the Sith fleet. It was more massive than she could have imagined, primed and ready. These were based on the models from the days of the Galactic Empire, but so much bigger than what Rey was used to. It was more than they would be expecting, and she couldn't warn for that. She just had to hope they could handle it. Or that she could end things before that.
Once she was landed, she pulled off the helmet and took a moment. This was both to calm her nerves after the scariest flight she'd ever had, and to calm her nerves for what lay ahead. She felt malevolence radiating here, and she was horrified to realize that it was somehow familiar.
Confronting fear is the destiny of a Jedi.
Rey hopped out of the ship. The air was hot, and the ground beneath her feet was dry and cracked. It was dark, though flashes of lightning occasionally lit up the sky in a way that felt threatening. Before her was a dark building that stretched up into the clouds until she lost sight of it above. She couldn't say she wasn't deeply intimidated, for several reasons. She wasn't ready, for several reasons. And yet she kept walking inside anyway. Fake it till you make it, maybe.
She removed her lightsaber from her belt and and ignited it. She startled it a bit when the section of floor she stood on detached from the rest and began to descend. It was silent as death until a rumble sounded, too distant to identify.
The lift settled, and Rey stepped off. Her lightsaber lit up the huge stone faces lining the walls. She knew, without knowing how she knew, that the statues commemorated Sith Lords who had come before. This place must have been here for centuries, maybe millennia. Figures scurried in the shadows, but she didn't sense an immediate threat, so she ignored them. She walked past a dizzying array of lab equipment- monitors, tubes, some kind of tank, all empty and abandoned. She knew exactly what they were for. She wondered if any of them had been used on her father. She could practically see him here, sneaking around without notice when he was young, even though she hadn't remembered his face before a couple of days ago.
She came to a narrow stone corridor, and directly ahead was the dais from her visions. She'd been seeing this for months, and now she was here. On the dais was a chair with spikes curving up and around it, like a halo of giant thorns. The throne of the Sith. The throne she'd seen herself upon.
The hall emptied out into an amphitheater as big as a hollowed-out mountain, brimming with robed figures. Religious disciples, awaiting the return of the Sith. As she approached, the rumbling grew louder, swelling as if in a welcome.
"Long have I waited."
Rey turned towards the voice, a deep, resonant, slow voice, like he had all the time in the galaxy. A robed figure was suspended from strange machinery. He was monstrous, repulsive, with red-rimmed eyes, skim barely clinging to his skeletal form. One of his hands had half rotted away. She wondered how long he'd been like this.
It was her grandfather, spirit trapped in an artificial form, his power too devastating to contain.
"My grandchild has come home!" he declared, triumphant.
He felt like ice, the terrifying cold of the bottom of an endlessly deep ocean, where there was no light, no hope, a cold so absolute, so ultimate, that all life withered in its presence. He radiated evil on a level Rey couldn't even comprehend, and yet she couldn't look away.
"I never wanted you dead," he said, continuing even though she'd yet to say a word. "I wanted you here, Empress Palpatine."
Oh. Oh no. This was worse than she'd ever considered. She'd set a trap for herself, hadn't she?
"You will take the throne," he went on. "It is your birthright to rule, here. It is in your blood. Our blood." Several robed figures, in crimson, like Snoke's guards, stepped forward. She remembered Snoke's throne room, and had a feeling this was going to be much more difficult.
She forced herself to sound strong, even as she backed away from him. "I haven't come to lead the Sith. I've come to end them."
"As a Jedi," the Emperor said, his voice dripping contempt.
Rey hadn't ever been able to call herself a Jedi. She'd always thought she was unworthy of it, that there was something she had to do before she could accept that title.
If there was ever a time, this was it. "Yes," she said, chin lifted.
He smiled, which was less a human smile and more an excuse to show off rotted teeth. "No. Your hatred. Your anger. You want to kill me. This is what I want. Kill me and my spirit will pass into you. As all the Sith live in me. You will be Empress. We will be one."
Oh. It got worse. And Rey was beginning to wonder just how much free will she was going to be allowed in this situation.
"The time has come!" he boomed, and the disciples fell to their knees, chanting in a language she'd never heard. "With your anger, you will take my life. You will ascend. As I did, when I killed my master, Darth Plagueis. Now. Raise your saber and strike me down."
"All you want is for me to hate," Rey said, forcing confidence. She meant what she said. She just wasn't sure she was getting out of this. "But I won't. Not even you."
"Weak!" he snapped. "Like your parents."
She'd walked in here remembering a father she couldn't recall. He'd grown up here, shunted off into the shadows until he'd made his escape. He and her mother had died to protect her. How could anyone who'd done that ever be weak? "My parents were strong," she insisted. "They saved me from you."
The cavernous room shook. Light poured down as a vast stone ceiling opened, revealing Star Destroyers silhouetted against a furious sky. The Resistance fighters were gnats in comparison, darting in and out, dodging fire from cannons and TIEs. Explosions lit up the sky. And she could sense some familiar presences… presences that she hadn't expected to be here…
"They don't have long. And you are the one who led them here," the Emperor pointed out, mocking.
They were losing badly. The Emperor was manipulating her, yes, but he was doing it with truth. This was her fault.
"Strike me down. Take the throne as Empress. Reign over this new Empire and the fleet will be yours to do as you wish. Only you have the power to save them all. Refuse and your new power dies."
Rey didn't know how to get out of this. The guards would keep her from running. All she could do to help in the fight above was to get back to Luke's ship, which was flightworthy but couldn't handle a battle. She had to actually consider whether she should take this offer. Would she actually be able to help them? Could this be a situation where she tried to use that power and that title for good, like Jaina? Could she bring peace that way? Or would it be a lost cause? Would all that power just corrupt her before she had a chance to even consider it? Because the being in front of her was literally rotting.
Yet she didn't know what her other option was here.
In that moment, she recognized another presence here, which she immediately and very calmly shielded her reaction to. Kylo Ren had given her lots of reasons to practice shielding her thoughts.
She turned back to the Emperor, filling her mind with thoughts of surrender. Resignation.
He smiled again. "Good. The ritual begins!" he cried out, and the followers around them responded with a chant so loud Rey was sure it was shaking the ground. "She will strike me down, and pledge herself as a Sith."
The lightning struck again, and Rey took a step toward him, and another. She just had to stall a little bit longer.
"She will draw her weapon," the Emperor intoned.
She unhooked her lightsaber and ignited it.
"She will come to me!"
She stepped closer still.
"She will take her revenge!" he cried. "And with the stroke of her saber, the Sith are reborn! The Jedi are dead!"
Rey lifted her lightsaber as if to strike-
-and for a moment, everything else faded away.
She could see Ben as if he was in front of her. He looked a little beat up, and there was a strange, ordinary thought that she'd never seen him in normal clothes before. This wasn't Kylo Ren. This was Ben Solo. He'd come for her, to help her. Rey's eyes welled with tears. This was right. This right here was what it should have been all along.
He nodded at her.
It only lasted a second, but it was enough for Palpatine to get impatient. "Do it!" he screamed. "Make the sacrifice!"
Rey lowered the lightsaber behind her back, as if readying for a massive blow. The Emperor leaned forward with gleeful anticipation.
She handed Luke's lightsaber off to Ben, wherever he was, and she raised her empty hand.
The Emperor's face dawned with horror as he realized his mistake.
Rey grabbed Leia's lightsaber from where it had been hooked at her back, and ignited it. Suddenly she was surrounded by the guards. She deflected one blast with her hand, sent it careening into the abdomen of one of the other guards, whipping her lightsaber around to block the rest. She drew on the Force, on Ben's strength, on her own, and just like before, they were separate but also together in their fight. She'd wondered how she could take out this many guards without Ben, but she was managing, maybe because he was there.
When she got to the final guard, Ben got to him first, tossing him aside like a piece of garbage.
They stood facing each other for a moment. This was what it should have been. She'd seen shadows of Ben before, enough to know who he was, but so much about him now was different when he was unguarded. And as one, they turned to face Palpatine, dropping into their own fighting stances, raised their lightsabers.
The Emperor snarled. "Stand together, die together," he said, and raised his rotting hand to impale them with the Force.
This was something Rey had never thought to prepare for. This wasn't lightning. This was taking. The pain was breathtaking, and she heard both their lightsabers hit the cracked ground around the same time.
The Emperor yanked them toward himself, and they slid across the floor, helpless as he took, and took, and took. This reminded Rey of Snoke's torture, held in midair and unable to move as he rummaged around in her mind, only worse. He'd been looking for information. Palpatine was taking her. Them.
He stared at his hands, which had begun knitting themselves back together, bones regrowing, flesh closing over them. "The life-force of your bond," he said, actually sounding surprised. "A dyad in the Force! Unseen for generations, and now the power of two restores the one true Emperor!"
When he'd taken all he needed, he dropped Ben and Rey both. The Emperor released himself from the harness that had been holding him suspended. He didn't need it anymore. He was strong now. Invincible. He raised his voice to the masses. "Look what you have made!"
Rey hadn't found the strength to move yet, but Ben had, struggling to his hands and knees.
The Emperor was not impressed. "As once I fell, so falls the last Skywalker."
He lifted Ben with no more than a thought, and thrust him away with such force that he tumbled through the length of the cathedral, then disappeared into a flashing abyss below.
Rey could only scream internally. She could barely draw breath.
"Do not fear their feeble attack, my faithful!" the Emperor told his followers. "Nothing will stop the return of the Sith!"
Rey kept telling her limbs to move, but they would not. She wondered if she was dying right now. It didn't hurt, exactly, but it felt like there was nothing left. All she could do was watch the battle above as Palpatine lifted his hands and released Force lightning into the sky, flooding Resistance ships as he cackled.
This was her fault. She couldn't let it happen. His laugh would not be the last thing she heard. She'd spent this entire mission fearing losing people, but this was something deeper than fear. This was conviction.
What would Leia do?
She had to give. She had to give everything. She reached into the Force, and steadied her mind, murmuring, "Be with me. Be with me."
The battle above disappeared to her eyes. She saw a perfect sky, vast with stars. Peaceful. Light-filled. It was like she was staring through a window to somewhere else, a place between places.
She embraced peace and calm, the way she'd been taught.
Through the calm, came a voice. These are your final steps, Rey. Rise and take them.
More voices joined his. She didn't recognize them all, but somehow she knew them the moment they made themselves known to her. They'd been with her all along. She just needed to know how to hear them. Rey.
Rey. That was Kanan, and for a moment her heart clenched. It wasn't the version she knew. It didn't matter.
Anakin- some version of him- said, Bring back the balance, Rey, as I did.
Find the light, Rey.
Kanan again. You are not alone, Rey.
Alone, never have you been.
Every Jedi who ever lived, lives in you now.
The Force surrounds you, Rey.
Let it guide you…
As it guided us.
Feel the Force flowing through you, Rey.
Let it lift you.
Rise, Rey.
Palpatine had wanted Rey for himself. But she chose to be their conduit. Their vessel. She was a Jedi.
She moved an arm. Then a shoulder. She let the voices surround her, fill her, strengthen her. She turned over, placed a palm to the ground, and pushed up.
We stand behind you, Rey.
Rey.
Rise in the Force.
She got a knee beneath her, leveraged herself up onto her toes. She gasped for air. Her muscles didn't want to ovey. Every movement turned her bones into knives of pain.
In the heart of the Jedi lies her strength. It didn't hurt to hear Kanan anymore. It was comforting.
Rise.
Rise.
And Luke, louder than the others. Rey, the Force will be with you. Always.
She rose, and summoned Luke's lightsaber to her hand. She ignited the blade, and she stood, knowing exactly how many people had her back now.
The Emperor gasped, and his lightning ceased. He rose from his throne and stepped forward. "Let your death be the final word in the story of the Rebellion."
He reached out, and directed the lightning at her this time.
She brought up the lightsaber to block it. She felt like the impact might knock her off her feet, but she stood her ground. She hadn't come this far with this many people to not see it through.
"You are nothing!" he yelled. "A scavenger girl is no match for the power in me. I am all the Sith!"
"And I," she said, reaching for more strength, for Leia's lightsaber. "I am all the Jedi."
She brought the second lightsaber to bear, crossing its blade with the first, creating an impenetrable shield. She stepped forward, pushing back against his onslaught. Then again. Every step was anguish. It was taking everything the Jedi had given her, everything she had.
The lightning began to feed back on the Emperor. It ravaged his face, and he tossed his head back in agony. Rey pursued mercilessly, one foot in front of another. Finally, she was ready. She gathered her strength, her faith in the Jedi past, her love of her friends, the half-memories of her parents, and she threw it all at the Emperor.
He staggered backward, his own power reflected against him. It devoured him completely, ripping away his skin, his very bones, until he disintegrated. What remained of him coalesced into a single point, which exploded with a massive shock. The throne shattered. The ceiling began to collapse around her, crushing thousands of disciples in the amphitheater. All Rey could do was watch, barely on her feet, amazed that nothing collapsed onto her.
It was quiet now. The Emperor was no more. If any of his followers survived, she didn't know. If she were stronger she thought she could know what had happened to Ben, but she wasn't.
She couldn't feel her arms and legs. She couldn't feel much of anything, really. She heard the clank of one lightsaber hitting the ground, then the other, and wondered when she had dropped them.
She didn't realize what was happening when she collapsed, but she'd known before that it would. In the moment she had left, she tried to reach out in the Force, to Finn, to Anakin, to Ben if he was here, wondering if they'd take it as a goodbye.
Then she exhaled her last breath, and… nothing.
[Warning for character deaths. NFB, NFI, OOC okay. Taken from The Rise of Skywalker novelization by Rae Carson, with some bits from Shadow of the Sith by Adam Christopher because I got new canon and I can.]