Star Wars IX- The Rise of Skywalker

Chapter 23- The End of the Sith

Within the Death Star wreckage, Rey felt very much at home as she clambered up shafts. Home, had Jakku ever really been her home? It felt so long ago now since she'd left; she didn't miss it. Unlike the ships she had scavenged in on Jakku, hot and dusty with grains of sand causing a dry, rusty creaking, the Death Star's interior was cold, salt-crusted and slick with a layer of damp water and algae covering all the surfaces. She was deftly climbing the leaning shaft in which she knew Darth Sidious had met his untimely end at the hand of his loyal servant. The vision she'd seen on Endor was drawing her upwards towards the scraps of metal that were the bridge over the shaft. At the end would be the throne room. The maintenance ladder she was scrambling up abruptly stopped just above her. She turned and leapt to the other side, clinging to a wrung on the metallic cylindrical tube. The tube was some sort of pipe, and having assessed the path up, she continued.

The throne room was only recognisable from the circular broken viewing window through which cold grey light shone. On the floor lay remnants of the space station- pipes, electrical tubes, metallic rubble beneath the window and the crumpled throne of Emperor Palpatine. A light sea breeze came through the broken viewing port; salty water carried upon the air. Rey could sense that essence present now, that hideous darkness, and she took a deep breath, remembering Master Luke's words, which seemed to be carried in the air.

"We've passed on all we know. A thousand generations live in you now, but this is your fight. The Force will be with you."

Rey walked cautiously towards the throne, igniting her lightsaber. Out of the shadows, Ben emerged, and relief flowed through her. He looked battle-weary and soaked with saltwater. Streaks of dirt ran across his face, and she sensed an unseen and significant injury to his person. She could also sense that as he had on StarKiller Base, he was using the burning pain to fuel himself. Neither of them spoke whatever had drawn them both here. Whatever they had come to face was here. Silently, she walked past Ben and further into the darkness; Ben watched her and then quietly followed. From the depths of the wreckage, a cackle reached Rey's ears, hideous and evil, sending an involuntary shudder down her spine.

"Long have I waited, and now your coming together will be your undoing."

Rey stopped and waited; Ben stood at her side, head high. He shrugged his cloak off and removed his lightsaber from his belt, igniting it, spinning it in his hand, and pointing it into the darkness. Rey squinted; were those red troopers she could see, or was it just the light from Ben's spitting weapon? A hooded form stood with six red stormtroopers. In the darkness, the red stormtroopers shot forward all at once. Rey raised her saber; she was ready, and she saw Ben ground his footing next to her. These stormtroopers were nothing like the Praetorian she and Ben had fought aboard the Supremacy. No ultra-sonic generator-enhanced weapons, no magnetic field in their armour. Cutting them down was easy, too easy. Blaster shots were deflected, and Rey speared one while utilising the Force to rain the blaster bolts back at another with terrifyingly deadly aim. Ben appeared to be in no mood to fight such worthless adversaries as he crushed the weapon as the trooper attempted to blast him, making the weapon a grenade in his hand that exploded in the trooper's masked face. Ben speared another trooper before kicking the body off with his foot and then spun to slash the back of another as the bodies clattered to the floor. Rey bent to duck out of the way of the final trooper's blaster, slashing at their legs before standing and slashing at them across the chest. The red armoured trooper slumped to the floor. Ben raised his saber and pointed it at the shrouded form of Letan Nex. Rey stood at his side before mimicking his stance like a mirror; they were ready.

The acolyte howled seemingly with glee at how easily his guards had been dispatched.

"Your power is quite spectacular; thanks to you both, I will be more powerful than ever. Let the final battle begin."