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Despite Rey's escape, the search continued for her. This time, with no distractions, or so Yara thought. She was feeling haunted for killing Kylo. She still felt his presence lingering around her like a cheap perfume.
A new suit was made for Yara, one more tightly fitting so she could better combat her enemies. Just as she usually did, she stood in the mirror analyzing every inch of the outfit. The scene seemed familiar, it reminded her of when she stood there last. Trying on her cloak, when Kylo had kissed her for the last time.
She still felt his eyes lingering on her back as she did on that particular day. Her eyes flickered up to where he once stood and nearly fainted when she spotted his pale face. She whipped around, and he was gone. Like a ghost.
She shook her head and turned back toward the mirror. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head when she saw him standing there before her, in front of the mirror. She pulled out her saber and pointed it at his throat. "Y-you're not real," she clenched her jaw.
His eyes were sad as he looked down at the beast he helped create. "What happened to you?" His voice cracked.
"He's haunting me, that's all," Yara spoke to herself, taking a few steps back away from him.
"You were sweet."
"I was weak," she growled back.
"I wish I could take it back. I should have never trained you, never taken you from your home," Kylo spoke, then he disappeared before her eyes. She let out a sigh of relief, then hurried off to hold a meeting with Palpatine.
He delivered news of General Organa's passing, which explained Kylo's weakness. He brushed off Kylo's removal from the First Order as a minor setback, and that Yara should proceed with sending the First Order fleet to Exegol--immediately.
* * *
"Supreme Leader, we have received word one of our destroyers are in range of the planet Kijimi. How would you like to proceed?" A general questioned Yara, while she thought the were en route to Exegol.
"Pardon?" She raised a curious brow at the man.
"Our last order from Emporer Palpatine was to destroy a planet if we could before we all arrived to Exegol." He explained.
"Did he?" She paused for a brief moment, "then what's the problem? Incinerate it."
* * *
Upon arriving to Exegol, Yara was left, alone, to reconvene with Palpatine in his mystic temple. She put faith in her captains in the star destroyers to take care of any enemies that were to arrive, which was expected as she sensed the scavenger found a way to the planet. Yara knew what was coming, and by the looks of Palpatine's wrinkled face--he did, too. He was anticipating it, almost as if he planned for it.
It didn't take long for Resistance ships to begin raiding the atmosphere. Soon after, she sensed a light energy radiating from inside the temple. The scavenger. Yara tensed up. Last time she had seen her, she had killed Kylo. Yara allowed Rey to enter the temple, close enough so she could perform a show of killing her before Palpatine, right in front of his throne.
Yara hid in the shadows, watching her like a cat from afar. She seemed anxious. Ghosts of past Sith began chanting quietly in the temple, their whispers setting the eerie scene. The Sith Citadel came alive when Rey was present, causing Yara to become weary. "Long have I waited," the Emporer croaked out.
Rey spotted him, in the same form he was when Yara first saw him. Connected by cables and tubes, unmoving. "For my grandchild to come home."
Those words struck Yara. She hadn't known. This...this changed things. This meant that Palpatine lied to her. That he was only after Rey, and not her. That all those promises he had given her, were in fact for his kin. Yara's blood began to boil. She looked to the sky through the cracks of the stronghold to see the explosions of ships in the sky. All that destruction. She had allowed it for him, all for him to betray her. "I never wanted you dead, I knew they couldn't kill you--as hard as they tried." Palpatine spoke as if he didn't know Yara was lurking in the shadows.
Reality settled in on Yara as her glassy eyes watched the battle occurring in the sky. She was stunned. She was fooled. She was manipulated, not just by Palpatine, by the dark side. She would never be able to get what she thought the dark side promised her. Her greed had shown through, and she had become a narcissist, a selfish backstabbing woman. Nothing was real. Nothing she thought could conquer was tangible anymore, she had handed it all over to Palpatine. Her fleet was under his direct order, and if the order had to chose between her and the Emporer--she knew who'd they pick.
Perhaps even before Palpatine, nothing she thought she could have--the power, the fame--was real, either. Besides, she would have never had enough of it if she even managed to conquer the universe with Palpatine and Kylo.
The old Yara began settling back inside of her. What made her inner darkness come out, the desires, had dissolved. Now, all that was left was who she was before. Before the First Order. Before Kylo. Before Palpatine. She felt guilty. She felt ashamed. It was the first time in a while since she had felt those feelings. She had caused so much chaos for her own selfish wants.
The only thing that was real throughout all of this--was Kylo. She truly loved him. And he truly loved her. She knew in the way he looked at her when he thought she wasn't paying attention. She knew it in the way he touched her and stood by her side even as she changed into a different person. He was the love of her life. And she killed him.
