"That's right," the Ragged Queen said. "I am your mother. Snoke was never a name I liked, admittedly."

"You might not have been the one who stole our throne, but you can restore it," Rey said. "Mother, you might've left me in Jakku, and I might've thought you were dead until now, but we can end this here-the tyranny, the curses-"

The Ragged Queen laughed.

Jacen drew near Rey, wrapping an arm around her protectively as the Ragged Queen pulled a sword out of the staff she'd been holding-both sword and staff looked old, but Rey could feel the power drifting off of the blade. She wasn't fooled for one second about what could happen.

"DUCK!" she screamed, pulling Jacen down with her to the cold, hard floor.

A red beam shot above their heads, barely missing each other.

Jacen and Rey shared a glance, and they pulled out the Four Swords of the First Kings. Tenel Ka and Zekk followed suit as they raised their swords of green, blue, red, and gold.

The Ragged Queen smiled.

"So it begins," she declared. "When I have my way, the so-called heirs to the throne will be dead on the drawbridge for all to see! My rule will be forever!"

"Regimes come and go, Jyn," Luke said. "Remember when you played your part in taking down the Dark Emperor? What made you become like this?"

"When I was the one who got captured, much like your precious Mara," Jyn sneered. "When he remade me into the Emperor's Wrath, the one who would deal the rage with Vader. And now I can have all the power! Now I will live forever, and my rule with it!"

"Not if I have anything to say about it!" Tenel Ka shouted, raising her sword.

"Not if I have anything to say as well!" Zekk added, raising his to touch hers.

"It's my turn now!" Jacen yelled, touching the tip of the blue to the others.

"I'm sorry, Mother," Rey said regretfully, and she completed the circle. A violet light overtook the room as the Ragged Queen raised her sword and staff, shooting the red beam at them. It made Jacen in particular falter, but they stood their ground.

While their fight was grounded in magic that made the throne room shake violently in the violet light, Finn, Bastila, and Luke exchanged a glance, then they attacked the Ragged Queen. She held them off brilliantly with her sword and X-blades she levitated around her.

Then, with one clean swipe, Bastila was on the ground, blood seeping from her body.

"NO!" Rey screamed, and she became even more determined than ever. "You won't hurt anyone, ever again!"

With that, she broke the circle, running at the Ragged Queen with hit after hit, fueled by her anger, anger that the woman who continued the Empire, the woman who left her for dead in Jakku, the woman who destroyed the Jedi, who hurt Jacen, who broke her family.

She broke the stupid staff in two with a clean cut, and used magic to knock the sword out of the Ragged Queen's hand. She let it clatter onto the ground in a burst of dark energy, pushing her mother to the ground in the same way.

Now she hovered over her mother with her blood red blade of her ancestors before her.

"And now you'll pay," Rey snarled, raising her sword to deliver the coup-de-gras.

"REY!"

She didn't dare turn around, but she did hesitate, in shaky breaths as the world seemed to draw to a halt, hanging in the moment. She could taste her fear, the feeling as if she was walking off the edge of a cliff, as if her flight with Kylo had taken a horribly wrong turn and she was free-falling.

"If you kill her, you'll be just like her!" Jacen shouted, and she could hear him running up behind her.

"I don't care," Rey said, and in a moment of intuitive darkness, lightning shot from her fingertips, causing Jyn to scream and writhe until she went still and silent.

In that moment, reader, Rey had made her choice. Perhaps it isn't the right thing, but maybe it was. Matters like these are never so straightforward-but this choice was right for Rey.

She turned to Jacen, Tenel Ka, Zekk, Finn, and Luke, who all stared at her.

"It had to happen," she said quietly. "Come on, let's restore Theed Palace."

Jacen was the first to nod, then Tenel Ka, and at last, Zekk. They all raised their swords to the point, and the violet light remade Theed Palace like it was in the old days.