Time was going way too fast for Rey's liking.
Today was the day that she was to go to the Galaxies Opera House with Palpatine to see "Fallen From Grace." Thus, this would mean that she would be with Palpatine.
Alone.
In a dark theater.
None of that sounded good.
Rey watched with mixed emotions churning in her gut, as the sun slowly started to set over Coruscant's crystal sky, leaving red, orange and yellow tendrils to snake their way up into the blue, in the first phase of engulfing all of Coruscant in darkness.
A flicker of movement started in the corner of Rey's eye, leading her to turn her gaze to center it on Palpatine, who was just leaving his seat.
Rey tightened the shields around her mind, so that he wouldn't feel the deep rooted fear now coursing through her that she worked desperately to release into the force. For while she'd already defeated Palpatine once that didn't make him any less frightening, no matter who he was pretending to be.
Suffice to say, she was not looking forward to this night alone with him.
Eyes as blue as a man choking on his own tongue settled on her gaze and the Dark Lord of the Sith sent her his signature politician's smile.
"My dear, Rey," he began kindly, leaving Rey to forcibly repress a shiver, "before we go, I thought you might want to put on something more…" the politician laughed, "you know… something more suited for an Opera House." An odd feeling curled in Rey's gut as she found herself liking less and less the direction that this conversation was going. "So, I had a wonderful dress brought in for you. I thought you might prefer it over…" Palpatine paused, gesturing to her attire, "over this."
Rey had a million- no, a trillion things that she wanted to say to him, yet none of them were things that she could say out loud without risking everything her and Ben had worked for thus far.
Sidenote… she probably should've told Ben about this. Then again, the last thing Rey wanted to do was worry him in his current state. She would just have to tell him later, after all of this madness was over.
"I am flattered by your most generous offer," Rey forced herself to say with some trouble, hoping that it didn't show too much in her voice, "that is so very kind of you."
Luckily, Palpatine didn't seem to notice her inner struggle, at least outwardly, as he held his practiced smile. "Excellent. Then I shall have one of my servants lead you to a room to get changed."
Completely uncomfortable with everything that was happening, Rey kept a forced smile on her face and nodded, as a young servant walked into the room, holding a folded red and black dress, alongside a pair of stilted black heels, in their hands. At the sight of such colors, the colors of the Sith, Rey's smile faltered. Though, she was quick to bring the smile back up upon her face, thankful that Palpatine hadn't had his eyes on her at the moment of her slip.
"Thank you," Rey told them, before bundling the dress and the shoes up in her arms. Then, she followed Palpatine's servant down a few hallways, before they finally came upon a door leading into a small room.
The room itself was bathed in red and black hues, just like the outfit, ironically. A high arching ceiling curved up above, painted with what seemed to depict a smaller scale representation of a portion of the galaxy. Meanwhile, warm firelight danced in a fireplace in the corner of the room.
"I'll be just outside Miss," the servant promised, before shutting the door and leaving Rey alone with the dress, the shoes and her very own thoughts.
As soon as Rey had put the dress, and heels on, she work to study the intricate patchwork of the dress in a mirror that hung casually on the wall, not only because she was looking to procrastinate the inevitable of going out at night, alone with Palpatine, to the Opera, but also just to study it's design and the thought put into it.
The dress's basic form was made of a startling blood red fabric, while lacey black threads ran down in rivulets from her neckline to her waist, all collecting in the center. Once there, the black lace spread around her center, thus exposing a small portion of her waist, before the red silk-like fabric of the dress returned and spread out in waves like a twisted red plom bloom. The sleeves of the dress were wide and actually rather heavy to her surprise, as when Rey had been carrying the dress, she'd perceived it as being rather light. The reality was rather startling.
Next to all of that though, the dress did luckily have a wonderfully well hidden pocket for her lightsaber and so she quickly stashed it there, all the while hoping that tonight would not be a night in which she had to use it. For Palpatine was most definitely not someone that she felt she could go up against alone, especially now that he was probably much more powerful than the state that Rey had previously found him in, in her own timeline. Still more than that though, she wanted Ben to be at her side to help her face any more adversaries that came their way, because it honestly just felt wrong to face the world without him by her side.
With all of that in mind, Rey sighed, before folding her clothes and leaving them on a small padded chair to return for them later. Then, she made her way towards the door and furthermore, towards Palpatine.
The young servant was still waiting for her at the door and gave Rey shot her a smile upon her return.
"You look wonderful, my Lady," they complemented, as their kind auburn eyes flickered over the black and red dress.
"Thank you…" Rey paused, "what is your name, if I might ask?"
"Oh," they startled, seemingly surprised by the question, before collecting themself, "my name is Alii Sen, Miss."
"It's a pleasure to meet you Alii Sen," Rey replied with a kind smile, "I'm Rey."
"It's nice to meet you, just as well, Miss Re-"
Rey cut Alii off, "it's alright, you can just call me Rey," she offered.
"Rey," Alii spoke softly, as if testing out the name on their tongue, "I'm happy to make your acquaintance."
Rey felt bad that a person of such a kind heart had to be commanded around by a man who's own was born of darkness. For a moment, Rey found herself wondering what happened to the servant, after The Empire was instated, but then pushed that to the back of her mind, telling herself that it hardly mattered now what had happened, because she and Ben were going to change everything.
All of it.
The walk back to Palpatine's office was faster than Rey would've liked, as Alii pushed open the door to reveal the Chancellor staring out of one of his many office windows and down into the lower levels of Coruscant. Upon hearing their reentry though, the Dark Lord of the Sith was rather quick to turn and assess Rey, while the servant took their leave, effectively leaving Rey and Palpatine alone.
"I must say, you look quite stunning," the Chancellor said in a probable attempt to flatter her, "now come with me, I have dinner reservations for us at Zothique before the show and we have a driver scheduled for us, for the night.
Sure enough, as Palpatine led her out of his office and down towards the streets, a powerfully built Twi'lek appeared and began leading them towards their ship.
The craft they were using to get around was a speeder, however upon even first inspection Rey could tell almost instantaneously that it was no ordinary speeder. Painted in a sleek coat of black and red, just like her dress, it had a very advanced looking frame and by the looks of it, an equally powerful engine.
Judging from her few conversations with Anakin surrounding technology, she was sure that he would most definitely be jealous.
Again, Rey found herself wondering why he was not here with her or even in her place, for that matter. They'd been losing against Ventress, after all, until he'd showed up. Plus, he was the one that Palpatine was trying to coerce to the dark side according to the history of her time.
So what angle was Palpatine playing at?
Working hard to continue suppressing her emotions, as to hide them from Palpatine, Rey forced herself into the speeder, thus closing off any chance of escaping all the terrible things that the night was sure to have in store.
It took about 30 standard minutes to get to the restaurant, which actually wasn't too bad in Rey's opinion. Still, being forced to talk to Palpatine had not been fun, though luckily they'd only discussed casual topics, as he seemed to be saving the deeper ones for later. That was something that Rey was most definitely not looking forward to.
Upon their arrival, Palpatine was the first one to step off the craft, before holding out his hand and shooting her a charming smile. While Rey would've loved nothing more than to have slapped that smile off his face, she knew that she couldn't do that and so, she resigned herself to taking the horrible man's hand, as he led her down to the ground below.
Then, with one last fleeting glance towards the ship and their driver, the only two things that had stood in the way of her and Palpatine, she followed the Chancellor into the restaurant, Zothique, back straight and head held high, in order to try and exude confidence that she currently did not entirely have.
After all, fake it until you make it.
As they entered the building, Rey found herself surprised by the sheer expensive sheen that it had on it. All in all, the whole place looked like it cost near a billion credits, if not more. It was startlingly beautiful and at that moment, Rey found herself wishing that she was there with Ben rather than Palpatine, since the Dark Lord of the Sith was most definitely tainting the sheer beauty of the restaurant for her.
Soon enough, a waitress spotted them and made haste to lead them to their seats, before setting them up with menus.
So, just like that, Rey found herself in a big fancy restaurant, about to order what was probably bound to be a very expensive dinner, while sitting across from the one and only Dark Lord of the Sith.
The complexity of it almost made her laugh.
"Have you ever been to this establishment before, Chancellor?" Rey inquired, after deciding that she should probably start working to try to at least initiate some of their conversations, since trust could only work if it went both ways. Then again, Rey doubted that someone of Palpatine's nature would ever trust anyone. Still, it was the effort that counted.
"On a couple of occasions," Palpatine replied, as his eyes flickered through the menu, "mostly for business matters though, sadly enough." The man paused, "though I must say that the food here is quite delectable, albeit expensive. Yet, for a man of my stature the price of the meal is nothing, so feel free to get whatever you'd like, dear Rey. It will be simple enough for me to pay for it. After all, I find that quality is always more important than the price" the Chancellor shot her a wink, which only served to increase Rey's feelings of uncomfortability. The double meaning behind his last statement did not fall flat on her.
Rey just gave him a small nod of thanks and affirmation, before turning her total attention back to the menu and its contents, as she worked to decide what sounded good. It took her some time, because there were a lot of options, but finally she decided on Sushi.
Almost as if on cue, as soon as Rey had decided upon her meal, the waitress from earlier had returned, before asking them for their orders.
So, Rey ordered her Sushi and Palpatine ordered Lobster Bisellian, along with wine for the table. With a curt nod, the waitress collected their order and then turned on her heels to presumably go give it to the chef, before making her rounds once more.
"I do find it most odd that I've never heard of you before, Rey," the Chancellor began, "it is just truly most unfortunate. However, I must say that I am happy that at least we have met now. For to have met such a powerful Jedi as you are is a true gift. Especially with how you saved me from Ventress, just days ago now."
Avoiding the topic of her origins, Rey focused more on the second half of what Palpatine had said. "It truly was a team effort," she remarked with a small shrug, "I couldn't have done it without Master Skywalker or Master Solo."
A temporary look of disgruntlement passed over Palpatine's face, in a blink and you'll miss it moment, before he returned to his usual calm mannerisms.
Rey quietly wondered what that was all about.
"Spoken like a true Jedi." While Palpatine said it as a complement, Rey knew better than to believe it actually was.
Before Rey could say anything in return, the waitress had returned surprisingly fast with the bottle of wine that Palpatine had requested earlier, before promising that their food would be there shortly.
Lifting the bottle, the Dark Lord of the Sith eyed it with a shark-like look in his eyes, before pouring a generous amount into both his and Rey's glasses. Then, once he set the tall bottle of wine down, once more, upon the table, he turned to Rey and raised his wine glass, prompting her to do the same. Clinking their glasses together in the universal sign of cheers, the two took sips from their own respective glasses, before setting them back down on the table.
Never before had Rey wondered what it was like to get drunk with a Sith Lord, but now that that could end up happening, she actually found herself a bit curious about the whole prospect. Still, she had enough sense to know that it probably wouldn't lead to anything good and so she decided to watch how much she drank.
After taking another long sip from his glass, Palpatine focused his eyes on Rey once more, as he worked to forcibly lock their gazes.
Fueled by both his usual impulsive self and now most recently, the liquid courage, the small starts of a sly smile began to snake its way across Palpatine's face, somewhat reminding Rey of a shark, right before it took a bite out of its prey.
"Tell me, dear Rey, did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Plagueis 'the Wise?'"