A pale sun shining through a vast haze of Stardust. An endless dark ocean stretching beneath. It's little wonder, Cardo Ren thought, that nobody ever found this place. By chance the planet was emerging into a pocket of clear space on the edge of the black nebula when the Knights of Ren found it.
He stood on the bridge of the Dreadnought Obedience, in the atmosphere above the Sith stronghold. Outside lightning raged inside the nebula. Before too long the planet would be engulfed once again. He hoped that the master's mission below was going to be resolved quickly.
That was when a Star Destroyer dropped out of Hyperspace. Not one of the First Order's, this one was old. Early Imperial, by the size and shape of the Conning Tower. It moved down towards the planet in a slow, buoyant arc. It made no reactionary maneuvers to the fleet's presence.
Cardo motioned for the communications officer to hail the Destroyer.
"Unknown vessel, this is Cardo Ren of the Knights of Ren. This planet is under the surveillance of the First Order. Identify yourself and state your purpose for coming here."
The Destroyer sailed past, and there wasn't so much as a crackle of a microphone on the other end. In fact, it didn't look like there were any lights on at all inside the vast spacecraft.
"Sir," an officer pointed. "Look at the bottom of their hull."
A large piece of grey scrap metal, nearly as long as the vessel itself, was being held against the ship by a series of magnetic clamps. The ship continued lazily descending past the Obedience and down into the atmosphere of Exegol below.
"Okay," Ushar's voice came over the comlink. "Everyone else saw that, right?"
"Yeah," Cardo responded. "Are we going to tell Master Ren about this?"
"Hasn't responded in nearly an hour. He must be out of range."
Exegol was an ocean planet. Kylo Ren was soaked through with spray from all sides. An entire sphere of water writhing around a stone core, with not so much as an island afloat in it.
Not a natural one, anyway.
He landed his shuttle on a huge mass of uneven metal sticking from the ocean. Ap'Lek's team had told him of their mission to the Death Star wreck. It didn't take an expert to realize that this was more of the same. If there was a Sith Temple here, it must be under the surface.
Scrambling over the submerged wreck, he had at length come upon a door that appeared to lead down into the bowels of the old station. Kylo Ren approached, but his hand stopped inches from the door. The sudden presence of someone raked across his mind.
He looked up at the mist-wrapped shape of the Star Destroyer coursing overhead.
"Rey."
Rey stood at the helm of the Falcon as it emerged from the water.
"Ben," she whispered.
The trip had been tense. Poe and Finn found the bodies of several more Sith Troopers after Rose was taken, evidently left by the Knights prior to the ambush. Rey had said little. After a while of holding their breath waiting to be discovered, the Sith Eternal came to transport their piece of wreckage. Not being able to see the planet upon approach, the Resistance was thus caught off guard as the chamber began to fill with seawater.
Poe finished loading up his pack and stood on the dejarik table in the room below.
"Okay. So maybe I wasn't expecting the water landing. Connix, take Jannah and R2 down to the engine room and make sure there aren't any fish in the Hyperdrive."
Chewbacca shooed Poe off of the table while Connix wrung out a rag.
"More bad news. Gonna need to run diagnostics on the communication array before we can tell the Resistance where we are."
"Great. Fix that. Finn, Chewie, Rey, you're with me. We're going to find where the Emperor is hiding."
R2 beeped sullenly.
"What about Rose, and Threepio?" Connix asked.
"I'm sure that Rose… if she's…."
"No," Rey said numbly. "They haven't killed her, Finn. They can hurt me more if I know she's still alive."
"Then the Knights of Ren still have her," Finn replied.
"She's probably in one of those First Order over our heads, Finn said, pointing at the grey sky. "We just need to find which one."
"I'll let you know when I find out," Rey said, starting to leave.
"Rey? Rey, what are you going to do?" Poe called out to her.
"What I should have done from the start of all this."
She jumped down the ledge and disappeared.
There was a magnetic pull, leading the two Force-bound warriors to each other. She climbed over a ledge to find a narrow bridge of debris plunging into the ocean. He emerged from a plume of seaspray, his weapon already ignited.
"You made it," Ben said flatly, his voice cutting through the roar of the water.
"Rose," Rey ignored him. "What have you done with her?"
He pulled off his helmet and shook loose his soaked hair.
"Perhaps I'm using your friend as insurance."
"You've never needed an excuse not to fight me before."
"That was before I saw what you did to Kuruk Ren."
Rey scowled at her foe. Ben flipped his saber around so that it faced away from the girl.
"I can't feel the Dark Side here. Can you? It's almost disappointing. The fabled holy ground of the Sith. But look at all this. The cult, the ruins. There's something here alright."
"And it should stay here," Rey shouted. "The Galaxy has suffered enough at his hand."
"It won't be your decision to make."
Kylo Ren vaulted toward her with augmented speed, and Rey ignited her saber moments before disaster.
"Stop."
Poe, Finn, and Chewie had been walking for a little while. But now the pilot heard something.
He crouched down and looked through a gap in the ruins. Small flashes of light could be seen far below.
"Sounds like… welding?"
"They're fusing the pieces of wreckage together," Finn realized.
"They're building something."
Chewbacca roared and pointed at the sky. One, then two more, then another five Star Destroyers dropped through the atmosphere. None of them had wreckage with them.
"Something is about to go down," Poe murmured.
"Each of those ships probably has a thousand Troopers," Finn said. "This might not be a fight we can win, even with the Resistance."
"Just gotta hold on a little longer," Poe replied, putting his hand on Finn's shoulder. Then he looked into the distance.
"Man, where is Rey?"
"Alright guys," Connix wiped her brow. "I think this is it."
The terminal whirred and began to fill with lighted readouts.
"This hunk of junk is a survivor, alright," Jannah shook her head in disbelief.
"Now let's hope our transmission gets through that mess up there and back to the Resistance, or we won't be able to say the same for ourselves," Connix added.
The battle had led across the wreckage, the two Force users leaping across trenches and gaps. The ocean roiled and bellowed around them, and the grey sky grew ever darker. Rey was holding her own, but her patch job on the blue lightsaber was again becoming spotty. Through all of this, Ben watched her intently, remaining silent. It made Rey furious. Was he tooling with her? Testing her?"
Rey shook her head, and let Luke's old blade fall from her hand. As she had in Babu Frik's shop, she reached for the other saber in her pack.
"I need you to work with me."
The red blade roared to life in her hand. And then things took a turn.
Rey had fought Kylo Ren several times now. But none of their confrontations had ever been like this. She felt like there were more hands on her weapon than just her two, more eyes than just her own. A power like a drug. She swung with a form not her own, full of rage. Evidently the old crystal inside had listened to her.
Kylo Ren's pupils narrowed. He could read her patterns better. He was gaining the upper hand!
He parried away her red saber with his own as they clashed, traveling further up the rim of the wreck. Using her own momentum against her, he sidestepped past her and then sliced into the back of her leg. Rey yelped and fell, bringing the battle to an end.
Kylo Ren shut off his saber and retrieved his fractured helmet.
"I could kill you. But then you would not see what happens next. I need someone to bear witness. Someone who will understand. The Galaxy will remember this day for the rest of history."
Rey's eyes widened. How could she have been so blind?
"Ben. Ben, come back. You don't know what you're doing!"
But he was gone. That was the last thing she saw. She clutched the saber to her chest and sobbed, finally succumbing to exhaustion.
Phasma pulled up a holomap of fleet movements.
"The five Destroyers and Dreadnaught that Leader Ren appointed the Knights to are in orbit over an uncharted planet in the Unknown Regions."
Hux gave a small, impatient twitch as he glanced over the map.
"Exegol, then. What do you suppose he is doing there?"
"Not my business to ask, General "
Hux looked at the blinking triangles again.
"Perhaps we should make it our business, Captain."
"Finn! Chewie! Poe!"
The trio turned with a start as Rey bolted towards them.
"I need… your help," the young Jedi tried to catch her breath.
"Are you sure?" Poe said incredulously. "You seemed pretty angry before."
"I'm sorry. He really knows how to push my buttons. But none of that matters right now."
Poe frowned at the concern in her voice. "What's going on?"
"Ren is going after Sidious. He's not trying to join with him. He's trying to kill him."