The Supremacy

Snoke paces back and forth across his cracked throne room. Rey leans against a wall, looking bored. Thrawn, Hux, and Phasma stand off to the side.

"You failed to get them..." Snoke says.

"I'll kill them the next time." She says, simply.

Snoke opens his mouth as if to object, but shakes his head.

"No...no you're right. This is a victory. The Resistance fleet is depleted, and the soul of Sidious has returned! Once more, the sith will rule the galaxy!"

"I do not wish to spoil your moment Supreme Leader..." Thrawn interjects.

"Yes?" Snoke replies, narrowing his eyes.

"Well as it happens our fleet is depleted as well." Thrawn explains.

"Stormtrooper and pilot numbers are low." Phasma puts in. "At this rate we won't be able to hold onto what territory we have."

"I am sensing a suggestion?" Snoke asks.

"You are correct." Thrawn confirms. "I have a number of plans to replenish our forces..."

"Conscription?" Hux asks.

"We do not maintain control over enough system to organize an adequate conscription." Thawn says. "And just as well. I do not think throwing more stormtroopers at the problem is the answer."

Phasma looks down.

"The plans I have are a good deal more...unorthodox," Thrawn says.

"I will hear them in time," Snoke says. "But right now-"

Ador Ren stumbles into the room. He glares across the room at Rey.

"Ador." Snoke sighs. "What is it?"

"Master!" Ador cries. "She is too dangerous! You cannot allow her to live!"

Snoke smiles bemused.

"And why is that?"

"She will grow too strong for you," Ador explains. "Eventually she will turn on you and take the First Order for herself!"

Snoke laughs. Ador looks at him confused.

"When she reaches such a point..." Snoke looks over at Rey. "...I will welcome it. Its her birthright, after all. "

"But I was to be your apprentice!" Ador exclaims. "First Kylo, now her! It should be me! I was meant for greatness!"

Snoke chuckles.

"You were a pawn at best Ador. Do not oversell yourself."

Ador grits his teeth in anger.

"Why don't we solve this the easy way?" Rey suggests walking over to Ador.

He steps back.

"...strike me down," She says.

"Wh...what?" Ador stammers.

"Try your best to kill me now. If you succeed then all of your problems will be solved, right?" Rey reasons.

Despite the words, her gaze is nothing but predatory. Ador hesitates for a moment, but the hunger in his own eyes eventually wins out.

He throws out a hand, one of the Praetorian guard's swords flying into his grasp. He swings at Rey, quick and savage.

Rey activates her lightsaber, knocks the weapon aside, then stabs Ador through the chest. He gasps. Rey tears the lightsaber out, and he falls to the ground. Dead.

"See?" Rey says. "The easy way."

The Millennium Falcon

"What happened!?" Finn demands.

Luke takes a breath. "...Rey is the clone of Emperor Palpatine."

"She...WHAT!?" Finn exclaims.

"Its true," Lorn says quietly. She sits in a corner, with her knees up, and arms wrapped around them.

Luke nods. "When she found out, Rey...well I guess she couldn't take the shock. Snoke managed to turn her to the dark side."

Finn steps back, as if struck.

"She...turned?"

Luke, with eyes downcast, nods.

"I tried to pull her back to the light, but..." He leans back against the walls. "...I failed."

Finn blinks. He turns to Ben, eyes blazing.

"You helped cause this didn't you?" He accuses.

"I..." Ben pauses. "...yes. I suppose I did."

Finn lunges at him, but Luke holds him back.

"Finn stop! He saved my life!"

"I don't care!" Finn growls, lunging again.

Luke drags him back.

"Enough! We have too few friends to fight amongst ourselves!"

Finn stops trying to attack Ben, but his glare never disappears. Ben doesn't meet his gaze. He stares at the floor.

"No, he isn't one of my friends."

"Fine." Luke says. "But at the very least he's an ally of necessity. I can't get Rey back without him."

Finn continues to glare at Ben. Chewbacca growls and walks in from the cockpit. He sees Ben. Ben's eyes widen with fear.

"Oh no," Luke says.

Chewbacca slams into Ben, flinging him across the room.

"Chewie ,no!" Luke shouts.

Ben tries to rise, but Chewbacca wraps two massive hands around his neck and drags him up. Chewbacca holds Ben against the wall, choking him.

"Chewbacca put him down!" Luke commands.

Chewbacca growls angrily.

"I know he killed Han! Now put him down before you kill him!"

Chewbacca growls back louder. Ben struggles to breathe.

"Chewie what would Han want!? What would Leia want!?" Luke shouts.

Chewbacca growls low.

"Put him down." Luke says, in a softer tone.

Chewbacca growls once more, and drops Ben to the floor. Ben coughs, gasping for air. Chewbacca stomps away, back into the cockpit. Finn shoots Ben one more glare, then follows the wookie. Luke helps Ben onto a seat at the table and sits down next to him.

"I...guess..." Ben coughs out. "...I deserved...that."

"...yeah," Luke confirms.

Luke watches as Ben catches his breath.

"You saved me," Luke states.

"It's...what she would have wanted." Ben says eventually.

Luke looks on with a pained expression.

"...thank you."

Ben nods, leaning back.

"She's gone..." He says, dejected.

"Yes." Luke says, eyes welling up.

Both are silent for some time. Luke eventually takes notice of Lorn, still sitting in the corner. She stares mutely into the floor.

"I'll be right back." Luke says to Ben.

"What are you doing?" Ben asks.

"Getting some answers."

He gets up and walks over to Lorn. She glances up at him, then returns to staring at the floor.

"Can I sit here?" Luke asks.

"No." Lorn replies, curtly.

"Oh. Okay."

Luke remains, standing there in front of her. Lorn huffs.

"Oh just sit down already. Damn you, Skywalker. Always so blasted polite..."

Luke manages a weak smile, then sits down across from her, on the floor. Luke's gaze eventually shifts down to the lightsaber still held firmly in Lorn's grip.

"...I've seen a lightsaber like that once before..." Luke says.

"I'll bet you have." Lorn replies.

Luke looks at her pointedly. Lorn sighs.

"Fine." She pulls off the helmet.

Red hair spills out. Her face is that of a middle-aged woman. Despite a few wrinkles her features are still sharp and attractive. Her steely gaze betrays none of the apparent age.

"It's been a while...Mara Jade," Luke says.

She sneers. "Not long enough."

"It's been what? Twenty years since you last tried to kill me?" Luke asks.

"Fifteen. I tried to shoot you with a blaster rifle from a hundred yards away on Dantooine."

"That was you?"

Mara nods. Finn walks in. He spares a glare for Ben before walking over to Luke and Mara.

"Lorn?" Finn asks confused.

"This," Luke says, not breaking his gaze at Mara, "Is Mara Jade. She used to be an assassin. For the emperor. Tried to kill me many times. "

"That was a long time ago..." Mara says quietly.

"If memory serves, they called you the emperor's hand..." Luke voice trails off.

Mara's gaze drops down.

"How...did you know about Rey?" Luke asks.

She takes a breath. Luke and Finn both look on intently.

"...because I'm the one who left her on Jakku."

Luke and Finn share a look.

"I was supposed to get the emperor's lightsaber to her..." Mara continues.

"But even you didn't want him to return." Luke finished.

Mara is quiet for several moment.

"...I kept her away from his other agents for a while. When that became too much I thought...I thought it would be enough to just leave her. Put her on some desert planet where no one would ever find her. But...I was wrong."

Finn looks disturbed.

"We're going to get her back." Luke says, firmly.

"That's impossible." Mara says. "He's in her head now. Just like he was in mine."

"There's gotta be a way..." Finns says weakly.

"We'll find a way." Luke says confidently. "I'm not giving up."

He glances at Ben.

"...not again."

You're such a damned optimist..." Mara says.

"Its worked out for me so far." Luke says cracking a weak smile. "Now come on, let's go find out where we're going."

Luke gets up, and walks over to the cockpit. Reluctantly, Finn and Mara follow. All three of them walk into the cockpit.

"Where we headed?" Luke asks.

R2-D2, sitting just below beeps at him.

"Don't know yet?" says Luke.

Chewbacca growls a negative.

Ben walks in with trepidation. Finn and Chewbacca shoot him glares but otherwise do nothing. Ben looks down, and doesn't say a word.

Luke looks first at Ben, then the others. "Let me know as soon as we know where we're going. We have a war to win...and a girl to save. That's our path forward."

Slowly, Finn nods. "...let's do it. Let's save Rey."

Chewbacca growls in agreement.

R2-D2 beeps with confirmation.

Mara grunts.

"We're all with you Luke Skywalker." Poe says over the commlink.

Luke chuckles at the unexpected response.

Ben remains silent.

All eyes turn to him. He looks at each of them in turn. Then, he looks down at the lightsaber in his hand. Luke's lightsaber.

"I'm...with you." Ben says, closing his hand around the hilt.

Luke smiles. They all look out then. Into the darkness, of space. But also, into the light of the stars.

To be continued in STAR WARS: EPISODE IX REWRITTEN

Author's Note:

Well thanks so much for reading! I spent three months of madness writing this fueled only by my hatred for the movie, and determination to prove I could do it better. Is that petty? Incredibly. But I also learned a lot writing this story so I don't regret it(this was 2 years ago I originally wrote this, time really flies huh?). I had a lot of characters and moments I had to cram in here that weren't in the movie, so sorry if this actually turned out to be a big mess. Hopefully you enjoyed your time reading this, I certainly appreciate it. Guess that's that.

If you enjoyed this story and would like to read more of my stuff, there are other stories on this account, but I also have a dramatic reading YouTube channel I'm trying to build called Bear Write Club, check it out!

See you all for the sequel/Episode Nine rewrite! No idea when that's going to happen since I'm currently working on my original novel and getting it ready for publication, but hopefully I'll be able to get both underway soon!

Stay tuned...