Yikes it took me way too long to update. My one brain cell hurts and this might be full of errors FYI
The merciful alignment of the planets and stars allowed for a smoothly executed retrieval mission. It didn't take many lightspeed jumps to get from Exegol to Jakku's star system, and the charted route didn't intersect any of the galaxy's most active travel routes either.
Locating the child on the dark hemisphere of Jakku had been easy, especially since she'd fallen asleep in the bowels of an old freighter on the outskirts of the planet's main trading hub. Her guardians had left her only a few kilometers from the abandoned Observatory where the Empire had conducted a myriad of unethical experiments in the past. It was poetic in a bizarrely twisted way.
A few goons dressed entirely in dark rags, hired by the junk dealer who presided over the territory, lurked between the many tents and trading booths populating the outpost to watch for any attempted thefts or vandalism against their boss' possessions. However, they made no attempt at confronting the red-armored soldiers who crossed Niima Outpost's perimeter to search the freighter.
The small child, tired and starved as she was, didn't wake or stir when the Sith troopers lifted her from the dusty storage cabinet and brought her aboard their transport shuttle. She remained unconscious the whole way back to the capital ship where the Emperor waited, only mumbling in her sleep as she was carefully settled onto a comfortable bed in the quarters that had been cleared out and prepared to house her. A crew of servants did their best job to make the quarters childproof as quickly as they could at their master's behest. Some came through the front door carrying furnishings and appliances, others stocked shelves with essential supplies, and several more worked on sterilizing every open surface.
Exquisite carpeting, lustrous wallpaper, and sparkling light fixtures adorned every open surface of each room to create an appealing habitation. The plain grey walls and floors in nearly all other rooms aboard the massive dreadnought were reserved for the eyes of the easily replaceable cogs in the machine: the Force-null soldiers, worshippers, and simple laborers who were missed by no one when they died. A being as close to godhood as the Emperor's grandchild deserved the utmost luxuries that the Sith Eternal fleet could offer.
More importantly, the child would be close enough to the Emperor's own place of dwelling that he could manage her without needing to leave his throne room too frequently.
Palpatine appraised the living room of the quarters while she slept, making a mental list of things to add to the area. He didn't know what kind of information his botched clone might've relayed to her, but she needed to be educated either way; power without intellect is an asset to no one. Assuming that she at least knew every Aurebesh character and could count to a reasonably high number, she'd need supplies to encourage writing and use of basic mathematical skills. He couldn't leave any windows open for anyone else to shape her mind and potentially corrupt it, either. He'd get a tutor composed of circuits and wires to educate her on worldly matters while she was concurrently trained in the art of the dark side. A well-programmed droid could be trusted not to stray from its directive, unlike most creatures of flesh. This child would learn the truthful history of the Empire rather than the twisted version being propagated by the Republic.
Palpatine hummed a low, ominous melody to himself as he passed an empty writing desk on his way to the bedroom. A few steps from the doorway, he paused. The closeness between himself and the small being meant that he no longer had to deliberately seek her Force signature to be reminded of the raw power that entailed it. Even the lowly Force-nulls in the vicinity were physically affected by the strange energy. He had sensed the skin crawling on the backs of the servants who toiled away in the small kitchenette across from the child's room.
The Sith Lord clenched the blackened palm of his left hand with careful consideration. Untold stress had left the child immensely tired. Seeing him for the first time- in his current state- was sure to scare the miserable thing, who'd already be disoriented when she woke up in an unfamiliar place. Fear might keep her in line in the short-term but that could come back to bite him years down the line, should that fear motivate her to betray him.
He didn't want another Vader. He'd have to do things differently with this second chance that his useless son had unintentionally provided to him.
A reassuring message travelled from the Sith Lord's mind to greet the unconscious mind of the girl, reaching her in her dreams to prepare her for the new situation awaiting her in the real world. He took a superficial look into her memories, to figure out what to call this child. He raised his eyebrows and let out a thoughtful hum.
If nothing else, he appreciated that her parents had been mindful enough to give her a befittingly regal name that flowed well when paired with the family surname.
Rey emerged from her slumber, sitting up on the bed to blink slowly at the silver patterned walls surrounding her. Her first lucid thought was that her mother and father had returned last night to tuck her into her bed aboard their modestly-sized ship. But then she opened her eyes to a room filled with shapes and colors that she didn't recognize. Her parents had always made an effort to conserve what few credits they had and never would've splurged on ornate black dressers or iridescent crystal lamps.
And yet she didn't feel a shred of concern as she peered at the empty vacuum of space through a viewport to her left. Rey's cold little hands experimentally pulled at the soft red duvet cover under her. She couldn't remember much about the strange dream she'd just awakened from, but she remembered a kind voice telling her that she had nothing to fear here. Someone had obviously removed her from the squalid conditions of Niima Outpost and she wasn't going to protest that, even if she was shivering a bit. She'd never miss the unrelenting sadism of Jakku's sun.
"Ah, I see you are awake." Rey turned away from the viewport to look at the doorway to her right. It was the voice from her dream, but this time it wasn't just in her head. She watched the figure glide into the room with the layered fabric of his robes flowing behind him, black as a night sky. The visible parts of the old man's face peeking out from under his hood might've frightened her, if his presence wasn't so calming.
"Where am I? Who are you?" she asked curiously. Her head tilted and her gaze drifted up to see that the man's eyes had no pupils. Her parents had presented with similar dark circles and bags under their eyes the last time she'd seen them, but nothing that severe.
"You no longer need to worry about your family returning for you, little one. I wouldn't let my granddaughter fester in a pile of garbage, and on such a horrible planet, too," Palpatine took on a placid tone as he spoke to the child. He had no firsthand experience rearing children, having taken a very hands-off approach with the products of his unsuccessful cloning attempts. However, his time as a political leader and a master to a series of unstable apprentices made him good at handling these kinds of situations nevertheless.
Rey instantly sat up from her slightly hunched position when she heard the words 'family' and 'granddaughter'. Neither her mother nor her father had ever mentioned any other living family members to her. Then again, she could see that this man didn't have the countenance of someone who would invest in caring for a vulnerable living being just for fun.
"Are you alright? You look sick."
Palpatine let out a laugh at her intuitive question.
"I may not look it, but I assure you I am much stronger than you may think, child."
As she spoke with him, Rey shed her doubts about whether the man truly was her grandfather. He certainly came across as ancient and wise like she imagined a parent of her mother or father would be. Somehow, she could sense that he had been around for a very long time, seen many of the galaxy's highest and lowest points, and learned from his victories and failures. There was also a familiarity, as if he was stitched together from the same fabric as her.
"Do you know where my mummy and daddy are? They went somewhere and promised to come back." Her fingers nervously picked at the scratchy, beige wrappings that covered her twig-like arms. The overwhelming feeling of dread returned, settling at the bottom of her stomach like a heavy stone. The quiet sigh of her grandfather didn't exactly quell her fears, either.
"I'm sorry young Rey, but I'm not sure if they can come back now. Your father was... certainly good at getting himself out of difficult situations," Palpatine forced himself to make one positive comment about his now-deceased clone with a grimace that he skillfully disguised as a sympathetic smile. "But I'm afraid he might have met some monsters that he couldn't defeat."
Though she sat motionless and silent, Rey's eyes reddened with tears that threatened to dribble down her round face. Every day since she'd been parted from her parents, her wild imagination had conjured up the absolute worst images of them being hurt. She didn't have a good understanding of mortality or what comes after death, but she didn't need one to picture her mother and father laid out on the ground in pools of their own blood. The disheartening mental images could be written off or ignored. The words of the only family member she had left? Not so much.
"No, perhaps even 'monsters' is not a strong enough word to describe the Jedi," Palpatine added with a grim edge to his voice, taking a seat at the edge of the bed. He gave the girl a moment of silence to fully digest his words and accept them as the truth. The unjust, cruel truth of the real culprits responsible for her life being torn apart. The ones responsible for his life's work being undermined and slandered.
Rey suppressed the sobs bubbling up in her chest just like she'd seen her father do on multiple occasions. She erased the trails of tears from her face with the frayed edges of the cloth around her wrists. The word "Jedi" set off an alarm inside of her. It was impossible to forget the talk she'd received after her first time accidentally embedding a fork into the ceiling without touching it. Father had sat beside her on the floor, pulling her close to his heart before explaining "the Force" to her in simplified terms. He'd also told her about the various factions of Force users after clarifying that she wasn't alone in being able to control this energy field that permeated all living things. He never outright stated whether the Jedi were enemies or not, but Rey had sensed his uncertainty as he'd described some of their philosophies to her. His eyes had this distance in them, like he'd been trying hard not to think about it too much.
Maybe he hadn't wanted to scare her because the wicked world they lived in would be sending enough horrors their way.
A new sensation radiated through Rey's extremities as her grief and anger focused itself into one sharp point. It pressed to the very edge of her being to stab outwards, rather than inwards at her heart like it usually did. She quickly embraced the feeling, fingernails digging into the mattress that she and her grandfather were sitting on. This was different from those times when her excitement or displeasure had spontaneously caused a ceiling light to shatter. This time she could feel the energy- the Force?- moving in accordance with her deliberate machinations.
When she willed it to twist, it twisted like the winds of a tornado. When she willed it away from herself, it ran to the farthest corner of the room. In the farthest corner of the room stood an ebony dresser containing nothing, and on that dresser sat the unfortunate lamp that absorbed all of the energy displaced from inside of her.
The loud noise of the crystal lampshade hitting the tiled floor and shattering into a thousand pieces startled Rey. She waited in uncomfortable silence, anticipating a scolding. But her grandfather never snapped or shouted at her the way the fat junk dealer on Jakku probably would have done. Instead, he smiled and rose from his seated position.
Palpatine used the Force to scout out the shards that his corporeal eyes couldn't see before stepping away from the bed. With a light wave of his fingers, he swept the shards into a single neat pile in the middle of the floor. He heard Rey gasp in awe of his powers as he flicked his wrist to levitate every last sparkling fragment through the air in a controlled arc. With the fluidity of a river, the tiny pieces of crystal passed through the air to settle at the bottom of a small decorative bowl that had been resting on top of that same dresser. Then, the lamp itself floated up to his outstretched hand like a sheet of flimsiplast in the wind. There was only amusement in his voice as he turned to face the girl, who kept glancing from the floor to the bowl in wonder.
"Trust me, crushing your enemies will be much more satisfying than any simple tricks you can do with the Force, and you'll be able to do just that once I've shared my wealth of knowledge with you."
He'd have to get a housekeeping droid for the girl's living space in case something like that happened when he wasn't present, but knowing that her Force sensitivity was manifesting itself in physical ways made the Sith Lord glad. Well, as glad as he could be about something that didn't directly pertain to his acquisition of power. There was already a solid foundation to build off of for her training, which he valued above all else in that moment.
Before leaving her in the loyal hands of his personal attendants, Palpatine paused in the hallway outside of Rey's room to turn up the thermostat; it was clear she was neither accustomed nor dressed for the default temperature of most spaces aboard the Star Destroyer. Until she was fully inoculated against disease and underwent a thorough medical examination, it would be best to cut down on anything that could weaken her immune system.
The personal attendants immediately got to work, taking the child's measurements so they could tailor new clothes for her to wear. Even if one overlooked her discomfort in those off-white desert rags, it wouldn't be acceptable for the Emperor's protégé to parade around in such drab attire. Many women among the staff also jumped at the opportunity to assist with the grooming and dressing of a child that carried their ruler's divine blood, which took care of those issues.
Palpatine retired to the throne room once he'd handled the cardinal affairs of his unplanned adoption. There were limits on how long he could go without his life support equipment, and he needed the boost of energy that the wires would inject into his deflated husk of a body. Once more, he took a seat upon his throne, though a triumphant sneer now occupied the space where there had previously been a contemplative frown.
It would take time to fully sever Rey from the fears and uncertainty weighing her down, but the fruit of that effort would compensate tenfold. She was old enough to understand simple concepts and follow commands, yet young enough that her personality could be molded and carved into whatever would suit Palpatine's vision for the future.
He beamed confidently as he pictured a perfect world where the galaxy bowed before him and his new indomitable enforcer.
The case of Anakin Skywalker's grandson came back to the forefront of his thoughts, cutting through his gleeful fantasies of reclaiming the stars for himself. As he had many times before, Palpatine zeroed in on one of his other artificially grown creations, light years away from Exegol. This deformed clone, appearing ancient from its unnatural birth, carried the one valuable trait that Rey's father hadn't been blessed with.
Snoke had not a tuft of auburn hair covering his lopsided head. Lesions and grotesque indentations marred his face, limbs, and torso. He couldn't charm a room full of strangers with a dimpled smile or beguile any fair maidens into bearing children for him. But he could wield the Force very well, which made him an excellent organic flesh puppet.
Working through Snoke, Palpatine knew it was only a matter of time before he'd coax Skywalker's teenaged nephew into fully embracing the dark side and destroying the new Jedi Order from within.
The Sith Lord observed the newly formed memories in Snoke's mind like a dismal slideshow presentation showing the widening rift between each surviving member of the Skywalker family. Anakin's children each carried a heavy burden that diverted their attention away from the boy's slow descent into darkness. One was fighting to control the galaxy's government in a cynical post-Imperial world, while the other had to train over a dozen young Force users and ensure that none of them strayed down the "wrong" path.
But their attempts to save a doomed form of order would be all for nothing, because it was the youngest member of their family who was the real threat they should've been focusing on. It was clear to see that the young man had, well, certain mental and emotional issues that made him uniquely susceptible to the dark side's temptation, even without external influences pushing him in that direction. The Solo boy was inclined to overreact violently when met with challenges and lose himself to unreasonable impulses, always ready to erupt at the slightest provocation. His parents had shipped him off to his uncle to be fixed, but there's nothing a Jedi Master's peaceful and passive approach could ever do to beat the temper out of that lost cause. He was already much darker than any of his relatives had been at that age, and the added encouragement from Snoke was really only speeding up a natural process.
Palpatine shrugged to himself. He felt the subtle tremors of the dreadnought entering hyperspace and leaned back in his throne. It was certainly beneficial to have that ticking time bomb in his arsenal, at least until his true blood heir matured into adulthood and could be his primary weapon.
Yikes. Sheev is going to be telling a lot of lies and doing a lot of sketchy stuff. I couldn't exactly make him a saint, because then there wouldn't as much room for the drama lol. And yeah, it's going to tie into some canon events, while also changing some other stuff...
Also this is more of a side detail, but long before TRoS I had my own headcanon for what Sheev Jr would look like, and I always pictured/drew him as a ginger. Fun fact that may or may not be canon anymore: Palpatine was actually a ginger before he got old and his hair turned white. I found out that was a thing in the old EU and I decided to run with it. It just makes sense for a child(or near-identical clone) of him to also have red hair, and that's the explanation behind this somewhat irrelevant detail in this story. XP