Author's Note: I'm really not sure how it's been nearly a year since I last updated. Only that COVID and multiple deaths in the family affected my ability to continue on with this story. But, I hate leaving things unfinished, so here I am. Our illustrator has even found time to create a few lovely images to go along with the chapter in between her own whirlwind move and other big life changes. The story is cross posted on AO3 so you can see the illustrations there. I wish I could promise you a time on the next update, but it seems I'm learning better than to make promises I might not be able to keep.

You may want to click back a few chapters as its been a while, we left on a cliffhanger (so sorry about that) and our heroes are facing down the whole of the Sith in the World Between Worlds. There is one chapter left to the conclusion of this story, possibly an epilogue to write as well. But in the meantime, I have a few other stories kicking around on here you can check out, a few more Reylo, even a fun Pirate/Mermaid romp and a newer Loki fic I just began. Thank you as always for your support and patience :)


Chapter 33 - Purge

The Force Drain of the combined Sith floated across the blackness of the World Between Worlds like spiderwebs of mist. A dozen dark figures, a dozen pairs of angry eyes stepped slowly forward, manipulating their hold on the Dark Side to guide that power.

Darth Maul's pale yellow eyes narrowed in focus and the ghostly mask of Darth Nihilus seemed to undulate as the Sith's energy rippled across the space between them. Closest to her, Darth Malak's outstretched fingers guided those threads of energy, sucking and pulling at the Force to feed his darkness.

As the icy tendrils licked at her power, Ben's firm hold on her hand reinforced that they were one. They were the Prime Jedi and there was nothing Malak or the rest of the Sith could do to stop the will of the Force itself.

So, rising from their knees, the Prime Jedi stood against the Sith for the last time.

Rey closed her eyes, focusing on nothing but the energy churning and buzzing in the space between. A pulse that was the voice of the Whills fed images directly into their consciousness, flashes of light, chunks of sound, pieces of other lives from other times fell across her consciousness like puzzle pieces, fitting together, connecting slowly until she saw a path unfold before her now.

You must feel the Force around you…

Its energy surrounds us, binds us. Luminous beings are we…

Two that are one…

The Jedi do not believe in killing their prisoners. No one deserves execution, no matter what their crimes…

All life is sacred…

Together as Prime, you see..

Step forward, use the Sight…

Then, the voices rattled out, joining the buzzing, overlapping tones of the others until there was just the Pulse. That droning sound she now knew as the Song of the Whills.

As one, she and Ben ignited their sabers, the red and white blades standing together against the Force Drain of the Sith. They'd faced this once before, at the hands of her grandfather. But that encounter seemed so long ago. Her attempt to stop it seemed so feeble in comparison to her readiness today. Her understanding of the Force was so much wider, so much more all encompassing, that this time she never even felt the breathless pull of those dark tendrils sucking the Force from her. As she and Ben stood against the Sith there was no pulse of fear between them through the Bond as there had been on Exegol. There was only peace.

Because even with the power of a dozen Sith directed at them, this time she knew exactly where to focus her energy to stop it.

And Ben was her perfect mirror as they cast out with the Force toward the bodies of the Sith before them.

Rey focused on the source of the branching power spreading out around the Sith, beginning with Darth Malak. She stretched out with her feelings and was met with a sudden stab of cold anger, like an icy dagger pointed at her heart. She could feel his hatred seething like a frozen wasteland where the warmth of his life should be. She knew the extent of his hatred and she'd expected he would tap into it as he attempted to drain her of the Force. But even knowing what he was capable of, it drew a shudder from her before she let the Force completely take over. She allowed the song of the Whills to guide her toward the perception of something completely different… something she'd never even learned was there.

This time when she reached out to Malak, she looked past the hatred and sharp cut of his anger, going deeper until she felt the otherworldly sensation of life itself erupting into thousands of tiny pinpricks of heat underneath Malak's skin. And like plucking valuable parts from a rusted pile of scrap, she pulled at those nuclei of energy, over and over and over. She imagined she was a magnet and those tiny little glowing embers inside of the Sith could be manipulated by her pull.

Not even realizing she'd closed her eyes in the first place, she opened them to confirm what she felt through the Force. Those tiny flecks of light and energy allowing the Sith to access the Force, had been drawn to the surface of Malak's skin and were now pouring out of the openings in his sleeves, his shirt, his pants like glowing rivers of liquid stardust. The golden trails moved in snaking waves away from his body, dissipating into the space all around him before drifting in clouds toward she and Ben.

All the while, the Whills whispered softly into her ear.

There were no words exchanged with the whisper, only feeling, only an innate understanding of what had just passed. And she knew then, the cell matter they'd pulled from the Sith were the microscopic conduits for the Force and without them, the Sith had no access to the Force itself.

Rey breathed deeply, inhaling the midichlorians, feeling an immediate sharpening of her senses. She and Ben moved as one, thought as one, breathed in the energy as one. And they focused on repeating the process in a simultaneous midichlorian purge of each of the dozen cloaked Sith standing before them.

Malak's Force Drain stopped abruptly, his outstretched hand falling limply to his side. The hatred in those cold eyes would have frightened her before, but there was no room inside of her overflowing consciousness for fear. So, when he charged at them now, saber in hand, she hardly batted an eye.

He leaped at her, using his size and strength to launch himself with the intention of knocking her down with sheer muscle. But without the Force, he was like an unarmed child in the middle of a blaster fight. He was just an unfortunate obstacle to be cleared to avoid casualties.

Rey waved a hand and he was brushed aside. His cloak whipped with the change in trajectory, the crack of it echoing across the World Between Worlds, as six feet of powerful Sith Lord was simply batted out of the air. He slid, boots squealing along the glassy floors of the black In Between as he flailed, trying to stop himself from skidding.

She heard him groan from someplace far away, but she couldn't be sure because she was already focused again. She and Ben continued the work of drawing each tiny speck of energy to the surface of the bodies of the Sith, until a million golden lights winked into the air like stars against the black blanket of space. Each tiny light was like a drop of pure Force and she and Ben continued to breathe it in. As the purge continued and the midichlorians were transferred to she and Ben, the Sith could only watch as their power slipped away.

Darth Nihilus ghosted toward them, brandishing his saber and Ben was quick to disarm him, pulling it right from his grasp. Nihilus reacted reflexively, extending his arm in the direction his weapon had been thrown, reaching out with spidery fingers, feeling, manipulating.

But nothing happened.

His hand clamped down into a fist and he brought his arm stiffly back to his side, standing silent. She felt the chill of his gaze through that unearthly mask of his and she didn't need to reach out with the Force to know he was positively seething.

Darth Maul widened his stance and flicked on his saber staff, bathing his savage expression in a scarlet glow. He glanced back at the remaining Sith, and nodded. Then, as one, they charged. Black cloaks and leathers flapping behind them, pounding boots against the ground and the hiss of plasma blades activating, they came together in a line, a tactical formation meant to intimidate, to overwhelm. Because without the Force, the Sith could only hope to overpower Rey and Ben with sheer brute strength.

Rey felt her heart shudder to a halt in her chest, the briefest flash of fear causing it to skip a beat before she was wrapped in the warm embrace of the Force and that flicker of panic was gone. If Rey faltered, caving into fear, Ben was there to reinforce her focus. If Ben slipped into anger, then she was there to center him. This was what it meant to be One. To be The Prime Jedi.

As the charging mass of Sith closed in on them, Ben and Rey lifted their hands in unison, palms out flat.

The Sith hit an invisible wall. She heard the wind being crushed from their lungs, expelled in a chorus of wheezes and gasps as they crashed backwards. Maul collapsed onto his back, his saber clattering across the slick floor and he stayed that way for several seconds, shaking his head to clear it. And Rey knew he was reaching for the Force, calling on his pain and hatred to try to manipulate it, but all he could do was scowl.

One by one, the weakened Sith tried their luck against the Prime Jedi. Each falling to the same fate as Darth Malak, Nihilus, and Maul. They were cast aside like sand flies with a backhanded swat.

And finally, when they lay beaten and weaponless, their Force sensitivity extinguished, Darth Malak and the rest of the Sith clutched their injuries, glaring as they silently plotted their next move.

But Rey knew that move would never come. There was nothing they could do. The Sith were trapped in the World Between Worlds with no way to access the Force. They were safer and more isolated here than in the highest level cell in any maximum security prison in the galaxy.

When Rey was finally satisfied they had done what they needed to, she deactivated her saber, noting that she hadn't even needed it, as she clipped it to her belt.

Darth Malak coughed violently from where he lay collapsed on the glossy floors fifty feet away. She felt the familiar chill of his gaze as it drifted over her body, slowly studying her with gradually widening eyes.

"Well, apprentice," Malak said, his rasping breath harsh through his modulator. "It looks like you've managed to surprise me again. After all these years."

And Rey knew he had felt her Force as strong as he ever had. He'd put the pieces together to realize she and Bastila Shan were the same being somehow. The Prime Jedi had been re-formed to bring back order within the Force and he had failed again.

But there was something else in that gaze, something slightly curious in the way he was studying them.

She turned to Ben, her head spinning from the sensation of light and power still coursing through her and she realized, he was glowing. It was as though sunlight itself covered his exposed skin in a thin layer of liquid radiance. Looking down at herself she saw the same phenomena twinkling across her own skin.

Ben blinked a few times as he stared down at her arms, then at his own hands. He spread them flat, turned them over, watching the light waft from him in shimmering waves. Once satisfied this was their current reality, his gaze finally connected with hers. The smile he gave her in that moment was like a treasure she never knew she'd been seeking. It unfolded gradually, as though its slow reveal was something precious to savor. And when he stood before her with that smile, the dimple in his cheek on full display, she couldn't stop from throwing herself into his arms right there.

He lifted her easily and spun her, crushing her to him as their Force remained in close synchrony letting their emotions bleed through into each other.

Ben placed her down again and Rey turned back to the fallen Sith she'd once called master. "It was the will of the Force itself, Malak."

He seemed slightly disgusted by this answer as his eyebrows drew together, casting a severe angle across his brow.

"So," he said, only getting a single word out before stopping to clutch at his throat, his raspy breath mutating into a rattling cough. "You are the Prime Jedi then?"

And even though Malak could hardly take a breath, Rey could tell by the frustrating lilt of sarcasm he used to twist the words Prime Jedi that he was taunting her. He lay beaten, sprawled out on the floor with no hope of ever returning to the living realm, but he was using that tone of sarcastic derision she was so familiar with.

What was he hiding? What did he know that she didn't?

"You're beaten, Malak" she said. "There's nothing more to be done. No one else for you to manipulate and no way for you to escape this In Between. You and the rest of the Sith will live out your days here together."

His eyes crinkled at their corners as if he was enjoying some private joke. Then he pushed himself up to sit, clutching at a pain in his side.

Narrowing those steel-grey eyes at her, he studied her reaction to his next words with an unfettered intensity. "It seems even the Prime Jedi can't save everyone."

Then he laughed, his voice a mechanical rolling sound, coarse and grating, as it echoed throughout the In Between. It pierced through the warm haze of joy, the hum of power in her veins and a chill erupted across her skin, sending goosebumps in waves down her arms.

If Darth Malak could smile, he would have as his words struck home. A shock of ice speared straight into her heart as the realization of what she had forgotten nearly overpowered her.

And she gasped a name into the World Between Worlds.

"Finn."