KEYnotes: Sidious told Maul a lot of incorrect information that has officially placed Maul as one of the most confused characters I've ever written. In the Rise of Skywalker Rey's dad is revealed as Sidious's non-Force sensitive clone :D
Chapter 8 - Harbingers of the Chaos
Darth Maul had never been thankful for a droid's existence until the little thing came in beeping about the girl -who was meant to become his apprentice- finally leaving the Temple.
Maul had mixed feelings about taking the girl on, one because she was too strong, and two because his own training didn't include the seducing of his victims.
His victims had two fates, a quick death or a slow death, both concluded in the same way.
But Darth Sidious was growing evermore wrathful as his political endeavours came to a standstill. Maul had no leeway to break out on his own as his Master attempted to train him in the more subtle techniques of training a student in the Sith arts without torture.
At times, he found it tedious, at others he wondered how anyone could pursue the Dark Side like this. Sidious wanted him to plant the seeds of hatred in her heart, make her see reason that the Jedi were evil slavers, and one day teach her to hate them all as much as he did.
To accept pain and fear as a way to build one's power to defeat their enemies.
For months now Maul had been living on Coruscant in the shadow of the Jedi Temple. His Master refusing him even the pastime of picking off the foolish strays who wandered too far from their Order.
But no, his sole focus had to be the girl.
He had come to hate her, more than almost any other, but in this instance, for the first time, his hatred wasn't helpful to him. In order to seduce her to the Dark, he had to learn to let go of his hatred.
Letting go of his hatred was not his strong suit, and just the act of trying, left him feeling unbalanced.
And there it was, the object of his discontent, the girl: three buns, plain face, bright eyes, dressed cleanly in grey and white. She had no saber that he could discern, she was only armed with a staff.
She walked through the crowd in one of the shopping districts that catered to those who served the rich. There were stands of exotic foods from across the galaxy, and goods that consisted of the practical to shiny bobbles of no imaginable use.
She took it in -wide eyed, her attention jumping from thing to thing like a child let out of the house for the first time.
Maul stayed in the shadows, her opposite in every way. His black robes to her pale ones, his dual bladed saber to her hermit's staff, his sneering face to her open and friendly one.
And she smiled a lot, at everyone she passed, and all who met her gaze returned her smile, sometimes warmly, and sometimes surprised, after all having a Jedi Padawan acknowledging their existence wasn't an everyday occurrence.
Because this was Coruscant, and dressed as she was, there was no way to mistake her for anything else other than one of the esteemed Jedi.
It was disgusting.
He trailed her, having to fall back behind corners, groups of people, and stands as she kept looking around her.
One would think she was taking stock of a planetarium, not a common market place of which there were thousands across Coruscant alone.
He watched her stop at a flower stand and gently touch a finger to one of the petals. She looked completely and utterly peaceful.
He pulled back leaning against a column.
Peace was a lie.
Everything the girl knew or was, was a lie.
He didn't want to train her, he wanted to destroy her.
He wanted to take all her smiles, all the light she wrapped around herself, all of that deceitful peace and snuff her out with it.
This girl who knew nothing of pain or loss or fear, whose illusion of peace came out of the suffering of the galaxy.
He was the Sith, he was Darth Maul, the hammer that would break the wheel the Jedi strangled the galaxy with.
Only through destruction could balance be restored to the Force.
This girl was the pinnacle of all that he hated.
"Hello, did you want to speak with me?"
Maul jolted back. Fisting his hands at his side, it took everything he had to not pull his saber and strike her down.
He looked down into her hazel eyes and wanted nothing more than to kill her.
And he could have done too, she was too close to defend herself.
He felt his power building in response to his emotions and couldn't have spoken even if he had the words his Master had been teaching him on his tongue.
But the girl seemed to take his silence as acknowledgement. "Sorry if I'm bothering you, I just kept noticing you. Have we met before?"
Had she really remembered him from Naboo? He would have sworn she hadn't seen him, a glimpse of his robes at most.
"No," he said, his voice -despite himself- coming out as a growl.
His Master had forbade him from growling at her.
My apprentice, your goal is to compel her to the Dark Side, not intimate her.
Which was not how his Master had trained him.
But despite his tone, the girl was far from being intimidated.
Smiling, she held out her hand, "Well then, it's nice to meet you, I'm Rey."
By the Force, he wanted to murder her.
But no matter what little sense he saw in his Master's instructions for this mission, he would remain loyal. As long as Sidious kept winning at any rate.
Muscles aching from the need to wrend this small human into so many little pieces, he took her hand in his.
The moment their skin touched the Force seemed to equalize between them.
The Dark, the Light, the Force washed over them like a warm breeze.
He was reluctant to take his hand back, wanting to explore that feeling that was to him neither Jedi nor Sith.
"Maul," he said, the energy he had been building within was still there but no longer directed at her.
She grinned, as if he said something that made her happy.
He scowled, but before his anger could be redirected back at her, the thought came that she had been pleased he had given only one name that was as short as her own.
Had he just skimmed her thoughts?
He fervently hoped she couldn't glimpse his, he still wanted to kill her.
It was the principal of who he was.
"I don't go out into the city much," -he knew this all too well- "Do you know anywhere good to eat?"
He stared at her.
It couldn't be that easy?
He gave the slightest of nods, thinking she might be leading him into a trap.
But he could feel her through the Force, and there was no intent for harm. She had no shielding to speak of, which didn't matter much considering how powerful she was.
Was she truly as strong as Darth Sidious?
He strode ahead, his shoulders tight as she followed at his back close behind.
He wished his mission was to kill her, he could lead her anywhere and she wouldn't know she was in danger until it was too late.
Instead of a trap, however, he led her to a pub he frequented.
It was a busy place, loud, but not deafeningly so. People came here for the food more than the spirits.
Maul liked it here because no one ever asked personal questions. This was not a high crime area, this was where the working class went when they wanted to drop their friendly and subservient roles they had to play at their various jobs.
As a result, Rey was one of three humans in a packed space of thirty life signatures.
She didn't seem bothered by this as they found an empty table against the far wall.
The waiter waded over on undulating limbs and asked in a gruff tone, "What'ill be?"
She ordered some type of fried vegetable with hot dip, already reaching for the credits. Unlike many on Coruscant from the wealthy walks of society, she apparently knew enough to pay upfront.
Their waiter named a sum.
Rey scoffed at him, and jabbed a thumb behind her, "That's not what he paid."
At least, Maul thought as he observed her, she was somewhat intelligent.
"He's not a Jedi scum."
Her smile turned vicious, "Of course, he's also not the one who is going to purchase a second meal here this evening."
The waiter grumbled as he took the correct sum, before turning to Maul who flipped him the usual amount for his usual order.
Once they were alone, Rey asked, "So, are you going to tell me why you've been trailing me?"
He just looked at her, waiting for what she would do, wondering if she could feel him as clearly as he felt her.
She leaned back in her seat, "Nice robes. While common at the Temple, you're the first person I've seen who isn't a Jedi on this planet to be wearing them."
She was fishing, he let her.
Because she had just told him that, yes, she could feel him through the Force.
His shielding wasn't as good as his Master's, but no other Jedi he had ever passed before had sensed him.
"What's your profession?" she asked.
What was he supposed to say to that? He couldn't remember what Sidious had instructed him to say. He hadn't expected to get her alone and talking to him this soon after meeting. So he said something he could pretend to be, "Bounty hunter."
She relaxed, and only then did he notice she had been tense.
Although, he hadn't sensed any fear from her in the Force.
"Know many bounty hunters, young Jedi?"
"Quite a few actually. I lived on Tatooine before moving to the Temple."
Their waiter came back then, placing their food down, he gave Rey an odd look but with less animosity than he had approached her with. It was easy to despise the Jedi on this planet, living with as much wealth as the senators.
But Rey was not wholly of their ilk.
She wasn't lost to them, not yet.
Maul pulled back his hood as he reached for his food.
He felt her gaze on him and he looked up to see her look of interest.
He could feel her intense curiosity through the Force.
But she didn't ask about his horns or tattoos as she reached for something on her plate that only vaguely looked like it might have been a vegetable at one point.
She closed her eyes for a moment, savouring the food.
Maul was pleased by this small show of emotion.
This was not a girl who had the passion ironed out of her, she was not yet a drone to the hive mind of the Jedi.
As they ate in silence, he felt himself sink into the sensation of her presence. He couldn't think of the last time he shared a meal with someone. Yes, he had eaten around others often enough, but the only person he had any true connection to was his Master.
He had stood by as his Master ate, but Darth Sidious would sooner have him starve to death than share a meal.
Hunger, of course, being just another tool to fuel his powers.
But as he ate with Rey, he thought it was a companionable silence that grew between them.
He wondered if she were truly fearless or too trusting to sense her peril.
When they had finished, she asked, "Are you from Coruscant?"
"No," he answered.
She deflated a bit, and he realized she wasn't going to press him with personal questions.
Sighing, he told her what many could have told her later based solely off of his description, "I'm a Dathomirain Zabrak."
She perked up, "Dathomirian?"
"Dathomir is a planet in the far Outer Rim."
"What's it like?"
He could hardly remember, Darth Sidious had taken him as an apprentice when he was young. He didn't even remember his birth name. He just knew that if the Jedi ever ventured that far from their precious Temple, they would have slaughtered almost all his people who would not have joined the Jedi Order. Zabraks, especially their females, were Force sensitives.
The only strong Force users in the central rungs of the galaxy who could not hide themselves were Jedi, all others were killed or imprisoned.
"I don't remember," he said, voice low, "I left to help my people. To make the galaxy a safer place for them."
Play to her sympathies, his Master had commanded him. He became a Sith for revenge, not because he cared that much for a people he barely remembered.
"I'm sorry to hear that. I don't remember my home either."
She was making this too easy, it made him suspicious.
"Not Tatooine then?"
She shook her head, then reached up to fiddle with her Padawan braid. "I would like to think I'm from somewhere green with trees. Naboo felt familiar to me in a way I hadn't expected. And the jungle is a far cry from the desert dunes."
"How old were you when you lost your family?" Because he could see it in her eyes, the attachments that the Jedi thought they were beyond.
"Around five, or so I'm told."
So not much younger than he had been.
He wanted to know more, Rey was a riddle, and one he needed to solve if he was going to make her his apprentice.
Darth Sidious was the most powerful being in the galaxy.
But Maul was growing tired of his leash.
Rey was powerful, he felt it in his bones, he could use her to destroy his Master. Use her to bring down the Jedi from the inside out.
Her next question, or was it a statement, halted his thoughts, "You're a Force user too then."
How she responded next would be the defining moment, or rather, if she ran crying home to her Jedi, would decide the course of their destiny.
He felt the Force hum between them, as if it waited in anticipation with him.
In a low voice, he said, "Yes, I am."
She smiled, "Glad I'm not the only one the Jedi missed then."
He stared at her, had they threatened her or not?
"Apparently it was a huge exception for me to be training at the Temple at nineteen. Did they offer you a place too?"
"I was neither approached nor would I have accepted if I had been. I have no desire to become a Jedi."
"I suppose not, I can see how it isn't for everyone."
Was she really that unaware to the power dynamic the Jedi had over the galaxy?
Did she believe she had a choice?
And here, it was said the Sith were crafty.
She stood, "I have to go, Maul, but it was good to meet you. Thanks for having dinner with me."
He stood, wanting her to come back with him, to abandon the Jedi. The Force itself sang between them.
She bowed to him, he bowed in return.
Lifting her grey hood, she departed from the pub into the twilight.
Maul was left with the Force beckoning him to follow her.
But he was not the Force's slave, the Force was his weapon.
Darth Sidious had not been having a good year.
His plot for a vote of no-confidence had fallen through. And somehow, Queen Amidala had found the unlikeliest of friends.
Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and Count Dooku.
The latter of which Sidious had been sizing up for years to join as a possible apprentice. But in all his shades of grey, the Jedi Order had tentatively accepted the wayward Master back.
And Queen Amidala was taking unusual council with the Jedi Masters as she pressed her agenda for anti-slavery laws and labour laws.
They weren't huge successes or losses on his part, but it meant that there was no attack he could press on her without the Jedi being immediately alerted.
It also seemed that through Queen Amidala, other systems were realizing the full diplomatic functions of the Jedi Order.
There were parts of the Jedi Temple open to the public, the archives were not among them.
However, if any politician, from any system, asked the Jedi to help them with research for drafting a bill or movement, the Jedi jumped at the chance.
The last year had seen a wave of members of the Republic using the Jedi as other than warriors. For the true power of diplomat came not in their ability to hack and scare, but for their knowledge and historical arguments.
It wasn't, Sidious knew, Padawans scouring the archives, but fully fledged Masters who loved nothing better than to lecture others in the importance of 'peaceful' discourse.
It was the exact opposite of what Sidious needed.
And though, the waves weren't large yet, Sidious saw those ripples for what they were. He would have loved to destroy the stone that had been tossed.
Queen Amidala, being that stone, had to go.
Sidious thought it would be best if her death could be laid at the Jedi's feet. It would take quite a bit of maneuvering to get this done. But he had his ways, he just hoped he had enough time to enact his plans before the individual systems realized the most irksome function of the Jedi were the tongues rather than their sabers.
That Count Dooku had returned to the Jedi fold was a blow to Sidious's game, compounded by Queen Amidala taking up the man's company.
Instead of encouraging his Separatist movent to act in violence, he listened to the young queen's words of hope and charity. And Dooku, as Count and Jedi Master, had at his disposal to make the Queen's daydreams into actuality.
Where people didn't listen to the richly dressed queen, not yet in her twenties, they listened to the elder Count.
Sidious was still holding out hope that Dooku might yet slide back to the Dark. Queen Amidala's 'unfortunate' murder would likely be a good start to get the Count back onto the correct path.
The only thing going right for Sidious this year seemed to be his apprentice's unexpected successful contact with Padawan Rey.
Somehow, Maul had not only managed to make contact with her, but form a bond with the child.
The Jedi broke their own rules in taking in such an older student, her ample ignorance of the galaxy, of the Force, and of what it meant to be a 'strong' Force user outside of the Jedi Order, would all work toward their advantage.
-What are her weaknesses, my apprentice?
-She is overly trusting, Master. She doesn't know where she is from, but she thinks Naboo might have been her home world.
What a stroke of fortune that was.
-What of her family?
-Lost to her when she was young, I sensed her pain.
-How did they die?
-She didn't specify.
Irritating.
-Anything else?
Maul had been silent.
-Student?
-She thinks the Jedi overlooked her, as they did me. She thinks the Jedi gave her a choice.
-Cunning of them.
Sidious had easily curtailed Maul's suspicion that the Jedi let go of more Force users then it kept. The lie that Jedi killed Force users who didn't join them was simple enough, and he intended to steal Rey as his own apprentice before Maul learned to trust her enough for the truth to be revealed.
If every rumour he heard about this Padawan, if Maul's account, were right, then Rey might be the Chosen One.
He would use her, break her to his will and dismantle the Jedi from the inside out.
Maul was stupid to believe that he would ever have control enough over the girl to turn against him. No, Rey would be Maul's replacement.
A knock came at Sidious's door. Upon opening it, he was greeted by the queen and her handmaidens.
"Ah, my Queen, my apologies. I see that our ship as landed, I was simply lost in my own thoughts."
She spoke in that foolish tone of hers, "I had heard you wished to meet the Jedi heroes of Naboo. They have honoured our request to meet us at our dock."
A zing of pleasure shot through him, he would finally meet the girl and assess her potential for himself.
Captain Panaka shook his head as they walked, "Did you hear the story about Padawan Rey blowing a hole through one of the Temple's outer wall?"
"Rumours, I'm sure," Queen Amidala said.
"No," Panaka disagreed, "It took a week for them to repair it, apparently the lightning was witnessed by many."
Lightning?
He hadn't been away from Coruscant that long had he?
And the girl was already using Sith Lightning a year into her training? How was that even possible? Who had taught her?
Dooku?
Perhaps Maul hadn't been over estimating her powers.
"Are you sure it was the Padawan?"
"Yep, apparently it caused quite the disturbance at the Temple. It takes a lot to rile up the Jedi."
Sidious found himself liking this new apprentice of his more and more.
As they walked off the ship, he felt her through the Force and almost stumbled. He pulled his shields tight around himself.
Maul had warned him that though the girl had no shields of her own, she could see through others with ease. He hadn't worried until he felt her presence like an unfiltered sun in his mind.
He knew immediately that here was a power that could reval his own, but it was wild, unharnessed, the Force hung around her like a too strong perfume.
Even so, it was odd that he sensed her so strongly. Had he paid attention, he would have noticed her even on the ship, but now, safe behind his shields, he still felt her, despite not feeling the other two Jedi.
There was something more to her than power, something more between them that he would one day cultivate into a Master and apprentice bond.
Maul had said she smiled often.
The girl smiled at first the Queen, and then more warmly at one of the handmaidens, but when her gaze fell on him, her smile faded.
There was something familiar about her face. The hazel eyes looked out of place, her face feeling unfinished to him somehow.
The large man who stood a step ahead of both his Padawans bowed to them, hands in his sleeves.
His senior Padawan bowed as well, but the girl remained frozen, transfixed.
Shoving aside his worry that she was somehow seeing through his shields, he dipped his head in turn.
"Master Qui-Gon Jinn. Glad I am to see you again, and to meet your Padawans at long last. The heroes of Naboo," he said in a pleasant tone.
He felt the assault of the girl's emotions like a burst dam. He turned to look at her as she staggered back a step.
Horror dawned across her expression.
Sidious realized why her face seemed so odd to him, she looked like his youngest sister. With that expression, almost exactly as his little sister had looked when he had cut her through, except that Padawan Rey's eyes were hazel, not blue, and she wore not a spec of makeup.
"Rey?" Padawan Kenobi asked, reaching a hand out to her, but the girl stepped away from him.
"Are you quite alright?" Sidious asked, shaking away the pleasant image of his sister's corpse staring blankly up at the ceiling. Jedi rarely wore cosmetics, it shouldn't seem wrong to him that this girl didn't.
"You," she said, and in the word a world of heartbreak.
As much as Sidious enjoyed watching Jedi break down in front of him, he didn't understand the depth of her reaction. "I'm sorry, my dear, have we met before?"
Her eyes seemed to brim with tears, and again, Sidious had to dispell the image of his mother's face as she spent the last moments of her life grieving the life of her poor fool of a husband.
"Rey," Jinn coaxed her, "This is Senator Palpatine of Naboo."
She blinked rapidly, and her horror gave way to fear. Her face was amazingly expressive.
"Palpatine?"
Sidious dreamed of people whispering his name like that, in that most fearful of tones, but he forced his own expression into one of concern. "My dear apprentice, what is wrong?"
She looked around at his entourage, and her fear morphed to anger. It vibrated through the Force like a darkling song, yet as quickly as the anger came, she released it to the Force leaving only pain behind. She squared herself on the edge of the platform.
Sidious had to suppress a sense of victory, she was ripe for the picking, all he had to do was discover the source of this wonderful font of emotions.
"You don't remember me," she stated flatly.
He could still feel her roiling emotions, but he paused, did he know her? Aloud he asked, "Should I?"
A fresh stab of pain, and she flinched as if he had stabbed her with a needle. In a strained voice, she said, "I waited for you. I waited years for you to come back for me, I counted the days."
Sidious was officially confused. He had never met this child before, and he would have remembered encountering a power like hers. "I'm sorry, you must have confused me with someone else."
"You didn't age well," she noted.
You little bitch, he thought, his own expression slipping. "I have not met you before, Padawan."
"Rey," Jinn warned her, responding to his apprentice's mounting pain and anger.
"I thought my memories of you had faded, but I recognize your features, your voice. I guess I know now why Naboo was familiar to me."
At this point, Sidious had lost patience. Yes, the girl's dismal control was amusing, but he was done entertaining her. "Child, we have never met before. I am a stranger to you."
"No," she said, her hazel eyes fathomless, "I am your daughter."
"No," he said automatically, his mind racing, "No. That isn't true." He had always been careful. More firmly, he informed her, "That's impossible."
She smiled, the Force danced to the melody of her sorrow, "I suppose we are strangers, I suppose I never should have waited."
And then she fell backwards, off the platform.
His pulse lurched, and he reached a hand out to her.
"Rey!" Kenobi shouted, before he jumped off the edge after her.
Jinn bowed to them all, "My apologies, Queen Amidala, Senator Palpatine." Then he too leapt off the edge of the platform.
Panaka patted Sidious on the back, "Congratulations, old friend. You're a father."
Sidious fought not to glare at him as he processed what had just happened.
He thought back to twenty years ago and supposed that, no, it wasn't impossible he had sired a child.
And if the girl was his, it would explain why she had reminded him so strongly of his sisters and mother. It might even explain why she was so powerful and why he sensed her so clearly. He knew, theoretically, that Force-sensitivity could be inherited, he even knew that Force sensitive relatives could even form bonds early on.
But what it didn't explain was how the girl recognized him.
I waited for you.
No, the girl was mistaken, Darth Sidious did not have a daughter. But he smiled, that didn't mean he couldn't use this connection to his advantage. Padawan Rey had been abandoned by her father, that would be a role he was all too willing to fill.
He thought over her emotions, tasting them on the back his tongue like the aftertaste of some fine wine.
She would be his apprentice, and the Jedi would regret having brought a Sith among their ranks.
Qui-Gon followed Rey's bleeding emotions, across several docking bays. He felt the odd looks he was receiving but he pushed forward. He found his Padawans on a deserted level, Rey was pacing angrily back and forth.
He felt her inner conflict, and he prayed for the strength, for the right words to convince her to stay with them.
"Rey," he ventured, Obi-Wan gave him a panicked look. Qui-Gon knew at once that Obi-Wan hadn't been able to break through to her.
But at the sound of her Master's voice, she spun to face them, "He's a senator?"
Qui-Gon nodded, "The Senator of Naboo."
Her expression was twisted in pain, and he worried she was going to hyperventilate.
"How rich is he?"
His heart broke. Qui-Gon had never thought Rey would care about capital. That this was her first question after meeting her biological father didn't bode well.
"Why does that matter?" Obi-Wan asked, hurt in his tone as he came to the same conclusion Qui-Gon had. "Rey, calm down, this isn't like you?"
"How rich is he!?" she shouted at him, "He walks with the Queen, his clothes-"
"He is very wealthy," Qui-Gon said, his own tone one of dispair.
It had only been a year, but for her to leave the Order like this… he didn't want to think she was betraying them.
"Did he grow up poor? Is that it? Did he work his way to power?" she asked, anger colouring her voice, tainting her Force signature.
Qui-Gon should have chastised her, but he knew it was already too late, so he answered, "No, the Palpatine family, as far as I understand, has always been a prestigious family on Naboo."
"Palpatine," she hissed, her pacing grew faster, as she repeated, "Palpatine, Palpatine. Rey Palpatine. She said that, I remember, she said that. Rey Palpatine, she said one day the galaxy would know that name."
Worry flooded Qui-Gon. Rey was dangerous, exceedingly so if she left the Order now. A year of training wasn't much, but if she went to Naboo and followed in her father's footsteps... pursuing power over peace.
What had he done? Qui-Gon couldn't survive another Xanatos, he couldn't.
"Rey," Obi-Wan choked out, reaching for her.
She stopped, and looked at them, face hard and voice low as she asked, "Is he in danger, is being a senator dangerous?"
Qui-Gon couldn't rightly process the question and Obi-Wan answered for him, "What do you mean, dangerous? There is always the chance in politics something might happen like the Trade Federation taking over Naboo, but no, being a senator, at least of that planet, isn't dangerous."
"Then why?" She was shouting again, "Why!?"
Qui-Gon still couldn't speak, this was all happening too fast. Obi-Wan straightened his shoulders, "Why what, Rey?"
"Why did they sell me into slavery!?"
The world seemed to freeze.
Through the bond, Qui-Gon finally understood her pain, her wildfire of emotions.
I waited years for you to come back for me, I counted the days.
She motioned above them, "Why does a man like that sell his own daughter into slavery? I couldn't have been worth much, the last thing they said to me was I would be safe there. But I wasn't safe! Do you know what I had to do to earn my freedom? All the times I nearly-" she put her hands to the sides of her head. "Why? What did I do? What could I have possibly done to deserve being sold?" Tears were rolling down her cheeks, "I loved them. I loved them with all my heart and soul, and they sold me-" her voice broke.
Qui-Gon strode forward to wrap her in his arms. She clutched at his robes, burying her sobs into his chest. He rubbed her back, "Shhh, Rey, shhh, you were a child, there's nothing you could have done to deserve that. Nothing."
She wrapped her arms around him, her entire body shaking, as she gave herself to the grief.
Qui-Gon held her as close as he could, trying to keep her from breaking alone.
Senator Sheev Palpatine sold his daughter into slavery?
Why?
And why, if she was such a powerful Force sensitive, didn't he just give her to the Jedi Order? If she really had been in some type of danger, the Temple would have kept her safe.
Tatooine was no place for a child, and there was no reason good enough to sell one's child into slavery, wealthy or no.
Obi-Wan came to them, putting a hand on Rey's shoulder, "We're here for you, Rey. You'll never be alone again."
Qui-Gon opened his arms wide enough that Obi-Wan could hold her too. Qui-Gon held onto both his Padawans, he opened the bonds between them, letting the Force flow freely. The Force took their pain as Rey cried out her heart, released the poison that coloured her past.
He didn't know for sure that she might not still leave the Order, but Qui-Gon knew for certain that she would never betray them.
Not as she herself had been betrayed.
She was going insane.
In the initial shock of meeting Senator Palpatine, in remembering him, she hadn't realized how impossible that was.
Over a year had passed since her arrival to Tatooine. Her life from Jakku to Tatooine hadn't changed much. The Jedi, as fiction or truth, hadn't existed in reality on either. She hadn't realized how far she let herself slip into the idea that she wasn't from the future, that she hadn't time travelled back nearly a century into the past.
So here were the crossroads, either Senator Palpatine wasn't her father, and her childhood memories had betrayed her, who she was from the correct timeline, not a time traveller, and just bloody insane with no explanation of why her memories were what they were of Jakku.
Rey Palpatine.
The name rung true, that was her name. Her mother's wish that she make something more out of it, be remembered for the good, not the evil, unlike...
Emperor Palpatine.
Surely, that couldn't be right, surely the would be Emperor of the galaxy was not a relative of hers. Was Senator Palpatine the right age to be the Emperor himself? What did that mean? And it made even less sense than anything else that the Emperor of the galaxy would sell his kin on a planet as insignificant as Jakku.
She held onto Master Jinn. She was safe here, with Master Jinn and Obi-Wan. She reached for their bonds, giving her fears and her pain to the Force as they had taught her.
Trying desperately to come to terms with these new revelations. Trying to make sense of them. Could she remain a whole person, even if reality bent around her?
She wanted to explain her fears, wanted to voice them, and be told it was alright and they would keep her anyway.
But if her own father would sell her into slavery, what hope could she have that Master Jinn and Obi-Wan would keep her when they realized how completely broken her grasp on reality was?
AN: Reactions, thoughts, any feedback at all for this aspiring Jedi, please?