Chapter Twelve

Rey was in a dark place. Mist clung to the ground and she couldn't see very far in any given direction. She wasn't sure quite how long she had been there. Every moment seemed to bleed into the next. She stepped slowly across the midnight plane, unsure of where she was going or whether she was even going anywhere. Her feet, when she could see them, made little swirling eddies in the mist as she walked.

Rey heard a familiar cackle through the fog, cold and confident, and picked up the pace, unclipping the lightsaber from her belt. The dark mist drew open around her and Palpatine stood in front of her, still withered and pale. "I've been waiting for you, granddaughter," he said.

"I am no granddaughter of yours!" Rey shouted and ran at him. Her lightsaber bit through his robes and his body dissolved into dust, swirling out in all directions. It began to reform all around Rey as dark, hooded figures. She could make out faces under some of the hoods; beneath others was only darkness. Around her, lightsabers ignited, one or two at a time until Rey was bathed in red light from the blades. The figures began to close in on her. At first she held her ground, parrying and slashing against the dark tide, but the open ring around her was growing smaller, and she could see no end to the sea of Sith. As soon as she struck one down, another filled its place. The swarm was consuming her. Rey stumbled backwards, barely avoiding a hot red blade. And then somehow she was on her knees, blue saber held defensively over her head, and the blows were coming from all sides.

Suddenly all the figures lifted into the air, rising away from her, and slammed to the ground, dissolving into the dust from which they had come. A single masked figure stalked toward her, the mist parting in his wake. Kylo Ren. Rey pulled herself to her feet and raised her lightsaber, panting. As she advanced, he ignited his own blade in a flurry of red sparks. Rey took the offensive. She noticed that though Kylo Ren was quick to catch her strikes, he rarely attempted blows of his own. Still, neither had landed a hit. Their bodies flew around each other, churning the fog. They were perfectly matched in skill and strength. Rey wasn't sure how much longer her stamina would last. Pulling herself back from the duel, she sheathed her blade. Kylo Ren did the same, and he reached out for Rey as she stepped toward him. Before he could react, she ignited her saber and drove the hungry blade through his chest. She could hear as his breathing caught and then he collapsed to the ground, half-shrouded in mist.

Rey knelt next to him and pulled his head into her lap. With trembling fingers she removed his mask. She wasn't sure what she had expected to find underneath, but this wasn't it. Not Supreme Leader Kylo Ren. This was Ben Solo, and he wore the face of a frightened boy, stilled with death.

"Ben…" Rey breathed, her voice hitching in her throat. She brushed a strand of hair out of his face and then slid his eyelids down, covering his dark, staring eyes. Hot tears were welling up in her eyes but they didn't have time to fall because another figure was standing over her, illuminating them both in red.

Rey stood. She was weary of fighting but raised her lightsaber defiantly. The figure staring back at her…was her, clothed in darkness and wielding a spitting double-bladed saber. Then this other version of Rey lunged toward her and their blades clashed, and Rey could quickly feel herself tiring as she tried to keep up with her double's aggressive agility. She tried to Force-shove the other away from her, and suddenly found her opponent's body stiff with blue electricity emanating from her fingertips. The face distorted and wrinkled under the force of her lightning until it was not her own face but Palpatine's, and she realized that she was the one dressed in black and holding the double bladed red saber. She broke off her attack, staring down at herself. Then she saw Palpatine, turn away from her, toward something behind her. He drew his own saber. "You brought me the girl," he said. "Your role is done."

Palpatine launched himself toward…toward Ben. For a moment, Rey was elated. Ben was here, alive. Then fury coursed through her. How dare he, this man who claimed to be her family. Ben was more family than this grandfather who had robbed her of any semblance of a normal life. She leapt in front of Palpatine, sabers blazing as rage fueled her attack. Her world was dim and red. Nothing mattered other than eliminating the Emperor. No one could stand against her. His saber caught her own inches from his neck. She was frozen for a second, watching his hood burn, and then she snapped her second blade around, bringing them both together through Palpatine's neck. She whirled, seeing Ben standing behind her. Without knowing quite why or what she was doing, she turned on him. Her saber cut through him in a clean arc. He dropped to his knees, but didn't seem to feel her blow. Snarling, she brought her saber through his body again and again and again, until the ache of exhaustion caught up with her. The saber dropped from her fingers and she fell to the ground next to Ben.

He gathered her in his arms. Weakly, Rey tried to push him away, but his hands were gentle and firm. And then her chest heaved with dry sobs. Ben held her tighter, and Rey buried her face in his shirt. She was tired, too tired to be angry, too tired to care. Her tight shoulders slumped. Her black cloak dissolved, leaving her in tattered white as the same dark dust swirled out and away from her, slowly materializing into the same hoards of Sith she had already fought.

Rey's hands groped for a lightsaber but Luke's had vanished and so had her red one.

"I'll protect you," Ben whispered into her hair, so softly that Rey could have imagined it. He got to his feet, igniting Leia's saber before the Sith Lords of the past. Rey stood behind him, feeling helpless and weary, throwing enemies away from Ben's back. He was a skilled fighter and so was she, but it wasn't enough. They were already losing ground. And then somewhere, through the crowd of hoods and the mist, she spotted a blue glow.

"Rey, Rey!" He was fighting his way through the hoard, Luke's lightsaber in hand.

"Finn!" He threw something at her, and instinctively she pulled it from the air with one hand. An unfamiliar lightsaber hilt. She ignited it. The blade was gold.

Finn burst into the little circle Ben and Rey had kept clear, and the three of them stood back to back, sabers drawn against the approaching tide of Sith.

Author's Note: so if you're confused as all heck, I don't blame you. All I'll say—I don't want to give too much away—is this is what Rey's experiencing. Dreams, hallucinations, the afterlife, you decide.