Chapter Twenty Three – Wars End
Ben Solo walked cautiously into the Theed Palace, lit only by starlight and the flickering red light of his saber. He saw Rey standing in the dark, lit only by her saber. It was strange for Ben who could usually feel her presence from across the galaxy, to look right at her and barely feel her. Going by the Force alone he would barely know she was there. In her place he could feel only a spirit he had long known as Snoke. But it was as though a mask had come off. Snoke had always presented himself as cold, patient, ruthless and wise. He had always recognized the malevolence in Snoke, but had thought it was but one aspect of a larger whole. But from the Rey who stood in front of him Ben Solo could feel only hate, an endless, all-consuming hatred of everything in the universe but itself. He thought for a moment that he would never have fallen for Palpatine's deception if he had presented himself this way, but then a voice in his head told him he had been, before today, always too blind to see what had always been there.
Even without the Force, however, Ben would have seen there was something wrong with Rey. Her stance was predatory, not the graceful but resolute stance he had grown used to those past five years. Her face, the face he had pictured when he was alone for so long, was twisted into a sneer that he would not have thought possible for her delicate features. Here was his enemy. Here was everyone's enemy.
Rey advanced towards him, saying, "Ah, young Solo. Here to kill me again? Will you cut her in half too, my new host?" with a harshness to her voice that Ben had never heard before.
"She doesn't belong to you," Ben said firmly.
"Oh but she does She always has. She was made for this, for me. I should know," Rey said, "for it was I who made her."
"She doesn't belong to anyone but herself. But you…," Ben said, pulling his saber up until it pointed directly at her, "you're mine."
Rey lunged at him, laughing in so sinister a fashion that for a split second Ben felt a pang of sorrow at the thought that, if he was forced to kill her, it would be that laugh that he would hear when he tried to remember Rey. But he only had the time for the split second of worry, for Rey moved at a speed he would have thought impossible. They had fought many times over the years since their first encounter on Starkiller base, including earlier that very day, and Ben had never known Rey to move that quickly. He barely got his blade up to meet hers, and even then his own cross guard ended up perilously close to his own face. He barely had time to think that he was facing not just Rey's power, but also Palpatine's, when another cut came at his right, which he barely blocked with a quick twist of his wrists. It was not only her speed that had him on the defensive, but the power in her blows. In their battle on the wreckage of the Death Star he had been able to overpower her, and essentially pummel her into submission. Now he felt that it was rather he who was at risk of such a defeat. Ben began backing up to give himself space to counter Rey's assaults, making his way slowly towards the exit to the plaza.
Within her mind, Rey was aware of none of what was happening in the palace. She had retreated from the world of the senses into a mental construct, only the mind which had constructed it was not her own. She did not recognize Qui-Gon Jinn, though it was obvious, and not only from his clothes and the setting, that he was a Jedi.
"Who are you?" she asked.
"You cannot hide for long. And you cannot run forever," Qui-Gon said, cutting through her irrelevant question and getting to the heart of the matter, as, unlike Rey, he knew there was not much time. "You will have to defeat him. But you will not be alone. You have never been alone Rey."
As he finished speaking the elevator door opened behind him, revealing the Emperor. For a less well trained and disciplined mind the tactic of hiding in these constructs might have worked, but he was able to locate Rey in her own mind, over which he was quickly gaining control, in only a few moments. Qui-Gon gestured to the window across from Palpatine, the pane of which disappeared as he did so. Then he turned and ignited his green lightsaber.
"But for now, run Rey! Run!" Qui-Gon shouted as he blocked Palpatine's first slash.
Rey went to the window and looked out on the cityscape of Coruscant, quiet and empty here in defiance of reality. It was not obvious to her what she was meant to do, but as she looked over her shoulder she saw Qui-Gon quickly falling back, unable to keep up with the speed and ferocity of the Emperor's assaults. She wanted to turn to help, but she felt powerless. It was as though all her strength had been taken from her, for in truth that was exactly what Palpatine was trying, successfully so far, to do. He had told her to run, this old Jedi, and so she obeyed. She jumped out the window and slid down the building until she reached the balcony below. Above her Qui-Gon was a step too slow and Palpatine stabbed him through the chest. But as his blade entered him, the old master's body seemed to dissolve into blue energy. It flowed away from Palpatine, who was momentarily shocked at this.
When Rey's slide down the building had come to a stop she stood up to look around, and a feeling of peace and hope came over her. She was surrounded by a blue energy coming from above her. She knew Qui-Gon was gone at the same moment she realized his name. She felt strength returning to her, and she knew it was Qui-Gon's strength, strength he had left behind for her as he had become one with the Force. She looked up at the council chamber and saw Palpatine, his black robes fluttering, standing in the window. For a second she panicked, knowing Qui-Gon was no longer there to help her. But then, she thought to herself, he was not gone. He was there, within her, and then she knew what she had to do. As Palpatine jumped down to the balcony Rey leapt off of it. For a second it appeared to her that she was falling towards the roof of the temple far below her, and she closed her eyes. But when she opened them, she found herself in a world on fire.
Meanwhile, Ben and a Palpatine possessed Rey did battle in the plaza. Ben was managing to just barely keep his defenses up against the lightning fast and brutally savage lightsaber attacks, but was completely unable to effectively counter-attack. The thought briefly crossed his mind that he should run, try to get to Falcon, try to get off this world and just destroy it from space. But the fact that so cowardly a thought had occurred to him enraged him. His rage in turn added to his strength and he was able with his next block to push Rey backwards creating space between them. This just led to lightning erupting from Rey's free hand, which Ben caught with his blade while he backed away, towards the bridge to Padme's tomb. Rey needed his help, Ben thought to himself, and to offer any help he had to somehow stay alive while keeping Palpatine engaged. Not attacking, not trying to kill his opponent went against every instinct he had developed since adopting the name Kylo Ren, but there were deeper instincts, older knowledge from what seemed like another life, that were springing to life.
After her plunge from the Temple Rey found herself standing on a landing pad for some installation built on the edge of a cliff. Below it a river of lava flowed slowly by. The cloud cover was so thick she had no idea whether it was day or night. It was, though Rey did not know it, the facility at which Anakin and Obi-Wan had once had their fateful duel. After a few seconds of standing alone, looking out over the lava field, Rey turned and saw a bearded figure in brown robes looking at her.
"Well hello there," Obi-Wan Kenobi said while bowing gracefully to her.
While Rey did not recognize the place or the person, there was one thing about him that was familiar. "I heard your voice, when I touched the saber, that first time."
Obi-Wan nodded and said, "Those were your first steps. These will be my last. And if you can find the strength Rey, they will also be his."
Obi-Wan motioned with his head towards the opposite side of the platform, where Rey could see Palpatine. His black robes blended in almost perfectly with the clouds and the black, rocky ground, but the sickly paleness of his skin stood out. Ob-Wan turned towards him and with a flick of his wrist a lightsaber appeared in his hand and turned on.
"Now go! This is a battle long prepared for, and there are those awaiting your arrival," Obi-Wan said.
Obi-Wan walked calmly towards the Dark Lord of the Sith, putting his second hand on his saber as they drew close. The two began fighting and it was immediately clear to Rey that Obi-Wan, while Qui-Gon's superior with the saber, would not be able to stand against Palpatine for long. She turned to look forward, seeing the door into the facility, and ran towards it. It opened automatically and she ran through it, already anticipating that it would lead her to some other place entirely, and being very surprised when the other side of the door was a cave.
The air was dank and musty. As she climbed up and out she wondered who she would meet this time. Then, as she grabbed one of the roots protruding from the soil, she was surrounded and filled once again by the blue light. She knew then who she had seen there on Mustafar. As Obi-Wan's spirit merged with the Force, his strength and knowledge merged with her, and without meaning to Rey uttered the last word that had been in Obi-Wan's mind as he departed.
"Satine," she whispered.
Rey stopped for a moment, overcome by the sadness of Obi-Wan's life. But even greater than the sadness had been the determination, and she knew she owed the same to him now. She pulled herself up out of cave and beheld someone she would have recognized on her own, even apart from Obi-Wan's knowledge. Yoda sat on a large rock near the cave entrance, tracing lines on the stone with this walking stick.
When she emerged from the cave he looked up and said, "A long time have I waited. Pleasant it is to meet you, Rey."
"Master Yoda, I…I don't want you to…," Rey started to say.
"Hush young one. Not much time there is. Calm yourself you must," Yoda said gently.
"Nothing can stop him, he is too powerful," Rey said. "We have to run."
"Stop him you will. All the strength you need have you. Fear not Rey. Slowing him we are," Yoda said. "Slowing him is Ben Solo."
Ben was busy slowly retreating under Rey's assault, the combination of her innate power with Palpatine's strength and knowledge, being too much for him to withstand for long.
"You have failed, utterly. Your uncle was stronger than this, as was your mother. You are truly the least of your family," Palpatine said through Rey.
Ben used the time taken to make the taunt to steady himself as he walked backwards up the arc of the bridge to the tomb. He smiled grimly and said, "She's in there. I can feel her fighting you."
With a growl Possessed Rey said, "She runs, others fight, and others fall. As will you. And when this little distraction of yours ends, so shall she."
Ben spun his blade cockily in his hand as he stared at Rey, saying, "Seeing ghosts?" Their blades locked, bringing their faces closer together. Ben grimaced and Palpatine's cruel smile spread across Rey's face. Ben's grimace turned slowly into a snarl as he said, "Before the night is out, you'll join them."
Ben spun away from Rey and continued to walk backwards towards his grandmother's tomb.
The real Rey, trapped in her mind, looked around the thickly wooded swamps of Dagobah, trying to find somewhere to run. In the distance she could see the light in Yoda's small hut.
"Calm. Peace. Teachers you have had. Lessons you were taught. Remember them you must," Yoda said serenely.
Rey closed her eyes, trying to find her center, to find balance. As she did so Palpatine emerged slowly from the cave, uncertain about where he was and so uncertain about who he would have to face next. When he saw Yoda his face twisted with rage, but also, for the first time, with fear.
Yoda, seemingly unconcerned, turned to Rey and said, "Time you still have. Old friends to find. Go."
Rey ran towards the hut as Palpatine unleashed a storm of Force Lightning at Yoda, who calmly caught it in his outstretched, clawed hand. Lifting his walking stick in his other hand, he called forth boulders and several huge trunks of dead trees from the water, and shot them towards Palpatine, who used the Force to push them to either side of him. Rey took a look behind her as the two masters of the Force ripped up the landscape around them to make war on one another. Palpatine screamed in desperate fury, while Yoda made no sound at all.
Rey passed through the door and emerged into the Emperor's throne room on the Death Star, the place where Anakin had been redeemed and Palpatine had been condemned to his spectral existence. She found herself on the catwalk above the throne, and below her she saw a youthful Luke, clad all in black, looking back up at her.
'Luke!" Rey shouted as she ran to the stairs and then down them. When she reached him he smiled warmly at her. She found herself suddenly overcome with sadness at the thoughts of the sacrifices of the Jedi she had just seen. "Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon Jinn, they…," she started to say.
Luke put a hand on her shoulder and said, "Did as they planned to do. They went willingly, and not in vain. Do you understand?"
"I can feel them, feel their memories, feel what they felt," Rey said.
"That was their goal. They stayed long enough to guide those coming up behind them; me, Leia, you," Luke explained.
"Then why didn't they give what they had to you?" Rey asked.
"The time was not right. When I faced the Emperor, if I had failed, Leia would have been there to carry on the struggle, to keep the flame burning. They give themselves now, because you are the last Jedi, because you are our only hope. And because now, tonight, we can finally win. We can finally destroy him," Luke answered.
Rey had more questions and was about to ask them when the blue light returned, brighter than before. She fell to her knees, overwhelmed as Yoda passed on all that he knew, all that remained of who he had been. She looked up at Luke with tears in her eyes and said, "Nothing can stop him! He's coming and nothing can stop him!"
Luke took her gently by the arms and lifted her up. He smiled at her again and said, "All the old Jedi live on in you now. It will be for you to pass on what you have learned. And we can beat him Rey. We are so very close now, closer than we have ever been."
"I can't beat him; I can't even fight him! And all of you, its not fair, you shouldn't have to die because of me. I was a fool. I let him trick me into coming here," Rey cried.
"We all died already Rey. Don't grieve them now. They got to pass on, as they have wanted to for a long time. As I will soon as well. This is the duty of all, to carry on the legacy of those who came before, and to leave behind something better for those who come after. And you can beat him, but you won't do it alone," Luke said.
"But you're leaving. I waited so long for you and you're leaving me," Rey said.
"We were always with you, but we couldn't show you," Luke said.
"Why!?" Rey cried.
"Because if we had we would have shown him," Luke said.
Rey thought for a moment and said, "You meant for this to happen, for him to take me."
"No, but we knew it might. Some of us hoped Ben would be the one to do it, even after…my failure with him. Some of us hoped that we would be able to leave you be, and just let you live," Luke said.
"Ben?" Rey said. "I think, I think I…"
"You didn't," Luke said. "You came close, but what you really did was set him free."
"Yoda said that he was fighting Palpatine," Rey said questioningly.
"I can't think of anyone better suited to the fight, except that I don't think he really has the heart to hurt you," Luke said. "Not anymore."
Rey nodded and smiled slightly. "He's coming, isn't he? Palpatine."
"He'll be here soon," Luke said. "I think he knows I'll be next. He's psyching himself up," he finished saying with a smile.
"I'll stand with you. You don't have to face him alone. We'll do it together," Rey said hopefully. "Then you can stay. You can stay with me."
Luke took Rey's hands, put them together and then closed his hands around them. "No Rey. You will go on. There are others waiting for you, and you will need them. And you will need me, just as you needed Yoda, and Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon."
As Luke finished speaking, but before Rey could object, the elevator door to the throne room opened, revealing the Emperor. Luke smiled and let go of Rey's hands. He strode confidently forward, his green lightsaber erupting from his right hand, matched by Palpatine's red.
"Darth Sidious," Luke said calmly.
"Master Skywalker," Palpatine said, his voice seeming to tremble ever so slightly.
Luke put both hands on his lightsaber and held it in front of him, daring Palpatine to attack.
Instead of doing so Palpatine hesitated, saying, "She is mine. Give her too me, and you can go. You can maintain whatever existence you have figured out how to achieve."
Luke smirked as he said, "I didn't realize it when I was younger, how afraid you are. Try to take her if you wish. All you have to do is go through me," Luke said, his tone growing more serious with each word.
Palpatine snarled and jumped towards Luke, who spun away from his attack with ease. Twice more Palpatine slashed at him without getting close enough for Luke to even use his blade to block, so quick were his movements. Rey realized she was seeing Luke as he had likely thought of himself for years, the young master, in full possession of his power. This was the Jedi the fear of which had kept Palpatine in the shadows, acting through agents, for decades. She also realized there was a method to Luke's movements. He was drawing Palpatine away from the path to the elevator. Rey wanted more than anything to fight with him. He was so fast and so strong; she could not see how the two of them together could fail. Suddenly her saber was in her hand as she prepared herself to enter the fray.
"No!" came Luke's stern command. "Go now!" Palpatine, hearing this command, suddenly moved towards Rey. She saw his face, scarred, pale, almost rotting, twisted with hate and fear. She saw his saber flashing unbelievably fast, for he too moved here, in this place of the mind, as he had at his peak. Then she saw a blur of black and green, and suddenly Luke was between them, his blade meeting Palpatine's for the first time. She saw the path to the elevator still open, and, against all her own desires, obeyed Luke's command. She ran with all speed towards the elevator, turning as she entered it to see the two of them, leaping and twisting with a grace and power that she had never before thought possible, their sabers just two constantly moving red and green blurs.
At the doorway of the tomb of Padme Amidala her grandson felt his opponent's strength and speed ebbing, and decided that he had reached the moment and the place to make his stand. He felt at that moment, fighting in the shadow of her resting place, stronger than he had ever felt before. He felt the Force flowing through him in a way that he had never managed, not at Luke's school, not under Snoke's tutelage. He felt time begin to blur, the next second and the last blending together into one seamless mass. He had stopped thinking about what to do next, and let himself be taken away by the power flooding through him. If Rey, the real Rey, could have seen him, she would have said he moved just like his uncle.
Far below where Ben was fighting for his life, in the caves beneath Theed, the hunched, miserable guardians of Palpatine's secret lair busied themselves with the machines found in the cave. They had labored there for long years since they had been captured, each one by the First Order. Most had not been old when they arrived, but all seemed old now. Palpatine's trapped spirit, even when some of it had been locked away inside the form of Snoke, had a terrible effect on those who attended him. They were there because they were, like Snoke or Finn, strong enough to feel the Force, but not strong enough to resist Palpatine. They were vessels he could use to contain his essence should disaster ever befall his secret facility there on Naboo. The machines and Sith arcana could not be moved quickly, but any one of them could be possessed and used to board a ship, to start the process of restoring their master to power over again. Had Finn not escaped the First Order when he did, he would likely have ended up as one of them.
But their Force Sensitivity meant that when the Force Ghost of Anakin Skywalker manifested himself among them, they felt it. To beings who had been denied all normal human interaction for most of their lives his presence inspired fear. His implacable determination to see Palpatine fall, once and for all, they misinterpreted as hate and rage. The intensity of his presence and attention felt to them like an assault. Most fell to their knees, crying out for mercy and for release. Anakin looked on them and felt a deep pity for them. He had once been what they were, a broken creature, his true nature perverted to suit the needs of a malignancy which sought immortality. His mind touched each one of theirs, inspected them and, finding no trace of Palpatine save for the psychological scars service to him had created, ordered them to depart. The command came with no words, for those sad beings were too disordered in their minds to converse with Anakin through the Force. Rather it showed up as a sudden compulsion to flee, which those who could, did. Not all could, though the nature of their imprisonment varied. Some were relatively new arrivals, which meant they had arrived in the last decade or so, and were still somewhat resistant to their master's will. For this they had been literally locked away in cells from which they lacked the power to free themselves, but which Palpatine could, if he took hold of them, easily escape. And then there were those who had been there so long, and had been taken at such a young age, that they could muster any will of their own. Their self-interest had been replaced by devotion to the dead Sith Lord, and they had never had the chance to develop any ties or connections to others that could save them, as Anakin himself had been saved. These servants did not leave, and Anakin knew what that meant. He knew it meant he had to remain in the cavern, and await his former master's return.
As the cavern emptied Anakin meditated on the plan which was entering its final stages. He had developed it with Luke in the years of his son's self-imposed exile. Though he had gone into exile out of shame and self-doubt over how things had gone with Ben, that sojourn on Ahch-To had over time changed into the chief move in a strategy the two of them had developed together. Luke had not been mystified by the massacre on Naboo. He knew that someone was trying to create another vergence in the Force, another like him. He also knew by then that Snoke was more than he seemed, and suspected he was somehow connected to Palpatine. It had taken years of meditation and communion with the Force, especially in the forms of the fallen Masters Jinn, Kenobi and Yoda, for him to figure out how tight that connection was. Anakin had stayed away from his children for a long time, not wishing to impose himself on their future, to pollute them with his presence. And those years watching Rey, sharing her dreams with Padme's spirit, had been a greater joy than he had experienced when he was actually alive. When finally he had appeared to Luke, worried about the shadow spreading across the galaxy, his information about Rey served as the final piece of the puzzle for his son. Palpatine had been playing a longer game than any suspected, and Luke was determined to match his patience and subtlety.
Now everything was transpiring as they had foreseen. The pieces were falling into place. All those Anakin had failed in his life were giving their all so that Rey and Ben could live. And if things worked as Anakin and Luke had intended, the last act would play out there in that cave. So Anakin waited, and hoped that the poor creatures he had sent running from their prison would be able to get far enough away to survive.
With Rey gone Palpatine was desperate to follow, but could not free himself of Luke's now determined attack. They both knew the consequence of either dying here. If Palpatine died his spirit would be shunted back to the receptacles in the cavern, and he would likely lose his last change to possess the girl. If he should somehow kill Skywalker all the strength and knowledge of the Jedi who had proven to be his most dangerous opponent would be given to Rey. He was trapped, and his only hope was to kill this phantom and somehow get to the girl before she could figure out how to make use of what she was being given.
"You would give up this eternity you have somehow created for yourself to save that thing, that vessel I created?" Palpatine screamed as he tried frantically to land a blow
"Yes. You made her, like you made my father. But he was never yours, and neither is she. He beat you. I beat you. And she will beat you too," Luke said as he efficiently and gracefully parried the Sith Lord's attacks.
"Beat me did he? The chosen one? Then where is he, and why I am here, about to win my final victory?" Palpatine laughed cruelly as he fought.
Luke did not answer, but fought on. He had long ago figured out what he thought no one had before. The Jedi in the last years of the Old Republic had thought his father the chosen one. Then Obi-Wan had thought it was him, mostly out of hope. He had wondered, after he found out Leia was his sister why Obi-Wan had not realized it could just as easily have been her. It had been in the years of his exile, as he and his father had developed their plan while Leia fought to keep the Republic alive, that he had figured out it was all of them. The Father, the Son and the Daughter. Together they had pushed Palpatine to this last desperation. Together they had forged Rey and Ben into the warriors who would destroy the Sith at last, who would usher in the new age of the Jedi. He said none of this to Palpatine, he merely spent his last few moments fighting the fight that had consumed his life, the fight that had brought him all his joys and sorrows, the fight that would, he knew, be over soon.
When the elevator doors had closed, Rey had found herself suddenly transported into a forest. She stood on a wooden bridge between two platforms built around mighty trees. She looked into the sky above the canopy and could see that dawn was about to break. When she looked down she saw a bridge anchored on the same platform as hers was, straight to another tree, and on that bridge was Leia. But it was not Leia as she had ever known her. She was young, her hair long and wound in tresses. Rey ran to her, and she got closer Leia opened her arms. Rey ran into the embrace with such force that she was scared for a moment that she would knock Leia over. But this was not, she realized, the woman grown sick in her last days that Rey remembered most vividly, but the woman who, like Luke, was at her peak. They held on to each other tightly without saying a word. Unlike the other Jedi she had encountered, there had been many opportunities for the two of them to share with each other when Leia was alive.
In the Death Star, Luke realized it was time. He pushed Palpatine back one more time, but as the counterattack came he held his saber in front of him as Obi-Wan had once done so long ago on the first Death Star, leaving himself defenseless. As his blade cut through Luke's body, or more accurately the place where Luke had been, his body began to dissolve into a blue light, which quickly dispersed. Palpatine, was left standing in place, shocked and uncomprehending.
On the bridge on the Endor of the past, Rey sobbed as she felt Luke's light filling her. She could see it all, the years on Tatooine, the glories of the Rebellion, the uncertainty of the years rebuilding the Republic and the Order. She could feel the devastation in the aftermath of Ben's fall to the Dark Side, the loneliness of Ahch-To, and finally the resolve as the plan was developed in concert with the ghosts from his past. The plan to destroy Palpatine forever, the plan which called for this night to happen. Rey knew the plan then, knew what it involved and so there were tears in her eyes when she looked up at Leia. Leia had tears in her eyes as well as she looked at Rey, and as she began to dissolve into blue light herself. With a last smile Rey's master told her, "Save each other."
Beneath the surface of Naboo Anakin Skywalker felt his children become one with the Force, leaving the world as they had entered it, together. He had known this day would come for a long time, knew what the cost of his many failures would be. He could take solace in only one thing. Despite being alone in the cavern he said quietly, "They are with you again my love."
At Padme's tomb Ben, who had begun to grow weary from the battle, gained a moment of reprieve as the possessed Rey stopped fighting for a moment and took a few steps backwards, looking disoriented and afraid. "Distracted?" Ben taunted Palpatine as he used the moment of respite to walk backwards into the tomb.
The real Rey stood on the platform in the dream of the Endor that had once been, completely alone in one way, and not in the other. They were all there with her, and she knew now what came next. She saw, on the bridge she had found herself on when she first arrived, the Emperor emerging from the shadows. No longer afraid she ignited her lightsaber and charged towards her enemy. She moved faster than he did, and the two of them met on the bridge, attacking each other furiously. Rey seemed to glow with blue light, making her lightsaber appear almost like an extension of her arm. She could feel the strength of all the Jedi in her, and she could feel herself pushing Palpatine back. Palpatine could feel it too. She was faster now, and she was stronger. He needed time to regroup, to adjust. With all his hate and his now even stronger fear he pushed her back with the Force. She flew backward into the air and did a flip to land on her feet on the platform at the end of the bridge. Palpatine watched as she immediately jumped again towards him. He pulled his saber up just in time to block hers, but was unable to prevent her kick from landing squarely in his chest, pushing him off the bridge and, with the sabers locked, taking her with him.
Ben and the possessed Rey traded blows in the tomb, standing in front of and each of them to one side of Padme's sarcophagus. Just as in Rey's mind, Palpatine's advantage was slipping away in the real world as well, and just as in Rey's mind Palpatine tried a last ditch effort to separate himself from the threat in front of him. Force lightning erupted from Rey's hands as she dropped her lightsaber, hitting Ben like train. His saber flew out of his hand, and his body hit the wall and slumped to the floor barely conscious. This would be his moment, Palpatine thought. If he could somehow escape Rey's mind, and make his way over to Ben Solo's he could survive. The boy was strong, but not as strong as Rey now was, filled as she had been with the power, the skills, the knowledge of the Skywalkers and the great masters of the last generation of Jedi.
The real Rey opened her eyes to see her final destination. She was back in the Coruscant apartment, and she knew now, due to Obi-Wan's memories what it was. She looked out over the balcony and saw the sun rising brilliantly over the Coruscant skyline. She turned around and saw, sitting on one of the couches, Padme. Seated next to her was a younger version of herself. The two of them were singing a song, the same tune she had hummed to Leia on her deathbed. Behind them Anakin leaned against a wall, smiling at the scene before him. It was a memory and as she watched it slowly faded away. The younger version of herself slowly disappeared, as did Anakin. But Padme remained. She turned her head to look at the adult Rey and smiled. It was the smile Rey had seen countless time in her dreams as a child, the smile that had gotten her through the years of loneliness, the smile that had convinced her that her parents were coming back for her. And so, in a strange way, they had. Padme lifted her right arm into the air and closed her eyes. Her right hand slowly closed into a fist and when Rey looked where it was pointing she saw a dark mass forming at the edge of the balcony. It slowly took a firm shape and she saw Palpatine there, his black robes standing out against the bright morning sky. The Emperor stared blankly at Padme Amidala, stunned into silence. Padme opened her eyes and looked down with pride as Rey, standing before her, activated her lightsaber.
In Padme's tomb Ben was saved by the fact that Rey's possessed body made no move to finish him as he lay groaning on the floor. Whatever discipline and mental energy had allowed Palpatine to separate his efforts and mind had, for the moment, broken down. Rey just stood there, locked in place, and for a moment Ben thought that the battle within her had been won, and that his battle was over. But, as he stood up slowly and painfully he saw her head slowly rise, the red light still present at the back of her pupils. He prepared himself for one last fight.
Below him Anakin's ghost closed his eyes and said, "Remember Rey." In the apartment Rey heard him and did remember. All the years of dancing she knew now was preparation for this moment, whether Anakin had known it at the time or not. She closed her eyes and began to move as he had long ago taught her to do, leaping towards Palpatine, and spinning gracefully away as he thrust his saber at her.
In the tomb Palpatine tried one more time to kill Ben Solo, sending another burst of lightning at him. With no way to defend himself Ben was hit again, but this time he did not fall. He screamed his defiance and stepped forward, despite the agony. Through the pain he could see the hole in the defense Palpatine had erected. He had an opening where he could reach out with the Force and snap Rey's neck. He could end it all, do what Vader had failed to do, bring peace to the galaxy. Instead he reached out, not with the Force, but with his hand and grabbed Rey's wrists pushing her hands backwards and forcing the lightning to spread throughout the room, blackening the walls where the blots hit, shattering the stained glass portrait of Padme, and hitting both Rey and Ben. He would not kill her. If she died, he would die too.
In the apartment attack after attack by Palpatine was blocked by Rey, her eyes still closed, her movements fluid and unhurried and her expression calm. Palpatine's attacks grew ever wilder and more unfocused as the fear claimed him. He made a broad swing from left to right, which Rey ducked under, spinning away from Palpatine.
"Now, Rey," she heard Anakin say. She brought her spin full circle, all the way under Palpatine's blade and plunged her own saber directly into him. In both her mind and the real world Palpatine screamed in agony. As his body dissolved in front of her Rey stole one last look at a proud and smiling Padme before the dreamworld itself went dark. As this happened, a huge amount of red energy was expelled from Rey's actual body. The force of Palpatine's presence leaving her knocked both her and Ben back towards the walls and both fell to the ground unconscious.