-xoxo- The Empress of Death, 5 of 10 -oxox-

130 Planet Seveal – Ext. 130

Finn's XOZ100 paladin-class corvette ship leaves hyperspace. Orbiting a pure white dwarf star is a pearl of a gas giant. Many moons hang on its gravity. Finn quickly scans them till he sees the all-white dwarf planet, with two Imperial Star Destroyers lurched over it.

Finn has BB8 turn on the ship's stealth. BB8 struggles to reach, then uses his telescopic antenna to flip the stiff switch. This permanently bends the end of his antenna, but BB8 pulls it down to make a 'salute' gesture before tucking it away. Finn nods and takes the controls, diving through the milky clouds. The thick overcast covers all. While there is some turbulence, the conditions are mostly calm (no rains or lightning).

Finn scans the planet's deep valleys. It highlights the largest of these, a deep, wide basin towards the equator. Finn pushes forward, keeping the speed somewhat low; there is hardly any visibility.

They reach the basin, and Finn drops the ship lower. They enter the bubble of breathable, denser gas. From end to end of the basin rest the ruins of a scattered city.

Finn smiles and lands on top of the tallest tower. Then burning bombs drop from the sky, the crimson lighting the entire city. The bombs hit the far corner in flashes of neon orange. Finn reconsiders his parking.

Now under a paved tunnel, Finn steps out. The cloud coverage has broken in tunneled patches from the explosions, but most of the city is shrouded. Here and there, purple bioluminescent streetlights miraculously remain.

Finn switches on his green lightsaber, lighting his path some. Skulls and bones of the long decomposed slaughtered masses litter every corner. A few stormtrooper helmets join them. Finn contemplates the loss of life.

Being here outside a vision, the true vastness of the place sets in for Finn. He hurriedly takes out the Galencia Earring. He tries to sense for Rey, but… it has been a long time.

She is there…? Here maybe…? What about over by…?

Nothing. Bombs once more drop from the sky, near the center of the city. Right before three hit a stadium, bolts of lightning detonate them in the middle of the air. The embers scatter like fireworks over the stadium as the remaining bombs hit the buildings around it.

Finn shrugs at the luck and flies to his heavy-handed hint.

.

131 Seveal Science Altar – Ext. 131

Finn lands in the ruins of the stadium. The remaining pillars and walls hold disturbing religious iconography. Bioluminescent lights still light the floor of the (formerly) underground compound—tubes, pipes, mutated skulls cover the area.

Finn crosses into a flat section filled with wall to wall with a hundred broken glass tanks. The liquid in the vats dried and molded. Finn walks through the empty cribs, looking for the right one.

Finn spots her, sitting with face buried in her knees, hands wrapped around her legs. Never moving. Closing herself from the world outside. The confident dress she carried lies limp and deflated, damp in the fluid she where she wallows.

(Rey has been preserving her body but buried her mind in visions of the past with Shika and Dagr. Finn breaks her trance.)

Jedi Master Finn Skywalker and Sith Empress of Death Rey Sidious meet at last.

Rey doesn't look at him.

REY Finn.

FINN Hello Rey.

REY Why are you here?

FINN I thought you could use someone to talk to. After learning everything.

Rey picks her head up at that.

REY What do you know!? Where have you been all this time?

FINN I've just been… figuring things out for myself. Finding out what I should do and… what I want to do. How I gotta go about it.

REY There's nothing for you here then. Leave.

FINN You can talk to me, Rey.

REY Whom do you think you are speaking!?

Rey finally turns her head to scowl at Finn.

REY (cont.) I am not some destitute witch to patch your wounds, nor a fellow trainee you need to fawn over! I am the Empress of Death! Every great power bends around me. I don't need your help!

Finn waits. Then points out the plaque tank.

FINN Is that your name?

This stumbles the Empress. She shrinks back.

REY …yes.

Cut to the alien nameplate.

REY (cont.) RAA-0380001802

FINN I'm sorry you had to learn it like this.

Rey rejects his pity. Stabs back:

REY Do you know your real name, "Finn"? We found it in our logs.

FINN Sheev Palpatine Houldcroft. My parents were so loyal they named me after the ugly Sith Emperor. Knowing I became a Jedi would have destroyed them. I saw their lives in my visions. I think… I could have saved them. But they are gone now.

Rey is a touch mystified at the man.

REY You've changed a lot, Finn.

Finn makes a short laugh.

FINN Look who's talking! But… some has stayed the same. Rey. You can still trust me.

REY You're so… calm. Do you already know— Have you already seen this in… visions?

FINN I haven't heard it from you yet, Rey. I want to. You can start here or wherever it hurts.

Rey stays still. Then she rolls her shoulders back and lays her legs down, and strokes her nameplate.

REY I was made here. By a Sith Cult. They wanted a Sith Emperor to claim the galaxy, like the many before. They expanded the Sith technique of influencing the midichlorians to create life inside a woman. But half wasn't enough for them. They wanted to replace both the man and the woman. To make a creature of Force and faked fluids.

FINN It took a few tries to get it perfect.

Rey looks back at Finn, surprised by the remark. Where was this Finn eight years ago?

REY …And they only did with help from a desperate, cast-away princess. With her research and connections they had the means to lift their creation. She wasn't my mother Finn… she never even carried me inside her. I sacrificed you, Luke, Poe, my friends, my life, my soul for a family that wasn't even mine! I was just a tool for her to get back in power. And a tool for the cult to become their galactic tyrant. And I did! I did exactly what they all wanted me to. If only I were on this rock when Zaltan demolished it.

FINN I'm glad Shika disagreed.

Rey picks her head up, eyes teary.

REY Is that why…?

FINN Even inside a cult like this… there were those who would risk their lives to save a child. The cult intended to turn you over after the ambush on Silva. But Shika knew better. She took you and a handful of wealth with her. She fought her way out and got off the planet before Zaltan's bombardment.

REY …could you tell if she loved me?

FINN You've always known she did.

Rey silently thanks Finn for those words.

FINN (cont.) And so does Ephrath.

Rey rolls her eyes, cursing her silent kind givings.

REY No, she didn't, Finn. She appeased me to grow her status.

FINN She treated you the same before and after she knew. She protected you.

REY Oh, please. What is this? Are you trying to push me back into the Imperial Family? YOU? Because they are MY family? Ha! They are snakes poisoning the stars. Not one of them is innocent. I tried to change them, and even with all my power mending their ways, they remain broken! Choking any progress!

FINN You ripped them off their path. Made them hate the right way. You never guided them to the better place.

Rey is aghast by the boldness.

REY Finn, I did everything I could. They chose to ruin this universe.

FINN You taught them the only way to choose their own fates was through power. And all it took to undo your changes was to be overpowered yourself.

Rey laughs in disbelief!

REY You think I am trapped here, Finn? I can flip any one of these bombs they drop back up and ride the wreckage back to the Krannek. I can take back my throne whenever I want.

FINN No, that won't work. They have much more power than you now. It's all they learned.

REY Are you talking about my Princes of Dawn? Cassariot? Finn, I am unrivaled. I could just kill you, bring your body with me, unite all the uprisers, and save Ephrath.

FINN That is how that went for most of my visions, and it would have saved no one, Rey. But that's impossible now. I could kill you right here, and I am not even a "somebody."

REY What, is that a joke?

FINN I haven't made a single joke yet, Rey.

REY If you want me to treat you as the threat you AREN'T, I will.

FINN Try it, and I'll strike back. You live because I let you.

That does it. Without moving, Rey flickers a bolt of light energy at Finn. It goes through him and bashes a tank in. Finn looks back at Rey with raised eyebrows.

A startled Rey turns to him, stunned. Finn takes out his protonium handgun and shoots Rey, right on the top of her crown. He shot an atomic round that could detonate at any time. It wouldn't kill her, of course, yet this action is still the highest offense the Empress has ever suffered. And her expression shows Finn will pay. She gets up.

FINN 'Common.

Rey shoots three beams of pure white light at Finn. Again, all go through him, slicing through tens of tanks and burning through the fortified walls. Finn makes stylish moves to protect his protonium handgun. When he shoots, its made to be extra flashy so Rey can see every shot landing on her chest.

After this failed exchange, Rey looks for an answer.

FINN I had visions pass through me every second of every day. I had to become a Force conduit to take it all, or I'd die in the process. And accidentally found I could practice the same skill to have Force attacks pass right through me too. Mastering it took all my time. Still never found out how to lift a rock.

Rey thinks she understands…

Rey fires another beam, then grabs a tank with her other hand. After the first goes right through Finn, Rey swings the tank at him. Finn flies just out of the way, slicing the tank's sharp edges and avoiding all damage.

Finn shoots Rey's fur cape from behind.

FINN I see a lot of visions now, Rey. You're gonna have to be less predictable.

An enraged Rey begins to glow as a geyser of lighting wraps the entire arena. As Finn feels it lift, he only looks back with a grin.

The man steps forward to take on the Goddess.

.

.

.