"Long have I waited… for my grandchild to come home," Palpatine said, smugly. "I never wanted you dead. I wanted you here… Empress Palpatine."

He waved his hand at the throne.

Rey glanced at it, cocking her head slightly, then continued to walk towards him.

"You will take the throne," Palpatine said. "It is your birthright to rule here. It is your blood. Our blood."

Rey just kept approaching him, and Palpatine frowned slightly before deciding to skip a few pages.

"You want to kill me," he said. "That is what I want. Kill me, and my spirit will pass into you. As all the Sith live in me… you will be Empress… and we will be one."

Rey was still advancing, and Palpatine started to get a bit concerned.

"If you strike me down, your journey to the Dark Side will be complete," he said. "I have no weapon! With your hatred, you will take my life-"

Rey cut his head off.

A minute or so later, Ben Solo entered the room.

"What was that explosion?" he asked. "I heard it from out there!"

He looked around, spotting no Palpatine, a large crater, and a slightly dazed looking Rey.

"Rey!" he said. "There you are – I knew you were coming here!"

She looked up at him, frowned slightly, and he spread his hands. "I don't have a lightsaber any more, which, by the way, I actually really hope you can get some help regarding that at some point because the explosion distracted my followers but it isn't going to keep distracting them. Um…"

He looked from her, to the destroyed medical equipment, and did his best to put two and two together.

"Did you kill your grandfather?" he asked. "Honestly I know you wouldn't have believed it from me six hours ago, but, great work!"

"What?" Rey replied, loudly. "I'm sorry, did you say something?"

"...uh," Ben said, because he wasn't sure what he was expecting but it hadn't been that. "I've… asked at least two questions and been saying quite a lot. Are you all right?"

"You're welcome?" Rey said, quite blatantly guessing about what Ben was saying. "It was actually really easy, I don't know why anyone had trouble with it. He didn't fight back or anything. I guess maybe he'll come back again in future but it's going to be just as easy to do it again? Maybe coming back from the dead absolutely destroys your ability to use the Force or something."

"...that's not remotely what I said," Ben muttered, then realized that speech was getting him nowhere and began using sign language.

Rey just stared at his hands.

"Is that some kind of mind trick?" she asked, still loudly. "It's not working."

Ben rubbed his temples, then gestured to her ears.

"Yes, there is quite a loud ringing noise," Rey agreed. "I think one of the explosions overhead might have started some kind of alarm going off."

Ben blinked.

"...you have tinnitus?" he asked.

"If we tell the Sith Eternal that I cut their god's head off, maybe they'll stop?" Rey suggested.

"Okay, this is getting ridiculous," Ben said. "We're having one and a half conversations."

Rey looked very confused.

"I got it from your mother!" she answered. "But I never learned to use two."

Ben rolled his eyes, then took Rey by the shoulders and rotated her to face the door he'd come through.

When the Knights of Ren emerged, brandishing their weapons, they saw Rey standing next to the crater which was where Sheev Palpatine had been about five minutes ago.

"Fair warning!" Rey shouted to them. "I don't know why but the last person I killed exploded!"

The Knights of Ren promptly ran away again.

"That's a Jedi thing, right?" Rey added, still shouting. "Trying to resolve a fight without fighting?"

She indicated where Palpatine had been. "I was hoping I could solve the whole war just by killing him, since he's apparently responsible for all wars. By the way, why did you listen to him exactly?"

"I didn't know it was him!" Ben protested. "Within twelve hours of finding out I'd turned back to the Light Side. It's been a very complicated day."

"I found the Wayfinder on Kef Bir!" Rey said. "You know that!"

Ben began rummaging in his pockets to see if he had the materials to jury-rig some kind of rudimentary dry-erase marker pen and whiteboard.

AN:

Can't agree to the implicit agreement if you can't hear it. Rey's had a very active day.