On Naboo, Anakin approached the jedi temple as he had hundreds of times before. The jedi in training moved with their sticks and practically danced with them despite only having trained with them for such a short amount of time.

"Grandmaster Skywalker," Mara said formally, surprised, "you've returned already." She could tell something was off, but didn't want to alarm any of the younglings.

"Rey," he said, starkly, "you're coming with me."

Annika asked, "Can I go too?"

"You're staying here," he answered, "and please, Annika, I'm not in the mood for one of your surprises." He motioned for Rey to follow him.

She did so hesitantly and asked, "Where are we going?"

"You'll see." He knew she would get scared if he mentioned Raxus or anything about the First Order thanks to history with both. He could sense she wanted to hear good news about Ben, but he had nothing to tell her.

Once on the ship in hyperspace, Rey didn't know what to think. "Where's Master Skywalker?"

"You see him when we arrive," Anakin answered, holding his head in pain.

"Are you alright?"

"It's just hyperspace sickness," he said, "I'll be fine as long as I don't throw up again."

"Again?" she asked.

Anakin replied, "Don't worry about it."

Rey said anxiously, "But where are you taking me?"

Still rubbing his head in pain, he finally answered, "We're going to Raxus. I have a strong feeling you're supposed to be there."

"What?" she gasped, "Isn't that where the battle is going on right now?!"

"Yes."

Anakin had his eyes closed and was concentrating on not throwing up so he didn't notice her leave the bridge and run to the back of the ship. It wasn't until moments later when R2 beeped anxiously, and the ship suddenly jolted to a stop out of hyperspace that he noticed something was wrong and she was gone.

He looked out to see an uninhabited system in front of him. Some gas salt planet he had never seen before, and then, the escape pod from his own ship zoomed passed him.

While his head slowly began to feel better, he hit the communicator and asked, "Where are you going?"

"I'm not heading into the middle of a fight!" she exclaimed in horror as she piloted the ship away. "If you want me you're going to have to come get me!"

Instead Anakin leaned back in his seat nonchalantly and waited. He watched her disappear around the planet and felt her slowly fade around a distant moon. "Annika must have shown her a few things," he muttered to himself, wanting to curse out his granddaughter but was also impressed Rey managed to fly an escape pod at all with such little experience.

After a few minutes, Rey eventually came back over the communicator. "You're just going to let me fly away?"

"Well for one thing you don't have a hyperdrive so you're not leaving this system," he replied calmly, "have fun wasting time and flying around. I don't have anywhere I need to be."

From inside her escape pod, Rey hesitated at the controls. "I-" she stuttered, "I think I ran out of fuel."

Anakin rolled his eyes, "No you stalled the engine. Hit the control lever and then ignitors and in that order and aim the ship back in this direction."

"Hit the whats in what order?"

Running out of patience, Anakin used the force to reach out to her and grabbed her by the wrists. Even without looking at the controls he knew exactly what buttons and levers to push. He forced her hands onto them and had her steer directly back at him, full speed.

Terrified, Rey screamed as she hurdled back to the ship. She watched as the escape pod landing zone opened up and it lodged itself back into place with ease.

Anakin met her at the door. "Now," he said, "if you're done wasting time let's go."

The battle was just ending at Raxus. The republic was in full retreat after causing a devastating blow against the First Order.

Anakin swiftly guided his ship onto Leia's starship commander in charge of the fleet and saw celebrations around. Although he wanted to join them in the good mood and celebrations from their recent win, something told him things weren't going to be looking up.

Now on board, he had Rey go to the lunch hall while he went to holding to meet the mysterious man who piloted the black ship he had heard so much about. When he stopped at the cell, he was met with a man shorter than average, in his 30s, with dark brown hair, brown eyes, and pale skin. Anakin immediately noticed his lightsaber and used the force to take it from him.

"You're Anakin Skywalker," he said, excited and amazed, "I've been waiting my entire life to meet you!"

"Who are you?"

"My name is Sevriko," he hesitated, "...Palpatine."

Anakin didn't want to believe he was real. As he looked him over, he saw his own mother's features more than Palpatine's. While it did the man a favor, he still didn't want to look. Instead, he activated Sevriko's lightsaber and was surprised at the color.

"I understand the way I was born is upsetting," Sevriko said earnestly, "but I can't apologize for existing. Let me explain myself at least. I believed every lie my father told me my entire childhood, but when I became my own man, I fell in love, and I couldn't understand his point of view anymore. I haven't colluded with him since, I swear!"

The only thing Anakin could mutter was, "Purple," as he stared at Sevriko's lightsaber.

Suddenly, the dots were being connected inside his head. He remembered leaving Jakku for the first time and Luke told him about Rey and how she had his old lightsaber. Her father also had a lightsaber.

"You fell in love?" Anakin asked, "With who?"

Sevriko stepped away from the bars of his holding cell and said nervously, "I'd rather not answer that so close to you."

Anakin stepped closer to him at glared without saying a word.

"Around the same time my father created me," he confessed anxiously, "he also cloned Padme Amidala of Naboo. We met by accident one day, but we fell in love and eventually married-" Sevriko suddenly lost the ability to breathe. He held his neck as Anakin force choked him.

Anakin threw him against the cell and said coldly, "You have a daughter, Rey Palpatine." It wasn't a question, but a statement.

Inhaling sharply, he said, "Yes...but how do you know her?" He coughed.

"She's here."

"What?!" he gasped and ran to the bars, "No! She can't be! My father can never find her! The entire galaxy is in danger if he does!"

Anakin threatened, "Tell me why or your neck breaks."

"It's a long story!"

"What else are you going to do in there?"

He explained quickly, "Even after I met Padme, while I didn't understand my father's point of view anymore, I was still desperate for his approval. Outside of scheming for the empire and then growing up alongside me and trying to teach me things-very odd way to grow up by the way-he always wanted Exegol. It was all he would ever talk about."

Anakin couldn't help but roll his eyes. Of course he knew the emperor's plan. Palpatine wanted the planet ever since he had known him.

Sevriko added, "I found it."

"That's impossible," Anakin insisted, "it's a myth!"

"It's real," he said, "I took the coordinates and wrote them down on Rey's back not long after she was born. I had her sedated and tattooed them in place. I'm sure they're still there."

"You what?!"

"I know it was stupid!" he said, "But I was only 22 when I did it! Like you never did anything stupid at that age-!"

Anakin force choked him hard enough to cause him to black out and threw him and his closed lightsaber against the wall of his cell. He marched away to the bridge where his children waited.

"You met Sevriko?" Luke asked, sitting in a captain's chair expectantly.

"Do you think we can trust him?" Leia asked, standing beside him.

Without skipping a beat, Anakin asked, "You know he's Rey's father!? She's a Palpatine!"

Shocked, Luke asked, "They're related?"

"It gets worse," Anakin exclaimed, "her mother is also your mother! I told you he cloned Padme! I knew it was her even from a distance. That man down there in your holding cell fell in love with that clone and the two of them created Rey."

Stunned, Luke said, "...That means we have a teenage half-sister through a clone of dead DNA?"

Leia said, upset, putting her hands up, "I don't want to be a member of this club."

"Do you think Sevriko's telling the truth?" Luke asked.

"Of course he is," Anakin said, holding his head, "Palpatine is desperate for me to rejoin the dark side so he's done everything he can to get inside my head again. I haven't felt this horrid since..." he thought back sadly, "since I saw Padme's death in my nightmares all those years ago. That was the start of everything going wrong!"

Leia took a deep breath and said, "We need to focus on what we can control here."

"Right," Luke added, "we're all related, and we don't want to be, but we can't change those circumstances. What should we do?"

Anakin straightened up and said, "Learn if Exegol is real."

Confused, Luke and Leia looked at each other. Luke asked, "What is Exegol?"

Anakin couldn't help but smirk. "I guess Yoda didn't teach you everything," he replied, "Exegol was the legend of where the first sith was created, or so it was said. A fallen jedi was guided by the dark side to a planet created by the force itself and became the first sith eons ago. According to legend, with the right incantation written on the tablet of the sith, the force can bring people back from the dead. It's only temporary, but it would be long enough to speak to the fallen again...or in the emperor's case bring back every major sith lord and dominate over what he could, destroying what he couldn't."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Leia asked, horrified such a thing could exist.

"Sevriko claims to have found it," he answered, "which I can't believe. When I was deep within the dark side, I wasted years searching for that place and never found it." He paused. "Is Rey still in the mess hall?"

Luke said, "From what I can tell, yes."

"Send her to her father."

When Rey was told there was someone on board who wanted to see her, she didn't understand why. Sure, there were a few familiar faces from Naboo she had seen around but it wasn't as though she knew any of these people.

It wasn't until she saw the holding cell did she realize what they meant.

"Dad?" she whispered.

Although it had been over a decade, she recognized him instantly. A mix of happiness and sadness hit her all at once. "Rey?" he asked, standing up, excited, "You really are here!"

"You abandoned me!" she said, blinking back tears, the pain taking over, "You left me on Jakku alone!"

"I didn't want to," Sevriko explained, "Rey, I wanted to return but my father figured everything out. He learned of your existence, and he's been watching me carefully ever since. You were in danger if I got near you again! I'm so sorry!"

She asked, devastated, "Why did I have to be kept a secret?"

Sevriko held onto the bars holding him back and said, "There's so much you don't know."

"Because you kept everything from me!"

"I know," he said sadly, "but you were so little. Rey, you have to understand, my father is a terrible person. I was so young when I had you I couldn't see it back then, but I do now. Listen to me, it's imperative you stay away from Snoke. You shouldn't be anywhere near the First Order!"

She asked, "Why not? Because you think I can't protect myself? The Skywalkers have been training me in the ways of the jedi."

He replied, "Good for them. I'm glad you've learned how to defend yourself but it's nothing against Snoke. The chosen one himself couldn't stop him! Not even in death! You have to get as far away from The First Order as you possibly can."

"Where's Mom?"

Sevriko hesitated. How could he explain it? "I haven't spoken with her in a long time."

"Why not!?" She stared him down.

"She misses you terribly," he answered, "you see, Rey, I never told her I was leaving with you that day. From her perspective, one day she woke up and you were gone. She's been angry with me ever since and has refused to talk to me. It's been so long; I don't know much about her anymore. I'm sorry."

Rey demanded, "Where is she!?"

"She's with Snoke," he said, "back on Zygerria in his ship connected to the largest base there. But you can't go back and see her! You have to believe me! I'm sorry, but you can't. You have the coordinates to Exegol! Your grandfather will revive the old empire with its power and no one will be safe ever again. Do you understand me?"

Confused, she asked, "What's Exegol?"