"I wanted you here… Empress Palpatine," Sidious said. "You will take the throne. It is your birthright to rule here."

Rey stared at the throne, then at her grandfather.

"...um," she began. "Just to be clear?"

"Yes?" Sidious replied.

"You want me to be in charge?" Rey asked. "Like… of a military, your military, that will obey me absolutely?"

"Yes!" Sidious repeated, more eagerly this time. "Take your rightful place!"

"And… are there any restrictions on what I can do?" Rey pressed. "You're saying I can order them to do anything?"

"Anything at all!" Sidious declared. "Take your place and command the Final Order, the Sith Eternal!"

"Great," Rey said, stepping quickly to the throne, and sat on it.

Hidden mechanisms awoke, and she patched herself into the fleetwide communication frequency.

"All ships!" she said. "Shoot one another!"

Sidious's expression of triumph halted.

"...what?" he asked. "No – but – you can't do that!"

"This is part of anything," Rey replied, muting the channel for a moment, then flicked it back on. "Why are you not shooting one another yet? This is a direct order from your Empress!"

"What are you doing?" Sidious snapped.

"I'm ordering the death of all those members of my fleet that displeased me," Rey replied. "What? Are you going to tell me that I'm not allowed to do that?"

Sidious sputtered.

"But – I – you ungrateful girl!" he said.

Rey flicked the channel on. "If you are so incompetent as to be unable to hit another ship, activate your main cannons without deploying them and do it to yourselves!" she said. "Are you listening to me or are you traitors?"

A series of extremely loud explosions pulsed through the air, then Rey held out her hand and caught a falling group of cavalry.

One of the mounted Resistance troopers was Finn.

"Hi!" she said. "Listen, I've tried this whole Empress thing but I don't think it's for me. Do you mind if I abdicate in your favour? At this point the Empire does basically consist of my grandfather and some really grody old cloners, so I'd understand if you didn't."

"Huh?" Finn said, quite overwhelmed by the last minute or so.

"Or I could abdicate in favour of Lando," Rey added, thoughtfully. "Lando's a businessman."

AN:

If you give someone absolute authority over your empire, don't be surprised if they use it.