Salvation - The Mandalorian

Chapter 24

Rey stared at FN-2187, not believing what she was seeing. She knew it was the same Stormtrooper that showed her kindness, but he was so different. The way he stood there, so still and silent, it terrified her. She sensed no feelings or thoughts from him whatsoever, as if he was a droid programmed that way. There was no sympathy from him like there was before, just emptiness.

The girl looked back at Moff Gideon, glaring at him. "What did you do to him?" She demanded to know, though she wasn't sure if she wanted to know the answer.

Moff Gideon smirked. "He was the test subject for something that can help my soldiers remain loyal to the Empire," he told her. "We call it reconditioning, where we remove all of their doubts and restore their loyalty."

Rey was taken aback by this. "You're brainwashing your own people..." she stated, shocked.

"FN-2187 wanted to abandon the Empire when you were taken away from me," Gideon continued. "I had to make sure that he wouldn't."

"You're sick," Rey shook her head in disgust. "You claim that the Empire is what the galaxy needs, yet you do nothing but hurt those with even the slightest doubt. Even Darth Vader would be disgusted with you."

"Lord Vader was a coward who was murdered by a young Jedi in training," Moff Gideon dismissed. "The same Jedi who thinks he can teach you the things that go against everything I've been building back up."

Rey scoffed at him. "You're just afraid of him and what he will do to whatever you're planning," she told him. "The Jedi are coming back and you will be unable to stop it from rising again."

"Skywalker and his Jedi will never know what I have planned against them, Mandalore, and the Republic," Moff Gideon taunted. "You must be wondering why exactly we were pulling Kyber crystals off of Ilum."

Rey watched as Gideon stood up from his chair. She followed him, FN-2187 close behind them as some sort of security. They entered a room filled with tanks, the one Rey walked by when being taken to Gideon. When she looked at the tanks, she saw clumps of skin in there, as if waiting to be born. Her eyes then fell on Moff Gideon opening up a holo on a table nearby, which she walked closer to.

"Moff Gideon, we are almost done with pulling out the Kyber crystals from Ilum," the holo of an officer reported in. "Once we have them all, we can officially begin construction on our new weapon. We'll keep informing you on any updates you need to know."

Rey looked up at him in shock. "You're building a weapon?" She asked.

Moff Gideon smirked at her. "One bigger than the Death Star," he explained. "We're building the weapon in Ilum itself. And not only that, but we'll be using the Kyber crystals to upgrade our fleet to have planet killing weapons inside of them."

Rage filled inside Rey, but she kept her cool at what she was hearing. Somehow this was worse than she could ever image. A weapon inside a sacred Jedi planet, a fleet that can destroy planets, and reconditioning innocent people. With all of this, Rey could only wonder why she was created in the first place. She seemed almost unnecessary in the grand scheme of things.

"If you have all of this, then why am I here?" Rey decided to ask him. "You can destroy planets with a fleet, so why even create me in the first place?"

"You are the one who will bring the Empire back," Moff Gideon stated. "Once you're back on my side, you can rule the galaxy for yourself. And we can use your blood to create your own army of Force sensitives, which is why I have some experiments going on here. You can lead them and order can be restored in the galaxy, just as it was before. And you will be the one to do it."