Chapter 2: Fading into the Galaxy
Twilight was falling on a small clearing in the middle of the woods on the high ground of D'Qar. Leia was lying back against the trunk of a tree, looking up at the stars beginning to emerge in the early night sky and praying everyone had made it to the rendezvous point safely. She was surrounded by complete silence – no noise from the fight below invaded this place.
She shifted her position and resettled against the tree, her eyes and face pinched in pain and exhaustion. She hadn't partaken in such heavy hands-on combat in quite some time, and she feared she had grown too old for it now if her current physical state was any indication. Her hair was in disarray, multiple strands having fallen loose from her braided crown and now dancing around her face in the light evening breeze. Sweat painted her brow, while her face and neck were smudged in soot and ash from the explosions. Her blaster wounds bled steadily as she took in deep gulps of air, desperately trying to block out the pain as her eyes slowly drifted shut. I'm definitely too old for all of this, she thought to herself with a discouraged sigh.
"Lookin' a little worse for wear there, Your Worship…" teased a familiar voice.
Leia's eyes flew open at the sound of the voice and she quickly looked around to find the source, but no one was in sight. She slowly closed her eyes once more and let out a heavy sigh. "Just great – I'm shot and losing my mind…"
"You're a lot of things, Your Highness, but crazy ain't one of them," chuckled the disembodied voice.
With eyes still closed Leia replied, "A lot of people would disagree with you…I'm hearing and talking to someone who isn't here after all."
A soft blue haze began to form a few feet away from Leia, in just moments coming into shape as the Force-ghost of Han, looking every bit the scoundrel he always was.
"Open your eyes Princess," he prodded with a sweet smile that she couldn't see.
"But I'm so tired," she sighed, her eyes still closed.
Han crossed his arms over his chest, an unimpressed grimace marring his face. "Still stubborn as a Bantha I see…"
Leia's eyes flew open with a fiery glare at his last comment, but her gaze softened in disbelief and surprise as she saw Han standing before her. "Han…" she whispered, almost scared that if she spoke too loudly he would disappear.
He gave her a roguish grin and ambled over towards her, taking a seat at her side. "Hey Sweetheart."
She stared at him with eyes wide as saucers, still not believing the sight before her. "You're…but…how?" she stuttered in complete bewilderment.
Han chuckled – he'd always found her so damn adorable when she was confused. "Yeah, it was a bit of a shock for me too. Who'da thunk it huh? Me, part of the big, powerful Force…"
Leia just smiled at him then. While she was still a little surprised, part of her found it almost made sense anyway. He had always had such uncanny luck and sense for when things would go wrong – or right – and how else could that be explained other than by some power, or Force, greater than him. He'd also had a strength in him that no normal man could possess – how else could he have survived the torture Vader had subjected him to and then being frozen in carbonite? No it made perfect sense to her, and it was quite ironic too with how he had so adamantly argued against there being such thing as "the Force" for so much of his life. It was almost like a karmic joke the fates had played on him. As she thought about it, however, a realization came to her and caused a sad frown to replace the gentle smile she'd given him only moments before.
"But if you're part of the Force…why haven't you ever come to me before?"
A pained expression crossed Han's face as he answered, "I was worried what you might do if I did…"
"What do you mean?" she asked, completely confused. "I've missed you so much, sometimes I could hardly breathe…"
Han looked down at the ground between them, plucking at a few strands of grass with glowing fingers. "I know…and I knew if I revealed myself to you it would only make it harder for you, and…"
"And?" she prompted, not really following his line of thought.
Han let out a gruff sigh and looked up directly into her warm, brown eyes. "I didn't want you hurting any more than you already were – and I sure as hell didn't want you doing anything reckless so you'd make your way over here any faster than you're meant to." A smug grin played upon his lips then as he teased, "But I see you've been your usual reckless, danger-seeking self anyway – especially today."
Leia understood what he meant, and she couldn't deny the truth to his words. She looked away sadly as she said, "I have nothing left. Ben's lost to me forever…Luke's gone…and you're dead. Lately I've been more of a threat to the Resistance than an asset. I'm so tired and lonely Han…it just doesn't seem worth it anymore…"
"Well Finn and Rey seem to love and need you," he mused.
"They are wonderful, and I love them dearly…but it isn't the same Han. They aren't you – they aren't the family we built," she sighed woefully.
Han reached out to place a loving touch to the back of her head. She could only feel the smallest whisper of a touch, but she leaned into it all the same.
"You have never been alone Leia – I've always been with you, even when you couldn't see me," he said tenderly, understanding perfectly where she was coming from – he had been in the same place too once upon a time. A smirk came to his lips then as he teased, "How do you explain getting out of a few of those scrapes you never should have? I mean, you're pretty powerful Princess, but you made a real mess of things for yourself a few times – if it hadn't been for my help…"
Leia turned to face Han with a fiery glare. "Nerf herder…" she groused.
Han smiled at her, glad to see the fire in her eyes again.
At the sight of his warm smile her face softened, she couldn't bear to stay vexed at him after longing to see him all this time. "I wanted you here…I needed you here…"she said with tears shining in her eyes.
Han reached out and laid his hand upon hers. "I know Sweetheart, and I'm sorry I couldn't be – but I'm here now."
Leia winced in pain, grabbing at her shoulder and her hand quickly becoming stained with the hue of her own blood as her wound continued to bleed. Han grimaced at the sight of her in pain – he never had been able to bear watching her suffer.
"Does that mean…what I think…it means?" she asked, with difficulty as the pain took her breath away.
Han reached up and caressed her cheek. "Yep. I'm here to bring you over to the other side." Then, with a sly grin, he said, "Or, as I like to call it, the big Force-field in the sky."
Leia chuckled at his comment, then grabbed at her side as a shot of pain seared through her hip. "Don't make me laugh laser brain – I'm injured remember?" she scolded in a gasping voice.
Han couldn't bear to see her in her current state any longer and decided to try something he never had before in an effort to make things easier for her final moments. He put his hands out in front of him and gently waved them over the sites of her wounds, causing a warm sensation to run over her and some of her pain to subside.
"Thanks," she sighed gratefully. "I didn't know Force-ghosts could do that."
"Neither did I," he chuckled in reply. He was just glad it had worked.
"Han?" she asked quietly.
"Yeah?"
"What's it like?"
Han let out a low whistle and looked at her with serene eyes. "It's beautiful…peaceful…"
Leia shook her head then and tried to clarify her statement. "No – what does it feel like? To cross over…"
Han gave her a gentle smile – she wasn't one to show any signs of fear or vulnerability, but when she let him see those parts of her it was so endearing and her trust in him just warmed his heart. "It's just like waking up from a dream."
"That sounds nice," she sighed with a peaceful expression on her face.
"Are you ready?"
She looked at him with nervous eyes and asked, "You'll stay with me?"
"Of course," he agreed. Then with a teasing smile he added, "Like it or not, you're stuck with me for eternity now Princess."
"Well I think I like the sound of that…even if you are a scoundrel," she retorted with a smirk of her own.
"Good," Han chuckled. "Now close your eyes and you'll be over here before you know it."
"Han…" she murmured hesitantly.
"Yeah?"
"Could you…hold me, until I make it over?" she asked with the voice of a child.
"I'll do you one better," he grinned in reply.
Han gently took Leia into his arms and kissed her soft and slow, her eyes drifting shut as the warmth from his lips spread to hers. An ethereal blue light ignited at the point where their lips met and slowly began to spread over her body until it surrounded her completely from head to toe and she transformed into a Force-ghost.
She slowly opened her eyes and pulled back from Han. They smiled at one another happily, their eyes full of love.
"I love you," she sighed happily.
"I love you too," he replied warmly.
They rose from the forest floor then, hand in hand and began to walk towards the tree line. Han wrapped an arm around her shoulders and her arm snaked its way around his waist as they got closer to the tree line. As they continued to walk into the trees they slowly faded from sight as darkness fell.
A few minutes later, up in the sky above the last spot where the couple had been visible, two stars came into view, shining brilliantly – brighter than all the others in the night sky – as the galaxy welcomed them home.
THE END
I have just a few additional notes to add some further context to this story – I didn't include them before as they were a bit spoiler-ish in my opinion, but I figured there may be some questions so here are some explanations I figured readers may want to further grasp the full situation surrounding the story.
For starters, I have not included Luke in this story as I couldn't think of a way to include him that would make a whole lot of sense, given that my main focus was on Leia's exit and reuniting with Han and having Luke present might have hindered/overshadowed that – not to mention, Luke's absence plays a role in how Leia is starting to give up in my story. I have two possible explanations for how his absence could be explained, but I couldn't really decide which I liked best – so I will tell you both the ideas I had on the matter and let you choose which one you prefer to take as the truth in how you perceive the story. The first one is that Leia's death takes place before Rey and Chewie have gone off to find Luke – perhaps there has been a delay in discovering the rest of the map as in my story Leia has no hope of Luke returning. As such, this would mean that the final scene with Leia in TFA has not taken place, and would be messing around with the existing film canon a bit. The second option is that, despite being found by Rey and subsequently training her as a Jedi, Luke has opted to remain a recluse on his little island in the middle of nowhere as he is still unable to deal with how things turned out with Kylo Ren etc. – still suiting the need for a reason for Leia to still have no hope for Luke's return. Like I said, take your pick – or feel free to come up with your own explanations for Luke's continued absence.
Secondly, as we saw in TFA, Kylo Ren is hell bent on either luring Rey to the Dark Side or destroying her due to her incredible Force sensitivity/Jedi potential and, therefore, great threat to the goals of Snoke and the First Order. In this story I also have him seeking out Leia. Like in "Han and Leia's Last Stand", I decided to run with the idea that in order to fully cross over to the Dark Side and prove his loyalty to Snoke, Kylo Ren had to destroy his final links to the Light – his parents. Given that he killed Han in TFA that would leave Leia left to be dealt with. Well, in this story the little creep doesn't get the chance to even try to kill her, but there's the backstory for you anyway.
In the time between TFA and this story I have imagined that Leia became quite fond of and close to Rey and Finn – they being two of her last, recent connections to Han. I've imagined her as being both a mentor and very maternal figure to both of them – perhaps I have some more fic fodder here lol. The whole Force-sensitive thing factors into her relationship with Rey, of course and, seeing as I cut Luke from this story entirely, perhaps Leia even helped Rey with some of her Force skills (oh man…more fic fodder).
Now for what I'm sure you all must be wondering about – Han is a Force-ghost! How did that happen?! Well, I kind of always thought it would be funny in an ironic sort of way if Han was Force sensitive all along, given how much he refused to buy into the whole thing for so long. Just think about it for a minute – it would definitely explain certain aspects of Han's strength and "luck" in certain situations over the course of his history. Anyway, you can have Force sensitivity in various degrees, right? Just look at Maz Kanata in TFA, she wasn't a Jedi but could absolutely sense things in the Force to certain degrees. And if you can be Force sensitive in degrees, surely you can have some control over whether or not you use those powers – be it a conscious or subconscious choice – right? So my thoughts/beliefs here are that Han was always Force sensitive to a certain extent but his denial regarding the Force just served as a subconscious block to the full realization of those powers, which of course resulted in him getting quite the surprise in the afterlife lol. As for Leia, I think a small part of her always knew Han had some Force-sensitivity, but she just didn't push on the matter given his stubbornness about it – hence her slight surprise but ready acceptance of Han as a Force-ghost in this story. Also, by making Han a Force-ghost I had a way to permanently reunite HanLeia after death that was theoretically sound given the existing canon RE: the passing on and afterlife of Force-sensitives/Jedi like ObiWan Kenobi, Yoda, and Anakin Skywalker – I wasn't really sure if Force-sensitives and non-Force-sensitives alike mingled in a common afterlife, so I figured I wouldn't take the chance lol.