Chapter 10: Stardust
Han sat in the pilot's chair of the cockpit, making various adjustments to the controls so as to set the ship on a course that would keep it as far away as possible from any inhabited areas. Suddenly he heard the door to the cockpit slide open, then whipped around in his chair to give his wife a fiery glare – though, if truth be told, he wasn't entirely surprised to find her standing there.
"Dammit Leia! Why?" he shouted angrily. While this stunt of hers was not a surprise to him, he was no less angry that she had put herself deliberately in harm's way. Couldn't she just listen to him once?
"Because I love you laser brain!" she yelled back fiercely. "And you made me a promise that I'm holding you to, so just deal with it!"
"I told that officer to get you outta here," he growled, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"Well I was more persuasive," she snapped back at him, arms crossed over her chest and eyes defiant.
A realization came to Han then, and he half-rolled his eyes and looked back to Leia with an arched brow. "You Jedi mind-tricked him, didn't you?"
Leia gave him a short nod and a small smirk of pride in response.
Han let out a frustrated sigh, rubbing at a knot in his neck. "Leia I love you too, but by gods why do you have to be so damn stubborn?"
"I guess you're starting to rub off on me nerf herder," she teased as she went to sit down in Chewie's chair.
"Oh so we're being cute now are we, Your Highnessness?" he smirked.
"It sure beats arguing," she laughed with a self-pleased smile on her lips.
"Or you could have just gotten on the Kriffin' freighter like I asked and we wouldn't be having this conversation at all."
"And I'd end up both childless and a widow all in one day," Leia retorted morbidly.
"Leia…" Han sighed, heartbroken at her statement.
Leia looked down at her hands clasped in her lap, then looked back up at Han with tears shining in her eyes. "Please Han…I can't argue anymore…"
Han had never seen her look so desperate, so broken. The heartbreak and exhaustion in her face and eyes caused him physical pain, and he knew it was time to just drop the subject. No amount of arguing with her would change anything now. "Okay Sweetheart, let's just get out of this ok?" he sighed with a gentle smile.
"Sounds good to me," she replied with a watery smile of her own.
A slow paced beeping began to sound from beyond the cockpit door, quickly grabbing their attention and leading them to stare at one another in confusion before rising from their seats to go investigate.
Han and Leia rushed into the engineering bay, Han heading straight over to where the bomb was set up with the remote power source. The bomb was the source of the beeping that had beckoned them, and a small screen on the face of the bomb had lit up with a timer counting down from a two-hour mark.
"Holy Sith…" Han exhaled, worry evident in both his tone and posture.
"It's active isn't it?" Leia asked, though she already knew the answer. Han turned to face her with a morose nod as a reply. "How long do we have?"
"Just under two standard hours."
"Oh that's plenty of time!" she exclaimed with feigned confidence. "What do you say we have dinner before jetting out of here?"
"And here I thought I was the resident smart ass – you movin' in on my territory Princess?" he chuckled, glad to see her sense of humor as still somewhat intact.
"I told you, you're starting to rub off on me Flyboy…" she purred with a seductive smirk as she stepped closer to him.
Han let out a whole hearted chuckle and said, "Well, as much as I like the sound of that, we need to take advantage of the time we have to get out of here."
"You're right," she murmured softly, standing on tiptoe to kiss him on the cheek. "Let's go."
Han moved over to the floor hatches that covered the escape pods and opened the first hatch. He deftly climbed down into the first pod, beginning to make preparations for launch, as Leia watched him from above. The pod was a small cone-like device just large enough to fit two people, with a single round window to provide a view outside of the pod. Han hadn't been joking when he'd said the pods weren't big enough for his Wookie friend or Finn hooked up to all of the medical equipment – there was barely room for she and Han to fit comfortably.
Han let out a short stream of Correllian curses from inside the pod before hastily climbing back out.
"What's wrong?" Leia asked apprehensively.
"It won't power up," he sighed gruffly. He took note of the worried expression on her face then and said, "Hey, Your Worship, relax – I have four backups."
Han proceeded to enter each of the remaining four pods and attempt to boot up their power systems, but met the same dismal situation with each craft.
"For Kriff's sake, I don't get it!" he thundered. "They're all fuelled and docked properly. The nav-computers were updated before we left base…"
"What about the docking bay circuits? Could they be a problem?" Leia suggested, unsure what else could possibly be wrong.
"Possibly…" he conceded. "The systems run on circuit power until the pods are launched, then everything switches onto the fuel-based power system."
"To the circuitry bay then?" she probed with a sly smirk.
"You got it," he replied with a wink.
In the circuitry bay Han reviewed various panels he had exposed, taking a few minutes before successfully locating the panel that supplied the escape pods. He reached into the inner workings of the panel and pulled back on some wires, finding them cut and frayed as he did so. "I think I found our problem," he sighed as he reluctantly held the wires up so Leia could see them for herself. "The First Order sure meant business, didn't they?"
"Can you fix it?" she asked in almost a whisper. Things were getting from bad to worse for them faster than she could keep track and she was growing very concerned that they wouldn't find their way out of this scrape they were in.
"I could if I had fresh circuits and several hours to rewire them all," he scoffed, utterly fed up with the constant problems every time he turned around on this mission.
Leia sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose as she tried to think of an alternative solution. A few moments later an idea popped into her head. "Is there any way you could take the circuits from something we don't need – just switch out the panel locations?"
"That's not a bad idea," he replied, thoughtfully stroking his chin. "It's worth a shot – how long do I have?"
"About an hour and a half," she informed him after glancing over at the timer on the bomb.
Han took a deep breath and said, "I better get to work then."
He began pulling at various panels and wires, switching out their locations, as Leia kept a close eye on the bomb's timer. On several occasions Han zapped himself with the small torch-like device he was using to fuse various wires and secure the panels, eliciting curses from him and barely contained amused chuckles from her.
In the engineering bay once more, Han attempted to power-up each of the pods one by one. And just like the first time, none of them came to life despite his efforts. He left Leia to go back to the circuitry bay and re-work the circuits into different configurations. He returned to the engineering bay to try and bring some life to the pods again, but to no avail.
After several more trips back and forth, with no success in his endeavours, Han resorted to examining the docking bays themselves more closely. In a short period of time he discovered that the power cells for each of the docking bays had been completely stripped down. With face and body tense in complete fury, Han climbed out of the last bay and stormed over to the far wall, landing a hard punch to the cold steel. "Damn it, they stripped down all the bay power cells!" he shouted, livid with the First Order for managing to find so many weak points in the Falcon and exploiting them. And, if he was completely honest with himself, he was furious he hadn't kept up the escape pods better – why had he always been so adamant that he'd never really need them?
Leia walked up behind him, running her hands across his shoulders and down his arms in a soothing motion. She knew that there was no hope for them now – no getting out of this most recent mess they found themselves in – and how he must have been blaming himself for it all, no matter how unjust that was.
"Han stop, it's ok," she murmured softly, leaning her forehead against his upper back as her hands made their way down to loosely close around his fists which he held firmly at his side.
He whipped around quickly to face her, pain and frustration etched into every line on his face. "No it's not! I should have checked things more closely before we left Starkiller Base – I could have found the bomb then and found another way off the planet…"
"We really didn't have time for that and you know it as well as I do," she admonished with an arched brow.
"Well if I stocked this hunk of junk better maybe I could have replaced those cells and we'd be out of here – "
Leia brought a finger to his lips, effectively silencing him as he stared at her confused. "Han, stop – none of this is your fault. You've tried everything you can – just let it go."
Han glanced over at the timer on the bomb, and then looked back into his wife's eyes. "We still have fifteen minutes to try and figure a way out…"
Leia gave him a sad smile – he never gave up without a fight that was for sure. "Han we both know there isn't a way out this time. Come on, let's go try to enjoy the time we have left – I don't want to spend it looking at that thing."
She took his hands into hers then and led him out of the engineering bay.
Han and Leia entered the cockpit, Han plopping down dejectedly into his usual seat. Leia moved to go sit in Chewie's seat, but was taken by surprise when Han pulled her down onto his lap instead, wrapping his arms around her waist as she leaned into him.
"I'm sorry Sweetheart – "
"Shhhh…" she whispered, running her fingers through his hair and resting her forehead against his, eyes closed.
"It wasn't supposed to end like this," he sighed morosely. "You're supposed to live to be a happy old woman who goes out peacefully in her sleep." That was how he truly felt – and the fact that he was failing her once more in not being able to save her from their impending doom caused him an immeasurable amount of guilt.
Her eyes still closed, Leia reached up to gently caress his face, touched by how much he loved her. "I am happy – here, at home, in your arms I'm at peace…" She let out a small light chuckle then and said, "Getting old is vastly overrated anyway."
Han let out a small chortle at her last statement before puller her tighter in his arms. "True…but we should have had more time – the time we were finally going to have…"
"I have no regrets," she breathed softly as she gently nuzzled his nose with hers. "I'd do it all again with you."
"I'd do some things different…"
Leia pulled back from him then so she could see his face. "Like…" she inquired curiously.
Han gave her a warm, tender smile and looked upon her face with pure love as he reached up to trace her features. He ran gentle fingers along the lines of her jaw, her chin, her cheek bones, and the slope of her nose, as though memorizing her face for whatever journey lay before them. "I'd find you sooner…love you longer…be man enough to stay…" he answered in a tender tone she had only ever heard him use with her when he wanted her to be sure of just how much he truly loved her. A small smirk played upon his lips then as he added, "You know, be less of a laser brained nerf herder."
A smile that oozed molten sunshine spread across her face as she leaned in to give him a quick peck on the lips. "Yeah, but you're my laser brained nerf herder, and I love you just the way you are. Besides, you're going to be stuck with me forever now, so you have plenty of time to make up for whatever time we lost." She rested her head against his shoulder then, hugging him close as she watched the stars streak past the viewport.
"You really think there's something after this?" he asked, not at all sure what he really believed about the afterlife, if there was one.
"Mmmhmm…" she sighed in reply.
"I hope you're right," he murmured as he held her closer, as though doing so would assure she was right and they would be able to spend eternity together.
"Do you doubt me?" she asked with a soft laugh.
Han looked down into her sure, loving eyes and smiled. "Not at all…"
They both turned their eyes to the stars streaking past the viewport, watching the galactic light show in silence for a few moments with their arms wrapped around one another.
"I've always loved this…it's so beautiful…" Leia whispered, not wanting to disturb the peaceful moment.
"Yeah," Han agreed. Then with a smirk she couldn't see he added, "But it's not as beautiful as you are." He was favoured with an adoring smile from her as she looked up at him with sparkling eyes. "I love you Princess."
"I love you Scoundrel."
Their lips met in a passionate kiss, both of them pouring every ounce of love they felt for each other into that one final gesture as the beeping from the bomb grew in increasing volume and frequency in the background.
In the dark recesses of space, the Millennium Falcon burst into a ball of sparks, smoke, and flame – a veritable blaze of glory – witnessed only by the millions of stars that stood awaiting to welcome their two friends home at last, together forever.
THE END
As is to be expected, the loss of Han and Leia is mourned deeply by various members of the Resistance – Chewie, Poe, Rey, and Finn in particular, along with Connix as per my ideas RE: the character as outlined in my earlier author's note. But, as in the original TFA, everyone rallies to continue their fight – now fighting to honour their fallen heroes, taking the torch from them and carrying on in their name. I didn't write out the scenes of everyone finding out about what happened to Han and Leia etc. as I really wanted to write something more HanLeia centric and I feel happy with where I ended this fic. But, for arguments sake, let's just say I envision the ending going much like it did in the original TFA, only Connix replaces Leia in the end scenes and there isn't that motherly moment with Rey. Perhaps there would be a short additional scene of some sort of memorial or moment of silence for HanLeia as the loss of both of them would have a greater impact – don't get me wrong, I have mad love for Han and he is very important to the Resistance (although with mucho reluctance on his part lol), but Leia was their leader, and the loss of her would be a great deal more devastating in different ways.
Ok I have one little note about Kylo Ren, because I am sure you must be wondering why I wouldn't fix that little creep while I was at the task of fixing the end to HanLeia's story. Well, let's just say that the movie really wrecked him for me and I couldn't bring myself to stop hating him. Not only that but, by keeping him evil, it provided me with the catalyst to have Leia come to Han's rescue, as well as bring them back together again over a situation that had originally torn them apart (according to Disney canon – which I also am not a fan of, but don't get me started, I love Disney and really don't want to start hating on them for this so let's let bygones be bygones on this one). Not to mention, every story needs a badass villain, and I think I managed to kick it into gear with Kylo Ren – come on, he tried to torture and kill his parents! Now, why would he do that, you ask? I know that I didn't directly reference a reason for these actions in the fic, and yes what he does seems a little extreme for just being sent to train with old Uncle Lukie (but after all, the men in the Skywalker gene-pool tend to be drama queens), so I will give you my explanation now. In the realm of my story, in order for Kylo Ren to fully detach himself from the light and cross over to the Dark Side, and prove his loyalty to Snoke, he must kill his parents – the only people left that would be able to tempt him back to the light and use his power to defeat the Dark Side once and for all. Now, yes, this kind of supports the theory that poor little Kylo is something of a helpless pawn being used and manipulated by Snoke (who, I grant you, is probably quite the master at screwing with people's minds – particularly over-dramatic teenagers with mommy/daddy issues) – but in my version he had both of his parents try and help him back over to their side, he had Leia admit that she was wrong and apologize – he had validation of his feelings, of his perceived slights in life! He had the chance to forgive and start again and turned it down in favour of the Dark Side and Snoke – and thus he became the perfect villain. And, in all honesty, he had the opportunity to let the darkness go in TFA as well and opted to kill Han anyway, so what I did isn't too farfetched from the canon – I just kicked it up a notch because I guess I have a dark side too (I just don't let it come out to play too often lol).