Leia

At least they'd shot down her plane on their way back to pick up more evacuees, rather than on their way to deliver them.

Still, Leia buzzed with annoyance at the sight of her beloved Mirrorbright smoking in the torn countryside just outside the city. It probably wasn't salvageable. Greer had managed to bring them down as best she could, and thankfully no one was injured, but the twisted metal no longer resembled anything flyable. Leia would need a new personal ship, and her funds had run out.

She sighed.

All around her, the peaceful, serene, beautiful Naboo had become a hellscape of screaming planes and burning buildings.

"What do we do?" Inez asked, voice small and frightened.

Leia returned her attention to her crew. All of them so young. She knew the future belonged to the next generation, and she'd been careful to cultivate a stable of new talent to lead that future, but sometimes she forgot how truly young they were.

She mustered a smile and put a hand on the girl's shoulder. "Greer will lead you all back to the city. Find another transport and keep going with the evacuation. We need to get these people to safety."

"You're not coming with us?" Greer asked sharply.

Leia shook her head. "Chewie is on his way with the Falcon. I'll wait here for him and we'll pick up another group before meeting you on the Ackbar. But it doesn't make sense for all of us to stand around here wasting time."

Faithful Greer, having been with Leia longer than any of them, didn't need a second order. She motioned for the others to follow her. Inez hesitated, giving Leia one more anxious glance, and then went. It wouldn't be a long walk. They hadn't come down very far outside the city.

Leia sighed once more, lifting her gaze to the skies. Beyond the dogfights within the atmosphere, streaks of light in the hazy blue signaled a greater battle happening above the planet. She didn't allow herself to wonder about Ben and Rey, or Poe, or Finn and Rose. Long ago she'd learned that it was fruitless worrying about things beyond your control in the midst of a battle.

At last she saw a familiar ship appear on the horizon, heading directly for her. Her husband's ship. For a moment, she imagined Han in the cockpit, grinning as he dodged the firefight and came to her rescue. But it wouldn't be Han, and her own smile faded with the pain of remembering. She missed him. Missed his roguish daring, his impatience, his tender touch, his long-suffering, patient love.

Something began to pester at her mind as she watched Chewie bring the Falcon down towards her. An itch — like something scratching at a place she didn't often access. A growing sense of danger. She frowned.

The Falcon touched down, and she moved towards the loading ramp. When it descended and Chewie emerged, she let him sweep her into a fond and hairy embrace.

"I'm alright," she said when he expressed outrage over the state of the Mirrorbright. "No one was hurt. I sent the others back to the city. Listen, do you get the feeling that we're missing something? That this is all a trap?"

Chewie cocked his head and groaned.

She nodded. "Yeah, a lot like Endor, actually."

Only the danger on that small, distant moon had been in the skies, awaiting their fleet. She had the growing suspicion that whatever ambush was planned for them, it would be on the surface this time.

Chewie motioned to the ship, communicating his strong belief that she should get off as quickly as possible.

But Leia ignored him, focusing instead on the itch deep within her mind. She'd felt such things before, and invariably they'd had to do with the Force. Luke would know what it meant right away. Even the children, with their strong instincts and understanding, would probably recognize it better than she could. Still, it called to her, pulling her thoughts away from Chewie and Greer and the evacuation.

"Give me a minute," she told the Wookie, walking away from him to gaze out over the smoking city.

Something…something about that place. Some danger.

Long ago, Luke had taught her about meditating and accessing the well of power within her. It had served her well a few times in her life — in establishing a connection with her unborn baby, and in drawing her back to safety when she'd been blasted into space, being the two most memorable. She used that knowledge now, turning inward, listening to whatever the Force wanted her to know.

The first thing she felt was the children. Ben and Rey were brighter than anything else in the Force, pulsing with such strength that it was hard to see anything beyond them. Warmth and relief filled her heart with happiness. They were still alive, then. Good. But something else lurked in the shadows. Small objects of destruction. Her vision swept her over the First Order base, and then over the rest of the city. She could almost see each one, each orb buried deep beneath the structures, waiting for a signal. What warmth she'd felt quickly fled, leaving her cold and chilled.

He will destroy it all, something whispered.

"The city," she gasped. "He's buried detonators under all of it."

Chewie roared in alarm and once more implored her to get on the ship. He had instructions to get her out of here.

Again she waved him off. Still more flowed into her heart from the Force.

Her mind filled with memories of Alderaan. Beautiful and green like Naboo, peaceful, idyllic, the best home a girl could ask for. All of it was swept away before her eyes in a violent, brutal explosion that sent billions of souls to their death. The destruction of Theed would not cost so many lives, but it would wipe out everything important from this verdant world.

You can stop it, that same voice whispered within her. Luke? Or… Han? It was almost familiar, and yet she couldn't quite place it.

How? she asked the voice.

The knowledge came to her with perfect clarity, as if it were a memory of a thing she had already done. She saw herself bending down, reaching her hand into the soft, rich soil of the earth. Saw it, and did it. The mud beneath her fingers felt cool and soothing. Her heart found each and every detonator, waiting for the signal, waiting to wreak their destruction.

It was such a simple thought. She wanted them to deactivate. To die and become empty shells waiting to be dug up. But with the simplicity of the thought came a shockwave of power bursting from her hand, from her heart, from her soul. It traveled through the earth like a wave. Where it encountered a detonator, it deactivated it. Severed its connection. Rendered it useless. It expanded out and out, through the city, under the base, further and further like ripples over water.

It went out of her, and took all of her with it.

Leia fell into the grass, unable to move.

Through her mind flickered images of her life. Of Luke, removing his stormtrooper helmet — the first time she ever saw him and disparaged his height. His grin. His flashing blue eyes. The way her soul seemed to recognize someone she'd been missing for a long time. Her other half. Then came images of Han, trapping her on the Falcon, stealing that first kiss, insisting his way past her stubborn defenses. Of how handsome he looked on Cloud City, even as they dropped him into the carbonite freezing chamber. Of the pain of believing she would never see him again. She saw Jabba flailing and shaking in death throes under her, saw Wicket taking her hand and leading her back to his village. Of that first night with Han beneath the dying embers of a destroyed Death Star.

She felt again the first stirrings of life inside her, that little band of light whom she saw would be a boy. Would be a fighter. Would be an angel. And her little son crying in her arms for the nightmares that plagued him, the monster he saw in the shadows. So divided, so hurt, so broken. Her little glass child now made strong and balanced by the love of another.

Can you see him now, Han? she thought as the world around her dimmed and her breathing slowed. Can you see how he's changed for the better? Are you proud?

Her tiny boy with his floppy dark hair and huge black eyes. The way his little fingers would seek her. His grin, so much like his father's. Han's kiss against her neck, her collar, her everywhere. The familiar softness in Ben's face when he thought of Rey. The illuminating smile of that miraculous desert orphan who so quickly stole into the hearts of everyone, who seemed raised up unto the exact purpose of fixing this broken family. She who could see value in wreckage saw and fought for the value in theirs.

Ben was loved and cared for. He was at peace. And at last, Leia was too.

Her love swelled, wet tears against her cheeks the only physical sensation she had left. It hadn't been a perfect life, but she had treasured the good parts. All the people who had passed through, all the adventures she'd survived, all the work she'd done — all of it now culminated in this moment.

She wasn't afraid of death. Somehow, she felt Han was near. And Luke. And her mother and father. And her birth parents. She was surrounded; her heart felt them all. Not alone. She couldn't wait to join them, to hug them all again. To be free of this life of strife and pain. The galaxy would have to figure out how to pick up the pieces on its own. At last her fight was done. At last, she could rest.

The light engulfed her, swallowed her whole.

-See, Leia? I told you he was still a good kid at heart.

-You said that? Pretty sure I was the one who had to convince you.

-Yeah, well…that got me killed, so thanks for that advice. Anyway, he's come a long way, but still got a long ways to go too.

-He has the right person to help him now.

-Oh, you think you're getting out of it? The kid's a wreck. He's still gonna need you.

-He'll be fine. She can handle it.

-She's great, I know, but she can't do it alone. Don't make her try to fill your place too. That puts her in a weird position.

-What are you saying?

-I'm saying I love you, Sweetheart, but it isn't time for us yet. The kids can't do this without you. I'll see you soon, but not yet.

When Leia opened her eyes again, Han's infectious, defiant grin greeted her warmly. But it changed, and she realized the face before her wasn't grinning. The eyes were too dark, the face too long, the hair too thick. Not Han, but very similar.

"…Ben?"

But how? She was dead — wasn't she?

The face of her grown son exhaled a breath of air and she felt her body lift, rolling into his chest as his strong arms held her close.

"What?" another familiar voice croaked. "She's…alive?"

She turned her head and found Poe kneeling beside Ben, tears pooled and caught in his long lashes. On the other side of Ben knelt Rey, whose own tears had not stayed collected in her eyes but now streaked down her cheeks and dripped from her chin.

Why were they all crying?

"Am I?" Leia wondered weakly. "How…disappointing. I thought I was done."

"Not yet," Ben rumbled against her. She felt his arms shaking.

"What happened?" Rey asked. "Chewie doesn't know. He says one minute you leaned down and the next you were on the ground and he couldn't touch you without getting shocked."

Leia closed her eyes. She was so tired. Her mind struggled to recall recent events. "I…think I used the Force again."

Poe expelled a laugh strangled by a gasp. "You gotta stop that. This is the second time it's almost killed you."

"There were detonators buried under the city," she remembered. "I deactivated them."

Rey laughed too, taking Leia's hand and pressing a kiss into her palm. "That was you? Hux was so angry. I wish he'd known it was your doing. Leia, you saved everyone."

Maybe she should feel proud. Should feel pleased. Instead she just felt fatigued.

Something entered her mind, another presence joining her own. It was so familiar, for a moment she was transported back to the moment she first felt life quickening in her womb. The same presence, then so simple and pure, now so strong and sure. She looked up into the eyes of her son, whose early fragmented thoughts had become so much a part of her. Now he was back, gently probing through her last few memories. She savored his company, his closeness, and allowed him to see whatever he was looking for. Together they revisited the scene of her reaching into the earth and sending her life-force out in a blast of energy.

His surprise flooded her mind. She smiled. "What, you thought you were the only one now that Luke is gone?"

Ben glanced at Rey, who met his eye with a look of knowing. Had she seen too? Strange, Leia hadn't felt her. Only Ben.

"Where is Chewie?" she heard herself ask.

The Wookie groaned miserably from somewhere nearby. She couldn't move her body enough to locate where.

"It's alright," she told him.

"He's upset we had to find you here, still on the ground. He wanted to get you on the Falcon," Rey explained. "But he couldn't touch you. He doesn't understand why Ben was able to."

"I don't know. I don't really understand any of it myself." Leia wanted to comfort her old friend, but she couldn't summon the strength to move more than her head.

"Where can I take you?" Ben said softly to her. "Where do you want to go?"

He was asking for home. But where was home? Alderaan was gone. Chandrilla had been her home for a while. Ben was born there. But it had been so long, and she didn't want to go back without Han. Hosnian Prime had been home for even longer, but that was gone too. D'Qar, Evryn, everywhere else had only been temporary bases from which or organize a resistance. Not home. Not really.

"Here," she said eventually. "My mother's family still holds expansive lands and manors in the Lake Country. Because of my relation to her and the help I gave Naboo in the days after the Empire, they have made it clear that I am welcome to make any of those places my home. Perhaps it's finally time to take them up on that offer."

Ben looked at Rey, Poe, and Chewie. They all stood and headed for the Falcon, somehow aware of their jobs without having to be told what to do. Leia smiled. Her son had inherited his father's natural ability to organize a crew. Ben stood too, lifting her in his arms as if she were made of feathers.

Weariness washed over her again as he carried her onto the Falcon. What a strange reversal of roles, she mused to herself. The infant she'd cradled in her arms now cradled her, and just as gently.

Her consciousness slid in and out for the next several hours. Sometimes she found herself having conversations with disembodied voices of people she'd loved and lost, and other times she realized her physical surroundings had changed. At first she was on the Falcon, still firmly in her son's grasp. Then she was passing beneath tall, ornate ceilings in a place with fragrant citrus trees. Next she knew, she was waking up on a bed softer than any she'd felt in a long, long time.

It took a while for her to become fully alert and prepared to take on whatever remaining in this life meant. Servants brought her a fruit drink which sharpened her senses and helped restore some of her energy. When she felt ready, she told Ben, who hovered always at her side, to gather the others.

Eventually Rey, Poe, and Chewie all materialized at her bedside once more.

"So, give me the update," she said, looking to Poe. "What is the report?"

"Hux is dead, most of the officers aboard The Finalizer have deserted. Many thousands of Stormtroopers defected. We just got word from Finn that the city is clear now, no more fighting in the streets."

"Good," Leia said, relieved. The battle was won. "So what are you still doing here?"

Poe shrugged. "It's over."

She looked at him, at his young face now shadowed with the necessary experience that would make him a good leader. She smiled. "Sorry, dear, but you're wrong about that. The Empire did not die with its emperor, or with Vader. It went on, fighting for life until the bitter end. We chased its remnants out into Unknown Space where it festered and grew back. The First Order can't be allowed to survive."

"When you're strong again, you'll lead us through it," Poe said encouragingly. "But we have time for you to rest."

"I do need rest, yes, but I'm not going to lead you through it, Poe. I've given this galaxy everything I had." Her gaze flicked to Ben, who watched her with all the steadfastness of the lost little boy she used to know. "Sometimes I gave more than I should have. But my time is done. Now the torch passes. I've been grooming you, and Connix, and Greer, and everyone else to take up that torch. I will be here to guide you, but now it's your time to lead."

"Mother," Ben chided, so softly it seemed almost meant for the two of them alone. "You've never known what it means to rest. As soon as your strength is back, you'll be spearheading some cause. Why not the building of a new government?"

"I'm done with government." Leia grinned. "Right before the First Order arose, I told your father I was going to retire and we'd travel the stars together. I didn't get to do it then, and I can't do it now, but I can still retire and find a new way of life for myself. If I get bored, I'll focus on helping to rebuild Theed. I'll keep my efforts a little closer to home."

Poe frowned and glanced at Ben.

Leia observed the two of them, and was struck by how similar they were. Both ambitious and passionate, both deeply flawed but always earnest. Poe was a couple years older than Ben, but you couldn't tell by looking at them. She'd known Poe all his life. Both she and Luke had been close with his parents, and since their death she had taken Poe in as her own. He was a young man then, but still in need of a mother. She'd been proud of him and exasperated by him in equal measure ever since, as any mother would be of her own son. Now she understood the purpose in all of it.

"Ben," she said softly, drawing his attention. "You are the key to all of this. Use what authority you still have to take control of the First Order and dismantle it piece by piece. Poe will build up a new government as you take apart the old. Work with each other, not against. You are brothers. Treat each other like brothers."

The two men looked at one another again. Their relationship had been fraught with bad blood since the beginning. There were rough memories they'd have to put behind them to move forward. But Leia knew they could do it. Knew they would do it.

She looked at Poe once more. "I expect you to use everything I've taught as you and the others rebuild. This war will result in many, many prisoners and many, many trials of former First Order officers. Be careful and discerning in deciding which of them are guilty, and remember that good men can come out of terrible circumstances."

"I promise," Poe said, his voice cracking with sudden emotion. "Leia, it feels like you're saying goodbye."

"I don't think I am." Leia tried to remember Han's words. "I think I'm sticking around for a while. But I'm turning the reins over to you. My role will be strictly advisory."

"Please don't send us away," Rey whispered suddenly. Leia looked at the girl and saw her eyes were full of tears again. "That's what you're doing, isn't it? Not goodbye forever, but goodbye for now. Please don't make us go. Let us stay with you."

"You have work to do," Leia said gently. "Hanging around here won't get it done."

Rey wiped impatiently at the dampness on her face. At Leia's motion, she approached and sat on the side of the bed. "All that can wait. I just want to be with you a little while longer."

Leia took her hand, a rush of maternal affection bubbling up within her. "My dear daughter. My girl. I'll always be here for you if you need me, but trust me when I say you don't need me. You are strong, and you are resourceful. Your place in this is far more important than my own. I think you've begun to realize that."

"Life and death, dark and light," Rey whispered softly to herself, looking at her bandaged hand in Leia's weathered one.

Leia nodded. "Yes, they are the balance, aren't they? And you have the gift of knowing when to use which: when is the time for living, and when is the time for dying. Tell me, what do you see in me?"

Rey looked at her, searched Leia's eyes with her own. Her brow furrowed. "It isn't your time to go."

"See? Much as I wish it were," Leia said with a sardonic smile. "I'm ready to be with the people I love. But I'm staying, for all of you. Get used to it, my girl. Being a Skywalker means putting up with family members kind of hanging around forever, messing up your life in unpredictable ways. I think Luke has already been doing that to you, hasn't he?"

"But I'm not." Rey shook her head. "I'm not a Skywalker."

Leia's gaze flashed briefly to Ben before returning to the girl. She tightened her grip on Rey's hand. "Are you not? Luke's lightsaber, our father's lightsaber, came to you. Perhaps you weren't born to us, but you belong to us. It knew that. Your place is with this family, Skywalker blood or not."

Ben's attention turned from them to the balcony at the other end of the room. His gaze traveled out over the lake shining in the middle distance. Leia would have liked to know what thoughts took him there, but she couldn't ask. Instead, she sighed as she looked over the three young people before her.

"I gave birth to one, but the Force has given me three children. Be good to each other. And try not to call too often with questions," she winked. "I'll be enjoying my retirement. Chewie, I encourage you to do the same. Go home to your wife, to your son. Let these young fry take on the tedious work."

Chewie groaned in agreement.

Rey stood and joined Ben, her hand reaching unconsciously for his. He let her take it. Leia noticed, and felt peaceful. They said their goodbyes and left her to relax. But just when she'd settled in to her solitude, Ben returned alone, kneeling beside her bed.

"Tell me what you want me to do, and I'll do it. It's time to make things right. To pay for what I have put you through."

She smiled and brushed his long black hair out of his face. "You will, my son. Through the things you do with your life from this point forward, you will make amends. Take care of her, and take care of this galaxy. And don't worry, you know where to find me."

Her eyes traveled over the chiseled lines of his face, once round and cherubic in toddlerhood, now sharp and angular in adulthood. Despite the difference, she now saw that he did look like the same person after all. Her son was back.

He stood, bending over to press a kiss to her forehead before he turned and left her alone once more. She smiled. Yes, all of this was exactly right.

Han's words echoed through her heart once more, and she whispered them softly into the empty room. "I'll see you soon, but not yet."