The Hapan shuttle, the Coral Wyvern, arrived just before the sunrise on Chandrila. The sky was a deep indigo that matched the cloaks of the handmaidens as they boarded the ships.

Vasilisa stopped, explaining to a member of the Chume'doro that one handmaiden would be staying behind, at the behest of the Chume'da.

Allana focused on keeping her face pleasantly neutral as Vasilisa and the guard exchanged whispers. Finally, the guard shrugged and nodded at Allana.

Vasilisa turned and embraced her princess. "Good luck, Amelia. The Chume'da eagerly anticipates reports of your progress."

"I cannot wait to report back to her and join you all again soon." There was an unspoken promise in the exchange.

Soon we will be together again and we will all be happy.

Perhaps it was a naive promise, more an optimistic wish with no chance of coming true.

But as Allana stepped back, to allow room for the Coral Wyvern to take off, she couldn't help but believe it. She had to. They would fix everything, surely.

That was what fathers and mothers did, didn't they?

She held a fistful of her velvety cloak, watching as the stars lingered in the approaching daylight. For a moment, it was beautiful.

Then the spell was broken. The princess had work to do. She turned to where the Falcon was parked. Outside, Nellith stood, watching. Allana's heart ached at the sight of her.

Nellith was wearing a mix of clothes from various sources. A Hapan summer dress with a knee-length hem, a jacket donated graciously by Sam that was too small. Boots and a scarf that once belonged to Aya Tico, and leggings that Rose had been meaning to return but had never gotten around to.

Then there was her hair. Styled in the three buns that their mother wore in the old holos— even though it was always half-up, half-down as long as Allana could remember.

With all of the flyaway hairs and the ragged, cobbled-together look, Allana could see her mother standing there in Nellith's shadow. A much younger Rey Skywalker, lost and aimless, waiting for a family that would not come back.

But they will come back.

Allana had to believe that. And yet, as she took in her fraternal twin, she couldn't help but wonder who people saw in her.

Her father, the once-wicked Kylo Ren? Her mother, the Last Jedi? Or perhaps the likes of Luke Skywalker, the greatest hope the galaxy once held? Or even, if you squinted, the great queen Padme Amidala?

Despite the old holos that Allana often admired and placed on her vanity for fashion inspiration, she thought that last one was perhaps a stretch.

Padmé Amidala led a revolution at the age of fourteen.

When Allana was fourteen, all she could do was run.

"Hey, sis, gonna stop gazing at the stars or what?"

"Sorry." Allana shook her head in that trained careful way, to prevent hairpins or a curly lock from falling out of her intricate hairstyle. "I was just thinking about some things."

"Things— very queenly," Nellith teased.

"Shut up." Allana smiled as she said it.

"After you." Nellith made a very elaborate and over-the-top bow and gesture to accompany it. "Your Grace."

Allana rolled her eyes and entered the Millennium Falcon.

She entered the cockpit, where Valin and Tahiri were already seated.

"Oh, sorry, Your Grace," Valin said, quickly standing up. "You should take it—"

"Thank you." Allana gracefully sat down. "Where's Kyp and Chewie and the droids?"

"Artoo is helping Chewie fix some things in the cargo hold," Tahiri explained. "Threepio's annoying Kyp up in the gunner's turret."

"They deserve each other," Allana declared.

Valin snorted in response, before straightening up. "I should probably check on them."

With that, he left as Chewie and Nellith entered.

Nellith grinned as she fastened her harness and started up the Falcon's flight sequence.

"This is your captain speaking— this is gonna be a crazy ride."

And before Allana knew it, they shot off into the stars.

"Perfect Sabaac." Valin threw down his cards, hazel eyes gleaming. "Your move, Princess."

Allana raised an eyebrow as she examined her cards again. "Too bad an Idiot's Array beats a Perfect Sabaac."

"And she wins again." Valin groaned— but in a playful way, like he didn't really mind.

"I hope you're not letting me, because I can hold my own just fine," Allana said as she shuffled the deck.

"I promise, I would not go easy on Jacen Solo's little sister." He gave her a look of admiration. "You play a mean game. Bet you're not so good with pazaak."

Allana smiled and shook her head. "You forget that I'm Han Solo's granddaughter. I know how to play every game used for gambling in cantinas on the Outer Rim. And how to cheat at them, if I'm desperate."

"A smuggler, a princess, a Jedi, a Sith— what a pedigree," Valin muttered, leaning back in the dejarik booth.

"Not a Sith."

"What?"

"Dad was on the dark side, but technically he was never a Sith, that was different." Allana stowed the sabaac cards beneath the table in the hidden cards, exchanging them for the pazaak deck. "I mean, I guess you could count that time that he allied with some Palpatine clone, but he was never truly a Sith. Merely dark."

"Not that that's better."

"Well." Allana huffed as she shuffled the pazaak deck. "You have the pedigree of your own, several Jedi, members of CorSec, smugglers— that reminds me, I'd think that Mirax Terrik's son would be better at smugglers' games."

"That was more Grandpa Booster than her," Valin said in a matter-of-fact voice. "And Mom was too busy to be wasting time gambling during her smuggling days."

"Well, I suppose pazaak is played in some more civilized worlds, so perhaps you will beat me— as long as we play by Corellian rules."

"Better than Nar Shadaa rules." Valin snorted again. "That was Jaina's favorite."

"Jaina's. . . Right." Allana built up her courage as she dealt the cards. "I know Jacen joined up with the survivors on Coruscant, you said— but Jaina wasn't on Tatooine when the Second Purge happened."

"She wasn't. Lucky timing, too, she'd just left after the end of summer term on Chandrila." Valin picked up his cards.

"I tried to contact her, when I left for Hapes," Allana confessed. "But she didn't pick up. By the time my transmissions got through to anybody— the staff of the Academy said she was gone. That she left in the middle of the night without speaking to anyone."

"That's what they told Jacen when he commed the Academy, too." Valin set his cards back down, the logos facing up.

"Commed?" Allana frowned. "What about their connection, I thought they could—"

Valin shook his head. "Jacen said that something blocked it."

"That's not possible." And yet—

"You said something cut you off from the Force," Valin pointed out. "A lot of impossible things have been happening lately."

"I guess so."

Before Allana could ask any more questions, a shout echoed through the metal walks of the Millennium Falcon.

"Hey, this is your captain speaking, again! We're about to land on Ahch-To, so get your sorry butts in the cockpit!"

"We should probably go—" Valin pointed towards the cockpit.

"Yeah—"

As they got up, a bit of turbulence shook the old freighter, and Allana stumbled to grab onto something. Valin steadied her by reaching out a hand.

"Thanks."

"No problem."

With that understanding between them, they then ran straight to the cockpit. Grabbing on to the sides of the doors as Tahiri Veila and Kyp Durron sat down, the Falcon leapt out of hyperspace as it descended into the atmosphere of Ahch-To.

"The home of the Jedi," Tahiri whispered aloud.

"The first Jedi," Valin added.

On Nellith's navigator were coordinates for the exact island, where the first Jedi temple was located.

As it loomed on the horizon, Allana felt an overwhelming nostalgia.

They hadn't come here often, as children. Only once a year, around the date that Snoke died, all those years ago.

They were a family, playing in the waves and running along the rocks and hills. Sometimes, they would learn more about the ancient Jedi.

Ben, Jacen, and Anakin were more the Jedi historians of the family, so Allana recalled lying on the sand beside Thea.

It was one of the few good memories left, of all of them together.

Allana did remember that last good vacation. Thea was reading on her datapad some bills that the New Alderaanian Royal Council wanted to run by the future Queen. Allana was sunning herself next to her sister, enjoying the pure peace of the moment. The place was full of the Force.

Stars, Allana missed it.

She missed Nellith whooping as she played in the waves with Rey. She missed the sounds of whirring as Jaina tinkered with the remnants of the TIE fighter Rey once crashed on the shore, scavenging and creating something new. She missed her little brother emerging from the temple with their father, grinning with all the new knowledge before he joined Jacen in examining strange creatures in the tide pools.

Stars, she missed it.

"Look, there!" Tahiri pointed at a shadowy figure atop the mountain. "It's Master Solo!"

Indeed, her father never had lost his love of wearing all-black ensembles and capes.

Upon making planetfall, Allana was the first to run up the steps. Several paces ahead of anyone else, she ran as fast as she possibly could. Propelled by a desperation Allana barely understood, she nearly flew— all the way up the Jedi steps.

Until she was there. Her father, right there— he didn't seem real.

His cloak billowed in the high sea winds. "Allana?"

"Dad?" She slowed her steps.

"Allana!" His own quickened. "I— I've been looking for you all of these years—"

Allana froze. "What do you mean, you looked for me?"

He froze, too, at her angry tone. "Of course I would, I—"

"For months, I used Leia's frequency!" Allana's voice rose to a shout as tears came to her eyes— before she even knew what was happening. "For years! I kept trying and trying to contact you, and so did Tenel Ka! I went exactly where you told me to, and you didn't!"

"I couldn't sense you, the Force isn't the same as it was—"

"You let Nellith become whatever she did! You let Jacen get captured, and now Thea is going to murder him on the HoloNet just because you went missing!" Allana gestured wildly. She didn't care if her hair pins fell to the rocks. "Jacen is going to die, and it's your fault!"

Ben, without saying a word, stepped closer. Allana shook her head.

"I can't believe you— nothing? I thought you were dead, I—"

She kept shaking her head, backing away— until she ran back down the mountain, past the rest of the party. She couldn't stand what she'd once wanted so desperately.