As soon as Leia and Poe returned to the Resistance base, a celebration broke out. They'd won the war. Snoke was gone. Kylo Ren was gone. (Or so they were told by Leia and Poe) And all the higher-ranking officials with them. The rest were all stormtroopers. Most not even wanting to be there anyway. Most disbanded and left the First Order as soon as they forced Hux to release them on the loudspeaker. But despite all the celebration, Leia was torn between the happiness of her Resistance and the sadness of having to send her son and Rey away. The fact that everyone would most likely reject him after everything Kylo Ren had done was understandable, yet a crushing blow after he had just turned for the sake of Rey and his mother.

Leia sat alone throughout most of the celebration. She had lost so much and so many throughout her life. Not every victory of war meant victory overall. The Battle against the Empire took her adoptive parents, the people she loved most in her entire life until the day she had Ben. She lost each and every one of her friends from Alderaan. She learned one of the evilest Sith Lords was her biological father, and he ended up dead even after realizing all he had done wrong. In this war, it was her husband. The man she spent the best years of her life with. The ones in between the Wars. The father of her only child. Taken by that child himself. She had thought that son had even been lost forever after such a horrible deed. And then the loss of her twin brother, and now the loss of one grandchild she'd never meet. Her life was marked by loss after loss. And although she remained strong for those around her, so many memories still burnt at the at the calluses her soul, no matter how hard she tried to fight them, everything would always be there.

She sat there. Thinking about her son, Rey, and the baby. Their safety. Their happiness. Everything.

Rose then walked up to her, the engineer girl who had gone with Finn on the mission to shut down the First Order's trackers.

"General, is everything alright?" She asked her

"I'm alright dear." She said with a smile as Rose sat beside her.

"I was meaning to ask you, where is Rey? You told us she was training, but surely she'd be back for this? I thought she killed Kylo Ren and then we took care of the rest."

"Not exactly..."

"What do you mean?"

Leia sighed opting to tell the girl the truth.

"Bring Poe and Finn. I'll explain everything to you three."

Rose nodded and left momentarily, coming back with Finn who was curious why the General needed to speak to them urgently even though the war was over, and Poe, who understood bits and pieces of the situation by now.

"Rey wasn't training for the last few days on Hoth." Leia began as Finn and Rose looked at her questioningly, "she went to spend a couple days with and speak with my son, Ben... who you two would probably know as Kylo Ren... about her pregnancy and what they were going to do. But she turned him. Maybe not to a full Jedi, but he has given up his commitment to the dark."

"You're serious? So she didn't kill him?" Rose asked

"From a certain perspective, you could say she killed Kylo Ren." Leia explained, "but in a way that preserved her light; by restoring Ben Solo's."

"Where is she now?" Finn asked in a concerned matter.

"She's going to stay on another planet with him for a while. Just until I'm able to go with her. She needs to relax. She's been through a lot in this war. She needs to calm down for herself, and the baby." Leia reminded.

"So she really loves him?" Finn asked

"Yes, I believe she really does." Leia said in an understanding but honest tone, knowing about the feelings Finn and Rey once had for each other.

"Even after everything he's done?" Finn added in a confused matter, "How can she watch him do that to Han and then fall in love with him?"

"That's exactly why we didn't bring them back with us. The force is very strange. They're a dyad of the force. But this time it's a romantic one. And those things bound you by the soul until you can't even think straight about the other person. But look, if they truly keep each other happy, learn how to work together and they keep each other away from completely falling into darkness, I don't mind. I just want my son to be happy. I want him to be a good person again."

The three looked at each other as if they didn't completely buy it but wanted to believe in the hope Leia always radiated with.

"You don't have to see him now. I understand that. That's why we didn't bring him back here. He understood that. But Rey wants to see the three of you again. You three are her family. She trusted you in knowing about her relationship with Kylo Ren. And now with Ben Solo. If you trust her, you will trust her judgment that Ben has turned."