AN: I don't own Star Wars, as everyone knows. Anyway, there's a theory that Jannah might be Lando's daughter (evidenced by Lando wanting to help her find her true identity and supplemental material saying that Lando had a daughter who was taken by the First Order – no, I don't know her name, Wookieepedia didn't say what her name was, so I just made something up, and I couldn't find who the mother was either). That combined with how Lando never really mourned his old friends in the movie, and this fic was born.
"We Had Each Other"
By EsmeAmelia
Jannah wasn't quite sure what to do now that the festivities were winding down. After all, it wasn't like she'd been part of the Resistance for long. In fact, did she even count as being "part of" the Resistance when she only fought in the very last battle? It was only because of Finn and his friends running into her by chance that she even fought in the Resistance at all.
Maybe she should try to find Finn, but when she last saw him, he had seemed a bit distracted with his other friends. She could look for her tribe, but they too seemed distracted by the party when she had last seen them. In fact, just about everyone seemed distracted. Hugging, kissing, dancing, eating, chatting. It seemed like she was the only one without any companions.
"B, your name is BEN, and you've got a toy BANTHA . . ."
Wait, what was that?
"Your grandma's name is BREHA, your grandpa's name is BAIL . . ."
Out of sheer curiosity, Jannah followed the weird chanting around the bonfire and to a bench near the Falcon. There sat General Calrissian, staring at a datapad in his hands, a forlorn look in his eyes. Instinct told Jannah to leave, but curiosity held her in place.
Then the general glanced up at her. "Oh, hey," he said, giving her a slight smile as he paused whatever he was watching on the datapad. "You're wondering what this is, aren't you?"
"Maybe a bit," Jannah admitted.
The older man patted the bench next to him. "C'mon, have a seat and I'll show you."
Jannah gulped. "General Calrissian . . ."
"Lando."
"Lando . . . are you sure?"
"Would I be asking you to join me if I wasn't sure?" He patted the bench harder, his grin crinkling up his mustache. "C'mon, I can tell you're curious."
With a gulp, Jannah sat next to the general, vaguely wondering if he'd been serious when he offered to help her find out her identity.
"Have a look," Lando said as he restarted the datapad's recording.
On the screen was a brown-haired man in his thirties, sitting on a floor and holding a black-haired baby boy in his lap. "B, your name is BEN," the man chanted while rhythmically clapping his hands, "and you've got a toy BANTHA, your grandma's name is BREHA, your grandpa's name is BAIL, and you like to play BALL!"
The baby giggled and clapped his own hands in imitation of his father.
"Is that . . . General Solo?" Jannah asked.
"The one and only," said Lando. "He always lit up so cute when he played with his son."
Jannah gulped, staring at the laughing baby. "His son . . . Kylo Ren."
Lando's hands tightened their grip on the datapad. "He wasn't always called that."
"I know. I'm sorry, I just . . ." She couldn't find the words. Everyone started as innocent babies, even monsters like Kylo Ren.
Monsters who would steal innocent babies.
"It's hard for me too," said Lando. "At the beginning, I just refused to believe it. Sweet little Ben who used to call me Uncle Lando gone dark side? Impossible." He swallowed hard. "But . . . well . . . he came back in the end." He ran his hand over his eyes, taking a deep breath before continuing. "You wanna see another one?"
"Sure."
Lando brought up a different recording, this one of the young General Solo with a young woman that Jannah assumed was General Organa. Both were singing loudly into microphones – some love song that Jannah didn't recognize – huge grins on their faces as if they didn't care how ridiculous they looked.
"Sometimes when we all went out I could convince them to sing some karaoke," said Lando, "'specially if they had a couple of drinks first."
"All?" asked Jannah.
"Yeah," said Lando. "Me, Han, Leia, Luke, and Chewie." He sighed again. "I was the oldest of the gang – 'cept for Chewie, but now I'm the only one left alive – 'cept for Chewie." A slight sniffle escaped as he brought up another recording. "Last human standing, that's me."
This recording was at a beach – it looked like Naboo, judging by what Jannah knew about the planet from her stormtrooper training. Now Kylo – Ben – was older, maybe five or six, and he was running through the waves with his parents.
"Big wave!" the boy shouted. "BIG WAVE!" He giggled loudly as the wave brought the water level up to his torso and then backed away again.
"Watch out, here comes ANOTHER big wave," called a voice from off-camera, then in came a blond-haired man that scooped the child into his arms.
"Uncle Luuuuuuuke!" the boy giggled. "Put me down!"
Luke Skywalker. Jannah had never met him, of course, but she wouldn't have imagined the legendary Jedi Master being so . . . playful.
"Sorry, can't do that," Luke was saying. "You're caught in the BIG WAVE!"
"And here comes ANOTHER big wave!" laughed Han as he ran up to Luke and scooped his son into his own arms.
Jannah found herself smiling despite what she knew about the little boy. "Lando, are you in any of these recordings, or are you taking all of them?"
Lando grinned at her. "You want to see a younger me? All right, take a look."
Now he changed the recording to show himself, perhaps twenty-something years ago. Other than having blacker hair, fewer wrinkles, and less weight, he didn't look all that different than he did now.
That wasn't what caught Jannah's attention, though.
What caught her attention was that he was holding a baby girl.
"Say hi to the camera, Ava!" the younger Lando said in a high, singsongy voice, grasping the little girl's wrist and making her wave. "Yeah, say hi, say hi!"
"Ava?" Jannah exclaimed.
Lando nodded solemnly. "My daughter." His eyes were glistening as he stared at the recording.
"I didn't know you had a daughter."
Lando took a deep breath. "Me and her mom weren't married, but we were like friends with benefits. She died giving birth, so I was left to raise Ava by myself. Course, I wasn't really by myself – our gang was still together back then."
Chewie was carrying young Ben into the recording. "Hey Ava," said Ben, gently patting the baby's head. "When I get big, I'm gonna take you for rides in the Falcon!"
Chewie, the young Lando, and what sounded like Han behind the camera all chuckled together, but the older Lando didn't laugh. He just stared at the screen, looking ready to break down crying.
"What happened to Ava?" Jannah felt her stomach twist just asking.
Now Lando's face hardened. "The First Order took her when she was just two years old. We looked for her, damn we looked, but we never found her."
Jannah felt her insides grow cold. "Is that . . . is that why you weren't part of the Resistance before?"
"Could you kill stormtroopers knowing your daughter could be under any of those helmets?" Lando ran his hand over his eyes again. "She's probably dead by now. Maybe I even killed her today."
Jannah didn't know what to say. What could she say? This man had lost a daughter, lost his closest friends, and yet somehow he hadn't let bitterness overtake him. That seemed more amazing than any stories about fancy flying or narrow escapes.
"Maybe she's still alive," she found herself saying. "Maybe we could still find her."
Lando gave a long sigh, finally turning the datapad off. "She wouldn't know me – she wouldn't even know her name . . ."
"Well . . . DNA testing?" Jannah looked into his tear-filled eyes. "I mean, if you still want to help me find out who I am, then it's only right for me to help you find your daughter."
Finally the charming smile pulled back at his lips. "You know, she'd be about your age now."
About your age now. The implications of those words hit Jannah like a tidal wave. "Wait . . . are you saying . . . you think I'm . . ."
Lando's smile faded. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to . . ."
"No, no," Jannah quickly said, "I mean, if I am, I'd be very happy to finally know who I am and that I have such an amazing father, but you shouldn't get your hopes up."
"I know, I know," said Lando, putting the datapad into his satchel. "But, I mean, if you were her, I'd sure be damn proud that my Ava grew up to be such a fierce, brave warrior."
Jannah felt her cheeks growing hot as they sat in awkward silence for a few seconds, as if they were each waiting for the other to speak.
Finally, Lando took another deep breath. "So . . . DNA testing. Do you want to do that?"
Jannah took her own deep breath, looking into the general's hopeful eyes – maybe it was false hope, but he deserved to know. Who knew, maybe they would both find their family today. "Yes," she said, "let's find out."
THE END