It was dark when the Falcon landed in a meadow outside of Varykino. Luckily, the moon was full, illuminating the entire waterway a ghost blue.
When Rey went first to scout ahead, the motion triggered the solar energy stores for the lanterns, allowing them to light the way and activate the house for the first time since the war had begun. No one, not even raiders or thieves, had been in the house for some time, Rey had sensed.
But there was not any sadness here. This had once been a place of great love. Rey could feel it in the very walls of the beautiful palace. She had once felt this kind of love between her own parents and between Han and Leia, even if she had never seen the two together. She'd seen it with Finn and the girl that lay unconscious in the Falcon's medbay. Her own heart ached at it.
It was a foolish naive girl's dream, but she'd dreamed of his kind of love between herself and Ben all the same. And she'd be lying if she said it didn't cut like a knife.
But she had work to do, and if there was anything that Jakku taught, it was how to put her own heart aside while she did what had to be done.
And that was exactly what she did.
Poe commanded everyone to follow him in, and Rey helped Chewie lock up the Falcon for the night. When they came back in, what remained of the Resistance had gotten to work.
They raided the pantry, with Kaydel Ko Connix taking inventory, and Finn assigning places to sleep, and Beaumont Kin worked on securing the house as much as possible.
They would have much more to do in the coming days. They would need allies, to recruit.
Because of Leia's connection to the planet, Rey supposed this was a good place to start. They needed funds, ships, and a plan.
Those were what you needed to fight a war, right? To destroy the other side?
It was overwhelmingly daunting, like the sandstorms of Jakku during X'us'R'iia. Rey's head spun at the prospects. After all, she was the last Jedi. They would expect her at the front of this. Never mind that at the end of the day, she was no one, from nowhere and that she had no idea where to go from here.
Rey looked away from the rations Poe and Kaydel were distributing to a figure out on the dock. Leia, Rey realized as she took a quick headcount.
Rey slipped out of the house to follow the older woman. The night air felt cooler out here, time a little slower. This was the kind of place where one could recover and heal, isolated from the rest of the world.
When this was all over, Rey decided that she wanted to be here.
"I was wondering when you'd join me." Leia spoke with her back still turned to the Last Jedi.
"I didn't know you were expecting me."
Leia laughed. "I didn't. But I knew you'd come anyway."
The two of them looked out at the water. Rey heard the wildlife chirp— a white noise. Then Leia spoke again.
"I can see them now— I saw them after the Battle of Endor, you know."
"See what?"
Leia looked at Rey. "The shatterpoints. Places where time used to flow a little bit differently. Some things are the same. The Empire stuck around, Luke trained students— Luke trained me. Although he said I was crazy, he never saw them."
"You know about them?" Rey's mind was reeling. "I used to be someone else, in another world, didn't I?"
Leia frowned, and the name returned to her.
Rey pressed on. "My name was once Tahiri Veila, wasn't it?"
"That wouldn't surprise me." Leia twisted her ring. "I don't remember it, not like I think you and my son do. But I do see the glimpses of what could have been. Sit with me, will you?"
Leia then sat on a bench conveniently placed by the waterway. Rey felt she had no choice other than to oblige the old woman.
"I know that my Ben had a different name— Jacen. Ben was the name of Luke's kid, once— I don't know what in the stars made me think to use it," Leia mumbled. "And he wasn't my only kid. Jaina and Anakin."
"I remember them now." She could now see the faces, clear in her mind. Jaina Solo, with Han's smile. Anakin Solo— the love of her life, the one who had died so long ago. Ben Skywalker, the son of Mara Jade.
"I miss other things, too," Leia added. For the first time, Rey saw the older woman cry. "I miss Han. I miss my children. I miss Luke, being happy, I miss Mara and the Jedi—"
"It's alright, I'll put it all back to normal, how it's supposed to be," Rey assured her.
"No." Leia spoke with surprising forcefulness as she grabbed Rey's wrist. All tears were gone. "I remember what happened to my children there, too. What became of Jacen— dead, killed by his own twin, tortured and twisted. Leaving his poor daughter behind. Jaina, left all alone. And you know what happened to Anakin."
"I do." Rey placed a hand over her chest. It ached, to remember. She'd loved him, more than anything. He'd been half to her whole. But she felt someone else in that description now. . .
But who knew if that even had meant anything? After all, maybe it was just because they were the last remnants of the former timeline.
"Mara died, and my brother lost control of his academy," Leia continued. "I lost my second home, as did my children. We did not have a happy ending there, either. Chewbacca—"
"I remember all of it now." Rey did, the memories flooding back in a confusing medley. "What do you want me to do?"
Leia pulled the mother's ring off of her finger, gazing at it for a moment. "I want you to make things right."
She then placed the ring on Rey's index finger, and her eyes met Rey's.
In that moment, her eyes were no longer hazel, but the bright green of Tahiri Veila's.
"I'll do it. I'll save your children."
"Thank you."
It was as if a great burden had been taken off of Leia's shoulders. She sat back, closing her eyes. Then she vanished completely, leaving only her clothes and a heap of jewelry behind.
Princess Leia was dead.