The Senate Building had been empty in Coruscant since the day the Emperor had dissolved it— nearly sixty years prior. Even after the Empire had fallen, the Senate building was not the tourist attraction that the Imperial Palace was, and thus had fallen into disrepair.

That is, until the events leading up to the day of the hearings.

It had been cleaned, the floating Senate booths tested and restored to working order. The large corridors outside of the Senate floor were filled with people. Historians, holo-reporters, and mere civilians were all there, paying witness to the history about to be made.

Nellith leaned into the wall next to the booth for Chandrila. That was where Finn and Rose Tico were sitting with Sam and Danni, waiting for the session to begin. Beaumont Kin, the Senator for Chandrila, was whispering to Sam and Danni some last-minute tips for the testimony.

She remembered that her mother didn't like Beaumont Kin all that much— claimed he was a bit of a know-nothing know-it-all.

"He's more smug than a smuggler after a game of pazaak," Rey would always grumble the few times they visited the planet in her childhood. "He's always telling me about some text or another that he found that surely reveals more about the Force than I know— never mind that it's some source Tionne wrote—"

"It's all so strange, isn't it?"

Nellith turned her head to see Kyp emerging from the crowd of mixed Jedi and Poe Dameon's aides.

"My great-grandmother was once here," he said, leaning against the other side of the opening. "She was a Senator for Deyer, while the Imperial Senate was still active Never thought we'd ever be here again. You can feel it."

"The corruption." Nellith nodded, looking back into the chamber. "Palpatine wasn't the only evil that was built here. So many— and they weren't trying to be bad people, most of them. They wanted to help, and they made sacrifices. . ."

"But in the process, they lost their hearts, all of them."

Nellith noticed the dark fire in his eyes, the strange ferocity of his expression.

"Staring into the heart of it all, I don't wonder at all why Vader destroyed it all."

Nellith blinked— she couldn't be hearing right.

"You're not siding with Imperial ideology, are you?"

"What?" He looked back to her, and blinked— all the sudden ferocity gone. "No, Nellith— just because I understand doesn't mean I agree with it. I can just see why Vader got frustrated with the bureaucracy."

Nellith frowned. "It's more than that. Don't lie to me."

Kyp glanced into the chamber once more before looking back to her. "You know Deyer was the first casualty of the war."

"There isn't a war yet." At the same time, Nellith knew exactly what he was talking about.

Deyer was the last great battle of the Second Galactic Civil War, or so the history texts read.

The Remnant had fled there and remained there for a long time. Despite all attempts from the New Republic to free the world, the Remnant of the First Order maintained an iron grip on the world.

Nellith remembered when Kyp Durron had become a student at the Praxeum, because of how he had helped her mother win the Battle of Deyer, that freed the planet at last.

But training at the Praxeum, freeing the people of Deyer— that didn't bring his family back.

And he was a boy then, only thirteen years old. A boy with powers far too great, and who still held rage and unprocessed grief and guilt in his heart.

That was why Exar Kun had called to him, from lightyears away. That was how he almost ended up becoming the new host for the ancient Sith Lord, almost ended up becoming a great Sith himself. . .

That was, until Ben Solo had stopped him.

"Your battle with the dark side is never over." Ben had always said it to them wearily, the few times they spoke about his past as Kylo Ren.

Nellith for the first time saw that in Kyp Durron.

"You think if that there was less bureaucracy, your parents might've been saved."

"And my brother and sister." There was the dull roar of applause from the Senate chamber, and so he looked out into the sea of politicians. There was something reserved and guarded about his face, like the vault in the side of the Falcon

Nellith paused. "I never knew you had a brother and a sister."

"You wouldn't want to hear about them."

"I would," she insisted, blue eyes luminous.

He managed to smile again, although it was sad. "I'll tell you sometime later. I think they're about to start."

Indeed they were, and Nellith was not sad that in their discussion, they had missed Chancellor Connix's opening remarks.

Instead, Beaumont Kin had flown the little deck with Sam and Danni into the center, right by the Chancellor's small tower.

"Thank you, Kaydel," Senator Kin said with a courteous nod, ignoring how Danni and the Chancellor were staring daggers into him. "I am here with the only survivors of the disappearance of the Princess Leia one standard month ago. They would like to speak and clarify what exactly took place on that ship because the galaxy deserves to know."

"Yes, thank you, Senator Kin." Sam stood, wearing the dress uniform of all New Republic military officials, and looking rather dashing in it. "I was assigned to the patrol duties of the Princess Leia for half of the standard year as we were supposed to monitor the border between Hapan space and New Republic territory."

Sam turned to face a new side to the room. "We were attacked out of nowhere, by ships from New Alderaan. They boarded the ship and disabled our guns and escape pods. We could not fight back, we could not leave."

"That is where I come into this story," Danni interrupted gently. "The Princess Leia was working on experiments for new technology in our military, and Dr. Xux was the head of our research. She tasked me with returning a disc containing all of our research to the New Republic, as well as a box containing important cargo we'd received from a pick-up on Naboo."

She took Sam's hand as she continued to speak. "Dr. Xux and I requested Private Tico's assistance in escorting me and the cargo off of the Princess Leia. We had to sneak into the hangar bay through the vents because otherwise we would have been slaughtered attempting to reach the hangar through conventional means."

"We almost did face trouble in the hangar proper," Sam said. "We were met by Mical Janus, a former advisor of Thea Organa, who now goes by another name, as Organa does. He declared himself a Sith Lord and attempted to kill us."

The very mention of the Sith caused a gasp to rise in the Senate chamber. Nellith could've sworn she saw a Togruta woman swoon.

"We were forced to steal a TIE from our invaders and make a crash-landing on an outer moon of Hapan space to escape with our lives and Dr. Xux died to save." Danni's voice was solemn.

Nellith reached a hand up to her neck. She felt as if her heart were stuck in her throat. She had been the cargo in the box. She hadn't realized it— but the crew of the Princess Leia had died to save her.

Who was she to deserve that?

"We were lucky that Tenel Ka Djo chose to take us in and deliver us back to Republic Space," Danni finished. "We were lucky to escape from the Imperial Remnant with Dr. Xux's life work."

"Now is not ideal, but at least you still have a chance to save us." Sam was handsome, even in his righteous anger. He had a charisma that reminded Nellith more of Poe Dameron than Finn Tico in the old holos. "The Jedi were slaughtered by the Remnant three years ago— nearly four, now. Rey Skywalker is still missing— we were lucky that the box contained Nellith Skywalker, one of her missing daughters, who was able to rescue Jacen and Ben Skywalker!"

Nellith could feel holo-cameras turning to her. Whispers started— after all, despite that the public had referred to him as Ben Skywalker, they now knew the truth because of the broadcast from Darth Keera.

They now knew that the Last Jedi's children were also those of the Jedi Killer.

"The blood of Jaina Skywalker and Anakin Solo are on your hands!" Sam snarled.

There was another round of gasps. Jaina had been well-known as a young Jedi Knight and as Wedge Antilles's protege before she disappeared. And everyone had known about the legendary Anakin Solo, who was called by that name to distinguish between his great-grandfather and himself. They'd seen him tag along as the cute child at her mother's hip, straight into battle.

Nellith felt as if her heartbeat were choking her and was only faintly aware of the tears. It wasn't fair, that lights as bright as Jaina's and Anakin's had burned out.

Why did she deserve to live when they had died at their sister's hands?

"It's alright," Kyp whispered into her ear, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"You should have avenged them long ago!" Sam's anger then faded to sorrow. "We cannot change what we have done. But we can do what is right now. You owe it to all of them, especially Rey Skywalker, to declare war. To fight the Imperial Remnant."

Then the entire Senate broke into a cacophony of accusations, outcries, arguments.

Kin retreated the pod into the wall, but the damage had been done.

"And now the debating begins," Danni said, shaking her head as Kyp and Nellith helped her and Sam out of the pod.

"But we've swayed them," Sam promised. "There's no way they'll ignore it this time. They attacked several branches of the military, first the Jedi and now a peaceful patrol ship— they'll think twice before denying the Chancellor's motion, for all that they'll bicker about it."

"I guess now all we can do is wait, then," Nellith sighed. She folded her arms over her chest and looked to see a young woman in a white lace cloak rush over to her sister. They spoke in hushed whispers before the girl in the cloak tugged her away.