Author's Note: In case you didn't notice, I published two chapters today, so make sure to read chapter 26 before this one. Sorry if there was some confusion.

Chapter 27 – Yes, Mother

Ania made a face as she peered down into the tank from the top of the ladder. Having been hooked up to the IV for about an hour, Ania looked considerably better as the deathly pallor had receded from her skin and had been replaced with a rosy hue. Now she was dressed in a cream-colored wetsuit and her hair was done up in a tight bun in preparation for the bacta treatment. Standing next to his mother a few feet away, Ben watched his sister contemplate the bright blue liquid for a few moments before looking back up at them.

"It smells," she commented, wrinkling her nose for emphasis.

"So what? They're going to put you to sleep when you get in anyway," Ben said in a vain attempt to reassure her.

Ania gulped nervously and pursed her lips. "I don't want to do it," she said in a small voice.

"Why not?" Ben asked, perplexed by her anxiety. She seemed to be far more cautious ever since the horrible ordeal on Jakku. Perhaps that was for the better.

"I just don't want to," Ania said petulantly as she made to climb back down the ladder.

"Ania," Leia said sternly, her arms crossed in front of her chest. "Get in the tank." Not daring to defy her mother's will, Ania froze, her foot hovering between rungs. "I'll be here the whole time," Leia said, her tone gentler this time around. "You have nothing to be afraid of."

Ben glanced at his mother out of the corner of his eye. He was impressed by her superior tact. It seemed whenever it came to Ania, she always knew just what to say. He only wished that she could be similarly perspicacious when it came to him.

"You promise?" Ania asked, brow furrowed with concern.

"Of course I do," Leia said patiently. "Ben and I will always be here for you."

Placed at ease by this assurance, Ania nodded before climbing back up the ladder. Using her sinewy arms to propel herself upward, she cautiously dipped her toes into the bacta. Taking a deep breath, she shut her eyes tight and plunged into the tank. Her feet skimmed the bottom before she shot back up and surfaced.

"It's cold," she told them, teeth chattering in affirmation.

"It'll be over before you know it," Leia said. "Seek solace in the Force if you are scared."

Ben could see that Ania took her mother's advice to heart as she exhaled loudly before shutting her eyes in a tell-tale sign of meditation. As she did this, a medical droid floated over and lowered a breathing apparatus over Ania's bobbing head.

"Count down from ten," the droid told her as he fixed the mask over Ania's nose and mouth. Ania inclined her chin and did as the droid said. A few moments later, her limbs went limp as she drifted into unconsciousness. Taking off the anesthesia mask, the droid expediently replaced it with an oxygen one. Upon ensuring that the mask was firmly in place and the tube was fully uncoiled, the droid gently pushed Ania down so that she was completely submerged in the bacta liquid. The droid then sealed the lid to the tank and ambled away.

Ben and Leia watched silently for a few moments as Ania's skin became covered with a layering of bubbles as the bacta did its work. She was totally at peace in contrast to how antsy she had been moment's prior, and Ben sighed in relief because of it. He felt Ania's stress as if it was his own on account to the intimacy of their bond. Seeing her at ease therefore placed him at ease as well.

"I'm sorry I failed her, Mom," Ben said finally, watching his mother's distorted reflection in the curved glass of the bacta tank. "I feel horrible about what happened."

"You shouldn't," Leia told him, she too electing to stare straight ahead at Ania rather than at him directly. "I was wrong to blame you."

Ben nodded, appreciative that she was willing to admit her erroneous treatment of him. Even so, he still felt a gnawing sense of guilt. He needed to rectify this situation somehow. "I want to go find Luke," he said therefore. "I think the time has come for him to return."

Much to Ben's surprise, his mother didn't say anything for a long while. He would have expected her to shoot him down right away and insist that it wasn't safe for him to go alone. It would have been perfectly reasonable for her to make this argument. After all, she had nearly lost one child, it was only rational for her to fear losing the other. After a long silence, she spoke in a weary voice.

"Luke's not coming back," she said. "If he wouldn't listen to me, why would he listen to you?"

Ben frowned as he considered this question. "Things have changed now," he said after a moment's deliberation. "Chandrila's been destroyed. Surely he'll come back now."

"You heard what he said, Ben. You heard how defeated he was," Leia lamented drearily. "He's been thoroughly broken. Nothing will bring him back."

"Do you really believe that?" Ben asked.

He heard her exhale out her mouth slowly. "I do," she said.

Ben finally looked away from the bacta tank and down at his mother. He towered over her, the greying part of her hair clearly visible to him as she bowed her head down. Suddenly seeing her in a similar light as how he saw his sister, Ben reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder. Having not expected the gesture, Leia looked back up and met his eyes for the first time.

"I won't fail you," he said. "I will bring Luke back."

Leia's eyes oscillated back and forth for a few moments as she scrutinized his determined expression. "Very well," she said finally.

Ben arched an eyebrow, surprised by her acquiescence. "That's it? No fight?" he asked.

Leia shook her head. "I won't fight with you anymore, Ben," she said. "You are your own man. You have proven that to me time and time again."

Ben took a moment to appreciate the profundity of this statement before speaking again. "I should go as soon as possible," he said, retracting his hand and placing it behind his back.

"You don't want to say goodbye to Ania?" Leia asked him.

Ben hesitated as he glanced back at the bacta tank. "I want to, but…"

"I understand," Leia said when he trailed off. "She won't want you to go."

Ben nodded, grateful that his mother was able to speak for him. "I want to be there for her, but I also know that this is too important," he said. "She'll understand, won't she?"

"Don't worry about her," Leia said. "She's been through far worse hardships. Besides, I will be here for her."

Ben knew he had no reason to worry, but he couldn't help himself. In a way, Ben was superfluous to Ania whenever Leia was around. She didn't lean on him in the same way she did with her mother. This was perfectly understandable, and it certainly shouldn't have bothered Ben as much as it did. He was her brother, not her father. Yet in an odd way, Ben felt a semblance of paternal responsibility for his sister. Perhaps it was because of the age difference between them, or perhaps it was because his relationship with their mother was so much different than Ania's.

Regardless, Ben knew that Ania was in good hands. Besides, he could appreciate that she could look after herself. She was extremely adept at this, having essentially survived on her own for the first eighteen years of her life. Even so, Ben knew that she was going to be especially vulnerable in the wake of this horrible experience. Leia would be more than up to the job, however. He couldn't use Ania as an excuse to not go after Luke.

And so he wouldn't.

"You haven't thrown that pilot back in jail, have you?" Ben asked cautiously.

"Who? Commander Dameron? To be honest, I totally forgot about him," Leia said.

"Good. I'll go track him down and ask him to fly me out this afternoon."

"You're not going to take that piece of junk from earlier, are you?" Leia asked, making a face at the thought of Dameron's rusty ship.

"Do you have any alternatives?" Ben asked her.

The corner of Leia's lip curled upward into a smile. "I have one in mind," she said.

"I can't believe this. I'm actually going to fly the Millennium Falcon."

Ben smiled, endeared by Dameron's buoyant enthusiasm. "What do you know about this ship?" he asked, leaning back casually in the co-pilot's seat.

Dameron turned and gave him an incredulous look. "It's the fastest ship in the galaxy," he told him matter-of-factly. "Did you not know that?"

Ben shrugged. "Look man, I don't know anything about ships," he confessed. "I told you, I'm more interested in droids."

As if waiting for this exact moment to time his entrance, Dameron's spherical droid BB-8 rolled into the cockpit and made a series of high-pitched beeps and whistles so as to gain the pilot's attention.

"Sounds like we're good to go," Dameron translated to him.

"Yeah, I can understand him too, you know," Ben said, frowning slightly.

"Sorry," Dameron apologized. "It's just habitual. Most people can't."

"Yeah, I get that," Ben said, feeling a sense of camaraderie begin to blossom between them. As he was considering this, Dameron turned back to the control panel and frowned. "What's wrong?" Ben asked when the pilot cursed under his breath.

"Looks like there might be a leak in the fuel line," he muttered. "They supposedly filled her up this morning, but the gauge says we're only at eighty percent. Hold on, I have to go check it out."

"Sure thing," Ben said, sitting back upright in his chair as he glanced at the fuel gauge as well.

"Come on, BB-8," Dameron said as he made his way out of the cockpit, his loyal droid companion following closely after him. Unsure of what to do with himself, Ben kicked his feet up and twiddled his thumbs absentmindedly. He closed his eyes and propped his head up on the plush backing of the chair behind him, a wave of exhaustion crashing down on him all of a sudden. He had had a very strenuous past few days with very little sleep.

Ben's brief moment of relaxation was abruptly cut short, however, when an icy chill startled him back upright. Eyes flying open, Ben's breath was ragged as the hair on his arms shot straight up. He had felt this cold before, yet he couldn't identify where.

Beginning to shiver, Ben clenched his jaw tight as he pushed himself up and out of the chair. Rubbing his arms together, Ben found himself leaving the cockpit as he pursued the source of this disturbance. Slowly he plodded forward as he took a turn toward the main hold of the ship. The compartment was unsurprisingly entirely empty, yet for some reason the hologram table was activated – the holographic Dejarik figures milling about on the checkered surface as they awaited instructions.

Taking three steps toward the table, Ben leaned down and deactivated it with a press of a button. "Blasted table," he grumbled as he stood back upright and turned around. As he did this, Ben gasped when he saw someone standing in the hallway with their back pointed to him. Where had they come from? He thought he was alone on this ship! How had they managed to sneak up on him.

"Excuse me, who are you?" he called out, his heart hammering in his chest.

Ben saw the person stiffen at his inquiry. A tense moment passed as Ben stared at the back of the motionless stranger's head. Finally they began to turn around slowly toward his voice. He inhaled sharply when she turned around fully, his eyes widening comedically as he took an instinctive half step back.

"Rey?" he asked, voice hoarse with incredulity.

She looked similar to how he remembered, although she was noticeably taller and her skin was much paler. Her brown eyes were initially cold, yet upon meeting his stunned gaze they widened with synonymous awe.

"Ben?" she said, her voice sounding deeper and more mature than the chipper tone he recalled from three years ago. "What… what are you doing here?" she asked.

"What are you doing here?" he countered.

Rey furrowed her brow in bewilderment. "This is my ship," she said.

Ben faltered. In a sense, she was right, but he had never thought of it that way. For the past three years the freighter had been in Chewbacca's possession, but the confidence in Rey's voice made him question that. Shouldn't she have stood to inherit the Falcon? She was Han's daughter after all.

"But how did you even get here?" Ben asked her.

Rey didn't get a chance to respond as they both looked away when they heard someone approaching. "Senator Skywalker? Senator, where are you?" a muffled voice called out. Ben could barely make out what the person was saying as it sounded garbled and distant despite somehow knowing that the speaker was quite close to him.

"Who is that?" Rey asked suspiciously.

"Senator Skywalker? Are you alright?"

Ben blinked a few times as he found that he was no longer looking at Rey but at Dameron, a concerned expression on his face as he scrutinized him.

"I'm, um… I'm alright," he managed to say.

"You sure?" Dameron asked.

"Yeah," Ben said, more assuredly this time.

"Well I'm ready to take off whenever you are," Dameron told him. "Turns out there wasn't a leak, we just had a little malfunction with the gauge reading."

"Good," Ben said dazedly. "I'll be right there."

Dameron nodded before turning around and walking away toward the cockpit. Ben stood their motionlessly as he stared at the empty space where Rey had once been.

What just happened?

Leia was seated on a stool by Ania's bedside, her fingers absentmindedly stroking at her chin as she stared blankly at her daughter's sleeping form. Having spent several hours in the bacta tank, the doctors had kept Ania sedated after they removed her. They were now watching her vital signs and performing regular scans to see how her organs were reacting to the treatment. Leia waited by her daughter's bedside all throughout, although she couldn't deny that she was getting impatient. It wasn't professional of her to be spending so much time away from the bridge on personal matters, especially considering the dire nature of their current situation, but Leia felt obliged to stay nonetheless. She meant what she said: she wasn't going to leave Ania ever again.

As she sat there, Leia's mind inevitably drifted toward Ben and Luke. She was quite proud of her son for being able to stand up to her. That was something she knew he was not inclined toward doing, but he needed to if he wanted to become a better Jedi. She knew she could be hard to deal with at times, so it was a good thing that Ben was learning how to call her out when she was wrong or acting unfairly toward him.

And she was unfair with him far too often. She knew that she treated her children differently – smothering her daughter with affection and encouragement while failing to reciprocate hardly a fraction of that maternal love toward Ben. She had always just assumed that Ben didn't want her to treat him like how she treated Ania. After all, he was a twenty-seven year old man. Yet perhaps she had acted too astringently with her son. While he kept a level head most of the time, this whole ordeal with Ania had caused his cool exterior to give way a little bit. She had been stunned by his temerity in the hangar the afternoon prior when he had refused to allow her to browbeat into submission. The accusations he had made against her, while understandable in retrospect, had infuriated her – so much so that she had lost control and unleashed a wave of pent up dark side frustrations upon Ben and the surrounding contingent of soldiers.

It hadn't been a good look, that's for sure. Regardless, Leia was grateful for the experience. She and Ben had both learned a great deal from it. Ben had learned that he had to confront her every now and then in order to get what he wanted whereas she had learned how Ben really felt and that she had been mistreating him by treating him and Ania so differently. That didn't mean she was going to start hugging and kissing him and heaping him with encouragement and praise like she did with Ania. She knew Ben didn't need that. Ania did, not because she was weaker in spirit, but because she had spent the first eighteen years of her life without receiving hardly an ounce of these things. She had had Anakin, yes, but Leia knew from experience that that wasn't enough. Ben, on the other hand, required a less saccharine form of encouragement. Allowing him to take the Falcon and go look for Luke even though she was sure he would fail was the first step in realizing this shift in approach.

Or at least that had partially been why she had allowed him to go. If she was being honest with herself, she had agreed to let Ben go in part because she still had an inkling of a hope that he could actually succeed. Leia wasn't the type to get her hopes up on pipe dreams, but in this case she couldn't help but wish that Luke would come home. She missed her brother terribly. It had been three whole years since they had seen one another. Ever since she had met him when they were both eighteen, the two of them had stayed in close contact throughout their entire adult lives. Luke had always been there for her, especially after Han had left and her mother had been too busy with the chancellorship to spend time with her. Luke had always been her best and most loyal friend. Without him, Leia felt incomplete.

Yet at the same time, she also knew that the Luke she loved was likely gone forever. He was a crippled man now, nothing like the optimistic companion she had known and loved. Their mother's death had been the last straw for him. She could understand why Luke was so disenchanted with the Jedi and with the Force. From his point of view, the Force – or at least those who wield it: the Jedi and the Sith – were responsible for destroying his family and ruining his life. He had said as much back on Yavin three years ago. Leia hadn't been able to contradict him then and she certainly wasn't able to do it now because ultimately, she agreed with him. She would sacrifice her powers in a heartbeat if it meant her family could be restored: to have Han back as her husband, to have her mother and father together and in love with each other once more, and most of all to have Luke back by her side. But that wasn't an option. For her, the Force or Jedism weren't things she could abandon. All her life, she had been imbued in these ancient arts. She didn't know of a life without the Force like Luke did. Sacrificing her powers would be tantamount to throwing away her life as she knew it.

Leia's rambling ruminations were cut short when she heard a knock on the door. Looking up, Leia narrowed her eyes irritably. With a lackadaisical wave of her hand, Leia opened the door with the Force to reveal the Stormtrooper Finn. The young man was visibly startled as he blinked rapidly in her general direction.

"How did you –"

"Come in, Finn," Leia interrupted, beckoning her daughter's bewildered savior forward.

Clearly adept at taking orders, Finn complied with the demand at once in spite of his incredulity. As he did so, Leia returned her attention to Ania as she closed the door behind Finn with another wave of her hand. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Finn spin around in shock, and Leia was only barely able to suppress a smirk.

"What brings you here?" she asked him.

Finn took a few moments to reply as he turned back around and gave her a look of awe. "I, um… I didn't have anywhere else to go," he said. "I'm sorry, did you just close that door with… with your mind?"

Leia elected to disregard this question. "You don't need to feel uneasy on my ship, Finn," she told him. Sensing that the man was going to say something, Leia spoke before he was able. "You are a hero. For saving my daughter, I am forever indebted to you."

"She saved me just as much as I saved her," Finn told her.

"How so?" Leia asked, eyes still fixated on Ania's sleeping face.

"I'd still be a Stormtrooper if it weren't for her," Finn said.

"And what are you now?" Leia asked.

Finn faltered at this question. Intrigued by his silence, Leia finally looked away from Ania to see that Finn was staring at her daughter with a distant look in his eyes. "I… I don't know," he said haltingly. "I don't know who I am. I didn't even have a name until now."

"Oh no?"

"Stormtroopers don't get names," Finn explained. "Ania decided to call me Finn because of the first two letters of my designation."

Leia smiled wanly at this, simultaneously proud of her daughter yet saddened by this young man's tragic past. No doubt the pair of them could bond further over the mutual hardships of their youths.

"Do you want a purpose?" Leia asked him.

"I need a purpose," Finn said without hesitation. "I don't know what to do with myself anymore."

Leia nodded, understanding this predicament all too well. After she had defeated Sidious and her father had become one with the Force, Leia had faced an identical crisis as Finn was facing now. The way she had resolved it was by finding something worth fighting for. She had devoted her powers toward defeating the remnants of the Empire and ensuring that her mother was elected to the chancellorship after the war. She hadn't believed in the republican cause at first, but over time she had come to appreciate the spirit of the Rebellion and had managed to carve out an identity for herself within its ranks.

"Mom?"

Swiveling her head, Leia saw that Ania had woken up – eyes opening a fraction and she struggled to get into a seated position.

"Easy there," Leia cooed as she placed a hand on Ania's shoulder. "No need to rush things. How do you feel?"

Ania ceased trying to sit up as she closed her eyes momentarily. "Sore," she confessed with a groan. "Is it supposed to hurt like this?"

"I'd imagine so," Leia said, although she didn't know for sure. "You'll feel a lot better in a few hours."

Reassured, Ania nodded and sighed. Opening her eyes once more, she glanced over toward Finn who was standing at the foot of her bed. "Finn," she said, smiling weakly at him. Her eyes darted around the room for a moment before landing back on her mother. "Where's Ben?" she asked her.

Leia's expression turned somber. "He left," she told Ania bluntly.

"Left?" Ania repeated.

"He's gone off to find your uncle."

Ania blinked a few times as she processed this information. "You let him go alone?" she asked eventually, perplexed by her uncharacteristic lenience.

"I did," Leia said simply.

Ania pursed her lips and turned her head away from Leia for a moment. "Will he be safe?" she asked, her voice muted as she spoke into the pillow.

Unsure how to answer this, Leia frowned as she looked away toward the heartrate monitor. "Ben is very capable," she decided on say after a few moments of consideration. "Perhaps more so than either of us realized."

Leia could tell that Ania was hardly satisfied by this assurance as she turned her head back and gave her mother a dubious look. Propping herself upright, she rested her back against the pillow and placed her hands in her lap. "Do you trust him more than me?" she asked suddenly.

Flummoxed by this question, Leia tilted her head and furrowed her brow. "What makes you say that?" she asked.

"You wouldn't have let me go alone if I asked you," she said.

"Because look what happened!" Leia exclaimed. "You nearly got killed!"

"So Ben's more competent than me?" Ania asked.

"No," Leia said. "But he's far less rash."

"Rash?"

"Ben is six years older than you, Ania," Leia said as calmly as she could. "He has a level head. You don't."

"So what? I'm a better Jedi than him!" Ania insisted.

"Is that so?" Leia asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"I'm ten times the fighter Ben is!" Ania claimed.

"Being a Jedi is more than just fighting, Ania," Leia scolded. "I would have thought after three years of training you would have appreciated this."

Ania huffed and looked away, her cheeks reddening with frustration. Hesitating, Leia glanced at Finn who was watching this interaction with apprehension from the foot of Ania's bed. "Ania you're acting very childish right now," Leia reprimanded as she returned her attention to her indignant daughter. "Ben has proven himself ready for such a mission. You have not. This is not a matter of trust, it's a matter of practicality."

"But I found the map, not him," Ania pointed out petulantly. "I should be the one to go."

"Is that what this is about?" Leia asked.

"This was my mission! Lor reached out to me, not Ben! I'm the one who should find Luke!"

"Check your tone, Ania," Leia growled. Intimidated, Ania's belligerence wavered as she gulped audibly. "You are not entitled to anything," Leia told her. "The universe is not governed by what is fair. You and I both know that far too well." Ania stared back at her silently for a moment before nodding. Relieved, Leia allowed her tone to lighten a fraction. "A true Jedi does not seek glory or adventure," she lectured, reaching out and placing a hand on Ania's knee. "You must exercise patience. Your time will come."

Ania bowed her head and exhaled shakily. "Yes, Mother," she said. Leia winced at the artificial formality. Both of her children would call her that when they were displeased with what she had to say. Neither were bold enough to contradict her directly, but she could always tell when they were upset with her based on what they called her. At least she hadn't called her Master. Only when they were livid with her would they sarcastically refer to her as that. While technically she was their Jedi Master, she had expressly forbidden them from calling her that.

Irked that she hadn't been able to convince Ania of her sincerity, Leia stood up out of her stool. "Perhaps you don't appreciate my teaching?" she asked as she loomed over her daughter.

"Of course I do!" Ania insisted as she looked up sharply.

"They you must also appreciate my judgement," Leia rumbled. "Don't you forget that it was I who defeated Darth Sidious, not you. I alone know what it takes to win this war. My instruction is to be treated as law, is that clear?"

"Yes, Mother," Ania said once again.

Clenching her jaw, Leia craned her head toward the ceiling in exasperation. Was it not possible for both of her children to be on amicable terms with her at the same time? The moment she had resolved things with Ben, Ania had decided it time to give her attitude. Perhaps they were coordinating with one another – consciously or otherwise – to see if they could drive her insane.

"I'm going to go see if I can get you discharged," Leia said, forcing herself to remain calm. "I'll be right back." Nodding briskly to Finn, Leia spun around and marched out of the room – chin held high as she determined to leave her frustrations behind her.