A/N: so, here we go one last time.

Two years later

The Alderaan Star inauguration

"Everybody knows that everybody dies," Princess Leia Organa spoke loudly in front of the open yard where thousands of Alderaanians stood; her people, having come home at last. "But not every day. Not today. Some days are special, some days are so, so blessed. Some days, nobody dies at all. Now and then, every once in a very long while, every day in a million days, when the wind stands fair and the stars are aligned, everybody lives."

She could not explain how, ever since arriving, she had felt a happy yet melancholic sensation lingering. Not from her only, but from everybody who passed by her and greeted her with a polite bow. Although she could not explain it, she understood it very well.

"Today, we stand as one people. One nation," she continued, her eyes darting all across the crowd. "Today, we stand together again, like we were always meant to be."

She clasped her hands in front of her; even though she was at an official position, she wanted them to look at her and to relate to her, to know that this was as much home to her as it would be for them.

"I know it isn't easy being here," she pertained. "I know it isn't easy looking out the window and seeing the vast sea of debris, being haunted by the ghosts of our pasts. When we are children, we are scared of ghosts, because ghosts are often thought to be deceased people looking for vengeance. The appearance of ghosts has often been regarded as an omen. Not here, not to us. Ghosts are memories too strong to be forgotten, echoing across the years and refusing to be erased by time."

Leia turned her head sideways, towards the giant space window, her eyes finding the asteroids bathing on the glory of a distant sun.

"In my life, I've seen a lot of ghosts. Just — not in the way that most people would think," she digressed. "A ghost can be a lot of things. A memory, a daydream, a secret. Grief, anger, guilt. But, in my experience, most times, they're just what we want to see. Most times, a ghost is a wish."

She looked at the crowd again.

"And amidst all that, the guilt and the grief and the longing — right now, my only wish is to come home."

She noticed how people reached out to one another, people who had probably never run paths before, and smiled. They held hands, they hugged, and they just — smiled.

"The Death Star, from which this space station was built, once flew together in its own powerful figure under the hands of its builders and reared against the sky without concession to humanity. It was a place without kindness, never meant to be lived in. It wasn't a place fit for people, or for love, or for hope."

They held closer to each other; Leia's heart was warm at that sight of unity.

"The Alderaan Star stands for all of that. For its people, for love, for hope . It stands against its predecessor and breaks free from the darkness within. When Alderaan stood for millennia, the Alderaan Star might stand for a millennium more. Even after we, the last Alderaanians, are gone, the Alderaan Star will prevail, holding tight to everything that we represent. Because, whether today or years from now — those who walk here, walk together."

She held her head high for a minute, then opened a gentle smile and bowed gracefully; not in reverence to her people, but to the place. She took a step back, allowing Evaan Verlaine to take her place; it had been decided that her friend would be the acting governor of the Alderaan Star for the first term, before general elections took place, while Leia represented her people on the Senate. It hadn't been an easy decision, but Leia concluded that she could do more while in the Senate of the New Republic, both in the name of her people and the rest of the galaxy.

Leia didn't stay to hear Evaan's speech; she knew that her friend wouldn't mind nor take it personally. She excused herself towards the chapel, a beautiful building at the station's main plaza, assembled just like the old chapels that paid respect to the Goddesses of Alderaan.

Leia wasn't a religious person; she had never been, especially after she learned of the Force and she mastered how to touch it. Her father, due to his work close with the Jedi, had never been immersed in his homeworld's religion either, but her mother had been a devoted follower of the old faith, and she knew she would feel close to her family as she paid her respects.

Walking inside, she found a few Alderaanians there; some sitting by the pews, some praying by the kneelers. She tried to be as silent as possible so she wouldn't disturb them nor have her presence there make them think they ought to leave.

She sat at the first bench, close to the altar. The lights inside were dim, painting the place with a dark orange shade. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes, and she sent a prayer to all those she held close to her heart; her father, her mother, the guards that had sworn their lives to protect her, her friends.

She took her time, and once she had paid her respects to every fallen soul, she walked to the votive candles on the altar. She lit a candle not for those she lost, but in remembrance of all the times she forgot them, and she had been almost happy to have forgotten them.

"In loving memory of Alderaan," she lit one last candle, said one last prayer. "May you always live within us."

She turned around and was almost startled to find Han there, everybody else gone.

"You disappeared," he said in a low voice, "People were getting worried."

Her lips turned up as she approached him. "People? Or you?"

"I'm people," he argued. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she answered — and she meant it. "I was just paying my respects."

"I don't want to get in your way."

"You could never," she said, leaning onto him as they walked out of the chapel.

"How are you feeling, Leia?" he asked again, "You said it yourself, it can't be easy—"

"Honestly? It's easier than I thought it would be," she confessed as they sat down in one of the many public benches at the main plaza, next to the flowers — they looked almost identical to Alderaan's most famous native flowers, the allarutes. "I admit to being terrified of the inauguration, of stepping aboard the Death Star again—ah, I don't need to tell you, you've seen how on edge I've been these past couple of weeks. Turns out… It's not the Death Star, is it? Look at this, look at this place we've built. It's nothing like the Death Star. It's — Alderaan, the best way it can be."

He cupped her face dearly. "You always talked about how you could never show me your home. Today, I can almost see it for myself."

She pressed a quick kiss to his lips, before nesting on his arms. "It really is — something, isn't it? Even in my wildest dreams, I never expected it to be so — beautiful. It doesn't matter if the lakes are artificial, or that we planted the trees ourselves, or that the sun and the night are automatically controlled. It's self-sufficient, like any planet and every piece of nature is supposed to be."

Han hummed. "Are you happy as to how it turned out?"

"Yes," she said. "I would like to come here often. No, I will come here often. And… one day… We'll bring our children here, too, and maybe they'll see the essence of Alderaan amidst the place and amidst the people here."

He rested his head over hers. "I like how that sounds."

" There you are," their interlude was interrupted by the arrival of two other people; Leia looked up to find Padmé out of breath. "Have you seen the size of this place? It's huge . We've been trying to find you for ages now."

Leia gazed around herself, her eyes assessing the grandiosity of the space station once again. "It is pretty big. Where's Ameera? I thought she was following you around like a stray puppy."

"We ran into Taro and Safira," Luke said, referring to the two people that Padmé had looked after during her exile. After they had all properly settled from the war, Padmé invited them to spend a few days on Coruscant with her, and they would come over to the Core from time to time — to Luke's dismay. He couldn't help himself but to be sent into an irrational fit of jealousy whenever he met them and saw them treating his mother as their mother. "She stayed behind talking to them."

"You mean you threw her to the wolves and grabbed Padmé out of there before they could stop you," Leia offered him a pointed glare.

"Precisely," Luke obnoxiously agreed. "A man's gotta protect his pack."

Padmé shook her head; even after all this time, Luke's resentment towards the two kids she had babysat still awfully amused her.

"Has my mother come and found you yet?" Padmé asked Leia, "She was brought to tears with your speech back there, and wanted to pay you her respects."

Leia smiled discreetly; Jobal's sympathy and compassion were always a welcoming gift.

"No, I haven't seen any of the Naberries yet."

"Oh, Leia, you should see Ryoo's kid," Luke said with amazement. "He's so big. He called me Uncle Lukey!"

"Uncle Lukey," Han belittled him, "I hope it catches on."

"You know what? I hope so too ," Luke said smugly; he had grown immune to his family's teasing over the years — or, he liked to believe he had.

"It was a very beautiful speech," Padmé said, ignoring their bantering. "Evaan's too, her words were quite sage and practical — much like her persona. But yours, it was elegant and alluring. Your people were quite touched by it."

"I hope they feel at peace here," Leia veered. "I hope they feel at home ."

"Do you?" Luke asked, "Feel at home?"

Leia shrugged. "I've reached a point in my life where I'm alright not having a place to call home. So long as I'm with the right people, I'll be okay."

Luke accepted it; he felt the same.

"I am happy with how this place turned out, though," she said. "It goes beyond any expectations I had for it. I'm proud of it."

"So are your people," Padmé said, "Their happiness is all over the place."

"Come on," Luke pulled Leia by the arm, stealing her from the comfort of Han's arms until she was standing. "Come show me around. I want to see everything , I want to hear every story you have to tell me about Alderaan."

He dragged her excitedly by the wrists, and Leia didn't have the heart or the wish to stop him. She had so many stories about Alderaan, and, for the first time ever since the catastrophe, she was ready to tell them all.

At night, Leia Organa leaned against the railing, watching the debris from Alderaan Graveyard fly in front of the space view. Being there brought her peace, even though that same sight had shattered her to the core when she first saw it a couple of years before.

She had grown so much, it amazed even herself.

She had left Han peacefully asleep at the private housing of the Royal family at the Alderaan Star; although she no longer was the anxious, troubled mess of a person from the aftermath of the Civil War, or even during the weeks preceding the inauguration of the Alderaan Star, for some reason she couldn't fall asleep, so she set out to stargaze. The debris colliding with the light from stars thousands of lightyears away delivered her serenity — she embraced it.

Each time an asteroid rock drifted past her eyes, it came clashing with a memory of everything she had gained despite everything she had lost. Luke, her twin brother; Padmé, her birth mother; Han, the love of her life — she had reached a point in her life that she accepted she had had to lose all that she did to gain all that she did, and that thought no longer brought her guilt.

If someone stopped her and asked her — would she forfeit all that she had gained to reacquire all that she had lost? — she doubted she would be able to choose. But it was okay; she would never have to choose.

She had had a perfect life on Alderaan, and it had ended. Now, she had a perfect life with her found family.

Because — everything ended, and endings were always sad. But everything always began again, too, and beginnings were always happy.

Leia smiled; Padmé had once told her that, when she was going through some of the worst stages of her grief. Back then, she had found it so hard to believe, impossible even; now, she understood those words to be true.

She was happy. Years before, she had never imagined herself capable of reaching so much genuine happiness again.

She felt a presence approaching her, standing next to her, and she didn't turn around to look at her brother with her own eyes. She simply leaned against him and rested her head against his upper arm.

Taken a little aback, Luke laid his head over hers.

"Why are you up?"

Leia shrugged. "I just wanted to be here."

Luke accepted it.

"Why are you up?"

"I guess I have trouble sleeping when I can feel you wide awake running on about."

Leia laughed. "That's going to be an issue when you move away across the galaxy. Isn't the Jedi Temple on Naboo on a completely different rotation from the Senatorial sector on Coruscant?"

Luke squinted. " Maybe I'll just teach a lot of nightly classes."

"That would be rather dark."

He rolled his eyes at her terrible pun.

"Do you have any idea on when the Temple will be finished?" she changed the subject on her own accord.

"They say in about a year, maybe two," he answered. "It's coming along nicely."

Leia nodded. "Looking back, could you ever imagine achieving so much?"

"Not really," he chuckled. "For most of my life, I never even imagined I would get that far away from Tatooine."

"And look at where you are now," Leia said, beaming. "One of the most important people in the whole galaxy."

He laughed awkwardly. "You give me too much credit."

"You give yourself too little ."

"You can take a farmboy out of his moist farm," he joked. "I am eager to start making a difference, Leia. I really do believe I can bring good, do more for the galaxy as a whole."

"You can," she agreed. "You will . The galaxy will always be in your debt, whether you like it or not."

"I'm only doing what is right," he pledged, not giving her the chance to rebuke him, "I bet you could. I bet you're quite self-fulfilled right now."

"I am, even though everything is so different from what I had ever dreamed for the future during my adolescence," she told him. "But you're mistaken. There was a long period in my life where I thought I wouldn't achieve anything."

"That can't be true," Luke argued, knowing precisely which point in her life she was referring to, "The — The rebellion! You became a leader to the rebellion, Leia. I hardly think you'd do it if you thought it would be for nothing ."

"We were so little against something so big . Our determinations moved us forward, sure, but there were days, so many days, where I thought it would all be for nothing," she huffed. "I'm glad to know that I was wrong."

"Hm," he hummed. "Is that what you were doing here? Reflecting?"

"I suppose," she agreed. "Looking out there — I once thought it would only bring me a feeling of sorrow so big that it would stop me from functioning. Today, I realize I've learned how to stand amidst my grief in a healthy way. It does make me terribly sad, but not to a point where I don't want to move forward."

"You've come a long way," Luke said.

"Yeah," she breathed out. "I don't think I was wrong, back then, to react as I did. I was intrinsically consumed by my grief, and, maybe, if I hadn't hit rock bottom, I wouldn't have realized for myself how much my grief was bringing me down, therefore I'd be forever stuck in that perpetual state of grief. But when I reached that lowest point I realized that I was only harming myself, my friends, and every healthy relationship I had crafted after Alderaan. Only through that realization I could have understood that I owed Alderaan, my friends, and myself better than that."

Luke gently squeezed her hand. "I am proud of how far you've come."

She huffed; she had said her piece about him, so it was only right she accepted his words regarding her.

"That's life, isn't it?" she prompted. "We all change when you think about it. We're all different people all through our lives. And that's good, that's necessary for the continuum of things. The universe keeps going and so must we. Still, it's important that we look back and remember all the people that we once were because, without them, we'd never be where we are today. I recognize the importance of my grief back then, because, without it, I would never have achieved everything that I did. The fortification of the rebellion, the end of the Empire, the Alderaan Star — all of that happened because of my grief. I am thankful for that person's mourning, just as I am proud of my sinew today."

Luke warmly smiled at her.

Leia pulled away from him just so she could look him in the eyes. "I'm proud of you too, little brother."

"Come on —You'll throw a fit whenever I call you my little sister and now you start calling me your little brother?!"

"That's precisely how it works, little brother," she teased him, laughing at his expense.

Luke rolled his eyes, forcing her back into their previous stance so she would stop pestering him.

"Leia," he said, his voice suddenly grave, "I was thinking, once the Jedi Temple is finally ready — would you consider staying there for a while?"

He wasn't asking her to stay there for vacation, but so she would become more acquainted with the ways of the Force; maybe so she would be trained , even. Leia knew what he was asking of her, so she took her time to answer.

"I have a job on Coruscant, Luke. I can't promise I'll be able to step away just like that, for a long period of time," Leia explained, and, unlike every other time he had brought the subject up, Luke accepted her decision gracefully. He had grown, too. "However," her voice was raspier and a little less confident, "If you would like to… To teach me more about the Force while you're still here on the Core, to… to pass on your knowledge … I'd be very thankful."

Luke could not hold back his smile as he wrapped one of his arms around her waist, pulling her close.

"It would be my honor, Leia."

Leia, on the contrary, only smiled to herself, although she could feel the happiness coming from him.

"Right now, the person I am today — I can't see myself becoming a Jedi," she said, "Perhaps not ever. But, still, I have grown in confidence with my relationship with the Force these past couple of years, ever since accepting my bloodline to Vader, and… Well, I would like to master a little more of this power I have inside."

"Leia, I won't force you into anything you're not comfortable with," Luke assured. "It just makes me thrilled that you trust me enough to take this step with me."

"Luke, you're my big brother," Leia said, having Luke huff at her referring to him as the older sibling for the first time — ever. "I would trust you with my life. You have guarded me ever since we became acquainted and I know you only have my best interest in your heart, even if it sometimes forces you to settle with something less for yourself. Luke, you were never the problem."

"I know," he agreed. "I know, Leia, you don't have to explain yourself. And — that's what siblings are for, no? You have protected me as much as I have looked out for you. I'll never forget that moment where we first bonded when you offered me comfort for losing Ben after escaping the Death Star even though you had just lost your entire planet, and I didn't exactly offer you comfort for that, either. You have been there for me ever since the beginning of this grand life of mine, and I can only thank you for that."

Leia grinned. "Well, that's what siblings are for."

Luke chuckled.

"Luke — you and I, we're pretty lucky, you know," she whispered, "To have found each other amidst our heartbreaks. To have been burdened with the knowledge of our descent to Vader, but to be blessed with our blood ties to each other and to her."

"Her?"

The answer to his question materialized right behind them, like she had just been summoned, although she hadn't been eavesdropping nor waiting for the right time to make herself noticed. No; she had simply spotted them there and walked towards them without ceremony, having the twins pull apart and turn around upon sensing the third presence there.

Padmé greeted them clumsily, accepting the place they had made for her as they each took a step to their sides. She stood against the railing right between them.

"Yeah," Luke laughed, Leia's comment still fresh on his mind. "We are."

Padmé didn't pester either of them to know what that was about.

"What are you two doing?" she asked.

"Stargazing," they answered in the same voice, and when had stargazing become another word for contemplating everything that they had achieved — they did not know.

She nodded. "Mind if I stargaze with you?"

"Not at all, mother," Luke said, crossing both his arms over the railing as he leaned slightly forward.

Her lips turned up discreetly as she mimicked Luke's stance, and Leia herself soon did the same. They didn't talk anymore, happy enough to coexist.

Padmé found herself stargazing, too. Musing about how her life had changed in meaning in the past couple of years as she came to know the two people that her heart had always been longing for. Thrilled that, somewhere in their personal trajectories, they had found the will to put Vader's shadow behind them as they learned how to accept and love each other despite flaws or perfections, only to come to the understanding that their strength was founded on the tethers they had slowly but beautifully crafted within their hearts.

The end.

A/N: ah, this is it, huh? a happy ending after all.

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well, I guess this is it. thank you so much for reading. see you next time!