Leia I

Once they reached the lake, Leia gladly gave Sir Poe permission to lead his knights forth and pursue the stragglers as they fled the would be siege. The castle was damaged and a few fires burned, but nothing that couldn't be repaired over time. And the First Order had left in such a hurry that they had had to leave their trebuchets which would now become property of the Crown.

By the time Leia and her Royal Guard arrived the entire area was secured. She could not feel happy, however, at watching the remaining black banners being taken down. They were in stark contrast to the Leia's own blue on white, the sigil she and her brother had chosen for themselves during the rebellion which later became the royal standard. The fiery sword on black seemed to the polar opposite—she knew who it belonged to and why he had chosen each element of the same.

Sir Poe had escaped against all odds, as usual, and despite his wounds had rode non stop to D'Qar where Leia was luckily currently encamped. He did not have the map but had entrusted his Page with the same, allowing himself to be captured to buy time. Poe had every faith in his Page, and Leia had to admit, the Page was learning from her best man.

Just ahead of the gates Leia spied Sir Threepio in his distinctive gold armour speaking to two men on foot. Sir Threepio had been with her family for so long, advising on royal protocol. Despite his undoubted knowledge of monarchy and nobility, Threepio seemed to lack any kind of instinct for human interaction.

Leia looked around him and met familiar eyes. For the remaining few yards neither broke their gaze.

"My Queen, look who it is! You will never believe it! Han Solo!—"

Leia silenced him with a withering glance, Threepio responding with a respectfully lowered head before leaving the group.

Han's face was older, more lined, his hair more grey than not. The corner of his mouth twitched although his eyes remained serious. "You've changed your hair."

Leia, for a second felt like a young princess and instinctively raised her hand to her braid before dismounting. "Same jerkin."

"No, new jerkin."

From behind him, Chewbacca, Han's longtime partner in crime stepped forward and with extreme familiarity pulled her into a hug. Threepio would be having a fit but this was the only way to greet such an old friend. Chewie was a hairy Northerner from as North as North went and not many could understand his broad accent, but he was brave, fierce, loyal in the extreme and with such a good heart.

He said something Leia understood as along the lines of it was good to see her and tell that stupid bastard to get his act together.

After their greeting Chewie disappeared into the castle, leaving Leia and Han alone. There was so much to say, so much that had been unsaid for years. So many emotions to address.

"I saw him. Leia, I saw our son."

The Queen barely had time to process this before Sir Poe returned with a distressed young man riding beside him. She heard him repeating "he took her" as they approached.

Poe inclined his head. "Your Majesty, this is Finn. He needs to talk to you." Both men dismounted.

Finn, the soldier who helped Sir Poe escape. She had heard so much about him. The expression on Finn's face said that he only now realised who she was. Leia smiled as he bowed. "And I need to talk to him. That was incredibly brave, what you did: renouncing the First Order, saving this man's life."

"Thank you, your majesty, but a friend of mine has been taken prisoner."

"I'm sorry."

"Finn is familiar with the army that led the attack on Hosnian district." Poe cut straight to the chase. The defeat had decimated the Queen's richest and strongest ally by surprise. There had been no warning, and rather than taking the resources for itself, Lord Armitage Hux had burned it all. The loss of innocent life was too terrible to consider. "He was stationed at Starkiller Castle."

"We're desperate for anything you can tell us." Leia implored.

"That will be where my friend is taken. I need to get there fast."

"And I will do everything I can to help but first, you need to tell us all you know."

Within half an hour, the Queen had taken over Maz's Castle and she stood with her best men around a table covered in maps. Finn detailed so much information that would assist them in the campaign to put down Snoke and his ambitions. The was one slight hitch.

"I'll get us through," Han stated confidently, gesturing to himself, Chewie and their new valuable asset, Finn."

"How?" Leia demanded. She couldn't help but twinge as Han give a look that took her back decades and declared that she wouldn't like it. The sensation was superficially buried but underneath her emotions were a raging torrent.

War plans made, all but Han left her to her thoughts.

"Leia."

"Don't do that." She walked past him and poured a cup of wine.

"Do what?"

"Anything!" She turned to face him.

"Listen to me, will you? I know every time you... Every time you look at me you're reminded of him." Leia saw pain, resignation, cross his features. That was not the Han from the Rebellion years. That was Han who felt that he had failed as a Consort, as a father...the Han who had left her, told her to divorce him and remarry someone worthy, someone who wanted the pressure of running a kingdom and the backstabbing and scramble for favour of Court.

"You think I want to forget him? I want him back!" Leia had been too deep in her grief to be inclined to stop her husband. Court had not missed his rough charm and had continued on happily, however regarding their son, her heir, the Crown Prince...

"There's nothing more we could have done. There's too much Vader in him."

They both took a silent moment to silently acknowledge Leia's lineage, what she, and Han, and Luke, and all the others had experienced during the Rebellion. Luke might have grown to see their father as Sir Anakin, but to Leia he would always be Lord Vader, who deprived her of her biological mother, and who had stood with her as Duke Tarkin had burned the home of her mother and father in practice, Princess Breha, her aunt, and Lord Bail Organa. They had raised her as their own...

The old wound had been compounded by more recent loss. Her own child was lost to her and she felt it not as a Queen but as a mother.

"That's why I wanted him to train with Luke." She had sensed the anger, had thought that her brother could teach the future King balance. She did not want him to be spoken of in the same tone as his grand sire and be forever associated with death, destruction and tyranny. She had had good intentions, had ignored Ben's pleas... He had seemed so young. "I just never should have sent him away. That's when I lost him. That's when I lost you both."

"We both had to deal with it in our own way. I went back to the only thing I was ever any good at."

"We both did."

Han sold himself short. He was a scoundrel, true but so much more than that, although he had always tried to deny it. He hated being idolised as a war hero and fawned over as one of the two people who had the Queen's ear most. She missed him. She missed Luke.

"We lost our son. Forever." Han's face had a grim set to it.

"No." Leia had not given up hope. "It was Snoke. He seduced our son to his side. But we can still save him. Me. You."

"If Luke couldn't reach him, how could I?" It was true, Luke had won back Vader before the end. But Ben wasn't Vader, wasn't Anakin.

Leia looked up at her husband with wide eyes. "Luke is a Jedi knight. You're his father. There is still good in him, I know it."

They were interrupted by one of her guards. "Your majesty, the scouts' report on the enemy base is coming."