With the first flickers the home base planet coming in sight, I sighed in relief now from my cockpit.

It all was over so fast, the confrontation with Palpatine, having some kind of dream with the Jedis of the past, and then seeing my brother leave me right before my eyes. My whole body was ready to shut down at any minute from using too much of my Force Energy and the wounds I got. It really did feel like I was dead, and of course Ben would have to save me.

Once we were in the atmosphere and lower yourself within the thick jungle treetops, I heard Q2 beep from his spot in the X-Wing, having me carefully reach up and take my helmet off.

"Thanks for flying us home, Q2," I thanked him, hearing him beep some more, "Yes, I'm sure the others will be happy to see us." It was nice that we were safe and sound, but then again I was still hurting on the inside and I was still beyond tired and exhausted. Just the thought fo be standing up alone was going to make me pass out, but I was glad to be back in a safe place.

Q2 beeped a few more time before I chuckled and got my helmet off completely, "You know, tattling on BB-8 does sound a lot like you,"

Q2 chirped.

"Yes, you do mean well," I agreed with him as we were now finally touching down in the Resistance base docking area. I sighed in relief, seeing the familiar buildings we saved into the hillsides and the high treetops to block and cover up the ships from the naked eye. My X-Wing was being held away from the others, surrounded by trees in a clearing now away from everyone else. I didn't see everyone else just yet, and maybe it was a good thing. Once the X-Wing was on the ground completely and the engines were turned off, I waited for a few moments of silence there within my safe space of an X-Wing. It was going to be intense from here on out, moving on from what I saw and with what I was feeling.

Was I ready?

With a gentle push with my good hand, I got the top off the X-Wing and I breathed in the thick jungle air and the upcoming mention fo rain that was on the way. The sun hit my face brightly, making me squint as I slowly unbuckled myself and got myself at least up in the cockpit and standing on my two wobbly legs. It was painful to do it with my one wound on my thigh and now it was throbbing with every breath. There was a loud handful of cheering and noises being heard from a distance from where the main locking bay was, a bit farther away from me since I was secluded.

"Neyli Organa Solo!"

A voice was bellowed out loud, having me snap to attention now as I knew that voice. I saw him bolting over, already out of his jumpsuit and wearing his Resistance attire again. He looked relieved and angry to see me at the same time, the look of shock there within his eyes as he came to a halt in front of my X-Wing and was pointing a finger at me.

Jencon.

"I'm so close to screaming at you for what you pulled out there!" He said in a shout and almost in a growl, but I knew he was just angry with how I looked. I didn't say a word, since not only I had nothing to say to my best friend, but it would probably hurt just talking at the moment to him. I then took in a deep breath, cringing a bit since he then sighed and rubbed his face with one hand.

"You look like literal hell," He muttered as he walked over to grab the ladder ready to come up and get me. It was the same thing he did before on the Battle of Crait, Jencon seeing me be an idiot and rescuing me.

Once he got up to the top step of the ladder, being eye level to me, I could see he was looking at me all over and analyzing me from his spot on the top step. The first familiar face I saw, apart of Rey, and I felt like I was crumbling down and cry.

"I lost him, Jencon," I said in a hoarse whisper, seeing him watch me carefully, "I lost Ben…and it hurts."

Jencon said nothing, seeing that I was really hurting in front of him, apart from the grime and blood all over my body. He then leaned over the edge of the X-Wing, wrapped both of his arms around me and he gave me a gentle and yet soothing hug. I said nothing, leaning my head against his shoulder, his arms around my waist and my own arms hanging at my side. Jencon was a fierce friend to me, dealing with all of my mass chaos and weird family drama. He only knew so much, not all of it, and I didn't want him to know all of it in the first place.

"I thought you died, Neyli," He said against my head as we were still hugging, "Really died this time. And you've got some explaining to do to me...along to your fiancé."

I pulled away from him and looked at him in panic, "What happened to Poe? Is he okay?"

"Nothing out of the ordinary for his standards," he explained, "In all honesty, he's worried about you. Rey came back before you, and she warned all of us about what happened."

I looked at him in horror, seeing him not say a word as he lovingly pushed my hair out of my caked blood on my face and from my eyes.

"She told you….everything?" I asked in a worried manner. He gave me a small grin.

"I begged her to tell me, apart from Finn and Poe obviously," He replied, having me look at him now in horror as he carefully patted my shoulder, "Don't worry, you can explain everything to me later when you want."

I sighed in relief now as Jencon grabbed my arm carefully and hoisted me over the edge of the X-Wing onto the top of the ladder stair. I grunted when we were going down every step together, finally making it to the ground level onto the jungle floor. Jencon then wrapped his arm around my waist and had my good arm around his neck in support and stability. We were walking slowly, having me try got not pass out with every step and every move.

"Can you promise me, for now on, no more of near-death stunts?" Jencon asked as we were walking side by side, "I never thought being your friend would mean seeing how many dangerous situations you can get in without even thinking twice."

"I fly off the seat of my pants, you didn't know that?" I asked in a sarcastic tone. Jencon snorted.

"Poe's really rubbing off on you, isn't he?" He asked in a snort as I grinned.

"Rey said the same thing," I agreed with him.

"Now that has to be saying something," Jencon commented as we were rounding a corner to get into the mass opening and clearing, "Your Q2 unit called not only my droid but R2D2, letting the others know that you were coming,"

"What others?" I asked, then going into silence now as we were there at the edge of the loading bay. There was a stunned silence, almost everyone there at the base was standing still and looking right at me. I was frozen, still latched onto Jencon and using his weight as all of the eyes of the Resistance were on me.

They looked relieved to see me, since the massive victory we had over the First Order that ended everything once and for all. I saw all of the grime on their face, every single one of their faces as they were all in their fighting uniforms.

I felt a sense of peace coming over and seeing all of them smiling at me and almost giving me solemn looks. Maybe they knew what happened out there, what I saw with Ben and Rey. But I knew they didn't, which was nice since I didn't want that exposed to the others to know about my dirty laundry of family drama.

Jencon and I were walking slowly, the mob of people was parting for us as we were coming through and giving us plenty of space. I walked past them, both knowing what to do since I was so close to being paralyzed from the sheer pain that I was in. But Jencon still held onto me, having me hear a murmur of praises and thanks as I passed by pilots. Some of them touched my arm as I passed, almost like they were giving me some kind of blessing as I walked and got closer to the main hub of the Resistance Base. When I was close enough to the coverings of the meeting areas, I heard some familiar beeping and chirping of joy as a massive hole was made in the mob that was watching.

"Oh thank the Maker! Master Solo!" I heard C-3PO said in glee as he and R2-D2 were rushing over to see me, having me a weary smiled as a third droid rolled over and bumped through the other two.

"BB-8!" I said in a gleeful tone that was sounding tired, wanting so badly to have the strength to bend down to be at his level like I did in the past, "Where's Poe?"

"Right here," Another opening was over to my right slightly. There was Poe standing there in the middle of the small opening that was made of him as I locked eyes with him. He was there in the flash, looking both relieved and almost shocked to see me. I was only focusing on him there, no one else was in my line of vision now as I could see the pure love on his face. This was far too much, and although I felt like I had a lot of explaining to do, then again he knew what was going to happen. We had that talk, but this was different.

I was beyond relieved to see him, and boy did I want to kiss him so bad.

I felt Jencon carefully untangle himself from me, having me stand there done now as he cleared his throat to the rest of the mob that was watching.

"Let's give them space, guys," he said in a light tone, the others agreeing with the nod of their heads and walking away. Thankfully within a few moments, we were left alone together out there in the open, though it felt like we were alone in a secluded room. I was only watching him, seeing him take a few steps towards me afraid that if he ran he would spook me. But I saw it in his eyes, the need to run over and scoop me in his arms. What was holding him back?

What was holding me back?

Finally, after rubbing his face a bit aggressively now, I took a careful step towards him, almost wobbling along the jungle terrain floor. He saw me do this, almost taking a quick step forward to make sure I wasn't going to fall. It made me remember how Ben did the same thing back on the Destroyer when I was rescued.

"Hey…." Poe finally said, his voice sounding genuinely concerned as he was now almost right in front of me, holding his hands out to at least catch me as he was scanning my face, "You're okay…"

"Just give me a Goddamn hug," I grunted to him, seeing him freeze up there since I was brutally honest with him and almost mad at him, "I literally almost died back there and all I thought was you and not seeing you again, I'm hurting like hell all over and I'm about to pass out, and I'm about to break down in tears, so right now all I really want is a hug—"

Poe wrapped his arms around me within an instant, my good arm going up behind his back and clutching him as we were embracing each other intimately. I sighed in both relief, a small bit in pain, but mostly in happiness. I wanted to crush him hard against me, but since the pain was still there and still real, so that was out of the question.

"We have a lot of talk about," Poe said to me in a broken tone, I nodded my head in agreement.

"We do," I agreed, grunting in pain when Poe shifted against me, "But right now I'm about to pass out so I need to get to the Med Bay before I do that."

"Okay, okay," Poe said in a rush, quickly moving away from me and giving me space, looking at me up and down to access the damage on my body, "I'll take you. Come on, sweetheart."

He gently grasped my arm to cradle it with his, walking next to me now as we were talking together over to the Med Bay. I leaned against him, taking a shaky breath.

"If it makes you feel better," I admitted to him as we were getting closer to our destination, "After I get better, I swear to you not to do anything else that gonna bring me near death."

"I know you won't," He replied, having me squeeze his hand as he kissed my cheek in a loving and careful manner, "I think your reckless days here with the Resistance are over."

"As are yours?" I asked, looking over at him with a raised eyebrow. We both were sweaty and grimy from the last battle, me wobbling on my last good legs, but never the less we were smiling at each other. Grinning, like we were young and reckless just as we were when we first met.

"Yeah," he replied, I was ginning at him, "Yeah they are."

"Is she in here?"

"She's resting, but you can visit."

I was sprawled out on one of the makeshift Med beds, my thigh was thicket wrapped in gauze and my hand was wrapped, cakes in medicine. I was leaning against some pillows and folded blankets with Poe sitting next to me, in which I was telling him everything that happened when we split off in the middle of the battle. He listened to every word, not stopping for any questions or comments. It felt good to tell him, though it stung when I mentioned Ben and his passing. But Poe remained quiet, holding my hand gently within his own as we then heard two sets of footsteps coming into our own little room.

Finn and Rey.

They both looked relieved to see me, a big grin was spread on Finn's face now as I smiled at him. Poe moved away from me to give Finn some space to rush over fall to his knees. It was like he was a child seeing a parent once more after being away for so long. I grinned at him as he seemed like he had a lot to say.

"Thank God you're okay," He said as he gave me a careful but firm hug. He even snuck a kiss on the side of my head as I rested my chin on his shoulder. I chuckled and hugged him back with my one good arm, looking past him to see Poe and Rey giving each other a gentler hug. That was heartwarming to see both of them being friends again after their confrontations and fights in the past. Finn pulled back at looked at me with a huge relief on his face, "I felt a shift with you back when I was on the Falcon…I thought…I thought you were gone."

No one moved when he said that, having em see that he almost had tears in his eyes from saying that. Poe and Rey said nothing too, Poe looking at me in concern. I gave Poe a look past Finn, shaking my head slightly at him as Rey was looking at me too with less concern and more genuine remorse.

"I'm okay, Finn," I reassured him, "Thankfully I'm going to be sticking around for a little while longer,"

"You better, since you still owe me a training session with your lightsaber," he reminded me, having me remember some time ago when we first met officially and he wanted to know more about using a lightsaber. I had to smile widely, my busted lip scratching out on my skin and my genuine happiness was coming back within me. Even Poe grinned from the excitement on Finn's face.

"I'll train you," I reminded him.

"She's a good teacher," We both heard behind me, having me look and here it was from Rey. She had one of those rare smiles that she would never really use, but I loved that about her. It lit up her whole face, and she too went through so much with Ben and Palpatine. I wished we had time together to talk about what happened and what we experienced, but now was not one of those times.

"Yeah, she is," Poe commented too with a hint of pride in his voice. I gave him a look too, almost seeing him roll his eyes at me as I focused back on Finn. He was still crouched at my side, looking at me with all his attention.

"When I felt it," He explained, pointing slightly to his chest, "It felt like you were really gone…and I felt he was gone too,"

I stayed quiet, knowing that he meant Ben. I didn't know what to say to that, and it felt like my tongue was getting thick to the roof of my mouth. Was I ready to talk about it all to the rest of the group just yet? It felt like the wound was still trying to heal over and turn into a scar. I didn't know how long it was going to last and mend, but all I had to do and needed to do was to move forward.

"I'll tell you everything."

Author's Note: The next chapter will be the Epilogue and the end of this trilogy! Thanks again for the positive reviews and thoughts as you read my story. I'll try to end it on a high note!