1/1/1 Y.O.
Leia turns off the transmission and sags back into the co-pilot seat of the Millennium Falcon. Her breath pours out in a long, ragged sigh. And she's honestly not sure if it's relief or regret. The tears on her cheek make her think its regret. The sense of lightness in her heart may be relief.
He stood up there, took off the mask, an announced to the galaxy his intent to be the dark mirror of everything they'd ever dreamed for. A republic. Rights for people, not planets. Citizenship that anyone could claim. All things they wanted.
The way he talked about it, a vote, a… protector to enact those votes… That's Alderaan's system. Almost. But it is a mirror. The shape, the goals, the image is right, but backwards, reflected in polished obsidian. Dark and grayed out, color erased by the smooth, black glass reflecting it.
In her world, law is a function of justice, citizenship a birthright granted to any sentient being by nature of their sentience. And in his, citizenship will be a mark of service, and law will be an end unto itself.
She's known for a long time that Ben is gone, but every reminder of it hurts. And this… the shape of Ben, clear and perfect, but without any of the light she dreamed of for him… Again, a mirror image. It's almost like the Force is taunting her, giving her the inverted shape of everything she's been working for.
Chewie pats her hand, and howls.
She nods. "You're right, it could be worse." So much worse. There were nightmares of Ben, too, and this is much better than that.
She nods at his reply, too. "I know. Send out the call. We'll gather at Lirium, on the beach. If he… does it. If it's not just a show… Then the Resistance is dead." Men will fight and die to battle grave injustice. But little petty bits? If he does this, that's all that will be left. If he does it, they just got more than eighty percent of what they were fighting for, and she doesn't see any way to rally them to fight for the remaining twenty. Not with guns and ships. Not if they can win with a ballot what they're trying to obtain with guns.
He howls again, and Leia's lips curl into a wry smile. "No, Chewie, I'm not about to run as a Senator again." She sighs. "If he's really cleaning house, and our spies have suggested he has, then he'll be looking for us, too. I'm probably the top name on the list of bloodthirsty terrorists." After all, she left the New Republic to run the Resistance, not the Army of the Republic. Hux had been right about that, when he called them out right before destroying the Hosnian system. Technically the Republic was 'neutral' and trying to seek peace, and offered mediation between the First Order and any system it tangled with, so Leia wasn't 'officially' a member any longer, but they were winking at her, trying to have it both ways. Get rid of Snoke and keep their hands clean.
Things like that kept the First Order in recruits, and the Resistance, too. People will join a group, right or wrong, if it offers a clear, easy, black and white version of reality. And whatever else was true about the Republic, the only black and white bits were campaign slogans and policy speeches designed to make whomever stood against the policy look like a monster.
More howling from Chewie.
"I'm sure you'll be on there, too. He wouldn't forget you."
He adds a few more sounds.
She shakes her head, looking at the frozen image of her son, standing tall, in front of his own empire. The empire he's opening to anyone who wants to join him. She has an inkling of a feeling, something he didn't say, but she senses, knows from his eyes and his history: this will be an empire of allegiance, not conquest. "I don't know. I've been doing this my whole life. If there isn't a government to fight, or a government to build… I don't know."
Chewie replies.
Leia snorts a laugh. "Sounds like something an old person does. Retire to a school and teach children how to… What? Not like I ever learned how to float rocks. Only thing I was ever really good at was lost causes and hopeless fights."
Chewie makes sure she's looking at him, not the holovid of Ben before saying, Then teach them how to preserver, and when to fight to the last man, and when to retreat for another go at it.
Leia nods, and squeezes his hand. He's not wrong, but the lesson she needs now, what to do when there's nothing more to persevere for, when the last man is spent, is something she never learned.
They hurtle though the sky, getting closer and closer to Lirium. And as the Falcon eats up the light years, she feels her will leaching away.
She felt it when Han died. Felt his light go out, and knew why it did. She felt Luke fade back into the Force. She felt it when Wedge died. When Mon Mothma's final echo went silent, she felt that presence leave the back of her mind. She knew the day Lando's light went out. She watched Holdo flame out to protect them. She felt Ackbar's silent scream as all of the air went pouring out of his lungs and his body depressurized. She's been bound to these people since she was young, and fate may have spread them far and wide, but it never severed that bond.
Not until death severed them, snuffing out their light.
She closes her eyes and sags a little, feeling like her light just went out, too.
If he really does let them choose for themselves… If he gives them a republic that really represents them...
That's it. There's nothing left to fight for.
Her whole life has been spent working to this moment, and her son is delivering it, and instead of triumph, she wants to curl into a ball and cry.
1/3/1
They're the first ones on the beach. Chewie and Finn set up camp. Rose is working on her unending battle to keep up with the maintenance on the Falcon, muttering about how the only thing worse for the ship than sand would be to land in the middle of the ocean.
Leia wanders through the dunes. Tomorrow, the next day, they'll all get here. But tonight it's just the four of them.
Really though, tonight is just her. She doesn't much want company, and her companions understand that.
Maybe. She doesn't want their company.
She sits on one of the dunes, and looks at the ocean, seeing the green sun sinking below the horizon. She feels him behind her, and off to the left. "Why do you never pop up in front of me?"
"I did it on Crait."
"I suppose."
Luke sits next to her. "I told her it wouldn't work out the way she expected."
"She told me that, too." She has the image of the Master of the Order in her mind. "It's not what I was expecting."
"I know. I wasn't expecting this, either." He wraps a glowing arm around her. She can see it, but not feel it. "Maybe we should have. We both felt it, before he was born."
"Not like this." Of all the possible futures of Ben Solo, this wasn't one either of them saw.
"No. But maybe we should have. When was a ruler, let alone a great one, ever part of the Light?" At least as the Jedi taught it, the Light was about service, not ruling.
Leia looks so tired. "Luke, there's not supposed to be a ruler. He wasn't supposed… It's supposed to be—" Too many dreams, all whispering away.
Luke shakes his head. "That's not what either of us saw for him." Darkness, light, greatness, power. They saw that, saw a lot of it. Where it would go? There was always a sense of dread with that, and as the last few years showed, that dread wasn't unwarranted.
Though it may have been a low period in a much longer arc than either of them imagined.
She closes her eyes and turns away from him.
"We knew he'd be great. How could he have not been? You, Anakin, Han… how could all that mix together and not be great? But we never knew how."
Luke isn't wrong about that. "Great is a double-edged blade."
Luke nods. Leia's right about that. Palpatine and Vader were undeniably great, too.
She looks up at the stars starting to peek through the second twilight of Lirium. She feels it now, and has a sense that this time, it will work out the way she expects. This time, the lines, the futures, are clarifying, coalescing. "He'll do it. It'll be Palpatine all over, but... Palpatine without the Dark rotting his brain. He's not light…That was lost to him decades ago, but his dark is leaching away, too. I can feel that. He's… balancing… I guess." She sighs, still not liking the idea that balanced Force means light and dark. Dark is the enemy. Dark killed her world. Killed her birth mother, killed the mother who raised her and the planet she called home, and her friends, and her loves, and her husband, and the dream of her son, and… Dark… Asking her to accept Dark is the bridge too far. "He won't be evil enough for anyone to muster a fight, but he won't be good. What he builds… It will last, until one of them kills him and steps into his place, and we'll…" She shakes her head, feeling that future line snuff out. "He'll build it up, make it strong, kill us off by being good enough to not fight. No one sacrifices themselves over tax policy and import duties…" She's staring off into the ocean, feeling other future lines coming together. "They won't kill him. They'll try, but he'll have the advantage of being able to feel the danger coming. So he builds it up even stronger, and the one after him, maybe he keeps to it, but the one after that…" She can feel it, a hundred years, at least. "Sooner or later, one of them will let the power to go to his head, and there'll be nothing left to stand up against him and…"
"I know, Leia." And he does. He can feel it, too. This will last, but not forever. "Your great-grandchildren will rise up, and tear down what he's building when the wrong person gets control of it. But you won't see it, and I'll be gone by then, too."
"The Old Republic lasted a thousand generations."
Luke rolls his eyes. Yoda and Ben have had some things to say about the Old Republic over the years. "The Old Republic was always fighting itself. It lasted because no one could gain too much power."
"That was the idea, Luke! Always shifting alliances making sure no one could fully take over. Balance, real balance, none of this… dark shit. Balance among people and power groups. Not, seeking a treaty with evil."
He supposes that could have been the design instead of a flaw. "I guess." Balance that didn't actually make anything different or better.
She rolls her eyes at that, feeling her brother's thoughts. The politician and the philosopher, unlikely to ever see eye to eye on this.
She looks away from him, stares at the sunset with longing.
Luke glares at her. "None of that."
"Why not? Everything I've ever lived for just vanished. My fight is over. My loves are dead. Everyone I sacrificed over fifty years, fighting to build, preserve, and then build again, a galaxy based on justice and respect and… It's over." She swallows hard at that, feeling her voice go ragged. "He's going to replace justice with law," That's an open wound. It's the actions of everything they valued, without any of the spirit. "and most people can't tell the difference between them, and the ones who can… They're not going to fight and die for the difference, not when they can put their heads down and just abide, live peacefully, and get along well-enough." She looks to Luke. "You faded off into the sunset when you were done, why not me?"
Luke looks at her, eyes dark, searching, "Tell me what you feel, what you really feel. Are you done?"
"I want to be," her voice is harsh, and there's a timbre Luke's seldom heard from her in it, fear.
"I know." His face is kind. He knows all about wanting to be done, but not being done. He spent years begging the Force to take him, and for years it wouldn't. "But are you?"
"No." And she knows it. Feels the bitter herb in her mouth. Tastes the regret and resolve. They were born the day the Rebellion began, and she's not done until this fight is done. And it's not done until she's done the one thing she's never been willing to before. The one thing that scares her more than anything else. Concede defeat.
"So, no letting go until you're done. We're not going anywhere. When you're actually done, we'll be waiting."
1/5/1 Y.O.
They drift in slowly, over the course of two days.
Leia's got the feeling that part of going slowly is that they all know they're going to a funeral, and maybe if they go slow, they can pretend what's dead isn't dead. But eventually all 36 of them who'd survived Crait, and close to 150 of the new recruits have gathered. As many as could or would come.
Finn's asked if they're going to get Rey, bring her, but Leia shook her head at that. "She's already left this path for her own one. We'll leave her to it. And maybe, after… You and Rose and Chewie can keep helping her with it."
Finn's eyes are bright at that. "Rose, and Chewie, and you, and I."
Leia doesn't respond to that. She stands up, surrounded by fires and friends… well… strangers, actually. She hasn't even met more than two thirds of them, but they're all looking at her like she's the hero in a myth come to life. Like she can come up with some rousing speech and give them… something… A villain, a true, black as midnight, villain to fight. A new Snoke wrapped in Palpatine with a coating of Vader on top of him. A foe to righteously vanquish.
And all she's got is… Kylo, and reports of citizenship and freed slaves and voting rights and recruiting stations.
They go quiet when they see her standing there, and wait, breath held.
Her eyes are burning. "I'm not going to order any of you to stand down, but… we're beaten." There's a roar of disbelief at that, and she shushes them. "We fought to restore the Republic, and if he's really going to do it…" She's crying as she says it. "Then what are we fighting for?"
It doesn't look like that's the sort of thing any of them have ever thought of. Looking around further, besides Chewie, she's the oldest person here. Oldest human. Again, besides Chewie, none of them, herself included, even remember the Old Republic, and almost all of them were born after the New Republic began to shatter.
Most of them don't know what they're fighting for, other than to hit, and hit hard, the First Order.
"That was the goal. That was what we took up arms for. To restore a galaxy of rights and laws, ruled by the people, for them. If you're not in the system, it's time to enlist, get your five years, get out, and then vote. Run for office. Become the leaders we wanted, inside of the system, and shape it to our liking."
A lot of them do not like that suggestion, at all. They want to raise up arms and tear the system down, not build a new one, especially not one helmed by anyone who had anything to do with Starkiller or the First Order.
"My father, Bail Organa served in the Senate under Emperor Palpatine until he was murdered in the genocide of Alderaan. He was the conscience of the Senate. He could always be relied on to vote for justice, for tolerance, and for a better galaxy." She sniffs, voice breaking. "And he stayed in, because, like it or not, Palpatine was the voice of the Republic. He was elected. And he swore, when he became a Senator, to play by the rules of the game. But he was a realist, too. He knew Palpatine was trouble, and he knew that there would be a day where inside the system wouldn't be enough, but for outside the system to triumph, it would need people inside it.
"We are being offered a new Republic. And if we can be citizens, instead of subjects, and have a voice in our own governance, without having to fight to do it… We're honor bound to join. Otherwise, we are terrorists.
"And, if the shiny new Republic we're being offered isn't all it's cracked up to be, if we have members inside it, we'll be better placed to fight it, later.
"We know what we fought for," though she's fairly sure she's saying that for herself, and Chewie, two droids, and the slew of ghosts behind her, "we have a peaceful route to get it, and as long as that is true, we can't not take it."
Her lips are trembling as she says it. "On Crait, Admiral Poe said we are the sparks that will light the fire that will burn the First Order down. Kylo Ren took the First Order down himself. So, it's time to start new fires. Extending citizenship. Putting limits on what Ren can do. Increasing the power of the senate. If he won't work with us, we can take up arms again but…" She inhales, sharp and shaky. "But I've known him from before he was born. I felt him grow inside my body, and if there's one thing that's ever been true about Ben Solo… or…" her voice cracks, "Kylo Ren, as he calls himself now, he will always do what he says he's going to do."
That revelation causes silence to fall throughout what's left of the Resistance. Besides Chewie , two droids, and Poe, no one knew what had happened to Ben Solo. Of course, beyond Chewie, two droids, and Poe, almost everyone left in the Resistance hadn't been with it long enough to remember a time when Leia talked about having a son.
Leia swallows hard. "I am officially disbanding the Resistance. I've been honored to serve with each and every one of you, and… no matter where you go from here, may the Force be with you."
She sits down, and the arguing begins, loud, angry, shocked, mourning, after a few moments, Leia withdraws from it, going back into the Falcon, sitting in the cockpit, staring at the bonfires, letting confused and angry voices blur into the background.
Luke comes again to sit next to her. She inhales a shaky breath, and looks out over the beach. "They're just going to squabble, and then go their separate ways."
He nods.
"And I can't stop them, and I can't lead them, not any longer. I was fine with being a rebel, but I won't be a terrorist."
He nods again.
She sets up the communication, her own code, and in her own voice, broadcasts, "This is General Leia Organa, Commander of the Resistance. As of five days ago, Master of the Order, Kylo Ren set in motion a plan to restore a Democratic Republic governed by the will of its citizens. That is all the Resistance has ever fought for. As of today, The Resistance is officially disbanding. May the Force be with us all." She hits the button, and from the Millennium Falcon her words spread through the galaxy.
She blinks, eyes hot, tired. She extends a hand to her brother, and he takes it. "I'm done now."
He smiles at her. "Yes."
And Leia fades into the Force.
A thousand meters away, Chewie sits on the beach, wondering what to do next.
He and Leia never exactly loved each other. They both loved Han, and when things were going well, that was enough.
They both hated the Empire, and when things were going badly, that was enough, too.
But when it came to just the two of them… They were fairly indifferent to each other.
She was the person his favorite human adored. He was willing to put up with, and fight beside, and support her because Han loved her. But he wasn't heartbroken when they went their separate ways. And he wasn't exactly thrilled to get pulled back into this shit, again but… She always made sure he got paid first, and he couldn't spit on Han's memory by not offering her help when she needed it.
And since Crait, she's needed it.
And now, on the beach, months after when he would have called it quits, he can feel that she doesn't need his help any longer. Doesn't need anyone's help anymore.
And he doesn't know how to feel about that. The only other person, because while droids never forget, they also never understand, who remembered Han, in all of his Han, who knew the man under the veneer, and who loved him anyway, is gone.
He howls, low and mournful, over the ocean.
Two thousand kilometers away, Rey looks up from the plasteel wall she's setting into place with the Force. Her eyes close, and she nods, feeling it, and like with Luke, she can feel a sense of deep peace.
But knowing Leia Organa went easily into the Force doesn't stop the tears from forming. The children around her want to know what just happened, but Marrok can feel she's very sad, and he hushes them.
A thousand light years away, Kylo Ren drops his training saber, an aching thrill coursing through his body, leaving his fingers and toes numb. The droid he's working with strikes him. The power of the next hit, where Kylo slams it into the wall with the Force, destroys it, scattering broken, sparking electronics across his training gym.
A moment later, C8 hurries in with five of his top generals. "Master Ren… There's been a communication. It's genuine, the codes check out. It's… important, sir."
Kylo blinks; he already knows what's about to play.
He forces himself to calm, forces his eyes to stay dry, and his face to stay stoic. He nods, and C8 plays the message.
He inhales sharply, listening to his mother's last words, and he knows in his heart and bones, that that's what he's listening to. He can feel the hole in the Force, where Leia Organa's energy belongs, and is now empty. His eyes close, and he bites his lip, hard, before grinding out, "Leave me."
C8 would be confused if he could be, but he's well-programmed and doesn't linger, asking questions. His generals are confused, but they can feel that they are not needed here, not right now.
As soon as they're out, Kylo's knees go out from under him. He collapses to the floor, and he starts to sob.
A moment later, a pair of hands are on his shoulder, and a soft body is behind him, holding onto him as he cries for everything lost by winning.
"Shhhh…" Rey whispers to him. Not trying to quiet him down, just looking to make a soothing noise.
He curls into her, and she gently rocks him, letting him sob for all of it. For every burnt, hot, sad, lost, envious, abandoned feeling left in him. For the victory he didn't want to win. For the death he knew would happen during his lifetime, but he hoped he'd never know about.
"She's gone!"
She kisses his forehead. "I know, love. I know."
There are rumors, that when the Resistance surrendered, that Master Ren took the news in silence, and then barred himself into his private room for three days, seeing no one, taking no food.
It is a fact that when he was seen next, there was a certain sharp, hollow quality to his interactions with everyone around him.
But any experienced commander knows, when you've fought long and hard against an enemy, winning can leave you feeling a bit lost and hollow. They don't poke him about it. And no one suggest any sort of victory celebration.
After all, it doesn't do to gloat.
Besides, this new Order is about moving forward, and the Resistance is the past, not worth their time or attention, not anymore.
Notes:
So, I'm fairly comfortable saying this is the most controversial chapter I'm going to write in this installment of the Tao of the Force series. And while I prefer to just let what I write stand, I know I'm gonna get comments on it, (and yes, please do comment, I'm just letting you know how I got here.) So… here are my thoughts.
Judging by the comments in the previous chapters, a lot of you were hoping Leia would eventually be the person to help guide Kylo toward being a ruler.
And, I'm not saying we won't get some of that with this. (After all, no one is ever really gone.) But…
Okay: I write genre fiction, and I write to tropes as well. This, like most of my stories, is a hero's journey on steroids. For the hero's journey to work, the mentor has to die. At some point, the hero has to stand on his own. So, no matter what, at some point in this series of stories, Leia has to die. That's just the rules of the game, and yes, I am playing the game.
So, there's the structural reason.
Character reason: This one is harder to deal with, mostly because Lucas screwed the proverbial pooch on the prequels. Palpatine is elected, cleanly, into his position by a democratic republic. And, until New Hope, the senate is still in play, and they have not removed him. So, not to put too fine a point on it, but by the laws of basically any country on earth, the Rebellion is a terrorist organization. (Rogue One gives us extra glimpses of this as we get into some of the less 'glamorous' sides of things.)
Bail Organa, and Leia are, by using their diplomatic credentials to allow them to spy, violating most of the rules of war, and… (Yeah I get it, you hate this, I do, too, but…) by having done it, they've made Alderaan a legitimate target. (Not that blowing up the whole planet is legitimate, but you don't get to run the rebellion out of a place and then claim it's 'peaceful.')
And then Abrams seems to have doubled down on it. Thirty years later, Leia is the leader of the Resistance, not the Army of the Republic. I think that's significant. Until the First Order blows it out of the sky, the Republic is not at war with the First Order. (At least, not at any level that we, the movie-going audience can see.) Whatever the hell it is the First Order is up to, it's not so bad that a Republic Leia more or less formed herself, will vote to go to war against it.
We open the movies with Senator Organa having left the senate to run her own military organization to go against the First Order. (What this says about real world geopolitics is something I find interesting, but… Anyway, we're not talking real world.)
So, what does Leia stand for? We know she spent time building a New Republic, but… obviously, when a republic decides it's not going her way, she's got no problem buggering off and raising arms against it. So, I don't think in good conscious I can call her a democrat. But, I also don't think she thinks of herself as anything else. I suppose it's possible she thought of the Republic as a panacea. But I have a hard time imagining her being that naïve.
My best guess, and you'll see it through this, is an awareness of, and terror toward, the Dark. I'll explore more of this later, bits and bobs throughout, but… the best I can tell is that The Republic, and all of the democratic trappings are a cover for her to fight against the Dark Side. I honestly don't think she really cares all that much about the actual politics, as long as the Dark Side isn't part of the equation.
The personal is political, no? And there's no one we see in this entire story more wounded by the Dark Side than Leia Organa-Solo.
So… the above chapter, and the previous one on the beach with Rey in Tension/Balance. She's not going to just hop on board the-dark/light-let's-balance-things-out train.
She can't. Fifty years, everyone who's ever mattered to her, more lives than she can count, ships, and planets, and credits, and… If she joins into anything that encourages the Dark, she's burned all of that for nothing.
Anyway, that's my read on Leia, and how we got here. Feel free to fire away with your own reads. For reference, I'm using the movies as canon. I haven't read the books, so if there's some sort of tidy explanation of the political machinations of Leia Organa-Solo, I'll be happy to hear it, but I think sticking to the movies is cleaner.