"Luke."

"Leia."

His visit hardly surprised her, as she was expecting the time to come, but was nonetheless comforting. "I've missed you terribly." She hoped the angst in her voice was moderate, sad rather than bitter.

She didn't have to elaborate. He understood that she was not just referring to the time since he had passed, but in life too. "I know."

Leia turned in her chair to face her late brother, bracing herself for what she might see. The first thing she noticed was how his eyes sparkled their usual blue, but this time, their glisten and blue hue encompassed his entire appearance. It was an odd sight, that was for certain, and nothing would have ever fully prepared Leia for it – but the comfort from the mere sight of him outweighed any other circumstances. Once over the initial shock, she observed his fuller form, scraggly unkempt peppered hair and beard, and shabby cloak. A trademark smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth at her quiet studying.

"I know what you want to say – you like my hair."

Leia retorted with a smug look, reminiscing his dark hair and trimmer figure on Crait. "You cheated a bit. No wonder it took the last lot out of you."

Luke chuckled with a shake of his head. "Always a comeback from you." With little warning, his expression faded into one that was a bit more somber. "Leia, I have to tell you something."

No more time to be wasted now. Leia sat upright in her chair, sensing his urgency. Her heart thrummed in her chest. "What is it?"

"It's about Rey."

"Rey?" Leia repeated. The young woman was merely feet away behind thin metal walls, hopefully sleeping. It had been a demanding few days. "What about her?"

"You need to know who she is."

Rey? Leia recalled how Han, in the short time their paths had crossed, had learned she was an orphan, a scavenger for survival, with an uncanny knack for piloting. If only he had the opportunity to witness her fly on Crait, Leia ached. If only he knew she would be a heroine of the Resistance, that she would wield Luke's lightsaber: she was meant for more than life had originally handed her. However, Leia's stomach turned with dread at her brother's grave expression. "Luke, who is she?"

Luke's gaze never wavered, his voice heavy. "The granddaughter of Palpatine."

The ground beneath Leia seemed to sway as she suddenly became lightheaded from the weight of the information piled onto her. At the name of her estranged father's former master, Leia felt the tendrils of fear and anger snake around her heavy beating heart. Her stomach dropped as she thought to the battered woman who slept soundly in the Falcon's private quarters, undoubtedly ignorant to this chilling truth. Each passing day resulted in a darker shade of purple under her eyes, highlighted by pallid skin. If anyone had less sleep than the General, it was Rey. It wasn't uncommon for Leia to hear her mumbling in her sleep, arguing with unseen demons.

"The Emperor? Luke –" Leia shook her head in disbelief, becoming almost defensive. "That's impossible. Our father killed the Emperor – you told me that yourself. His legacy died with him."

"Search your feelings, Leia." Luke urged gently. "You know it's true."

Leia was conflicted. She had sensed the ebb and flow of power emitted from the mysterious orphan at their first meeting, abilities unlike she had seen in decades. Yet – she refused to believe they were rooted in such an evil existence, but her brother would not entertain such a harmful fallacy.

"But how?" She conceded.

"The Sith were not only known for their destructive power, but their ability to distribute and manipulate life in ways that were deemed unnatural…" Luke spoke solemnly. "With the Sith, there was only ever two, but it was not outside of historians consideration that they-" He cleared his throat uncomfortably "-fathered many children in hopes that one would deem worthy to act as a vessel, a method to defy death as they had always done."

Leia was ill at the mere thought. To use an innocent child – with such malicious intent! She and Han were not the galaxy's most perfect parents, but there was not a single doubt between them that Ben was brought into this galaxy by and with love.

Luke took Leia's silence as a signal to continue.

"For so long his minions, Empire fanatics and sympathizers scoured the galaxy with intention of keeping a close eye on his offspring and their potential abilities. There were even rumors he had himself cloned before his assumed demise, a method he relied on previously for dispensable troops for his armies." He shuddered. "For so long, there was a lull in the galaxy, until whispers of a young girl…"

Leia squeezed her eyes shut, prepared for the inevitable answer of the question she was going to ask. "And what of her parents?"

"Murdered." She sucked in her breath. "Protecting her – her whereabouts died with them." Leia closed her eyes in quiet anguish. Rey's parents had given the ultimate sacrifice; only for her to believe had been willingly abandoned all these years. If only she knew the extent of their unconditional love only a parent could give. What Leia Organa wouldn't have done to keep her son safe.

"If he could not obtain his own grandchild…"The pieces of the puzzle began coming together as Luke reluctantly continued. Leia was dizzy. "He could succeed by seeking out another with a power bloodline-"

"Ben." Leia breathlessly interrupted.

Luke slowly nodded. "Their destinies in the Force are intertwined. When you sent Rey to find me, her ferocity in the Force frightened me." He admitted. "I had not seen such power since I had trained your son. In death and becoming one with the Force, I have gained so much more clarity: now I understand that their abilities are tethered: a balance. It doesn't frighten me as much as it gives me hope."

Hope. In this moment, the word sounded so unfamiliar that Luke could have very well been speaking a tongue of Wild Space. Though it was a word she had said proudly, and often, she and her brother often had different interpretations of the term. Hope was determination, resolve, camaraderie and pure grit – not purely a mystical source to be relied upon. Leia's knew that this assessment, however brief, was unfair. It's not that the fabled Luke Skywalker did not possess or embrace these qualities; he just had considerably more faith in the unknown than she felt comfortable with. She had always been the staunch cynic of the two, which is why she was slightly perplexed at the lack of even slight resent from Luke confirming the sinister truth behind his nephew's fate. The Emperor had targeted her son, her and Han's only son, when his fated bloodline had all but slipped through his gnarled, decrepit fingers. The bitter thought was fleeting as Leia knew Rey's true being: selfless, kind, and good – oh so good. Her parents' lives had mattered, and they had been discarded as mere nameless casualties for the gains of a dark reign, much like her own. Unlike her son, their child had managed to escape the Sith's clutches but not without living a life off scraps.

The galaxy had been unkind to the children of Skywalker and Palpatine.

"He loves her, Leia."

His remark is so direct that caught the usual poised Leia Organa off guard. "What did you say?"

"Ben." Luke repeated. "He's in love with her."

Leia's heart hitched so high into her chest that could have sworn it had reached her throat. The sensation was dizzying. Ben. Love?

Leia steps through the entrance of her and Han's apartment, the white noise of Hanna City's residents retreating to their homes or evening activities after a long day were shut out by the swoosh of the closing door behind her. The comforting smells of spiced endwa skewers waft through as she steps into main living space. She spots Ben on the corner couch, barely visible, hidden beneath blankets and his messy dark hair just barely peeping above the binding of large opened book. Upon hearing her arrival, Han steps out from kitchen. He shoots her his trademark side grin as he approaches.

"Hey, gorgeous." An arm snakes around her waist, pulling her into a kiss. Leia happily obliges: now she was home.

"Ughhh! Mom, Dad – quit being gross." Ben pipes up over the cover of his book. Leia feels Han's lips form a grin against hers before pulling back with a deep chuckle.

"What's the matter, kid? Don't like your old man and mom having a smooch?" He lets go of Leia to reach down and tousle Ben's dark hair. In spite of his standard moody youth, their son returns the toothy smile. "Just you wait kid, you'll know what it's like one day."

Leia gripped onto the headrest of the seat beside her, her hand desperately searching for something to ground her in the present. With the other, she hastily wiped tears she had not realized escaped in her brief moment of reverie. Their unfamiliar wetness soaked her cheeks. "How do you know this?"

"They – the two of them," Luke began, struggling to find the right words. "-have a connection somehow." Leia shot him a puzzled look. "I don't know how else to explain it. I witnessed it on Ahch-To, just before Rey left with the intent of turning him back to the light. Based on whatever they had shared, she had been so convinced, determined. However, from what I felt on Crait, it is to be assumed unsuccessful." Luke confessed, his distance blue eyes giving way to his rumination at the memory. " His devastation. Longing. Heartbreak. All variants of emotions he had carried for so long, but now it was raw."

"Does she know this?" Leia wondered out loud.

"Yes." A pause. "And she loves him too."

This new information somehow left Leia buzzing with more questions than answers, but at least now she felt she gained a little more understanding of what went on behind the young woman's reserved brown eyes. She would never follow Ben to the dark, Leia was certain of that, no matter whose blood ran through her veins. She imagined Rey's demanding training that filled her sleepless nights, the vibrating swoosh of her reclaimed saber cutting through the evening's silence, all while the beaded sweat collected on her determined brow.

This was not the preparation of someone meeting a lover, but a warrior with every intent of taking down an enemy.

All of these things considered, Leia felt she should have been surprised by his answer yet she wasn't. Shared trauma, intertwined paths in the Force – the handwriting was on the wall it seems. The Jedi killer fell in love with the last Jedi, Leia mused. Ironic. "This complicates things, doesn't it?"

"Perhaps." Luke considered thoughtfully. "Love, passion can be used as a manipulative tool. Our father's deep love for our mother was manipulated to drive him to darkness, his power exploited to oppress the galaxy at the Emperor's bidding." Leia winced. A mother they had never known. "Maybe it can be love that guides Ben back to the light, what heals the galaxy. "

Leia, though slightly hopeful, found it difficult to share in her brother's optimism. Two powerful beings, struggling, vulnerable, in love, and, for lack of a better word, tortured. "Or history could repeat itself again, Luke. There's no way of knowing their fate." Leia was no scholar of the Force, but she was not naïve in failing to recognize a potential significance in their shared existence. What was the purpose of their rare bond? Has there ever been another like it?

Her brother was silent for a moment, as if he had heard her inward question spoken out loud, carefully contemplating over his next words. "The Emperor is an adverse enemy. His knowledge of the Dark Side is unparalleled and is not to be underestimated." Leia could sense his hesitation and her body tensed. Is?

No one's ever really gone. An icy shudder traveled through her body, leaving her sick. What was left unsaid loomed over them with inexplicable dread. Did the Emperor live?

"You must protect her, Leia." Luke pleaded, his blue eyes locked onto hers. "Train her."

"Me?" Leia guffawed at the suggestion. "Train her? Luke, I set my saber down years ago. I-"

"Leia, please don't be difficult about this-"

Oh, no. "Difficult?!" She bristled. "I'm a Skywalker, aren't I? Isn't it our lot in life to be difficult?" Arms crossed, Leia regarded him with a single raised eyebrow before continuing coolly. "Or is that a task solely reserved for the men in our family?"

Luke flinched at her unapologetic remark. Leia, the master of quick wit, was accustomed to having the last word, but something in her late brother's strained expression crumbled her offense. She stiffly shifted in her seat before yielding with released arms and a hushed promise. "I'll do it."

Luke audibly sighed, his previously pinched features finally relaxing. "Thank you, Leia."

"I love you."

"I love you, too."

Leia could not participate in his relief, despite the renewed twinkle in his eyes. She was so very tired. She studied his translucent figure, longingly, fighting the urge to weep but she remained composed. They didn't have much longer. "I can't do this without you."

"You wont be without me." Luke promised her, his image started to dissolve against the cockpit panels. His parting words were an assured whisper: "No one's ever really gone."

The last thing she saw before he all but faded was his warm, hopeful smile.

And, in that moment Leia was left alone once again. Somehow the silence that followed her brother's departure was more deafening than before, but it no longer felt empty. It was buzzing with anticipation: Leia had a lot to do. Before she could do bring herself to leave the comfort of the cockpit, a sharp glint of light caught Leia's eye from the floor below her. She instinctively moved towards it and, to her bewilderment, discovered two small, gold dice attached by a thin chain: Han's dice.

Unlike the phantom memento placed in her hand previously as a moving gesture, these were cool to the touch as her fingers delicately lifted them from the ground, confirming their existence. Her fingers grazed the familiar engravings and edges, both pondering how she could have missed them earlier but also accepting that her brother never lacked surprises. Han's "lucky dice", he so fondly referred to them, served as a constant relic that joined every mission and trip aboard the Falcon. At one time, it also acted as a nonconventional toy and the object of fascination for a young boy who wished nothing more than to be like his father when he grew older. Leia grinned wistfully to herself at the memory of her son, with dark unkempt hair, giddily rubbing the smooth metal surfaces to his face well before he could form the words to express his pleasure. Those times were precious and passed.

Her fingertips skimmed the chain link between the twice dice as her thoughts traveled to that of an orphan who slept soundly mere feet away, separated by the old freighter's thin walls. What memories had her parents treasured of her, so robbed of her childhood before their time? They would have been proud of the fierce woman she had become, so full of good and light. How could, Leia speculated, someone so honorable fall in love with someone who had become so unrecognizably wicked: a monster, if a mother could bring herself to refer to use the word.

In spite of herself, a brief warmth flickered inside her. Maybe, somewhere deep inside such a monster there was a captive young man who had indeed become his father, long at last – and Rey had seen it. The possibility momentarily left Leia breathless. Hope.

His fate had not be determined yet - just as Rey's bloodline would not decide hers.

We have everything we need.

She squeezed the dice in her hand, aflame with renewed purpose. She would keep her promise to Luke and heed his warning. Leia Organa had to prepare Rey for whatever the enemy may be: Kylo Ren, the Emperor, or even…

Herself.

A/N: After watching TRoS, I just needed to *know* how long and how Leia knew. And I just selfishly needed more Leia and Leia&Luke content. Please let me know what you think!

Be safe, be well.

xox rose