The Sun Is Gone - A Star Wars Short Story

The Sun Is Gone

Rating: PG-13 (discussions of death and grief)

Pairings: Han/Leia discussed

Disclaimer: The franchise belongs to George Lucas and the Walt Disney Company.

My first response to Carrie Fisher's death was a fable inspired by her life, “The Bear Who Told Stories.” I didn't think I could do a story about Leia dying in the “Star Wars” universe...until I remembered I'd been meaning to do a follow-up to “The Stories We Leave Behind.”

Incidentally, how Rey finds out about Leia's heart attack is based after how I found out about Carrie Fisher's death. I had just posted “Leia and the Old Woman In the Woods” at Archive of Our Own. I switched to checking Culturevulture83's Tumblr blog for good photos of the trio for Original Trilogy fairy tale inspiration. The second post on the blog was the headline “Carrie Fisher Dead at 60.” My stomach dropped into my toes, and I'm pretty sure I screamed something.

This is set about two months after “The Stories We Leave Behind.” Title from “The Sun Is Gone” by Trading Yesterday.

This is dedicated to our lost princess. Somewhere in the universe, I hope she finally knows just how beloved she was.

Rey was on the holo-net when it hit her. One minute, she was posting a story she'd found about Han at their memorial holo-site for him. The next, she was on her knees on the floor, clutching her chest. She'd never felt a burning sensation like this. She wondered if her chest was going to burst. For a moment, she couldn't breathe. Shockwaves reverberated through the Force. Something, she knew, was terribly wrong.

She managed to climb back into her seat. She'd switched to a holo-blog she liked right before it hit her. She didn't know Han, Luke, and Leia had so many fans from their Rebellion days. This blog had good, large photos of the trio she often used for reference when adding stories to the Han Solo Memorial Site. They were always so happy together, laughing and smiling and joking. There were no pictures there now. The newest headline on the site made her blood run cold and her stomach drop into her toes.

General Leia Organa-Solo in critical condition after massive heart attack.

“Rey!” Luke dashed into her room, clutching his stomach. His face was white as a sheet, and his lips were set in in a thin, grim line. “We have to get to D'Qar. Now!”

“But the Falcon's not ready.” Rey didn't like the shocked horror in her master's blue eyes. “I still need to make a few adjustments...”

“I have to get to Leia! She's my sister!” he nearly shouted. “MAKE IT WORK!”

She'd never pushed the Falcon so hard. The old freighter probably hadn't flown so fast since Han did the Kessel Run in twelve parsecs. She was pretty sure they broke his record – along with at least six major galactic flying laws – getting to D'Qar. Luke spent the entire trip pacing up and down in the Falcon's main room. Chewie's determined brown eyes were reflected in her own. They would get Luke to his sister. She was all he had, was Chewie's last link to Han, and had been like a mother to Rey in the few months she'd known her.

Luke ran right into Leia's room in the medical ward the moment they arrived. Dr. Kalonia directed Rey and Chewie out to the rather full waiting room. Finn had one arm around Poe, who was muttering prayers in his native Yavinian. BB-8 beeped sadly by his side. Pamich and Kaydel clutched each other for dear life. Jess was playing with a tool from her belt, trying to look anywhere but at the door to the medical ward. Snap sat in one of the nerf-wool chairs, a holo-zine open on his lap. Rey noticed it was upside-down. C-3PO hovered mournfully in the back of the room. Even the black bulldog who was the Resistance's mascot lay by the door, whimpering and waiting for his favorite human on the whole planet to stroll out.

“What happened?” Rey asked. “I saw an article on the net...”

“It was routine,” gulped Pamich, her dark eyes bright with tears. “It was just supposed to be routine.”

“We were flying back from a tour of several planets that just joined the Resistance,” Jessika explained in a soft monotone. “It was all pretty normal...until we started to land, and Poe and I got word that someone in the back was having a heart attack.”

“I never thought it was the General,” Poe whispered. “I'd never believed it. This can't be happening. She's too strong. Too vital. She can't leave us now! We need her!” He let out a sob. “If someone had helped her sooner...if we'd done something quicker...if we'd landed faster...”

Finn rubbed his back. “You did what you could. She's a tough lady. She survived the death of her husband at her son's hand. She can survive this.”

“Not 'maybe.'” Snap finally looked up, his eyes rimmed with tears. “She wouldn't leave us. She knows she has too much to do. She knows how much she's needed. The Resistance needs her. We need her.”

Chewbacca frowned and let out a growl. Threepio managed an electronic sigh. “I don't know. I'm inclined to agree with Chewbacca, for once. General Leia hasn't been the same since Captain Solo died. It's like the life went out of her.”

Jess nodded. “She's been on auto-pilot for a while now. I don't think she's slept in months. She's been working non-stop, especially after Admiral Ackbar died. She took his work and hers, too. Statura's been trying to get her to slow down, but she says she needs to keep busy.”

Kaydel held her friend's arm harder. “She can't leave us,” she wailed. “She can't! She's the General! She practically raised me!”

“Me too,” Poe added softly. “She's my hero.”

The moment Dr. Kalonia stepped out of the room, the entire group swarmed around her. She waved them away. “I'm sorry, but I don't have good news or bad news. She's still in critical condition. Master Skywalker is in there now. We're bringing a cot in, so he can sleep there.”

“Can we all sleep here?” Poe asked.

Dr. Kalonia shook her head. “There isn't enough room. We'll let all of you know if there's any change, good or bad, all right?”

It was Rey's suggestion that they all sleep in the Millennium Falcon. “That way, we'll all be in the same place when news comes, and we'll all have each other's backs if something happens.”

“We'll keep on doing our jobs, too,” Finn added. “We still have a Resistance to run. She'd want it that way.”

Kaydel leaned over and stroked the bulldog's back. He nudged her palm, licking her fingers. “I'll take care of Gary here, feed him and walk him. He likes me. I used to walk him around the hangers with the General, and we even taught him some tricks.” She smiled and pulled a treat out of her pocket. Gary stood on his hind legs, dancing before he gobbled his treat.

Rey was glad for the company in the next few days. She and Chewbacca worked on the Falcon, trying to get that blasted hyperdrive working after they pushed it so hard getting to D'Qar. Finn trained as hard as he could with the other pilots, including Poe, Jess, and Snap. Kaydel and Pamich continued taking signals in the main room. BB-8 rolled between groups, with Threepio trailing behind him, comforting whomever needed it.

Luke never left Leia's room. Dr. Kalonia brought him all his meals. He slept on a cot next to her bed, when he slept at all. Kaydel said she overheard the doctor telling him twice to get some rest, but he refused. “I abandoned her once before,” he croaked. “I'm not doing it again.”

Every few hours, someone would go to Dr. Kalonia and ask how Leia was doing. “No news,” she said, shaking her head. “All I can tell you is she's still in critical condition.”

Five days after their arrival, Rey woke up early in the morning to do her training. She'd found a lovely little pool in the center of a grove of trees hung with dripping moss that was within walking distance of the base. There still had been no change in Leia's condition. Someone would say she was stable...and then someone else would say she wasn't. She'd seen Luke twice. Both times, he looked haunted and bleary-eyed.

She'd just begun to stretch when she felt it. She gasped, dropping to her knees. The General. Her presence in the Force, up until just then, had been faint, but still there. And now...and now...it wasn't. She was gone. Her light had faded, then vanished all together. She was one with the Force now. One with Han, wherever he was.

Rey ran at a dead heat as fast as her legs could carry her back towards the medical ward. She nearly ran head-long into Snap and Jess, coming from the barracks. “She...they...I felt it...”

Jess saw the horrified, serious look on the young woman's face. “Rey, what is it? What did you feel?”

“The General,” she managed to gasp. “She's gone. She's dead. I felt her light go out.”

“What?” Jess' eyes widened. “But I thought Dr. Kalonia said she was stabilizing yesterday!”

“That can't be true!” Snap added. “Maybe the Force told you something wrong?”

“No, I know what I felt!” Rey was already half-way across the hanger. “Jess, could you go get Chewbacca and the others? Anyone who didn't already hear.”

She and Snap made it to the waiting room at the medical ward just in time to hear Poe's anguished screams and hear a little dog's howl of loss and pain. “No!” Poe screamed. “No, that isn't true! That's impossible! You told us yesterday she was stabilizing! It isn't true! It can't be!”

Dr. Kalonia was biting her lip to keep from crying herself. “I'm sorry, Commander Dameron, but it's true. She died early this morning, at first light.”

Poe, Finn, C-3PO, BB-8, and Kaydel were already there. Finn had his arms around Poe, holding his friend as tight as he could. Poe sobbed into his best friend's shoulder, his screams now in garbled Yavinian. Kaydel's small body was wracked with sobs, her face in her hands. She still held Gary's leash between her fingers. Gary continued to howl mournfully by her side. BB-8 leaned sadly against Poe's legs, letting out a sad little beep.

Luke stumbled out of the chamber. He was squinting, like a man who hadn't seen the sun for days. His eyes were red-rimmed, and there were tracks of countless tears running down his thin cheeks. He reminded her of how she felt after Han Solo died. She hadn't known Han for nearly as long as Luke had, but he'd become a friend and mentor to her. They'd both cried together for weeks over their friend.

She remembered how the General greeted her when she first arrived at D'Qar with Chewie and Finn. She hadn't even known her. Rey only knew about the General through stories she'd heard from traders in Jakku. She was a legend, they said. A fighter. A Hutt-Slayer. The last princess of a planet that no longer existed. And she just hugged her. They hugged for a long time. They hugged for a man who had meant so much to both of them. They hugged because they needed someone right then.

The former scavenger put out her arms and wrapped them around her master. She said nothing. Nothing needed to be said. The only sounds were Poe's screams and anguished sobbing from around the room.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

They gave Leia a Jedi's funeral two weeks later. Her ashes were buried alongside Han's at Mey's Wood, on the planet of Atlantica “She would have wanted it that way,” Luke said quietly. Some protested that Leia wasn't a Jedi, had never trained to be one. “She's strong with the Force...and she's there now.” The aging master stood his ground. “That's more than enough.”

Rey's eyes trailed along the ragged row of heartbroken Resistance members. Poe and all the members of Black Squadron held up their blasters in a military salute for a fallen General. Poe kept having to lower his blaster to wipe his eyes. Finn stood off to one corner, trying hard not to sob. BB-8 beeped quietly next to him. The First Order had taught him not to show emotion...but they'd never had a General who was as beloved as Leia Organa-Solo. Kaydel held Gary in her arms, tears streaming down her delicate pink cheeks. Pamich had her arms around both of them. She could have sworn even the dog had tears in his eyes. Chewbacca howled behind her, both of the humans he loved best now gone from the galaxy. C-3PO said prayers in several languages, including Alderannian.

As Rey looked up, she swore she saw a figure swathed in black on the fringes of the group. Her eyes widened as his hood dropped. Kylo Ren...Ben Solo...gazed out at the funeral pyre. He clutched his lightsaber in one hand. His face was impassive, but his eyes were almost the same color as his sword, and his cheeks showed the tracks of many, many tears. The scar stood out, bright and angry, on his stark white face. When she tried to move closer to see if it was him, the black robes had disappeared into the crowd.

Later, at least three or four people reported hearing what sounded like a lightsaber tearing apart bushes and small trees and anguished, angry screams deep within the marshes of Mey's Wood. Others said it was merely the wind, howling with loss and pain.

“Luke,” she sobbed after it was over, “why did this happen? Why? Why the General? Why now? We need her! The Force doesn't need her, damn it! We do! This isn't happening! Why? Why?!” With each “Why,” she pounded on his chest...until she dissolved in a flood of tears, leaning into his coarse black robe. “Why? Why did the Force take her away? Why?”

Hot, wet drops fell on her head, soaking her hair. “I don't know,” Luke choked out. “I can't pretend to know everything about the Force. I don't understand why it took her, either. She was my sister, Rey. She was the only family I had left. For Poe and Kaydel, she was the only mother they had. She was Chewie's last link with Han. I guess, with all the stress over Han's death and Ben's defection and the losses at Starkiller, it was too much for her heart to bear.”

Rey sniffled. “I didn't think it was possible to die of a broken heart. That's something you hear about in bad holo-dramas.”

Her master nodded. “It is possible. I was told that's how my mother, Padme Amidala, died. She loved Father so much, even after he nearly killed her. The stress of her loss and having twins was too much for her.”

She wiped her eyes with the back of her wrist. Luke handed her a handkerchief made from rough linen. “Thank you, Master.” She dabbed at her eyes with it. “Can we...when we get back to the base, can we tell stories about her? Like we've been doing with Han? It's been such a help with his death.” She twisted the bit of fabric in her hand. “I know it won't bring them back. Nothing will. But it might make us feel better. Especially Poe and Kaydel.”

Luke smiled a little bit for the first time in weeks. “I like that, Rey. We'll tell stories about both of them, and we'll add them to the Memorial Blog. The Han Solo Memorial Holo-Blog is now the Han and Leia Organa-Solo Memorial Holo-Blog.”

“Do you think they're together now?” Rey asked as they walked back towards the others. “He regretted leaving her for so long. I got that much from his head before he died. I know he wasn't strong in the Force, but...”

Her master put his arm gently around her. “I know Han. If Leia's there, he won't care about a little thing like not being Force-sensitive stop him from seeing her.” Luke smiled. “I'll bet they're there now, arguing over who gets to be a Force-spirit first and who gets first crack at belting my father in the nose.”

Rey couldn't help her laugh. “I'll bet they both do it at once!”

The two both laughed at that, walking arm in arm as they returned to the circle of their friends, and something like family.

The End