Pew Pew: A Collection of Star Wars Shorts

"A Secret" + Leia Organa and Rey

Rey leaned back in the pilot's seat, watching as the ship returned to hyperspace, en route to the new coordinates Leia had just provided.

Her cheeks burned, and she hyperfocused on the controls on the dashboard as Chewie huffed a question, wanting to know if she had told Finn yet the message she had wanted him to pass along.

There was a snort of laughter behind her.

"Why don't you get some sleep Chewie, I'll take over from here."

Chewie rumbled his assent, pausing to give Leia a hug as he passed her on his way out of the cockpit.

"You know, generally speaking, it gets easier after you actually talk about it." The General remarked, casually, as she slid into the copilot's seat.

"Oh," Rey blinked. "I'm not..." She shifted awkwardly, unable to continue looking at the woman next to her, focusing on the golden dice dangling by the viewport instead. "He knows."

Amusement tinged with deep regret suffused the space. Something about Han? Rey couldn't understand enough to be sure.

There was a long companionable silence, the emotions and hints of memory swirling through the Force taking the place of conversation.

Leia's voice cut into the silence. "Even when they know, you still have to spell things out."

Rey did not know how to respond, did not know what she even wanted to convey.

So she changed the topic.

"General... Leia... I was hoping, well, perhaps you could help me? I still need a teacher, I do not know what to do, and now that Master Skywalker is gone..."

It occurred to her only as she said the words that bringing up Luke's death so casually with his sister may not have been the best idea.

She welcomed the return of the silence that had enveloped them earlier, was glad that the sorrow she felt from the other woman had not increased too dramatically thanks to her words. It stretched on for longer than it had before, and Leia was the one who broke it yet again.

"Rey, I don't know about teaching you, I already have my hands full shaping Poe into the best leader he can be. Plus, I avoided everything to do with the Force for far too long. I will, however, share with you the most important lesson I ever learned."

The young Jedi listened, rapt with attention.

"No one ever really know what they are doing. Even I am making it up as I go along. You just have to do the best that you can in the moment. Survive, fight back against the rising tide, and make sure you get as many others possible through the day with you."

"But what about the Darkness? I've felt it call to me. I worry that-"

Leia cut her off. "Just stay focused on your hope that a better future is possible, and you will be fine."

Rey thought they were lapsing back into not talking, when Leia did not offer any more words for a heartbeat, then two. Yet the General had more to say.

"I almost fell once, you know. Let the Darkness take me, accepted all it had to offer."

What?

Rey turned quickly, taking in the woman seated next to her in shock.

Of all the people Rey had had the chance to meet, no one had shone as bright as General Organa.

"It would have been so easy, Rey. So very easy. It sang to me, and I knew I could fulfill my greatest desire in that moment if I just let it in. But I didn't let it take me. I focused instead on what I knew was the larger picture. On how that instant immediate gratification would have wrecked everything, how as much as I wanted what it had to offer me, I knew that that was not the way."

"And that was enough? Simply... thinking of the larger picture?"

"Yes, yes that was what got me through. It took all my self control to do it, I don't want you to think it was easy, but... if you remember the difference between right and wrong, how vital it is that we stand strong against those who seek to enslave the Galaxy, well... you'll be just fine."

Rey nodded, grinning with relief.

Then a thought. She was almost afraid to ask, but her desire to know outweighed all else.

"Did Ben know? About you almost falling and how you managed to avoid it?"

"I'd like to think I taught him how to recognize right from wrong. That my son was a good man, unlike..." her words trail off, the rest unspoken.

Leia shut her eyes, shrinking back into the copilot's seat. Whatever pain she was feeling, she kept constrained within her. Rey could sense no sign of it in the space between them.

For the first time since she met her, Rey was struck by how small the General actually was. Her presence filled every space she entered, so much so it was so easy to lose sight of her actual physical size.

"Rey, can you do me a favor?"

Rey quickly responded, "of course, anything General."

"Can you not tell any of the others how close I came to falling? They... they need me to be strong, reliable. That moment of weakness is something they really don't need to know about me."

"I understand, they won't hear about it from me."

"Thank you. Oh and tell Finn. I mean it Rey. You don't want to squander the time you have together keeping it a secret. Don't wind up as full of regrets as I am."

Rey scavenged for an adequate response, but by the time she began to piece one together the two of them were blanketed in silence once more.

It was comfortable, this time.

Leia was content with the knowlege she had shared, and Rey... Rey felt the same.

There would be time to ask her for more advice later, there was endless wisdom contained in the General's small frame and Rey intended to benefit from all the other woman was willing to impart.

But for now they simply sat side by side watching space swirl around them as they piloted the Falcon, and the entire Resistance on board it, forward towards safety.