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Setting up the funeral was difficult when you didn’t so much as have a body to bury or cremate. Leia supposed that in a way, the star that Starkiller Base had become had been Han’s grave, the closest thing that he had to a grave, at least.
And then there was what to tell the others. Did she tell them the truth, about her own son —
Even that hurt to remember. The shock from Han even as Kylo — as Ben — had impaled him on his lightsaber. The horror from her son. The way that Han had reached up to touch his face, because even after all this time, he still loved his son. Their son.
Their son. Because no matter where he went or what others called him or what he called himself, he was their son.
If it were a stranger, it would have been easy for Leia to hate him. But this was someone she knew too well. Someone she had been too harsh on as a child —
And she’d promised, hadn’t she, that she would do better than her biological parents had? And now…
She kept herself calm throughout the service. When they brought out one of Han’s old trinkets, something that he had carved of her that night they celebrated after the Empire’s defeat, Leia swallowed looking at it. They had been there, hadn’t they, all together, happy. If not for Snoke…
What would they have been, if not for someone like Snoke?
Leia didn’t know.
The speech came, and Leia took a deep breath. She wasn’t going to cry. It hurt, giving the eulogy at your own husband’s funeral, but Leia, as always, would not cave.
“We’ve not only lost a good soldier today,” she said, “But a husband, a father, and a friend. When I first met Han, I didn’t think I would like him, let alone care for him. But eventually, he showed himself to be a fundamentally good man. He was brave, he was noble, and he never worried about the odds. And when you got down to it, when he cared about you, he cared about you.“ She took a deep breath. “He may not have been a prince or a knight in shining armor, but he didn’t have to be. Han showed us all that anyone can be a hero. No matter where you came from.”
Leia stepped down, and let others speak up, sharing their stories about Han, and she was still amazed at how many people Han had affected. Friend, comrade, soldier…and father to so many who weren’t his children.
Maybe Han was gone. But his legacy, his warmth, his fundamental nobility…that would live forever.