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The old capitol buildings of Ghel rose one-hundred and forty-four levels from the surface of the planet. Much of the previous government had sided with the First Order, and fled in the wake of the abrupt end of the war.
Now it was the Renewed Galactic Alliance temporary headquarters, as far as anyone could agree that there was any such thing at all. Shuttles came and went from orbit, bearing well-dressed envoys, and the building vibrated night and day with the busy hum of bureaucracy.
"Democracy," Poe had corrected her, when she'd complained. "Where are you going?" His eyes shifted to Breha, standing silent and unmoving behind Rey. "Where is she going? Okay, look. Just keep her out of sight."
"She can go where she wants. She's free." That Breha Solo would not be swallowed by the newest republic's hastily improvised justice system had been one of Rey's firm demands, when Poe had asked her to stay.
"She can," Poe agreed. "I would just appreciate it if she doesn't freak out any of the delegations right now. They're all jumpy enough as it is."
"I don't think they're the only ones," Rey said, slowly, and Poe cocked his eyebrows at her.
"Who, me? I'm cool as a clamfruit," Poe insisted, as an assistant sidled up to him and handed him a datapad and a cup of caf. Rey and Breha made their way towards the lift. "Don't forget to stay low!" he called after them.
*
They stepped off the lift down on the ground, where the planet was hot and humid. Curious eyes rose to meet them and then looked away. Despite Poe's scolding, a six-foot tall Human woman was bound to draw passing attention. Breha's long hair hung down, obscuring much of her pale face and wary eyes. She wore a dark shirt and slacks that unintentionally clung to her tall, curvy frame. Perhaps she blended in with the Core Worlders better than Rey did, Rey thought ruefully, glancing down at the draped desert clothing she still preferred.
Rey and Breha kept walking, through the busy square and crush of flying speeders. At the end of their familiar route, there was a square of green and trees. Rey imagined that before the First Order it had been busy, but now it was almost always empty. Droids buzzed about, pruning back the growth that seemed to sprout wildly with every new day.
It was quiet, if she didn't count the busy hum of shuttles overhead. Rey stood in the centre of a cluster of trees, and took a deep breath. The Force flowed through her, and around her, and Breha was restless beside her. She was silent, not speaking until Rey had finished her impromptu meditation. "Sorry," Rey added, turning her head and noticing the grimace that had been pulling at Breha's mouth had finally relaxed.
"It's fine," Breha said quietly, and Rey wished she could feel through their link whether or not she was telling the truth.
Rey hadn't counted how many days she had sat by Breha's bacta tank. Rey hadn't been able to feel her at all, then. But Breha had finally been pulled out of the tank, whole and breathing, and the link had been stronger than before. Rey breathed in, breathed out, and felt Breha there beside her.
"Do you want to spar?" Breha asked her, in her usual quiet, low tones. These days she always sounded faintly surprised at the sound of her voice, as if the weeks in the bacta tank had turned it into the voice of a stranger.
Rey smiled at her. "Yes. That would be nice."
The whir of clash of lightsabers probably didn't fit with Poe's edict to lay low, Rey thought belatedly, but there was no one to witness the whirl of their weapons besides the gardening droids, and BB-8, who sped into the grassy area beeping complaints about having been left behind.
Sparring felt different now that there was no war, no foggy Force vision of a future battle for which she would need all the preparation she could muster. Rey's lightsaber sliced smoothly through the air, meeting Breha's, and Breha looked down to hide a small, rare smile.
*
Rey had been assigned a room on the eighty-fifth floor, amidst a row of fellow ex-Resistance members. Finn was two doors down, waving cheerfully whenever their paths crossed. It was huge and comfortable, and without a doubt the nicest place Rey had ever slept. Breha, when she'd finally left the infirmary, had been given a room three floors away. She rarely slept in it, instead preferring to curl up in Rey's bed, with Rey's hand heavy on the back of Breha's neck when Breha couldn't sleep. Breha would shift, and then settle, exhaling gently in the dark, her skin warm beneath the long cascade of her hair.
*
Rey woke one morning to the sound of a knock at the door. On the other side stood Shay, one of the aides who was often found with Poe, clutching a datapad. Her expression was apologetic. "Sorry, Rey. But a new planetary delegation arrived, and they're a little early, but they're hoping to meet you."
Rey didn't need to look at the chrono. The light outside the window was faintly pink, another one of Ghel's hazy early mornings. "You mean they're hoping to meet a war hero," Rey grumbled.
Shay nodded. "Well. Yes."
Greeting curious delegations wasn't much of a job, but it was the only one that she'd been assigned. In the upper level meeting room Shay ushered her to, Rey nodded politely and answered all the questions that she could. She reminded them, as often as she could, that she hadn't been alone at Exegol. The sky had been filled with Resistance fighters, and more spread across the galaxy besides.
To say that if the Jedi die the light dies is vanity, Luke Skywalker had insisted, and Rey hadn't understood then.
*
She tumbled back into bed a couple of hours later, resting on her back and blowing a loud, irritated breath at the ceiling. "I'm running away," she declared.
Breha rolled over to stare at her, a touch of amusement in her dark eyes. "Where to?"
"I don't know. Wild Space?" Rey considered her knowledge of the galaxy for a moment. "Or maybe the Outer Rim would do. I've never been to Tatooine."
"I have," Breha admitted.
Rey turned to her curiously, putting a hand on top of Breha's where it lay flat in the sheets. She wasn't sure why she'd thought of her old master’s home. "Really? What was it like?"
"Nothing? I mean, there wasn't much there." Breha fell silent, a shadow crossing her face, and Rey wondered exactly what she'd been hoping to find, in the birthplace of her grandfather.
"Well," Rey said, adopting a bright tone. "There are other planets."
"But you're needed here," Breha said.
"I am not needed here," Rey said, scowling. "They just want someone to parade around as the face of the Renewed Galactic Alliance. I don't see why it has to be me. There were thousands of other people at Exegol."
"None of those other people were you," Breha pointed out, in the hushed, intent tones that always made Rey feel slightly breathless. "You were the only one with the power to defeat Palpatine."
Sometimes Breha still talked about the Force in a way that sent the thread of a chill down Rey's spine. Rey clamped down on a shiver, focusing instead on the way that Breha's mouth had drifted close to hers.
They hadn't kissed since that day on the lightning-scorched battleground, not really. Breha had been in the medbay, separated by the thick layer of duraglass, and then she'd been recovered and whole in front of her, but Rey still hadn't quite known what to do. Rey still thought about it all the time, when they were lying together in her warm bed, or sharing the same sensation in the Force. She wondered if Breha could sense that, as she watched the curve of Breha's mouth and listened to the whistle of Breha's slow, deep breaths.
Rey had fallen silent. Breha was staring back at her.
"Do you--" Rey began.
There was a knock at the door. Rey groaned as she rose from the bed.
It was Shay, again. Rey nodded, and agreed to meet the arrival of another delegation later, after lunch. She sighed as the door closed, turning back to the bed.
Breha's mood had shifted again, into something light and amused that Rey could feel the faint tingle of. "My mom always said that winning the war was the easy part."
Rey brightened, thinking about Leia, then frowned again. "It didn't seem that easy at the time." She tried to imagine Breha in the earlier days of the New Republic, a small, serious little girl at Leia's side.
"I suppose you didn't want to be a politician," Rey said.
A slight frown appeared between Breha's dark eyebrows. "I wanted to be a Jedi," she said, with a matter-of-fact shrug that didn't quite hide her sadness.
*
The next few days were increasingly busy with the arrival of a string of planetary delegations, and endless greetings. When Rey finally asked Poe for an explanation, he squinted at her.
"They're arriving for the final negotiations. With any luck, we'll actually get this thing signed soon."
Rey frowned. "Isn't it just a renewal of the old alliance agreement?"
"You'd think so, wouldn't you? Some of them think that one didn't work out so well."
"But the galaxy has to stand together. Without that, there'll be nothing stopping the next Empire, or First Order--" Rey broke off her rush of words abruptly.
Poe was staring at her, hiding an approving smile behind the cup of caf he'd brought to his lips for a sip. "That's good. Make sure you say that to the rest of the delegations."
*
Rey sat in the park, chewing the remains of her lunch, when her comlink crackled open. She swallowed, and said, "Breha?"
It was an easy guess. She could feel the surge of something heavy across the bond. Rey hurriedly got to her feet, as across the comlink she heard Finn's voice.
"No, it's me. You better come quickly. It's Solo."
Rey sprang into movement, rushing past surprised onlookers at full speed. When the lift opened on the floor Finn had directed her to, the scene before her was a confused tableau. Politicians and functionaries stood gaping, a prickle of fear in the Force, as in the centre of the room Poe and Breha stared each other down. Poe was yelling something, his words too angry to be intelligible from far away. Breha's hands had shot out, her face contorted with fury. She hadn't yet called on the Force to wrap itself around Poe or worse, but Rey could feel the weight of the dark side, just on the edge of Breha's grasp. She didn't wait.
"Breha!" she shouted at the top of her lungs.
Breha turned her head at the sound of Rey's voice. Her eyes met Rey’s, a familiar unruly storm in her dark eyes as their gazes linked. Breha’s muscles shifted, her body frozen in place as she looked around the room. The roomful of delegates and officials of various species were all staring, faces taut and silent with fear. One guard’s hands tightened around the grip of his blaster, and in an instant Rey reached for it with the Force and yanked. The blaster clattered to the ground. The guard froze. No one else moved.
Slowly, with deliberate movements, Breha knelt. She dipped her long body until she rested one knee on the ground, then the other, keeping her back straight and unbending as a durasteel rod. There was a murmur from somewhere in the room, and then a nervous cough. Breha was only looking at Rey. The defiance in her eyes had faded into something desperate. The tangled sensation of her emotions pressed on Rey through the Force. Poe said something curt, his anger shifting to annoyance, but Rey wasn’t paying attention. After further moments of discordant silence, the crowd in the room dispersed, melting away from the edges of Rey’s awareness.
Rey moved closer to Breha, and found the other woman trembling in her submissive position. Rey brushed aside Breha’s loose hair where it fell down Breha’s back, and placed one hand gently on the back of Breha’s neck. Breha breathed in, breathed out, and Rey knew her mind was grasping for quiet. Rey pressed firmly against the slope of Breha’s neck with her palm, her fingertips shifting slightly in a silent caress.
Rey didn’t count how long they stayed there in the empty room. A protocol droid entered, metal joints clanking, and then left again. It was just the two of them, together. Slowly Breha's exhalations evened, until there was an easy space between breaths.
*
Breha didn’t kneel for Rey very often. She wasn’t Breha’s master. Breha’s old master was gone, or had never existed.
"You didn't have to do that," Rey whispered later, in the quiet fortress of her bedroom. "In front of everyone."
“I don’t care what they think,” Breha mumbled, into Rey’s chest. Her long arms wrapped around Rey, holding her close.
Rey didn't quite think that was true. Very few of those working with the Renewed Galactic Alliance knew who Breha Solo was, beyond the significance of her last name. They didn't know exactly what she had done in the war, but a cloud of suspicion had sprung up, following her into every room. The whispers would be more fervent now, as everyone tried to understand the meaning of Breha's public gesture.
Perhaps they would say it was a Jedi thing. Perhaps it was a Jedi thing. Rey had read as much as she could of bonds in the old texts, but she still didn't understand everything. Her thoughts passed to another question. "What happened before I got there?"
"I'm tired of witnessing Poe Dameron's cheap impression of my--of my mother,” Breha grumbled.
It wasn’t much of an explanation. Rey didn’t press her.
Giving up the dark side had been easier than giving up the feelings that had led her there, Breha had admitted once. Rey remembered the vision she'd had in the wreckage of the Death Star, of being swallowed by the dark side herself, and shivered. Breha's fingers pressed against her, hand fumbling around Rey's waist to hold her in an embrace.
There was a shifting, open expression on Breha's face that Rey couldn't decipher, and a curious flicker of sensation in the Force. She had only a second to think about it before Breha's mouth brushed hers, her soft lips parting, gentle and seeking against Rey's own. The breath went out of Rey in a rush, her chest tightening around her racing heart. Hesitantly, Breha's tongue pressed against the part of Rey's lips, seeking the warmth of Rey's mouth. Rey's head spun. She gripped Breha's waist, clinging to her, soaking up the nearness and the unexpected taste of her.
When Breha drew back again, her dark, uncertain eyes searched Rey's. "Is that..." she began.
Rey only smiled at her, a beaming expression mixed up in shy relief. Then she pressed forward, laughing, their mouths meeting in another tender kiss.
*
A few weeks later, the signing of the charter began. This would be just one of many days, a nameless advisor explained, with hundreds of planets still to put their names to it. But it was still the first day, and that would be worth remembering. Rey smiled a smile that felt more like a deathly grimace, as the holonet cameras hovered close to where she stood for the ceremony, and then floated away again.
She slumped against Breha afterwards, breathing a heavy sigh. "I had no idea smiling could be so tiring."
"We can still run away," Breha whispered, into Rey's hair. Her long arms wrapped around Rey, strong and certain enough to catch Rey if she fell. "Tatooine, I think you said."
"I've changed my mind," Rey grumbled into Breha's chest. "Tatooine's not far enough."
Breha laughed a little, a minute vibration that Rey could feel against her skin.
*
Rey hadn't been sure what to expect when Finn had found her and asked her to come with him to Poe's office. In it, Poe had been pacing, looking restlessly out at the deep blue
sky beyond his office window. He looked at Rey, and began speaking without preamble.
"We're getting reports of a group of ex-First Order settling on a planet in the Eastern Reaches. Causing some trouble, maybe trying to build some sort of, well." Poe made an unhappy face. "A resistance. I thought you might like to go out there and check it out."
It was very carefully not an order, or even a request. Rey frowned at him. "And do what? Negotiate with them?"
Poe shrugged, smiling a little. "If you think that's a good idea. Take Solo," he added, almost managing to sound as if this suggestion was an afterthought. "You're the only one who can keep her in line."
"She's not my pet," Rey countered.
"Didn't say she was," Poe snapped back, looking irritated. "But she listens to you. Doesn't she?"
When Rey still hesitated, Finn spoke up. "Look at it this way. Do you really want to stay here and deal with this politics stuff? Poe wishes he could go with you."
Poe scowled at Finn, but didn't deny the statement. He threw a datapad in Rey's direction, and she caught it in mid-air. On the screen was a starmap. "Think about it," he said.
*
They left two days later. Poe had given her a stealth ship, and a credit chip, and a datapad full of intelligence that she'd let Breha look through.
"There's not a lot here," Breha said, staring at the screen. She'd tied her hair off her face. Her lightsaber hung at her hip, its crystal calling faintly to Rey as it always did.
"It will be enough," Rey said. Meaning, maybe, that the two of them would be enough. Together.
They were the last of the Jedi. Rey took Breha's hand.