Loss

In memory of Carrie Fisher.

~:~:~

The world – surely the world did not just stand still? Surely it was not just that the wind had stopped blowing, that the planet had stopped turning, that all noise had ceased? Surely, surely not?

Could not the world – the star system – the galaxy – erupt into a million fragments, as Alderaan had long ago?

Was this all? The quietness – the hollowness – the stillness of Luke's arms about her?

"It – doesn't – seem – possible."

The words were so small in the silence. So small and so tinny, like a mouse squeaking in the vastness of the desert. And so – easy. They did not sound as if the speaking of them had torn a vast rent in the hollowness – a rent of searing pain that ran right through you.

"It – doesn't – seem – possible. Not–"

"There is a time for everyone to die."

"But not–"

"Leia?"

How small the name. How still the wind. How vast the pain – in herself, and in his voice. Why was the world not in fire and ashes ending?

Why was the only darkness that of hiding her face in his shoulder?

Because solace was there too – the burning solace of fellow pain and fellow thought and fellow disbelief.

Could General Leia – Princess Leia – Leia who had survived every fight – simply die?

Yes.

And Luke's voice shook like the mouse in the desert too: "I know. I know. It hurts more when the lights simply go out."

~:~:~

A/N: Rey and Luke, post-TFA and 27th December 2016. Will be AU one day.