twelve_not_fourteen: (Default)
Han Solo ([personal profile] twelve_not_fourteen) wrote2016-05-24 05:01 pm
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On the Light and the Dark ...

“Ben --”

In a such a large structure with conditioners for the volume of systems and subsystems that run the Starkiller Base, it seems like there should have been more ambient noise then there was. Instead, the voice of his father cuts through the air like freshly sharpened vibroblade. It’s in the echo, however, that you can really hear the desperation.

“Han Solo, I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time.” That voice, cold and mechanical with the face Han longed to see so badly hidden behind a helmet. The Millennium Falcon’s captain has to struggle to hold back the tears that seem to want to spill from his eyes.

How you could have been so close, as he stalked behind you and still you didn’t seem to feel him or acknowledge that he was there, the old pilot will always wonder. Han’s first footfall onto the durasteel catwalk not the usual confident step, but a shaky one. He has a bad feeling about what’s about to happen and yet, it’s a feeling he has to ignore for many reasons.

For, perhaps, the most important reasons that any man could ever hope to have.

Han sets his jaw and summons the same courage that allowed for him to skim a little too close to black holes and run hollering into crowded barracks full of Stormtroopers. It shouldn’t take that kind of bravery to face your own son, should it? He supposes not, and for a second or two while he approaches, he tries to pinpoint where it all went wrong. As if it was only one wrong choice that sent them through this hellish cascade and not a series of them made by multiple people.

“Take off that mask.” Han says, a bit of an edge in his voice again. “You don’t need it.”

“What do you think you’ll see if I do?” A pointed response, not quite as glib as the ones his father spouts off, but sort of philosophical. It reminds him of a Skywalker response.

“The face of my son.”

When Kylo Ren disengages the mechanisms that keep his helm in place, and he reveals himself, his father’s eyes seem to soften. The sad truth is that he can recognize you, but the light that he used to see in you - a brilliance that could have dwarfed any star that Han had ever seen, seems so far away.

“Your son is gone. He was weak and foolish like his father. So I destroyed him.”

“That’s what Snoke wants you to believe. When he gets what he wants, he’ll crush you.” Han pauses to look at his son, who seems to recoil at the words. “You know it’s true.”

“It’s too late.” Kylo protests, but he’s struggling with something and Han can see it in his eyes.

“No it’s not.” He says, doubling down on Leia’s insistence that their boy can still be saved, even though in the moment he’s not really sure. The Solo patriarch says it with all the hope in the galaxy though. “Leave here with me. Come home.”

Then, when it seemed like Han was so close to getting his son back, A blaster bolt flies past Han’s arm. It comes so close to hitting him that it singes the leather of his jacket and the smell of burning touches the air.

Han turns, snarling and withdraws his blaster. His hand speed still impressive for a non-force user and he fires three shots in the direction that the bolt seemed to come from. Then more blaster fire starts coming from all directions – from Chewie, Finn and Rey as well as the troopers of the first order who had filtered into the room.

At this point, the only sensible thing that Captain Solo can think to do is to sprint back toward his friends, snap off a few more shots and hope that his son had chosen to follow. He doesn’t hear the pounding of another set of feet behind him, though. The observation makes his heart sink.

Han turns to look back at his son, in the middle of the chaos, only to see the young man pulling the helmet on again.

What Han doesn’t see, in that moment, is the way a bolt threatening to hit him right in the back, changes mid trajectory and flies impotently into the emptiness below him. Did Ben Solo use the force to save his father? Did Kylo Ren only intervene because he still wanted to end his father’s life himself?

The Knight, clad all in black, ignites a scarlet saber that glows angrily amid the trickle of blaster fire in the air.

“Fall back.” He yells to Rey and Fin.

Chewie, doesn’t need orders from Han to know what he wants. The old partners know each other well enough that many things don’t need to be said. Get to the Falcon. Someone has to raise the ramp and ignite the engines.

Still, his Wookiee best friend will lay down some cover fire in the space between father and son, to give the senior member of this band of heroes some time to reconvene with Rey and Finn. Only then will Chewbacca hit the trigger for the detonators and sprint off to the ship. If Solo wants to be mad about that, his copilot thinks to himself, they can argue about it later.

Soon Finn, Rey and Han are scrambling though the snow and trying to lose their pursuers in the dark forest. Considering that he’s more than twice their age, Han thinks he’s doing a serviceable job of keeping up, but a look he’s catching in the female of their party’s eyes tells him someone is nearby. 
forcefullyunstable: (remorseful)

[personal profile] forcefullyunstable 2016-06-28 05:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Kylo looked up at his father with desperation in his eyes. Born with abilities that always felt an inch outside his control, shuffled around until he didn't feel he belonged anywhere and then manipulated into feeling that he did. Deep down, he knew Han was telling the truth, but he still didn't want to admit it.

He clasped his arms around himself, clawing into his skin until it bled. However, even that wasn't enough to stop the tears from falling. The pain wasn't making him stronger, even though the Supreme Leader said that it should.

And now this? This... different legacy. A new destiny and a power besides the Force? No, stronger than the Force, because they were not slaves to the Force... But could he take that? Could he actually make that his own?

"I've failed." He muttered, quietly at first, but finally, he just let it out. For the first time in decades, Kylo Ren (Ben Solo?) was honest with himself. "I've failed Luke. I've failed the Supreme Leader. And I've failed them too. I've failed everyone..."
forcefullyunstable: (conflicted)

[personal profile] forcefullyunstable 2016-06-29 11:52 am (UTC)(link)
Aside from an easy answer and a place to belong, he wasn't entirely sure what he wanted. He wasn't even sure of who he was, which memories were real and which were manipulated. (He was trained to use the Force to tear through people's minds, which meant his had been ransacked quite a few times - as both an example and as punishment for having the wrong thoughts.)

Eventually, he nodded, wiping his face with a bandaged arm.

"...When we get to your other ship, what do you want me to do?"
forcefullyunstable: (conflicted)

[personal profile] forcefullyunstable 2016-06-30 02:05 am (UTC)(link)
For all the insight that the Force had given him, Ben Solo didn't really know how to look within for the answers he sought. Even Kylo Ren begged his grandfather's spirit to show him the meaning of the dark side as much as he asked the Supreme Leader for guidance.

That much was obvious, and only proven once again when he struggled at first to answer the question. But instead of simply shouting back, or claiming that someone like Han would never understand, he thought about it. He seriously thought about it.

They were both sitting in the galley by the time he answered. "...it's an extension of my body. And my senses."

It made him feel special and powerful, but at the end of the day, it was a tool that he wielded more than anything else. He never felt the peaceful connection to the universe that Luke rambled about, and even under the Supreme Leader's tutelage his hatred was far from bottomless. To him, the Force was more practical - he used it in the same ways it had been used on him.

"I used to think it was some kind of nightmare. Hearing things, feeling things. It actually hurt. I remember... I was terrified of it when I was little." He confessed. "Luke always said it bound and penetrated us, and I guess he was half right. The Force is a weapon. I just... have to do more damage than gets done to me."
forcefullyunstable: (amused/neutral)

[personal profile] forcefullyunstable 2016-06-30 05:35 pm (UTC)(link)
He'd sought out survivors before, as part of First Order raids. That wasn't difficult. Panic was surprisingly easy to sense. Force sensitive individuals, even more so.

"I can do that." He nodded. "If I can get close enough, I can dig deeper. What do you want to know?"
forcefullyunstable: (notagoodperson)

[personal profile] forcefullyunstable 2016-06-30 11:37 pm (UTC)(link)
"I can find people if they're still alive." He huffed. But lesser creatures were another story. "The rathtars, maybe. I don't know. The Supreme Leader trained me to hunt people, not beasts."

At least he was being honest.

He was decent enough with his senses, but it was telekinesis that was his true gift. But his boasts would be put to the test the closer they got to the system around Jakku.
forcefullyunstable: (conflicted)

[personal profile] forcefullyunstable 2016-07-01 05:15 pm (UTC)(link)
There were a lot of things he didn't want to do.

He didn't want to face the Supreme Leader, get caught by the First Order or assassinated by his own knights. (For all he knew, the order had already gone out. Han might be able to hide from bounty hunters, but the Supreme Leader was everywhere...) He also didn't want to go home, face his mother, be tried or executed by what was left of the Republic.

He drew a deep breath. "...Try and help you on the next run, whatever that is. If you still want me."

He chanced looking his father in the eyes.
forcefullyunstable: (amused/neutral)

[personal profile] forcefullyunstable 2016-07-03 08:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Pouting lips trembled slightly, before finally turning into a thin smile. It was easy to miss, as it had probably been a decade or more since Kylo Ren or Ben Solo actually smiled. But there was hope, at least, that it wouldn't be the last time.

"...Then, I'll stay here with you. For a while, at least." He said softly.

He stared down at his hands. He knew his father wanted him to contribute something beyond unquestioningly following orders. So he tried to recall the details of the mess Han Solo had already described. He was listening, sort of...

"You said you thought there were still two rathtars left. So we find the ship, and then we just have to deliver them? What weak-minded fool bought rathtars?"
forcefullyunstable: (notagoodperson)

[personal profile] forcefullyunstable 2016-07-04 08:23 pm (UTC)(link)
"Depending on what you do with the rathtars, he might not have a rival. Or you might not have a problem. I'm sure any king would pay a great deal for the privlege of continuing to be your problem, as opposed to a rather unpleasant alternative."

Destruction and bloodshed at its finest - Kylo Ren was merciless when it came to people's lives. What he fell back on when told to think for himself was a very frightening example of what Ben Solo had become.

"...what are you going to do with the money?"
forcefullyunstable: (amused/neutral)

[personal profile] forcefullyunstable 2016-07-07 03:21 am (UTC)(link)
He could have easily scoffed, 'did you always have a heart, or did you grow one after you got rid of me?' But instead, he simply nodded.

"It's your money." He sighed. "And the rathtars, if they are still alive?"

Because Han was already quite aware of some of the things Ben intended to do with them.
forcefullyunstable: (remorseful)

[personal profile] forcefullyunstable 2016-07-08 11:58 am (UTC)(link)
"You do that, then." he declared. "I'll try and get a sense of what we're dealing with."

Most of his recent experiences with technology involved light-saber assisted rampages. Han would probably appreciate it if Ben didn't find a reason to get frustrated online.

As they sped through hyperspace, both of them had time for a meal, and this time, he actually ate some of it. It didn't taste at all like stormtrooper rations, and it sat heavy on a stomach already bundled tight with nerves. But he did eat.

And the two of them finally had a chance to really talk.

He tried to answer a few more of his father's questions about the Force, what he learned from Luke and what he'd learned from the Supreme Leader. Eventually, he asked, "What was I like before Snoke got into my head? I... I don't really remember..."
forcefullyunstable: (remorseful)

[personal profile] forcefullyunstable 2016-07-10 12:52 am (UTC)(link)
Ben listened. A far cry from the day before, he actually sat there, absorbed in every word his father had to say. His expressions proved he was telling the truth - he really didn't remember, but some of the stories helped him find a few of the pieces.

"...I didn't like all the people." He replied quietly. "The way they'd stare at me, like there was something wrong with me."

Whether that was something Snoke put into his head, he wasn't sure. He knew he was different. He knew he could feel different things than other people long before he was able to explain why.

"I could hear it in my head. That I was different. Powerful. Dangerous. And that I was the reason why you always fought and why you were sending me away. It hurt." By which he meant both his parents' reactions and his inability to stop the monster in his head from getting to him. "I think, maybe, that was Snoke, even then. It went away for a little bit after you sent me away to Luke. You must have been so proud... But then it came back, stronger than ever. And when I learned who my grandfather was... It just all made sense... And the Supreme Leader had answers..."

This was vulneability at its corr. Ben truly didn't know his own thoughts. He couldn't trust his own memories, much less the intentions of other people. And he still desperately wanted to believe in these supposed early days repairing ships where he actually held tools in his hands instead of with his mind.

It also suggested something far more frightening - if Snoke wanted to, he could reach Ben again. There wasn't any safe place he could truly hide.
forcefullyunstable: (conflicted)

[personal profile] forcefullyunstable 2016-07-11 02:15 am (UTC)(link)
"My hair." That, he found impossible to believe. All those disapproving stares were about his hair? Were they even there at all, or had Snoke added them in? The fights, though, he knew he didn't imagine. Those were real.

From what he could sense, however, they troubled Han just as deeply. He wasn't torn between two sides of the Force, but he was still torn. Ben latched onto that feeling, as it was something he could identify with.

He was quiet for a long time before he whispered, "I'll try to make you proud of me, then... At least once."
forcefullyunstable: (remorseful)

[personal profile] forcefullyunstable 2016-07-11 12:11 pm (UTC)(link)
Unfortunately, Han was about to hear an answer that would definitely not make him proud of his son.

"Not really. No."

When he traveled with Luke, Luke was the pilot on nearly every occasion. In the First Order, there were people to do that kind of thing for him. He didn't even fly his own command shuttle.

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