Han Solo (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
twelve_not_fourteen) wrote2016-05-24 05:01 pm
twelve_not_fourteen) wrote2016-05-24 05:01 pm
Entry tags:
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.
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.
no subject
There's far greater concern for Ben, right now, than the elder Solo's ever had for his own well-being. Which ... is why Han wanted to draw the any Rathars toward him in the first place.
He turns down the hall and catches a glimpse of his kid fighting the creature. In a split second what is burned into his mind is worth years of knowledge the old scoundrel hadn't acquired about Ben Solo before. The determination in the way he holds his head. The posture of someone ready to take on all threats. Whatever they might be. He certainly has courage.
That makes him far more proud than anything he son could do with the force.
And then, Captain Solo has his DL-44 raised and is firing bolts of scarlet at the creature that threatens his son. A man who had been in so many firefights at this point, he could find targets without even looking at them.
no subject
By the time Ben was certain it was dead, he was standing thigh-deep in the beast's entrails and glowing with angry, violent Force energy. But there was at least some kind of unspoken trust between father and son - those shots were fired into close combat, and Ben didn't get hit with any of them. Han Solo was an incredible shot...
"Well, so much for selling off that one!" He shouted over the shrill whine of the sonic detonator. "Unless you can eat it."
He kicked his way free of its carcass, slashing through a little more of its flesh for good measure before he resheathed his weapon.
"...can you eat it?"
no subject
First thing is first. He's gonna turn off the detonator.
Then Captain Solo looks over at his son. Hard to say what he's seeing when he looks at Ben in the aftermath of slicing that rathar to bits. The look on Han's face is slightly concerned. Or maybe it's continued concern that began the moment he heard the snap-hiss of a lightsaber igniting over the comlink. Concern that isn't yet resolved even though the beast is clearly dead.
And then the kids asks if you can eat it, which breaks the tension somewhat. The elder Solo takes a few steps closer and toes some of the splattered remains with the toe of his boot.
"Haven't seen it severed anywhere." Though part of the reason might be because it's a pain in the ass to kill them. "Got the feeling they'd be slimy even after cooking the meat for hours."
no subject
"Unless you've come upon any extra rations, it's better than nothing."
He took a moment to close his eyes, reaching out once again. This time, he was more certain of his observations. "And that was the last one. There are only three living things left aboard this ship."
no subject
"Did you leave enough left of it in one piece to even try?" That sounds like a sarcastic thing to say, but this time Han's not trying to be glib. He's seeing a lot of splatter and not a lot pieces suitable for roasting. "They'll be some food left on this ship in the galley too."
Han opens up the commlink and lets Chewie know the two Solo men are alright. No need to have him trying to rush over anymore. They engage in a short discussion about what the Wookiee is seeing on the far side of the ship in terms of the condition. It's clear that the ship isn't in the greatest of shape, but on one this big, even if they sell it to a salvage yard or a clan of Jawas they'll still get a several thousand credits.
no subject
"I didn't get too far, but I grabbed what was salvageable from the corpses of your old crew. Or what was left of them, really." He reported with very little empathy in his tone. "Rathtar got most of it. And them."
no subject
It weighs on him heavily, though he's trying not to show it. Even in his brief 'general' days, he hasn't had a whole group just get wiped out on him like this. Whatever that intangible thing was that kept him and the people around him safe; the thing that made what was impossible for everyone else possible for him ... he had to wonder if it was wearing off on him.
It no longer seemed as dependable as it once was.
"The nearest planets I can think of are Jakku," which is the closest, but the problem is that it's Jakku. Does anyone really want to go to that rock if they don't have to? Han sure as hell doesn't. "And Phu. I'm leaning towards taking this thing to Phu and getting every credit we can for it."
no subject
Ben had plenty of reasons why he didn't particularly like that planet. It was where the scavenger girl came from, where that stormtrooper defected, where he lost the droid that started everything. And then there was the village and the old man - the one who told him thst he couldn't escape his family.
He glanced over at Han.
The old bastard was right, even in his dying breaths. The anger rose from deep within him - old habits dying hard - and he punched a hole in the nearest wall.
"I'll load everything of value I can find in that compartment I was training in. You can go through it later."
He stormed off without another word, but he did what he said, and he combed the deserted ship thoroughly too. Every weapon he could locate, a few spare parts, data pads and the like were all waiting for Han in a pile right where he said it would be.
He even scraped up what he could salvage of the rathar. Whenever Han found him again, he was in the galley aboard the Falcon, dangling a piece of rancor flesh over one of his lightsaber's crossguard vents in a very odd attempt at roasting.
Why is Meta!Han reminded of toast for some reason ...
The much larger freighter is predictably a lot slower than the YT-1300, as well. So there's a lot of time for him to inspect some of the damage on the ship, which he'll need to have in mind when it comes time to sell off the ship.
Chewie gets tasked with the job of busting open the lockers of the crew they hired and getting their personal belongings into crates. He doesn't want to see whats in them because it will just make it harder when he contacts the next of kin and he trusts Chewbacca not to be tempted to take anything really valuable he could potentially find in there more than himself.
Not to mention he won't even need any cutters or torches to open the lockers. Just pure Wookiee strength.
With that in motion, he goes off to find his kid.
It takes a bit of searching too, because he didn't necessarily expect that he would head back to the Millenium Falcon when there was more room to roam on the bigger ship. Maybe those closet sentimentalist feelings he has run in his son too, not that the young man got to build as man memories on his father's ship as Han would have wanted ...
"How you holding up?"