On the Light and the Dark ...

[twelve_not_fourteen]

“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. 

Comments

[forcefullyunstable]

The explosions that leveled the oscillator shook the entire planet to its core. Kylo Ren barely made it out before everything went up in flames. The singed edges of his cloak more than told how narrow the margin of escape truly was.

The ground broke up beneath him as he picked up his own pace. The Resistance team was getting away, and upon the Supreme Leader's orders, he couldn't let that happen. (Even if, technically, he already did...)

Were it not for the anguish of a self-destructing planet, his doubt would have rippled through the Force. He was as torn as the ground around him. The light burned between deep, dark crevices. He needed to extinguish it, but it was just as the Supreme Leader feared - he didn't think he'd be able to actually go through with it.

He caught up with the band of heroes as they approached the ramp to the Falcon. If the ship didn't take off soon, it might be swallowed up like most of the pursuing snowtroopers. Whatever was going to happen needed to end fast, or no one was going to make it off this rock alive.

"We're not done yet!"

[twelve_not_fourteen]

The storm of light and dark that is Kylo Ren glares menacingly at the group. The robes and cape that he uses to keep himself literally surrounded in darkness have been torn in places, exposing burns and shrapnel injuries. The young force wielder’s helm also damaged; cracked in the face plate, with his own blood dripping down off it and onto his chest.

Han barely has time to process it all. His son seems to have been caught in the explosion and has sustained injuries. Bad enough injuries that he’s leaving a trail of blood in the snow behind him. In his chest is the pang of a father who knows that is son is hurting and he wants to badly to take it all away - If he only knew know, Ben, you better believe that he would.

The talk on the catwalk seems not to have gone as well as the older man thought, because there’s menace in the dark brown of Kylo’s exposed eye. You’d have to think the smart move for the Knight would have been to retreat. Get onto a transport. Live to fight another day. Except that he followed them instead and it seems like he’s furious.

“I’ll go with you.” Han murmurs, taking a few steps toward his kid. He has to shake off feelings that seem to echo so strongly to the way he felt on cloud city. One scoundrel’s life to keep others safe? A fair trade. One he’d make every time. “Take me and let them go.”

[forcefullyunstable]

Menace did a fair job of hiding doubt. His mask would have done a better job if it hadn't been damaged. He'd been moving so far so quickly, that it was only now - as he looked upon Han Solo with one of his own eyes - that he even realized it had cracked apart. He had yet to notice the other injuries, but would feel them soon enough.

The ground shook under his feet, and he jumped to better ground. Never once did he lower his lightsaber, but he seemed to be considering the trade.

The Supreme Leader wanted the girl in his possession and wanted Han Solo dead. That was his mission, his test... He knew the price of failure.

'When he's through with you, he'll crush you...' His father's words echoed in his head. Kylo glanced up at Rey, who so easily outclassed him in that interrogation chamber. If the Supreme Leader had someone like her at his disposal, what would become of him? What was the price of success?

Again, the ground quaked. Kylo nearly lost his footing.

"I accept the terms of your surrender, Han Solo." He hissed, "We will discuss it further in hyperspace."

He gestured to the Falcon with his lightsaber, and the message was clear. Get on board, get off this imploding rock and figure out the details later. He agreed to let them go, but hadn't specified when or where. Or even if they'd live to experience it.

[twelve_not_fourteen]

You don't need to be a force user to feel the apprehension coming from the two youngest members of this rag-tag team. If there was such a thing as being an expert (or perhaps master) of not being able to wield the force, it would be Captain Solo and even he can sense the worry.

Kryff it, this seems like it could be what Han wanted and he's anxious too. Maybe turning off the lightsaber would make them all feel more at ease? And maybe that's exactly why Kylo Ren won't.

Additionally, having run at full speed on aging legs isn't doing him on trying to stand on a quaking superweapon, Han's noticed. He needs to take an almost amusingly wide stance to keep himself from tripping and he's damn well fortunate that the particular patch ground beneath him didn't crack on him as he did so. When it seems to have passed, the older man draws himself up to his full height again.

"I guess since I'm the prisoner, I ought to go first." There's something about the way that Han says it that doesn't sound true to his usual tone. It's not smug, it's thoughtful with perhaps a hint of wariness. If his son is just toying with them, he wanted to be the easy target. Let the old man be in the vulnerable place for the sake of the younger members of the party.

So much of this seems familiar and yet ... not; like a song he's heard played before, but in a different key.

He also doesn't bother surrendering his DL-44. If he wants it, Han figures, he'll yank it right out of the holster before he can do anything about it. He starts walking up the ramp of the YT-1300 with his hands where they can be seen.

[forcefullyunstable]

Kylo gestured again with his lightsaber, more sharply this time.

"Move! All of you!"

He hoped the girl and the traitor would take their cue from Han and accept their fate without a fight. He didn't have time for one, and no matter how much he centered himself with anger, he couldn't completely suppress the fear that if they battled outright, she might outclass him there too. He wasn't as strong as Darth Vader and they both knew it.

He didn't plan nearly as well either.

In all honestly, Kylo didn't know what he thought he was going to accomplish this way, aside from saving his own skin. Could a part of him truly want to accept his father's offer? Could he actually... go home?

No... No. He couldn't. He wouldn't...

[twelve_not_fourteen]

Well, the elder Solo kind of hoped that the younger Solo would be so preoccupied with him, that he would have followed right behind him. Sometimes an intense focus is a narrow one. It seems that Kylo has considered Finn and Rey, though and he doesn't want those two behind him. Can't fault him for that. Only in times of surrender or among true friends does Han ever let that happen to himself.

Rey takes a hesitant step toward the ship and to Han, but the subsequent steps become quicker and more assured. It's clear that in the short time they've known each other, the young force sensitive has put much of her faith in him and both of the young resistance members were close enough to have heard Captain Solo's plea on the catwalk.

Regardless of her feelings on what Kylo Ren has done, she believes in the good in people and families reuniting is a cause near to her heart.

Finn on the other hand, does not have faith that this is going to work out well for them and he does not trust anyone associated so strongly in the first order. There's a hard stare coming at the man Finn still sees as an enemy and he considers going for the concealed saber in his possession.

'They haven't seen what he's done.' He thinks to himself. 'The lives he's taken. The villages he's smashed through looking for that map. If anything happened to Rey because I didn't do something when I had the chance ...'

Maybe it's the ground that quakes beneath them that shakes him out of those thoughts. Or Rey, herself, with a gentle nudge of her voice. "Come on, Finn." With a deep breath, he nods and makes sure to place himself between the scarlet lightsaber and his friend.

[forcefullyunstable]

At the same time Rey was encouraging a friend, Kylo Ren was giving orders.

"Move it, traitor!" He shouted at Finn, grabbing onto the overhang as the ground shook violently beneath the ship. A good portion of it gave way, and the Falcon tilted sharply to one side. He was forced to retract his lightsaber to keep from accidentally cutting through the landing ramp or something else equally vital. "Take off! Take off now!!"

His entrance wasn't as graceful as he would have liked, but he scrambled on board as quickly as he could.

"Get this bucket of bolts out of here!"

[twelve_not_fourteen]

It's possible to fly the Millenium Falcon with one in the cockpit, but it's not ideal. You end up having to lean pretty hard on the automated controls and when you have to make as many daring escape from a weaponized planet ... do you really want to put your hands in the auto-pilot of a finicky ship that's now almost a century old?

Which means someone really ought to go help Chewbacca and while Han might be the best choice for that, he's also the prisoner in this scenario, right?

Leave it to Han, then, to start ordering people around - even when he's supposed to be the captive. "You two," Han gestures with a tip of his head toward the cockpit. "Help Chewie. Do everything he says exactly as he says it." It's not exactly an unfamiliar position for Han to be in, especially when it comes to matters involving this freighter.

He listens carefully. Mostly to the sounds of the footfalls of Rey and Finn because he wants them out of earshot for the next part, but he can't help to also take in the sounds of his ship. He hasn't had it back all that long, after all. If not for all the things that are going on right at this moment, he might have taken the time to drink it in a little bit more.

Han turns his attentions to Kylo Ren. He has some questions, certainly, 'what happened to you' and 'where are we going' are two that have jumped to the forefront of his mind. He has a more pressing concern that trumps all of it, though.

"You're hurt, Ben." He murmurs. "Let me help you."

[forcefullyunstable]

Kylo seemed almost grateful to be away from the others.

"I'm fine." He grunted sharply, which translated under the surface as, 'why do you care?'

At this point, he was forced to at least concede that his mask was broken, and he tugged it off his head. Blood dripped from the sharp metal edges, and only then did Kylo touch his own face with gloved hands. They were minor cuts, but the blood was still fresh.

Slowly, almost sheepishly, he looked down to examine the rest of himself. Multiple layers of tunics were torn, singed and was even unraveling on one side. He lost his belt somewhere, probably back at the oscillator.

He lifted his arm, examining the gash on his left side. There was actually shrapnel still embedded in the wound and he hadn't even noticed.

The Supreme Leader would be proud of his pain tolerance, he thought smugly. His training gave him the strength to endure. When he looked back up at his father's concerned face, however, his own thoughts wavered. Replacing them was same look of uncertainty and fear from the bridge, an unconscious reflection of who he truly wanted to be the most proud of him.

"Stop looking at me like..." Like I'm still your son. Like I can still come home. "...like that..."

[twelve_not_fourteen]

His kid got knocked around by that explosion. Han noticed right away.

That Ben's only now taking inventory of the wounds suggests that he didn't really feel it before and to his father; that's both impressive and troublesome. Pain tells you when something is wrong, after all, and he's not all that sure that ignoring it completely is a good thing.

Then again, he'd be inclined to think that, being on the outside looking in on when it comes to power over the energy that is generated by life.

"I'm sorry." Take your pick on what for, younger Solo, because your father probably means it in every way that you can think of. "The one on your side looks pretty deep though and cleaning them up here might be more preferable than stopping somewhere ..."

Because, no doubt, there are going to be people keeping their eyes open for all of them. The further they put between the remnants of Starkiller base, the better.

[forcefullyunstable]

"We're not stopping." He grunted. That, too, was an order.

However, Kylo gave no coordinates, not even any suggestions, of where they were supposed to go. An oversight? Unlikely. Choosing not to decide was still a conscious choice. A part of him truly did want to go home, but he couldn't admit it. The other part of him didn't believe there was even a home to go back to.

He moved toward the back of the ship, still watching his father from the corner of his eye. He hadn't been on board the Falcon since he was a child, but he knew where they could find a secluded bunk. Just as he knew that Han would follow him there.

Only in privacy did he silently agree to let his father help him.

Carefully, he tugged off the layers, wincing slightly as coarse fabric grazed over various wounds. Pain felt like an old familiar friend, far more familiar than the man now staring him down. In the greater scheme of things, Kylo didn't care about where the shrapnel landed. The skin he hid below was a tapestry of old scars and fading bruises - some from battle but most from training. But his father's eyes made him feel very exposed. He felt torn, perhaps even ashamed.

[twelve_not_fourteen]

No offense kid, he doesn't have the impression that you've got some kind of great plan with the way you've been leaving out critical instructions and letting Han continue to order people around. Not that he's judging. He's not sure that he'd be thinking clearly after walking off the explosion in the oscillator and who knows what else is on his son's mind right now. If anything, he's glad you're on board and that nobody's dead.

That's a good day when you compare it to some of the other's he's had.

The barracks of the Falcon are smaller than some of the walk-in closets that are in the homes that the Organa's owned at one time. There are three small double bunks pushed against each wall, plus a tiny bathroom on one side and a shower on the other. Still, it's not as if they need space right now, what they need is privacy.

There's something in Han that aches when he sees his son's scars. One might guess that it's of guilt and perhaps there's a touch of that in there, but he doesn't think most of those came from training with Luke. (Though that's a presumption that he may find out he was wrong about later.) Han has a similar web of scars weaved around his body - growing up on the Trader's Luck had been rough and you could always count on Captain Shrike to be stingy with the ship's medical supplies. The thing is, he can live with seeing a myriad of scars on his own flesh, but he's angry at himself for letting his son know what it's like to have to have them too.

Captain Solo shrugs out of his leather jacket and dumps it on the closest bed to where he's standing. He rolls up his sleeves and begins examining the wounds one at a time. As quickly as he can, because he can see his son is made uncomfortable by this.

"This is going to sound like a stupid question, I'm sure, but is there anything you can do with the force to help heal these faster?" He thought he overheard Luke mention the technique once when he and Leia were talking about that mystical energy of life, but he's not completely sure. It might just be wishful thinking on his part because he doesn't want to see any more scars on his child.

[forcefullyunstable]

"The pain will make me stronger."

His answer was identical in tone to his praise of the Supreme Leader's wisdom back on the bridge. His facial expressions betrayed him. There were fissures of doubt in his certainty, even if he didn't dare express them.

Force healing wasn't something the Supreme Leader allowed, though Kylo, with his natural talent for telkinetic control, could have been a master at it. If he only knew how. He vaguely remembered Luke showing him once or twice, but that time in his life was hazy at best. It was meant to be fuel for his hatred, nothing more. He caused pain. He never relieved it.

"Just... give me something to wrap them up. They'll heal."

Never mind that some of these still had shrapnel to remove, jagged pieces of metal that were sticking out of his skin. Forget the great master plan, Kylo Ren barely had any common sense. He was on the verge of coming apart at the seams, in more ways than one.

[twelve_not_fourteen]

He listens to the boy and raises his eyebrows in skepticism when he mentions his philosophy on pain. "Is that so?" He doesn't sound like he's trying to be snide, but it's clear he doesn't share the sentiment. "I always thought pain just hurt."

That was Han's plan for helping patch Ben up. Clean em, rub a little bacta ointment on each one and wrap them up till they heal, but that one in his side isn't going to be so straight forward. That one looks like it might bleed substantially when his father tries to remove the metal from the wound.

"The shard in your side looks like it's gonna bleed a lot when we pull it out. I think it should be stitched up or cauterized."

[forcefullyunstable]

There was little point in arguing with a man who'd never felt the Force. Back when he was just a small child, Han couldn't hear the voices of the monsters in his head and he couldn't stop them either. The father couldn't understand the powerr that flowed through his son's veins, and like his mother, he was sure Han was afraid of it.

He felt alone all over again.

The mention of the gash in his side shook him back to reality. He traced the edge of the wound with a gloved hand. He could yank the shard out himself, but his father was right. They would need more than pressure to stop the bleeding. So he unclasped his lghtsaber from his belt.

Cauterization would be quicker than stitches. He knew what had to do, but didn't know if he had the strength to do it.

"...Will you help me?"

He held his lghtsaber between them.

[twelve_not_fourteen]

Way to take hold of the moment and make it into one where you're father is uncomfortable again, Ben. If Captain Han were completely in charge of this, you'd be sitting with a drink of water (or because it's your father, probably something stronger), taking one of any number of analgesics he's got squirreled away somewhere (medicine that no doubt 'fell' out of crate during a run) and he'd be using one of his torches to cauterize the wound.

There's a brief moment of worry on his face at the suggestion, but he shakes it off. Doubt has always been something that's easy enough to cast off for the Elder Solo; one he makes a decision, it's usually carried out with confidence. It's not until later, if ever, when he's reflecting, does he ask himself if he made the right call.

"Yes ... " he says, putting his hand on the saber even though it feels wrong. "Anything."

[forcefullyunstable]

If Kylo Ren were going to make a move, this would have been the time. It would have been so easy for him to ignite that lightsaber, kill his father, take control of the ship and fly right back into First Order territority. The thought crossed his mind more than once. It was what the Supreme Leader wanted him to do.

But instead, he let go. He allowed himself to stand unarmed against his father, with his weapon (and literally his life) in his father's hands. If he wanted to kill him, to save the galaxy from the menace that was Kylo Ren, this was his chance.

"...Let's get this overwith."

It was a bold show of trust - the first one in more than a decade. Whether there would be more would be entirely dependent on what Han Solo did next.

[twelve_not_fourteen]

The old man did seem to make a habit of putting himself into a vulnerable situation for the sake of his son. Not that his son needed the things that he could have taught him. What would the heir in the dynasty of the greatest force wielders ever need to know about how to fix a faulty hyperdrive or how to shave time off withdrawing a blaster from one's holster?

Han Solo didn't have the first idea about how one raises a child, much less how to raise a force-sensitive one. He'd ... always assume the kid would just know that he loved him more than anything. He can see now that he should have said it more - to Ben and to Leia.

It's been a very, very long time since the Captain held a saber. It takes him a moment to look the thing over, find the trigger, make sure it's not pointed at either of them and then turn it on. It ignites in the snap-hiss that seems so familiar to his ears despite him never being the owner of a lightsaber himself. It doesn't hum the way Luke or Anakin's did though. It makes a noise that almost seems like static and Han can see that the blade's light crackles occasionally.

Everything about it feels wrong in his hand.

Comments about Ben's saber can wait till later, though looking at it does make him want to ask some questions. "I can't handle this thing and pull the metal out." He says. "You'll have to ease it straight out as carefully as you can."

[forcefullyunstable]

Given the unusual, if not shoddy, design of that lightsaber, perhaps some lessons in mechanics and engineering could have helped. A damaged casing and exposed wires, cross-guard vents to keep the entire thing from overloading. The blade was just like its maker, unstable and too powerful for its own good.

"I'd suggest you use the cross-guard." He huffed, as though he'd actually done this before. It was a valiant bluff if indeed it was one. If not, well, perhaps some things were better left unsaid.

Kylo braced himself against the bunk with one hand and gripped the large piece of shrapnel with the other. He took a deep breath and started to pull it out.

Only as an afterthought did he wish he'd shoved something in his mouth to muffle the inevitable scream that was sure to come.

[twelve_not_fourteen]

That would have been along the lines of the questions. Mainly this one, 'Why, on something as important as your lightsaber, would you do such a lousy job of constructing it?'

Han himself is pretty mechanically inclined - he's altered ships, restored and maintained them, even modified his own blaster - but he doubts that he could build a lightsaber. There has to be some aspect of the assembly or maybe selecting of the components that requires the force. Or both. Otherwise, they would have been massed produced and as common as vibroblades by now.

Again, your father, would have done this wound care a lot differently. Perhaps he should have spoken up and insisted as much, but it's a little late for that now. Isn't that a common refrain with his father ...

With two hands on the hilt Han presses the lightsaber in close, but not close enough. He hesitates for a heartbeat or two and then, at Ben's suggestion, presses in one of the 'flames' of the crossguard against his son's skin. He has to watch it carefully to know that it's closing, but burning skies he wants to look away, especially when he hears his kid screaming. The acrid smell of burnt flesh touches the air; skin blisters and starts to turn a brown leathery color.

When it's closed, but not a moment before, only then does he pull the blade away and carefully switch it off.

[forcefullyunstable]

It was because it was something as important as his lightsaber that he did the best that he could. Given the cracked crystal he was intent on using, it was a wonder he was able to cobble something together that functioned instead of exploded. But yes, mechanical genius definitelu wasn't an inherited trait.

Force sensitivity on the other hand...

He tried to muffle the screams when hot plasma hit his side, but he couldn't. It was excruciating, and he couldn't hide that. The wail echoed throughout the ship.

He was, however, able to remain standing. He simply took the pain, harnessed it and redirected it. Anything in the room that wasn't nailed down shook, and a couple of screws popped out of the wall - a reminder of how much power Kylo Ren possessed.

When the wound was closed and Han was finally able to turn off the lightsaber, they would both find themselves staring down a very concerned Finn's blaster and a Wookie with a bowcaster. Neither of them knew what was going on, but both feared the worst.

[twelve_not_fourteen]

"Point that thing somewhere else, Big Beal." Han mumbles. If it was Rey, he would have just swatted the business end of blaster down and away from the two of them, but Finn is so kryffing jittery he's not quite sure the kid wouldn't jerk on the trigger if he did.

Also, he's carrying a rifle and the kid has been trained how to use it. He thinks. That whole sanitation reveal has him not knowing what exactly to think about Finn anymore. Regardless ... he's decided it's just better to gruff at the kid.

Chewie, on the other hand, can probably just look at Han and tell the difference between in trouble and not in trouble, but in case his pal is on the fence, he gives him the wordless 'stand down' look. Which is different then the 'I've got this under control' look - that look always seems to make him more worried for reasons Han can't figure.

"The wound in his side was deep." Han says as he carefully puts the saber down on one of his old nearby footlockers. "We needed to close it up."

[forcefullyunstable]

Chewie could, and the grunt roughly translated to, "just in case..." The nod of his head meant that the 'just in case' applied to Han, his wayward son or the former stormtrooper.

The energy spent, Kylo's limbs were shaking. He held himself up on the bunk as he worked to steady his breath. As soon as he was able, and not a moment later, he straightened up.

"This... does not concern you, traitor! Get out!" He growled, and then force-pushed both of them back out of the door.

Heh. The typos. Sorry.

[twelve_not_fourteen]

There's a lot of perfectly applicable just in case scenarios that could be extended to the situation that they all find themselves in right now. Doesn't help that nobody, including his father, has any idea what to predict from Ben anymore. Though the old pilot does appreciate that friend is still rushing to his side after all these years.

The loyalty Han and Chewie have for each other you can't buy with a stack of credits or coerce out of people with displays of power.

Han is ... starting to see there was room to teach his son plenty of things. Things that he probably would have tried to show him if he'd stayed with him instead of going with Luke. Not that he could have ever pictured his brother-in-law as anything but a wise and patient teacher, but ... something didn't go right, obviously.

Would he accept anything Han wanted to show him now? With the kid being ... twenty-nine or thirty now - he thinks, that's a bit late to get started.

"Hey kid." He says with a frown, already heading toward a crate underneath one of the bunks. "Do you want something for the pain or should we just get to the rest of it?"

[forcefullyunstable]

The sound of footsteps and a Wookie growl slowly faded from the background. Those who understood Shriwook knew he was arguing with Finn, telling him it was all going to be all right. That might have been a bit of an overstatement, but at least it was true for the time being.

"I'm fine!" He insisted with a grunt.

His body was still shaking a little, but it was obvious he was doing his absolute best to hide any kind of weakness. Again, it was worrying how much of this was pride and how much might be experience.

"I am more than strong enough... This... this is nothing."