Chapter Text
His father was hopeless. After all those years he was still on the Falcon’s tracks. Even if things with his new business were going great, he still wanted to take back that old piece of junk. Ben Solo looked at him with resignation while his furret uncle Chuwe patted one hand into his shoulder, trying to soothe his already boiling temper.
“I can’t stand him anymore! Did you just heard the way he talked to me? He treats me as if I was still a toddler!” he complained sitting on the chair of the cockpit with a huff. The big ship they were traveling in was packed with some of the most dangerous and ugliest creatures of the known galaxy. Ratatars were truly the worst idea his father had ever had. Profitable easy money. But feeding them for a whole week had been the most mortifying assignment he could have bear.
Enough was enough. So when Han had asked him to catch the one who escaped form his cell, for the third time, Ben had definitively lost his temper. He wasn’t supposed to baby-sitting his father’s good of exchange. The reason why he chose to come back working with him was another. He knew he had to be patient with Han, but... “This is totally insane… He is completely out of control!” he complained. Chewe growled back at him in disapproval.
<<He’s your father. You should be much respectful, kid. He knows what he’s doing>> Ben huffed back passing one hand into his long dark hair, trying to regain his composure. After a week in the company of his old man Ben had to struggle hard not to punch him on the face. He had completely forgot how much his father could be know-it-all and a smart ass.
After spending the last five years traveling by himself, Ben had thought to have reached a sort of balance between himself and the rest of the universe. He liked his ship. Even the little crew he had chosen to travel by his side had been friendly over every possible expectation. But when he had lost everything, literally everything because of the First Order, his little and peaceful world had gone upside down. He had had no choice except coming back home to stay closer to his father. His mother would have wanted this, he thought sadly. He remembered her telling him how much she was proud of her family.
Despite the few moments they had spent together when he was a child, despite the fact that he had thought for a long time to have been torn apart, in the end, when he came back from Luke’s academy, his parents had shown him love and affection. And for a brief moment everything had been at peace. But when his mother died by the hand of the first order, everything changed.
The Senate and the Republic had been blown away by an impressive weapon, the Star killer base. A whole planet used as a giant weapon. Ben was still recalling the memory. That day he should have met his mother on one of the planet the first order had blown away, but for a luky coincidence one of his cargo was late and so he had met his father on Takodana instead. They had assisted at the whole event in complete bewilderment.
“I love you so much. And I always will” a whisper, a gentle caress of the wind on his face and then she was gone. The force signature of his mother lost in a black hole made of sorrow and grief. His father had fallen to his knees, his eyes barred with shock. From that day he had become tormented by the idea to find back his old ship. The one Ben had grown up with, the one where his father and his mother had shared so much moments together.
Someone had stolen it from him a few years before and he had always said to himself that one day… Then, that day was come. If he couldn’t ever have Leia back, at least he wanted to regain the Millennium Falcon, he said. And so here they were, on their way to Jakku, a desert planet lost in the outer rim, arguing for the stupidest things about everything: how to menage to talk to the shop keeper at the Niima Outpust, how to find a decent meal for the night, how to keep at bay the Ratatars. His father had that dictate attitude, he thought he could became crazy spending more time in his company. But Ben forced himself to remeber why he was there with him. Chewe was right. They were a family and his father has always been wise, he was just getting old and that thing was a bit unsettling for him. So Ben tried to listen to his uncle and calmed down his rushing boiling blood. His hearth beat slowing down. A few less then a couple of weeks ago, his mother was still alive. Her death and then the beginning of the war between the Resistance and the First Order had changed everything among the galaxy. But Ben and his father had decided to take their time to think about the events. He knew that his mother would have wanted them to help her cause.
The resistance needed a leader to guide them to restore the old Republic once more. But Ben knew that his father wasn’t interested anymore in a lost cause and neither was him. Their life had never been much easy anyhow. And he could see that Han Solo, the former general of the resistance, was getting old day by day. He just wanted to help him to find the Millennium Falcon and then, well, then they would have figured out a new way to leave in a galaxy that seemed to the rim of collapse.
But when the white head of his father appeared once more from behind the corner of the cockpit, Ben wasn’t prepared yet. “KID!” his father yelled with urgency. “What’s now?” he shouted at him with a burst of anger into his voice. “Please, keep quiet son! This time I am almost sure we got it!” he shouted back at him with excitement.
“Almost?” he suddenly retorted taken aback for his sentence “I thought you said, like a thousand of times, that you were sure this was the right place!” and his voice sounded much more annoyed than he could have intended, but he was so tired right now. Han Solo gazed at him with a smirk into his face. He knew what that smirk meant. “Mistrustful of a son! Come here! Look down there! Can you see it?” At that Ben forced himself to glance at the outpust over the glass of the cockpit. And finally it was there, in the mid of a desert area, just next to the Niima Outpust.
Completely covered with sand and gods knows if it was still operative or not. But the eyes of his father were glowing right now and even if he didn’t want to admit it to himself, even his heart was racing faster. They have finally found the Millennium Falcon! That old ship had been a home to him more than any other place he had been living in.
Ben looked at the desert and then at his father. “So, have you got a plan?” he finally asked while they were landing “Or…are we supposed to sneak out at night and simply try to steal the ship?”. His father glanced at him furtively. “We are not going to steal anything, kid”
“Oh good, so you have got the money to pa…” “There is no need to pay something that belongs to you, son. You should know!” “What? Have you seen the Dreadnought up above when we came out of light spead on this planet? There is plenty of First order soldiers down there!” and so he pointed at the black shuttles and the white armors of the about twenty storm troopers who were walking next to the village. “Yes, and whatever they are doing here is not our business.
For sure they have better to do than giving us attention” he said, leading their ship a few miles forward, meeting the wide desert. “You are making assumption without even knowing…And to be honest I know what are you thinking about. It happens every time I am just around you” Ben said “I don’t know what are you talking about” his father lied. “Yes, instead you do! But I am not going to use the force to prevent…”
“Oh please Ben! I have no intention to waste the few credits we have got to buy my old ship! It was mine!” “Yes, but you let someone steal it and maybe now it belongs to someone who had payed for it. And…look around. Do you think that the owner is having a nice time living on Jakku?” “And what if the owner is that bastard of a coward who stole it? Believe me. If you live on Jakku you have to be a scum rat, for sure. This is one of the worst place I ever visited in my whole life. No one nice or well intentioned could may live here: listen to me kid!” At that Han stopped in the middle of nowhere.
The three burning suns of Jukku fortunately, were already going to set down when they landed. “And more over, you are the one who still goes on to repeat that the Falcon is nothing less than an old piece of junk…So, why should we care?” “I don’t know, It’s just... I have a bad feeling about it” he finally blurted out. The force was strangely powerful around them. At that his father give him a glance but said nothing. He knew Ben was force sensitive but his instict was also powerful. For his whole life he had fought following the advice of his hearth knowing nothing about the force and that way had been able to obtain eveyrhing he needed. Maybe it was the force itself to guide him, maybe not. But Han Solo this time coulndn't really imagine what was going to happen. Nor could his Son.
Ben let out a sigh and then got up from his chair in a smooth gesture. In that same moment he felt it. Something was shifting in the force. And he felt the pull. Something or someone was calling for him.