sololoquy | open post

[ The ramp of the nearby shuttle descends presumably at the operation of one of the stormtroopers, for Kira does nothing to affect it. Or maybe it's the Force. ~Spooky.~ Probably not because she shoots him an obviously distracted glance out of the corner of her eye, brow furrowed with a still evident frustration. ]

As you'll recall, the last time I spent in your company was unremarkable. You are not the first to end acquaintance with me by fleeing.

[ Just the first to survive and evade her as long as he has. There's some chagrin there, some damage to her reputation. Yet this isn't about revenge. She isn't irate because of that, but because her fascination with him persists in spite of it. ]

I have no intentions of spending more time with you than is absolutely necessary. [ Yeah. Snoke would be happy to hear that one. ] You will give my pilot the coordinates of the rebel base, and then you will be gagged. Silence has made you nominally more tolerable.

Just a life tip: that tends to happen when you take people hostage.

[He can’t stiffle his nervous swallow when the gangplank drops, amd he doesn’t go to move up it until a stormtrooper shoves him, at which point he glares behind him for a moment.

Then his eyes go back to Kira just in time to hear her plan.]

Yeeeeah....that isn’t going to work. You can’t just land at the base.

Your concern is touching.

[ She sounds bored with it as she steps up into the shuttle with him. It's surprisingly roomy on the inside. There's a small living space with a single cot in it for overnight use just at the head of the ramp, and beyond that, a bridge with a collection of jump seats.

Obviously for short term ferrying, or a single person's use for intra-system journeys. ]

I'm not afraid of rebels. [ And, of course, she won't be without back-up. Once they find the base, all she'll be doing is getting a close glimpse of it and telling the Finalizer where to shoot. ]

And I would never dream of suggesting such, your highness.

[These living arrangements look familiar. Is Kira going to sit and watch him sleep again? Or will it be a swift trip?

Focus, Solo.]

But you are assuming they won’t see you coming. And if you land a safe distance and try to find it yourself, well...

[He shrugs.]

Either I am gonna help you, or we’re not going to get anything done.

[ He comes up with a new thing to call her every time he opens his mouth, it seems. 'Sweetheart.' 'Your Highness.' All different ways to mock her. This one is more tolerable. It doesn't come with the warped imitation of affection. It is more honest, targeting her position. She is not a politician, though, and she doesn't have a title to correct him with. It shouldn't matter. She doesn't want it to matter. ]

Your terms are unacceptable.

[ She delivers it bluntly, waving the troopers ahead out of the living space. They can handle the shuttle. Kira does not sit, nor does she indicate that Ben should. ]

I will not walk alone into a rebel base. [ She's not afraid of rebels, but neither is she a fool. ] Find a better strategy, or we will do this my way.

You won’t be alone. I will be with you. Assuming you’ll let me.

[He shifts his shoulders in a bit of a mock struggle, in hopes that Kira might find his pathetic struggling worth erasing. Believe it or not, Ben does take that seat and squints upward at her.]

You think the Resistance is going to want to help me after I bring you there? Come on. You are smarter than that.

[ Something flutters in her chest. The kind of thing that makes her want to strangle it and stamp it out. 'You won't be alone,' he says. She's afraid of it, if she's being honest. No one has ever offered her that, and she's afraid of what's at the end of that offer. Everything Snoke had ever given her had come with a string attached. Usually more than one.

Ben is no different. He is selfish, opportunistic. ]

Unless you plan to bring me to them in trade. Make me their prisoner.

[A smile spreads on his face — what appears to be genuine flattery.]

Is that what you are afraid of?

[She is afraid that Ben Solo is going to turn her over to a bunch of soldiers that she could probably kill in ten seconds flat. Or perhaps he is giving her too much credit. Honestly ... she scares him.]

[ No.

She's afraid of him. But she can't very well say that. The long silence speaks to it, though, made worse by his smiling face. ]

I'm not afraid.

[ Better to lie and hope he's a poor sabacc player. It's probably the biggest lie she's ever told directly, though that's likely in no small part because she has made a habit of rarely speaking at all. She's afraid to be alone with him. Afraid that she'll disappoint Snoke, and be punished accordingly. She's been afraid since the day her parents sold her, and she hasn't stopped being afraid. ]

You are.

[Ben comments very gently, tilting his head with interest. What could she possibly be afraid of? He wants to press, wants to dig and find the sourcr — maybe exploit it, see if he can uncinch Snoke’s claws.

That feels like a pipe dream, but something about all of this tugs at him and makes him uncomfortable.]

Full disclosure here — I am not sure anyone in the Resostance standa a chance against you. So.

[ And that, perhaps the most terrifying thing of all: he sees her. It alights a humming current along her skin, makes it impossible for her to turn her gaze away from him. He probes at something inside of her that she had believed lost. Humanity, she thinks, though that might be a blind, foolish hope. ]

Is your ship on Ryloth?

[ She can hear her blood in her ears as she asks it. Racing. It drowns out the ambient sound of the troopers priming the engines. ]

And spaceworthy?

[She keeps surprising him in nee and interesting ways. This time, he hesitates for a moment — after all, he had just sort of admitted that she was one of the most powerful people in the galaxy — and now she wants to see his ship.]

...yes.

[The idea of putting a Dark Force user on the Millenium Falcon makes some piece of him sick to his stomach, but this was probably his only chance to try something crazy. And his only chance to stay out of Snoke’s immediate clutches.

The Stormtroopers definitely aren’t coming though.]

Why?

[ It would mean trusting him. That's the argument one part of her brain makes, while the other assures her that she could kill him if he tried anything, that she would spot the danger coming a mile away. She is exceptional. He is nothing.

The truth is that she'd made her decision before she'd asked.

A heavy moment later, she breaks his gaze to look into the bridge. ]

Lower the ramp. Return to the Finalizer. Instruct the General to wait for me to make contact. [ She glances at Ben and nods her head to indicate the ramp. ] Take me to it.

[Ben can't hide his surprise. His jaw even hangs a little for a moment, before he clears his throat and quickly clips it shut before she calls him on it.

He can't believe that worked. The smarmy, flirty bit almost never worked.]

--right. Yeah. Ok. But maybe you can...

[He stands and turns around to show her his back, wriggling his hands in the binders.]

Can't very well fly like this.

That won't be necessary. I can fly.

[ She points that out as though it were obvious. Then she turns around and starts down the ramp once it's bent far enough to allow for it, even before the bottom edge has settled on the ground. ]

[He goes blank and pauses while she exits, trying to process the words that just came out of her mouth. When they hit him, he feels his temper flare unexpectedly, and chases after her, nearly tripping in his haste.]

Hey--woah. No no. Uh uh. No way. Nobody flies the Falcon but me.

[He is weirdly defensive about this.]

Besides -- you're too short. You'll never reach the co-pilot controls.

It sounds like I'll need to gag you after all.

[ Truthfully, Kira doesn't want that. It's uncomfortable how much Kira doesn't want that, but it doesn't change the blunt frustration she gives off as she threatens it. Being the first person to view her as human also makes him the first person who isn't Snoke to dare insult her.

Honestly, too short to reach the co-pilot controls? ]

The Falcon? [ She frowns. ] The Millennium Falcon? You really do want me to die.

You asked me if my ship was here. That's her -- the Millennium Falcon. And I'm flying -- let me out.

[This was his father's ship. Even letting her on board was probably an insult to his memory. He can't let her pilot -- maybe she can co-pilot.

He stops walking the second after he hears the shuttle take off.]

[ She frowns, turning to him once she realizes he has stopped. He's stubborn. She'll give him that. More and more, she can't be quite sure if he's incredibly brave or incredibly stupid to act like that with her.

If the former, she's in trouble. If the latter, he might just kill her on accident.

But that feeling in her stomach tugs at her, tells her to find out which. Besides, he's the best shot she has at finding the Resistance. She doesn't want to have to drag him before Snoke — if she does, she'll be punished, just as he is tortured. It's in their mutual best interest that this work.

(She has a laundry list of justifications at this point. That should be a sign that she's making bad choices. Yeet.) ]

I have made every reasonable concession. But you are my prisoner. I'm not putting you in a pilot's chair.

You can co-pilot. She's mine.

[To be fair, it is probably a mixture of both. Bravery was relative -- he didn't have any lines, but...well, there wasn't much of Han Solo left in the galaxy. The Falcon was one of the last. And she's his, inherited as only he could.

He'd do a lot of crazy things to protect that ship. He puffs his chest some and straightens his spine.]

I fly. That's a perfectly reasonable concession.

[ Reasonable for anyone else, perhaps. But she isn't anyone else. Kira doesn't make concessions for anyone. He has already gotten to much from her. She studies him, her expression unflinching, but her eyes darting rapidly across his face with a mixture of nervousness and consideration. Refusing him puts her in an uncomfortable position. If he doesn't cooperate, she's not any better off than she had been when she'd first seen him on landing.

But trust does not come easily for her. There's something tense in the pulse of the tendons in her neck as she nods, curt and reluctant. ]

I'll release you when we arrive at your ship.

[There's an uncomfortable pause between them before he relents, some of his bravado deflating as he starts walking again. His own anger was exhausting and made him feel -- wrong. He'd never thought much about it, but it feels heavier when Kira is around.

He leads her through the city, dodging the main road whenever possible. If the wrong twi'lek saw them, they'd inform the Resistance, and that's not what he needs right now. He has a job to do.

Eventually, they reach the docking hanger. The Falcon is the biggest ship in there. and easy to spot as soon as they enter. He nods toward it.]

[ It was a piece of junk.

In fact, it was such a piece of junk that Rey felt sure that it had been a piece of junk by the time Ben was born. And he was old. Well, older than her, anyway. Her eyes narrow. They'd have arrived faster in a First Order vessel. They'd have arrived faster in any other ship than this one. But no, Ben had to fuss about what was subtle. ]

I've never cared for subtlety.

[ She points this out like it might be breaking news to him, then she holds out her hand and uses the force to break the fastenings on his binders. She leaves them behind in the hangar and heads closer to the Falcon.

She doesn't know the particulars of its specs. She'd always been interested in mechanic work, but Snoke had deemed it unnecessary. She was to be a warrior, an interrogator, a machine herself, well-oiled and focused on only the tasks that would serve the Supreme Leader's purposes. Things like this were frivolous. All her interests were. ]

And that's why I'm flying.

[Ben sighs with some relief and rubs at his wrists once she frees him. A piece of his mind notes that she did it with the Force. That could have been his neck, at any point.

Don't think about it.

He approaches and taps the hull to drop the gangplank. He does not wait for her to enter. The ship is certainly showing its age, but it is obvious that Ben takes very close care of her.

And he moves for the cockpit.]

[ She boards without any of the usual reservation of a guest. Climbing the gangplank, she takes it upon herself to close it behind her, and immediately sets about inspecting the ship, nosing around on her way back to the cockpit. Touching things. It's hard to tell if it's curiosity or entitlement. ]

You must not be a very good smuggler.

[ To still be flying this piece of junk goes unsaid, but heavily implied. She settles into the copilot's chair and looks over the controls, trying to get a sense for where everything is. She's a pilot, yes, but she's never flown a light freighter. Why would she need to? ]

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