ladyofleithian (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ladyofleithian) wrote2020-06-11 12:43 pm
ladyofleithian) wrote2020-06-11 12:43 pm
Faultlines, Chapter Thirteen
Well, it’s taken a while, but Faultlines lives! You could say I was kind of demotivated by TROS and such, as well as the laryngitis I caught last year. And everything else that’s been going on. Let’s say this fic (a large elaborate spitefic of “Downfall” that takes itself too seriously. /half-kidding) was kind of bugging me to finish it — and the rest of former Prince Ben’s story.
So yeah, the climax is here. Trigger warning for brief discussions of sexual assault by deception.
Thanks to additional information that they’d learned about Starkiller Base, Ben would be infiltrating the Base with Han and a strike team, while Poe would be attacking from the sky. Ben knew that it was necessary, terribly so, if only to save the galaxy. It didn’t mean that he didn’t fear for Poe’s safety. Poe had done this before. This Ben knew. It didn’t mean, of course, that he wasn’t afraid. Even as Ben stood with Poe in the D’Qar hangar, talking with him, when he joked about wanting Poe’s flightsuit back in one piece, he couldn’t help but feel like he wasn’t entirely joking.
“Cross my heart,” Poe said with a wink. Then, more seriously, “You too, Ben. This isn’t something to be taken lightly, y’know. It’s now or never. And...I lost you once. I can’t lose you again.”
“You won’t lose me,” Ben said, more seriously. “I’ll come home to you, darling. Promise.”
Not far away, Jessika and Paige were kissing passionately, and Snap and Kare’s foreheads were pressed close together. Ben wondered if that was what it was like when you were separated from someone you loved. Someone who the galaxy was determined to split you from. Ben could only hope that it would fail again, and again.
Poe stroked his cheek. “I know. You...you don’t forget what you can do with that saber.”
“I’m not planning on it. I mean, even if I’m not good at it — ”
Poe kissed him. Ben supposed he could get used to it, the quick, gentle pecks as well as the longer, deeper kisses. “Stop that,” he said. “Honestly, don’t you ever doubt your abilities, or what you’ve done. Honestly, if they see what you’ve become, they would tremble in fear — and they’d be right to.”
Ben smiled faintly. “Not interested in making anyone tremble in fear, really.”
“Still,” Poe said. “When they look at you and see a loser, I look at you and see the most wonderful man I could hope to know.”
“You too.” Ben swallowed. “I may have to come up with a name for you. To differentiate you from...him.”
“Ben,” Rey said from next to them, clearly amused. “The Base isn’t going to destroy itself.”
Ben smiled. He was almost grateful for Rey’s contrived interruption. “I’ll fly home to you, angel,” he said. It was no doubt a sacrilegious, overdramatic nickname, but it was appropriate.
“So will I,” Poe said.
Even as they headed off, Rey smiled, but it was an affectionate sort of amusement. “I swear the two of you,” she said. “If not for what happened to you...I’d say you’re disgustingly cute.”
“Isn’t that an oxymoron?” Ben said.
“Could be,” Rey said. A beat. “Don’t look at me like that. On Jakku, I self-taught myself just about everything. Including how to read.”
“Were the books covered in sand?” Ben said curiously.
Rey scoffed. “They’re on datapads, Ben. I scavenged them. Some I gave to Plutt, some I kept.”
Ben smiled. “You are a remarkable and impossible woman, Rey.”
Rey shrugged — a very young sort of shrug. Rey was young, but it struck Ben how much she seemed almost like a girl as opposed to a woman of twenty. “I’d agree, but my head would get as big as my doppelgänger’s.” Her face went sour. “Honestly, should I meet her, showing her up will be a pleasure.”
“We’ll get there when we get there,” Ben said.
***
Landing on the Starkiller planet — Ilum, Han said — was a haphazard and rough landing, skidding through snow and then towards the edge of a cliff before Han and Ben (Rey shouting tips from behind him) managed to stop from falling off a cliff to their doom. They got out, and it was outside the Falcon that Ben saw the funnel of light that seemed to be coming up from the main base. Like it was...feeding off something.
“This...place shouldn’t exist,” he said.
“Yeah, we know.” Han squeezed his shoulder. “It’s okay, kid. Come on, let’s go in.”
Rey nodded.
It was long after Ben got the codes from Phasma (and put her in Chewie’s custody) that he heard footsteps. And felt a presence. Not cold like the Dark Side, but definitely too hot, too angry.
“There’s someone else on base,” Ben said. “It’s not a First Order trooper, it’s...”
The form of Poe’s doppelgänger, Zar, stepped into view. For a crazy moment, Ben almost thought it was the real Poe, but the real Poe was in the air, away from the madness.
“What’s Poe doing here?” Rey said.
“It’s not Poe,” Ben said. “The real Poe’s in the air. He’s fine.”
“You left me.” Zar’s voice seemed to come out in a hiss — something that seemed almost not of this galaxy. “You think that you could just fuck me and then leave me?”
“You can blame me,” Han said. “And you did that to yourself when your schutta parents kidnapped Ben. Speaking of which, how are Mom and Dad? Any widows and orphans they’re drowning lately?”
“Dad...” Ben said.
“They’re Zar’s parents,” Han said. “You think they wouldn’t be doing that?”
“Well, yes, but that’s not funny..."
Ben turned to Zar. “I had to leave,” he said. “A gilded cage is still a cage — and it’s hard to be happy when you’re not free.”
“You had everything you wanted!”
“Except love. Except real, healthy, actual love. And you...you had everything, Zar. Everything...and yet it wasn’t enough for you, was it? Because of Snoke.” Ben took a deep breath. “I know about Snoke.”
“So you know that he tortured me because of you?” Zar sounded pained. “You...you said you’d give your life knowing I loved you. Was that all a lie?”
“Was everything you said a lie?” Ben said. “And everything you did? You raped me, Zar. It wasn’t outright pinning me down and brutalizing me, but you lied to me about everything. My worth, my identity, everything. You could have told me the truth. Learning the truth...that was why I left.”
“For a pilot,” Zar sneered. “A mere farmboy.”
“Poe Dameron was infinitely more the man you ever were!” Rey shouted.
Ben nodded. “He loves me. Genuinely loves me. And more than anything...you could never be him.”
Ben had to ignite his lightsaber just in time as Zar charged at him, snarling in a way that seemed to distort the beloved face he was imitating.
There was at least something that Zar was bad at — even as Zar charged towards him much like an enraged bantha, his face changing between Poe, between Ben’s mother, Ben’s father, more faces that Ben couldn’t recognize, Ben blocked him. Everything he knew about swordplay, about lightsaber dueling — it came in handy. With Rey’s help, and Han’s — subduing him was almost insultingly easy. Frighteningly easy.
“Huh,” Han said, tauntingly. “So much for being the kingdom’s greatest Knight.” He drew his blaster. “If that Supreme Leader of yours couldn’t kill you, I would. Gladly.”
The look on his father’s face — Ben had never seen such rage.
“Yeah,” Rey said. “Together, Ben?”
“Wait!” Ben shouted. “Don’t kill him.”
Zar looked up at him in that moment, not with the perfect replica of Poe’s face that he no doubt had to perfect from childhood, but with the face of his Clawdite self — all but uncomprehending of that idea of Ben showing him mercy.
Han, meanwhile, looked over at Ben. “Kid,” he said, “This spoiled brat was complicit in every possible way he mistreated you. He’s a sniveling, conniving, self-centered whelp who never had to want for anything. He’s the reason that you had to go through so much suffering.”
“I know who he is,” Ben said. He swallowed. “But I’m me. Arkos and Nerus tried to mold me into a creature of hate. Someone who’d be more pliable to Snoke. Someone who’d lash out at every verse possible if it meant I got revenge. But I’m not that man. And...in a way, Zar’s been abused in his own right. Snoke made him. His parents made him.”
“How do you know that?” Zar sounded angry now, scared. It wasn’t like he was scared of his parents. Or Snoke. He was afraid that somehow, Ben would use that knowledge against him.
I’m not like you, Ben thought. And by God, by the Force, by whatever gods there are and were, I never will be.
“I simply do,” Ben said. “I know you wanted me to hate. I know your parents did too, as did Snoke. But I hate no one. Not even you.”
Rey stared at him in disbelief. “Ben,” she said, “You’re talking about Zar.”
“I don’t like what he did. I won’t forgive him for what he did,” Ben said. “But hating him will only be giving him what he wants...and I’m done giving him what he wants.” A smile. “And that, Rey, is how you deal with Zar. You don’t give in to him.”
Zar stared up at him. It was like he was trying to process the idea that Ben was not only sparing his life, but refusing to hate him — while retaining none of the romantic feelings he had before. Nothing romantic, nothing hateful, nothing much of anything — nothing but calm. Too smooth for anger, too unyielding for compassion. Pity, perhaps. That was the best Ben could call it.
“You call that mercy.” Zar said. “You...entice me, deprive me, humiliate me, then spare my life...and you call that mercy. You were always a brat, Ben, but you were never cruel.”
Han snorted. “You can cry me a river, Sir Spoiled Brat. It’s a damn good thing he didn’t shove his lightsaber through your thorax.”
He drew his blaster and there was a moment, just a moment, where Ben saw him switch the blaster’s setting to...oh. Stun. Before Zar could respond, Han shot him. Once. Zar fell unconscious in that moment, and Han smiled. “The Force ain’t a hokey religion,” Han said, “And the lightsaber ain’t an ancient weapon. They’re still no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.” He sighed. “I would have killed him...but I didn’t want to scare you. Only reason that son of a murglak’s alive is because you allowed it. I hope he lives every day with that knowledge.”
“Thank you.” Ben looked down at Zar’s unconscious form. He ought to have hated Zar. Instead, he pitied him.
Rey turned to Chewie. “Uncle Chewie...can you take Zar back to the Falcon? Throw him in the brig?”
Chewie let out a series of grunts inquiring why exactly Ben was showing mercy on the Wookiee equivalent of an abusive mate.
“The Republic will do with him as they will,” Ben said. “Believe me. And guard the brig.”
Chewie grunted, reluctantly, before picking up Zar, slinging him over one shoulder almost like a sack of potatoes, and walking off.
Ben opened his comlink in that moment, contacting Poe — the real Poe — over it. “The shields are down,” he said. “I just need to plant the explosives with Dad and Rey. Chewie’s got your doppelgänger in custody.”
“So,” Poe said, casually, “Good news and...interesting news." A beat. “Did you...”
“I spared his life,” Ben said. Then, wryly, “The second time I saved his life.”
“I don’t think anyone required you to do that,” Poe said. “You could have killed him.”
“I know. But I don’t hate anyone...even him.” A beat. “But you are twice the man he was. A million.”
“Good,” Poe said, lightly. Then, more seriously, “You set the explosives. And tell me how it’s going. We’ll blow this monstrosity up when you say the word.”
Ben nodded. He felt a pinch of sorrow in that moment, the idea of a planet being destroyed. Put out of its misery, maybe, but he couldn’t picture the wildlife and other people (even those who were just in the wrong place at the wrong time) who would most likely die, and for what, exactly? Because of the First Order’s greed? He’d have to find a way around it.
He turned to Rey. “Could you set off the alarm? Give others a chance to flee?”
Rey nodded, after a while.
Han sighed. “I don’t know why you’re doing this...but I’m damn lucky you’re my son.”
Ben smiled at him, before turning back to his comlink. “Whatever you do, angel, stay safe. Don't get hit.”
“I’ll be fine,” Poe said, although it sounded a lot like he was trying to convince himself.
They planted the explosives, piece by piece. And when they set them off, it felt almost like running away from a flaming monster about to devour you. They made it, though, towards the exit, across snow and towards the Falcon, across crumbling ground, and finally, into the Falcon. Zar was secured, Chewie assured them. Cuffed in the brig, still unconscious. And even as they blasted off, away from the collapse of Ilum, Ben knew he had defeated a galactic monster, for the moment — as well as one of his own monsters.
So yeah, Faultlines lives! (God, I have missed that little-spitefic-sequel-that-could) In terms of how much TROS canon I’m going to incorporate...yeah, some stuff will make it in (see also Palpatine) and some stuff will show up in a different way (like Zorii). Some stuff isn’t going to mesh with TROS, and I can live with that.
As for Ben sparing Zar’s life, I figured he’d do that. One thing that strikes me about Downfall Ben is, among other things, the fact that he’s a Jerk With A Heart of Gold to a ridiculous degree (which was why I couldn’t go along with Downfall’s narrative about him being a loser), and I think it would be in his nature to spare Zar even after everything that happened. Plus, as anyone who’s say, watched ATLA or The Princess Bride knows, mercy can be terrifying in and of itself.
I don’t know if I’ll get back to the spork proper (I caught laryngitis last year, which derailed my spork as well as Faultlines considerably), but this should be interesting, seeing where it all ends.
So yeah, the climax is here. Trigger warning for brief discussions of sexual assault by deception.
Thanks to additional information that they’d learned about Starkiller Base, Ben would be infiltrating the Base with Han and a strike team, while Poe would be attacking from the sky. Ben knew that it was necessary, terribly so, if only to save the galaxy. It didn’t mean that he didn’t fear for Poe’s safety. Poe had done this before. This Ben knew. It didn’t mean, of course, that he wasn’t afraid. Even as Ben stood with Poe in the D’Qar hangar, talking with him, when he joked about wanting Poe’s flightsuit back in one piece, he couldn’t help but feel like he wasn’t entirely joking.
“Cross my heart,” Poe said with a wink. Then, more seriously, “You too, Ben. This isn’t something to be taken lightly, y’know. It’s now or never. And...I lost you once. I can’t lose you again.”
“You won’t lose me,” Ben said, more seriously. “I’ll come home to you, darling. Promise.”
Not far away, Jessika and Paige were kissing passionately, and Snap and Kare’s foreheads were pressed close together. Ben wondered if that was what it was like when you were separated from someone you loved. Someone who the galaxy was determined to split you from. Ben could only hope that it would fail again, and again.
Poe stroked his cheek. “I know. You...you don’t forget what you can do with that saber.”
“I’m not planning on it. I mean, even if I’m not good at it — ”
Poe kissed him. Ben supposed he could get used to it, the quick, gentle pecks as well as the longer, deeper kisses. “Stop that,” he said. “Honestly, don’t you ever doubt your abilities, or what you’ve done. Honestly, if they see what you’ve become, they would tremble in fear — and they’d be right to.”
Ben smiled faintly. “Not interested in making anyone tremble in fear, really.”
“Still,” Poe said. “When they look at you and see a loser, I look at you and see the most wonderful man I could hope to know.”
“You too.” Ben swallowed. “I may have to come up with a name for you. To differentiate you from...him.”
“Ben,” Rey said from next to them, clearly amused. “The Base isn’t going to destroy itself.”
Ben smiled. He was almost grateful for Rey’s contrived interruption. “I’ll fly home to you, angel,” he said. It was no doubt a sacrilegious, overdramatic nickname, but it was appropriate.
“So will I,” Poe said.
Even as they headed off, Rey smiled, but it was an affectionate sort of amusement. “I swear the two of you,” she said. “If not for what happened to you...I’d say you’re disgustingly cute.”
“Isn’t that an oxymoron?” Ben said.
“Could be,” Rey said. A beat. “Don’t look at me like that. On Jakku, I self-taught myself just about everything. Including how to read.”
“Were the books covered in sand?” Ben said curiously.
Rey scoffed. “They’re on datapads, Ben. I scavenged them. Some I gave to Plutt, some I kept.”
Ben smiled. “You are a remarkable and impossible woman, Rey.”
Rey shrugged — a very young sort of shrug. Rey was young, but it struck Ben how much she seemed almost like a girl as opposed to a woman of twenty. “I’d agree, but my head would get as big as my doppelgänger’s.” Her face went sour. “Honestly, should I meet her, showing her up will be a pleasure.”
“We’ll get there when we get there,” Ben said.
***
Landing on the Starkiller planet — Ilum, Han said — was a haphazard and rough landing, skidding through snow and then towards the edge of a cliff before Han and Ben (Rey shouting tips from behind him) managed to stop from falling off a cliff to their doom. They got out, and it was outside the Falcon that Ben saw the funnel of light that seemed to be coming up from the main base. Like it was...feeding off something.
“This...place shouldn’t exist,” he said.
“Yeah, we know.” Han squeezed his shoulder. “It’s okay, kid. Come on, let’s go in.”
Rey nodded.
It was long after Ben got the codes from Phasma (and put her in Chewie’s custody) that he heard footsteps. And felt a presence. Not cold like the Dark Side, but definitely too hot, too angry.
“There’s someone else on base,” Ben said. “It’s not a First Order trooper, it’s...”
The form of Poe’s doppelgänger, Zar, stepped into view. For a crazy moment, Ben almost thought it was the real Poe, but the real Poe was in the air, away from the madness.
“What’s Poe doing here?” Rey said.
“It’s not Poe,” Ben said. “The real Poe’s in the air. He’s fine.”
“You left me.” Zar’s voice seemed to come out in a hiss — something that seemed almost not of this galaxy. “You think that you could just fuck me and then leave me?”
“You can blame me,” Han said. “And you did that to yourself when your schutta parents kidnapped Ben. Speaking of which, how are Mom and Dad? Any widows and orphans they’re drowning lately?”
“Dad...” Ben said.
“They’re Zar’s parents,” Han said. “You think they wouldn’t be doing that?”
“Well, yes, but that’s not funny..."
Ben turned to Zar. “I had to leave,” he said. “A gilded cage is still a cage — and it’s hard to be happy when you’re not free.”
“You had everything you wanted!”
“Except love. Except real, healthy, actual love. And you...you had everything, Zar. Everything...and yet it wasn’t enough for you, was it? Because of Snoke.” Ben took a deep breath. “I know about Snoke.”
“So you know that he tortured me because of you?” Zar sounded pained. “You...you said you’d give your life knowing I loved you. Was that all a lie?”
“Was everything you said a lie?” Ben said. “And everything you did? You raped me, Zar. It wasn’t outright pinning me down and brutalizing me, but you lied to me about everything. My worth, my identity, everything. You could have told me the truth. Learning the truth...that was why I left.”
“For a pilot,” Zar sneered. “A mere farmboy.”
“Poe Dameron was infinitely more the man you ever were!” Rey shouted.
Ben nodded. “He loves me. Genuinely loves me. And more than anything...you could never be him.”
Ben had to ignite his lightsaber just in time as Zar charged at him, snarling in a way that seemed to distort the beloved face he was imitating.
There was at least something that Zar was bad at — even as Zar charged towards him much like an enraged bantha, his face changing between Poe, between Ben’s mother, Ben’s father, more faces that Ben couldn’t recognize, Ben blocked him. Everything he knew about swordplay, about lightsaber dueling — it came in handy. With Rey’s help, and Han’s — subduing him was almost insultingly easy. Frighteningly easy.
“Huh,” Han said, tauntingly. “So much for being the kingdom’s greatest Knight.” He drew his blaster. “If that Supreme Leader of yours couldn’t kill you, I would. Gladly.”
The look on his father’s face — Ben had never seen such rage.
“Yeah,” Rey said. “Together, Ben?”
“Wait!” Ben shouted. “Don’t kill him.”
Zar looked up at him in that moment, not with the perfect replica of Poe’s face that he no doubt had to perfect from childhood, but with the face of his Clawdite self — all but uncomprehending of that idea of Ben showing him mercy.
Han, meanwhile, looked over at Ben. “Kid,” he said, “This spoiled brat was complicit in every possible way he mistreated you. He’s a sniveling, conniving, self-centered whelp who never had to want for anything. He’s the reason that you had to go through so much suffering.”
“I know who he is,” Ben said. He swallowed. “But I’m me. Arkos and Nerus tried to mold me into a creature of hate. Someone who’d be more pliable to Snoke. Someone who’d lash out at every verse possible if it meant I got revenge. But I’m not that man. And...in a way, Zar’s been abused in his own right. Snoke made him. His parents made him.”
“How do you know that?” Zar sounded angry now, scared. It wasn’t like he was scared of his parents. Or Snoke. He was afraid that somehow, Ben would use that knowledge against him.
I’m not like you, Ben thought. And by God, by the Force, by whatever gods there are and were, I never will be.
“I simply do,” Ben said. “I know you wanted me to hate. I know your parents did too, as did Snoke. But I hate no one. Not even you.”
Rey stared at him in disbelief. “Ben,” she said, “You’re talking about Zar.”
“I don’t like what he did. I won’t forgive him for what he did,” Ben said. “But hating him will only be giving him what he wants...and I’m done giving him what he wants.” A smile. “And that, Rey, is how you deal with Zar. You don’t give in to him.”
Zar stared up at him. It was like he was trying to process the idea that Ben was not only sparing his life, but refusing to hate him — while retaining none of the romantic feelings he had before. Nothing romantic, nothing hateful, nothing much of anything — nothing but calm. Too smooth for anger, too unyielding for compassion. Pity, perhaps. That was the best Ben could call it.
“You call that mercy.” Zar said. “You...entice me, deprive me, humiliate me, then spare my life...and you call that mercy. You were always a brat, Ben, but you were never cruel.”
Han snorted. “You can cry me a river, Sir Spoiled Brat. It’s a damn good thing he didn’t shove his lightsaber through your thorax.”
He drew his blaster and there was a moment, just a moment, where Ben saw him switch the blaster’s setting to...oh. Stun. Before Zar could respond, Han shot him. Once. Zar fell unconscious in that moment, and Han smiled. “The Force ain’t a hokey religion,” Han said, “And the lightsaber ain’t an ancient weapon. They’re still no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.” He sighed. “I would have killed him...but I didn’t want to scare you. Only reason that son of a murglak’s alive is because you allowed it. I hope he lives every day with that knowledge.”
“Thank you.” Ben looked down at Zar’s unconscious form. He ought to have hated Zar. Instead, he pitied him.
Rey turned to Chewie. “Uncle Chewie...can you take Zar back to the Falcon? Throw him in the brig?”
Chewie let out a series of grunts inquiring why exactly Ben was showing mercy on the Wookiee equivalent of an abusive mate.
“The Republic will do with him as they will,” Ben said. “Believe me. And guard the brig.”
Chewie grunted, reluctantly, before picking up Zar, slinging him over one shoulder almost like a sack of potatoes, and walking off.
Ben opened his comlink in that moment, contacting Poe — the real Poe — over it. “The shields are down,” he said. “I just need to plant the explosives with Dad and Rey. Chewie’s got your doppelgänger in custody.”
“So,” Poe said, casually, “Good news and...interesting news." A beat. “Did you...”
“I spared his life,” Ben said. Then, wryly, “The second time I saved his life.”
“I don’t think anyone required you to do that,” Poe said. “You could have killed him.”
“I know. But I don’t hate anyone...even him.” A beat. “But you are twice the man he was. A million.”
“Good,” Poe said, lightly. Then, more seriously, “You set the explosives. And tell me how it’s going. We’ll blow this monstrosity up when you say the word.”
Ben nodded. He felt a pinch of sorrow in that moment, the idea of a planet being destroyed. Put out of its misery, maybe, but he couldn’t picture the wildlife and other people (even those who were just in the wrong place at the wrong time) who would most likely die, and for what, exactly? Because of the First Order’s greed? He’d have to find a way around it.
He turned to Rey. “Could you set off the alarm? Give others a chance to flee?”
Rey nodded, after a while.
Han sighed. “I don’t know why you’re doing this...but I’m damn lucky you’re my son.”
Ben smiled at him, before turning back to his comlink. “Whatever you do, angel, stay safe. Don't get hit.”
“I’ll be fine,” Poe said, although it sounded a lot like he was trying to convince himself.
They planted the explosives, piece by piece. And when they set them off, it felt almost like running away from a flaming monster about to devour you. They made it, though, towards the exit, across snow and towards the Falcon, across crumbling ground, and finally, into the Falcon. Zar was secured, Chewie assured them. Cuffed in the brig, still unconscious. And even as they blasted off, away from the collapse of Ilum, Ben knew he had defeated a galactic monster, for the moment — as well as one of his own monsters.
So yeah, Faultlines lives! (God, I have missed that little-spitefic-sequel-that-could) In terms of how much TROS canon I’m going to incorporate...yeah, some stuff will make it in (see also Palpatine) and some stuff will show up in a different way (like Zorii). Some stuff isn’t going to mesh with TROS, and I can live with that.
As for Ben sparing Zar’s life, I figured he’d do that. One thing that strikes me about Downfall Ben is, among other things, the fact that he’s a Jerk With A Heart of Gold to a ridiculous degree (which was why I couldn’t go along with Downfall’s narrative about him being a loser), and I think it would be in his nature to spare Zar even after everything that happened. Plus, as anyone who’s say, watched ATLA or The Princess Bride knows, mercy can be terrifying in and of itself.
I don’t know if I’ll get back to the spork proper (I caught laryngitis last year, which derailed my spork as well as Faultlines considerably), but this should be interesting, seeing where it all ends.
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And yes, Han does not take kindly to people mistreating his little bandit. (No joke, I did not make that up; I got it from the Aftermath series. I never thought Han was an abusive father. I just didn’t)