Ok, please don't be mad at me but I thought I had uploaded this chapter here months ago along with uploading it to another site. It seems I didn't put it up here however *blushes*

"General?" Director Adaline coughed through her coffee in surprise.

Everyone in the command centre turned sharply to face her, their eyes wide. How word still hadn't reached them that she was alive, she could not fathom. Though maybe it had something to do with destroying her medical droid...

"What are you doing here?" she continued as she lowered her coffee unto the rim of a console (whose attendant glared at her disapprovingly, but uttered no protest.)

Adaline was a tough, calculating woman, who kept her kept black hair tightly wound in braids behind her head. Leia sometimes wondered if she wore that striking lipstick to try to appear more vibrant and colourful than she was.

"Director, I have been told that you were awaiting my recovery before deciding my son's fate," she stated curtly, forcing all of her repressed despair into a tiny tube in her mind. Her son may be doomed, but by the force she wouldn't let him go down without a fight. Vader's words had wrung in her ears down the hallway, it managed to snap her out of her panicked desolation somehow. Now though, the only thing she could feel was an overwhelming protectiveness that even she could tell was bordering on obsession.

"That is correct," Adaline said slowly, her eyes sharp and thoughtful, "though we never heard any report from the medical wing telling us you were cleared to leave,"

That was another thing about the director, she was obsessed with procedure.

"Do I look incapable to preform my duty to the Resistance?" Leia asked with a cold, accusing smile.

The laymen exchanged glances while Adaline blinked in surprise. She clasped her fingers together at her waist and straightened ever so slightly, though her reply was considerably delayed,

"Of course not, General. But that still does not pertain to the fact that-"

"If I spent my life following the rules there would be no Resistance in the first place," Leia announced as she marched passed Adaline and towards one of the many private conference rooms.

"call the rest of the leaders, we will commence my son's trial now,"

The director simply stared at the General as she disappeared through a door, her jaws clenching tightly. The once bustling room stood in a confused silence. An intelligence officer raised an eyebrow at her, and she shot him down with a cold glare.

"What are you all standing around for? We have work to do," Analine snapped before picking up her coffee and storming out of the room to contact the leaders.

Han struggled to keep up with Vader's death-march towards the detention block. He had thought himself a fit man, for his age, and could easily hold his own. He could carry three crates of spice at a time into the falcon while under heavy fire. He wasn't slow either; he could easily barrel down a dingy corridor when properly motivated. But Vader's ground-eating pace put him to shame. The man managed to stride down the corridor at a speed so fast that it made him consider trying to get himself a hover-craft just to keep up, which was just unbelievable. Vader could cover as much ground as three of his steps managed in one long stride.

"You know where we're going, bud?" he rasped condescendingly as they turned another corner.

"Yes, we are nearly there," Vader replied calmly.

"You know, people aren't exactly gonna stop and praise us when they see we got Ben walkin' around like he never hurt a butterfly,"

His breaths were getting heavier from the strain, and nobody had even started shooting at them yet. Damn he was getting old.

"We will address that situation when it presents itself,"

The door to the brig swooshed open. A young lieutenant manned the console at the entrance. He turned and gaped at them in surprise. Vader glided into the room like back-clad ghost, frightening the shocked officer into action. He darted for the communicator. The sudden action sent a jolt of urgency through Han; if the base found out they were here there would be no way in hell they would manage to fight their way out.

But he needn't have feared, however, as the communicator flew into Vader's hands before the lieutenant's very eyes. He looked at Vader with clear dread written across his face, then looked to the door, but Han still stood within it, giving the officer a disapproving look for good measure. All the young officer could do was stand there like a deer caught in the head-lights.

Now the only difficulty was what to do with the boy. If they left him alone he would run straight to command, and it's not like they could kill him either; he was one of their own after all. Maybe they could tie him up?

As Han silently pondered their options, Vader flicked his fingers and the lieutenant fell to the floor like a rag doll. Han blanched and jumped back in shock.

"Vader! What the hell? Did you just kill him?!" he roared with a fright.

Vader's steely, blue eyes turned to look at him. Kriffing hell he didn't even look like he regretted it at all. Why in seven hells had he thought this was a good idea?

"He's unconscious, and should remain so for a few hours. We should hide him, least someone notice he has been incapacitated."

Without waiting for an answer, Vader swiftly turned and moved down the corridor to the brig. Han felt a little taken-aback by the ease in which he could just... end someone, whenever he felt like it. Vader could literally put him unconscious -or even kill him- with a single thought at any moment and there was nothing he could do about it. To say that thought was unnerving didn't even begin to cover it. He looked numbly down at the sleeping lieutenant, his jaw half agape.

"Remove him, Solo," Vader ordered as he started hot-wiring the door at the end of the hall.

Han looked at Vader, and then back at the officer, before finally picking up the young man's body and hauling him behind the console. It wasn't the best hiding place for a body, but at least if someone looked in it would just look like whoever was in charge of her was shrinking their duties instead of unconscious. Anyway, he couldn't do any better at the moment, because even if Vader had managed to beat his son into line back on the falcon, Han was still a little wary around him. He had, after all, frozen him in carbonite and sold him to his rival to be used as a decoration. Someone doesn't just forget that. So he wasn't about to leave Vader alone with his son just so he could hide a body.

He reached the end of the hall just as Vader got the door open. The steady hum of a ray shield buzzed from inside, setting Han's heart beating faster. Vader stepped aside to allow Han to enter first, his blue eyes watching closely. Han tired to ignore him as he took a deep breath. The moment of truth, time to see his son.

He crossed to line into the room. Ben stood just behind the ray shield, his eyes curious for only a moment, before he realised who had come to see him. Then they turned sickeningly hard.

"Ben," Han breathed as his thoughts tried to overwhelm him. His son looked so haggered and tired. Regret stabbed at his heart, he should have come to see him sooner. What sort of father leaves his own son to rot in a cell all alone like this? But force, how could he, Ben had nearly killed Leia. He'd had been cursing him to hell since they met on Nova prime. But they weren't excuses; a real father would never have avoided his son for so long like this.

Ben didn't even reply to him. Instead he looked past Han's shoulder to watch Vader enter. The tall man strode to Ben's cell and deactivated the shield. It disappeared into thin air, leaving Vader and Ben face to face.

"We're hear to rescue you," Vader declared.

Now, Ben's face morphed into one of confusion as he glanced between Han and Vader. Han felt the urge to move closer to Ben, or at least to say something. But images of what he did to Leia kept playing in his mind.

"And he's ok with this?" Ben asked suspiciously as he pointed a finger in Han's direction.

Vader tilted his head ever so slightly to look at Han for the briefest of moments, before looking back at his grandson.

"Yes, he will be coming with us,"

Han frowned, since when had there been an us. He had specifically told Vader that he wouldn't be going anywhere with his son.

"Now hold on a minute, I thought we decided that you wouldn't be leaving with Ben," Han said, a trickle of aggression in his voice. He couldn't help it, Ben was at a crucial time in his life; it could be Han's only chance to turn his son away from the dark side, and he wasn't about to let Vader get in the way of that. He remembered how he tried to turn Luke, he wouldn't get the chance try to turn Ben.

Vader turned sharply to face him, his face betraying something humorous in his eyes. It was unnerving. Especially given the heaviness in the air around them. It didn't seem to effect Vader at all.

"Correct, you and Ben should leave together on the millennium falcon, while Rey and I will leave in another ship,"

If Han was in any way unnerved before, now he was damn right scared. What was that Sith planning? His eyes widened in out-right fear as a wide smile spread across Vader's face. Part of him wished the Sith was still wearing a mask.

"Rey and I will be leaving for Ahch-To,"

"Master, I'm leaving with you!" Kylo pinned angrily from his open cell. Vader turned to look at him with a weird glint in his eye. Han didn't like this newly energised Vader, it was disconcerting.

"I have a very important job for you, my apprentice. I need you and your father to travel to Takodana, I believe an old friend of mine still hides there. She has eyes and ears all around the galaxy. If anyone knows what the first order, or what Sidious are planning it will be her,"

Han instantly knew who Vader was talking about, anyone who even dipped their little toe in the smuggling business did; Kanata, the pirate queen.

"But master-" Kylo continued,

"I also sense strong ties to the planet through the force. It is important that the place is investigated, and I need a strong force-sensitive to figure out what is hiding there. You should also bring some extra bodies, to help you in case you find yourself on the wrong side of a firefight,"

Ben stopped silent, seemingly unable to find a way to weasel himself out of Vader's plan. However he wasn't agreeing to it either, something Han tried not to let effect him.

"Come on Ben, it'll be just like old times," Han encouraged with a small shrug. Ben just glared at him.

Vader, having decided that all he needed to say was said, made for the door.

"That's an order apprentice," he said before stepping back into the corridor.

The door hissed shut, leaving Ben and Han alone once more. Han managed to catch the smallest little bit of turmoil in his son's chocolate eyes before they glazed over and stared at him. Han quickly became aware of how heavy the air had become between the two men. An urgency in his stomach desperately wanted things to be the way they used to before... well everything. He wanted to speak, but didn't quite know what to say.

The somewhat awkward silence was broken when Ben turned to the wall and looked up at the vents by the ceiling. He raised his hand as if to touch something, though there wasn't anything there.

"...Ben?" Han asked quizzically, and slightly anxiously. Had his son gone mad from trauma? Was it all his fault? Han stepped closer, a worried frown crossing his ageing face. Of course it was his fault, all he ever did was-

Suddenly a piece of vent came crashing to the ground.

"What the?!" he exclaimed, half jumping out of his skin.

It clattered like an angry beast by Ben's feet. Though his son simply stood and looked up into the vent. Breathing heavily, Han looked in dismay from the piece of vent up to where Ben was looking.

Then Ben jumped up and grabbed the corner of the vent with his hands, pulling himself up and into it entirely.

"Ben?!" Han asked urgently. When he heard no immediate reply, he rushed over and looked up to where his son had disappeared. "What are you doing?"

There was a lot of banging within the vent, which was what Han presumed was Ben adjusting himself, before the upper half of Ben's face peered over the opening. His eyes were shallow and dead looking. He had that sort of face on him that he made when he thought Han was being an idiot.

"What does it look like? I'm escaping," he droned as though speaking to a child and not liking a

single minute of it.

Han gulped. Part of him was thinking this was a bad idea, and they hadn't even reached the falcon yet.

"Are you coming? Because I will gladly leave without you," Ben continued sourly.

Even though his sons clear distaste for him resounded with every forced syllable he spoke, some part of Han was starting to feel a bit excited. It would be just the two of them, sailing through the stars like old times. Sure he would be breaking the rules by helping Ben escape, but when did he not like rules?

"Oh, I wouldn't miss this for the world," Hand said, forming a small smile at his son. It would be just like old times, or at least that's what he had decided to tell himself.

Ben scrunched up his nose as if Han's words had physically hurt him, then disappeared back into the vents. Han could hear more banging from Ben up ahead as he hoisted himself into the unsurprisingly cramped space.

"How did you lean about this vent trick? I certainly didn't teach ya' it," Han comminuted as he start to crawl after Ben.

"I don't think you would want to know."