what_wings_dare | Who's scruffy-lookin??

[ he nods, slowly. that much, at least, lifts his spirits a little bit, thinking of Chewbacca-- one of few good things that came out of that part of his life. ]

Yeah... A crew we were with, [ he says. Evasive, but maybe they can gloss over that part. ] It was pretty soon after we met, we kinda fell in with it. Anyway, they were in pretty deep... so we couldn't just call it off. Except, you know. That much coaxium in one place...

[ he shrugs. Not a common opportunity, that. ]

[For now, they can gloss over it. If he's in the mood to continue later, she'll ask about it. If not, she'll hold onto it for later. She wants to hear where the rest of this main story leads first.]

Outside of imperial fuel depots, you won't find that much that easily.

[Something she's well aware of, with fuel procurement being vital for the life of the Alliance.]

Right. And I'm good, but... [ not that good. Not with less than a handful of people who barely know and shouldn't trust each other, especially. ]

So we got creative. There's plenty of raw coaxium.... [ well, not plenty, but you know. ] And there's a refinery on Savareen.

[ And transporting that much raw coaxium while under gunfire is borderline suicidal, but that bit goes without saying. ]

[She has an idea where this is going, and she doesn't like it at all. Sure, it's history at this point, but she reserves the right to be concerned anyway.]

Han.

[there are various levels of "what were you even thinking" and "did you realize how dangerous that is" in that one word.]

There's nothing near Savareen!

[Which is to say, just where are you getting raw coaxium from to bring it to Savareen.]

Exactly. Which is why we went to Kessel first.

[ it was crazy, yeah, but even now he's kind of proud of that part. Pulling it off. Thinking of it in the first place.

The next part, the record, she might be able to guess. He's not exactly quiet about the run, he just doesn't volunteer some of the details. ]

[Oh, this part she can definitely guess. She's heard about this far too many times over the years to not be able to guess. Unless Han just enjoys hanging out at Kessel, which she sort of doubts. It's not the greatest of places.]

And it took you only 12 parsecs to go from there to Savareen?

After stealing the coaxium, inciting a revolt, and freeing the Wookiees in the mines, [ he agrees, like it's no big deal. ]

[she knows Han better than to think he’s joking about any of this. As extreme as this one trip sounds, Leia is absolutely sure he’s telling the truth. But it’s still so much that she bites back a smile.]

You never mentioned freeing an entire mine of Wookiees in your stories about the Kessel Run before.

[that part is something she likes a lot more than the whole fastest runtime part.]

Yeah, well, [ he says, shrugging, a little more subdued. He's glad they did it, quietly ashamed that he needed as much convincing as he did. ]

There're probably still members of that syndicate who'd be interested in knowing it was us that did it.

[she nods, knowing he’s probably right on that. On the list of things to be wanted for by some criminal syndicate or another, freeing Wookiees is a pretty noble one.]

The coaxium was still stable after all that?

We made it, [ he agrees. Barely, in more ways than one. The rest of it... it gets ugly again, here. ] Got the whole load to the refinery.

On Savareen, Enfys Nest caught up to us again. Told us what she wanted the coaxium for.

[She's not surprised Enfys didn't give up on finding coaxium, if that's what she was after. She's always been determined, from what Leia knew of her. Which admittedly wasn't that much because she didn't know her well personally, but mission results told a good enough story of what she must be like.]

What was it for?

To keep it away from the syndicate, for one thing.

[ which is an obvious good goal. Even when he was all in on the heist, it wasn't because he trusted Vos' intentions. ]

But mostly she wanted the resources to fight back.

[ she wanted all this.

She wanted to build the Rebellion. ]

So you helped her.

[a statement, not a question, because she knows Han. No matter how much he wanted to pretend to be a tough space criminal that only cares about himself, that wasn’t who he really was.

Her expression softens a bit, proud that Han, even before she ever had the chance to know him, had been doing the right thing to help the galaxy.]

[ And that... gives him all sorts of feelings. It should be a moment to bask in, because she loves him and she's proud of him and he ought to be able to be proud of himself. Because in the end, he did a good thing, back then. He did it because it was right, which wasn't an easy choice, because it was a fortune in his hands.

But there's so much pain and loss, and the questions that will never be answered-- he can still hear Qi'ra tease him, after all these years. You're the good guy. ]

Someone in the syndicate betrayed the boss, Chewie and I managed to get out before the dust settled, and Enfys got her coaxium.

[Probably never in a million years would she have guessed all this was the true story of his Kessel Run. From helping the rebellion to the raw coaxium, none of it is what she would've thought. Which really, should be par for the course with Han by now, she realizes. Nothing about him is really what it seemed to be at first glance.

But with the bulk of the story seemingly explained, there are still a few questions she has here.]

What happened to the rest of the people working with you?

[ How can he even begin to answer that. Trying to explain everything that happened would mean... explaining everything. And that's too much, too much to talk through, too much to let himself feel.

He'd have to tell her about betraying Beckett, and he can't do that. He can't regret it, but it's the kind of old wound that scabs over and doesn't really heal. Better not to pick it open. ]

Most of the original crew didn't make it, [ he admits. Between the explosion and the mess with the Crimson Dawn he's already hinted at, maybe that's enough. Maybe not. ]

Just us. Well, and Lando.

[ and the Falcon. ]

[She nods, taking his unspoken hint that's not ready or not willing to discuss everything else there. She knows how that feels. Maybe one day she'll get to hear more about the rest, but for now, she leaves it alone.

But Lando, though.]

Lando made the Kessel Run with you?

[ Maybe someday. Maybe. There's a lot in his past he'd rather not revisit-- a lot he's not particularly proud of, a lot that's just still painful, the kind of thing he deals with by not dealing with it.

But now, he has to stop running, one way or another.

Thankfully she's not going to pry right now. ]

Technically, [ he says, and oh boy is it a technicality, ] it was on his ship at the time.

[Everything Han's told her just now is something she's grateful to have learned. It was good to know he's always been the sort of guy she quickly learned he was, and a bit more about what he was doing years ago.

But those have been heavier topics. This little technicality, this is something much lighter that maybe won't keep him dwelling on the less than pleasant parts of the past.]

Was the Falcon in the same state then as it is now?

[She loves the ship, really, she does. It's lighthearted poking fun at the reliable old hunk of junk.]

[ wow, rude ]

The trip was....kinda not a smooth one,

[ he admits. Okay, actually, maybe it's a wonder he and Lando came to be on such good terms. Even before the whole betrayal-to-Vader thing. Their friendship is an old and complicated one, that's all. ]

I tracked him down after and won the ship off him. Should have been mine already.

[She's not going to argue with the "should've been his," because she's biased and agrees just because she associates the Falcon only with Han. Well, and Chewie. Either way, the Falcon belonging to anyone that isn't one of the two of them just feels unnatural.]

When you say "not smooth," how rough was it really?

[Yes, she's actually inviting open bragging about the Kessel Run now. More than the 12 Parsecs fact, the actual details of what happened--especially now knowing what the run ended up being for--are more interesting.]

Really there aren't that many reasons to go to Kessel that aren't terrible ones-- probably none at all that aren't criminal in some respect. People make assumptions, sometimes-- though the truth is most barely bother. The record, still, is that impressive.

"So, one syndicate stealing from another-- probably no one'd care, except for the whole slave revolt thing. Which means when we left-- the one safe route had an Imperial blockade waiting for us."

The thought is still kind of chilling-- the Star Destroyer looming in the distance. Maybe they knew, even then, where the fuel would end up. Maybe it wasn't the syndicates or the slaves; maybe it was Enfys Nest, making her way toward the refinery, the Rebellion kindled already in her heart.

"So we had to find another way."

[That's some next-level bad luck at the very start of the operation. It's not hard to imagine whichever Moff was in that sector having connections to various criminal syndicates. That was normal, she'd even say. But what was unusual was them being overt about their support in this sort of way.]

Knowing you, I'm almost afraid to know what that other way you found was.

[ Pretty much par for the course, in Han's experience. The Empire cares when there's something they don't want to lose, or when they need to keep something away from someone else. The rule of law has always just been a convenient excuse. As long as there was an advantage they turned a blind eye to the syndicates. Always. It meant the syndicates did the dirty work for them. ]

Well... The thing about Kessel is, you can't chart a direct course there. They call the surrounding area the Maelstrom-- it's a mess of black holes, half-formed nebulae. Debris fields, asteroids... And a massive gravity well in the center.

We did that.

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