“Ben!” It echoed across the gap, reverberated through the vast open space below. On the far side, a tall figure turned and retraced his last few steps. “Han Solo.” Kylo Ren stared across at the older man. “I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time.” “Take off that mask.” Han’s tone was a mix of command and empathy. “You don’t need it. Not here. Not with me.” “What do you think you’ll see if I do take it off?” Han moved forward slightly. “The face of my son.” “Your son is gone. He was weak and foolish, like his father.” Ren’s reply was replete with pity. And anger. “So I destroyed him. But such a small, insignificant request is easily granted.”
Reaching up, he slowly removed the mask. For the first time Han saw the face of his son as a grown man—and it jolted him. Both men were so intent on each other, so preoccupied with their encounter, that neither noticed the newly arrived presence on a railing overhead. Having slipped inside to search for Han and Chewbacca, Finn and Rey found themselves peering down from up high at the pair confronting each other below. “That’s what Snoke wants you to believe,” Han was saying. He wasn’t pleading—just stating a fact. “But it’s not true. My son is still alive. I’m looking at him right now.” The exchange drew another onlooker, as on a level above, Chewie moved to watch and listen. Ren’s eyes blazed. “No! The Supreme Leader is wise. He knows me for who I am, and who I can become. He knows you for what you really are, Han Solo. Not a general, not a hero. Just a small-time thief and smuggler.” A trace of a grin flashed across Han’s face. “Well, he’s got that part right.” Similarly drawn by the sounds of conversation and disagreement, a third group of spectators had arrived. Held rapt by the confrontation, the squad of stormtroopers looked on as intently as did Finn, Rey, and Chewbacca. Fearful of taking an initiative that might be frowned upon, they awaited a your power, manipulating your abilities. When he’s gotten everything he wants out of you, he’ll crush you. Toss you aside. You know it’s true. If you have half the ability, half the perception that I know you do, you know that I’m telling you the truth. Because unlike him, I have nothing to gain from it.” Ren hesitated. “It’s too late,” he said. “No, it’s not.” Halfway across the walkway now, Han continued to move forward, smiling. “Never too late for the truth. Leave here with me. Come home.” Without the slightest trace of malice or deception, he cast a dagger. “Your mother misses you.” A strange sensation touched the younger man’s cheeks. Something long forgotten. Dampness. Tears. “I’m being torn apart. I want—I want to be free of this pain .” Han took another step, then stopped, waiting. A decision had to be made, and for once it was not his to make. “I know what I have to do, but I don’t know if I have the strength to do it.” Ren moved out onto the walkway toward Han. “Will you help me?” “Yes,” Han told him. “Anything.”
Halting an arm’s length from his father, Ren unclipped his lightsaber, looked down at it for a moment, and then extended it toward Han. For an instant that seemed to extend into forever, nothing happened. Smiling, Han reached for the weapon. Then, as the light from outside was fully blocked by the flow of descending, accumulating dark energy, Ren ignited the lightsaber—and the fiery red beam lanced outward to pierce Han’s chest from front to back. “Thank you,” Ren murmured, and truly, the darkness above was mimicked by the darkness in his voice. From their perch high above, Finn and Rey gasped simultaneously. “Solo. Solo.” Finn put an arm around the girl beside him. “Rey.” “No,” she whispered. “No, no, no . . .” Accepting without quite believing, Han stared back into the face of the creature that had been his son. There was nothing to see there. Only darkness in the shape of a face: alien, unthinking, unfeeling. His knees buckled, the beam tilting down with him as he crumpled. Ren extinguished it. For another moment Han held on to the edge of the walkway. A rush of memories flashed through his mind: worlds and time, friends and enemies, triumphs and failures. Words he wished he had spoken and others he regretted. All gone now, lost in an instant, like the one he would never again be able to hold in his arms. Then he fell, to head lowering, and started to cry. Stunned by his own action, Kylo Ren fell to his knees. Following through on the act ought to have made him stronger, a part of him believed. Instead, he found himself weakened. He did not hear the roar of the enraged Wookiee above, but he did feel the sting of the shot from the bowcaster as it slammed into his side, knocking him back on the walkway.