Heir to Skywalker ⤇ Finn

Chapter 13

Chapter 13

"Well I knew him as uncle Han," Padme said. Finn turned to look at her, a shocked face stuck on his head. "That is, until he left us," She spat. She stared at the older man. He had aged since she had last seen him, as had she.

"Padme?" He asked, squinting. Padme chewed the inside of her cheek. Han smiled, but soon saw she wasn't returning the gesture. Han waved for her to follow him, and they both walked into the cockpit, Chewie behind them. Padme hugged the giant wookie, glad to see him again. Chewie always followed Han, she didn't blame him for leaving with her uncle. Rey was still in her own world, looking across the halls.

"This is the ship that made the Kessel Run in fourteen parsecs!" Rey shouted.

"Twelve! Fourteen," He scoffed.

"Thirteen, if you round properly," She muttered. Han looked at her, recognising her sass from anywhere. But his attention turned to something behind her.

"Hey!" He shouted. Padme turned to see something on one of the controls, something that shouldn't be there. "Some moof-milker put a compressor on the ignition line!" Han patted Padme's shoulder, she shook it off as quickly as it had landed. Han moved to the opening in the cockpit.

"Unkar Plutt did. I thought it was a mistake too, puts too much stress on the -" Rey started.

"Hyperdrive," they both said. Padme rolled her eyes and followed them out.

"Chewie, throw 'em in a pod, we'll drop them at the nearest inhabited planet," He said, gesturing to the other two. Han knew Padme would want to talk with him. As much as he didn't want to, he knew the little jedi in training wouldn't take no for an answer. She was just like her aunt.

"Wait! No, we need your help!" Rey objected. Padme looked at her uncle, wondering how he would respond. He always had a soft spot for scavengers. Kidding, no he didn't.

"My help?" He scoffed, looking at his niece, who put her hands up and rolled her eyes.

"This droid has to get to the Resistance base as soon as possible!" Rey told him.

"He's carrying a map to Luke Skywalker," Oh yeah, that's fine Finn, just tell the whole galaxy our mission, Padme thought. Clearly he didn't know a thing about how to keep top-secret information top-secret. He was lucky he was cute. At that comment, Han looked pained, remembering his old friend. "You are the Han Solo that fought with the Rebellion."

"You knew him," Rey said. It was more than knew. They were practically brothers.

"Yeah, I knew him. I knew Luke," Han whispered. Padme looked down at the ground, remembering times when her family wasn't broken. Suddenly, everyone in the ship heard a loud crash and bang.

"Don't tell me a Rathtar's gotten loose," Han scurried out to find any monsters that might have escaped. All the others followed him out.

"Wait, a what?! Did you just say Rathtars?" Finn interjected. "Hey!" Padme was delirious. Why wasn't she surprised her uncle was carrying dangerous monsters on his ship? "You're not hauling Rathtars on this freighter, are you?" Finn continued pestering Han until he answered the question. They ran out of the ship to a wall on the other side of the large room.

"I'm hauling Rathtars," They arrived at a control panel outside in the loading bay. Padme moved to the front, desperate to see what great peril was coming to them this time. Boy had this been a long day. "Oh great. It's the Guavian Death Gang, they must've tracked us from Nantoon," Han left the station. Rey, Chewie, BB-8, and Finn followed closely on his heels. Padme stayed back at the controls, watching for any more threats. BB-7 stayed back with her. She thought she would be able to stay back with the ship, avoid any threats. But she was quickly proven wrong.

"Padme, come on!" Han shouted. "I know you aren't my biggest fan right now, but you can't stay here!" He tried to convince her from the other side of the bay.

"Biggest fan," Padme muttered in contempt. She looked down at her droid and ran to her friends and uncle, who were quickly making their way down the halls.

"What's a Rathtar?" She heard Rey ask when she caught up with them.

"They're big and dangerous," Han began to describe.

"You ever heard of the Trillia Massacre?" Finn asked. Padme shuddered at the name. She hated thinking about it.

"No," Rey questioned.

"Good," Padme was glad her friend was in the dark about that. She hoped it would stay that way.

"I got three of 'em going to King Prana," Han said, casually.

"Three?! How'd you get them on board?" Finn was in disbelief. As was Padme, but she wasn't about to voice how impressed she was. She wouldn't feed his ego.

"I used to have a bigger crew," Han muttered. Chewie groaned. They opened a hatch and Han told them to hide.

"Get below deck and stay there until I say so, don't even think about taking the Falcon," He ordered.

"What about the droids?" Rey asked.

"They stay with me until I get rid of the gang, then you can have 'em back and be on your way," Han negotiated. Padme shook her head.

"Where the droids go, I go," Padme insisted, earning an eye roll and a huff from the man.

"What about the Rathtars, where are you keeping them?" Just as Finn asked, a huge bang made the entire crew jump. They turned to see a giant tongue in a cargo container window. When Finn saw it, he immediately reached for Padme's hand. She laughed at his fear, squeezing his hand. Finn quickly let go and turned awkwardly away from her.

"There's one."

"What are you gonna do?" Rey asked the man while crawling into the hatch.

"Same thing I always do, talk my way out of it," Chewie groaned at him. The hatch door closed. "Yes, I do. Every time," Han shot back. Padme walked to her uncle and gave him the stink eye. "Later, okay?" Padme looked away, satisfied. He knew she wanted to talk with him. Their attention was brought to another door opening, revealing the Guavian Death Gang. She had heard about them, seen holograms. She knew they weren't to be trifled with.

"Han Solo. You are a dead man," he shouted. Han put on an innocent smile. Padme copied him. The droids looked nervously between Han and the gang.

"Bala-Tik. What's the problem?" He asked sweetly.

"The problem is we loaned you fifty thousand for this job," He said. "I heard you also borrowed fifty thousand from Kanjiklub," He pressed more.

"You know you can't trust those little freaks! How long have we known each other?" Han sweet-talked. Padme scanned the gang for weapons, of which they had many. If Han's plan didn't work, they would be toast. Padme again wished she had brought her lightsaber. She hadn't trained with it much, but it was still a good intimidation tactic.

The question is how much longer will we know each other? Not long. We want our money back now," Bala-Tik said. Padme kept her kind face on, but knew this was turning sour.

"You think hunting Rathtars is cheap? I spent that money," Han explained, though even he knew this wouldn't end well.

"Kanjiklub wants their investment back, too," Bala-Tik informed them.

"I never made a deal with Kanjiklub!" Han interjected with no use.

"Tell that to Kanjiklub," Another door opened behind them. In that doorway stood another gang. Kanjiklub, she assumed.

"Tasu Leech. Good to see you."