Ben swallowed, his eyes alternately meeting those of his father and looking away.
"I know what I have to do," he said. "But – I don't know if I have the strength to do it."
"Let me help," Han offered.
Ben's head twitched, and he nodded slightly.
Han reached out, putting his hand on the lightsaber, then wrenched it out of his son's grip and threw it off the walkway.
"Father!" Ben yelped. "What did you just-"
"What?" Han replied, shrugging insouciantly. "I gave you a lot of help, kid."
"But that's not-" Ben began, then stopped, then tried again. "I didn't mean-"
"What did you mean, then?" Han asked.
"I meant… I need to let the past die, dad," Ben said. "I wanted help killing my past, by stabbing it in the side with my lightsaber!"
Han looked down.
"...you mean my side, right?" he asked.
Ben was silent.
"Ben," Han said, more insistently.
"Yes," Ben admitted.
"And you didn't tell me that was what you wanted to do because…?" Han pressed.
"Because you'd say no," Ben mumbled.
Han nodded. "Right in one," he said. "But, you know… I never got a chance to actually talk to you about why you did the whole… murders, thing. We can talk about it, maybe."
"You won't accept me," Ben said, his gaze wandering around as if trying to work out where he could look. "The things I've done-"
"You remember how the story of Darth Vader ends, right?" Han asked. "Heck, kid, I've killed a lot of people myself. Once shot a guy first, if you can believe that."
The old smuggler looked reminiscent for a moment, then shook his head. "But, anyway, we should probably get out of here, the whole room's rigged to explode."
"It's what?" Ben asked.
"Can you two please hurry up!" Rey shouted. "Poe is literally airstriking the place right now!"
Han grabbed Ben's hand.
"This way!" he said. "We can work this out later – though, who is Snoke, anyway? We don't know much about him."
Several stormtroopers opened fire on the two running Solos, apparently having decided that Ben wasn't sufficiently Ren any more, and the blaster bolts stopped in mid-air.
"I don't actually know, myself," Ben admitted, as Chewbacca triggered some of the explosives and shouted something obscene at the stormtroopers. "Look, why are you blowing up the room?"
More explosives went off, and Poe Dameron flew through the hole before starting to blast everything in sight.
"Uh, step one, blow open a hole in the power regulator," Han said. "Step two, blow up the power regulator. Step three… find a way to leave before the planet explodes."
He grinned at his son. "The last step's always the tricky one. Come on!"
AN:
Well, he did shoot first.