Mark of a Rebel

Mark of a Rebel

Chapter 1

"Mark of a Rebel"

By EsmeAmelia

AN: As I'm always required to say, I don't own Star Wars. There. Anyhoo, this is yet another challenge fic. This challenge was to write a story about how Han got the scar on his chin - and it had to be an AU where Han got the scar after he met Leia. Let's see how this turns out.

Chapter 1

He tried to ignore it.

As he looked in the Falcon's refresher mirror, Han was trying hard to ignore the new line that adorned his face, but it seemed like that line had become the focal point. It pulled his eyes to look at it like it was a Jedi casting a mind trick (although he still didn't know if he believed in the whole mind-trick thing).

He wanted so much to pretend that ugly thing wasn't there, which he thought should be easy. After all, it wasn't obvious, was it? The only reason it seemed to be underlining his mouth was because he was staring at it - if he didn't already know it was there, he wouldn't notice it...right?

It was really ugly. The longer he stared at it, the uglier it seemed. Ugly, ugly, ugly, ugly. That word seemed to pound in his head like the pain from a hangover. Who was he trying to kid? The thing stuck out, calling attention to itself above all other parts of his face.

Han's fists pounded the wall next to the mirror, as if that would erase his new scar. Why did he have that stupid idea to go to Bespin? If it weren't for Bespin, none of this would have happened. Well okay, Lando did lead the attack on the second Death Star, but they could have found someone else to do that. Maybe. All right, so Lando ended up helping them, that didn't change the fact that if it weren't for him, Han wouldn't have this new marking that stained his otherwise good-looking face.

He rubbed it with his finger, as if he thought that someone had just drawn a line under his mouth and rubbing it would make it come off. No such luck. It would take more than a finger to remove that thing.

Much more than a finger.

He could get rid of it if he really wanted to. If he was desperate enough, he could have the cosmetic surgery that would restore his chin back to normal. Of course, that would require being desperate enough to pour hundreds of credits into having the surgery...not to mention being desperate enough to willingly confine himself to a hospital for a few long weeks. Was he willing to go through all that for the sake of removing this hideous strand of torn skin?

He wasn't sure if he was, but if he didn't have the surgery, it would affect how everyone perceived him for the rest of his life. It would be the first thing anyone noticed upon meeting him and the first thing anyone asked him about. Everyone would want to know how he ended up with it. He saw himself getting sick of hearing the words, "How did you get that scar?" after only a few days.

And how would he ever answer that question, anyway?