Chapter 15: The Letter

SUMMARY: [ABY 20] Padawan Ben Solo has been left with the Guardians of the Whills, an order of monks who protect an enclave of the Disciples of the Whills — a fellow order devoted to the Force — on the abandoned world of Crait. After two long years, Ben finally receives a handwritten note from his family, but their message arrives a little too late.

“Ben, no…wait!”

Chirrut Ymateb struggled to keep up with the long strides of Padawan Ben Solo as they neared the massive crater. To the untrained eye, the gaping chasm in the planet’s crust might have resulted from an asteroid impact eons ago, but the red crystalline rock said otherwise. The perfect obsidian disk, stretching to the horizon and several kilometers deep had been cut by a super laser. A death laser, the size of a moon.

“We’re not supposed to go there,” Ymateb tried again, catching hold of Ben’s sleeve. “The Force is strong in the Abyss, but it’s corrupted — an abomination. Nothing good comes out of that hole.”

Ben paused for a moment to look down at his friend. At fifteen, Ymateb looked like any other initiate of the Disciples of the Whills, covered from head to toe in layers of soft, red wool, but she was far more lovely.

The order — the handful that had survived — had been chased from the ashes of Jedha after the fledgling Death Star used the moon as a test subject. The sacred moon had crumbled in a rain of fiery ashes in the years following, and through the supply runs of the Rebel Alliance, the Guardians — those faithful servants who protected the Disciples and the Temple of the Kyber — had found a new home on Crait. Ironically, Crait was another remote world the Empire had tested its new superweapon on, but either satisfied or unsatisfied with the results, the Imperial Navy had moved on and Crait was forgotten, making its far side the perfect location for a Rebel base-in-the-planning. But crystalline Crait had even resisted that distinction. The “base” with its mining operations lay abandoned.

“Then why is there a temple there?” Ben countered flatly, gesturing with his chin to a small stone structure perched on the rim.

Ymateb had never seen the place, except from a discreet distance, but she’d heard the tales. “The one who built it died the day it was finished. The darkness of the Abyss was too strong a call to him. The Followers of the Central Isopter came to worship the shadow of Death there. They thought Death was the answer to all questions. They’re dead now. We watched them jump into the chasm.” She looked away, pulling the cloth of her headdress closer. “I hope they found their answers.”

Ben looked at her, a great sadness pooling in his eyes, then back at the crater. Then he was off again, his pace quickening into a sprint, the scrap of paper he clenched in his fist fluttering to the white salt-sand.

Ymateb stooped to retrieve the note and made to run after him, but the hand-written message gave her pause. She knew she shouldn’t read it — it was a private communication — but something in it had summoned a black cloud to blot out the light in Ben’s eyes — those pretty eyes. Ben had said nothing after reading it — just silently turned heel and walked out of the refectory that evening and across the salt flats towards the sinking sun and the waiting Abyss.

Deciding she could better help her friend — her Jedi brother — if she knew what troubled him, Ymateb decided to read the letter. It wasn’t too hard, written in Old Basic by someone who understood the only way to get a message to the monastery was via script and hand-delivery. The Guardian/Disciple enclave eschewed all technology, making their home in the lantern-lit caves.

Keeping one eye on Ben’s receding form, Ymateb read as quickly as she could:

Ben, my precious boy, I know you have mastered the art of reading forgotten script — the better for passing messages through the hyperspace lanes undeciphered. My hands aren’t what they used to be, but your eyes are better than mine, so you should be able to read these scribbles. Your mother misses you and has this to say:

“Sweetie, I know I promised to visit a standard year ago, but the refugee situation on Akiva required more meetings and referendums than I’d planned. It’s resolved now and by one vote (I like to think mine), but we’re unable to get to you. I’ll let your father explain. Sending you this quilt, made by Grandma Breha, along with my love.”

“Ben, your Uncle Luke here. Well, I wish I were there with you. You must feel we abandoned you. I know I would. I never planned on getting stuck on Lah’mu for a year after my X-wing went down in the lava fields and needed extensive repairs. Raising it out of the lava was easier than getting parts this far out. But I’ve found some amazing artifacts. I can’t wait for you to see them. Still no sign of the first Jedi yet, but I’ll come for you as soon as I finish setting up the training temple and it’s safe.”

“Hey, kid. How you doing? Dad. Maz is an angel to transcribe all this from a messy holo. You’re probably bored with the food and games there. Do they really have no technology? Listen, about the Falcon — there’s this Mygeeto gangster on her tail. I’m going to have to lay low for a while, but you’re in good hands. At least that’s what Luke says. Hopefully, by the time the Pilot’s Union meets again, this little misunderstanding will have blown over. Anyway, take care of yourself. Your mom says eat all your vegetables.”

That’s it for now, kiddo. But that Wookiee friend of yours says, “Chin up. And may the Force be with you.”

                                                                                                                                                 — Maz

Ymateb finished reading, tucked the letter in her belt, and hurried to catch up to its recipient.

Ben was standing now on the rim of the crater, peering down into the seared depths that had once been red crystal but were down fused obsidian. He wiped an eye with the back of his hand.

“Eat all my vegetables,” he quoted to Ymateb without turning around as she came up behind him. “That’s what they told me.” He bit his lip to keep it from trembling. “Eat all my vegetables!”

Despair welled up from the Abyss. He could feel it thread its way through his bones and worm its tendrils into his mind. One jump, the chasm whispered, and the lonely agony of existence would be over. The darkness would close around him — a velvet shroud that would bring him peace. Parents, refugees, the Jedi — none of them would matter anymore. He would never be alone again because the darkness would be there…always. Ymateb felt it too and shuddered. She gripped Ben’s arm and gave a gentle tug. “Come on. Let’s go back to dinner.”

But Ben’s eyes were unfocused as he stared unblinking into the distance. “Listen to the call of the darkness,” he intoned.

 

@MyKyloRen   8 June 2018 

Chapter 13: Fulfill Your Destiny

CHAPTER SUMMERY: [ABY 18] Luke Skywalker brings his Padawan Ben Solo to Maz Kanata on Takodana for a bit of rest and advice after a scare with a Sith Holocron…and for an evaluation. The layover proves to be anything but relaxing.

“Master Luke!” She stretched out her lanky arms to him, the gold bangles clinking and clanking their own joy. “Now that’s a name that’s soft on the ears.”

“Maz!” Luke Skywalker was on one knee now, folding the powerhouse little being into his robes. “I told you I’d be back this way before long…and with my first student.”

Maz Kanata — pirate, smuggler, and wise-woman extraordinaire — pulled back to look up at him with a wide grin, adjusting goggles too big for her tiny, wrinkled face, her hand dropping to grip his. She looked over his shoulder with great anticipation. “Where’s that boy who used to run into my arms?”

“On the Falcon. I’ve got him cleaning the air-cooling intakes, so we can talk.”

Maz let go of Luke’s hand and took a few steps down the stairs leading from the grand doors of the place folks referred to as her “castle.” Flags of every color flapped in the breeze, heralding its owner’s bigger-than-life personality…and her underground connections throughout the galaxy. She stopped and pointed at the Millennium Falcon nestled in the shadows of the Takodana forest. “Guess again.”

Her eyes twinkled as she watched the dark-haired boy laughing at the flock of purra-bird hatchlings at the foot of the ramp. The baby avians had come to inspect the ship, chirping up at it and giving the landing gear a friendly pecking. Ben reached out and touched a finger to one of the fuzzy heads. A second later, it was cuddled in his arms like a kitten.

“The heart goes where it wants,” Maz informed the Jedi Master with a grin, “and the soul follows.” She grew silent for a moment and folded her thin arms. “That one there has his father’s heart.” She looked up at Luke. “Why do you worry? Han Solo is a good soul.”

Luke sighed and sat down on the step beside her so he could look her in the eye. “It’s not that.” He made a helpless gesture. “I don’t even know where to begin.”

“At the beginning, Master Jedi,” Maz encouraged.

He nodded and took a deep breath. “Ben Solo possessed a strength in the Force I’ve never seen before.” He glanced briefly about. The castle was a haven for shady characters — most harmless undergrounders, awkward and marginalized, and all on the run from the law — but the Jedi and pirate were alone in the cool spring air. Luke went on, “He’s learning to control and use it in ways I haven’t taught him.”

She place a diminutive long-fingered hand on his. “All masters fear and rejoice the day their apprentices grow beyond them.”

“Maz, he knows about Vader and the Emperor despite all the New Republic had done to classify Imperial propaganda.” Luke’s flesh-and-blood hand went suddenly cold. “When I search for it on the deep-space nets, I come up empty-handed, but he’s found it.”

To his surprise, Maz chuckled. “He’ll grow up to be a rarefied slicer, that one.”

Luke found himself chuckling too.

“That’s a skill that might come in handy in your quest for the first Jedi texts.” She poked a good-natured finger at him.

He smiled and nodded, but his expression grew serious again as he watched his nephew scamper about the Falcon, dodging and laughing with the purra-birds that had clearly imprinted on him. All twenty little birds wanted to be cuddled. R2-D2 was there now, clearly protective of Ben in its attempt to lead the hatchlings off with beeps and whistles that mimicked their chirps. The droid’s failed pied piper ruse only added to the comedy.

“You once tried to tell me Vader was my father, but I wasn’t ready to listen. You said, ‘You have the courage and strength of Anakin Skywalker. Remember that when you face Vader.’” He looked at her long and hard. “How did you know?”

Maz squeezed his human hand. “When you’ve lived long enough, you see the same eyes in different people. I knew Anakin Skywalker before the dark times. I wish you could have too.”

After a moment, Luke said, “I need you to tell me what you see in the eyes of Ben Solo.”

“If, my boy –” she held up a long, leathery finger — “you are ready to listen.” Her smirk was sweet and the smells wafting through the heavy old doors were welcoming as she pulled them open. “Come, Lost Luke, and let’s see if we can aid you in your quest for dinner.”

#   #  #

Ben Solo had been in a lot of spacer cantinas, dingy diners, and pompous banquets, but he’d never visited a place quite like Maz’s castle. Where he’d normally keep to the shadows and eye every face with suspicion, he sat with Luke and Maz at the table she reserved for her favorites and laughed, sampling everything on his plate and more.

“I haven’t seen you,” Maz told him, her eyes bright, “since you were my size, but I’d recognize that laugh anywhere.”

Han’s thirteen-year-old son grinned. “I came here with Dad and Chewie,” he said, remembering. “You had all these droid parts in your storage rooms.” He didn’t miss a beat. “Do you still have them? I want to build my own droid.”

Maz laughed. “When you collect the galaxy’s junk and trade off the good stuff, what you’re left with is droid parts.”

That comment earned a retort of resentful beeps from R2.

“She didn’t mean anything by it,” Luke told the droid, rolling his eyes. When R2-D2 went on, indignantly rocking from side to side, Luke said, “I know. I know. You can use a new linear actuator.”

Maz got up from the table and motioned them to follow, leading the way down wide stone steps. Ben jumped them two at a time, while R2 ignited his rockets and met them at the bottom. “Child, you are welcome to anything in this room,” she told Ben, opening the door at the end of the hall, “if your uncle gives you a smile.”

“Got any spare actuators?” Luke grumbled but enjoying the scavenger hunt.

The storage room was full of recovered treasures and not-so-treasures from various smuggling routes, antiques the Hutts had stolen long ago, and forgotten bits no longer desirable for collateral or trade. Ben eagerly dived into one box after another, holding up trinkets and whatsits for a better look. He carried around an old fusion cutter head until he knelt and opened a wroshyr-wood chest. The tool fell from his grasp as he peered inside the trunk.

A voice. A cold voice said inside his head as he reached for the lightsaber in the box, “Take it — the Skywalker legacy — take it up and fulfill…your…destiny!”

 

@MyKyloRen   25 May 2018 

Chapter 12: It’s Not Too Late

CHAPTER SUMMARY: [ABY 18] After departing Jakku with his uncle and master, Padawan Ben Solo acts out his frustration of needing to return home for a medical evaluation. Luke manages to convince Leia otherwise and has a plan to help Ben by visiting an old friend.

“We’re about to make the jump to hyperspace. I need a decision here.” Luke Skywalker rubbed tired eyes, then focused again on his concerned twin. “He’s your son, of course, but we could save a lot time and fuel if we stop to see Maz first.”

The hologram of Leia Organa sighed. After a moment, she said, “If you think she can help, then Han can hitch a ride to the Five Sabers.” Luke knew she was referring to the piloting championship Han helped oversee on Theron. “He’ll have my head for letting you keep the Falcon longer, but Han needs to learn what’s important.”

Even though it was the answer he’d hoped for, Luke’s gaze turned sad. The years since Yavin had passed so quickly. He’d been a kid then, foolhardy and fearless, not so different from Han Solo. Luke’s mediocre existence had gone from evaporators and power converters to X-wings and lightsabers in a split second. Now his life was all about preparing the way for the next generation to inherit the galaxy…and all its problems.

“I wish old Ben were here,” he heard himself say.

Leia’s smile was warm. “It’s not the first time and it won’t be the last you’ll wish that.” She held her brother’s gaze for a few seconds. “Hurry home.”

Then she was gone.

Luke sat back in the pilot’s chair, giving himself a moment to collect his thoughts before he sought out his nephew — probably playing Dejarik again. The jump itself would be easy. R2 had already fed the coordinates into the nav computer. It was the conversation Luke needed to have with Ben that worried him. Child psychologist Dr. Amanda Snoke had hopped a transport on Jakku that would take her on to Chandrilla. Luke was alone now with his nephew. Leia didn’t know about Ben’s interest in Darth Vader and Luke wasn’t about to tell her unless it became necessary. Maybe…just maybe…Ben would never need to know that Vader was his grandfather — only the name Anakin Skywalker would mean something, as it had to Luke when he was a boy. Luke would have to spend countless hours scouring the galaxy’s archives to determine if the two names were ever linked before he could bring up the given name of his Jedi father.

Was it right to withhold the truth from Leia’s son?

Luke was pondering this conundrum, flipping switches and pushing buttons, making the final preparations for the jump to lightspeed when all the hairs stood up on the back of his neck.

A portside explosion shook the Millennium Falcon in a series of waves.

“Ben!”

The Jedi Master was down the passage, through the access tube, and in the gun turret faster than a Rodian can blink. “What are you doing?”

It wasn’t a question but a shriek.

Asteroids. A small debris field. There weren’t many and there were even fewer now.

“I hate you!” the boy screamed. He blasted another rock into bits of dust with the quad laser canon. “I hate all of you!”

In the gunner’s seat, Ben grasped the twin firing grips, swiveled the laser barrels, and locked onto another asteroid. He squeezed the triggers, biting his lower lip, dark waves of hair hanging in his face. Without using the targeting computer, his aim was perfect. Of course, the target wasn’t darting and weaving, Luke thought, like the womp rats he himself had hunted as a boy. The Jedi Master could feel the boy fighting against the gravity compensator. Ben hadn’t taken time to allow his body to grow accustomed to it, and dizziness was setting in.

Luke knew there were no ships in the vicinity and the asteroids were uninhabited — even by mynocks. Still, the kid was wasting valuable energy from the Falcon’s Quadex power core. Luke could have reached out with the Force and nudged the laser actuators, scattering the beams into an ineffective burst, taking all the fun out of shooting. Instead, he just folded his arms and quietly waited for human physiology to do its thing.

In a moment, Ben Solo passed out. His uncle scooped him up and carried him to a couch in the lounge. He waited until Leia’s son regained consciousness and could focus.

“What happened?” Ben blinked big eyes.

Luke gave him a smirk. “For some reason, you hate asteroids.”

When Ben’s memories came flooding back, they came on a riptide of raw emotion. With a snarl, he gathered the Force around him — dark tendrils of it — and pushed it at Luke. But Luke was ready. The boy was strong, and the Jedi Master had to grit his teeth to ward off the blow. Ben fell back on the cushions, spent.

“I hate you!” Ben clarified. “You don’t understand! I hate her!”

“Who?” Luke asked patiently.

“My mother! She’s never there when I need her!”

“Your mother loves you.”

Ben ignored him. “And when I don’t need her, she comes around and messes everything up!” He balled a fist at his side.

Luke sighed and placed a gentle hand over the fist. “It’s that way with all parents. The aunt and uncle who raised me weren’t any different.”

This revelation gave the Padawan pause. “Mom never talks about your…parents — my grandparents — only the people who adopted her.” He gave his uncle a doleful but hopeful look.

“We didn’t know our parents.” Luke’s gaze was unfocused, but after a beat, he looked upon Ben and smiled. “But it’s not too late to get to know yours.” He rose and held out a hand. “Come on, kid. We’re not headed back to Hosnian Prime after all. Your Mom says we can go on with our journey. We’re going to see an old friend of mine.”

 

@MyKyloRen   9 May 2018 

 

Chapter 11: Until We Meet Again

SUMMARY: [ABY 18] Padawan Ben Solo has suffered an attack by a hostile security device guarding the abandoned Imperial lab on Jakku. Leia insists he return home to Hosnian Prime for medical treatment, but before he and Luke depart the planet, Ben has one last encounter with an intriguing little girl in the market of Niima Outpost.

“Mom, I’m ok!” Ben Solo rolled his eyes.

He didn’t understand what all the fuss was about. He’d accidentally tripped a booby trap in the deserted lab and the device had given him quite a shock — or at least that’s what they’d told him. He really didn’t remember much about that day they explored the caves beneath Carbon Ridge.

Leia’s face in holo image said otherwise. “Sweetie, we don’t know exactly what that device did to you. We need to have our medical droids check you out.”

“But can’t you upload my records to the Falcon and have some droid here check me out?” Ben protested.

Heading back to Hosnian Prime was going to severely cut the time he and Luke could spend in the Mid Rim. The Millennium Falcon was at their disposal for a limited time, and Luke was a bit short of credits to hire transport this far out.

Shaking her head, Leia sighed. Ben was so much like Han when faced with a roadblock in his path. He’d try to talk his way out of anything unless she immediately put a stop to it. “There are no droids on Jakku to be trusted, no medical establishment to speak of. The Senate is working hard to change that, but….”

“Frag the Senate!” Ben launched himself out of the co-pilot’s chair and began to pace.

“Ben!” That colorful word he hadn’t learned from Han, or her, for that matter — although he’d certainly learned a lot of other choice words. Her son’s frustration level had just exploded. She’d have to let him vent.

“We won’t even be able to go to Jedha now!” Ben was fuming, arms flailing, pacing. “I got my lightsaber half-built and Luke promised we could hunt for kyber crystals.”

“I know, sweetie, but it’ll have to wait.”

He whirled back to face her. “You’re not a Jedi! You don’t understand!”

Leia closed her eyes in an effort to center herself. It was a technique she used to keep her temper more and more often these days. “Let me talk to your uncle. Is he still outside?”

“Mom,” Ben tried again, taking a deep breath, “Dr. Snoke’s checked me out.”

“Inasmuch as she can,” Leia cut in, “but there are still some tests you need that she can’t perform. She doesn’t have the equipment.” She gave him a stern but not unsympathetic look. “Now, go…get…Luke.”

With a grunt, Ben hit the button, opening the freighter doors with a hydraulic hiss, and stalked down the ramp and out into the heat of the Jakku desert. He found his uncle underneath the Falcon in the shade.

“I’ll do everything I can,” Lor San Tekka was saying, grasping Luke’s flesh-and-blood hand in his, “to keep an eye on the little one. Her parents are decent folk but have fallen on hard times.”

He turned to look at the little girl in question — just a wispy thing that would blow away in a strong wind. She stood in an awninged stall near the gates of the landing field, head cocked to one side, squinting at the passersby. Her mother, working for Unkar Plutt, sold what last-minute supplies and trinkets she could to departing spacers and worked her pottery wheel.

“They don’t know she’s Force-sensitive,” San Tekka commented ruefully. “Too many mouths to feed to notice.”

Ben edged his way in and gave Luke a doleful look. “Mom wants to talk to you.”

The Jedi Master inclined his head to San Tekka and gave the old family friend a warm farewell before disappearing up the ramp, leaving Ben one last chance to look around before their departure.

“Tell your mother, young prince,” San Tekka told the boy with a smile, “she may be a senator now, but she’ll always be royalty to me.”

Ben flashed him a lopsided grin. “I will.” And watched the man slip into the shade of the market stalls.

In truth, there wasn’t much to see on the outskirts of Niima Outpost — just a few foul-smelling happabores lustily drinking from murky troughs beyond the sand-blasted fences. His eyes came to rest on the last booth where the girl and mother were uncrating things. Amanda Snoke was there too, chatting with the potter woman and smiling down at the child. Ben shrugged and sauntered slowly in their direction. He hadn’t perused that booth and he still had a few credits. Maybe there was something interesting he could putter with on the long journey home.

“Are you sure you won’t reconsider?” Dr. Snoke was saying amiably but with some urgency. “Your daughter would get the finest education the New Republic can offer — at no expense to you — and rich opportunities she can only dream of now.”

The woman — scrawny, care-worn, and aged before her time — shook her head. “The girl will have plenty of opportunities here to help us keep a roof over our heads and the the Hutts off our backs.” Her face brightened as Ben Solo approached, bringing with him the prospect of a juicy sale. “Now here’s a young master who knows a thing or two,” she cooed.

“That’s right,” Snoke beamed. “He’s with the academy.” She draped an arm around Solo’s son and pulled him into a quick hug.

Ben ignored the women as they went on chatting, his eyes roaming over the junk, spare parts, and food packets for sale before coming to rest on the little girl. She looked back at him with big eyes, her hair done up in back into three buns.

“What’s your name?” he asked with a smirk.

She shrugged.

“You don’t know?”

She wrinkled her nose at the question, then after a moment said, “What’s it to you?” It was a mouthful for the three-year-old — something her parents had taught her to say to strangers.

Ben shrugged back. “Just asking. It’s polite to ask.” He would have said more but felt a familiar grip on his arm.

“Time to go,” Amanda Snoke announced with a grin. “Your uncle’s waving us over.” To the girl’s mother, she said flatly, “You’ll accept our offer.”

Again, the woman shook her head.

“Someday,” Dr. Snoke added after an imperial pause and a departing smirk. She gave the tiny girl a wink. “Such spunk.” Her sharp eyes narrowed. “Until we meet again.”

@MyKyloRen    4 May 2018

Chapter 9: The Emperor’s New Lab

SUMMARY: [ABY 18] Padawan Ben Solo, Master Luke Skywalker, and Dr. Amanda Snoke explore the Imperial lab and observatory left behind on Jakku after the fall of the Empire. They maneuver past the Dead-Enders defending the place, but Ben soon finds the lab is guarded by something more lethal.

The cavern was enormous, lit only by one sickly arch lamp that buzzed and flickered, the draining power cells threatening to extinguish its feeble light. The troopers had long since fallen back to guard the entrance to the Imperial facility — a  place no one had maintained since the fall of the Empire, forgotten like the men left to defend it, crazed and unaware that the war had ended.

Even with the advanced academy courses Ben had taken in exobiology and chemistry, the lab was like none he’d ever seen. Stasis chambers containing a sampling of species from every sector of the galaxy lined the perimeter of the main room. Most chambers had lost their power supply long ago, the contents gruesomely desiccated and shriveled beyond recognition. But a few compartments here and there hummed away, maintaining solutions of bacta and whatever life-supporting fluids their specimens required.

“Clones, from the looks of it,” Ben heard Amanda Snoke say as he pressed his palms to the transparasteel tank to peer at a lonely Mon Calamari — just a small fry. Ten others moldered in their ruined chambers, one after another.

“Are there any alive?” she wondered.

“This one is,” Ben said excitedly. “I can sense him!” He beamed at Luke — a lesson mastered in the Living Force.

Luke returned his Padawan’s smile. “Yes, I think the ones in intact chambers are.” He was examining the clones himself now, striding slowly down their ranks, eyeing each one thoughtfully.

Amanda trailed behind him. “Then we must do what we can to save them.”

The Jedi Master said nothing at first, almost as if he hadn’t heard her. Then he turned and eyed her slantwise. “We don’t know what cruelty they’ve suffered at the Emperor’s hands, what perversion he’s twisted them into.”

There was a sudden intake of breath as Ben jumped and stepped back from the working chamber. The Mon Calamari’s huge bulbous eyes were open and fixed on the young human, its gills opening and closing rapidly.

Luke ignored his nephew’s shock. “We may be doing these poor souls a favor by pulling the plug and reuniting them with the Force.”

“Surely we have to try,” Amanda pressed. “We should find out who their families are. We owe that much to them.” She paused, running her finger down a functioning unit. “Are any of them…Force-sensitive?”

After a moment, Luke nodded — both in answer to her question and in agreement.

“I can have transports here within a standard rotation,” she suggested.

He reached out and gripped the counselor gently by the arm. “We shouldn’t attract attention to this place.” He eyed her intently. “There’s technology here that should not fall into the wrong hands.”

“What’s this?” The voice was bright with curiosity.

They’d forgotten all about Ben. Just off the stasis room lay an octagonal chamber containing a bank of computer systems — ancient yet still functioning. They turned to see the boy give a little start as a console fired up to emit a huge blue holographic display.

“Ben!” Luke hurried to his nephew’s side, concerned for the boy’s safety.

“What?” Ben shot back, annoyed. “I didn’t touch anything!”

Luke’s voice took on a tone of urgency as he laid a hand on Ben’s shoulder. “You know you have an energy that influences everything around you. You have to learn to control it, or you’ll  get yourself killed.”

Ben glared at him for spoiling the excitement he could hardly contain. “Look! It’s working.” He gestured at the slowly rotating hologram.

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Luke sighed, glancing uneasily at the console. He turned to study the image.

A map…of the galaxy…but no part he recognized.

“What is it?” Amanda said, watching him closely.

She knew exactly what it was, for she knew every inch of those planets lazily orbiting their stars, along with the darkness between them. But she was testing him, testing the legend that was Luke Skywalker.

The legend walked slowly through the holo image, making sense of the celestial objects organized into various systems, along with a script he’d only seen in ancient texts.

“It’s a map of the Unknown Regions,” he told her absently, his gaze roving over the planetary systems and the spinning, spiraling black hole at the center. “The Emperor wanted to expand beyond known space. This lab must be just one of his observatories. There must be more with this level of detail.”

“Check this out!” Ben cried. Growing bored with the star map, he’d wandered into a corridor — pentagonal and composed of burnished metal and black glass. Something had pulled him there — something urgent, insisting, and desirable. Something obsidian and pyramidal.

He reached for it.

He had to have it.

It had to have him.

“Ben!”

 

@MyKyloRen  9 April 2018

 

Chapter 6: Don’t Use the Force, Ben

SUMMARY: [ABY 18] A Force-injured Twi’lek brings charges against Padawan Ben Solo and brings child psychologist Dr. Amanda Snoke rushing to the village of Tuanul on Jakku.

“Nothing’s broken, but she took a hard knock to the head. She’ll need to be monitored all night.” Luke removed his hand from the unconscious Twi’lek’s forehead. He could feel the Living Force flowing through her and knew she would awaken and recover. But the scream that had brought him and the Tuanul villagers running still had the hair on the back of his neck standing on end. Finding her crumpled at the foot of the well, they’d all feared the worst.

He could also sense the intense fear that clutched at his nephew’s heart. The boy had tried to run, but at a shout from the Jedi Master, Ben had come to a halt and remained watchful from the shadows while the Twi’lek girl was examined and carried inside to a pallet. Luke got to his feet and came to stand over his padawan, hands on hips. “What happened?” he said evenly.

Ben looked up and then dropped his gaze again. The night had taken on a chill and he’d taken off his his boots to feel the warm sand between his toes. It was somehow soothing. Hugging his arms close to his chest, he mumbled, “She was going to eat me.” It sounded absurd now. He’d never heard of Twi’leks eating people, not like the Ewoks did.

Luke blinked. “What?”

Ben bit is lower lip, recalling the hungry look in her eyes, how she’d touched his hair and then how her hand had dropped to his belt. His voice wavered and his ears turned red. “She wanted to eat me.”

A couple of the younger villagers heard the remark and snickered.

Elder Josira’s hand flew to her mouth. Taking a moment to decide how to respond to the delicate situation, she finally said, “The girl has not fully escaped her former life, I’m afraid. It will take time.”

Luke nodded, understanding, saddened for the exploitative life the girl had endured in the sex trade and sympathetic to his nephew’s innocence. Yet deep inside the Jedi Master, annoyance bubbled to the surface. Hadn’t Han taught his son anything about women? Han Solo — the biggest swaggering ladies’ man he knew. But in the past few years, Han Solo hadn’t been around enough to be a father.

“You and I are going to have to have a talk.” Luke told Ben, gently gripping the boy’s sleeve, pity welling up in his eyes. “And not just about using the Force to push people away.”

One of the villagers chuckled lightly as he headed with the others back into the assembly hut. He remembered all too well the awkward conversation he’d had with his own father about the happabores and bloggins at that age.

#   #   #

Luke rubbed sleepy eyes. He’d been up all night watching the Twi’lek girl Ukij’ruhay for signs of serious head injury and talking with her after she was awake. He looked at the holo image before him now in the quiet alcove where he and Ben had tried to get a little sleep. “Ukij’s pretty bruised and she’s lost the feeling in one of her lekku. She may lose the tip, and she’s pressing charges against Ben.” He glanced at his nephew, curled on his pallet, finally asleep and breathing softly.

“I’m coming,” the holo image of a tall blonde human female answered at once. “I can be on Jakku in twenty standard hours.”

Sighing, Luke nodded in thanks. In the corner, Ben Solo stirred as the image of Dr. Amanda Snoke winked out.

At the Galactic Institute of Behavioral Neuroscience on Hosnian Prime, Amanda rose from her desk and remarked to her assistant, Kotha Ranee, a Togruta female, “Well, it seems my little man has gotten himself into trouble again.”

“Never a dull moment with the Solos,” Kotha acknowledge with a smirk. She tapped on her datapad. “There’s a flight leaving for Jakku at oh-four-hundred hours.”

“Excellent. Put me on it.”

Amanda didn’t care that she wouldn’t be getting any sleep that night. Things were going just the way she’d planned. At thirteen, Ben was tapping into the Force almost as second nature, and, despite outward appearances, he was gaining more control of his powers, more focus.

And, what was equally exiting was that another Force-sensitive youngling had been discovered on Jakku. She’d done the right thing, she told herself, by allowing Luke Skywalker to live. Dark eyes — alien eyes — smoldered like embers in deep shadow as she considered her ambition and desire. Skywalker would never turn to the dark side, but he’d quickly lead her to Force-sensitives who would, like Ben. If they didn’t, well, that could be remedied.

Amanda Snoke smiled a satisfied smile as she stowed her datapad and commlink in her briefcase and closed the door to her office. Yes, everything is going swimmingly, she thought, except these infernal cycles human women have! Her high heels clicked on the marble floor as she headed for the refresher, screwing her eyes shut as a cramp wracked her abdomen.

No, what bothered Snoke the most was the frailty of the human body she occupied. Next time, she’d select another species…and something male.

 

@MyKyloRen  4 March 2018

 

Chapter 5: Raw Untamed Power

SUMMARY: [ABY 18] In their quest to find Jedi relics, Luke Skywalker and Ben Solo reach the Jakku village of Tuanul, where the Church of the Force welcomes them…but not for long.

Ben looked up at Luke and blinked. “What was that?…A Force-vision?” His tone was one of shock and barely suppressed excitement.

Luke’s eyes went wide, mirroring his nephew’s expression. “Force-vision?” Where had the kid learned the concept? “What do you know about Force-visions?”

Ben shrugged, casting around the dim interior of the wrecked AT-AT for the girl who’d made the scratch-marks. She’d seemed so real. “I read about them somewhere,” he offered vaguely.

“Like where?” Luke looked around too, but there was nothing to see — with his own eyes or through the Force.

“On the nets…somewhere.” Ben walked over to the wall again and ran a hand over its smooth surface. The marks had been right there. He saw them. He felt them!

The Jedi Master stepped closer. “There are Jedi teachings on the nets?” He didn’t believe it for a second. He’d searched the networks and archives culled from a hundred different systems and found nothing. Only the names of wanted “criminals” remained. The Empire had done a thorough job of erasing the Jedi’s legacy.

“Yeah,” Ben continued absently, now walking through the spot where he’d seen the girl on her hammock. “Master Sifo-Dyas, I think his name was. He was talking about it in a holovid.”

Luke had heard the name. “I saw that file, but it was corrupted beyond repair. How did you get it to play for you?”

Ben clearly didn’t want to talk about it. “I don’t know. It just opened.” He wanted answers, not questions. He wanted to find the mystery girl. How could she vanish like that? She was right there and she was crying. Why wouldn’t his master help him find her? Why was Luke concerned with stupid files?

“All right,” Luke said with a sigh. “You can show me later. What you saw could have been a Force-vision — an echo of the future, I’m guessing, because it doesn’t look like anyone’s ever lived here and there are no scratches on the wall…yet,” he pointed out. “But now that we’ve opened the hatch, maybe she’ll make a home here some day. Or not. We can’t know for sure. Always in motion the future is…and there are many futures. That’s what Master Yoda taught me.”

Ben scowled and pushed past him. “Yoda talked funny.”

With a sigh, Luke watched Han Solo’s kid pull open the heavy hatch and stride out into the deepening twilight. They’d spent way too much time here.

#   #   #

It was full dark when they reached the village of Tuanul, which huddled beyond a deep cavern. On the outskirts of the ramshackle huts, master and padawan were met by ascetics adorned in simple attire, their tunics belted with the Sash of the Balanced.

“Welcome, Master,” said one of them — matronly and human — stepping forward and extending both hands as Luke and Ben dismounted. “We’re very pleased you could join us for a few days.” Her discerning gaze took in Ben. “And this is your apprentice?”

Luke nodded. “Ben. My nephew.”

“I am Elder Jasira. We don’t have much, but what we have is yours, for we are one in the light.”

Luke knew these people called themselves The Church of the Force. Although they didn’t claim to be Force-users, they had, nonetheless, dedicated themselves to the ideals of the Jedi. They regarded their renowned guests with thoughtful eyes and ushered the Jedi into a communal hut, placing steaming bowls of mush into Luke’s and Ben’s hands. It was simple fare, but the taste was not unpleasant. The sweet water, on the other hand, was cool and delicious.

As Luke Skywalker, legend and hero, regaled an audience of a dozen councilors, Ben excused himself to study the stars. They were so bright in the desert. Maybe, he hoped, he’d see the girl again and could ask her things about the future.

“Don’t go far,” Luke warned.

Ben gave him a nod and found himself petting a baby antelope-like creature drinking from a watering trough.

“You’re a Jedi?” came a soft voice behind him. She was a fascinating shade of blue, Ben noticed as he turned to face her. She was young but older than him by a few years. “A padawan learner?” she mused, coming closer.

He could smell her now — a sweet almost honeyed scent, but sharp with exotic spice. “That’s right.” He didn’t like the way she looked at him from head to toe and slowly back again. “And you’re a Twi’lek, right?” he observed, trying to think of something to say.

She nodded, her eyelids half-closed. “They rescued me from the Hutts a while back.” She cocked her head to one side. “Maybe I could teach you a few things about Twi’leks.” She bit her full lower lip, considering him as she reached out to finger a strand of his dark hair. “And you could teach me things about being a Jedi.”

She was really close now. He could feel her breath on his cheek. He wanted to pull away but was afraid it would be rude. The blood surged hot in his veins and his breath quickened. As she licked her lips, he heard it — a voice in his head, female as well but older, mature and hissy. “She’ll eat you alive….She’ll eat you!”

In a blur, Ben pulled away. His hand was out, the Force surging through him like a bolt of otherworldly electricity. It thrust from his fingertips and sent the Twi’lek girl flying backwards. With a sickly thud, she hit the abutment of a well and lay still.

 

@MyKyloRen   22 February 2018

 

Chapter 3: Lore of the Desert

SUMMARY: [ABY 18]  Brushing shoulders with the prickly Jakku natives, Jedi Master Luke Skywalker and Padawan Ben Solo meet with a trusted informant near the bazaar of Niima Outpost. The man doesn’t have what Luke seeks but may offer what the Jedi needs.

“Hey, kid, wanna buy some spice?”

Padawan Ben Solo wrinkled his nose at the scruffy Crolute. The alien smelled like rotting fish and pond scum. “No,” Ben told him flatly in Basic.

“Ben!”

For once, the kid was glad his uncle was calling him. It gave him an excuse to bolt from this particular specimen of galactic slime.

Luke reached out a hand as his nephew drew near — excited and breathless, trilling in the hustle of Niima Outpost — and drew him in. “This place is worse than Mos Eisley,” the Jedi Master warned. “Stay close, all right?”

The boy nodded solemnly, taking an interest in one of the washing stations as they elbowed their way through the cluttered market stalls. Was that a fuel injector from a Star Destroyer positional thruster?

Luke suddenly stopped and sighed. “I honestly thought it wouldn’t be this hard to find him. I thought he’d be waiting for us.” He took in a deep breath and let it out, scanning the throng for a familiar face. “I don’t sense anything’s happened to him. I guess he’s just late.”

“Doesn’t he have a commlink?” Ben asked helpfully.

Watching the alien passersby, Luke absently shook his head. “There’s a warrant out for him. He’s gathered a lot of intelligence some folks would just as soon let die in Imperial graveyards.”

Ben leaned against the side of a booth selling what looked like desiccated hands — some with two fingers, others with up to eight. He cringed and groaned, “Great. Why do we always have to hang out with bounty-fodder?”

“Some times they’re our only hope,” Luke reminded him with a resigned chuckle as he thumbed through images on the datapad he’d removed from his pack. “There aren’t even any recent holos of this guy. He’s really good at laying low.”

“What did he look like?” Ben craned his neck, peering at the old images as they scrolled by. He saw a young human male — a soldier, by the looks of him, but neither Imperial nor Rebel.

“Here.” Luke handed him the pad. “Keep your eyes peeled…although he’ll probably find us before we find him in this gundark nest.” Luke always felt he had a sign on his back: That’s right. I’m Luke Skywalker. I’m here to rescue you.

Ben watched his master walk up to the Crolute — known as Unkar Plutt — standing now behind a wire screen in a prominent trading stall.

“Have you seen any mercenary types here today?” Luke said casually. The junk dealer was an unpleasant sort, but so was most of the population on Jakku, no matter what the species. That didn’t deter him from pressing for information. “A human male…with greying hair,” Luke guessed.

The junkyard boss regarded the shorter human, pursing fish-like lips. “This ain’t no tourist welcome booth, human,” he growled, brushing sand off his apron made from salvaged hull plates as surely as he’d like to brush the offworlder away.

Luke tried again, sensing that the dealer knew something of value. “Yes, but you’re important here,” he coaxed, appealing to the Crolute’s ego. “You know things.”

Unkar Plutt snorted. “I know an idiot when I see one!”

The Jedi Master sighed. Weak-minded. That could be useful, but he wouldn’t resort to using the Force yet. “Can you at least tell me where we can get….” He broke off as Ben tugged at his sleeve.

“Over there!”

Luke’s gaze followed Ben’s pointing finger to a man standing at a washing table, chatting with one of the scavengers. He glanced about the throng for a moment and then his eyes met Luke’s He smiled — a knowing smile.

“Good job, kid.” Luke patted his padawan’s shoulder and led him through the crush of hustlers and dealers to where the veteran traveler stood. “I didn’t think we’d ever find you.”

Lor San Tekka took the Jedi’s outstretched hand. “I never doubted it for a moment,” he returned amiably. “A mind in need calls to its kin, as the saying goes.”

Luke grinned down at his young charge. “This is my nephew Ben.”

San Tekka’s gaze grew distant but warm. “You have your mother’s eyes,” he told the boy with an air of fondness, “and your father’s heart.”

Ben gave him an embarrassed smirk, his attention already averted to the man’s wardrobe. For a mercenary, it was odd that the man carried no weapon. Not even a crude knife. And he wore a strange amulet around his neck. Ben was about to ask what it was when Luke came right to the point.

“You have information for us?”

“Indeed.” San Tekka waved them out onto the baking sands. All three of them drew up their hoods against the blistering sun. “I apologize, bringing you out in the heat, but this place has more ears than a maelog. My own hut is not much better.” When he was certain they were out of earshot and beyond range of recording devices among the market stalls, he continued in a low tone. “I brought you here because we’ve identified a Force-sensitive girl. Her parents are still unaware of her powers.”

Luke let out a long breath. There had been no way he and San Tekka could communicate — even on secure channels — about anything related to the Jedi. The Purge was still happening in some areas of the galaxy, despite the Galactic Senate’s efforts to stop it. The information about the girl was important, but not the lead Luke had hoped for. “I can’t take on students without a safe place to teach them. Do you have any suggestions?”

The other man started to shake his head but stopped himself, considering. “There is a system of caves beneath Carbon Ridge, but it’s controlled by the Dead-Enders.”

Ben cocked his head. “Dead-Enders?” They sounded exciting.

“Old Imperials — abandoned and barely scraping by. Most people won’t go near them, say they’re crazy. Rumor has it what they’re guarding is an Imperial lab. But if you could reunite them with their people, they’d probably let you have the place.” San Tekka’s eyes darted to a booth on the edge of the bazaar. He nodded in its direction. “There’s the little one I was telling you about.”

A ragged and thin woman scolded the girl — Ben recognized the waif as the urchin who had picked up his journal — for grabbing at a piece of dried meat on a stick. The girl began to cry when it was pried from her tiny fingers.

“She can’t be getting enough to eat,” Luke said, unable to keep the sadness form his voice. He suddenly clutched San Tekka’s sleeve. “Can you keep an eye on her while we check out the caves?”

The Jedi-follower nodded.

Luke patted his arm with gratitude and turned to his nephew. “We’ve got work to do, Ben.”

As they parted company, the hungry little girl — Rey was her name — reached out a hand toward the meat-stick and summoned it into her grubby fist as if by magic.

No one noticed except Ben.

 

@MyKyloRen   29 January 2018

 

Chapter 2: You’re Nothing

SUMMARY: [ABY 18] Jedi Master Luke Skywalker embarks with his nephew Ben on an intelligence mission he hopes will lead them to the first Jedi temple. But what they discover on a remote desert planet in the Outer Rim is not what either of them expected.

“I’ll miss you,” Leia pulled back from the awkward hug to look her son in the eye. At thirteen, Ben was already ten centimeters taller than she was and she had to look up. “You know I always do,” she told him, giving him a firm but loving look before patting his chest and turning him loose.

The boy nodded once, solemnly. “I know.” And turned to follow his uncle up the ramp of the Millennium Falcon as his father called after him.

“Tell your uncle to stay out of the asteroid fields this time.”

Luke, the uncle in question, caught the remark where he fiddled with an adjustment to the exterior lighting controls. He gave Han a half-hearted wave of acknowledgment.

Han drawled, “I’m only letting you have her because I owe you one!”

“More like fifty-one,” Leia muttered at his side.

“Hey,” Han protested, “I get around to paying my debts…eventually,” he added when she folded her arms and gave him an I-know-you smirk. Han ignored her and raised his voice again to Luke, “I want her back in eight standard days without any scratches.” How he hated loaning out the Falcon. He’d sooner cut off his own arm.

Luke Skywalker, Jedi Master, finished his tinkering and gave his brother-in-law a two-fingered salute before turning to follow Ben inside. The boarding ramp of the Millennium Falcon closed with a hydraulic hiss. In the pilot’s chair, he wasted no time starting the departure sequence. R2-D2 cheerily rolled past and extended a data probe to plug into the ship’s nav system as Ben turned to make his way down an access corridor.

Luke broke off punching switches to call over his shoulder, “What, you’re going to let R2 copilot?” He’d expected his nephew to flop down in the copilot’s chair next to him in the cockpit. Han had taught the kid advanced nav skills at an early age and he was good at it. Piloting was the only thing father and son had in common.

“I thought I’d man the forward cannon,” Ben called back down the passage.

“Cannon?” Luke chuckled, turning back to his consoles. Why did kids always think every jump through hyperspace was going to involve a laser battle along the way? Holovids. They watched too many holovids. Luke smirked, remembering his own rampant imagination at that age. “We’re not going to need to blast our way out of here,” he yelled from the cockpit. “We won’t even need it to get us through small asteroids,” he said ruefully, more to himself. Where was the challenge in flying if you couldn’t zip and zag through an asteroid belt?

“Then why won’t you tell me where we’re going?”

Luke gave a start as Ben jumped into the copilot’s chair and spun around in it. I’m going to need to learn to connect with this kid through the Force sooner than I’d thought, he told himself. It was unnerving how Ben could creep up on him — almost as if he’d learned to hide his presence from the Force. “Because until now I wasn’t exactly sure where we were going. I just knew it was in the Western Reaches.” He thumbed a switch and fired up the sublight engines.

“But in order to file a flight plan,” Ben countered, lifting his chin, “you have to tell them what planet you’re going to.”

The Jedi Master sucked in a deep breath and let it out. This was going to be a very long trip. “That’s right,” he allowed. “Our contact is sending through the coordinates now.”

Ben lurched his attention to the nav computer. “Jakku.”

Luke’s eyebrows arched. “You know that from the coordinates?” He stared at the numbers on the readout. They meant nothing to him.

Between their chairs, R2-D2 emitted an impressed beep.

Ben shrugged as he strapped in and donned the copilot’s headset. “I didn’t have much to do in lockdown, so I spent it studying the galaxy.” Of course, he’d continued his schooling, but he didn’t consider that “much to do.”

Lockdown. The three years the boy was confined to wearing a precise movement tracker. He was able to stay out of a juvenile correction facility by being transferred to the custody of a court-appointed psychologist. After Ben had accidentally caused the death of a three-year-old through manipulating the Force, the tracker was deemed necessary to monitor his fine muscle movements. The device was so precise, it even reported when the kid had a bowel movement.

The court’s tracker was gone now and Ben was the Jedi Master’s responsibility. Luke hoped he was doing the right thing. Was he ready to match wits with his nephew? What about the kid’s incredible Force abilities? How would he control those?

“Why would anyone want to go to Jakku?” Ben was saying as Luke cleared their take-off and brought the ship into orbit.

“Your mother’s friend is there with information, I hope,” Luke revealed, “about the location of the first Jedi temple.”

Ben shook his head. “It’s not there.”

Luke almost snorted. “How would you know?” The arrogance of this kid.

“It’s not a place that’s strong with the Force,” Ben told him matter-of-factly, checking the readouts from the sensor array.

“I see.” Luke pursed his lips and prepared for the jump to hyperspace.

 

Niima Outpost was a hive of activity. They had been warned that collectors and salvage companies from all over the galaxy were converging to reap a profit from a new relic that had surfaced after a major sandstorm — a Imperial Stardestroyer. Luke and Ben pushed their way past stall after merchant stall, lingered for a moment to watch the auctioning off of parts, and pressed on again to the designated rendezvous site.

Ben gawped around him at the buzz of sights and sounds and was nearly knocked off his feet when his shoulder collided with a mean-looking Kyuzo.

“Watch where you’re going, brat!”

Glaring after the alien, Ben stumbled over another native — this one much, much smaller. A human girl-child, malnourished and dirty, held up a leather-bound notebook. He instantly recognized it as his own. The collision must have jarred it from the folds of his tunic. He reached down to take it, giving the girl a smirk, but when their fingers touched, something odd happened.

You come from nothing, a man’s voice echoed in his head. You’re nothing. But not to me.

The girl’s eyes went wide as if she heard it too. She dropped the journal at once and scampered off.

 

@MyKyloRen   22 January 2018

Author’s note: Contrary to popular opinion, Snoke did not create the bond between Kylo and Rey. The Force did.

Chapter 1: The Belonging You Seek

SUMMARY: [ABY 18] Thirteen-year-old Ben Solo is about to be released back into the custody of his parents after spending three years with a court-appointed psychologist who served as his guardian. The accident, caused by Ben, which led to the death of a toddler, is fresh on everyone’s minds. Leia Organa asks her Jedi brother Luke to take Ben under his wing.

“Leia, I can’t take him.” Luke Skywalker’s tone was apologetic yet oddly resigned. “I’m not ready to take on any students.”

Leia Organa folded her arms and gave her brother a stern look over her cup of caf. “If you had waited until you were ready to face Vader, we wouldn’t be having this conversion. If you wait now to start your training academy until you’re truly ready, you’ll be a decrepit old man.”

Luke took a sip from his own cup, sighed, and leaned back in his chair. It had been two years since he’d seen Leia and Han. His nephew, Ben, was thirteen now and could already look him in the eye. It was Ben they were discussing now, the reason for the Jedi Master’s aborted trip to the Mirrin Sector.

“Have there been any more incidents?” he asked abruptly, diverting his gaze from the Hosnian cityscape beyond the window-wall of the luxury apartment.

Leia shook her head and met his gaze with a soft reassuring look. “You know he didn’t mean it.”

“I know,” Luke quickly returned as their minds touched upon the accident that had occurred three standard years earlier when Ben had been left in the care of C-3PO for a couple hours. “The court decision to remove him from your custody was so swift, I was afraid he might have acted out.”

“He’s been fine.” Leia’s smile was genuine. “He misses us, of course, but it’s not like we can’t see him. Dr. Snoke says Ben’s growing like any normal boy, but he’s curious and has questions only another Force-sensitive can answer.”

Luke sat up, reached across the table and took her hand. “But you have this ability too. I’ve seen it! I’ve heard your most desperate thoughts. That’s why I was able to come so quickly.”

“The senate needs me,” Leia demurred. “We have so much to rebuild.”

“Let me train you first,” Luke pressed. “That’s always how I’d planned it — after I find the temple site. When the courts release Ben in a few weeks, he’ll need his mother. You’ll be a big comfort to him.”

She emitted a little sound that was somewhere between a chuckle and a snort, squeezing her own small fingers around his. “What he needs is a father who’s Force-sensitive.” She let go of her brother’s hand and rose from the table to gaze out on the majestic skyscraper silhouette for a moment.

“Where is Han?” Luke glanced about the senatorial living quarters and down the corridor that connected the adjoining bedrooms. He saw very little of the flotsam and jetsam that was Han Solo. There was a bottle of Corellian brandy sitting on a sideboard and a chess set on the coffee table in front of the spotless white sofa. An antique framed print of a Kesselian star chart hung on the wall.

“He’s refereeing the Shantipole Races again this year, but he’s promised to be back in time for Ben’s release.”

Luke sat back and threw one arm over the back of the chair, his gaze growing distant. “Ben’s here now — close by — isn’t he?”

“He’s with Dr. Snoke. They’re on the terrace down there.” Leia could just make out their forms — a tall, thin blonde woman and the dark-haired lanky boy that was Ben — eight floors below in the building across the courtyard. They were, no doubt, enjoying the unseasonably warm weather. Leia wondered why she and Luke weren’t having this conversation on her own balcony. The light and fresh air were too great a distraction, she told herself. Too many eyes, even at this height.

“She’s done wonders for him,” Leia continued a little sadly but with genuine hope, speaking of the child psychologist who’d been assigned custody of Ben after the trial. “She’s given him courage and confidence.” Leia turned from the window to face her brother. “But Ben’s a teenager now.” She pressed her knuckles on the table as her voice took on a diplomatic urgency. “He needs an uncle to take him under his wing and show him what it means to not just be a man but a servant of the people, just as a special man once did for you.”

There was no arguing with that, Luke thought, letting out a long breath. Other Force-sensitive children had been located in the Gomar Sector. Distraught parents had reached out to him, asking for help guiding their young ones. Luke had promised he would, but he hadn’t even found a proper site yet, or funding, let alone staff to assist him with a proper academy. The place needed to be secluded and protected. Force-sensitives were still cruelly hunted, shunned, and feared in many places.

He rubbed his eyes. It was overwhelming. “Have you told him about his grandfather?” Luke asked in a subdued tone.

Leia stepped close and laid a hand on his sleeve, sitting down in a chair next to him. “You turned Vader from the dark side. Ben should hear that from you. When he’s ready.” Her smile was sad, but her eyes were full of hope.

Eight floors below, Ben Solo looked up.

“He doesn’t want me,” he said more to himself than to his guardian.

Dr. Amanda Snoke came to stand at the railing with her young charge. “What do you mean?” She followed his upward gaze.

“My uncle.” The teen’s eyes were full of hurt and longing. “He doesn’t want to train me.”

Amanda eyed him closely and laid a gentle hand on his back. “And you know this how? Did he tell you?”

The boy shook his head, the light breeze combing its fingers through his dark hair. “I see his mind. He’s afraid of me.”

She turned him to face her and gave him and encouraging smile. “When I found you after the accident that day, I saw raw, untamed potential and beyond that…something truly special. He sees it too. Your uncle’s never trained anyone before. He’s afraid of failing.” She stroked his cheek with her thumb. “That’s all.”

 

@MyKyloRen    8 January 2018

AUTHOR’S NOTE: I thought about starting this series with the one-off vignette I wrote in 2016 about the accident, but I didn’t feel most readers would be interested in a 10-year-old protagonist. Ben Solo’s social and psychological development (based on what we’ve seen of Kylo Ren’s behavior in The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi) stopped in his teens, so I felt that was an appropriate place to start — and with Leia’s monumental decision to send him away.