AN: Hi everyone. This is my take on what I think would happen in the Star Wars Universe if Disney hadn't written off a bunch of really important characters to bring Rey, Finn etc in. Specifically, this story will be focused on Ben Skywalker, Luke's son, set before and during The Force Awakens and onwards. I have changed quite a bit of the storyline, for example Ben Solo's name has been changed back to Jacen Solo, which was his name in the universe now known as "Legends". I have also changed Ben Skywalker's mother, for reasons that are actually quite important to how I am portraying him. Anyway, this story begins in the year 24 ABY. For those of you who don't know, that's twenty years after Return of the Jedi and ten years before The Force Awakens.

I don't own Star Wars.

I hope you guys like my take on it, though.

It wasn't that Ben hated his father. Far from it. After all, Luke Skywalker was one of the main reasons why the Empire had been destroyed, for two decades now. He was also a kind, patient man, and a very good teacher in the ways of the Force. When Ben had been born, the result of a brief fling between Luke and a Mandalorian woman named Mira Kryze, Luke had not treated his bastard son with disgust, but rather came to visit him on Mandalore every chance he got, even while he was looking to bring back the Jedi Order. Ben's earliest memories were of him listening wide-eyed to his father telling him stories of the Rebellion, and the Jedi and Sith.

His mother had stories too, though, when Luke wasn't around. Mandalore was famous throughout the galaxy for its history of warrior people, many of whom had fought the Jedi and Sith across thousands of years. Clan Kryze had also played a part in the Galactic Civil War when Mira's mother, the legendary Bo-Katan Kryze, had wielded the Darksaber, the black-bladed lightsaber which now stood on Mira's mantlepiece gathering dust. When Ben was five years old, he had tried to reach out to take the Darksaber (without his mother's permission). Although his outstretched hand had been at least a foot away from the mantlepiece, Ben had somehow found himself holding the Darksaber. He had even managed to activate it. Had Mira not entered the room at that very moment, Ben might very well have caused some serious damage to himself and everything around him. After Mira was done scolding Ben within an inch of his life, she had put two and two together, contacted Luke, and the next thing Ben knew, he was being shipped off to his father's recently-completed Jedi Temple on Ossus. It was there that Ben met his cousin for the first time, the boy Jacen, who was only a year older than him. As Ben had never left Mandalore, he had been feeling very lonely, missing his mother dearly, so he was grateful for the friendship his cousin offered him. The two of them were Luke's first students, and as the years passed their numbers had grown. Now, with Ben having recently celebrated his eighteenth birthday, there were several dozen students in his father's Jedi Temple.

Ben did not resent his father for fixing the damage that Ben's grandfather, Anakin, who the galaxy knew as Darth Vader, had caused. He did not even resent Luke for the power Ben had inherited. After all, Ben was often able to visit his mother and her new husband on Mandalore, along with the half-sisters who were always ecstatic to see their big Jedi brother. It was not like being a Jedi stopped Ben from being a person.

No, what Ben resented was the fact that being a Skywalker meant pretty much everyone had unfair expectations of him.

Coming from perhaps the most famous family in the galaxy meant that people were always watching Ben, waiting to see if he would do something to prove himself worthy of the Skywalker name. The other students always gave Ben a wide berth, and whenever he tried to talk to them, they would always find some excuse to be somewhere else. Even Jacen had started evading Ben a few years before to fit in with the other students, which Ben found particularly upsetting, considering that Jacen was just as much Darth Vader's grandson as Ben was. Apparently not actually having the Skywalker name made it easy for people to forget Jacen was from the Skywalker family. Fortunately, Ben's aunt Leia, Jacen's mother, had seen what was going on and reprimanded her son severely for the way he was neglecting his cousin.

Leia became Ben's favourite extended family member after that. It seemed that she was the only one who didn't judge him for his name. Well, her and Chewbacca, the big Wookie always greeting Ben with a rib-cracking embrace every time they met, either on Ossus or off-world. Even Leia's husband, the former smuggler Han Solo, always watched Ben with an almost unconscious wariness, which Ben could always sense no matter how much Han hid it behind his smile.

But the one person Ben wished didn't judge him for being a Skywalker was his father.

Ever since Ben came to Ossus, he and Luke had… well, struggled was probably the right word for it. In Luke's defence, it was hard to be both master and father, but Ben often found himself wishing Luke was just one or the other. The fact that Luke was Ben's father could often be seen in Ben's training, Luke regularly seeing faults where there were none, always pushing Ben to be better, more skilled than the other students, often giving Ben extra lessons in lightsaber combat, having him lift heavier and heavier objects with the Force… the list went on and on. As a result, Ben was easily Luke's best student, being able to lift things with the Force most of the other students couldn't even jostle. This did not improve the relations Ben had with them. Through Luke's extensive focus on him, Ben had also learned the art of Jar'Kai, the method of using two lightsabers in combat instead of one. Nobody else had learned the style, not even Jacen, and it was kind of hard for people to like you when you possessed an unfair advantage over them.

Ben knew Luke just didn't want his son going down the same road as his own father, and he knew that Luke was proud of what he had achieved, but at the same time… Ben wished his dad wasn't giving him such special treatment. He and Jacen were still friends, of course, but even he had been drifting away from Ben recently, and Ben was trying not to panic at the idea of losing his only companion.

But if Ben was honest with himself, Luke's favouritism wasn't the reason Ben felt out of place in his father's Temple. At least, not the only reason. Ever since he could remember, Ben had had a fascination with the dark side Luke had been unable to dislodge. Ben had no interest in becoming a Sith, but to him it seemed like the dark side was at least worth understanding. After all, it was as much a part of the Force as the light, which meant that no matter how much Ben trained as a Jedi, being a Jedi meant that he would only ever half understand the Force itself. All Ben had to go on the dark side was Luke's frequent warnings against it, which wasn't much help. From what Luke said, those who studied the dark side did so because they were selfish and power-hungry, of which Ben was neither (at least, he hoped he wasn't). Also, from what Ben knew of the history of the galaxy, the very first Force-sensitives, the Je'daii, had been able to wield both the light and dark sides of the Force. At some point, they had split into the two groups that would be known as the Jedi and Sith, but Ben was convinced that if it had been done before, he could probably do it. Unfortunately, Ben knew nothing of the Je'daii beyond their ability to use both sides of the Force, and he knew Luke would never willingly allow Ben to study the dark side. The way Ben saw it, the best way to study the Je'daii, and through them, the dark side, would be at their own Temple, but unfortunately he had absolutely no idea where it was, or if it even still existed. But he knew someone who might.

When Ben was thirteen, Han had taken him and Jacen to the planet Takodana, where they'd been introduced to the "Pirate Queen" Maz Kanata, a force-sensitive alien who ran a watering hole for smugglers. Maz had amazed Ben and Jacen with stories of her adventures over her thousand-year life, many of which involved Jedi in some way. Ben was certain that if anyone in the galaxy knew the location of a Je'daii Temple, it would be Maz, but he needed an excuse to reach her. One that Luke wouldn't question.

As Luke and Ben ate dinner that night, Ben tried to work up the courage to tell his father what he had planned. Fortunately, Luke solved the problem for him.

'You've been very quiet tonight. Are you alright?'

'Yes', Ben answered, a little too quickly.

'Are you sure? Because I've been sensing conflict within you pretty much all day. Is something wrong?'

'No, no', Ben replied. "I've just been thinking… there's something I want to do."

'What is it?' Luke prompted, gently.

'I want to go on a… pilgrimage'.

Luke couldn't help but stare in disbelief at his son. 'What?' he said. 'Where?'

'The other Jedi temples. The ones inhabited by our predecessors.'

'Why?' Luke asked. This was very unlike Ben. His son rarely liked stepping outside his comfort zone, most likely due to the stress of leaving Mandalore at such a young age.

'I…' Ben began. 'You're a great teacher, you really are, but I feel… stuck. Like there's only so much you can teach me about the Force, about the galaxy, all of it. I think… maybe what's in the temples might teach me things about the Force that not even you know.'

Luke pondered it over. He had to admit, Ben had a point. There was only so much Luke could teach him about the Force. And Luke had also been secretly getting worried about how Ben would handle the galaxy after he became an official Jedi Knight, or more specifically, how the galaxy would handle Ben. Maybe if Han and Chewie acted as his guides, it would be alright.

'Well' Luke began. 'I guess it can't hurt to at least take a look at the other temples.'

Ben grinned.

'But', Luke warned. 'Han and Chewie will be going with you.'

Ben's face fell. 'What?' he said. 'Why?'

'Because I don't want you using this "pilgrimage" as an excuse to visit the Sith temples", Luke replied, his face darkening. 'I know you're still curious about the dark side, Ben, and I cannot -no, I will not- let you make the same mistakes my father did. Han and Chewie will accompany you on your journey to make sure you only travel to the Jedi temples. That's the only way it's going to go, and that's the end of it.'

Dammit, Ben thought to himself. Oh well, this was just a temporary setback. He'd find a way to ditch Han and Chewie. It couldn't be that hard.

AN: Okay, that's the end of the prologue. In case you are wondering what Ben looks like, I'm kind of picturing him as a Nathaniel Buzolic-type figure. I don't know why, I just am. I'm sorry if this chapter didn't go anywhere, but don't worry, what's coming next will be much more interesting, I promise.