Vader met Ben Organa-Solo in person when the boy was ten years old.
After the destruction of the Death Star, and Luke's refusal to let his father die in peace, and the interminable process of arrest and detainment, Vader had at last been given a life-long conditional sentence-"house" arrest-on Mustafar, forever trapped in the monolithic structure given him by his former master. The Rebel Alliance-or the New Republic as they called themselves-wanted to prove their legitimacy and moral high ground compared to the tyranny of the old Empire by avoiding a death sentence. They also had factored in Vader's help locating rogue Imperial ships and bases, citing it as a sign of remorse.
Vader suspected a few of them wanted to keep him alive for more unsavory reasons; that they liked the idea of him pacing back and forth until his death, his ravaged body trapped in its portable life-support, a sort of living prize obtained from the war they could refer to whenever they wanted.
When Luke stepped off the transport with the boy's hand in his, Vader's eyes fell on his grandson, in the flesh, for the first time. Mustafar was not a place for children, and Vader wasn't any better. Leia had finally agreed to let Ben see his grandfather-just once, to shut the boy up. For better or for worse, Vader was the only family they had left.
Ben wore a breathing apparatus over the lower half of his face, to protect his young lungs from the noxious atmosphere of the planet until they went inside. The first thing he did was gape, eyes round and large over his mask, as he craned his neck to look up at his grandfather; after a moment's hesitation, he waved slightly. Vader nodded in return, as if acknowledging a salute from the 501st.
"Father," Luke said, "this is Ben."
"I've spoken with him before, Luke," Vader returned drily.
"Well-over comms and holos, but I thought you should be formally introduced," Luke said.
Vader looked to his grandson, and shook his head once, as if to share his exasperation with the boy. Ben smiled slightly behind the breath-mask.
"Follow me," he said, and turned abruptly, forcing Ben to play catch-up. Luke followed at a slower pace, used to his father's impatience by now and no longer in his thrall.
"When can you come visit me?" Ben asked him the following day, when Luke wasn't in the room. It was small, where Vader kept the collection of lightsabers he'd built since imprisoned. (After much debate, he'd finally decided to make them with a white blade. Luke had snuck him the kyber crystals; technically he wasn't allowed to have them, even though he was prevented by advanced security from leaving Mustafar anyway.)
"I've told you, before, young Organa-I can never leave this place."
"But why not just ask for a new sentence and come to Coruscant?"
"Child," Vader said as he suppressed a sigh at the boy's naivete, "that is not how it works."
"But it's such a bad planet!" Ben paused, then added, "Sorry. But it's cruel...you could ask for another one. A-you know, an appeal."
"In a way, I was born here," he said. "So it's fitting that I should die here as well."
"He really likes you," Luke said. The two of them looked over the fiery landscape from the safety of a large transparisteel wall. Vader wanted to be alone, tired out from Ben's energy, but Luke had tracked him down and interrupted his attempt at meditation. "And not just because you're the only grandfather he has," Luke added.
"Perhaps he shouldn't be so fond of his grandfather."
"Please. I know you like him, too."
Vader glared ahead. He'd stood here thousands of times by now; in the past, during the days of the Empire, he'd made himself look at that spot to fuel his rage; to center on it, kill Anakin over and over in his mind every day. Now, he had no shield of rage to protect him from Anakin Skywalker's memories.
"I almost killed your mother down there," he said after a long, empty pause interrupted only by his cycled breathing. "I reached out and tried to squeeze the life from her. I didn't hesitate. You and your sister were inside her, almost ready to be born-helpless."
Luke glanced at him quickly, then looked at the floor, then back to his father. "I-" he began, then faltered.
Through the bond they shared, Luke had no choice but to feel his father's grief like waves of the freshly erupted magma that covered the planet like water. Vader had usually suppressed it in the past, taking refuge in the Dark Side; now it was probably as close to tears as a former Lord of the Sith could come-a deep, bitter ache.
Luke put his hand on his father's shoulder. He pushed back, with silent encouragement, at the barrage of grief. "I forgive you," he said finally. His voice was low, almost inaudible, but there was truth there, even without Vader's ability to sense his son's freely broadcasted emotions.
It didn't matter. "You shouldn't have brought him here, son."
"He wanted to come," Luke said. "To see his grandfather."
"He's just a child. He doesn't understand."
"He's old enough. And he's strong in the Force. I've felt it. Sooner or later, he would've found you anyway. He's got that ability to sense things far away."
"Yes. I see-much of myself in him." Vader regarded his reflection. "And that's why I say he shouldn't be here."
"There's a lot of you in me, too, you know." But Luke pushed no further and returned his eyes to the burning vista. Then: "If you want us to go, we will. But you'll have to be the one to tell Ben. I promised him. I can't take it back. Jedi code and all."
"I see. You've gotten more ruthless. Maybe you are more like me than I thought."
"I have to meet with politicians now, thanks to Leia. It's rubbing off on me."
"I do believe it is."
Before Ben could detect anything that might alarm him, Vader shielded his feelings under the Force's quiet cloak, unusual though it felt to do so. He often fell into episodes of despondency and self-loathing, and had done so even during the era of the Empire. Usually, though, only Luke was around these days to feel the effects of his moods. But as stated, Ben was strong in the Force-yet soft and vulnerable. Self-pity and nightmarish memories would have to wait until he left the planet. Luke had experienced more than one nightmare because of his father's volatile state in the past, and Vader couldn't let another mind be touched by his lack of composure.
There is no emotion...there is the Force.
He did not bring up again the option of an early departure.
"Why don't you call yourself Anakin Skywalker anymore, grandfather?" Ben asked.
Children, Vader thought savagely, should be outlawed. He shouldn't have allowed Ben to watch him work on his TIE in the small hangar. He couldn't fly it anymore, especially since the ion engines had been confiscated; probably enshrined as Rebel propaganda somewhere. But he still took apart and reassembled the rest of his TIE Advanced when he needed to not think about things.
"I'm afraid I no longer resemble that name," he told Ben as tactfully as he could.
"What does that mean?"
"It means," Vader said more firmly, "that you shouldn't ask so many questions." For some reason, subtlety was a little lost on his grandchild. He probably got it from his father, sadly.
Still, Ben must have sensed a serious pitfall through the Force, because for once he didn't press any further. Instead he knelt down and reached out to pet one of the scaly, small, goblin-like lizards that had infested Vader's abode years prior. Greenish with a sickly purplish smudge around the edges, it looked like a scaly, lizard-shaped bruise creeping over the floor, tongue flicking in and out curiously between its large, yellow eyes.
He'd never known advanced life to naturally populate Mustafar. Vader had concluded years ago that they must have stowed away on a visiting ship, perhaps a supply vessel, or one belonging to an inquisitor. The reptiles were grotesque, with large, elongated heads, wide carnivorous mouths, and laughably small wings that must have grown obsolete millenia ago on whatever planet they originated from. The things seemed to enjoy the heat Mustafar provided, and in a moment of dark humor Vader had allowed them residence-though he'd cut through a few before that decision. The population never grew past a dozen or two-sooner or later they wandered out of the safety of the castle and perished, and that kept their numbers manageable. Vader barely saw them, but one apparently wanted to inspect the newcomer that talked so much.
"What's its species called?" Ben asked.
"I don't know," Vader said. "I never checked."
"Maybe it's a new species."
"Most likely not."
"Does it have a name?"
"No." Vader hadn't thought to personalize the creatures or take any ownership of them. He usually referred to them as "those things" if he he bothered to think about them at all.
"Can I name it, then?"
"It'll make no difference," Vader said. "I doubt it even would know."
Ben deflated a little, shoulders slumping.
"But you can if you wish," said Vader, hands dropping wearily from his work.
Somehow, Ben Solo had become more like his uncle Luke, the bleeding heart Jedi, than his mother the sharp-tongued politician, or his father the unsentimental criminal.
Having won naming rights, Ben went back to petting it. "What should we call him?"
Vader trudged over to the lizard and the child. He wasn't particularly creative, but he suspected that the things didn't deserve elegant names; nothing from the languages of Naboo or Alderaan, or even Coruscant.
After a moment of thought, Vader said, "Perhaps you could call it Revan." He barely stopped himself from saying, "Darth Revan," and hoped Ben didn't notice the slight hitch in his words.
"Revan?" Ben repeated dubiously.
Vader smirked. "Yes," he said.
He'd always hated Palpatine's orders to learn the Sith texts and the names and histories of their ancient authors. It might amuse him from time to time to see Darth Revan's final namesake crawling on it belly, croaking, in the castle of its unofficial landlord.
"That name doesn't sound like it suits him," Ben said.
"It does," said Vader, "from a certain point of view."
"What view?"
He told Ben the story of Darth Revan. Ben listened, barely blinking, half-mindedly petting the lizard which he'd pulled into his lap. Vader wasn't surprised to have such a hold over his audience-Luke didn't know any extensive Sith lore; only what was necessary to understand the history of the Jedi and their place in the galaxy. All the same, the story of Darth Revan's unusual career was, eventually, one that Luke couldn't object to.
By the end of Ben's visit, half of the little creatures had received Sith names. And when they left days later, Ben took Marr with him.
A few weeks after the visit with his nephew, Luke called him on a Republic-era hologram receiver Vader repaired years ago to pass the time.
"Sorry I didn't check in with you sooner," Luke said. "I just want you to know that Ben was happy to meet you."
"I'm sure as he grows older he'll lose interest in me," Vader said with a hand wave.
"Don't be so hard on yourself."
Vader resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Is there any reason in particular you're taking me away from my many tasks to talk about nothing in particular?" he asked sarcastically. Although the fact that his transmissions were not private, and the rebels could listen in whenever they felt suspicious enough, seemed like a good reason to draw out the mindless chatter a little bit longer.
"Well, if you want something more interesting to talk about, Han hates that lizard you sent Ben off with."
"He took it. I didn't tell him to. Nor did he bother to ask my permission before he brought it to his dear father's home."
"Don't start," Luke said. "And, to get more serious, there is something I wanted to talk to you about. The name Revan wouldn't have anything to do with the ancient Sith Darth Revan, would it?"
"It was a minor joke, son. I have no love for the ancient Sith, as I have no love for the parasites crawling around this place."
"Right." Luke ran his gloved, synthetic hand over his face, sighing heavily.
"Why so world-weary?"
"Father, I do not want to have to deal with any unnecessary questions about the Sith."
"Perhaps you should," Vader said. "Don't let the memory of them die. Not to honor them, but to dispel any mystique they might still have in the galaxy. Learn everything you can about them, to dispel the power they could hold over your future Jedi."
"I don't know that much."
"Unfortunately," Vader said, "I do."
"How much?"
"I had to learn everything."
"What exactly is 'everything'?"
"Do you remember the ancient texts and holocrons I told you about, and how you sought them out and destroyed them?"
"Yes. I broke the holocrons and burned the books. All of them."
Luke had also claimed that one or two of the books had screamed in the fire-at which point Vader had rolled his eyes and said it was probably just a release of air.
"I remember," Vader said with a mental sigh. "I didn't tell you that I had already learned them by rote."
"All of them."
"Well, almost. I didn't completely commit to memory the later texts-Plagueis' unfinished works and so forth." And thankfully, Palpatine had never completed his own magnum opus to foist on his apprentice. Vader might have revolted early and killed the man right then.
"Great," Luke said. "So technically I destroyed them all for nothing?"
"As I said, I didn't have the heart to tell you. But not completely for nothing-the history will die with me, unless you ask me for a condensed version."
"A very condensed version."
"Trust me, Luke, you'd do well for your future students to allow them a proper understanding of the Sith-an understanding I and the Jedi of the later Republic weren't allowed. A lot of problems could've been avoided."
"I guess." Luke raked his hand over his face again. "Well, jot some stuff down from me. Don't send it-I'll pick it up next time I visit. Only what's necessary. And I hope you didn't give Ben too much information."
"The story of Revan is too complex to tell in one evening. And I never even mentioned his fellow Sith, Malak."
"Fine." Luke tilted his head and smiled slightly. "Ben already wants to know when he can see you again. He's 'forgotten' Leia's deal to make it a one-time thing."
"He shouldn't come to Mustafar again," said Vader. "It's not a place for someone like him. Not for you, either."
"It's also not a place for someone to live on all alone" Luke said.
"I've been coming here for a long time. Before you could walk, I imagine."
"I'll be back when I can anyway," Luke said. "And thank-you for allowing Ben the one visit."
"It was nothing. As I said, when he's older, he won't have time for me."
"We'll see about that. Leia can only tell him what to do until he's legally grown. After that, he might be pounding on your door whenever he wants."
"He'd still have to get clearance from the authorities to do that. And your sister has no reason to allow it."
"Oh, Father," Luke said, with a mock-pitying shake of his head. "You know how this family is. He'll probably just ignore the rules and sneak past the security on his own."
"Only assuming he's inherited my piloting skills, and not his father's."
After a few more barbs, they disconnected.
Sneak past security, Vader thought, half-sardonically. The thought hadn't occurred to him, but it did sound like something he would have done, when he'd still been young but some distant governing body had decided he'd reached adulthood.
Vader considered. Ben would be grown in almost ten years. Seeing his grandson challenge the Republic's rules-and seeing Leia and Solo's reactions-
Might be something to look forward to, at least, Vader thought as he walked back to his TIE.
And maybe-with Ben and Luke both as advocates-he could reverse his sentence, at least on Mustafar, and make sure his grandson stayed out of trouble. Maybe the Republic would find another reason to show how merciful they could be, or claim he'd been fully reformed thanks to their just methods or some such thing.
It was a long shot, but maybe. And when he looked ahead, through the Force, he didn't sense any impossibility. Neither could he sense any probability, but the future was always in motion. A lot could change in ten years.
Might be worth sticking around for a little bit longer, he thought.
[End]
AN: I used some of the old Sith names from the Legends, as the new canon does not yet have a long list of former Sith Lords.