A/N: I am looking for a beta. If you're interested, let me know!:)

"The best laid plans of mice and men/often go awry/And leave us nothing but grief and pain,/For promised joy!" - To a Mouse, by Robert Burns, paraphrased into modern English

Chapter One: The Professor

8 ABY, 4 years after the Battle of Endor

It was a beautiful, warm afternoon, the golden sunlight filtering down the huge pine-needle trees. Some distance away, a little cottage stood, fighting against the ivy that struggled to claimed it. Under the protection of the forest, Leia Organa knelt close by her toddling son, watching. As much as he lumbered his way through, the boy glanced back at her nearly as often, as if to check that she was still there.

I lingered between the trees, glad for the great expanse of them. It was only too easy to cloak myself here.

"Ben! Ben, don't go too far!"

Now leaning against a tree, Leia laughed. She shook her long brown hair from her face, dark eyes sparkling. Leia took a mock-serious step forward. "Ben, if you don't come back…." She didn't finish. She didn't have to; there was only affection on her face.

Ben, all three-and-a-half feet of him, turned around, his face split into a huge, toothy grin. For a single second, he looked so much like Han that Leia almost gasped. "Momma!" The child lumbered forward, small hands outstretched.

As though she was attached by strings to her son, Leia moved forward with him, as if to catch him -

It was too late. Ben's tiny foot caught on a tree root. He fell face down into the dirt.

For a moment all she or I could see was a little figure shaking in shock. Then Ben turned over. Mucous dripped from his nose as his tear-soaked, dirt-covered face contorted in pain and shock.

"Ben!" His mother called. She moved to scoop him up-

"Don't touch me!" the boy spat out. The sound was eerie: it was angrier and lower than any human toddler should be able to produce.

Leia's hands faltered and trembled. She knelt beside her screaming son, her hands still reaching toward him. "Ben?" she asked, sudden trepidation in her voice.

Ben adjusted himself the better to pound his hands and feet on the hard, unforgiving ground. He cried harder and louder.

"Ben, sweetie-"

She moved to touch him, but at the moment she extended herself toward him again-

She didn't have time to cry out. Thrown by an invisible force, Leia flew backwards into a tree. She slid down, painfully, dumbly, bark and dirt on her clothes, her face, in her hair. She was sitting on the ground, legs splayed out widely, staring at her still-raging son.

Although Organa couldn't sense me, the boy could.

Leia slowly got up again, wincing with pain as she did. Brushing off the dirt from her clothes, she kept her gaze on her young son.

"Ben," she called. Stripped of its earlier maternal delight, her voice took on a detached quality that shook just slightly with anger, and fear, at her son. " Come with me now."

Ben's only response was to sob louder.

"Ben, I am going inside now. You need to calm down. I can't make you come with me, Ben."

Ben did not appear to hear. Leia stared at him for a long moment, and then she turned and started walking towards the house. She had the slightest limp. Her face was unreadable.

All of a sudden, Ben picked himself up. His little face twisted in horror. The prospect of his mother leaving without him was too much to bear. He chased after his mother until he caught up with her, tears pouring from him in abject remorse.

Leia regarded him for a moment, the anger on her face softening. "Ben," she murmured. He cried into her hand as she touched his face.

Ben started to burrow himself into his mother's side. Leia hissed sharply in pain. The boy was wrapping himself against where she had flown into the tree. Her hands dropped dumbly.

"Leia? Ben?" It was at that moment that Han Solo stepped outside to the survey the scene. He was still young, and proud. His face was turned up in concern and protectiveness. "I heard…"

He took in Leia's expression.

He strode to his wife's side at once. "Leia?" When he touched her, she hissed again. "Leia, are you all right?"

Leia smiled the tightest smile. "I'm fine, Han. Ben and I just need to get inside, now."

Han turned at her and then back at his son, who had both arms around his mother's legs, his head nestled somewhere near her navel.

"What did you do?" Han started at Ben.

"Han, don't start-"

It was too late. Ben was crying and moaning again.

Han growled, "What did you do to your mother?"

Leia grabbed her husband's arm. "It doesn't matter, he can't control it anyway! He just needs a time-out."

Han swiveled back to her. "Either he did do something or he didn't!"

"Han, Han!" she begged. "Don't do this!"

Ben only cried louder.

"Han, let's at least get him inside, he's hurting me- Han, no!"

Ben wailed. Ripped from his mother's side, he sobbed into Han's arms. Han carried him unrelentingly back to the house, his face drawn.

Leia watched them go, her face crumpling. She sunk back down to the ground, lips pressed tight.

It was at that moment that I stepped out of the darkness.

Leia looked up. "Professor Min," she murmured.

I could not yet use my true name. I did not dare, not with Skywalker around, scouring the old records for history. Though he had so far proved useful to me, I could not take my chances more than I already had.

For someone who was recently thrown backwards into a tree by a toddler and then engaged in an argument with her husband, Leia sounded remarkably composed. I gifted her with an understanding, grandfatherly gaze.

"I apologize for the intrusion, Senator Organa. I was merely passing through when I felt the disturbance in the Force. Your little boy needs to calm down. Would you mind if I saw to him?"

Still on the ground, Leia regarded him, her dark eyes contemplative. What was she thinking, this daughter of Vader?

Her jaw suddenly locked, and I sighed. The girl had a certain tenacious streak that was almost admirable. Wincing once, Leia stood up. With the ringing firmness of a politician, she declared, "My son is with his father."

I nodded, choosing my words carefully. "I understand, Senator. But your husband is not powerful with the Force, as you or I am."

This statement was quite the hyperbole. While it was true from that both of us were powerful from a perspective of pure potential, I had honed my powers for centuries, whereas the young Senator's abilities were largely untapped.

It would be her undoing.

Leia's eyes hardened. "I am his mother, Professor. While I appreciate your greater historical background, I will not have you question my parenting."

I remained genial. "Senator, I merely remember a time when the Code was different, when Jedis did have families. You are not the first Force sensitive woman to raise a Jedi child, you know.

"Professor Min. Ben is three-years-old," Leia said with diplomatic firmness. "He will decide what he will become when he is an adult. I will not have outsiders come in and tell him his destiny. My child will have a normal childhood. He will not be raised to be something before he knows who he is himself."

Very well then. "I defer to you, Senator. But you should know that your brother agrees."

Leia blinked. Momentarily blindsighted, she asked, "Luke?" I nodded. I had touched one of her weak spots - but not weak enough. After Leia seemed to process the information, her face hardened again. "I haven't seen Luke for months. He's traveling. If he wanted to tell me something, he could let me know himself. Good day, Professor."

Limping only very slightly - I could only guess at how much trouble she went to to achieve this - she turned her back on me, and headed back into the house.

It was Luke that had brought me to Leia, back when she was pregnant with Ben. He had absolutely no concept what a gift he gave to me that day.

This was the story Skywalker believed: In his search for information on the old Jedi Order, Luke had stumbled upon one of the greatest treasure troves of information of all - an old Jedi himself, in hiding as Yoda and Obi-Wan had been, brimming with old stories and practices.

I played my part well. I had to, or my plan would collapse as the Empire had.

The three of us had sat in Leia and Han's living room together. Leia had offered us tea. I had politely declined. Instead, I had asked a few polite questions about the family, about the baby.

Anyone with a modicum of Force abilities could tell that the child, even as a fetus, would be powerful. But what I discerned was more: this child would have an equal potential for both light and dark.

A month later, Ben Solo was born to much media and news attention, a symbol of peace in a war-torn galaxy.

And I was ready for him. He was...the perfect specimen.