"Uncle Luke?"

The voice of his nephew broke through the calm of Luke Skywalker's trance. The Jedi Master opened his eyes. "Yes, Ben?" Luke rose from his meditative position on the ground and motioned for Ben to sit beside him on a long, low bench. The boy's presence was... questioning. Not quite troubled. But something was on his mind.

"Is something wrong, Ben?"

"No." The boy frowned. "Not really. Uncle Luke...?"

Luke nodded, silent, waiting for him to go on.

"Why do you and Mom have different last names?"

Luke smiled. That was an easy question. "You know that your mom and I were adopted?"

Ben nodded.

"And that her parents—her adoptive parents—were Bail and Breha Organa?"

"Bail and...?"

"Breha Organa," Luke repeated, and waited for the boy to repeat the names back. "That's right. So her last name is Organa. Did I ever tell you where I lived, when I was a kid like you?"

Ben, still silent, shook his head.

"Well, I grew up on a planet called Tatooine. I bet you've never heard of it, right?"

"Right."

"There's nothing there but a lot of desert," Luke said, but he still smiled a little at the memory. "I lived with my aunt and uncle."

A light came on in Ben's eyes. "And their name was Skywalker!"

Luke shook his head, and a sadness he'd almost forgotten about settled over him. Uncle Owen. Aunt Beru. He'd hardly even had the time to mourn them. "No," he said. "Their name was Lars. Owen and Beru Lars. They were moisture farmers. On Tatooine..." But Ben's gaze had started to wander. "Never mind.

"I knew they weren't my parents," Luke went on. "I called them Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. And they gave me..." His voice caught, just for a second. For an impossible fraction of a second that he hoped Ben wouldn't hear. "They gave me... my father's name."

"Your real father?"

Luke could only nod.

"So Mom's name should be Skywalker too?"

Luke closed his eyes, let out a long breath. Should? That was a very strong word.

"Her father was also Anakin Skywalker."

"Luke?" It was Leia's voice, this time, that cut through his thoughts, his inner calm. "What are the two of you doing out here?"

But she knew. She knew, and when Luke looked up at her, it was with apology in his eyes.

"Ben was just asking about... about our family. He wanted to know why you weren't a Skywalker, too."

"Ben." Leia looked down at him, her voice—and her presence—half afraid and half admonishing.

"Leia?"

Luke would never attempt to influence her using the Force—wasn't even sure, for that matter, if he could. But she understood what he wanted, and even as she shook her head—Don't make me do this—she sat down at the far end of the bench, on the other side of her son.

"Your mom has taught you a little about the Force, right?" Luke said. "You know that people like me, who use the Force to protect others, are called Jedi."

Again, Ben nodded.

"My father was... a Jedi," Luke said, the catch in his voice just a little longer, a little more obvious this time. "He was very powerful. And just like you have your mother's eyes, or your father's dark hair"—he reached out, and ruffled Ben's hair with one hand—"your mother and I... and you too... are strong with the Force because of your grandfather."

Ben looked, then, from Luke's face to Leia's, trying to see, perhaps, the features that tied them together.

"Am I like him?"

The question took Luke by surprise. He looked over Ben's head, to Leia. There was fear in her eyes—fear, and a question.

"I think you are," he said. "Strong, and bright. And brilliant, just like your Jedi grandfather."

Leia looked down, away. And she darkened. Something cold and grey passed over her face, and over her being in the Force.

"Our birth mother was a senator," she said, too quickly, as if trying to cover up what Luke had exposed.

"You said you didn't know her." Ben's eyes grew wide, and Luke's heart fell. They knew so little about their birth mother. But had Leia really lied about what she knew?

"We never met her," Luke said. "She died... when we were born, or shortly after." The records had never been clear about Padme Amidala's death—she disappeared from them, just as Darth Vader and the Empire were ushered in. "We know she was a senator for the old Republic. She came from a planet called Naboo."

"Was she a Jedi?" Ben's question was quick—too quick.

Luke made his answer slow.

"We don't know," he replied, "if she could use the Force. But she wasn't a trained Jedi, no."

Ben nodded, and his thoughts were a torrent of anger and disappointment and joy.

"But you knew him, though?" he pressed. "You knew my grandfather?" This was directed at Luke, and Luke alone.

Luke nodded, slowly, curling the fingers of his prosthetic hand into a slow, deliberate fist. They tingled and ached, for the first time in years, and for a long moment, he could only nod.

"I met him," Luke said. "Before he died. He was... a great man."

Leia opened her mouth, and Luke met her gaze until she looked away and closed it.

"He was a great man," he repeated again. "And a great Jedi."

Ben nodded, and leaned into his uncle for a hug.