"'You need a haircut'?" Ben Solo's eyes narrowed. "Six kriffing years, and that's all you have to say. 'You need a haircut'?"

Luke shrugged. "You should also get that scar looked at."

"You cantankerous old-" Ben reached through the Force and called Anakin's light saber. "Take this damn thing! We have to get back to Mom! She needs your help."

"Leia ..." Luke's eyes softened for a moment. Then he shook his head. For a moment, a ghostly smile crossed his face. "You're alive, Ben. I never expected to see you again this side of the Force. I'm glad." He ignored the light saber. "You should come back and visit again. It was nice seeing you."

Luke turned and walked towards a series of stone huts.

"Kriff, he's crazy," Ben muttered to Anakin. "He's lost his mind."

"He's not crazy. He's hiding," Anakin repeated. "He's lost a lot, Ben. The Jedi Academy was his whole life ..."

"And he lost it because of me," Ben whispered. "Because I wasn't strong enough ..."

"If I had a body I'd so smack you right now." Anakin glared at him. "I've told you. Han told you. It was not your fault. You could not have beaten back an army with a single laser sword!"

"If I hadn't been there-"

"If I had never broken the Jedi code and married Padme there might never have been a Darth Vader- but there would have been an Emperor Palpatine with no Luke Skywalker to oppose him. If Luke had sensed Snoke's presence sooner he never would have gotten so powerful …but you might have been lost to the Dark Side and become a monster. The future is always in motion, Ben. An act of kindness or cruelty may save or damn us later. None of us can know that; all we have to do is make the best choices we can.

"You were a child, Ben. You were Snoke's victim, not his servant. You could no more have stopped what happened at the Academy than you can stop a star from going nova. It wasn't your fault." Anakin sighed. "And it wasn't Luke's either. The sooner the both of you realize that, the sooner you can do what is needed."

"And the sooner I can save Rey," Ben murmured hopefully.

"Again with the girl. Nearly 30 years old, and NOW he starts to think about girls."

"I thought about girls when I was younger." I just knew that there was no point in it. "Maybe if Luke won't listen to me, he'll listen to Chewie."

Ben watched his Uncle head towards one of the huts and slam the door shut. "That's strange."

"What?" Anakin asked him.

"The door shuts and it's like he's not there any more... I can't sense him."

Anakin nodded as if he knew what that meant. "I see. Let's get your Wookie friend. He might be of service here."

Ben ran back to the Falcon, noticing the sunken X-Wing in the waters near the island. Luke clearly had no intention of coming back … either that, or he had made one lousy landing.

A few minutes later, they were back in front of Luke's door. Ben decided to be diplomatic. "Uncle Luke, please. I need to talk to you."

"Go away, Ben. Come back in another six years. I'm busy."

Chewbacca gently pushed Ben away and then knocked … Wookie style.

The door flew off the handle.

"What the kriff-?" Luke demanded, flipping over to stare at the door. "Chewie?!"

Chewbacca howled a greeting and embraced Luke. The Jedi Master nodded and hugged his old friend and then he looked at both of them. "Wait. Where's Han?"

And they told him.

..*..

"The Resistance is barely holding on, Uncle. They need Hope. They need Luke Skywalker."

"Maybe they need Ben Solo instead."

Ben laughed at that. "I'm no Jedi, Uncle Luke. I'm not Mom or Dad- or you. I can't bring hope. I've spent the last six years running away. I'd still be running if I hadn't met Finn ..." He felt a stab of concern for his new friend. He saved my life and I left without being able to say goodbye … "I can't be their hero. I'm too … flawed."

Luke smiled at him. "You don't think I'm flawed, Ben? Everything that happened at the Jedi Academy shows how flawed I was. If not for my hubris, my arrogant pride ..."

Ben looked down. "I failed you, Luke. I failed all of them."

"Ben ..." Luke said gently. "Show me. You have your power. Show me what happened." He took Ben's hands in his own. For a moment, he sounded like the teacher of old. "Show me."

Luke had been gone for no more than a day when the First Order showed up. How they had known about the Academy on Yavin … how they managed to slip past the defenses … Ben never knew. He suspected that Snoke had taken what he needed to know from Ben's mind in those days when he was there like some viper, filling Ben's mind with poison, twisting his beliefs and soul … Ben had to have been the one who gave it all away …

But Luke had saved him though the effort had nearly killed him, and now Ben and some of the older padawans were all that stood between the army of the First Order. Sheeva, strongest and oldest of the padawans. Kastur, tall and powerful with his smaller twin Polax always at his side. The taciturn Minas with the staff he favored over a light saber. The beautiful Morganna with her twin light sabers of green and blue. Royce with his laughing eyes and purple light saber that he claimed had once belonged to Mace Windu himself. Red haired Tika with her saber staff. The agile Ewok Nippet who was perhaps the greatest of the padawans with a light saber ….

They would be enough, Ben knew. He was surrounded by his fellow padawans. They would uphold the proud Jedi legacy. They would save the Academy …

The First Order's troops arrived and began firing … and to Ben's shock and dismay, some of the padawans did not charge towards the attack … they turned on their own!

Sheeva tried to impale Ben himself with only a desperate parry saving his life. "Leader Snoke would have made you his right hand! Traitor!"

Polax- slender, small Polax- turned and with one swift stroke beheaded his gentle giant of a brother. "You should have listened to me, Kastur!"

Minas lashed out with his staff at Morganna but one of her blades managed to nick his throat, searing his vocal cords before Royce cut her down from behind.

Tika in the middle of rushing Royce was stabbed in the heart by Nippet.

Anger. Fear. Rage.

Ben rushed them, determined to make them pay for what they had done … his anger drove Sheeva back. His fear cost Polax a hand. And his rage shattered Minas' staff and came near to taking his life. Only Nippet managed to drive him back with her superior skill and calmness in the face of battle.

And while Nippet held him back, the others rushed towards the younglings … slaughtering them without pity even as the children begged for mercy or tried desperately to fight back.

Ben tried to save then, but every time he broke from Nippet and tried to drive back one of the killers from the children, the others continued to cut down others. He wasn't fast enough. He wasn't strong enough. He wasn't good enough.

Luke could have saved them, but he wasn't Luke Skywalker. He was Ben Solo, and this was all his fault because Snoke had been in his mind the whole time and Ben had failed to drive him out … failed to be strong as a Skywalker should be when facing evil …

Luke's most powerful students had fallen to the Dark Side. The rest were dead. The younglings were dead.

Ben had failed them all.

They had turned because he hadn't been strong enough to defeat Snoke on his own. They were dead because he hadn't been enough of a Jedi to protect them. He had brought down death and destruction on everything he loved because he was not and could never be the Jedi Luke was …

And then when he stood alone... circled by those he had once called friends, he felt the dark, familiar presence of Snoke.

"Ben ..." the deformed old man had hobbled towards him, a hand extended in welcome. "It's time for you to come back to us ..."

And Ben knew that if he just took that hand, it would all be gone. The guilt. The pain. The shame … Snoke could make it all go away … and Force did he want that …

He dropped his light saber and ran like the coward he was …

..**..

"I'm sorry … I'm sorry … I'm so sorry ..."

He was crying on his uncle's shoulder like the frightened child he felt like.

Luke Skywalker, held him tightly. "Ben, Ben ..." He let his nephew cry some more, and then he lifted his face up. "Ben, listen to me. It was not your fault. You are so much braver, so much stronger, so much better than you give yourself credit for. It wasn't your fault.

"It was mine."

Ben stared at him in shock. "Luke …?"

"Stay here tonight. Sleep. You can stay here with me as long as you like, Ben, but I can't go back with you. I'm sorry, but I can't." He wrapped a blanket around Ben and motioned for him to take his place beside the fire. "Get some rest, Ben. We both need it." He lightly stroked Ben's hair as the younger man settled down. "And, Ben?"

"Yes?"

"I love you, nephew."

"I love you too, Uncle Luke."

Ben Solo closed his eyes, and drifted off into a sleep without nightmares, knowing that Luke Skywalker was there to keep his demons at bay.

Author's Note: I was going to end this chapter with the first Force Skype between Ben and Kyla, but quite honestly this chapter took a lot out of me and I don't want to force myself to go on. Beware the Ewok Knight of Ren! :D

Oh, and because it came up in another fic … Kastur and Polax are based on Castor and Pollux from Greco-Roman mythology. Apparently those names are also used in the Hunger Games books … but I never read those and did not know that till it came up in a fiction review. :D