"Exactly how is Kylo Ren going to be able to go anywhere without being immediately recognized?" Finn asked as they made their way to the Mos Eisley Cantina on Tatooine hours later.
"He's not going in as Kylo Ren," Lando said patiently. "He's going in as Prince Ben Solo of New Alderaan. Even in a place like this royalty has its privileges."
"What?" Rose asked in confusion.
"Very few people in the galaxy know that Kylo and Ben Solo were one and the same," Lando said softly. "I knew it the first moment I met Kylo, but very few others do."
Ben said nothing. "Prince Ben" was a fiction. Of course, so was Kylo Ren. Ben Solo? He was a work in progress.
"Is that why we're wearing this … stuff?" Finn asked, pointing to the uniform that Lando had insisted he wear.
"Yes. You are now one of Prince Ben's loyal bodyguards. Your duty is to stand between him and any danger that might come his way. I'm his advisor. And Rose is his ..."
"Rose is my assistant," Ben said before Lando could imply something less innocent. The last thing he needed was to make Finn jealous … or possibly his wife.
"So that's what they're calling it these days," Lando teased, but there was still a hardness in his eyes that had not gone away from the moment they met in Cloud City.
He doesn't forgive me for Dad, Ben murmured. I guess it's just as well. "Are you trying to get me into trouble with my wife, Lando? Rose is a very lovely girl..."
Rose blushed at that. Finn scowled.
"... but not even the most indifferent royal would bring a courtesan to such a wretched hive of scum and villainy as this." Ben glared at the older man. "And what do you think Rey would say if it came back to her that it was implied I had a courtesan?"
"Are you scared of your wife, young Solo?"
"Sometimes," Ben admitted with disarming honesty. "But I also would never do anything to hurt her. In any way." He was wearing a uniform much like Bail Organa had worn in the waning days of the Old Republic. Ben had never known his adoptive grandfather, of course; he tried not to think of the man very much as he was certain he would have been a disappointment to him.
Lando took a long measuring look of him, then nodded. "It will be as you say, Your Highness."
Ben rolled his eyes. "What are we doing here?"
"I made some inquiries. Your friend DJ apparently wound up on Tatooine."
"He's not my friend," Finn spat. "Do you know how many people died because he betrayed the Resistance?"
"Don't you mean the ones that the First Order killed?" Lando asked, and again his eyes flickered back to Ben.
"Why are you baiting him?" Rose asked softly. "Ben is our friend."
"He is?" Lando asked surprised.
"Yeah, he is," Finn admitted. "He almost killed me- but he also protected me when he had no reason to do so. I know it's hard to believe, but he's changed. He's not Kylo."
Ben's gratitude showed in his eyes, but he didn't trust himself to speak. He realized just then how much he wanted others- people other than Rey and his mother- to believe that he had changed … almost as much as he wanted to believe that himself.
Lando said nothing for a moment. "Anyway, this DJ guy is here. Tatooine is a good place to get lost in. It's far enough away from everything that not even the First Order cares much about what goes on here, but not so far you can't get to anywhere important."
"I'm looking forward to seeing DJ again," Finn said, his handsome features twisted with anger.
"Finn ..." Rose said. She cast a worried glance at Ben.
"We need him, Finn," Ben told him with unaccustomed gentleness. "Believe me, I know what you're feeling. But we need a slicer, and he's good."
"And afterwards …?"
"We'll keep an eye on him. I said we need him." Ben clasped the other man's shoulder. "I didn't say that we were going to need him forever. If he crosses us this time, he won't get a chance to do it again."
"'Us?'" An amused voice said. "Your priorities have definitely changed, haven't they, Ben? The fearsome Kylo Ren is now nothing more than rebel scum."
Ben sighed. He knew that voice. "Hello, Luke."
"I told you that I'd be seeing you again, kid," the Force Ghost of Luke Skywalker said with an amused smiled. "Bet this didn't go the way you expect."
"Oh please."
"What is it, Ben?" Rose asked him in concern, laying a hand on his shoulder.
"My uncle is here."
"Your Uncle?" Finn asked.
"Luke Skywalker."
"But he's dead!" Lando said angrily. "Leia told me he's dead!"
"He is. He's a Force Ghost."
"A what?"
"Jedi Masters can endure after death," Ben said shortly. "Luke apparently achieved this. And now he's decided to drop by for a visit. Can we do this at another time?"
"No we can't. This is important, Ben."
"I'm on a mission, old man. I don't have time for someone else to list my many failings."
"That's good. I'm not here for that. I'm here to tell you that you will need to pick up something from Ben Kenobi's cave."
"How would I even find Obi-Wan's cave?" Ben asked in exasperation. "What is it- you're wanting me to do there? Is that part of my penance- to have every Jedi Master who exists in the Force tell me just how badly I kriffed up?"
"Don't whine, Ben. You're not a child. You're a married man." Luke's eyes blazed. "Now are you going to listen to me or do I have to figure out how to hit you upside the head without a body?"
"Ben … people are looking at us," Rose said worriedly.
"Fine, fine. Tell me what I'm going to Obi-Wan's cave for, Luke. So I get back to the important business of trying to …" make up for being a monster.
"You will find a map-"
"A map? Are you kriffing kidding me?!"
"This map will lead you to the Kaiburr Crystal."
"I thought that was a legend," Ben said in surprise. "We used to ask you about it at the Academy but you never confirmed its existence."
"That's because there were some … embarrassing memories attached about your mother-"
"Oh Force. I really don't want to hear about you and my mother, Uncle Luke."
Lando's face twisted in a most amusing fashion.
"The Crystal is real, Ben. And it's important." Luke looked at him. "It can help you."
"Help the Resistance you mean?"
"Do you really hate listening to one side of a conversation?" Finn asked no one in particular. "Because I really do."
"You, Ben. You, Rey- and your unborn children."
Ben gaped at him. "You're saying Rey is pregnant?!"
Luke smirked. "Congratulations, Ben. You're going to be a father."
Author's Note: At this point is anyone really surprised?