Ben – Age 14 (almost 15) (Timeline - two weeks after the previous chapter)

Poe wasn't surprised when he was assigned a mission on his birthday. Ordinarily he would have been disappointed at the anticlimactic blur of time when he could have spent the day with his friends, but his commander seemed to guess he needed a few days away. Poe had seen Ben change during the last two weeks; he was a tight-lipped, stony teen, refusing his own mother a glance. Poe felt equally melancholic. Leia was vexed.

"Will you speak to my son?" she asked Poe, intercepting him before he could reach his ship. "He won't answer to his father. He's ignoring me. I can't seem to get through to him anymore."

Regretfully Poe shook his head. "I don't think he wants to talk to me."

Leia pursed a sigh. "What happened?"

Something that's built up for years, Poe realized. Something I should have anticipated.

"I don't know," he told her.

"Meaning you can't tell me, or you won't?" Leia retorted. When Poe failed to respond she reasoned, "I know he's your friend, Poe, but he's also my son. I need to know what's happening with him."

Poe adjusted the helmet under his arm, stalling. The helmet was a gift, he reminisced; a carefully chosen present for his last birthday, from a little friend who was once scared of hurting him. Drawing a shuddery breath, Poe nodded – and marked his last, crucial failure. "You're losing him."

Three words in a moment of vulnerability. Three words that severed his friendship with Ben. When Poe returned from his mission, the kid was gone.

"I sent him away," Leia murmured. Brown eyes, orbs that were infinitely expressive compared to Ben's, were murky with uncertainty. "Luke needs to train him alone."

"Gone?" Poe exclaimed. I saw him here two days ago. They acted so soon?

"He left you this." Leia pressed a small object into Poe's hand, and he knew immediately what it symbolized.

His old knife with the knicked blade.

The "gift" Ben had kept after one bullying encounter. Mesmerized, Poe turned it in his palm. The handle was worn with use, but the blade was still sharp and new. There was a dent where it might have been thrown against the wall.

"He… asked to leave right away," Leia hesitated to divulge. "He didn't want to say goodbye."

The kid who had slept on his arm until the nerves went numb; the kid who was passionate and determined despite those cold, inexpressive eyes; the kid who used to clomp around in oversized boots and proclaim his future as a pilot.

He resented Poe enough to leave without a farewell.

"I shouldn't have let it get this far," Poe admitted in a rush. He clenched the knife, wondering how many times a thin hand had bitterly gripped the handle. "I should have warned Master Skywalker –"

"We all should have paid closer attention to Ben," Leia interrupted. "This will be good for him." Her voice carried her doubt, even while she said optimistically, "When he comes back, you probably won't even recognize him."

She was right.

When Poe saw the hologram carrying Ben's message of revolution years later; when the Jedi were slaughtered and Kylo Ren was born; when the First Order began to overtake the galaxy: Ben was unrecognizable.

Dark eyes were cold and senseless. There was nothing in Ben's expression to interpret.

Nothing but the shadow Poe had seen in a child many years before:

The birth of domination.

Next up: the confrontation between Poe and Kylo Ren

Thank you to The-Splatoon-Rook 64, Rasasvada98, Nadreth, Space Opera Singer, Agent ERA, Pinky-chan2, Lazerkat, Begoogled, Real1Swear, nerdyninjaunicorn, CrazedFangirl13, La Vik, TheGirlBetweenMindAndSoul, FreelyBeYourself, TheEarthSong, and guests Gunny, Time2read, HuntedRanter, and Corrine for reviewing!