This is a canon-compliant fanfic that takes place after Claudia Gray's novel Star Wars: Bloodlines (not necessary to read first). In the novel the news breaks that Luke and Leia are the children of Darth Vader, and she's ousted from politics. However, since Ben is off on a mission with Luke during the whole book we never saw his reaction to the news. So I decided to write it. Enjoy!
Ben disembarked from his X-Wing and met up with his uncle in the middle of the space station hanger. After three weeks in the wilderness of an uninhabited planet even a low-pressure space station shower sounded like the netherworld.
"Artoo's running diagnostics," Luke said. "Make sure you run one too. As long as the droids don't spot any issues we should be able to get back to flying as soon as the refuel is done."
Ben couldn't stop his shoulders from slumping. It had been a fifteen-hour trip to this station and would be another twelve before they reached the Jedi Temple. Much of that time was, and would be, spent in force meditation, but Ben still wanted a little time to stretch his legs and clean up.
The force betrayed Ben's thoughts to his master. Luke sniffed the air, making a real show of it. "On second thought, how about you hit the showers. I'll look over your ship for you."
"You don't have too," Ben said, secretly hoping his uncle would still insist. Luck was in his hands today, as that's exactly what Luke did. Ben couldn't hide his smile. He grabbed his last pair of clean clothes, then took off, toward the refresher.
Space stations were a funny thing. They were filled with travelers from all over the galaxy and from all walks of life. Ben had grown up in the midst of the Senate, surrounded by Senators and aids of every race in the Republic, and yet still his homeworld didn't hold a candle to most ports.
"It's just outrageous that she would keep a secret like this." A HoloReport played on the wall as Ben walked into the main corridor of the station. It looked like entertainment news so Ben paid it no attention. He found the refresher and paid the credits for a sonic shower. Just as he predicted the water pressure was terrible. It took an entire second shower to get off the last layer of grime.
Once clean, Ben toweled himself off and dressed. It was nice to feel this clean. He'd never take this feeling for granted again. Ben put the dirty clothes into his bag and left the refresher. He'd love to spend more time on the station, perhaps getting something to eat other than military-grade rations, but he had pushed his luck far enough securing that shower.
"How can the public ever trust any member of that family again?" another HoloReport said. "We've talked a lot about Senator Organa, but what about Jedi Master Skywalker?"
Ben stopped dead in his tracks and looked over at the HoloNet screen.
"He claims to be training the new generation of Jedi on some backward planet," a conservative looking woman on the screen said, "but can we really trust what he says? If he's anything like his father then he could really be training the next generation of Sith."
Ben rolled his eyes. Reporters always came up with the most outlandish things to discredit people. That was a fact Ben had to come to terms with long ago, growing up in the shadow of his mother's spotlight. He had even become victim to such preposterous rumors himself.
"Can you really make such a comparison?" the woman's co-host asked. "He's training the next generation of Jedi. Darth Vader killed the last. If anything, it seems to be Master Skywalker is trying to make up for the sins of his father."
"Or is that just what he wants you to think? Why else would he and Senator Organa keep their father true identity as Darth Vader a secret?"
Everything went blurry and sound seem to turn to static. What? That couldn't…that wasn't true. No, these reporters were making up lies, just like they always did. Ben blinked until his vision came back into focus. What nonsense station was this anyway? The Galactic Enquirer? He checked the source…HoloNet News, a real, creditable news station.
No, it still didn't make any sense. Their source was mistaken. Luke and Leia were not the children of Darth Vader. Ben knew because if they were that would make him the grandson of Darth Vader and there was no way that was true. It was…it was ridiculous. His grandfather, the biological one at least, was Anakin Skywalker, one of the last great Jedi, slain by Darth Vader. To try to tarnish his legacy with such a preposterous rumor was cruel.
Ben turned on his heel and took off in a sprint back to the hanger. He didn't believe the HoloReport for a second…but he still needed to hear confirmation from Luke's own ears.
Luke was by Ben's own cockpit, checking the data from Ben's astromech's scans. Forcing himself back down to only a quick walk, he pretended to present as calm. It failed. There was no way Luke couldn't read the worry coming off Ben in waves. "How's she doing?" Ben asked, way too fast. He patted the nose of his X-Wing and force a smile on his lips.
Luke looked over at him, scanning him from head to toe. Ben nervously twitched as his uncle saw everything, not just Ben's nervous body language but also the force energy around him.
"What happened?" Luke asked.
"Nothing," Ben lied. Why lie when he came here to confront Luke about the report in the first place? Well, conversations between the two could never be equal. Ben was never allowed to keep any of his cards close to the chest, not when his uncle was practically omniscient. Only in Ben's wildest dreams did he ever come close to that kind of power. One day he would be a master like Luke, but that was in the far off future. For now, he fought for every ounce of privacy between him and his master. He wanted to ask Luke about the HoloReport, but only on his own terms.
"Your emotions are showing," Luke chastised. "You need to practice your breathing exercises."
"A HoloReport said that Mom and your father is really Darth Vader…that's ridiculous, right?" Ben blurted out. He could sense the information caught Luke off guard and Ben couldn't help the tug of a smirk on his lips as he regained an ounce of power.
"Where did you hear that?" Luke asked. For once it was Luke's emotions out of control. They hit Ben like crashing waves, more intense than he had ever felt before. Anger, despair, confusion, and shock. But what did it all mean? If Luke knew this was just a silly rumor why would he still be having such a strong reaction to it?
"I told you a HoloReport…HoloNet News," Ben clarified.
Luke turned his datapad on and searched the HoloNet. Ben looked up Luke's shoulder as report after report showed, all referencing Darth Vader as the father of Senator Leia Organa and Master Luke Skywalker.
"Uncle Luke," Ben said one more time, "This is ridiculous, right?"
Luke shut off the datapad and looked over at his nephew. "We always planned on telling you—"
The world went fuzzy again. Luke continued to talk but Ben couldn't make out the words. They were too far away. A couple of words like "decision" and "older" broke through, but without any context. Ben's knees felt weak and he had to lean against his X-Wing.
"Breathe. In and out. Controlled." Luke's words finally broke through. He was trying to guide Ben through meditation techniques.
Sithspit! Ben didn't need a guided meditation, he needed answers.
His hands reacted without thought; he raised them as he sent a telekinetic wave tumbling at Luke, knocking the older man off his feet. Ben used the moment that Luke was caught off guard to dash up the ladder and into his cockpit. He started his X-Wing faster than he ever had before, skipping all sorts of safety protocols. Alarms blared. He wasn't cleared for takeoff, but that didn't matter. The X-Wing rose, turned itself toward the hanger bay doors and took off.
Instead of returning to the Jedi Temple Ben input the coordinates for Hosnian Prime. It was still a few hours out, but much closer than the temple. Core Worlds tended to have more hyperspace lanes that led to them. The hours he had left in space gave Ben time to work through his disbelief. Vader was his grandfather. There was no more lingering doubt about that. But now the question wasn't if the HoloReport was valid, but why such a secret would be kept from him? Was it because his parents and Luke didn't trust him? Did they fear him knowing the truth? Ben always had some, in his opinion, minor, anger problems. But they were under control. Ben always thought his mother sent him to train with Luke because becoming a Jedi was his legacy. He was to be a great Jedi, wasn't he? But did Leia really just sent him away to keep him controlled? Were Luke and Leia just trying to stop him from falling to the dark side like his grandfather? Was that his true legacy?
All these questions, and more, plagued him during the long ride in hyperspace.
The HoloNet also preoccupied Ben's time during the flight. When Luke and Ben arrived at the space station their communication devices synced up with the aforementioned HoloNet. Ben hadn't had time to check any messages during his short time on the station, but now he had plenty. There were dozens of HoloProjections waiting to be played, the majority of them from three weeks ago. So that was when the news broke. Ben scrolled through them, overwhelmed by the outreach. People he had hadn't spoken to in years had left messages. He couldn't imagine any were kind.
Ben continued to scroll through until he found one from someone he actually cared about. Finally, toward the end of the messages, was one from his mother. It was delivered many days after the others. Ben was only an afterthought for her.
He pressed played. A blue, low quality, hologram of his mother projected in front of his eyes. She frowned as she spoke.
"I'm not even sure what to say," Leia's hologram said. It flickered on and off every couple of seconds. "I'm assuming by this point you already know, but if by some miracle you haven't, here it is." There was a long pause, so long that it couldn't have just been technological interference. "I've told you about my adoptive parents, Bill and Breha. And I discovered my biological parentage when I was about your age. Much as their lives really were a mystery to me. My biological mother was a Naboo senator who died toward the end of the Clone Wars. My father was a Jedi who served during the wars. I'm told he was a great Jedi and even a great man. But something went wrong.
"That dark side that Luke has always warned us about, my father fell to its temptations. And he didn't just fall. My father's true identity was Anakin Skywalker…but he was also Darth Vader.
"I know you might be struggling with this revelation. It was never my intention to keep this from you, Ben, I swear. I always planned on telling you one day, but the timing never worked out. You never should have found out this way, though, and for that, I'm truly sorry."
Perhaps the apology would have soothed his rage if Ben wanted it to be soothed. But he was so distraught by this betrayal of trust that it didn't matter what Leia said. All her words did was convince him of her insincerity. There was more to this. There was malicious intent behind Leia's actions. And Ben was going to prove it.
Right outside of the Hosnian system Ben slowed down to light speed. Soon after he received landing clearance on Hosnian Prime to park his X-Wing in a prime hanger bay in the Senate district. As the son of a senior senator, Ben had been afforded many privileges over the years, but priority landing clearance was not one of them. Such a spot was usually reserved for the senators themselves and the dignitaries there by request. For Ben to receive such a spot meant that someone—someone high up—put the request through. With his mother's recent disgrace from the Senate, he could only guess who's favor she had called in to make that happen.
By the time he landed, Leia and Han were already in the hanger, waiting for him.
Ben set the X-Wing down and disembarked from the cockpit, his silent anger brewing with each second that passed. Anxious energy flowed off of Leia, much more than Han. She must have felt Ben's energy too, which said a lot about how angry Ben really was, because her force powers were not nearly as attuned as a real Jedi's.
"Hey kiddo," Han said, a placating smile on his lips. It was rare that he was the peacekeeper of the three. Actually, it was rare that any of them attempted such a position. "Been a long time since the three of us were all in the same place at the same time.
Ben looked around at the hanger. All eyes were on them. The spawn of Darth Vader, both daughter and grandson, must be quite the spectacle to watch. No matter how he felt, Ben could table these feelings until they were in private. No need to feed the gossip.
"Did you watch my HoloProjection?" Leia asked.
Ben glared at her. His seething anger should have answered that question. "I'm not having this out with you in public," he told her.
Leia and Han nodded. The family shut their mouths and left the hanger. There were stares the entire way back to Leia's apartment. Once all three were inside the apartment, and the electric doors of the foyer swished closed, Ben started screaming.
"How could you do this to me?" The words echoed off the walls of the empty room. The apartment had changed drastically since Ben's last visit. Leia had never been big on decorating, but now most of her furniture was gone and the rest of her things were in boxes. Leia must be losing her home in addition to her resignation. Ben didn't bother taking a moment to ask about it, though.
"Did you watch my HoloProjection?" Leia asked, once more. Her voice was calm, controlled, and with a hint of superiority, just like it was when she was pacifying a Centrist senator.
"That message was karking Sithspit!" Ben said.
Han stepped between the mother and son. "I know you're pissed at us, but you do not talk to your mother like that."
Ben stood up straight and glared, letting his muscles and the couple of inches he had on Han do the talking.
"We always planned to tell you, Ben," Leia said. "But your father and I agreed you were too young before you went to train with Luke. And after, well, like I said in the message, the timing never worked out."
Ben sidestepped his father. "About that. Is this why you sent me away?" Ben asked. "Did you not trust me? Did you think I was going to fall to the dark side too?"
"No," Han said.
At the same moment Leia said, "Yes."
Han looked over at his wife, his brows wrinkled. Ben's heart sank. His worst fears were true. After all he had done to train as a Jedi, after all the sacrifices he'd made, she thought he was evil.
Before Ben could speak Han did. "No, we sent Ben to train with Luke because he had such strong force potential. We didn't want to do it but we knew it was the right thing, for him and the galaxy. Ben's going to become a great hero, just like Luke, and help usher in the next generation of Jedi."
Leia took a deep breath. "Yes, that's what I told you."
The room spun. So not only did his mother not trust him, but his father was a laser-brained moron who had no idea what was happening in his own household. Ben had to sit down, and did so on a metal moving crate.
"You suspected that my son was going to turn to the dark side and you said nothing to me?" Han said.
"I said nothing to no one," Leia said. She turned back to Ben. "I felt a…dark presence trying to manipulate you when you were young. Something your father and I weren't equipped to protect you from. But Luke was. He could teach you to protect yourself from the darkness and learn to embrace the light side of the force."
"You should have told me," Han said.
"And worry you too? There was nothing either of us could do about it." She looked back at Ben, her eyes blinking back tears. "I was just trying to do what was best for you. And I hope I have. Luke has trained you very well."
"Karking Sithspit," Ben said, rising to his feet once more. "You thought I was defective and you sent me away."
"No." Leia's voice was gentle again. She stepped towards Ben, but not before he could open his cloak and grab his lightsaber with telekinesis. A blue beam of energy shot out of it, forming a saber. Leia froze in place while Ben pointed it at her.
"Stay the kark away from me." He sent another wave of telekinesis out, this time aimed at both his parents, knocking them to the ground, and ran out the main foyer's doors. While he didn't get the chance to look back at them his senses told him that they didn't hit the ground hard. They were okay, just upset, so he kept on running even after he realized what he'd done. He attacked his parents. He let his anger get the best of him. Leia was wrong. Luke hadn't done a very good job of protecting Ben from the darkness.