AN: Actually there are four part of the chapter...here is the second part...more family fluff, silliness and of course angst! Darkside Leia...gulp...
Chapter thirty nine - Darkside family of the past
"VADER?" thundered Leia and jumped back from the pillow on the floor, like it could hurt her and then she took a definite step forward it with her fists clenched, like she was going to pummel the dark pillow case into submission. "You will not hurt my family!"
"No, no, no! She's not Vader. That was just because stupid uncle wanted me to make her darkside in my essay...and that was only name I could think of! I'm sorry!" yelled Ben, who jumped out of bed to shield the pillow case behind him protectively, like his mom was about to cut it down with scissors and that would somehow result in damaging the real Rey...in real life.
"Calm down...!" said his mother, though really she should take her own advice, since she was awfully afraid and angry at a innocent, but dark pillow case. Luke even looked a little startled over the mother and son behaviour, even though he had been the cause of it, but did nothing to help as usual.
Leia picked Ben up of the cold floor to put him back in bed, but her son fought her to get back to the pillow case.
"And it doesn't mean anything even if I was Padmé!" he yelled with all his soul, like he could somehow reach Rey/Vader across the galaxy.
What...?
KR: We already knew that.
But...I...this is some...I don't believe this...
KR: Not my problem.
Snoke is behind this...he must have been...he is behind us being stuck in here...
KR: Perhaps...
"What...?" Leia looked stunned between panting son in her arms and brother behind her, who stopped looking over his precious ancient Jedi relics on his bed and instead focused all of his attention on his enigma of a nephew.
"I have no idea..." Ben glanced at the Rey-pillow over his mother's shoulder like it could answer what the kriff did he just shout. The pillow had no face anymore, so he was met with nothing but darkness. It made him felt empty, like there was something missing in his life...and soul.
Leia put her son back in bed and put the comforter over him, as one thing hadn't changed and that was that Ben was sick.
While Luke, sat down heavily in the chair before Ben's bed, shook his head and ran a hand tiredly over his face. "Not this again."
"Again...? Please tell me the whole story from the beginning," commanded Leia, who sat down on the edge of Ben's bed, while her brother started the tale, with Ben sometimes chipping in or changing things, when he felt his uncle was skipping important parts or embellishing them.
When Leia heard the part where her son had nearly chocked to death and the aftermath of it, the trauma he seemed to life through it from some reason, she gasped in shock and lifted him from his bed into her arms. Then she took the comforter off the bed and wrapped it around him and held him protectively to her chest. His mother seemed to be reliving the traumatising events through the simple retelling, but this time she was by his side when it happened, something she wished she could have done.
"Mommy is here and nothing will hurt you...ever again," she muttered into his ear and rubbed his small back. "Ever again."
"Mom..." Ben hugged her fiercely back as he had wanted to do, when she was nowhere to be found when he needed her most. He was glad to have her now as his anchor in his stormy life, when he was both so dazed from fever and all the new information he kept getting into his exhausted and sick mind. He had no idea, that he had shouted that or even what that all meant. He knew the names though, but that didn't tell him anything. Ben hoped he could get some definite answers from his mother, now that she was here and what it all meant for him and Rey. Why were they connected? How was all of this connected to them? What did it all mean...?
KR: We know that...
I don't think so. If this memory trip has taught me anything, then that is...that things are not always as they seem...
KR: Fine, have it your way...so stupid...
Not listening...
"So you called me..because of that?" Leia said to Luke, when she heard why he tried to call her the first time and left a voice message, about Ben becoming mad. That it was in fact not because Ben had trashed his office, but because he was in great danger from something unseen...and unknown. Something inside...his head...
"Yes, and we couldn't reach you..." said Luke sadly. "Nor Han..." He glanced at the holowiever in his pocket, like he was hoping it would call back. Ben wasn't sure what he wanted any more. Did he want to hear from his father? What would that accomplish? He didn't know anything...anymore...
"I'm sorry, that's why I had turned on my com-link so you could call me next time and I'm glad I did, or I wouldn't have been able to help my little angel right away. I will have an emergency com-link from now on, so you will always be able to reach me at a moment's notice," said Leia and Luke smiled over the news.
"I'm glad to hear that, and same you will be able to reach us while we travel." The twins gazed into others eyes and smiled content, happy to be able to establish a connection, though they could've just used a mind-link but they seemed to only want to use it in a extreme emergencies, for some reason.
Right...she was never that easy to get a hold on...
KR: You are being unfair, mothers are really busy.
Wha...who are you?
KR: A mother. You witnessed me going through labour...did that look fun to you?
No...painful...but...
KR: And my life was being drained away at the same time, so top that, all other pregnant mothers!
No, they shouldn't...but...
KR: Plus my life was given to the most awesome man in the galaxy. You guessed it...!
Are you mad...or happy that Vader took your life...? I mean if you...are...or were his wife...
KR: I am his wife, forever and ever! Mad...? Why would I be...mad...? He didn't do it on purpose and I saved his life!
So you are not mad...over your death? Over the fact that you died from your children?
KR: No, I'm mad because I died from my Vader!
Why did I even ask?
KR: I don't know. Stop asking stupid questions! And I got my Vader back! I just need to wake him up!
Please don't...
"That's good to hear. I'm so sorry, sweetie. I had no idea what you were going through." Leia put her son back in bed with the comforter over him, took a seat beside him and stroke his hair soothingly. His uncle went back to check over the relics and planning their trip.
"Don't worry about those things and just try to sleep, sweetie."
KR: Listen to your mother...
Shut up.
"But...I...don't remember...this..." said Ben, scared that he had no answers to even what happened to his own body and looked pleadingly at his mother, hovering and fussing over him, hoping she had some. He couldn't rest sooner.
"How do you know Obi-Wan?" His mother gave him suspiciously look, as if he had gotten in with a bad crowd instead of a nice Jedi, plus like Obi was the root of all his problems and the most important piece of the puzzle.
KR: Obi-Wan sucks!
Why?
KR: He killed...I mean maimed my Vader...
But he kind...of rescued you...and the children...mom and uncle...
KR: HE HURT MY VADER!
Oookay...
"Obi-Wan...? I'm kind of named after him, right...? Or rather...his nickname," said Ben annoyed and confused, that he was named after a nickname. Like he was just footnote in a larger story or he was supposed to top his namesake somehow.
"Yes, named after my only hope." Leia beamed at him, since unlike him, she loved his name and kept ruffling his hair affectionally. "My Ben Solo. Only Hope, Solo." She kissed his hair.
KR: She could've just named you hope, talking about being on the nose!
Hey...how did you name your...children...? Her and my uncle?
KR: I just said whatever came into my head...mere moments before my death!
I hope...that's not the truth...
KR: Of course not, my Ani...I mean Pre-Vader...
Pre...Vader?
KR: Yeah, we had discussed baby names...but we thought it was only going to be a boy and I had no idea there were twins!
You didn't have a checkup?
KR: No...
That's weird...
KR: When you mentioned it...it is! Pre-Vader was just too busy...changing to my Vader...so ya, that evens it out!
How?!
"That's about it...I don't know...him...I think..." said Ben and grabbed his head in pain as he tried to make sense of everything. "I think..."
"You can't have known him, he was long dead before you were born," said his uncle firmly from where he was looking over relics, his back to mother and son. His stern tone sounded like he was trying to explain to him a very simple force lesson, that Ben kept getting wrong for some reason.
"I...know that..." said Ben annoyed, that his uncle thought he was stupid, instead of helping him trying to find answers to this mystery. A yet another mystery. How many mysteries were there? And would he ever find answers to them all?
"You screamed after Ani...?" His mother lifted an eyebrow, like her son was having an illicit affair with someone called Ani.
"Ani...you mean Rey...? I don't remember...anything...except...Rey..." Ben felt it hard to breathe when thinking about Rey's possible future and past and as the world became more confusing for him, the fever didn't help to think clearer.
On the other hand, Leia turned to Luke, like she had it all figured out. "It could be another pretend game." She smiled knowingly at her brother and gave Ben a water bottle to stay hydrated and help get his breathing under control.
"Pretend?" said Luke and turned to his sister, as he hadn't thought about that possibility and his sister nodded, happy with her answer and retrieved the water bottle and put it on the nightstand, after Ben had drunk of it like a thirsty man in a desert.
"Yes, like his Kylo Ren game, this time, he is imagining that he...and his dream girl, are his grandparents Anakin and Padmé...a way to connect with his heritage..understand his past. Children often do that, especially since he never got to know them."
KR: It's not a stupid pretend game!
Ah...that...kind of makes sense...
KR: Kind of?! Seriously, you listen to everything your mom says without any argument...
That's not true...I did rebel...against her...
KR: Very late...in life...
"Oh, that makes sense...as a young man I always felt like...there was something my aunt and uncle weren't telling me about my father. That he was more than just some pilot...and..." Luke joined eagerly in the conversation about their past, but his sister cut him off by waving her hand with dismissal, like it was no big deal.
"Yes, yes...our father was Jedi."
KR: And became my awesome Vader!
But...you were married to Anakin...Pre-Vader...
KR: That was my old weak self! I'm reborn now.
Oh...okay...
KR: Can't wait to meet my Vader again!
Can't wait to meet Rey again...but she is not Vader.
KR: Whatever...you are boring...
I'm not boring!
"So you pretended to be a Jedi...uncle?" asked Ben, as he imagined his uncle in Jedi games and Luke looked shameful, that is was not the case and he shook his head.
"No...I...just always wanted to get away from the farm life...I felt like there was something bigger waiting for me," he drew the curtains from the window and stared dramatically out into the sunny day, like he was staring far out at the horizon, into the sun. Ben just waited for an appropriate music to start, but before that could happen, his mother barked like a general.
"Close the curtains! Ben is trying to sleep. He has a headache for crying out loud!"
Luke closed the curtains with a sheepish look. "Sorry, sister." He sat down in the chair in front of Ben's bed and hung his head, like a porg that had been kicked around.
Leia shook her head over the dramatics and gave her son a pill for his headache and handed him the water bottle.
After he had taken the pill, she said sternly, as from her point of view they had talked enough: "Ben, go to sleep. We can talk about this later, but you need to rest now to get your fever down."
"Why didn't aunt and uncle tell you, your father was a Jedi...?" asked Ben, to get his uncle to tell him more, despite his mother's command, who frowned at him from disobeying her, like it was something unusual.
"Ben..." she said in a warning.
"Because the true story was too...sad..." replied Luke and lifted his head up slightly and met his sister's stern gaze, since he was keeping Ben awake, so he lowered his head again.
"And dark," added his sister, in her "this story is not for children" voice and "you better go to sleep now or there will be trouble."
"Dark how...?" Ben looked between the siblings, even though he knew that voice usually meant he wouldn't get any answers and usually in trouble, if he kept asking. But he had to know more. He was tired of secrets in his life.
"That Anakin was killed by...you know...who," said Luke who didn't dare to utter Vader's name in his sister presence again, which was wise and she nodded, grateful that her brother at least did that right.
"Oh...that." Ben shrugged and before either of the siblings, could scold him for that nonchalance or for not going to sleep, he turned to his mother. "Mom, did you play pretend? Did you feel there was something bigger...out there? Your real family...since you were adopted? Some truth about your family?"
"I was too busy fighting for a better galaxy to play any pretend games..or think about things like that. A galaxy that is now peaceful, so you can do all that you want...sweetie," she smiled at him, with simmering anger in her eyes that he didn't obey her for the sake of his healt, even though she hadn't actually obeyed her adoptive parents and participated in the rebellion far too young. "So go to sleep, now," she said through clenched teeth.
"But, how can I be playing a pretend game, when I don't understand anything of this?" said Ben, who had to know this and looked at the siblings for answer, like they knew everything instead of just pretended to or because he knew, they were hiding things from him. Big things.
"What do you mean?" Leia looked at her brother, who stared at Ben, like he was a saber stuck in the ground that he was trying to move with the force.
"I...have visions..." Ben sat up and stared as if he was seeing his Rey right in front of him and reached out for her...in the small glimmer of light in the dark room, but the warm and bright daylight was kept outside with curtains.
"Visions...?" Once again Leia looked at her brother for answer, who only seemed worried by his nephew's words, but held no answers.
"And...I don't understand what is the link between Padmé...and Vader...?" said Ben and his mother turned to him sharply and glowered at him, like he had done it: "The only link between Padmé and Vader, is that he killed her."
KR: HEY!
But it's true.
KR: Yeah...but it's not the only link...come on...
"It is...? How did Ani betray Padmé...? Or Padmé...betray him...?" Ben grabbed his head, like he could dig the answers out there instead of asking the siblings. Maybe the answers would come to him in a...dream?
"By bringing her to Vader," said Leia, without even acknowledging Anakin, her father in that sentence. Like that Padmé, her mother could never have betrayed Anakin.
KR: Which is so riiight!
But Anakin could betray you...?
KR: Anakin...Pre-Vader...did but Vader would never!
You are getting harder and harder to talk to...
"Eeeh...how did he do...I mean why...?" said Ben and stared at his mother in front of him, who suddenly seemed to want to give him all the answers. At least the answers, she wanted him to hear.
"He thought Vader was their friend...he betrayed them both," said his mother and his uncle only nodded along and allowed Leia to tell the story, like she had been their in person, which they kind of both were, just inside their mother belly, so not really reliable witnesses.
"Oh...that sucks...then where does Obi-Wan fit in...?" Ben chewed his thump as he tried to puzzle everything together. Yet another mystery in his life...or past.
"He was going to save them...both," said Leia and Luke hesitated, like he wanted to say something else, but then he just nodded.
KR: No, he was going to kill my VADER!
But he didn't...
KR: No, he just made him suffer while burning alive!
So you would have wanted Obi to kill Vader...
KR:NO!
What do you want...?
KR: Vader...I just want my Vader back...but I...got him...back...?
You really are losing it!
KR: I don't know anything...anymore...except Vader...
Rey...
"Where does Vader fit into it...this? My family...game?" said Ben and looked at the dark Rey pillow on the floor under the window, with the curtains drawn. She was all alone.
"Vader...? I thought I had explained he doesn't..." said his mom firmly and glowered at the pillow, for giving her son weird and bad ideas.
Ben looked away from the Rey pillow to his mother. "But...I feel like he does...I don't understand..."
"What's going on here?" Leia looked fiercely at Luke, like it was all his fault, that her son was losing hold of reality and had some strange obsession with Vader, when it was forbidden.
"He...called for him!" Luke was quick to shift the blame and pointed at the Rey-pillow, like it was all its fault, that Ben was rambling about some things from the past...a past he shouldn't know.
"Rey is just Rey," said Ben and as on a cue, small streams of light came from under the curtains and landed on the pillow case, so it wasn't completely dark any more and with small lines of yellow. Ben frowned at the messiness on the pillow and was about to reach for it to clean the ink off, to redraw her, when his mother stilled his hand and shook her head.
When Ben was about to object, she gave him a new pillow case and a marker from the Ben bag, instead of his calligraphy pencil to draw with and said firmly: "You can draw her, but afterwards it is straight to bed."
"Okay, mom," he accepted everything from his mom.
"Now, I have explained to you that Vader killed both...your grandfather and grandmother. So please take him out your equation immediately. He's evil." Leia handed him a tray, that somehow fit into the bag, so he had a flat surface to draw on.
"Yes, mom," Ben took the tray, put it over his knees on the comforter and set to draw Rey on the new pillow case with the marker. As usual he started to hum the imperial march, but the tune died on his lip, the moment his mother shoot him such a dark look, that he instantly changed it into the innocent Hub Nub song, which his mom approved of by nodding.
KR: Kriff...the biggest anti-Vader to date...
We knew that...in fact, I think Luke is only anti-Vader because of mom...because he knows how she feels about him...and he is very...scared of her...can't blame him...
KR: Hmm..that would make sense...still stupid...he should think for himself...like someone I know...
Was that shot at me?
KR: Perhaps...
"So that's why, you gave him fish oil...because of Vader," said Leia to Luke who nodded, as Ben was lost in his Rey-world once again and humming, but this time he had made up an entirely new song for Rey, by playing the imperial march backwards. Thankfully his mom, couldn't tell or he would get into big trouble.
KR: Impressive. Most impressive.
I wrote a...song for her...?
KR: By using the imperial march...
I hope she never finds out about that!
"That's a beautiful song...and sad..." Leia said, as the tune was unrecognisable as the imperial one and in fact was way more romantic and hopeful, more fitting for his image of Rey.
"Thank you. It's the Rey's theme." Ben grinned that his mother didn't know how he had composed it, before continuing drawing and humming Rey's theme, which he made more complicated as he drew her in greater detail.
"You wrote a song for her? So, you are really are into her, huh," said his mother with a tease and gave him a light nudge, but not enough to ruin his picture, so Ben could just continue drawing and humming, since the answer should be obvious anyway.
Luke, however could tell his nephew was up to no good, especially since he was acting so innocent, so he decided to ruin that innocent image.
"Not only that, but he also wrote a poem for her." He picked up the notebook from Ben's duffel bag on the floor.
Ben's singing died on his lips and he met his uncle's gaze with pleading "not to show her" in his eyes, while Leia clapped her hands together in excitement over the news.
"A poem! Ooh, I have to see that! I didn't know you were a poet...oh wait, you wrote me a poem once...so you are still writing poetry. I'm happy to hear that." She accepted the book from his uncle and smiled proudly at her son, like he had had become a senator.
KR: You wrote a poem for her?
When I was...what six? Mommy you are the best in the galaxy. I love you forever and ever. That's hardly a poem.
KR: No...and this...Rey poem is going to get you into BIG trouble...
What poem...on no!
"No, no, you don't need to see that..." Ben put the tap on the marker with a pop, after finishing the new drawing of Rey and tried to get the book away from his mom, before she could even opened it.
His mother held it out of reach from him to tease him, as she didn't understand his desperation. "Why not...? Ooh, are you too shy. Come on, you don't have to be shy for me. I'm your mom."
"No, it's not that..." Ben bit his lip, as his mother opened the book and she turned the pages and carefully observed each and one of them, like she was imprinting them into her memory.
At first she just smiled at the drawings or was impressed by the work, until she reached the one with the Vader helmet. To Ben's relief, Leia only furrowed her brow in confusion and looked at him with a strange look, but didn't comment on it.
However her eyes got darker as they ran over the darkside Rey pictures which made Ben gulp, but what really made her blood boil, was when she finally reached the poem and read the last lines out loud.
"Vader...rule the galaxy..." Leia hand trembled in rage and fright around the pages, as if she wasn't in Jedi Academy anymore with her son and brother, but far away in the past, staring as her home planet being destroyed in front of her eyes...with everything she loved...
"It's...not the only things I talk about in the poem...ow!" Ben grabbed his sore cheek and stared at his mother, shocked out of his core, who lowered her slapping hand and pointed at him with great fury in her eyes.
"No more Vader...you are lucky that you are sick," She ripped the page out and crumbled it forcefully. "Or I would deal with you properly." Her intense dark stare was full of hatred, like they had just become enemies for life or if she planned on making him drink a whole bottle of fish oil as a punishment.
I thought this was supposed to be a fluffy...dreamworld memory!
KR: Nope...this is...was real...
Kriff...I'm dead...
KR: Yub. Nice darkside though...Leia was always closer...to it...
The galaxy would not have survived her...
KR: The galaxy is lucky, that she is on their side...
Too bad she was never on ours...I mean...mine...
KR:...too bad indeed...
"I'm...lucky...?" Ben felt ice cold grip his heart and he dropped the tray with the pillow-case to floor with a loud bang. "That..I'm sick...?" He asked in disbelief that his own mother wanted him to never get better. That she had given up on him like that. Without even a chance to explain himself or make things right again. The woman who always held hope, had no for him.
"Leia..." scolded Luke and was torn between console Ben or calming down his sister, who always lost it when she heard the name Vader. He chose to do nothing, instead of interfering with the mother-son fight, like it was none of his business or because he was afraid of messing it up even more, since once again he was the cause of it.
Ben's lips quivered and tears started pooling in his eyes. The slap hurt, but the words had done way more damage. He looked at the door, as the thought about just going through it and never return, since he wasn't wanted there and of course go and get his Rey...that might have been Vader, meaning she would never fit in with his family. This judgmental...and unfair family, that never listened to reason and only went by their emotions. No matter who got hurt. No matter if they were family.
However, the darkside vanished from Leia's eyes instantly as if she had been possessed, when she finally saw and felt Ben's distress through the force.
In shock over what she had done, she threw the crumbled paper to the ground and grabbed her trembling son in a tight embrace, before he could get away from her. "OH, NO! Sweetie, I didn't mean that...it was just Vader...I'M SO SORRY! Don't be afraid. I feel it too. Mommy is here. I will help you be healthy again, of course I will. I promise." His mother kissed his sore cheek over and over and rocked him in her arms to soothe him down and make him stop crying and see that he was loved again. "No need to cry. Mommy loves you. Mommy will always love you. See."
She leaned over to pick up the pillow from the ground. "I will tell you what, I can sow after those lines, then you will never have to worry about losing Rey...I mean the picture again. Okay?" His mother pulled the pillow cover off, as a truce and put it on the tray to able to work on it.
"Really?" The corner of Ben's mouth lifted slightly at the mention of some form of Rey in his life. The darkness was slightly getting chipped away from his heart.
"And I will sow that poem at the backside. Can you write it in for me? You have such a beautiful handwriting," his mother handed him the tray with the pillow cover along with a marker. She picked up the crumbled paper of the floor, straightened it out so he could read it and put it on the tray as well.
"Okay," said Ben, who went straight to work and back into his Rey-world. No singing this time, too risky. Not when he got his mom back.
Mom made a...Rey pillow for me?
KR: Clearly.
What happened to it...?
KR: You lost it...like everything else...
I kind of got everything back again.
KR: You will lose it once more...
As long as I don't lose Rey...then I will survive...
KR: Same as long as I have Vader...
Rey...
"So is Rey's full name, Ani Rey Padmé?" said Luke as he leaned over Ben where he sat in bed and was scribbling down the poem on the pillow case, like it was some sacred Jedi text.
"No, just Ani...I mean Rey," said Ben without taking his eyes of his writing.
"So you...are Padmé?" His uncle tilted his head, like he was trying to see his nephew differently. "Our..mother...?"
"I'm Ben. Stop interrupting me, uncle. I'm writing," snapped Ben at him and Luke backed away to the safety of his relics.
"Sorry."
"It's just a game, Luke," said Leia who sat beside her son and rubbed his back, like she never wanted to leave him.
"Then how come he didn't even understand what he was playing?" pointed Luke out.
"You make a strong point..." Leia looked at Ben for answers, who at that moment finished the last line, so that got all of the attention.
"Finished." He lifted the pillowcase proudly and his mom patted his head as a reward for a job well done.
"Good boy, so beautiful. Very feminine writing."
"Feminine?" He tilted his head over that description and grimaced. His uncle was surprised as well.
"That's not bad, son, it means it's beautiful," said his mother as she accepted the pillowcase and starting sowing into it, first the picture of Rey, since that was top priority for Ben.
"Oh...okay..." replied Ben, like he didn't believe her words, as he watched Rey being stitched together in front of him.
"But why...in this game, I mean does he say, he is his grandmother...? Our mother? Isn't that weird...? I mean...he is a boy..." whispered Luke conspiratorially, like Ben didn't know what gender he was. "Wouldn't it make more sense, if he was Anakin...? Our...father..."
"Because he has worn her dresses, and frankly I think it's cute. Our mother was senator just like me, so I like that role model...way better than some...stupid Jedi," said Leia, without looking up from her sowing or pausing in the slightest.
"You do?" asked Ben, like he had been waiting all his life for her to say those words.
His mother looked up from the sowing to meet his soulful gaze, with a adoring smile. "Yes."
KR: She likes me better..than stupid Anakin...Pre-Vader? I'm touched.
Of course she does...stupid...I mean Anakin, my grandfather...their father, became Vader...whom she hates...like you saw, she better not hate Rey...I mean...erm if Rey happened to have been Vader...no one can hate Rey. No one.
KR: I think Snoke does.
Snoke is an idiot...wait, he knows about Rey...?
KR: Maybe.
How...?
KR: I don't know...
HOW!
KR: I said I don't know! Maybe he doesn't, okay...
So you were just fooling around...
KR: Maybe...
Stop that!
KR: Sorry...I wish Leia could get over being an anti-Vader, then she would be perfect and it's true, I was a senator...and she followed in my footsteps...now she just have to be darkside...
She never going dark. Why do you hate the senate today?
KR: The senate sucks!
I can't argue with that...
KR: Hehe, our Leia thinks the Jedi are stupid as well...
And probably the Siths as well...
KR: Not the Siths!
"Hey...Jedi are not stupid...I'm a Jedi...master...and teaching your son to be a Jedi. Leia, you are kind of undermining me here..." whined Luke as he went over whatever he could salvage of his relics. "Who kind of ruined my school."
"That wasn't nice." Leia frowned at her son sternly, before going back to sowing.
"I'm sorry, but I don't want to be a stupid Jedi. I want to be a smuggler," pointed Ben out, like the hundred time.
"Well, you can't...why don't you want to be a senator, like your mommy?" said Leia, and turned the pillow over to sow in the poem.
"Senators suck...erm not you mom, you rock...but the others..." said Ben quickly, so she wouldn't misunderstand him.
"I get what you are saying. Many of them are kind of...useless..." Leia sowed in the poem at lightspeed, without making a single mistake.
"Exactly. I mean it was the senate's fault that Palpatine, Darth Sidious the Sith lord, got to be an emperor...oh wait...it was mine." Ben stopped, deep in thought, as if he had just figured that out.
"Yours...?" Leia stopped her sowing to look at her brother for answer, who as usual, had no idea what was going on.
"I mean I made Jar Jar Bink a senator...who was the one who helped him rise to power...why on Naboo...out of everyone I could chose to take my place...while I went into hiding with my Ani..." said Ben and uttered the name Ani like it was something sweet on his tongue.
KR: Jar Jar was nice.
You...like Jar Jar...?
KR: What? He helped me make an important alliance with the Gungans during the invasion on Naboo...it was just a bad move on my part to make him a senator, not his fault...very bad move.
You...are standing up...for Jar Jar...?
KR: Just saying, that gungan is getting a bad rep...but if it's wasn't for him the empire wouldn't exist, so in fact it was great move! Hey! Maybe...he was in fact a Sith Lord himself!
I can't believe what I'm hearing...
KR: All hail Darth Jar Jar Binks!
Leia smiled as widely as someone had just brought back Alderaan. "You have been reading up on politics history! Mommy is so proud!" She hugged him tightly and kissed him on his head.
"No...I haven't..." said Ben, who even though he loved reading, he had never heard that version of that story, so where did it come from?
"Then how do you know this stuff...?" again Leia looked at her brother who shrugged his shoulders.
"I don't...know..." replied Ben, afraid of his unknown knowledge of the past, that kept getting deeper for some reason.
"You didn't teach him?" asked Luke and Leia shook her head. "Not...in such detail."
"Weird..." said Luke and Leia stared intently at into her son's eyes, like he was turning into someone else. Ben just stared back and tilted his head, like that would help understand what his mother was trying to do.
Jar Jar is a detail?
KR: Darth Jar Jar is very important!
Okay, okay...
After she didn't find anything after inspecting her son she turned to Luke with scowl. "Stop trying to kill your nephew...our son...it's messing with his head...some more...though the politics part is okay...but still no hurting him! Just give a history holo instead, far safer," she said it as if Luke's plan had been to knock his nephew out so he could get some knowledge through the force that way...or politics.
"I'm not trying to hurt him...he just keeps getting himself in dangerous...dark situation," said Luke and frowned at his naughty nephew, who stuck his tongue out at him. His uncle shook his head over his naughtiness.
"He's here to be protected from monsters not be treated like one. You really hurt my little angel...and frightened him..." Leia grabbed and squeezed her son in a protective hug.
"You frightened me, too mommy," pointed Ben out with a hint of accusation in his voice and looked up into her eyes.
"I'm very sorry about that. Won't happen again." His mother kissed his head and want back to sowing.
"And you hurt me...you said nothing would ever hurt me again...and you...were the one who hurt me..." said Ben.
"I'm sorry...but I hurt you because I love you," Leia said as she thread a needle into the pillow.
"Huh...that doesn't make any sense." Ben watched as the poem was close to finish.
His mother showed him that it was done by holding it up so he could inspect it. "I don't ever want lose you...my angel."
"I don't want to lose you either..." he said and nodded happy with her work.
KR: Are you crying...?
It's...hard...not too...
KR: Can't blame ya...
"I'm sorry too, but I had to stop him...I'm sorry," Luke bowed his head to both mother and son.
"Did you use your metallic hand on him...? Because if you did..." Leia glared at her brother, in full rancor mamma mode, as if she was thinking of cutting his other arm off and with his own saber for hurting her son.
KR: Hehe, darkside Leia is so cool.
What about darkside Luke?
KR: He's cool too...too bad, he only uses darkside against us!
Yeah...that kinds of sucks...I mean I don't want him to use darkside!
KR: Why do my children only use their darkside against me...? So unfair...
It is...
"No! Never. I'm really, really sorry..." said Luke was quick to hide his hands behind his back, before his sister got any wild ideas.
"Yes, he did," said Ben and began to put the the Rey-pillow case over Wicket, since he wanted to use her as his teddy bear instead.
"BEN!" shouted Luke, not happy to be at the mercy of his nephew and maybe because it was wrong to hide poor Wicket like that.
"He did...?" Leia glanced between nephew and uncle in disbelief and then glowered at Luke who gulped in panic.
Ben nodded to her question. A revenge for how Luke always got him in trouble with his mother, now it was pay back time.
"Ben, please!" shouted Luke, when his sister clenched her teeth, like she was going to eat him in one bite.
"I'm kidding..." mumbled Ben, though the truth was his uncle had used that one, but as it was covered with fake plastic skin, it didn't hurt as much as it should've. So he let it slide...this time, in the hope his uncle would never ever repeat that.
"Ben, that wasn't nice and Luke make sure, it won't happen again. No trying to make him cry uncle. It's not nice, he just a child," scolded Leia as she removed the pillow case of Wicket and put it on a pillow.
Cry uncle?
KR: You did cry uncle, Uncle. It's me Ben! To make him stop...which he did...
Oh...and what does she mean by he just a child, so it's okay for him when I'm an adult?
KR: Of course it is...
Stupid uncle...stupid family...
"I will...I promise...I also comforted him afterwards...right, Ben...Ben..." said Luke and hoped his nephew would back him up a little and not leave him in the dark.
To Luke's relief, Ben nodded to confirm that. "He was very nice to me...he said he...loved me...no matter what..." Ben hugged the new Rey pillow and snuggled into it.
"Of course he does, we all too. I'm glad to hear that he said that...you two seem to have been through so much." Leia gave both uncle and nephew sympathetic look and patted Ben's head.
"We have..." said Luke and Ben just snuggled deeper into the Rey-pillow with a happy sigh, like it would disappear if he let go of it for one minute. He couldn't wait to get back to sleep and dream all the Rey dreams, until he could go and save her in real life.
"I know just the thing to make you relax." Leia picked up a wooden brush from the never-ending Ben bag and Ben jolted up and stiffened in horror, like she had just pulled out a ignited saber.
KR: You think everything is a ignited saber...?
Kind of...because I nearly died by one...
KR: You need help man.
Tell me about it...but that wasn't the reason...for my reaction...
KR: Oh...? Ouch!
Yub...
"It just for your hair, sweetie. You love it, when I do your hair," said his mom worried, that he thought it was anything else and exchanged glances with his uncle, that shared the same sentiment.
Ben visibly relaxed. "I love that you love it..."
"Aww, you are too cute." Leia had him sit on her lap and hugged him close. "You are sounding just like a little senator, so diplomatic." She leaned down to him and whispered into his ear, as she ran her fingers gently on his each side of head, through his dark hair to measure it for braiding. "I'm going to do something extra special for you...my little angel..." She reached for the brush on her side to get started.
KR: I wonder if she is going to do a normal Aldeerian braid or a festive one...? Or a royal!
The kriff...you know the difference...?
KR: Don't you? I remember her teaching you, so you could braid her hair.
Well...yeah...but...
KR: I hope it's the royal one. That one is so cool!
? You really are losing it in here...
KR: So uncivilised!
Next up: Embarrassing "torture" of the past...
Part of Rey's theme is the imperial march backwards.
