"You don't understand!" the woman pleaded, her eyes alight with a fierce fire. She ran her hand through her hair, looking at her husband desperately. "He did the same thing."
Ferrus Kenobi approached his wife with his hands up in a calming gesture. "Reyna, it wasn't anything to be worried about. She's young. She doesn't know what she did. She can't be held responsible for what those boys did."
Reyna licked her lips, hoping tears wouldn't fall from her eyes. "No, Ferrus, Force manifestations don't just escalate like that. Not that badly." She shook her head. "She has… him in her, I know it."
Ferrus could no longer resist, so he took his wife in his arms. She shuddered there, peering over her husband's shoulder at the closed door to their daughter's room. It was once her own room, and she had harbored reservations at putting her in there. Ferrus had insisted Rey's upbringing wouldn't be the same, so it didn't matter where she was. She would be happy no matter what.
"You can't really think that our Rey is capable of what your father was, can you?" Ferrus asked, rubbing Reyna's back gently.
"I don't know, Ferrus. Self-defense is one thing, but what if—"
"What if nothing, Reyna," Ferrus said, pulling back to look at his wife. "She will be with Luke soon. I don't think Luke is capable of instilling any dark qualities in any of his padawans."
Reyna was silent a moment. "I don't want her going. She's only seven. She's too young," she said, and finally her tears fell at the memory of being bended to the will of her father from such a young age. He was a tender father, much to the surprise of any who saw him with her, but where Sheev Palpatine taught Reyna Palpatine to use Force lightning on others, a good father, a father on the side of the light, would have taught his daughter to meditate. To move objects with the Force. To use the Force for good, like Ferrus's father, Obi-Wan, had taught him.
"It's not like it was before, Reyna," Ferrus said, wiping the tears from his wife's eyes. "Our children aren't taken from us, never to be seen again. We may not see her for months at a time, but she will know where home is. They all do."
Reyna sucked her teeth a moment, thinking of all the padawans at Luke's temple. Then she thought of young Ben. "Leia doesn't like it."
Ferrus smiled. "Well, Leia doesn't know if she wants Ben to be a senator or a Jedi. That's the problem. He's pulled in too many directions."
"It would be easier if Rey were educated in politics, and not the Force," Reyna said, noncommittally. She had made a life for herself rebuilding the political infrastructure that her father had torn apart with his destruction of the Republic. Her abilities with the Force served as an intermediary between the New Jedi Order Luke was building, and the Republic.
"Sure," Ferrus chuckled. "But politics is not the right path for a Kenobi. My parents were strong with the Force. We are strong with the Force… This is her true destiny. Just let her go to Luke. I refuse to believe my little girl has any of the dark side in her."
Ferrus's smile was confident—but it always was. And Ferrus had not seen the way Rey had defended herself against those playground bullies. Having seen her using the Force to levitate pebbles, they reacted out of fear and pushed her to the ground. Rey had angered quickly, and when one of the little boys had kicked her while she was down, she shocked him through the Force.
It hadn't been much, but it was enough to knock him on his backside. Reyna had raised her arm to intervene, to pull the children apart with the Force, but Rey was too quick.
Rey had never been a cruel child. She was sweet to a fault. Reyna had lost count of the stray cats that little Rey had "rescued" at the Palpatine country estate. But when teased, or angered, Rey could become volatile. Her tearful meltdowns were enough to set Reyna on edge, fearful of Rey's reactions. Ferrus chalked this up to toddlers being unable to control their emotions, but Reyna always feared its deeper meaning.
With the two of them divided on the meaning of Rey's Force manifestation, they decided it was best to retire for the evening. The next day, Rey acted as if nothing had happened the previous day, but Reyna did not feel safe enough to leave her daughter at home with nannies. After breakfast, she knelt in front of her daughter to ascertain her feelings.
When she felt no anger or confusion, Reyna spoke to her daughter. "Rey… how would you feel about accompanying mummy to the capital today?"
Rey's eyes lit up. She loved visits to the capital building. She was simultaneously excused from her schooling, and also got to visit the most interesting people on Naboo. Beings from different planets, people of different colors. To Rey, this was a treat. To Reyna, this was a precaution.
Bounding up the steps of the capital, Rey raced ahead of her mother as fast as her tiny legs would take her. Pausing at the top of the capital's steps, Rey was positively itching with excitement.
"Mummy, hurry!" she said, holding her hand out for her mother to take when she reached the top, impeded by the heavy and elaborate garb of a senator. Little Rey had been outfitted neatly for the occasion, but nothing she wore could ever hinder her curiosity and excitement over the capital.
"Yes, little dove, I'm coming," Reyna said, smiling. She took her daughter's hand in hers, and together they entered the building with the sloping domes and pillars.
Ben Solo may have been a happy child at some point, but any happiness that was able to grow within him was always extinguished with every fight his parents had. If it wasn't about the months Han Solo spent off planet, abandoning his family (so she said), or Leia's disregard of the family right in front of her when the Republic took up all her energy (so he said), it was something silly. Where they would spend a holiday. What Ben should be learning in school (Han insisted on flight school and then the Jedi Academy, Leia insisted on the Youth Senate).
Ben did think about what he wanted often, but he could never make up his mind. Perhaps if his parents hadn't pulled him in a million different directions he would have been given the chance to find his own path.
So, after an explosive fight, it was decided that Ben would attend the Jedi Academy. Ben had cried that night, but he wasn't sure why. He did want to attend the Academy. But something about it all felt off.
At the young age of eight, Ben Solo began spending four weeks at a time at Luke's Jedi Academy. He was among the first of the padawans, so with time, Ben began accompanying his uncle across the galaxy in search of children with potential. This gave Ben a sense of purpose, a goal. He felt needed, important.
He never felt that way at home. Every four weeks, the padawans were sent home to be with their families for two weeks. Luke had deliberated for some time over how the New Jedi Order would be structured, and in an attempt to avoid collapse, some rules were relaxed. So, padawans returned home, and were encouraged to form attachments to family, and in time, a partner of their choosing.
Snoke's pollution of Ben Solo's mind started slowly. In their first encounter, the mysterious other-worldly being passed Ben in the halls of the senate, giving a silent nod to Senator Organa-Solo, and her young, visiting son Ben. In time, Snoke had been one to whom Leia had confided that she worried Ben would favor the Force over political action. With a crooked smile that spread all the way to his murky eyes, Senator Snoke had suggested he mentor the boy on his visits home.
And for years this is how it remained. Ben Solo would grudgingly come home to bickering parents, and seek reluctant refuge in the senate with his generally palatable, if not slightly odd, mentor. It was a pleasant enough experience.
And then it wasn't.
"What does Luke teach you young padawans at the Academy?" Snoke had said conversationally, sitting across from Ben at his desk.
"Oh," Luke said, averting his eyes respectfully. He had learned to avoid looking at the gaping, concave scar on Snoke's forehead. "The usual. Levitation, meditation, combat skills. Force persuasion is next," Ben said, lighting up. "Luke says I'm not old enough yet, but I am. I'm fifteen!"
Snoke's eyebrows raised comically in forced sympathy. "Oh, I agree my boy," he had croaked. "Fifteen is old enough to be on the senate. Your grandmother had been elected queen when she was only fourteen."
Ben huffed in reply.
"Sounds to me like your Master might be holding back," Snoke offered.
"What do you mean, senator?" Ben said, honestly surprised.
"Well," Snoke started, touching the tips of his fingers together, steepled in contemplation. "There are other areas of the Force your master could teach you. Clearly, a boy of your maturity can handle the intricacies…"
Ben's face shone clear, his dark eyes the size of saucers. "Master Luke has told me the other ways of the Force are the Dark Side. And we should be mindful to not be tempted. Especially…" Ben faltered.
"Because of your grandfather, yes, perfectly understandable," Snoke had agreed.
"Forgive me, Ben, but if I may… It seems as the adults in your life are trying to tell you what to do, but what do you want?"
Ben had never been asked this in his life. Presented with the question now, so openly, Ben was at a loss for words. "I don't know, Senator. I know I want to be a Jedi Master. But… I don't know. I could be a pilot like my father. I could continue into politics like my mother, my grandmother."
Snoke's demeanor suddenly changed before Ben's eyes. He asked him the question he would hear in his dreams for months afterword, and at times in his adult life, he had replayed over and over in his head.
"What if I told you there was something else entirely? Something greater than all those things combined. Something magnificent."
Kylo Ren replayed this conversation in his head. Sometimes he refused outright. Sometimes he simply walked out the door. But every time, he replayed the real end of the conversation at the very last, and knew he could not undo the past.
He had taken the bait. He had asked to know more. And Snoke had shown him. He had polluted his mind against his parents. For years, Snoke taught Ben the ways of the Dark Side of the Force when he returned from the Academy. Ben had begun to live so fractured that he felt he was splitting into two different people. And so, Kylo Ren was born.
"Mummy, can I see the fountains again?" Rey said, bouncing on the settee in her mother's office. Reyna sighed, and looked up at her daughter, whose Rebel pilot doll dangled haphazardly from her hand.
"On our way out, I promise. I'm almost done," she said, smiling warmly, but showing how tired she was.
Rey made a small pout of protest, which melted her mother's heart immediately. Reyna laughed, shaking her head.
"If you go to Vee Burrell's office, I know she'll have sweets for you," she said, a sparkle in her eye. Vee Burrell was on the Senate, and had a soft spot for the young Rey Kenobi. If it gave Rey something to do for the remaining time she needed in the office, it was alright by her.
Rey popped up off the couch and skittered out of the room without saying anything to her mother, a smile broadly displayed on her face. Her tiny footsteps echoed in the vast marble halls of the Naboo Senate. She tore around corners, nearing Madam Burell's office, and was suddenly brought to a halt when she collided into a boy in black.
Rey bounced off his stomach with a discernible "oof," and landed squarely on her backside. She looked up at the person whose bulk had knocked her back. Where most children would immediately tear up, Rey only looked up in awed fascination at the teenaged boy in the black robes, and the alien creature at his side, swathed in the maroon robes of the senate.
The boy, to Rey, was much older, but still she could tell that he wasn't yet an adult. He had a lightness about him that Rey instantly picked up in most children. The boy, with his mop of black shaggy hair, and his pale skin, cracked a small smile, and knelt down to see to Rey.
"Are you okay?" the boy asked.
"Yesthankyou," Rey said, almost stringing her words together, affecting a polite manner, the way her mother taught her to when meeting strangers.
"Would you like some help up?" he asked, holding his gloved hands out for her. Rey felt her blush go down to her stomach, and she took the older boy's arms. She was lifted to her feet effortlessly.
The boy's companion watched amusedly, gauging the interaction before him. Rey shifted uncomfortably when she looked up at him, unable to tear her eyes away from his scar.
"There's no need to be frightened girl," the man said, his tone gravelly and low. "I only look scary."
Rey fidgeted with her robes. "Yes sir."
Silence between the three of them. The hair on Rey's neck prickled. She had felt this way before, and her mother and father had both assured her it was alright, that it might happen if she met people like her, but if she was frightened, she need only find one of them.
It was the boy who broke the silence. "Who are you here with?"
"My mummy," Rey said, plucking up courage. "She's a senator."
The taller figure laughed mirthfully. "Ah, but you must be young miss Kenobi. Is that right?"
Rey nodded and smiled.
The boy's eyes scrunched a moment. "You probably don't remember me, but I met you when you were a baby. Just this big," the boy said, holding his hands apart only a few feet.
Rey's eyes shone. Like most children, she loved hearing stories of times before she could remember. Times she was just a baby. After all, she was seven now, and she could remember better.
"Our parents are friends, you see. I'm Ben Solo, and this is Senator Snoke," the boy said. He held out his hand. "Let's go find your mother, shall we?"
Rey nodded in agreement, and gladly took the older boy's hand in hers, happy to be led back to her mother. Senator Snoke fell back a few paces, watching his secret padawan escort the young Force-sensitive girl back to her mother, the Jedi daughter of the Sith Lord Sidious.
Snoke had satisfied himself content to simply instruct his student to kill the Kenobis, but he had forgotten there was a young Kenobi child. Would he instruct his pupil to kill her too, he wondered? Her lineage could prove useful to his plans, being the granddaughter of Sheev Palpatine himself. But there was the pesky lineage that was her paternal grandfather. And, if Snoke remembered correctly, Obi-Wan Kenobi had married an equally powerful Jedi, an apprentice of Mace Windu himself.
He would wait. He was good at waiting. Maybe the little flea didn't need to be squashed, but if she did, it was no bother. He had Anakin's descendant.
The three of them approached the doorway to Reyna Palpatine-Kenobi's office, and at their footsteps, she turned, expecting to see Vee Burrell and her Rey. Instead, she saw the young Ben Solo and… Senator Snoke. Reyna swallowed quickly. Snoke was a hardnosed politician. He wasn't exactly unpleasant, but the other members of the senate tried to avoid getting on his bad side.
Calling upon her politician's acting skills, she smiled broadly, and approached the boy holding her daughter's hand.
She put her hands on either side of his face, and made a show of admiring him.
"Ben, you've grown into such a handsome young man," she said, tucking a curl away from his eyes. "And a wonderful pupil I've heard."
Ben's stomach hitched. He reeled his emotions back immediately. Snoke had been teaching him to mask his emotions, and to mask his Force presence from others, but still he struggled. When he got a hold of himself, he smiled dutifully.
"You're too kind, Madam Kenobi," he said, letting Rey's hand go to clasp Reyna's in his own. "I owe all of my progress to Master Luke and his teachings."
Rey gasped. "You're learning with Luke Skywalker?" She was to be leaving for the Academy soon. She couldn't wait to have Master Luke as her teacher.
Reyna smiled. "Rey, didn't you know, Ben is Luke's nephew," Reyna said thoughtfully.
Ben gave a half smirk to hide his discomfort of living in his uncle's shadow.
"Wow," Rey said, "my daddy says I will be going there soon. I'm going to be a Jedi like him."
Ben's face was impassive, but he glanced momentarily at Snoke, before looking away. Was this pity the boy was feeling, Snoke wondered? That would have to be remedied.
"And what a fine Jedi you will make," Snoke intoned. "That is something you and Ben share—a strong family history."
Reyna's stomach filled with ice at Snoke's measured tone. With her senses flaring, Reyna sighed, and held her hand out for Rey's.
"Senator, Ben," she said, nodding to the both of them. "I think it is time for me to get Rey home, if you'll excuse me."
Snoke nodded.
"Good day to you both," Reyna said. "Ben—convey my greetings to your parents, will you?"
"Yes ma'am," Ben said, and watched as the sandy-brown haired mother and daughter left the room.
Snoke and Ben followed suit a second later, and they set off in the opposite direction. Ben listened to the swish of Snoke's cloak, and felt as if an axe was positioned above his neck. He knew when Snoke was going to lay into him. The question was whether or not he would punish him.
"You must be mindful of your feelings, boy," Snoke said. Ben sighed, switching from his Ben persona to Kylo Ren. "They betray you."
"Yes, master," Kylo said. He knew that Snoke and he were to execute their plan very soon. He had hoped that it was all talk, and he would simply graduate to Jedi Knight with the secret knowledge of the Dark Side. But, it appeared that this was not to be. His stomach hitched when he thought of his lightsaber running through the small girl who so trustingly had taken his hand.
Seeing the image in Kylo's mind (the boy was still so unskilled at blocking him out), Snoke smirked. "It might not come to that, Kylo," he said in his croak. "If the parents can see reason."
"Yes, master," Kylo agreed.
AN: There are some things mentioned in this chapter that may not make sense unless you have read my previous fic, Chaos in Solitude. So, if you're not into reading my Obi-Wan/OC story, the TL;DR version is: Obi-Wan meets the daughter of the padawan (that I made up) of Mace Windu, and the two marry and have a child. That child is Ferrus Kenobi. I hope this clears up some confusion.