Ben and I walk to Dad's apartment while he finishes up at the races. It's a happy moment and the relief of having him here eases the weight that's clung to my shoulder's these past days, but I can't ignore the concern I feel from Ben even if he tries to keep things lighthearted he's definitely aware of some of the circumstances that brought me here.

"Aylee asked me to say that she's looking forward to you coming back to the temple, said she hadn't heard from you," he mentions, from the amusement in his voice perhaps the only one who's aware it's more than just a friendship, but still not what I wish it would be. "She's been spending most of her time with the younglings."

"Sounds about right," I say, smiling to myself a little until I realise why she'd ask Ben to pass on her message. "I might have smashed up my datapad so I haven't checked any transmissions."

He raises his eyebrows. "Might have smashed up?"

"It wouldn't shut up," I try to jest but he only looks alarmed and tell him "Dad's not here, you can say whatever it is you're thinking."

"I'm not thinking anything," he tries to dismiss for my sake but I just raise an eyebrow at him, knowing whatever he has to say can't be as bad as what's coming from Mom and Luke.

"Yes you are."

Despite how different we may be our talents in the force are similar, we've always been able to read each other's minds a little too well. Maybe it's because we're closer than most siblings, or something to do with the force bond we've shared since that day on Elphrona, but we've never been able to lie to each other successfully. Never had cause to try.

"I heard Mom talking to Luke about you getting expelled," he finally says and asks "Is it true you used the force to threaten your teacher?"

"No," I insist and he believes me, but almost seems disappointed. "Honestly if I knew it would cause this much fuss I would have made it worth it."

"You should have," he says, and I realise he's taken this attack against me personally. "Why should we have to hide the things we can do to make people comfortable?"

"I said the exact same thing to Mom before I left Hosnian Prime, but we both know the answer. It's because the things we can do scare people," I answer plainly. Fifty years ago before the Jedi fell it never would have, but the Empire's propaganda is everlasting. "Which puts us in danger."

"We aren't responsible for their fear," he replies and I know those words will stay with me. "Even at the temple... the other students aren't just jealous, they're afraid because they can't do the things we can. Despite what Luke says about the force being the open door it's just fact that we will always be stronger than they could ever be even with a lifetime of training.."

Unfortunately it's the truth, no matter how much Luke says otherwise, but the way he says it leaves me feeling uncomfortable. It leaves me cold.

"You almost sound like you find joy in that," I remark, rubbing the goosebumps on my arm while debating if I should tell him what I saw on Naboo and later on Polis Massa. I trust him more than anyone, more than our parents, more than Luke... but I can't ignore the instinct screaming at me to keep this to myself until I know for certain what I suspect. "Them being afraid."

"Because they should be," he says and I have to force myself to keep my face neutral as we continue walking. "If Luke didn't hold me back I'd be stronger than him, we both would be if you were allowed to train properly. But no, he holds me back and sends you off to Naboo for half the year with a holocron and instructions to meditate three times a day instead of training how you should be."

"Well that might change now," I tell him, trying to be the optimist here. "I've been expelled from the university and I want to try to figure out what path I want to take."

"It's obvious isn't it?" he says as if it was that easy, my heart aches for the stars more than anything else in this galaxy, except for my family. "There's only one path for us to take, it's our legacy. Our grandfather was the chosen one-"

"Allegedly," I add much to his annoyance, remembering what Dad said about him and the thoughts that haunt the darkest parts of my mind. "He was human just like we are and no one's perfect, so why are we idolising a man we never met instead of standing on our own?"

"That's what people who aren't like us say," he says as we walk inside the apartment complex and head into the elevator. "You need to stop pretending you're like everyone else. Everyone else doesn't get their face plastered on the news for fighting with a teacher."

I have to laugh at that. "And who's the one that fights with their teacher here?"

"You, you're the one who fights with Luke and most of the time I'm fighting to defend you," he remarks with a laugh in his voice and I can't argue with that. "If Luke was as right as he thinks he is I wouldn't have to. Once you become my apprentice things will change."

I'm curious as much as cautious. "How so?"

"I won't hold you back," he tells me as we step out of the elevator and I go to unlock Dad's apartment. "Not like Luke's held me back. He's dragged me across the galaxy finding holocrons and all the lost knowledge of the Jedi to just hoard instead of using it. Not to mention keeping your saber on Ossus for safekeeping because he won't let you use it without supervision."

"Now that does drive me crazy," I admit to him as we walk inside. The biggest source of my bitterness with Luke; taking my saber away. When I was fourteen it made sense I suppose but not now. "I still don't understand it, I pulled it out once when I was fourteen and now I'm banned from carrying it for life."

"It's because he's afraid you'll go and use it on someone, he doesn't trust you," Ben says and when I look back he holds my saber in his hand. "But I trust you."

I blink at him in pure surprise before reaching for my saber. "Ben-"

"As my apprentice I'd trust you," he says as I hold my saber in my own hands, suddenly emotional. "Come on, show me what you remember."

"Oh I remember," I promise him and look around at the apartment knowing Dad's going to kill us if we leave lightsaber burns on anything so we move the furniture in the loungeroom, giving us a large enough space to duel, remembering the scolding we got the last time we left burns on the furniture.

We ready ourselves in the stance of the fifth form, our preferred style even if my height does put me at a disadvantage, and he lets me take the first strike, taking it easy on me in the assumption I've somehow forgotten but it's muscle memory and comes to me as easily as flying.

Once he sees this he speeds up his own counter attacks except with a brute strength to them I've never quite seen from him and it alarms me, urging me to be faster and better with my defences, sharp and quick movements as opposed to his slower, heavier ones. Where he's heavy on his feet I'm light, having incorporated acrobatics into my training young whilst he's always relied on that physical strength of his.

With the foot of height difference between us it's no surprise that despite using elements of the same form that our own personal stylised versions are utterly different, and yet his newer style is certainly not what Luke would approve of, undisciplined and relying on raw strength instead of technique. Our form relies on overwhelming and overpowering but not like this, this is edged with a darkness that now feels too familiar.

It only comes to an end when the door unlocks and we both freeze, Lando and Chewie stand there with Dad who asks "Geez who are you two training to kill? I swear I can't leave you alone for more than five minutes without those things coming out."

~

An hour later we're all sitting in the loungeroom after Dad made us move the furniture back, takeout in our laps whilst watching the holonews coverage of the races considering it's the biggest sporting event in the galaxy.

"This years tournament was supported by members of the New Republic Navy as their strike continues for a second week after a bill was struck down petitioning the Senate for further funding in the wake of two hundred staff being laid off as part of demilitarisation measures."

I press my lips together in disapproval, Mom had supported the bill adamantly but with the Populists and the Centists in a pissing contest absolutely nothing is getting through.

"You'll never guess who I saw there from the Navy," I hear Lando say as Ben and I watch the replay of the footage and I sit in quiet panic, getting an odd look from Ben.

"It's not Snap Wexley is it?" Dad remarks and I recognise him as one of the pilots on Hosnian Prime who occasionally accompanies Mom on her missions, one of the pilots she genuinely seems to like. "I saw Wedge and Norra the other day to celebrate his retirement from the academy and had Snap reminiscing about the old glory days even though he'd been the wise old age of sixteen during Jakku."

"Finally retired huh? It's about damn time. But no not Norra's kid, you know who's kid I saw though? Kes Dameron's son," Lando says and Dad makes a surprised sound. "He's grown up that's for sure, but then again it's gotta be twenty years since I've seen Kes, heard he cut everyone off after his wife died." I frown, but Ben's not paying too much attention. "It's sick, spending years away from your kid fighting only to die like that after the war was finished."

"Yeah," Dad says heavily. "Leia wrote the condolence letter, messed her up for a while since Ben was only a few years younger than their son. I can tell you she was a hell of a lot more careful with her missions after that." He shakes his head. "It's a shame, Kes was one of my best men on Endor. In the twenty years I've only heard from him once and that was when his kid ran away from home," Dad says, struggling to remember the details. "He was in a panic and reaching out to any contact he could think of, turns out the kid had gotten in with a group of smugglers, or spice runners, one of the two. Kes thought I could be some help."

"Wonder why," Ben remarks between a mouthful of food, insulting Dad being the only indication he's listening, and Dad elects to ignore him.

"Anyways, I put Kes on the right track though it seems if the kid's in the Navy now. Shara was a hell of a pilot, saved Leia's life during Cinder, only right the boy would take after her."

Again in my mind I see the dark haired woman from my vision in the palace, along with recalling holophotos of Dad and his pathfinders from the war, but my attention's quickly taken by the sound of my own name from the holotv.

"While Senator Leia Organa prepares to be nominated for the new role of First Senator her children have been seen supporting Han Solo at the Five Saber races, with daughter Hope Solo making a surprise racing debut and coming out on top in the junior division."

Lando's cheering as Dad passes me a drink, with Chewie giving a loud roar of support with a hand on my shoulder. "Here, we're celebrating."

Ben gapes at the drink in my hand until Lando offers him as well and he tries to refuse "I don't-"

"You're a grown man yes you do," Dad dismisses. With Ben being considered a padawan he's very much still a child in Mom and Luke's eyes at the age of twenty three, but Dad thinks differently. "You two should head out since the city's busy, it won't kill you to have a little fun."

Excitedly I look at Ben who gives an awkward laugh. "I'm okay staying in."

"I'm not," I reply and jump to my feet. "I'm getting ready to go out, Ben you're coming."

Ben gives me a moping look before calling out as I head to my room "You aren't even old enough to get in anywhere."

"Jedi remember," I grin, knowing Luke would certainly disapprove of my force tricks but that's what he and Mom get for leaving me to my own devices on Naboo. "Don't be such a bore!"

Before he can argue I've ducked inside my room to change into a white dress I'd bought while shopping with Lando, sitting above my knee it's nothing too fancy, well not by Naboo standards, but something I can run around the city in. I delve inside my bag for eyeliner, messily applying the dark shade to accentuate my round eye shape and to purposefully appear older before tugging on some boots and rushing back out before Ben can find a way out of this.

"Bye Dad, bye Chewie, bye Lando!" I call out as I grab Ben by the wrist to drag him out the door and we're in the hallway by the time they've called out to have fun.

"Is Naboo really that strict you take the first chance you get to take off?" Ben asks as we head to the elevator. Whilst I've gotten to know our grandmothers family he's only met them once or twice and prefers to keep it that way.

"Yes," I answer with a huff before I ramble. "It's all expectations and formality and I want to have one fun night before Mom sends me off to wherever."

"Alright but no drinking," he lectures, sounding too much like Luke.

"Since when are you the strict one?"

"Since I'm responsible for you," he says, already panicking. "When you're my apprentice you're going to have to start taking things seriously."

I just roll my eyes. "Yeah sure, but that's not today."

The streets are certainly alive as I make my way through the city, Ben reluctantly follows along as my attention's taken by the bright lights of a nearby club and I can hear the music as I run over and get in line.

"You know you're too young to get in right? The drinking age here's eighteen," Ben says but I just ignore him. "Alright fine, have it your way."

I'm smiling to myself when it's our turn and the bouncer looks me over in doubt before asking "ID's."

Ben sighs as he finds his but I look the bouncer in the eye and give a slight wave of my hand as I say "You do not need to see our identification."

I feel Ben's panic before the bouncer repeats "I do not need to see your identification."

"You will let us enter."

He steps aside. "I will let you enter."

It seems I'm not as rusty as he thinks.

"Hope!" Ben scolds as we walk in but I'm just laughing. "Luke would have a fit if he saw that."

"Well Luke's not here is he?" I reply as I enter the club, entranced by the music and lights that make Naboo's orchestras seem quite dull by comparison. "Come on, one night of fun before we have to go back to being the perfect kids of the soon to be new Chancellor."

Chancellor, First Senator, there's little difference. It's the same position except this one will have power and with power comes danger. Whatever life of obscurity we'd hoped for will certainly be gone now Mom's every word and action will be under a microscope of scrutiny, and that will extend to us as I've already learned.

He sighs in reluctant agreement, able to understand my desire to escape that pressure even for just one night. "Alright, but just don't get us into trouble."

I wave off his concern, finding it amusing that despite how much he complains about Luke the moment he's left in charge of me he becomes him. "I'm going to the bar."

"Hope!" he exclaims and I just laugh.

"I'm joking," I tell him as I elbow him.

"You're joking?"

"I'm joking," I promise him and pat his shoulder. "You go get a drink, maker knows you need one."

He doesn't argue with that but raises a finger as he orders me "You stay here, don't move."

I just give a half attentive nod and watch his tall figure disappear through the crowd and only then do I know I'm actually going to enjoy myself and I do. With the lights and music and the smell of something that's certainly illegal in the air I don't need alcohol to enjoy it and for once I can just let loose. And I hope Ben's at the bar enjoying himself too, maker willing talking to a girl or anyone that would make him happy. Maybe that's what Luke needs, someone to help him get over the trauma of falling in love with his own sister.

As the night grows later I find myself dancing with a girl in the crowd, tall with purple hair, eighteen maybe, but it's not long until I hear Ben calling out my name over the music in a panic and try to find him.

"Ben?" I call out, lost in the crowd as I try to make my way to the bar. "Ben?"

I feel a hand on my shoulder and turn around expecting to see him only to find myself suddenly surrounded by a group of men I don't recognise.

"Look who we've got here, Solo's little brat."

My stomach drops.

"Back off," I warn, trying to map a quick exit but they've got me cornered in the crowd, everyone around us too drunk or high to be paying attention.

"Daddy's not here to help you."

A hand reaches for me and I shove back hard against any better judgement. "I said back off!"

He shoves back and I shove harder before he grabs me by my dress to try to knock me off balance. "Hey, leave the girl alone alright," I hear a voice try to intervene but not before I punch the man who grabbed me hard across the nose.

"Bitch!" he curses and clutches it, blood pouring down onto his shirt. "You broke my fucking nose!"

"You want worse?" I threaten, instinctually reaching back in the dim light, wishing I'd brought my saber, and they assume I'm armed. Only then do they start to back off, but not quietly.

"We should still be able to kill your kind," he spits, blood hitting my cheek. "Someone's still gotta take bounties on you freaks."

"Fuck you!" I yell and go to finish the job only to feel a hand on my arm pulling me back, the man who tried to intervene stepping between me and the guy clutching his bleeding nose.

"I said leave the girl alone alright!" he warns, speaking with an authoritative enough tone they back off and he pulls me away from them. "Come on."

I don't fight against his grip on me as he takes me out of the crowd to the outskirts of the room, it's too dark to see him let alone anything other than outlines.

"Hey are you alright?" he asks as I look down, shaking my hand out and finding it hurts to uncurl, trying to look past the taller crowd for Ben but I can't see him. "Did you know those guys?"

"I'm fine," I dismiss, just glad Ben didn't see it otherwise someone would be dead and strain to try to see the bar. "I need to find my brother, which way's the-"

I trail off as I hear Ben, towering over most of the crowd and calling out after me in the voice he only uses when he's about to lose it. "Hope where are you! We've gotta go some assholes Dad owes money to are here!"

"Shit," I whisper, knowing I'm the one who's going to have to stop him from getting into trouble now and hurriedly say to the man "Thank you, um- I better go-"

I cut myself off and run back through the crowd to find Ben, it's not hard with the way he's bellowing and he grabs my arm in a painfully tight grip when he catches me and I hurriedly wipe the blood from my face before he can see it.

"We're leaving, now!"

"Okay, okay, we're going," I quickly agree before he's the one to get into a fight but when we run into the alleyway they're already there. "Shit."

"Look at that we've got both of them," the one I punched says, still clutching his nose. "The Jedi and the little bitch with the right hook."

Ben's head snaps towards me and I stay decidedly silent, now I can see them in half decent light it's clear they're exactly the types Dad's always warned us to stay away from.

"What do you want?" Ben asks, his hold on my arm bruising.

"Han Solo owes us five thousand credits."

"He doesn't do that anymore," Ben says, but he's spent too much time on Ossus and not enough with Dad if he actually believes that. "He runs a legitimate-"

"Freighting company, so we've heard," their leader finishes. "But he's still running from paying the debts he owes us so here's the deal. We take the girl as insurance and you get her back when your daddy pays up, can't say in what state."

I feel a flash of pure darkness at those words and suddenly I'm not afraid of the gang, I'm afraid of Ben as he shoves me behind him and I hit the wall, realising in horror he came armed at the glint of silver I see.

"Ben!" I yell in protest and quickly look up at the security camera. "Don't-"

He follows my trail of vision and I flinch at the sound the camera makes as he uses the force to crush it. The men pale and step back but Ben's already drawn his saber and I can only watch in horror as he ignites it.

"Ben that's enough," I say quickly but that darkness that saturates this alley isn't going anywhere. "Ben!"

He steps forward with the momentum to cut them down and in a moment of panic I use the force to bring one of the men's blasters to my hand and Ben only snaps out of it as I fire three warning shots right beside their heads with a deadly precision that has them scattering. Ben looks back at me clutching a bruised arm, the men disappearing down the ally before Ben can take another step, both of us realising what he was about to do no matter how justified.

Finally after all these years I truly feel that darkness I've heard the other students speak of, the darkness that follows him like a shadow as the Knights of Ren had once claimed. The same darkness I felt when I stepped into that tomb and felt Vader's presence and I look at my brother with a tight throat, the dark thoughts suddenly real as I remember Dad's words. That there's too much of our grandfather in him.

My hands shake slightly now as I throw the cheap blaster in a nearby trash can while he stands there debating going after them, but I can only imagine what he'll do when he gets his hands on Dad after this. Ben was sent to train with Luke after he stopped my own kidnapping so long ago, after he choked those grown men in anger when he was just ten years old.

I don't want to imagine what he'll do now, and for the very first time in my life, I'm afraid of my brother.

"We're going home," I swallow, trying to de-escalate the situation. "And when we do you aren't going to get mad at Dad."

"He's the one still dealing with these lowlifes!" he argues and I stand there with my eyes shut as he rages "They were going to take you!"

"But they didn't," I say and remind him "I would have handled it."

"How!" he asks me, not even attempting to keep his voice down. "Punching the guy didn't exactly work."

"I would have handled it how we handled things," I say, punctuating my words so he knows exactly what I mean, and that's without the training I've received on Naboo that's left me more than equipped to deal with this exact situation without the force coming into it. "We don't need to resort to murder to deal with a group of thugs, Luke taught us better than that."

It's not drawing a blade that's left me shaken, it's what he was prepared to do with it and the darkness that accompanied that threat.

But what I don't expect is for him to snap at me. "Don't stand there and judge me like you and I are the same!"

I stare at him in pure bewilderment. "What?"

"You have no idea what's out there!" he yells and I cry out in pain as he grabs my already aching arm. "You don't know what I'd do to keep you safe!"

"I can keep myself safe!" I yell back and pull against his grasp only to find his grip iron. "Ben you're hurting me-"

He pushes me hard into the wall, the impact jarring as he stands over me, pinning me to the hard surface by my arms as he yells in my face with a near psychotic anger I've never seen before in my life.

"Don't pretend you know better than me when I'm the one who's dedicated my life to the force!" he rages and I stand there frozen in a state of shock. "You don't know what it's like being the one with this power, with the darkness." My non-responsiveness only angers him and he shakes me violently, cold tears staining my face. "Don't judge me for the things I'd do to protect you from it!"

It's that darkness that snaps me out of that frozen state and instinctually I draw upon the force to break free his grip, striking him hard across the face before pushing him off me. He has the audacity to stare stunned as I look at the man in front of me, not recognising my brother as I yell "What the hell is wrong with you!"

He only snaps out of it when he sees the bruise already forming on my arm from his grip and he stammers "Hope I-"

I step away from him with a raised hand. "Don't."

"I'm sorry," he rasps out. "I'm so sorry I-"

"Don't!" I bark out as he steps forward and I can't look at him as I storm off, slamming into someone in my haste to get away but I just keep moving only to come to a stop as I find myself stuck in an unmoving crowd gathered around watching the holoscreen on one of the skyscrapers and realise in horror what's happened.

"A bomb has been detonated inside the Senatorial complex," the announcer reads and I bring a trembling hand over my face at the sight that's projected, half of the building in flames. "Casualties are currently unknown but paramedics are on the scene."

"Mom?" I whisper and feel Ben beside me, guiding me away from the watching eyes with far gentler hands than before. "Ben-"

"She's alright," he assures me, bringing me away from the crowds. "We'd know if she wasn't."

But I can't feel her and suddenly I'm running, heading straight for Dad's apartment and by the time I throw the door open I don't know exactly how I got there but it doesn't matter as Dad pulls me straight into his arms.

"It's alright," he tells me, the broadcast playing from the loungeroom. "Your mom's tough, it's gonna take more than a bomb to take her out."

I nod and he hugs me tight, Ben keeps his distance from me as Lando puts a hand on his shoulder to check on him and I let go of Dad to step closer to the holoprojector that displays the burning building.

R2 comes to my side and it only takes a quick search through the force to know that she's alright as Ben promised, but most certainly injured. Darkness has me reaching for my throat, tight with a newfound fear.

Little would I know it was just the beginning.

~

It's not until the next day until we finally get a call from Mom, the sun having risen on Theron. I half lay on Chewie in a state of numb exhaustion, my head resting on his arm while Ben still sits away from me with Lando who's the only one that's noticed something happened last night, meanwhile Ben's been completely silent since we entered the apartment and yet what he did is the least of our worries right now.

"I'm perfectly fine Han," Mom says over Dad's com, Chewie roaring in concern. "I found a note warning about the attack and was able to evacuate the building."

"You have a concussion Leia!"

"But I'm alive," she rationalises and somehow we all unanimously know it's worse than she's letting on. "How are the kids? Unsurprisingly I couldn't get onto Ben, maybe Hope can try to get hold of him. How is she?"

Ben averts his eyes and at least I see some guilt at rarely returning her calls to the point she's hesitant to even try, and Dad answers like neither of us are here. "Neither of them have said a damn word to each other since they got home!"

"Neither of them?" I hear Mom exclaim. "What's Ben doing there?"

"Being a brother instead of a damn monk for once in his life," Dad says and at those words Ben finally gets up and walks out of the room, Lando debates going after him but I just shake my head knowing no good would come out of confronting Ben while he's like this. "Meanwhile Hope is worried sick about you."

"Give her the com," I hear Mom say and I give Dad a silent nod, taking it without a word. "Look honey I know we fought about what happened at the university but that doesn't matter now. I want you to come back to Hosnian Prime, all hell's broken loose and I could use your help."

I want to go, I want to see her, but I find myself frozen with guilt, knowing damn well adding myself to an already fragile political climate is not a good idea. She has her worries she needs to take care of, and I have mine.

"I'd just make things worse for you," I swallow, knowing standing beside her would only make her look bad if accusations start getting thrown about which they no doubt will. "And besides, I have some business to take care of here."

"Business? Your sixteen what business could you-" I shut the com off and turn to Dad now Ben isn't here.

"Hope," Dad chastises for hanging up. "I know you're going through some phase right now but-"

"Ben nearly killed a group of guys who tried to take me for ransom," I say numbly, knowing he wouldn't want Mom to hear and watch the colour drain from his face. "Said you owe them money."

"Han," I hear Lando exclaim. "She doesn't mean-"

"No, she does mean them," Dad says and asks "Human gangsters, scumbags?" I nod and he swears "I thought I'd handled that."

"Well one has a broken nose and the fear of the Jedi struck into him," I answer and only then does he see the bruised hand I nurse. "It's a miracle it didn't end up a murder scene."

He looks over to Ben's bedroom and swallows before offering "Let me get you some ice."

"No," I refuse, the anger I've forced down for the past twelve hours bubbling to the surface, too suffocated to stay here. "I'm heading out."

"Hope," Dad protests but I ignore him as I head for the door and he lets me go with R2 following after me.

~

After R2's talked me out of taking off in my ship I find my way to the racetrack. With today's races having been moved to tomorrow due to the largest terrorist attack in recent history having just occurred the stands are peaceful enough for me to sit away from everything for just a little while and find myself brought back to the lingering darkness I've tried to ignore.

"R2," I begin, still shaken. "I only have visions when the force is trying to tell me something. On Naboo I saw Vader visiting Padmé's tomb and then I saw him again on Polis Massa where she died giving birth to Mom and Luke." He gives a sad but nervous beep, knowing where I'm going with this. "That darkness I felt in Vader's presence, it was the same darkness I felt last night with Ben." I look at R2, not wanting to accept the dark truths in my mind. "Would Anakin get angry like Ben does?" He hesitates before giving an affirmative beep. "Did it get better or worse?"

I understand enough binary for the answer to be clear to me.

Worse.

"The medical droid said my grandmother was injured when they brought her to Polis Massa," I tell R2 and he beeps in confirmation. "I need you to show me what happened R2." He refuses and so I say "Either I can go back to Polis Massa and find out where she was brought from and fly there to see it for myself or you can show me now."

He calls my bluff and I realise he is hiding something after all.

"My grandmother's last words were that there was still good in him," I reveal to R2 and he knows that whatever the truth is I will find it. "Did she mean Anakin Skywalker or Darth Vader?"

I can't bring myself to vocalise the question I've been asking myself.

Are they one and the same?

R2 stays silent and in that silence comes only dread.

"Anakin, did he- did he ever hurt anyone he cared about?" R2 is still silent, having always been reserved when it comes to revealing the things he's seen. "It's okay R2, I'm okay, I just need to know. Ben he- he scared me last night and I don't know what to do. I need to know what happened to Anakin Skywalker so I can stop it from happening to him."

After a moment of apprehension, R2 projects an image from his memory bank and I see her, my grandmother. The glitched hologram depicts her heavily pregnant and crying out my grandfathers name with her hands grasping at her throat before dropping to the ground and I feel a wave of horror consume me as Anakin Skywalker stands over her. The image and the darkness that accompanies it leaves me sick to my stomach until R2 mercifully cuts the recording short.

I find myself wiping a tear from the corner of my eye as I feel emotions that aren't mine but hers. Pure sadness, a broken heart. The same as I'd felt on Polis Massa.

And finally I realise Anakin Skywalker was no hero. Anakin Skywalker is not the Jedi Luke led us to believe he was. He was a man who turned to madness and hurt his wife. Did he mean to kill her? I don't know. But she survived long enough to be taken to Polis Massa by Obi-Wan Kenobi, something Vader went to such great lengths to learn.

"Thank you R2," I say quietly and am left with one final question. "How did he die?"

Luke always told us Anakin Skywalker was killed by Darth Vader, but now...

With the language barrier he chooses to show me another image, one of Obi-Wan Kenobi and I nod, it makes sense his master would be the one to kill him after witnessing whatever it is he did and the rest makes sense now as well. Mom and Luke always described Obi-Wan as an old and scarred who cared deeply for their father and for them, who told them their father died at the end of the Clone Wars.

Perhaps Anakin Skywalker did die, and Vader was born.

R2 nudges me, checking if I'm alright and I nod before asking "Are you okay R2?" He makes an affirmative beep but still it's sad and I rest my head on the top of his dome, more often than not feeling like it's him and I against the world. "I'm sorry you had to see that, I can't imagine how awful that must have been, but thank you for taking care of us."

R2's been with three generations of my family, he may just be the most loyal droid in the galaxy, and he's family. He's my best friend. I truly don't care what anyone says, R2 is as sentient as droids come and no one can tell me otherwise.

I kiss his dome and realise my hand's shaking with the weight of the truth and clear my throat, needing to do something other than sit and dwell on it. I'll need to talk to Luke and tell him what I've seen, but I'm more worried about Ben right now.

"Come on R2," I say to him as we make our way out of the stands and feel a small amount of credits in my pocket but enough. "Let's go replace the datapad I broke."

We head down towards the commercial district of the city but have to go through the industrial district first and I quickly hide when I see the three guys who attacked us last night, one still holding a broken nose.

"That's them R2," I say, but instead of feeling fear I want to even the playing card and notice spilt oil beside them from an engine they're working on and then the lighter in one of their hands. It's a wicked idea but a fair one. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"

He beeps in agreement as I remain hidden and focus in on them but R2 is one step ahead of me in extending an electrified rod, offering to go over and set it on fire himself.

"If anyone sees you they'll arrest you, but thank you R2," I say and he's almost disappointed he doesn't get to. "Trust me."

And so R2 watches as I set my sights on the lighter, the moment it's lit I use the force to knock it from his hand and into the oil spill and the moment it ignites the reaction is immediate.

I jump back, the explosion bigger than I anticipated and move behind R2 as the men scream, their clothing on fire and now surrounded by security droids who react very poorly to the screaming men.

"You are under arrest, please do not resist."

"Does it look like I can fucking resist!" the one with the broken nose screams as they try to put out the fires and I have to cover my mouth to hide a laugh. Perhaps I'm a hypocrite, but this is more than fair after what they would have done to me.

"Come on," I say to R2 and we quickly make our way past the scene. "Just don't tell Uncle Luke."

In binary he says something along the lines of that he isn't a snitch and we keep on moving.

~

By the time we make it back to the apartment the sun's setting and I know they'll be wondering where we are. When we enter Dad and Lando are mid way through a round of drinks while Ben stands there worked up, having been waiting for me.

"Where have you been!"

R2 puts himself in front of me while Dad snaps "Cut that out will you, she's fine."

"I'm fine," I repeat to him and tell him "I took care of it."

Dad and Ben share a look before he cautiously asks "Took care of what?"

"The men you owe money to," I state, considering this is the consequences of his actions I'm not too concerned about the consequences of mine.

Dad chokes on his drink "You what?"

"I reported them to the security droids," I quickly lie after second guessing my method but the holonews that seems to be on constant rotation says otherwise and an obstructed security camera plays the lighter dropping and the explosion but nothing else to implicate me in it aside from myself. "Crap."

Dad jumps up pointing his finger at the holonews. "That Hope Solo is not reporting them to security!"

I shrug and offer a nervous smile. "I still took care of it didn't I?"

Ben looks on the verge of a breakdown and Lando quickly diffuses the situation. "No one got hurt aside from the bad guys, I'd call it a win."

Chewie roars in agreement with Lando and Dad looks at me then around the room and raises a finger. "No one tells Leia or Luke about this! This business is finished. No one needs to know what the business was or how it was handled."

"Okay so I'm the bad guy for drawing a lightsaber but it's fine for her to burn them alive!" Ben exclaims whilst I stand there with the benefit of big eyes and youthful innocence and it's enough for him to calm himself down and sit down in exhaustion as he asks "Dad can I have a drink?"

"It's about damn time," Dad says pouring him a glass of Corellian whiskey and for a moment as Ben gives me a pained half smile I feel that darkness slip away but I know it's there now, that it's buried in him and just waiting to come out.

I put a hand on R2's dome and wonder if he sees it in him, what he must have seen in Anakin towards the end, and know he's only shown me a fraction of it but it's enough to reveal to me where that darkness comes from.

The moment I entered my grandmothers tomb I stumbled upon a far darker truth, one I wonder if Luke would even know, and decide that I'll keep what I've seen to myself until I can know for certain just what happened to Anakin Skywalker with the evidence to prove I haven't lost my mind.

I just need to figure out where I can find the truth, to find hard proof of my suspicions before detonating what would be the most destructive bomb ever made, one that would destroy Mom if she knew the man who tortured her was her own father.

I need time, I need time to learn what this means and try to find any evidence that could prove me wrong, because maker never before have I hoped so badly I'm wrong.