Two days later Ben and I sit at the races supervised by Lando. The bruise on my arm is still fading, a reminder of the sheer darkness that terrified me. Thankfully Ben attributes my racing mind to that and not the suspicions that nag at me. Or rather truths as it seems. Meanwhile Lando's kept a cautious eye on us both since he knows Ben and I don't fight, not like this.

I feel his eyes skimming over the bruise and back to my brother, but whatever suspicions he has he remains silent about, at least to me. However from the guilt I feel from Ben it wouldn't be a far fetched assumption that Lando had a harsh word with him.

Thankfully my attention's taken by the races and I'm relieved that Lando's new friend is nowhere to be seen since Ben's here, but the Navy's demanding, most of the pilots I'm acquainted with would kill to be here or even get a day's leave to watch a few races, but they're mostly stationed on Hosnian Prime. It's something I've considered from time to time but flying under some paper pushers orders generally takes the fun out of it.

We watch the racer from Dad's adult team taking the lead and Lando says "I've put credits on his next race."

"Maybe I should," I say knowing the extra credits definitely wouldn't hurt, and that wherever Dad and Lando put their money is generally a safe bet, but Ben just grumbles under his breath.

"No, you aren't gambling."

I just roll my eyes and challenge "You aren't my parent."

"No but I'm responsible for you," he argues back, more exhausted than angry.

"I'm capable of being responsible for myself," I remind him. I've trained as a royal handmaiden since I was twelve years old for the day my class start's their electoral campaigns. "I'm a trained bodyguard, I can damn well protect myself from a few thugs."

But he isn't backing down. "Yeah because you were shipped off to Naboo and haven't had anyone parent you since you were twelve-"

"Alright, that's enough," Lando warns from where he sits between us and shakes his head at us, mostly Ben. "I don't know what's gotten into the two of you but sort it out before Han gets involved."

"Like he knows how to parent," Ben scoffs dismissively and Lando grabs my wrist as I go to hit him, forcing it back down to my side. "Really? You think hitting me's gonna do anything?"

"Want to find out-"

"No," Lando warns and puts a hand up to keep me from trying anything. "If you aren't gonna get along I'm taking you home and Ben stop being a smart ass and provoking your sister."

He reluctantly bites back whatever remark he's got and it's silent again, another race going by before Lando leaves us to get a drink, when Ben isn't watching I slide a handful of credits to Lando for him to bet for me, he gives an understanding nod and reluctantly leaves us.

Now we're alone for the first time since that night Ben tells me "I'm sorry."

"You scared me," I say, my voice strained.

"Those guys were going to-"

"Not that," I say sharply and his eyes catch the bruise on my arm before falling to the ground. "You've had your issues but you've never been like that before."

"You don't understand-"

"I don't care," I say cruelly and he can't look at me, but he hasn't seen what I have. He hasn't felt the darkness of Vader's presence, he doesn't know it's one and the same as his. "If you want me to be your apprentice then pull it together. I know you think you're all powerful and better than everyone, but not me." I can feel it, a jealousy that I could be as strong as he is. Stronger. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"I don't know," he says to me and the anguish is unmistakable, the the guilt suffocating. "I am sorry Hope, you- you're the one person I'd never want to hurt."

I see my grandmother's body on the ground and wonder if Anakin said the same thing. I wonder who else he hurt. Darth Vader killed Obi-Wan Kenobi, so it seems Anakin Skywalker had little reservations about murdering his own brother. Although he never got the chance to kill Ahsoka Tano, even if he had tried according to the stories I've been told. For the first time I find myself wondering what Ben is capable of. Not physically, but emotionally, of just how far he'd go.

"Well you did."

A deep anger's found itself settled within me, it's the only thing that replaces the fear as I get to my feet and leave him there, working my way expertly through the crown to lose him before he can think to use the force to track me. All these years I'd never been afraid of provoking that anger in him, I'd seen it directed towards my parents and Luke but never at me.

Not until now.

It's as I'm leaving the stadium there's a news break in the race coverage that plays on a constant loop from the billboards.

"One of the three men who were involved in a shock accident regarding a lighter and an oil spoil in the city earlier in the week has died of his injuries. Tune in tonight for live coverage of the Galactic Senate as the nominations for First Senator are heard."

I stop in my tracks, my blood running cold and suddenly nothing feels real. No, it wasn't that bad, he was in pain but not to the point he could have died. I didn't do that, I didn't kill him but... but I did do that. I knew what I was doing, I wanted them to feel pain, I wanted them to get hurt for what they would have done to me.

But I never planned on becoming a killer. That thought had never crossed my mind. I should be horrified, maybe I am, but I don't regret it even if I know I should.

It's then I feel a hand on my shoulder and know it's Ben.

"I killed someone," I murmur under my breath, but only find myself numb. "I never-"

"Come on," he says quietly. "You did what you had to do, now let's go home."

And like that everything else is forgotten as I hug him tight, still angry, still hurt, still confused, but he's my brother and when I need him he's there, that's all that matters.

It has to matter.

~

That night I sit with my feet tucked up on the lounge watching the holonews of the senate as they prepare for the First Chancellor nominations. I made Dad take the night off from the races to watch. Mom would have insisted he go but this is more important, and she deserves to have her family supporting her even if we aren't in the capitol.

Thankfully the local news hasn't reported anymore on the man I inadvertently killed and it seems Dad thankfully missed the earlier announcement of it, but Ben's kept a careful eye on me since.

It's left me shaken, shaken that I don't feel guilt because I know there is some justice in it. Those men would have taken me and done things I'd rather not imagine, what I did to them is nothing compared to what they would have done to me and now I've ensured we're safe.

Despite my rationalisations it still leaves me with the fear it could be linked to me despite knowing there is no way it could, but still it leaves me on edge. At least Lando gave R2 the credits I won before he left to go to the cantina with Chewie, it's enough I should be able to make some modifications to my ship. At this point I may just need some faster thrusters with the way my life's going..

"You know for someone who hates politics so much you can't stop watching it," Ben remarks and I give him a look before throwing a cushion at him and he raises his hands in his defence. "I'm just saying."

"I want to see Mom speak," I say and my voice is strained. "I just have a bad feeling."

"Why?" he asks with a mouth full of food, as if what I did was suddenly nothing. Dad might not have been that horrified by it but that was before someone died, and one news segment could very well expose me. Ben might be content with helping me cover up a murder, but I don't want to find out it my parents would be.

"I don't know Ben," I say, narrowing my eyes at him. "Why could I possibly be nervous?" He clamps his jaw shut and I say "That's what I thought, so sit there and watch without being a smartass."

Dad whistles in the background. "Someone's in trouble."

Ben ignores him. "Alright then it's my turn to find something to watch," he says but can't help himself. "I didn't come all the way here to not watch the races."

"Shut up they're about to nominate Mom for First Senator," I tell him and he sighs as he finally turns his attention to the tv. "If you thought being the kids of the Rebellion's favourite heroes was bad we're about to be the children of the new Chancellor."

"Great," he murmurs and Dad comes and stands behind us to watch, leaning over the back couch as they announce it.

"And so it is with the greatest confidence and pride that I hereby nominate Senator Leia Organa, hero of the Rebellion, to stand as First Senator of the Republic!"

We can hear the applause and Ben asks "What's the difference between this and being Chancellor?"

"After Palpatine they stripped the title of Chancellor of all actual power and the senate went to shit," I explain simply for him. "So now they've made this position which is a Chancellor with the actual power to change things, who the senate has to listen to."

"So you're saying Mom's about to become the most powerful person in the galaxy?" he asks in disbelief and I realise he hasn't kept up with the galactic news on Ossus.

"You're Mom definitely wouldn't put it that way, but yeah," Dad admits, hesitant about it all. "Whether she wants it or not she'll take it to stop everything from falling apart."

"Why wouldn't she want it?" Ben asks, having never understood the New Republic. "She'd be the closest thing to an Emperor since-"

"Which is exactly why she doesn't want it," I say quickly before he can expose himself and his poorly formed political ideals. "Why would she spend years fighting to kill the Emperor just to become him? She needs to have power to be able to move things along in the senate but nothing like a dictatorship."

"Well, if it works," he murmurs and Dad elects to ignore him while I just shake my head.

Mom's wearing a white dress, having dressed more richly for the occasion than anything she's worn in the senate before, it seems appropriate considering the role she's about to take.

The moderator droid asks "Does any person present know of any fact that would disqualify the Senator Organa from higher office?"

There's an expected silence until a familiar voice rings out "I must take the floor."

The camera closes on Ransolm Casterfo and I look on in confusion. "Why would he say anything? I thought him and Mom were friends."

They're on opposite sides of politics but Ransolm was always one of the few Centrists who's openly hated Palpatine despite Imperial sympathies, who would work with Mom to pass legislation rather than against her.

Dad leans forward as he remarks "This might just get entertaining after all."

"You two are both awful," I remark at their pure boredom at having to watch politics when Mom's about to become First Senator before realising "Something isn't right."

Ransolm looks pale, as if he's in a state of shock as he speaks "The First Senator of the New Republic can only be granted supreme authority if we the citizens feel that person deserves our trust." He takes a pause, bracing himself on the console. "To my deepest regret, I have learned that Leia Organa does not deserve that trust."

The camera goes back to Mom and I can see the pure bewilderment written across her face. I can't tear my eyes from the screen as other senators I thought were her friends look on in varied states of anger.

"Princess Leia's lies have protected her long enough. Her deception cannot be permitted to endanger the entire galaxy. If people are considering electing her as First Senator they have the right to know who they are voting for."

"No," I hear Dad breathe and he moves forward in front of the couch to get a better look as he murmurs to himself. "This can't be happening."

I look at him in panic as I ask "Dad, what's going on?" Looking back at the screen there's only pure horror in Mom's eyes and my blood runs cold. "Dad?"

Ben's silent, leaning forward as Ransolm points to her and yells for all to hear "Senator Leia Organa is none other than the daughter of Darth Vader himself!"

With those words I can physically feel my heart stop along with the flow of the force itself. The yelling that follows on the television is drowned out by the ringing in my ears and my eyes meet Ben's, both of us sitting there in a state of pure shock, of disbelief and denial, although for very different reasons, but it's as Dad's head falls devastation fills me.

Betrayal fills me.

"Dad?" I croak out as Ben slowly rises from his seat and still I try to deny it despite all I've seen. "It's a lie." He looks back at me with the deepest look of regret. "Tell us it's a lie-"

But it's not and the suspicions that have haunted me since Naboo are only confirmed by the regret on his face and cold tears glaze over my eyes. He knew, they all knew.

It's only Ben and I who have been left in the dark, along with the rest of the galaxy.

"I can't," he murmurs and I'm trembling as I glance at Ben who's now standing with his hands in fists and we both look back to the screen as we hear the words from Bail Organa's mouth himself, a recording being played for the senate.

"I must tell you what became of Anakin Skywalker." Mom's face is there for us to see, along with the tears she fights back. "Your father has become Darth Vader."

I'm violently beating back my own tears as I look at R2 knowing there is no more pretending I hadn't seen what I did, no pretending I hadn't felt the truth in Vader's longing as he stood over Padme's tomb, as he went across the galaxy just to seek answers of her death, he loved her. Whatever R2 witnessed, Anakin Skywalker didn't die at Obi-Wan Kenobi's hands, he survived and became a monster. The hatred and pain in my mothers eyes whenever she would hear the name Anakin Skywalker... it's because it's the name of the man who took the only father she had from her.

And she knew it. That is the part that leaves me breathless and betrayed. She knew.

They all did.

All I feel is pure devastation, that is until I feel Ben's rage.

"Did you know?" he asks Dad and before he can even answer he explodes "Did you know!"

I'm staring in utter shock as Dad begins "Son... we were trying to protect you-"

I scream out as Ben grabs him and throws him into the wall without warning. The sound of the impact and Dad's own groan of pain has me sitting there frozen with a trembling hand clamped over my mouth as Ben stumbles backwards, pale faced as he realises what he's done. Without another word he storms out of the apartment and I run over to Dad.

"Dad?" I croak, helping him up, cold tears finally spilling as I ask him "Dad are you hurt?"

He is but still he grounds out "Go find your brother before he kills someone."

Those words send me into a state of flight and yet he has no idea how real that fear should be.

Without another word I grab my saber off the table as I duck out the door, R2 following closely behind and all I can feel is the pounding of my heart as I run through the hall.

"Ben!" I yell but he doesn't stop until I run forward and grab him. "Ben!"

He turns around, voice as strained as my own as he asks "Did you know?"

"No!" I answer immediately but he's too paranoid now to believe me and I lie. "Ben, I didn't know."

He sees the shocked tears in my eyes and something snaps as he grabs me, pulling me through the hallway with R2 pursuing. "I know where we need to go, the only place we can find the truth. I might not be able to see it, but you can."

"What?" I stammer as he pulls me into the elevator and I hold the door until R2 can enter, not wanting to go anywhere without him. "What more truth do we need to hear?"

"The Jedi temple on Coruscant, it houses everything, the security holograms, archives, all of it now that Lor San Tekka set out to restore it," he tells me. "Luke never brought me with him there, now I know why. He told me Anakin Skywalker died protecting it during Order 66 and was killed by Vader, but that was a lie. It was all a lie."

I quickly duck to the ground to avoid any collateral damage as Ben releases his grip on me to punch the wall and R2 puts himself between us.

"Don't," I say quietly before he can pull out a weapon to stun him. "It's okay, I'm okay."

R2 beeps in argument and I rest my forehead against his dome as tears wet my cheeks and I look up at Ben, having never felt such pure darkness. The darkness of Vader.

"It was all lies," he repeats. "Everything they've ever told us is a lie."

"We don't know-" I begin but he cuts me off sharply.

"We do know." I lower my eyes as the elevator stops on the bottom floor and choose not to reveal what I've seen, if he knew I'd hidden these suspicions from him... "They betrayed us."

He grabs my wrist to pull me back up to my feet and I keep my mouth shut as he drags me out onto the street to find all hell has broken loose as the public monitors play Mom's confession.

"Senator Casterfo's accusation is true," she says for the galaxy to hear. "My father was Darth Vader."

Somehow only now that I hear it from her own mouth it truly becomes real and horror fills me as we hear every word and insult that has ever existed be bellowed on the streets and Ben's grip on me may as well be as unbreakable as beskar as he pulls me forward in a state of panic. "Come on, we need to leave. Now."

I don't argue with him and we move with our heads down to the hanger behind the apartment complex to get to our ships only to find the hanger cut off by the drunken crowds who've turned into a mob.

"Shit," he curses and feel him momentarily decide to resort to violence before I start pulling him towards the secondary hanger where larger ships are stored. "Do you know another way into there?"

"No but I know where the Falcon is," I say and without argument we start running only to come to a halt when I see a billboard with her nomination for first senator being pulled down with every slur imaginable being screamed against her name. "Oh my god."

We look at each other, only just beginning to comprehend just how bad this truly is, the violence that will come of this, and he says "We need to get off this planet."

For once I have no argument.

"Come on," I say and he follows me as I make my way around the side of the building to find the other hanger, a repurposed warehouse used for freighters, and we get there to find it chained. "Shit."

He looks around for a window or another door while I pull out my lightsaber to cut through the chains and the moment we break it open we're running for the Falcon. He runs for the cockpit whilst I work at the hangers controls to open up the roof, finding fireworks going off overhead for the races. The sound barely drowns out the raging crowds.

R2 is beside me, urging me to go home to Hosnian Prime, but if this is the reaction on Theron I can't imagine how horrific the backlash must be there, and I still have questions that need to be answered before I can hear her and Luke's version of the truth. I need Ben to see it too.

"Not yet R2," I say and he beeps in worry, worry for Dad. "I'll take care of it, but we need to make sure Ben doesn't-" I cut myself off, not wanting to imagine what thoughts must be running through his head right now. "Come on, you ready to go back to the Jedi Temple?"

He gives a beep that tells me he definitely isn't but to find the truth we have to go back to where it started and so we run onboard but at the wave of darkness I feel the moment I step inside I'm brought back to the tomb and I'm thankful R2 can't feel it.

I hear Ben in the cockpit, muttering to himself as he prepares to take off and I flinch as he yells "Hope! Get in here!"

In the back of my mind I see Dad being thrown into the wall and my hand shakes as I move to feel my com in my back pocket and almost trip over R2 in the need to put distance between Ben and I. With him too distracted by his own rage at trying to get the Falcon off the ground single handed I'm able to raise my com to send a voice message to Lando.

"I need you to check on Dad, he's hurt," I swallow, knowing Chewie's with Lando which means Dad's all alone right now. "Ben and I are going to Coruscant." I lower my voice to a barely audible whisper, having the foresight to tell him "Get Luke to meet us at the Jedi temple. Please."

Quickly I run to the cockpit before Ben can break something, my movements automatic as I get the ship off the ground and set the co-ordinates for Coruscant, Ben still slamming every button and cursing our entire family under his breath until I can't listen to it anymore and run back out. I only stop when I find myself in the ship's lounge and slide down to the floor, holding onto R2 as my last sense of stability and look at him, knowing he is the only one right now who could give us answers before we enter that temple and see whatever occurred that fateful night.

"I know you want to protect me R2, but right now I need the truth. Did you know he became Darth Vader?" I whisper and he gives an answer I can't quite understand. "R2?"

He asks for Ben and I call out for him "Ben?" There's no reply and I yell "Ben!"

"What!" he snaps as he walks in and I'm glad for the distance between us as R2 shows a hologram and I realise he recorded it all as he projects an image. "What's this?"

We see our heavily pregnant grandmother looking upon our grandfather in horror, backing away from him as he warns "The Jedi turned against me, don't you turn against me."

Ben falls silent and steps forward, both of us can feel the madness in the force even after all these years, able to feel what gripped him as she shook her head, her voice scared as she said "I don't know you anymore. Anakin, you're breaking my heart." Except unlike Ben I feel her sadness, feel her utter heartbreak as she says "You're going down a path I can't follow."

"Because of Obi-Wan?"

Ben and I look at each other in equal confusion and alarm, although mine is far deeper after seeing how Vader cut apart the droid on Polis Massa for saying Obi-Wan must have been important to Padme. R2 gives a beep to quickly dismiss what he insinuates but I can see it in Anakin's eyes, the paranoia.

"Because of what you've done, what you plan to do!" The fear in her voice makes my skin crawl and yet Ben hardly blinks as Anakin looks up and sees Obi-Wan standing there. "Stop- stop now come back! I love you!"

"Liar!" Anakin rages and I feel my own hand reach for my throat, knowing what's coming.

"No!"

"I don't want to see-" Ben begins, seeing his hero being tarnished before his eyes.

"Watch it!" I snap and for once he shuts his mouth and endures it.

Ben has always been obsessed with our grandfather and his legacy, and here is the truth of it.

"You're with him! You brought him here to kill me." She cries out as Anakin raises his hand and she clutches her throat, Ben averts his eyes but I don't.

"Let her go Anakin!"

"Anakin," she gasps out in a shocked state that now feels all too familiar.

Obi-Wan Kenobi marches forward, speaking slowly but powerfully. "Let her go."

She drops to the ground and that's when R2 cuts the footage but I order him "No, keep playing it."

"We don't need to see anymore," Ben protests, not wanting to see the truth but I don't care.

"Play it R2."

He resumes the footage to a later point and we see Anakin's pure rage as he paces and screams "You will not take her from me!"

"Your anger and your lust for power have already done that," he says and I'm looking at Ben now, even if he can't bring himself to watch he's forced to listen. "You have allowed this dark lord to twist your mind until now... until now you have become the very thing you swore to destroy."

"I don't want to listen to this," Ben says, because it's the very words he does not want to hear. "R2 shut it off!"

"Don't lecture me Obi-Wan, I see through the lies of the Jedi. I do not fear the darkside as you do." Finally Ben looks as Obi-Wan bends down to check our grandmother is still alive. "I have brought peace, freedom, justice, and security to my new empire."

And there it is, the reason R2 never showed us this before. The fall of Anakin Skywalker and the birth of Vader.

The pure bewilderment in Obi-Wan's voice is clear. "Your new empire?"

Anakin's back is to him, his voice a mixture of pure offence and warning. "Don't make me kill you."

"Anakin my allegiance is to the Republic, to democracy!"

And the famed Jedi turns on his own master. "If you're not with me, then you're my enemy."

"Only a Sith deals in absolutes." Obi-Wan draws his saber. "I will do what I must."

"You will try."

There are flashes of blue before the recording ends and I'm still looking at Ben, a different sort of rage boiling in me as I tell him "That is Anakin Skywalker."

"That is Darth Vader," he says and all I feel is disgust as the reverence he uses when he says his name. "This only proves to me that we are his legacy, or at least I am."

I truly don't recognise him now as I gape "What?"

"He turned to the Emperor to build his empire," he tells me and hot tears burn in my eyes now as he says "Hope, there is something it's past time you knew. I told you once when we were young, after we met the Knights of Ren." It's then I rise to my feet, feeling my composure rapidly slipping as he begins "There is a powerful force user, his name is Snoke-"

And at that name, something inside me snaps.

"If you are going to dare defend what you just saw for some mad fucking dream some Sith's put into your head-" I scream at him and now he's the one who's shocked, who's frightened. "You just saw what he did to our grandmother, he tortured our mother!"

"And was greater than they could ever be," he retorts and now he's the one ducking as I peg my saber at his head without a second thought. "Ow Hope!" I'm pushing him now, shoving him back into one of the cargo holds, using the force to slam the sliding door shut before I can kill him. "Open the door!"

His physical strength isn't greater than mine with the force as I use it to keep the door held shut and bring my saber to my hand, frying the controls so he can't reopen it from the inside and seal it shut as he bangs on it.

"Hope!"

"Come back out when you have some fucking sense!" I yell, slamming my hand on the door before marching off, he continues kicking it in a fit of rage and I taunt "Kick harder, you might just break your foot!"

I block out the muffled profanities as I make my way to the cockpit and find myself falling down into the pilots seat, hot tears on my cheeks and feel R2 trying to comfort me, but there's nothing left that can do that.

But somehow being here in the Falcon makes it somewhat easier.

And so I re-enter the co-ordinates for Coruscant and jump to lightspeed. The sounds coming from the hyperdrive are a little alarming but I've heard worse.

"R2 can you check out the hyperdrive for me please?" I ask him but he's hesitant to leave me alone. "I'll be okay R2, I promise."

I'd see to it myself, but I can't bring myself to leave the cockpit, clinging to the controls as if my life depends on it. Everything else in my life might be spiralling out of control, but the Falcon is the one thing I can still control and I'm not leaving this cockpit.

When Ben finally breaks open the cargo hold he comes and sits down beside me in silence ashamed, guilty, neither of us able to form words as the true horror of what we've learned sinks in.

The realisation that they knew and never told us.

That is the true betrayal. I had my suspicions, but my greatest fear was that the truth would destroy Mom and Luke, but never for a moment considered that they could have known.

But they did.

And now so does the rest of the galaxy.

"Are you alright?" he finally asks me, resembling the brother I know but still I struggle to look at him for fear of what I know is hiding within him and his voice shakes. "Hope. I'm sorry."

"Before I came to Theron I went to our grandmother's tomb and saw Vader standing over it," I tell him weakly and watch his eyes widen. "I'd never felt such darkness until then, or at least I'd thought so until now."

"Hope," he says slowly, knowing exactly what I mean. "You need to understand-"

"Understand what?" I ask him, purely exhausted. "That whatever darkness you feel justifies this?" He doesn't have a response to that. "You aren't the only one Ben, you aren't the only one who feels like they're drowning right now."

"I know," he swallows and I flinch at the hand he puts on my shoulder, a hand I never knew was capable of violence against his own family until now. "Which is why I'm asking if you're okay."

Finally I bring myself to look at him and say "I don't know. All I know is everything is falling apart and I can't stop it."

I can sense the frustration in him at those words, that despite all we're capable of, it's out of our control. "If we'd known-"

I just shake my head. "On Naboo it felt like I was constantly reminded of everything I had to live up to, it suffocated me. Our great legacy..."

"It was all a lie," he finishes, the one person in the galaxy who can understand. "All we've ever been is a legacy that never existed." He breathes in and takes a moment to compose himself for my sake. "But it doesn't have to be."

I look to him for guidance, looking at him as my big brother who has always known what to do, who has always gotten me out of whatever mess I've found myself in. "How?"

"We aren't alone," he tells me and clutches his hands together as he turns in his seat to face me, knuckles bruised from his anger and his eyes filled with something new. "Snoke isn't a Sith." My head falls and he insists "Hope, the force goes beyond Luke's order. You remember what the Knights of Ren said, they offered us a place and Snoke-"

"If you say his name again I'll scream," I whisper, and that's all the warning I give as I look him in the eye and tell him "We're going to Courscant to find out just what happened during Order 66. R2's showed us a piece of it but there's more to it, more that Luke hasn't wanted us to see. So we're going to go there and find the truth and then we're going to Hosnian Prime to get the rest from Mom. Alright?"

He nods with no argument and doesn't dare open his mouth again until we reach Coruscant.

When we land outside the temple I don't argue as he helps me to my feet, nor when he keeps a protective hand on my back as we exit the ship. He guides me to the steps of the temple, something I've never actually seen before with my own eyes, and we come to face two security officers.

"You need clearance to enter."

I put a hand up to stop Ben and draw my lightsaber before asking "Is this clearance enough?"

It's what I'd warned Ben against just a few nights ago, but I don't have the intention to kill and I truly don't care about if it's wrong or right anymore. The security officers quickly step aside and we ascend the stairs.

"Luke never let me come with him here," Ben says, able to feel the darkness inside. "I thought it was because he believed the energy left here after the massacre would be too much for me to handle, but if this is where they say Anakin Skywalker died then you should be able to see the truth."

We were told Anakin Skywalker was killed by Darth Vader while protecting the children in the temple when Order 66 happened, it's what everyone believed when the Empire rose to power. Perhaps Padme's family believed he died later, that he died protecting her, but with each step a very different story is painted.

I hear it, the marching, the sound of dozens of clone troopers preparing for battle and ahead of me see a man in black robes. The darkness that surrounds him is suffocating, the conflict, the agony, the fear.

I feel it as if it were my own.

"Hope," I hear Ben saying, not cursed with the gift I am. "What are you seeing?"

"Our grandfather," I begin roughly. "Leading the slaughter."

His eyes widen in alarm and he takes me inside the temple itself where I have to hold onto his arm as I hear the sounds of sabers and blaster shots, with each step walking past the bodies of fallen Jedi and with wide eyes I walk through the grand hall amongst the bloodshed and the carnage and the chaos but it does not touch me.

I hardly hear Ben now as I follow Anakin Skywalker to the council chambers, never seeing his face even as I enter the elevator but I can see how his hand shakes as it hovers over his saber.

"Anakin," I say and for a moment his head tilts to the side as if he can hear me. "Grandfather?"

But the doors open and he marches out. Cautiously I follow him as children come out of hiding from behind the chairs and look upon him with hope.

"Master Skywalker, there are too many of them," a young boy says, looking to him for guidance. "What are we going to do?"

I feel it, a trembling in the darkness as a blue saber is ignited and I cannot tear my eyes away, I cannot wake from the vision as the children are cut down, slaughtered like animals as they try to run in vain. Finally when there is silence his head turns back towards me and I meet yellow eyes, looking into the face of darkness itself.

"Hope." I'm woken by my brothers voice and find myself standing in the dim council chambers that have more recently served as the Emperors, empty and cold. "What did you see?"

"He killed them," I state numbly. "He killed the children."

Ben shakes his head in denial "No- no Jedi would do that."

"But he did," I say, feeling cold. "You know my visions are never wrong. The future is impossible to predict but the past... it's written in stone."

Still he refuses to believe it. "Jedi are not murderers."

"But he was no Jedi was he?" I find myself saying. "He was an evil man."

"Was he evil or did his master fail him?" he asks and slowly I turn my head to him, feeling the darkness that's seeped into him. "Like Luke and our parents have failed us."

"Ben," I say carefully. "I just saw him slaughtering children and that's your first thought-"

"It's the truth of it," he says and I can hardly recognise him as he says "He was failed and he did what he had to do."

"In what world is murdering children necessary?" I ask him and push. "What has Snoke asked of you?"

"Nothing," he says sharply. "He's never asked anything of me unlike Luke-"

"I'm sure our grandfather thought the same about the Emperor and look what he became," I say coldly. "A slave."

"Or maybe he suffered from something no one else could have comprehended," he says and I hear that bitterness creeping into his voice. "Being claimed by both the light and the dark at birth, treated as a danger-"

"Because he was a danger, just as you are," I say, having no misconceptions about that now. "Just as I am." He scoffs at that and I feel an anger rise in me now. "You think I'm not?"

"I think you're afraid of being seen as dangerous," he says to me. "Do you want to make yourself weak so people won't be afraid, or rid the galaxy of people who'd hurt us for what we were born?"

"Then we'd have to kill half the galaxy," I tell him and in his eyes I only see contentment with that.

"Don't you get angry when they look at you and whisper about what you are?" he asks me, his voice having never been so cruel. "The failed daughter, the dangerous Jedi, one moment of anger and people fear you."

"You know I do," I say stiffly. "You know I hate it."

"Then why don't you embrace it?" he asks me and there's a slight of madness in his eye. "It only makes you stronger."

Something possesses me to leave the council chambers and I find myself following another Jedi Master's steps as I hear "If into the security recordings you go, only pain will you find."

"I must know the truth master."

And whatever that truth is, no matter how dark it gets, I need to know it.

There is no escaping it, not anymore.

There's no escaping the darkness of our bloodline.

And I can't be afraid of it.

Ben calls out after me as he follows me through the temple into the archives and my movements are automatic as I recover the security holograms, Luke and Lor San Tekka must have restored what they could when he was on Coruscant as part of his work here, so it doesn't take long to find what I know is here.

"Hope, what are you-" Ben trails off as it appears, our grandfather on his knees before the Emperor and we both realise what we are seeing.

"You're fulfilling your destiny Anakin," The Emperor says, and if I thought the force couldn't get any darker, I was wrong. "Become my apprentice, learn to use the dark side of the force.

Anakin's head rises, breathless as he swears. "I will do whatever you ask."

"Good," Palpatine hums and Ben and I look at each other in disturbance at the deformed creature we see.

"Just help me save Padmé's life," Anakin pleads, his head falling. "I can't live without her."

A low growl comes from Palpatine's throat. "To cheat death is a power only one has achieved-" the hologram glitches, the file corrupted from what was no doubt an attempt to destroy it during cinder.

"I- I pledge myself to your teachings," Anakin says, his voice slurred and broken, looking up at the Emperor with tears staining his face and briefly I remember the young boy I saw in the hanger in Naboo, a boy who died when Darth Vader was born.

"The force is strong with you," the Emperor says slowly. "The power of all the Sith you will become." Ben steps closer now as our grandfather looks back up with madness in his eyes and we watch it, the true creation of Vader. "Henceforth, you shall be known as Darth... Vader."

The damaged holofootage glitches out and I look back at Ben. "Is that what strength is to you?" The air turns cold as I ask him "On your knees before another master, maddened and willing to do anything to please him, believing in empty promises of power and glory for two decades only to die? Too weak to kill an old man and survive to take his place." He's silent as I look up at him, a foot of height between us but I am not small as I tell him "If our grandfather was a strong man he would have struck down his master before becoming a slave to him."

"He was only second to the Emperor," he argues. "With an Empire under his thumb."

"Only to be destroyed by his own children," I remind him, knowing well what came of Vader. "He knelt before Palpatine believing he could save our grandmother only to stay by his side after he all but killed her. That is not strength, that is the very definition of weakness."

"And yet you suffocate yourself pretending like you're better than him, better than me," he says and I feel it, the burning jealousy. "The golden child falling from grace just as I have. If you only devoted yourself to your training you might be as strong as I am."

I tilt my head, voice dangerous. "Aren't I?"

Without warning I use the force to pull his saber to me before he can even realise what's happened and I have both ignited in my hands, there's a tremble in them at the darkness I can feel from us both but just as he takes a step forward a voice bellows out.

"Put those down!"

We both look to see Luke marching towards us and he must see the panic in my eye for he raises a hand towards Ben. "I know how this seems."

"Seems?" he repeats, voice hostile. "You lied to me, you told me Anakin Skywalker, the chosen one, was my grandfather."

"And he was until he was killed by Darth Vader, that was not a lie," he says and sees the security hologram. "You've learned the truth now of what he became."

"The truth? How am I meant to trust anything you tell me?" Ben argues and I retract the saber blades and hide his behind my back, out of reach. "You've lied to me my entire life, you told me I am the legacy of Anakin Skywalker-"

"And you are," Luke says, trying to calm him. "You have the potential to be what he never could."

"You mean finish what Vader never could," Ben retorts and Luke shares my devastation as he goes on. "Is that what you hid from me, what my true legacy is?"

"Ben," I interrupt harshly. "Our lives have just been ruined and that's your concern?" Burning with anger I say what he would kill Luke for. "Pull yourself together, you are not Anakin Skywalker and you sure as hell are not Vader!" I step forward, his saber in my hand. "If you want me to be your apprentice then prove you can be a master instead of a slave." I throw his saber on the ground, the sound echoing through the archives as I tell him "I'm going to find Mom before someone tries to kill her for this because that is what's in store for us, not bullshit fantasies of finishing a cowards legacy!"

"Hope!" he yells as I push past Luke with my own grievances and head for the exit of the temple, panic thick in his voice and even the slightest remorse as he calls out "Wait!"

But I keep walking, leaving Luke to deal with him, but as I run down the stairs of the temple with tears burning in my eyes the media pounces on me, a crowd having formed in the short time we were inside.

"Hope, did you know your mother was lying to the senate?"

"Did you know Darth Vader was her father?"

"Was she working with the Empire during the war!"

"Imperial bitch!" Another voice screams out from amongst the crowd as I try to make my way to the Falcon to get out of here. "Your grandfather killed my family!" The screams continue over the yelling of the reporters and I feel it a second before the trigger is pulled and only just raise my hand in time, a blaster shot ringing out as I stop the burning bolt just inches from my head and watch an elderly man being tackled to the ground by security as he screams "He killed my daughter!"

I'm shaking now as I look at the blaster bolt in front of my hand and reflect it back into the sky, the crowd quickly parts as I all but run to the Falcon with R2 in pursuit. I don't let the boarding ramp close until he's onboard and run for the cockpit, not even knowing where to go as I reach across the cockpit to flick the controls with no co-pilot, R2 doing the best he can to help until finally I lift off and head straight for the atmosphere, hands shaking violently as I try to input the co-ordinates for Hosnian Prime wondering if I should even dare to go there or head straight for Ossus.

And so I call the first person I always run to when things go bad.

"Dad?" I stammer, struggling to get through. "Dad- can you hear me?"

"Hope?" he exclaims, panicked but also relieved when he realises it was just us who took the Falcon. "Where are you, is Ben still with you?"

"I'm leaving Coruscant, Ben's with Luke," I swallow and only realise when I start speaking that tears are running down my cheeks and I'm sniffling. "Dad I don't know where to go someone- someone tried to kill me. People are angry and I'm scared."

I haven't sounded like a scared kid in so long, and yet here I am.

"Go to your mom on Hosnian Prime," he tells me. "Luke will deal with Ben, but she needs you and you'll be safe with her."

"Dad," I'm crying, needing someone to tell me it will be okay. "Is this it? Is this how it all ends? With Ben losing his mind?"

"We'll make it through this," he promises me. "Your brother scared you today I know that, and this is why we hid it from him, from both of you. But you listen to me, he is not Vader, neither of you are and as long as we all stay together as a family we will get through this."

I don't miss the irony in his words, none of us have been together as a family since I was four years old, not since Ben was sent to Ossus. "Dad-"

His signal drops out as I enter hyperspace and I'm left there in silence to fully comprehend what's happened. That I'm the blood of Vader, of a Sith lord. That I was not mistaken in my worst fears.

We were always told by Luke we had that mighty Skywalker blood, but that it made us no different from his other students. I might have believed it until now, believed it was skill that made a Jedi not sheer raw power, but how can that be the truth when we have the blood of Vader running through our veins?

A man Ben only sees himself in.

I've always been mindful of visions of the future, but even I can't ignore the overwhelming darkness I feel coming for us all.