Summary
Star Wars AU where Rey as a child was brought to Lukes temple to be a Jedi alongside Ben and they form a strong bond with eachother before Snokes influence takes over Ben.
This story explores their life as padawans before everything happened.
Some promises were worth keeping, even when hope seemed as distant as stars.
Even if you had to wait decades in the desert to see it happen.
For as long as he could remember, he always had a haunting voice creep in his head.
He's never had a moment of his own thoughts to himself, sometimes he wondered if the voice is his own thoughts unable to tell them apart, a 'Friend' is what the voice introduces himself to Ben, a friend when no one else wanted to be his friend, being afraid of the young kid and his powers that no one understood ,especially in a world that still suffered and has yet to recover from the hands of Darth Vaders terrors.
Kids his age don't understand why Ben is always so distant and unhappy, he had everything everyone else wanted, he lived in a mansion with droids all over to serve him, he has all the latest tech and toys anyone could ever want, the son of the great heroes Senator Leia Organa princess of Aldeeran, Worlds most famous smuggler and war hero Han Solo, with credits he could spend on whatever he wanted.
Ben didn't care for materialistic items, the loneliness he feels being home with droids all the time, never interacting enough with his own parents, an absent father who he only saw a handful of times a year a mother who always spends her time with paper works, press and meetings.
a voice in his head , his 'friend' however was always there with him to entertain him telling him he is always on Bens side while planting ideas of his parents not wanting him.
When Han did come home it would be the happiest time for Ben, he forgets all about the voice, the moment he hears the falcon landing and his father coming home Ben would always rush to his fathers arms welcoming him home, he would listen to his fathers new stories of his latest smuggle, always enthralled by his father and hoping to one day accompany him on said missions.
Ben absolutely adores his uncle Chewie, when Han and Leia would go on their rare occasional date nights chewie would always be up to stay and watch over Ben along with C-3PO as well, Ben learned many things from Chewie , how to use a blaster he would practice on targets with Chewie, and when the falcon is still left behind Chewie would take him in and teach him the controls and also help do minor fixing to the old ship whenever they came back from a mission.
Ben took these lessons to heart, he wanted to make his uncle happy and proud of him and maybe even his father would one day see his worth to take him with him on mission one day but not this time, once again Han and Chewie left for another job again much to both Leia and Bens dismay having him leave already so soon.
Ben lounged around at home utterly bored decidedly go to his parents room and found one of Hans blasters he had tucked away, making sure none of the house droids notice him he went to go practice at the outer back of the mansion on targets at the trees, having done this many times under the watch of chewie Ben wanted to do it alone for once to show his own independence.
As Ben began shooting and aiming flawlessly as well, a golden droid was at the back of the trees trimming some weeds when he heard the blaster shots, C-3PO suddenly feeling alarmed of possible intruders in the mansion started rushing towards the mansion ,before Ben would have a chance to realize 3PO came right behind one of the trees where Ben was targeting and frightening him causing him to blast 3POs arm off missing his target.
"oh no 3PO" Ben yelled as he ran to the droid seeing his arm completely blown off.
"oh dear Prince Ben, you had me worried there I thought someone came to the mansion and attacked you" 3PO said as ben looked over the droid inspecting the damage done to him.
"I'm so sorry 3PO I didn't know you were back there, we should find something to fix your arm"
"oh I'm quite alright Prince Ben, I can send a comm to Princes-"
"NO! she'll get mad at me, let me help you, I can help fix you" Ben pleaded with 3PO as he ushered the droid in the house, Ben went throughout the mansion looking for different parts he gathered as he started fixing up 3Pos arm with mismatched colors "maybe we can paint it afterwards?" Ben asked as he finished attaching a new red arm to 3PO.
"well done my Prince, this arm works as well as my last one, may I say quite stylish as well" 3PO beamed at Ben admiring Bens increased repair skills that he learned from tinkering with the house droids whenever his parents weren't home many times.
Much to the surprise of both droids and Ben, Leia had arrived home earlier than expected, walking into the same room after searching for Ben she stopped and looked at 3POs new arm as she glanced towards Ben and the screw driver on his hand along with all the messy droid parts littering all over the floor, narrowing her eyes she asked slowly "Bennnn,… what did I say about tinkering with the droids?"
Bens head hung low "..sorry"
"Princess, I assure you it was an accident, he did not mean to shoot my arm off with the blaster" 3PO interfered as Ben face palmed.
"im sorry, what?" Leia exclaimed loudly at the both of them.
Later that night ben was laying down on his bed huffing at the trouble didn't mean to cause earlier, the blaster confiscated from him by his mother ,made to clean up all the parts on the room and ordered to stay in his room until his fathers arrival.
A knock on the door of his bed room drew his attention as he sat up straight and watched his father come inside, Han looked at Ben for a moment before raising one eye brow at Ben.
"so, a blaster huh?, I knew I shouldn't have let chewie watch you when Im not around"
"its not his fault" Ben replied quietly "I asked him to teach me"
Hans sighed "Kid you're too young to be holding blasters, you should be playing with toys instead"
"whats the point of toys if I have no one to play with" Ben said as his gaze lowered to his lap.
"you should make friends Ben, invite them over to play with you"
"no one wants to be my friend dad, you know why" Ben grumbled
Han stared at Ben sadly as he went to sit on the bed by Ben "don't be like that kid, you know chewie is your best friend"
"that's not the same dad" Ben rolled his eyes as he grumbled away
"well he considers you his best friend now, I think he even likes you more than me" han muttered
A small smile crept on Bens face as glanced up his father and Han smiled back at him and ruffled his hair "come on kid, lets go eat dinner, and no more touching my blasters, at least not without me or chewie" he winked as Ben sniggered at him.
Recalling the event that happened , Bens powers awakened at such a young age in school and started levitating everything in class, the desk , chairs and even children. Once word got out the childrens parents became wary of Ben and told their children to stay away from him ,fearful still from the force and the horrors of Vader.
being force sensitive is incredibly rare these days, especially as every jedi in the world were hunted down by the emperor and the only force user to reign for many years was for evil, it will take a long time before people move on from the trauma that was inflected in the galaxy. In the meantime Leia pulled Ben out of school to avoid any more unnecessary troubles ,instead hiring private droid tutors for Ben to study in the meantime at home, that's is until Ben got so bored he started disassembling the droids and reassembling them again to pass time, no droid at home was left untinkered by Bens curiosity.
Ben sits on his fathers lap in the falcon as Han held both his hands on the controls helping him learn to maneuver the ship, Han had a long conversation with Leia about taking ben out with him after chewie of course convinced Han first, agreeing that ben is growing restless at home and could use some fresh scenery, with reluctance Leia agreed with Han and reminding him to keep their son safe from his smuggling rivals.
The falcon landed slowly and ungracefully on Takodana with a big thud, once the ramp was down Han walked out along with chewie and ben on Chewies shoulders, entering the pub filled with questionable people, Han tells chewie to find a place to sit and keep Ben close as he goes to find an old acquaintance.
Ben feels different here, this place something was in the air and he can feel it, but he cant put his finger towards it too young to articulate still, as if some aura or energy surrounds the planet.
Ben sits next to chewie and looks around the pub seeing menacing glances towards him and the wookiee, Chewie growled at Ben reassuring him that no one will ever hurt him while he's around, Chewie orders a drink from one of the droid workers that arrived to their table, just as the droid left two men came by the table staring down at the seated wookiee, anxiety filled Ben trickling at the back of his head.
"you're with Han, I recognize you" one of the men yelled at chewie as he growled at them his hand steadily going towards the blaster on his side and another hand towards Ben.
"Tell your partner we have some business we'd like to talk with him about, something to benefit both of us" the other man regarded, they both glanced at ben with a smirk and walked away from the table.
"who were those?" whispered ben, Chewie grumbled to ben not to worry about it.
Seconds after the encounter Han comes back out with a package under his arm along with a tiny alien woman walking next to him "oh my, he looks just like you but with better hair" the alien lady said.
"Hey , there's nothing wrong with my hair" Han retorted back
The little alien walked over to ben looking at him quizzically and smiled "ah, you have it too don't you" she placed a hand on his head and ruffled his hair and the smile faded just as fast as it came "hmm, a long uneasy road ahead of you, be careful of the path you choose" she said
Ben blinked at her confused of what she could mean as Han quickly said "come on don't scare the kid"
"me scare him? You brought him here of all places"
"it's a safe neutral spot, and besides its you Maz"
Maz crosses her arms in front of her chest "humph, make sure you deliver my parcel on time, my clients are awaiting" she said as she looked back to Ben "and you little solo, may the force guide you"
Chewie walked with Ben towards the ramp of the falcon before turning around and grumbling something for only Han to hear, giving the parcel to chewie as Han nodded "you two go ahead and start up ill be back real quick" he said as he jogged the opposite directions while chewie guided Ben back towards the falcon.
They wait there a long while chewie getting restless of why Han would take so long started pacing around the falcon before sighing loudly, he turned to ben looking at him as he thinks to himself, not trusting to leave ben alone in the falcon be himself in on a planet he does not know, chewie signals ben to follow him as they head back down the ramp to find Han.
Wandering in the forest chewie and Ben scan slowly their surroundings attempting to find Han with no luck, Ben points towards sets of rocks and boulders he spots in the forest and chewie nods at him as he climbs upwards to get a better view, Ben pauses once he reaches the top, the air feeling thick all of a sudden and his breathing halts something feels off, something about this spot.
He exhales as he slowly turns around and in a flash of light a woman in front of him ,hair tied in buns with a very familiar blaster at her hand was standing there in front of him as she stares at him with fear on her face, he rubs his eyes and opens it again to see the same spot he was looking at earlier empty now, he blinks several times and gets more confused, when he turns to find chewie gone.
Ben panics and climbs back down as he calls for his uncle but gets no response back, he was just here a moment ago, Ben starts running back towards the falcon when he arrived the entire place is being raided and attacked, blasters being shot left and right, Ben ducks and lays low as he crawls his way around avoiding the panic and rush of the people surrounding the area, he's afraid, his father and uncle no where in sight , he hides behind a rock he sees troopers in white armor running and attacking the everyone.
A tall dark figure in black robe with a mask appears in front of him, Ben stares at the masked figure who appears to stare back at him, now hyperventilating, his body stiff and frozen, he doesn't understand what's happening, tears creeping up on the corner of his eyes as he covers his ears to muffle the screams of his surrounding he closes his eyes shut as tight as he can and suddenly feeling a set of arms grabbing him, Ben yells and fights back.
"NO, don't touch me , No" Ben screams and flails his body as tears streams down his eyes
"kid relax hold up , I'm trying to help" an old voice yelled back at the boy.
Ben opens his eyes and looks up at the older man, he reminds him of his father but much more grey with deep age wrinkles "Dad? Did you save me?" Ben says softly.
An older man looks down on the boy his eyes wide and he stared at the child, as if he has not seen this child in decades, "Ben?" the older man whispered, tears pricking the corner of his eyes.
"I wan to go home, please take me home" Ben cries and wipes the tears from his eyes.
The older man gulped "I will son, I promise" and wipes his own tears to look back and finds no one there, the little boy he lost years ago gone, Han exhales and clinches his fists, he stands up and turns around scanning the area in front of him all chaotic , he sees a dark robed figure carrying a younger woman go up the ramp 'I know what I have to do' Han thinks to himself.
"Ben , Ben its me calm down ,Ben" the deep voice of his father beings him back as Ben opens his eyes in shock and sees his own father holding him, Ben starts sobbing and hugs his father.
Han holds his son tightly on his chest as he slowly stands up and looks at the wookiee behind him who has an equally puzzled look, chewie tells Han they were looking for him and when he turned around just for a second Ben starting running off and was panicking out of nowhere.
The three back in the falcon, they set for their next destination, Ben asleep in one of his own bunkers that Han setup years ago for him, as Han goes back to the pilots seat he sighed and chewie patted his back.
"I don't know what I can do to help him" Han whispers to chewie.