The field was silent, and Mara Jade Skywalker was almost invisible.
She would have been completely invisible, hidden in the long grass, but her red hair was sort of a giveaway… still, it was close enough.
Then she shifted slightly, and fired her blaster rifle.
The skeet she was shooting only appeared after she'd pulled the trigger, and skeet and blaster bolt converged before vanishing in an explosion.
"Not bad," Kyle said. "What does Luke think about this kind of thing, by the way?"
"Shouldn't you have asked that before agreeing to help?" Mara replied, firing again. A second target flew across the range and exploded, and Mara smirked slightly.
She was sure her husband wouldn't have a problem, not really. He'd grown up a farmboy using a blaster to protect himself, after all.
"Aunt Mara?"
"Safing the range," Mara declared, flicking the safety onto her rifle.
"Confirmed," Kyle agreed, from inside the bunker, and Mara rolled over onto her back.
"Hey there, Young Ben," she added, smiling up at Ben Solo. "What brings you out here?"
The teenaged trainee Jedi looked serious.
"Aunt Mara, I've got a problem," he said. "I… don't know who to ask, but… can you help?"
Mara picked up her comlink.
"This sounds private, Kyle," she said. "Sorry."
"Copy that," Kyle agreed. "I've got some training of my own to do, anyway."
Mara flicked the switch off, and sat up.
"Okay," she said. "What's the problem?"
"I've got… suspicions," Ben answered. "I feel like people are keeping something from me."
"Yeah, probably," Mara agreed.
Ben blinked.
"Huh?" he asked.
"You don't know everything about my past," she pointed out. "That's because some of it is private. You don't know everything about Kyle's past, either. I don't know if Kyle knows everything about his own father's past… but what you're actually saying is that you think people are keeping something important from you. Is that right?"
Ben nodded agreement.
"It's something to do with me," he said. "It's when… Uncle Luke is talking about me. When my parents are talking about me."
Mara frowned, thinking.
"I do know what it is," she said. "And I also know why you haven't been told yet, Ben… and it might have been a mistake, but here's why you haven't been told."
She patted the grass next to her, and after a moment Ben sat.
They looked out together towards the skies of Ossus, and the Jedi Temple some kilometres away.
"It's because they don't want to put too much pressure on you," she said. "There are some things which are too much strain to comfortably put on a child… and I say that as someone who had too much strain put on them as a child."
"You turned out all right," Ben muttered, almost accusingly.
"Eventually," Mara conceded. "Eventually. But it took a long time, kid, and it's an ongoing process too. I still wake up sweating in the night, because of the person I used to be… because of the weight that was put on me, by someone who wanted me to be a tool. Rather than to grow up as a child."
"I still don't think it's fair," Ben said. "I'm old enough to know."
"Maybe you are," Mara allowed. "But maybe you aren't – and once you know something, you can't unlearn it. Your family is keeping this from you, but it's out of love… and Luke didn't take it well when he learned something similar, and he was over twenty at that point. So it's partly about making sure you learn in the right way."
She shrugged. "But, hey. I'll keep a close eye on you, and see if I come to a different opinion, okay? You are my favourite nephew."
"I'm your only nephew," Ben objected.
"Makes it an easy choice, doesn't it?" Mara asked. "Doesn't make it wrong, though."
They sat in companionable silence for another minute or so, and an insect buzzed past with wings that droned deeply and resonantly.
"You'd never know there'd been a supernova blast hit this place thousands of years ago," Mara said, then saw Ben's expression.
"Aunt Mara," the teen began, sounding like he wasn't quite sure if he should ask. "What should I do if I hear… voices?"
"Voices how?" Mara asked.
"Talking to me," Ben answered. "Suggesting things. Telling me things."
"Well, in my experience, a voice in your head is usually Emperor Palpatine," Mara told him. "Persistent bugger, too. Took five years after he died to finally get rid of that voice… but, fortunately for you, Ben, I've got experience in how to deal with that kind of voice."
Ben didn't say anything, but his expression looked relieved.
"If it's about something horrible happening," Mara began. "Like, an injury, or hurting yourself, you just think… yeah, that would suck. And then you keep going. If it's telling you to do something, you think… do I actually want to do that? Will I still want it later?"
"And if it's telling you something?" Ben checked.
"Then… best thing you can do is ask someone about if it's true," Mara replied. "But, you know, Ben… if a voice in your head tells you something that's true, something you didn't know, you know what that means?"
"...no?" Ben replied, frowning.
"It means you have every reason to think there's an actual person, trying to manipulate you," Mara said, her voice suddenly firm and her eyes very much like her maiden name. "And if it turns out that someone is trying to manipulate my nephew, I would very much like to know about it so I can ask them to stop. With a lightsaber."
Ben was silent for about fifteen seconds.
"Is my grandfather Darth Vader?" he asked.
Mara promptly stood up.
"Right," she said, and flicked the comlink on. "Kyle!"
There was a crash sound.
"What?" Kyle asked, sounding distracted. "I was getting the skeet shooter into position for testing my defence, and dropped it!"
"Never mind that now," Mara replied. "Contact your friend Jan, we've got a force-user to track down and kill."
"Right, right, on it," Kyle replied.
That done, Mara crouched down again.
"Yes," she said. "I wish you didn't have to find out this way. Like I said, Luke didn't take it well and he was over twenty at the time…"
AN:
In a lot of ways, Mara Jade Skywalker is the perfect person for Ben to go to for this.