They were gone.

Anakin Skywalker stood in the rain and watched from a distance as Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa Solo, and Han Solo were laid to rest in a triple funeral. Luke and Leia were twins, and in addition to being as close to Luke as a brother, Han had been Leia's husband. They had died together; it seemed fitting they be buried at the same time.

His children were gone.

Anakin felt the simmering rage warm his blood. Thanks to Palpatine, he had been robbed of being a part of their lives while they were young, now he was forced to do the unthinkable; bury his children. His mother Shmi. His wife Padme. His mentor/father figure/brother Obi-Wan. Everyone he loved died and he seemed destined to go on.

Cecil Threepio, Leia's butler, had been with the family since Padme's time as had the family chauffeur Art Deeto. They flanked the only mourner who had not left the graves: Ben Skywalker Solo.

Anakin's grandson.

He was fourteen years old.

"Anakin ..."

"Ahsoka." He tore his gaze from the tragic scene before him to glance at the slender woman who had joined him. "Excuse me … Police Commissioner Tano."

"I'm sorry for your loss, Anakin." Ahsoka sighed. A long time ago, she had been his partner. His apprentice, in a fashion … but that had been another life.

"It wasn't an accident."

"You don't know that."

"I know it. Luke was looking into the First Order. He told me that Brendol Hux wasn't the power behind the throne. He was close to proving that Mayor Snoke ..."

"Stop right there, Anakin," Ahsoka whispered. "You can't make accusations like that."

"You think I fear being sued for slander?" Anakin growled.

"It's not lawyers you have to fear." She glanced towards the sobbing boy. "You still have someone to lose."

"The boy."

"Your grandson."

"I don't know him," Anakin said regretfully. "Leia never really forgave me for what happened to her adoptive parents. She never let me meet the boy."

"He's your family. And he needs you." Ahsoka touched his cheek. "And if you go after Snoke he'll make sure the boy pays for it."

Anakin said nothing for a moment.

"Anakin … he's alone."

"He's not alone." He walked forward purposely … a tall blond man in black with a scarred visage.

"Master Anakin," Threepio stuttered.

Art Deeto was a little person, and mute, but there was nothing small about his heart. He stepped between the boy and his grandfather and whistled angrily … the only means of communication a childhood injury had left him.

Anakin looked down at the little man. Once upon a time, Art Deeto had been one of his closest friends. One of the few who- along with Threepio- knew his secrets. "I won't hurt the boy."

Ben Solo's dark eyes flared. "The boy has a name and can take care of himself."

"So much anger," Anakin observed. "Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering."

"That's already happened." Ben stared at the gravestones of his family. "They tried to make the city a better place. Uncle Luke and Dad arrested the bad people and brought them to justice. Mom prosecuted them. Now they're gone, and the First Order is still here." Ben clenched his fist. "But I'm going to finish what they started. I'll bring a new order to the city..."

"Maybe when you grow up, kid." Anakin offered his hand. "My name is Anakin Skywalker. I'm your grandfather. You'll be staying with me."

"My godfather Chewbacca Wookie is still alive. He said he'd come from me as soon as the hospital released him."

"Great. In the meantime you're coming with me."

"Don't I get a say in this?" Ben demanded.

Anakin glared at Threepio.

"Master Ben, I know that Master Anakin can be … brusque, but I assure you he has your best interests at heart. Art and I will be happy to stay with you while you're visiting your grandfather."

Ahsoka walked up to them. "Ben … you know that your parents and uncle were some of my closest friends. I care about you. I wouldn't leave you anywhere that's not safe." Ahsoka laid her hand on the boy's shoulder. "Anakin cares about you. He's just kriff at showing it."

Anakin shrugged as he felt the boy's eyes on his face again. Their color reminded him of Padme, bu the pain he saw in them was all him. "I'm sorry about what's happened, Ben. I can't bring your parents back, but we are family and I'll take care of you."

Reluctantly, the boy took his hand.

..**..

Threepio had his faults, but it couldn't be denied that he was a first class cook. Even so, Ben picked at his food. "Your home is a kriffing castle, Grandfather."

"It is is extravagant." Anakin sipped a glass of wine. He was tempted to down the bottle- more than one bottle- but he couldn't crawl into a bottle when his grandson needed him. "It belonged to your grandmother. She never really liked it- it was a bleak place to her- but when she … died … it was the place that I chose to make home."

He had no choice. Everywhere else reminded him of Padme- but this bleak structure- this castle from the Gilded Age- did not burn with memories of Padme. It was here that he created the persona of Darth Vader.

"Mom never talked about her- your wife, I mean. She had plenty of stories about Grandmother Breha and Grandfather Bail, but she never told me about you- or her. I don't even know her name."

"Padme." There had been a time when he could not even say her name without pain. Luke had helped him with that. Luke had pulled him step by step from the darkness that had nearly destroyed Anakin Skywalker. "Her name was Padme Naberrie Amidala."

"That name sounds familiar."

"She was a Senator. If she had lived, she might have gone onto even greater things. To me, though, she was practically a Queen." Anakin closed his eyes. "She died when Leia and Luke were born. Leia was adopted by the Organas. Luke was raised by my stepbrother and his wife." I'm sorry that I never thanked you, Owen, Beru.

"Why didn't you raise them?"

Anakin sighed. This was the complicated part. "I was in no condition to take care of anyone, let alone newborn children. I was in an accident. Ben Kenobi, my closest friend, thought I was dead and made arrangements to keep my children safe."

Ben stared at him. "Why didn't you come and get them when you got better?"

Anakin sighed. The boy was extremely intelligent as well as talented- Anakin could feel the Force surging through Ben's veins- he was his mother's son for sure. He saw things that Anakin wished to keep hidden from him. "By the time I was in any shape to be a father, it was too late. Your mother and uncle were grown."

"But they were your children! How could you just abandon them?" There was an echo of pain in Ben's voice- and Anakin remembered Luke telling him that Leia had sent her son to him in hopes that he could help the boy master his powers. It had been for Ben's good, but Anakin could easily see how his grandson had felt abandoned.

"I thought they had died with their mother. I didn't even know I had living children until I ran into Luke."

"How did you meet him?"

Anakin sighed. He wasn't ready- the boy wasn't ready- to hear that story yet. "It's a long story, Ben."

"Luke said you were Jedi Knight before him."

Anakin closed his eyes. "Yes. I was one of them. My friend Ben Kenobi trained me just as he trained your uncle."

"He was training me. He said I would be the next Jedi Knight. He was even going to allow me to join him as Padawan." Ben looked down at his plate. "Republic City needs a Jedi Knight. Will you take the role over now?"

Anakin frowned. His memories of his time as Jedi Knight were not pleasant. "No. That time in my life is done."

"Will you teach me?" Ben still refused to meet his eyes.

"I am not sure that I would be a good teacher for you, Ben. I might teach you the wrong lessons." He did not want the boy's pain to send him hurling headlong into vengeance. He did not want Ben to follow in his footsteps. "But I will speak to Ahsoka. She might be able to train you."

At that, Ben looked up. "What is it between the two of you?"

Anakin stared at him blankly.

"What do you mean?"

"The way you look at each other. It reminds me of how Mom and Dad looked at each other."

'

Anakin coughed. "Ahsoka was my Padawan. She was younger than you are now when she took that role. She's been like a sister to me …."

Ben stared at him skeptically. "Right ..."

"There is nothing between Ahsoka and me," Anakin said … perhaps too quickly, he realized. "There are many reasons for that. You'll just have to take my word about that, Ben." He paused. "And please don't bring up this ridiculous idea to Ahsoka. You'll only embarrass her."

"Embarrass Ahsoka Tano? Are we even talking about the same person?"

"Enough, Ben." He gave the boy the same look he had given some more than one of Palpatine's minions when he worked as the so-called Emperor of Evil's Enforcer.

Ben Solo did not seem impressed. "Fine." He paused. "Hux has to pay for what he did."

"He will. Ahsoka will see to it." And if she couldn't- if the law failed- then Anakin would see to it himself.

"It should be me," Ben murmured softly. "They were my family."

"Ahsoka loved them too- have faith, Ben."

Ben stared at him moodily. "I'm done eating. Good night, Grandfather."

Anakin sighed. He could feel the conflict in the boy- the war between justice and vengeance in his soul. "Good night, Ben."

...**...

Father!

Anakin opened his eyes. "Luke!"

Luke Skywalker. His son. He stood before Anakin not in the policeman's uniform he had been buried in, but rather the uniform of the Jedi Knight. Father, Ben needs you!

"Luke." Anakin fought back tears. He had never dreamed that his son would become one with the Force before him- and even through the pain of his loss, he felt there was pride that his son possessed the power to speak across the void between the living and the dead. "He's here with me. I promise you I'll keep him safe from Snoke and Hux-"

He's gone, Father! He took my light saber and he's gone after Hux himself! He means to kill him!

"No!" Anakin bolted upright, fully awake.

He can't do that, Father. If he takes a life out of violence and vengeance- in hatred rather than necessity-

"He'll become like me. He'll become another Darth Vader."

You have to find him, Father. You have to save him.

Anakin looked at the specter of his son. "I'll find him, Luke. I'll save him. I give you my word. And Luke?"

Yes, Father?

"I loved you, you know. You and your sister both. This time- this time I won't fail my family."

We love you too, Father. A faint smile touched Luke's face. Even Leia.

And then his son faded away.

Anakin walked out of his bedroom. "Threepio! Art!"

Threepio was dressed in a golden bathrobe and was shuffling towards him. The older man's knees had been bad for decades, and that was as fast as Anakin had ever seen him move. "Master Anakin! Master Ben is gone! We can't find him anywhere!"

Art Detoo ran forward, gesturing with his hands and whistling angrily.

Anakin gaped, not entirely sure he had read Art's signs correctly. "He took my motorcycle?!"

The little man nodded again.

"Kriff!" Anakin walked towards a wall and pressed a hidden switch. "I've got to go after him. Call Ahsoka. Tell her what happened."

"Master Anakin, how will you find him? Ben could be anywhere! Oh dear. Oh dear."

Anakin smiled grimly. "Anakin Skywalker won't find him." He walked into the hidden room and picked up the helmet he had sworn to never wear again. "Darth Vader will."

..**..

Ben Solo had never felt so alive.

It had not taken him long to find Brendol Hux. He had listened to the whispers of the Force- a ghostly Voice that Luke had always told him to ignore- he had listened and the voice had brought him to Hux.

It had been so easy to fight his way through Hux's Enforcers. He had cut their guns in half with his uncle's light saber. He had pushed them aside with a gesture, sent them tumbling into unconsciousness with another. He had fought his way through the warehouse that served as Hux's base of operations and now he was face to face with the man who had murdered his parents, his uncle … who had stolen everything from him.

The last of his defenders had fallen- a tall young woman in body armor that had deflected his light saber but had not been immune to Ben's mental powers and a boy barely older than Ben himself- a redhead who was fighting fiercely against the Force gesture that held him pinned to the wall.

"Father!" The redhead screamed. "Stay away from my father!"

Hux himself was cowering in a corner.

"Stay from my father! I'll kill you if you hurt him! Do you hear me, I'll kill you!"

Ben had not worn the Padawan uniform his uncle had given him. He wore a black uniform of his own design, a black and silver helmet hiding his facial features and disguising his voice. "Be silent, boy. I'll deal with you later."

Yes, the Voice whispered to him. Kill Hux. Kill the woman. Kill Hux's son. Make Hux suffer for what he had one to Ben- what he had dared to Ben's family.

"Don't hurt me!" Hux whimpered. "I'll turn myself in! I'll tell the police everything I know! I'll give you money- women- anything- if you just let me live!"

"Anything?" Ben held the light saber under Hux's throat.

"Anything!"

"I want my parents back."

"What?"

"My parents. You killed them. You want to live, bring them back to life."

Hux stared at him as though he had gone insane.

"You can't? A pity- for you." He drew Luke's saber back to strike-

And a tall black figure armed with a red light saber crashed through the window and pushed him back with a Force gesture.

Ben gritted his teeth, and freed himself of the dark lord's control. "Who the kriff are you?"

The tall man in black raised his light saber up. "I am Darth Vader."

"Darth Vader is dead!" Ben Solo screamed. "My uncle killed him!"

"That's what Luke wanted the world to think." Vader gestured and Hux slumped to the ground unconscious. "There's a voice in your head, isn't there?"

Ben stared at him. "Is it you? Are you the one who's been telling me what to do?"

The black helmet shook fiercely. "No. I would never set you on this path. There is another- someone who wants you to join the Darkside."

"Why would you want to prevent that? You are a master of the Darkside!"

"You do not master the Darkside. It masters you. It promises you power- but it's a trap, boy. It takes everything you are, everything you ever loved- and it leaves you with nothing but ashes."

"He killed my parents! He killed Luke!"

"He may have done that- but only because his master ordered him to."

"His master?"

"The same one who's urging you to murder him. The voice in your head is the voice of the man murdered your family."

Ben stared at him. "No ..."

"I didn't know he was there at first. Not even Luke knew he was there. He was good at hiding in the recesses of your mind- but he's practically screaming now, isn't he? I can hear him at last." The lenses of Darth Vader's helmet seemed to momentarily shimmer with a blood red hue. "He's going to regret that."

"He wants me to kill you."

Darth Vader nodded. "He does. Someday- someday you might even be strong enough to do that. But not right now. His only hope is that I'll let you kill me rather than hurt you myself."

Ben stared at him. "Move. I don't care about you. I just want to make Hux pay."

"I told you-"

"Fine. If the Voice in my head ordered him to kill my parents, I'll kill him- it- too. But first … first Hux dies."

"Why?"

"Why?" Ben blinked at him. The Voice was screaming at him now- Kill Hux! Kill Vader!

"Why listen to someone who killed your parents?"

Ben stared at him. "Why-"

"He wants you to kill Hux, boy. He wants you to kill me. If you give in to that urge- to kill someone who hurt you- to kill at the order of another- then you set your foot on a path that will lead to your own destruction. He thinks he can enslave you. He's trying to make you his puppet. His slave."

"My parents-"

"Would they want you to murder someone in their names? Would your uncle?"

Ben paused. "Why would you care?"

Darth Vader hesitated. "I made the wrong choice in a situation like this. I didn't know it then, but it was the first step to becoming what I hated. I spent almost half my life paying for that decision- it cost me the woman I loved, the family I had dreamed of- I wouldn't want that to happen to anyone else. Especially not you."

Ben looked at him.

Darth Vader gestured, and Armitage Hux slumped against the wall, just as unconscious as his father. "Because of who you are. Because of who I am. Ben Solo, I am your grandfather."

"No," Ben whispered. "That's impossible."

Darth Vader removed his helmet, revealing the pale face of Anakin Skywalker. "I let fear and hatred make me into a monster, Ben. Don't follow my path. Choose a better one."

Ben deactivated his light saber.

Fool! The voice screamed at him. You're nothing! You're nothing, boy!

Ben fell to his knees as the Voice screamed into his soul, tearing into his mind as though it meant to destroy him utterly.

And then he felt his grandfather take his hand. "Let me help you, Ben."

He opened his mental barriers and reached out to his grandfather. "Help me please ..."

The Voice shrieked as Anakin Skywalker joined his will to his grandson's. "You son of a bantha, you're not facing an untrained boy now. Whoever you are, you are no Sheev Palpatine- my will, our will, is stronger- you're going to leave. But before you go, you will tell us your name!"

The Voice hissed and spat like a wildcat, but Anakin joined his experience with his grandson's power, shaping their will into a command that could not be denied: "Tell us your name!"

S-snoke!

"You have no place here, Snoke. Go- and trouble my grandson's mind no more!"

The Voice shrieked like the damned- and fled.

"It's over, Ben." Anakin helped the boy to his feet. "He can't do that to you again. Once we forced him to give us his name, he had no power over you."

"Snoke … Mayor Snoke?"

"Yes."

"We have to stop him, Grandfather."

"Why?"

"We can't let him go on hurting people like he did me. He has to be stopped."

"You no longer want vengeance?" Anakin's face was as impassive as stone.

"Maybe a little?" Ben looked up at him. "Is that bad?"

Anakin smiled. "It's human, Ben. And understandable." He looked at the unconscious Huxes, and the fallen girl. "We'll call Ahsoka. There should be enough evidence here to send Hux away for a long time- and maybe even implicate Snoke."

"And if there isn't?"

Anakin sighed. "If there isn't, then I'll stop him another way."

"As the Jedi Knight?"

"No." Anakin shook his head. "I'm not Jedi Knight any longer. It will have to be as Darth Vader."

"And I'll help you."

Anakin stared at him in amusement. "As Padawan?"

Ben sighed and shook his head. "I don't think so. I don't think I can be Padawan- or Jedi Knight now. There's too much anger in me. Too much hate. I won't let it win- but I can't move past it- not like Luke did. I'll have to find my own answer- and my own name."

"I'll help you with that."

"I was counting on it."

..**..

For decades, Republic City had been protected by the Jedi Knights … heroic men and women who served the cause of justice and light.

With the passing of Luke Skywalker, Republic City found itself no longer protected by the Jedi … but as time went on, the people would discover they had new defenders.

A Sith Lord turned guardian. A young Dark Knight ever at his side.

Darth Vader and his partner Kylo Ren.

Sometimes dark is not evil.

Sometimes … sometimes the good guys wear black.

And carry red light sabers.