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~Love and Space Wars~

by:

marana1

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Extended Summary: Stuck on Naboo since she can remember, Rey Palpatine meets her grandfather, whom she has fiercely ambivalent feelings towards, only once a year, if that. It isn't until news breaks throughout the galaxy of her existence, and subsequently that of Darth Vader's children, that her life is completely disrupted.

All Ben Organa wanted was to figure out his place. Training on a remote Jedi island with his uncle was not his decision. Neither was learning politics from his perpetually absent mother as a child. It isn't until he finds out his true legacy — that he is the only grandchild of the famed Darth Vader — that everything seems to finally make sense... while the rest of his life is torn apart. In an effort to exert some control, he listens to the Force and runs. Straight into her.

Chapter 1: Storm

Ben was rooted to the spot as the sky cracked open with a fierce streak of lightning and the heavens finally wept.

Master Luke had instructed him to stay with the ship, but naturally, he hadn't. They had stopped on their way back from Ossus — the old Jedi text, Rammahgon, in hand — and desperately needed to refuel. Coruscant had been out of the question, but Corellia was nearby and on the Trade Spine hyperlane, which could get them near enough to Ahch-To in order to make the necessary complicated jumps to its location in the Unknown Regions. With the sheer number of crime syndicates that had become bold in the past few months since the Hutts' destabilization of the Empire, it was an ideal place to get around unnoticed. There were a slew of them on Corellia, fighting for credits, slaves, and territory, and the Empire was far too preoccupied trying to keep them in line than to look for, or notice, two Jedi slinking around.

They'd docked at Tyrena, which had previously served the long-dead Rebellion, to blend in with the tourists and avoid most of the Imperial Army. There was a stand nearby at the spaceport that was selling endwa, and he'd be damned if he didn't eat some mouthwatering fried food before they left. He was kriffing sick of the fish and green milk on Ahch-To.

Throwing up his hood, he'd made his way to the stand as the sky looked bleak overhead, hoping to avoid the rain before it began to fall in droves. There had been a vidscreen nearby playing one of Corellia's news channels, but he'd disregarded it at first, focused solely on the food, until a small crowd began to form and the port became quiet. Unnervingly quiet.

After getting his meat, and ensuring the man at the port wouldn't remember he had taken it at all — something Luke would have frowned upon immensely — he turned to face the screen, wondering what could have possibly been so important that people had stopped talking, had stopped moving.

He'd frozen then, the meat all but forgotten as a twisted feeling of dread curdled in his stomach. On the screen was him, in his early teens. Too big features, all lanky limbs and awkward proportions, as someone reported that he — the secret, out-of-wedlock son of the famous ex-Rebellion sympathizer, Leia Organa, and nephew of purported Jedi, Luke Skywalker — was the grandson of Darth Vader.

The world seemed to go silent as his focus sharpened onto those words: grandson of Darth Vader.

Grandson of Darth Vader grandson of Darth Vader grandson of Darth—

He could feel himself shaking as the rain poured down, drenching him and everyone else. He became cold. So cold. As if a shard of ice had lodged in his heart, freezing it with no hope of warmth.

It was impossible, it had to be, they would have never just not said anything. His mother would never—

"What a traitor," snarled someone ahead of him, jolting him out of his downward spiral of thoughts. The blood drained from his face as the crowd agreed, murmurs spreading like wildfire. He'd forgotten where he was, how exposed he was out here in the rain.

"This information about Leia Organa has just released from another anonymous source and follows a similar reveal that was just as surprising this morning: that the Emperor has a granddaughter whom he has raised in secret for nearly 20 years. We will be back with more as both stories develop. Will the Empire or Leia Organa respond to this news? Is the source who gave us this information the same as the one who leaked the existence of the secret grandchild on Naboo? And will we see more of this secret grandchild, since she is of age? Stay tuned. You're watching Corellia News."

Ben almost tripped, vision blurring, as he walked with leaden feet back to the ship — an older, Corona-class transport. He was dripping wet, hands and jaw clenched, as he made his way up the ramp. His mind was moving too fast for him to think straight, and his heart nearly pounded out of his chest. Dropping into the co-pilot's seat, he stared out the front of the ship in a daze, barely able to breathe properly.

Was he truly related to Darth Vader?

His mother and Luke had barely spoken about the past, and when they had, it was to talk only about his deceased father — never about their family. As the years passed, he didn't think much of it. He hadn't stopped to think at all about his mother and uncle's parents… about who could have possibly given birth to two incredibly force-sensitive twins, both of whom were embroiled in politics.

Cold anger settled in his chest. He was almost thirty years old, and they'd never stopped for one second to even discuss it with him. Not that his mother would have had any time with how she'd chucked him off like a piece of garbage to Luke when things got rough. As much as she'd tried to hide it from him, he had sensed her fear, and even Luke's at times, and he'd never understood why. They weren't the ones with nightmares or lacking sleep, they weren't cast aside, as if unimportant, they weren't surrounded by people who never listened—

No, he was fucking furious.

The Force gathered around him and sparked with electricity as the sky grew darker, mirroring his mood.

They'd never told him, they'd just let him suffer and cry and feel like an outcast, like some disturbed kid who needed mental help when all he'd wanted was to understand what was so damn wrong with him that he needed to be shipped off to his uncle, or for his kriffing mother to barely spend any time with him. For them to fear him, to isolate him… when he was a mere child. No, instead of explaining, they'd allowed his childhood to be filled with loneliness, nightmares, and disturbing voices, hoping that the light side of the Force would save him — something it had failed miserably to do. Instead, the chasm inside his chest had grown and simmered with time… something decidedly more dark and violent taking root in there.

Ben's lips quivered and turned down as a snarl emitted from his throat. He slammed his hand against the side of the ship and his breath stuttered and eyes welled up at the sudden pain. He'd never wanted to destroy something more than he did now, and the urge to draw his lightsaber and rip apart the ship, or to punch and punch and punch until his hands were broken and bleeding was dangerously seductive. He tried to draw in deep breaths, but he felt wild and unstable — years of repressed anger and resentment finally allowed free — and the thought of even attempting to meditate in this state seemed impossible.

Ben wanted to run. He wanted to destroy this ship, steal another to leave this planet, and then go on his own and figure out his life for himself, away from his uncle and mother's influence. Away from everyone. If ever he felt there was a moment in his life where he was at a crossroads, this was it.

But something deep inside the recesses of his mind and soul — a familiar dark, sibilant voice that had merely grown in its power as he'd gotten older — told him to wait. To see if, after all this, his mother and Luke would finally tell him the truth.

So instead, he ripped off his cloak and chucked it across the ship with a roar, trying desperately to rein in his anger and the darkness festering inside him like a painful, open wound.

No, he would not leave. He wouldn't run. Not yet.

He would get a hold of himself and his emotions, he would mask the utter betrayal he felt, and then he would lie in wait for his uncle to return.

Hi, readers! If you're coming here from Harry Potter: HI, yes I'm still writing and IAL *will* be updated soon. I just graduated and am working towards my board exam, so life has been hectic, but I just absolutely had to post this! If you're not coming from one of my other fics: HI! So, this isn't my first rodeo with fanfiction, but this is the first time I've written for Reylo and Star Wars, which I absolutely love (although TROS I did not lol). This all just came out of me pretty fast over the past few weeks, and I let my mind go with it. Please do let me know if you like it and drop a review! If you're on AO3, I uploaded this there, too, since I have an account on there. Information for everything/anything in this story that you might not be familiar with can be found on Wookieepedia (which is an amazing source for Star Wars). I took heavily from both canon and the EU for this story. If you like what I've written, please drop a review and let me know :) I'll be updating this with more sooner rather than later.

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