"Ben! Ben!"

"What, Mom?"

"Could you come to the living room?"

"Why?"

"Because we need you."

"Right now? Mom, give me five minutes! I'm doing something here!"

"You're playing Podracer Classics, Boonta Eve: Version Three!"

"Fiiine! Coming..."

Ten-year old Ben Skywalker slouched into the living room of the Skywalkers' apartment on Coruscant to be faced with the intimidating sight of both his parents waiting for him on the couch. He gave them one narrow look and immediately responded with,

"Whatever it was, I didn't do it."

His father smiled.

"You're not in trouble, Ben. Come and sit down, we just want to talk to you."

Ben was still wary. Both his parents wanted to talk to him? Together? That was never a very good sign. A sudden thought struck him. Were they going to tell him he'd been adopted? He instantly shook that thought out. With red hair and blue eyes, his parentage could never have been in doubt!

He sat down carefully, his eyes shifting from one to the other of his parents with undisguised worry on his face. He tried sensing their feelings through the Force and found that they were only sending him re-assuring feelings while guarding their own thoughts.

"Ok," he began cautiously, "What's this about then?"

Luke Skywalker leaned forward and began in his calm and kind voice.

"Ben, do you know who your grandfather was?"

Ben frowned. What kind of a question was this?

"Yeah, 'course, Dad. He was Anakin Skywalker, the Chosen One to bring balance to the Force, Jedi Knight and hero of the Clone Wars."

Ben recited this readily, as if reading from a textbook.

Mara Jade Skywalker smiled. Luke nodded.

"Yes. That's right, Ben. Do you know anything else about him?"

"He was apprenticed to Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, he built Threepio,he married my grandmother- Dad! You know what I know about him!"

Ben was getting more and more confused. Why did they suddenly want to talk to him so seriously about his grandfather who had died decades before he had even been born.

Luke sighed.

"Ok, Ben. What do you know about... Darth Vader?"

"Vader? He was a Sith Lord, wasn't he? He used to work for the Empire. He killed Grandfather."

Mara and Luke exchanged a look.

"Anything else?"

"You guys all fought against him during the war. He duelled you on the Second Death Star but you beat him! You killed him!"

Luke winced at the inordinate pride in his son's voice. He looked at Ben steadily and shook his head.

"No, son. I didn't kill him. I-I couldn't. He-he died saving my life."

Ben frowned again, this time in deeper confusion.

"Saving your life? But didn't he want to kill you?"

"Well...not exactly kill me. He wanted to turn me over to the Dark Side. To become a Sith Lord like him."

Ben was surprised to see the pain in his father's eyes as he spoke of this.

"And then he saved your life?"

"I refused to turn to the Dark Side so Emperor Palpatine tried to kill me. Vader stopped him and killed him. In the process he incurred terrible injuries which eventually led to his death."

Ben was thoroughly confused now.

"But Dad, Darth Vader and the Emperor were both on the same side! They were your enemies! Why would Vader kill the Emperor to save you?"

Luke raised his eyebrows, prompting Ben to figure it out for himself. The little boy scrunched his face as he mused over the problem.

"Wait! So Vader betrayed the Emperor!"

"That's right."

"But why? Did you tell him something?"

Luke gently shook his head again.

"No. I didn't have to. Darth Vader realized something himself. He turned back to the Light Side of the Force."

Ben's eyes were wide in wonderment.

"Wow! How'd he do that?"

"Through the power of love."

"Love? But Sith don't love!"

"Turns out Vader did."

"Who did Vader love?"

"Me."

"Whoa! What?"

"Vader felt a deep, over-powering love for me when he saw me being tortured by the Emperor, Ben. It helped him overcome the Darkness within him. He killed the Emperor and saved my life, because he couldn't bear to see me in so much pain."

"I don't get it, Dad. He was fighting you before, and now you tell me he loved you? Why?"

"Luke," Mara interrupted softly, "You might as well tell him or he'll end up getting more confused."

"Tell me what, Dad?"

Ben looked curiously from his mother to his father. It was evident there was something big. Something his Dad was having trouble even talking about. For the life of him, Ben couldn't guess what it might be.

"Ben, Darth Vader was my father."

Oh. That.

Ben's jaw dropped in slow-motion.

"What?"

Suddenly his throat felt like a sandstorm had just blown through it. His father was still looking at him. There wasn't a trace of a joke in his expression or in the Force. He continued to gawp at him. Mara reached over and took his hand.

"Ben..." she started to say.

"But-wasn't Anakin Skywalker your father? That's what you always told me."

"Anakin Skywalker turned to the Dark Side of the Force and became Darth Vader."

Just as he'd got it closed up, Ben's jaw dropped again. Something roiled in the pit of his stomach. He clutched forcefully on his mother's hand and felt her squeeze back supportively.

"That-that's not true! That can't be true! You-you- But Vader killed my grandfather!"

Luke could almost hear his own disbelief mirrored in his son's voice. He drew a long, deep breath to steady himself against the wave of emotions buffeting him at the remembrance. He reached out to hold his son, gripping his arms. The boy struggled against his hold but Luke had him strongly pinned.

"Ben, listen to me. I know how this must sound. Believe me, I once felt the same way. The very same way. And do you know how I found out? Vader told me! He told me himself! Do you know how I lost this hand?"

Luke held up his cybernetic right hand in front of Ben's face. Ben looked at it in terror. His dad's robotic hand. He'd once timidly asked about it. His dad had simply told him it had been lost in a duel, to a much superior fighter. He'd never plucked up the nerve to question him again.

"I lost it to my father, Ben. Vader duelled me on Cloud City, after he encased your Uncle Han in carbonite. He tried turning me then. I refused. We fought. He was so much more powerful than me. It had been a terrible mistake on my part, thinking I was ready to face him when I was still untrained. He cut off my hand in that duel and he tried to persuade me to join him by going over to the Dark Side. I refused. I said I would rather die. I had to jump out into space to escape him. He could have killed me then,too, but he didn't. He wanted me to join him."

Luke paused. There were tears streaming down Ben's face even though he couldn't feel himself crying. His brain felt like it had gone into shutdown from the barrage of shocks his father kept giving him. But this must be hard for him too. His mother had taken him in her arms, he hadn't realized when, and was now holding onto him. But his eyes were fixed firmly on his dad.

"He hurt you."

Ben's words were so soft, Luke had to strain to even hear them.

"How could he be your father and- and hurt you like that?"

Ben could never have conceived of his father ever lifting a finger on him, even at the height of his rage. For any father to do so was, in his mind, unthinkable.

Luke's heart wrenched within him. This was it. Tonight was going to be the beginning of the end of Ben's innocence.

"He hurt me in order to control me, Ben. He hurt me so I would be forced to obey him."

"He was a monster!"

"Yes. He was. But he was also your grandfather. This same 'monster' saved my life at the end. If it hadn't been for him, Ben, you might never even have been born!"

Ben bit his lip. His feelings were in turmoil. So many questions tumbled in his brain, he couldn't even begin to ask them all. He had never given much thought to his grandfather before. Their family had had many heroes but to him, his own father had always been the greatest of them all. But Sith? Sith were the very embodiments of evil! He had repeatedly been taught the perils of the Dark Side of the Force, he had had it drilled into him that it's temptations were to be resisted at all costs. He had to believe in good, that the greatest power would always come from the Light Side of the Force, the Dark Side was merely an easier path which tended to corrupt its followers. But- His own family had Sith? He had inherited Sith blood? He could not believe a Skywalker, his grandfather, even though he had never known him, could have been weak enough to stray from the Light Side. The thought disgusted him.

His father was still looking at him, giving him time to sort out his feelings, but waiting for his response. Clearly there was more. He braced himself.

"Grandfather was a bad man? He was evil?"

How could he be expected to love and honour the memory of his ancestor if he now knew about this disgrace?

"Grandfather was a bad man, yes, Ben. He was evil. For a time. But he hadn't been born evil. And he didn't die evil either. He had been a great hero during the Clone Wars, Ben. He was the most powerful Jedi of his time. He had many friends. But... he made mistakes, terrible decisions which caused him to fall. Anakin Skywalker, your grandfather, redeemed himself at the very end of his life. He died a Jedi, a good man, a father who had sacrificed his life for his son."

"But what about the bad things he did as a Sith? As- as Vader?"

Luke sighed. The Dark Side was problematic. He wondered if Ben could truly understand it at this age. But this was his family. He had a right to know the truth. And from the right sources.

"He... did do some very horrific things when he fell to the Dark Side. He hunted down and killed almost all the Jedi of the old Order. He tortured and killed people who opposed him, who stood in his way, or even those he was displeased with. He betrayed those who loved him..." Luke's voice cracked.

"There can be no justification for what he did as a servant of the Dark Side, Ben. I'm not trying to make excuses for him here. I'm only trying to tell you the truth of his life. And the truth is that at the end, when he had come back to the Light, he realized his wrongs himself. He repented, he truly repented for them. I'm not saying you have to love him, Ben, now that you know... It is up to you whether you have it in your heart to forgive him, to take him back, despite what he did."

"But- he hurt you, Dad! Could you forgive him?"

"He also gave his life for me, Ben. He righted his wrongs, he brought back Balance, to the Force."

"But did you forgive him?"

The Jedi Master smiled at his young son's stubborn insistence.

"Yes, Ben. I forgave him."

Ben leaned back for a while in silence, debating the thought within himself. Did he have it in him to forgive his grandfather, even for hurting his family?

"Why did he turn, Dad?"

Ben was having trouble grasping the sudden truth about his grandfather. Luke could almost see the dilemma playing out across his young face. He looked over at his wife, but her eyes were unreadable, cast down, looking at her son. He took a deep, calm steadying breath. This was going to be rough. On all of them.

"He was tempted and deceived. By Palpatine."

Ben's little face contorted with disgust.

"He believed Palpatine?"

"Palpatine hadn't become the Emperor then, Ben. Your grandfather had been friends with him for a long time and considered him to be his mentor. He was so skilled at hiding the fact that he was a Sith that no one, not even Master Yoda, had ever suspected him."

"But he was a Jedi! How could he do all the horrible things Palpatine told him to? Couldn't he see they were wrong?"

Luke rubbed his forehead wearily. This was turning out to be tougher than he had thought it would be. He looked to his wife for help. Mara turned Ben around to face her.

"Palpatine could be very...convincing when he had to be, Ben."

"How did he make Grandfather fall?"

"He promised to teach him the secret to keep those he loved from dying."

Ben's eyes became as round as saucers.

"He-he could do that?" he asked in wonder.

Mara shook her head bitterly.

"No. No, he couldn't. But that never stopped him from lying about it. He would lie to anyone, about anything, to get what he wanted."

Ben looked at his mother. She was staring at the carpet.

"Did you know him, Mom?" he asked in a hushed whisper.

Mara looked up at him, startled.

"What?"

"You sound like you knew him."

Mara gazed into her precious son's eyes for the length of an entire heartbeat. This was going to be it. If she told him what she had to, he'd never look at her like that again. She swallowed in a throat gone suddenly dry.

"Yes. I knew him. I grew up under him. He raised me and trained me. I used to work for him, Ben. I used to be the Emperor's Hand."

Ben suddenly couldn't recognize his parents anymore. Something had shifted. They looked like total strangers to him now, not Mom and Dad, not the people he had grown up seeing everyday.

Fresh tears spilled from his eyes. His mother had always been his goddess, his life. The kind of love he felt for her, he had never given anyone, not even his own father. But this just didn't make sense. Was his mother saying that she had been raised by Palpatine? That she had been groomed in the Dark Side... as a Sith? She had been the enemy? Did this mean he couldn't trust her anymore? Ben's little world was slowly crumbling all around him. But she was his mother! She was his father's wife! Luke Skywalker would never have fallen in love with, never married a Sith! Unless...

Ben whirled to face his father once again.

"How did you guys meet?"

His tone was sharp, accusatory. Both his parents were now looking distinctly uncomfortable.

The whole story took a long time to tell. For the first time, Ben heard it all told in detail, instead of popularly narrated bits and pieces. About how Anakin Skywalker had been recognized as being a Force-sensitive of unnatural capabilities by a Jedi on Tatooine and rescued from a life of slavery, how he had been apprenticed to Obi-Wan Kenobi, despite the reservations of the Jedi Council regarding his training at such a late age, how he had grown up to be a great Jedi Knight and pilot and actively participated in the Clone Wars, but how Palpatine had ingratiated himself with him and mentored him since his early years as a Padawan. How he had gone against the Jedi Code and fallen in love and secretly gotten married. But then he had had a terrible vision of his wife dying in childbirth and had succumbed to Palpatine's temptation in his desperation to keep her alive. How he had fallen to the Dark Side and become Lord Darth Vader, Palpatine's second-in-command and helped precipitate the end of the Old Republic and the destruction of the Jedi Order and how only a few Jedi had been able to survive the Great Jedi Purge. How Anakin's wife had still died in childbirth, but not before giving birth to twins, his father and his aunt, Luke and Leia. How Luke had been given over to Anakin's step-brother, Owen Lars and his wife while Leia had been adopted by Bail and Breha Organa of the Royal House of Alderaan. How the two had grown up completely oblivious of the other's existence until a fateful day when Vader had captured Leia's diplomatic ship in a firefight above Tatooine and only two droids had been able to escape. How the droids had been fortuitously bought by no other than the Lars and Luke had accidentally come across the holo-recording of Leia's message to General 'Ben' Kenobi. How Luke and the droids had delivered the message to him while Imperial stormtroopers had lain waste to the homestead and murdered his Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru in search of the droids. How Luke and Kenobi had met Chewbacca and Han Solo in a cantina in Mos Eisley and blasted off to find the Rebel Alliance, but had instead been captured by the first Death Star and launched a heroic rescue mission to save Princess Leia, held captive aboard it. How Obi-Wan had met his destiny and become one with the Force at the hands of his former apprentice giving the others the chance to flee and rendezvous with the Rebel Alliance on Yavin IV from where they had led the assault that had resulted in the destruction of the first Death Star. How they had spent the years after that, eluding the Imperials, setting up a base on Hoth, Luke pursuing Kenobi's vision to train with Yoda on Dagobah, his encounter with the Dark Side in the cave, his vision of Han and Leia in pain, Lando's betrayal and Han's encasement in carbonite, the climactic duel in Cloud City above Bespin; later the last words Yoda had said to Luke, his ensuing conversation with Kenobi and finding out Leia was his twin sister, the strike against the second Death Star, facing Vader for the second time alongwith the Emperor and Vader's final redemption.

Then Mara took over and related her story, being torn away from her birth parents as an infant and raised in the Imperial Palace, groomed to be the best fighter, spy and assassin, her work as the Emperor's Hand, the impact of the Emperor's death and his last command to her, her joining Talon Karrde's Smugglers Alliance, her first encounter with Luke, her destruction of the last clone and her ultimate conversion to the Light Side, their many subsequent run-ins, her finally accepting Jedi training and the events on Niruaun leading to Luke's proposal and their wedding.

And the last part, which took almost all of Luke's strength to recount, his failure and fall to the Dark Side and service to the reborn Emperor on Byss.

Ben listened without saying a word, his eyes swivelling between his parents, nodding at the parts he already knew, frowning at many others, the ice growing around his heart as they fell spectacularly from grace. When it was finally over, he looked at them both looking apprehensively at him for a brief while, then wordlessly got up and walked out the door.

Artoo-Detoo trundled up the ramp of the Millennium Falcon and swivelled his dome slowly, scanning the interior of the ship. Finding no life-forms aboard, except some ancient mould in some non-descript corner, he trundled back down and beeping morosely to himself was about to leave when his auditory sensors picked up a faint sniff coming from somewhere near the rear end of the ship. Artoo turned and rolled over to the farthest landing strut behind which a small, miserable figure sat hunched and alone, his arms wrapped around his knees, staring blankly at the drab hangar walls. Artoo beeped at him softly.

"I'm not hungry, Artoo."

Artoo settled down beside the boy, prepared to wait for however long it took to get him back home.

"He betrayed you too, didn't he, Artoo? Grandfather, I mean. You were his droid too, weren't you?"

Ben spoke softly after they had sat in silence for a considerable length of time. Artoo's dome swivelled to consider him with it's single optical sensor, and he whooped and whee'd quietly and mournfully.

"Of course you can feel betrayed, Artoo! You were the most loyal to him! Since when did you know him?"

Artoo bleeped in response.

I think Threepio and I knew him the longest. But I was the only one who survived without a memory wipe in between!

Ben nodded then lapsed into silence again.

After a while, Artoo took the initiative to tweetle again. Ben looked up at him with curiously wet eyes.

He really wasn't a bad man, you know.

Ben snorted, way too cynical for his years.

"Look what he did."

Still. I always believed someday he would return. As the years passed, I lost faith in him. Even your grandmother had believed there was still some good in him. She believed it till her last breath.

Ben sniffed and wiped at his nose furiously.

"Why should I forgive him? Why should I believe any of them again? They all did what they're always telling me is wrong! What if it's in my destiny to turn to the Dark Side as well?"

Artoo regarded the boy thoughtfully, his internal servos humming quietly.

We'll have to see about your destiny, young Ben, but I think the moral of this story is to see that what saved your grandfather and your parents is that in the end they all found the strength to change their minds.

Ben flashed him a painful look of hurt and anger.

"So? That's it? That's enough?"

Yes. It was enough to change their destinies and maybe even the destiny of the galaxy. Why isn't that enough for you?

Artoo could tell the boy was thinking now.

"I'm no one to forgive them", he finally said, very softly, as if murmuring to himself.

"They did what they had to."

They don't need you to forgive them. They need you to accept them. I believe that's what humans require within a family.

Ben turned to look at him. There was something glowing dimly in the deepest recesses of his eyes. Slowly he unwrapped his arms and stood, his head still hanging in some measure of dejection.

"Come on, Artoo. Let's go home."

Ben let himself into the apartment quietly. It was quiet and dark, but he could feel the muted presences of his parents. He looked towards the balcony and could make out the shadowy silhouette of his mother, leaning on the rail, her hair waving gently in the wind. He stood for a brief moment, thinking, waiting, and then slowly made his way toward her.

Mara didn't turn even though she felt Ben approach. A lump formed in her throat. He came and stood quietly beside her, not saying a word. She didn't know what he was going to say, whether he was going to say anything at all, or whether the rest of their days would be spent in awkward silences. Her son seemed to sense her trepidation because suddenly he slipped his hand into hers and looking up at her, he smiled. There was definitely a change in his eyes as he looked at her. The blind trust and innocence in them that had always made her want to wrap her arms around her baby and shield him from everything the universe would throw at him was no longer apparent, but they still held warmth and a deep, deep love that she knew he held only for her. Tears pricked against her eyes. What she saw in her son at that moment was what she hadn't dared hope for. Acceptance.

"It's ok, Mom." His voice was husky, as if it was beginning to break already.

"I don't care what happened...before, all the things you did. I could never hate you."

Her knees gave way and she was gathering up her precious child into her arms, vowing never ever to come so close to losing him again. He hugged her back, tightly, promising her through the gesture never ever to leave her, even though she now knew she should be prepared to let him go.

She looked into his eyes for a long time, to her heart's content, choking back the intense motherly pride she felt at that moment. He had been born with the true Skywalker blue, but she had never seen them look more like his father's than they did right now.

"Then you have to forgive them as well, Ben," she said firmly.

Ben looked down at the floor, but eventually he nodded.

Still holding his little hand in hers, she led him to their bedroom.

Luke Skywalker was sitting on the bed in the dark, shoulders hunched, clenching and unclenching his hands. He was counting in his head, all the things he'd ever done wrong and getting more and more alarmed at the results. He had to admit, this taking stock was long overdue and it was only because of this extremely difficult talk with his son that he'd come to realize the number of things he'd done that he'd justified to himself he'd been forced to do. At this rate, he'd never be able to call himself a role model for anybody!

"Dad?"

Luke's head shot up at the soft sound of his son's voice. He looked at him, startled. The boy was shuffling his feet uncomfortably. Mara stood outlined, half in shadow, in the doorway behind him. Luke swallowed thickly, bracing himself for the ultimate judgement.

Ben came forward, hesitantly, doubtless with a little shove from Mara, still not meeting his eyes.

"What is it, son?"

Luke kept his voice gentle.

"Dad, I..." Ben was nervous.

Luke forced himself to be patient, but he could feel the loud thumping of his heart.

Ben too appeared to be fighting with himself, trying to say something.

"I love you, Dad!" he finally blurted out, launching himself suddenly into his father's surprised arms.

"I'm sorry...I behaved like that, I- I was angry, and I didn't want to believe you could do those things...I-I'm just glad you came back, Dad."

He looked up at his father, uncertainty clouding his features.

"Dad, what really worries me is that if Grandfather, Mom and even you weren't able to always resist the Dark Side, what- what if I fall?"

Luke cupped his son's face in his left hand, his real hand, and willed him to believe.

"You won't fall," he said with quiet certitude.

"My son is strong, and one day he will be stronger than I could ever be. You will remember our failures and use them to build upon your own strength. Maybe you will doubt yourself, maybe that doubt will cause you to stray. But we, your mother and I, will never doubt you. You will always have the strength to return. I know you, Ben. You're a good boy, destined to be a better man. There will always be good inside you. I want you to see it and believe in it as I do."

Ben shifted uncomfortably.

"I don't want to disappoint you guys..."

"You can't. We're so proud of you already."

He smiled.

"You've shown it right now, how strong you are. After hearing the whole family history, to be able to open your heart and see beyond the darkness. To love... It takes strength to be a Skywalker, son. You're going to be one of the best."

Ben flushed hearing his dad say the words. He nodded and squared his slight shoulders, new resolve and determination darkening his Skywalker blue eyes.

"I won't let you down, Dad. I promise. I'll always be proud to be a Skywalker. Like my grandfather, like my father..."

He turned and pulled his mother into the room by her hand, smiling brightly at her.

"Like my mother before me."