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[beingajedi]

HISTORY

26.5 ABY. Ben is born, aboard the Errant Venture, to Jedi Masters Mara Jade and Luke Skywalker. Cousin Anakin Solo calls him ugly.

27 ABY. Cousin Anakin Solo dies. WHOOPS. Someone thinks it's still fine to let Leia Organa Solo, clearly emotionally compromised by her youngest son's death, have full responsibility for an infant in the middle of a planetwide evacuation of Coruscant.

Five minutes later. Ben gets kidnapped. (He is shortly rescued by Lando Calrissian and no one ever lets Leia babysit again.)

27.5 - 30 ABY. Ben spends the rest of the Yuuzhan Vong war hidden away with the other Jedi kids in Eclipse, a secret Jedi base in the centre of the Maw (a collection of black holes, very hard to navigate for people who aren't Han Solo. See also: Kessel Run). Being powerful in the Force and particularly sensitive to other people's emotions, he gets scared by the fear and anger and darkness he can sense. Being "touched" by the dark entity Abeloth is the last straw; at this point, Ben withdraws from the Force so completely that even his parents have trouble feeling his presence.

35 ABY. Eight-year-old Ben adopts a Killik -- giant bug alien -- as a pet while travelling with his parents. Giant bug alien turns out to be quite evil, being part of the "Dark Nest" Gorog, and in turn adopts Ben into its galactic hive mind. Sadly, Gorog leaves Ben, but it's okay because he makes another questionably-moral friend in the form of his cousin Jacen Solo, who has returned from a five-year Hero's Journey style quest.

35-36 ABY. Ben trains with Jacen as an unofficial Jedi apprentice, finally opening up to the Force, slowly but surely. His connection to Gorog, like those of the other Jedi Joiners, fades and disa--

36 ABY. OH WHOOPS, Gorog uses its still-present connection to Ben to learn the location of, and attempt to assassinate, Jacen and Tenel Ka's newborn daughter Allana. Jacen knocks out his cousin, but the bugs are already there and thus get sliced up Jedi-style. Jacen also wipes Ben's memory so the kid can't tell on him for having a child out of wedlock (or about his other more-questionable life choices). Ben is pretty much relegated to the Jedi Academy on Ossus for the rest of the Dark Nest Crisis.

40 ABY. Ben and Jacen go on a cool spy mission to Adumar. AKA the last time Ben Skywalker was truly happy.

A bit later in 40 ABY. The Second Corellian Insurrection begins. Ben and Jacen raid Centerpoint Station, which the Corellians are close to activating for the first time in over a decade. While Jacen confronts Han's cousin Thrackan Sal-Solo (the Corellian Head Of State), Ben enters the control room and talks a weird droid version of Anakin Solo into destroying itself to disable the station. This traumatises the Ben.

- While on an investigation mission, Ben, Jacen and fellow Jedi Nelani Dinn run into Brisha Syo, a mysterious woman who orchestrated several encounters between the Jedi and suicidal citizens on Lorrd. She takes them to her secret asteroid base where she reveals herself as Shira Brie, aka Lumiya, former lover and enemy of Luke Skywalker. She offers to train Jacen in the ways of the Sith. Jacen, being an intelligent man and well-versed in the story of his grandfather Darth Vader, refuses-- HAHA JUST KIDDING, Jacen kills Nelani and wipes Ben's mind again and tells Lumiya he'll think about it.

- Ben becomes a junior lieutenant in the Galactic Alliance Guard, Jacen's secret police (to root out Corellian terrorism on Coruscant). He switches from Jedi dress to black fatigues and becomes more comfortable mixing with his fellow commandos than he ever was with other young Jedi. He participates in several raids with the GAG, and it's during one of these that he kills a fellow sentient being for the first time.

- The GAG get their own Star Destroyer and Jacen names it the Anakin Solo, which does nothing to endear him to his living family. On its shakedown cruise, Ben and Jacen head to Hapes to help Queen Mother Tenel Ka figure out who's trying to assassinate her this time, and since it looks like Han and Leia were involved, Jacen puts out an arrest warrant for his own parents.

- Ben plus a GAG team rescue Jaina and Zekk (stranded after their own mission from Tenel Ka), and later get rescued themselves by Han and Leia during a space battle. Upon boarding, Ben promptly tries to arrest his uncle, argues with Jaina, accidentally lightsabers Zekk in the side, and all in all it's kind of a horrible no-good bad day and he ends up grounded on Coruscant for the next forever. :(

40.5 ABY. While training in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, Ben receives a super secret SPY MESSAGE from Jacen. His assignment involves sneaking out of the Temple (with the help of a cute older apprentice, nice) and retrieving a Jedi artifact from another world. This leads him to the Sith world of Ziost, where he struggles with creepy voices trying to turn him to the Dark side, almost leaves a little girl to die on his fourteenth birthday, and eventually escapes (with the girl) on a semi-sentient Sith meditation sphere because why wouldn't that be a thing that exists.

- While Ben is beginning to suspect his parents are at least a bit right and Jacen's methods are kind of extreme and maybe the GAG isn't a perfect organisation after all, he remains a junior lieutenant, hoping to change it from the inside. Jacen teaches him how to hide in the Force, which is pretty cool, then sends him to assassinate the Corellian president, which isn't. Jori Lekauf, a GAG lieutenant and basically Ben's only friend, dies during the mission. This is still not the most traumatic thing that will happen to Ben this year.

- Back on Coruscant, Ben overhears Jacen talking to Lumiya and finally realises something is seriously kriffed up with his cousin. He tells his mother and teaches her to hide in the Force, a skill she uses while later confronting Jacen.

- JACEN KILLS BEN'S MOM.

- Jacen tells Ben that Chief of State Cal Omas had Mara killed, which is not exactly the most convincing thing in the galaxy. Still, Ben confronts Omas to see what he knows. Answer: not much. Except that the best way for Ben to get close to Jacen again will be to kill Omas -- for real, not just faking it. So he throws himself on Ben's lightsaber. Thanks, Chief Omas. The kid's assassin resume will be on par with his mom's soon.

- Ben heads to the Anakin Solo, focused now on revenge, drawing on that sweet, sweet anger and hatred that are such great Jedi traits. He attacks during the bombardment of Kashyyyk, a little later than Jacen expects. Good grief, Ben, you were almost out of the running as Sith apprentice! Jacen sticks him in the Embrace of Pain, a Yuuzhan Vong creature which wraps itself around him with thorn-covered tentacles and is altogether a wonderfully pleasant experience. (Jacen spent several months in one as a teenager and apparently thinks it's a necessary training device.) Luke has to rescue his now-tortured son from his own nephew, sigh.

41 ABY. Ben has a timeout on Endor (temporary Jedi base). He thinks about the essay his parents made him write about his grandfather's fall, seeing himself as the Anakin Skywalker to Jacen's Palpatine. He also builds a new lightsaber, since Jacen kinda stole his.

- Ben decides to use his actual police training to prove that, oh yeahhh, JACEN KILLED HIS MOM. With some help from Captain Shevu, he succeeds! But still gets kidnapped by Jacen's new apprentice, Tahiri Veila, who tries to torture him into revealing the Jedi base. When Ben refuses, she tries to torture Shevu as provocation ... aaand accidentally kills the police officer. Ben manages to escape in the resulting confusion and makes his way to meet with anonymous Hapan intelligence agents, who take him to the new Jedi base on Shedu Maad. Here, during the final battle of the war, Ben encounters Tahiri again and convinces her that Jacen's kind of a dumbass. In the end, she fights with Ben instead of against him

41.5 ABY. The post-war state of the galaxy: Jacen (aka Darth Caedus) is dead by his own sister's hand, Natasi Daala (who once hid in the Maw for ten years without knowing the Emperor was dead) is now Chief of State, and Ben finally has enough free time to maybe go on a date with that cute redheaded apprentice girl he likes. Haha, just kidding, he's a socially awkward goofball. But he does get some proper Jedi training for the first time.