Ben Skywalker (myownlight) wrote in wariscoming, @ 2015-03-10 13:45:00 |
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Entry tags: | ben skywalker, mara jade skywalker |
Who: Ben Skywalker & Mara Jade Skywalker
When: March 7 (slightly backdated)
Where: Mara's apartment
What: Ben's arrival in Lawrence, KS.
Rating: Low
Status: COMPLETE.
To be fair, when you were Ben Skywalker, you were used to your life being anything but normal. But landing in what appeared to be a burial site on a planet that didn't seem to recognise his comlink, or datapad, or any subspace signal whatsoever, when he'd been not even on a planet - this was new. But one thing he'd latched onto immediately upon arrival was a presence he hadn't expected to ever feel again. It had been years, and for a moment Ben was certain it wasn't - it couldn't be - but it was an unmistakable presence. Mom. This looked nothing like the Lake of Apparitions. He was pretty certain he wasn't dead - he surely would have been aware of that in the Force - so that left the notion that he had been transported somewhere else. But it didn't explain why Mara Jade Skywalker might be here. And it didn't explain where here was. Mostly, Ben had more questions than answers at the moment, but if his mom was here - wherever here was - those questions could wait. It was her, she was on this planet, and Ben had gotten damn good at tracking over the past few years of his life. He took off. Or he would have, if he hadn't been first approached by people who seemed to be not a threat. Training kicked in and Ben buckled in on the impulse to just run towards his mom and to instead use the opportunity to gather information. The decision proved to be a wise one because for all his frustrations at being unable to find his mom immediately, information was doled out at least a bit. No one except him seemed surprised by his appearance, and he got confirmation that his mom was apparently here. The planet itself, seemed to be at least partially agricultural, there were roads, and vehicles that seemed to be similar to ground speeders, and he was being moved into a more densely populated area laid out around streets and blocks, with single homes, and apartment buildings. One of which seemed to be where the presence that was his mom was located. What Ben had no clue of was why, and he knew it could possibly be a trick, although he didn't know precisely why or how. Despite some information being given, there were a lot of questions yet. Questions that he pushed to the back of his mind as he focused in on the first impossible question - the presence of his mom - and knocked on the apartment door. Mara had been sitting on the couch looking at the computer she’d been given. There was a lot of information to be found there, a lot of which made no sense to her at all. This planet, this place was like nothing she’d ever experienced before and she’d seem some very strange things. Then this afternoon she’d seen a post on the local network from Jacen of all people. What was he doing here and why was he older than he should have been? Mara had already deduced that people were here from other places and times so that would explain Jacen’s age but not why he seemed surprised to see her. She had shut the laptop and was about to get up and get a glass of water when she felt it. A presence in the Force that hadn’t been there earlier but one that she knew as well as she herself. Ben? There was no mistaking it, her son was here. Except there was a slight difference, He was six years old but this presence was far more mature than that. It was him though, Mara knew that and she was going to find him even if she’d been told it was safer to stay in the apartment complex. So what if there were demons roaming around, she’d faced worse and nothing was going to come between her and her son. She’d grabbed her lightsaber and was about to head out the door when she heard the knock. Tossing the weapon on a chair, Mara ran to the door and threw it open but her mouth dropped open when she saw who was standing there. He was more man than child but he was Ben, there was no denying that. The perfect blending of her and Luke, this was her little boy except he wasn’t a little boy anymore. “Ben?” she said in disbelief. The door opened and there was his mother. Except, she looked different from what he remembered, younger - like when he was a child - not the woman he'd last seen when he'd talked to her about his worries about Lumiya and Jacen. It was something that felt like a lifetime ago. For the moment, he pulled those thoughts close, minimizing their presence and focusing instead on the woman in front of him. "Mom." If it was a trick it was a really, really good one and part of Ben didn't care if it was a trick. If it was a mistake or a lie - for at least five minutes he really wanted to just believe that it wasn't. That this was his mom, albeit a slightly younger version of her, standing in front of him and that he could wrap his arms around her and tell her that he was sorry. Except maybe not - because that seemed like a really bad idea under the circumstances. If she were actually from when it looked like she was finding out that she was murdered at her nephew's hand in her future didn't seem like the best news to present on her. And if it were a trick, then she probably already knew that, presuming the people creating the trick knew anything about Mara Jade Skywalker, and Ben stopped thinking about these things and kriff it. If it was a trick then it was a trick. He stepped forward and wrapped his arms around his mom. He'd grown taller in the past four years, and it was different holding her than he remembered, even her presence was just slightly different, but he was growing more and more certain that the trick here wasn't in the woman standing in front of him. Mara wrapped her arms around him and held on tight. She couldn’t understand why he was grown but she didn’t care. He was here and even though she would never admit it, she’d been a little spooked about this place. Now at least there was someone familiar, something to hold on to. She wasn’t sure how long they stood there but she finally stepped back and looked up at him. Which felt strange, she’d never had to look up to him before. “You’re not six,” she said and laughed. “I’m sorry, I’m just surprised but I’m so happy to see you. How old are you? Sixteen, seventeen?” That would be her guess from looking at him. “Come in, I hope they put you here because I’m not going to let you stay anywhere else.” Mara would fight whoever was in charge if they tried to separate them and not think twice about it. “I don’t suppose you brought your father along, did you?” Her voice was light but there was a wistful note to it. Mara would give anything to have Luke here too, all three of them taking on this place together. When she pulled back he let her, although he kept a hand on her shoulder and finally he dropped it when he convinced himself that she wasn't going to disappear out from under him. At her question he grinned a little and tried to look offended although he was so happy to see her that he was pretty certain he was failing on that front. "Hey, eighteen, thank you very much," he said. "Definitely not six. So, that explains why you look so young. Sort of." The question was a painful one because if Ben was ecstatic to see his mother, how much more would his father want to see her. Ben knew there was a part of his father that would have been happy to stay with the Mara at the lake, a part of Luke Skywalker that was looking forward to being reunited with his wife in the Force, but that wasn't something he could think of and if his mother was from back then - just at the end of the war it seemed - then telling her would be a burden he couldn't put on her. Not unless he had to "Dad's late, I guess, as usual," he grinned, keeping his tone light and the emotions controlled tightly in the Force. He was good at lying, and right now treating this as if it was an unusual, but simple meeting of a son a decade plus older than his mother remembered him, but that he'd just seen his mother at home was the easiest way to approach it. "I think they decided that I could stay with you, which I guess," he shrugged as if he wasn't quite certain he wanted to stay with his mom, even though he would never have allowed anything else. "How long have you been here? What is this place?" He stepped in and looked around the apartment just briefly. It didn't look like a terrible place - he'd been in worse. “That doesn’t surprise me,” Mara rolled her eyes. “he’ll show up just about the time we’ve given up on him.” She took another look at Ben. “Eighteen. That’s amazing. You’re not a little boy anymore and I promise to resist the temptation to tuck you in and read you a bedtime story. Sit down,” she said and waved at a chair. “I’ll tell you what I know which is pretty much what they told you I would imagine plus some things a girl named River told me on the network. She’s an interesting character by the way. I’m not sure that she’s totally sane but I’ve not met her in person.” Mara sat down on the couch and tucked her feet under her. “This is a place called Kansas on a planet called Earth. There is something called The Seal which has to do with their religion and their deity who’s called God. Apparently the Seal opens and pulls people here from all kinds of places and times. And there’s a war between good and evil going on constantly. Demons, angels, witches, I don’t even know exactly. I guess we all end up fighting when we have to. I know they told me that the apartments were protected by magic and things to ward off evil.” She shook her head. “so it seems like no matter where we go, we end up in the middle of a war except there aren’t any aliens and no space ships. Which I’m not happy about but what can you do.” She then remembered that she had forgotten to mention something. “Oh and Jacen is here. He contacted me this afternoon. He’s about fifteen years older than I remember him. He said it had been a long time since he’d seen me but that’s as far as we got. He’ll be happy to see you.” "If you really feel like you have to read me a bedtime story, I'll pretend not to mind too much," Ben replied airily, although he settled back into gathering information mode as his mom started talking. He knew what he'd been told by the others, but if what his mother told him matched up that would tell him something more. If it matched up too much, then that was additional information, because while he didn't think his senses were lying to him - it was still possible that this might be some sort of trick. "So gods and deities, that sounds about right," Ben sighed. He really felt as if he'd had more than his fill of gods and old ones and crazy powerful ancient beings in his lifetime. Maybe someday he'd land in a reality where the worst monsters were Hutts or large animals with teeth. He'd taken a seat but it took every bit of his training and control to not jump up at his mother's next word. "Jacen is here?" Mara nodded. “He is. I don’t how long he’s been here but from what I’ve figured out from reading on the network, there are people who’ve been here for a long time. This seems to be some kind of parallel universe. You being a case in point because you’re a grown man now and when I left home a week ago, you were six.” There was something underneath the surface that she could sense but Mara didn’t know what it was. Ben was blocking her and it had something to do with Jacen, she had felt a brief burst and then it was gone. “You don’t seem very thrilled about your cousin being here,” she said slowly. “something happen between the two of you that I haven’t experienced yet?” If Jacen was here, he'd been here for a while? Ben pulled his emotions a little tighter, aware with some irony that it was something Jacen had taught him how to do and that he was currently grateful for the skill. Right now he had way too many questions and not enough answers and the last thing he wanted to do was to spring something like this on his mom. The parallel universe idea answered some questions although not nearly enough of them. It would explain why no one had ever noticed his mother missing - which they should have noticed. It didn't exactly explain the different time things, but if Jacen was here - well, he shouldn't be 15 years older, but maybe his mom was wrong on the dates. Or maybe somehow Jacen had been here for a long time… Questions. Fine, Ben refocused on the important thing, which was making certain his mom was safe. So far it seemed Jacen hadn't bothered her, so that was something. "Yeah, about twelve years," Ben forced himself to keep a light tone in his voice. "I was just surprised that he was here is all. Guess I shouldn't have been since you're here, right?" Two ghosts, one welcome, one… well. "So how long have you been here? And do you know why we're all out of - I mean, you remember me 6 and I'm 18, and Jacen's however old he is…?" “I haven’t seen him in person but the network has pictures when someone posts. Just looking at him I’d guess he’s somewhere in his thirties maybe? Only a few years younger than me which is really strange.” Mara shook her head. “He knew I was here before I knew he was here though which I find odd. I should have been able to sense him in the Force but I didn’t. I could sense their were people here of course but not his particular presence. With you for instance, I knew you were here as soon as you landed so to speak.” She smiled at her son. “You have turned into such a handsome guy, Ben. I shouldn’t be surprised of course, look at your parents.” Mara couldn’t help but tease him a little bit. "He can lock down his presence in the Force," Ben said. "It's something he learns later. Well. I suspect later from when you're from anyway. It's useful to be able to do if you don't want someone to know that you're there? But it has minuses as well." He didn't want to give too much away but the thought of his cousin being here brought an uneasy feeling to his stomach. It had been four years but the sense of betrayal hadn't gone away. Would Jacen try something here? Right now he had too little information. He would need more before he could do anything about Jacen. Or to know if he even needed to do anything about him. "It's good to see you here though," he grinned at his mom and that wasn't a lie. There were five hundred things he wanted to tell her suddenly but it was all her future and there was so much he'd have to leave out if she wouldn't wonder about the lack of herself in the story so right now though... "I'm starving. You don't have food here do you?" “I can see how that might be useful,” she said. “and it explains why I didn’t sense him. I’m not sure why he would feel the need to hide but there are a lot of things I don’t know yet about this place.” Mara stood up. “Yes, there is food. The place came with it which is good since I don’t know where to go shopping around here. There is some stuff in the cabinets. Take whatever you like.” She smiled at him. “I’m glad you’re here, Ben. I like seeing how you turn out. Not every parent gets to see that ahead of time.” Food was safe. Food was something that he could put together and fix something for him and his mom and they could sit down and he could find out a bit more about exactly what it was she last remembered - outside of the fact that he was six - and maybe he could find a way to tell her a little bit about what he'd been doing. Even if there was a lot he couldn't tell. He could lie, if he needed to, but easier still he could omit pieces of the truth. And then the next day he'd figure out this place. Post on the net they'd told him about, maybe walk around the town a little bit and figure out what people were like here, what to expect. He could do that, he could probably do that even without being noticed if he decided it was important to do it that way. And he could find out something about Jacen. Why he was here. Why he was talking to Mara. What exactly he was like. If Ben could trust his own instincts on that, and he wasn't certain he could. He hadn't before. On the other hand… he had grown more since then. He'd dealt with not just one Sith, but a whole tribe of them, and Vestara, and Abeloth - who had been more of a trickster than any of the rest. He could figure this out. "Don't speak too soon," Ben gave her a quick grin. "You haven't tasted my cooking yet, and you might regret those words." |