Darkness Within

Heroes

Time jump: six years

Rey stands alone in the darkened hallway outside of the kid's room, watching through the crack in the door as Ben play fights with them when he's supposed to be putting them to bed. He knows that rilling them up like that isn't the best idea, yet whenever it's his turn to do bedtime, he almost always ends up tussling with them for some time before tucking them in.

'Ben,' Rey warns through their force connection, causing him to look over his shoulder and meet her eyes through the crack of the partially opened door.

'I thought you were going to stop spying on me?' He responds to her and shoots her a grin over his shoulder. Rey shakes her head at him with a smile and walks back down the hallway accepting momentary defeat.

"Alright monsters, bedtime!" She hears Ben yell followed by the sound of their little giggles as he force throws them onto their separate beds like always.

The giggles subside a little and Rey walks back down the hallway, stopping far enough away from the door that Ben hopefully won't detect her, but close enough she can still hear them.

"Daddy, are you going to tell us a story like mommy does?" Little Kira's voice asks, the sleepiness evident in her tone now that she's snuggled into bed.

"Sure sweetheart," Ben agrees and she can hear him moving around the room until he finally takes a seat, washing the house in silence again as the kids wait for their story. "I'm going to tell you a story that my Uncle Luke always told me when I was little and that was told to him when he was your size by the man I'm named after."

"Did you know him?" Zyan asks.

"My uncle Luke?"

"No, the man you're named after," Zyan giggles a little, and Rey assumes Ben just made a face at him or tickled him.

"I never met the original Ben, but your grandma always told me about him. Actually, the story is about a friend of his. She was a skilled warrior who used not one but two lightsabers."

The children 'oooo' at him and Rey can just imagine the faces they're making in amazement. Her mind trails off as Ben talks, recounting the stories of Ashoka and his Grandfather Anikan before his turn to the Darkside.

After the children were born, Ben and Rey had made the decision to not tell the kids about the dark and light side but would instead save it until they were a little older. There was no need for them to be concerned with the natural divide formed in the force and which side their parents fell on. Rey had tried desperately to convince Ben to not tell the real stories of the Jedi that came before them as most of the stories involved fighting the "bad guys" and she feared how their children would react when they grew up to learn that the "bad guys" were people like their parents.

Of course, they knew of the force and knew of their own powers but knew they also weren't allowed to use the force unless they are being supervised. Only 'experienced force users' over the age of 14 were allowed to practice and use their powers alone according to the rules Ben made up.

The children only being six haven't explored their powers much past learning how to make things levitate and how to pull things to themselves. Occasionally she would catch Kira being lazy and pulling toys to herself while she played, but Zyan was the rule follower who rarely broke the rules and always tried to stay inside the lines.

Despite being twins, Rey and Ben had quickly learned that they possessed two very different personas. Zyan is a true mamas boy, always wanting to please her, following all the rules, and always gravitating to Rey over Ben whenever she came into the room. Rey sees Zyan as her mini Ben as he grows into his sharp features slowly, has the same shaped eyes despite them being the same hazel color as Rey's, and thick hair that frames his face softly just like his father's.