User:Ifindyourlackoffaithdisturbing/Workbench

Pre-birth (25 ABY–26.5 ABY)
"I don't feel anything... dangerous about this. Not yet. But this wasn't supposed to happen."

- Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker upon learning of Mara's pregnancy

In the year 25 ABY, the galaxy was invaded by a previously-unknown extragalactic species, the Yuuzhan Vong. Although the reigning galactic government, the New Republic, tried to resist and repel the invaders, the Yuuzhan Vong carved a swath through the New Republic's defenses. In their invasion of the galaxy, the Yuuzhan Vong took to using a variety of creatures native to their own galaxy. One of these bioweapons used by the Yuuzhan Vong in their war waged against the galaxy was the coomb spore, a microorganism engineered by Yuuzhan Vong agent Nom Anor. Anor was an advance scout sent into the galaxy before the main invasion force, and tested his spores on a group of one hundred New Republic diplomats on the planet Monor II, to great success. Only one survived, former Imperial spy and Jedi Master Mara Jade Skywalker.

Using her affinity for the Force, and a cure found in the tears of a Fosh ex-Jedi named Vergere, Mara Jade Skywalker was able to hold off the deadly effects of the spores, surviving while all the others infected died. Married to her former enemy in the Galactic Civil War, Rebel hero and Jedi Master Luke Skywalker six years prior, the couple had yet to have their first child. Since the spores worked by breaking down the molecular structure of its victim, Mara Jade believed that it was impossible for her to have a child, as the spores would surely destroy an unborn baby. However, one year after the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, Mara Jade Skywalker felt something growing inside of her. At first, she thought it was a recurrence of her disease, but she sensed the essence of her husband Luke inside of it. To her shock, despite the disease, Mara Jade Skywalker was pregnant.

Upon the discovery of her pregnancy, Mara Jade was greatly worried for her unborn baby, believing that the disease could cause mutations in her child. But Luke Skywalker managed to calm her down and assuage her fears, and the two agreed to keep the child's existence a secret. After learning of Mara's pregnancy, Luke had several visions of his unborn child's future, including one of him flying a strange starship of unfamiliar design. Later in the year 26 ABY, Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker were on an artificial beach on the New Republic capital of Coruscant. Meanwhile, anti-Jedi sentiment among the citizens of the New Republic was growing more prevalent, exacerbated by an offer extended by the Yuuzhan Vong&mdash;kill all the Jedi, and the invaders would halt their assault on the Jedi. While the offer was turned down by the New Republic, the galaxy was becoming more and more dangerous for the Jedi Knights. The Skywalkers were on the Coruscant beach when they were informed by Jedi Master Kenth Hamner of an arrest warrant put out on the Skywalkers by New Republic Head of State Borsk Fey'lya for disobeying an order.

While on the beach, she suddenly felt weak, and slipped into unconsciousness. She awoke under the care of an MD-10 medical droid, and felt her disease attacking her unborn baby. However, the Skywalkers were forced to flee Coruscant due to the warrant, and stayed aboard the Errant Venture, an Imperial II-class Star Destroyer owned by former smuggler Booster Terrik which was being used as a makeshift Jedi Academy for hiding Jedi students. The Skywalkers immediately sought medical care once aboard the Star Destroyer, and Mara Jade's condition was rapidly worsening. Her coomb spore disease had returned, stronger than ever before, and Mara Jade expended all her energy keeping it from attacking her womb, at the cost of her own health. Despite the disease's attack on her body, Mara Jade Skywalker gave birth to a baby boy on the Errant Venture. The Skywalkers would name the boy Ben, after Luke Skywalker's Jedi Master, Obi-Wan "Ben" Kenobi.

Kidnapping plot
From the moment of his birth, the infant Skywalker was kept close to his parents due to their worrying about his safety. Shortly after his birth Skywalker accompanied his mother and father to the planet of Bilbringi, where his parents and a fellow Jedi, the Barabel Saba Sebatyne, watched an important meeting between New Republic representatives Han and Leia Organa Solo and the recently-captured Nom Anor. While the meeting was going on, baby Ben stayed in his mother's starship, Jade Shadow, accompanied by his cousin Jaina Solo and New Republic scientist and Skywalker family friend Danni Quee. Anor was set free once the meeting was concluded, and Skywalker and his parents returned to his birthplace, the Errant Venture. While aboard the Venture, Skywalker broke out into an uncontrollable fit of crying which his parents could not ease. However, when his aunt Leia Organa Solo asked to hold him, to Luke and Mara Jade's surprise, the infant calmed down almost instantly.

Skywalker stayed aboard the Errant Venture while his parents were away during the New Republic victory at Talfaglio, and was returned to Luke and Mara Jade after the battle. The infant stayed with his aunt and uncle, Han and Leia Solo, in their home on Coruscant. Little did his family know, a plot had been formulated by the Yuuzhan Vong to kidnap Ben Skywalker, with traitorous New Republic Senator Viqi Shesh as the kidnapper. Shesh initially attempted to take Skywalker in his aunt and uncle's home, but her plan was foiled. A short time later, Coruscant was attacked by the Yuuzhan Vong. Amidst the chaos of the battle, Shesh made a desperate second attempt to kidnap Skywalker. Shesh confronted the Solos in a Coruscant docking bay, but the Solos did not allow their nephew to fall into Shesh's hands. They placed the infant under the care of their protocol droid, C-3PO, entrusting Ben's safety to him while they tried to apprehend Shesh. However, in the confusion C-3PO was swept aboard a starferry named the Byrt, with Skywalker still in its arms.

Once the Solos realized that Skywalker had ended up on the Byrt, they quickly alerted Ben's parents. Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker promptly set out in their X-wing starfighters, hoping to catch up to the ferry and retrieve their child. At the same time, Shesh notified the Yuuzhan Vong invasion force of Skywalker's presence aboard the Byrt. The Yuuzhan Vong got to the Byrt first, and began searching the vessel for Skywalker. Luckily for Skywalker, family friend Lando Calrissian and a squad of YVH droids boarded the ship afterwards and drove off the Yuuzhan Vong. As the YVH droids fought the Yuuzhan Vong aboard the Byrt, Viqi Shesh sneaked aboard the ferry and heard the wail of a baby coming from an escape pod. Believing the source of the cries to be Skywalker, Shesh entered the pod and departed, thinking she had successfully kidnapped Skywalker. However, she discovered after exiting the Byrt in the escape pod that Skywalker was nowhere to be found; in fact, C-3PO had imitated the boy's cries, and Ben Skywalker was safely hidden aboard the ferry.

Moving around
"Do you think Leia will baby-sit for us? I suspect she'll be very happy to."

- Mara Jade Skywalker and Luke Skywalker discuss leaving Ben with Leia and Han Solo

After the fall of Coruscant, the infant Skywalker was kept for several days in a Jedi stronghold called Eclipse Station, hidden on the Deep Core planet of the same name. Soon afterwards, he was reunited with the rest of his family on the planet Hapes. Ben's family had gathered there to pay their last respects to Ben's cousin Anakin Solo, who had been killed while fighting in a Jedi assault on the Yuuzhan Vong-controlled planet of Myrkr. With the Skywalker family together once more, Mara Jade Skywalker resumed motherly duties for Ben.

A few days later, the scattered New Republic forces led by General Wedge Antilles were able to carve out a foothold on the planet Borleias, which had been used as a staging point for the attack on Coruscant. The Skywalker family, Ben included, went to the planet and stayed in the military garrison established by the New Republic on still-contested Borleias. Mara Jade Skywalker had fully committed herself to staying with and raising Ben, not only to be able to spend time with her newborn child, but to protect him after Viqi Shesh's ill-fated kidnapping attempt. During the Borleias occupation, Ben accompanied his mother everywhere she went, something that Luke Skywalker saw as irrational.

37 days into the Borleias occupation, Skywalker's parents left him with his aunt Leia and Uncle Han once again, departing to the Yuuzhan Vong-controlled Coruscant to combat an evil sensed on the planet. Believing that Ben wasn't safe on occupied Borleias, the Solos transported Ben to the Shelter, a space station situated in the perilous black hole cluster known as the Maw. The Shelter, under the care of Jedi Masters Kam and Tionne Solusar, had been used as a praxeum for Jedi younglings since the original Praxeum on Yavin 4 was attacked by the Yuuzhan Vong-sympathizing Peace Brigade in 26 ABY. Although Luke and Mara Jade were focused on combating the evil on Coruscant, they greatly missed Ben while they were apart.

The end of the war
"Ben will be fine. I saw him fine."

- Luke Skywalker

After the crushing defeat and loss of Coruscant, the New Republic underwent a political metamorphosis. During the Fall of Coruscant, New Republic Chief of State Borsk Fey'lya was killed when he detonated a bomb in the Imperial Palace on Coruscant. Elections to select a new Chief of State were held in 28 ABY, with New Republic Advisory Councilman Cal Omas winning in a landslide. The war with the Yuuzhan Vong continued on, with the New Republic, once the defenders of the Core, now trying to take it back. In 28 ABY, the New Republic won a massive victory over the newly-christened Yuuzhan Vong Empire in the Battle of Ebaq 9, resulting in the loss of half the Yuuzhan Vong fleet and the death of Yuuzhan Vong Warmaster Tsavong Lah. Following the battle, Omas realized that a new government would be needed if the galaxy was to survive the horrors of the Yuuzhan Vong War. A massive reorganization ensued, and the new federal system was named the Galactic Alliance.

In 29 ABY, the Galactic Alliance military forces began a great push towards Coruscant, towards taking back the Core and defeating the extra-galactic invaders once and for all. One of the keys to the Alliance war effort was the sentient planet Zonama Sekot&mdash;the seed of the original Yuuzhan Vong planet, Yuuzhan'tar, that had made its way to Ben's galaxy. Luke Skywalker was able to ascertain the location of said planet, landing on it with Mara Jade and several other Jedi. While on Zonama Sekot, Luke revealed his visons of Ben's future to Mara, assuring her that he would make it through the war safely.

Eventually, Luke Skywalker led the Galactic Alliance forces to a victory at Coruscant, killing Yuuzhan Vong Supreme Overlord Shimmra Jamaane and his master Onimi. At long last, the Yuuzhan Vong threat had been defeated. With the threat to the Jedi vanquished, the Errant Venture brought the Jedi younglings from the Shelter to Zonama Sekot, with Ben among them. There, Ben was reunited with his parents for the first time in two years. With his parents, Ben attended the Conclave on Zonama Sekot, a post-war Jedi meeting to discuss future directions for the Order. During Ben's short time on Zonama Sekot, he formed an attachment to the living planet, and it upset him when he had to depart. The war was finally over, and Ben finally was together with his family.

Joiner King
Slowly but surely, the galaxy worked to rebuild itself after the devastating Yuuzhan Vong War. However, the Skywalker family had another problem to deal with: Ben. Due to the anguish that he felt in the Force during the Yuuzhan Vong War, Ben closed himself off from the Force, hiding his presence from his family and friends. Ben would explain this by asserting that he wanted to "do things the hard way", like his non-Force sensitive uncle Han Solo. By the year 35 ABY, Ben had grown into a mischievous child, and was often looked after by a nanny droid called Nanna when his parents were away on Jedi business. Ben often impressed his parents with his sheer mechanical aptitude, occasionally tricking Nanna into shutting down.

In 35 ABY, a group of Jedi Knights consisting of Jaina Solo, the Chadra-Fan Tekli,the Twi'lek Alema Rar, Zekk, the Barabel Tesar Sebatyne, the Wookiee Lowbacca, and Tahiri Veila heard a mysterious call through the Force and simultaneously departed to the Unknown Regions to find the source. After discovering the group's departure, Ben accompanied his parents and Tesar's mother, Saba Sebatyne, in a mission to find the missing Knights. In their search, they came across the Colony, a group of nests of the insectoid Killik species, which had been lost for millennia. The Colony had been in a border dispute with the Chiss Ascendancy, the portion of the galaxy ruled by the Chiss species. There, Ben's cousin Jacen Solo, who while on a five-year journey to learn more of the Force had also heard the call, discovered the source: Raynar Thul, a Jedi Knight who had been lost eight years before on the mission to Myrkr that had claimed Anakin Solo's life.

The Skywalkers later found the truth about Thul, and that the rogue Jedi Knights had been partially assimilated into one of the Killik nests. Thul himself had become UnuThul, the leader of the Unu nest. While Ben and his family were on Yoggoy, one of the Colony-affiliated planets, the Skywalkers were attacked by hostile blue-black colored Killiks, a type previously unknown to the rest of the Colony.These were in fact Gorog Killiks, part of the so-called Dark Nest, a shadowy influence which was able to hide its presence and its malign influence from the rest of the Colony. After the skirmish, the Skywalkers met with the AWOL Jedi, who asserted that the Killiks were innocent victims in their border struggle with the Chiss. As the Jedi finally returned to Alliance space with Tesar, Tekli, Veila, and Jacen in tow, a Gorog assassin stowed away on the Jade Shadow.

Appearances
{{Scrollbox {{Imagecat|Images of Ben Skywalker}}
 * content=
 * Balance Point {{1stm}} {{C|Unborn}}
 * Edge of Victory I: Conquest {{Mo}} {{C|Unborn}}
 * Edge of Victory II: Rebirth {{1st}} {{1stID|Ben}}
 * Star by Star
 * Dark Journey
 * Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream
 * Enemy Lines II: Rebel Stand {{Mo}}
 * Destiny's Way {{Mo}}
 * Force Heretic I: Remnant {{Mo}}
 * Equals and Opposites {{Mo}}
 * Force Heretic II: Refugee {{Mo}}
 * Force Heretic III: Reunion {{Mo}}
 * The Unifying Force
 * Dark Nest I: The Joiner King
 * Dark Nest II: The Unseen Queen
 * Dark Nest III: The Swarm War
 * Betrayal
 * Bloodlines
 * Tempest
 * Exile
 * Sacrifice
 * Inferno
 * Fury
 * Revelation
 * Invincible
 * Outcast
 * Omen
 * Abyss

Non-canon appearances
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 * The Lost Lightsaber