When the Yuuzhan Vong launched their attack on Coruscant, Ben was in Leia's custody as the Solo family made its way to the Millennium Falcon. However, the intervention of Viqi Shesh forced Leia to turn Ben over to C-3PO, who was whisked aboard the Byrt instead of remaining with the Solos. Ben was then kept in several secure locations for the rest of the war against the Yuuzhan Vong, and Mara feared that this period of separation from his parents led to severe anxiety in young Ben. She found it increasingly difficult to locate him through the Force, and both Mara and Luke realized that Ben had started equating the use of the Force to the warfare and bloodshed of the conflict.
Thus, despite having an exceptionally strong connection to the Force, Ben unconsciously shut it off. He didn't want to touch the Force, for fear that it might bring more bad things into his life. With the defeat of the Yuuzhan Vong, Luke and Mara resolved to spend more time with Ben, but the rigors of leading the new Jedi order continued to keep them apart. Luke and Mara acquired a Defender Droid to keep watch over Ben, but he found Nanna's presence infuriating. In several conversations, Ben admitted that he wanted to be more like his uncle, Han Solo: working on his own and doing things the hard way.
During the initial stages of the conflict with the Colony, Ben unknowingly befriended the first assassin bugs of the Gorog hive, unaware that he was putting his mother in danger. His relationship with the assassin bugs gave him a connection to the Gorog hive, although he was not considered as fully immersed as a true Joiner. It was during this time that Luke and Mara discovered that Ben opened up more whenever he was around his cousin, Jacen Solo, and asked Jacen to take Ben under his wing. Jacen agreed, but was careful not to call Ben an apprentice, since the youth continued to ignore the callings of the Force. However, over time, Ben began to tentatively touch the Force, and his connection was strengthened with Jacen's help. As a Padawan, Ben adopted the ancient tradition of growing a single braid of hair to indicate his status, despite the fact that this was not required by the modern Jedi Order.
It was not long before the raw power that was within Ben often bubbled to the surface, as when Jacen traveled to Hapes to see Tenel Ka. They found themselves in the midst of a Gorog assassination attempt on the lifes of Tenel Ka's infant daughter - of which Jacen was the father. His connection to the Gorog became evident when he was able to accurately locate the killer bugs in the ceiling and hidden escape tunnels, which helped them escape from the Gorog and confront Ta'a Chume. Ben's connection to the Gorog was not as deep as that of Jacen's sister, Jaina, which prevented him from becoming a true Joiner.
In the wake of the struggle against UnuThul and the Colony, Ben continued to train as a Jedi under Jacen's tutelage. When he was thirteen, he accompanied Jacen on an investigation of the Dammant Killers weapons plant on Adumar, where they discovered illegal weaponry being produced for entities outside the Galactic Alliance. They were then dispatched to Centerpoint Station, on a mission to disable the station before Thrackan Sal-Solo could re-initiatize it and use it as a weapon. However, they were forced to split up when Jacen was captured by Sal-Solo, and Ben set out to complete the mission on his own. Ben discovered the unusual droid that had been programmed to "become" Anakin Solo, and convinced it to shut itself down before it was used as a weapon.
Ben later accompanied Jacen to Lorrd, during the investigation into the death of Siron Tawaler. It was Ben who was able to locate a shuttle that had fled Toryaz Station in the wake of Tawaler's murder, while Jacen was busy with Nelani Dinn. Upon returning to Coruscant, Ben became aware that he was no longer a kid, especially when he came to the realization that much of the growing conflict between Corellians and the Galactic Alliance was rooted in the disabling of Centerpoint Station.
As terrorists both supporting and opposing Corellian independence caused violence on Coruscant, Ben understood that he needed to act, if only to ease his mind that it wasn't all his fault. Thus, when Jacen Solo was named the head of the Galactic Alliance Guard, Ben was more than happy to take on a role within the GAG himself. His perspective was skewed, however, when he befriended Barit Saiy, a youth who was Corellian by birth, but was a native of Coruscant. Ben was shocked when he saw Barit draw a blaster in an attempt to kill an officer of the Coruscant Security Force, and used the Force to deflect the shot.
This event forced Ben to choose between a potential friendship and his duty to the Galactic Alliance. In the end, Ben provided the location of the Saiy family's workshop to Jacen, which allowed the police to arrest Barit and his family as dissident. Barit swiftly denounced Ben and his assocation with the Galactic Alliance, leaving Ben with a hollow sense of purpose that only worsened when Jacen Solo tried to use the Force to interrogate Ailyn Habuur, only to have her die before revealing any information. While Ben understood the need to learn everything they could from Habuur, he failed to see how Jacen's use of the Force could be considered a reasonable way to obtain it.
The continued growth of Ben's powers and his responsibilities within the GAG worried his parents, who feared that Ben was falling onto the same path to the Dark Side that Jacen was. In an effort to assess his son, Luke ordered him to return to the Jedi Temple and meet him in combat in the Sparring Arena. Both of Ben's parents were aware that separating Ben from Jacen would be troublesome, but needed to know where their son stood.
When Jacen realized that there was a plot to assassinate Tenel Ka, Ben accompanied him to the Hapes Cluster aboard the Anakin Solo. While Jacen attended to the needs of Tenel Ka and her daughter, Allana, Ben was dispatched with the crew of the recon skiff Rover to Terephon, where they recovered Jaina Solo and Zekk. The two Jedi told of being attackjed by the Ducha Galney, who was willing to destroy her own family estate in an attempt to kill the Jedi. The group then raced back to Hapes with the knowledge of Ducha Galney's treachery, only to find themselves in the middle of the space battle between the Hapan Royal Navy and the Heritage Fleet. They managed to get a warning off to the Fountain Palace of the plot, but it required that the Rover fly into the battle. Ben was dismayed when the ship's crew agreed to remain onboard, even if it meant they would be shot down and killed.
The group of evacuees was rescued by Han and Leia Solo aboard the Millennium Falcon, and Ben was forced to place the Solos under arrest, as he believed them to be Corellian insurgents. He drew his lightsaber on Jaina Solo when she tried to help repair the ship, accusing her of conspiring with them. Zekk tried to stop Ben from being foolish, and the younger man lashed out with his lightsaber, burning a slash down Zekk's side. The confusion left Ben even more bewildered, unsure of how he was to gauge the loyalty of those closest to him.
In the wake of the Hapan action, Ben was given a secret assignment by Jacen: to recover the Amulet of Kalara. He found himself alone on the mission, stranded in the Drewwa Spaceport, without any credits. In order to survive, Ben discovered how easy it was to steal another being's credcards, a fact that only bothered him until he rationalized it in his own mind. His mind only became more confused when he tracked Faskus to Ziost, and he had to take in Faskus' daughter Kiara in order to complete the mission. The energy of the Force that was found on Ziost kept urging him to eat the young girl in order to maintain his strength, an action that repulsed him as much as it made sense to him. Ben fought through these feelings of confusion and dread, and eventually rescued himself and Kiara by locating a strange starship.
The ship could only be controlled through the Force, and was recognized as a Sith artifact when he returned it to Jacen.
Info gathered with permission from CUSWE
