Luke stared at the monster, unable to breathe or move. Leia was completely paralysed beside him like she had turned to stone.

Clenching his gloved fist, Darth Vader's power rippled through the Force and before their eyes the HoloProjector crumped in on itself until it was nothing more than a broken lump of sparking metal. The bruises on his face and ribs from his fight with the stormtrooper seemed to throb as he saw the soldiers pointing their guns at them.

"What the hell was that crash ey? You kids better be acting straight-" Watto cursed at them loudly in some foreign language he didn't know, coming back round into the foyer from the yard.

As soon as he saw who was in his shop, the colour seemed to drain from his head down to his clawed feet. Immediately he lifted his hands in surrender, lowered his head and averted any eye contact. The wings on his back were trembling. He could almost smell the fear that emanated from Watto, or maybe that was from himself. It smelt of cold terror.

For several seconds no one moved or spoke, and all that Luke could hear was a mechanical breathing sound coming from the terrifying figure before them. Through the mask, the creature was observing him and his sister, and he quaked under the scrutiny. Icy sweat broke out on his neck and blood drained to his hands and feet as prickly adrenaline rushed through him. The extractor fan whirred above them all, but nothing else dared to move.

"Watto…" the voice of the black Darth Vader spoke. It sounded like it came through a heavy voice modulator. The real man inside was well hidden under layers of cloth, and for a moment Luke wondered what the man inside the suit looked like and why he chose to hide himself. His guards waited on their master's words, guns still loaded and ready to fire. Luke noticed they were stun rays, the same they had used against his mom. His anger rose amidst his fear.

Their employer began to shake violently, lowering himself to the floor grovelling. His obnoxious voice was quiet and meek. "I am Watto."

"Are these children being held here by you, Watto?" he asked, his voice cool and calm, with an underlying accusatory threat.

"I…I am letting them use the projector in exchange for cleaning my shop."

Darth Vader looked down at the cowering alien, then looked back up at him and Leia. Instinctively Luke grabbed Leia's hand, thinking that they were going to be crushed like the HoloProjector at any second. She gripped it back, hard. Vader must have found out that she used the Force on Dumbon, and that they escaped from prison. They were in far more trouble than they thought if the right hand of the Emperor had been dispatched to hunt them down - he had no idea what Leia had done was so bad!

They still needed to find their parents, and now they were going to die before they would see them again. His heart raced with longing for them, to hug them and to be safe in their arms. Tears pricked at his eyes and he became angry too, how dare they hurt his pregnant mom. She'd done nothing in her whole life to deserve that. It was unfair, unjust and cruel!

Watto made some gurgling noises and the children looked over in horror to see him grasping desperately at his throat, his claws scratching at some invisible constraint that was strangling him. Looking quickly back at Vader, he saw his gloved fist clenched again. He was going to kill him by using the Force to crush his windpipe. They watched on, helpless, as Watto was levitated into the air by Vader's Force grip. His legs shook and his face turned purple. Leia covered her eyes and Luke stared, heart in his mouth, unable to break his gaze away. Vader threw Watto from him, so that he went hurtling out into the back yard, crashing into a pile of broken scrap parts. He fell at a sickeningly awkward angle with a crunch. His body jerked once and then became still.

Breathing hard, Luke looked from Watto's prone blue body back to Vader and then to Leia wide-eyed. If they were about to die now, he had nothing to lose. He wouldn't take it lying down, fhis dad taught him better than that. Summoning strength and courage from some unknown pit deep inside him, and acting before he could think too much, Luke leapt over the counter in one swift movement, drawing father's saber into his trembling hand and igniting it. The blue saber hummed and flickered slightly as he held it before him.

Luke did the bravest thing he'd ever done in his life, and unbeknownst to him, Leia looked on in absolute awe of his courage.

Drawing his saber in to a fighting stance, Luke ran at Vader as if he was training with his dad. Out of nowhere Vader drew his own saber and easily blocked his attack. Blue and red blades clashed, screeching against one another as the pitifully weak boy tried to defend his sister from the most powerful man in the galaxy. Of course, Vader pushed him back and he fell, but he was on his feet again and coming back for a second attack. Vader once again parried him, blocking each and every swipe of his saber with his own, easily defending himself but making no move at all to attack. Luke, exhausted, fell back and was unable to lift his saber as a cramp convulsed up his arm. All the heavy lifting caught up with him and he sat on the floor before Darth Vader, gasping for breath and unable to fight anymore. He clenched his teeth in pain, unable to bear the shame and terror that he felt. Even after giving it his all, Vader had fought him off as easily as swatting away a fly. His saber hilt flew from his side into the hand of the monster. He looked at it for a good moment before tucking it away in his belt.

"Come with me," he said, standing still before him.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Leia get down from the stool and run to his side. She helped him to his feet and they both stood, trembling, looking up into that expressionless, empty mask with nothing but terror in their hearts. With a swish of his cloak, he turned and left the shop.

The stormtroopers motioned for them to follow, pointing guns at their heads. Dazed from the turn of events and Watto's death, they followed him out into the bitter cold of the desert night and began to shiver uncontrollably. There was not a soul about, for all had fled.

Walking behind Vader and before the soldiers, they headed out into the sand dunes. They felt so small against his great height. The moon shone onto Vader, casting his shadow back onto them, covering them in darkness. Soon they arrived at a small ship. They were loaded onboard and put into another small prison cell. The children felt the ship lift up into the air, and again, they sat huddled together, for this was a fear greater danger than they had ever been in before, and escape this time would be impossible.

ooooo

He still felt like he was falling from a great height. The rush of the ground had not met him yet. Never in all his days had he had such a shock as this. Alive…they were ALIVE. His children….his children…his children…she had been pregnant with twins….he couldn't believe it. Surely it wasn't true. It couldn't be true. But deep down, he knew it was. He recognised the presence from when Padmé had been pregnant, all those years before.

"Lord Vader, your mission report is ready to transmit to the Emperor."

"Yes, thank you. I will process it myself," he answered briskly to one of his guards, fully intending to delay that report's progress. It was at moments like this he was glad he hid inside his suit, so that his men couldn't see the emotions on his face or hear it in his real voice.

A hundred thoughts and feelings assaulted him from all sides and yet he sat perfectly silent and still in the pilot's seat, gazing out into space as the ship left Tatooine. He needed time to think. He needed to question them, he needed to know everything. Was Padmé still alive? He couldn't even bear to have hope that she was. What about Kenobi? Who had trained them and where had they been born? How had they been kept hidden all this time? Did they know he was their father or did they think it was another man? That made him angry. He had a million questions and half of them terrified him with their consequence. His whole world was hovering before him, potentially about to change forever and there was nothing he could do to stop it. Anakin was a weak and fragile man who no longer existed, and yet they were his children…

He couldn't believe it when he had tracked them to that place. Never in his life did he want to go back to Tatooine, yet alone to Anakin's slave master's shop. It had stirred up a whirlwind of bitter, heart-wrenching memories just in itself, like a scar being ripped open to reveal the raw skin beneath. But more than that, to finally find the two Force signatures, only to recognise the familiarity, to see his own likeness in the boy, to see Padmé in that little girl, to see their age, to do the math, to see the child wield his old lightsaber…it had floored him.

He had been speechless, save for his quiet fury at seeing Watto abuse them as he once did to him. The state of them had been proof enough of their mistreatment; they were absolutely filthy, looking worse than street orphans, half-starved and wild. The boy had bruises on his face and a split lip, no doubt inflicted on him by the Toydarian who had beaten Anakin too as a child. He was glad that he had taken the children away from that awful place. He was glad that monster that had kept Anakin chained, spat on him and belittled his hopes and dreams was finally dead.

But what were their names? What was their story? What did they know? How could he use them? What would the Emperor say? He thought about the children as the stars blurred around the ship and it warped forward into hyperspace.

The boy's bravery and power for one so young was most impressive. But as much as he wanted to focus solely on their untapped potential, it was their terrified faces that stayed in his mind instead.

But it was good that they feared him at present, they would be easier to interrogate. Somehow that didn't make him feel any better.

Those Force signatures had been so bright, light and clear before; now they seemed tainted. The twins were afraid and angry, letting the dark side enter their impressionable little hearts. He could feel their Force signatures so close to him now. Their fear, their terror, their love. Nothing was hidden or held back, which made them powerful. He wanted to speak to them, and at the same time he was deeply unnerved by what he might find out, and what the consequences of such knowledge would be.

Perhaps it would be too hasty to go straight to the Emperor and hand them over. He needed to find out what was going on, and to hell if he got punished for the delay delivering them into his hands. He would take them prisoner on his star destroyer first instead of his master's. Then he would send a report of his findings, then he would deliver them to the Emperor's ship and he could do with them what he liked. Sidious wouldn't be happy to hear about the delay, but Vader just needed some time to learn the truth of all that had happened.

"I am going to interrogate the children. Do not interrupt or disturb me, unless it is a dire emergency," he told his guard as he stood. They all saluted him as he left the cockpit and headed down the dark corridor where the holding cells were.

The dark lord hesitated before he unlocked the door. He closed his eyes and stretched out his mind to them. They were terrified, and when he brushed his presence against them, they shrunk back immediately, sensing the darkness within him. It wasn't a wise idea to reach out through the Force to them yet and so he retracted his presence from their minds. He didn't want them to be afraid any more than they had to be. Their terror saddened him for it was entirely unnecessary. The Sith academy would be where they ended up like the other Project Harvester younglings and though they didn't know it now, their training there would make them more powerful than they could ever imagine.

No one would hurt or take advantage of them ever again, like how Anakin had been taken advantage of as a boy. Perhaps in time they could help him rule the galaxy and overthrow the Emperor…but that was a thought for another time, and one he must bury deep lest Sidious sense it.

Sliding open the door, he stood before the two prisoners, his height filling the entire door frame. They cowered like mice, huddling together and shrinking back as far as they possibly could away from him.

Vader shut the door and stood before them, his breathing sounding unusually loud in the chamber. He didn't even know where to begin. He hadn't interrogated any younglings before, and these were no ordinary younglings. The girl looked up at him, and though her face was caked in grime, her warm brown eyes were shining in a way that was so very like Padmé's from the snatches of his memories that remained. He felt as if he were on the edge of a precipice, one that had not existed until that moment.

He started with the basics, for that's all he could fathom. Pointing a threatening gloved finger at them, he began. "This is the beginning of an interrogation. I'm going to ask you some questions and you will cooperate. Do you understand?"

They nodded.

"What are your names?"

The two of them remained silent, barely moving, barely breathing, just staring in fear.

"Answer me," he barked, his voice commanding a response.

They jumped at the increase in volume, but it broke their silence. The girl held her brother's hand tightly. "I-My name is Leia. This is Luke."

"Leia and Luke," he repeated, testing the sounds. "Your family name?"

"Kayla."

"Where is your mother? Who raised you?"

"We won't tell you anything about her," Luke spoke up, suddenly brave. His tone reminded him of Anakin Skywalker.

"Boy, do you remember the fate of that slave driver Watto?" he spoke slowly, letting every word sink in. The child went pale. "Answer my questions or you and your sister will not make it out of this cell alive and you will never see your mother again."

"We…we don't know where she is," he said, and he could feel the Force around them shifting from terror to a deep longing sadness.

They missed her desperately, but the thing he cared about most was that she was indeed alive. Vader's mechanical suit kept his heart pumping after his horrible burns had brought him to the brink of death, and he could feel it now beating fast against his ribs, a rare sensation. Surely, it was impossible… he knew the damage he did to her throat. He had seen her lifeless body on the worst day of his life at her state funeral on Theed. Sidious himself had told him that he had killed her, so why would he have lied to him?

Perhaps Padmé had successfully delivered them but passed straight after, and they were raised by another woman who they thought was their real mother? He would not jump to any conclusions.

"What is her name?"

"Priya."

"When did you last see her?"

"When we were taken from home by stormtroopers," the girl, Leia, said.

The little boy from Tatooine whom he had crushed deep down inside of himself remembered the pain of being separated from his mother. He was far too old to be separated from her - would it be any different, them being taken from their mother and made into Sith?…But this was to keep them safe…if they had power they could protect themselves. He didn't think any deeper on this and let these thoughts leave him. Thoughts like that did not serve him.

"What does your mother look like?"

"She has brown eyes and brown curly hair, she's not very tall…" Luke said quietly, and Vader now felt it, the ground rushing up to meet him as he fell, like waking from a dream.

He left the room abruptly and returned carrying a data pad with a vice-like grip. A quick image search of the late senator of Naboo brought her face to the screen and he numbly stared at it before showing her face to the children. They lit up at seeing her.

"That's our mom."

It was her. She was alive. His wife… Surely it was impossible!

His tear ducts had been burned away on Mustafar, but with the intense surge in his heart he felt as if he would weep. His beloved Padmé. His knees became weak and he had to hold the frame of the door to steady himself. The realisation had his head spinning. Joy, shame, anger and then fury bubbled to the surface. She was alive and she had hidden from him all these years! His own wife and children, growing and living all this time without him. Padmé must have known the agony he was in without her, how could she do such a thing to him?!

Years of guilt and shame and fury ignited in his chest, he threw the data pad and hurled his fist into the wall, making a dent in the metal and the children jumped in fear.

And Palpatine, he had lied to him too. He saw red as the realisation hit him - his master had deliberately lied to his face to keep his loyalties undivided. Was everyone in the whole universe out to get him? He worked so hard. Harder than anyone around him ever did. He did everything right; he did everything his master asked of him. He was the greatest Jedi ever and now the greatest Sith apprentice to ever live. He never failed in any task given to him. He had succeeded beyond measure and he deserved the rewards that such good behaviour brings. But he had nothing. His heart hardened and he clenched his fists.

The twins looked on, feeling his anger moving through the Force and he looked at their terrified faces. Their presence grounded him for a moment and his head cleared enough to regain his composure. He had to find her and bring her home to would not let her or the children go. Every good thing that came into his life was fleeting, but this would not be. He would hold onto them all with iron-like strength. This time, they would stay. "Do you know our mom?" Luke bravely asked him after seeing his outburst.

The boy didn't seem so scared now; perhaps he had sensed the nature of the turmoil within him. But he should be scared - he didn't know the atrocities he had committed, even if it was for the greater good of the galaxy. Luke didn't realise who he was talking to or the power he held.

"Perhaps," he evaded the question. "Where is your home that you were taken from?"

"We lived on Bakura."

Bakura…so that's where they had been raised, on the far edges of the Outer Rim. He had been there once in the clone wars with his old master to fight General Grievious. For nine years he had been alone, and now he felt like his old life was catching up with him all at once within the span of a few days. Angrily, he pushed the memories of his old master away.

"Are you going to put us back in prison?" the girl asked, tears studding the corners of her eyes. She wiped them away with the palms of her soot covered hands. "Luke is innocent, please don't take him there."

He was confused. "Prison?"

"The first ship, sir. The reason our home was broken into. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do it…and Luke didn't do anything at all…" she trailed off, the confession clearly meaning a lot to her and nothing to Vader. What was she talking about? Why was Luke innocent?

"Do you know the reason why you were taken?"

She nodded, wiping her nose on the back of her hand. "Because I broke Dumbon's arm. Because I-I used the Force when it was forbidden to do so. It's all my fault," she sniffed, looking at the floor. He saw the boy wrap a comforting arm around her and saw how real their distress was, though it perplexed him.

"Luke is guilty as well as you, Leia. But it is not for whatever reason you seem to think. The truth of the matter, is that you were taken from Bakura because you are both Force sensitive. You were put on a Project Harvester ship, where they take the younglings who are blessed with a high count of midi-cholrians. It was not a prison. You were going to be taken to Coruscant to be enrolled in an elite academy for your skill, but you escaped. That is why I have come for you. But there is something else," he watched their reactions. The two of them were waiting on his every word. "You have an extraordinarily high midi-chlorian count. My master will want to meet with you, and so I am taking you both to him."

"Is the Emperor your master?" Luke breathed.

"That is correct."

"What about our mom? Why did the soldiers have to hurt her?" Leia pleaded. "Where is she and why can't we say goodbye?"

"Hurt her?"

"The stormtroopers, when they came to our house, they shot her with a gun that fired blue circles and she fell down. We don't know if she's alright."

Vader felt himself sway on the spot slightly again. The reality of Padmé still being alive had barely sunken into his mind, but to hear of her being hurt, by his own guard, whilst protecting their children, it was too much. He would have to leave for a while and meditate on all they had already said. But he had one final burning question.

"Those guns make you unconscious and do not kill," he said. "Answer me one final question. Luke, how did you acquire this lightsaber?" he held out the silver hilt of his saber that he had attached to his belt.

"Our father gave it to us," he replied with a glimmer of pride in his voice. Vader longed to ask who that was, but he could not. He couldn't take anymore new information just yet.

"If you are in need of anything, ask the guards outside. And do not think of escaping again. You will not get far and I will not spare your lives."

With that threat hanging in the air, he turned and left the cell, holding onto the wall for support. He headed back the way he had come, his legs beginning to shake again as he turned the words over and over in his mind: Padmé is alive.