"And mom said this was okay?"

"Padmé agreed to it," he replied, leaving out the fact that she'd had no choice but to comply with his statement that he was taking them out on a flying demonstration.

The children looked unconvinced even though it was the truth. Leia crossed her arms over her chest, a movement he was beginning to recognise indicated an impending bout of stubbornness. They were incredibly wary of even speaking around him, but he knew they were eager to fly.

"You can stay here if you wish," he made to move into the ship alone, and immediately his words had the intended affect.

Luke and Leia scrambled up the ramp and into the dimly lit cockpit. They were barely taller than his waist, and he watched their blonde and brunette heads in the low light as they clambered up into two black seats and secured their seatbelts. Strapping himself in, he sat down in the central pilot's chair.

The TIE Reaper ship he'd requested for the demonstration was large enough to fit the three of them inside, and would give the children a chance at flying in deep space for the first time. Why he was doing this, he wasn't totally sure. It certainly wasn't necessary. The twins would likely be taught basic piloting skills when they went to the academy. It was an essential part of any competent Force-wielder's tool kit. But part of him, for reasons unknown, wanted to be the first to teach them. Perhaps it came from his ego. He was the best star pilot in the galaxy. Who better to teach them?

The ship was finishing its start-up cycle and Vader checked the gauges and feedback sensors. After flicking a few more switches, which Luke watched intently, he pushed the ship's joysticks in a move so instinctive he didn't even have to think and the TIE raised steadily into the air. Pushing forwards with the controls, the vessel propelled itself with great speed out of the hangar and into a pool of inky blackness, dotted with thousands upon thousands of glittering stars.

Vader could feel their wonder and excitement rippling out through the Force. He recognised those feelings from a long time ago, and for the briefest moment, his tightly controlled mind let a memory slip forward. On Anakin Skywalker's first solo flight against the Trade Federation's station, the nine-year-old boy had felt exactly the same as his own children were feeling right now.

Pushing the thoughts away firmly and tightening his mind shields, he took the Reaper on a winding journey around the entirety of the destroyer, allowing the twins to see all angles of the impressive feat of engineering. Eagerly they strained against their seatbelts to see every detail through the cockpit's windows.

When he moved the ship in a barrel roll their joy rocketed and he could sense they were holding back whoops of delight. Leia even raised her hands in the air as they spun around. Remembering they had breakfast not too long ago, and feeling uncomfortable at their excitable mood, he kept the acrobatics to a minimum after that.

"Is that the bridge where we were?" Leia asked, finding her bravery to talk to him as they zoomed past.

"Yes."

Speaking of the bridge, Vader remembered Luke's subtle attempt at brushing against his mind when they had been there together a few days previous. It was clear the boy regretted the intrusion. He had felt the child's dread when Padmé had appeared and he feared he would be scolded, but nothing could be further from the truth. Although it was unexpected, how could he be irritated by the innocence of such an act?

No one, save for the Emperor, ever brushed up against his mind anymore, and even then his master was usually digging for some flaw or treacherous thought. Luke's presence was the utter opposite. The boy had been curious without any ulterior motive. Vader didn't quite realise how desolate his mind had become until that dazzlingly bright breath of light who was Luke had broken through the fog to give his shields a gentle and inquisitive tap. As much as he admired his bravery, there was no way he was letting down his shields to allow intimate access. Such a dark and turbulent maelstrom was no place for a child to wander. He would see all the terrible things he'd done and it would overwhelm his fragile young mind. As much as he wanted to reach out to the boy and consolidate their Force bond that had formed when he was still in Padmé's womb, he wouldn't. No, he would never allow it.

"Can we go past mom's window?" Luke asked shyly, glancing at him warily and drawing him from his thoughts.

Vader imagined Padmé would not be too happy to see them waving at her as they went by. But he conceded, finding no real reason why he shouldn't give them what they wanted, and flew past the general area where he knew the apartments to be.

"I didn't see her," Leia said quietly. "Do you think she saw us?"

"You will have to confirm with her later."

"Where's your room?" Luke asked, gaining confidence in his voice.

"My quarters are close to the bridge."

Then, it was silent, save for the quiet beeping of the readout monitors and the hiss of his respirator. He flew the ship back around and flicked a few switches. He was glad to see that the mind shield incident had not affected their budding relationship too much. Not that he could really call it a relationship, mostly they asked him questions and he answered as briefly as he could. But gradually, he was beginning to tell their fear of him was lessening and they were clearly enjoying being in the Reaper.

"What's your room like?" Leia asked shyly, settling big brown curious eyes on him, identical to Padmé's.

"It…has all the necessities."

His awkwardness around the children he hoped, would also dissipate in time. Vader hadn't spoken with any younglings for as long as he could remember, and the ones he did remember, he didn't want to think about.

"Leia. Would you like to command the ship for a while?"

It took her a few moments to get out a reply. She nodded fast, her eyes round as Tatooine suns. "Yes please."

"Sit here," he stood and let her sit in his place.

Folding her legs under her on the big seat so she could see clearly, Leia sat upright and listened carefully to the instructions on how to manoeuvre the craft. Luke was also observing closely, itching for his own turn. Guiding her small hands in his huge gloved ones, he showed her how to steer and which buttons to use. Feeling that she was ready, he gripped a handle in the overhead compartment and stood behind her in case he needed to take over the controls in an emergency, which was not that unlikely with the speed-hungry gleam in the child's eyes.

Tentatively she pushed the controls forward and the ship moved, propelled by the vacuum of space. Vader and Luke watched on as she pushed down with more force and the ship glided alongside the destroyer. Observing the back of her neatly plaited head, he felt proud of how quickly she'd picked up the controls. But of course, being nine, it didn't take long before the acrobatics and yells of excitement started as the ship spun and looped over itself. Gripping the ceiling, Vader's own stomach began to feel queasy and he had to reign in her hair-raising manoeuvres that reminded him of Anakin's piloting style.

Luke's turn in the craft was equally gravity defying, and even more controlled. He was a natural. After they'd had their fill of zooming about, which was quite some time, he asked Luke to fly far away enough not to cause accidental damage to his star destroyer, and then sent a message to his ever-capable Admiral Piett to eject some trash and move out of range. Heading to the gunning chambers, he instructed the twins on the basics of shooting and gradually, large pieces of floating garbage appeared and headed slowly in their direction, rotating through space.

If the children had been excited before, it paled in comparison to their delight in shooting the garbage into atoms. Firing off rounds of voracious laser blasts, he listened to their exclamations as they hit the targets, their inhibitions at being in his company long gone. As he watched on in silence, pleased with their shooting accuracy, he knew he had been right to take them out here. Although he had missed most of their first experiences in life, he was glad in some strange way to have at least seen their first time flying. He reminded himself of how useful these skills were for his eventual plans. They had a great destiny to fulfil now, and he had to guide them to it.

"This is awesome!" Luke shouted, pressing down with his thumbs to send another blast.

Once the garbage had been entirely vaporised, Vader escorted them into the cockpit though they were reluctant to head back. Settling back into their co-pilots chairs the two of them turned to him, their small faces illuminated by the coloured lights in the dark room.

"Can we do this every day?" Leia asked.

"I doubt there will be enough garbage to do this daily," he said, setting the controls to fly them back to the destroyer.

"Can we shoot something else?" Luke pleaded.

"There is nothing else to shoot at."

"Do you know any Mandalorians?" Leia asked out of the blue.

Surprised, he looked at her. "Why do you ask?"

She twiddled her fingers. "We saw one on a Holo show. He's amazing. He flies across the galaxy and he can shoot anything!"

"I see. Yes, I have known a few."

"Have you seen that show?"

"No. I do not watch mindless entertainment."

"What do you do when you're not at work?" Luke asked, missing his dismissive tone.

Vader could feel another round of interrogation coming on, judging from all the questions already being fired at him. If it had been anyone else inquiring into his personal life, they would have already met a swift end. But with his son and daughter, he exercised an uncharacteristic display of patience, one that tested him to no end.

"I am always at work," he said, flying the ship forward.

"Always? What about when you want to have fun?"

"The work I do is important for the empire. There is no time for anything else."

Luke leaned back in his chair and Leia did the same, and for a moment he thought they had finished with their idle questions, but then Luke sat up again and faced him, his voice was nervous.

"I'm sorry that I tapped on your mind shields…thanks for not telling my mom."

Vader glanced at him. "You are forgiven. You did nothing wrong."

Luke was silent for a moment and then nodded, seeming satisfied. Instead of flying the Reaper back into the hanger, the dark Lord of the Sith barrel rolled and looped over the top of the ship and dived downward in a ninety-degree daredevil move that had the twin's arms in the air again.

Levelling the ship, he cruised around and decided to find out a little more about his two new children whilst they were in an affable mood. Despite having known them for a little while now, he knew virtually nothing about them. Once they were at the academy it would be even harder to speak to them. But then again, why did he need to know anything about them? Did it matter? All that mattered was that they were healthy and that they would be loyal to the him and his future coup.

But then he thought of Padmé. Undoubtably, she knew everything there was to know about their children, making him seem ignorant and negligent in comparison. Again, it just reminded him of how much time he had lost.

Forcing down his tendency to demand answers from those he spoke with, he tried to speak in a non-threatening manner.

"Do you get into trouble often with your mother?"

Since it was usually them who asked the questions, he expected some unwillingness to answer, but he only got that from Leia. Luke spoke up instantly. "No…well, actually…. yeah, quite a lot of the time we do. But usually, it's Leia who gets told off and not me."

She shot him an icy glare.

"Oh, and why is that?" he asked.

"Because Leia comes up with the crazy ideas," he said, grinning as she pinched him and he fought her off.

"Yeah, but you go along with it every time," his daughter quipped back, coming out of her shell a little more.

"Okay, that's true," Luke conceded. Then, feeling at ease enough to share a story with him for the first time, he started to speak. "This one time after school, Leia and I decided to see who could shout the loudest. So, we went to the forest behind our house and we were screaming at the top of our lungs! And then mom came running out thinking we had been murdered, and we were in so much trouble!" he laughed and Leia laughed too at the memory, but Vader felt a little queasy at the thought.

It was becoming more and more obvious that parenthood was a mystifying experience.

"Tell the story when you were doing the backflip," Luke urged her, unaffected by Vader's silence. Leia looked uneasy for a moment, glancing between Vader and Luke. It was clear her distrust wasn't so easily put aside like his son's.

"Well…what happened was dad was in town and mom was in the garden so we were in the house by ourselves," she picked up some confidence in her voice. "We were practicing flips on our parent's bed. I was trying to do a backflip and I managed it, but then I bounced off the bed onto the floor and landed on my head just as mom came back in the room! I got told off so badly," she finished, putting her hands on her cheeks. However, she didn't look remorseful for her actions at all, and exchanged a glance with Luke that said she'd do it again if she could.

"That sounds very dangerous," he warned her.

"Yeah, and when I fell out of the tree in our garden trying to fly, I got told off too, I almost broke my elbow," Luke added, and Vader remembered how Padmé had told him they had a tendency for falling out of trees. "Luckily I didn't."

"Remember when we were playing ball and I kicked it through the living room window?" Leia grinned.

Luke laughed, a loud and carefree sound that was the same as the laughter he had heard when he went to take the children from the holding cell to meet the Emperor. He felt uncomfortable at their happy manner as it was so alien to him, but he persevered.

"It sounds like you do get into lots of trouble," he commented at length.

"Do you ever get into trouble?" Leia asked.

"With whom?"

"Your master."

Vader found this question almost amusing, as if the galactic dictator's disciplinary Force lightning could be compared to a mother's scolding. Killing off irritating Coruscant politicians had earned him such reprimands, so he supposed Luke's question was affirmative.

"Occasionally."

"Are you a machine or a man?" Luke inquired, throwing him yet another out of the blue question. Or perhaps he had been wondering it for a while now.

"I am both," he answered after a moment, steering the ship back around for another circuit of the destroyer.

"Like a cyborg?"

"Yes."

"What parts of you are metal?" Leia asked.

"My arms and legs."

"Why?"

"They got…damaged."

"Did you try putting a bacta pack on it?" Luke suggested, scratching his cheek casually.

Vader wasn't sure how to answer. Luke took his silence as an indication he'd overstepped his boundaries and it looked like he was about to apologise and withdraw into himself when Vader replied with bemused tone, though he wasn't sure if the modulator carried that across.

"I did not consider that. Maybe I should try it."

"It works really well," he smiled, looking at Vader then back out to the view of the stars.

The three of them talked a little more before he saw Leia yawn and he realised they must be getting tired from all the excitement. Flying back into the hangar and dropping the twins back at Padmé's apartment, he felt strange standing in the doorway. It seemed like he'd gained their trust a fraction, but no matter his efforts, he was and always would be an outsider to them. Maybe that was for the best, for he felt unworthy to be their father, but at the same time, he wanted to know them with the same depth that their mother did.

Gathering them in her arms as they ran inside, Padmé looked over the tops of their heads and gave him an unwavering glower that said: Leave.

Turning from their suite, he stalked back to his dark and empty quarters. The hours spent with the children would mean hours' worth of reports to catch up on. He had enjoyed the flying lesson, probably more than a Sith lord should have. It reminded him of a great many good things from long ago, though he didn't want to think too much about what they were. That was Anakin's life, not his. Seeing their skills in action consolidated his hopes that once day, they would rule together.

It wasn't long now before they left, and the thought of their departure made him feel mixed emotions. They needed to be trained and the school was the best possible place for them, what with his and his master's demanding schedules, but a small part of him wanted them to stay on the ship and not just to train them. His long-lost children had barely begun to form any relationship with him, let alone through their Force bond, and now he would lose that chance for a long time. Term ended for the Life Day holidays in four months' time. That would be the next time he and Padmé would see them.