Sorry it's been a while, but here's a new short chapter just kind of some filler and moving the story along a bit. Any way happy reading and all that.

"Yes, Ma'am, I understand. What was it for this time?" Frank asked the ICS agent on the other end of the comm.

The miniature hologram spoke up, "He let a senator's pet Wookie loose."

Frank sighed, wishing he'd never signed up to be Luke's partial guardian. The boy had been in and out of foster homes since he landed on the Imperial Center. He'd heard every reason why: crashing speeders, ruining a senator's wife's hair, setting his bed on fire, and, Luke's personal favorite with a record of five different occasions, embarrassing a senator during an interview. It wasn't always his fault. The second home they sent him to had been that of a rebel alliance leader's. Luke's loose lips caused him to out her one day while waiting in line for groceries.

Luke could be heard off screen, "It wasn't my fault," he whined, "The Wookie just wanted to see his family, he told me he'd be right back!"

Frank shook his head, "Luke, Wookies don't speak basic and I doubt you speak Wookie."

"Yeah but it felt like that's what he was saying." That was another thing getting Luke into trouble, these weird feelings he had. They had scared off a potentially nice family after he told them to catch a glass of water moments before it dropped. They called him a Jedi but Frank was sure it was just dumb luck. It had to be.

Frank turned his attention back to the ICS worker. He'd talked to her about Luke many times, it seemed as though she had taken it upon herself to get the boy a proper home. "So where is he going now? Not another senator I hope. I guess regular homes haven't worked too well either. And after the whole incident at the group home you're probably not going to send him to another one of those, and incident like that should never be repeat-"

"FS-736, I am placing Luke in an orphanage," she stated.

"You can't do that! He's a human boy, only alien children go to the orphanage, there are plenty of families who will take him," Frank protested.

"No one will let him into their house. He's revealed senatorial secrets to the news, told them about the affairs senators are having, and I don't think we need to go over the group home incident. An orphanage is the only place left."

"They'll treat him like a prisoner, they'll get rid of that little spark that makes Luke, Luke," Frank wanted to tell her just how awful orphanages were, he of all people would know. He'd spent nearly a decade in one around the Clone Wars after his planet was sieged by the separatists and his parents killed before his eyes. He'd been made a slave to work for them until two Jedi generals came and rescued him. He thought his life would be perfect after that but instead he was taken to an orphanage and treated like a prisoner. Each step he took and task he completed was carefully laid out for him every day and force forbid if you stepped out of line.

"The Imperial Orphanage isn't that bad and Luke needs a bit of a firm hand by the looks of it. In another month or so we'll have his results in, he finally made it to the first page of the list. He'll be reunited with his family in no time."

The transmission ended and the woman's face disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. He did not want Luke to go through what he had been through as a child but as a Stormtrooper on Executor there was no way he could look after a kid. A Star Destroyer was no place for a child to grow up. Frank walked towards the crew quarters and grabbed a cup of caf. He went over to the chalk board they'd started using to place bets on how Luke would get kicked out of his foster home next. He placed check next to MH-117, or Malcolm as many ha started calling him.

"Would ya look at that? I won again. What is this the third time in a row?" he said to his companions at one of the tables.

One of them scoffed, "You were with the kid for a day of course you'd know what he would do."

Malcolm punched him softly on the arm, "Yeah well I wrote 'in cahoots with a Wookie' as a joke, I mean who could have kriffing guessed that?"

They all shook their heads and handed him over some credits. Malcolm was getting the hang of life on board the Executor most of the troopers were decent people, just a bit rigid and more to the books than what he was used to after being on a backwater world for so long. He hadn't been sure if he was fit to be a part of Vader's main troops at first but proved himself worthy after their first battle together.

Another trooper turned to look at Frank, "So give us a hint. Is he being fostered by a senator, a civilian, or are they trying the whole group home thing again?"

"Yeah," someone else said, "and I wanna hear about the Wookie story too. Malcolm couldn't have been that on the dot."

Frank clenched the chalk in his hand. The troopers had come to adore his stories about Luke, it was almost like their version of a reality holo. He wasn't sure if he could break it to them.

"Luke's going to an orphanage. He broke a Wookie out of its cage and now they're basically imprisoning him," he forced himself to say.

The room was quiet for a moment. Each trooper realized what that meant. Unless Luke's family was truly alive the little boy whose stories they always looked forward to hearing about would be stuck in an orphanage until he became an adult.

Malcolm was the one to break the silence, "I'm betting he'll break out within the week."

Luke was scared. It seemed like he was always scared now. He was scared when he was arrested, he was scared when his aunt and uncle died, he was scared of Darth Vader, he had been scared with each new home he was sent to. But this type of scared felt different. It was an odd sensation, a tingling on the inside of his stomach that made it clench with every step closer he got to the orphanage. It didn't feel right to be so afraid of a building, in fact it almost didn't feel like his fear at all. It was distant yet still tangible.

He shook off the feeling and followed the ICS agent into the building. She checked him in and they waited together in uncomfortable silence. When Luke had first met her two months ago he thought she would be nice and kind. She was at first but with each new family he went to she began to distance herself from him. Luke understood of course, everyone distanced themselves from him because they saw him as "bad." He wasn't a bad child, he was just unlucky. The Wookie swore he would come back, how was Luke to know that he was lying? Besides, he was only gone for ten minutes before his foster family found out. And the thing with the group home was not his fault, it all kind of just happened at once.

The lady at the desk called the pair over for them to sign their names before Luke could be assigned a room. The second person he'd stayed with, the nice lady who talked a lot about the republic and Jedis, taught him just to put an "X" where he needed to sign. She had taken him to a senate meeting and since it was his first time ever signing he helped him through it. The woman took the paper and directed Luke and the ICS agent to a little office around the corner.

The ICS agent stopped before entering the door and looked down at the boy she'd been in charge of for the past two months. He was a handful but was the sweetest child she'd ever met. She bent down and hugged him tightly. Luke was confused at first but hugged her back, he wasn't sure the next time he'd get a hug. He hoped it would be by has real parents but with each week that went by that little glimmer of hope faded.

"Luke, you need to be a good boy. You need to be on your absolute best behavior here, okay?" she said.

"I'll try," Luke said.

She broke the hug and smiled at him, "I can't go in with you and after today I doubt I'll ever get to see you again but you need to stay out of trouble. If you do maybe they'll try to get you back into the foster care system."

Luke nodded and turned to the large metal door. The director of the orphanage sat in his round chair facing Luke. "So you're the young rebel all over 'Foster Senator'? I figured you'd be a bit taller," he chortled.

Luke pouted at the man, he wasn't that short. As the man continued laughing Luke sat down at the little plastic chair opposite his.

"Hey now, kid, who told you you could sit down? Force you're disobedient," the man said.

"S-sorry," Luke muttered.

"You really aren't an eloquent speaker either, are you? To think that they're thinking of taking clips of you from 'Foster Senator' and making a holo program about you. Did you hear about that, boy? They're calling it 'Mischievous Miscreant' or something like that. I personally like 'Little Rebel' better," he mused.

Luke stiffened. Why would anyone watch a show about some little boy from Tatooine making a fool of himself all around the Imperial Center? Who would even watch that?

The man looked over to Luke and really took him in for a second. There was something about his face, the color or his bright blue eyes and sandy blonde hair that looked familiar but he couldn't place it. He shook the feeling and handed the boy a key and a set of bed sheets.

"You're on the third floor, room 366. You are to be up by 0600 everyday, eating breakfast by 0730, and in class when the bell rings at 0800. You will have one break during class for lunch. Class finishes at 1600, you will have an hour to complete your assigned chore before going to dinner at 1700. After dinner you will go back to your room for an hour of socialization and three hours of study. Lights will go off at precisely 2100. We do not permit talking during study time nor lights out. Do you understand?"

Luke nodded and stepped out of the office. He found his way to the third floor but could not find his room number. Some older children were mopping floors and whispering to each other about the little lost boy trying to navigate the halls alone. An older girl broke away from the whispers and walked up to Luke. She was a species he'd never seen before. She was green, her two eyes shot up on stalks. Her mouth was located at the end of a long trunk that ended close to her belly.

"Can I help you out?" she asked.

Luke realized that he was staring at her and nodded his head, "I'm looking for room 366."

"366? That's in the human sector, you can't get there from here. You have to go back down to the second floor and take the black staircase up, not the metal one. Then- are you staring?" she asked

"No- I- it's just I've never seen your species before," he said. His cheeks turning a bright red for being found out.

She simply laughed, "I'm glad that you're at least honest. I'm a Pa'lowick from Lowick,"

Luke nodded and let her continue to give him directions to his room. He thanked her and walked back to the second floor. She had said that there were black stairs but he couldn't find any. He circled around once more before bumping into a guard. Luke took a step back and looked up. Unlike Stormtroopers this guard was dressed in simple black attire with a metallic helmet on his head.

"I'm so sorry, I'm lost and I can't find my room, and-"

"What's your name, boy?" the guard was unfazed by Luke's attempt to explain.

"L-luke Lars."

"Well, L-luke Lars," the guard mocked, "the human sector is just around the corner and up the stairs. Do you think you can handle it or do I need to hold your hand and walk you through it like a baby?"

Luke was about ready to cry. His day had been tough and now some man was mocking him without any remorse. A tear dropped to his cheek. He just wanted to go to the Pod Racing track and now his life was ruined. His life was ruined and there was a guard making fun of him for all of his misery.

The guard looked down at him, "Listen, boy, this orphanage will chew you up and spit you out. You seem like a sweet kid from some backwater planet I've never even heard of. I don't know what you did to get here but the humans here are the worst. They all ended up here for committing unspeakable crimes. Grand theft auto, burglaries, one girl murdered her foster family in the middle of the night. Those types of crazies are easy to handle, they can still see some reason. It's the rebels you gotta watch out for."

"Why the rebels?" Luke sniffled.

"They don't see reason. They do whatever they want and say it's for the good of the galaxy. They say that our Emperor, the one who single handedly stopped the Clone Wars, is an evil man. They'll brainwash you if you let them. Just remember: the Empire is good, Darth Vader protects us, and the republic is a foolish idea that never worked."

Luke nodded his head and wiped away stray tears, "But Darth Vader is scary."

"But he keeps the rebels away from us. I've met him once you know. He's not as bad as everyone says. He even thanked me for my service without the emperor telling him to or anything."

"I met him once too," Luke said, the memory began to surface. "He was still scary and mean."

The guard nodded his head and started walking Luke to his room. The black staircase was just around the corner from where Luke had been looking. The guard walked him to his room: 366. Luke thanked the man for helping find his room and giving him the ins and outs of the orphanage.

"Don't mention it L-luke. There's just something about you that made me really want to do good for once. I have this whole reputation here of being the bad guard so don't tell anyone about our little talk, okay?"

"Deal," Luke said as he walked over to the door.

"And, Luke, what did I tell you to always remember?"

Luke turned around and repeated the words the guard had recited, "The Empire is good, Darth Vader protects us, and the republic never worked."

So yep, Luke's in an orphanage and Vader's troopers are pretty bummed. I'll try to be a bit better at updating but I've had a ton of stuff to do so really no guarantees.