Here's a decently long update with Vader in it, along with a lot of his angst. Enjpy!

Luke took in his surroundings. The room wasn't very big, just big enough to fit two twin bunk beds, some desks, and four lockers. Luke tried his key in the lockers until one finally opened up allowing him to place his suitcase filled with possessions he'd acquired from each of his foster families into it. The bunks were made of cold metal, all but one was neatly made with a gray comforter and a single pillow.

The unmade bed was the one Luke assumed to be his. Luckily he'd gotten a bottom bunk and quickly put together his bed. The group home he'd stayed at had taught him the regulation military way to make beds. He'd only been there for four days but had figured it out pretty quickly.

Just as Luke was tucking in the last corner of his bed the other three occupants walked into the room each complaining about their chores. The first one to notice Luke was a boy about ten years older than him. He was a husky kid with a big build and little black hairs were sprouting on his top lip. He looked Luke up and down before looking over to his companions. One was tall and skinny, he reminded Luke of the vines growing a building one of his foster families had taken him to see. His hair was blond, but closer to the color of corn rather than Luke's sandy color. Thin circular glasses covered his gray eyes. He was clearly the oldest in the group and, Luke guessed by the way the other two followed him, their leader. The final member was much younger than the other two, he must have only been ten standard years. The young boy held a permanent scowl on his soot covered face. His gray eyes borrowed into Luke.

The leader of the group walked up to Luke smiling. For some reason Luke didn't feel reassured by the look at all, if anything the smile made him more uneasy. It was like the boy's true face was being held behind a mask. On Tatooine people would never do something like that, they showed their strength through serious looks and never put on friendly masks. It was an odd behavior to Luke, one he'd only been exposed to on Imperial Center. People of Tatooine saw smiling as something never to be taken lightly since there wasn't much to smile about there. Every smile on Tatooine was sincere. But on this planet smiles were exchanged without a second thought just to get ahead in life and gain false trust.

"So you must be the new kid, you're a cute little guy. What did you do to get yourself locked up in here?" He asked looking down at the small boy.

"I… um… I…"Luke stuttered.

"I bet he's a rebel, or the kid of a rebel since most of them are dead. Or maybe he's the rebel leader, I always said they were run by babies," the youngest of the three said.

"Shut up, Harvey," the husky boy growled.

The leader looked to the two boys, "Harvey, Dexen, let the kid speak. How about an easier question, what's your name?"

Luke wished it were an easy question. He still had no clue who his real parents were or what his last name truly was. He'd panicked back on Tatooine and said Lars but his aunt and uncle had never called him "Luke Lars" it was always "Luke Skywalker." He'd decided that until his real family was found he'd stick with Lars. They had raised him for his entire life, and died because he wanted to go to Mos Espa it was the least he could do.

"I'm Luke… Luke Lars," he answered.

"Well, Luke, I'm Heb Tarwin, Harvey's my little brother," he said pointing his thumb towards the youngest of the group. "And the big guy's Dexen Irris. He's not as tough as he seems, he's only in here because he's too ugly and none of the senators wanted him. I mean he may have killed one of their priceless pet husk lizards, but really he's not too bad."

"What about you?" Luke asked, "What did you do to end up here?"

Heb roled his eyes, "Lukey," Luke flinched at the new nickname, "I'm old. No one wants a seventeen year old in their home. Besides, I'm getting out soon, just one more month then I get to take Harvey and get out of here. You never answered my question. You're a cute, young kid. You look like you're straight out of the outer rim, the media could have been all over you. You have to have done something awful. You didn't kill anyone, did you?"

Luke looked at him with wide eyes, shocked that Heb could ever think he could kill someone. "No, no I did a lot of little things that just kind of added up. But they weren't my fault! They just kind of happened…"

"Pfft, sure, none of it was your fault. Then who's was it?" Harvey said.

"Well, I mean the first time kind of was, I didn't know you couldn't talk badly about Imperial Center though. The second time was because I was staying with a rebel. Then there was the time I said Darth Vader was scary on T.V. And the whole group home incident which was really not my fault, I swear! And then-"

"Okay, Luke, we get it. Geez kid, you sure do get around," Heb said.

"He sounds like a rebel to me," Harvey pouted. He had made his way over to the other bottom bunk and was sitting on it with his arms crossed across his chest.

Heb glared over to Harvey who simply looked down and mumbled a 'sorry'. "Don't mind Harvey, our parents… they were killed in a rebel attack last year. We wouldn't let the ICS separate us so we both ended up here instead," Heb explained.

"I'm sorry, my…" Luke didn't know what to say. He'd always thought that Owen and Beru were his aunt and uncle but they'd kidnapped him. For all he knew they weren't even related. "My guardians were killed in a protest about two months ago," he finished.

"No parents, no family…or at least none that would want us," he looked over to Dexen who was leaning back on one of the desks chairs throwing a ball he'd found at the wall and catching it as it bounced back. Dexten rolled his eyes. "and no place to call home. It may suck but it'll make usstronger in the long run," Heb finished.

"It also makes us orphans," Dexten pointed out.

Frank waited outside Lord Vader's private quarters. He had seen enough Stormtroopers taken away in body bags to know better than interrupt Vader while he was in there. No one really knew what he did alone in his quarters. Some said he had engineers in there tuning him up since he was obviously a droid. Others said that he did what normal people did, take off the mask, unload a bit, read the latest holonews, and have a bite to eat. Frank didn't hear any noise coming from the room, not even the usual heavy breathing that always accompanied Lord Vader.

If Frank didn't know any better he'd have thought Lord Vader was dead, or just sitting doing nothing. That couldn't be true though, Lord Vader was a busy man with many things to do. He couldn't just be sitting around doing nothing. Frank worried for a moment. What if Lord Vader was killed by someone aboard the ship? It was possible, not everyone was as big a fan of Vader as the Stormtroopers were. There could be a power hungry general or Moff wanting to take up the mantel as next in line for the imperial throne.

Just as Frank was in the middle of worrying the door opened. A tall black clad figure walked out of it and looked over to Frank. The eye socket of the black helmet seemed to dig into his mind. Lord Vader was fine, and most certainly not dead. A dead man wouldn't be able to choke an individual with the force like Vader was currently doing to Frank.

"Your fear broke me from my meditation," Vader stated. It was a lie of course. Ever since running into Obi Wan on that terrible planet he had had a difficult time truly meditating in the dark side of the force.

Meditation. That made a lot more sense than Vader being killed by some Moff. Frank would have thought more on the subject if more oxygen could get to his brain. He needed to get Vader to let him go, he needed to tell him about Luke. He started reaching towards Vader hoping to persuade him to let go.

"The… the boy…" he managed to whisper.

Lord Vader dropped him to the metal floor, "What was his midichlorian count?"

Frank took a moment to regain his breath, rubbing his hand against his throat as though it could help the pain, "He's been placed in an orphanage, my lord."

"I do not care about such trivial things, only alert me when the boy's midichlorian count is known." Vader hadn't thought much about the boy he'd seen on that planet. The boy who was the same age as his daughter would have been if he hadn't…

"If you hadn't killed her," his thoughts finished. She would be six by now. He, Padmé, and their daughter would have lived happily on Nabooif he hadn't trusted Palpatine so blindly. His daughter would be beautiful and look just like a mini Padmé. She'd be just about ready to start primary school, scared to leave her father and mother behind.

Vader shook himself from his thoughts. There was no reason to think of what ifs. Padmé along with their unborn child was dead because of him and they were never coming back. What good would thinking of all the possible outcomes do except hurt him.

He dismissed the Stormtrooper and decided to take a walk around his flagship. With all of the paperwork he had to fill out after the protest on Tatooine along with prisoner transfer protocols being figured out for the man behind the Tatooine bombings he hadn't had much time to make sure his ship was in tip top shape.

He entered into the Stormtroopers quarters and was shocked. They had found a chalk board somewhere and put it in the common area. It wasn't being used to figure out new fighting maneuvers or theories on where the rebels might be hiding. From top to bottom the board was filled with predictions about the little force sensitive boy with bets placed next to each. A title spread across the top "LUKE'S LUCK." Predictions ranging from "SPILLING SENITORIAL SECRETS (AGAIN)" to "IN CAHOOTS WITH A WOOKIE" were displayed. The prediction about a Wookie had a large checkmark next to it.

The chalkboard wasn't the only deplorable thing about the space. Troopers gathered around tables without their helmets on, laughing about some joke Vader didn't care to hear. Others looked to be in a more serious conversation but upon listening closer Vader realized they were conversing about whether or not Palpatine could still procreate.

"Enough!" Vader bellowed.

Every Stormtrooper looked over to him terrified. They didn't realize that he'd be inspecting the ship so soon. They each grabbed for the first helmet they could find, not particularly caring if it was theirs or not, and shoved their heads into them. The troopers realized just how badly they'd messed up.

"What is the meaning of this?" Vader asked pointing to the chalkboard.

None of the troopers dared to speak up. They were all too terrified to mention the game they'd been playing while he was stuck in his office doing paperwork and arranging a prisoner drop off on the Imperial Center. They started to shift around like children after being caught doing something bad by their parents.

"It's just a game, my lord," Marvin finally spoke up. He knew it was a death sentence but he was the one to originally make up the game and he would be the one to take the fall.

"It is fortunate for you that I am not in a bad mood today. This room is to be cleaned and organized by the time I return. When I return, you are to give me the name of who ever came up with this game and I shall deal with them personally," with that Vader turned around with the swing of his cape and left.

Marvin waited until he was out of earshot before grinning and saying, "You know, he kind of sounded like a father for a second there."

Another trooper walked up and slapped Marvin in the face, "You're an idiot," she said, "I can't believe you talked us into this and now you're going to die because of it. I doubt Lord Vader will let any of us stay on board his ship."

She was right. She was always right, she had to be to be one of the very few female Stormtroopers. Marvin hadn't thought much about the consequences of turning the Stormtrooper's work area into a breakroom but now he had to face them head on. There was no way he was getting out of this alive.

"Kriff, you're right," he said, his grin fading from his face.

"He doesn't have to die," one trooper said.

"What's that supposed to mean, TR-329?" another trooper asked. TR-329 wasn't a very well-known Stormtrooper, he was just another helmet in a sea of white. He often kept his head down and followed every order given to him. He was by no means an exceptional shot, but he was loyal beyond compare.

"It means I'm willing to take the fall for him," he replied.

"That's a death sentence!" the female Stormtrooper said.

"Yeah, and besides I doubt that Vader will believe you," Marvin chimed in. "This is my mistake, I'll pay for it."

"MH-117, you're the light of this whole place. Before you it was so dull here. Sure you won't be able to have a breakroom but I'm sure you'll find a new way to brighten things up, you always do," TR-329 said.

"It's a death sentence, pal. I don't want you doing this for me. I've already lost enough comrades," Marvin said. He'd already lost his entire squadron on Tatooine, their faces were etched into his mind forever. He didn't know TR-329 very well but there was no way in Sith Hell he was going to let someone else die for him.

"I'm old for a Stormtrooper, a bit over fifty standard years. Lord Vader is going to get rid of me soon. I don't have any family left in the galaxy, I've never done anything great with my life, no wife, no kids, no siblings, hell I don't even have friends. All the recruitment posters say 'Join the Empire. Make a difference.' I've been working as a Stormtrooper since the position first opened six years ago and I've made no difference, please just let me make one."

"I say if he wants to be a hero, let him. He seems pretty eager to die," a Stormtrooper said.

"I really don't-," Marvin started.

TR-329 looked up at him with pleading eyes, "Please just let me help."

Marvin slowly nodded his head. He couldn't bring himself to say the words that would condemn this man who only wished to be useful for once. He knew it was the best option, logic said so, but he hated himself for letting the man take on this burden. He hated himself for letting another one of his fellow Stormtroopers die.

"So, wait, you actually met the Darth Vader? The second in command of the empire? The scariest man in the universe?" Harvey asked excitedly.

"You make him sound so great," Luke said.

Harvey was practically jumping on his bed. Luke was in the middle of telling them how exactly he ended up on Imperial Center when he was originally from Tatooine. "He's my hero! He managed to kill all the evil Jedi, he helped to build the entire republic, and he doesn't just send troops out to do his bidding, he goes out and does it with them."

"Alright fanboy, I think you're starting to freak Luke out," Heb said to Harvey. He turned his attention back to Luke, "So what's he like?"

"He's… tall," Luke said. Last time he mentioned that Darth Vader was scary he ended up getting kicked out of his foster home. "Why were the Jedi so bad? One of the Stormtroopers told me that they tried to stop the empire but I saw some old holos of the Clone Wars and the Jedi were helping the Old Republic out. Why didn't they want to help out the Empire?"

Heb shook his head, "No one really knows why they snapped but it had something to do with power. They either wanted it for themselves or wanted to keep it a Republic since democracy never gets anything done. If nothing ever got done they could continue working from behind the shadows and no one could stop them."

"They seemed nice in the holos though."

Heb scowled at him, all signs of affection towards the six year vanished from his features. "The Jedi were scum, they were terrible people who only acted nice in front of a camera for their own benefit. Talking about them like that is treason and if you do it again I'm going to have to report you for being a rebel sympathizer."

Luke shank into himself. He was just telling the truth, isn't that what Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen had taught him to do? He didn't mean to act like a rebel, he was just telling them the truth. The people on the holos seemed to be very nice. They were brave and kind. They looked out for one another and only wanted the best for the galaxy. To Luke none of the Jedi could be evil, especially not General Skywalker the one who shared his name and eyes.

"General Skywalker was a scum too?" Luke asked.

"General Skywalker? You mean the Hero with no Fear? Of course he was, all Jedi were evil. But you don't have to worry about them, Darth Vader killed all of them," Heb said. "Look, Lukey, if you really want to know about the Jedi you'll have to go talk to the rebel kids. But if you do, you'll become one of them, they're dangerous like that. And if you're a rebel we can't talk to you any more, we won't associate with rebels, no one here will. If anyone from the empire knows that you associated with them you'll be put on a watch list for the rest of your life. One tiny wrong move and you've lost your freedom for life. You got that?"

"I think I understand," Luke said. He was conflicted. He didn't want his roommates to hate him, or really anyone to but he felt like there was something missing from what everyone seemed to know about the Jedi. How could heroes like them turn into villains so quickly? The rebels knew more about the Jedi than anyone else. They had answers for Luke but he would likely have to give up his freedom for it.

After the other boys had finished their studying it was lights out time. Luke lay awake thinking over the day. He listened to the sounds of their breathing. Heb was snoring so loudly Luke wasn't sure how the other two boys slept in the same room. Luke decided to go over his options, he could either ask the rebels about the Jedi and finally understand what had happened to them to make them evil or follow the rules for once and do as he was told, never knowing the truth about the Jedi. The thoughts still lingered as his eyelids finally became too heavy for him to keep up any longer lulling him into a sleep filled with Jedi and rebel alliances.

The Stormtroopers lined up waiting for Darth Vader. The once breakroom was returned to its rightful state, the chalkboard hidden in Marvin's room. The anticipation was palpable. They had been waiting in the room for half a standard hour and yet Lord Vader was nowhere to be seen. Some were beginning to believe that he had forgotten about his second inspection but knew he had been too upset about the state of the room to do that.

Just as they were going to get back to business the door opened. The towering figure of Darth Vader walked into the room inspecting every inch. He walked to where the chalkboard once was and looked for any residue of chalk. He strode around the tables to make sure they were exactly where they should be. He made sure the trash had been properly disposed of. Nothing was out of place.

"Who decided it best to create a recreation room?" he asked the lined up troopers. "I will interrogate each and every one of you if I must."

The Storm troopers remained silent for a few moments until TR-329 stepped forward from the line, "I-it was me sir. I thought it would be nice to have a place to relax and have fun."

Vader lifted up his arm and began to choke the trooper. TR-329 grasped at his throat trying to grab the hands that were not there. His lips were turning blue and his cheeks red. He stole a glance towards Martin his eyes seemed to plead with him, TR-329 was regretting taking his place. Marvin looked down not daring to look TR-329 in the face. He just couldn't do it. TR-329's hands fell from his throat and went limp next to his sides. Vader dropped the body onto the metal floor. He demanded two troopers to clean up the body.

"Your job is not to relax or have fun, it is to defeat the rebels. If I find any of you doing something like this again I shall do much worse than strangle you." He turned around and exited the room.

Marvin was staring at the spot Lord Vader dropped TR-329. Another one of his comrades was dead only this time he could have stopped it by just telling the truth. He could have stopped Vader from killing him, TR-329 had pleaded with him to tell Vader the truth but he couldn't do it. He was too much of a coward.

"Marvin, don't blame yourself, he wanted to die and be a hero. You heard him, Lord Vader was going to kill him soon enough since he was so old. He saved your life," a trooper said.

Marvin nodded and walked over to where they stored the blasters, he really needed to get his mind off of TR-329 and nothing cleared his head quite like shooting holes in paper targets. Finding his way to the shooting range he set up a target and took aim. He missed by a long shot. The helmet always constricted his vision. He took it off and took aim again hitting the target in the head. He smiled to himself and reloaded.

"Hey, Lukey, wake up! If you want to get a spot in the fresher you need to be early," Heb was standing over Luke's bed looking down at him.

Luke responded with a groan and covered his head with the blanket. The sun still wasn't up yet, why should he be up? Heb shook him once more and Luke gave in. He glanced over at the wall chrono to check the time.

"0530? You woke me up at 0530?" Luke asked, unpleased with how early it was.

"Well aren't you a farm boy? Farm boys get up early all the time. Besides, you don't want to wait much longer or else you'll get stuck showering with the rebels."

"I couldn't sleep last night and what's so bad about showering with the rebels?" Luke replied.

"They'll brainwash you, remember? We've been through this," Heb said.

Luke looked around the room and noticed the two other boys were gone. He figured that they had already gone to the fresher to shower before the rebels had a chance to. Getting out of bed, Luke grabbed one of the towels the orphanage assigned to him and followed Heb to the fresher.

A bad feeling started to twist at Luke's gut. The closer to the fresher they got the worse the feeling became. He looked up at Heb who just smiled down at him. It was the mask smile he usually wore, the one that didn't quite reach his eyes like he was trying to keep Luke's trust. Heb opened the door for Luke to walk through first and followed behind him. Luke heard the door click then a lock from the outside. He glanced at the chrono. It clearly said 0330, the one in the bedroom had been tampered with. He looked forward to see Dexten in front of him with a knife in one hand.

"I-I don't understand…" Luke sputtered as Dexten slowly walked closer, like a hunter studying its prey. He wasn't a rebel. He didn't go to the rebels. He just wanted to keep his head down for once and stay out of trouble, that wasn't too much to ask. It was as though something kept pushing him in the wrong direction no matter wat he did.

"You see, Lukey, you talk in your sleep. You were mumbling about Jedi and rebels. Not about destroying them but actually smiling at the thought of them. It sounds like you've already been brainwashed by them and I can't have you brainwashing my little brother or my friend," Heb grabbed a broomstick and swung it at Luke.

Everything started to play in slow motion. As the broomstick came towards him Luke ducked and it passed safely over his head. Dexten lunged his knife towards Luke sloppily not really aiming anywhere. Luke was able to dodge each attack as they came. Somehow his reflexes were quick enough to avoid Heb's broomstick aimed at his side. Heb and Dexten cornered him against a shower stall. There was no way for him to get out this time.

"Leave the boy alone!" a girl cried from the door. She was small and thin, her clothes seemed to drip off of her tiny frame. Her long brown hair was held in two braids hanging down her back. She was probably no older than eight.

"How'd you get in here? I thought Harvey was guarding the door," Dexten said.

"Is that the little guy's name?" a bulky man with a mop stood next to the little girl. He was taller than Heb by a few inches, his hair was shaved off leaving a shadow of what once had been black hair behind. "He's fine, just locked in a broom closet across the hall. Now let the boy go."

Heb scoffed and directed his attention towards the little girl. The boy ran in front of her and blocked the broomstick with the mop's handle. They began swinging and blocking each other in a fury of exchanges. Dexten became engrossed by the exchange and Luke took the opportunity to slip past him and ran towards the door. The little girl noticed and followed him out, whistling for the older boy to follow.

They ran out the bathroom doors and into the hall way. The boy shut the bathroom door behind him and used the keys he'd stolen from Harvey to lock the door. He looked over to Luke and studied him for a second before hearing bodies being slammed against the door. He looked at the girl and nodded before they both ran in the direction opposite of Luke's room.

"That was close," the little girl said, "Imps can be so stupid sometimes. I mean seriously? Brainwashing? It's not like we're the Sith or something."

"Be nice, Jania, they're the ones who've been brainwashed. It's not like they can help it," the boy said.

Jania rolled her eyes then looked over to Luke, "Oh you must think we're so rude. I'm Jania Fenn and this is my friend, Ranik."

"Did they hurt you at all?"Ranik asked.

"No, I'm okay," Luke said.

"I gotta say you were really great out there, almost like watching a Jedi," Ranik said.

Luke looked at him, amazed he had mentioned the Jedi, "Do you know a lot about the Jedi?" Luke asked.

Jania laughed, "Of course we do we're rebels. Well, I'm the child of rebels, he wants to be a rebel, and I'm guessing you want to be a Jedi?"

Luke shook his head, "No, I just want to learn more about them like why they became bad guys."

Jania laughed at Luke while he started to blush,"We have a lot of stuff to unteach you."

"Why?" Luke asked innocently.

"Because by the looks of it, you're a rebel now," Ranik said.

Okay, so a much longer update, I think like 5,000 words or so. How is the whole TR-329 thing going to change Marvin? Is Luke going to become a rebel? How the heck did Ranik and Jania know Luke was in trouble? Find out next time! And don't forget to follow, favorite and/or review!