Hey! As I said on my profile, because of Christmas approaching, I'm doing a "Little One" marathon! Please continue to read, enjoy, and review! :-D

In Death Squadron, there was little time to relax, and when relaxation was available, the Imperials found that being anywhere near Darth Vader was the last thing that would ease their nerves. Nevertheless, the Executor had two areas for relaxation: the mess hall and the lounge. While the mess hall was rather close to the bridge and other populated areas, the lounge was closer to the crew quarters.

In the lounge sat Kobayashi, Kerrick, Numel, Carh'la, Zhymmia, Moeema, Zan, and Marrax.

Zan and Zhymmia hadn't spent any time one-on-one with Darth Vader, but he soon would be; Kobayashi had told Zan that he couldn't make it to Vader's lesson the next morning. Zan, unlike the others, was willing to substitute for him. Zhymmia wasn't sure what she would do alone with the young man. He was too many contradictory images and ideas to her. He was an astonishingly handsome man, yet a boy in mentality. He was Darth Vader, yet an actual person who had feelings, desires, concerns, and likable qualities. It was just too bizarre for her.

"Okay, after that fiasco yesterday, how did the lesson go?" Carh'la asked Numel.

Numel shrugged. "It was… weird. I never imagined that I'd be teaching Lord Vader galactic history. Do you know what he said when I mentioned the Clone Wars?"

"What?"

"He said it sounded like it had been set up," Numel said in a loud voice, still in shock over the comment. "He said that it seemed too… prepared. I asked him what he meant. I believe his exact words were: Well, let's see; the Separatists suddenly are discovered to have an army and then out of nowhere a clone army appears?"

"He actually said that?"

Numel nodded. "It caught me off guard, too. How can he say that was set up?"

Kerrick sighed. "I can tell you that it was not set up. My father could attest to that."

"You never told us much about your family," Carh'la noted.

"Oh, what's there to say?" Kerrick laughed. "My father was a commander in the Clone Wars. He was on the Valiant in the Open Circle Fleet. He even served under some famous people like General Anakin Skywalker. My mother was an engineer who worked on Corulag so she could take care of me and my older brother, Numm. My father died at the end of the war in the Battle of Coruscant. My mother followed soon after from an illness. Now, Numm and I share our childhood house. We and our families still live there."

"Wow, I didn't know about your parents," Numel said.

"You know, for being so social, Kobayashi, I've never heard about your past," Zan commented.

Kobayashi jumped and then laughed. "Uh, well, there's not much to discuss about it. Uh… I have an older brother, and my parents are still alive, and…"

"Are they proud of you?" Moeema asked.

"Why wouldn't they be?" Kobayashi laughed nervously. "Um, where's Ooke, anyway? I heard he wasn't in the engineering sections."

"Koby, he's teaching Vader right now, remember?" Kerrick prompted, furrowing his brow curiously at his friend's odd behavior.

"Oh, right! I forgot," Kobayashi shrugged. "You know, we can't just keep calling Vader Little One. What are we going to do when he goes out in public? He can't introduce himself that way."

"Call him Lo," Moeema supplied. "That's the name I came up with when I was being interrogated by Cdr. Sypikne,"

"What—did you say Sypikne?" Numel interrupted.

"Yes," Moeema nodded. "Why, have you run into him yet?"

"Him?" Numel blubbered. "But—but Sypikne isn't a commander, and she isn't a he! She's Lt Cdr. Sypikne!"

Kobayashi laughed. "You're talking about his wife, Numel. She can be a nasty one sometimes. Maybe that's why he married her."

"Uh… s-she's married?"

Kerrick rolled his eyes while Carh'la said, "You didn't flirt with her too, did you? You have this horrible tendency to flirt with all the married women in this fleet, you know that?"

Numel blushed and looked away. "Oh, shut up. I didn't know she was married."

The others could only laugh.

Ooke sighed as he watched Vader at work. The boy looked bored. Ooke had assigned him to go through the standard practice of making a simple repulsorlift. In ten minutes, with the parts Ooke had brought him, the boy had made three, and a hull to go around two of them.

"Little One, why don't we back down to engineering?" Ooke suggested. "This work is just too simple for you. Besides, I could use some help with the cooling unit; it's being a little temperamental."

Vader immediately perked up and jumped to his feet. "Okay, let's go!"

Ooke did everything he could to keep the boy from running down to the engineering section. When the two arrived, Vader looked around and immediately found the cooling unit. "How long has it been causing problems?"

"Two days," Ooke responded. Wait, who was teaching the lesson here? "Um, so, Little One, we've got a cooling unit that's mysteriously malfunctioning. What would you do?"

"It's no mystery," Vader replied in a dull tone, looking at the unit in question. "Someone forgot to clean out the filters. The unit's malfunctioning because the system automatically sealed off the filter due to toxic buildup."

Ooke gaped.

Vader walked off for a moment, leaving Ooke to stand alone. Even after the discovery of Vader's talents two days ago, he still surprised Ooke.

When Vader returned, he had a toolbox with him. He opened a shaft that led to the inner workings of the cooling unit and crawled inside.

"Hey, wait, what are you doing?" Ooke said as he ran over.

"I'm switching out the filters and overriding the automatic shutdown." Vader answered.

"How is it that all my engineers didn't see a simple problem like this?" Ooke muttered to himself.

Vader apparently heard, because he answered, "Because they were looking for an actual malfunction on the unit's part, not a Human malfunction."

Ooke remained silent for a moment before saying, "Good point."

After easily fixing the unit, Vader emerged, smiling contently. "Can we go to the hangar now? I want to work on some of the ships."

"I don't think any ships need work, Little One," Ooke replied.

"Some of them must," Vader responded fervently. "Everything always needs a check-up."

Ooke laughed. "All right, then, let's go to the hangar. Maybe we can check on the Fallen Angel."

"Padmé, stay strong, you have twins!"

"Obi-Wan… there is good in him… I know. I know there is… still…"

"What? Do you mean she's actually pulling out of it?"

"That's what the doctor said! Can you believe it, Mom? After five years, she'll finally be alright."

Light was beginning to pierce into her ocean of uncertainty. The voices were starting to make more sense… however, her situation wasn't. Where was she? What about five years? Why did they keep saying that? How did she get from Polis Massa to wherever she was now? Where was Obi-Wan? Where was Anakin? What about the twins?

"Mommy, is Aunt Padmé going to wake up?"

"Yes, she is, Pooja."

Pooja! Sola! Mom! She struggled to open her eyelids, but they were too heavy. Instead, she settled for a low moan.

"Padmé! Padmé, can you hear me?" Sola asked.

Padmé grunted in response.

"Oh, Padmé, thank the Force you're alright!" she heard her father say.

Padmé once again tried to open her eyes, this time with some success. She could see that she was in a white room surrounded by medical equipment. It rather reminded her of Polis Massa, but it had a more soothing atmosphere. She was in a med center of some sort, that much was certain.

"Wh… wha happ'n?" she slurred.

"Oh, Padmé!" her mother and father hugged her. Sola and her husband, Darred, watched from a distance while holding their children, Ryoo and Pooja.

Again, Padmé asked what had happened. Sola told Darred to take the younglings outside, which he did.

"Padmé… you've been in a coma for five years." Sola answered gently. "After… after the Declaration of a New Order, you gave birth and then fell into a coma."

"W-what?" Padmé stuttered, getting strong enough to talk properly. "What 'bout Anakin? Obi-Wan? The twins?"

Sola sighed. "Obi-Wan has been in hiding for five years. We don't know if he's… well, he's been in hiding. The twins are safe, Padmé."

"What about Anakin?"

Her family looked at each other uncertainly. Her mother shook her head. "Padmé, Anakin is… he's not Anakin anymore. They call him Darth Vader now."

"Koby, what are you doing?"

Kobayashi looked over at Moeema and smiled innocently. "I'm doing an experiment."

Marrax walked back into the room and collapsed on the couch. "I can't believe it. I've been searching all over the ship because Vader wasn't in his quarters when I went to teach him. You won't believe where I found him."

"Where?"

"He was in hangar bay twelve with Lt. Tunrott. The two were babbling on about some ship called Fallen Angel and how they could modify it. When I approached the lieutenant, he told me that Vader was going to spend the rest of the day there."

Kerrick laughed. "It seems that Ooke has found a new engineering partner."

Zan remained silent while the others joined Kerrick in laughter. Moeema noticed and asked what was wrong. "Well… it's just that we're discovering all these things about Lord Vader, and… I don't know, it just seems like things are getting out of control. This is our fifth day with him, marking a full week, and he's almost killed the entire squadron, scared our captain out of his wits, and generally has wreaked havoc on this ship. What are we going to do?"

"Maybe we could investigate his quarters? He might have something in there that could help us." Numel suggested.

"Search Lord Vader's quarters?" Kerrick stood up. "Are you out of your mind?"

"Kerrick, it's not like he's going to stop us," Numel retorted. "He'd probably want to explore them himself."

"I don't know…" Marrax muttered. "I don't like the idea, but it makes sense. Maybe… maybe we should search his quarters."

"And what are we going to find? An entire history of Lord Vader?" Kerrick threw his arms up in the air. "I don't see what we're going to gain from this besides chills crawling up our spines."

"It's worth a shot," Numel stood up as well, facing Kerrick fully. "Besides, it might give us a clue as to what happened to him."

"I suppose…" Zhymmia and the others began to agree.

Kerrick sighed and shrugged. "Very well… but we're not taking Vader with us."

"I never proposed that," Numel replied. "I just said that he wouldn't care."

Kerrick nodded and the group stood up, leaving the room to go to Darth Vader's quarters.

As they approached the room, even Numel began to get second thoughts.

"Uh… are we sure we want to do this?" He asked the group in general.

"Well if it's the only way to find out what happened to Lord Vader…" Moeema muttered before shaking her head. "Come on, everyone. We agreed to do this, so let's go through with it."

Moeema led the group to the door and palmed the panel. The door opened with a soft hiss. From what they could see where they stood, the room was pitch black.

"Does he have a light switch in here?" Kerrick said.

Kobayashi shrugged. "Maybe his helmet glowed in the dark or something."

After receiving odd looks from the others, Kobayashi shrugged. "What? After what we've seen him do, I wouldn't be surprised to hear that he has wings and can survive in space without a ship."

"That would be an interesting sight to see…" Marrax mumbled under his breath.

Zhymmia, who had been groping the walls, finally found a light switch. However, when she activated it, the lights only turned on to an extremely dim setting.

"This is how he would normally have the lights?" Carh'la said in a skeptical tone.

"I guess so," Zan shrugged. "He always was the dark and brooding type, anyway."

"Um, why is there a big black egg over there?" Numel asked awkwardly, pointing to an egg-shaped pod.

The Imperials approached the pod and Kerrick figured out how to open it. The internal workings revealed that it was a meditation pod of some sort. A seat sat in the middle and was surrounded by consoles with different buttons for atmospheric settings.

"This must have been where he sat when he wasn't in his suit," Zhymmia assumed.

While the main group investigated the meditation pod, Numel and Carh'la looked around the rest of the room. On the other wall sat shelves covered with training droids. There was no bed to be seen in the room, nor were there any personal belongings. The room was as plain and as intimidating as Darth Vader had been, yet like Darth Vader, it still seemed to be hiding something.

"I'm not finding anything," Carh'la said to the group. "Any luck with that pod?"

"No," Kerrick responded. "This place is barren. There's not even evidence to say that Lord Vader lived here."

Suddenly, Kobayashi's comlink chimed.

"This is Lt. Beillane," Kobayashi answered.

The doctor who had been helping them, Ryatsi, spoke over the link. "Lt. Beillane, are you somewhere private?"

"Private enough, doctor," Kobayashi replied. "I'm with some of our coworkers right now."

"Coworkers for Little One?"

"Yes,"

"Good, because they need to hear this, too. I need you to find everyone and get over here to the medical wing. I found some interesting information on Lord Vader's medical records."