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Chapter Text

Darth Vader wouldn't call himself, in any possible way, a man of humor.
In fact there were few things he enjoyed these days, one of them being the silence of his private chambers aboard the Lady, or 'Executor' as it was known to outsiders.

It was redeeming, after a long day of noisy Admirals and cowering Troopers, to just sit in complete silence.
Even the monotone sound of his respirator he could evade by mindlessly floating in his bacta tank.

Another thing he listed under the category of 'acceptable' was the company of Firmus Piett.
The good Admiral was a loyal subordinate and above that competent.
And if Vader could name one thing the Imperial Army lacked in mass it would be competence.

The place was run by fools and fools alone, so no one could really blame the dark Lord if he occasionally resorted to choking some sense into them.
Or the life out of them in order to rid the Empire of their incompetence.

With Piett he had never had to resort to any such matters thankfully.
The man also wasn't utterly terrified of Vader, not meaning he didn't have a healthy dose of fear occupying his system whenever he neared the Sith.
That would be nothing short of foolish.
No.
The Admiral was by no means a fool.
If he were, Vader mused, he wouldn't have lived this long abroad this ship

Fools did simply not belong abroad his grand Executor.

So in retrospect, considering his dislike for Fools, he really shouldn't be enjoying the company of Luke Lars this immensely.
In fact, if anyone had to bet on an outcome upon their first meeting most would have placed their money on the boy getting choked in the middle of a hallway.

But when the teenager had stumbled into his broad form, so innocently unaware with his eyes glued to a data pad, Vader was frozen in place.
Not because of the force of impact or even the surprise, no, it was because, when the boy had looked up, Luke Lars simply smiled.
And what a smile it was.
Bright like the twin suns of Tatooine, conveying nothing but kindness.

It wasn't the false smile politicians often showed to the public in order to win their votes, not a cold and sadistic smile which more often than not graced his master's lips and seemed to promise pain and misery.
The smile of Luke Lars was neither cold and sadistic nor nervous and put on.
It was open and honest, and directed at him, at Vader.

Thinking about it, the Sith couldn't seem to recall the last time someone had smiled because of him.
Was it when he had departed ways with Ahsoka or when that old fool Kenobi and himself landed the half destroyed ship of the Separatists?
Or perhaps during the last holocall he had with his Captain just moments before Order 66?
...
Or had it been his Padme, his love, that had graced him with her beautiful smile when she told him about their child?
(A child he had killed along with her...)

His memories were blurry, pushed away by the choking darkness making up his very being.
But for a second Vader could swear the blinding light before him had pushed the darkness away, even for just a moment, causing all these memories of Anakin Skywalker to resurface.

Focusing on said boy again he could see him bashfully rub the back of his neck, apologizing for his mistake.
Vader absently noticed how the boy seemed more embarrassed than truly worried about his reaction.
Curious.

Taking in the rest of the hall he could feel the fear of the remaining crew, doubtlessly expecting the situation to escalate at any second.
Their eyes, wide with anxiety, were fixed on them, swinging from his black form over to the blonde boy and back.

Had it been anyone else, Vader thought, the Lady would have soon have one person less on board.
Curiously he hadn't even considered removing the boy his usual way, in fact the clumsiness of the boy had even amused him more than anything.

So instead of stretching out his arm and cutting of the young man's air way he simply hooked his thumbs in his belt and huffed.
"If your eye sight needs medical attention young one I advise for you to go to the medical center and let one of the droids fix the issue."

The boy looked up, blonde hair falling all over his face before he quickly brushed it away with his hands.
He smiled awkwardly, pointing to his data pad.
"Ah, I apologize Lord Vader.
I'm new onboard the Executor and I really need to go to the meeting room for Level C mechanics but I couldn't find the way."

Vader cocked his head slightly to the right, the sound of his respirator filling the awfully silent hallway.
"Have you not been made aware of the locating function of your data pad?"

Young Lars looked nervously at the ground, face becoming slightly red.
"Ehm, I have but Imperial technology is... I'm from Tatooine.
I have a hand with old speeders and repairing stuff but I'm not used to the interface the military pads use yet..."

And didn't that seem this all too familiar to Vader ?
A young boy from Tatooine leaving their desert planet behind and being confronted with all sorts of amazing new things he never before had experienced.
Back then it had been the Republic, now the Empire, but what difference did it make?
(Vader couldn't help but think about how the boy probably never had seen rain before...)

In a spontaneous decision that even surprised the dark Lord himself, he put a hand on the boy's shoulder and guided him forward.
"Then I will simply show you the way, so that you don't hinder any operations onboard.
I of course expect to hear of your punctuality in the future, do I make myself clear?"

The teen only smiled again (was this going to be regularity from now on?) and nodded.
"Yes my Lord.
And my name is Luke Lars by the way."

Vader continued walking and despite not having asked, he found himself smiling under the mask.
"It is a pleasure to meet you Luke Lars." , he offered.

-------

The both of them had been late to the meeting but due to Vader's presence the boy hadn't faced any consequences.
It hadn't exactly been his intention but the Sith hadn't cared to order them to discipline Luke Lars either.
So he had simply left without another word, returning to the quietness of his private chambers.

Upon arrival he took out his own data pad, accessing the Imperial Navy files and searching for a certain blonde desert child.

Merely seconds later the image of Luke Lars smiled back at him.
He quickly opened the file, looking at the information available, which wasn't much.
Only his name, home-planet and academic background were known.

Probably the best amount of information you could expect when talking about an outer rim planet like Tatooine.
The Empire hardly had any power there at all, so it wasn't exactly hard to hide information from their data banks.

Clicking on the ordner listed under 'academic background / qualifications' Vader stared at the surprisingly empty content.
Only 3 holo videos and a few recommendations written by imperial officials stationed in Mos Eisley.

Clicking on the first video he was greeted by the sight of a chaotic looking workshop, all sorts of tools and machinery parts being distributed around the room.
Luke Lars stepped in front of the camera, proudly showing of a device in his hand.
It looked like a regular blaster Model the Stormtroopers carried around, but upon further inspection the Sith noted a few abnormalities on the outer case.
Some pieces seemed to be missing and some seemed to have been added.

"So we all now how the regular Stormtrooper blaster is a simple model.
Easy to duplicate and furthermore, cheap.
But it also lacks in the department of fire power and accuracy, meaninglessly endangering the Imperial troops in the case of an firefight."

The scrunched up expression on Luke's face seemed to ease as he held up the blaster in his left hand, proudly presenting it to the viewer.
"So I've made some adjustment, making it not only a more efficient but safer weapon!
Let's begin with the outer case...."

The next few minutes were filled with intriguing ideas and clever designs and more often than not Vader found himself impressed by the boy's mechanical talent.
The entire thing oddly reminded him of his own tinkering which he did in his private workshop.

When the recording came to an end he eagerly went to start the next but before his metallic finger could activate it a signal alerted him to a presence in front of his chambers.
Admiral Piett, an unmistakable presence in the force.
Astonished Vader realized that a simple video of the young man had made him loose his sense of surroundings via the force so easily.

Composing himself he put the data pad down and stood up, greeting the Admiral at the door with a simple nod.

"Lord Vader.", the other replied, "I came to inform you about our delayed arrival to Corusant.
We are facing problems with Rebel activity in a nearing sector.
Our forces are dealing with it but a delay of 4 standard rotations is to be expected."

"Very well Admiral.
You may return to your duties."
Vader growled out, not directly displeased with the man but furious at the Rebel scum, persistently meddling with their plans.
Piett, already acostumed to his dislike of Rebel activity simply nodded and stepped away, understanding the anger to not be directed at him.

With that he once again returned to his chambers, hate boiling inside of him, feeding the greedy maws of the dark side.
His mind was once again clouded and so Vader didn't even notice when the dark side desperately tried to shove the name Luke Lars out of his memory.

Chapter Text

It was only several weeks later that Vader crossed paths with the young man again, passing Luke in the hangar bay on his way to his TIE Fighter.

This time the teen's eyes weren't glued to his data pad and so it didn't take long for blue to meet yellow, or from Lars's perspective for blue to meet red.

Only a few milliseconds of hesitation, unnoticed by any non-forcesensitive individual, went by before Luke Lars smiled at him in greeting, Vader himself returning the gesture with a curt nod.
Not a word was spoken as both went their separate ways, but the shared sentiment was clear and to Vader's horror he realized just how much more at peace he felt after just this short interaction with the young man.

How could a single individual hold such a significant amount of power over him?

Vader scoffed, the sound translating poorly over his helmet, sounding more like static than something a human would produce.
No, Luke Lars didn't hold any power over him, what a pathetic thought.
The only reason the boy had had the chance to disrupt the dark lord's thoughts was simply because of him being new to the Lady.
Nothing more, nothing less.

In a month or two the shine in the boy's eyes would fade as surely as it did with every crew member on board.
And soon his unique spirit would too, fusing with the surrounding grey of the ship and black of the cosmos, it's shining light disappearing like a dying star.
The Empire wasn't a place for happy laughs and carefree smiles, was not made for bright stars and blazing infernos.
It was a place of obedience and order, of calculated wit and ruthlessness.
A place which would bring justice and security to the Galaxy.

("I have brought peace, freedom, justice, and security to my new empire!")

Luke Lars was a hopeless foul, Vader had no doubt about it.
The boy's idealism would be his downfall, as it had once been Anakin Skywalker's.
Anakin Skywalker...

(" YOU WERE MY BROTHER ANAKIN!
"Ani...something wonderful has happend...
"General Skywalker!"
"What are we going to do Master Skywalker?
"Skyguy?"
"Anakin ,my dear boy, are you-)

"-are you okay my Lord?"

Vader's sickly yellow eyes snapped open, his right hand shooting in the air in an instant, grabbing the empty space around him, searching, finding, holding the force and twisting it.
Twisting it into black tendrils of hate and suffering and fearfearfear- , letting them wrap themselves around the fool's throat who dared approach him, crushing and crushing and-

"I- I- please..."
Short huffs penetrated his dark thoughts and like a blinding light they cut through the misty clouds of the dark side, revealing the hanger bay around him.
Stormtroopers and officer's alike were staring at him, no, staring at the person in front of him.
Worry reflected in their eyes and for a second the Sith wondered why now, suddenly, his crew choose empathy over self-preservation.
When his gaze turned to the crew member currently being choked in his invisible grip he understood.

Terrified blue eyes stared back at him, blown wide in fear and red from crying.
The skin surrounding them was slowly turning purple and when Luke Lars once again struggled in his grip he stopped, letting the dark side retreat back into his massive form as if the Tatooine-boy had burned them.
They hissed and crawled at his very being, whispering in his ear to finish the kill, to claim what was his, to show his strength.

In normal circumstances he would have relented, would have killed whoever was lying before him, be it friend or foe, child or adult, Jedi or Sith.
But now?
Now it was Luke Lars in front of him, neither a true friend, nor foe, not a child but not yet an adult, neither Jedi nor Sith, just a mechanic from Tatooine.

Vader wanted to think that this was the reason he left the boy alive, because he was only that, an unimportant pathetic boy. Not a threat.
But as he stormed out of the hanger bay and into his quarters he couldn't help but think if maybe there was more to Luke Lars than met the eye.