A/N: This is a different version of Kenobi's torture after Jabiim. A bit AU, Anakin and Padme were never married or involved. This is going to be a very short chapter, as it's just the prologue. Longer ones will follow, I promise! Please read and review!


"I heard you and Jenna Zan Arbor were acquainted?" Ventress was standing in front of her captive, taking pleasure in knowing he couldn't answer through the gag she had placed on him. Even without the gag, he might not be able to answer. He had been beaten to the point of death several times, only to be revived and then beaten again. The captive hadn't spoken for several days. He only made the occasional grunts and moans. His throat was most likely too dry from lack of water to form an actual word.

"She made quite an impression on your Master and your Apprentice. A pity the Jedi never brought her to justice."

That elicited a reaction. The Jedi jerked slightly against his bonds. His wrists, already rubbed raw from the chains holding him, finally gave into the harsh metal and started bleeding. Ventress grinned. Her captive noticed and fell limply back.

Yes, he remembered Jenna Zan Arbor. The most genius mind of the galaxy, put to use finding poisons and toxins and experimenting on the Force-sensitives. She had almost killed his Master, and drugged his Padawan, just for research. She was both brilliant and sadistic. Her research could kill thousands, just with a single canister of gas or vial of poison. If Ventress had gotten hold of her, or her research, that spelled bad news for the Jedi. He remembered some of the toxins Arbor was working on in her notebooks. Toxins that would rupture the Mid-chlorians in each cell, destroying the individual from ever being able to access the Force. If she ever perfected some of her works, the affect would be devastating.

"She's volunteered an interesting little serum to test." Ventress pulled a small tube and carefully held it up. This particular serum and its antidote had plagued Jenna Zan Arbor for decades. It slowly blocked Mid-Chlorians, effectively shutting down the users Force connection. It shut down the nerve endings to the person's skin. In less than a year, they would lose their sense of touch, taste, sight, sound, and smell. Everything was completely reversible, but only with the antidote. Arbor had warned Ventress it might not work. The poison had been tested, but the antidote was too recent of a discovery. Ventress hadn't cared. Either way, the Jedi was facing a long and suffering life.

She motioned for two of her guards. One of them gruffly held the prisoner's head while the other one tried to pry open his mouth. He kept his mouth firmly shut. A knee to his stomach gave him no choice but to instinctively open his mouth to gasp. In that short few seconds, Ventress poured the liquid into his mouth. The second guard pinched the prisoner's nose closed and placed a hand over his mouth, forcing him to swallow.

"This will take everything away from you slowly: your sense and your connection to the Force. Just before you lose your last connection to the world, my voice will be the last thing in your mind, whispering the name of the Sith Lord who will corrupt Anakin Skywalker. Once the Jedi and the Republic have fallen, I will give you everything back. And you shall feel the death of every Jedi at once, the remnants of the world you once knew, and the presence of the Sith Empire that you helped build. Obi-Wan Kenobi, you will be helpless as your world burns to the ground."

Obi-Wan Kenobi looked at her, for the first time with fear in his eyes, and then his eyes rolled back in his head as he blacked out.