AFTER THE BRIEF DIVERSION TO ADD TO THE ORIGINAL STORY, HERE IS THE NEXT CHAPTER OF PADME'S TRAINING HELL. THIS ONE HINTS AT WORSE TO COME FOR THE POOR WOMAN...IF IT'S GETTING TOO MUCH, LET ME KNOW AND I'LL CONSIDER PUTTING WARNINGS UP IN FUTURE REGARDING CONTENT.

1SAAA, BET YOU WEREN'T EXPECTING A CHAPTER THIS FAST! HOPE YOU'RE STILL ENJOYING THIS.

TRAINING THE SHADOW

PART SEVEN

My fellow student's assertions that I was very much despised among the other students cast a shadow over me, and served to heighten my sense of isolation. The Emperor actively preyed on this, and served as my only constant companion throughout this entire ordeal. With his voice in my head, and propaganda all around me, I suspected deep down that it would only be a matter of time before it would all fall into place and I would succumb mentally to my new Imperial servitude. When that happened (not if, I was increasingly sensing) the Emperor would own me completely-mind, body and soul…and I would cease to be me, instead becoming the sinister monster that he wanted me to be. I was fighting it as much as I could, but when your own body refuses to obey your commands, it is all too easy to succumb to the misery that this inspires, and you can't help but see the negative outcome as far more likely. In short, I felt like I was falling…

Elsewhere, the training went on as usual. There was one more test of ability left before we would be expected to kill each other…the weapons testing. How well we could use vibroblades and blasters.

It was quite the experience…for a multitude of reasons.

There was an assault course of targets. We were each issued with a blaster rifle and a vibroblade. We were to strike both precisely and quickly, as per our remit-the best of the best. It was a solo mission, to see how much damage we could do on our own. The targets were holographic, so the course could easily reset itself. One after the other, just to see how well we could shoot.

Before the instructor called me, one of the fellow students walked straight up to me. The mask hid his face, but the condescending tone of his voice betrayed the arrogance flowing through him.

"We're not allowed to use names, but let me get you up to speed on who I am. I graduated the Imperial Academy on Carida with the nickname Dead-Eye, because I never missed a shot. I was specially chosen for this because of my aim, and I am not letting a pet project freak like you beat me at what I excel at. You may be the best at physical fighting, but you cannot beat me at crack shooting-I assure you. I don't care if His Excellency chose you personally, only the best deserve to guard him and I intend to prove that you are merely a flawed experiment and not true Royal Guard material. Just to make that clear…"

I did not say anything. Beneath the mask, my insides burned with furious anger-which was only heightened by the fact that my conditioning forbade me from speaking. The Emperor, however, seemed to be faintly amused by the whole display of posturing.

"Quite the arrogant one…still, he can back up what he is saying. Consider him the one to beat…"

I could only ignore him as my body obeyed its hidden command to begin the course. I picked up a vicious looking vibroblade and a blaster pistol. I shuddered inwardly, as I recalled my murder of Sabe' with such a weapon. Cold blooded murder…and now I was to prove how deadly efficient I could be with them. My soul sickened as I took the weapons, one in each hand. Finally, I took my place at the start of the course…and heard the Instructor shout "GO!". With that shout, I gave a scream of pain as the serum pumped into my system for what I was beginning to think of as 'Battle Mode'. I felt the rush of power flow through my system, the sense of euphoria as I became more powerful. But with this much power, I couldn't be more precise as well as faster, right?

Wrong.

I was a dervish, leaping all over the place and slashing here, shooting there. The session was an utter blur as I shot and slashed every single target, not missing one. In truth, the results terrified me-not only because of the speed of my movement and the utter lack of control that I had over my actions, but also how precise my hits were. I could both attack physically and with weapons, and my shots/blows would not miss. I felt like the ultimate instrument of death, and I had not even been trained as an Imperial Royal Guard yet. My blood ran cold as I realised my potential…

And then everything changed as a shot rang through the air.

I felt the blaster bolt hit my chest, and I clutched my torso in pain, despite my serum still pulsing through my veins. My mind was still clear, however, and I realised that I had been shot by a sniper as I could not see any other students around at this end of the course. I could, however, see the ideal sniper's nest that the shooter must have used.

My torso burning with the force of the shot, my vision beginning to blur and pain coursing through my body, I could hear that familiar voice in my head as the Emperor passed judgement.

"You have been shot by a cowardly sniper! Go, my servant…show him your true power!"

I felt another rush of power, and screamed even louder as an even more powerful rush of serum was pumped through my body. Feeling estasy and intense pain in equal measure, I darted towards the nest, leaping up boxes to reach the high window that the shooter had used. It was too fast for me to think-the serum was clouding my thought processes, as was the pain. All I was focused on was the sniper…and that one word. The command rang through my head, all-consuming and dominant.

KILL.

I leapt off the tall stack of weapon storage crates in a leap that belied how much pain I was in (I can only put that down to the effects of the serum) and gripped the window frame with my gloved hands. Yanking myself up, I hauled myself into the window, where I saw a dropped sniper rifle, of the kind that the Republic Scout Troopers had used, and in my mind I could briefly hear the sound of bootsteps on the nearby stairwell. The fast, frantic steps of somebody running for their life…

Trapped in the red haze of anger, I gave chase towards the stairwell.

I soon spotted my quarry at the bottom of the stairs. With pain throbbing through my body and my head in an angry haze, I leapt down the stairs feet first, and landed on my would-be assailant. A loud involuntary noise from my quarry confirmed that I had hit him in the back, and now currently sat on his prone body, laying face down.

I could hear the Emperor's voice, cutting through the red mist, serum induced euphoria and pain.

"Kill him…kill him now."

I raised the vibroblade, and without a single moment of mercy, I stabbed him in the back with it. As he screamed in pain, I raised the blaster-which was still in my other hand-and shot him cleanly through the head, ending his existence.

Only at this point did I stand, only to collapse to my knees out of the pain. As this happened, the anger receded, as did the euphoria as the serum flow reached its standard control setting, and my thoughts finally became my own again. Horror set in as I finally realised what I had done. I had killed a man in cold blood…in a non lethal training exercise. The Emperor had commanded it…and I had not been able to stop myself. To make matters even worse, the euphoric rush of power and

Pleasure had only increased with the pain. The fact that the serum had been able to keep be going even through the pain of being shot in the torso scared me even more, as it meant that whoever took me down eventually (I had a feeling that I would die in the Emperor's service) would have to inflict an incredible amount of punishment to put me down. The thought staggered me…what grade of monster would I become by the end of this?

As I kneeled by my murder victim, succumbing to pain and misery, the Chief Instructor came running, an apoplectic look on his face. He looked at the body, then looked at me.

He turned to an aide. "Get a medic here now! And a bodybag!"

He then turned to me, growing visibly angrier by the second.

"I don't know who you think you are, but you killed another student. Now, while students do die in this Academy, they only die as a results of the lethal training exercises. You have murdered one of your fellow students in cold blood. While I must concede that you have shown truly deadly killing skills, you also need to learn obedience if you are to serve His Excellency."

Once again, my words were not my own as they passed my lips.

"I was serving my Emperor. This student tried to kill me to eliminate me from this training course. I merely did as my Emperor commanded of me. Nothing more, nothing less." I could tell that the word were not going to get me out of trouble, but as they were the ones chosen by the Emperor as he pulled my strings, there was nothing I could do to stop them being spoken by my lips.

The Chief Instructor looked at me with disbelief on his face.

"I will investigate this…in the meantime, you blatantly disobeyed orders by killing a fellow student. You will be imprisoned for this for a period of a month, and will undergo…other training while the others start to learn how to kill the enemies of the Emperor, serve the Empire and most importantly…follow orders with unquestioning obedience-something you clearly need to learn.

A pair of Riot Troopers and a medic had arrived. The medic took a quick look at my wound, and soon patched it up with a Med-Kit that she had brought along with her. She did not even remove my mask, simply removing the top layer of clothing to place a Bacta Patch onto my torso where the blaster shot had hit me, before placing my clothing back onto me. The Chief Instructor watched this with obvious disinterest,

"Are we done here?" he asked in a condescending tone.

"She's yours" the Imperial medic replied listlessly.

The Chief Instructor looked at the two Riot Troopers.

"Take her to a cell-solitary confinement. Soundproofed cell. One month…"

I was helpless to prevent them slapping binders on my gloved wrists. They walked me to a dark cell deep below the facility. Throughout the walk, I could only think about the unfairness of the situation.

Learning to obey orders…if only the Sithspawn knew! I could do nothing but obey orders…and as usual I was completely forbidden to speak so he was able to punish me to further what was becoming increasingly clear was a personal vendetta. Why was he treating me like this!? The Emperor seemed very amused by it-probably saw it as some sort of twisted game! But I was the one who had to endure it! And now I had one month in a cell, with only the Emperor's voice for company. I could think of little worse…

As they threw me into the cell, I was yet to realise that things could always get worse from here…