Darth Sidious watched the Jedi and Senator in his mind's eye, a shiver
running through his body as he sensed the heated passion and raw power in
the young man. The young Skywalker had first captured his interest a decade
ago, when he sensed how strong the Force was with the nine-year-old boy who
had destroyed a huge battleship without even knowing what he was doing at
the time.
And now, he realized, the possibility of possessing and corrupting the young man, of having such a powerful apprentice, was moving ever closer into the realm of probability.
It had been quite simple enough to form a detailed impression of young Skywalker's presence in the Force when he and his Master had arrived on Coruscant in Senator Naberrie's quarters. Ever since then, Sidious had surreptitiously crept into Anakin's dreams, instilling the beginnings of doubt and fear into his mind. And now, the beautiful young Senator had, he realized, formed another distraction for Anakin. His feelings for her, he knew, could all too easily jeopardize his commitment to the Order. And the Jedi hadn't a clue that a Dark Lord of the Sith had been operating right under their nose in the guise of the affable gentleman who had been elected the Republic's Supreme Chancellor.
Nikoli Palpatine was a respected, distinguished colonel in the Naboo Royal Starfighter Corps. It was thought that his wife, Kira, was unable to have children when, much to the surprise and delight of she and her husband, she discovered she was pregnant. Their son, Ruk, proved to be possessed of a brilliant mind, but as things occasionally happened in the galaxy, the Jedi had not noticed Ruk Palpatine possessed a not insignificant strength in the Force, for Naboo was a relatively closed, isolationist planet at the time. The young man decided early on he wished to enter the service like his father, and had, after graduating from an elite Naboo secondary school with high honors, scored one of the highest marks in the history of the Republic Fleet Academy's entrance examinations.
He had graduated first in his class from the Academy, and rose rapidly through the ranks due to his remarkable intuition (which he believed was just that, he was unaware of his power in the Force) during training excercises and skirmishes with pirates and smugglers. His commanding officers noticed an uncanny ability in the young officer, who seemed to be able to predict the intentions of an opponent with phenomenal accuracy.
At the remarkably young age of thirty, he was promoted to Lieutenant Commander and given a command of his own, the frigate Audacious. And then his life changed forever.
The Audacious had been ordered by Palpatine's commanding officer, the Admiral of 7th Fleet, to meet with representatives of the government of the Outer Rim planet Teslo IV. The monarchial government of the planet had been thrown into chaos when a group of rebels, wishing to institute a democratic government, had taken up arms and plunged Teslo IV into a bitter civil war. The King, who was a good friend of the 7th Fleet's Commanding Officer, had pleaded with the Republic for intervention.
However, when the Audacious arrived on the planet's surface, a large party of rebels, headed by a vicious warlord, had ambushed the ship and taken the 300-man crew prisoner. The enlisted men were executed immediately, and the officers thrown into confinement. There they were starved, beaten, forced to live in appalling conditions, and subjected to countless horrible forms of torture and interrogation.
Lieutenant Commander Palpatine, ever resourceful, and determined to escape and send word to the Fleet, had surreptitiously dug a tunnel leading outside from the floor of his cell. On the evening he intended to escape, his cellmate, the ship's Executive Officer and a good friend of Palpatine's, had been taken from their tiny, filthy cell for further interrogation. Palpatine decided to wait, intending to bring his XO with him during the escape. Hours later, his friend was shoved back into the cell, nearly at the point of collapse. When Palpatine rushed to him, he saw something which would haunt him for years afterward.
The man's eyes had been gouged out.
Palpatine, carrying the semi-conscious form of his executive officer, had made his escape, making his way through kilometers of dense forest in a pitch-black, frigid winter night, with only his intuition to guide him. In the distance he heard mounted cavalry pursuing him, and he came to the bank of a stream. He plunged into the icy water, where every second was terrible agony to his bruised, tired, tortured body, but somehow managed, carrying his friend with him, to swim across the swiftly flowing stream to the opposite bank.
It was there that his good friend, a loyal, competent officer, with a beautiful wife and a young son, had died in his arms, begging him not to tell his wife of the horrors which had been inflicted on him.
Palpatine, beyond exhaustion, collapsed on the riverbank, awakening when the muzzle of a blaster rifle prodded him in the back. Several rebel troops were standing around him. He had finally resigned himself to his fate when suddenly, a black-robed figure shot out of the underbrush and, wielding a brilliant red lightsaber, had cut down the entire patrol in less than a minute.
The strange figure carried Palpatine, on the edge of death, to a palatial residence, where he slowly healed his broken body. He was given a transport, and rushed back to 7th Fleet headquarters to speak to his commanding officer about the fate of his ship and crew.
However, he learned, to his horror, that the Senate refused to authorize the Fleet to send a rescue mission for the Audacious survivors. Furious, Palpatine resigned from the Fleet in protest and returned to Naboo, where he lived quietly, haunted by his memories.
A year later, however, he was visited by the strange man who rescued him again. There he learned that his rescuer was a Baron of Teslo IV's royalty, and when the warlords had taken control of the planet, he had fled to spare his life. As it turned out, the man was well-connected in the Republic, and there Palpatine learned why his crew had been written off.
A powerful Senator, as it turned out, had held a controlling share in a Corellian firm which manufactured weapons and military equipment. The corporation was providing arms to the Rebels, and several other Senators, and even the Supreme Chancellor, held large investments in the corporation as well. Fearing that they would be exposed should the war be ended abruptly, they had sacrificed the frigate's crew and her promising young captain.
Palpatine was utterly furious, doubly so when he learned that a member of the Jedi Council had also urged the Chancellor not to intervene in the conflict, condemning the Audacious' original mission - the Jedi believed that the civil war represented the planet's right to self-determination, guaranteed under the Republic Constitution.
At this point the Baron suggested something - Palpatine was popular on Naboo for his resignation and apparent devotion to his men, while the Senate was viewed as corrupt - why not enter politics, the man suggested, where he could make policy himself rather than become another sacrificial pawn in a corrupt game.
So he ran for position of Governor of Theed, and was elected by a huge majority. The Baron came to reside on Naboo, and there he began to convince Palpatine to explore his latent abilities in the Force, to aid his political career. Shortly after, the Baron convinced him to run for Senator, and after a hard-fought election, Palpatine emerged victorious. He soon became a member of the Interplanetary Relations Committee, which focused on legislation impacting the at times turbulent disputes between the Republic's member systems. There he learned his Force abilities helped him gauge the true intentions and desires of ambassadors and negotiators, as well as his fellow Senators. He was mortified by what he sensed - corruption, greed, duplicity everywhere.
He spoke to his friend and aide the Baron about what he had seen, and there the Baron had explained to him that he, Palpatine, could eventually become, via use of his powers, the leader which the Republic needed. A strong leader.
And then he told him about the Sith.
He explained that the Sith were a horribly maligned order, but in truth, well versed in realpolitik. All sentients were corrupt and motivated by self-interest, and desired power and wealth. The Sith were aimed at bringing order not via the foolish idealism of the Jedi, but instead, manipulation was merely a means to an end.
Palpatine was at first mortified, but realized that if he wished for such incidents as the fate of his crew to never happen again, the power he was offered might be put to use. However, little did he know that such power came at a terrible price, and eventually came to be not a means to an end, but an end in itself.
Shortly after, the head of the Correllian arms firm had been found dead, his body burned to a crisp by some strange, unknown source. No suspects were ever named. Many more of those involved in the Teslo IV scandal suffered a similar fate, and again, there was never enough evidence to name a suspect.
Palpatine knew such idealism of his youth was foolish. The old, corrupt regime would have to be dispensed with, and quickly. So he had instituted a plan. Using the Trade Federation and the taxation bill, he had manipulated the Nemoidians into blockading and occupying Naboo, thus maneuvering him into the Chancellor's seat. The next step was to create a calamity of such magnitude that the populace would lose faith in the Senate entirely, and look to one man - the Supreme Chancellor - for leadership. Thus entered the Mandalorians. As a Sith, he promised Fett conquest, while as Chancellor, he would vow to defeat the enemy which threatened the Republic. Of course, he had no intention of letting the Mandalorian forces win the war, and thus he had ordered the Victory class ships commissioned and Admiral Haas, a coarse but brilliant officer, put in command of the Fleet.
He had also come to learn that true power in the Force was not skill with a lightsaber or lifting rocks, but instead, to see inside the soul of his foes, and promise them all they desired.for motivated beings were so much more effective.
And he now knew what Anakin Skywalker desired.much like himself at a young age, he wanted power, he wanted to change things.
And soon, indeed, as Sidious' next apprentice, he would effect great change indeed.
***
Suddenly, she pulled away, hurling them back into reality and leaving him stunned.
"I'm sorry, Anakin," she said.
"You're.sorry?" he asked, incredulous.
"I should go. I don't think this was wise."
"But. you can't. he stammered. "Can you deny that there's something between us?"
"I'm sorry, Anakin..but I have no other choice," she said, her voice, he realized, however, held a hint of regret.
With that, she left.
He stood unmoving as he watched her leave. His emotions were in too much turmoil to allow him to reply. He closed his eyes for a moment, reliving the kiss remembering the taste of her. Savoring it. He felt kilometers above the ground. Remembering her reply, however, he felt himself plummeting in freefall and dreading the eventual landing.
He opened his eyes again, reluctantly, as the sensation passed. He loved her. What else mattered? Love was the only honesty, all else was merely an excuse. Did she truly think of herself so little? He wondered why she refused to see it. If she didn't allow herself to love, or to be loved in return, to follow her heart, to not be afraid to live, she would not survive. And neither would he.
Anger and frustration came welling up inside of him again as he spun on his heel, walking away from the balcony rail, from the place he knew which would forever haunt him. How could she abandon him like this? Would she too break his heart, adding to the misery heaped upon him? Could she truly be so willfully blind? Was she so foolish to think that love could ever be tamed by reason?
The anger swelled. He paused, noticing a beautiful floral arrangement in a polished vase. He let the anger fill him, let it surge from him in dark, rippling waves. The flowers suddenly wilted, crumbling to dust, and the vase exploded into a thousand tiny shards. And then he was himself again.
The Dark Side, he knew. He had let himself give in momentarily. He mentally reproached himself for the failure. Yet at the same time he could not quite banish the feeling of satisfaction, of awe, the barest hint of the sort of power he had again tasted, if only so briefly.
***
She found little sleep that night, instead feeling herself tossed and turned in a sea of conflicting emotions and desires. She could not deny her feelings for him, but that was no longer the issue. She knew they were treading dangerous ground. Weakness of the will was not something either of them could afford. Not now.
She had no time to fall in love.
***
Sidious watched him storm away, shivering once more as he felt the intensity of Skywalker's anger and frustration. He sensed conflict, but he knew that the young man's subconscious, which held his hidden desires, had enjoyed yet another glimpse of the power it craved. Slowly, but surely, he was moving toward his true destiny.
"In time," he said softly, "you will call me Master."
**
Obi-Wan came to and found himself in a position which was much more than merely disconcerting. It seemed, he realized, as consciousness returned all too rapidly, that every nerve, cell, and fiber of his body was simultaneously howling in pain. Mind-numbing, searing pain. He opened his eyes only to find that the pounding in his head had somehow increased in both frequency and intensity, although he had not believed it possible.
Images - distorted as they were, and incomplete - were slowly beginning to return to him. Waking up with a concussion after his damaged repulsor coils in the ejection seat had ensured a fast and jarring ride through several dozen meters of tree branches, lying on the forest floor, still strapped in his ejector seat and seeing a large, gray, armored foot in front of his eyes, then feeling the pain of a rifle butt smashing into his temple. Being hauled to his feet and kicked and punched repeatedly by armored boots and fists. Being dragged several kilometers along the forest floor and into a cavern at the base of the large mountain he had seen from the air.
He began to recall other such images, similarly unpleasant. Gradually, he was able to gather his concentration to pierce the overwhelming pain and disorientation caused by Force-only-knew what chemicals were no doubt in his system, and inventory his surroundings. As his eyes began to focus, he found himself in a small room, with perfectly smooth walls, lit with harsh, bright, and unbearably hot lights. He realized he was somehow suspended above the floor, at roughly a forty-five degree angle. His wrists and ankles were shackled, and in front of him, a eyelet in the ceiling through which the chain attatched to his manacles passed through and connected to a winch on the floor, so he was stretched tight. Horribly, uncomfortably tight, so that his restraints dug painfully into his skin, his shoulders burned like fire, and even drawing breath was uncomfortable.
He realized he had been stripped to the waist, and after maneuvering his head, could see that his chest and stomach were severely bruised - more beatings, no doubt. Distantly, another flash of memory connected the sensation of hot needles embedded in his back to being whipped, repeatedly. He tasted dried blood on his lips, no doubt, he realized, via a short exploration with his tongue, associated with the tear in his lower lip.
Unfortunately, he arrived at the conclusion that whoever his captors were, they knew a thing or two about the Jedi. They were, he knew, causing him to expend his precious reserves in the Force merely keeping himself alive and coherent, or reducing his pain to a bearable level, rather than on any thoughts of escape. Additionally, he lamented, he had been forced to deliberately destroy his starfighter, so that even if he somehow managed to escape, he could very well be stranded on a hostile planet for some time. True, the Jedi would send someone to rescue him, but since his mission was to be conducted with secrecy, they would not expect to hear back from him for several days. And several days in his condition, he knew, could be a long time indeed.
His unpleasant revelations were interrupted moments later by a slamming of the room's huge durasteel door and the entrance of a black robed figure whom he did not recognize, save for the dress, and the unmistakable aura of darkness and evil, bone-chilling in nature, which had never left his mind during the last decade.
His visitor was, without a doubt, of the Sith.
He mentally spewed a string of curses.
Why me? he asked, to no one in particular.
And now, he realized, the possibility of possessing and corrupting the young man, of having such a powerful apprentice, was moving ever closer into the realm of probability.
It had been quite simple enough to form a detailed impression of young Skywalker's presence in the Force when he and his Master had arrived on Coruscant in Senator Naberrie's quarters. Ever since then, Sidious had surreptitiously crept into Anakin's dreams, instilling the beginnings of doubt and fear into his mind. And now, the beautiful young Senator had, he realized, formed another distraction for Anakin. His feelings for her, he knew, could all too easily jeopardize his commitment to the Order. And the Jedi hadn't a clue that a Dark Lord of the Sith had been operating right under their nose in the guise of the affable gentleman who had been elected the Republic's Supreme Chancellor.
Nikoli Palpatine was a respected, distinguished colonel in the Naboo Royal Starfighter Corps. It was thought that his wife, Kira, was unable to have children when, much to the surprise and delight of she and her husband, she discovered she was pregnant. Their son, Ruk, proved to be possessed of a brilliant mind, but as things occasionally happened in the galaxy, the Jedi had not noticed Ruk Palpatine possessed a not insignificant strength in the Force, for Naboo was a relatively closed, isolationist planet at the time. The young man decided early on he wished to enter the service like his father, and had, after graduating from an elite Naboo secondary school with high honors, scored one of the highest marks in the history of the Republic Fleet Academy's entrance examinations.
He had graduated first in his class from the Academy, and rose rapidly through the ranks due to his remarkable intuition (which he believed was just that, he was unaware of his power in the Force) during training excercises and skirmishes with pirates and smugglers. His commanding officers noticed an uncanny ability in the young officer, who seemed to be able to predict the intentions of an opponent with phenomenal accuracy.
At the remarkably young age of thirty, he was promoted to Lieutenant Commander and given a command of his own, the frigate Audacious. And then his life changed forever.
The Audacious had been ordered by Palpatine's commanding officer, the Admiral of 7th Fleet, to meet with representatives of the government of the Outer Rim planet Teslo IV. The monarchial government of the planet had been thrown into chaos when a group of rebels, wishing to institute a democratic government, had taken up arms and plunged Teslo IV into a bitter civil war. The King, who was a good friend of the 7th Fleet's Commanding Officer, had pleaded with the Republic for intervention.
However, when the Audacious arrived on the planet's surface, a large party of rebels, headed by a vicious warlord, had ambushed the ship and taken the 300-man crew prisoner. The enlisted men were executed immediately, and the officers thrown into confinement. There they were starved, beaten, forced to live in appalling conditions, and subjected to countless horrible forms of torture and interrogation.
Lieutenant Commander Palpatine, ever resourceful, and determined to escape and send word to the Fleet, had surreptitiously dug a tunnel leading outside from the floor of his cell. On the evening he intended to escape, his cellmate, the ship's Executive Officer and a good friend of Palpatine's, had been taken from their tiny, filthy cell for further interrogation. Palpatine decided to wait, intending to bring his XO with him during the escape. Hours later, his friend was shoved back into the cell, nearly at the point of collapse. When Palpatine rushed to him, he saw something which would haunt him for years afterward.
The man's eyes had been gouged out.
Palpatine, carrying the semi-conscious form of his executive officer, had made his escape, making his way through kilometers of dense forest in a pitch-black, frigid winter night, with only his intuition to guide him. In the distance he heard mounted cavalry pursuing him, and he came to the bank of a stream. He plunged into the icy water, where every second was terrible agony to his bruised, tired, tortured body, but somehow managed, carrying his friend with him, to swim across the swiftly flowing stream to the opposite bank.
It was there that his good friend, a loyal, competent officer, with a beautiful wife and a young son, had died in his arms, begging him not to tell his wife of the horrors which had been inflicted on him.
Palpatine, beyond exhaustion, collapsed on the riverbank, awakening when the muzzle of a blaster rifle prodded him in the back. Several rebel troops were standing around him. He had finally resigned himself to his fate when suddenly, a black-robed figure shot out of the underbrush and, wielding a brilliant red lightsaber, had cut down the entire patrol in less than a minute.
The strange figure carried Palpatine, on the edge of death, to a palatial residence, where he slowly healed his broken body. He was given a transport, and rushed back to 7th Fleet headquarters to speak to his commanding officer about the fate of his ship and crew.
However, he learned, to his horror, that the Senate refused to authorize the Fleet to send a rescue mission for the Audacious survivors. Furious, Palpatine resigned from the Fleet in protest and returned to Naboo, where he lived quietly, haunted by his memories.
A year later, however, he was visited by the strange man who rescued him again. There he learned that his rescuer was a Baron of Teslo IV's royalty, and when the warlords had taken control of the planet, he had fled to spare his life. As it turned out, the man was well-connected in the Republic, and there Palpatine learned why his crew had been written off.
A powerful Senator, as it turned out, had held a controlling share in a Corellian firm which manufactured weapons and military equipment. The corporation was providing arms to the Rebels, and several other Senators, and even the Supreme Chancellor, held large investments in the corporation as well. Fearing that they would be exposed should the war be ended abruptly, they had sacrificed the frigate's crew and her promising young captain.
Palpatine was utterly furious, doubly so when he learned that a member of the Jedi Council had also urged the Chancellor not to intervene in the conflict, condemning the Audacious' original mission - the Jedi believed that the civil war represented the planet's right to self-determination, guaranteed under the Republic Constitution.
At this point the Baron suggested something - Palpatine was popular on Naboo for his resignation and apparent devotion to his men, while the Senate was viewed as corrupt - why not enter politics, the man suggested, where he could make policy himself rather than become another sacrificial pawn in a corrupt game.
So he ran for position of Governor of Theed, and was elected by a huge majority. The Baron came to reside on Naboo, and there he began to convince Palpatine to explore his latent abilities in the Force, to aid his political career. Shortly after, the Baron convinced him to run for Senator, and after a hard-fought election, Palpatine emerged victorious. He soon became a member of the Interplanetary Relations Committee, which focused on legislation impacting the at times turbulent disputes between the Republic's member systems. There he learned his Force abilities helped him gauge the true intentions and desires of ambassadors and negotiators, as well as his fellow Senators. He was mortified by what he sensed - corruption, greed, duplicity everywhere.
He spoke to his friend and aide the Baron about what he had seen, and there the Baron had explained to him that he, Palpatine, could eventually become, via use of his powers, the leader which the Republic needed. A strong leader.
And then he told him about the Sith.
He explained that the Sith were a horribly maligned order, but in truth, well versed in realpolitik. All sentients were corrupt and motivated by self-interest, and desired power and wealth. The Sith were aimed at bringing order not via the foolish idealism of the Jedi, but instead, manipulation was merely a means to an end.
Palpatine was at first mortified, but realized that if he wished for such incidents as the fate of his crew to never happen again, the power he was offered might be put to use. However, little did he know that such power came at a terrible price, and eventually came to be not a means to an end, but an end in itself.
Shortly after, the head of the Correllian arms firm had been found dead, his body burned to a crisp by some strange, unknown source. No suspects were ever named. Many more of those involved in the Teslo IV scandal suffered a similar fate, and again, there was never enough evidence to name a suspect.
Palpatine knew such idealism of his youth was foolish. The old, corrupt regime would have to be dispensed with, and quickly. So he had instituted a plan. Using the Trade Federation and the taxation bill, he had manipulated the Nemoidians into blockading and occupying Naboo, thus maneuvering him into the Chancellor's seat. The next step was to create a calamity of such magnitude that the populace would lose faith in the Senate entirely, and look to one man - the Supreme Chancellor - for leadership. Thus entered the Mandalorians. As a Sith, he promised Fett conquest, while as Chancellor, he would vow to defeat the enemy which threatened the Republic. Of course, he had no intention of letting the Mandalorian forces win the war, and thus he had ordered the Victory class ships commissioned and Admiral Haas, a coarse but brilliant officer, put in command of the Fleet.
He had also come to learn that true power in the Force was not skill with a lightsaber or lifting rocks, but instead, to see inside the soul of his foes, and promise them all they desired.for motivated beings were so much more effective.
And he now knew what Anakin Skywalker desired.much like himself at a young age, he wanted power, he wanted to change things.
And soon, indeed, as Sidious' next apprentice, he would effect great change indeed.
***
Suddenly, she pulled away, hurling them back into reality and leaving him stunned.
"I'm sorry, Anakin," she said.
"You're.sorry?" he asked, incredulous.
"I should go. I don't think this was wise."
"But. you can't. he stammered. "Can you deny that there's something between us?"
"I'm sorry, Anakin..but I have no other choice," she said, her voice, he realized, however, held a hint of regret.
With that, she left.
He stood unmoving as he watched her leave. His emotions were in too much turmoil to allow him to reply. He closed his eyes for a moment, reliving the kiss remembering the taste of her. Savoring it. He felt kilometers above the ground. Remembering her reply, however, he felt himself plummeting in freefall and dreading the eventual landing.
He opened his eyes again, reluctantly, as the sensation passed. He loved her. What else mattered? Love was the only honesty, all else was merely an excuse. Did she truly think of herself so little? He wondered why she refused to see it. If she didn't allow herself to love, or to be loved in return, to follow her heart, to not be afraid to live, she would not survive. And neither would he.
Anger and frustration came welling up inside of him again as he spun on his heel, walking away from the balcony rail, from the place he knew which would forever haunt him. How could she abandon him like this? Would she too break his heart, adding to the misery heaped upon him? Could she truly be so willfully blind? Was she so foolish to think that love could ever be tamed by reason?
The anger swelled. He paused, noticing a beautiful floral arrangement in a polished vase. He let the anger fill him, let it surge from him in dark, rippling waves. The flowers suddenly wilted, crumbling to dust, and the vase exploded into a thousand tiny shards. And then he was himself again.
The Dark Side, he knew. He had let himself give in momentarily. He mentally reproached himself for the failure. Yet at the same time he could not quite banish the feeling of satisfaction, of awe, the barest hint of the sort of power he had again tasted, if only so briefly.
***
She found little sleep that night, instead feeling herself tossed and turned in a sea of conflicting emotions and desires. She could not deny her feelings for him, but that was no longer the issue. She knew they were treading dangerous ground. Weakness of the will was not something either of them could afford. Not now.
She had no time to fall in love.
***
Sidious watched him storm away, shivering once more as he felt the intensity of Skywalker's anger and frustration. He sensed conflict, but he knew that the young man's subconscious, which held his hidden desires, had enjoyed yet another glimpse of the power it craved. Slowly, but surely, he was moving toward his true destiny.
"In time," he said softly, "you will call me Master."
**
Obi-Wan came to and found himself in a position which was much more than merely disconcerting. It seemed, he realized, as consciousness returned all too rapidly, that every nerve, cell, and fiber of his body was simultaneously howling in pain. Mind-numbing, searing pain. He opened his eyes only to find that the pounding in his head had somehow increased in both frequency and intensity, although he had not believed it possible.
Images - distorted as they were, and incomplete - were slowly beginning to return to him. Waking up with a concussion after his damaged repulsor coils in the ejection seat had ensured a fast and jarring ride through several dozen meters of tree branches, lying on the forest floor, still strapped in his ejector seat and seeing a large, gray, armored foot in front of his eyes, then feeling the pain of a rifle butt smashing into his temple. Being hauled to his feet and kicked and punched repeatedly by armored boots and fists. Being dragged several kilometers along the forest floor and into a cavern at the base of the large mountain he had seen from the air.
He began to recall other such images, similarly unpleasant. Gradually, he was able to gather his concentration to pierce the overwhelming pain and disorientation caused by Force-only-knew what chemicals were no doubt in his system, and inventory his surroundings. As his eyes began to focus, he found himself in a small room, with perfectly smooth walls, lit with harsh, bright, and unbearably hot lights. He realized he was somehow suspended above the floor, at roughly a forty-five degree angle. His wrists and ankles were shackled, and in front of him, a eyelet in the ceiling through which the chain attatched to his manacles passed through and connected to a winch on the floor, so he was stretched tight. Horribly, uncomfortably tight, so that his restraints dug painfully into his skin, his shoulders burned like fire, and even drawing breath was uncomfortable.
He realized he had been stripped to the waist, and after maneuvering his head, could see that his chest and stomach were severely bruised - more beatings, no doubt. Distantly, another flash of memory connected the sensation of hot needles embedded in his back to being whipped, repeatedly. He tasted dried blood on his lips, no doubt, he realized, via a short exploration with his tongue, associated with the tear in his lower lip.
Unfortunately, he arrived at the conclusion that whoever his captors were, they knew a thing or two about the Jedi. They were, he knew, causing him to expend his precious reserves in the Force merely keeping himself alive and coherent, or reducing his pain to a bearable level, rather than on any thoughts of escape. Additionally, he lamented, he had been forced to deliberately destroy his starfighter, so that even if he somehow managed to escape, he could very well be stranded on a hostile planet for some time. True, the Jedi would send someone to rescue him, but since his mission was to be conducted with secrecy, they would not expect to hear back from him for several days. And several days in his condition, he knew, could be a long time indeed.
His unpleasant revelations were interrupted moments later by a slamming of the room's huge durasteel door and the entrance of a black robed figure whom he did not recognize, save for the dress, and the unmistakable aura of darkness and evil, bone-chilling in nature, which had never left his mind during the last decade.
His visitor was, without a doubt, of the Sith.
He mentally spewed a string of curses.
Why me? he asked, to no one in particular.
