His hands were cuffed too tightly. The plastoid binders bit into his skin, aggravating bruises that had only just started to fade, as the two Stormtroopers on either side of him grabbed his elbows and pulled him forward.

It was the first place other than his cell he had seen since he woke up here. He had caught a glimpse of the room outside his when Vader came in, but all he had seen was more grey metal.

His cell was not, it seemed, straight off the corridor. There was another room the prisoner and overly large group of guards had to get through, one filled with monitoring equipment that was focused on Obi-Wan's cell. All the equipment and personnel were on the side of the door they had just come out of, so that all a prisoner would see would be blank wall.

Having been expecting some sort of extra security, Obi-Wan did not react to the couple of sidelong glances sent his way by the beings at the screens. He did briefly look around, before getting a shove and a reminder to keep his "eyes front," from a nearby trooper – one behind him, not the ones that still had not let go of his elbows.

He was led out into the actual corridor, which was just as he had suspected it would be; an industrial grey bare metal, with the occasional door that had an almost ridiculous amount of security.

His footsteps echoed, out of time with the perfectly uniform marching of the troopers. When his feet began to automatically fall in line with the beat due to his prior accustomedness to Clone troopers, he deliberately kept them out of time.

They were not, thankfully, troopers that he recognised. Combined with the 501st emblem on their shoulders, he supposed they must be new enough to not remember the Clone Wars, or at most had only seen the very end of it.

It didn't take long to reach their destination. Behind another one of those doors was another corridor, then another, then a door to a room that, while still pretty bare, had more colour than anywhere else he had seen since arriving.

The troopers march him to the centre of it as he looked around as best he could. The walls were covered in a thick, velvety material coloured a deep shade of red. The floor was linoleum wood pattern, as though someone had wanted to add a touch of comfort without increasing the difficulty involved in cleaning up any mess which might be created – they were on a level that housed prisoners, after all. He knew enough about how the Empire regularly treated its enemies to guess that the mess that might be created would involve, blood, vomit, other bodily fluids, and more blood. The room even had the importance to merit a chair in the corner nearest the door.

The reason for that chair became apparent when Vader stalked in a couple of minutes later, glare immediately fixing itself on the Jedi, followed by –

Oh, this was not good.

Darth Sidious followed his apprentice in, gliding behind him like a bird of prey about to pounce.

Obi-Wan fought the urge to swallow as another pair of eyes, these ones completely yellow, fixed themselves on him.

Not. Good.

Sidious dismissed the troopers with a wave of his hand, apparently ignoring the flicker of a scowl Vader sent his way before he schooled his expression back to glaring at Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan wondered absently in a corner of his mind what was going on there, then dismissed it as Vader's resentment at having to answer to anyone who was not himself being aggravated by his Sith Master in some sort of power play. Force knew Anakin had been fond of those.

What was Sidious doing here?

He backed against the wall as soon as they let go if him, his bound hands hitting it first. The door cut off the sound of the troopers marching away as soon as it closed behind them, leaving him alone, bound and without the Force, with the two Sith who had brought down the Republic.

Sidious moved over to the chair, easing himself into it, and Obi-Wan blinked. This was the man who had defeated four of the best sword beings in the Jedi Order, at once, on his own? Who, with Vader, had maimed and almost killed Master Yoda?

I guess he's getting old. Obi-Wan fought a hysterical giggle.

Vader stalked over to him and grabbed him by the material of the thin prison shirt. Obi-Wan glared at him as he was dragged across until he was in front of the Emperor, and was given a shove that was meant to force him to his knees. He managed to keep his feet, and Vader glared harder, more yellow creeping into his eyes as Obi-Wan stared defiantly back. Then the Jedi was bodily picked up with the Force and flung to the floor.

You could have asked nicely. I wouldn't have given in, but you could have asked first. Honestly Anakin, that was just rude. The part of him that would always be the teacher of a young boy named Anakin Skywalker grumbled. That rudeness was probably the point, or at least part of it, but oh well.

Groaning a bit, the Jedi picked himself up, and found Sidious watching him and all but licking his lips in anticipation.

"You had no trouble bowing to me before," Sidious mock contemplated. "Does this have anything to do with my appearance? I'm hurt, Master Jedi, I truly am. I am sure you know that it was one of you who inflicted this disfigurement of the flesh upon me." He paused, and sighed sadly and dramatically. Obi-Wan's eyes narrowed. He knew instinctively that he was not going to like what was coming next. "But, my boy, I am willing to forgive. You were one of the masses hero's, and despite your recent…anarchism and disloyalty, it would not take much to restore their faith in you. You do not have to force yourself into the role of a prisoner, Master Kenobi. Join us, as your Padawan did."

Well. That explained Vader's annoyance a bit; the Sith Apprentice had seemed to relish the idea of exploring how far he could control Obi-Wan. Having the opportunity snatched away from him by his Master overruling him had to damage his ego. Given that he had wanted to control Obi-Wan in particular, and not just any random person, Obi-Wan could confirm his suspicion that Vader had made this personal, at least in his mind.

He knew what Sidious was offering. A position of importance in the Empire, and a way out of this nightmarish experiment: the carrot and the stick.

A nightmarish experiment that he did not know what the results would be. Maybes, what ifs…they were, in many ways, a more effective threat than knowing what was to come. Was that how Anakin had fallen?

He couldn't think of that right now.

Palpatine wanted him. Sidious wanted him. One of the masses hero's, he had called him, referring to his image from the Clone wars. It would be a propaganda victory for the Sith, and he would gain control of a highly trained Force-user into the bargain. Obi-Wan could see the reasoning behind the offer. He could see why Vader, stiff and looming, thought he would accept it and deprive him of his personal victory.

"No. I refuse."

Whatever geniality Sidious had been feigning vanished.

"So be it then," the Dark Lord of the Sith half hissed, half spat. "Proceed, Lord Vader."

This time, Vader grabbed him before he could retreat – there was nowhere to go anyway, just as there hadn't been anywhere in the cell, before. He struggled anyway, landing a solid punch in the Sith's gut before he felt the now horribly familiar prick on his neck, and his body was no longer his own.

Swearing mentally as loud as he could and almost hoping that the two Sith would hear him, he waited.

He could have accepted the offer, he knew in the back of his mind. It would have gone against everything he believed in, but it might have given him space to breath, and more importantly a chance to escape.

Accepting, though, would have meant giving in to the Dark side, however briefly. That was what the Dark Lord wanted, and would have demanded from him, exchanging the chains on his wrists for chains in his mind, which was frankly a terrible trade. Physical chains were far easier to escape. Despite what Sidious had said, "forcing himself into the role of a prisoner" applied far more to Sidious's offer than his current predicament. They were the ones responsible for his current position, for the most part. He had been idiotic enough to get caught in the first place, but they were the ones who had done this to him. Accepting the offer would have meant doing essentially the same thing to himself. Anakin might not have been able to see the difference, from his words in the ruins of the Jedi Temple, but Obi-Wan Kenobi was not Anakin Skywalker. And Obi-Wan Kenobi could see the difference.

And so he waited. Waited while Vader recovered from his punch and straightened up, fury in every line of his body and shining fiercely in the red streaks that crept through the yellow of his eyes, something Obi-wan, with his eyes fixed on the fake wooden flooring, could not see but would not have been at all surprised to learn. He did not need to have access to the Force to tell him that Vader was now looking forward to this even more than he already had been. He waited, while the Emperor of the Galaxy, who had earned that title through destroying all Obi-Wan had held dear, leaned forward in his chair, anticipating gleefully what was about to happen to the Jedi who had dared refuse his offer, and wondering how far the control would extend and how he could use it for his own goals.

Obi-Wan waited, trying and failing not to fear what would happen next.

A.N. Obi-Wan appears to be in trouble – more trouble, that is. And I have now figured out just what went down when Palpatine took over here; what happened to Padme, Luke and Leia, Yoda, Obi-Wan, Vader, all the main characters in the drama that was the downfall of the Republic.

Thanks to everyone who has read this, and for those who have out it on alert for the support. Do please tell me what you think of it.

Grey