There were only two more clones outside the cell, Obi-Wan noted with some puzzlement, making the total of his escort six beings – half what had been there last time.

The leader didn't put binders on him either, though he did have his men keeping a hold of the Jedi's elbows. Obi-Wan checked his armour for any indication of rank. "Captain."

The Captain, ahead and to the left of him, stiffened. "Yes sir?"

Blinking, the Jedi was silent for a moment before he replied. "You know you don't need to call me that, do you not?"

"Respectfully, sir, you were and are a General. On the other side perhaps, but a captured enemy officer still gets called sir."

"Oh." He had not thought that anyone held that view anymore. It was refreshing – and disorientating. He knew most Rebels did not bother treating captured Imperials with respect.

Then again, the Clones were not given the choice of who to fight for. They were the enemy now, but they had once fought side by side, and Obi-Wan could respect their abilities even if he hated how those abilities were used. It was not the Clones that chose how they were used, after all.

"Thank you." Respect was not something he had thought he would find here. It was not, in fact, something he tended to find anywhere these days. He was used to that. He could deal with that.

"You're welcome, sir."

Thoughtful, Obi-Wan was marched along the hallways. They were going in the same direction as last time, he noticed. "What are your names?"

One by one, they answered him. The Captain was Dam, which he wryly said was short for Damage. The trooper beside the Captain was Ammo, the two holding his elbows Eightster and Greg, and behind him was B.T. or Btau, (apparently short for Blow Them All Up,) and Razor. When asked, they replied that they were escorting prisoners around the detention area was to break in some new members of their team. He refrained from asking, but Ammo's spat mutter – was it possible to spit a mutter? – of "Vader", with a sidelong glance at Obi-Wan's abused neck was all the answer needed. He supposed that particular horror story was true after all.

All in all, it was an almost surreally pleasant chat, other than Eightster's mention of joining the 501st at the very end of the Clone Wars. Greg diplomatically turned it into a quiet, "And I'm sorry that we never got the chance to work with you, sir," but that couldn't completely erase the cold that settled into Obi-Wan's heart at the implications.

That cold intensified as they neared the room where Obi-Wan had met the Emperor and Vader and the chatter died away.

Surely Vader was not hungry again – it could not have been that long, and he could have just come to the cell. "How long has it been since I was last here?" he asked in a hushed voice.

"Two days, almost exactly," Greg murmured in his ear, picking up on the mood that seemed to have descended over them. He gave Obi-Wan a look of apology as they reached the door, Captain Dam palm scanning it open. Obi-Wan noted that that meant any Clone could access at least some parts of the prison levels, before he was shoved inside, and the door closed behind him, separating him from the first beings he had encountered here that had a shred of decency in them.

They had said that he was being taken to the Emperor, not Vader, but both Sith were in the room. Sidious rose from his chair at his entry, and somehow – possibly from the glint in the Sith Lord's eyes – Obi-Wan knew that he, at least, had no respect whatsoever for a Jedi.

Wondering why he was there, he decided to ask. It was not like he could get into any more trouble than he already was. Addressing the comment to Vader, he said off the top of his head, "Did you miss me that much? I would be flattered, but you are really not my type."

There was a moment of stunned silence, and then Obi-Wan began to wish he hadn't said it, as Sidious started up on that chuckle again. It was blasted creepy, that's what it was, and he barely managed to repress a shudder. This was why speaking without thinking through what you were going to say was a bad idea.

"Not quite on the mark, my boy," Sidious chortled, and Obi-Wan grit his teeth at the wildly inappropriate endearment.

"I am not your anything."

Vader snickered from behind Sidious; his eyes were shining with a sick glee, and the Bad Feeling Obi-Wan had had what was apparently two days ago had come rushing back with a vengeance. And now Sidious was smiling too, and it looked horribly, horribly out of place on his face, disfigured what Obi-Wan could only suppose was excessive use of the Dark Side.

"Oh, but you are," Sidious all but purred, gliding closer, and Obi-Wan's eyes narrowed, but before he could say anything he felt the Force wrap around his jaw and clamp it shut, leaving the Sith Master to continue. "My prisoner," and Vader was following him, stalking behind his Master like a predator that knows it has its prey cornered and is looking forward to playing with it. Obi-Wan retreated away from them, but the angle had left him in a corner, and they were between him and the only door, which would not open for him – and even if it did, the Clone were standing guard outside, and he had nothing to deflect their blaster shots. They followed orders, after all. "And my Acolyte."

What?

Deprived of speech, Obi-Wan could only shake his head furiously at them as they Vader came up beside Sidious, boxing him in, as he tried to release or at least calm the raging storm of confusion mixed with a dose of pure terror.

Because when Vader pressed in, Obi-Wan realised what was about to happen again. And he pre-empted the next movement by ducking, kicking Vader square in between the legs, and grabbing the lightsaber hanging from the doubling over Sith Apprentice's belt as he half dodged, half shoved past, putting Vader between himself and the Emperor for the brief moment it took for him to ignite the lightsaber. And then he lunged. Vader was able to dodge enough that the red blade only pierced his shoulder, and not his heart, and then the Emperor had pulled his own lightsaber out of nowhere and attacked.

It was never a fair fight.

Obi-Wan was tired, injured, and nowhere near recovered from losing so much blood ever such a short amount of time. And, while his Mastery of Soresu allowed him to defend himself extremely well, he was lacking the Force to sink into, to warn him of where the next strike would come – for there was no pattern that Obi-Wan could see, and he did not recognise the style that the Sith Master was using. Sidious was also using the Force to augment his strength, and the longer the fight went on, the more the Jedi tired, and the more he felt that Sidious was playing with him. Yes, he could see how four of the best saber fighters the Order had produced had died at this mans' hands. With the Force, and his body in good condition, he would be able to survive against the Sith, though he was not sure for how long. Right now, though…

Sidious seemed to abruptly bore of the fight, and lightning burst from his hands without warning, blasting the lightsaber out of Obi-Wan's hands when he attempted to deflect it, and then hurling him into the wall.

He lay there, dazed, with the world swimming before his eyes as Sidious floated Vader over. He struggled feebly as an iron grip closed around his arm, lifting his wrist to Vader's mouth – no! – and then he felt the venom flooding his body, more noticeable in his semi-conscious state.

Sidious left him there, slumped against the wall, as he went to the door, and then the clones were there, picking up Vader and loading him onto a foldout stretcher, one picking up the dropped lightsaber, and then Sidious was crouching over him, one wrinkled and cold hand lifting his head by the chin, and if he had ever had to guess, he would have thought that Sidious's skin would be clammy, but it was dry and flaky instead, and felt like it was shedding skin cells where his skin made contact with Obi-Wan's, leaving an invisible trail that tainted him, left him feeling dirty.

Vader was there, lying on the stretcher but awake, if in some pain. Sidious whispered in his ear for a moment, and then the junior Sith's gaze focused on the Jedi.

There was murder in his eyes.

"You will kneel before Lord Sidious and recite the Sith code, however many times he asks you to."

And that was that. The damage was done, the order given.

At least Vader would not be there to be more specific. The Sith's options were constrained by Vader's injuries; Vader could not now be there to give more specific orders to the drugged Jedi, limiting Sidious to just what Vader could order him to do now.

"Stand up." There may have been more, but Vader's eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed back onto the stretcher. Sidious snarled, waving the Clones out, leaving the Master Sith alone with the Jedi who was increasingly lucid and increasingly aware of just how much trouble he was in.

The door shut once more, leaving a terrible silence.

"Peace is a lie, there is only passion." Sidious's voice rasped almost reverently across the words that should not be as familiar to the Jedi as they were. "Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength I gain power. Through power, I gain victory. Through victory, my chains are broken. The Force shall free me." He paused reverently, before meeting the Jedi's eyes. "The Sith code. I imagine you have heard it before."

He had. First read in the Temple Archives in a document looked up for a history essay; he had heard them far too many times since. Zigoola, where he had not even realised what the whisper in the background had been until well after the Holocron had been smashed and he had been on his way away from the planet, and Rattatak, where Ventress had whispered it in his ears and the Sith Torture Mask had whispered it in his mind, to name a few. Yes, he had heard it before.

"You have messed up my plans, Kenobi," the Sith hissed, inches from his face. "And while we can pick this up another time, this will do until my Apprentice can re-join us. And while this is not quite what I planned…"

He leaned in even closer, until there were nose to nose, almost touching. Red streaked the perpetually sickly yellow eyes. "I've been looking forward to this."

A.N. At least Obi-Wan got a chance to fight back for a moment, right? And we find out some of Sidious's diabolical idea. In regards to the Clones, they just marched in and took over the first bit. (Are the names believable?)

Thank you so much to my reviewers.

Grey