DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything.
For four days they had tortured him, seemingly just for the fun of it. He had not been moved from the dungeon since the first day he'd been captured and the room was starting to smell. Anakin didn't notice it much anymore though. It had only been four days but it was enough for his body to desensitise itself to the foul odours. The first day when they'd denied him washroom privileges, Anakin had been embarrassed and humiliated by his bodily functions but now he didn't care. He was in too much pain to care about much.
The sound of the door unlocking bought Anakin out of his pain-fuelled trance, its dull thud an ominous warning of agony to come. He glanced up from his spot huddled in the far corner and noticed that Emperor Palpatine had come with Aayla this time. He hadn't seen the Sith Lord since that first day and rage boiled up inside him. Palpatine was wearing a smug grin, as though he was in control of everything. This, at the moment, was very true.
Anakin slowly pulled himself into a seated position and groaned. His back flared with agony as the scabs that had formed since he'd last been lashed reopened. He could feel the now familiar warm trickle of blood as it ran down his back. He gritted his teeth and did his best to ignore it.
"Come to gloat?" he asked. His voice somehow managed to sound more casual than he'd hoped.
Palpatine ignored him and motioned to Aayla. She walked over to Anakin and hauled him to his feet. Awash in a world of pain, Anakin could do little to resist. He almost reached for the Force before he remembered the cuff. As quickly as the Force had begun to gather to him it dissipated.
As Aayla secured Anakin in the dangling chains once more, the ex-Jedi noticed the Emperor watching him. There was the tiniest trace of a smile lingering on his lips but Anakin couldn't be sure he wasn't hallucinating. The chains began to retract into the ceiling again and his shoulders instantly started aching. It was a familiar, although still unwanted, ache.
"Today is the first day of your training. I will be handling this personally," Palpatine stated. He turned to Aayla and waved his hand dismissively. She nodded, handed Palpatine the remote to the chains and then left, closing the door behind her.
Alone for the first time with his worst enemy, Anakin was beginning to feel the fear creeping up on him. After the countless visits from Aayla, he'd learnt quickly she wasn't the one he should fear. She was simply a sadist who enjoyed making others suffer – a far cry from who she'd been when he'd known her before. Furthermore, he knew she wouldn't kill him. The Emperor needed him and he was her Master. Her life wouldn't be worth anything if she betrayed him.
The whip she always bought with her was another matter. It bought with it the most terrible pain he'd ever endured. He didn't know whether this was simply because he'd been exposed to it countless times without relief or whether it genuinely had enough of a bite to its lashes. Whatever the reason, Anakin hated it. Seeing Palpatine without it almost came as a relief. Until he remembered that the old Chancellor he'd once called friend was the most powerful Sith Lord since his mentor.
Palpatine walked up to Anakin, his eyes taking in his captive without giving away anything.
Anakin kept his cool, refusing to give in to his impatience. He kept his eyes away from Palpatine. Instead he focused on a spot above the Sith's head, forcing himself to breathe through the pain and anger.
"In a moment, I am going to press a button and you will discover just how lenient Aayla has been to you these past couple of days. The pain, if that word is the right one, will be unlike anything you have experienced before."
"Thanks for the heads up," Anakin muttered.
Palpatine took one step back and bought out a new remote. Anakin was close enough that he could see it clearly. It was flat and had a light blue illuminated pad with five dark blue squares and Palpatine's finger hovered over one of them.
He noticed Anakin staring and smiled evilly. Then he hit the button.
For a second nothing happened. Anakin glanced up at Palpatine's face, confused but then it happened. The cuff suddenly came to life around his wrist. Electricity flowed through it, lighting it up with a soft blue glow. But this electricity was different to before.
It didn't send his nerves into spasms. It didn't tense up his muscles. It didn't even seem to burn his skin.
This electricity, just like Palpatine had promised, was worse. Much worse.
It felt like it was alive, conscious. It targeted Anakin's brain, stomach and heart.
His stomach couldn't take the pain and immediately reacted in the only way it knew how. As he hadn't been fed since the second day he'd been caught, there wasn't much for him to throw up but the retching was worse. Acid burned up his throat and as his stomach kept revolting, his stomach muscles, while strong and fit, began to cramp at the intensity of his heaving. As he continued to heave, he could feel the collar tightening slowly around his neck.
His heart, young and healthy, began to beat faster as his body began to stress. As the electricity continued to pulse into him, he body started to go into shock. His heart continued to react, trying to let him know that something was starting to go terribly wrong within him. Anakin felt his heart stressing and started to seriously worry. He didn't know how long his heart would hold out.
All the while the electricity pulsed into his brain, wrapping itself around it, forcing itself inside. He felt like his head was about to explode but at the same time, he was completely coherent, able to think and hear everything Palpatine was saying. Palpatine had again been correct. This torture was infinitely worse than that neuronic whip.
As Anakin continued to convulse and writhe in pain that went beyond agony, Palpatine continued to talk, knowing his young captive would be able to hear and understand him. He had stepped out of reach of Anakin's vomit before he could be hit.
"You can stop this at any time Anakin," he said it kindly, like he was a professor, Anakin the student. "Your cuff is a complex machine and very intelligent. It can feel your thoughts and emotions. It is alive in your mind, reading you, understanding you. It is also completely under my control. I have just activated a higher level of the cuff's intelligence, one that will cause only you pain."
Along with everything else, Anakin was now struggling to breathe. The collar wasn't too tight yet so that his airways were closed but it was staring to get uncomfortably close to it. Caught between breathing and retching, Anakin was becoming desperate.
"At the moment, the pain you are experiencing is coming from your desire to harm me. The cuff has registered this and will cause you the pain you wish to cause me, only a thousand times worse. To stop the cuff, all you have to do is to stop wishing me harm. Simple enough, don't you think?" Palpatine said.
Simple indeed. Anakin fought with himself, trying to withstand the pain and lack of air but he was losing terribly. There was no way he could just ride out the pain. He would be unconscious soon; whether from the collar or the cuff he didn't care. He wasn't going to stop hating Palpatine. He refused to give Palpatine what he wanted, even if that meant he had to die to do it.
Suddenly the pain got worse. He didn't think it possible but as a new pulse of agony seemed to split him in two and his back arced along with the current, Anakin realised it could always get worse. Death was looking like the best option now.
Black spots were dancing in front of his vision. He thought of Padme, here on this same ship and wished he was with her, holding her close, just one last time. A memory surfaced as his eyes started closing – that of his twins' birth. He had never been happier than he had on that day. Seeing Padme's face, red with exhaustion, beaming down at Leia as she held the baby in her arms had warmed Anakin's heart like nothing else. Except maybe for the bliss he felt as he gazed down on baby Luke clutched in his own arms. In that moment, he had realised that these two little babies, who were so tiny and vulnerable, were dependant on him to raise them right. He was going to be able to teach them everything he knew about life and love and watch as they grew into beautiful people.
As the memory passed, Anakin realised he might never get to do those things. He might never see his children again. Especially if he gave in to the pain wracking his body now.
This thought more than anything stopped Anakin from continuing with his stubborn plan of allowing the cuff to kill him. He wasn't going to abandon Luke and Leia. They deserved to have a father, something he'd never had, and was going to ensure they had one. They needed him.
Reluctantly, but with new determination, Anakin forced his eyes open and looked Palpatine straight in the eye. He did his best to relax every muscle in his body – a fruitless effort – and then lowered his gaze to the floor.
He turned his thoughts to Palpatine. Instinctive rage was the number one emotion that flared but Anakin forced himself to release all of that anger, all of his hatred, and redirected it away from Palpatine and into the Force. As the intense emotions fled into the Force, Anakin felt a definite weakening of the electricity coming from the cuff. The collar around his neck began to loosen once more and his stomach began to settle.
Silently rejoicing in this small victory, Anakin almost thanked Palpatine, almost felt the stirrings of relief that the old Chancellor had told him how to save himself. But he didn't. His heart was still racing, only now slowing down as his body reacted to the sudden absence of electricity.
"Good job my pet," Palpatine said softly.
Without thinking Anakin snapped, "I'm not your pet!"
Instantly the cuff came back to life and Anakin screamed out.
Palpatine grinned evilly, watching silently as his young captive fought to bring his emotions back in check. He was going to enjoy the next few months as he slowly broke the mighty Anakin Skywalker.