DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything.

There was a whirring noise next to his ear and then he could see the room again. Nothing had changed. Anakin frowned and tugged at his chained wrists. Palpatine walked around him and unlocked them, releasing him without saying a word.

Well beyond confused, Anakin stayed seated wary of some kind of trap. Palpatine wouldn't just let him go without a reason.

Behind him the door opened and the sound of countless droids entering had Anakin glancing around. He was careful to keep his gaze low so that he didn't accidentally look Palpatine in the eye but he could still see that a dozen droids had entered the room. Palpatine stood between him and the droids.

Suddenly one raised its blaster but instead of pointing it at Anakin as he expected, the droid pointed it straight at Palpatine. Then another grabbed the Sith from behind and held his arms in a tight grip.

Instant pain burned Anakin's arms in the exact spots the droid held Palpatine. A warning spark shot out of his cuff.

As Anakin watched, rubbing his arms in an attempt to relieve them, a third droid stepped forward. With awe Anakin saw it pull back its arm and punch the Emperor in the gut.

Agony had Anakin doubled over in a second, his arms forgotten as the pain transferred to his stomach. He groaned and dropped to his knees. Then the cuff activated full force again.

"You can stop this pet," the Emperor told him. "Every time someone hurts me, it hurts you threefold. The cuff will also activate if you don't do something about my attacker."

Anakin clenched his teeth. These lessons seemed endless and they weren't getting easier. But he had to do this. He had to stay alive so he could help his kids.

Pushing through the pain, Anakin tried to stand up, even as the collar tightened around his throat. As he took a step forward the cuff flicked off as quickly as it turned on, realising its wearers intentions.

Now Anakin could get to Palpatine without the cuff hampering his movements. The punch Palpatine had received was followed by another. Again Anakin stumbled as the shock of the punch echoed through his body. If Palpatine was telling the truth it had only hurt him a third of what it had hurt Anakin.

Not wasting any more time, Anakin dashed as fast as he could to Palpatine and grabbed the first droid from behind. He lifted it off the ground and slammed it into the wall. It short-circuited and stayed down. Another droid stepped forward to take its place but Anakin was in the zone now.

Just like before he'd been captured, the droids were his enemy. This time though, he wasn't protecting someone he loved or even just an innocent citizen. This time, he was protecting the man who currently controlled his fate, the most evil man in the galaxy. Emperor Palpatine.

Anakin grabbed the blaster off the nearest droid but the second his hand touched it, the cuff flared to life. He screamed out as the electricity pulsed through him relentlessly. He fell to the ground, releasing the weapon. Minutes passed and while Anakin writhed on the ground, Palpatine continued to be beaten by the droids. Every hit that landed on the Emperor, no matter how soft or how hard, landed on the corresponding part of Anakin's body, only three times worse.

When the cuff finally cut out again Anakin forced himself off the ground, breathing heavily and more than a little lightheaded. He instantly went back to Palpatine's aide, this time steering well clear of the weapons the droid carried.

Although he was exhausted and his muscles aching, Anakin managed to destroy all of the droids in less than five minutes. In a way, he had found it relieving to take all his pent up frustrations out on the droids. He had even enjoyed himself.

Suddenly everything went black. Confused Anakin raised his head and tried to lift his hand to his eye. That was when he noticed they were chained together again, fastened back to the chair.

"What the...?" he murmured.

Palpatine's voice spoke to him from behind.

"The headgear is a special form of virtual reality gaming. I had my scientists adapt it so I could use it as a training tool on you. When I turn it on you are taken straight into the programmed world that I had created. Everything you feel in there will happen to you physically, just as it would in the real world. If you think I am being injured, whether it is actually me or just a simulated version of me, your first instinct needs to be to protect me. If it is not if you hesitate or resolve to do something else before tending to me, the cuff will activate."

Anakin tugged experimentally at the stun cuffs. They were incredibly tight. He sighed and slumped back in his chair, listening half-heartedly to Palpatine's words. He needed to get out of here, to escape from Palpatine before this training got any worse. He could already feel himself giving in to the Emperor. The cuff and collar combination was wearing him down quickly. He had already started to instinctively lower his eyes to the floor the moment Palpatine walked into the room, fearing the cuff's power. His aversion to weapons was also building. For the last two days Palpatine had worked tirelessly to make him dislike even the thought of looking at a weapon, let alone hold one. Anakin knew that Palpatine's efforts were paying off. He hadn't been thinking when he reached for that blaster before, simply acting on instincts that he'd honed as a Jedi but his reaction to it had been immediate. Now, as he thought about his actions in the virtual reality world, his stomach began to cramp and his lungs squeeze painfully. He had a feeling that Palpatine knew exactly what had happened while he was in the game and he wasn't impressed that Anakin's old instincts were stronger than he'd expected.

Palpatine pulled the visor off Anakin's head and placed it back on the table. Then he blindfolded Anakin again before unclipping his cuffs from the chair. Anakin was pulled to his feet and led by his leash back through the halls of the massive spacecraft.

Anakin knew what was coming. Endless hours of training that would morph into endless days of pain and loneliness. He knew he should be struggling, fighting to escape and find Padme before somehow getting off the ship and finding Luke and Leia. But Anakin was scared. He was absolutely terrified. The cuff that was locked onto his wrist and the collar wrapped around his neck were a double threat that was doing their job well. Anakin didn't want to even think through fear of thinking the wrong thing. Even blindfolded as he was, he still kept his head bowed as they walked. Emperor Palpatine's conditioning was working, slowly but surely.

After Anakin's instinctive response to go for the weapon in the virtual reality, Palpatine had decided he was being too easy on the boy. He had locked him back into his cell and left him for a few days. He had kept a watch on him through a camera set up in the room. Anakin didn't do much though. He spent most of the days sitting in that corner, staring at nothing in particular, his fingers fiddling mindlessly with the cuff. At night, he simply rolled onto his side and slept.

This process went on for three days. On the eve of the fourth day, Palpatine was ready for more training. He had dealt with Carth, who had called with a progress report on the twins and even watched Padme for a while as she moved about in her bedroom. He'd also dealt with more issues that had arisen in the galaxy. Everything that wasn't important, Palpatine delegated to his senior staff or Aayla Secura.

Palpatine let the dark side embrace him before entering Anakin's chamber, a Magnaguard holding an electrostaff following behind. With little satisfaction, the Emperor noticed that Anakin kept his eyes on the ground as he lifted himself onto his knees. He knelt before the Sith Lord, head bowed and completely silent.

Palpatine got to work straight away. He chained Anakin up, hoisted the chains into the roof and watched as the ex-Jedi hung limply in the manacles. Then he started the torture.

Anakin's screams could be heard throughout the dungeon as Palpatine and the Magnaguard worked together to weaken Anakin's resolve. They used a combination of the cuff and collar, electrostaff and Force lightning to torture him.

For six weeks after that, Anakin had no spare time. The Emperor would teach him the lessons that he deemed necessary, both new lessons and old, and then while Palpatine rested after a hard day's torture, the Magnaguard or Aayla would pick up where he left off. He was in constant agony but every time he would complete a certain exercise to a standard the Sith felt acceptable, he was given food and water. This small incentive was enough to encourage Anakin to work harder at perfecting Palpatine's teachings. He actually started thinking how the Emperor wanted. To bow his head in the Emperor's presence was instinct now, as was his aversion to weapons. He hated even thinking about them – it made his stomach and lungs hurt.

Palpatine had taken him into the virtual reality game twice more and each time he'd succeeded in protecting the Emperor without him even getting a scratch. He had never once reached for the Force, knowing that if he did, Padme would suffer along with him for his disobedience. Neither had he gone for the blasters the droids always carried. He had simply used the hand to hand combat he'd perfected as a Jedi many years ago.

Over a month of relentless torture and Palpatine knew he'd nearly won. There was just one more test that he needed to try before he knew for sure.

Anakin was once again in the virtual world. Palpatine was there as was the usual droids. But this time they were at the Skywalker residence in Bespin and Padme was with them. Anakin was standing near the front door of the house while the droids stood between him and Palpatine. Off to his left, Padme was also surrounded by droids. The two were far apart, both being pushed back towards the edge of the disk the house sat on. Anakin knew that within seconds they would both be pushed back over the edge of the disk. They would fall into the nothingness below.

His new instincts took over and he started sprinting towards Palpatine. He had destroyed half of the attacking droids in his bid to get to the Emperor before he fell when suddenly he heard her.

"Anakin!"

His head snapped around to see her, both feet scrabbling to stay on the disk. Fear raced through him. He couldn't let Padme die! He loved her more than anything. How could he go on if she wasn't there?

The cuff crackled to life and Anakin was thrown to the ground as the electricity pulsed through him.

Instantly he was back in the real world. Without a word, Palpatine removed the virtual reality headgear, blindfolded Anakin and led him back through the hallways.

Another month followed with nothing but agony and loneliness for Anakin. His muscles had developed a twitch from the constant exposure to the electricity but Palpatine knew it wasn't fatal. So he continued, ruthless and unrelenting.

Then, a month after his first failure, Palpatine had Anakin try again.