It's What Goes On In Here That's Hard (Star Wars AU Fanfiction)

Chapter 20. Beyond Reason

X-1 rested soundly for nearly a week. He was thoroughly exhausted, needing to be woken by his assigned caretakers whenever it was time to eat and drink. X-1 never remembered those times though, his mind far too stressed and tired to register anything that happened around him.

So it was no surprise that X-1 did not wake to fight back when troopers came to his chambers, nor did he stir when they laid him out on a stretcher and tied him down securely.

The troopers took the defenseless boy to a shuttle, from there he was taken into the custody of Deathtroopers and Royal Guards dressed in blood red robes.

Through it all X-1 was unaware of his situation, or what would happen.

***

X-1 startled awake, jolting upward only to be restrained by a strap tightly secured against his forehead, keeping his head in place against a hard, cold surface.

He blinked, breathing hard as he yanked at restraints holding his legs and arms in place.

X-1 looked around frantically but it was dark, darker than even his old cell. His breathing began to quicken, fear gripping his heart like a large fist around a child's throat.

Where was he? Wasn't he supposed to be in his chambers? Where was Vader? His mind worked furiously against the mantra in his system, he remembered what Vader had wanted him to do, to fight Sidious by Vader's side and then become free again.

But, they hadn't done that yet, the last thing he could remember was Vader jamming something into his neck, feeling the fiery mantra work through his body and mind like a wildfire clearing a forest.

X-1 began to panic, whatever effects the mantra should have had, they were gone. Replaced by X-1's panic and overwhelming fear of the darkness around him, reverting the asset to his original roots of being an afraid and desperate creature.

X-1 cried out fearfully as a blinding white light lit up above him, the cold retreating to make way for another, for Sidious.

"Ah good, you are awake." Sidious said with a smile, coming into the light, standing beside X-1's restrained figure.

X-1 took a deep breath, he needed to calm himself, he needed to be braver than this. He could be brave, he knew he could, somehow.

"Lord Vader decided it would be best if you went through some, experiments, to see if you are able to continue your duty." Sidious stated as a man in a white coat came forward.

The man frowned upon seeing the boy but did not speak as X-1's eyes widened in shock and fear.

No, Vader would never subject him to whatever this was, he couldn't have.

Sidious smirked at X-1's disbelief. "Do not worry young one, it will be over soon."

***

"Soon" seemed to have been a loose term as X-1 spent the next few weeks strapped to a cold slab of metal, being poked at with needles and syringes in the most painful way imaginable. It felt as though his nameless torturers were filling his bloodstream with fire as they often injected him with a strange, silver substance.

When there were no men to on experiment him, X-1 was subjected to the darkness and the cold of his new prison, and it was not an upgrade from his old cell.

If anything X-1 was becoming more and more traumatized by the day, panicking, unable to even think coherent thoughts as pain and misery was inflicted upon him by Sidious' men.

He cried and screamed without restraint, and eventually to Sidious' amusement, he began to call for Vader.

Darth Vader was the only one X-1 trusted to not make him suffer for long periods of time or for amusement. It felt as though Sidious were enjoying everything.