'Dormé, wake up—' Anakin whispered softly as he gently tried to wake her up. 'Please, Dormé, you have to wake up; my father is waking up. He's going to be coming soon!' he whispered in desperate tones. He didn't want her to get hurt and knew she would have to leave and soon.

It was incredibly easy for Dormé to fall asleep next to him and for the first time, in a very long time, she was able to dream. She hadn't meant to fall asleep and was about to apologise when he was telling her she had to go. 'I protect you,' she whispered back, removing the knife from her gown where she had hidden it.

Dormé seemed to have a very different idea of protection than he had and Anakin would have been touched had he not been so scared for her. 'Dormé, no! You have to go! He'll hurt you—maybe even kill you!' he pleaded as he tried to take her hands to lead her out the side door of his room that led outside.

'We're safe. I protect you,' she insisted, rising to her feet in preparation of attack. The mean man wouldn't hurt her friend anymore. She would stand up to him and protect Anakin so he could escape too. Even though this place had been a nice and easy resource for Dormé to find food and last night some shelter, she couldn't let it happen again. She couldn't let her friend hurt just so that she could have some food. Now Dormé would be able to repay Anakin, at least in a small way by freeing him from his father.

'Please you have to go now! He's going to be coming soon!' Anakin pressed on. Dormé continued to resist and Anakin could feel his father's nearing and it caused him to grow even more frantic.

'You protect me by hiding okay?' he continued softly finding her bravery commendable but equally nerve—wracking. While he had no doubt about Dormé's skills, Anakin knew she was far too small to be taking down someone as deadly as his father.

Yes, she could hide. 'OK,' she replied. Hiding was something she could do very well, with her knife in hand. She would hide and wait for his dad to enter and then she would attack. Dormé thought that it was Anakin's idea for her to hide in order to better attack him that way.

'Dormé, you hide! Please you hide here!' he begged as he tried to make her step outside onto the porch area. There were enough large plants around that it wouldn't be hard for her to hide. Ironically his father enjoyed growing plants and had a vast garden. Anakin never paid it any mind, now he saw it as the perfect hiding place for his friend.

Since Anakin was more familiar with the room's set—up, she conceded and hid where he asked her, the knife at the ready. She had no idea what she was facing. It wasn't a drunken father, or out—of—touch mother, but a highly trained Sith Master who already knew she was here and already knew what he was up against as pathetic as it was.

Quietly he guided her outside moving to guide her behind some dense but softer bushes. 'I'm not allowed in the gardens, so he'll never think to look for you here,' Anakin explained in hushed tones before wincing as he felt his father prodding his thoughts. The mind blocks could only do so much.

'Outside?' Dormé gasped, not liking this one bit as she tried to push against Anakin to let her back inside. But the older boy was stronger than her and was insistent that she remain in the bushes.

'I have to go. I'm sorry. Please, Dormé, don't do anything silly, OK?' he begged before quietly closing the door.

Anakin was just in time as his father's burst inside. He took one look at the messy bed and the young boy who was now in midst of making the bed. Anakin though sensed the attack hardly had time to defend himself as his father used the Force to toss Anakin across the other side of the room.

'You disgusting little animal! I told you that you act like an animal; I'll treat you like one! No little beast sleeps on the bed!' he growled. 'Now get up you vermin and clean this disgusting mess!' the elder man hissed.

Anakin fought back the dizziness and swiftly did as he was told. But when the bed wasn't made exactly as he had been instructed the Force attacks continued. The day was off to a bad start but all that mattered was that his friend was safe.

Dormé was furious and frustrated all at once. She could hear the booming voice of his father and rushed to the door, trying to peek in but she was too short to see anything. He made her stay out here, but she couldn't remain outside for long, not where she knew what was happening to her friend.

Dormé burst into the room, shouting in a mixture of Uriashian and Basic. 'LEAVE HIM ALONE!' as she rushed the man with the intent of stabbing him in the chest.

But just when Anakin was certain he could no longer remain conscious as his father used the Force to choke him Dormé was bursting in.

The elder Sith Lord had never encountered an anomaly as strange as the young girl who rushed at him. Her Force signature was nothing like he had ever seen before and the fact he was caught entirely off guard by her only added to his surprise. It had never happened before.

'Dormé no!' Anakin screamed trying to stop his friend from getting herself killed.

Anakin blocked her attack and it infuriated her. He was stopping her from harming his dad? She didn't understand why. 'He hurt you!' she tried to say.

His father was quick to recover and scowled drawing upon the darkness once more. However he sensed something wasn't right and immediately refrained from touching her with the darkness. Instead he turned it on the boy.

'You let this little trollop stay in our home? You invited her in here? Was this your plan? To kill me?' he continued with a harsh laugh.

Anakin shook his head as he tried to take Dormé's hand to lead her away from his father's range of attack.

She squeezed Anakin's hand, wanting for the two of them both to run away from this. She wanted to give him the courage to run away, if that was what he needed.

'No Father of course not—' Anakin began only to feel the ground beneath his feet fall away as he was forced away from Dormé. His body slammed against the post of the bed and soon his father was grabbing him by the throat.

The man was speaking too quickly in Basic for her to comprehend, but when he moved to attack her friend again, she had her chance. 'Stop!' she yelled at the man as tears came to her eyes.

Anakin took the blows, but screamed at Dormé to run while she had the chance. This made his father more furious and Anakin tried to ignore the sound of one of his ribs cracking as the elder man's boot hit it full force.

For Dormé, it felt as though the wounds were her own and this added to her fury and intensified her drive to relieve her best friend from his abusive father. But though she succeeded in driving her knife into his back, it was nothing compared to the powers he wielded.

Palpatine couldn't believe the audacity of the young girl's attempts to fight him. In another time, he might have laughed, but after what little he had witnessed of her strange signature, he couldn't help but be concerned. However upon feeling the child's blade piercing through his tunic and scratching his skin his patience faded away.

'Stop! Stop! Stop it!' she yelled trying to beat him with both her fist and the knife.

'Kill her! Kill her now!' he ordered as he threw Anakin to the floor.

Anakin staggered to his feet the room spinning violently. He couldn't do it. Weakly he shook his head as his body swayed from the wounds inflicted on him. 'No, I won't. She's my friend.'

'So be it you pathetic worm,' the elder man snapped before moving to beat the boy once more.

'Be gone, child, and never return!' he hissed in fury as he drew upon the dark side and unleashed a wave of lightning.

The lightning seemed to explode from his hands and run wild attacking the walls, the bed even Anakin who screamed in pain. At first it almost seemed to avoid the girl. but when Palpatine forced all of his attentions into the attack it reluctantly found its proper prey.

Thrown backward onto the floor, Dormé screamed against the lightning that covered her entire body. It was so incredibly painful, but there wasn't anything she could do to stop it, try as she might. She cursed in Uriashian and struggled to get to her feet though her whole body convulsed in pain.

Anakin struggled to his feet and lurched forward in a panic. Grasping onto Dormé, he attempted to use his body as a shield while pushing her outside and out of range. Something within her seemed to pass into Anakin as they touched. It needs to end...We must stop him...

Anakin heard her voice in his thoughts and for a moment was frozen in place. He almost asked if she was sensitive to the Force but refrained knowing his father would only hurt her more for it.

She eyed the knife that had long since fallen to the floor and in one move, she fell to the floor, grabbed the knife and moved to stab him once more, this time aiming for the heart.

Yet try as he might to stop Dormé from attempting to attack his father, she refused to back down. His eyes widened in horror as time moved to a crawl.

Palpatine was prepared for the attack this time. Using the Force he moved swiftly to the side to avoid the blade while drawing on the darkness to draw attention to the girl's presence.

Suddenly, the local authorities felt a sudden urge to show up to take away the little girl who had broken in and attempted to attack both father and son.

Dormé struggled against the pain, but the knife left her hand before she had the chance to use it. She had little time to react before the man seemed to be trying to hurt her head. The pain unleashed upon her was nothing compared to the piercing ache of her head. She whimpered and by the time the authorities came, she was practically limp in their arms as they carted her away.

That day, Anakin suffered more than usual at his father's hand for having allowed a thief into their presence. Despite the fact Anakin didn't know that Dormé had been stealing food from them, it didn't matter nor the fact she stole out of hunger.

Training was equally trying and Anakin struggled to remain conscious throughout it all. To his father's disgruntled surprise, the boy had been able to channel more of the dark side than before. As the elder man put it: 'Perhaps there is hope for you yet.'

Dormé awoke with a dull pain in her head. She was on a lumpy bed, similar to those belonging to the kinattu, but not nearly as nice smelling, because they would spray all sorts flowery things to make it more appealing. She was too young to know the true reasons why they did so.

She had no idea where she was, but looking around, she spotted other small beds all of them empty. A few minutes later, a worn old woman came in with broth and bread. She didn't say a word just shoved it at her and left. Dormé heard adult voices in the hallway, but they were speaking Basic too quickly for her to understand. It was easy for her to tune them out since she didn't know what they were talking about.

Once the other girls who needed the room crawled into their own beds, Dormé heard the old woman's limping steps drag, thud, drag thud passing by. A door opened and shut and then all was quiet. None of the other girls said a word to her as they looked too worn out stay awake long enough to pay her any mind.

When Dormé was sure everyone was asleep, she knew it was her chance to escape from whatever this place was.

A/N: Coming up - 'You're the reason the Sith are no longer powerful! It is fools like you that ruin all my plans! You are nothing but a living failure! Do you hear me? A failure!'