Force of Magic

Introspection

A/N: hey everyone! Welcome back! Good news, I just accepted into my Master's program!

Now, I'm glad to see there's still a lot of interest in the story. And I'm sorry for the long wait for what's such a short chapter. I've had some writer's block for a little bit now, and frankly have been hoping the newest season would've been out by now so I could have more material to work with. But, unfortunately, it looks like we're going to have to wait a bit longer. Still, despite this chapter being shorter than what I would've liked, I hope y'all enjoy it.

Remember, I'm, just the writer, Asteria is my OC, the others belong to Gaberherdon308 and Mandalore the Survivor, and TDP belongs to Netflix, and Star Wars belongs to Disney.

To say Lord Vader was irritated was an understatement.

It had been almost a year since he saw through the lies of the jedi, since he had failed to save his wife and defeat his former master on the volcanic world of Mustafar. Finally, after so long, he'd found a lead as to where Kenobi went in the form of the padawan his former master had clearly abandoned to save himself.

And no one had been able to bring the boy to him.

He knew Trezac was no pushover, the little padawan was strong in the Force. Not as strong as himself, naturally, but still formidable in his own right. The child had been raised in a warzone after all. But still, two inquisitors should have been more than enough to bring him a half-trained, abandoned padawan.

Yet, one of his inquisitors was dead and the other was making her own attempt at a coup.

While it was annoying that the commander he'd sent was not able to get clear details of her plans, he at least was able to give consistent reports despite his lack of progress. Enough for Vader to at least piece together the events going on.

Which made the situation all the more frustrating.

The commander was right on the padawan's trail, and still he hadn't been caught.

Vader had even been able to slow the boy down for him, perhaps even incapacitated him for some time.

It had been difficult, mostly due to the distance, but Vader had found that despite Kenobi's best efforts, he hadn't completely ripped apart the force bond he had to the boy. There were still a few weak threads left. Not much, but just enough for Vader to reassert his foothold and work at reforging the bond without the boy's knowledge.

Granted it was only until a few days ago that Vader had been able to make any real progress. The former jedi had sensed that his young padawan-brother had been in some nexus of the Darkside, but, still, he could sense something powerful in the Light surrounding him. Once he had detected an opening, Vader could not resist taking it and ripping through Trezac's shields to slam down reforged anchors of their frayed bond.

Fortunately, the boy had probably been in too much pain to notice. Even then, it wasn't like he was strong enough to fight him off.

Either way, Vader would get what he wanted. The boy would thank him for it later.

Until then, he could work on making subconscious manipulations of the teenager's actions. By continuing to strengthen their bond and leaving it open, Vader could slowly gain a better foothold in the boy's mind and use it to his advantage. Eventually, his brother would realize that Vader was all he had left.

Or he would if his men had captured the padawan like he wanted.

The Lord of the Sith had essentially been able to hand over the boy on a silver platter to his men. And yet, they hadn't been able to catch him in the time it took for the source of Light to shield the padawan again. Whatever its owner was, it was powerful.