Magenta Sith

Chapter 4 - Broken Pieces

Author's Note: My heart is officially broken, read at your own risk, and may we all rest in pieces :')

WARNING: Attempted suicide

~ Rivana Rita

It's easy enough, for Vader to begin pulling back to himself, though he knows Anakin will not be happy about this. It doesn't matter. Nothing does, except finding his children. He's almost there. He just needs to get through the portal before it closes. Drawing out of his meditation enough to move while still partly controlling this body is not easy, but he has done worse. At least he thought he had, until he suddenly senses a very, very familiar soft but sharp and darkened presence. Ahsoka found her way back, of course. In any other circumstances, he might be glad or impressed she's here, but right now, it's the last thing he needs to be worrying about.

"Ahsoka," he greets in his own body, somewhat stirring. Now that he's here, he senses his control over Anakin slipping, and he holds onto the last threads, lest he lose access to the World Between Worlds entirely again. He needs to keep it. The Multiverse is a dangerous place, and the locations are constantly shifting, changing. There is no straight, clear way back. He'll have to refind the portals after he steps away from it; he'll have to search for it again.

Ahsoka doesn't speak, but her hands are on her lightsabers. He doesn't know if she can see the portal as he can, but now that they're together, it's like a mirror, a blur, as his mind tries registering both halves on top of each other.

He should not be as surprised as he is that the padawan jumps at him, lightsaber drawn. Vader catches him with the Force and throws him back. The Force ripples, now that one of its missing pieces has been incorporated back to where it belongs.

"What...?" Ahsoka asks, confused.

"Don't let him get through," the padawan yells to her, and Vader stands abruptly, throwing them all aside when they try stopping him. He's come this far. They won't let him lose his only chance. He never knew how much he needed this until he realized it was possible, but now...

The Multiverse feels different in the Force – it feels like nothing, yet overloads of everything. There is too much to see and give attention, but none of it matters right now. He only needs a way back to the reality he just came from. Now that he knows what the reality feels like, it won't be as difficult.

But they're following him, of course, refusing to give up. He knows Ahsoka will because she's a Jedi, and she's fearless. Years ago, it had driven Anakin crazy, how his padawan had no sense of danger, of self-preservation. It had been hard to care for her when she was so... but that doesn't matter, because he isn't Anakin, and she isn't his padawan. Everything about Anakin is foreign to him now. It's like looking through another's memories.

It always feels as though he were looking at his past through a haze. Sidious had made sure of it – that he would never consider himself a part of that life any longer. He couldn't, either. It... hurts too much, to think of everyone he lost as if they were still here. But that all feels strangely different now after having been in his own body again for the first time in years, rather than this... mostly metal one. It reminded him of what it once meant to be Anakin Skywalker. Of what it was to be human.

"Think about what you're doing," Ahsoka orders, jumping in front of him. They're standing together, alone, amid a black vast of emptiness, save the white-rimmed platform they stand on. Her white lightsabers are ignited and drawn. She won't hesitate to fight him, of course. She's still true to the Jedi, even if they betrayed her, betrayed them both, and even if she left them. "You could destroy everything. Realities are not meant to be tampered with in this nature."