Magenta Sith

Chapter 3 - Raised From Ashes

Author's Note: Vader is Vader. Nothing more needs to be said.

PS. Minor character death. :)

~ Amina Gila

The Dark Side comes as readily as it always does, whirling around him in a dark, violent storm. He is not here to destroy, even if the Jedi surely are as corrupted as they were previously. No. He's here for Luke and Leia, that is all.

The trip had been long, and it was hard to leave his children behind on Naboo, but he had no choice. It would not be real if he were to merely possess this body, and every passing moment, he can feel how Anakin is pressing back, trying to throw him out. Vader is stronger, though, and now that he's here, his grip is unshakable.

He hasn't used a human body in years, but it will have to work. He doesn't need to fight, anyway. He's not here for a drawn out fight. He's here for the Jedi, to follow them back to Lothal and reenter the World Between Worlds. He needs to find the door to the Multiverse, so he can come through in his physical form.

Coruscant looks so similar yet so different, though that could merely be that he can see, and it feels so different in the Force. He shakes those thoughts from mind though. Nothing else matters.

He lands the shuttle near enough to the Temple that he can get there quickly. He knows he'll be met by a significant amount of resistance, but he can sense where the Force is whispering with wrongness at the sensation of the two presences that don't belong. They're anomalies and will never be fully accepted into this universe, seeing as they have duplicates here already.

That works to Vader's gain, of course. All of this does.

It always does. The Dark Side is with him.

The Jedi, predictably, sensed his arrival and are gathered in the side-entrance that he approaches. He does not have a lightsaber, or a weapon of any kind, but he doesn't need one. All he needs is his mind and the Force. This would hardly be the first time he's found himself weaponless.

He approaches the door anyway. "Stand aside," he orders, ignoring how jarring it is to hear his own voice.

The Temple Guards activate their lightsabers. "Stand back," they order.

"I am not here for bloodshed," he warns. He knows it's pointless, because the Jedi will never permit him to enter their Temple, but he has no reason not to offer them a chance to surrender, either way.

When none of them move, Vader reaches out, ripping the lightsaber away from one of the guards, letting the gold blade land in his hand. It's a different weight distribution, but no heavier than his normal one.

It's only different, because his body is human, not mostly metal.

With a flick of his wrist and a touch of the Force, he snaps their necks at once and walks past, heading through the doorway. It's a narrow walkway, not frequently used, but either way, he knows more will be coming.

He stands out too glaringly as not belonging here for them not to question it as soon as they see him.

It doesn't matter. The Force is with him, and he one-handedly blocks their attacks with either his lightsaber or the Force, throwing them aside as if they're nothing. In the face of the strength of the Dark Side, they are nothing. It's not until they finally catch onto it and start throwing Force attacks towards him that he stops to throw a shield around himself. They're slowing him down, and he can't afford that. Every second, every moment, he knows the Jedi he's searching for will be slipping away.

He doesn't stop to think about how the Jedi he's fighting are mostly ones he doesn't remember. It's not until he spots the former Grand Inquisitor that he realizes that yes, most of the Inquisitors are still going to be Jedi. It's... jarring to realize but it doesn't matter either way.