Magenta Sith

Chapter 1 - A New Hope

Author's Note: This is kind of a SW version of the MCU movie Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. I hope y'all enjoy it! :D

Also, this is a gift for IceyGemini on ao3, and updates will be weekly on Friday. There are five chapters. :)

~ Amina Gila

"Not pink," Leia protests vehemently, "You are not putting pink flowers in my hair!"

"It's the perfect touch," Luke insists, as he works on braiding half of Leia's hair. Anakin is sitting next to him, working on the other half of her hair.

"You don't need to put up my hair all fancily right before bedtime," she protests, "I'll have to take it down as soon as we're called inside." She shoots a pointed look up at the darkened sky, the grassy fields surrounding them only illuminated by the full moons and an occasional, glowing flower.

The type on Naboo that only blooms at its fullest on the night of a full moon.

"You can leave them in," Anakin protests.

"You want me to obliterate all these flowers in my bed?" Leia demands incredulously.

"You can sleep sitting up!" Luke advises cheerfully.

"You do that! Normal people don't do that."

"Skywalkers aren't normal," Anakin deadpans. He finishes tying the end of her braid and sits down next to her. Together, they watch the stars and the moon slowly rising, the sounds of night-insects surrounding them.

When Vader dreams, they're always of pain and death. They're never of something so light and real, of something that feels so similar to a vision, and yet, he knows it's not. It didn't feel like it, and even if it did, it would be impossible. His children are dead.

They're gone. He killed them years ago. So, why is he dreaming of what could have been?

Once, and he would have brushed it off. But it's happening again, and again, until he's seeing more and more of this alternate timeline. This all could have been, but it isn't. And never will be. He only wanted to keep them safe.

Instead, he was what they needed to be kept safe from.

The Dark Side surges, demanding violence, and Vader lashes out, shattering the walls of the bacta tank around him.

But that's not enough; it's never enough, no matter how many times he's done it, because all he can do is continue living and loathing. The more he sees, the more he remembers, the more he knows this is real. It's another universe out there parallel to his own, one where he still has his family. Where he still has Padme, where he was able to raise his children. He's seen Ahsoka sometimes, too, bits and pieces, seeing how she's taken a role in raising Luke and Leia as well.

He's been alone for years. He has forgotten what it means not to be, but this – seeing his children, it's different. It's not as it was with everyone in Anakin's family. He never knew them, and they should have been a part of his life as well.

In another time, somehow, he got to raise them.

He wants it. He craves it. He needs it more than he has ever needed anything in his life. He has never wanted anything more than to be with them, to raise them, and knowing that it could have happened, that it is happening somewhere...

And from afar, he can only dream, knowing what he lost. From here, he can only watch, constantly fearing what will take them from him even if they are only a dream – what will happen that this other Anakin is incapable of protecting them from.