Chapter 26
Anakin lowered his hand, letting the Villain fall to the ground, his anger wasn't abated, but crushing the man's neck would be too fast.
No, Force choke was a power reserved for causing fear or efficiently eliminating subordinates, those who were incompetent but didn't deserve too much attention.
In many ways, when he had been Darth Vader, it had been a kindness. Anakin could remember hundreds of officers desperately begging for his forgiveness, all the while not understanding that, had he not accepted their apologies, their fates would have been far worse.
Turning away from the camera, he concentrated his senses into the half-destroyed facility, feeling the Force coiling around the walls, filled with echoes of anger and pain. The hideout was still very far from becoming a dark side nexus, but it was still a place of suffering and evil.
He supposed it fit his mood. Anakin knew he should be containing his anger, centering himself and regaining his balance, but the Travelers had tried to kill his charge, had almost succeeded in doing it. They would pay.
Despite the way he had dragged the facility up to the surface, Anakin could still sense quite a few survivors inside, to the Force, nearly all of them felt tainted, filled with selfishness and violence.
Good, their deaths would not be a significant loss.
With sure steps, he walked through the broken door into the descending corridor of the base, the path was wide enough for at least four people to walk comfortably side by side and the slope was minimal, clearly meant to prevent accidents.
As he moved, the metal walls deformed around his presence almost as if melting from heat.
The hallway was nearly pitch black, only his lightsaber illuminating the area around him with a reddish tint. Raising the underground facility had broken nearly every lamp while also damaging the base's connection to the city's electrical grid.
Still, in the distance, he could see a few emergency lights blinking at the end of the corridor, coming from what he assumed was the main room, they were just barely enough to illuminate its entrance, probably coming from a backup generator that had survived his rage.
The first laser passed just a few centimeters above his left shoulder, it wasn't a blaster bolt but a constant beam of light that reached him the second it was shot. Then his precognition warned him and he managed to block a second beam to his chest, the light briefly illuminating the hallway and deflecting to the side, scorching a line through the wall before cutting off.
Going low, Anakin channeled Force Speed and dashed towards his enemies, five lasers passing through where he had just been.
Weaving his body through the concentrated beams of light, he ran down the slightly descending hallway at full speed, his lightsaber rising and deflecting another beam back into one of the shooters, hitting the man in his unprotected head and watching it explode from the heat, then he reached the entrance.
With a brutal rising slash, Anakin cut one of the mercenaries from hip to shoulder, then, before the body had even fallen, he made a gesture, a Force push sending the woman to his left flying and breaking every bone in her body.
With a step to the side and a slash, Anakin decapitated a third mercenary, the head flying off before slashing down on top of the last one, the plasma blade dividing his body exactly in the middle with no resistance.
Slowly, the bisected man collapsed to the floor, the halves falling one to each side of Anakin with a heavy impact, the scent of burning flesh filling the air.
Straightening his back, he took in the room, nearly 200 meters wide, it was circular and had almost no furniture, only a few cabinets lined along the wall, with a 20 meters high ceiling. It looked like a gathering spot, a place where large numbers of people could be held and processed.
It was also filled with another 6 mercenaries, all of them staring at the spectacle as if they couldn't believe what they were seeing, or maybe they didn't have time to process what was happening.
Finally, the decapitated head hit the ground and it seemed to be a signal, the remaining mercenaries snapping out of their daze, most lifting their weapons but two, the smarter ones, simply turned their backs and ran.
Tracking the direction of their weapons, Anakin stepped to the left, dodging most of the laser beams while waving his lightsaber and deflecting two of them back, the first one stopping at a man's armored chest, only sending him stumbling back, while the second hit another's knee, flesh and blood expanding from the heat and exploding into a shower of gore.
Almost on instinct, he lifted his hand, releasing a storm of Force lightning towards the bastards. Fueled by his anger, the discharge of electricity forked into countless bolts that hit the floor and walls of the room, damaging everything in their way before hitting the three remaining mercenaries.
The men screamed, muscles locking in place as the lightning caused them a pain Anakin was so very familiar with, he had felt it in his body countless times through Sidious hands. Smoke started to rise from their bodies but they didn't die, trapped in the pain he was causing.
Shaking his head, he snapped out of it and cut off the lightning, letting the men die.
He did not regret their suffering, he could sense they deserved every bit of it, but indulging in it was too much… More importantly, it was a waste of time, they were beneath even his anger.
The two escaping mercenaries had reached an exit, another large hallway going further into the building. Turning off his lightsaber, Anakin didn't kill them, letting them lead him deeper into the base.
Looking towards a wall to his left, he noticed a few tiles of different colors forming a word, 'Shelter 05', so this place was supposed to protect people, its purpose twisted by Coil.
Anakin wondered if the Villain enjoyed the irony of a place built for safety being used as a criminal lair. He knew Sidious would have found it mildly amusing. Regardless, without his armor, it was almost trivial to follow them, he did not even need to use the Force to mask his sound.
As he walked, he passed through another two rooms that could have held refugees, but they had all been turned to different purposes, one holding an arsenal and the other several storage crates. Ahead of him, the fleeing mercenaries seemed to be slowing down.
"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" one of the two men almost screamed as they took a turn to the left. "I didn't fucking sign-in to fight a goddamn Nine candidate!"
"Shut the fuck up and run," the second growled. "You knew the boss' power would fail someday."
"Not against THAT!" The first man gasped and Anakin could sense the fear radiating from him, together, they turned another corner. "Hey! For god's sake, tell me you guys managed it?"
"Almost!" A third voice yelled. "What's wrong? Where's Klein?"
"Dead," the first voice gasped, having finally stopped. "Fucking Susanoo cut him in half."
"Shit," yet another voice said, "Blow it, we have to get out of here."
From around the corner, Anakin heard a loud but controlled explosion, recognizing it as some form of military breaching charge, metal and gravel raining onto the ground, he accelerated his pace.
Turning the corner, he remained hidden in the darkness, seeing three men and one of the Travelers at the end of the hallway, they had huge lanterns and were getting out of cover to look at a small opening between the collapsed hallway while the two men he had followed recovered their breath only a couple of meters from his position.
All along the walls there were large pieces of gravel, signs of a half successful attempt to excavate an opening on the collapsed corridor. Still, the breaching charge seemed to have finished the job, blowing a narrow hole through the debris big enough for the mercenaries and, most importantly, the Villain, to squeeze through.
Anakin couldn't have that.
With a 'hiss', he ignited his saber, the red light finally revealing his position and his aura spreading through the narrow passage like an oppressive shadow over their minds.
"Fuck, go! Go! Go!" A woman screamed.
With only a glance, he grabbed the two nearest mercenaries with Force telekinesis, briefly lifting them in the air before pressing their bodies against the walls to either side with enough strength to drive the air out of their lungs. They struggled and groaned, hearts beating like mad, but he only pressed them harder.
Filled with dread, one of the men pushed his companion aside and rushed into the opening, desperately trying to squeeze through the small hole, the other two turned towards Anakin and opened fire, but the fear made them shake violently and ruined their aim.
Touching one of the debris, Ballistic sent it flying his way, nearly a hundred kilos of stone released at the speed of a bullet. Anakin just waved his free hand, using telekinesis to deflect the projectile into the man to his left as he walked by him.
The stone smashed into the paralyzed mercenary in an explosion of gore and dust, utterly destroying most of his body. With a backhanded slash, Anakin cut through the man to his right, lightsaber burning all the way through his body and leaving a glowing scorched line into the metal wall, his lower body collapsed to the ground and, a second later, his upper chest followed, released from Anakin's telekinetic hold.
In front of him, the first man had almost gone through the hole, so Anakin dashed forward. Ballistic sent another rock, but he just ducked under the projectile. Then, in desperation, the Villain touched one of the huge boulders holding the damaged ceiling in place.
With a deafening crack, the entire boulder tilted forward, then it was sent flying towards him, the thing was large enough to almost fill the hallway, digging into the floor and walls and sending a wave of destruction his way.
It was a mistake, without support, the ceiling immediately started to break and, this time, the weight would bring down the entire hallway. Annoyed, Anakin concentrated and squeezed a fist, using the Force to keep it all from falling.
Anakin frowned, knowing that if he destroyed the incoming rock he would be left without anything to sustain the ceiling and would have to keep doing it with the Force, entirely within his capabilities, but it would still require a portion of his concentration. Thankfully, he was no longer constrained by his armor.
Enhancing his body, he jumped, then kicked against the wall and turned his body sideways, squeezing through the narrow space left between the projectile and the ceiling.
Falling into a roll on the other side, he came up with a slash, amputating both of Balistic's hands just as he was about to touch another rock. With the grace of his younger days, Anakin almost danced around Balistic's body, lightsaber singing as he cut down the remaining two mercenaries before the Villain could even fall to his knees and scream from the pain.
Putting his lightsaber back on his waist, Anakin pointed at the boulder, dragging it back through the hallway in eerie silence, the rock turning in the air before, with a loud crack, settling back into place.
Lowering his hands, Anakin slowly released the ceiling back into place, the building cracking and groaning, but finally settling with the boulder as a support.
Ballistic was still kneeling on the ground, the Cape had tried to cradle his burned wrists to his chest, but touching the wounds had only made them hurt more, so the man could only hold them a few centimeters in front of his body, eyes squeezed tightly trying to overcome both his pain and his fear.
Anakin loomed at his back, letting the man suffer for a few seconds, the Dark side whispering at him to enjoy the moment before, with the flick of a finger, he lifted the man in the air and turned his body around. "Were you the one to hurt my apprentice?"
Focused as he was, Anakin felt a brief moment of confusion, then a second of both relief and hope.
"Arg… No!" Ballistic gasped between the pain. "No, it was… arg… Trickster!"
"Were you aware that was the goal?"
"No! God no… please, n-none of us knew, it was… huff… all him!"
Anakin could sense the truth in his words, but he could also sense something else. "You know Trickster's location. You will tell me or you will suffer. Choose wisely."
"He went for… No-Noelle on the southern side… off the building," Ballistic managed to say, then had to take another deep breath and lick his dry lips. "Her usual exit… is blocked… should come he-here soon. Either that or… or they're going for the ma-main entrance."
Not optimal, but Anakin could work with that. Spreading his senses, he verified if there was nobody on the other side of the hallway, but he couldn't sense anything living there.
Finally, he turned his attention further into the facility and frowned, the number of lives he sensed seemed to have increased, but they felt weak. He could barely sense their hate and anger, but even that felt hollow in a way that brought back memories.
Clones, Anakin realized, even worse ones than the clone troopers of the Republic, filled with memories and skills but no actual experience or context to give their presence in the Force any strength.
Ballistic had started to get used to the pain on his wrists, his muscles trying to relax as he started to come down from his adrenaline rush, then Anakin spoke again. "The youngling, had you known Trickster meant to kill her, would you have refused?"
For a second, the Villain didn't understand what he said, probably thanks to the unfamiliar term used, but then his fear started rising again as he desperately tried to come up with an answer.
"Your feelings betray you," Anakin said to the cape, lightsaber floating to his hand. "Frustration, anger, helplessness, but almost no empathy. You regret the necessity, not that it happened."
Channeling his anger, Anakin made a grasping motion, Force crush snapping every one of Balistic's limbs in a single motion, bones bending over themselves with sickening 'cracks'.
Letting the Villain drop to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut, Anakin turned back towards the direction he sensed the clones and started walking, leaving Ballistic crying in pain.
Just as he was about to turn a corner, he used a single Force push, hitting the support boulder with enough strength to crack it in the middle. At first there was a groan, then small rocks started falling before, with a deafening noise, the entire hallway and quite a few rooms around it collapsed, burying the Cape below a literal ton of debris.
With only one exit, Anakin didn't hurry, walking through the dark hallways at a steady pace, his steps echoing into the completely silent hideout. Only four minutes later, he heard the sound of something large dragging itself towards him, he continued walking.
At the end of the dark corridor, a deformed monstrosity appeared, Barely fitting the hallway, it was a mass of flesh composed of all manners of animal heads and limbs, eyes and teeth sprouting all along its massive length as well as a myriad of assorted body parts, it dragged itself forward with surprising speed, using animal legs and tentacles to move along the floor.
Sprouting from atop the monster was the top half of a young woman who froze, looking at him with desperate, narrowed eyes, almost unconsciously, her thin arms wrapped themselves around her human body, shaking. She seemed to have been crying, face still wet with tears.
From her, Anakin could sense madness, regret, fear, anger… as well as a second set of feelings, completely independent from her but hammering against her own mind, filled with aggression and eagerness for a fight, both halves struggling against each other. He supposed this was Noelle.
"Please," the girl managed to say, her entire body shaking. "Get out of my way."
"No," he answered without stopping.
Behind her, he could sense his target, Trickster, as well as three clones, their minds almost empty if not for their artificial, negative feelings.
"You're the Master," the girl said in realization, a giant arm on her button half clawing at the floor and leaving four deep furrows. "The one who kidnapped the little girl. Are you here to kill us?"
"Yes."
That seemed to change the woman, her eyes focusing on him and her mind growing calmer, almost as if the threat to her survival made her more in sync with the mind of her lower body
Almost like water, her lower body flowed, muscles and bone's shifting until a hole opened under the head of a cow and between two large tentacles, a naked woman stepping out of the flesh mass, another clone.
Anakin ignited his saber.
"Coil told me about you," Noelle said, voice hard. "I… I won't let you take us. Marissa."
The clone immediately focused on Noelle's voice, her eyes gaining life and turning to glare at Anakin, lifting her arms, she pointed.
The Force screamed at him, a warning that his lightsaber wouldn't be enough, instead, the former Sith Lord created a Force shield around himself, a second later, a torrent of fire hit him, flowing around his shield like water and scorching the hallway around.
The attack was such that Anakin had to pause briefly, then adjust his shield to deal with the flames, heat was something he had long learned to deal with, but it still required a little more concentration.
Around him, the hallway started to melt, the very floor under him turning liquid from the intensity of the flames, but Anakin started walking again, fire splashing harmlessly against his shield.
Finally, nearly 5 seconds later, the stream stopped, revealing a burning building and a collapsed clone, flames covering the entire length of the hallway and illuminating the darkness. Marissa was on her knees, her hands were black from the fire and even her hair had been burned away. Apparently, the clone was not immune to her own power.
"No!" Noelle screamed, her human body filled with sweat from the heat generated, some of her lower body recoiling away from the clone as if they had a life of their own. "Krouse, I need..."
Anakin didn't let her finish, using Force Choke to squeeze her throat and hold her in place.
Noelle's lower body didn't seem to be affected, dozens of limbs trying to retreat at the same time, hoofs and claws digging into the ground. Still, no matter how strong, the beast would not overcome his grasp, its futile efforts only serving to nearly rip the girl in half.
Another warning made Anakin release the girl and step back, not even a second later, a small red orb melted through the wall to his right and passed right where his head would have been.
In only a second, the air was filled with red orbs, they melted through the walls and ceiling, moving independently towards him, like his lightsaber, each one perfectly contained more heat than the stream of fire he had just blocked.
Noelle gasped for breath, her lower body shooting back through the corridor almost three times as fast as a normal human could run.
With an effort of will, Anakin sent a large Force push, the nearly visible wave of power scattering the orbs and dispersing them before hitting the monstrosity, sending her body flying through two consecutive walls, bones breaking and body parts flying off before some of her clawed limbs managed to find purchase on the ground, digging deep furrows through the floor before fully stopping.
Behind where Noelle had just been, peeking around a corner, Trickster, two 'Melissa' clones and a badly dressed Jester like the one who attacked Dinah while under Faultline's protection looked at him. One of the Clones moved her hands, generating another two red orbs that rose in the air around her.
Trickster was in a wheelchair, one of his legs immobilized and his face haunted, but he still managed to stare directly at Anakin for a full second as the Force user started to run.
In the middle of a step, Anakin felt the world twisting around him, the Force screaming in warning from nearly all around. Adjusting his step, he twisted aside, lightsaber slashing at an orb even as he barely dodged another and stepped away from a hand grasping towards his leg.
It only took him a moment to understand what happened, Trickster had used his power to swap their locations, leaving him surrounded by the three clones.
The first 'Melissa' was thin and had short hair, ribs visible under her stretched skin, one of her eyes lacked color, but she still managed to step away from him, creating another two red orbs between her hands and leaving her with a total of four of the projectiles. Fortunately, they were far slower than blaster bolts.
The second 'Melissa' had unnaturally long arms, but looked otherwise perfectly normal before bursting into flame, the fire consuming her skin from the inside out and turning her into a living torch that emitted enough heat to melt metal. With a shout, she tried to punch him.
Finally, the Jester had been the one trying to grab his leg, a large smile on his face as he attacked again, a twisted mallet appearing in his hand before he attacked, wielding the weapon with reflexes to match a trained Jedi.
Anakin almost felt sorry for the clone.
Everything happened at nearly the same time. With a sharp movement, he dodged the flaming woman's punch and cut the mallet in half with his lightsaber before advancing and striking at the Jester's body.
Just as his blade was about to touch the Clown's skin, the air twisted, the clone's body seeming to be compressed and folded painfully before being dragged towards a different dimension contained in his left hand, the lightsaber passing harmlessly over where he had just been.
Releasing his grip, Anakin allowed his lightsaber to fly off, the weapon rotating in the air towards the first 'Melissa' clone even as he used Tutaminis to absorb the heat from the second and grab her wrist before she could pull it back, then he threw her down towards where the Jester had disappeared.
With a 'crack' of compressed air, the Jester snapped back to reality, most of his body broken by the experience and blood leaking from places where his muscles had been torn, but he still tried to move his arm and grab Anakin's foot.
Then the flaming clone fell on top of him, he screamed in pain, but only briefly before fire spread through his body like napalm, burning skin, flesh and bones and ending his life before the woman could recover and push herself away from him.
The first Melissa clone threw herself to the side and tried to use one of her red orbs to intercept the lightsaber flying her way, but the projectiles couldn't move fast enough and the blade cut through her body, severing an arm and destroying her left lung.
Extending his arm, Anakin pulled the weapon back to his hand and felt a foreign power gathering around himself. This time he was ready, jumping towards the corner and away from Trickster view for a moment. The power immediately stopped.
Hmmm, it appeared that, similar to Oni Lee, Trickster required line of sight to teleport, his power also seemed to take some time to activate. Good.
Twisting his lightsaber, he kneeled and drove the weapon point first towards the face of the flaming clone before it could get up, the woman reacted, trying to block the blade with her hands, even offering some resistance, it simply wasn't enough.
His red lightsaber burned through the palm of her hand, then hit her head and pierced it all the way through, digging several centimeters into the ground, with a flourish, he pulled back and got up.
For a second, the flames tried to converge into the hole in the middle of her face, filling it in, her limbs twitching with involuntary movements, but then the fire went out, revealing the clone's pristine skin under them, a half healed lightsaber wound where her eyes should be.
Stepping back into the hallway, Anakin noticed Trickster had already swapped himself with one of Noelle's amputated limbs and was standing a few meters behind the monstrosity.
Noelle's lower body seemed to be flowing, muscles moving like water under her bestial skin and healing all the damage his Force push had done, broken limbs fixing themselves into new forms.
From her side, between the hoof of a cow and the head of a small cat, yet another 'Melissa' clone started to break free of her mass, but Anakin had had enough, pinching his thumb and forefinger, he broke the clone's neck before the woman had ever taken her first step.
"Yeah," Trickster said, not even trying to use his power and just swallowing hard. "I don't think I can survive that."
Anakin strode towards them, stepping over the destroyed hallway and letting the flames spread behind him, it was time to finish this.
"He won't do it," Noelle rasped, fear in her voice as she realized what he wanted. "The monster doesn't want to make things easy for us."
"I'm sorry," Trickster said, face filled with bitterness and resignation.
Noelle didn't answer, her fear slowly turning into rage, the second set of emotions inside her seeming to resonate with her own state of mind. "You think you can beat him? No. No, you just want to fight him and think I can't do it."
"What?" Trickster asked, but Anakin knew the woman wasn't talking with him.
Noelle closed her eyes, mind filled with a devastating amount of self-loathing that slowly turned into hate and anger. Anakin recognized it, the signs of someone who knew they had gone too far and NEEDED to be right lest their actions had all been for nothing.
Someone who, deep down, knew they had lost everything by their own hands but refused to accept it, blaming the world for their own weakness.
The realization of how similar their situation was finally managed to make him stop, partially snapping him out of his rage and parting the veil of the Dark Side Anakin hadn't even realized had come over him.
He almost laughed, after everything he had said… Even knowing how easy it was to fall back on old habits, how easy it was to lose focus…
Not even a month ago he had taught the youngling to focus on her desire to protect her family, not her fear of Coil or her desire to punish him for what he did, and yet…
It was like his mother's death once again, attacking the Travelers not because they still represented a danger or to prevent them from hurting anyone else, but simply to make them suffer for what they did to him… Everything almost made him feel tired.
Centering himself, Anakin stared at the Villains a hundred meters away from him and briefly closed his eyes, releasing the worst of his emotions into the Force so he could think clearly again.
"Fine, everything is gone anyway, Oliver is gone, Jess is gone, Luke's probably dead and Marissa…" Noelle continued to talk with a broken voice, tears starting to fall from her eyes again. "Ha, haha, really, so stupid… thinking it was gonna end any other way. Fine, but at least make him pay for it, make sure he can't hurt that little girl anymore."
Opening his eyes again, Anakin saw Noelle's gaze had gone vacant, her human body falling forward as her monstrous half became far more active, tentacles that ended with sharp spikes digging into the floor and lifting her mass up.
Squeezing his hand, he hit Trickster with a Force push, sending him smashing into the ceiling and causing him to pass out, then he broke Noelle's neck, but it barely affected the beast, the dozens of animal heads roaring as they charged him as even her human side regenerated.
Switching his focus, Anakin tried to use Force crush on her lower body, but the mass resisted him, Noelle's power acting like Vista's and trying to fight him off not with the Force, but with sheer physical might.
It felt like he was trying to crush an entire continent, something that would require more concentration than he had to spare at the moment.
Limbs and bones were crushed, only to flow like water and heal a second later, claws and tentacles twisted in the air or were amputated, only for new ones to grow in their place and, slowly, crawl towards Anakin in an animalistic rage.
Now that Noelle wasn't in control anymore, he could feel the will controlling the mass of flesh below her, simultaneously inside her and impossibly distant. It felt large, ancient and alien, like the Ancient Abyss or the Summa-Verminoth Anakin had encountered before.
One large claw smashed only twenty meters from him, piercing through the metal and digging five meters into the wall before its muscles contracted, then another hoof flexed working together to push the beast closer, dozens of mouths roaring in a cacophony of sound.
Instead of retreating, Anakin lunged, lightsaber humming as he amputated the three spikes that tried to stop him and stepped on top of a horse's head, the body immediately tried to grab him, absorbing him into its mass, but he was too fast.
He also felt something trying to touch his mind, attempting to copy his memories. Unfortunately for the creature, it was not subtle and even Sidious, master of the art, could not get into his mind with only raw power, Anakin simply snapped the door on its efforts and ran along the beast's body.
With a lunge, his lightsaber pierced a spot under Noelle's human waist, the blade burning through her condensed flesh and muscle, deep into her body in a straight line to where he felt the alien intelligence most connected to her.
The attack didn't kill the creature, but Anakin felt it's control over the body faltering, suddenly, for a few seconds, it no longer felt like he was fighting an entire continent but just a very large beast.
Taking the opportunity, Anakin grabbed both halves of Noelle with Force Telekinesis and ripped them apart in a shower of blood and gore, her humanoid upper half lifting from the monstrous mass to reveal her legs had became a continuation of her spine attached to a core of raw flesh filled with veins and nerves that fall to the floor a few meters behind the monstrous body.
Under his feet, the mass of flesh collapsed, its limbs still moving independently, but now lacking a driving will to control them, no more than a chimera of animals struggling on their dying throes.
Opening her eyes, Noelle gasped, then screamed in pain, her eyes regaining focus even as the mass under her body started regenerating at an accelerated rate, it would not stop, recovering to its former size in less than an hour if left alone.
Anakin dropped to the floor only a few centimeters from her body, cutting off a tentacle of flesh that instinctively tried to grab him and stepped closer, then he made a grasping motion towards the flesh core, completely crushing the mass.
Noelle screamed again, her back rising from the ground for a second before she collapsed bonelessly back, blood starting to spread around her body and her mind already starting to fade without any help.
"Kr-Krouse, Krouse where are you," she gasped, starting to lose feeling in her body even as one hand reached for her lover. "It's all… it's all wrong… never supposed to be… us… Should have died… in Madison. Couldn't even… save the girl…"
Standing over her body, Anakin turned off his lightsaber, despite their conflict, he couldn't help empathizing with her. In her last moments, when she knew there was no escape, all she wanted was to 'save' Dinah, to do at least one right thing in her life before it ended.
Unlike him, the Force would not be giving her a second chance.
"The girl is safe," Anakin said, using a Mind Trick to influence her pained mind. "You have succeeded, rest now."
Noelle sighed, her muscles relaxing and a smile appearing in her face for a second even as the light left her eyes, she died, released from the influence of whatever creature had been behind her power.
With the woman dead, Anakin turned towards Trickster, the Villain who had almost killed Dinah. He still felt hate for the pathetic man, but it was no longer the all consuming feeling that brought him here.
No, he would no longer spend hours torturing the man, but he still could not help the desire to stare into his eyes and end his life. Without any gesture, Anakin used Force telekinesis to drag him closer.
Trickster woke up in the air, his eyes immediately turning towards Noelle's body before he released a scream of horror. For a second, the broken man just floated in front of Anakin, not bothering to resist his hold.
"I didn't have a choice," Trickster whispered without taking his eyes off Noelle. "I had to protect her."
Now that he was paying attention, Anakin could sense the conflicting influence on the man's mind, an insidious virus giving him a fanatical desire to protect the girl, but not doing much else.
"Lie," he said, forcing Trickster to his knees in front of him. "You were tasked with her protection, yet the path you chose was your own. Your actions, your responsibility."
Gathering the Force around himself, Anakin touched the Villain's head, using Memory Walk to show him his choices.
Usually, such skill would only torture Trickster with his own worst memories, but Anakin was powerful enough to take control of the experience, directing which memories he would relive and showing them free of external influence.
It was, perhaps, worse than just torture, to realize that his fate wasn't the fault of some monster or looming evil but the result of his own choices, that Anakin hadn't come here because Trickster was 'mastered' but as a result of his own, freely taken actions.
He could have refused Coil's offer when he realized the price was a young girl's freedom, he could have fled when that price increased to her life, instead, he had chosen to compromise what few morals he had left.
In truth, whatever sentient had influenced him, it had been skillful. Having spent enough time with his former master, Anakin could recognize the touch of a master manipulator.
The culprit had infected Trickster with a need to protect Noelle, not bothering to do anything else not out of compassion or lack of ability but because, knowing the kind of man Trickster was, any such changes were unnecessary.
Trickster was left shaking, blood leaking from his mouth, the memories affecting him more than anything Anakin could have said, the man even ignored the pain from his wounded knee and the lightsaber blade that almost touched his neck.
Laying his lightsaber against Trickster's neck, Anakin briefly considered sparing the man, his compulsion was broken, his power was not a threat and he was defeated, helpless. Sparing him would be the correct thing to do.
Then he moved his arm, lightsaber humming as it cut through the Villain's unprotected neck with no resistance.
Anakin sighed, he was trying to be better, he really was, but sparing the man who had personally attempted to kill his apprentice was asking too much.
Turning off his lightsaber, he clasped the handle to his waist and turned back towards the still moving mass of flesh, noticing a clone of himself halfway out of its side. Thankfully, the creature was already braindead, Noelle's power unable to make a copy of his mind.
Then he noticed yet another mind waking up inside the dying beast and starting to panic. With a flick of his hand, he ripped the beast in two with Force Telekinesis to reveal the woman inside.
Sundancer was a mess, a few pieces of her costume had survived, but her hands and most of her feet had already been digested, both of her legs were broken and her hair was entirely gone, dissolved while inside Noelle.
The woman cried out in pain and tried to open her eyes, only to reveal that they too had been wounded by her stay inside the creature. She felt terrified, confused and in terrible pain.
Anakin almost reached for his lightsaber, but then he sighed, according to Ballistic, she too had no idea of what Coil planned for Dinah, probably believing she was rescuing the girl just like Noelle and, now that he had killed Trickster, some of his anger had abated.
Well… he did say he was trying to be better. Stepping closer to the woman, he watched her curl into herself before channeling the Force and speaking. "Sleep."