Star Wars
Darth Maul
Trail of Blood
By
Christopher Cleveland
Prologue
Maul's Sith Infiltrator landed in its regular hangar while he went to take a cab to Coruscant's maximum security prison. Just the day before, his Master had given him a new mission: to go to the Nyx system and planet Erebus, home of his former love the late Jedi Knight Ophelia. There, he was to protect her eldest brother Laertes from rebels that threatened his life daily while simultaneously investigating the truth behind rumors that Laertes and Ophelia's father Coriolanus was still alive. But first, he had to make a visit to an old foe: Laertes' younger brother Claudius who had been responsible for his young sister Ophelia's death, nearly four weeks before.
Though he detested the man, Sidious insisted that he seek Claudius out for information about Coriolanus in hoping to have a start on the rumor's truth. Bracing himself for any possible outcome of this visit, he stepped out of the cab that had taken him from his shuttle and arrived to the prison of Claudius' subjugation to Republic law. Once his false identification card was shown, the guards gave him a prisoner to escort him through the bowels of their prison as the guards wanted nothing to do with Claudius as well as heeding the Chancellor's orders for his sentence. Maul would not have wanted it any other way especially considering that facing the man who killed the only woman who could ever have loved him was personal.
Using a hovercraft, the escort lowered them into the depths of the prison to a dark place where Maul found him surprised at the number of people who did not manage to keep their sanity in check. He began to wonder if he had given Claudius the worst reason to go insane of the whole lot or if he had just done what was necessary to save all reality from the plans the scientist and the spirit of the ancient Sith Lord Darth Vitiate had created. Claudius had done the worst of all deeds when he made his attack on the Core of reality itself but Maul had to wonder if his mental resolve was a lot stronger than he had originally guessed. Initially, Claudius had been scared due to the loss of his sight as a price for his attack but he was calmed down by the time the judge sentenced him to life in this infernal prison.
"Here we are," the caretaker said, interjecting on Maul's deep contemplation. The cell's ray shield was turned off and Maul stepped in first. Maul had to admit he was somewhat disappointed what he saw before him but quickly dissolved it when Claudius ordered the caretaker to wait outside the cell and reactivated the shield containing them both. "Your mind is still intact even if your physical body is weakening with each day spent in that prison, impressive," Maul said, admitting his deepest surprise. "My crime hardened my resolve and I had time to think over what I had done rather than go mad in the belief I had done what was right as I did before," Claudius replied. Maul smiled and Claudius asked if he had come to kill him as he hoped. "Sorry to disappoint us both but I have not come to end your life, I've come for information on your father," Maul explained, holding his vengeance in check for now.