Here's the next chapter! This one's a little long, but I think I got everything covered that I needed to in it. The next chapter will be even longer!
By the way, thanks for reading! This is the second to last chapter, and I just want to say that this has been fun. In my last fanfic, I said writing was like running a daycare in my head. This has been more like watching a play, since the plot was already laid out mostly and all. But I'm still going to miss it when it's finished.
Oh, well! I still have my Monster in Paris Drabbles to refill my daycare! Thanks guys!
When you hold a Zhaboka, you hold a piece of our culture in your hand. The witches can take away everything else, but we are still at our core Zabrak. We are brothers. Remember that. ~Brutal
Savage sat in silence for almost three hours just watching. His hunt was over now, at least; he'd found his brother.
He didn't know what he was expecting, but it wasn't this. He thought maybe his brother would be antisocial or in some kind of trouble, since he was living in exile. Savage wouldn't have cared if he was in trouble, as he had a price or two on his head as well. And he was well used to antisocial people, feeling like he was becoming one himself lately. He had searched for months, scouring the area that Mother Talzin had mentioned as his brother's likely location for any signs of him. The pendant she'd given him was somehow designed to sense the presence of his brother, which had proven invaluable in finding him. And after all that time, after all the searching, he'd finally found him.
Savage watched his brother. Somehow he'd attached himself to the remains of a spider-like droid and he raved around in his cave. Sometimes he paced, talking to himself as if there was someone else there beside him, and sometimes he just grunted in little, tormented, feral noises. Savage watched him with pity and fear, sensing the pain that simple movement caused his long lost kin. He was badly injured and fragile, not to mention the obvious insanity. He knew he had to find a way to bring him back to the ship, but when he'd tried to communicate with him it had only inflamed him more. And now he carried on as before, acting as if he was completely alone. Savage was sure that his brother was aware of his presence, as he reacted whenever he made the slightest motion or sound, but he was ignoring him for some reason.
"Brother?" Savage said, his voice carrying well in the echoing cave.
"No!" his brother barked back, waving his hand dismissively and looking away from Savage entirely, "Never, no, no!"
"Brother, I'm going to go to my ship," Savage said slowly, standing at an equally gradual pace so as not to spook the madman.
"Freedom," his brother said, suddenly beginning to scuttle in a tight circle, "Freedom is a lie, an illusion of power that no man holds. None of us is free…"
Savage's brow wrinkled at that sad glimpse into his brother's psyche then he turned to leave. His brother had been in this cave for "years and years" and hadn't managed to kill himself yet. He could stand to be left alone for the time it would take to bring the ship closer. If he could get back to the ship Savage could get the blaster the ship's former owner had onboard and perhaps lightly stun his brother. The thought was not appealing, knowing how dangerous that could be to his brother's health, but it would get him onto the ship.
He walked slowly away, not turning fully away from his brother until he was into the tunnel a few yards. Savage walked resolutely, looking down at the charm around his neck and thinking. He hadn't been walking long when he heard something behind him and looked back. He caught a flash of movement in his peripheral vision and focused on it just in time to see a metallic leg disappear into a crevice.
"Brother?" he called out.
Only silence answered him. Savage turned around and walked toward where the leg had disappeared, looking in and seeing a faint glimmer reflecting off his brother's eyes.
"Are you following me?" he asked, trying to communicate again.
"No!" the feral voice replied.
"Ok, then," Savage said, half tempted to roll his eyes, and he continued towards the exit of the tunnel.
The scuttling behind him resumed, but this time Savage knew better than to turn back. He reached out in the Force towards his brother, and found the other's presence to be strangely inviting. His brother wasn't following him to kill and/or eat him, that much he knew. But the real motivation for his actions was clouded in the shroud of pain and confusion that was his brother's presence. Savage didn't look back at him, but he did speak to him again.
"Is there something you need, brother?" he asked.
"No!" his brother barked back, and this time Savage did roll his eyes.
He felt like he was talking to Feral when he was two and the only word he wanted to say was no.
Soon he came to the exit of the tunnel and stepped out after looking for a minute to be certain there wasn't anything dangerous waiting for him. He had taken two steps when he heard his brother speak again.
"No!" his voice said, this time sounding deliberately hushed.
Savage stifled his frustration and turned back. His brother's head was just visible, poking out of the entrance, and he met his eyes for the first time since Savage had found him.
"No to what?" he said, knowing his brother must be trying to communicate something.
Instead of a verbal answer, he pulled his head back into the entrance and then poked it back out, like a cautious animal that was unwilling to leave its burrow. Savage understood. He been living on this planet for years, and judging by the state of his cave he'd done his best to make it difficult to enter without his knowledge. He was heavily injured and to most natural predators he would seem an easy target. His tunnel and the mystery it provided made him the predator instead of the prey. In his fractured mind, leaving it would be akin to suicide.
"Don't worry," Savage said, trying to sooth him, "There's nothing out here that the two of us couldn't handle together."
"No," his brother replied, this time giving him a look of frank refusal.
Savage almost laughed in spite of himself. It was just such a sarcastic, almost normal facial expression; it was something he'd never expect from this man.
"Ok, if you don't want to come you don't have to," Savage replied, turning away again, "I'm just going to my ship. I'll be back."
He heard a scuffle behind him and turned to see his brother out of the cave up to his shoulders, looking almost desperate.
"No!" he barked at him, reaching towards him with his right hand.
"It's ok," Savage said, turning to walk away again despite the begging look on his brother's face, "I'll be fine."
"Idiot," the voice in the cave replied.
Savage turned back at that with an incredulous look. His brother had sunk back down so that only his eyes were above the entrance, and he was glaring at him. Savage waved his arms slightly, smiling now.
"I'm out in the open, have been for a while now," he said in an encouraging voice, "Nothing has tried to eat me yet!"
That argument would probably have been more convincing if an ambush hadn't sprung the moment it left his mouth. Where everything had been silent there was suddenly the sound of rustling cloaks, creaking mechanics, and blaster bolts. Savage cussed in surprise and deflected the bolts with his saberstaff, looking to see who was shooting. Small, crouched over forms revealed another party of the junkers, this one much larger than the one he had faced coming in. His brow knit when one of the bolts from their improvised sniper rifles found its way through his defense, stinging his ribs. He continued to concentrate and surrendered his control to the Force, allowing his reflexes to become better than they ever could be. Bolts flew back to their senders and the party gradually shrunk, but they weren't giving up.
When Savage heard the noise behind him, he turned around to face whatever had been sneaking up on him. He found a junker, already inside his defense, with a blaster aimed. He inwardly cussed again and begun swinging his saberstaff, knowing the swing would come too late and the bolt would hit him at close range. Then, without warning, the junker fell forward and the bolt went zinging past Savage's ear. His brother had tripped the creature from behind. He then jumped on top of it, killed it with his bare hands, and let out a primal Zabraki roar that terrified even Savage. Sure enough, the junkers all began to shriek and flee, leaving Savage to stare at his brother in surprise.
"Brother?" he asked, taking a few steps closer.
He received no answer, as his brother seemed to be ignoring him again, this time in favor of the junker carcass. He'd stripped the chest plate by the time Savage got to him, and looked as if he was about ready to begin eating it. Savage felt the bile rise to his throat and swallowed, speaking again.
"Brother, no," he said, crouching beside him, "Don't eat that."
His brother looked up at him with a questioning expression.
"Mine," he snarled, pointing to it.
"Of course," Savage said, not wanting to set himself at odds with his brother's predatory instincts, "It's yours. But I have something better."
As he said this, he pulled out a ration wafer from his armor, which he'd taken with him from the ship. As soon as it was visible, his brother's eyes were locked on it longingly.
"Do you want to trade me for it?" Savage asked, moving the bar side to side and watching as his brother's eyes followed it, "You don't really want to eat that sickly thing, do you?"
His brother's eyes narrowed and he looked down at the carcass.
"Healthy for a junker," he muttered under his breath, earning a smirk from Savage, then said louder, "More here than there if there."
As he said that, he pointed to the carcass and the ration bar respectively. Savage thought of a plan instantaneously and answered quickly.
"I have more of these," he said, moving the bar again, "That's what I wanted from my ship. I'll trade them all to you if you'll give me that. I'll give you this one now as a promise, ok?"
His brother pondered over this for a few minutes, then snatched the bar from his hand. Savage reached for the carcass, but his brother blocked his hand and snarled. He pulled back quickly.
"These first, then you get yours," he hissed, and Savage understood.
For all his insanity, his brother was no fool.
"Ok," Savage said, putting his hands up as if in surrender, "But we should hide it. My ship is a while away, and I we're going to go get the bars we'll have to leave it here for a while."
Savage watched as his brother thought about this, then pulled the carcass back to the entrance of the tunnel and shoved it in, turning back to Savage expectantly. Savage turned and began to walked, hearing his brother scuttling behind him, and smiled. It was working!
When they arrived at the ship, Savage walked up the platform and disabled the blaster door with the codes he'd reprogramed after disposing of the previous owner. He looked back and saw his brother waiting at the bottom of the platform, looking hesitant.
"They're in here," he called out, then added on an afterthought, "Too many for me to carry alone. Come up and get some of these!"
His brother hesitated for another moment, then scuttled his way up the ramp quickly, his metal legs clanging against the ramp. Savage had already run to the cockpit, and when his brother entered the blast door, he shut it remotely from there, also shutting the door between himself and the room where he'd just trapped his brother. He turned to the console and closed all the airlocks and the boarding ramp, starting up the launch sequence in the computer.
He heard his brother begin to scream as he did this and cringed. He knew the reaction wouldn't be good, but he still felt guilty that it had to be that way. The scuttling sound went swiftly and erratically around the cargo room he was trapped in, and Savage finished the launch, the ship blasting off and moving out of the gravitational pull of the planet below. He leaned back in his chair as the computer calculated the hyperspace course to reach Dathomir. When they were safely on their way, he turned back to look through the viewport in the door at his brother.
At first he didn't see him and almost panicked, worried that he'd somehow gotten out of an airlock before they were closed and was back on the garbage world. But he sensed him close by, so that couldn't be. He peered through the small window for several seconds more before his brother's face suddenly appeared right in front of his, snarling angrily. Savage started and drew back from the window, and his brother began to pound of it with his fist and claw at it with his fingers. Finding it impossible to open that way, he screamed in rage and scuttled away. Savage sat back in his chair and didn't go toward the window for a while.
After around an hour, Savage dared to approach the window again. He hadn't heard any sounds from the cargo bay for a while and wanted to make sure his brother was alright.
When he looked out, he saw his brother crouched in the very center of the cargo bay, where he could see every part of the room. Savage saw that he'd calmed slightly and decided to take a risk, turning to grab some of the ration bars that were in the compartment beside him and a water jug. He opened the door and stepped out, seeing his brother's eyes immediately on him.
He walked slowly toward his brother, trying not to come off as threatening. His brother was watching him with an almost resigned look. Savage carefully crouched down a few steps in front of him, setting the food and water within his reach. His brother looked down at it, then back at him, now looking somewhat accusing.
"You fooled me," he said, sounding almost sane.
"I'm sorry," Savage replied, "I knew you wouldn't come any other way. And the place where we're going is much better than where you were."
His brother gave him a somewhat dismissive glance and looked at the food. The water caught his attention particularly, and when he opened and tasted it, he seemed unaware of anything else. He drank until the bottle was empty, then shook it sadly. Finally, he looked back to Savage and held out the bottle, his face reluctant but pleading.
"Sure," Savage said, taking the bottle back, "I'll get you some more."
Savage left the door between the cockpit and the cargo bay open after that. A couple times his brother scuttled in, wanting more ration bars to hide behind the crates of cargo or to refill his water bottle. Savage had begun to dose lightly when the scuttling sound awoke him again as his brother entered.
This time his brother didn't have anything in his hands, nor was he gesturing that he wanted something. In fact, he moved and acted like a completely different person, a sane person. He was cool and collected, his arms crossed behind him. His brow was kit in thought and he looked at Savage confusedly, then spoke in a soft, rational voice.
"Where am I?" he asked.
Savage's eyes widened in surprise and he tried to contain his joy as he answered.
"You're on my ship, brother," he said slowly, wanting him to stay calm, "We're on a course to Dathomir."
"Dathomir…" his brother said, as if trying to remember something.
He then turned and began to scuttle back out, stopping to calmly adjust the air temperature a few degrees first. Savage stood and followed him when he left, watching from the door as he walked around the cargo bay as if seeing it for the first time. He approached him carefully when he stopped, wanting to preserve this mood.
"Where am I?" the quiet voice asked again as he came near.
Savage's heart sank and he answered again.
"You're on my ship, brother," he said.
His brother nodded and settled down, looking straight ahead. Savage sat beside him quietly, not knowing what else to do.
"Shut up," his brother whispered, drawing his attention again, "Please, please…"
Savage didn't make a sound, knowing that his brother probably wasn't talking to him. He just watched with a sinking feeling as his brother battled his inner demons alone.
"Master," he said softly, crossing his arms across his chest as if nervous, "I am not to blame, do not punish me. It was that snake, that Jedi, I did nothing! Kenobi! Please, please, please…"
Savage could no longer stand to watch.
"Brother?" he said softly, leaning a little closer, "Brother, there's nobody there."
His brother blinked slightly, looked at him for a few moments, then looked forward again.
"No," he said, sounding tormented again, "No, no, stop! Shut up! Leave me!"
Savage sighed sadly.
"I can't hear you, you're not there!" his brother said, spitting the words at whatever image was haunting him, "Fire above, fire above, we don't know when we'll fall. Fire above, fire above, what once was great is rendered small!"
Savage stood and walked away slowly as his brother began to chant that rhyme repeatedly, probably trying to drown out whatever voices he was hearing. He checked the time on their heading and found that they were only an hour away. He heard scuttling and turned back, seeing his brother run to hide in the crates from his hallucination. Hopefully there was something that Mother Talzin could do for him. Force knows her magic had destroyed plenty of lives. Maybe it was time for it to save one.
Savage had just watched as Mother Talzin reconstructed his brother. She' fooled him into letting her put a sleep spell on him, then it became apparent how the machine was attached to him; it wasn't. He was holding it together with his torso through the Force, and when he lost consciousness it fell to the ground, ripping away from the flesh that had partially healed around it. His brother screamed and Savage winced, the asked Talzin what they would do next.
She replied that they would then begin, and Savage's eyes widened as she began to chant and her fingers became intangible and reached into his brother's head. It had made him nervous to say the least, especially when his brother moaned in obvious pain. The dark shadows Talzin pulled from his head made Savage cringe, they felt so desolate and pained. Then she'd molded the new legs onto his body and his back had arched in agony, a scream escaping him that almost made Savage try to stop Talzin. She set him down on the table and Savage drew close, seeing that his brother was still breathing quickly and his brow was wrinkled in unconscious pain. She tapped his forehead, saying his name and proclaiming him a reborn son of Dathomir. His brother's eyes shot open and focused.
"Brother?" Savage asked quietly.
Maul reached out and grabbed Savage's face, pulling him closer and glaring into his eyes. Savage squirmed slightly, surprised at the strength of his brother's grip and somewhat alarmed by the way he was looking at him. But, after a moment, the grip relaxed slightly and his brother's face registered a minute expression of recognition.
"Brother," he growled back, releasing Savage's face.
Then Mother Talzin disappeared into a cloud of green mist, as she had appeared before, and Savage was left alone with his kin. He looked back to his brother to see his face was confused and pained, but clearly sane.
"My…" he started, his voice cracking slightly, "My legs…"
"They have been restored," Savage answered, "by Mother Talzin."
His brother then began to speak, and immediately Savage knew that the insanity, to brokenness that had consumed his brother had been mended slightly, but there was still a great deal of pain for him to sort through.
"It has been so long, and my path has been so dark," he said, bending one of the newly formed legs and grabbing it at the knee joint with a wince, "Darker than I ever dreamed it could be."
As he said this he looked at Savage as if confiding in him, and Savage felt somewhat encouraged. He was finally speaking to his brother.
"And yet, you survived," he said, trying to comfort him.
His brother turned and tried to stand, falling forward instead. Savage started to walk around the table to help him, but he pushed himself up before to could, experimenting with the balance of his new legs. Then he turned to Savage with a scornful look.
"Of course I survived!" he sneered, as if just suggesting it could have happened otherwise was a personal insult.
He then turned away, giving Savage the cold shoulder, and ran for about a dozen meters, leaving Savage no choice but to follow behind. When he finally stopped, he let out another roar, but this time it was a very sentient sound, full of rage and pain. Savage's eyes widened and he just watched, unsure what else to do.
His brother began to confide in him again after that, speaking of how much he had missed and what had been taken from him. Savage felt his every hurt as if it was his own, and when Maul mentioned who had caused all this pain, he could feel the hatred boiling in him like a lava pit.
"I was apprentice to the most powerful being in the galaxy once," Maul said, "I was destined to become…so much more. But I was robbed of that destiny by the Jedi, by Obi Wan Kenobi."
When his brother mentioned the name he had said several times during insanity, finally giving it context, Savage had only one thought.
"Then you must have your revenge, my brother," he said.
"Yes," Maul replied, his eyes growing thoughtful, "We shalt start with revenge."
That's this one! Maul's finally in the picture!
Also, a Zhaboka is a Zabrak cultural weapon, used in their ceremonies and later for actual fighting. It is a staff with a blade at both ends, somewhat like a light-beam free version of a saberstaff. It, like a saberstaff, would be incredible difficult to use and impractical unless the user was an undisputed master. I know Savage would probably have used one because he picked up how to used the saberstaff so naturally and one of the Night Brothers was using one in the first fight with Ventress.