Later on, Melody would be unable to recall much of what happened on the burning planet. A sickly heat had settled itself inside her, squeezing her throat and crowding her lungs. She was coughing noisily by the time they reached Mustafar. Gaze glassy and fever-bright, she peered over the side of the bridge at the rushing lava below. For a moment, she saw two figures there. Then, she blinked as one of the guards shoved her forward roughly and they vanished.

This is a sick place… she thought miserably, something very bad happened here.

She was led through a labyrinth of hallways to what looked like a medical bay. She wasn't sure how long she lost awareness for, but someone had put her in a hospital gown that had to be knotted at the hem; there were no child-sized clothes here. The droids ran various tests and gave her a shot to bring down her temperature. She lay limp and unresisting as they moved her into quarantine, as they didn't want to risk spreading an unknown pathogen. The initial shot didn't work, so they gave her a different kind of medicine.

Heal… she thought dimly, but she only shimmered faintly for a second. Nothing changed. Sleep claimed her quickly. Her breath was fast and ragged when she went into unconsciousness. And she began to dream one very bad thing after another.

The first thing that she dreamed was that there were two men with lightsabers fighting over the lava. The older one clearly didn't want to fight and was pleading with the younger one to change what he was doing—she couldn't understand what they were shouting at each other. When she saw the younger one's eyes, though, a chill shot through her. They were an unnaturally bright gold, very much like Maul's eyes were. There was something truly chilling there. At some point, the younger man fell. Though she wanted to help him, she couldn't get to him fast enough and she missed grabbing his hand by a fraction of a second. He fell toward the lava. Though he didn't land in it, the superheated air was enough that it still burned him. Skin began to redden angrily, blackening and blistering in places. His clothes burned away. The pain he felt—and she, vicariously—was beyond anything she'd ever experienced. When she ran toward him, however, he seized hold of her and dragged them both into the lava.

The second dream that she had was of Maul. She was walking around this place trying to avoid being seen—the lava man was still out there, she knew, and she was afraid of him. She found Maul gazing out the window. He was younger in this dream—he was, in fact, the same age that she was. Breathing a sigh of relief that she'd found him, she pounced on him and hugged him even though it made her cough.

"Stop it," he protested, shoving her away, "who are you, anyway?"

You don't remember me? I'm Melody, she said, righting herself, listen, we have to get out of here. Somebody really bad is going to get us if we don't.

"I'm not going anywhere," he said flatly, "I couldn't even if I wanted to."

Why?

"My master won't let me. It's against the rules for me to go anywhere without him."

Who's your master? Maybe we can get him to get rid of that scary lava man.

Footsteps were approaching. Melody tilted her head curiously, but Maul's reaction was a lot more drastic. He dragged her toward the grate of an air vent and yanked its cover up on its hinges.

"You have to leave now," he hissed, "if he catches you in here, we'll both be in big trouble!"

He closed the grate and hurried back to the window as if he had been doing nothing this entire time. A man in a black hooded robe appeared around the corner. Though Melody couldn't see his face because the lighting was so dim, she immediately feared him as much as she feared the lava man. Maybe they were even the same person.

"You look out of breath, Maul," he commented, "what have you been doing?"

"Practicing like you told me to, Master."

He stretched out a small red hand and levitated a book that was sitting on a small table. The book trembled at first, but sailed into his outstretched palm with relative ease after that.

"Hmm," was the only reply. Maul watched him pass around the corner, then visibly relaxed. When he had made sure that the coast was absolutely clear, he knelt next to the vent where Melody still hid.

"Why can't he sense you? I thought he'd find you for sure," Maul remarked.

I don't know…a lot of weird things have been going on lately. First those nasty pirates and then that lava guy…won't you come with me? Please?

"I just told you that I can't." This was said through gritted teeth, but Melody could sense differently. He did want to come…and he wanted her to stay. If she left, he was convinced he would never see her again. She was the first other child he'd ever seen around here.

Yes, you can. We'll go on adventures together and you don't have to worry about anything ever again, she persisted. A brief flash of fear welled to the surface, but he quickly suppressed it.

I could go home, he thought. He had only the vaguest recollections of his mother—the sound of her voice, the way she smelled, and more importantly, the gentleness in which she had hugged him. He knew he wasn't supposed to miss her, but he did. Hoping he wouldn't live to regret this, he opened the vent's cover and crawled in after her.

"Let me in front—I know my way around better than you do," he demanded. With a lot of awkward squeezing, they managed to switch places. She wondered how he could see where he was going as dark as it was.

"There's a lot of floors here and some really big drops," he warned, "so don't fall like an idiot and get us caught."

You're in front, she ribbed him, shouldn't it be you we're worried about falling?

There was a puff of silenced laughter from between his lips.

"I won't fall," he assured her, "I know how to catch myself with the Force."

The theory was soon tested—he went headfirst down a shaft, as he had forgotten there was a vertical drop here. She cringed, waiting for the inevitable thud, but none came. Instead, he hovered in the gap and was able to pull himself up on the other side.

"See?" he said shakily, causing her to laugh silently.

They were crawling around in the dark for a long time. After a while, it was safe for them to emerge in what looked like a hangar. There were dozens of ships here, and a lot of droids. Maul watched which boxes were being loaded onto which ships. He gestured for her to get in one. Then, he squeezed in beside her and pulled the top back over them both. Both were shaking with silent laughter that they were about to get away with something when things went terribly wrong.

Someone's coming…Melody lamented. The box had been put down; they both peered out from a crack inside the lid. Melody screamed when something simultaneously yanked the lid off and grabbed both of them.

She woke with a jerk, shaking all over and pouring off perspiration. The dreams had seemed so real that she still felt the phantom hand seizing her by the throat. Instinctively, she looked sideways in the direction that child-Maul had been, but he wasn't there. She felt like crying but she was too exhausted to even do that.

Melody, a voice echoed faintly in her mind, can you find a way out of this room?

It was him, the real him. She shook her head as if to clear it and looked around. There didn't seem to be a way—there were no windows, doors, or air shafts here. She sighed.

I don't see one…are you coming soon? I feel awful…

She wasn't sure if he never answered or if she simply fell asleep again. The dreams continued, but they were more fragmented and harder to understand this time. The lava man was a frequent visitor, as was the cloaked man. She ran into child Maul a few more times, but she couldn't remember what they were doing this time. She only remembered that he had been crying one of those times, his body covered in burn marks.

When she next woke fully, she still felt strange, but the fever was gone—at least for now. Someone had given her a bath and put her in a clean gown. Some kind of gel that would replace any lost nutrients was rubbed on her skin. She was led by two soldiers into a big chamber. Her footsteps faltered when she got closer, but she wasn't sure why. There was something in there that was making her very, very nervous. One of the soldiers impatiently shoved her through the door and it slid closed with an ominous whoosh behind them.

It didn't take but a split second for him to sense the child's growing hysteria. An invisible tendril shot out from his consciousness, seizing hold of her will and smothering it like a heavy blanket. She fought him, of course, both physically by trying to run back toward the door, and mentally by resisting the dark fog that he draped over her mind. When his hold on her was absolute, she staggered like a downed bird and dropped to her knees on the carpet. Even then, she wouldn't look him in the face until he made her do it.

It's the Lava Man…her consciousness wailed despairingly. Even though he was completely hidden by all this black, heavy armor, she just knew. He turned that flame-colored gaze on her and she felt her soul icing over. The worst part was that she couldn't do anything, couldn't even so much as close her eyes. The Lava Man raised an arm as if reaching out to touch something, then she realized she was being lifted into the air. He was all the way across the room from her, but she floated weightlessly. This would have been amazing and fun if she hadn't been so frightened—it was the first time she'd ever flown before. The Lava Man pulled somehow and she shot toward him like a bullet, coming to a stop within arm's reach of him. She never made a sound beyond a startled gasp, but her wide green eyes told him everything. His other hand hovered over her forehead as if he meant to pat it, but he stopped just shy of actually touching her. She felt that invasive presence in her head again and tried to squirm away from it. It was no use—he saw all of her memories. He saw her parents when they had still been alive. He saw the temple priestesses showing Melody how to fix broken bones and heal very nasty burns and seal shut gaping wounds. He saw her eagerly awaiting the arrival of a new baby. He saw her noticing more and more plague victims before she herself came down with it. He saw the night that Maul's ship had crashed into the village and how she had healed the gash on his forehead. And he saw that while her symptoms were suppressed, she still had the plague and would never fully be rid of it until someone came up with a cure.

Melody tried very hard not to touch his mind with hers. She didn't want to know. The fact that he was the lava man (or monster) was bad enough. The Flame shrank away from him, averse to the dark aura that permeated him. She began to feel a strange kind of death about him, the kind where the soul has died but the body keeps living somehow. It hurt. It hurt in ways that she couldn't even begin to understand. And it was through that dark, swirling cloud that she could see his memories as well—innocent people that he had killed, many of them children that were as young as she was—and the very same woman that he had initially tried to save. She began to sob, clutching at her chest. Her heart felt like it was going to burst. She wasn't sure what had happened after that—she blacked out. It was too much for her.

The "lava man" as she had come to call him lowered her to the floor. Her skin was leached of color now, her face the color of cold ashes. He wondered why it was that she had no fear of this ex-Sith Maul whenever Maul had killed more people than he had. Though he had yet to meet this infamous Maul in person, his master had occasionally told him stories of what had once been a promising apprentice. The objective was to avoid making any of Maul's mistakes.

And now, he thought, there was a chance that Maul might come here looking for his stolen apprentice. Apprentice of what exactly was unknown. But the little girl had a lot of potential. There were a lot of places that she could go without being recognized in addition to her other abilities. She was also a mute which meant that she would be much harder to press for information. Now it was just a matter of immunizing her to his presence so that she wasn't constantly passing out like this.

Neither of the soldiers wanted to ask the question, but they were relieved when they were instructed to take her back to the medical bay and keep her there for now. One of them carried her bridal-style. She was breathing so shallowly that he stopped to check her pulse a couple of times. Her temperature was coming back up.

Maul had been forced to land his ship a fairly big distance away to avoid being detected. Even moving as fast as he could, it still took an hour or two to reach the base. Once there, he noticed that there seemed to be a lot of extra security. When he felt the dark Sith presence there, he understood why.

That must be the infamous apprentice I've been replaced with, he thought darkly, I suppose we'll see if he's worthy of his position soon enough.

The new apprentice might very well prove to be a worthy challenge. Maul suppressed the usual eagerness he felt before what was sure to be a good battle—it would be easier if he could get in and get out without being seen or sensed at all. But things rarely ever went that way and he knew it.

The first thing he did as he slunk along the massive boulders' craggy surfaces was try to feel Melody's presence again. It was dim, as she had either passed out or gone to sleep again. He could feel the sickly heat radiating from her; that could complicate things. It was odd that with all the medical droids here that she could still be experiencing symptoms like that.

If she could just stay conscious…

He found himself a good hiding spot to wedge into—it would be easier to get past all this security after dark. Hopefully by then, Melody would have regained consciousness.

Sometime around sunset, Melody began to stir again. Though she still had a fever, it wasn't as high as it had been when she'd arrived. Her head still felt full of fog, however, and she had a hard time moving. A ripple at the edge of her thoughts got her attention when she was in the refresher (thankfully only splashing water on her face). Her little hands froze, dripping water everywhere.

Maul?! She asked hopefully. There was no answer, just the touch. She stayed where she was at for a second, waiting, but the presence receded quickly. She sighed and returned to her bed.

Maybe he isn't coming…

She lay down, watching the darkness grow more pronounced around her. The red skies outside only seemed to turn a darker red as time went on. The medical droid was waiting in the corner, a timed sleep mode activated to give her injections every few hours. She wished it would turn back on—even though it was only here for medical purposes, at least she wouldn't feel so lonely.

Then, some kind of security alarm went off. A stampede of feet went past the door. Before she could see what was going on, the door sealed shut with a heavy WHOOSH! Her heart started to pound. What was that? Had that been him?

A mental image appeared in her head of the air duct on the far side of the room, then of the plastic case of syringes that were laying on the table. Breaking into a grin, Melody snatched up the case, then crawled into the air duct. Pulling the grate back over as she remembered from the dream, she asked him where now?

The path he showed her was a very long and complicated one, but it lead to the hangar; from there, he could get her out, but only if she made it in time. Holding the handle of the case with her mouth, she began to crawl as fast as she could. It wasn't easy—sometimes there were rivets that stuck up farther than the others and scraped her knees. She was still very weak from the fever and still feeling very tired, but she stubbornly made her body continue.

Heal.

But it wouldn't heal—she'd simply been through too much. It was no use—she would have to keep going with the way she was. Overhead, she could hear sounds of confused shouting and blaster fire.

Uh-oh…they must have found him…

She crawled faster, especially when a bright flash of light pierced through the duct only a foot or so away from where she was. The path widened as she went, thankfully, which made the going a little bit easier. She eventually came to a very steep drop, however, and almost fell down a very big vertical shaft.

Oh no…how do I get over this?

Her jaw was beginning to ache from clenching the plastic handle with her teeth. She had to throw the medicine case across first before she could even attempt to jump it. Even then, she just barely made it, her fingers scrambling frantically to find purchase on the smooth featureless metal. She wasn't sure how she did it, but she emerged on her stomach, breathing heavily and sweating.

That was close…

Then, something neither of them had anticipated happened. A rush of warm air whooshed over Melody's face. She was surprised to find that the metal was growing warmer.

Hurry! Maul's voice snapped impatiently inside her head. Weird….he almost sounded scared for a second…

As she crawled, she started to understand why. The metal was only a little warm, but it started to get hotter with each passing second. The heat grew sickening, the metal unbearable to touch. Her hands and knees began to sting. She hurled herself at the nearest grate only to find it locked.

Maul!

Angry red blisters had broken out on all the skin that was touching the metal. Through the decorative swirls of the grate, she saw a flash of red and hurled herself backward just as the hot plasma blade ate through it. Melody spilled out into the floor, reflexive tears steaming on her cheeks. The medicine case clattered across the concrete. She saw Maul rush past in a crimson blur, the lightsaber leaving fiery-hot scarlet trails and never staying still for a second. She shakily got to her feet and had just picked up the medicine case whenever she felt herself being pulled backwards by an invisible hand. She grabbed onto the handle of a crate in an effort to resist, but her burned hands couldn't grip it. She kicked fruitlessly as she sailed backwards.

Maul turned, lightsaber slicing through a soldier's neck. He saw Melody go flying past and tried to pull her back. She started to drift back toward him, but she felt so much heavier with the other person pulling. There was a loud noise as the sleeve of her hospital gown began to tear at the seams. She reached toward him desperately, but the other person was too strong. There was a whoosh as a lightsaber ignited.

And now comes an opponent worthy of my time, Maul thought. The noisy sound of The lava man's respirator didn't detract from how intimidating his presence was in the least. Despite the somewhat clunky appearance of his armor, he moved much faster than Maul had ever expected. One second he was across the room, the next, he was six inches from Maul's face. Their blades crackled loudly as they deadlocked and angry sparks began to spit up at both of them. Maul was watching for an opening, but every time he thought he had one, he was blocked and forced to parry. He sprang backwards and he and his new enemy circled each other like a couple of panthers. By now, the others had stopped trying to jump Maul entirely—they had enough sense not to get in The lava man's way.

Whhmm! Whmmm! PSCHH! WHMMMM!

Melody could only stare. She had seen Maul use the lightsaber before, but it had been nothing like this. This was a real fight. She couldn't help but be impressed. There was a point where The lava man came dangerously close to actually hitting him. Maul rolled to the side at the last second and slammed his own robotic leg into The lava man's in an effort to unbalance him. It worked, but only for a split second. Maul got around behind him and almost stabbed him in the back, but The lava man deflected what would have been a killing blow at the last possible second. A pile of crates toppled over on both of them. Melody saw The lava man emerge first, lifting the boxes with that invisible hand of the Force. She then had an idea, but she didn't know if it would actually work. Anything would be better than sitting around doing nothing. She noticed a bunch of round things that had spilled out of one of the crates. Cupping it in one of her injured hands and trying not to scream, she hurled it at the lava man. The lightsaber deflected it, but Maul took advantage of the distraction and freed himself from the boxes. He leapt two or three times over more piles of crates and snatched Melody up from where she was hiding. This got the attention of the others and they started to come after them as well.

Melody's hands were beginning to glow. A little spark disappeared into the casing of the next little blue ball that she held. Aiming over Maul's shoulder, she pegged it at their pursuers as hard as she could. It didn't actually hit anyone, but they all scattered. She was wondering why whenever a huge mushroom cloud of orange fire erupted from their midst.

Uh-oh…her eyes went big. That had been an accident….

Maul leapt into the chasm beneath one of the landing platforms. Melody hung on for dear life even though he slowed their ascent easily. The others had temporarily lost track of them, but she knew it wouldn't take long for them to catch up. Maul seemed to think so, too—he never slowed his pace unless he had to. By the time they were on the ship and in the air, there were already others on the horizon. There were a lot of very close calls—one of the lasers grazed the wing and made it smoke. Even with the harness on, Melody's limbs were flailing like a ragdoll's. It was a relief whenever they finally leapt into hyperspace.

He knows, she lamented, bowing her head, he knows everything. I didn't mean to tell him, I swear…he just…knew…he could see everything the second he met me…

Maul didn't answer. He was too focused on trying to obscure their trail. An almost grudging respect for this new apprentice had emerged—it looked as if he really had been chosen well. They would have to be very, very careful from here on out. Whenever he was confident that he had lost them all—lost them for good, it seemed, he allowed the slightest bit of tension to leave his shoulders. He looked over at Melody and suppressed a sigh. Crying AGAIN. She was a rather pathetic sight to behold—her hair was sticking out in frizzy curls. Her hands and knees were red and blistered with burns that were healing much more slowly than they should have. Her temperature had gone right back up again—life in general hadn't cut her a break in the last few days. He retrieved the battered case from the floor and took out one of the syringes. She squeezed her eyes shut when she saw that he meant to give her a shot, but otherwise didn't struggle. It hurt, but not as bad as her hands and knees did.

What do we do now?

Good question. He wondered if it was safe to go back to Dathomir. The planet's life force might be enough to obscure their presence, but he had no idea what that new apprentice might be capable of. As he bandaged Melody up, he knew one thing—he was going to have to teach her how to fight. Right now, all she could do was run and she wasn't even very good at that. And he knew that once you made an enemy, they would always come back. They had been fortunate enough to escape this time, but he made it his habit never to depend solely on luck.