Chapter Seven
"It's been a long time, have you grown taller Lord Maul and who are these two in your company?" Laertes asked Maul politely. "King Laertes, let me introduce to you my mother Kycina and my brother Savage. Now that that's taken care of, let me ask you a question: how did you know I was coming here?" Maul answered. "Easy enough to answer, the code I left you with before you left Nyx behind you for landing was one that only I am normally allowed to use," Laertes explained.
"So because you and I were the only two who used those codes, you knew who I was right away. Very impressive trick and I don't doubt you've been waiting for me since I left Nyx after saving your people from the Monster and its admirer, Dr. Archimedes," Maul replied. "That's why I gave it to you before I left, the people still believe in their hero more than they believe in their King. You did some great things for this planet and since your arrival, business has thrived mostly on the tourism we get almost every year," Laertes said.
"Tourism? I have no clue what you mean by that," Maul inquired. "We have a massive park mainly dedicated to sculptures made in your honor, entire museums have been open solely to contain paintings made to worship you, and theatres have been made to house the actors involved in plays made about your story. You are probably the most revered person on this world besides the gods themselves," Laertes explained.
"How am I a hero? You and I both know I was nothing but as cold-blooded a killer back then as I am now," Maul asked. "That's not what the people think: they've always thought the Jedi were perversions of the Word and Wisdom of the Gods however, they've never had the courage to stand up to them before. When you killed that old man Darius Othone, you gave them courage but most importantly you gave them something the Jedi would destroy if it meant keeping our planet from the Separatist fold: you gave them hope," Laertes answered.
"Did they find out what happened to me on Naboo, twelve years ago?" Maul asked him. "They did and while initially crushed by Kenobi's blow to their hopes and dreams, they prayed to the gods that you were not dead and would one day return to save them," Laertes answered. "Save them from what?" Maul demanded. "In my opinion, from themselves," his old friend calmly replied.
"Your Majesty, why don't you show Savage the statues that were made in his brother's honor? I want to talk with Maul alone for a moment, go on and we'll catch up," Kycina said. Laertes led Savage away and when Kycina found a shaded corner that had no people nearby, she revealed her thoughts. "Maul, you may have been evil elsewhere but here you are a hero; can't you understand what that means to me or even you?" she asked.
"Mother, Sidious raised me only to kill or else do good things until it was time to betray or murder them, sometimes both. Why do you all see good in me when it's been clearly stripped away from me by Lord Sidious?" Maul replied. "We know your true qualities better than you know them yourself, we know who you are not who you want to be," Kycina said. When Maul had nothing to say in reply except that he had killed Jedi and was seeking revenge against one for slicing him in half, Kycina continued her maternal speech.
"Maul, I know when someone's lost and when there's still a chance for someone to return to good. Your brother is lost forever but what do you expect from a pawn of Mother Talzin? However, since you have escaped her influence all your life there is still a chance you come into the light for the first time. Unless there's a good reason why you haven't come into the light at all?" Kycina asked.
"I once fell in love with Laertes' younger sister who was a Jedi. This was while we were chasing their brother Claudius across several dimensions of the galaxy as he found a way to travel between dimensions. When we finally got him at the end of the road, he fused his mind and body with the soul of an ancient but powerful Sith Lord named Darth Vitiate who once led an Empire that terrorized the Old Republic. Using this newfound strength in addition to the power of the final dimension and her own lightsaber, Claudius killed her remorselessly as I watched helplessly," Maul answered. "She died while protecting you, did she not?" Kycina guessed.
Maul nodded then concluded his tale by explaining how he defeated Claudius, destroyed Vitiate's soul forever, then brought Claudius back to this dimension for Republic justice to take care of him on Maul's behalf. Since then, he continued to seek revenge for Ophelia's death as the Jedi Code had forbidden her from acting on her love for him. "Do not blame the Jedi for their Code, their ways may seem unkind but they are with good reason and always have been," Kycina told her dear son. "How can you be so sure and if not that, what should I blame?" Maul asked.
"Do not blame anything my son, unless you wish to give yourself guilt that you wish to throw on your enemies," Kycina told him. "I… I don't understand," Maul said. "Neither did I when Talzin found out that I had given you away to Sidious (by which time I had already birthed Savage and Feral) and banished me to Felucia. But in my madness, I found salvation from my guilt by holding on to one thing: the love I had for my three sons and the hope that they were all safe even though I failed you," Kycina replied, placing a warm hand on his cheek as she said it. "Failed me how, mother?" Maul asked.
"I tried to save you from that bitchMother Talzin but I gave you to a man rivaling her in his evil! I'm so sorry I didn't know who I was giving you to," Kycina answered before breaking into tears in her son's arms. "Mother, you saved my life from the person you most feared would kill me or put me to a lifetime of slavery. I just regret having not been sent to find you sooner than I was," Maul said, attempting to comfort her.
Ever since their mother had joined their company, Savage had noticed his brother's resolve for revenge shrinking. What the hell made him so soft when around their mother and not around him? Did Maul fear Savage would pick up on his weakness and try to exploit it? While Laertes showed Savage what his brother had done more nearly fourteen years ago was living proof that Maul had been a ruthless warrior in his past life.
Why couldn't Savage see that same ruthlessness in him now? Was he merely putting on a fake sense of mother-son affection to fool Savage and hopefully kill him? What did he have to gain from that? "Here is my favorite statue made of your brother in this park, he's fighting Jedi Master Darius Othone who he killed in order to insure that the Jedi did not get involved in our personal affairs," Laertes said.
"It is a truly impressive work of art," he said rather absently. But it indeed was as it depicted his brother using one end of his double-sided lightsaber to stab at Master Othone's gut. However, the artwork could do nothing to make Savage want to bring the point of the family's stay in Nyx. "This is not why we are here though," he said to the King aloud.
"Your brother never dies but he always wants something of me, what is it this time?" Laertes asked. "According to the last map recorded of the planet Ruusan, yours is the nearest system to it. Is that still correct even now?" Savage answered. "Yes, we mine metal ores and minerals there and sell them to the Republic in exchange for protection from the CIS," Laertes said.
"Are the coordinates still the same as they were on Maul's map?" Savage inquired. "Yes they are, we make sure to have cargo ships update us on the coordinates on a weekly basis. If there was any change to them, we would have known about them by now," Laertes replied. "Excellent, when does the next cargo ship leave for Ruusan?" Savage asked.
"The next one leaves in three days, if you wish me to book a flight for you and your family that can be easily done and immediately," Laertes told him. "That works perfect for us all," Savage said. "By any chance, do you have a plan to return here or are you staying there?" Laertes asked. "Take that up with my brother, he will know better than I," Savage answered.
With that taken care of, Savage could now examine his emotions in the knowledge that the journey to Ruusan would be over. Then he realized he was feeling something he had never felt before and as he was not surprised to know, it was about his brother Maul. It was an emotion he knew Feral had felt when they were growing up under Talzin's menacing shadow: jealousy of who his brother was. Now, all he had to do was wait for the chance to either restore that side of Maul or kill him as the Sith ways would allow him to do.
Talzin could feel Savage's jealousy beginning to well within him and knew she could use this to hasten the opening of the gate to the temple and the tower at its flat top. The temple itself was a simple pyramid shape with wide stairs that went up to the entrance of the tower. And in order to go inside the temple, one had to enter the tower's entry door and descend via a flight of stairs provided near the center of the temple's bottom floor. The only problem was getting past the gate at the base of the temple which could only be accessed by the deaths of many Sith souls, thus aggravating her need for the souls of the Brotherhood of Darkness.
She would especially need the souls of such powerful ones as Kaan and his Council of Dark Lords. It would ignite the magic fire inside the tower as well as open the entrance to the tower itself thus allowing her to ascend to its top and make preparations to call the old world back to this dimension. The thought of seeing her native people again made her smile and warmed up her heart for the first time in several millennia. After all, her blood family resided on that old world and had used almost all their power to send Talzin to this world before the gods banished the old world from this galaxy, its true home.
"Did the people of this world make the climb up this temple to ascend the tower before arriving at your old home?" Ventress asked. "Yes, it was how the Nightsisters were first initiated into the hierarchy that Dathomir now has. Unless you were born in the old world as I was, you had to fight your way up to it," Talzin answered. Ventress showed her amazement in the expression on her face as well as relief she didn't have to go through that initiation.
"Yes Ventress, soon you and I will be seeing the old world with our own eyes. Let me tell you that though the surface of the planet is far more glorious, looking at the planet from here is still a magnificent site to behold. Look around you now at the smooth round pillars that hold up the roofs of the houses on this city, the massive steps on the temple leading to the tower, and at the tower's round shape with the windows going across every circular section. Isn't it magnificent architecture?" Talzin asked.
"I noticed the hieroglyphs along the wall showing Nightsisters fighting enemy soldiers. They aren't by any chance the Nightbrothers, are they?" Ventress inquired, nodding to answer Talzin's question. "No, those were the days when men dominated our society and forced us women to rebel against their evil power," Talzin explained. Ventress seemed surprised at the idea that men were ever stronger than the Nightsisters but said nothing, only continued to admire the ancient architecture that would impress even the Jedi.
And now, Maul and Savage were close to Ruusan with the release of the souls of the Brotherhood of Darkness soon to follow their arrival with Kycina. Now that Kycina's magic could be relied on, she would be able to succeed in activating the power of the entire town and the tower before calling the old world back. Now that they had arrived at the gate after exploring the city, all the two of them needed to do now was sit and wait. Wait for the arrival of the massive fleet that represented the large remnants of the Brotherhood of Darkness itself.
