Chapter Thirteen
Maul knew that by now, Kenobi and Satine had escaped and had to admit he was a little disappointed. After this was over, he would need another new Prime Minister now that Almec and his replacement were both dead. Or else he himself now needed to become the legitimate Prime Minister and openly rule Mandalore though that would attract too much unwanted attention. "Kenobi has put us in a dilemma we can never hope to overcome, my brother," Savage said, voicing his opinion.
"Yes my apprentice, Kenobi has left us with no replacement Prime Minister for Almec and he has escaped with the Duchess. In addition, Almec was incompetent enough to lead the people into believing that Duchess Satine is dead which puts us at yet another disadvantage. We couldn't even use her as our public face against the Jedi and the CIS if we wanted to now," Maul admitted. Then suddenly, something else began to bother him... something dangerous and overbearing for Maul.
"What is it, brother?" Savage asked, seeing his Maul's look of distractedness. "Hmm, I sense a presence, a presence I haven't felt since..." Maul began. A shiver ran down his spine as he recognized who it was just in time for his remaining two Mandalorian guards to be thrown to the wall behind them. The fatal Force Choke that followed confirmed the presence of Lord Sidious more than the door that revealed him upon opening did.
My only hope for my brother and myself now is to deceive him and negotiate. He will not relent in killing us unless I can do that Maul thought in a panic. He greeted Sidious by recognizing him as a Master and kneeling before him, his head kept toward the ground in submission. "I am most impressed to see that you have survived your injuries," Sidious said directly.
Maul was initially baffled by the comment, having expected that Sidious would be disappointed in him returning from the failure of Naboo, never mind the additional failure at Raydonia. However, he did not let this delay his verbal reply to Sidious' comment for more than a few seconds. "I used your training, Master and I have built all this in hopes of returning to your side," he said immediately. Excellent, implant the deception with a truth to filter it through: I did use his training though I didn't build this for him Maul thought.
Maul knew Savage would be thinking him to be crazy bowing before the very man who had discarded him but he didn't let this bother him too much. That is, not until Sidious also observed Savage hanging around Maul like the servant Maul himself had once been. "Hmmm, how unfortunate that you are attempting to deceive me," Sidious stated. No, how could that have failed? Maul asked himself silently.
"Master?" he asked aloud, letting his confusion at the statement show. "You have become... a rival!" Sidious replied before throwing the brothers against the Throne Room windows with the Force. He held them there with telekinesis that they desperately tried to escape as he laughed quietly and smiled widely. Then he let them go and Maul knew that this was a statement of desire for a lightsaber duel.
Maul ignited his blade as did Savage and for a couple brief seconds, Sidious stood there with no fear or worry. Then he withdrew two lightsabers, one from each hand and ignited them as well and positioned himself to begin fighting. Maul nodded to Savage and proceed to charge at Sidious who ran past him and spun in a manner that saw the tips of his blades scraping the ground. This also forced Maul to jump diagonally over the old man and occasionally parry a stroke from one of the blades.
When Savage joined the fray, Sidious managed to ready his blades into a defensive position and just in time to intercept a blow from both brothers. As their blades remained crossed, Maul could hear his former Master laughing and see him smiling beneath the hood whose darkness masked his eyes. What's got him so damned happy about this? Maul asked silently, frustrated and annoyed by it. Before he had time to think further, Savage brought up the other side of his saber to push the trio out of the crossing and forcing Sidious to give way.
This was completed when Sidious first dodged the blade which collided with one of his sabers and Maul's and propelling himself in a forward-moving backflip. Maul charged at the old man again and tried overwhelming with Juyo though this would ultimately be to no avail. Sidious' Jar'Kai soon forced the brothers into the very same passage that Bo-Katan and her Night Owls had used to escape Maul. The irony of this was something that none of the Sith Lords noticed nor would have cared for if they did but Maul had Savage retreat a few steps so as to force Sidious down the hallway.
When his apprentice obeyed this commandment, they both pounded the most punishing attack they could deal Sidious who was not good at using Jar'Kai in tight spaces such as this small hallway. But even with that disadvantage, the old man did manage to put up a good fight as the brothers forced him unto the balcony from whence Almec had been thrown to his death before his malcontent people. Here, Sidious managed to regain some of that space he needed and also managed to force Maul unto one of the ledges after a brief exchange of blows. And just before Sidious was going to do anything else after Maul dodged his attempt at a stab, Savage charged from in the hallway and knocked him off.
Of course, this attack did catch the older Sith Lord off guard and Maul had to admit it was kind of clever. But he did not have long to celebrate this stroke of genius as Sidious used the Force to pull them both off the balcony with him. The brothers fell and when the trio had landed on their feet on the floor below, Savage immediately tried to stab Sidious uptop his head. However, Sidious dodged this and was about to cut Savage's head off when the younger warrior ignited his second blade.
Maul observed this and attempted use it as a distraction for striking down Sidious but the old man saw this and used one of his blades to defend against Maul's. Then Sidious forcibly pushed them both off him and kicked Maul in the chin to force him back from him even further than he already was. As Sidious tried to slash down Maul in opposite directions, Savage pulled his blade free of the ground and twirled it so that the bottom blade would cut into Sidious' back had it succeeded in that purpose. But the Dark Lord noticed this and swung one blade over his back to deflect this and came around with another blade to try and cut Savage's throat to no avail.
However, Sidious came short on this and kicked Savage away from him as well. Shortly after that, Maul attempted to kick him back with jump to the air and a launch of one of his feet. Unfortunately, Sidious also dodged this by leaning back far enough to do so and replied with another backflip that propelled him forward rather than backward. When he landed on his feet again, he spun himself in a full circle and pointed his blades at both of the brothers.
Maul replied to this by extending his blade out in front of himself in a classic ready stance as Sidious briefly spun his wrists to signal his readiness to continue. But from Maul's perspective, Savage must have noticed the diagonal behind Sidious because he jumped over him and planted himself on it. Seeing an excellent opportunity with this, Maul once again tried to sever Sidious' head only for his blade to be swatted away by one of Sidious'. In a desperate and futile gesture, Maul then tried to punch Sidious directly in the face though this missed him by a long shot.
Not only did Sidious backflip to dodge it but he also manage to kick Savage in the chest hard enough to send him flying onto another flat platform. When Sidious righted himself up again, he briefly sighed in a manner that told Maul he had managed to strain his aged enemy. Since he was not one to hesitate on such an opportunity, he leapt toward his former Master with intent to strike him down. But Sidious was ready for this and used the Force to hurl Maul into the wall behind him, blacking him out.
After this happened, Savage recovered from the blow he had also received and bravely tried to fight their enemy alone. He spun and twirled with his blade though, like a cat with a mouse, Sidious briefly blade around before reactivating his blades which he had shut down during his brief strain. When he did, both of his blades came into contact with both of Savage's and they held it there for seconds. Then Sidious kicked him away and diagonally jumped with a spin at Savage, who barely managed to escape it since the blade tips were facing him during this jump.
Desperately trying to keep up by spinning himself around, the closest Savage came to a good hit was when one of his blades nearly bisected Sidious from behind yet again. But like the previous attempt, Sidious merely arched his back so that his blades could intercept this blow. Then he pushed in a manner that allow him to escape the crossing and strike a deflected blow towards Savage's faces. During this chaotic fighting, Maul managed to recover from being thrown against the wall though he was still dizzy.
Thus, he watched helplessly as Savage continued to bravely hack and slash with spins and twirls of his blade to no avail. He did manage to get another crossing of both his blades for a couple brief seconds but that was before defeat came and claimed Savage as a prize. When Savage tried to hack diagonally down from the right, Sidious kicked him his armpit hard enough to squeeze a vain. This sent a headrush into Savage that made him dizzy and helpless for seconds Sidious was quick to exploit.
As Maul watched in aghast horror, Sidious turned his blades backwards then plunged them into Savage's chest. Maul observed as the spark of life almost entirely left Savage's eyes in that moment and Sidious smiled in enjoyment of having successfully killed Savage Opress. He even heard Sidious laugh as he impaled Savage and just as quickly yanked the blades back out. Before Maul started running toward Sidious for an attack, the Dark Lord hurled Savage away from him with the Force.
A split second was what Maul was given to make a decision between proceeding with the duel or going to his dying brother and it was all he needed. He ran past Sidious who allowed him to do so and jumped down to where his brother had landed in his Force-propelled fall. Where Sidious had struck Savage, Maul noticed green magic emanating and knew it was more of Talzin's work. Holding his brother's mechanical hand, Maul watched as the magic wrapped itself around Savage and left.
Along the way, it began shrinking Savage and even dissolving his Sith robes until he was wearing naught but the traditional loincloth of a Nightbrother. But as this transformation occurred, Savage spoke and his final words would haunt Maul for the rest of his own final minutes. "Brother, I am an unworthy apprentice. I'm not like you... I never was," Savage said then his life ended.
His head plopped back down to the ground and his eyes rolled in a manner Maul knew all too well to be associated with death. Briefly, Maul mourned his brother's demise as Sidious laughed and at that moment, his sadness began to turn to hate. This was especially so after Sidious stated, "Remember the first and only reality of the Sith: there can only be two and you are no longer my apprentice." Maul's anger rose forth and so close to the surface that he was literally shaking with rage and snarling silently.
Then Sidious truly pissed him off when he said that Maul had been replaced as the Zabrak knew there was only person that could've done that: the Sith imposter Dooku! It was in that moment that Maul knew there was only one thing left for him to do, he had to murder the man who raised him. Savage would have wanted it, Sidious had long discarded and replaced Maul rather than bothered to find and fix him, and it would be a damn good means to prevent the old man's plans from succeeding. That was when he managed to surprise Sidious by reigniting his deactivated blade and then taking his brother's double-sided one for use in the final battle against Sidious.
He knew this would most definitely catch Sidious off guard as Maul had no formal instruction from him in this technique but he had learned it from others. The exchange of blows that followed carried the mark of being in Maul's favor for several long minutes. Even the abnormal bending that Sidious could do to deflect a blade was barely enough to keep up with this style. Spinning his brother's blade around and hacking or slashing with his own, he knew if he kept this up he would defeat Sidious.
But Sidious caught him off guard with another kick though he managed to backflip twice and right himself just in time to intercept a blow from one of Sidious' blades. The exchange continued with more hacks and slashes than spins and twirls (as per the traditional design of the chaotic Juyo). However, Maul soon made the mistake of returning a kick to Sidious that was hard enough to send him spinning in the air until he landed several meters away from him. Letting his ego and his anger consume him, Maul watched as his Master prepared to slide under him for a final go.
But slashing down with both of his blades, he managed to pin Sidious in a crossing of blades so that the older Sith was kneeling before Maul. For several long seconds, this final cross of blades lasted until Sidious managed to upright himself once more. He allowed Maul to push his left hand back with his right hand but returned the favor for the left hand which had the double-bladed saber. Maul knew he was defeated and most likely going to be killed when Sidious pushed his right hand to the right of himself.
This motion subsequently brought the loose blade of the saberstaff from below Maul's legs, severing them above the knee. In rapid succession, it also cut off his right arm close to the shoulder which caused his original blade to drop from his use along with the hand that held it. Maul fell on his face and tried to recover though he had only his left arm now but Sidious was quick to stop him. Using the Force, Sidious levitated Maul and brought him back down hard before also throwing him against a wall.
After those tugs of telekinesis, Sidious threw Maul back towards his feet in position for a round of Force lightning. Maul knew this from previous experience with having been defeated by Sidious as a child and began to beg for mercy, traumatized by those memories. "There is no mercy," the Dark Lord said just before letting off a round of painful electricity from his fingers. When he finished, he let Maul writhe and recoil, doing his best to recover from the pain of it though his metal lower half conducted it.
This meant that the pain of his previous experiences was now amplified thanks to the reaction of metal towards electricity, intensifying his heartbeat until it almost collapsed altogether. "Before I destroy you, tell me: did you really think I came all this way to reclaim you as my apprentice? Did you really think that I would have accepted your formation of a power base by which to fight your enemies?" Sidious asked. When Maul managed to recover, though he was still panting from the exertion the pain of the lightning and the fighting were suddenly beginning to exert on him, he made his reply.
"I don't understand," he lied through his teeth. He did understand and either Sidious saw this or didn't really care as he zapped Maul again. "Remember what I taught you boy: if you were to have your own apprentice, your own allies, and your own base while still under me you would've betrayed me. To take you back in after your failure by itself might not have been so bad but with this?
"With all this that you have built, I can never again have you as my apprentice or my servant," Sidious explained. As Maul would helplessly observe, Sidious must have though that the lightning was not enough as he once again threw him against the wall with telekinesis as well as the floor below. He pulled him back over for another round of Force lightning which he delivered quickly and efficiently. Maul could do nothing except cry out in agony as the lightning wrapped and coiled itself around him like a long, thin snake that caused pain at the touch of its blue-white skin.
He's going to kill me, he's actually going to finish me off and there is nothing I can do to stop it Maul thought to himself. "Do not worry, I am going to kill you but your skills will not go to waste, Lord Maul," Sidious said, as if reading his thoughts. "What the hell is that supposed to mean, old man?" Maul asked. If he was dead, there was no way Sidious could ever hope to use his skills for any part of his plans.
"When my plans succeed, I will have the apprentice I desire over you and over Dooku but even this one may fail after my dreams succeed. I need you there to be able to take his place should he fail as my apprentice but I cannot have you being a loose cannon against me," Sidious said. And as he spoke, he pulled out a device that Maul only knew to be an extractor of some sort. Was it an extractor of his blood and if so, was Sidious planning on making a- was there a better word?- copy of Maul?
"Your doppelganger will be more useful to me than you would be if I had accepted your offer to ally with me once more. Especially if it is genetically unaltered so as to suit the longevity of its purpose and the training required," Sidious said. This answered Maul's questions in a heartbeat and he knew his time would come to an end. However, a small part of him would live on in this clone so long as it lived under Sidious' shadow.
However, he himself intended to live through this if he could and in defiance of what Sidious would undoubtedly do to kill him, he grabbed his old saber again. Igniting the blade, he used it to intercept another volley of Force lightning. "I've taught you well Maul but unfortunately, as I said before, you have become a rival and like any other rival... you have to be destroyed," Sidious stated. "Fuck you then!" Maul shouted as he called Savage's saber back to his hand and ignite both blades.
Instead of trying to fight with it, he threw it at Sidious' with the Force and hoped that it would strike some part. "Hmm, your will to live has proven great enough to be programmed into the clone when I start creating it. Nonetheless, you still must die before I can bring you back for my ultimate design," Sidious replied as he dodged the flying blade with ease. Then he hammered Maul with Force Lightning but this time, he did not stop after a few seconds as he had done before.
During this time, Maul observed the entirety of his life flashing before his eyes as was custom for all close to death. His training under Sidious, the scars that he developed from that, the deeds he had done with the assistance of this training all zoomed past his vision as his adopted father slowly killed him. All that time, he suddenly realized that he had often wondered where his mother had been whenever Sidious so horrendously tortured him as he did now. All he could remember of the woman was a vision of her face and a lullaby that she would hum whenever he was crying as an infant.
Each and every time Sidious hurt him beyond normal healing, he would simply close his eyes and imagine his mother was standing beside him and humming the lullaby again. Her voice was sweet and tender like the blumfruit treats he occasionally managed to sneak when Sidious wasn't looking. Smirking slightly under that memory, he was surprised Sidious didn't notice and continued to hammer him down with lightning. Then he got to the part where he faced down the demons born of his deeds related to the Jedi and their precious little Order.
He enjoyed the memory of having killed several, including Master Qui-Gon Jinn, before briefly becoming angry at Kenobi. It was Kenobi who had sparked Maul's determination to the point it had reached, allowing it to accumulate into the Takeover of Mandalore and this duel with Sidious. His years on Lotho Minor zoomed by him as there wasn't much to remember of those years besides the lunacy. Though the snake Morley had helped him survive, he could hardly consider that gangly creature a friend though he was about the closest thing on Lotho that Maul could hope to have gotten.
Then Savage came into his memories, the times they had spent rampaging across the galaxy. I truly did care about you brother though I never let it show Maul thought to himself. The memories of Savage also zoomed by and Maul found himself lacking any regret over the course of life. Except perhaps that he had not listened to Kenobi and heard him out about his family origins. For once Jedi, you were in the right and I wasn't Maul thought as the blackness of death finally eclipsed all vision he had. The spark of life that had fueled Maul was now gone and with one last sigh, he passed away.