Chapter Thirteen
"It's a shame more than half of your entire force was destroyed, Master Jedi. If you had listened to me and avoided marching your soldiers into a situation where my sister's sonic scream could be used, we wouldn't be having this discussion," Claudius snarled. "Calm down my lord, this battle is not yet over and don't worry, I have the last one thousand on hold in case we need them," replied a Jedi Master named Horus. "Forget them, you need them to protect your Temple in case anything else may be going on," Claudius ordered, frustrated.
"Why forget them? It's not like we have terrorist groups that could attack at any moment," Horus asked. "Because if I remember correctly, there are those who fear and hate the peace you brought to this galaxy by force of arms, right?" Claudius answered. "I was there when that happened and peace had existed long before then but wouldn't have continued unless we did what we had to," Horus said.
"Spoken like a true Sith Lord, Darth Vitiate would love to disembody himself from me and unto you were it not for the fact that you have short-sighted goals that don't involve alternate realities," Claudius replied. "No, spoken like a warrior who had to deal the killing blow to that evil Lord whose name must not be mentioned. Yes, I killed that man and I was the one who restored the peace he would have shattered had I not killed him with my blade," Horus said, alarmed Claudius would judge him as a true Sith Lord. "You really think I wouldn't bear to know his name, go ahead and tell me what it was," Claudius ordered.
"You are my lord and master, therefore I must obey. His name was the same as yours, Claudius Draco I," Horus said, obeying his new lord. "Foolish nonsense and poppycock, besides, I made sure to check the history books in case you tried lying to me. The correct name of the lord you killed was Fortinbras III of this planet," Claudius snarled.
"I will always bow before my lord when I am wrong and serve him when he commands it but I tell you now, I do not agree with what you are doing. You will regret it when the time comes for your judgment to be given," Horus vowed. Do not fret, I already read his mind and he's afraid of you more than he isn't and is trying to hide it by talking big Vitiate told his host. Claudius smiled and silently thanked Vitiate for giving him the notification as to the true emotions of his Jedi slave.
"Go find Claudius, I'll hold off the Jedi hoards!" Maul shouted. Ophelia nodded, remembering that the plan was to take down Claudius by any means necessary as long as he could be taken into custody and not savagely executed. She didn't doubt that Claudius would be seeing what the Sith Emperor could offer him so she made sure to keep her lightsaber near her and constantly activated. The familiar blue blade hummed near her and acted as comfort especially now that Odette was dead, giving her a feeling of vulnerability that she had never experienced.
Sometimes, she wondered if Maul ever experienced that same vulnerability for even a moment but suspected what the answer would be almost as quickly. Knowing that he was an apprentice to a Sith Lord, she doubted he wasn't given very much room for vulnerability if any. So although she knew that the Sith were evil from the history books (with the seeming exception of her love) she tried to imagine herself as one and to imagine how she would chastise herself for this vulnerability.
She entered what she guessed was the Throne Room from sensing a dark presence beyond the door. Cutting through carefully, she began to realize how everything began to click in. Claudius never intended to give up his pursuit of Heraklion Prime, just stay in this dimension long enough to destroy the Jedi and fuel Darth Vitiate's presence in his body. How else could he possibly be so strongly connected to the Force now when he hadn't been previously?
She entered and was not surprised to see a stairway leading to a golden chair with Claudius seated, wearing battle armor that reminded her of home. "Welcome sister to my new empire and oh, a couple of my new friends want to meet you," Claudius said. She knew he had enough time to indulge into the madness of Vitiate's possession and completely lost it. Unfortunately, she had no time to respond to that when to Jedi Masters attacked her from both flanks.
Their green lightsabers hummed to life and zoomed past her as she dodged a slash from each side. Then she turned to face them and managed to cut one down with ease almost immediately. The next one was a little more difficult though, even forcing Claudius to call out to him and tell him to be careful. "Do not blunder into her trap Horus as your Jedi brother Osiris did just now!" he shouted.
The Jedi warrior named Horus took that advice and apparently decided to switch tactics from whatever he was originally using to switch to a style Ophelia had never seen before. Then suddenly, she remembered holograms for a style with the same stances as this one and recognized this form to be Makashi. So he's wielding Form II of Lightsaber Combat instead of what appeared to have been Form V Djem So a moment ago Ophelia thought to herself. From there, she immediately determined a weakness in his style that she could immediately exploit with her own lightsaber skills.
Instead of her original tactic of using Soresu to fight him, she upgraded to Ataru and begin to swing and twirl her lightsaber while also jumping into the air repeatedly, twisting her body and performing incredible somersaults as she moved. He put up a terrific fight but due to his old age, he was significantly slower than her and was soon overwhelmed by her acrobatic skills and slashed to death. Claudius applauded her "artwork" then surprised her by using the Force to call both Horus' lightsaber and Osiris' into each of his hands as if he had always had the power of Darth Vitiate within him. "Surprising is it not, the power that Lord Vitiate has granted me during his time in my body?" Claudius asked.
"I would have been disappointed if it were any other way, brother," Ophelia replied. Claudius smiled and attacked first, surprising her with a flurry of slashes from both lightsabers. Switching from the offensive Ataru to the defensive Soresu in order to contain the full fury of her brother's lethal skill. For a long time, all the duel became was an exchange of deflected blows between them with brief moments that might have looked like a turn of tides for one of them but was a false alarm instead.
Then Ophelia realized something: her strategy of wearing her brother down then striking (as Soresu demanded) was not going to work on him, Darth Vitiate fueled him with too much power for that to be possible. Instead, she reignited her spurt of Ataru while simultaneously adding guerilla-style bursts of Djem So in order to hopefully have a start in overwhelming even Vitiate. Surprisingly, her plan worked better than she would have thought it would but she didn't get a chance to enjoy the glory long (nor would she have done so anyway). Because at the next instant, her brother began to turn the tide and even made moves that looked as though the lightsabers had been merged into a double-sided lightsaber like Darth Maul's.
"You know something sister, I never quite understood why father valued you so much even if at the time, you had a connection to the Force and I didn't. While it was true that you had the sonic scream that could be amplified by your powers, I was the true brains of us both before even I knew that," Claudius mocked. Ophelia said nothing for she already knew the answer to that "mystery". The reason their father loved her more than Claudius was because Ophelia used her skills for the good of her people whereas Claudius used his for the benefit of himself and/or Laertes.
However, because she did not answer aloud, Claudius continued his pointless rambling. "I never wanted the throne, I only wanted to bring peace, unity, and equality to the people through the only means in which it could be done. Sure there were a few setbacks, (including the time Laertes accidentally shot me in the leg thus causing my limp) but the benefits have been profoundly rewarding to all but me, even you reaped some benefit without knowing. My means may have indeed mimicked the Sith of the olden days but at least it achieved its goals," he said.
"Whether the intention is good or not, the actions were still evil and will weigh you down until you come to face that reality. Until then, the only difference between you and the Sith is that you were not Force-sensitive while they were," she replied calmly. Claudius seemed enraged by that reply and she even saw a tear, a sight she had not seen in what seemed eternity, run down his cheek. "All my effort to practically hand you your destiny to be a Jedi and this is how you repay me?" he asked.
"I'm sorry Claudius but I cannot forsake the Jedi Code, even for my family," Ophelia answered. "Then you die," Claudius hissed maliciously. "Do you know the fabled Rule of Two supposedly invented by a Sith Lord by the name of Darth Bane?" Ophelia asked, hoping to at least slow the duel and talk some sense into her brother before it was too late. Unfortunately, any hope she had of quelling his killer fire were destroyed when he answered that he knew thanks to Darth Vitiate being in his poisoned but intelligent mind.
"Surrender now young man and we promise to beg amnesty from Lord Claudius when you're brought before him for his justice. We give you our most sincere word that this vow will hold firm and true," said an anonymous Jedi Knight to Maul. "I shall never surrender nor shall I beg for mercy, those who beg for mercy do not deserve it," Maul replied with a growl. With that reply, he ignited both ends of his double-sided lightsaber and immediately decapitating an unfortunate warrior that got in the way of one of the lethal, swift, spinning blades.
From then on, Maul did not think with his mind or his heart. His whole body as well as his lightsaber became extensions of the Dark Side itself as Sidious had hammered into his mind for as long as he could remember. He did not care for whether or not he stabbed a female Human or mutilated a male Rodian, all he cared about was that he was at last unleashing his full potential upon these fools who believed in peace over passion, weakness over strength. But lastly, he did not care if he was fighting against four hundred and thirty-two Jedi Knights that were summoned to capture or kill him and Ophelia.
The despair, fear, and hopelessness felt by the weaker Jedi would feed him and drive him to the victory over the stronger ones that was necessary for his salvation. The only thought in his mind was of the Sith verdict that laid the path of power plainly for those who sought it out. Peace is a lie, there is only Passion. Through Passion, I gain Strength, through Strength I gain Power, through Power I gain Victory, through Victory my chains are broken, through Victory, my chains are broken he told himself as he slaughtered and butchered his inferior enemies.
He was so consumed in the passion of the fight that he did not notice his vocal cords utter a hideous battle cry that made some wet themselves and give others a mild sweat. As he continued, rapidly dwindling the numbers of his opponent from first three digits to two before approaching one, he slowly cooled his energies so that he could focus them on the last of the Jedi that remained. He even went so far as to take the fear and despair in their hearts from seeing their friends lying dead, whether intact or in pieces, and fueling his final assault to be much more vigorous than his initial efforts.
The last thirteen who stood against him after what seemed like days (but had actually been merely two to three hours) coordinated their attacks simultaneously in a last ditch effort to overcome their enemy. It was an effort that was extended in vain because Maul cut eight more in five minutes and four in another two. The last one got the honor of her arms being severed and Maul's lightsaber pointed mere centimeters from her face. "Wait, who are you to be so powerful?" she asked and he answered before then ramming his blade between her eyes.