Dark Triumvirate
"Greetings partners, I believe you have been refreshed, aren't you?" said Xanatos after Maul enter his office room, followed by Anakin who politely walk behind him.
"Yeah, thanks." said Maul.
"Did you feel used already to your new legs and your ocular implants to replace your burnt eye nerves?" asked Xanatos.
"They are great, but I must tell you that I prefer matters that straight to the point. Pardon my rudeness." said Maul.
"Please sit down you two, I already prepared drinks for our discussions today, feel free to enjoy it." said Xanatos while politely point to the prepared chairs in front of his desk. On top of them, there lies two glass and a bottle of finest Corellian whiskey, a jug full of ice water, and... a big glass of fizzy soda bubbles, obviously prepared for lil' Darth Vader (who eyed the two adults' drink with a slight envy, but then he remember his mom's tale that alcoholic drinks are only for adults).
"Alright, first, I must say our gratitude to your help in breaking us out of the damned Jedi Temple, and your further hospitality." said Maul while slowly sit down, trying his best to be polite because he knows that this could be his only chances to get some kind of fast track to his plan.
"My pleasure, let's get straight to business then. First thing first, let's start with how to properly address each others, Lord Maul. While I personally don't mind if you call me whatever you want, as long as it was polite. I want your apprentice to call me as 'father', and I will refer to him as 'son'." said Xanatos calmly, earning him a weird look from both Anakin and Maul.
"What? Mister, b... but I don't think..." said Anakin awkwardly, but Xanatos only smile behind his mask, and show them a holovid of his taunt against the Jedi.
"If you do something against my son again, you will regret it, I promise..." said Xanatos' hologram, and both Maul and Anakin continue to look confused at him.
"Something to threw the Jedi off track, and gave them a false lead upon my true intentions..." Xanatos calmly explain this particular bit.
"Ah, I see... but may I inquire about..." said Maul, but Anakin quickly cut him.
"But I still have my mother... and..." said Anakin.
"You can told this to your dad... Lord Vader... I believe he will..." said Xanatos.
"I... my mother told me that I have no father... she just got me, and that's all..." said Anakin while fidgeting, made Xanatos nod in politeness and establish a telepathic communication with Maul.
"May I ask if you..." asked Xanatos in the Force.
"The Boy's mother is used to be a slave as well, he already told me that, but sensing why he didn't bring up matters of his paternity, could only means that he was a child of rape... let's not dwell on it..." replies Maul via the Force.
"I see... let's back to business." said Xanatos and he cut the Force telepathy afterwards, returning to direct talks.
"... I am sorry mister, but I don't think..." said Anakin, but Xanatos just shift a bit and calmly replies.
"I can ensure you, we are not related by blood, but for this deception, I need your cooperation. While I can employ your Sith Master directly, everybody else will definitely ask about why a little human boy is also there... well? if you wish, I want to show you my good faith by formally adopting you as my formal heir, if you wish, son..." said Xanatos, but Anakin just shift uncomfortably and shrug.
"Whatever, but this..." asked Maul, but Xanatos quickly cut him off by opening his mask, showing them a disfigured, melted face courtesy of...
"The Jedi did this to me, I am old already, and my only biological son hate me due to his mother's upbringings. I have a feeling that if I die, my empire will come crashing down, and I am in need of an heir in case of..." said Xanatos, but Maul intercept him.
"What if you make an heir later, with..." said Maul, but Xanatos pouts (with that melted face!) and say.
"If you wish, I'll show you why I can't make a new heir, it has been melted away too.." said Xanatos while eyeing downwards, but Maul quickly change the talks.
"I see, I see, no need to show us that, thank you very much... thank you very much to provide me with new sight, but please, I don't want to be blind again." said Maul who tried to scrub away the mental images he formed on his mind, while Anakin, bless his relative innocence, did not really caught on that mental image.
"Alright, back to our previous point, did you agree to at least call me Father in public, son? You don't really need to actually do filial piety with me, and we all know it was a deception for thwarting the Jedi off tracks. Did you agree?" asked Xanatos while sipping his drink and close his mask again.
"Yes Mi... father, I agree." said Anakin.
"Good, now let's go to our next topic, this is about our profit sharing. I will form our alliance in what could be described as equal partners, with each of you holding one vote each, so you both have two and I have one to decide our enterprise's strategies and policies. I just merely want to keep my majority of profit share strictly in financial profits, with seventy five percent of the financial profit still in my own account, and you both will share twenty five percent." said Xanatos.
"I don't really understand? Care to explain?" asked Maul.
"You both have 66.66% share on deciding policies and strategy, and 25% of financial profits is yours. I reserve 33% of policies and 75% of financial profits, I hope I made myself clear this time." asked Xanatos.
"Oh, sure, so you want most of the money, but we have more say in the strategies, right?" said Maul.
"Exactly, and this is tied with my ruse about your Apprentice, Lord Vader, being my son. But I want to trust him to manage his own share of things, even if he's still a young boy. You can act as 'regent' to his vote if both of you agreed, so de-facto, you two will have more influence than me in the army, while I held most of the financial matters. As long as your policies is still in accord with our purpose, to eradicate the Jedi and carve us an empire for ourselves." said Xanatos.
"Sounds generous enough..." said Maul.
"Alright. now, I want to ask my first request, can you enlighten me in the Sith way to properly create synthetic red lightsaber crystals? I did create one, but it still feel not right so..." said Xanatos while he calmly unclip his lightsaber and show them his red blade.
"Excuse us, but currently, my lightsaber are being confiscated by the Jedi, and Vader did not make his own lightsaber yet, we just stole from the Jedi, so..." said Maul.
"Ah, so this is an excellent priority to both enlighten me in your methods, as well as teaching your apprentice the way to create his own lightsaber." said Xanatos.
"So, we have agreements then. I did also need to have my proper lightsaber, and using the blue and purple lightsaber taken from..." said Maul.
"Oh, you loot Windu's lightsaber aren't you?" said Xanatos in glee. "I forgot to fetch that because I'm in a hurry before, but he has a very rare crystal with superior output power and plasma ionization, if I were you I will refit the crystals so... but unless you are certain that the Sith technique is still superior to that..." said Xanatos.
"Hmm... we'll see, but I did prefer a crimson one. If you want you can have it, we'll make ourselves a new ones..." said Maul.
"I see, I see... I also have more familiarity with crimson blades now... but I suggest you re-fit them for a backup or second lightsaber, it could be useful." said Xanatos.
"Agreed... now, excuse me but I will list the tools and ingredients we need to create the crystals. It must be made in perfect synchronization with the Dark Side, so I think Vader will has the re-fitted purple lightsaber until he properly learn to meditate. I will make my own and show you how it was done." said Maul.
"Good, thanks..." said Xanatos, while Maul start to write down the things needed in a datapad.
"Hmm, I can provide everything up to the generators and compressors, and I want to suggest you to use Phrix compound for the hilts, it was lightsaber resistant and I have quite a stock." said Xanatos after reading down the things listed by Maul.
"And a rather long time to wash out the impurities and align the crystal lattices, about a month or more, for four crystals." said Maul.
"A plan for double bladed lightsaber eh? A nice design, but it has weakness in cramped space, not to mention..." said Xanatos, but then Maul point out to a certain part in the diagram.
"It was based on my old lightsaber, but it was actually two fully functional parts of bifurcated crystals lightsabers. They are immune to be shortened out, can recover faster against cortosis interference, as well as a special mechanism to break them voluntarily in two and re-attach them again, so it can be used as either standard double bladed lightsaber, or Jar-Kai lightsabers." said Maul.
"I see, an elegant weapon for all the possible circumstances." said Xanatos.
"The four crystals will be made in one batch, separated along the four major tetrahedral lattices formed. This way, the crystals are fully synchronized." said Maul, explaining further.
"Hmm, and what for your apprentice?" asked Xanatos.
"I left him a basic design, so after he has mastered the synchronization meditation, he can derive any scheme for the lightsaber that would be his own. But for now, I did accept your suggestion and he will make a basic, bifurcated lightsaber using the purple crystals we loot from the bald corpse of a Jedi." said Maul.
"Hmm, good, let me test your lightsaber after you made it, and I shall decide upon my own later... speaking of which..." said Xanatos.
"Your synthetic lightsaber crystal has already considerable resemblance with a proper Sith lightsaber, if you don't explain it yourself that you actually bought it from what a bounty hunter found in Korriban, I almost went to a conclusion that you already mastered one." said Maul.
"Oh dear, I just realized that my own lightsaber is a proper Sith one already..." said Xanatos cheerfully. "But still, I wish to make one that was fully synchronized with myself."
"Alright, shall we start?"
"You're on."
Around two days later, inside a force-barred dog cage, initiate Ahsoka Tano awaken from her painful slumber (courtesy of Anakin's force lightning training), and start to cry before she suddenly found three persons already stand in the place she was in, at the cold balcony.
"Ssh, little one, we don't wish to hurt you..." said a female voice under a hood.
"Quick, we must out of here before either the Zabrak Sith, My Father, or my evil brother found us here..." said a young man, who also wear a hood.
"Asajj, can you carefully pry open the cage, while I am on a lookout for intruders?" said another male human who also wear a hood as well.
"As you wish Ky, I just can't think what a torture that this poor girl already endure... so..." said Asajj Ventress while trying her best to sneak upon the cage while sending calm waves to the little Togruta.
"Careful Asajj, we are lucky enough to left Rattatak by sheer chance to meet with Granta Omega, and he agreed to help us in return of helping him infiltrate his father's compound, but somehow we've found ourselves inside a Sith conspiracy, we need to survive until we can go to the Jedi Temple, so I can report it..." said Ky Narec.
"Yes Master Ky, and I did hope they will officially accept me as your Padawan learner... and..." said Asajj Ventress while trying her best to do her job.
"I just hope my father was brought to Justice, I cannot stand that..." said Granta Omega.
"But before we go to Coruscant, we cannot let them to use this poor girl as their torture experiment... it is our duty as Jedi." said Ky Narec, while Asajj Ventress successfully pried the cage and carefully slid the little Togruta on her hands.
"T... who... who ar..." said Ahsoka weakly, but Asajj softly put her finger in front of her mouth while smiling.
"Ssh... we are Jedi, and we are here to save you, little one... no no... don't shown your joy before we escaped... I want to ask you for your help, you must calm yourself..." said Asajj.
"Quick Asajj, I sense the evil boy will be there soon to play his cruel games again, we must..." said Ky Narec.
"Well Master Ky, I did sense the boy is a powerful dark sider, but he is still a human boy, what if..." said Asajj.
"Quick, my self-taught talent of Force cloaking won't hold us for long... we must escape as soon as possible before they are aware of us. I did concerned with the fate of my younger brother, but as far as I can see, he is fine here, and we can take care of him later..." said Granta Omega, tried to hurry Asajj to escape from this balcony.
Author's Note:
Well, I tried to do Maul as badass blind fighter, but after seeing that occular implants are used on freakin Revan's time (KOTOR & TOR), and blinded by radiation is actually more curable than getting your eyes slashed by lightsaber (aka physical damages) as Rahm Kota suffered, I decided to at least make him no more blind, especially since Xanatos use Yslamiri, so he left a void in the Force. Occular implants are not perfect though.