Anais sat in the cockpit of her master's ship. She was sitting in the same place where she settled the first time she entered there, when from Gerik IV, she left with the red devil for Coruscant.

Lord Maul sat in the command post and begun take-off maneuvers. Climbing onto the ship, Anais relived the emotions of the first time she mounted it, the cold and the sad and dark reddish atmosphere that characterizes those environments. Her master wore the suit she had seen him the first time, a suit that covered him entirely without leaving his arms uncovered, indeed, he also wore long black leather gloves. On the left one, he held a large metal bracelet on which he occasionally pressed something, doing things such as opening the door of the spaceship or moving his black probes that Anais had seen in the room where he was training, descend from the ceiling and unload her master with hundreds of strokes per minute.

A large and heavy black cloak with hood covered him entirely, Lord Maul returned to take scary and distant look for Anais as when she had first seen him, less confidential than when he was dressed without gloves or even when she found him wearing only the bath towel because he just got out of his shower!

Anais fastened her seat belt as Lord Maul moved the Scimitar into the chaotic Coruscant traffic to enter the corridors that only he knew and that allowed his cloaked spaceship to exit the planet without incident and therefore, without being noticed.

The girl was not particularly happy to go out with her master, especially after he had told her the day before: "No one should touch you or I will punish you." This thing made her feel terrible. No one would have had reason to touch her ... she didn't understand why all this terror.

On the other side Anais was happy for this trip because it allowed her to leave the walls of that apartment, because she would see (not visit, but just only see) a new planet, but she did not like the idea of seeing Lord Sidious again and the people that guys like him, and her master, could ever hang out with.

Zelda was very impressed with the decision made by Lord Maul to take Anais with him, on one of his missions, because even if he had not said it, the one on Dariba was a mission although he did not have to kill anyone, but just gather information .

Anais had dressed very comfortably, she had put on a tight black leather shirt that left her shoulders and arms free and then, she had put on a pair of black leather pants, like those of the day before with the same boots. Darth Maul had given her a black cloak like his, but with her size in order to avoid that the girl would trip over the fabric. He prepared it by one of his droids normally assigned to sew his clothes. He noticed that the girl's clothing was very simple, he was satisfied that she was not wearing anything special, a sign that Anais had no intention of attracting the attention of those present to herself. But no matter how hard she tried not to appear, Darth Maul was well aware that even dressed like this, her body was still gorgeous and desirable. Even hiding her body covering with the cloak, the color of her eyes, her gaze, along with her long golden hair, attracted anyone's attention. It was therefore conceivable that, arrived on Dariba, Anais would have attracted the interest of those present.

Darth Maul watched the girl approach his ship: he was waiting for her on the ramp of the back hatch. Seeing she arrive dressed like that, for a moment he thought of Anais as a little apprentice-warrior! A little Sith ... but Anais had none of that, she couldn't hold a weapon, she'd never used one. She had no physical training and was too old to start training her even if he wanted to. But he didn't want to: he had never thought of Anais in these terms. He hadn't spared her life to have an apprentice to train. No. He wanted Anais to remain his small and defenseless slave, to remain weak, delicate because he would be there to defend and protect her.

Anais walked past him looking into his eyes as the wind lifted her long blond hair. He followed her with his eyes as she climbed the ramp and then once inside both of them, the back hatch closed leaving them in the red gloom of the ship.

There was no need to speak, Anais knew she just had to follow him.

Darth Maul now taken the Scimitar out of Coruscant's skies and set the coordinates for Dariba.

Anais noticed that the spaceship had entered hyperspace because the vibrations had decreased and the course was more stable. Darth Maul engaged the autopilot and stood there for a moment to check some parameters.

-It won't take long to reach Dariba - he told Anais. She nodded without commenting on anything. Although he was in the command post and therefore the girl was behind him, as always, he felt a little annoyed assuming that Anais's response had been a simple movement of the head. But she was like that, she didn't talk much or maybe, she was afraid to do it if she wasn't authorized. In fact, the few times she had taken the initiative to ask a few questions or comment on something, he was always pleasantly impressed.

Anais looked around, the cockpit was essential, it had nothing on which it was worth dwelling on with one's attention. It would been interesting to stand next to the red devil to see what he did, how he piloted. But there was only one seat on that ship, the one for the pilot, and therefore it was not possible to be near him, unless he had asked her to.

Also, the only opening that allowed she to look out was a narrow rectangular screen at the top, in front of the command post and from where Anais was, she couldn't see much. Besides, they were now traveling in hyperspace and so it was even less interesting to peek beyond.

Anais was absorbed in her thoughts, wandering without any logic from one memory to another, even on things not strictly related to her master, but obviously, most of her reflections were related to him.

After about an hour of travel, Darth Maul brought her back:

-Get ready- he said succinctly: - We have arrived-

Anais felt her heart beat slightly faster. She looked over the command post, up towards the rectangular screen and when the spaceship came out of hyperspace, the girl found a small light brown moon, sometimes veiled by white clouds and with some blue and green spots, on its surface. She believed worse! Maybe it didn't even have to be a bad place, she thought naively. The Scimitar began the maneuvers to enter the planet's atmosphere. Beyond a thick blanket of white clouds, the scenery that unfolded before her eyes was not bad, as far as she could see from that screen: in front of them was a huge rocky construction, similar to a castle carved into the mountain that stood out immediately behind. If her master's spaceship hadn't been so close, it would have been hard to notice that building because it was the same color as the mountain, perfectly integrated into it.

All around there were waterfalls that came down from dizzying heights, producing clouds of steam that rose from the ground and rose slightly along their course. There was also some vegetation, scattered here and there.

The Scimitar made a large rotation in front of the building and then landed in a large forecourt on which there were already some spaceships, all more or less the size of that of its master, but with obviously different shapes.

Completed the landing, Darth Maul rose from the command post and looked at his little slave, struggling with the opening of the seat belt. He helped her untie with the use of his force and she, who suddenly saw the hook move on its own, gave him a quick look a little scared and a little worried.

Darth Maul walked over. Meantime the girl had stood up trying to put on the black cloak while continuing to throw him fearful looks. When he was close to her, without saying anything, he helped her to straighten the cloak, closing it in front.

Anais looked once again with amazement at the movements of his gloved hands as he closed her cloak at chest level: every time he had these delicacies towards her, she wondered how he could, given the strength he was endowed with.

-He won't tell you anything -he said unexpectedly. She looked into his eyes, initially not understanding who or what he was referring to. But then, she realized that he was referring to Lord Sidious: - Don't worry ... - he continued, finally reading in her eyes that she understood who he was talking about. Then when he had finished tying her cloak, he removed his hands and looked at her seriously: - Anais, do not believe everything you will hear from the people who are in, do not judge by what others say, always judge using your head-

Anais looked at him perplexed, she did not understand what he meant with this speech ... but why he was never clear?

Her little mind struggled to keep up with him: she just nodded her head.

-Now let's go! - He said bringing her hood over her head and doing the same thing too.

The spaceship had landed on a large square which was connected to the castle by a thin bridge made of the same material as the mountain and therefore of the same color. It was a long, narrow bridge, very high, on which one could only proceed on foot.

Darth Maul walked in front of Anais wrapped in his black cloak. Anais had her heart pounding in her chest. Arriving at the entrance of the building, her master approached a small camera that read his retina and recognized him. A metallic voice greeted him:

-Welcome Lord Maul- and opened the big and heavy door in front of them.

Anais followed her master, entering a large room with very high vaults, supported by colossal columns. Inside there were already several people: many of them were wearing military uniforms, others were bounty hunters, Anais recognized them immediately, then there were alien races of all kinds and droids.

As soon as Darth Maul entered the hall, he attracted the eyes of many people on himself, he could hear the comments they exchanged between them. Some were comments of mere curiosity "Do you know who that Zebrak is? ...", others and most of these, were comments of disdain towards him "Good heavens, look at him is repulsive ...", other stupid comments of defiance "I wish just fight with him .. "and finally, continuing to walk among all those people, comments also arrived addressed to his little slave:" Who is that little human who follows him? " Darth Maul looked with hatred and contempt towards the Twi'lek Karys who was talking to the Tholothiana Genula.

When the woman noticed that Darth Maul had looked at her, she decided to come to meet him to satisfy her curiosity:

-Lord Maul ... what a pleasure to see you again! - she said with an extremely mischievous way, throwing her arms around his neck. But he stopped her before she could touch him:

-Karys - he said moving her tattooed green arms to one side. She felt a moment of irritation at being rejected like this and glanced at poor Anais who was staring at her with wide eyes from under her hood:

-And who is that, Lord Maul? ... your slave ... your new toy? - she laughed maliciously and stretched out a hand to the girl in an attempt to lower her hood and uncover her head. But Darth Maul was once again faster than her, grabbed her arm and showing his teeth he said in a low voice, almost growling:

-Stay away from her, do you understand Karys? - Twi'lek freed herself from the grip, but considered that perhaps it was better to let it go and at least, for the moment, she had no intention of making him angry and much less clash with him.

So she let the mighty cloaked figure of Darth Maul and the small, petite Anais pass, looking at her with contempt. Anais ignored her gaze and just followed her master.

At a certain point, Darth Maul stopped and turned to Anais, that who for a while, distracted as she was looking left and right, was about to come on him:

-Go over there - he told her just looking with his eyes where Anais should have gone: -And don't move from there until I come to look for you- Anais felt the slight variation in tone, harder and firmer, in the voice of his master when he uttered this second part of the sentence. She nodded as always with a nod of her head and then moved away from him, going to place himself where she had understood, near a large and high window that had the draperies of a long green curtain on the right and left. He followed her with his eyes until Anais took up her position and then turned to join Lord Sidious.

Anais was left alone, in a slightly isolated part of the huge room. She glanced to her right: there were other girls like her, some were Twi'lek and were almost naked. Anais noticed the chains on their wrists that for some of them even reached their necks. The girl felt her stomach close at the thought that those creatures could be slaves like her and she was not wrong to hypothesize so, because some of them were crying. She immediately thought to herself, how fortunate she could to be a slave to a Sith like Lord Maul ... another kind of master could have chained her like this ... and who knows what other sufferings they were forced to endure ... Anais thought she should have complained less because in her bad luck, instead she had been lucky.

She pulled the hood off her head letting her long golden hair slide out, while her blond curls fell behind her back and in front of her black cloak.

She continued to look around, trying to take her gaze away from that small group of slaves. Anais noticed that there were many people dressed as soldiers, but they were certainly not soldiers at the service of the Republic because they would not have tolerated the presence of slaves, in fact they considered slavery prohibited. They had to be Separatist military men who considered it legal. They formed small groups, some holding goblets in their hands and drinking. Occasionally, in fact, droids passed by serving food and wine to the people present. Some of them glanced at Anais, the girl obviously noticed it, just as she noticed that they were talking about her. She looked for Lord Maul: she saw him at the top of the room, beside him was Lord Sidious. Her master had his back to her, he was facing his master: "Let alone" - Anais thought irritably: "When he is with him ... why worry about anything else?". But Anais was wrong. Lord Maul's mind was focused both on what Lord Sidious was telling him and on what was happening around her.

Anais thought back to what Twi'lek Karys said to her master earlier: "New toy?" Was she this for Lord Maul? A toy, a pastime when he was not engaged in some mission? Anais felt sad, even though she could consider herself less unfortunate than those slaves to her right. She gave them another look. And why did she have feel sad? After all, he was her master, not her husband, besides he was a murderer, a Sith ... what did she expect from him?

Zelda had told her several times, she had always been clear about it: there will never be love in his heart. Only possession.

Suddenly she remembered what Lord Maul said to her on his spaceship: "Don't believe everything you hear from the people in there, don't judge by what others say, always judge using your head" ... perhaps her master was referring to what the Twi'lek said? Perhaps he knew that those people would speak out of turn against her and to prevent her from getting wrong ideas, he anticipated that speech to warn her ... maybe it was so, Anais thought a bit disconsolately, continuing to look around hoping that boring experience ended as soon as possible.

-Beautiful!-

-What?-

-I said ... beautiful! - General Seth repeated when his gaze fell on Anais just as the girl took off the black hood from her head letting out her long blond hair.

The general was in a slightly raised point of the room, because the flooring of that building followed the natural shape of the ground created inside the mountain.

He couldn't take his eyes off the young girl.

-Hey Seth - his friend said putting a hand on his shoulder, in an attempt to distract him from his thoughts:

-Keep your instinct in check Seth ... do you know who that girl is? - the general did not answer him, but continued to look towards Anais.

- She is Lord Maul's slave ... - the friend continues with the hope of dismantling the general's enthusiasm.

-Lord Maul? - the general repeated as if that name meant something to him, but at that moment in his head, he couldn't think of anything.

He was struck by the beauty of that young girl, by the color of her eyes, by her gaze and he could not get out from his head, the idea of going to her to meet her. What harm would it do?

Okay, she was Lord Maul's slave, as his friend said, but he had no intention of kidnapping her, but only know her and be able to exchange a few words ..Seth took off his friend's hand and walked towards Anais.

Lord Sidious was standing covered by his gray hood and cloak, partially hidden behind one of those immense columns, in a remote corner of the hall, but not so remote because he had a great view from there. And he did not escape the young general Seth who, regardless of his friend's advice, was moving towards the slave of his apprentice. He grinned wickedly as he sensed the situation. When his apprentice joined him, moments later, he sadistically provoke him on this aspect:

-Lord Maul welcome!-

-My Lord! - he said, lowering his head slightly.

-I note with pleasure the numerous looks that your young slave Anais is attracting on herself ..-

Darth Maul said nothing to him: if his ex-master was referring to General Seth, he had already noticed his attention towards Anais, he had also passed him not far away, but he had not even looked him in the face.

When he was next to his ex-master, he turned a moment in Anais's direction, just in time to see the general come to the girl and speak to her.

Inside, he was crossed by a shiver of hatred towards that man, it was a real miracle to keep calm and at the same time, allow him to get close to Anais. Seth was one of the men he had pointed his finger in search of the hypothetical spy that his ex-master had spoken of. He did not like the fact that General had been taught by the Jedi in the use of the sword ... even though he had sworn allegiance to the leader of the Separatists, this had not left Darth Maul indifferent and for this rreason, General Seth ended up among the men who, according to Darth Maul, could be considered potential spies. He let h approach Anais, talk to her even though the blood inside him boiled with rage and his two hearts, pounded in his chest screaming to fight and kill. "Anais .." he thought furiously "remember that no one should touch you!".

Anais saw a tall man coming towards her, dressed in an elegant dark gray uniform, with different grades on the shoulders and chest, although he had a white cloak behind his shoulders that partially covered him also in front.

He was a pleasant-looking man, he must have been more or less the age of his master whom Anais had estimated to be in forties, his hair was brown, short but kept messy, thus giving his face a wild image that contrasted with that serious and rigid uniform. Anais noticed a lightsaber attached to the belt he wore at his waist. Dark eyes, he had several small scars on his face.

The girl hoped that he would not approach her, that he was coming towards her and then take another direction, but no ... instead he stopped just a couple of meters from her looking at her intently.

Anais, after meeting his gaze, immediately directed hers in another direction. Her heart was beating very fast, she was afraid that Lord Maul was looking at her, but she didn't have the courage to look in his direction.

-Hello, what's your name girl? - the man asked in a gentle tone.

Anais did not answer him and continued to look other way.

The general understood the embarrassment of the girl, she was a slave and he a soldier ... perhaps she was afraid to speak to him.

So he tried again:

-Let me introduce myself, I'm General Seth ... you've probably never heard of me ... there are too many generals here! - the man smiled. Anais thought that his way of doing was very kind and nice, but she didn't want to give him confidence.

Darth Maul was facing Lord Sidious so he did not see what was happening, but he had heard everything, his mind was projected next to Anais and he was pleasantly surprised by the girl that, up to this moment, avoided talking to him.

The man was sorry that the girl did not speak to him. He tried again, if he failed he would be gone. He didn't want to scare her. There were too many people to create a case and they didn't want to get anyone's attention, much less, in this case, of her master, Lord Maul.

- I don't want to hurt you ... I just wanted to have a few words with you, but if you don't like this, I'm leaving, I don't want to get you in trouble-

Anais put a lock of hair behind her ear, she thought that was not the way to behave, being afraid of Lord Maul did not mean being rude to people and this man had seemed very kind and polite towards her.

-Anais- she said without looking at him.

-How? - he asked immediately after turning to the girl since he had already given up:

-My name is Anais- she said again, this time looking him straight in the eye.

The general was incredibly struck by the beauty of those eyes, of that look. He took a closer look at her face and noticed her small features. "Never seen such a creature!" He thought in wonder.

-I'm glad you decided to talk to me ... I've never killed anyone for so little! - He smiled at her and Anais returned.

-Where are you from? - he asked her. Anais bit her lower lip for a moment, she was undecided whether to tell him that she actually did not remember anything of her past or to do as with the Nautolan and avoid saying too many details:

-Batuu- in the end, common sense prevailed!

-I have been to Batuu! - said the man.

-Really? - Anais asked giving him an intense and excited look.

Then she restrained herself and in a calm voice added:

-And how did you find it? -

The man thought about it, putting a hand to his chin, then said to her:

- Quite peaceful, a paradise! -

Anais was happy to hear that ... she would have asked for more when suddenly, a rumor spread through the hall, announcing that the leader of the Separatists would soon be speaking. The general looked towards where this leader would show up to speak, abruptly interrupting the conversation with Anais.

Anais looked towards her master, but Lord Maul was always turned towards his master Lord Sidious and ignored her.

When the leader of the Separatists started talking, Anais couldn't see who he was because she couldn't see much where she was standing. Maybe the general couldn't see him either, but he was probably more interested in what he said than in what he looked like. Anais found his speech very boring, he spoke of wars, of the struggle against the Republic, of agreements between clans in order to open new routes for their traffic, obviously illicit.

The leader of the Separatists spoke for about half an hour, but to Anais it seemed more.

When he finished speaking, there was a general chorus of voices for the final greeting, a sort of phrase that everyone knew and that everyone pronounced in unison, making Anais shiver.

After that, everyone slowly went back to doing what they were doing before the leader spoke. Some even left. Anais sensed that the meeting must finally be over.

The general turned to the girl, he had pronounced that greeting aloud too, but despite being close to her, Anais still did not understand what he said:

-Anais goodbye, our meeting was short I'm sorry, but we will certainly have the opportunity to talk about your planet, Batuu together again-

Anais was happy to hear this, but distracted by these thoughts, she paid no attention to the general's hand who reached out to hers, taking it to give her a very delicate kiss in greeting.

It was too late now.

Anais felt the blood freeze in her veins.

She quickly slipped her hand from that of the general immediately after his lips had delicately rested on her back, she immediately looked at her master ...

This time Lord Maul was turned towards her !

Their eyes meet for a moment, Anais's, full of terror and sorrow, and him, full of anger.

Lord Maul's words went round and round in her mind: "No one must touch you, Anais or I will punish you" that's why he had told her ... he knew ... he knew that someone could have touched her, in that sense that she hadn't thought and let her guard down! Now the general had touched her, Lord Maul had seen it clearly and now, he would punish her!

Anais felt the emptiness forming inside her ... the fear began to rise like a poison through the blood reaching all parts of the body, leaving her completely unable to react.

-Forgive me Anais ... I did not want ... I would not believed ...- the general apologized when he saw the terror paint on the girl's face immediately after touching her hand. He understood that he had done something that he shouldn't have, but basically he just wanted to say hello!

-Really Anais forgive me, I'm sorry ... - the man continued approaching the girl who looked at him terrified without being able to say a word.

-General Seth- this time it was her master's voice ... Anais shifted her gaze from the general to the tall and mighty shadow that had just appeared on her left and was now standing between them:

-I assume that my slave bothering you? - hearing those words Anais widened her eyes and looked at him with a look that went from terror to anger. She wanted to tell him, "That's not true! He was the one who touched me, took my hand without my permission!" but she was not able to.

General Seth felt sorry for Anais, for having created an embarrassing situation like this through her fault and, above all, clearly put the girl in difficulty in front of her master. He lost sight of the concept of a slave, he had to imagine that a slave could not be touched unless her master consented.

-Lord Maul - looked into his eyes without hiding a veil of defiance towards him: - Absolutely not, Anais and I were just exchanging a few words! - He tried to fix it and seemed to succeed, even if he imagined that for Anais it would not end like this.

-Very well, then we can go- he glanced at his slave full of anger and then grabbed her arm making her turn sharply and then pull her behind him.

Anais couldn't even look at General Seth for one last time ... scared as she was at that moment, her priority was to figure out what her master planned to do to punish her.

She stumbled often, struggled to keep up with her master. She felt his gloved hand grabbing her left arm hard and every time she slowed down or slipped losing her stride, that squeeze became even more painful because he pulled her behind him as if she were a dead weight, without giving her time to get back on her feet. . Beside him she felt small and helpless: Lord Maul was much taller than her, he had musculature in his arms and chest that made him physically twice the size of a man.

She found herself back in his spaceship. He had dragged her all the way from the castle to the huge square where they had landed in the spaceship, without saying anything to her.

Anais was breathing hard, she was afraid.

Darth Maul sensed her fear and took pleasure in it, soon he would make Anais feel what it meant to be punished when he ordered was not respected. And he knew that the girl was aware of what awaited her because he had told her what would happen if someone touched her.

But Darth Maul, he also knew that it was not Anais's fault: General Seth had touched her, taking her hand on his own initiative and had clearly seen Anais's desperate gesture when she removed her hand, well aware of what had happened .

For this reason, he would punish her, but he wouldn't hurt her, at least not that much. He would calibrate the punishment so that her small, frail body could bear it.

Throughout the journey back, Lord Maul never spoke to Anais, he merely sensed her emotions.

Anais had her heart beating fast in her chest. She wanted to explain what was happened, but she was afraid of making it worse.