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Chapter 31
Obi-Wan swiveled his starfighter through an onslaught of vulture droids and dodged past several mind-controlled Jedi in starfighters. His movements allowed him only a few seconds of respite before a rain of blaster fire poured down on him. His ship lurched under the barrage. He returned fire on the droid vessels but had to wheel around the Jedi to keep from striking them.
It made it a difficult battle to win when one could not properly fight.
He and countless troopers had descended upon the Gahenn Plains where the Sith cave existed. A metal framework of extensive scaffolding had been built across the plains and over the cave entrance, and a building and tower had been erected at the edge of the scaffolding. The tower appeared to house a reactor, meaning they supplied power to something, somewhere. He would have fired on the building if not for the living beings he sensed inside.
The enemies avoided firing near the building, tower, and scaffolding, which made it the perfect area to fall back and regroup. If he weaved through the scaffolding, his enemies stopped firing on him. Obi-Wan almost considered destroying the scaffolding, but because it was directly above the cave, he feared what it might do to Anakin and his men below.
Rivers of lava carved their way through the obsidian stone plains, and cracks and fissures brutalized the ground. Clouds of black smoke puffed from the depths of the planet and cast the atmosphere in a haze of reddish-black. A grim battlefield, suitable to the mood.
Obi-Wan shot several more droid fighters out of the sky and swung low to narrowly avoid an onslaught of buzz droids. He wasn't doing that again. Two Jedi-led starfighters swooped behind him and fired on him, and only some quick maneuvering around the scaffolding allowed him to evade their fire.
"General," Cody said over the comms, "Skywalker's surface team has come under fire. Should we assist?"
"No, and don't let on," Obi-Wan said. "Keep the forces here distracted. At the very least, we'll keep them out of their way."
Obi-Wan's concern for Anakin and his men increased, and it only intensified as his stomach dropped. A sense of foreboding stabbed at him through the Force. A jolt ran through him from head to toe and left him strangely numb. He rubbed at his head against an ache that developed deep in his skull.
It felt like the holocrons breaking through his mind, but not quite. It felt worse.
"We might have a problem," Obi-Wan said into his comlink. "Anakin, what's going on?"
"We definitely have a problem," Anakin shouted through the communicator, but his voice dulled behind violent crashes and shouts of surprise.
Obi-Wan opened his mouth to request more information and abruptly closed it.
The ground shook, and the nearby rivers of lava burst out of their beds and splattered glowing gold and red liquid across the obsidian plains. The black stones gave way and crumbled, and lava poured down the sides of a massive and growing hole that went on forever into a dark abyss.
A tower climbed out of the darkness with a holocron glowing at its peak. The weapon. Sidious stood at the top of the tower with hands upheld.
Metal scaffolding had been woven into the ground in such a way that it prevented the ground around the tower from breaking and the hole from growing too wide. Sidious waved his hands and ripped countless pieces of distant scaffolding out of the ground and slammed them through the floating platform on which his weapon stood, securing it to the surface. Gaps remained between the platform and the plains. Traversing the abyss would be a difficult feat for the troopers.
Clusters of troopers huddled together on the small ridge of rock around the tower. Anakin used the Force and flung the troopers across the gap to stable ground.
"Aim for the top of that tower," Obi-Wan shouted into his comlink. "Avoid the bottom—we have allies down there."
Obi-Wan and several troopers aimed for Sidious at the top of the tower. Their laser bolts smattered against an invisible field created by the scaffolding. They turned their fire on the scaffolding, but Sidious formed a ball of Force lightning in his hands and flung it like a web over the sky. It ripped through every starfighter it caught.
Obi-Wan evaded with a quick dive, but an invisible hand plucked his starfighter out of the air. On the tower, Sidious stretched his fingers towards Obi-Wan, his teeth glaring under the light of the holocron as he laughed. One of the engines in Obi-Wan's ship imploded. All the warning lights flashed in the cockpit and alarms screamed. One wing crinkled inward while the other tore off completely.
With the Force, Obi-Wan slammed hard against the grip on his ship and broke Sidious' hold. He spun his vessel around the far side of the facility and out of Sidious' sight. As he passed the building, he glimpsed a splotch of darkness on the long, flat roof. The darkness had a predominately red face.
Maul.
Obi-Wan shot over Maul and ejected from his seat, and he used the Force to lunge from the ship to the nearest edge of the roof. His ship twirled away before it hit the ground in a ball of flames. Maul didn't face him or acknowledge his presence. Instead, he kept his focus wholly on the tower's dark silhouette against bright flashes of splashing lava.
"You're too late," Maul said, and he glared at Obi-Wan out of the corner of his eye. "I warned you, and you played around too long, and now—" He faced Obi-Wan, and his eyes glared gold. "You're too late!"
"I didn't see you doing much to assist." Obi-Wan scowled at Maul and then at Sidious. The Sith Lord walked around his high perch. A strange halo of red light radiated from him, as though he himself shone like a holocron. "That's…"
"He already used the weapon, you fool. Don't you feel it?" Maul said. "We're all doomed."
That couldn't be. Obi-Wan felt—off. He placed a hand at his chest, where his heart muttered and thumped erratically under his fingertips. His head ached, and a persistent knot sat in his stomach. When he concentrated to feel the Force's power flowing in and around him, it took longer to reach what normally felt like an extension of him.
"That's…" Obi-Wan's heart skipped a beat.
The glow around Sidious was their stolen energy—the stolen strength of hundreds of Jedi.
Maul stormed to the other end of the roof and gathered a gnarled heap of equipment. He slid various gleaming pieces of metal into place, building some sort of cannon. He yanked wires through the sole door on the roof and affixed the cables to his portable weapon.
"What is that?" Obi-Wan asked. He took a step back to ensure the weapon never pointed at him, and his hand went to his lightsaber. His mind felt muddled, and he had no sense of peace or danger. "What are you doing?"
"What you should have done, you good-for-nothing Jedi."
Maul thrust the cannon to the edge of the roof and fired on each corner of the scaffolding from which Sidious' shield arose. Massive bolts hurled from his weapon and shattered through the metal like stones through cracked glass. It took only seconds before he demolished the scaffolding—and presumably the shield.
"I ask you to do one thing," Maul muttered and spun the cannon towards Sidious.
Sidious did nothing. All of it was too easy. Obi-Wan's clouded instincts kicked in too late.
A trap.
Maul swung the cannon and pointed at Anakin, who rounded the base of the tower after helping the rest of his men escape. Obi-Wan's heart jumped to his throat. He drew his lightsaber and ran at Maul while he screamed into his comlink.
"Anakin, look out!"
Obi-Wan slashed at the cannon and rammed Maul with his full weight, but a bolt of energy whistled out of the weapon. Obi-Wan staggered and watched.
Watched as Anakin whirled and held up a hand to receive the blast. He created a shield at his fingertips, but the cannon fire shattered it in a matter of seconds. The bolt slammed into Anakin and blew apart the ground under his feet. Anakin fell into the abyss from which the tower had risen, and a small landslide crumbled after him. Pain tore through Obi-Wan from head to toe, searing through him like white-hot flames. He stumbled to one knee and gripped his chest.
Pain. Anakin was injured, but he was alive. Obi-Wan felt the pulse of his life.
"That one was for you," Maul said with a quick snarl, and he swung the cannon back towards Sidious. "This one is for me."
Maul fired, but a second shield flashed around Sidious and the tower and devoured the blast. Maul's cannon fire dripped off the shield and vanished in a puff of smoke. Maul jerked backwards, eyes wide. He'd anticipated the first shield—he hadn't anticipated the second.
"No," he growled. "That wasn't—"
Sidious launched enormous bolts of Force lightning at them. Obi-Wan and Maul jumped backwards, but the bolts shredded a huge portion of the roof and slammed into them anyway. The cannon exploded, and flames tore through the wires that had powered it. Obi-Wan rolled back to his feet and ran to the shattered edge of the roof. Sidious turned his strikes against troopers in starfighters that swarmed over his head. He lashed them out of the air with Force lightning he wielded like whips. Jedi in starfighters closed in and engaged the troopers.
What an utter disaster.
"He wasn't supposed to have a second shield. This was the plan." Maul scrambled to his feet, a red cloud of rage permeating the air around him. His hand trembled on his lightsaber hilt. "This was the plan!"
"Your target was Anakin…" Obi-Wan huffed. "Why? Sidious wants him alive."
"He is alive, you fool. Right now, he's sitting in a literal pit of the dark side, and he's surrounded by holocrons." Maul seethed, and he hissed through his teeth. "Sidious wants him with his brain melted so he can be controlled."
"You're giving him more power," Obi-Wan said, his own anger rising. "If you wanted to stop Sidious, why did you play right into his hands?"
"This wasn't the plan!" Maul slashed his hand through the air. "Hit Skywalker. Turn him to the dark side. Enslave him." His yellow eyes locked on Obi-Wan, and fire burned behind them. Hate. "Because that would destroy you." His gaze shifted to Sidious. "But there wasn't supposed to be a second shield."
"Everyone plays their games," Obi-Wan said with some heat. While he would have liked to see Sidious destroyed, he struggled to sympathize with the man who had made Anakin his target. "You play your games, and he plays his."
Maul shuddered with fury. At the very least, it might make him useful in a fight against Sidious. Or at least a suitable distraction.
Obi-Wan slid to the edge of the roof and prepared to jump. He had to get Anakin out of that pit. As things were, Obi-Wan would never defeat Sidious on his own. They needed to work together to find a way to hit the weapon, cut off Sidious' powers, and take the Sith Lord together.
The hiss of a lightsaber drew Obi-Wan's attention behind him. Maul had engaged his dual-bladed lightsaber and flung his rippling black cloak to the roof. He paced a line behind Obi-Wan.
"What are you doing?" Obi-Wan asked, and he couldn't help the exasperated tone. He waved a hand in Sidious' direction. "He's going to get stronger. If you want any hope of striking him, now is the time. Help us end him—you can take your revenge against me later."
"It's over," Maul said, his breathing labored. "We can't beat him now. But I can destroy you. Here where the dark side is strongest, with the holocrons at work—you must be feeling it."
"Has your hatred of me blinded you so much?" Obi-Wan shook his head. Of course it had. That was how the dark side worked. It was that same hatred and rage that had destroyed Anakin in another life. "That you would throw your life away for it?"
"My hatred of you is the only reason I still exist." Maul grinned, wickedly feral. "I'm going to cut off your limbs and leave you here to rot. That way you can watch as Skywalker comes out of that hole and bows to Sidious. I'll lose my powers, but Sidious' mind control will never reach me. I'll escape with my life and live in the comfort of knowing you lost everything here."
A flicker of anger kindled in Obi-Wan. He stepped away from the edge of the roof and fell in step behind Maul. They circled each other.
Obi-Wan whirled his lightsaber. Anakin's pulse fluttered, and so Obi-Wan's pulse fluttered. Horrific images of a dark future raged at the corners of Obi-Wan's mind—images of a future shared with him through Anakin. Whatever Anakin had fallen into, it tormented him. Obi-Wan would have to make quick work of Maul if he wanted any chance of hauling Anakin back.
"What will you do in this lifetime?" Maul asked, and the corner of one of his lips curled to show his sharp teeth. "When your boy succumbs to Sidious, and this time you knew it was entirely your fault?"
"Anakin won't fall," Obi-Wan said, and he had no doubt. "Destroying his mind with holocrons is a lot different than choosing the dark side."
"It won't make much difference when Skywalker becomes Sidious' subservient little pet, now will it?" Maul chuckled, low and nefarious. Demented. "Your boy's going to become a slave again. Seems that's all he's good for—"
Obi-Wan closed the space between them, his lightsaber flashing cool blue in the red haze of smoke that hung in the air. Maul parried and swung his second blade from the side, but Obi-Wan flicked one red blade away before catching and deflecting the other.
"I feel your anger," Maul said. He sneered. "Does your apprentice know how you struggle with your rage? How your emotions consume you?"
Obi-Wan twirled his lightsaber and vaulted towards Maul at full speed. He pelted Maul with a flurry of strikes and pushed him across the roof. Maul fell in step with him, twisting his own blades to counter the strikes. When Maul ran out of roof, he flipped backwards and landed on top of a skywalk that ran between the building and the tower. Obi-Wan pursued him.
Rivers of lava coursed beneath them.
"Maybe you've gotten a little too comfortable with the dark side," Maul said. He twirled his dual-bladed lightsaber, and both blades tore grooves in the roof of the skywalk. "Maybe it's not Vader's influence helping you right now. Maybe it's your own taste for the dark side."
"I do not fear the dark side." Obi-Wan lunged at Maul with a forceful blow, and their blades locked in the middle, bringing them face to face. "It exists. It will always exist. But it can never reach me now."
"Are you so certain?" The grin on Maul's face widened.
"I am." Obi-Wan shoved at Maul with the Force and pursued him across the roof with another burst of rapid strikes. Maul reverse lunged onto the tower roof. Obi-Wan followed. "Balance. It is one of the many things I learned from Anakin."
"You mean Vader?" Maul chuckled.
"No," Obi-Wan said, and he slammed into Maul again, sending them both flying off the tower to the network of scaffolding that caged in Sidious' weapon. "I mean Anakin."
Obi-Wan pummeled Maul until the Sith apprentice flipped backwards and cut out the scaffolding with his lightsaber. The metal groaned at its broken point and bent under their combined weight. Obi-Wan lunged across the gap and hit Maul as he landed, pressuring him backwards towards a more secure position on the metal post.
Maul flipped onto a different piece of scaffolding. Obi-Wan hopped to the metal post running beneath Maul and cut the scaffolding out from underneath Maul's feet. The scaffolding grated and screamed as it bent and broke. Maul skidded down towards Obi-Wan, and Obi-Wan ran up to meet him, their blades flashing in the dismal smoke.
Again, Maul slashed through the metal beams on which they stood and sent them plummeting. Obi-Wan jumped one way and Maul the other. They landed on scaffolding close to the roaring lava, and the sweltering heat sucked the sweat off Obi-Wan's skin. He ran and jumped, and Maul did likewise. As they passed in the air, they swung at each other, their lightsabers sliding past each other in showers of sparks. They landed on opposite sides, turned, and lunged at each other again.
This chase had gone on long enough.
Obi-Wan spun as if to jump, but he stayed put as Maul dove at him. With Maul moving in the air, Obi-Wan hacked the metal scaffolding apart where Maul would land and dove to the next piece of scaffolding, cutting that apart as well. Maul pursued him, but Obi-Wan focused on ripping the scaffolding structures to shreds. The whole cage of metal creaked and groaned under their weight as they hopped back and forth.
The entire structure snapped as Obi-Wan cut one too many beams. The frame tipped, sending Obi-Wan and Maul toppling towards lava and jagged obsidian. Parts of the scaffolding hit lava and sank while other parts slammed into the rocks and halted. Obi-Wan lunged to a secure section that had settled on solid ground. Maul retreated to the opposite side of the frame. A cage of gnarled and twisted metal ran between them over a blazing river of lava.
Maul glared at Obi-Wan across the divide. Obi-Wan could feel the rage through the Force. The Sith apprentice bounded from several broken scaffolding pieces to close the distance between them. He hacked at Obi-Wan with his lightsaber in a maddening twist of red. Speed intense. Strikes hard. Attacks furious. Rage fueled him, and that made him careless. It had often made Anakin careless, too. A fatal flaw for those who depended on the dark side.
Obi-Wan deflected Maul's blades and monitored his swings. He measured Maul's steps and the space between his blades. He let Maul pummel him and gave ground, sliding upwards along jagged heaps of stone. Let Maul fall further into the depths of his fury. Let him be blinded by it.
Obi-Wan used his higher position to his advantage and slashed downwards at one of Maul's blades, forcing Maul to defend. Obi-Wan gave the swing his full strength and flicked Maul's blade far to the left. In the space it took for Maul to wheel his second blade around, Obi-Wan thrust his lightsaber clean through Maul's stomach. Maul froze, impaled on Obi-Wan's weapon, with his second blade above Obi-Wan's head.
Yanking his blade free, Obi-Wan stepped out of range. Maul staggered backwards and let his arms fall. His weapon clattered to the ground before it rolled into the lava. Maul grabbed at the hole in his stomach and took one step back, then another. His eyes went down and up again until they landed on Obi-Wan with sheer hate.
"You… will not win this. Your apprentice… will fall to Sidious…" Maul said, and his lips curled. "You will lose him—"
Obi-Wan kicked Maul into the lava and looked away. Maul screamed in rage and agony as he sank into the molten river, as fires ignited and consumed him. The burning river swallowed every trace of the Sith apprentice.
"I should think that ought to take care of you this time." Obi-Wan disengaged his lightsaber and clipped it to his belt.
He felt no hatred for Maul, no rage, only relief that at last his cruelty would come to an end.
Now other matters could be resolved without further interference.
At the top of the weapon where the holocron shone, several mind-controlled Jedi gathered around Sidious, their lightsabers blazing. Still other Jedi and droid starfighters swarmed the tower to ensure no one would reach the holocron. Clone troopers shot past in starfighters and gunships, launched quick assaults, and fell back to regroup.
Obi-Wan wouldn't be able to reach Sidious alone. He made haste on foot to the edge of the rift where Anakin had fallen. He pulled out his grappling hook and rappelled into the abyss after his former Padawan.