Part 6: Fear is My Ally

1 BBY.

Dathomir.

Noon.

"Peace is a lie, there is only passion." Maul had told his apprentice the ancient moxim.

"Thats not true." Skywalker said. "Peace is just how things are when…"

"When what?"

"...When there isn't anything to mess with it. I don't know. The natural state."

"Then if peace is so fragile, broken at the slightest wind of destiny, so impossible to maintain, then what is it if not a lie?"

His apprentice opened his mouth to respond, but no words came.

Skywalker, an idealist as he was, disagreed with nine of every ten lessons Maul taught him: but he was engaged enough to disagree with him, and his silence on every tenth was far more telling than the others.

Philosophy and tradition were hardly topics that such a young man would find engaging, as Skywalker displayed. Instead, it was less of interest in how the Sith Code applied to the universe around him, but more how it could be used within himself.

Maul was much of the same, once. Why bother with the great machinations of the galaxy, when he had someone above him who was far superior at that? Someone who knew what was truly best for the galaxy, for him . He had been his weapon, and been happy for it. No, happy was not the right word for that feeling. Peace .

But that peace was a lie.

That was a lesson Maul had learned many years ago, on Naboo. It was not peace that had saved him, but passion .

Passion that encompassed a myriad of emotions: anger, suffering, hate, fear . Not fear of his own death, but fear of failure. Of failing his master. He was cut in two and left for dead, and all he had felt was the fear of failing a master that just had quickly forgotten him.

For he had been replaced.

Not by Dooku, the placeholder that he was, but by another. Skywalker.

But now Maul had a Skywalker of his own, the son of The Usurper, and was determined to finally pull himself out of that hole and replace his fear with triumph.

But these were all lessons that his apprentice had yet to learn. It was one thing to recite off the code of their order, but it could only go so far to the ignorant. But it was not the boy's fault, Maul knew, but his. How can you teach an apprentice to use The Dark Side when they had not learned to fuel it?

Skywalker proved himself dedicated in his training: faced with no escape there was little else to pass the time between his short rests than sparring, deflecting, and dark meditation after all. But despite how deeply the roots of Dathomir had been digging into the boy's energies, providing an echo chamber for the darkness already bubbling inside of him, he had yet to make The Force his servant.

The two had practiced briefly off and on, Maul instructing Skywalker to reach out as he did when he deflected attacks. But instead of tuning into The Force, letting it show itself to him, he needed to not simply reach out but to grab it . Bind it in the tendrils of The Dark Side and make it do his bidding.

But unfortunately, lifting rocks was not yet in the capabilities of Maul's apprentice.

The more he failed, the more it frustrated Maul. The power was so close...just under the surface, but shielded by ignorance. Skywalker was by far the most promising apprentice Maul could ever encounter...but he had never needed to teach one to grow from nothing .

Ezra Bridger was already trained in the ways of The Force when Maul began to corrupt and use him...but too blinded by Jedi lies to accept the superior path Maul had uncovered for him, ungrateful as he was. Ahsoka Tano had denied him outright, oh what they could have built in those early years of change and strife, but even as a prospect she had been trained. So too was Maul's first, most dear apprentice. He was more than an apprentice...and for that, they both paid. His brother with his life, and Maul with the memory of it all.

And all of them were ripe to be plucked by Maul, not grown from seeds of potential.

But Maul had his chance here: his last, best chance, and he would cultivate these seeds for however long they took. No matter how patient, firm or harsh he need be.

And today, it seemed to Maul, was time for the latter.

"Let us go on a walk, Darth Starkiller." Maul said to his apprentice.

He had brought his apprentice out on short trips now and again, for small bouts of physical training or practicing channelling The Dark Side under different environments.

Maul knew his apprentice grew cold and stiff every time he came near, but Maul had come to enjoy their training, in a way. It was...interesting to have someone else near.

Near, but never close. Never again.

"Does anyone actually live on this planet?" His apprentice asked into their walk.

"The Nightsisters did once, but they are gone. I once had kin here, but they too are gone. " Maul said. "Others live here, I suppose. Beasts."

"Hm." Skywalker replied.

"You're surprised?"

"It's just this planet doesn't exactly seem all that hospitable. But then again, neither did Tatooine. But we found a way to…"

"We?"

Skywalker went silent.

"Nothing." He said.

"As you say, Darth Starkiller."

Before them was a jagged crimson rockface, the thorny briars reaching up its tall steeped ledges, baked in the Dathomiri dust.

"Climb". Maul said plainly.

His apprentice turned his head at him. Skywalker had grown some parts accustomed to the commands of Maul in the past weeks, for better or for worse, but not out of a place of trust.

"Is this part of my training?" Skywalker said.

"Everything is."

Skywalker sized up the rockface: where would be the best footholds and grips, which would be necessary risks. His training had increased his athleticism, but he was by no means good enough to go up without a second thought.

His apprentice finally shrugged. "I've climbed a cliff or two back on Tatooine."

The boy began starting up the rockface, but before he could ascend more than a mere meter, the lightsaber tied simply and loosely on his side clanged against the jagged stone.

Both of them noticed it, and where Skywalker saw a problem Maul saw an opportunity.

"Hm." Skywalker said. "I could try and tie it on tighter."

Maul looked at it and held out his hand.

"Give it to me. I do not want the weapon to get caught on the rocks."

He looked for a moment, then handed Maul the lightsaber. Another moment passed, and Skywalker began his climb up the crimson rocks. There was no reason not to give Maul the weapon, after all.

Apparently, his apprentice had scaled a rock face or two: while Skywalker still had some issue finding the next handheld or foothold, and scraped himself on a pointed edge or twisted briar, he was already halfway up. The boy finally looked down, hesitant, only to see Maul's hard yellow gaze up at him. Skywalker swallowed, looking back up with no way back down.

There were far superior climbers on Dathomir. The scrapes and claw marks on the cliff suggested as much. There could very well be a nest up there.

A nest of nydaks.

Hunched over, nydaks had terrible pinchers and teeth, and long strong arms that allowed them to scale such rockfaces in ease and to throttle and tear apart their victims. Fearsome creatures, for lesser beings.

As Skywalker reached the top, drenched in sweat, he looked down at Maul with something of a half smile on his face. Holding on to the final handhold, he began pulling himself up.

"Wasn't so bad after all!" He said too loudly.

"Well done." Maul said knowingly.

And as the boy turned his face back up to finish ascending, he was met with the gruesome visage of a nydak. Screaming, Skywalker nearly fell just from the fright, but the nydak got him the rest of the way: swinging its arm, it swatted him off of the cliff, sending him plummeting from which he climbed.

Crashing into the ground, Skywalker arched his back in pain, the breath to scream knocked out of him. Maul could feel his pain, and his fear as a pack of nydaks climbed down to finish him off.

"Get up." Maul said as his apprentice curled and writhed in silent, piercing pain.

"I... can't …" Skywalker said.

"Let The Dark Side give you the strength, or be devoured."

Several nydaks charged onto the two, most of them disinterested in the harmless apprentice filled with fear, but the powerful presence standing tall.

With one smooth motion, Maul took out his lightsaber, ignited it and sliced into the nearest nydak. Under the armpit and across the chest, he left the smoking husk in two pieces. And with the next two slashes, Maul left two more corpses. And as he turned to meet a leaping nydak: arms reaching to grab its prey, and no time for Maul to swing his blades.

Nydaks were known by the Nightbrothers as an apex predator, but they were wrong. For nothing in the galaxy was an apex predator but Sith, for all before them was their prey.

Maul needed only reach out, The Dark Side eagerly wrapping itself around the nydak, halting it mid-air. The beast had no concept of what was occurring, the unknown terror flashing in its eyes. Squeezing tighter, the bones and the organs of the nydak were warped and crushed under the invisible pressure of The Force.

All that was left was a single nydak, content to leave the clearly lethal Sith Lord for the pitiful writhing boy. And Maul was content to leave him.

"Master!" Skywalker cried out, still on the ground. "I need help! I'm hurt!"

"Help yourself." Maul said.

And as the nydak lunged on Skywalker, he was forced to do just that. Rolling away from its grip, he was slowly pulling himself to his knees.

But not to meet the predator and destroy it, but to choose to become its prey.

Skywalker was falling over himself in his pathetic, fruitless attempt to run from it.

"Give me the lightsaber!" He said. "I need a weapon!"

"You have a weapon." Maul said. "The Force is all around you."

" Master !" Skywalker yelled out as the nydak caught the boy, curling its arms around him, prepared to bite and rip deeply into his flesh.

Maul held out the lightsaber of Kenobi, the weapon he had given to his apprentice.

"Master, help me!" Skywalker said, kicking. He reached out his hand in vain. "The lightsaber, please , give it to me!"

Maul could feel all of the potential he was not using.

"Use your fear!" Maul commanded. "Reach out! Reach out and take it! "

The grip of the nydak got tighter, and Skywalker's voice became more desperate and pained.

"I can't!"

"You can! You have felt The Force around you, and have let The Dark Side into you, now all you need to do is feed it! Use your pain, your fear ! Command it! Command it, or be destroyed!"

Not responding, Skywalker reached out...either believing his master or out of desperation, or even instinct, the lightsaber twitched in Maul's hand…and flew out to land perfectly in his apprentice's hand.

Now in his grip, even while the air was being squeezed out of him, Skywalker ignited the blue-white blade and swung it aimlessly upwards. It met the nydak's flesh and burned through it with a sickly smell, cutting off the beast's arm. Skywalker fell out from its grasp, and he followed it up with a second swing, blind with reaction, searing the nydak across the leg, sending it into the ground.

The nydak was harmless: dismembered, in pain and filled with the silent, wide-eyed innocent terror known only to animals.

But when the powerless Skywalker gained power over the beast, his own fear was replaced with pure and delicious hate. And in that blissful moment, Skywalker cut down the maimed beast with a blue flash.

Breathing heavily, Skywalker let the lightsaber fall from his hand and into the dust as he fell to his knees, taking in his pain once more.

While he summoned The Dark Side to support him in his time of need, to give him strength where he had none, his apprentice was still clearly injured.

Maul walked over, placing his hand on the boy's shoulder, not ungently.

"You did well." Maul said.

After a moment, Skywalker replied, breathing heavy.

"I...felt its fear before I killed it." He said. "I didn't have to...but I did. I did it because...because I wanted to kill it...I shouldn't have but I did...and I felt strong ."

Maul could feel the conflicting, confusing emotions in his apprentice, but he did his best to put them at ease.

"It would have wasted no such thoughts on you."

"And you…" Skywalker looked up at him. "You let it almost kill me." He said bitterly. " Why ?"

Maul kept eye contact with him for a moment.

"Because I had faith in you."

The boy had no words for that and Maul helped him to his feet.

"Now come." Maul said calmly. "I will tend to your wounds."

Gripping his side, Skywalker limped to follow.

"Forgetting something?" Maul asked.

Skywalker looked back, the lightsaber lying in the dust. Maul could feel him reaching back into that feeling from memory, the fear and desperation. He held out his hand, calling to the weapon. Maul's apprentice was clearly exerting effort, focusing intensely on such a small act. But The Force obeyed his call, and the lightsaber flung through the air and into Skywalker's grip.

Where he was weak in flesh...the boy was more than strong enough in The Force.

"I used that...The Force with that beast when I feared for my life...and I had used it before when you…" Skywalker went cold. "Fear is the key then, isn't it? To use these powers?"

You would have nothing if not for your fear , Maul heard an old voice echo.

"Fear is the beginning of things, but not all of it." Maul replied.

Maul looked at his apprentice, a strange feeling washing over him.

"Let fear be your ally, my apprentice. But never your master."