And another one!
Last time: Sasha and the clones boarded a strange ship.
Now: Sasha meets Maul.
Chapter 6- The Padawan Meets the Devil.
"Sasha Monroe," a chilling voice spoke from out of nowhere.
Sasha froze in place. Her breath caught as she slowly turned back around to face the cargo room. The voice sounded familiar, but the way it echoed in the room made it sound distorted.
"So there is someone on board," Sasha spoke up, talking to the shadows. "Reveal yourself." No response. "By order of the Grand Army of the Republic, I demand you to reveal yourself and state your business. Why did you attach your vessel to ours?"
"I see," the voice echoed. "She is just like the Master."
The Master? Did the voice mean Obi-Wan? Or someone else?
"Reveal yourself now or prepare to be detained for questioning!" Sasha barked.
Suddenly, the sounds of boots filled Sasha's ears as she turned to see a dark figure approaching her from the shadows of the dark cargo room. Sasha leveled her lightsaber at them to see who they were. The figure entered into the light and Sasha felt her breathing stop. The figure before her was dressed in all black with two lightsabers on his belt. One she recognized at the Dark Saber. The other one she wasn't familiar with. And his face. She remembered his face. The man had red and black tattoos that covered his face with horns that sat upon his head, and vicious yellow eyes that shined in the light of her blade. Sasha felt her palms sweet under her bracers as she tightened the grip on her lightsaber.
"Maul…" She gasped.
"So, you know who I am?" Maul said with an amused tone. "I'm not surprised. Your Master, Kenobi, probably told you all about me and what I have done."
"How do you know who I am? And what are you doing here?" Sasha asked with a shakiness to her voice that she tried to keep calm. But it was hard when flashes of Satine's death were flying through her mind at this very moment.
"I know many things," Maul said as he took a step closer. Sasha kept her blade up between them. "Like I know you are the padawan learner to Obi-Wan Kenobi. However, I didn't know that you would be so… mature. I assumed I would be facing child right now. Not a young woman." He smirked at her. "How very interesting. You might be more of challenge than I planned for, but no matter."
"What do you want, Maul?" Sasha asked now feeling irritated.
"What I want is the end of Obi-Wan Kenobi," Maul said as he continued to step toward her. This was making her step back. And after a couple more steps, Sasha's back hit the wall and Maul was practically looming over her even though he wasn't much taller than her. Sasha still kept her blade between them, but she could feel the heat of her own blade between them. "And I need you to get what I want."
Sasha glared at him. "What the hell does that mean?"
"I need you to be a messenger for me," Maul said.
"And why the hell would I do that?" Sasha bit back.
That made Maul snarl. He reached out with both hands and seized her against the wall. One hand was holding her lightsaber away from them and was pinned to the wall. The other hand grabbed her by the throat causing her breathing to hitch. Sasha gasped as she reached up with her free hand to try and pull his hand away, but that only made him tighten his grip on her. She felt herself losing air and felt her wrist being twisted in the wrong direction. As he had done that, she heard her commlink beep at her, but she couldn't reach it. And Maul seemed to ignore it. She had to guess it was Scamp trying to get a hold of her.
"Kenobi must know," Maul said with a seething tone. "That I know the name of everyone he is close to. And just like his Master Qui-Gon Jinn or the Duchess Satine, I will kill you if he doesn't surrender himself to me." Sasha gasped, not only from her airways being restricted, but also from hearing him say Satine and Qui-Gon's names. "So tell Kenobi that I want him to surrender himself by the end of tomorrow. If he doesn't, I am coming for the both of you."
"You… you won't… get away with this," Sasha struggled to say.
"Oh, I think I will," Maul said as he grinned. "I have already broken Kenobi recently by killing his beloved Duchess before his very eyes. Imagine how much more thrilling it will be to strip him of his padawan too." He then moved in close. Sasha tried to turn her head away, but couldn't as he was holding her still. So she found herself practically staring directly into Maul's yellow eyes. "Deliver the message if you ever want to see your Master again."
Sasha couldn't speak or say anything. In fact her vision was swirling as she was almost out of breath. Suddenly there was a sizzling sound. It sounded like metal being cut. Sasha tried to make sense of it, but instead she felt her body being lifted away from the wall and thrown into the nearest boxes by Maul. Sasha hit the boxes and crumbled to the floor. She looked around, trying to find Maul, as she coughed as air returned to her lungs. But he had disappeared back into the shadows.
Scamp had a nervous pit in his stomach when Sasha's blade didn't appear into the hatch to start cutting it. In fact, he heard her on the other side talking to someone. He couldn't make out their voices, but it appears she was right about someone being on board. His men beside him were waiting for his orders on what to do next. He had told him to hold their position until the Commander returns, but to try and get the panel to work. So Zeke and Bow were busy fiddling with the panel, trying to get it work again.
"Any luck?" Scamp asked.
"No, sir," Bow responded. "Whoever owns this ship has an override switch on the inside. We can't access it from here."
What kind of ship didn't have an override switch on a hatch such as this from the outside? Maybe it was to protect the cargo? That kind of makes sense, but at this moment it was more of a nascence than anything else. Scamp thought of other options because now that this point he was sure something had happened to Sasha. She would have contacted them if everything is fine or if to go get help. But she hadn't done that and she wasn't talking to them. She was talking to the owner of the ship. He could still hear the faint sound of voices on the other side. But the voices were too faint to make out if the conversation they were having was pleasant. Plus Scamp maybe no Jedi, but he had been around Sasha and General Kenobi enough to know when to trust your feelings. He pressed the commlink on his gauntlet to try and contact her.
"Commander Monroe?" Scamp said into the comm with a slightly worried tone. No response. That wasn't good. Something was definitely wrong. Sasha would have normally responded even if it was just to say she was talking and would call him back. Not responding at all made his stomach knot with worry.
"What do we do now sir?" Basha asked. He was the clone Medic who had gone with them just in case the owner of the ship was injured.
"We need to get this hatch open," Scamp said as he pointed at the hatch. "Go get the hull cutters."
Zeke and Bow ran off to go get the hull cutters leaving Scamp, Basha, and Gear to keep an eye on the hatch. After a few more moments of no change, Zeke and Bow returned with the cutter at hand.
"Start cutting through this door," Scamp ordered. "We need to make sure the Commander is okay."
The cutters pierced the metal and started carving an opening into the hatch. The clones, who were not using it, stepped back, away from the sparks that was shooting off from the cutters. The cutters moved slower than a Jedi would with a lightsaber, but they still did the trick. Soon the cutters finished their circle and stepped away as the freshly carved circle in the door tilted back and fell away to reveal the dark interior of the ship.
Scamp charged past his men and into the new opening. He climbed through to the other side and looked around for Sasha. He immediately found her on the floor of the cargo room next to a pile of knocked over boxes. She was slowly pulling herself up onto her knees. Her lightsaber laid beside her on the ground, off. So the light from the tube and his head lamp were the only source of light at the moment.
Sasha rubbed at her throat as she slowly pulled herself to her knees. She had heard the sound of the metal hatchway being cut open and now there was a gaping hole in it. She heard the sound of boots hitting the floor as they came through the hole and to her side in an instant.
"Sasha," Scamp said, worriedly. "Are you alright?"
"I think so," Sasha croaked. Her voice barely above a whisper as she still regaining her breath and her speaking voice from having them both be abused by Maul's tight grip. "We need to get out of here." She turned her head to look at him, but squinted when she met his head lamp instead.
"Sorry," Scamp immediately apologized as he tapped the lamp off. "Can you move?"
Sasha nodded as she started to move to her feet. She snatched her saber with her left hand as she pulled herself up. Scamp held a hand out to her to help her up to her feet. Sasha took it with her right, still sore hand and looked around into the darkness, fear settling into her chest.
"Let's go," Sasha urged.
Scamp nodded and guided her back to the opening they had just created to save her. At the opening, Basha's hand appeared to help her through. Sasha grabbed the offered hand and allowed herself to be helped into the tube. Once Scamp stepped through behind her, Sasha started moving towards the exit to the tube, followed closely by the clones. They kept their wits on high alert as they moved, just in case Maul decided to follow after them.
"Commander, are you alright?' Basha asked as he walked, hurriedly, alongside her.
"I'll be fine," Sasha said, her voice kind of hoarse.
"Well please allow me to at least check to make sure," Basha said. "I can tell your breathing is off just slightly."
Sasha sighed then nodded. They then reached the other side of the tube. Bow closed the blast doors between them and tube before retracting the large attachment back into the ship. While he did that, Scamp ordered Zeke and Gear to go inform the cockpit to get them out of there. The two clones took off towards the cockpit. Once the tube finished retracting, Bow called up the all clear to the cockpit.
Soon they launched into hyperspace towards Coruscant. Sasha, meanwhile, was ushered to the medical bay by Scamp and Basha. Once there, Sasha was being ordered to sit on the examination table to be looked over. Physically, Sasha felt sore. Her wrist was tweaked from being twisted too far, but should heal just fine in the matter of hours. And her throat felt sore from being squeezed. Plus she was still working on regaining her breathing. Or at least making it more even. As for her body, there was definitely some bruises that were appearing from being thrown into boxes. Nothing felt broken or severally damaged, so that was good at least.
While she sat there, waiting for Basha to start his examination, she looked over at Scamp. He had removed his helmet and was leaning against the wall beside the bed, looking at the floor. She smirked slightly while she stared at him. It truly had impressed her that Scamp had the ability to take control like he did. In the manner of moments, he had made the executive decision to cut down the hatchway to save her after she failed to respond to his call. He pretty much saved her, again. That made at least four times according to her count. This showed her that he was definitely more than ready to become an ARC Trooper.
"Scamp, I'm okay," Sasha said from the examination table as Basha came over and started running a scanner over her.
"I know, Commander," Scamp said. He was blushing slightly as he looked up from the floor. "I'm just making sure. You gave us quite a scare and you seemed spooked when I arrived. What happened?"
Sasha sighed and rubbed absentmindedly at her throat. "We need to get back to the Jedi Temple as soon as we return to Coruscant. Master Kenobi needs to hear this message." She didn't really answer him directly as she didn't know how much she should say to him.
"What message?" Scamp asked as he folded his arms across his armored chest.
"Maul… it involves Maul," Sasha said softly as she lowered her gaze.
Scamp didn't respond. She knew that he had heard of Maul and what he had done to the Jedi Order. However, she also knew that he had no idea of what he had just done to Satine as well Obi-Wan. But thankfully the name was enough to send a chill through his spine. The silence that had formed after that was broken when the scanner beeped from Basha's hand.
"Okay, and done," Basha said as he lowered the scanner. "You appear to be alright. You might be sore for a while. So I'd advise rest. Other than that, you will be one-hundred percent in no time, Commander."
Sasha nodded up at Basha. "Thank you."
With that, Sasha hopped off the examination table and left the medical bay followed by Scamp. For the remainder of the flight back to Coruscant, Sasha and Scamp sat in the mess hall of the ship, talking. Even though she was prescribed rest, Sasha felt too anxious to go lie down. She needed to get home and get this message to her Master. She would be a fool not to do so. And she had considered contacting him immediately about all of this, but something in her gut told her to get home first and tell him once she was there. She couldn't quite put a finger on it, but she was sure it was probably fear.
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