The stranger was most definitely not kenobi.
The stranger was shorter than Kenobi, and had a much more slender form - the form that belonged to a woman. From under her hood, streams of braided silver hair flowed, fading to a light greyish blue in colour. And just barely peeking out from the shadows, Maul could see white tattoos decorating the woman's tan cheeks, painting a rather elegant backwards 'F' that reminded him of ancient runes that the Norsemen had once used to write with.
Her thick, black cloak shifted to reveal a dark blue tunic underneath, tied together with a wide leather belt decorated with dangling trinkets. She wore leather pants and knee high navy boots, slightly damp from the melting snow. Everything about this woman screamed 'sorceress', from her attire to the magical energy that flared around her like a menacing lightning storm. However, the most captivating feature of the sorceress were her eyes. They were cold like the icy waters of the Antarctic against her dark skin and held the promise of a painful and slow death.
"Obi-Wan is dead," the stranger finally spoke. Her plum coloured lips pulled back into a smirk when she saw the vampire's eyes widen in disbelief. The words repeated themselves over and over again in Maul's head like a broken record, hearing them but unable to comprehend what they meant.
"No," Maul breathed out softly at first, still in denial. " No ," he repeated with more force, his narrowed eyes searching for truth in the stranger's blue eyes, but he could find no hint of deception. " No! That can't be! Kenobi can't be dead!"
"But he is," the sorceress assured him, pleased to see the vampire come undone so easily. "I was there at his funeral."
"But I was the one who was supposed to kill him!"
"He wasn't killed," she scoffed, placing a hand onto her hip as if the mere idea of Obi-Wan being defeated insulted her. "He was the best hunter the world had ever seen. After your demise - or apparently what he had thought was - he had settled down and lived a peaceful life up until his death at the prime age of ninety-three."
"No, no, no …" The vampire moaned out in despair as he cradled his head with trembling hands. This couldn't possibly be true, but he couldn't sense any trickery at work - at least, not superficially. Kenobi hadn't deserved to live a life of serenity. He had deserved to rot away in misery and in his own filth, begging for Maul to finally end his pathetic life. There was one thing, however, that didn't add up and Maul latched onto it with desperate hope.
"You lie, you conniving witch," he sneered, pointing an accusing finger at her. "Kenobi was a wizard, he couldn't possibly die of 'old age' at only ninety-three!"
The woman's brows wrinkled in confusion before recognition flashed in her eyes. Much to Maul's surprise, who could only gape in bewilderment, the woman burst out into laughter.
"Obi-Wan wasn't a wizard!" She wheezed out, wiping a tear from the corner of her eyes. "He was nothing more than an ordinary human being."
"He had used magic and had nearly taken me to my early grave because of it! He had wiped out all that I had worked so hard to build as if it was nothing! No normal human could possibly do that!"
"He was a very talented hunter, I will give him that much, but he was definitely no wizard," she informed, smiling and her sharp eyes twinkled with amusement. "I am the great sorceress, Ahsoka," Ahsoka introduced herself as she pulled back her hood and revealed the rest of her tattooed face. The name sounded familiar, but Maul could not recall where or when he had heard it before.
"I was great friends with Obi-Wan, having known him since his childhood. That magic that you saw him use on you? It was I who had given him some of my own power upon his request. It was only temporary and a one time usage. He was human after all. And I suppose, because of that, he didn't have the ability to complete the spell I had taught him, seeing as you're still alive and kicking."
"Silence!" Maul growled, clenching his fists as he took an imposing step forward. "If Kenobi is indeed dead, then I will just have to settle with killing you, you treacherous wench!"
"I'd like to see you try," Ahsoka replied haughtily, smirking. The vampire let out a screech of rage as he jumped at the sorceress, bringing his hand down, his claws sharp and ready to maim. Ahsoka was quick to react, only getting a mere scratch on her left cheek as she dodged the blow. With equally quick motion, she withdrew one of her blades that she had hidden under the cloak and made a jab at Maul. Seeing the silver glint under the soft light, he hastily called on his powers and threw Ahsoka towards the right with an invisible force.
Ahsoka flew through the wall and into the living room. She groaned from the fall and coughed as dust clouded the air around her, making her throat as dry as parchment paper. Maul stalked into the room through the hole, his posture as menacing as his eyes, and he ripped one of the swords from the wall that was still intact.
"And once I'm done with you, my spawn and I will rise and rule over the pitiful mortals once more!" Maul announced, glaring at Ahsoka who was pulling herself free from the rumble. He didn't immediately attack, he only merely pointed the tip of his sword at her. An arrogant move, which seemed rather typical of the vampire and one that an enemy could use to their advantage.
"You sound quite confident for someone who couldn't even defeat a person he considers livestock," she remarked and got the reaction she had been expecting. Their blades locked and Maul pushed down hard, growling furiously at the jab at his capability as a vampire.
Clearly Obi-Wan still has a profound effect on the vampire even after death , Ahsoka mused to herself. "Where is this 'spawn' you speak of? Surely they should be helping you out right now, unless you're just as lousy as a master as you are a vampire."
For a split second, Maul's bright yellow eyes flickered down to the floor before meeting Ahsoka's calculating blue ones. Anyone would have missed that brief glance, but Ahsoka wasn't just anyone. She had learnt to be very observant over the centuries, and even more so during battle. Her eyes narrowed suspiciously.
"If you must know, my spawn's hunting," Maul replied, his voice dripping with venom as he bared his teeth. That was a lie if Ahsoka's suspicions were anything to go by. She would have to confirm her speculation after sending this demon back to where he came from and search underground for answers. "And soon he'll be back and we'll ensure that not a drop of your blood remains as you scream for mercy."
Ahsoka let out a snort and broke off their blades as she leaped back, putting some distance between them. "More like he will be the one hunted soon," she bit back, "After I'm through with you, of course. At least that way you don't have to see the last remnants of your failures crumbling away from this world."
That seemed to have angered Maul more than any other jab that she had thrown his way. Hot anger burned through his veins and his eyes were wild and teaming with fire as he glowered at her. His prodigy was not a failure, would not be a failure. Ezra would see reason in time and rise from the ashes to become something great, something powerful and together, they would be unstoppable. What had happened recently with Ezra was merely a setback, nothing more.
With a cry of fury, he swung his sword and they interlocked in an intricate dance. They swept across the room, toppling over furniture and hacking away at them with every miss of the blade. Decorations from the walls fell and shattered and paintings were ripped with every collision and swing of the sword. The bookcase that Maul had been so proud to have restored tumbled into an useless heap when Ahsoka was thrown into it, and books scattered across the floor with torn pages.
"You insolent fool! Do you honestly believe you can defeat me?!" Maul snarled and he managed to knock Ahsoka's sword from her hand and it fell to the floor with a loud clang. Quickly, Ahsoka ducked, evading the sharp edge of the blade in the nick of time and, instantaneously, she unsheathed a dagger from her belt. She slashed the dagger across his abdomen, and Maul hastily pulled away with a hiss of pain.
His retreat was cut short when Ahsoka then kicked him in the stomach, sending him toppling to the ground with a surprised grunt. The force only added to the pain, and Maul cursed under his breath. Not only were the sorceress's blades silver, but they were blessed, which were much more damaging to him. He removed his hand from his stomach and held onto the wall for support as he forced himself up, dark blood staining the once beautiful wallpaper.
Ahsoka then threw her dagger towards Maul who barely had any time to react. There was a loud thunk as the blade embedded itself into the wall and Maul began to laugh at how poor Ahsoka's aim was. The margin was ridiculously large between where the dagger had landed versus where its target was.
"You seemed to have mis-" Maul's laughter was quickly silenced with a sharp breath. His sternum and ribs cracked as something sharp pierced his chest and through his lungs and heart. His wide eyes gazed down to see Ahsoka driving the stake further into his body. Her eyes met his and she smiled, the dangerous kind of smile when one knew when they had won. The smile that made Maul's stomach drop and twist, and his throat constricted as he realised the gravity of his mistake.
"I never miss," she remarked haughtily. With fruitless desperation, Maul tried to reach for her throat, to snap her delicate neck before she could do any further damage. However, she saw through his actions and with a quick wave of her hand, she summoned magic to throw the vampire to the other side of the room. Maul landed in a heap against the wall, creating a large dent in the drywall and his body ached from the impact.
Everything swirled and the situation was becoming all too familiar to him, his mind flashing back to his last encounter with Kenobi. As Maul got up, he hastily threw his sword at Ahsoka, who dodged it with ease, and he wrapped his other hand around the stake. It burned his skin and everything it came in contact with, but he refused to let the pain halt his progress. However, just like the time with Kenobi, the stake wouldn't budge.
"Now to finish what Obi-Wan started," Ahsoka said, her voice losing all of its playfulness as she took on a more serious demeanor. Panic grasped at Maul like a desperate man, and he staggered forward, knowing what was to come. He had to reach her before she began her incantation. He couldn't lose, not this soon. The fight had barely begun and he had already found himself at the end of a noose. It was humiliating that, once again, his dreams had deteriorated without fully ever taking flight.
Before he could reach the sorceress, an energy shield surrounded her which sent Maul flying back, his skin burning upon contact. The magic was much stronger than what Kenobi had used and Maul feared that this time, he was indeed in trouble. As soon as the words began pouring from Ahsoka's lips, the familiar pain burst through the vampire's body. This time, however, the burning sensation was a hundredfold worse and it felt as if his body was being continually electrocuted all the while being drenched in holy water.
Maul's screams pierced her ears, but Ahsoka paid no heed to their sharp notes as she continued to chant. He fell to the floor, his body convulsing and it felt as if he was being heated and cooled simultaneously to ridiculous degrees. Blood began to gather around him, pouring out from his wounds as his skin began to split open. Desperately, he attempted to fade into the shadows, to retreat in hopes of saving himself, but his powers betrayed him. He could feel himself weakening with every passing second, and he knew then and there that there would be no escaping his fate.
However, Maul was not one to lie down and wait for death.
With an agonising amount of effort, Maul began to pull himself towards the hallway. His joints crackled and his muscles strained with every movement, and his exertion only further tore his wounds open. His bones even began to fail, crumbling apart as they struggled to pull his body weight forward. But he couldn't give up, not when he was already so close to reaching the archway that connected the reception room to the hallway.
Maul gasped in pain when multiple blades found their way into his back. His body convulsed under their torturous touch and his skin bubbled open, but he refused to scream any more than he already did. What he couldn't stop, however, were the tears that began to roll down his parched cheeks. They were not tears of pain as one would expect from all the physical agony that he was experiencing, but rather, they were tears of emotion: grief, remorse, hopelessness. It had been so long since he had last cried, perhaps the last time being when Savage had died in his arms, but he couldn't be certain. Memories were beginning to blur into one blob, difficult to distinguish one over the other, but all he could think of in that moment was his spawn.
This must have been how Ezra had felt when the cruel silver had licked away the flesh from his face. Hopeless, weak, scared and alone. Emotions that Maul thought he would never have to feel again. Emotions he had tried to vanquish from his spawn so that he wouldn't have to suffer as he had, so that he could become stronger and resilient to anything that the world could throw at him.
"Ez…ra…" Maul rasped out as he extended his bloodied hand out, desperately trying to reach for the door that was still so far down the hall. The edges of his vision began to blur and he could barely keep his head up any longer. The vampire then smiled, dreaming the now lost dream of being a proud master standing next to his spawn - his brother - as they overlooked the empire they had created together. Then, with a last, rattled breath, his body slumped and Maul was no more.
"One down, one more to go," Ahsoka said as she watched the bloodied and battered body crumble away into ash, the magic no longer holding the corpse together. Obi-Wan had once told her, after Maul's defeat, that as menacing and deranged as Maul was, he had been just another misguided soul filled with hatred. He had been right in some way. She would still claim that Obi-Wan had been too soft, but perhaps that was what it meant to be human. Their existence was so short in comparison to hers that they sought out to try and see the good in everyone.
Still, she felt no sympathy for a creature such as Maul. He was better off dead, leaving the world free of at least one of its many impurities. And she imagined that perhaps the vampire would be more at peace now than he had been when he was alive. However, now wasn't the time to think such things, not when there was another vampire to hunt.
Stepping around the corpse, Ahsoka grabbed her two blades from the floor as she made her way down the hall to where Maul had been reaching out to. Surprisingly, she felt warrier going up against the vampire's spawn than she had Maul. She hadn't exactly been expecting herself to be facing her friend's old nemesis considering she had thought him dead until recently. But at least, with Maul, she had known what to expect from all the stories Obi-Wan had told her. However, she knew barely anything about his spawn, Ezra, only the clip that had brought light to their existence.
It had been a week since she had first stumbled upon a leaked footage from a freak murder at a blood clinic. It had been horrific to watch, but Ahsoka instantly knew that she was dealing with a vampire when the attackers didn't show up on the surveillance. It took a while, but after digging around, she found that the blood clinic was located in Rishi, Lothal - the very same country that she knew Maul had once escaped to before his final confrontation with Obi-Wan. Then, she came across the urban legend of Mansion of Dathomiri, a place that locals avoided like the plague due to it being reportedly haunted by a menacing ghost. And Dathomir just so happened to be the name of Maul's birthplace. It was too much of a coincidence and in the end, her hunch had paid off.
Another thing that concerned her was that Maul seemed to hold his spawn in high esteem. And if a monster as menacing and sadistic as Maul had been that proud of his creation, then she had all the right to remain wary.
After examining the hall for any doors that would lead to the basement, Ahsoka deduced that there had to be a hidden entryway. She made her way to the side of the staircase and began carefully inspecting the wooden panels. The markings were subtle, signs of great craftsmanship, but there nonetheless and she gently pushed down on the distinct panel. It sprung open with ease, revealing a door behind it. Taking a deep breath, ignoring the aching of her ribs, Ahsoka opened the door and cautiously went down the stone stairs and into the cold, stale basement.
The first thing she noticed was the putrid smell that stung her nose and she found herself nearly gagging from the stench. Hastily, she covered her nose as she scanned the room through watery eyes in an attempt to locate the source of the horrendous smell. However, she could find nothing under the dim light of the burning candles, not even the vampire she was hunting. Ezra had to be there, but she hadn't taken Maul's offspring to be the one for hiding. If she had been Maul's creation, she would be thirsting for revenge for the death of her master. And she wouldn't put it past the vampire to indoctrinate his spawn into being anything less than sadistic and hateful.
Still, something was amiss but she couldn't place her finger on it. The most likely scenario was that Ezra was pulling her leg, luring her into a false sense of security before revealing the trap when it was too late for her to escape. However, he would be underestimating her. Ahsoka was not, by any means, dumb.
Knowing that she wasn't going to find the vampire standing on the stairs, Ahsoka forced herself further into the vile smelling room. The scent reminded her of the putrid aroma of burnt flesh and the sharp stinge of acid, overloading her senses. Still, even as she stood at the base of the stairs, she could not see where the source was. Perhaps Ezra was planning to attack her with chemicals and accidentally spilled some onto himself? Or perhaps the vampires just enjoyed the pungent smell. The darker and more sinister thought was that they had kept and tortured some of their prey, and enjoyed being able to smell their deeds as they slept.
Ahsoka shook the thoughts from her head and focused on the two coffins. The fancier one with elaborate carvings she deemed belonged to the master, Maul, whereas the plain wooden casket must've belonged to Ezra. Holding her knife ready, she kicked open the coffin with one quick, fluid motion and the door flew off its hinges to reveal nothing. She frowned and without wasting any time, she upturned the fancier coffin. It was also empty.
This Ezra fellow seemed to be more devious than she had originally thought, seeing as there were not many places to hide. Unless, and Ahsoka rather not think about it, Ezra had somehow managed to escape without her or Maul's notice. And if he had escaped, then he could be out there collecting allies to take her down or flee like what Maul had once done before. Ahsoka frowned as she mulled over the possibilities, her eyes flickering across the room for any potential hints that may help her narrow down her options.
Her eyes stopped when they fell on an old wooden door hidden in the far corner of the room, tucked right beneath the stairwell. If Ezra was indeed still there, then this would be the last possible place for him to hide. Being as discreet as possible, Ahsoka silently made her way to the door and noticed that the rancid smell grew stronger with every step. She made a face of disgust and her nose twitched from the assault, but she did not falter as she tentatively placed a hand on the worn door handle. She had to be sure that it was her who had the element of surprise and she raised her blade, ready to strike as soon as she opened that door.
Soon it would all be over and Obi-Wan's work would be complete. Only then, could his soul rest at peace once more. Ahsoka knew that if her old friend were still alive, he would be blaming himself for allowing a monstrosity such as Maul to roam free and create more demons. But at long last, Maul was dead and soon his spawn would be too. That monster's legacy would finally end here.