[Nightsisters Temple, Dathomir]
Savage Opress
Ah home sweet home, Dathomir is just as I remember from the last time I was here, it's been weeks at most, but it feels like months.
I better hurry up, Mother Talzin must be desperate, Maul has been in her care for days, but she can't bond any of the nightsisters to him and she wouldn't trust any other nightbrother to help him.
I can feel her anger and frustration, oh what a delicious feast for the Dark Side.
Now that I'm more attuned with the force, noticing the witches around me is easier even as they try to hide from me.
Their minds are unprotected, and I can easily find them that way, perhaps they are not doing their best effort because I'm a male.
How funny.
"You are finally here"
"I'm sorry for the delay Mother"
"When he was brought here, I had assumed you had come with him"
"I had other concerns, but I thought you could help him without me"
"I'm surprised that you are not…happier about finding family"
"Right now, he is little more than an animal once he is thinking again my disposition may change"
"The Sith have infected you with their disdain for family"
"Hardly, I simply think that if we are to be a real family things like hierarchy wouldn't matter, yet here we are as unlikely friends instead of mother and child"
"Perhaps we can rectify that after we help your brother"
As if, she only says what I think I want to hear in order to help Maul, but he is part of my plans so let's get this underway.
With a simple nod of my head and a hand gesture I motion for her to start, a subtle power play but she is the desperate one in this situation, and it wouldn't be very Sith of me if I didn't take advantage.
The ritual starts and it feels strange. The force dances in ways I've never thought possible, it's like trying to read a new language that is similar to the one I speak but has a completely different meaning.
She starts siphoning out the corruption from his head, at the same time I feel how the magick moves inside me and starts reaching for him.
As we bond, something feels different in my head, not bad or dangerous, simply different…
There is no warning of danger in my head, so I let the bond grow.
Very familiar feelings start to grow in my head as I look at Maul.
Trust and care for another.
The Dark Side recoils and twists inside my being, the darkness receding from my mind.
A moment of pure clarity hits me.
I'm a monster and I don't know if I can sustain these feelings while being a monster. I've killed so many people in so little time and on my orders, there are more dying all around the galaxy…
Darkness surges once again and the familiar feeling of acceptance that makes me care little for any life not my own is back, but muted and I feel weaker not by much but not an insignificant amount either, it's frustrating I've suffered so much for my power and now it is taken from me.
The fury that I'm feeling helps the darkness rise little by little, but I will need to commune with the Dark Side more, this however answers some questions.
I always wondered how Savage went from dealing with Anakin and Obi-Wan at the same time to being unable to face a newly revived Maul and this is the answer, when Mother Talzin connected him to Maul his power must have diminished by a staggering amount because of the simplicity of his mind. The darkness that once filled his being receded because now, he had what he wanted from the beginning: a brother.
Disgust swells in me at the thought of becoming so weak that a man that spent years eating thrash could subdue me. I will never allow that to happen.
The ritual finally ends and Talzin looks at me, there is an emotion on her face that I can recognize, relief, the look of a mother who knows her child will pull through.
"Thank you for helping him Savage"
Truly there is no greater thing than the love of a mother for her child.
Mother Talzin is a proud woman, a witch and a warrior but here she is, vulnerable and expressing herself openly to a male when it goes against the traditions of the Nightsisters all for the sake of Maul.
"He is the only family I have left I could do nothing else"
The words come unbidden from my mouth, fuck, FUCK!
I can't grow weak with my life on the line, perhaps rescuing Maul was a mistake.
We stand there with Maul still unconscious in silence, she opens her mouth to speak but decides against it.
I feel her hesitation in the force.
"You should wake him up, I want to speak to him"
"He will be filled with rage and while sane, his emotions will hold a greater weight in his decisions until he can control himself again"
"He is a Sith, he will persevere and we're not strangers to anger or poor impulse control"
She gently caresses his face and places her fingers on his forehead, a sound not unlike that of a gong rings all around and he opens his eyes.
The force stirs, the Dark Side howls in the distance as Maul for the first time in years consciously draws upon it.
I see the moment his eyes start taking in everything around him and he tries to grab my face. I intercept it with my forearm, and he squeezes, his strength surprises me, his grip is monstrous.
"Brother" feelings that I thought long behind me stir as he calls me brother
"You are finally awake"
"My…My legs"
He looks at his robotic limbs. The design was tailor made for his build with the most expensive materials we could find. The joints were reinforced to resist even some lightsaber strikes.
"They are my part in this endeavor, Mother Talzin restored your mind"
Speaking of which, where did she even go?
Fuck! I wanted to trade knowledge for weapons and maybe even a nightsister or two.
"It has been so long, and my path has been so dark, darker than I ever dreamed it could be"
His voice is even better than I hoped, starkiller outdid himself in this role
"And yet you survived"
He rises and takes his first steps with his new legs, finding his balance as he tries to stand still.
"Of course I survived"
He takes off running, passing the sisters and going faster and faster.
Well time to babysit Maul.
He stops suddenly and roars out his frustration and pain in a howl that reaches out into the galaxy.
"My hatred kept my spirit intact, even though my body was not. Yet I was lost and became a rabid animal, and such is how you found me, brother; discarded, forgotten. I have missed so much. The force feels out of balance"
"The clone wars"
Before I can elaborate on the state of the galaxy he continues talking
"So it began without me" the forlorn tone in his voice hides the anger that I feel around him, he is like a sphere of malice and hate, ready to devour everything in its path.
"There is still much left to do, things have gone awry and Sidious' plans are not as perfect as he envisioned them to be"
I feel his surprise at the mention of his name, then the anger, something that is becoming quickly intoxicating even for me. Hate and anger propagate easily to the force, the Sith thrive on them but can get lost on them. Maul is like an aged wine in that regard and I should be careful to not get lost in his presence.
"Are you my replacement then" he looks at me now like I'm an actual threat "Brother"
"HAHAHAHA" his anger grows alongside his confusion at my reaction.
It takes me a moment to calm down and as a show of trust I hand him what is to be his new lightsaber. He takes it with the force, barely straining himself before the familiar feeling of the dark side envelops him.
"Your replacement is dead, I killed him myself and the puppet enemy of the dear Chancellor is now a true enemy, I'm now a phantom menace to him"
I feel somewhat stupid, as if had a need to impress my brother…my brother… damned witches, I can barely differentiate what I felt before from what I feel now.
"I was an apprentice to the most powerful being in the galaxy once. I was destined to become…so much more, but I was robbed of that destiny by the Jedi, by Obi-Wan Kenobi"
"I have met the man, he is not very impressive, you were defeated by none other than yourself, or more accurately your arrogance"
"You underestimate him"
As he speaks, the sound of his gritting teeth reveals the amount of restraint he has by not attacking me for my words. Perhaps there are upsides to this bond with it. I know that he could never betray me or rather it would be…difficult for him to betray me.
Regardless, I need to teach him a lesson.
"No brother, you underestimate me"
With that declaration I grab him in a telekinetic grip and slam him against the floor, I jump on top of him with both my legs pinning his arms to the ground and my sword at his throat. Only one of my twin blades will be enough for him.
"What are you doing?!" he struggles in the ground looking for a way to attack
"Showing you how weak you are, the great Darth Maul is writhing in the dirt like a worm, afraid of Obi-Wan Kenobi"
My words have the desired effect, Maul releases a pulse of telekinetic power and moves me, I fall with style and find myself doing the hero pose.
He launches rocks and dust to block my vision and distract me, as he crosses the distance.
I receive his charge and lock blades with him, he is too concerned with my sword and not enough with me, to show him his error I deliver a punch to his stomach and then to his face.
Maul drops to the ground again finally starts using his new legs, he kicks me attempting to unbalance me but evading such a telegraphed move is easy, however it's now I that fall into a trap. While I'm in the air he grabs me with the force and throws me to the ground as he stands up.
"WHO IS A WORM NOW BROTHER"
I really don't want our spar to end like this, so I decide to answer him.
"You still are the worm" Gathering the force into me and above my skin I release a wave that causes the earth around me to rumble and breaks the force holding me down.
He screams as I walk closer and closer to him, throwing everything he has in each force push he uses, but he is unable to stop me from walking over to him. Doubt has started to grow in his mind and because of it he has lost the strength to oppose me.
He falls to his knees in front of me, broken once again but this time I can help him be better.
"Your arrogance blinds you brother, you must embrace your weakness if you hope to make it a strength. When the moment comes acting arrogant without being arrogant is the way to victory. We are Sith after all deception is within our nature" I offer him my hand to help him up
"What are you suggesting?" he takes my offer and now it begins.
"The rule of two is not the way for us, let us start our own Brotherhood of Darkness, a new way for the Sith we will be rulers, I will deal with politics, and you will lead our armies"
The Darkness moves all around us. My declaration of a new start for the Sith echoes in the force.
"I will agree to this under one condition only"
"Name it"
"We will capture Obi-Wan Kenobi and we will break him, he will suffer as I have suffered and it must be now" his eyes glow with malice and his voice carries the promise of pain.
Obi-Wan's days are numbered and there will be no high ground to save him this time.
"Very well, I will prepare everything necessary for your request, in fact I think I know exactly how to reintroduce you to the galaxy, tell me brother what do you know about Felucia"
[Sector Delta, Umbara]
Clone Sergeant CT-2323 "Rampage"
"Sir What are we doing here?"
Ah as always, the newbie couldn't keep his mouth shut, too bad that a shiny was the only one available to fill my squad.
The rest of my men have already moved to their assigned positions, but I had to take the shiny with me to offset his lack of experience, perhaps I should have left him behind.
"I already explained the mission back at our temporary camp, if you didn't pay attention well, you're probably not going to make it back"
"I understand the mission, what I don't understand is what we are doing here, isn't the republic talking about peace with the sepies?"
"You say that again and I will kick you, the republic is not talking peace with those traitors, it is merely a truce and a weak one at that. Right now, we are here because the Republic finds it beneficial, we agreed that all active combat zones will remain fair play until such time as a victor emerges"
"And that means?" standards in Kamino must be falling if this trooper managed to complete basic training
"That means, that we can keep any planet we manage to take and then the truce will start officially, there are hundreds of planets that right now remain contested, our mission here is important if we are to take Umbara and its resources for the Republic"
"You don't seem to like the peace idea sir"
"We were made for war, that is our purpose. Tell me trooper what do you think is going to happen to us when we win, and peace finally arrives?"
"I don't know sir, but I hope it's nothing bad"
I sighed and looked at him
"I hope so too"