Part 20: Precipice

1 BBY.

Nar Shaddaa.

The battle on Nar Shaddaa was coming to a close.

A risky, desperate charge from The Crimson Dawn forces had claimed Grakkus's headquarters and succeeded in capturing his base of operations. Now Skywalker and Maul were on their way in speeder to kill Grakkus before his forces could regroup and strike back at The Crimson Dawn.

By killing Grakkus, they would be in a position to consume his fragmented forces and negotiate with the pykes from a position of power, and use this victory as a launching pad into carving out the rest of Nar Shaddaa and The Crimson Dawn's criminal empire at large.

Maul could see a path clearly to success, it pieced itself together in his mind, and reforming his underworld dominance would be essential to his plans against The Empire. But the hardest step was the first, forcing themselves back into the upper echelon of crime had proved a tumultuous and bloody affair.

Tonight would be the make it or break it…they were so close, but if Grakkus went into hiding and reached out to his kin, if he regrouped his forces…yes, it all relied on tonight. If The Crimson Dawn would take over Grakkus's territory, its best chance was storming in and cutting off the head. There was no other way.

He had sent word to Q'ra to prepare opening offers to the pykes…if they succeeded they would need to capitalize on their success immediately. And if they didn't, Maul could always bring Skywalker back to Dathomir and leave Q'ra to deal with the consequences of the short-lived war…but that would make their plans more difficult, but not impossible in the long run.

Besides, Grakkus crossed Maul, and that alone earned him his doom. What's more, he provided a source for Skywalker to project his hatred towards and to keep him immersed in The Dark Side…keeping the boy within his grasp after his attempt to leave revolved around Grakkus.

They were able to fit four gangsters with The Crimson Dawn in the speeder with them as support, and it seemed they needed it.

Maul was sitting in the middle, as was Skywalker. There were two thugs sitting in the front row and two in the back, and as they sped between air-traffic lanes and between the layers of smog and smoke one of the gangsters readied their blaster rifle.

They looked backwards, and saw three speeders on their tail advancing. If there was any doubt to their intention, it was cleared when they began opening fire on their speeder.

One bolt hit the back of the speeder, and it shook.

The passenger behind Maul was hit in the head, and slumped in his seat dead. The gaff next to him readied his heavy blaster rifle and fired off wildly, and the enemy speeders needed to weave out of the way to dodge. Blaster fire hit other civilian speeders, but eventually several bolts burned into one of the hutt speeders. The driver was hit, and the speeder quickly lost altitude and crashed into a building.

Two of the hutt speeders remained, and they split off to run up on the flanks of their speeder. The gaff couldn't focus suppressing fire on both, and was quickly hit in the chest. He gasped, and fell off the speeder screaming.

"Take his place." Maul said to Skywalker. "I will do what I can."

Skywalker nodded, going in the back seats and igniting his lightsaber to deflect incoming blaster fire before it could damage their speeder too much.

Maul barked an order up to the driver of their speeder, and they began flying more erratically to try and lose the hutts. The gangster in the passenger seat pulled out a blaster pistol and tried firing off across the driver and towards the speeder coming up on the driver's side.

Holding out a hand, Maul focused on a passing pedestrian speeder next to them. He focused The Force and let out a rush of power, driving it into the side of the speeder. The citizens in the speeder screamed as their vehicle jutted to the side without warning…as did the gangsters when they looked in time to see they were due for a collision. The momentum of the speeder carried it the rest of the way.

Both speeders collided at massive speeds and exploded into a ball of flames and metal shrapnel, smoking bodies plummeting down into the neon depths.

That was one less speeder.

Shortly after, Skywalker deflected a blaster bolt towards the driver of the speeder he was defending from, and that too fell into traffic and exploded.

They were clear.

But as they seated again, and the gangsters in the front row sighed in relief there was a crash in the front of the speeder sending them reeling.

A fourth hutt speeder charged up from below, ramming into the front. Before the driver and passenger could recover and shoot, the hutts fired blaster rifles into the front seats, killing them and exploding the consoles.

As their speeder plummeted, smoking, the hutt speeder broke off.

They were falling faster and faster.

Maul looked over the side, looking for a place they could leap off…but there was nowhere.

Without a word, Skywalker hoisted himself over to the driver's seat and pushed the deceased driver aside.

"What are you doing?" Maul shouted. "We need to leave."

"Don't worry." Skywalker said as he grabbed the remaining controls. "I've flown one of these tons of times."

"When?"

"Skyhoppers are way harder than this and I've flown those tons of times."

"There is no hope-" Maul began.

"We're almost to the arena anyways, see?" Skywalker interrupted, inclined his head to show off the arena in the distance. There was no way they could make it.

But the boy used all his might to pull the controls towards him, then yanked it to the left.

It caused an erratic lurch, and Maul stumbled in his seat.

"You're going to crash." Maul said, looking over the side for anywhere they could jump.

"I'm pulling us up into a…controlled landing." He said.

"There is nowhere to land!" Maul growled.

"I see an open sprawl of dirt right ahead of us!"

Maul looked ahead…there was the open stretch in the center of the arena where the gladiators and beasts fought but certainly he couldn't mean…

"In the arena?" Maul said.

"Hold onto something, master." Skywalker said.

Maul gritted his teeth.

They didn't make it cleanly into the dirt…they hit the lower ends of the viewing area. The speeder smashed and grinded against the stairs and benches, and Maul barely held on without falling. One of the thug's bodies fell off the side in the violent motion and crumpled under the speeder. When the speeder couldn't take anymore, it pulled itself off in one last gasp of flight before making a final plummet against the blood-soaked dirt.

The impact caused Maul to fall off the back but he recovered into a roll, and he looked up to see Skywalker hit his head against the controls hard. Maul hopped back to his feet and jogged over to check on his apprentice.

"There he is!" Skywalker pointed up above at the viewing box.

Grakkus was there, watching. Maul could make him out, and it seemed the hutt smashed his hand on a button.

Skywalker, still seated, looked to Maul. He gave a nod to his apprentice and Skywalker began to grab his lightsaber.

The moment was short-lived, as Maul heard the creak of metal on stone heralding the opening of gates.

Roars and growls filled the air as beasts and creatures charged from their dark caves towards the two. These were the trained animals that Grakkus often pit against warriors and fighters in his arena….these beasts were trained to kill, and had done so many times.

"To your feet!" Maul barked at Skywalker.

The boy leapt from the driver's seat and ignited his crimson lightsaber, and placed himself by Maul's side.

Maul saw Grakkus slink away from his seat. He felt anger, the beasts keeping him from pursuing the hutt for now. But Maul used that anger to his benefit, focusing on the frustration and feeding it…channeling it, to give him the energy to face these beasts.

"Remember what I taught you on Dathomir." Maul said as the beasts loomed closer. "You dominated beasts far stronger than these."

"Yes, master." Skywalker said.

There were dozens of assorted beasts, from gundarks and wild kath-hounds to kinraths and nexu.

The two sith fought back to back, weaving from claw strikes and ducking away from bites….dodging and slicing, ducking and thrusting…killing each beast one by one. But for every beast, there were two more lunging from behind them.

Maul swung his lightsaber to cut down a leaping kath-hound that lunged for Skywalker, and in turn the boy impaled a kinrath that had advanced towards Maul. Reaching out with The Dark Side, Maul crushed the windpipe of one of the gundarks, and Skywalker pushed out with The Force to give them more room as the beasts advanced over each other's bodies.

A nexu roared as it pounced and Maul turned just in time to see it. He pushed Skywalker away and twisted out of the way as it landed with its claws. As it recovered, it divided Maul and Skywalker.

It pounced again and Maul weaved away, but this time it caught him in the arm with its claw. The pain made Maul grit his teeth, but he focused on it to fuel his next attack. He thrusted forward, catching the nexu in the side. The beast shrieked and went for a bite but Maul kicked it in between the eyes. It recoiled back as he twirled his lightsaber for another attack.

Maul twirled his lightsaber behind him, giving the beast an opening. In its animal mind, it reacted instantly, jumping forward. He twisted the lightsaber forward, driving the blade through its chest as it went through the air. The lightsaber burned through its body as momentum and gravity pushed it forward, and by the time it reached the ground it crumpled dead.

As Maul weaved away from the lifeless nexu, he heard another sound…something fast, and mechanical. Something…

He turned and raised his lightsaber when he heard the hum of the lightsabers.

Maul blocked the first high and another low with his off-blade. He deflected another and spun his lightsaber to cut up sparks and dust at his opponent, giving a chance to jump back and evaluate.

Atop an even more elaborate mechanical chair with longer, more agile legs, sat Grakkus the Hutt in his elevated seat…his lightsabers mounted to jointed durasteel arms instead of laced around his neck. They fidgeted in place, as if begging Grakkus to strike out.

The mechanical arms were long and multi-jointed, and circled all around his base…lightsabers of blue, purple, green and gold hummed.

Maul narrowed his yellow eyes.

"Shadow." Grakkus said. "I heard you caused a commotion."

"You should not have crossed me." Maul said.

"We are warriors…our business ends here, in the arena, where it was meant to."

"I will slaughter you like an animal, hutt." Maul growled.

"That's the spirit!" Grakkus roared as he charged forward, mechanical arms swinging lightsabers wildly.

Maul lifted his own lightsaber to deflect. He swatted one blue blade away and tilted his stance to deflect another with his offblade. Another and another, he kept up but the onslaught was tiring even for him. It was like fighting a dozen of Grakkus's magnaguards.

A lightsaber came low, and another up high and a third to his side. The attacks came at once, and Maul could only deflect two. He decided to allow himself to be hit in the leg, he was able to at least twist himself so it would be a shallow wound. He gritted his teeth, and after the slash jumped back to reevaluate.

"Not as powerful as you thought?" Grakkus taunted.

Maul growled and looked to his side to check on his apprentice…the boy was dealing with the beasts on his own now. Fortunately both of the nexu were dead, and he was just fending off kinrath and kath-hounds but there were still enough of them to challenge the boy. He turned, putting Skywalker out of his mind. The boy had been strong enough to face beasts on Dathomir, he would be strong enough to do the same here.

Looking at Grakkus, Maul looked for an opening.

Grakkus was too high up to reach with a mere thrust or swing and his mechanical legs were protected by the arms. Maul could try jumping up but…no, leaping would leave him too vulnerable to the lightsabers, a mistake he would never make again.

He would need to take out the lightsabers one by one…but with all the attacks Maul wasn't certain he could sustain himself for as long as he would need. It would be best to try and bait the hutt into putting everything into one attack, leaving him open. The risk would be great, especially with beasts still running around.

The hutt came at Maul again, and this time Maul responded in thrusts rather than swings…keeping more distance between him and Grakkus's mech. When Maul thought he got into a rhythm of deflecting, his attention was broken as he heard the growl of a kath-hound.

He turned, and saw one had broken off from his apprentice and came pouncing to him. It came to his back, and Maul had no room to maneuver to the side with the lightsabers swinging towards him. Instead, Maul gave away his distance and jumped towards Grakkus.

Within the durasteel arms but before they could readjust, Maul turned to cut the kath-hound in half as it charged again. He turned just in time to face another onslaught of attacks.

Maul deflected one swinging at his side, and jutted his off-blade to swat away another one. A third and a fourth came from above, and he jumped back. He stumbled, his foot hitting a beast's corpse, and Grakkus used the brief opening as an opportunity to charge again. Swinging the blades wildly and laughing all the way, Grakkus's mount barrelled towards Maul.

Holding his hand behind him, Maul used The Force to swing the beast corpse forward as Grakkus charged in, the hutt's lightsabers cutting into the dead flesh before striking Maul. He jumped to the side as Grakkus chopped it to pieces, and thrusted his own lightsaber forward. Maul caught one of the arms in the joint, melting through it and the lightsaber falling to the ground.

"The Force?" Grakkus said. "I will mount your lightsaber up here as well, Shadow. A place of honor in death, alongside your jedi brethren."

Maul couldn't help himself from laughing a deep, bitter laugh.

"I am no jedi, you fool. I am a master of The Force." He said. "I am sith."

Grakkus's eyes widened.

"...Sith?"

Maul smiled, the realization providing the faintest opening for him. He leapt forward, swinging his lightsaber, catching another arm in the joint.

Grakkus compensated by raising his mechanical legs and stomping them down, hoping to catch Maul in the impact. Maul jumped backwards, and held out a hand to push out with The Force as it was falling. The push caused Grakkus's mount to slip, falling on its side. He looked around, a brief panic setting in, and before he could recover Maul jumped forward swinging his lightsaber.

Maul caught two arms in a lock, and pushed down with all his might. He was forcing them further and further down towards Grakkus. But Maul forgot Grakkus was more than his mount, when he felt the fist of the hutt land into his side. More surprise than anything, it made Maul recoil. The opening allowed Grakkus not only to rise again but to push his entire mount's weight into the attack.

The momentum and force knocked Maul back, and he fell. Grakkus laughed as one of his mechanical arms thrusted towards Maul, in the moment he didn't have his guard recovered.

But the thrust did not land.

Skywalker had jumped into the fray, swinging his own lightsaber to slice the arm before it could hit Maul. Grakkus turned in surprise, and Skywalker charged forward with an attack fueled by rage. Maul could feel the hate drumming within his apprentice.

He looked over, and saw the beasts he was fighting were dead.

A sense of pride welled within Maul, and he twisted it into a sense of embarrassment and then into hate, using the bitter feeling of being saved by his apprentice to fuel him. Maul got back to his feet and ran at Grakkus.

The master and apprentice were hitting the hutt from two sides, and now his multiple arms were not as effective…without as much strength in pure numbers, it became clear how erratic and sloppy the form of the arms were.

Maul had no issue deflecting and blocking multiple, but when he looked over he saw his apprentice struggling. He made up for it in anger, using The Dark Side to fuel his attack, but against a machine there was no way he would overpower its endurance.

Skywalker deflected a green blade, then blue, and thrusted forward. But another hum swung low and up.

"To your-" Maul began as a golden lightsaber swung towards Skywalker.

Before the boy could turn and react, it caught him in the arm. He recoiled in pain as it cut against his flesh, but when he jumped back

Skywalker was not as quick to recover though, and before his guard was back up Grakkus thrusted forward with two of the blades. The boy tried twisting out of the way, but one caught him in the shoulder and the other grazed his leg and he screamed in pain. He fell to the ground, his wounds smoking.

The hutt loomed over as if he would finish him off, but Maul held up a hand and flung Skywalker aside. The boy shouted in pain as his wounds skidded across the dirt, but it was better than being killed.

"Grakkus!" Maul shouted.

It grabbed the hutt's attention, and Maul was slowly spinning his lightsaber.

Grakkus smiled, the dead beasts all around them and Skywalker writhing in pain. It was just them, and Grakkus took it as an invitation to finish it.

He charged his mech forward, his lightsabers swinging wildly. Maul ran towards him in turn, and kept his lightsaber low, grinding the blade against the dirt dragging a path of dust and smoke behind him. It kept his chest and head open to attack, an opening he believed would be too tempting to Grakkus.

The hutt styled himself a warrior, but Maul knew he played at it, such an opening would go unquestioned. Or so he thought.

Validating Maul, Grakkus orientated all remaining arms to face Maul as he roared, the ecstasy of the last charge and the appetite of being a warrior consuming the hutt. The two came closer and closer.

Grakkus swung all of his lightsabers at Maul. Maul smiled and ran faster.

Closer and closer…until they were within reach of each other. Maul thrusted his lightsaber up, as if he were going in for a risky attack. The mechanical arms swung from both sides, in an attempt to slice Maul in half…there was no way he could deflect all those lightsabers from both sides. But he didn't plan to.

Maul dropped to his knees, turning off the blade he thrusted and leaving only his off-blade, sliding under the swing. Grakkus's eyes widened as he realized he missed Maul…his momentum and weight too much to stop in place. Maul swung his own lightsaber as he slid, holding out the blade in the path of each of the legs as they charged past.

The metal melted as it contacted the blade, and as the moment passed Grakkus's mount was legless. It crashed to the ground, and the impact drove Grakkus out and onto the dirt with a hard tumble. Maul stood up slowly, looking at Grakkus. He slowly swung his lightsaber as he walked towards the hutt.

Grakkus looked towards Maul and grabbed one of the lightsabers from the mechanical hands as he coiled upright. It seemed there was some fight left in the hutt after all. The hutt sprung towards Maul, blue lightsaber raised to swing.

Maul blocked the strike. It had strength behind it, but the hutt's defense was poor and sloppy. He twisted his lightsaber, swinging up with his off-blade, taking the better part of Grakkus's arm with him. The hutt coiled back, and Maul swung again, slicing into Grakkus' chest.

The hutt fell down in pain, and as he tried to slink away towards his ruined mechanical legs, Maul swung down, cutting off his tail. Grakkus arched as he yelled, and laid there with his wounds smoking.

Looking down at him, Maul smiled.

"It seems..." Maul began. "...You were not as mighty as you believed. Though you will still have some small use…as a valuable lesson to my apprentice. Worry not, Grakkus…your archive will be in good hands. I promise to you that I will at least read each of the jedi's holocrons before I…destroy them."

Grakkus's eyes widened and then narrowed, and the two's gaze were locked with heavy contempt until Grakkus moved to speak.

As he opened his mouth, Maul pulled out his tongue and sliced it with his lightsaber. The hutt screamed and moaned as it sizzled. He tossed the meat aside.

Now he could call over his apprentice. He didn't need any of Grakkus's words getting to the boy.

Skywalker walked up to Maul, with a minor limp. Between the cuts and bites and the lightsaber wounds he had received from both Grakkus and The Gamemaster the boy was certainly hurt. But he held himself tall, and Maul could sense his apprentice feeding off The Dark Side to hold himself together. He fed off the ebb of anger and hate he felt looking at Grakkus.

For all Skywalker knew, Grakkus was the one responsible for the worst mistake in his life.

"Look how small and pathetic he turns out to be." Maul said. "How weak."

"Not just weak." Skywalker said. "Defenseless."

Maul felt a reprieve in the ebb of anger in his apprentice and felt a surge of another emotion…something hollow. Pity? He couldn't have that rise within his apprentice, not now in this critical moment.

He put a gloved hand on the boy's shoulder, and leaned in to whisper.

"Who is responsible for the deaths of those civilians, Darth Starkiller? You? Or him?"

Skywalker was silent.

"Him." He said at last.

"Then punish him." Maul said, and began walking off.

There was a moment more of deliberation in his apprentice before Maul heard the hum of the lightsaber. A frightened moan preceded impact, then a mangled scream in pain. After the first swing, each came quicker and quicker. Maul quickly heard the end of the hutt's screams, but it didn't stop Skywalker from letting out his anger on the immense corpse.

Maul pulled a holo-transmitter from his cloak.

"Lady Q'ra." Maul said as she flickered to life.

"Yes, my lord?" She said, looking off-holo at a terminal.

"Arrange a sit down with the pykes. We have much to discuss."

"Then-" She began, looking at him.

"Yes." He said. "Arrange it in Grakkus's…former office."

"It will be done, my lord." She said.

With that, he ended the transmission.

Grakkus was dead. All that was his was now his.

And with him gone, Nar Shaddaa was his for the taking.

Maul turned and went back to his apprentice. The boy was silent, now finished, but breathing heavy. He could feel the mix of ecstasy and shame in Skywalker. Looking down, Maul smirked at the sight.

The hutt was near unrecognizable, smoking and melted chunks of meat. He turned his head to lock eyes with his apprentice.

"How did that feel?" Maul placed his hand on Skywalker's shoulder.

He stared at Maul for a time before responding.

"Good."