Arya flew through the air at impossible speeds. The force was coursing through her veins and strengthening her body to become extra strong and durable. This was one of the most exhilarating parts of using the force, she thought. Every leap she performed sent her shooting through the air like an arrow unnaturally high and far. She could see now why her brother Bran had liked to climb so high when he was young. She braced herself as her landing spot rose up to meet her in a flash. Landing was the difficult part, but the force cushioned a landing that would most certainly kill a normal man. With rock under her feet once more she jumped and soared through the air again. Maul was ahead of her, but not by much. His black robes snapped in the wind as he landed on a thin spire of rock and then leapt forward impossibly far to land on the next spire. This race had been his idea. Something to help clear their minds he said. There was a place on Dathomir where thin spires of rock littered the landscape in rows like the gigantic teeth of some primordial beast. The top of each spire was about the size of a wagon wheel, and without the force to aid Arya's reaction time and balance, she would most surely fall to her death on the rocks below.

She would have found the whole exercise fun if it wasn't for the new and devastating information she had learned from her last trip into Cercei's mind. Cercei knew about the force. Somehow, she knew. And then there was the part about her being forced out of Cercei's mind as opposed to leaving her mind willingly like she normally did. Arya couldn't begin to guess what had caused that to happen. Just the thought of Cercei knowing about the force was upsetting enough without some other unknown element coming into play. She would have to visit Cercei again and question her more thoroughly. She had let Cercei taunt her last time causing her to lash out. She would remain in control next time, and she would get the answers she sought.

Arya was about to land on another spire when she looked up and saw a huge boulder heading directly for her. Maul must have thrown it at her when she was thinking about Cercei. With barely a glance and a flick of her wrist the boulder split in two and each half flew past her on either side. She landed with grace and reached back behind her. Both boulder halves froze in mid-air. She brought her hand back towards Maul who was standing on the spire directly ahead of her and the boulder halves shot straight towards him at blistering speeds. The look on his face said that he knew he had made a mistake by throwing the bolder at her and he quickly jumped to the next spire as the boulder halves demolished the spire he had just been standing on seconds ago.

"Ha! I seem to have won this race already!" He yelled to her from a spire that was hundreds of feet away from her own. "You have destroyed one of your stepping stones and cannot reach the next spire from there. Remember, destruction can be good, but only if it does not impede your own goals."

"Why do you keep underestimating me master!" Arya yelled back. She concentrated as hard as she could on launching from the spire she was on. She bent her legs and aimed her body at the spire Maul was standing on and felt the force blossom within her. The small bits of rock and dust that clung to the spire began to swirl around it. With everything she could muster, Arya pushed off into the air. The spire underneath her exploded and the shattered rock pulsed outwards in a shockwave pattern from where Arya had launched herself from. And she flew.

Arya could tell that she wasn't actually flying, but she was soaring so high and far in the air, she might as well have been. She watched Maul curse under his breath as she flew over him and landed on the spire that was past his own. She smiled a little bit. At first her feats of raw power had shocked them both every time they had happened. Turning the stones in his cave to dust was one of the first feats that both shocked and amazed them, but as they trained in different disciplines, Arya always seemed to be able to go to a level Maul had never seen before. Eventually, they both came to expect her to do amazing things well beyond the knowledge Maul possessed. All she needed to do was push herself as hard as she could. Maul had admitted several weeks ago that she was more powerful than him and had surpassed him in most areas where the force was concerned. The only area that he had a leg up in was lightsaber combat. Arya knew she would eventually pass him in that as well, but he told her that she was so powerful with the force, she may not even need a lightsaber. She had made sure she got one anyways.

That was about a week ago. Maul had told her that she was versed enough in combat to now build her own lightsaber. She had studied the dozens of lighsabers Maul had in his own collection, and when she finally figured out what style she wanted, Maul had the parts ready for her to construct it. She constructed the handle to be a near perfect replica of Needle's handle. When it came time to put the kyber crystal in the handle, Arya insisted that Maul stir up as many horrible memories of her own past in her mind so that she could infuse her anger into the crystal. It had worked like a charm. The result was a blood red medium-sized blade brighter than any of the lightsabers Maul had shown her. When she had first activated it, Maul was so amazed he asked for a sparring session on the spot.

As she stood on her spire, wind wiping through her short brown hair, she caressed the hilt of the lightsaber hanging from her belt with her fingertips. Balerian's Breath she had named it. To her it was weaponized dragon fire, and she was its master. Her connection with this weapon was personal, and after training with it for a week, she felt as if it were an extension of her own self. She raised her arm in the air and Belerian's Breath sprang up into her open hand. She looked up at Maul, smirked, and then jumped off the side of the spire. She activated the blade and as it slid out of the handle with a hiss, the spire lit up in a deep dark red that didn't differ much from Dathomir's blood red sun. Arya stuck the blade into the rock as she fell past it to slow her decent. This caused the spire to melt and fall apart around her as she landed on the ground.

"See you back at the cave Master!" she called as she sprang off of the ground below causing a shockwave of cracked earth around the spot where she had launched herself.

Maul watched as she landed gracefully on another spire even farther away. He looked behind at the ruined spire that had been shattered from the boulder halves, and then he looked ahead at the spire that Arya had just destroyed with her lightsaber. He was not strong enough to make the jump to the next intact spire, and he would probably die if he jumped off his own. Growling, he rolled his eyes and began to climb down towards the ground.

FIN

Arya landed on the ground that was directly above the training cave. Several large inconspicuous rocks littered the area. These rocks covered up the holes that let in light to the cave below. With a wave of her hand Arya slid one of the rocks to the side and dropped through the open hole.

The cave had remained basically the same from the time she had first seen it. There were rocks scattered around the floor, and rough-looking beds circling a firepit. She had insisted on those first nights to stay out of the ship except when she needed to wash herself or gather supplies. She needed the fresh air, and to her surprise, Maul had agreed to share her lifestyle. He said that it showed strength to be able to take care of oneself outside in a strange environment. Besides, today was the day they would board the ship and breath it's recycled air again. Today they were heading for the planet of Coruscant to obtain some rare holocrons. Holocrons that possibly contained information that would further strengthen her in the force far beyond anything any living force user had ever seen. She began to pack up her things as well as Maul's. There wasn't much to pack, and once everything was as she liked it, she hoisted her pack on her shoulder and walked back down the tunnel to the secret hut entrance that was near Maul's ship.

Arya exited the hut and walked up into the ship. She was quite familiar with all the passages and corridors of the ship's interior now. She deposited Maul's belongings next to the door of his chambers and then entered her own chambers. She washed herself and put on clean robes. Not her light comfortable robes for lounging around the ship. This time she put on tight-fitting robes that she only wore when she sparred with Maul with a lightsaber. The robes were black and hugged her small but powerful frame perfectly. They allowed for maximum movement with minimal restriction and obstructions. When she was finished, she sat cross-legged on one of the chairs in her main living space and closed her eyes, letting the force run through her veins and wash over her spirit. In what seemed like mere seconds, but was probably closer to an hour, she sensed Maul boarding the ship himself. She felt his presence enter the control room and start up the ship. She then felt him walk down the nearest corridor and stop in front of her door.

"Valar Morghulis." Arya said as she cracked an eye open to look at the doorway. The door opened to reveal a clearly angry Maul covered in dirt and grime from head to toe.

"Well, that was quite foolish of you my apprentice." He growled. "The point of that exercise was to clear our minds, not frustrate one of us!"

Arya opened her other eye and uncrossed her legs. Meditation time was clearly over. "My apologies Master. I was merely trying to have a bit of fun, something I barely remember, before we began this mission of ours.

Maul opened his mouth to shout at Arya, but then closed it and scowled instead. "Through my entire life I was never afforded the luxury of having fun. But, I supposed today was my fault. I once again underestimated you like a fool. I'm so used to my own limitations, I keep forgetting that you may not have any." His scowl turned into the faintest of smiles. "I swear you were almost flying today."

Arya noted his calmer, almost friendly demeanor. A trait he had shown several times during her training as he began to see her more as an equal. She wasn't sure how to take that. Maul was so brash and aggressive that if he showed any emotion beside anger it usually threw her off-guard. "Almost, but not quite. I feel that flight may be possible one day for me, and who knows, maybe the key to unlocking that ability lies in one of the holocrons that we are on our way to retrieve. How long until we reach Coruscant?"

"Several hours. I see you are already prepared and dressed. Must have been nice to have all that extra time." Maul said with annoyance.

"It was." Arya shot back.

"Now before I leave you to get myself prepared, I need to know something. Something very important."

Arya gave Maul her full attention.

"I need to know that you are committed to our cause. When we begin our mission, you will come across Jedi who will try to coax you over to their side. Just know that theirs is one of power and control as well. Just the fact that you exist and are as powerful as you are will make them attempt to collect you into their fold. And even if we succeed in our task today, once they know of your presence, they will hunt you to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. So, I ask you, are you prepared for today, and are you committed to our cause?"

"Yes." Arya said without hesitation. Their cause was a noble one in her eyes. Obtain power, use that power to deliver swift justice to those that deserved it and remove anyone that stood in their way. She would not be beholden to anyone anymore. She would not allow herself to be in a position where someone had power over her. Maul was a special case. Maul had taken her in, trained her, and helped her make use of the power within her, and for that she begrudgingly felt that she owed him a debt even if she knew he had only done it for his own personal gain. Regardless, he really didn't have power over her anymore, she knew that. He may still be her master, but their relationship was closer to a partnership now. Even so, she promised herself she would leave him if tried to harm her or lord over her. Or if their ideals began to differ too much. But for now, she was indeed committed their cause.

Maul gave her a long calculating stare and Arya stoically held his gaze. Eventually he gave her a slight nod of understanding. They were on the same page.

"Very well. I will go get ready. We will reach Coruscant in three hours." With that, he left her chambers and Arya began to meditate again.

She focused her thoughts. She focused them on her training she had received over the last few weeks. Just as Maul had promised, it had been the most challenging and grueling training she had ever endured. There were some days that she thought Maul had actually decided to kill her through exhaustion. But she had made it through every task, and he had been pleased with her fast progression. She thought of her preparation for this mission. Maul had shown her holographic projections of prominent Jedi including their strengths and weaknesses. Any of the Jedi could possibly cross paths with them during their mission and Maul wanted Arya to be able to identify them and steer clear if needed. She then focused on layouts she had studied that detailed certain portions of Coruscant that they would be visiting so she would be able to navigate the global city without getting lost. Then she focused on her task. Lives would be lost today, but that was ok. She had become comfortable with killing a long time ago. Although, she had promised herself one thing. She would not kill those that did not deserve it. Her task was to infiltrate the Library of the Republic and cause a distraction so that Maul could break into the holocron vault in the Jedi Temple and retrieve Sith and Jedi holocrons brimming with force knowledge. With those holocrons in hand and some measure of time, they would be the most unstoppable force in the galaxy. No injustice would escape their reach, and their quest for justice would start with her list of names, as well as Maul's. Arya smiled with her eyes closed. She knew the mission her and Maul were about to undertake was extremely dangerous, but she found she was in a strange state of peace. She focused on all the force powers that Maul had taught her and how she had mastered each one of them in record time. She would be ok.

A sudden knock on her door told her they were almost there. The last three hours had passed in seemingly no time at all. She grabbed her old pack from her time on Westeros and opened her door to find Maul waiting for her. Together they went to the control room at the front of the ship and the now familiar blue glow of hyperspace met her eyes. They sat in silence and let the hum of the ships engines wash over them. Finally, Maul broke the silence.

"Dathomir is a primitive planet, so you didn't see many things that seemed out of the ordinary compared to your own planet. Coruscant will be much, much different. It is the capital planet of the galaxy and home to over a trillion beings. You have seen some layouts of portions of the city, but to see the planet in person is quite a sight to behold."

Arya said nothing but watched out of the window at the front of the ship as Maul adjusted some dials and levers and the blue tunnel of hyperspace vanished revealing a planet that looked to Arya as if it were devoid of life. There was no blue from water and no green from plants. The entire planet was a black-grey hue littered with bright yellow dots of light. Arya agreed that it was quite a sight to behold. She also knew that she didn't like this planet. No wildlife, no open spaces. Residing on this planet would be like spending your entire life on a starship.

Maul brought the ship through the planet's atmosphere and landed it in a dark courtyard that looked abandoned. Arya guessed that it was anything but. Together, her and Maul put their hoods up and walked down the runway of Maul's ship. Unsurprisingly, a group of humanoid creatures wielding blasters came out of their hiding spots and surrounded both of them. Maul put his hands up and Arya followed his lead. One of the creatures came forward and stopped directly in front of them. As he approached, Arya noticed that this creature was definitely not human. For starters the creature was blue. It also had eyes that were much to large and an oval shaped head that ended in a small hollow circle that must have been the creatures mouth. Suddenly, the creatures mouth started to move, and Arya was shocked to find she could understand him until she remembered that Maul had given her some sort of device that could translate languages for her.

"Come no further. You are unwelcome visitors in this area and must leave immediately." The creature held up his blaster to show he meant business.

"Is that a proper welcome for your leader?" Maul's raspy voice replied. Slowly he took off his hood and revealed himself.

"Lord Maul!" the lead creature exclaimed as he lowered his blaster and waved for the others to do the same. "I did not know it was you. Your ship is different since last we met." He bowed slightly.

"Do not be troubled." Maul replied barely addressing the leader. "I needed another ship. The last one was becoming too recognizable. Tell me Datho, do you have everything ready as I have commanded?" He looked sternly at the leader of the group.

"Y-yes, my lord. We have lodging and disguises ready for you. If I may ask, who is this?" Datho asked gesturing to Arya. Arya looked back and forth between the two of them and realized she was still holding her hands up. She lowered them slowly as Maul responded.

"This is my new apprentice, and she is of no concern of yours." Maul spoke in a commanding voice with these creatures, much like he had spoken with Arya when he had first met her.

"Of-of course my lord." Datho stammered. Clearly, he was flustered in the presence of Maul.

"Good. Show us to our chambers." Maul began to follow Datho, and Arya followed Maul.

As they crossed the dark courtyard Arya looked up and started to get vertigo from looking up at the impossibly tall buildings that towered over them. As her gaze moved upwards she noticed that the light from the city made it impossible to see the stars. It was just another in a long list of reasons that she disliked this planet.

Eventually, they were shown into a small building with very little windows. There were two rooms at the end of a short hallway.

"These are your rooms. You can find all manner of clothing for disguises in the wardrobes inside." Datho nodded at each doorway.

"Thank you Datho. You may leave us now." Maul walked into one of the rooms and gestured for Arya to follow him.

"We will need to disguise ourselves for this mission. While no one knows who you are, I would be recognized miles before I reached the Jedi Temple. Even so, I would prefer that you disguise yourself as well to remain anonymous. You will be pursued by many Jedi after we complete this mission, it would help immensely if they did not know what you look like."

Arya nodded. "I agree. But I have a better idea for disguises." With that she unshouldered her pack and started rummaging around in it.

"Ah, there they are." She said as she pulled out two masks that looked to Maul like they were made out of actual human skin.

"Remember the night you found me?"

Maul nodded.

"Well, I can make it so that we both are wearing the face of someone else. We will essentially be unrecognizable to anyone that may know us."

"That would be perfect." Maul said through a twisted grin.

FIN

On the early eaves of the morning on the planet of Coruscant, two male guards from the Twins in Westeros walked down the street towards the Library of the Republic and the Jedi Temple. One was considerably shorter than the other and they would have seemed out of place, but they were clothed in the typical fashions of the populace. One would think they were just regular humans going about their business, but if they knew what was beneath the robes and faces that they wore, there would be fear and panic in the streets.

"This is…strange." Maul said to Arya as they walked down the street towards their goal. Eventually they would need to split up, but for now they walked together and discussed the final details of their plans.

"What is?" Arya asked.

"I feel as though I am wearing nothing on my face, but no one is cowering in fear from me, so I know that they cannot see my actual face."

"It is a curious practice, wearing another's face. One I still don't fully understand."

"Very well. Pay attention now. We will be splitting up in the next block. You know the plan?" Maul seemed somewhat apprehensive.

"Yes. Create a diversion large enough to draw the Jedi away from the temple allowing you to get inside and infiltrate the holocron vault." Arya said.

"And once I send you the signal?" the signal was a small device on her wrist. It would blink red once Maul's task was complete. If it blinked green, then something had gone wrong.

"Return to the ship whether things go good or bad, and most importantly, do not be followed." Arya said in a somewhat annoyed tone. They had been over this plan hundreds of times. Plus, she trusted in her force abilities and expertise at disguising herself if things went really wrong. She was honestly more worried about Maul. He was about to break into one of the most heavily guarded facility in the galaxy with hundreds of force-wielding Jedi. That's why her task of drawing them away was so important.

"Correct. Now, if you really want to draw the Jedi towards your location, just activate your red lightsaber and see what happens. You'll see just how hated you really are in their eyes." Maul said this through clenched teeth.

"Yes master."

"Good." Maul looked at the intersection of streets nervously. "This is where we part ways. Good luck."

With a nod Maul turned and walked down a side street that headed towards the Jedi Temple. Arya stood still for a moment. The full gravity of the situation was finally hitting her. She was now alone on a densely populated alien planet that was millions if not billions of miles from her own world, and she we about to draw some of the most powerful knights in the galaxy to her location with the intention of provoking them. Her place in the universe had changed drastically since Maul had found her at the Twins. That moment felt like almost a lifetime ago. She shook herself out of her daydream and began walking the final few blocks to the Library of the Republic.