Arya quietly sat cross-legged on the floor in her cell. The cell was small, with walls made of polished metal. There was a wooden chair in the corner and nothing else. Either the cell was not meant to hold prisoners for very long, or the Jedi were uncharacteristically cruel to their prisoners. Arya guessed the former, which meant she would need to work fast before they came to retrieve her and find that she was missing.
A small barred window in the door of her cell was the only source of light. That was good because the dimly lit room helped Arya concentrate. She was used to little to no light, as she remembered her days spent as a blind beggar under the tutelage of the House of Black and White in Essos.
Eventually she turned her thoughts to the situation at hand. She closed her eyes and concentrated, letting the presence of the Jedi wash over her. She knew exactly where ever single Jedi in the temple was, and since there were so many, she was able to construct a mostly accurate map of the interior passages and chambers of the temple itself.
As she searched the temple in her mind, she eventually found what she was searching for. Like a small dark shadow surrounded by light, Maul's presence was revealed to her.
"Found you." She muttered, opening her eyes and standing up. She walked over to her cell door and, mustering as much power as she could, attempted to use a force power that her and Maul had only scratched the surface of during her training; mind control. She looked to coerce the Jedi guard outside of the door and get him to enter her cell. Maul had taught her that using the force to trick another's mind only worked on the weak-minded, but she hoped that her unnatural strength with the force would help her to coerce even the strong-minded. She also knew that if this part didn't work, she wouldn't have nearly the element of disguise that she wanted.
"Enter my cell." She whispered through the barred window.
The Jedi looked confused and he almost seemed like he was going to refuse, but eventually Arya could feel his mind relent and he just nodded. He turned toward the hand scanner and opening her cell door. The Jedi slipped in and Arya closed the door behind him. She knew that, while this had worked on her guard, he was probably one of the weaker-minded Jedi in the temple as there was no reason for them to think she had any power. There were certainly stronger Jedi in the temple whose minds were iron clad. The mind trick wouldn't work on everyone.
"Change clothes with me." She said. Once again, the Jedi seemed confused, but Arya had already broken into his mind. He was hers. Finally, he began undressing, and Arya did the same. As she took off her clothes, she was reminded of the fact that she was wearing a male face and that her body was still the form of a woman. The Jedi didn't seem to notice as he followed her commands in an almost trance-like state. With their clothes changed and the Jedi's lightsaber in Arya's possession, Arya pulled off her face and affixed it to the Jedi. She stepped back and saw a pretty accurate depiction of herself at least as far as the Jedi counsel would be concerned. The guard seemed to be coming back to his senses when Arya took his lightsaber and hit him on the back of the head. He slumped over, and Arya used the force to lift his body into the chair at the back of the room in the shadows.
Arya looked one last time upon the Jedi, satisfied that this decoy would work at least for a little while, and then looked up at the ceiling of her cell. She could tell from the map she had constructed in her head that there was a room above her cell with no one inside. She activated the stolen lightsaber, which happened to be blue, and jumped up towards the ceiling in a spinning motion, shoving the blade in all the way to the hilt. Her spinning motion allowed her to cut a hole in the ceiling. She landed back on the floor and the circular chunk of ceiling fell after her. Without even looking up, she caught the chunk of ceiling with the force before it hit her in the head and moved it towards the ground in front of her.
She stepped onto the piece of ceiling and used the force to lift herself up through the hole, letting the piece of ceiling, which was now the floor to her, reseal the hole she had cut. She used the lightsaber to fuse the piece back together with the rest of the floor.
When she was done, she looked around and let her eyes adjust to the room she had just entered, for it was almost darker than her cell. The room had smooth tiled floors and a bunch of seats set up like an auditorium. She walked to the back towards the doors and paused. She searched the nearby corridor with her mind to see if anyone would see her slip out of this room. No one was there and so she stepped out into the main halls. A soft blue glow lit up halls of polished stone floors and murals of Jedi propaganda. Arya walked as if she belonged. When she finally stepped out into a crowded hall, no one looked twice at her.
She kept Maul's location in her mind and worked her way there. He was locked in a cell buried deep below the Jedi temple. As she neared the prison block where Maul was kept, she noticed that the guards became more and more frequent, but she also noticed a curious thing. The power within her seemed to be surging stronger than ever. The deeper she delved into the lower levels of the Jedi temple, the more invincible she felt.
She thought about using the mind control trick on the guards in the lower levels, but if any one of them put up resistance she would be caught and the whole temple would be alerted. Since these guards were protecting a force user, the chances were much greater that they were stronger than the Jedi who had guarded her cell, so she didn't chance it. Instead, she looked for an air duct that she could climb into so as to remain unseen. Eventually, she found one and opened the vent to crawl inside. At first, it seemed like a maze, and she found she had to turn around at several dead ends, but eventually she was able to work her way to a vent just outside of Maul's cell.
There were six heavily armored Jedi knights standing just outside of the doorway. Arya's vent was conveniently directly above them, but it was also about a hundred feet high. The hallway outside of Maul's cell was enormous. Arya could only hope that the force would cushion her fall. So, she opened the vent, counted to three and then dropped. She landed on one knee facing the Jedi with her arms held down at her sides and her palms open and facing forward. The second her knee hit the ground, she ushered forth a strong force blast from each palm. The result was surprisingly effective. All six Jedi flew into the wall behind them and dropped unconscious. Arya stood up and dusted herself off, looking over her handy-work.
"Hmm, that was surprisingly effective." She muttered to herself as she took her stolen lightsaber and slashed the controls of the door to Maul's cell causing the door to spring open. She took one step inside and noticed something was wrong immediately. Maul was floating in the middle of the room which was spherical in shape. There was some sort of metal restraints around his wrists and ankles, and those restraints looked like they were suspended by electricity. He was still wearing his mask, but the reaction on his false face upon seeing her was not one of happiness or relief, but one of shock and anger.
"Foolish girl!" he yelled. "It's a trap!"
The moment he yelled, Arya felt her arms both get pulled out wide and when she looked to either side of her, she saw Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi using the force to spread her arms open. She tried resisting, but they were strong.
"There's a problem with the "rule of two" that you Sith have." Windu's voice came from behind Maul. He walked slowly into view and towards Arya with a set of metal restrains very similar to Maul's. "The problem is, that if you find one Sith, you know that there is bound to be another one close by. The first one can sneak up on you, but not the second. By then, if you're not dead, then you're on high alert."
Arya could see that the restraints on Maul kept him from using his force abilities, and her superior connection to the force was the main thing that gave her an edge over these Jedi. If they managed to get those restraints on her, she wouldn't be able to do much besides fight her way out with a lightsaber, which would most likely end with her being outnumbered and killed. Surrendering most likely meant imprisoned for the rest of her life or her memory being wiped.
The thought of losing her memories was too much for her. She thought of her family back on Westeros. Those she had lost, and those who were possibly still alive. She found that she wanted to seem them again more than anything right now. And besides, she still had scores to settle. But all of that would be impossible if Windu got those restraints on her wrists. She began to panic.
As she panicked, she tried to pull her arms back together and found that little by little she was able to. Skywalker and Obi-Wan began to slide towards her. Both redoubled their efforts with the force to stop her, but it proved unsuccessful.
"Windu! Hurry, she is strong! We can't hold her much longer!" Obi-Wan yelled through gritted teeth.
Windu stopped his speech and looked at the scene in front of him. Arya's hand was almost at her waist to grab her lightsaber, and Skywalker and Obi-Wan looked like they were about to pass out from holding her for so long.
Quickly, Windu ran up to Arya to put on the restraints, but he was a second too late. Both Skywalker and Obi-Wan fainted. Arya's hand snatched the lightsaber off her belt and sliced the restraints Windu was carrying in half so fast he could barely see it and was nearly split in half by her blade himself, only jumping out of the way at the last second.
"So that's how it's going to be." Windu said and pulled his own lightsaber out. Its purple brilliance lit up the entire spherical chamber.
Maul hung in the center, his expression one of worry and regret. He knew of Windu's prowess with a lightsaber, and he doubted Arya was ready for a challenge like this yet. Arya circled around Maul, backing away from Windu as he advanced. Windu began spinning his lightsaber incredibly fast and eventually Arya couldn't see a singular blade, but a sphere of purple light. She stopped retreating and waited for Windu to advance close enough.
She timed the hums of Windu's blade and after what seemed like an eternity, she swung her own blade and connected with his. The sabers crackled and snapped as they were pressed together. Arya took one hand off her lightsaber and shoved her hand into Windu's chest hoping to send him reeling from a force blast. Windu moved fast, even for Arya, and rebounded her force blast back at her causing her to fly across the room and hit the far wall.
She stood up and instinct told her to bring up her blade, which she did, catching Windu's downswing just in time. The flurry of blows that followed were so fast that, to Maul watching from the outside, it just looked like a purple and blue haze hanging around Arya and Windu. Maul could see that his apprentice was now more skilled than him in lightsaber combat as well. For if he had been the one to face Windu, he wasn't sure if he would last this long.
An unusual fear of being defeated began to rise in Arya as she barely blocked blow after blow. That fear very quickly turned to anger at the situation, and her inability to get herself and her master out of this god-forsaken temple. Arya channeled that anger and went on the offensive, but she found that the more she let her anger fuel her fighting, the stronger Windu seemed to become with his own fighting.
The longer Arya fought, the more she realized that she would not be able to win this fight. Her best option would be to run, but she could not leave Maul. Firstly, that would not be fair to him. He was the one who helped guide her as she unlocked her abilities and taught her to be stronger than she ever knew she could be. Secondly, she still didn't know how to fly his ship. And thirdly, only Maul knew where the holocrons he stole were. So, while Arya held back the onslaught of Windu's attacks, she formed a plan in her head to get them both out.
She began to position herself on the far side of the chamber placing Maul between herself and the door. She chose her timing carefully and when she had an opening, she jumped high up onto the wall and when her feet landed on the wall, she aimed through Maul towards the door and pushed off as had as she could.
She rocketed from the wall in a flash and put her arms around the floating figure of Maul hitting him and pulling him so hard that he was ripped from his electric floating prison and they both flew through the doorway. As soon as they were outside of the cell, Arya used the force to shove the door down and jam it, trapping Windu and the other Jedi inside. She knew it wouldn't hold them for long.
Arya's force shield managed to protect her when she hit Maul, she was mostly ok. Maul did not fare as well. Arya could tell that he definitely had several broken ribs and probably some internal bleeding. His legs were a mangled mess, and his arm was twisted at a funny angle.
"You did well. But you should have known that was a trap." Maul said with a voice racked with pain.
"A thank you would be appreciated." Arya said. "You know, you don't need to turn everything into a learning opportunity."
Maul merely grimaced. "So, does your plan go any further than this hallway?" he asked.
"I'm going to jump to the ceiling and cut a hole to get us out of here." Arya gestured upwards.
Maul looked up and saw that the hallway ceiling was roughly one hundred feet high. He looked at Arya who's steely demeanor stopped the protest on his lips. He was too hurt to be of much use, and he didn't really know where he was or how to get out of the temple.
"Wait down here." Arya said sarcastically and then jumped.
Maul watched as she twirled in the air and hit the ceiling with extreme force. She cut a hole into the ceiling and dropped back down next to him.
"This may hurt a bit." She said as she reached her arms underneath Mauls and grunted as she halfway lifted him off the ground.
"Seven hells! You're weight as much as a horse!"
At that moment, the door to Maul's cell burst open violently. Windu, Skywalker, and Obi-Wan all piled out of the spherical chamber and activated their lightsabers as soon as they saw Arya and Maul.
Arya gave them a quick wave, grabbed tightly to Maul, and jumped up through the hole she had created. She reached back through the hole and sealed it off with the circular piece she had cut from the ceiling.
"Child." Maul wheezed through his broken ribs and hemorrhaging organs. They were in what looked like an empty storage room, and Maul was propped up on some boxes.
"Yes master?" she said as she used the force to check for Jedi outside of the room they were in. There were none that she could sense at the moment.
"Leave me." He said. "If we both get caught, then there is no one left to complete our mission of vengeance. Without me, you can easily escape. Get far from here with the holocrons. Learn from them, and then come back and get me out of this Jedi prison."
"Your bleeding to death. You need a medic droid soon, or you won't be alive to save." Arya said, somewhat exasperated. Even though their views differed, and at times he had been unusually cruel in her training, he was her only ally and her only friend. He was a twisted version of a friend, she knew that, but she hadn't had the luxury of knowing any normal friends for years now. She couldn't just leave him to die.
"When the Jedi find me, they will heal me. I have information regarding the Sith and the dark side of the force and am therefore too valuable of an asset to let die. They will try and break my mind to find out what I know about their enemies, and what I know about you. Make no mistake, after the talents you have displayed, they will want you as their own. They will use you as a weapon that they can point, aim, and let loose upon their foes, with little concern for your own well-being or interests."
Arya thought about what Maul said. About the hypocrisy in his words. Maul was looking to do the same thing with her. Use her as his weapon to defeat his enemies. The funny thing about it was that Maul had the same enemies as the Jedi did, he just saw the Jedi as enemies as well. But she wasn't about to bring all that up to Maul at this crucial moment. She was running out of time, and if Maul would not willingly go with her, she wouldn't be able to drag him along. She thought of one other thing as well.
"I don't know how to fly your ship." She said.
"Before we left for this mission, I gave total voice access to you for my ship's command system. It can fly itself, you just need to tell it where to go or what to do. There are droids on my ship that can help you as well. The holocrons are in a pack in the second alley to the north of the temple. You can figure the rest out. Now go."
"But I –" Arya began to protest.
"Go!" Maul yelled and then coughed, splattering the font of his robes with blood.
"They're in here!" someone from outside the door yelled. Arya felt outside the room again and found that the once empty hallway was now crowded with Jedi.
"I will come back for you." She said, looking at the broken Dothmirian one more time and then turning her attention to the doorway.
She was angry. Angry she couldn't save her mentor. Syrio Forel and the Hound flashed in her mind quickly. She cleared her thoughts and focused her anger. She didn't want to kill any of these Jedi, but she sure as hell wasn't going to be held prisoner by them.
She grabbed the door with the force and ripped it out of its sliding track. With a grunt and a scream, she pushed the door through the frame and saw Jedi go flying in every direction. Some of them losing their lightsabers as they were hit. Arya used the force to bring one of those lightsabers to her and activated it along with the one already she had. The Jedi who could be seen outside of the doorway all activated their lightsabers as well.
Arya didn't care who was outside of the doorway. She wouldn't let anyone stop her from escaping. She was done hiding and sneaking around. She gave Maul one last look and burst out into the large chamber beyond.
There were about two dozen Jedi, and about half were within striking distance. She watched as they all swung simultaneously. She blocked and dodged each one perfectly and, using the map in her head, began running towards the staircase leading to the upper levels of the temple and the exits.
The Jedi tailed her closely, but she was too fast for them. Every blade stroke missed. Every attempt to force throw an object at her was either dodged or rebounded. As she reached the large entrance chamber, she had about three dozen Jedi behind her, and dozens more blocking all the exits. Interspersed within the crowd were some of the powerful Jedi council members.
She pulled up and weighed the situation as the mass of Jedi began to surround her. She sent a force blast towards one of the exits scattering some Jedi, but others filled in their place while they regrouped. She turned around quickly and when she did, she found herself not in the Jedi temple, but in the courtyard near the steps of the Great Sept of Baelor.
She looked around confused. No one was there except for four people. Her father, who was on his knees with his head drooped down at the top of the steps. Ilyn Payne, who was standing near her father with Ice, the Stark family sword. Joffrey, who was smiling sadistically. And finally, she saw herself as a small child sitting on a statue of the Great Lord Baelor watching the scene unfold.
"Girl." Mauls voice came from behind her, startling her for a moment. She turned to face the voice.
Maul was standing there; his real face was visible, and he was wearing his normal black robes.
"What is happening?" Arya asked. "None of this is real."
"No." Maul's raspy voice said bluntly. "But I noticed something when I was training you. You always showed your true powers when you were reminded of your personal traumas. So, this is my way of helping you escape. I am projecting this vision into your mind and in the real world it will take almost no time at all. When we trained, I combed your mind for all of your most painful memories in an attempt to use them at certain times to help unlock your abilities. This memory was the most painful for you. I don't know what it will get you to do, but use this vision to help fuel your anger, and use that fuel to power your abilities. Now, turn and watch."
The figure of Maul dissolved into mist and Arya turned to face what was happening in this vision.
"Ser Ilyn! Bring me his head!" Joffrey's smug and arrogant voice bellowed, echoing through the eerily quiet courtyard.
Arya's heart started racing. She knew that her father's death had already happened, but this was so real, it was like he was being killed all over again. She couldn't just let it happen, even in her head. The small girl sitting on the stature was a lifetime ago, and mostly helpless, but the women she was now could destroy her enemies without so much as a thought.
She went to stop Ilyn Payne but found she couldn't move. In this cruel vision, no matter how hard she tried, she could not move her feet to run up and save her father. She tried to close her eyes but found she couldn't do that either. Maul had really pulled out all the stops for this vision.
Tears began to run down her face as Ilyn raised Ice above her father's head for the killing blow. Arya reminded herself why Maul had projected this vision into her head in the first place and moved her eyes to focus on Joffrey. As the sword fell, Joffrey's mouth curled up at the corners into a sadistic smile and his eyes widened with satisfaction. The look of pleasure on his face at the death of her father was almost enough to drive Arya mad.
Suddenly, she was back in Jedi temple and the Jedi surrounding her were exactly where they were when she had first entered her vision, but none of them were advancing on her anymore. In fact, most of them looked worried. Some even looked afraid.
Arya looked down and realized she was glowing with a blue light, much like she had when her body had formed a force shield around her when she had fought Sideous. But this time, the light was getting brighter and brighter. Her hearing finally came back to her and she realized that she was screaming in pain. The brighter she got, the more she felt like she was going to burst at the seams with force power. It was as if the force was pooling up inside of her at a rapid rate, but there was nowhere for it to go. No outlet to release any of it. It hurt, badly.
As her body was racked with pain, she thought about how badly she just wanted to be out of this damn temple. She thought about how she wanted to be back on the ship with the holocrons so that she could get away from this place and learn to control these extremely strong powers instead of having to rely on her painful memories to be the catalyst for unlocking and controlling them. She hated this planet. The buildings as tall as mountains. The light, the noise. Just the sheer number of different beings. It was all too much.
Suddenly, directly in front of her, a strange thing began happening. A small circle began forming in midair. The circle was dark and began to expand. She noticed that the bigger the circle got, the more her pain subsided. She saw as lines of force energy left her body and went directly into the circle. It was as if her force powers were feeding this strange circle. Eventually, the circle got big enough, and Arya realized that it was an image of Maul's ship in the courtyard where they had left it. She could also see the bodies of the courtyard guards still laying at the foot of her ship's ramp where the Jedi had struck them down. What struck her most was that the image looked so real, it was almost as if she could walk through the circle and she would be back at the ship.
Most of the Jedi around her looked confused and bewildered, but some of the more advanced and higher-ranking ones began to run toward her. She shifted her gaze from the circular image to the Jedi advancing on her and back to the image again. And then it hit her. This was a portal. She jumped through just moments before the Jedi reached her position and when she looked back, all she saw was the dark courtyard. She turned around and saw Maul's ship directly in front of her. She had escaped.
