I will mend this old wound.

Obi-Wan truly meant it. The bad blood between himself and Maul used to feel sharp and enflamed, but so much time has passed since last they fought, and that time has given them both enough grief to weigh it down. Now, seeing Maul felt nothing but heavy and exhausting. Unnecessary, even. This is why Obi-Wan had hoped Maul would not come, but he can see now that it was an inevitable meeting.

Across the campsite, Maul sighed. Of all the things he expected to see, this had not been in the running. The old man in front of him only resembled the Obi-Wan Kenobi he spent so long obsessing over. It was both disappointing and pathetic, and he sneered at his long-time enemy. "Look what has become of you. A rat in the desert."

Unable to prevent his old habit, Obi-Wan quipped back, "Look what I have risen above."

With every moment that passed, Maul could feel his exhaustion leaking out further. "I've come to kill you, but perhaps it's worse to leave you here, festering in your squalor."

Normally, Maul would circle his prey, intimidating him until the battle began, but many things were different this time. Whether he kills Kenobi here or leaves without his life, nothing will have changed in the grand scheme. So instead, sits down by the fire, carefully watching Kenobi's every move.

"If you define yourself by your power to take life - a desire to dominate, to possess -, then you have nothing."

And perhaps he was right. It sickened Maul to think like that. His old master took everything from him, the life he could have lived on Dathomir with his people, the life of his brother, his clan. Maul learned many things from his experiences, but one that stuck with him the most was that if he didn't have that power, then someone else did. And Maul was so, so tired of other people using that power when he had nothing.

He wondered, briefly, how else was one meant to define oneself? How did Kenobi define himself? The thought made him growl in frustration, as he was sure no answer would be forthcoming. "And what do you have?"

It takes only the slightest of hesitation on part of Obi-Wan for Maul to begin to piece it together. Obi-Wan may have aged and changed a fair deal, but Maul still knew every micro-expression - even the smallest glimpse of a movement could mean something, and Maul was no fool. "Why come to this place? Not simply to hide." Obi-Wan was many things, but a coward would never be one of them. "Oh...you have a purpose here. Perhaps you are protecting something? No...protecting someone."

Obi-Wan now had his lightsaber in hand, but did not activate it, as Maul had not drawn his own lightsaber. Instead, Maul simply continued to sit, this new understanding of the situation not affecting his demeanor in the slightest. Knowing Maul, it wouldn't be a stretch to assume he was playing a long game, but Obi-Wan very sincerely did not want to fight unless needed.

Maul observes the lightsaber in Obi-Wan's hand, focusing. It wouldn't be any kind of difficulty to rile up Obi-Wan and get the fight he came for. He knows where that would lead, though - he can feel the thread of past events leading to it, telling him he should. It wouldn't be satisfactory, of course, but it's clear that getting his revenge was never on the table to begin with. Dying by Obi-Wan's lightsaber would be somewhat appropriate. No one else has earned the right to it.

Slowly, Maul's attention wavers to the fire, reaching out through the Force to feel for anything that doesn't lead to that. Paths upon paths branch out through the galaxy in black and white, every possibility more doomed than the last until he pulls himself out of it to find that Obi-Wan has put away his lightsaber and sat properly across from him, watching him carefully.

Obi-Wan squints, as if rejecting the solution to a puzzle, because of how unbelievable the answer is. "You've changed a great deal since last we saw each other. What do you intend to do?"

Maul doesn't look up, his expression of agony and anger conflicting with exhaustion and longing. "I cannot have peace until my revenge has been satisfied, but you will not grant me that. Your death would mean nothing now, and the one I want to kill the most is not fated to die by my hand.

Never did Obi-Wan expect to hear Maul sound defeated, no matter what happened. When all purpose drains from someone so driven by the dark side and filled with hatred, all that can be left is the suffering. It is then, that Obi-Wan understands why Maul came to him. To flip a coin on revenge and death.

Acute sympathy washed over Obi-Wan, though he pushed it down as far as he could. Maul had done so many horrible things, and those were all choices that were made, not situations he was forced into. Still, Obi-Wan had grown past much of his resentment, and Maul must be a being capable of good as well as evil.

Obi-Wan had certainly gone through enough to know how close the light and the dark truly were.

Maul had gone through enough to know that as well, having fallen into a relatively neutral position in the Force.

Neither of them wanted to fight, anymore.

"I will stay on Tatooine." Maul interrupts their mutual silence. "If I cannot have my revenge, then I will watch over the one who will get it for me. The chosen one must fulfill his destiny."