AN: So there's going to be quite a bit of world-building in this chapter. In terms of the continuity of this story, I'm going (for the most part) with Disney's canon and then hand-picking and re-working stuff I like from Legends. This leaves a lot of gaps to fill in, and in this chapter I'll be diving into some of Ryloth's history and culture. The story told in this chapter is inspired by both the story of Moses and the French Revolution.

What could I do to change your mind?

Nothing

– "Sledgehammer", Rihanna

Seven months pregnant…

"Why do you sacks of flesh insist upon being so difficult?"

Eldra laughed, sinking deeper into the sofa. "I don't see how wanting to be surprised equals 'being difficult'."

"If we knew the gender of the child," Venny explained as he paced, one hand behind his back while he waved his other hand around, finger pointed, "then it would make my shopping far easier. What if I discovered it for myself and simply did not tell you?"

"I'd figure it out pretty quickly once I saw your purchases," said Eldra. "Just get some gender-neutral things and we'll be fine." She forced herself to keep smiling, not wanting to tell the droid that it wouldn't matter anyway, once the baby was born. The Sith master would take the child, and she'd be dead.

Her mind sounded like a broken record, always repeating those same facts, but she couldn't forget them no matter how hard she tried. For her own sanity and for the health of the baby, she was keeping up a calm and reasonably happy exterior. She'd even started to let Maul back in. But none of that changed the fact that she was slowly dying inside, knowing her days were numbered and being unable to do anything about it.

Venny let out the droid equivalent of a sigh before he picked up his own datapad – a smaller version than the regular one, which he used for her weekly check-ups – from the table and tucked it under his arm. "I still find it illogical that you do not wish to know the gender of your own child, but I will respect your decision."

When he was gone, Eldra dropped her fake smile and rested a hand on her expanded belly. In truth, her unwillingness to learn the baby's gender was less about wanting to be surprised and more about preventing a deeper attachment to her child. She told herself that if she didn't know the gender until the birth, it would make the inevitable ever so slightly easier.

Just like lying to herself made things easier.

Pushing those thoughts away, Eldra sat upright and retrieved from the table a pad of paper and a pencil. Both were archaic tools hardly ever used in most of the galaxy, but Venny had bought them for her after learning that drawing and creating art helped with relaxation. Eldra didn't know if it was better or worse that her happy façade wasn't fooling anyone. (She didn't think it was fooling Maul either, only he didn't show it since he seemed to be in even deeper denial than she was.)

As her hand moved across the paper, absentmindedly drawing patterns, Eldra's thoughts wandered back to the matter at hand. She wondered if she was being a bad mother for not doing everything in her power to escape and protect her child. But what else could she do? There was no means of sending a message into the outside world; she'd checked again after falling pregnant. And any attempt to leave the building would cause not just herself to blow up, but her unborn child, too.

The only possibility still on the table was to convince Maul to help her, and he'd already rejected her pleas. She'd hoped that if she let him in again, he would change his mind, but so far it had come to nothing. Eldra hadn't expected the change to happen overnight; he needed to undo years of conditioning and brainwashing, and things like that took time.

Time that was running out.

Her hand touched the garnet stone hanging around her neck. While getting her something pretty had been a weak attempt at making it up to her, she knew his heart was in the right place, and it was a step forwards she hadn't expected would come. It was what had convinced her to let him back in. If she could just draw that side out of him more often and try to make him understand that what they had and the life of their child were worth more than whatever power his master had promised him…

"What are those symbols?"

Eldra had already sensed Maul's approach, so wasn't surprised by his sudden appearance. What did surprise her was what she'd drawn on the paper without realising.

A series of swirl patterns climbed up the paper, branching out elegantly from one another like a plant growing up the side of a tree. And just like that she was overtaken by memories of her life back in the Temple, when she'd poured over information about her culture and had been fascinated by the swirls that showed up wherever she looked. The story and history behind them had quickly become her favourite.

"Back on Ryloth, these swirls are called the Mark of Freedom," she replied. "It became an important symbol of hope for a culture that knew nothing but slavery for thousands of years – and whose people are still sold as slaves today in some parts of the galaxy."

Maul sat down beside her, and in his eyes, she could see the need to know more. Something she'd noticed quickly about him since their talks had first started was that for a man who loved to fight and typically solved all his problems with violence, he was very intelligent and enjoyed learning. It was something she couldn't help but like about him. "And who first created these symbols?"

"They weren't created," she explained. "They're a very rare skin pattern that can only be found on the lekku of Rutian Twi'leks, like me. And my skin tone is already the second rarest colour to begin with."

"You don't have them," Maul noted.

"We don't all have them. I meant that they can only occur with our skin tone," Eldra clarified. "The last Twi'lek to bear the Mark of Freedom lived around a thousand years ago, and she was also the reason they became so sacred to my people. Her name was Kassandra Liber. She was a Twi'lek revolutionary who ended slavery on Ryloth."

"Kassandra." Maul frowned. "The name sounds familiar."

Eldra shrugged. "She had an encounter with a Sith Lord. Her story is probably my favourite out of all of Ryloth's history."

"Tell me." It wasn't a command, just a need to know more.

She took a deep breath before beginning. "She was born a slave, but for the first twenty or so years of her life, she didn't know it. Because she was unknowingly adopted by the Royal Family. For thousands of years, the Rylothian Royal Family and their Nobles sold their own people into slavery so they could live in luxury. When Kassandra was born, Ryloth was ruled by King Nero and Queen Minerva. And when the Queen's second child was stillborn, one of her slaves offered up her own child as a replacement. Queen Minerva was unlike the other Royals and Nobles; she was kind to her slaves and treated them well. Because of her bereavement over the loss of her child, she accepted Kassandra as her own. She told no one of this, not even her own family, since she knew they would never accept the child. They would sooner kill her than accept a slave into their family."

Eldra paused to collect her thoughts, then continued. "Kassandra was raised as a Princess. Like her mother, she treated her slaves well. She also grew close to her older brother, Prince Rames. The patterns on her lekku were admired by all, and one of the Nobles who liked to breed slaves for their beauty," She shuddered as she spoke those words, "wanted to unlock the genetic code behind them. Minerva was unaware of this; perhaps if she had known, she would have stopped her husband from allowing it to happen. But when the results came back, Kassandra's true heritage was discovered, for it was obvious that she wasn't biologically related to the rest of her family. Nero discovered that his wife had kept this from him, so he ordered for them both to be executed. Minerva was able to ensure that Kassandra escaped, but did so at the cost of her own life. For a time, Kassandra survived in the wastelands of Ryloth on her own, always looking over her shoulder, always fearing for her life. Until one day she stumbled upon someone unexpected."

Maul's eyes lit up with recognition. "Darth Rathus. I remember now. This occurred during the Jedi-Sith Wars of old. He was a Twi'lek who sought to conquer his homeworld and make it part of the Great Sith Empire."

"A Lethan Twi'lek, to be more specific. The rarest skin tone of them all," said Eldra. "Kassandra knew of the Sith and was wary of his intentions, but Rathus was clever. He said all the right words to get her to listen to him. Though it helped that he was one of the few Sith who believed that an Empire built on the backs of slaves would never last forever, which got Kassandra's attention. During her time in the wilderness, she became determined to overthrow the Royal Family and the Nobles, and end the enslavement of her people. But she knew she couldn't do it alone. So, she accepted help from Rathus, took her birth father's surname Liber, and got to work. The Ryloth Revolution had begun." She turned to Maul. "How much of the story do you know?"

"What I told you. I also know that Rathus failed to conquer Ryloth," said Maul.

"You missed out on the best part," said Eldra. "See, Kassandra was willing to fight, but she was taught by her mother to always try the peaceful solution first. So, she sent Nero a warning, telling him that if he didn't end his people's enslavement, the fury of the Gods would rain down on him. Nero only laughed at her, because back then the Royal Family believed they were in power because it was the will of the Gods for them to be there. Kassandra then gave them one last chance by going to Rames and pleading with him. He was reluctant to hurt the girl he had believed for so long to be his blood sister, but his pride ultimately led him to siding with his father. With peace no longer an option, Kassandra turned Rathus loose on them. He stayed in the shadows, but using the Force, he unleashed on them what they thought to be "the fury of the Gods"; rivers turned red with blood, whole herds of Rycrit died without explanation, the many carnivorous species of the planet attacked without mercy or reason, swarms of insects terrorised the cities, crops failed, earthquakes shook the land, fire rained down on them… Still not sure how he managed that one…"

Maul actually looked proud of the destruction that had been caused by one of his brethren. "How can you deny the power of the dark side after that?"

"It was a different time," said Eldra. She hated to admit that she got a sweet satisfaction from that part of the story. "A number of Jedi were forced to use the dark side in order to survive all the relentless battles against the Sith. But many fell for it."

"Hmm," was all Maul said in response.

"And while all this was happening, distracting the Nobles," Eldra continued, "Kassandra was freeing as many slaves as she could. She taught them to fight, they organised themselves into an army, and then Kassandra and Rathus led them into battle against the Royal Family and the Nobles who had survived the plagues. Nero was killed by Rathus while he attempted to flee like a coward, while Kassandra defeated Rames in single combat. She couldn't bring herself to kill him, so she locked him up. With the corrupt government overthrown, Kassandra and a number of other former slaves began to make steps towards creating a new government. They were almost hindered when the few Nobles who escaped the revolution ran to the Old Republic and lied to them, saying that Kassandra and her army were tyrannical terrorists. But when the Republic came, along with the Jedi, Kassandra convinced Rames to cooperate with her, and he spilled all of Ryloth's dirty secrets; the corruption, the slavery, all of it. Rathus had left the planet temporarily, so the Jedi didn't suspect the Sith's involvement. The remaining Nobles were arrested, and the Republic unanimously voted to ban all slavery within their borders. And while this led to a brief war with the Zygerrian slave empire, and didn't end slavery altogether, it was a huge start."

"But Rathus had not yet attempted to conquer Ryloth," said Maul.

Eldra sighed. "There's a really bad holofilm about Kassandra's story, portraying her as nothing but brainless eye-candy, playing up the tragedy of her relationship with Rathus to almost ridiculous levels, and the worst part of all, ending happily at this point right before everything went to bantha shit. Kassandra and Rathus had in fact fallen in love, but Kassandra wasn't some lovestruck, delusional twat. She knew what kind of man he was. When he tried to convince her to join the Sith Empire, she refused. She even went as far as calling the Jedi and getting them to chase him out of the System. To make things more complicated, she found out she was pregnant with his son shortly afterwards. Unsurprisingly, the boy was Force-sensitive, and in order to protect him in case his father returned, Kassandra sent him to the Jedi for training. Lin Liber became one of the Jedi's greatest war heroes. He was one of the few Jedi who was able to escape Coruscant with his life when the Sith conquered it. And then… the Sith attempted to conquer Ryloth. With Rathus leading the charge."

She saw Maul clench his fist, and understood. The Battle of Ryloth had turned the tide of the war in the Jedi's favour, and had been the beginning of the end for the Sith Empire. Of course he wouldn't be happy to hear about it.

"Rathus and Lin met face-to-face," Eldra continued. "But Rathus didn't know Lin was his son. He didn't even know he had a son. So he killed him. Kassandra had reached them by that time, and she screamed when she saw her son cut down by his own father. And when she told Rathus exactly what he'd done, he was shocked. But then his anger consumed him, for in his eyes, Kassandra had not only kept him from his son, but she had also let his son be trained by the Jedi, the enemy of the Sith. He was so enraged by this development that he got sloppy, and Kassandra killed him with ease. Lin died in her arms as she wept in despair. Rames, who had fought in the battle, sat by her side and held her hand as she grieved, and in that moment, she forgave him for his wrongs."

After letting out another steady breath, Eldra continued, "Kassandra Liber went on to become one of the most influential politicians in history. Not only did she build up Ryloth's government from scratch, but once the Jedi-Sith War was over, she helped establish our current Galactic Republic. She got married. Not to Rames, obviously. It was to a former slave. They had many children. A lot of clans on Ryloth claim to be descended from her, but the only clan who can back up that claim with hard proof is the Syndulla clan. And since her death, no other Twi'lek has borne the Mark of Freedom. But some prophets have said that it will return when not just Ryloth, but the whole galaxy faces its greatest threat."

Maul sat in silence for a few minutes, and Eldra could practically see his mind working; digesting the information and forming an opinion on the story.

In the end, his only response was, "Kassandra would be a good name, should our child be a girl."

Eldra opened her mouth, ready to tell him that the name was sacred; that no self-respecting Twi'lek dared to name their child after such an important figure, and anyone who did was usually very arrogant and ended up having extremely high parental expectations that their child would never meet. But her words died when she realised that naming her child after a revolutionary who ended slavery on her homeworld would be the perfect defiance against her captivity.

It was a possibility to consider, at least.

"I'm hesitant to ask if you see the irony of that," she said. "Seeing as our child will basically become a slave of the Sith."

She could see the frustration in his eyes. "To be a Sith is not slavery!"

"You can never leave," Eldra pointed out. "And you didn't choose to become one. That's what a slave is: being forced into servitude without their choosing, unable to leave of their own free will."

"Why would I want to leave?"

"What about me, then?" She folded her arms across her chest. "I'm a slave. I can't leave, even though I want to. Do you think that's fair?"

He immediately grabbed her hand, but his hold was gentle. "I don't want you to go." It wasn't the malicious demand of a captor, but rather a pained plea from someone who had never experienced positive emotions before, and didn't know how to deal with them.

Eldra was hesitant to call it "love". Because the very idea that the Sith could love anything was inconceivable. But then Rathus had loved Kassandra, only it had ended in tragedy. It was possible, but it was the selfish kind of love.

Maybe Maul did love her. He just didn't know how to act on it; he wanted to keep her with him, but didn't understand that it would inevitably kill her and probably their child.

She just needed to help him understand that if he really cared about them, he would let them go so they could be free and safe. Eldra would bring him with her if that was what it took, and not just because it would be the only way to escape. She wanted him safe, too. The strong desire caught her off-guard, to get him safely away from black hole of toxic influence that was his master; away from a life that would only destroy him.

With a start, she realised that maybe Maul wasn't the only one who'd fallen in love.

Since pressing on would only make him angry, Eldra decided to drop the subject for now. She needed to space out her "attacks" and keep them small; one big push would only cause him to push back harder and refuse to listen to her at all.

So instead, she said, "Kassandra is a good name."

He nodded in agreement. "A powerful name."

"And here I thought you were gonna choose a name like Thrash, Claw or Rage," she teased. "Seriously, from what I've read, Dathomirians aren't a very creative bunch when it comes to naming their children."

Maul chuckled, and for a moment, the feeling of dread that hovered over them both melted away.

Eight months pregnant…

The realisation of what he would be losing slammed into Maul one night, and he knew he would have to think of something fast.

He was on the sofa with Eldra curled up next to him, her head resting on his shoulder as she slept. Maul didn't dare wake her up. Thanks to her now large belly, she was finding it harder and harder to get comfortable at night, thus making it harder for her to sleep. Which was, consequently, making her more irritable. He felt a deep satisfaction that one of the few places she could get comfortable was in his arms.

In front of them, the screen was still playing the… musical? Was that what they were watching? Eldra had insisted it was completely different to an opera, but the characters were still singing instead of talking, so Maul didn't really see a difference.

It was a filmed stage production, telling the story of Kassandra Liber and her struggles. Eldra insisted it was the best version of the story, and she'd gushed about it before putting it on, telling Maul how she and her friends from the Temple had seen it live five times, how the decision to film it and release it on the HoloNet made it easier and cheaper to watch…

She ended up falling asleep sometime after the Revolution ended. Maul figured it was the pregnancy making her overly tired.

Still, he continued to watch, because it was important to Eldra. It wasn't until the story reached the Battle of Ryloth that he started feeling… things.

"I did what I had to do to protect him!"

The words of Kassandra Liber… They felt like an echo of something that hadn't happened yet. It was like the Force was trying to tell him something, but whatever it was slipped away before Maul could properly grasp it. He instinctively placed his hand on Eldra's expanded belly, and it was in that moment he imagined his master arriving out of the blue and taking both Eldra and the baby from him.

And he realised that he could never let Sidious rip them from his arms.

He was loyal to his master, but then his master also encouraged defiance. At least, he encouraged the right kind of defiance; the kind that wouldn't disrupt and/or interfere with his plans. And if he had plans for the child…

Maul would just have to think of something. A compromise that would satisfy both Sidious and himself.

AN: If you want to know what the Mark of Freedom looks like, just type 'simple swirl pattern' into Google images and the results should give you a rough idea.