AN: I'd like to say a big thanks to my beta, Artemisarrow! Without her, this story wouldn't be the way it is now.

When you came into the world,

you cried and it broke my heart

– "Dear Theodosia", Hamilton on Broadway

Nine months pregnant…

The baby was due any day.

Nesting urges had overtaken Eldra, which was fine with her. They provided her with enough of a distraction to break the cycle of her emotions: one moment she was excited that she would soon be holding her child in her arms, and then the next moment she would be filled with dread at the knowledge that she wouldn't be holding her child for very long before he or she would be ripped from her arms.

It was an impossible solution, but she wanted to keep her child in her belly forever. At least then he or she would be safe from harm. By bringing her child into the world, Eldra would only be handing them over to a man who wanted to turn them into a living weapon – like their father.

Speaking of the Sith, Maul had been quiet as of late. It wasn't unusual in itself, but considering he'd spent most of her pregnancy trying to reconnect with her while she gave him the cold shoulder, suddenly backstepping appeared strange.

She wondered if he was filled with dread, too. Was he thinking over everything she'd been trying to tell him? Was he considering his options? Had he finally realised that the power of the Sith wasn't worth having if he lost her and the child in exchange for it? If he was having doubts, he wasn't voicing them.

Eldra sighed as she pushed the broom across the floor, sweeping the dirt into a corner. She hated that the fate of herself and the child rested in someone else's hands.

"Keep sweeping."

"Sure, let the pregnant lady do all the work," she teased the droid.

Venny was sitting on the sofa, catching up on his latest holodrama. "In case you cannot recall, you were the one who insisted upon doing all the work. And when I attempted to help, you forced me away. Literally."

"I know. I was teasing you." Eldra shook her head and continued sweeping. She had gone a little insane with the cleaning lately. She'd dusted, reorganised and alphabetised stuff in the cupboards, paired loose socks (Maul had socks! It was both odd and hilarious, firstly that a Sith Lord would own such harmless things, and secondly because it stupidly made sense; it wasn't like his feet would be bare under his boots), cleaned her refresher until it was sparkling, taken over laundry duty…

Right after she finished sweeping, Maul emerged from the kitchen with a cup of tea in his hands. "Eldra, you need to rest."

"I suppose I could take a break," she said with a shrug, before sitting herself down next to Venny on the sofa. Maul handed her the cup, and the tea that passed her lips wasn't hot enough to be scorching but also wasn't cold enough to be disgusting. She sent Maul a smile of thanks, and he smiled in return.

The fact that Maul was showing concern – or at least, as much as he was able to – for both her and the child helped her situation somewhat. The bond was still there, even if it had taken a battering. It was still twisted. It was still unhealthy. But it kept her sane.

Eldra had just finished her tea and set her cup down on the table when she felt her abdomen tighten in a way she'd never felt before, startling her. She sucked in a breath and her hands went to her belly, rubbing it until the feeling went away.

Maul was instantly by her side. "What happened?" he asked. "Was it a kick?" Since she'd let him back in again, he'd been almost obsessed with feeling their baby's kicks. (Which honestly made too much sense, and all things considered it really wasn't something she wanted to think too hard about, so she just focussed on the sweeter side of it.)

"No." She shook her head. "It could be the tea disagreeing with me. It does that sometimes. I just need to walk it off."

Getting to her feet was an effort, but she managed it despite Maul hovering over her. She silently held up her hand, signalling for him not to follow, before she made her way to her quarters. As she walked away, she tried not to let her panic show. What she'd told him was a lie, but she couldn't bear to face the truth. Eldra knew exactly what the feeling was: a contraction.

Two years to the day after she'd been taken by the Sith, nineteen-year-old Eldra Kaitis was going into labour.

But she didn't want to accept it. Because that meant she was just one step closer to losing her child. One step closer to looking death in the eye.

Another contraction came when she was brushing her teeth, twenty minutes after the first. While the pain was still manageable, it hurt slightly more than the first. And if what she'd read was true, each contraction would grow more painful than the one before, and last longer. She wanted to ignore them and carry on with her life, but now it was impossible. Her baby was coming, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

Eldra could no longer hold back her tears. She wept silently as her hands stroked her expanded belly.

"I'm sorry, little one. I'm so sorry."

Maul felt her shooting pain through the bond, and instantly sprinted towards Eldra's quarters. He managed to supress the urge to rip through the apartment's very walls in order to get to her faster, but only just.

"Eldra!" Upon arriving in her quarters, he found her standing in the refresher, her face twisted with pain. Her trousers were soaking wet, and Maul had paid enough attention to the droid's various information dumps over the past several months to know that it meant Eldra's water had broken.

Their baby was coming.

A grin threatened to split Maul's face, but he pushed it down. The child hadn't been born yet, and Eldra was in pain.

She looked at him, her eyes pleading. "Help…"

"Droid! Get in here now!" Maul called over his shoulder. The young Sith then took Eldra's hand and gently guided her back into her bedroom. She was trembling, her eyes wide and her face pale. At first Maul wondered why she wasn't excited that their baby was about to be born, before the realisation hit him like a ship travelling at lightspeed: his master would come and collect the child, and Eldra would be dead.

He knew that he couldn't let Sidious take the child away. But at the same time, he was hesitant to act against his master's wishes.

The droid didn't enter the room until Eldra was lying on the bed. It scanned her belly with a small device and looked at the results. "She has gone into labour."

Maul clenched his fists, but Eldra beat him to voicing their joint frustrations. "Really, Venny? I hadn't noticed!"

"Contractions are fifteen minutes apart," the droid continued without acknowledging either of them. "It should be several hours before her cervix is fully dilated. So far, there are no signs of complications."

"You had better be right, droid." Maul stepped closer to the droid. "If anything happens to either of them, I will tear you apart and incinerate you. There won't even be any scrap left of you to salvage."

The droid didn't flinch. "I shall keep that in mind, but there is no need to worry. Statistics show that the chances of a woman on Coruscant dying in childbirth are extremely low. In the last one hundred years, only one woman has died under such circumstances, and only because she received another injury unrelated to childbirth…"

It continued talking about the statistics, but Maul tuned it out. If the chances of anything going wrong were extremely low, he should be able to relax. But in truth, he couldn't. All he could think about was what if Eldra became part of that statistic? What if something went wrong? He had programmed the droid with vital knowledge of the birthing process, but it wasn't a medical droid. There was only so much it could do.

What if there were complications, and the only way to save both Eldra and the child was to take them to a hospital? There was no doubt that Eldra was officially registered as a missing person (if not presumed dead), and the hospital would have access to those data banks, meaning that the Jedi would get involved and find Eldra and the child and take them away…

No. That couldn't happen. He wouldn't let it.

Yet you're willing to let Lord Sidious take them both away, a voice in his head whispered. Maul wanted to ignore it and tell himself that was different, because Sidious was his master and not a Jedi, but found that he couldn't.

Because it didn't matter either way. Whether it was the Jedi taking them or Sidious taking them, Eldra and the child would still be gone.

Another spike of pain shot through the bond, and Maul hurried back over to Eldra. She was breathing deeply, holding her belly and clenching her teeth. Sweat had appeared on her brow, and Maul reached out to gently wipe it away.

When the contraction passed, Eldra's head fell back onto the pillow and she resumed trembling. Maul could sense her fear, far greater than it had ever been. He hated it; hated that she was in pain, and hated that he couldn't do anything about it. Why did he have to feel so helpless?

And that helplessness grew when his commlink beeped.

His master was summoning him. No doubt he had sensed that the child was on the way.

Maul was about to pull his hand away and reach for his commlink when Eldra suddenly grabbed it. Her eyes met his, and the sheer terror in them was heart-breaking.

"Please…" she begged him. "Don't… don't let him take… Please…"

She screwed her eyes shut and turned away, letting go of his hand.

The droid reappeared by her side and was talking, saying something about the birthing process, but Maul didn't hear it. All he could hear was Eldra, her words echoing in his mind, telling him over and over what his hearts were telling him as well…

His mind was like a storm, one he couldn't escape.

He hurried out of Eldra's quarters and into the main apartment. Taking a seat on the sofa, he let himself think. To be a Sith was his destiny, and his master was the key to unlocking his true potential. The power he could wield was unimaginable, and he had to stay. And if he was staying, then Eldra and their child needed to stay, too. There was no question about it.

But his mind and his hearts were screaming at him not to let Sidious take the child.

The child was his, not his master's. Therefore, it was his responsibility to train the child; to teach his son or daughter the ways of the Force. And the child would need more than one opponent to train against, so keeping Eldra was necessary.

He hoped Sidious saw it that way, too.

The plan formed in his mind as he drove the speeder into the Works. He couldn't help but grow fearful of how his master would respond, but he took that fear and used it to fuel his determination. He needed to do this. He refused to live out the rest of his days without Eldra and their child by his side.

He met his master in the same hanger bay as always. Darth Sidious was already there, as always. Maul knelt before him, as always. The routine was engraved in him, but this time, Maul would be the one making the plan.

"I felt a great disturbance in the Force," said Sidious. "I suppose that means the child will soon be among us. The Jedi do not suspect a thing. I have made sure of it."

Maul took a deep breath. It was now or never. "Master, I know you wished to oversee her training yourself. But I have a suggestion."

"Oh?" He sounded intrigued.

"Your plans must come first," Maul continued. "They are far more important than the child, and you must give them your undivided attention. You said that the blockade of Naboo will not occur for another three years. Allow me to oversee the first years of the child's training, so you will not be distracted from our true goal."

Sidious was silent for a few moments. "I hope you do not mean to train this child as your own apprentice, with the intention of supplanting me."

"Why would I kill you when there is still so much more to learn, my master? And this is only a temporary arrangement, until you have more time to spare."

There was silence as Sidious considered his words.

"I will allow this, my apprentice," he finally said. Maul hid his relief. "Do you also wish to keep the Padawan alive?"

"For training purposes," said Maul. "For both myself and the child."

"Very well," said Sidious. "But remember that I can order you to kill the Padawan at any time. And remember that when I am ready, I will take the child and begin to train it myself. Is that clear?"

"Yes, my master."

But it bought him some time to think of a more permanent solution.

It was hard to obey Coruscant's traffic laws as he sped back to the apartment. He could feel Eldra's pain increasing through the bond; he'd managed to ignore it while meeting with his master, but now that he was alone…

He guided his speeder to the landing platform outside of his apartment. The second it touched down, Maul leapt off of it and sprinted across the walkway. With Eldra closer, he could feel her pain more strongly, but he could also feel her determination. She was building up to something, pushing something with all of her might…

Just as Maul entered the apartment, he heard a baby's cry.

He stopped dead.

The shift in the Force almost unbalanced him. He hoped that the precautions his master had taken to ensure the Sith would never be detected held strong, or else it wouldn't be long before the Jedi came to investigate. The child's Force-presence was… strange. It was neither light nor dark; it was somewhere in between. Which, given her parentage, made a lot of sense.

But her raw potential was strong, if untapped.

After a few minutes, the baby's cries stopped. Though he was desperate to see them both, Maul decided to wait in the main apartment until the droid had finished with the birthing process. He didn't want to get in the way, and he wanted the droid gone so he could be alone with Eldra and the child. For now, sensing that they were safe was enough to satisfy him.

Eventually, the droid left Eldra's quarters. It looked surprised upon seeing him. "Master Maul, I see that you have returned."

"How is she?" Maul asked immediately. "Is Eldra fine? What of the child?"

"Your Jedi has suffered no ill effects from the birthing process, and the child is healthy," said the droid. "I am continuing to monitor their heartbeats should any complications arise. For now, all three are steady."

"Three?"

"The child has two hearts, as you do. While she has a mostly Twi'lek exterior, her interior is Zabrak from what I can decipher. Further scans are needed to know for sure."

"She?"

"Yes. The child is a girl."

A girl. He had a daughter, who was healthy, and Eldra was safe. Nothing else mattered to him. "Can I see them?"

The droid appeared surprised that he was asking. "I cannot stop you." It passed him and left to tend to other matters, leaving Maul to go alone to Eldra's quarters. He took a moment to compose himself before he entered, and he paused in the doorway at the sight before him.

Eldra was sat upright in bed, cradling the baby in her arms. The child looked so… small. From across the room, and with the baby wrapped in a blanket, he couldn't make out much else other than her skin tone, which matched her mother's.

The Twi'lek woman was singing a lullaby in her native language, her voice soft and soothing. She trailed off when she looked up at him, and her expression hardened. "If you've come here to take her, know that I'll die before you do."

She had been defiant in his face before, many times, and yet she'd never looked so deadly. His fondness for her increased tenfold, and he allowed himself to imagine what she would be like as a Sith. For some reason, she wasn't as appealing as she was now, as a Jedi. He shouldn't prefer her as a warrior of light instead of a solider of darkness, but he had grown addicted to touching her light.

"I just want to see her," he said.

Eldra maintained her hardened expression for a few moments longer before it softened. "Fine. Come here."

Maul crossed the room to stand by her side, allowing him a closer look at his newborn daughter. She was the spitting image of her mother in all but two ways: she had Zabrak ears instead of the coned Twi'lek ones, and there were three little stumps on the top of her forehead where horns would soon grow.

"Her name?" Maul asked.

"Kassandra."

"I said it was a powerful name."

"That's not why I chose it." Eldra moved her hand and pointed to where the baby's lekku were only just starting to form. Maul wasn't sure what she was trying to show him, but upon squinting and leaning closer, he was able to make it out.

The beginnings of a swirl.

The Twi'lek Mark of Freedom. It was faded, but unmistakable.

"What does this mean?" he found himself saying.

Eldra met his gaze, and there was the defiance again. "It means she will be free."

Maul wanted to tell her that their child was already free, but knew that the day of their daughter's birth was not the time to start an argument.

"Would you like to hold her?"

Maul blinked, surprised at the trust Eldra was showing despite her initial hostility towards him. "I…" He looked back to Kassandra. She was still so small, looked so breakable, and he wasn't even sure he could hold her without hurting her in some way…

But Eldra was holding her out to him, and he had no choice but to accept her into his arms. She made a noise at being moved, but didn't start crying, which Maul took as a good sign. At least she didn't hate him.

He found that he wouldn't have been surprised if she did.

Holding her close… It was doing something to him, something he couldn't put a name to. Whatever it was, it gave him the undeniable urge to kill anyone who would try to tear her out of his arms (unless that person was Eldra, of course). It frightened him, that such a small person who wasn't even an hour old could ignite such feelings within him. She was definitely her mother's daughter.

Kassandra. She was… perfect.

He frowned. How could he already know she was perfect when she'd only been born?

Using the back of his finger, he gently stroked the baby's cheek. Her eyes opened for a brief moment, revealing that they were blue like Eldra's.

A hand gripped his arm, and Maul found himself looking into those same blue eyes, only older and filled with a deep fear he suddenly found himself understanding.

"How much time do we have before I have to fight you?"

"Three years." At her surprised look, he explained, "My master's plan is in a delicate stage right now that requires his full attention. I simply reminded him of this, and pointed out that trying to train a child at the same time would be difficult. He agreed, and has allowed me to oversee her training for the time being. He has also allowed me to keep you alive."

She stared at him in shock. "Why?"

"Because she is my daughter. Mine. Not his. I should be the one to train her."

This answer seemed to satisfy her, and the tension that had haunted her body ever since discovering her pregnancy left her in one smooth motion. It was clear from the emotions he was picking up from her that she expected more; wanted something from him that he could never give. But for now, what he had done to keep their daughter with them, even if temporarily, was enough.

"Thank you."

Sidious knew his apprentice was stalling.

There was no desire in him to train his child as an apprentice; no desire to supplant him. He simply wanted to keep his daughter under the belief that she was his to possess, and no one else should have her. He felt the same way about the Padawan.

Maul's talk about giving his master time to focus on their plans was only that: talk. It was not the real reason he suggested the arrangement, just an excuse. But that didn't make it any less true. Sidious knew that attempting to train a child while putting his plans into motion would be difficult. And if the blockade and subsequent invasion of Naboo failed because his concentration was divided, it would take many more years to set up another crisis that would allow him to take control of the Senate.

So, Sidious humoured his apprentice and allowed him to take care of the child's training. Not only would it keep the child out of his way, but it would allow him to teach his apprentice a valuable lesson in the ways of the Sith.

There was no room for family. And snatching his child away while also ordering him to kill his lover would drive Darth Maul even deeper into the dark.