AN: Welp, I'm out of two jobs: thanks, Obama. I jest, America's entire government is stupid. My heart goes out to everyone dealing with sickness and faulty leadership. You're not alone.
ANII: And here's a 25 page, 9,000 word long chapter for your entertainment pleasure, thank you to reviewers supporting me! I wouldn't be here without you!
Chapter 11 - A Cup of Tea
Darth Sidious was many things, happy wasn't one of them.
The Force was darker than it had ever been, which was good, or should have been, however, he had felt the passing of the Sith shades.
The call from Darth Plagueis had not been far behind.
"Master?" Maul asked, his pet's concern visible.
Sidious had neither the time nor the patience, "Find her Maul, I want to know what she had to do with this."
"The girl hasn't left her Temple-"
"Did I ask for your excuses, apprentice?" Sidious asked, nearing the Zabrak.
Maul flinched back, expecting pain, "No, Master. But to do with what?"
"The disturbance in the Force, you fool."
"How do you know it was her?"
Sidious sneered at him, "Because no one else has the strength nor the inclination. And as she is my daughter, her connection to the Dark Side is to be expected."
He felt Maul's shock, "Your daughter, Master?"
"I thought you were watching for her, every politician has spoken of little else to me of late. My daughter this, Padawan Palpatine that. Her accursed Master, and now even the Jedi Council won't allow me to speak to her." He sighed, he had no legal ground to push the matter. Already the rumour that he had conceived the child with a slave from Tatooine was tarnishing his reputation.
"How do you suggest I lure her out, Master?"
"That is for you to solve, Lord Maul," he sneered at him, "I have larger concerns."
Maul bowed, and Sidious left him, knowing his apprentice was useless in this task.
No daughter of his would ever consort with a species like a Zabrak. Sidious went to his ship to meet with a Muun.
Queen Amidala's impending doom was still a year out, convincing her successor to elect him High Chancellor wasn't far now.
One more stepping stone, and then the next time he went to see his "Master" it would be to end him.
oOo
Bowing before Darth Plagueis in the Muun's personal office, Sidious felt his brewing rage.
"Apprentice."
"Master," Sidious said, suppressing a sneer.
Hego Damask II walked by him without telling him to rise. Sidious had played this game too many times, and so he did not rise.
"Such rumours I've heard, apprentice."
Sidious said nothing.
The Muun sighed, his breathing apparatus garbling the sound, "Rise, Darth Sidious."
Sidious rose and asked, "Rumours, Darth Plagueis?"
"You did not tell me you had any offspring."
"I did know-" Sidious choked, putting a hand to his chest as Plagueis compressed his rib cage with the Force. His mind spun as he pulled on his hatred to build up his shield, he gasped as he relieved the pressure.
Plagueis lowered his long fingered fist, "After everything I taught you of the Force, of genetics, one would think you would not be so careless."
"I do not know who the mother is."
Plagueis towered over him, Sidious had to strain his neck to look upward, "A daughter who was born from your chromosomes, may have the same potential as you do, perhaps more. And now she serves the Jedi."
Sidious stiffened, "The girl is nothing."
"The girl destroyed thousands of years of Sith knowledge!" Plagueis roared, stalking away from him. "I do not know if the Jedi know, if she knows what she did. But I do know two things."
"You know what, Darth Plagueis?"
Yellow eyes rimmed in red turned to him, narrowed in disgust.
The feeling, Sidious thought as he kept his own expression neutral, is mutual.
"I know, apprentice of mine, that the Sith shades saw Rey Palpatine as a suitable vessel, meaning that her connection to the Dark Side is developed. I also know that she should be dead. But somehow, this child's shields were weak enough for her to be possessed, yet she was powerful enough to cast them into the Light. Do you have any concept of the ramifications of that?"
Sidious gritted his teeth, "I had thought to turn her. She is too old for the Jedi methods to work."
"You would take her as an apprentice," Plagueis stated, "certainly she is more deserving than your pet. The Zabrak is disposable, your daughter is a font of potential."
Sidious nodded, having never planned on a legacy, it was odd discussing family once more. He remembered the child's face, and had to close his eyes.
Rey looked too much like his sisters and mother, he would have rather killed her than teach her.
"I perceive your thoughts, student, but this seed you've planted is an opportunity, children are malleable. Emperor Vitiate made use of his spawn."
A thrill went through him, Vitiate had been among the greatest of the Sith. A human male who had lived a thousand years whose strength went well beyond the weaknesses of Darth Plagueis.
The Muun went on, "I have heard little about this child. That she was nineteen when she was inducted into the Order, that she was realized as your daughter, and that she blew a hole through a Temple wall."
Sidious suppressed a smile at the last, "Lightning, Force lightning, my daughter is a power."
Plagueis looked interested at this, "Truly? Perhaps… no, that is curious. What of her Master? Who among the Jedi teaches her?"
"Qui-Gon Jinn."
"Jinn," Plagueis snarled, then cursed in his native speech.
"You've met him, I presume."
Plagueis paced, "I had the misfortune. His Master, Dooku was tolerable, and Sifo-Dyas was easy enough to manipulate, but Qui-Gon Jinn was…"
Sidious frowned, not having had much dealing with the Jedi Master aside from their recent corrspondance regarding his daughter. Jinn was a known maverick in the Jedi Order. But if the crap Amidala had been spewing was in any way related to his council, then he could imagine why Plagueis detested the man.
"He is as keen as he is contrary, a Jedi mystic, and a problem."
"Does he need to be taken care of?"
"No, not with his Master returned to the Order. Dooku holds both a place on the Council and as Count of his home world, any attack against his prized pupil will be investigated to no end. Warn your pet of this, I know the bloodlust you filled him with. But mark me, Darth Sidious, we cannot afford to make an open move against Jinn now that he has gained the ear of the Council."
"And Naboo, Queen Amidala is rather taken with the Count's advice and even a word of direction from Jinn himself."
Plagueis narrowed his gaze on him, "You are slipping, student, losing control."
"I'm handling it, my plans have not changed, they have only been delayed."
"Handled?" Plagueis laughed, "Fool you are, and here I had such hopes for you, my apprentice. The Force itself has been changed and you think you are still in control."
Sidious flexed his hands, not wanting to admit the roadblocks Jinn had already put in his path nor the unexpected restraining order the Jedi Council had put in place.
"Nothing to say, Darth Sidious?" Plagueis mocked, stalking forward, his robes twirling around his long legs.
"What would you have of me, Master?"
Plagueis backhanded him.
Sidious rocked back, his Master's speed and strength enhanced by the Dark Side of the Force well beyond what the Muun's frail body indicated.
Catching himself on the floor, loathing swelled in Sidious. He was no longer a child to be batted around.
His own self-respect didn't allow for it.
Sidious came up, shoving a blast of the Force toward his Master, attacking Plagueis's personal shields.
It had been a long time since they last fought against each other or together.
Plagueis braced, a grunt escaping through his mask, but Sidious had underestimated how much power his Master had retained.
"Insolent child, my apprentice you still remain, my equal you are not," Plagueis intoned.
Sidious didn't have time to brace as a wave of the Force battered at his ankles and a cabinet draw came soaring at the back of his head.
He dropped, his feet swept back so his knees and hands took the impact with enough momentum he thought he sprained his wrists.
But he didn't have time to dwell on it as the cabinet came crashing down, he rolled, but the splinting wood shot against his back as it broke against the marble floors.
Sidious sat up and didn't waste time on standing, he pooled his rage, his hatred for this subspecies of being. He let it fuel his lightning, his power.
Plagueis fell to his knees as he was caught in the palazying power.
"Fool!" Sidious cackled, standing as his power built, "You taught me everything you knew!"
Plagueis got a hand between them, and suddenly, Sidious's lightning was being met by another.
The Muun panted through his apparatus, "Not by half, student."
On his last word, Sidious felt a shard of wood stab under his armpit. He jerked but kept the stream of lightning.
What had started as a reproach would end in a death, and Sidious would not be the one to lose, no one was stronger than him.
No one.
A desk came soaring toward him and he turned in time to avoid it, but not in time dodge the twenty odd shards of wood that raced toward him.
He covered his face, bringing his forearms together. The wood came at such speeds it cut through his sleeves and he had the breath knocked out of him as a bigger slab rammed upward into his stomach and diaphragm.
The Force hummed in warning as the table came back around.
Sidious crouched, using the pain from his injuries to further strengthen him.
This is why the Jedi would always lose, the longer the Sith duelled the more powerful they became.
He struck the Muun with another stream of lightning.
Only for the blasted creature to cast the energy to the side.
Sidious didn't have time to dodge the table that flattened him to the ground. He pushed against it with the Force and the cursed wood shards as they came back at his face.
Sidious caught those too, splitting his focus as he dragged a statue from a shelf.
Plagueis stepped to the side smoothly and directed the statue, clapping Sidious on the side of the head.
Concentration broken, the table came down on him.
Once.
Twice.
And then a third time, the corner came down on his middle.
Sidious screamed as things inside him tore, he used the sharp edged pain, dragging the Force through it.
He felt the Force surpass his scream, as it writhed in his grasp, he pulled harder, pushing the table back, shoving it at Plagueis.
But though the table went flying into the wall, Plagueis came closer, unharmed.
"Was that your attempt to kill me, student? Perhaps Maul is weak as he is not because he lacks potential, but because you," he stepped on Sidious's throat, "lack vision."
Sidious reached a hand out for a lightsaber but Plagueis powered through his shields, and Sidious might have screamed again if it wasn't for the shoe on his windpipe.
The only things that could be heard in the room were the sounds of his wrist breaking and Plagueis's filtered laugh. "I should kill you for your impudence, but perhaps I have been too soft on you, too lax in my own lessons. It seems I still have much to teach you."
Sidious was seething as he struggled to hold the Force, even as his vision was eaten away by black and white spots.
"Tsk, tsk, it's been a long time since you've been to my labs, Sheev."
Fury and panic swept through Sidious. He used those emotions, wild as they were. His unbroken hand ignited the golden saber, the red beam coming to life in his blurring vision.
Again, Plagueis laughed.
It wasn't his hand that broke this time but his fingers, then bones in his arm began to fracture, worse than the clean breaks.
The pain was past endurance, but Sidious tried one last time to use the Force.
But the Force itself fought him.
"Fascinating," Plagueis mused, "it seems your daughter not only killed our shades but has awoken the Force itself. Such science to explore."
Sidious gathered himself, readying himself for death. The Muun's body was far from ideal, but desperate times…
Plagueis lifted his foot, "Oh my little Sheev, do you think your death will be so easy?"
Sidious gasped as his lungs expanded, his throat was on fire to say nothing of his shattered right arm and left broken wrist. He turned to cough up blood before he could drown in it.
"I put too much work into you, student. You will survive this, as you will survive the lessons I will teach you in my laboratory."
Sidious embraced his pain, only for Plagueis to squeeze his very lungs within his chest before he could grasp the Force. His heart raced even as his breathing stopped.
"But perhaps your daughter will serve me better. The woman who killed the Sith will be its true heir. She will serve me, not as your daughter but as the Daughter of the Sith."
His ears were ringing, his vision blurring away in strips of grey, but the one thought that followed Sidious into oblivion was that his daughter was the key to the galaxy.
He had to make her submit to him before Plagueis reached her.
Luck was on Maul's side as he scaled the steps to an upscale Coruscant ship-chandlery. He left his saber in his apartment, he felt exposed without it, but he hadn't had much of a choice as even as he passed through the entrance several droids scanned him.
He scowled for the pictures they were undoubtedly taking.
But his frustration was quickly overshadowed by the sound of Rey's voice and the man with greased hair giving her an affronted face.
The seller looked ready to throw her out as he said, "I assure you, Ma'am, this is the absolute latest model."
"And I'm telling you that it's absolute Hutt slime."
Maul was amused at the man's outrage, "The finish is slime repellent, Ma'am."
Rey twisted and kicked the side of the ship.
The man squeaked as the single pilot ship crashed over on its stands.
"Expensive garbage, no balance whatsoever. Only a moron sacrifices looks for functionality. That thing is a shiny death trap, and that's before I've seen the engine -you somehow shoved into the tiny trunk."
"I assure you, the compact-"
"With those propellers? It would overheat, you can't have the starter that small with twisted pipes and have the vents that big. They look fast, but I bet they are that large to prevent the heat from combusting the fuel tank."
"Madame, if you aren't going to buy then-"
"Just show me your parts, I could build anything in here if this is what you consider your 'finest'." She turned around, "Hey, Maul, you shopping for parts too? Someone told me this was the best ship chandlery this close to the Temple." She glared at the seller, "I feel lied to."
Maul pulled back his hood, and the seller who did a double-take, stomped off toward the stacks. Maul walked in step with his prey, "My ship needs new parts."
It probably did, actually. His droids could probably give him a long list. He usually just let the droids deal with it entirely.
"What are you looking for?" he asked as she scoured the shelves, he saw the scavenger in her as she flipped through racks and racks without a second glance.
She shrugged, "Obi-Wan said I needed to get out the Temple and my Master demanded I take the day off."
"And you thought you would spend your day looking for parts?"
She paused to give him a look, "Looking for parts used to be my life. I'll know what I'm looking for once I find it. It's a scavenger saying."
The seller who had been hovering in the aisle looked stricken, "A scavenger?" Theif, he all but screamed. "But I thought you were a Jedi."
She glared at him, "I am-" she interrupted herself with a short exclamation.
Rey, unlike most customers, didn't wait for a ladder to be slid over. Quick as a leaping spider, she scaled the shelving to one of the top shelves several meters up. She came down as if she really were a spider gliding down a web line.
"This," she said triumphantly.
The seller was wide eyed and had to type furiously at his datapad to call up a price.
Rey named a sum nearly half that.
"We don't haggle here, girl."
Maul watched as Rey smiled at the man like she had smiled at their waiter, "This is not worth that, it has never been worth that, especially when it has a loosened connecter paired with a too small washer."
"The price is as is," the man said.
"Do you even know what this is?" she asked.
He opened his mouth, then glanced down at his datapad.
"It isn't worth what you're selling it for," she said before he could read off the screen.
"Well, you will have to travel quite a ways until you find something better. The second best ship-chandlery is on the other side of the planet."
Rey turned to Maul, "Is there any market that sells parts like this for reasonable prices?"
Maul stared at her, then the bit of metal. It was high-tech, that much he could tell. He knew a few distributors, but-
"You will find the exact same product of lower quality in a hundred different shops, but high end? This is the best you will find."
"But it isn't worth what you are selling it for," she argued before looking back at Maul, "Surely there's an open market somewhere on this Force-forsaken planet?"
The Jedi did not go where he was thinking, but then most Jedi Padawans didn't relax when they discovered their company was a bounty hunter.
"There are the markets underground."
The seller gasped, nearly dropping his datapad, "You are ruffians!"
Rey snorted, "Tell you what, I'll buy this part from you at that price if you can explain to me how it fits into 98-3 model."
"Um," he said looking down at his pad.
"Without cheating."
"I'm a seller not a mechanic," he sneered at her, "or a scavenger. Now, take your grubby hands off my products." He held out his hand for the part.
She gave him a bored look, "And apparently you are in the wrong business." She lifted the piece in her hand with the Force, unscrewing all the parts. The pile of metal she placed in his hands, as the seller squeaked.
"You broke it!"
"No," she said, pointing at the contorted piece, "I'm showing you that you're selling malfunctioning equipment. Let's go, Maul, this place is a waste of time."
Maul savoured the look of despair and outrage on the seller's face before he followed his soon to be apprentice.
"So," she said, "how do we get to the underground?"
He didn't smile, but if he was a different sort of Zabrak, he would have.
oOo
Maul kept waiting for her to question him about why he was here, but instead, she asked, "Do you have a list of the parts you were looking for?"
He nodded, pulling back his sleeve to the high-tech communicator that Sidious had given him.
He plugged in the question and his droid sent back a much shorter list then he expected considering how he had flown last.
"A connector and a coolant plug for hy-"
"Hydraulics." she finished for him. "Those things break all the time here, just wait until they realize how to bypass the intiater."
Maul decided that whatever she didn't know about the world or Jedi, she knew more than that as a mechanic. "Do you fly?" he asked.
She grinned at him, "Not officially, at least not yet. You?"
He nodded before he pulled up his hood and indicated she should do the same.
Her grey robes while bright and clean in the sunlight, seemed significantly darker in the Underworld. Her white garb underneath was now hidden. She was still his paler shadow as they walked through the teeming straights, but she no longer broadcasted Jedi as they went deeper. In fact, with her staff strapped to her shoulder, he would be surprised if anyone guessed what she was other than human.
With the grey robe closed, he no longer saw glimpses of her saber.
A saber that was double sided like his.
Under her hood he saw here searching the crowd, but not like she had the simple market above.
He thought she seemed more comfortable here, more in her element, but also…
He swallowed, "Are you alright?"
She sent him a wry smile, her hazel eyes tired, "Yeah, it's just been a rough week. How have you been? Catch any interesting bounties?"
As he had yet to catch her yet, he supposed not. "Fine, and no, nothing interesting." He didn't want to ask, but Sidious said she had been involved in the disturbance in the Force. "The Force changed this week."
She looked away from him, and he couldn't imagine that this girl was his Master's daughter. They were nothing alike.
"You felt it too then?" She asked as she sidestepped a pile of something and then ducked under a beam someone was holding over their shoulder and slipped past an old crone who slapped toothless gums at her.
Maul followed, but the beam was moved out of his way and the crone leaned back from him.
He liked the Underground, he could hit people if they got too close. This was not only allowed but expected.
Walking in stride with her once more, he said, "What did you do?"
She sighed, "Do you know who the Sith are?"
His mind reeled, did she know? She didn't sound accusatory, so he replied, "I've heard stories."
"Well I met their dead, and they are not a friendly lot, I can tell you that much."
He was aware, "And you what, called on the Force for help?"
"I gave them back to the Force."
Maul nearly stumbled, she gave them back? No wonder his Master had been so incensed.
"Did it hurt?" he asked, thinking of the power she could have gained from the Sith shades. He had communed with them only a few times.
She looked up at him with more emotion than he knew any Jedi had ever known. Her answer was short, "Yes."
They both ducked as a droid dropped low above them and a speeder rushed after it.
The Underground was like a city in perpetual night, except people lived in the dome above them too, not just in the stacked buildings and filthy alleyways.
"This way," he said ducking into a large stadium like room, where stands were of equipment sold mostly stolen or used parts.
Rey went ahead of him, her face going neutral as she walked.
Maul realized that this was how she must have been on Tatooine. Rey Palpatine wasn't the perfect happy Jedi she presented herself as, no she was this, a lone survivor in a hostile world that cared nothing for her as she cared nothing for it.
She had stood up to the Sith shades.
His Master could mourn them if he liked, but Maul did not. Knowledge was no good to him if someone else was driving his life.
Yes, he served his Master, but only to a point, only so he could reek pain and suffering on the Jedi who lived as saints and kings as the rest of the galaxy lived in fear.
A Sith shade or two had tried to control his body, as if he were a vessel rather than a Lord in his own right.
He was glad Rey had vanquished them, happy even that she had caused his Master distress.
With Rey as his apprentice, they could even the scales of the galaxy. Sidious and his politics, Plagueis and his labs, were nothing.
Maul had the Force, and if he had could convince Rey to join him, he would have all the power he needed to ensure the legacy of the Sith would never fade.
She had stopped at a stand, a gremlin like creature pulled on its whiskers as he contemplated Rey's bargain.
"We don't take cre-"
"This is Coruscant," she stated, "the currency is good, your product is decent, either sell to me or I will go elsewhere."
The creature pouted its thin lips, its whiskers standing forward, before it clicked, and tossed the object at her as she flipped him the credits.
"You still need those parts?" she asked.
He nodded.
She paused as if waiting for him to say something and when he didn't, she smiled.
It wasn't until she was bargaining with another seller that he realized why she had smiled.
He hadn't pushed her on the disturbance on the Force. It seemed like not asking her personal questions was doing wonders for keeping her close.
That made his task easier.
When she had her hands on the correct parts, Maul picked up the bargaining.
The tusked creature looked as if he would have trumpeted in his face, but on taking stock of his face under the hood, he seemed to think better of it.
"Where to next?" she asked as they exited.
"Let's get something to drink." Maybe if he got her drunk he could get her to spill her secrets.
She shrugged, "You're paying."
He didn't mind that, after all, it was her father's money he would be spending. Sidious had even upped his allowance to help snatch Rey.
A thread of new anger weaved through him, as he thought of Rey as his Master's daughter.
He wasn't jealous, he was… irritated at the idea of his Master raising her.
Raising her as Maul had been raised.
Not that he begrudged his Master's methods, but Rey was powerful enough without being tortured.
Maul would not train her solely with pain. No, hatred would do, when he made her see the Jedi for what they were when she learned how they had betrayed her.
Her becoming a Sith would be oh so natural.
They entered a bar, scummy, but not so packed that they would have to push through crowds.
Maul didn't like anyone touching him, but even he couldn't beat up the entire crowd if he was the one who walked into it.
At least not with Rey with him.
They sat at the bar.
"Order," he commanded her.
She grinned, "I'll pass." Her hazel eyes were wary and he realized that no, she didn't trust him as much as she seemed to.
Curses.
He ordered a seasonal juice, with the extra allowance he could afford to splurge a bit.
He took a sip, it was sweet and fresh, nothing added, nothing special.
"Is that non-alcoholic?" She asked, "just juice?"
He nodded.
She swiped it from his hand with the finesse of a well practiced pickpocket.
He snarled at her, his teeth bared.
She took a sip. She licked her lips before saying with a grin, "I told you, you were paying."
He blinked at her.
Clever.
He ordered another for himself.
A balosar came up to them and asked, "You wanna buy some death sticks?"
Rey didn't even look at the sorry creature as she said, "You don't want to sell me death sticks."
"I don't wanna sell you death sticks."
"You want to go home and rethink your life."
"I wanna go home and rethink my life."
Maul stared at her, she grinned at him over the rim of her glass, "Obi-Wan taught me that."
He raised his brows.
She laughed, "Oh come on, Maul. Jedi aren't all stiff necked, at least Obi-Wan and my Master aren't."
"Your Master would approve of that?" He asked, equal parts impressed as annoyed.
Jedi were hypocritical assholes.
"Sure, but then I'm not sure the Council would approve. Apparently we aren't supposed to use the Force for small things."
"But you do," he noted.
"Do you?" she asked. "Do you have a Master?"
He was careful here, he couldn't risk her sharing this with her 'Obi-Wan' and revealing the Sith to them.
But it was commonly known that Zabraks were Force sensitives, Dark Siders. He would have to be careful the Jedi didn't order Rey to kill him, but if he was careful, they wouldn't connect that he was a Sith Lord.
"I have a teacher, yes. But I do not care for him."
"Oh, is he mean? Master Jinn and Obi-Wan are the kindest people I know, no offence Maul."
He would have been offended if she called him kind and he curled a lip at her asking if Sidious was 'mean.'
"He is not a kind Master, no, but he has taught me much."
"Do you have a lightsaber?"
He stilled, this far he managed not to lie to her, not directly.
"Only the Jedi are permitted to use lightsabers."
She tapped a finger on her glass, "I'm not a child."
To him she was.
She glared at him, "Are you worried I'll tell on you?"
"There is nothing to tell, but you are a Jedi."
She rolled her eyes, "We are friends, Maul. I won't rat on you, I know what it means to live outside what the laws dictate are normality. I know now I wouldn't give up my powers even if I had to leave the Order."
Something like joy zinged through him, she was talking of leaving the Order without prompting and she admitted to a bond between them. "Friends?" he asked, Sidious would be pleased.
She tapped her empty glass, and he motioned the bartender for another. He gave them an odd look, clearly not used to people ordering the mixer straight repeatedly.
Most people didn't come to the underground to stay sober.
"Friends," she repeated, "We shared a meal, and you bought me two drinks. That makes us friends, so no, I swear I won't tell anyone about you being trained in the ways of the Force."
He finished his own drink, again, the sense that this was too easy overcame him. He drew on the Force, and it came in a singing, welcoming rush.
Either Dark or Light, the Force wanted him to teach her all that he knew. "Yes," he said finally, "I have a saber but not on me."
He had been letting his senses tell him if anyway was listening to them. They weren't but Rey's laughter had turned heads.
"What form do you favour?" she asked.
Lowering his voice, he said, "Form VI, Niman." Which was a lie, but he had mastered Niman. There was just the little fact of he said, Form VII, it would be a dead give away that he was not only a Dark Sider but a powerful Dark Sider that the Jedi would certainly have a problem with.
She made a face, scrunching her nose a bit.
"What?" he growled.
"Nothing," she said, "I just thought you might be inclined toward something more aggressive."
He felt a growl rumble in his own chest, he wanted to tell her, he really did. He hated that she was disappointed in Niman.
But honestly, he had been disappointed in it too. He had only mastered it because that was the primary style of the Jedi, and because it had a bit of all the Forms to aid him against any foe.
"What Form are you studying?"
She sighed, "Shii-Cho at the moment, I'm terrible at it actually. I'm not much of a swordsman. But I was taught adaptations of Ataru and Soresu for staff work, I enjoy them much better."
He was impressed by her admitting to her shortcomings with such ease.
Sidious had beat the idea of failure out of him.
Still, it was better that she knew her own weaknesses, it would make training her simpler.
"You think a mastery in Niman is not aggressive enough when you're learning Soresu?"
She grinned, "Soresu, my dear Zabrak, is the art of being aggressively annoying until your opponent gives up out of frustration or fatigue." Her hazel eyes were bright, caught in some memory.
"You also give your opponent time to get the upper hand."
"Or give yourself enough time for back up to show up."
"You should never count on others to save you, apprentice."
"Perhaps. It doesn't matter much now though, my Master won't let me move on to learn another Form until I have the foundation ingrained in me. I'm still so far behind everyone else, I doubt I'll ever catch up."
"It is easier to learn as a child, but the Jedi don't train as hard once they are knighted, you will have time."
He didn't know where the encouraging words came from, he certainly hadn't been given any.
But, he reasoned, he was insulting the Jedi more than praising her.
She checked over her shoulder before finishing the last of her drink, "I think we should go."
He didn't argue as he stood. A group in the corner were watching them a bit too closely.
They made their way out into the streets, shadows roiled in alleyways, darting figures.
An ambush.
Maul felt his anticipation grow.
Finally, something to kill.
"Where do we go?" she asked.
His excitement dampened, she was too sharp to let herself be led into a trap despite what he had believed when they first met.
Sighing, he directed them toward a gambling den. Their stalkers might wait for them, but they wouldn't follow not with the armed bouncers at the entrances.
She looked around in interest, but didn't ask to join a game.
"Do you play?" he asked.
"No, I'm hopeless at cards," she said even as he saw her tug on the Force to replace someone's facedown card with a card from the pile.
He wouldn't have seen it if he hadn't felt her connection to the Force. The Force seemed to flit around them, dancing to the little motions of her hand.
Maul breathed in deeply, catching her scent as he let the Force fill him. The Dark and the Light came in a tangled thread, and with his second sight, he saw Rey like a shining star.
He heard the exclamation as the gamblers who had been on the receiving end of Rey's fun lost their hands.
Maul, who knew how these games were won and lost, stole a man's winning card and replaced it in the dealer's deck. As he and Rey got another round of fruit juice at this slightly more upscale bar, a Mikkian with a yellow main let out a scream, flipping the entire table.
He exchanged look with Rey who was grinning at him.
A fleeting image of a white faced woman laughing crossed his mind but he shook it off as he turned back to the gambling den, searching for more trouble to cause.
Between the two of them, they became the worst luck any of these people had ever experienced.
Rey cursed only once when she accidentally won someone a hand.
They left when the room began to reach riotous levels of uproar.
When they got back the streets, Rey was almost skipping.
He tried to compare this girl to the woman he had glimpsed haggling with ship chandlers.
He wondered which came more natural to her. Who was she? This bright light in the dark? Or the shadows that moved in darkness, walking the same paths he walked?
The Force shouted a warning at him at the same moment Rey turned, her saber in her hand. She ignited its beam, he stepped to the side, and the Cthon behind was sliced in half. It's flesh sizzling.
"What the hell is that?" she asked, as Maul stared down at the dead creature, wondering where the hell it had come from.
Cthon were not seen at this level, they were not that far down.
"Jedi!" someone bellowed, more shocked than out fear or engagement.
Jedi didn't go below ground, at least not on Coruscant.
She turned off her saber, "I think we should get back to the surfac-"
"Cthons!" multiple voices screamed.
Maul grabbed Rey's hand as he felt the ground turn, the street broke into chaos.
She pulled on his hand, but he didn't let go as he yanked her through a group of people. He had to get her out of here.
"Let go of me!" she yelled at him.
He didn't answer just tightened his grip as he ducked them into a short alley then onto a main road that was emptied quickly.
The underground knew how to lockdown.
She twisted from his grasp with more strength than she should have had, "I know how to run without you holding my hand!"
She was pissed.
Good.
But with or without her anger she was able to keep up with him.
An explosion rocked the building beside them, and they ducked into one of the open markets, now emptied of inhabitants, the stalls had slid into slots in the ground so there was nothing but an open bowl the size of a large field.
"It's a trap," he hissed, as he turned to watch their assailants pour through the entrance.
"Here," she said, he glanced at her to see her holding out her saber to him.
She was offering him her weapon?
What kind of Jedi was she?
"Use it. I am a master in nothing, it is more good to you than me," she said as she unstrapped her staff over her shoulder.
He didn't argue, the pummel was thinner than his, but the length was right. She was smaller than him, but only then did he appreciate that they were within an inch of being the same height.
"What do you creeps want?" she called to them, her voice irritated but not worried. She had sounded more upset at him leading her by the hand.
He didn't really care what they wanted, they would be dead soon enough.
A pack of Cthon scrabbled like human roaches around the inverted dome.
Their stalkers from earlier in the night threw back their hoods. Two females and three males of varying sizes and species, all wore black and more weapons then they could reasonably wield.
"You're Senator Palpatine's daughter, you're worth a fortune in ransom, girl. Your little Jedi friend can't help you."
Maul snarled, they were dead.
Rey crouched as well, "And the zombies?"
The speaker, a girl whose excessive makeup could not hide her youth, stepped forward on the ledge. Her black spiked hair and fishnets under straps of leather made her look like she was wearing a costume rather than looking like a true underworld native.
Rey in her white and grey looked as if she belonged here more than their assailant did.
"A pet project of ours. You would be surprised what rich people will pay to satisfy their curiosity. Unfortunately for you, Naboo has made many enemies of late."
Rey twirled her staff, "I suggest you run now. It is my occupation that should worry you, not my heritage."
The girl laughed, then clapped her hands together once.
The fifty sum Cthon jumped at them from every angle.
The Force guided them, as he and Rey back flipped over the mass. The skull headed golems squealed as they bit at one another before turning back on them.
"They eat flesh," Maul told her as blue sliced through four of them in one swing.
She in turn slapped two and broke the neck of a third's with her staff, "Great. Any other wisdom you care to share, Dathomirian?"
He cut through two that were going for her legs, they worked a yard apart from each other, covering each other's backs. "They mutated from humans."
"Wonderful," she said sarcastically as she stabbed one through its open mouth, lifted it as it gagged around the of her staff then she threw it at its fellows.
He killed serval more in the same amount of time.
He was glad she had given him the killing weapon, where she was indeed skilled with a staff, she didn't have the necessary bloodlust to fend off this many on her own.
But he was impressed with her ability to keep his back clear.
Fifty dwindled to ten, the remainder of the Cthon slowed in their attack to cannibalize their own dead.
The group that had thought to kidnap a Senator's daughter pulled their weapons and began firing at him.
He hissed as he was forced to go on the defensive, they were too far away.
"Hold them," Rey shouted, and he felt her call to the Force.
He felt the air change around them, he glanced at her out of the corner of his eye as he let the Force direct his actions. Her hair not restrained by her buns were standing on ends.
What was she doing?
"Maul, move!" she commaned as the energy rose.
He twirled behind her, picking off the last of the Cthon as he turned, the pike a blue blur in his hands.
He bent his knees as a flash of light jumped from Rey's hands to their assailants, followed by a clash of thunder.
He felt the rolling sound in his centre more than he heard it. He blinked, the light had been blinding.
Maul finally found Rey's resemblance to her father.
Though even Darth Sidious's Sith lightning was not powerful enough to cause thunder.
And then, not seeming the slightest bit tired, Rey hit them again, and again.
He closed his eyes to spare his vision. With each bolt came the sonic clap of molecules clashing.
Maul had been on the receiving end of lightning strikes often in his life, it was one of Sidious's preferred methods of training.
Maul wondered what his Master would look like at the receiving end of Rey's lightning. The thought almost made him smile.
His apprentice would surpass them all.
When Rey was satisfied that she had sufficiently fried their attackers, they exited the supposed trap.
Maul could feel that Rey had only killed one of them, but they were in such poor condition he almost wanted them to live to spread tales of their failure. But he couldn't afford it. He brought the pike through each of their hearts.
The girl who had taunted them, raised a hand to hold him off, she lost that hand a moment before her heart stopped beating.
Her blue eyes glazed over.
He sneered, foolish human. He hated them, hated the way they looked at him, even this one as he delivered her death.
She had looked at him as if he were less, as Sidious looked at him for being lesser. No matter how powerful he became, no matter what perfection he reached, his being a Zabrak meant he would never be enough for his Master. Never be equal.
He looked up at Rey, the child who Sidious no doubt sought to replace him with.
Rey watched him with cool eyes. She held out her hand for her saber. He hesitated. Would she turn it on him?
He realized that getting her to trust him was a test for him in learning to trust her himself. He turned off the saber, and held it out to her, hilt horizontal ends to the sides.
She took it, snapping it back on her belt.
"You're angry with me," he remarked.
"No," she said, her tone unreadable.
"You're something."
"You're dangerous, Maul, more than I had realized. The Force is shadowed around you," she stated.
He tilted his head, knowing he couldn't shield his energy from her, he couldn't imagine what she made of what she saw.
Any Jedi who truly saw through him would know he was a Sith. She had encountered the Sith shades, channelled them even. She should know what he was.
But perhaps the Force was with him, because she said, "But the Force likes you, even if you are a bit-" she looked down at the dead brutes, "savage."
"You're afraid," he concluded.
"No," she said, "You're my friend, and Master Dooku said the Force is both the Light and the Darkness."
The Jedi were strange.
"Maul, I need to get back to the Temple before Obi-Wan gets worried."
He nodded, even as he thought, Your Obi-Wan should be worried.
Obi-Wan sat up as Rey came into the room.
"Hi," she said as she headed straight for the refresher.
The door closed behind her.
He stood. "Did you have a good evening?" he asked through the door.
"Yes, I just need a shower."
He shook his head, she liked showers, and never seemed to get over the novelty of it.
"Alright," he said, sitting back down. He had time to finish the chapter he was on before she reemerged in a spare pair of his robes. He wasn't much taller than she was, but she was slight, and she looked much younger than she was in them even if the robes were unisex.
"Eventful evening?" he asked as she flopped back on her bed.
"I got the part I wanted, the ship chandlery you sent me to was crap."
"Rey, that's the best ship chandlery on the entire planet, which is nearly the same thing as stating that it is the best in the entire Republic."
She gave him a look.
He held up his hands, "That's what all the reviews say."
"False advertisement," she said with a sigh, closing her eyes, she continued, "They were going to overcharge me for a broken part."
He sniggered, as he slipped on his shoes, "I'm sure you gave them your thoughts?"
"As citizen of the Republic, it was my solemn duty."
"Did they kick you out?"
She rolled to her side, to look at him, "No, but he did squeal when I dismantled the part. As he put it, he was a salesman, not a mechanic."
Obi-Wan shook his head, "It makes you wonder what we are piloting."
"I'm certainly checking over any engine we fly frown no own if the Order relies on hacks like them."
"Never a bad idea to be thorough. Ready for supper?"
"Hmm…" she said, closing her eyes, "maybe I'll take a nap first."
"Gasp, Padawan Palpatine turning away dinner? What is the galaxy coming to?"
She chucked her pillow at him.
He caught it as he stood and brought the pillow down on her head. She snatched it back only to try and smother him with it. "Obi-Wan Kenobi! You obnoxious twat!"
He laughed, "Alright, alright, I'll go to dinner without you."
She huffed, "No, I'm up." She ran hand through her wet hair, she rarely put it up before it was completely dry.
He tugged on her braid, "Where did you end up getting the part from? Maybe there is dealer the Order should invest in."
"I didn't go to a dealer, I went to a few markets in the underworld."
He froze.
Her face showed no sign that she knew how bad or dangerous that was.
"You did what?" he breathed.
"I bought it from a seller in the underworld. The part was used, but all around a better make and at a third of the price."
"Rey," he moaned, pinching the bridge of his nose, finally understanding what prompted Qui-Gon to make the gesture.
"Obi-Wan?" she asked, she sounded worried now, "Are you okay? You look pale."
What was he supposed to say? Yell at her for breaking the rules? But then she probably didn't know Padawans weren't allowed in the underworld.
He had never been, and part of him wanted to know what it had been like.
Obi-Wan decided right then and there that he wasn't taking responsibility for this, he was still a Padawan himself. Qui-Gon would know how to explain this better than he would.
"We need to go see Qui-Gon."
"Why?"
He just shook his head, "Come on."
She sighed, slipping on her cleaner pair of shoes Master Dooku had gifted her when he realized she only had the one pair.
She kept good care of them, her other pair of shoes she carelessly tossed in the washer.
That the soles were still intact was remarkable.
"Honestly," he muttered, "You've been out in the City maybe three times and you go to the underworld?"
"I needed the part," she said as they walked to the Master's wing, "I don't see what the big deal is."
Obi-Wan held his tongue, re-evaluating what she had looked like when she came into the room. Sweaty, though not really dirty, she had looked tired, even if the haunted look that had been dogging her all week was now absent.
He knocked on the door, and Qui-Gon's voice called, "Come in, my Padawans."
Obi-Wan wondered at the bonds, he had been paying attention to them, he had felt her call to the Force, but not for help.
Rey was almost always in contact with the Force, so he had not noticed anything truly abnormal.
The door slid open, Qui-Gon and Dooku were seated on the cushions around the low table.
"Shouldn't you two be at dinner?" Qui-Gon asked, frowning at Rey as if looking for something.
Obi-Wan very much felt like a young initiate about to turn trader on his friend, but Qui-Gon had to know.
Qui-Gon raised a brow at him, "What is there that you need to tell me, Padawan Kenobi?"
Obi-Wan suddenly found the whole thing humorous, Qui-Gon of all people wasn't going to be furious about Rey breaking the rules. He threw an arm around Rey's shoulders, "Guess who decided to make a jaunt down to the underworld today?"
As long as he lived he would always remember the look on his Master's face, and the colour that seeped up his cheeks as Master Dooku's deep baritone laughter filled the room.
"Was there a lesson you might have overlooked, Padawan Jinn?" Dooku asked.
Qui-Gon pinched the bridge of his nose, and without looking up at them -in part to hide his flushed cheeks. "What could you have possibly needed from the underworld, Rey?" He looked up at her, and said dryly, "Deathsticks?"
"No," she said, leaning into Obi-Wan, "though as it happened someone did offer some to me, but no, I went down for a ship part."
"One you couldn't get at any of the thousands of shops above ground?"
"I didn't feel like wasting time with manufacturers."
"Easier to buy stolen goods?"
"I didn't steal them," she said, only a tad defensive.
"Rey," Qui-Gon sighed, "Jedi Padawans are not allowed to go to the lower levels of Coruscant."
"Why not?"
"Because it is dangerous."
"I didn't go alone, I went with a friend."
Qui-Gon looked at Obi-Wan who glared back at his Master, "I did not go to the underworld."
Even if he was sort of curious now.
"Which friend?" Qui-Gon asked.
"Maul, he's a Zabrak I met a few months ago."
"A Zabrak?" Dooku interrupted, "What colour was his skin?"
"Red," she said, a note of something Obi-Wan didn't like in her voice.
Dooku's brows rose, "A Dathomirian Zabrak on Coruscant? Interesting."
"Do you have something against Zabraks?"
"Serreno has a history with Dathormir, but no, I have no problem with them per se, it is rare, however, for them to leave their home world. Their culture is -peculiar."
"Were you hurt?" Qui-Gon asked.
"No, I'm fine," she said, honestly enough but there was a thread to her tone.
"Padawan Palpatine," Qui-Gon said in that tone.
She sighed, "Okay fine, there were maybe a hord of Cthons and group of- well I don't know what you would call them, calling them bounty hunters is an insult to bounty hunters. They wanted to kidnap me to ransom me back to my father. Not sure if they understood that I was a Jedi or not though." She shrugged, "But its been dealt with."
Silence.
Even Dooku was rendered speechless as they all stared at her.
"Cthons?" Obi-Wan asked, breaking first, "How far did you go?"
"The would be ransomers had them, they nearly caused a riot. Good thing I had my saber with me, the staff wasn't enough."
"What do they look like?" Obi-Wan asked, his curiosity taking over. The underworld was never a place he had ever seriously considered venturing, he wanted to be a Jedi Knight more than he wanted to put a face to scary stories, but now- "Do they really look humanoid?"
"Not even close, more like- well they had humanish bodies, but their heads were all wrong, and they gave off a distinct zombie vibe."
He was about to ask more only for Qui-Gon to interrupt him, "Obi-Wan."
Obi-Wan winced at the tone, "Yes, Master?"
"Teach Rey how to brew a proper pot of tea."
Obi-Wan let out an exasperated puff of air, "Is that your answer to everything?"
With as much dignity as Master Dooku, Qui-Gon held himself straight, "Lesson of the day, Padawans, when there is tea, things are never quite as dire as we make them out to be."
Dooku smiled, "At least I was able to teach you that much, Qui-Gon." He chuckled, "A Padawan on her own in the underworld. Master Yoda is going to give you hell for this."
Obi-Wan directed Rey to the stove and kettle, thinking that perhaps the Masters were right. Maybe everything would seem saner after a cup of tea.
AN: If you enjoyed this story at all please drop a comment or review? It will make my day :D And please stay safe everyone!