KEYnote: This chapter overlaps the end of the last chapter, next chapter picks the few months after the events of both chapter 29 and 30. Also, I mesh canon with legends lore to what I want it to be ;D
AN: And from the less and less review responses I've been getting for this story I am breaking up chapters more naturally, I know people prefer long chapters but I also feel like I've been jamming too much into chapters. I can only judge the success of chapters by the feedback y'all give me.
Chapter 30 - The Dathomirian
Maul held himself very still as Sidious paced his apartment.
"Seven dead Jedi! Seven! But not the one I sent her to kill!" he seethed.
Maul thought he would enjoy watching his Master lose his mind.
And he did.
But it was also terrifying because all that anger, madness, and power was all too likely to land on him.
As if he had heard the thought, Darth Sidious turned to glare at him.
Those blue eyes danced with yellow and red, like needles through an egg yolk.
Maul's own eyes itched with the contacts he was forced to wear to mirror the full effect of being possessed by the Dark Side
Sidious lips curled, "What do you have to say, Apprentice?" the words slipped off his tongue like a sibilant curse.
What did he think? That torturing a Jedi Knight into insanity and addicting her to the Dark Side wasn't controllable.
Sith weren't controllable. Dark Siders were typically the definition of uncontrollable, drunk as they usually were off of power. And Sidious himself had lost control of his plans, his reputation, and his own apprentice.
Darth Plagueis had contacted Maul only once in the last year to discuss Grievous, that other abomination Sidious had forged through pain and metal.
Plagueis had been far from impressed, and Maul had the distinct impression that he had cut them both loose so that they might destroy themselves.
"I think," Maul ventured, "That you have killed three Council members, a Master, a Padawan, and five other fully knighted Jedi. The Order is afraid."
"But my daughter is no closer to joining us."
No, quite the opposite really. Rey was more defensive of her people than ever. Although, Bant's attack on Padawan Tano had shaken her.
He had never seen her father in her until last night, a week after the incident.
She had been murderous. Not tempted by the Dark Side, but murderous all the same. Oddly, it hadn't been Obi-Wan's danger that drove her to such a deadly calm as they had sparred.
No, it had been the endangerment of someone she viewed as a youngling.
For years, Rey had been training the younglings alongside the Jedi's Grandmaster Yoda.
With her Force abilities, Maul had always wondered at her kyber crystals turning blue rather than green or even purple. At her attachment to the younglings he wondered no longer.
Green was meant for counsellors, Jedi who focused on the Force more than their lightsaber training, which she certainly could be counted among. But blue crystals were reserved for those who focused more on blade work, for those grounded in the physical world to act as guardians.
And whether or not Rey was more dangerous within the Force or with her saber was irrelevant to the fact that that's what Rey was, a guardian. Above all her ideas of the Force, Light or Dark, above her idea of the Order or even the galaxy, Rey Palpatine valued the protection of the Jedi younglings. She would lay down not only her life but her soul for them. And her kyber crystals had responded to that aspect of her. The part of her that would never abandon the young as she herself had been abandoned.
It really was no wonder that the Mandalorians adored her. And Maul truly didn't want to explain to Sidious -who was almost panting with barely contained rage- that the Mandalorians had a much better chance of converting his daughter than the Sith did.
"Kill Obi-Wan Kenobi," Sidious ordered.
Maul went very still, "Master-"
Lightning crackled the air between them, and Maul fell to his knees, bowing his head as he let the power ride over him.
He fought himself to keep from giving the familiar pain to the Force. Sidious would feel that and likely kill him. He called on the Dark, opening himself up to it. His pain calling out to it, the Force came to him, dancing with the Force electricity.
Maul let out a sound, one he made to be a sound of agony when quite the opposite was happening. The Force inside him was melding with Sith lightning, turning agony in tingling pins and needles sensation as he absorbed the energy.
Sith lightning had the potential to boil the victim's blood in their veins.
His veins were singing, as if Sidious was fuelling him as the Force used Maul as a conduit to take back the power that Sidious had ripped from it.
When Sidious finished with his temper tantrum, Maul was sweating, trembling, at channelling that much of the Force. Maul hadn't been the organic being cooked by the lightning, he had been the wire that carried the power from one point to another.
Rey had taught him her version of lightning, the lightning that was more a telekinetic technique of displacing atoms than harnessing enough energy to manifest Force electricity.
This was something else. Maul was almost certain that the Force had just shown him how to redirect Sith lightning back at Sidious.
Of course, Maul knew how to create his own Sith lightning, even knew how to make Rey's version of telekinetic lightning, but until this moment, he had never had a defense against Sidious.
He looked up at his once Master, and snarled, "She will never turn to me if she discovers I killed Kenobi."
No, Rey would almost certainly kill him. Even if Kenobi could be cornered on his own, Maul wasn't sure he could match the man who made Master by creating his own lightsaber Form. Maul would be lucky if they were equals in strength, but even then… aside from Rey and the Grandmaster, Obi-Wan Kenobi might have been the most powerful Jedi Master in the Order.
Killing him was a suicide mission in almost every regard.
"Well perhaps, she will finally turn to me."
Maul fought not to sneer, Rey wouldn't turn to Sidious if he was last living being in the galaxy.
"Go Maul. Go now. Do not dare to fail me."
Maul rose, and exited the room without a bow or word.
He didn't know where at first he was going once he got to his ship, he only knew that he wouldn't be daring to try to kill Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. He wouldn't risk losing Rey.
Sidious would doubtless try to destroy him once he realized that Maul was finally turning on him.
Maul plucked the contacts out of his eyes, flicking them toward the trash as he rose into the atmosphere. The feeling of freedom overtook him as he sailed toward the stars.
The Force danced about him as he gave himself wholly to it. He served the Force, and no other.
He was Sith nor Jedi, yet with him, the Force was strong.
Suddenly, he knew where he needed to go.
Dathomir was not his home, but there were other Force users there, Zabraks that were neither Jedi nor Sith. Perhaps he had family remaining. Perhaps he had people who would help him against Darth Sidious.
oOo
Maul walked blithely underneath the winding trunks and vines of his homeworld, perfectly aware of the females leaping after him with their bows and swords and whatever bit of sorcery they thought would help them against him.
He could have slaughtered them all. He could feel their shadows in the Force, their dainty signatures like small drops of ink in a lake.
Asajj Ventress was more powerful, or at least, better trained than the females stalking him as he approached the giant entrance to a palace carved out of the cliff side. The red stone had a certain aesthetic that tugged at long forgotten memories.
This had been his home once.
He was within sprinting distance of the main entrance when the females finally dropped from their perches.
Weapons pointed at him from all directions, he stopped moving forward, even though he knew none of them would be fast enough to prevent him from getting through.
The one standing before him pulled back her hood, her grey skin lined with faint purple birthmarks as if she had never bothered to tattoo herself as Asajj had done.
"State your purpose, male," she hissed at him.
He bared his teeth, "I've come to speak with Talzin."
"Mother Talzin," a white skinned female with deep blue tattoos corrected him.
"Yes, that one," he said, dismissively.
He felt their energies rise in the Force, and felt the Force delight in their emotions that the Force was both feeding into and feeding off of.
And that was why the Jedi and the Sith had their codes, because otherwise, the Force could use a Force sensitive however it pleased.
Maul himself allowed the Force to speak to him, but he was an active agent of the Force. These females were playthings, females who thought they could divine the secrets of the Force through ritual and tradition.
He fought not to smile, they were weak.
When he said nothing else, looks were passed between them before they waved him forward. They walked around him in a squared group as if they had taken him prisoner. He almost laughed at their naivety.
He still felt lightened from his decision to leave Sidious, knowing how it would be yet another blow to Sidious's ego and power base would further enrage him.
Karma was sweet victory.
Maul shivered at the phantom memory that surrounded him as he walked into the palace.
He was brought to an antechamber where a female garbed in red waited like a queen on her throne. Her clothes seemed to move around her and her presence in the Force…
This one was not weak.
And then he met her eyes, and recognition stirred within him. Before he could stop the word from escaping his lips, he asked in shock, "Mother?"
The female's tattooed face that had been staring at him impassively broke into one of curiosity, and she felt him reach for him in the Force. The surprise was clear in her deep voice, "Wrath? My son, you have returned to me."
Wrath. The name hit him like a blow, and an image of being very small in this female's lap shook through him.
The name he had forgotten, Wrath. It was no longer his name, this was no longer his world, but the past that Sidious had erased from him clawed back into living memory.
He had been his mother's favourite. He had always been strong in the Force, and despite his being born male, she had spoiled him.
Dimly, he remembered overhearing Mother speak with Sidious; she had wanted to be trained in the Sith arts, not him.
When Sidious had come to him instead and Maul had not fought him, because he had said that Mother Talzin had wished him to be trained, to be sent away.
You are stronger in the Force than your mother, child, your power will bring the Jedi down on your world and the Jedi will slaughter each and every one of your people.
The Jedi kill what they fear.
And that had made sense to a child's mind, because he had loved his mother, but he had also feared her. And because Maul had been male, he had been raised not to question his mother's commands, even if he had been her favourite.
Sidious had not had to work hard to kidnap him, had not had to work hard to break him. His mother, despite all her doting, had already conditioned him for servitude.
Mother Talzin was in front of him now, and Maul allowed himself to be touched, examined by the proprietary touch of her long fingered hands. Her long nails an unwelcome sensation on his skin even if in memories her hands had been something of safety to him.
Not all females raised their male young, but Talzin had. She had raised his elder brother through childhood as she had planned to raise him and his twin to their-
His thoughts faltered.
His brothers. His twin.
He saw a blurred impression of them in his mind, but he could no more remember their names than he had been able to recall his own.
Talzin grabbed him by the chin as Sidious had often held his face. He struggled not to snarl at her, her thumb nail digging into his lower lip.
"You remember me?" she asked.
He felt the Force rise in him as his patience was burned away one moment at a time. He had escaped Sidious, he would never serve another Master again, not even his own kin. "My brothers?"
Talzin released him with a low laugh, "Yes, your brothers. They live, and I will have you taken to their village tomorrow. Tonight you will feast with us, Son."
The other females moved, presumably to prepare dinner.
He didn't think he would be staying on Dathomir long.
"Is your Master dead?" Talzin asked him.
"He is not my Master."
"If you have not killed him, Wrath, then you are not a Sith Lord."
"No, I am not a Sith, I am a Dathomirian."
She laughed, the sound full, deep, and throaty. He was almost certain she practised it.
The Force whispered a warning to him, to be careful of this one. He would be, he had researched his people enough to know that they did physical experiments on their males. Maul had no desire to be altered, and he would kill his mother before he allowed himself to be manipulated as such.
And he honestly had no desire to become a kin slayer and have all the Nightsisters after his blood. He had come here for allies, not to test what amounted to the Jedi arts against the sorcery of Zabraks.
"Come," Talzin said, gesturing toward a room curtained off from the throne room.
He followed, taking a seat to her right, much to one of the Nightsisters' fury and much to the apparent amusement of Talzin.
"You are an oddity within the Force, my son," Talzin remarked, "powerful, more powerful than I had ever imagined possible for one of your gender."
Maul didn't acknowledge that as he inhaled the scents of the food placed in front of, scenting for any poisons or herbs that might lull his mind.
It smelled the same as the plate they had placed in front of Talzin. Assuming they hadn't had time to prepare for his arrival, he picked up a piece of meat, sinking his teeth into it.
He felt the Nightsisters seated around him tense, but Talzin only smiled, "I see that though the Sith taught you power, they did not teach you manners."
Ha, if she thought he would scrape and wait on her, she had another thing coming. The only person he might practice manners with was for Rey, anyone else could go off themselves for all he cared.
He felt the Force laugh at him -or with him. Sometimes it was hard to tell. The voice of the Force wasn't really a voice or sound, it was a presence, and opening himself up to both halves of it had given him a glimpse of it.
Talzin tapped one hand on the table, she lifted a single berry to her lips, speared on the point of her nail, which signalled to the rest of the Nightsisters seated at the table that they could eat also. Talzin's eyes never left him as he ate.
When he had finished, her own plate untouched, she said, "The Dark Side is strong with you, my son, as is the Light."
He just looked at her.
She waited, given him time to respond, when he didn't, she said, "It is possible, however, improbable, that you may even be stronger than our other Lost One, Asajj Ventress."
He bit back a growl.
He hated being compared to the baby Jedi Shadow. Maul decided then and there that he would never mate with one of these females. He had been looked down on his entire life, he would not be treated as lesser than by a female he was fucking.
"Your training-"
"You never came for me," he spoke over her, receiving several hisses from around the table in response to his interruption.
"No," Talzin said gravely, "I did not."
"Why?" he asked.
"Because I thought he had killed you."
"Do not," he said slowly, "lie to me."
Fury flickered in her silver eyes, but her voice remained unchanged, "I knew not where to look."
"You didn't look," he stated.
This time her voice softened, not with kindness but so only he and those seated nearest could hear her words, "I had not the power to take you back."
He nodded once, "That, I know."
Her lip lifted slightly, and he knew it was only because she had long fought her own instincts and nature that she didn't snarl at him when she said, "And you were not worth enough to steal back."
Those words should have hurt, but they didn't. Male Dathomirians did not mean overly much to their females. Like spiders, his father, as the father of Maul's eldest brother before him, had been slain after their conception. It was a Dathomirian custom.
And a choice, Maul wondered if Talzin regretted given how powerful in the Force he had been birthed, or if she attributed all of Maul's potential to her own gifts in the Force rather than his sire's.
Talzin rose, "You will sleep under my roof again this night, my son. Tomorrow, you will be delivered to your village."
He rose also, "My ship-"
"My ship," she corrected, "has already been acquired and redocked elsewhere by our sisters. For all that is yours is mine until you are chosen as a mate or servant by another female."
And suddenly, Maul felt that he had made a mistake in coming here.
If only he had remembered his brothers instead of looking for the parent who was too weak to protect her own young.
oOo
Talzin waved him off at the entrance to her palace at sunrise. A Nightsister who kept her face hidden from him as he sat in a sidepod to her spreader. The trip to the Nightbrothers' village took nearly a half a day's journey to reach.
He watched the males of his people emerge from their homes in fear, their postures tense and resentful. He wanted to snarl at the lesser female who could inspire such a response from them.
Maul didn't mind the matriarchal society, he personally hated politics. But they were not animals.
He dismounted the speeder pod before the Nightsister could voice a command, and she turned the speeder around without pausing.
Maul flipped back his hood back to stare at the males gathering around him. He searched their curious faces.
He paused over one, slim, his tattooing intricate over ochre skin. The young male's eyes went wide, his face free of aggression or any hint of malice. "Wrath?" he asked.
Maul nodded.
The other male ran at him, only the Force singing around them kept him from going for the saber hilt hidden at his back as the male wrapped him in a hug.
Maul almost huffed out loud, Great, another Rey.
The male pulled back, cupping his face with warm hands. Maul was the same height as this one, this one who he instinctively knew to be blood of his blood, "Brother, you've come home."
Maul couldn't bring himself to ask for his twin's name, he didn't want to admit that he had forgotten it. Especially, not with those golden eyes looking at him with joy and hope.
"Feral," snarled a voice beside them, and Maul sighed as he looked up, recognizing the voice of his older brother. The yellow skinned male was somewhat taller, and his green-grey glare widened into shock, "Wrath? You're not dead?"
"No," Maul agreed.
"I told you he wasn't!" Feral enthused, "Didn't I tell you he was alive, Savage!?"
Maul was growing worried, was his twin brother even more exorbitant than Rey? Was such a thing even possible?
Savage sighed, placing a steady hand on Maul's shoulder, "Welcome home, little brother."
"My name is Maul," he said.
Savage raised a tattooed brow, "Is that what the name that foreigner gave you?"
Any better than the name our sire slaying mother gave us? He wanted to ask in turn, but instead, he said, "No, it's the name I earned."
Savage half smiled at him as Feral -his twin, grinned at him. The other Nightbrothers were backing off, giving them space.
"Where were you raised?" Savage asked.
"Mustafar," he replied, "but I've travelled the galaxy, brothers."
Feral grabbed his hand, and oddly, Maul didn't feel the need to pull away, "Did you come on your own ship?"
Maul scowled, "The Nightsisters stole it from me." And he had every intention of stealing back, hopefully without having to go on a killing spree. He truly hadn't come here to make enemies.
"That's alright," Feral said cheerily -reminding Maul painfully of Rey when she was happy, "You're home."
Maul blinked at him, home. What a foreign concept.
Savage wrapped them both in an embrace, "Nothing is going to separate us again."
Maul doubted very much that their elder brother had the power to keep such a promise, but feeling the power in his own veins, Maul that maybe he did.
And perhaps, he could train his brothers, even the rest of the Nightbrothers. Perhaps they might be made into a force that could rival their sisters.
Not rule them, it wasn't only power, he knew that kept the females in charge of Dathomir, culture and inclination went a long way as well. But perhaps, they could become strong enough to not be killed after siring a child, strong enough to be treated with some level of respect rather than livestock by their females.
Maul could teach his people the secrets he had learned not from Talzin, not even from his once Master, but the things he had learned from the Force itself.
He could teach them the Dark and the Light, he could teach them what the Jedi and Sith had handicapped themselves from learning.
The Force sang in his ears, and he knew coming here had been the will of the Force.
Maul smiled at his golden eyed twin brother, the Force was with them, and the galaxy would one day know of the power of Dathomir.
AN: Thoughts, reactions, or feedback? Please your reviews are lights in the dark~