(I do not own anything from Star Wars.)
Chapter 12: Complication
As the red, finely-polished speeder pulled into a docking bay located near a diner in Coco Town, Uriael sensed the distinct darkness that was her chaser.
She knew that Darth Maul drew nearer as each second passed and decidedly turned to her unharmed puppet to relieve him of his forced duty.
"You will return to your home immediately," Uriael persuaded his mind. "You will not remember this encounter. You will go home as quickly as you can and resume what you were planning tomorrow."
She would have thanked him but it seemed wrong to thank someone who did not oblige to having his mind controlled in the first place.
The Jedi quickly made her way out of the speeder and rushed down a walking path while throwing her hood over her scarred face.
...
The blonde teenager awoke from his trance with the feeling of a sudden need to get back to his apartment. He didn't think about where he was or how he had gotten there.
He quickly reversed in direction and followed the traffic that flowed through Coruscant.
Maul felt a rush of energy commence through him as he made his way through the traffic. He could tell that the Jedi was now traveling in a less relaxed manner and that she was moving with great haste.
What was she thinking? He thought to himself while dodging a waste vehicle with his astounding depth perception and coordination.
He made an abrupt change in direction and turned a hard right with the knowledge that there was a speeder in his path. As a matter of fact, Maul could feel her fading presence within it.
She persuaded its rider.
Maul thrust the speeder upward, changing gears and direction, to dodge the red speeder.
He slowed down immediately as the cloak of the coming night hid his presence in the small area of Coruscant known as CoCo Town.
He was very familiar with this place, as he had gotten tips from the owner of Dex's Diner, Dexter Jettser. Most of them were forced, since he was also one who would give tips to the Jedi for free.
He maneuvered past many tanks and ran through steam that had been released by a number of vents. He decided to park his vehicle within the steam to hide it from any possible storm-troopers as well as onlookers in general.
He stepped off of the speeder, straightened out his robe, and after looking around with what seemed to be an only slight interest in his surrounding area, he went into an effortless sprint.
Any troopers with eyesight that could challenge a droids wouldn't have been able to catch the spine-tingling movement of this Sith. A streak of dark was all that could be seen, in which most would not notice anyway, let alone it being in the dark.
Maul persisted onward and jumped over steam tanks that were located behind the familiar and outdated diner. He looked around and found the back door in which most of the staff that weren't droids would come for a smoke.
As if on cue, an old, overweight, four-armed, brown alien, who wore a scrappy shirt, came out through the back door while having already reached into his apron for a smoke.
Maul walked towards Dexter and watched as he looked up from the burning end of the cigarra. The old alien's face changed from someone who was concentrated on getting a smoke to someone who had expected to see a ghost.
"Out of all of this chaos, I'd rather not see the face of a ruiner such as you," the old alien said dismally.
"It's been quite a while, Dexter," Maul answered back.
Dexter snorted, "I'm guessing that you didn't come here for a chat and some Jawa juice, so just get to the point of your vis-"
"You saw her," Maul interrupted.
"Saw who?" Dexter asked confusedly.
"You saw a woman dressed in a brown robe running across your diner."
At that moment, a memory played in Dexter's mind. He saw a woman rushing past the diner, while he was 'conversing' with some troopers that had stopped in for a beverage. She was running rather fast and she did have a brown robe on, hood and all. But she had very noticeable markings under her eyes…
"I did see a- wait a minute. Did you just read my mind?" Dexter shouted at the Sith, not even caring about keeping his voice humble. "You little, horned pain in my-!"
"It's been fun chatting, Dex," Maul said quickly.
Maul disappeared and sprinted back into the darkness as fast as a bolt of lightning.
Dexter stood there perplexed by the situation.
"He read through my mind. I remember when he would have to force information out of me," Dexter said to himself. "I wonder how strong one can become after such a long absence as his…"
…
Maul figured it may have been five minutes since Dexter had seen her, so he knew that she could have been miles away from him. He could also sense that she was putting a strain on her body.
He didn't know exactly what she was doing; with her, he had to concentrate harder. She was very good at keeping him from looking into her thoughts. So, he would have to go about it in a different way.
He pinpointed where she was by telepathically reading where she had traveled. She was several yards east of where he had currently stood. Very much near the Executive Building…
Where Windu perished…
Maul let go of his concentration on her and ran as fast as he could around the buildings. It was as if his feet didn't even touch ground.
She must have felt the Force emanating off of him.
He turned and finally reached the edge of the street that she was just about to jump off of.
Before she could even lift her feet off of the ground, Maul had reached for her and grabbed a hold of the hood from her robe, as it was no longer a top of her head.
As he pulled on the robe, he found that she had already taken her arms out of the sleeves. Instead of leaping forward, she flipped backwards over Maul's head and landed smoothly on both of her feet. Then, she ran up behind him and made a fist with her right hand as if wanting to punch him from behind.
But Maul had already turned around and caught her fist within his gloved, left-handed fingers. He stopped her in her tracks and furiously clinched down onto her metacarpals, while he glared down at her angrily and almost excitedly.
She gave a slight moan from the amount of pressure he pressed onto her hand, and she thought that he would crush it into a ball of bones. But she could feel as his right hand was getting ready to punch into her stomach, so she quickly moved her free left hand down and actually caught it and then dug her thumb into the very center of the bottom part of his wrist.
The Sith and the Jedi both stared at one another, as if to see who would break their hold first, but neither one of them let down. Both of their muscles, throughout their crossed arms and torsos, had begun to clinch and shiver at the unnatural strength coming from the both of them.
Uriael knew that Maul had the upper hand when it came to tolerance of pain, but she sucked it up, even if the pressure on her fist would cause her hand to fall off.
Maul had gotten dangerously bored with the game and released the hold on her right hand only to spread his fingers out in front of her chest.
Suddenly, her body was thrown backwards, because of the Force push Maul had used against her.
She almost fell onto her head before she moved her hands towards the ground to push against it, which caused her to flip backwards so she could regain control of her movement, and then landed in a crouched position.
By then, Maul had already begun to run towards her. He lunged forward and made a hard fist with his right hand to pummel her.
She saw the fist and launched herself forward and allowed her body to roll until she was back to her feet, just in time to dodge Maul's attack on her. He punched what resembled a small crater in the ground. She was lucky that it wasn't her head.
As Maul had just hit his feet to the ground, she made her move. She ran up behind him like a breeze of wind, and jumped to kick him with her right leg to the right side of his stomach.
Maul sensed her movement and flexed his bicep after having lowered his arm to block her kick. He felt that it was a pretty strong kick at that. But he paid no mind and grabbed the leg that he had just blocked and threw it and the rest of her body to the ground before him.
The Jedi's body broke into the street, after she had made a force field around herself. It still hurt, but she could manage the pain by using the Force. She went to hit him in his face, but Maul grabbed the fist she had made. His hand practically swallowed the punch.
He then slammed her hand to the ground and did the same with the other, pinning her already chaffed wrists.
Uriael shut her eyes and tried to think of a way out of this. She knew what was coming next.
Indeed, Maul threw his head back in an attempt to bust her head open, but before he could, she threw her body to the left, deciding to protect her head by sacrificing her left shoulder.
Maul's attack was still damaging, and the horns on the right side of his head pierced into her shoulder and slid all the way down her back side, until his head made contact with the ground.
Uriael seethed in pain, but found a chance to free her right hand from Maul's grasp. She then reached towards the area where Maul had punched into the ground and used the Force to fling one of the lose pieces of concrete into his head.
The Sith could feel the shift in the Force, so he pulled his head up from the ground, and lifted his left arm out and caught the piece of concrete.
He then turned towards the Jedi, and glared angrily at her now unsure face. His off-white teeth ground against one another and he crushed the chunk of concrete with his hand.
The Jedi was ready to fight back with her free hand, but something strange happened. All of a sudden, the anguish of someone grabbing a hold of the organs in her lower-abdomen commenced. And instead of flattening her palm out and thrusting it into Maul's free nose, she decided to let the fight end.
"You're finished," he said, as he punched her in the head with his dirtied hand.
Her eyes rolled into the back of her head, and a scowl formed on her face. There was now a deep gash over her right eye, and the blood immediately coursed out of the opening.
"You should not have challenged me," Maul said without a loss of breath.
She truly was no match for him. He looked at her bloodied face and saw that the Jedi had started to shake off the hit, but was still a bit dazed.
A knight should be better than this at fighting, he thought to himself. She must be holding back or the Council really was desperate…
Maul stood up and lifted her off of the ground, holding her under his right arm. He knew that now was not a good time to go and fight it to the death. He should have been preparing for his mission. He also should have been keeping her presence quiet back in the building.
He had lied to Lord Sidious about there being no living Jedi on Coruscant. He had made out with her and almost had sex with her. He wondered what he had gotten himself into.
Did he understand? Not at all; normally, he would have fought until his opponent was dead. Not long ago, after knowing of her order he would have done so. Why didn't he? Why was she still alive? Why did he let her live?
"I've had enough of this. We're going back," Maul stated as he was about to sprint behind the buildings.
"Leave me ALONE!"
Uriael made a surprise attack and punched him straight in the chin. Her punch was almost equal to his in strength and certainly made him release her from his hold.
She scrambled herself to her feet and wiped the blood from her eyes. She tried to stand as straight as she could with the wounds inflicted on her back, but she was beginning to feel pain in her abdomen again. The fighting took a lot out of her and her already aching body.
Maul stumbled backward a bit, but the hit did more damage than just the blood dripping down from the left corner of his mouth.
He looked at her while touching an index finger to the blood, just so he could see for himself if he was actually bleeding. He didn't know what to feel. Embarrassed, angry, or upset; he couldn't pick an exact emotion to describe how he felt.
He was almost oblivious as to what just happened. As he felt his jaw practically break into the roof of his mouth, he swore that he could feel something.
She held onto her belly and looked as if she was going to say something, but then she toppled over onto her hands and knees, and did well in not yelling out in pain.
Maul didn't understand what was going on, but he could feel that someone else was there with them. He could also feel another presence that was traveling towards them.
He looked around all over the place and was at first unable to place who or where this power was coming from. He could sense the dark side, and it was emanating from someone other than himself.
"Just… leave me…"
He saw her on the ground, holding her stomach tightly. He, and definitely she, could feel someone else's Force pressing down on her. The blood continued to drain from the gash he placed on her forehead and out of the grazes on her shoulder and back.
Maul walked over to her and picked her up once again, but instead of making small talk, he ran as fast as he possibly could west, through the buildings and over random things that he didn't need to see with his eyes. He was running so fast that everything he was dashing past was nothing but blurs and shadow.
"Someone is following us," Maul explained to Uriael.
"Who?" she asked, while trying to hold onto him through her pain.
He didn't answer. He jumped over a small steam vent and then asked, "Can you conceal your connection with the Force?"
As he expected her to say "no", she ended up answering, "Yes."
Interesting… he thought to himself.
Maul stopped behind the diner that he was at earlier, and ran in through the back door…
"MAUL, WHAT IN THE BLAZING HELL ARE YOU DOING IN HERE?"
Dexter, infuriated at the sight of the Sith having barged into his place of business, yelled at his uninvited guest, with all four of his arms waving in the air. He wanted to shove him out right then and there.
As he was about to try and curse Maul out of his diner, he saw the woman in his arms, oozing out large amounts of blood.
"What did you do to her-"
"We're being followed by one of Azazul's henchmen and we are going to hide here-"
"Now, wait just a minute!" Dexter commanded through his deep and profound voice. "How dare you walk in here as if you own the place? I am trying to live on with my life with this little diner, and you expect me to risk the endangerment of myself, my staff, and my customers just to harbor a Sith?"
"If you don't allow us to hide in here, I will kill you, and then you won't have a say in the matter," Maul growled, as he pulled out his lightsaber and lit up one of the ends. "We cannot be seen together, especially outside of Azazul's home. I swear that I will tear your throat out if you don't move your fat ass out of my-"
"Stop- please," Uriael begged the both of them, saying it in a whisper to remind Maul that they were trying to keep their whereabouts concealed.
She got out of Maul's hold and stood between Dex and the blood-red lightsaber.
"Let me… please…" she offered while applying pressure to the open wound on her forehead.
Maul looked down at her in disagreement, but powered down his saber anyway. He turned around from the other two and crossed his arms tightly. He couldn't believe that she just did that and that he let her.
Uriael continued and began to plead with Dexter.
"Please, I need a place to hide as well. I will be tortured if I am caught."
Dexter finally took his hateful gaze away from Maul and made eye-contact with Uriael.
"At least show me mercy, and trust that we will not let any harm come to anyone in here," she pleaded.
Dexter looked at her and back to Maul. Over and over again he did this until finally he shook his head in disapproval for the decision that he had made.
"Stay in here," he beckoned them while opening a door to a closet, which was full of boxes. "Try not to make a ruckus and hopefully you will not be seen or found. And, have this ma'am."
Dexter turned around and grabbed a fire blanket off of the wall near an old, unused stove.
"Thank you," Uriael said with a slight smile.
As Uriael limped into the closet with the blanket in hand, and Maul after her, Dexter commented-
"Just know I'm not doing this for you. You just happen to be benefiting from it."
"Go back to the kitchen, Dex," Maul warned, already close to the edge to tackling the big alien down to the ground and ripping out his vocal chords.
Dexter shut the door and stomped off back into the kitchen, assuring his two waitresses that his yelling was due to him having stubbed his toe on a wall corner.
The human waitress, Hermione, rolled her eyes and continued to a table with a tray on her right shoulder while the droid, WA-7, swore she heard him mutter something about "horny bastards" and something on the lines of "Sithscum."
…
Maul stood behind the door, eyes shut and brows furrowed over. He began breathing slowly through his nose. He did not like being talked down to by anyone, especially some overweight alien who wore an apron for a living.
Uriael on the other hand sat on the floor while wrapping the blanket around her upper body. She then leaned against the wall while trying to ignore the stinging pain of the harsh blanket pressing into the wounds on her back.
She would have used the Force to help it heal faster, but she and Maul were both hiding. They both needed to keep their connection with the Force to an all-time low. Normally it would not have been an issue for her, but right now, her body wasn't allowing her a second of rest.
"That was quite a story you came up with," Maul remarked to the Jedi, "to ensure us a place to hide."
"It was anything but," Uriael reacted.
"If you hadn't decided to escape, we wouldn't be in this predicament," Maul complained to the Jedi.
Uriael kept quiet and didn't say anything back to the Sith.
Everything in her and on her seemed to be in distress. She had to admit that Maul could pack one heck of a punch. She knew that he had the upper hand not just in raw strength, but in experience.
What surprised her was the fact that he didn't activate his lightsaber while they fought. Once Dexter raised his voice to Maul, he immediately used the threat of his weapon. But not with her, and she raised more than just an inkling of her voice.
Just then, both Maul and Uriael could sense that Rokujou had entered into the diner.
Damn, he's more in-tuned than I gave him credit for, Maul thought.
"Do you think he's able enough to find us?" Uriael asked Maul with slight disdain, not fully appreciative of the wounds that he had given to her.
She pressed hard against the wall and against her forehead, hoping that the bleeding would stop sooner than later.
"He won't," he answered her question.
Almost on cue, he licked the corner of his mouth, tasting the blood that had begun to dry up on his lips and cheek.
His answer was a bit arrogant, but Uriael didn't think that it had to do with the fact that he was being too sure of himself.
Maul looked back down at her, watching her breathe in and out deeply. She seemed to be doing okay… not that he cared.
He remembered feeling something push down on her after she had punched him. It didn't seem to be anyone that was there or that was near there. He knew that it couldn't have been Rokujou, because the signature was different than that. It was from someone who was far more talented in the dark arts.
"Jedi…" Maul said, knowing it would get her attention.
"You want to know who that was playing with my insides?" she asked.
"I know who it was. I can't believe that he is powerful enough to reach out to you as far as he is," he commented, almost as if he had been thinking to himself the whole time.
"He's never done that before. It must be because of the… miscarriage. I suppose he is a bit upset about it."
Maul kept his eyes off of her while she answered him. He could barely stand to glance at her and see her scars, let alone look at them.
He loathed Azazul, to the point where he wasn't going to inflict any harm on the Jedi. Not the kind of harm that the rattataki had muscled into her, anyway.
Still, if he really wanted to get under Azazul's skin, he could easily do so by killing the wretched creature. Then that pale prick would have to find somewhere else to plant his seed.
Albeit, Maul couldn't stand the thought of Azazul doing that to her either. He had to admit this to himself. All of his ill-favored thoughts on the subject made him think about what would be of her when Azazul came back.
Why should I care? I don't- what a waste of time to spend on her…
No matter how much he told himself this, he still didn't like the thought of what her fate would be if she was left there with Azazul.
He should have killed her once he found out that she was a Jedi. It wouldn't have been hard at all. Just a swift blow from his saber and she would have been put out of her misery. He would have towered over her dead body, knowing that he had killed one of the last living Jedi.
"But, what would you do then?"
The same voice that had plagued his thoughts earlier, while he was almost successful in his meditation, was now obstructing him in his current thoughts.
Maul could not believe his ears. This voice was becoming a worse bother than the Jedi herself.
"You are becoming intrusive," Maul commented as calmly as he could to the voice, without letting the girl hear.
"That is my purpose," the strange voice concluded. "Now, what would you do if you killed her?"
"I live to serve my master," Maul answered abruptly.
"No. You don't."
Maul could have laughed, but he did well from doing so.
"I live in the name of the Sith, and the reason that I am a Sith is because of my Lord, Sidious," Maul replied back to the voice.
"Well, your Lord has a new Apprentice. And he is more important to him than you ever were," the voice construed.
"It doesn't matter. Master was the only one that I ever had any relation to. He was the only one who appreciated anything that I ever did. He is the reason why I am still alive-"
"Oh no, you are very much wrong about that," the voice intruded. "The only reason why you are still alive is because of what you had been trained to do for so many years."
Maul didn't fully comprehend where this voice was going with what he was saying. He guessed that the voice belonged to a man, because it was deep and sounded masculine. He was also sure that the voice was recognizable…
"You live to kill. More importantly, you live to kill Jedi."
It sounded as if the being that the voice belonged to seemed to be speaking right into Maul's ears.
"You were trained to fight and kill Jedi for most of your life. Is there anything else that could be of more importance? No… So here she is- one of the last living Jedi. Don't you want to kill her?"
Maul didn't know how to answer this. He was a Sith and she was a Jedi. No matter what the situation was or the conditions that were involved, they were natural enemies. They were meant to fight. They were meant to fight against the threat of death to finish the other off.
"Of course I want to kill her. What a stupid question to ask. I was born to kill Jedi!" Maul boasted to the voice.
"Then do it now."
Maul let his eyes dart over to where the Jedi was resting.
Her gray and yellow eyes showed concern for the situation with Rokujou in the diner. The cut over her left eye had finally stopped bleeding. She now had both of her hands resting on her lower-abdomen.
"How easy would it be for you to kill her? She is in an acutely weak state. You have had much more fighting experience than she. The girl has no protection against you, and she has no means to fight back," the voice continued on, seemingly attempting to coerce Maul to do so.
The Sith peered down at his powered down lightsaber. He could kill her there and sneak out of the diner while Rokujou interrogated Dexter. He could throw her body on his speeder and throw her down into Coruscant's underworld on his way back to the senatorial house. He could be rid of her. Rid of everything that happened during his stay there.
"Why haven't you already done it?" the voice queried. "When you were fighting her earlier, you had the advantage. You had the weapon- the saber. It has claimed the lives of Jedi Masters. Surely you could have done so to her, with more ease."
Maul shot his glance away from his saber and shut his eyes. He didn't even know the answer himself.
"Very interesting…" the voice contemplated, "You do not wish to kill her. As a matter of fact, you do not wish her dead."
Before Maul could protest against the assumption that the voice had made, he could feel an exaggerated movement made by the Jedi.
She looked as if she was about to storm out of the closet.
Maul snatched her and pushed her against the same wall that she had, until that moment, rested on.
"What do you think you are doing?"
"I know that you don't care about what happens to anyone in there, but I do!" she yelled in a forceful tone, trying to get him to release her from his grasp.
Maul didn't know what she was babbling about, most likely because he had not been paying attention to the situation out in the diner.
Rokujou seemed to have Dexter by the neck and had just thrown him to the floor, causing all of the customers to gasp allowed and some to shriek in surprise.
"Stop," he said, holding her back.
"I don't care if I get beaten or whipped. He didn't do anything to deserve to get attacked like this," she countered with a pleading voice. "Let me go and you won't have to deal with me anymore- I'll be put back in my cell and stay there until Azazul returns-"
"SHUT UP!"
Maul startled her with his tremendous voice and she ceased her struggle against him.
"I will handle this. Stay in here and do not dare reveal yourself."
Maul let go of her and left her in the closet. She slowly slid down on the wall so that she could sit down, with a puzzled look on her face.
A swarm of thoughts entered into her opened mind, and she tried to sum up with her own answer as to why he went out there to stop Rokujou's actions.
The Jedi looked about the closet while in thought, taking in the sight of boxes stacked upon boxes. This must have been an area where Dexter kept extra supplies when they were needed.
As she let her eyes wander about the dark closet, she noticed one box that was semi-opened. With the light that crept in through the sides of the closet door, something shiny, in the box, caught her eyes.
Uriael slipped her hand into the box to grab the object, out of curiosity. She grasped onto it and pulled it out; she realized then that it was a dining knife with a plastic cover over the blade.
She stared at the serrated edge of the piece of cutlery.
It is nothing like a lightsaber, but it wouldn't hurt to have just in case…
She decided to keep the knife as a defense, if she needed it. She let the knife into a pocket that was located on the black shorts that Imara had lent to her.
The Sith stepped out, hooded and unnerved. He was dealing with some voice that nagged at him any moment he had time for his own thoughts, he could not find himself able to kill the Jedi, and now he had to deal with the idiot darksider that had followed him thus far.
Maul rounded a corner and then walked into the dining section of the place.
The arkanian, Rokujou, had his lightsaber ready to cut off Dexter's head.
"You had better tell me the truth right now, Jettster. I know that he has been in here- I could sense him right outside of this very building!" Rokujou bellowed out, not even noticing the man that had leaned against a wall right outside of the entrance that led to the back of the quaint restaurant.
All of the droids that had been doing dishes in the kitchen looked over at him and back to the situation with the white-haired alien that was currently threatening their boss's life.
"I swear that I haven't seen him in years!" Dexter repeated, trying hardily to advocate himself.
"Boss!" the waitress-droid, WA-7 screamed, with a frightened waitress covered in freckles standing and shaking behind her.
Both were right behind Dexter and wanted to help him up, but didn't in fear of the angry creature that had just walked in.
Rokujou's ghostly white eyes seeped with annoyance and frustration with his hostage. He didn't care about the fact that so many people would witness the murder. He had killed many with spectators watching.
Rokujou used the Force to push Dexter even farther into the floor that he was sprawled out on. Maul heard the sounds of people trying to keep their children from crying at the sight of this intruder and the sounds of each breath that Dexter was trying to make.
He then let loose his lightsaber, allowing its blue light to spill out.
The ill-tempered arkanian hissed, "You lie to me. Maul has been here and you know it. Tell me where he has gone or I will cut you down a size!"
"Rokujou."
Just as his name was called, he looked towards the back and saw the Sith that he had been searching for leaning back on a wall, with his arms tight across his chest.
Everyone in the restaurant now set their attention on him.
"Lord Maul…," Rokujou couldn't find a word to say in account for his following him there. He looked back down at Dexter and seethed, "So you did lie to me-"
"He only did as I ordered him to do," Maul interrupted.
"Why have you followed me?" Maul imposed on his spy.
"Why are you here, Lord Maul?" Rokujou asked, ignoring Maul's very own question.
"I came here for some ardees," Maul answered dishonestly. "And he was cooking me something to eat."
At the same time, he spoke to Rokujou through telepathy.
"Azazul ordered you to follow me around. I know this. But remember… I am the boss now, and-"
Maul walked past the two frightened waitresses as if they weren't even there, and didn't pay any mind to the disgusted and petrified customers. He kept his mighty gaze solely on Rokujou.
"-if you ever follow me again, I will butcher you and feed you to the Cthons down in the pits."
"Power down your saber," Maul commanded with a cautionary cocked brow.
"No," Rokujou objected out of frustration.
Maul almost allowed a growl to pass his tattooed lips, as his saber whipped right into his hand. He powered it up, once again, letting the crimson weapon out of its chamber.
"Do you really want to challenge me?" Maul catechized, hoping that he could let his vexation out on the dark Jedi.
I can fight you! Rokujou thought to himself, knowing that Maul would hear.
"Anyone can fight me, you cur."
Maul then powered the other end of his saber.
"But mine is larger than yours," Maul grinned.
Rokujou looked down at Dexter, who was now staring awkwardly at Darth Maul. The bewildered alien powered down his lightsaber, released Dexter from his hold, and advanced out of the diner, hating Maul for disconcerting him in such a way.
Maul watched as Rokujou leaped into his speeder and rushed back to the house.
He figured now that maybe he wouldn't be able to trust anyone that would be left here on Coruscant when he went on his mission. The noghri seemed loyal to authority, so he was considering leaving them solely in charge.
"Maul, what in the world did you just do?" Dexter questioned in his usual condescending manner, while the two waitresses helped him get off the floor as he used his lowest pair of arms to push himself up.
"I told him to get off of my back," Maul acknowledged. "I suppose that, by chance, you happened to benefit from it."
Maul then added, "I was serious about the food."
Dexter dusted off his apron and the rest of his clothes, while giving Maul a sappy smirk.
Maul walked past all of the people in the dining room and continued on into the back.
Dexter on the other hand looked around at his costumers. He just put all of his arms up in the air and stated:
"Don't be alarmed! I am fine and so are all of you," he added, "You all get half off on all of your meals- a house specialty!"
Maul opened the closet door and saw the Jedi sitting down cross-legged, with her hands still placed on her lower abdomen.
She looked up at him, with no expression in mind to give. She gave a sigh, as she got herself up from the position she was in.
"So, you scared off Rokujou," Uriael commented to Maul, as she wrapped the blanket tighter around her and then cracked her neck by jerking her head to either side.
Maul remained focused on her. He didn't fully understand why, but he couldn't think of anything to say to her.
After she punched him dead square in the chin, he had thought about a lot of things. Like how the last time anyone had ever laid a hand on him was during a training session with Lord Sidious when he was barely a teen.
He couldn't stand that she had weakened him like she had. He couldn't kill her… he didn't understand why he couldn't but he didn't want to make it apparent to anyone, especially her.
Uriael glanced up at him and realized that he had been watching her without a moment's rest. She backed away, only slightly, concerned with the strange, out of place look that he gave.
"Here you are, Darth Maul," Dexter said, holding a large plate that had two large, rare-grilled steaks with some green vegetables on the side. "I figured you would want some meat."
Maul took his gaze off of the Jedi and grabbed a hold of the plate and walked past the both of them towards the darkened area where an old stove was, without a single word.
Dexter's eyes slanted at the sight of the thankless Maul. He then looked down at the young woman.
"Would you like something to eat?" he asked, not wanting to seem rude.
"No thank you," she answered, appreciative of being considered, but weary of the food options that Dex's Diner had available.
Dexter formed a look of concern and offered, "Let me see those cuts on your back."
Uriael obliged to his concern and took the blanket off of her shoulders. She then turned around, to let him see.
"Oh geez," he gasped silently. "Well, they aren't very deep and the bleeding has stopped, but they are going to need cleaning."
He sighed and looked back over at Maul, who was currently biting into one of the rare-cooked steaks.
"He did this?"
"I suppose that I deserved whatever wounds I received tonight," she responded guiltily. "Not too worried about scars, though."
At hearing that, Dexter snapped two of his fingers together and he left her there by her lonesome. She didn't take offense, because it seemed like he had left with reason.
Dexter returned with a large tube of some kind of ointment and handed it over to her, sneakily.
"This stuff works wonders on scarring- I keep it here for cuts and burns. There is some kind of cellular reconstruct in it, so it renews damaged skin," he explained, "and even if those scars don't go away completely, someone would have to look really hard in order to see 'em."
Uriael smiled and slipped the tube into the left pocket in her shorts, and then finished with, "Thank you for everything tonight."
"You are welcome, dear," he accepted with a large, crooked grin. "Be sure to bandage yourself up."
She nodded towards him just as Maul walked towards the two of them with a now empty plate.
He tossed the plate at Dexter and said, "You should have cooked it less."
"Sure," Dexter replied, not amused by Maul's rudeness, and then left to the kitchen.
"Let's go," he said to the Jedi and then turned and marched his way out of the diner.
"Keep your connection low as well. I don't want Rokujou to have the opportunity to tell his boss that I've been having sparring matches with you."
Uriael did as he said and commenced behind him, while wrapping the blanket back around her shoulders. As much as she opposed Darth Maul ordering her around, she had to agree with him.
She stepped out of the back door and watched Maul as he dialed in something on the metal bracelet that she had seen during their first encounter.
She stayed behind him and once again tickled at her abdomen. It was still giving her a bother. She also made sure that her new hidden weapon was safely tucked down into the pocket.
Maul stood while waiting for Bloodfin to come over to him. He peered down at his own abdomen because he had felt a stinging pain in his scar. This wasn't anything unusual; it would happen every once in a while, always at random.
As he brought his attention away from the scar, his speeder flew to the scene and halted right in front of its owner.
Maul got onto the speeder, swung his right leg over the seat and set both of his feet down on the pedals. He moved his hooded head in the Jedi's direction.
"Get on," Maul ordered the girl, who had cocked a violet brow while sizing up his custom-made speeder.
Uriael pulled tightly onto the blanket as she stepped over to the speeder that she herself was not comfortable riding. She did as Maul had and swung her right leg over the seat.
One could say that both of them were uncomfortable, being so closely seated in such a crude manner. The Sith seemed to not care as much as the Jedi did. He didn't seem to care much about anything that was going on at that moment.
He immediately took off with the speeder, jetting through all of the buildings that he had gone through while he was searching for her.
Uriael instantly grabbed a hold of the blanket to keep it around her neck and grabbed a hold of Maul's waist with her other arm, without hesitation. Her eyes popped open once they began moving into traffic.
She didn't mind regular speeders that one could actually sit in. This, on the other hand, didn't feel safe… knowing who it belonged to made that fact less shocking.
Maul continued and made his way into traffic, dodging all of the vehicles that were in his way.
He felt a strange sensation when Uriael wrapped around him with her arm. This feeling was similar to that of when she rested her head on his shoulder earlier that day. He could not comprehend what this feeling was exactly, but it wasn't anything that he had ever felt before.
The air passed by them steadily as the speeder pushed against the wind and the rest of the traffic. It was night by now, and the only light that was left was from the buildings and all of the other vehicles that passed them by.
Maul was used to wind blowing at his face, to the point where he didn't notice the pain that came from the sharp cold. A lot of things that would cause any nuisance of hurt didn't seem to vex him.
Uriael, on the other hand, was very glad to be behind the Sith. Even though her skin was thicker because of her iktotchi heritage it was nice that his body acted as a shield against the cold that traveled with the wind.
Hmm…The idea of Maul acting as any form of protection for her was fairly peculiar, even if it was coincidental.
The fact that Maul had not killed was… troubling. Of course she was glad to be alive, but it didn't feel right. That night when she was forced into his room, there was also something that had happened that confused her.
He did all of that stuff, not realizing that I was forced…
She didn't want to say anything, but she could sense some form of turmoil that Maul had been enduring. It was like he had been combating with himself, almost ever since their first encounter. She had a faint idea that maybe that was why she wasn't already dead.
Uriael tightened her hold around Maul, bringing herself even closer to him. She even went as far as to rest her head on his back, while in thought.
Both of Maul's hearts began to race as she persisted in holding onto him even more tightly. He felt as she outstretched her fingers over his waist and as she pressed closer to him, in an almost embracing fashion.
Don't even think about it, Maul cautioned as he reminded himself that the woman behind him was still a Jedi.
He was beginning to feel even more discomforted by the situation. The sensation that he had felt when she first touched him seemed to increase. He wasn't sure if he didn't like it or, even worse, that he did like it.
Uriael shut her eyes and went along with the ride, without allowing the sounds of ongoing traffic to deafen her thoughts.
Something about him didn't add up. He had so many chances to kill her and he took none of them. He could have murdered her while they were in that closet back at Dex's Diner. For a moment, she thought that he would.
At the same time, she could feel that there was tension between him and Azazul… For obvious reasons, she was glad that there was.
Maybe there is a personal issue? He did seem to be offended when I made a comparison. He didn't have anything good to say about him either…
"Do you have a history with Azazul, Darth Maul?' Uriael inquired.
Maul was just about relieved when she broke the cumbersome dead air between the two of them. It undoubtedly took his mind off of how close she had positioned herself.
"Not much of one."
"He thinks that he is a Sith," she explained.
"He would, despite the fact that he has barely taken orders from a higher position. The only time he is interested in performing any task is if he is rewarded…" Maul paused, as he remembered the vision that he had while choking the Jedi.
He then proceeded with what he was beginning to say, "It isn't hard to overlook any kind of thought that comes to mind when thinking about him."
Maul could have said that he didn't like him, but that was something Maul would consider an understatement.
"Oh…" Uriael sighed, and shut her eyes even deeper than before.
She knew that it was naïve to think that Maul had a personal problem with Azazul, maybe even something that had to do with what he had done to her. But for some reason, there seemed to be more to that relationship than Maul was letting on.
Before she knew it, she could feel the speeder spring upward, which pulled her body into the rough air that fought against this unnatural change in direction.
Maul landed the speeder right on the balcony of the room that the both of them were staying in.
The Jedi had just noticed how impressed her hold on him was and immediately let go of the Sith. She hopped off of the speeder and made sure that she didn't look at him in the face, while wrapping the blanket around her upper body again.
"I-" Uriael couldn't get out what she wanted to say to him.
"What, girl?" Maul beckoned, as he stepped off of the speeder and typed in a code onto his control bracelet.
Uriael watched as the speeder leapt off of the balcony with a roar as it went down back into the Sith infiltrator.
She kept her eyes facing away from Maul, even as he drew closer to her and even after he ended up standing right in front of her with his arms crossed.
"What?" he demanded while he stared down at her.
"I'm…" she looked down and then let her gray eyes fix onto his face, which even in the night was shadowed by his coal-colored hood.
"I'm sorry."
Uriael turned away from him and then opened the glass door so that she could get inside, away from the Sith.
What was I thinking? I was practically embracing him!
Maul stood outside, going over and over in his head what she had just said to him.
Sorry…
Whatever the reason was, he was shocked by hearing such a word said to him, and from the mouth of a Jedi at that.
With what he could remember, in all of his life, he had never been apologized to. He had never been given a "sorry" for any wrong that had been committed against him. Anything bad that had ever come… he began with believing it was his own fault.
Maul could feel her in the room. She felt ashamed of herself because of how close she had gotten to him on the speeder.
The wind seemed to be picking up as Maul continued to stay on the balcony. He wasn't thinking about anything in particular, as he allowed the cool breeze to pass underneath his dark robe. He turned to face the lights of Coruscant and gazed at nothing.
As he felt the wind force itself underneath his hood, he could sense that something was going to happen or that it was already happening; whether it was a good thing or bad thing, he couldn't tell.
It was almost as if whatever it was had been sneaking itself onto him. He couldn't stop this thing, this event, or this epiphany that would show its unwanted face to him.
He turned around and decidedly made his way inside, letting the glass door slowly shut behind him. The room was dark and chilly, and sure enough, the Jedi was bundled up on the couch.
Before they both had the chance to simply sit or stand in silence, Uriael decidedly got up from her seat and began walking towards the bathroom. Before she made it up the steps that led through the kitchen towards her destination, she paused and turned towards her captor.
"I didn't realize how close that I made myself on the way back here. I do apologize for that."
Maul did not reply to what she had said and she didn't wait for him to. He then went to his room and shut the door.
He leaned back on the door and made a very rough sigh. He pulled his gloves off and threw them on his dark-blue covered bed. He then grabbed a hold of his jaw, which was still tender from the blow that the Jedi had given him.
What's wrong with you? Maul contemplated over and over to himself. He was trying really hard just to maintain composure. He actually had to try.
One side of him knew that all of this was wrong; he should have told Lord Sidious that Azazul had been keeping a Jedi with him on Coruscant and he should have asked permission to destroy her, which also added to the fact that he should have wanted badly to kill her.
He had waited for a moment like this. He pined for the opportunity to slaughter just one more Jedi for more than a decade. Of course, he would have preferred the Jedi to have been one with more experience, one with whom was a man, and one whom he had fought with before…
But, even if he hadn't the chance to fight with Obi-Wan Kenobi, he had a chance to fight and kill this one. He could tell that she had a lot more talent than she let show. He knew that in normal conditions lacking the elements of her circumstance that she could probably give him a run for his money. Just the thought of it should have made him run into that bathroom to cut her body into pieces.
There was that dreaded thought, though, that if he had killed her… he would regret it. The thought of killing her, instead of fueling his malicious fantasies, actually gave him a sinking feeling in his gut. It was the kind of feeling that people generally did their best to avoid.
This feeling… there must be something wrong with me.
He stated this admitting that he really did feel this way. He truly did not want to kill her. As a matter of fact, it felt wrong to even consider killing her.
After Uriael had taken a hot shower to properly clean out the wounds on her back and to clean the dried blood off of her face, she got out and grabbed a towel from the droid, thanking him in the process.
"Is there any gauze and med-tape available?" she asked the droid.
"Yes, Ma'am," he answered. "I will go retrieve it for you."
"Thank you," she said, as she walked over to the mirror to look over the wounds that Maul had given her that night.
She made sure to cover up the cut on her forehead with the healing ointment that Dexter had given to her. Even though she knew her skin would heal up well, as it was in her nature, she wanted to be sure.
Before she applied it to the gashes on her back, she looked at herself in the mirror and couldn't help but frown upon Azazul's scars.
The only reason why the wounds to her face had not healed properly was due to the fact that there was ink lodged just beneath the skin. This also caused the area around the ink to feel tender.
These markings, she began thinking to herself, They are a symbol of everything he has done to me… A symbol of all of the sins committed onto me and my body.
She held up the bottle of ointment and thought about doing something. The thought of it sent her adrenaline through the roof, for before these past months, she wouldn't have possibly thought about performing something that was so… invasive.
Uriael bent down and looked in the cabinet underneath the sink. She was able to find a bottle of normal antiseptic.
Uriael then reached into the pocket of her shorts, which were folded on the sink, that she hid the knife from the closet in. Once again, she found herself grasping at the wooden handle while taking off the plastic covering.
Without a moment's hesitation, she leaned across the counter, over the sink to stare at the dreadful scars that Azazul, the man who had impregnated her against her will, had carved into her.
She took the knife by the handle and pointed the sharp tip at her face. After having spread her fair, clean skin away from the edge of the purple scar on the right side of her face, she took in a long, deep breath.
The Jedi exhaled, and immediately pressed the blade into the base of the scar underneath her eye.
She hissed in pain, but kept quiet. She continued, re-carving the shape. Blood began to trickle out of her self-inflicted wound. She stopped after she had made it to her lower jaw, where the scar ended.
Her violet eyebrows were tightly furrowed as she let her face hang over the sink so that the blood could drip down the drain. She hovered over the porcelain, which was now stained with blood, for a few moments.
As she waited for the bleeding to slow down just enough, she brought the bottle of antiseptic closer to the sink.
The bleeding finally slowed down and she willed a paper towel out of the cabinet below. She dabbed at the re-opened wound, to get the excess fluid off of her skin and to dry it as much as was possible.
Good enough, Uriael said, after having turned her head to the right over the sink.
She grabbed the bottle of antiseptic, to her right, and took another deep breath, exhaled, and began to pour the antiseptic into the bloody, purple scar.
It sizzled and burned into her skin and she tried hard not to well up with tears from how much it hurt. She kept her right eye shut tight, and let her left eye remain open, so she could see the foaming liquid hit the sink, bringing with it both remnants of blood and the purple dye that had situated itself in the very dermis of her skin. She even squeezed around the scar, forcing more of the dye out.
Finally, after having poured the whole bottle over the right side of her face, she lifted her head up and used the blood-stained towel to wipe the bitter liquid away from her mouth and wound. She lifted the towel away from where the purple scar once was to find nothing but a fleshy-colored, opened wound.
The droid had returned from underneath the small cabinet door next to the sink with a thick roll of white gauze, and set it down on the counter next to the Jedi, without showing any interest in what she was doing to herself.
While preparing to work on the other side, she didn't consider what Azazul would think of her handy work. She had thought, however, about what Maul's reaction would be.
He didn't seem to like them very much anyway.
That night, Maul had done a lot of thinking. He still was not sure of a lot of things, but he was certain of one. He would not be able to kill the Jedi-girl that he had in his custody.
The Sith walked out of his room, fully clothed, and sighed at the sight of the prisoner. She sat on the carpeted floor, with her legs crossed and her hands on her lap in a meditative stance. She had bandaged up the wounds on her back and the gauze wrapped around her right shoulder, and the rest of her back, to where she didn't need to wear a shirt.
"You're leaving, aren't you?" she asked him, already knowing what his answer would be.
He looked away from her and headed towards the refresher, so that he could do his business and take a shower. As he entered, he could smell the faint aroma of blood, which he recognized was the Jedi's. He ignored it, and headed towards the toilet.
After he was done with the bathroom, he stepped out and walked over to where the water dispenser was. He took out a glass and filled it up to the brim. He needed to drink not only because he was thirsty, but because his mouth was oddly dry.
He once again walked past the Jedi, and headed towards the door. He pressed the screen and the door shot up, exposing the hallway.
Before he left, he stood and waited, thinking of what to say to her. He turned his head and explained-
"I will be back in a week's time. I'm taking Commander Farkas and one of the noghri. I was going to leave Rokujou in charge, but that would now seem to be a rather grave mistake… Instead, I am leaving the other two noghri in charge."
Uriael turned her head to the left and peered over her shoulder towards Maul, to show that she was paying attention.
Maul turned to face her as well. He noticed something different, but he didn't leave himself enough time to observe what exactly it was.
Each pair of strange and unique eyes looked at the other, waiting for the Sith to finish.
"Don't do anything that would force me to come back sooner than I should have to. Himmel will watch over you and he will give orders to the twi'lek handmaiden. There shouldn't be much excitement around here until I leave for good…"
Uriael responded, "See you then."
Sure, he thought to himself as he walked out into the hall, leaving the girl behind in his room.