After re-reading the first posting of this chapter and reflecting on comments from a number of sources, I realized just how much I rushed into writing and posting it when it was far from ready. The whole thing with Obi's new 'powers' read like a "Jump-the-shark" moment, so I decided to do a little editing and post something I was much happier with. My apologies for the confusion on this, but I really felt I couldn't leave that chapter up the way that it was. I feel much better about how this one turned out and although it pretty much follows what I had before, the force power stuff just seems less out there and more plausible in the context of this AU.
Anne Camp aka Obi-quiet (review of chapter 56): Yeah, sorry about the length, but I really needed to get that set up for the next Obi section, which will come after this chapter, I promise! I guess I should have stipulated which ship Cody wants them to ram! Oops! But it's not giving anything away when I say it's the Separatist craft that Cody is planning to hit.
Anne Camp aka Obi-quiet (review of chapter old 57): I knew this wasn't working when I hastily posted it and your review only confirmed my suspicions, so thank you for your honest opinion. As my husband pointed out, if I had an editor they would have made the same comments and I'd have had the chance to change things before it was read. This was definitely a time when the review process worked! Please keep up with those honest opinions, I am curious to know what you think of the edit.
"So, what happens now?" asked Dex of the three huddled men. Obi looked over at Nawe and Boba, seeing the terror in their faces at the thought of facing Maul once again. Both of them had suffered abuse at his hands and the memories of those abuses were crippling them in this dark hour. The ship lurched as it was pulled up into the hangar and Kenobi could make out several battalions of battle droids lined up to await them. He had no answer for this, and the force was unsettlingly quiet to him at the moment, probably brought on by his encounter with Palpatine and compounded by his wounded side. Now with Maul's sickening presence rapidly approaching his weakened mind, he could only visualize horrific outcomes to every scenario as it flashed through his brain. And then the awful truth struck him that escape at this point was futile, their gambit had failed and a deepening hole of despair was threatening to consume him. A flicker of vengeance rippled through his turbulent emotions and a desperate plan formed in his hazing mind.
"We destroy the ship," he said calmly, the taste of his own blood creeping through his lips. His lower body was practically paralyzed with his pain and he knew he didn't have long, but he was damned if he was going to allow Maul to use any of these people against him, or have them suffer needlessly on his behalf. He was so overwhelmingly tired of the whole damn thing. The assault on Palpatine was still haunting his brain, like it was still being shredded, the daggers of darkness pressing into him. He had nothing left to put up against Maul, he just wanted the whole thing to be over and the destruction of the ship seemed more worthwhile than anything else he could think of at that moment. The three other occupants looked on him in horror, but Nawe was quickly at his side, the fear in his eyes shifting to determination. He knew what his Captain was asking of him. He knew what fate awaited them if they allowed Maul to take them and he knew he was not the man to live through that again. But if there was a way to take the red stained menace with them, then he was in.
"At your side, Captain," he said earnestly, but shaking at the same time. He had prided himself on his courage in the face of adversity once, a long time ago it now seemed, but Latterie was here, his true captain, and he would follow that man to his death, the loyalty he had forgotten he possessed rising to the forefront of his being now he was confronted with the return of his personal hell. He looked over at Boba, seeing the fear he felt at meeting Maul again reflected in the child's eyes.
"No," whispered Boba, pulling away from Ben and Nawe, "I can't.. I mean, maybe we could –"
"Boba," came Dex's voice as he moved to his young friend's side. He had no experience with this Maul character, but it was apprentice to the monster in the senate and that was enough, along with the men's reactions, to know this was not a man to trifle with. He had to admit that this was not the turn of events he had foreseen in his future, but against the odds that they were about to face, it seemed even the wily old besalisk couldn't see how they would get out of this one.
"Will it end this?" he asked Obi-Wan who was turning grey with each passing moment.
"Destroying Palpatine is only half the battle. If we can stop Maul here, it will truly be over. The dark side will have no conduit within a sith lord to take hold. I have to believe that the fighting will turn back in our favor, and we can move on from this horrific debacle." Another coughing fit wracked Ben's body and he lurched forward, "besides," he grimaced, "I could really do with a good long rest in the force, don't you think?"
"But..?" spluttered Boba at the realization that this was happening. His mind was frozen in time, fixed on the instant that Ben had spoken the words to destroy the ship, quite obviously with them in it. "This can't be happening! We should have won! I don't want to –"
Ben reached out to him and pulled him close as the boy's tears ran down his face, his emotions in turmoil.
"I thought it would be you and me saving Dad," he sobbed into Ben's shoulder.
"You already have, Boba," came Ben's calming voice as he hugged the child. How he wished he could get the boy to safety. But there was no where to send him, even if he could at this moment. The senate and temple were under attack, there was no safe place close on the surface any more. Maul had won and there was no way Ben was going to let Boba feel the twisting hate of the sith lord's torment.
"Listen to me, Boba," Ben continued trying to quell another bout of coughing from preventing his words coming across. He pulled Boba away from his shoulder so he could look the boy in the eye. "You did it, old man, you freed them all! Your father would be so proud of you, as I am proud of you. I wish things could have been different. But I made a promise to tell you the truth, always, and this is the end, Boba. Maul cannot be allowed to take advantage of your brothers' freedom. He must be stopped. And right now, we are the only ones who can do that. If we destroy our ship in this hangar, we can burn that droid infested craft out of the sky, with Maul in it!"
There was still fear in those eyes, but also a pride of purpose that Ben hadn't seen before. The thought that he had truly made a difference in the lives of his brothers was just creeping into Boba's consciousness and with it a sense of confidence in his ability to handle this difficult situation. With Ben at his side he had shown he could accomplish anything and the destruction of Maul at first sounding beyond attainable was becoming plausible. His father had sacrificed everything for him, almost his own life in the Geonosian arena. It was time to pay back in kind even if that meant Boba's own life.
"Just how do we do that?" asked Dex, "I mean, we can overload the engines and set a fuel fire, but that will take time. Not so much time if I have some help, mind you." Dex placed his hand on Boba's shoulder and the lad looked up into the Besalisk's gleaming eyes. The creature seemed actually excited by this prospect. "Help me, lad?" he asked casually. Boba took another glance at Ben, his anxiety still written all over his face, but resignation soon followed and he bowed his head.
"What can I do?" Boba said quietly. Ben pulled him in for another hug and Boba clung to him, not wanting this to be real, but horrifically aware how real it all was.
"This way, kid," said Dex and he led him to the back of the craft where the engines were easily accessed in this model of ship.
"We need to keep them off this ship," said Ben to Nawe, who had retrieved the weaponry on board.
"I understand," Nawe said gravely. A fire fight in a hangar full of droids was not going to be easy, especially with a sith lord and who knew what else on board. But they wouldn't get passed Nawe without a fight, that was for sure.
"Help me up," said Ben as the craft moved through the docking hatch to sit in the main hangar. "I'll keep Maul back as long as I can. You just keep the droids busy."
Nawe placed Ben's arm around his shoulder. Ben could barely move his legs so they struggled to the crafts's entrance and Ben slid to the floor once they got there. Nawe crouched on the other side of the door frame, ready to begin the defense of the ship. He placed one of the weapons in Ben's shaking, bloodied hand. Ben looked at it for a moment, the weight of it pulling his arm to the floor where he discarded it and shoved it over the Nawe. The lad looked puzzled and was met with a rueful smile.
"Can't lift the uncivilized thing anyway," came Latterie's breathy response to his former Private. Nawe nodded in quiet understanding. He took a quick glance to see that Dex and Boba were already at the main engine and several sparks sprang up and hissed at their attention.
The craft finally settled and the droids approached. Ben looked out briefly to take in the scene. He felt Maul's presence, but the Zabrak himself was not in the hangar deck as far as he could tell. Ben had a feeling that would change once their defensive stance reached his awareness. Right now the sith was probably feeling pretty good about everything, he had everything exactly where he wanted. Palpatine would soon be dead thanks to Dooku and Anakin and he was in control of the separatist fleet, and had managed to score a hit on the Jedi temple. Thank goodness the evacuation plan would have secured most of the younglings out already. Obi-Wan knew he couldn't dwell on that right now, he had to keep the ship clear until they could set the engines off.
"Why isn't the door opening?" came the metallic drawl of a droid from outside the ship's door.
"Maybe it's malfunctioning, check the circuits."
As the droids approached, Ben gave the nod and Nawe who hit the release so the ramp fell on the unsuspecting droid. Then Ben reached up a slightly bloodied hand and pushed out with the force in a wave that arched droids across the deck, metallic limbs crashing into one another and brief sparks indicating the carnage he had unleashed in their ranks.
"Blast them!" called the first recovering commander droid and the fire erupted over the ship. Nawe gave back in kind, his shots well aimed at commander droids. But Ben felt a darkness suddenly building in the pit of his stomach as the presence of Maul shifted close to him. A lance of dark pain spiked in his mind as Maul's anger washed over him.
"Foolish!" was all he heard as he shook his head to recover and he reached up to grasp at Nawe, before the young man was wrenched from the craft and all firing ceased. Ben could only watch in horror as Nawe flew across the hangar and into the grip of the tall cyborg Ben recognized as General Grievous. Nawe struggled for a moment, before Grievous grabbed his flailing arms. Still Nawe pulled against the crushing grip, until Grievous grew tired of the boy's attempts and wrapped his fingers around Nawe's left forearm and twisted it sharply. The snap of the bone was heard around the hushed hangar and Nawe screamed out his pain as the grip on the injured arm only tightened.
"Stop!" screamed Ben from his prone position on the floor of the craft. Grievous looked up at him, holding Nawe now by the throat, suspending him in the air.
"We surrender," called Ben and he raised his hands to show it. He glanced at Nawe, who, through his pain hazed eyes realized what his captain was doing. Nawe and Ben were now only buying time for Dex and Boba to finish their job on the craft. They just needed to keep the distraction going for a few more moments and then everything would be over, it would all have been worth it.
Grievous jiggled Nawe in his grasp like a rag doll to indicate his control of the situation, which drew further cries from the captured youth. Despite his best efforts to keep his pain under control, the general's treatment of his broken form only brought out fresh waves of vocalized agony. Grievous stilled him for a moment so the cries died down enough for him to yell over him.
"Get out," he called to Ben, "all of you."
"Wait, we are in need of medi-" Ben began, but Grievous reached out with his other arm and grabbed Nawe's right leg, snapping the thigh bone with a flick of his wrist. The boy's cry echoed around the place and when it finally died down to an unceasing whimper, Grievous spoke again.
"Indeed you are! Now, everyone get out!"
"Where are your manners, Grievous," came Maul's seemingly disapproving tones. "Obi-Wan, let's take a look at you, shall we?" and he pulled the former Jedi to his side a little more gently than he had extracted Nawe, but none the less it was stiflingly painful as the wound in Ben's side was agitated.
"Hold him up," commanded Maul of the droids close to him and their hard unforgiving bodies holding him in place were no more of a comfort. Maul shook his head disapprovingly and fingered the remains of the pike in Ben's side.
"You gave up too easily, my friend," he said quietly. Ben gasped and shook his head to clear the sweat that was pouring into his eye. All movement was frozen, however, when Maul gripped the stump and twisted it in place. Ben's head shot back, he couldn't breathe, his body gripped with such agony. He was being spoken to but there were no words he could understand. All he knew was that this was the end, this was his breaking point and the force would welcome him home at any moment.
"I'm here!" came the crystal voiced call of Boba from behind him. "Don't hurt him!" the boy cried and he rushed through the crowd of droids so he could stand next to Ben.
"I'll stop my brothers, I'll lead them to the center of the galaxy and never come back, just please leave him alone."
"No, Boba," Ben had meant to say, but a strangled croak was all he could manage as Maul's grip tightened, but at least the twisting had stopped.
Maul reached out and patted Boba on the head.
"That's a good boy for coming to Obi-Wan's aid. But I think you are all still holding out on me." At this, the twisting began again and the paralyzing pain became blinding. The blood was rising into his mouth and began to gurgle within his throat.
"Stop it!" screamed Boba and he reached up to pull Maul's arm away only to be struck by a hit of force lightening from Maul that shot him across the hangar to Grievous' feet.
That assault on Boba, Obi-Wan did feel and his hate and frustration over his weakness around Maul welled up with his desire to protect his friends and rid the galaxy of this tattooed menace. It felt like a mixture of love, hate, loyalty and vengeance, the power of which was something Ben had never known before, and although he was terrified he would be lost in this overwhelming flood of positive and negative emotions, it seemed the force itself was riding his emotional wave to power his weakened body and fuel the fire of life rushing through him and swirling around him.
"Enough!" he exclaimed and an explosion of force power erupted through his system in a wave of force energy that spread out from deep within him to strike out across the whole hangar. He was lifted off his feet momentarily, the force in such a rush to leave his body, it seemed to stretch out every muscle, every joint. His throat felt like it was blistering from the cry pulled from his lungs.
Everyone was sent flying away from the epicenter. Maul was the first to recover enough to see the suspended body of Obi-Wan touch back to the floor, then lean forward almost doubled over. He was hugging his chest with his arms, obviously completely drained by the outburst of force strength. Maul raced to the man, blades drawn ready to split him in two for tossing him so carelessly aside. But right as he reached the weakening form, the deck lurched wildly to the left as a large and heavy Republic ship slammed into the Separatist one. Maul looked over in complete surprise as the hangar suddenly became filled with clone troopers from the Republic ship, all firing on his already sparking droids. The power from Kenobi's force surge had shorted out almost all of the droids present and Maul looked over to see even Grievous struggling with several of his limbs twisted together in a mass of crumpled metal.
Ben had stumbled at the impact of the ship but rolled onto his uninjured side as another spray of blood was coughed from his raw throat. He sensed Maul's sudden flare of anger at this invasion at the change of circumstances, but knew it wouldn't phase Maul for long, so he kicked up under Maul's defenses to strike the dark sider's stomach while he was momentarily distracted by the clone's shots at him. The hit sent Maul back a few steps in surprise as more laser blasts assailed him from the growing crowd of clones. Suddenly finding some remaining strength in his limbs left over by the force rush he had just experienced, Obi-Wan rolled onto his feet and leapt up to body tackled the sith lord, pulling him to the hangar floor. Maul growled in his indignation and swung up with the blade, trying to split the man's head in two. Kenobi shifted to the side and aimed a head butt at the Zabrak, which clipped one of his lower horns, tearing through the flesh of Ben's head.
Ben hissed in pain from the head scrape as Maul rolled out from under him and force pushed him into a pile of droids. Then, he looked around for the boy, Boba. Maul pulled the crumpled shape of the boy to him and grabbed his collar. All the while, clone troopers had continued to fire on them, and Maul had used his saber to deflect many blasts back to the clone brothers, who's reactions were mixed, much to his amusement. Some just ran, many screamed for help from their injuries, while others did what clones had been trained to and stood their ground, all trying to maneuver to Boba's position. The instant Maul had him in his grasp, however, the firing died down and eventually stopped, a murmur of confusion rushing through the hangar as the brothers fumbled leaderless with their liberator so darkly threatened.
"This way, boy, or I'll use your head as a saber holder." And as he dragged the semi-conscious Boba with him , he looked over at the stooped former Jedi. Kenobi could wait, Maul thought, he was at deaths door as it was, that last surge of force energy already dissipating from the man, but the arrival of the clones had posed a new problem and he needed time to regroup, but Boba was not getting away from him that easily. The child would be his to dangle in front of every clone he met on his way to Kamino where he would scythe the child in front of Jango, piece by small, tantalizing piece.
But then, everything changed. A rush of dark power flooded his every pore and the intoxicating power of complete control over the dark side of the force rippled around him, through him, consuming the fiber of his soul with its all encompassing energy and strength, the double ended blade falling from his hand, no longer needed. His master was dead, long live the new master. Now it was his turn to be smug and show the true power of the dark side. He still holding the boy's collar, his attention turned back to the cockroach attempting to stand and face him, fully aware of what had just transpired. An outpouring of lightning erupted from his tattooed hands, crashing into the feeble Kenobi who shook from the power of the onslaught.
Maul glided to the prostrate figure and hovered over him gloating at his fallen prey.
"Kneel," he commanded of Kenobi, who looked up at him with defiance in his good eye, which turned to agony as Maul flicked his fingers and launched the lightening back into the trembling frame, Boba's body still loosely held in his other hand. "Kneel!" he called more forcefully and aided the body with bone crushing force to make it comply. Kenobi, for his part, shifted against the constraint the force energy field tried to inflict on him as he was twisted into a kneeling position.
Maul raised his left and placed it under Ben's chin, lifting it up to look down into the gleaming blue orb of his foe.
"Now, young Kenobi, you will die," he said grimacing at the fallen Jedi. Kenobi could hardly hear anything, he was spent, the loud ringing that passed for sound reverberating around his aching skull, but once the words fell through the haze within Obi-Wan's mind, he smiled slowly, and then, to Maul's perplexing features, he started a low chuckle and he shook his head ever so slightly, holding the sith master's gaze with his blue eye beginning glaze over, but none the less defiant.
"Soon I'll be dead, and you with me."