Valairy Scot: Hope this wasn't too long a wait! I feel pretty good about this one, but we'll see what the response is!
"Soon I'll be dead, and you with me."
Maul had no time to think and mere instinct took over. He dropped both Obi-Wan and Boba and threw his arms up in the direction of the transport, thrusting a force barrier around it, knowing it was of little use, even with his deeper connection to the dark side of the force.
The blast was immense, catapulting molten fragments of the ship in all directions. The shockwave slammed into Maul's body, but he managed to stand his ground as it swept over him. He found himself falling, however, all balance gone from his system and he looked down at himself in horror at the durasteel plating sticking right through his torso. But what had caused him to fall was the dismembered left leg that lay at his side, sheared off just above the knee. He roared with anger at his predicament and sought out the cause of this violence against his person. The bright force presence of Kenobi had been blown into a pile of crumpled droids over to his right and he tried to move to get to him, to sever his head from his body with his bare hands, but he found it was impossible to move. Cursing his inadequate physical form, he reached out through the force, feeling the force damage his former master had inflicted on the mind of the fallen Jedi and chuckled to himself. But before he could bring his concentration into focus to exploit Obi-Wan's already afflicted psyche, he felt a metallic grip in his collar and the clanging feet of Grievous could be heard as he was dragged away from his enemy.
"No!" he screamed at the cyborg, or attempted to as an eruption of blood rose out of his throat and down the side of his face. This only fueled his anger further and he still continued to struggle, only finding his body unresponsive from the neck down. A rage filled him that he had never felt before and he lashed out with uncontrolled waves of force energy, hurling debris and droid parts in a whirlwind of destruction as Grievous continued to pull him from the hangar.
The force of the explosion was nothing like the power that Obi had expected it to be and he dared to open his eye to see the back end of the ship blown open and flaming, the debris still cascading and falling around the hangar. He crawled to the prone Boba and pulled him over, brushing off the dust from his face. The boy gasped for breath as he came round and grabbed onto Ben in a strong bear hug.
What had happened? Ben asked himself as he surveyed the wreckage. It looked like only one of the engines had blown and the exposed fuel cell was leaking but relatively undamaged. That wasn't supposed to be the extent of it, it should have been a much more powerful explosion, they should have all been obliterated by it.
He looked down at Boba who was still clutching him for dear life and tried to pull him away a little, but the boy stuck to him like glue squeezing his throbbing side and through the adrenaline pumping through his system he was reminded of his injury rather painfully.
"Boba!" he exclaimed, grimacing from the boy's embrace, "please!"
Boba released his hold and sat back, his face full of horror. Without the boy to hold onto, Ben slumped exhausted to the floor, his breathing fast and draining. "Much better," he gasped out, "thank you."
"We're alive!" exclaimed Boba as he shuffled to Ben's side, but looking around the hangar. The clones were recovering and heading in their direction as he spoke. Ben tried to prop himself up on an elbow, but the effort was too much and he lay back on the deck looking up at the ceiling where a number of structures were smoldering, several others already on fire.
"Somewhat," was his only reply, feeling his body beginning to succumb fully to his ordeal. But something was wrong, Maul was still alive. He looked about the deck and saw that both Grievous and Maul were gone. This could not be, the dark lord had to be destroyed, now before he could escape and run havoc across the galaxy. Ben had a mission to complete, a conviction that was the only fuel he needed right now.
"Are you hurt, do you need a medic?" called the first clone to Boba's side and he shook the man off him as he was helped to his feet.
"Not me, the others," came Boba's reply as he indicated an already rising Ben. He gasped at the man's stamina in the face of such odds, how was he even moving? His attention was drawn elsewhere as another clone called out to them.
"Found another one, pretty badly beaten up. We need to get them out of here." He waved to his brothers to help him with the unmoving Nawe. Boba realized Grievous was nowhere to be seen and scanned the deck for Dex, who was leaning against the remains of their ship, his clothes still smoldering slightly and several deep burns lacerated the left side of his body. Boba was astonished his friend had survived the explosion.
"Yeah, what he said," Dex said pointing at the clone who had indicated they needed to leave. "The other engine didn't go, and the fuel cell is leaking badly, we really need to leave before it remembers to blow us all up!" He started moving with surprising speed to Boba's side, the lad staring at Ben. The former Jedi had retrieved a blaster from the droid pile and he was hugging his injured side with his free arm.
"I have to finish this," he said when turning to his friends, "I have to make sure it ends here, I have to keep…" he stumbled a few steps and winced as his body screamed at him to stop. Dex and Boba looked on him with confusion at his mumbling words.
"No," he whispered, "not now.., so close…" Both Dex and Boba came to his aid and stopped him from falling onto his face.
"Alright, move out!" called the clone commander to the assembled clones as the men carrying Nawe moved across the hangar deck back to the Republic cruiser. The commander turned back to his young brother who was helping the man holding the blaster. This man looked more and more unstable to the clone commander with each passing second.
"It's not the time, lad, we have a way out, we need to take it," said Dex, trying to be comforting. But Obi-Wan shook his friends off, they couldn't stop him from this, he had to end this, Maul had to die, it was the only way to find any peace in this and the exposed and damaged fuel cell on the transport would need only one blast to completely rupture and tare the ship apart.
"Why couldn't it have been over!" he screamed out, realizing the dark lord had somehow managed to reduce the full blast. The besalisk had his four hands raised in defense as Obi swung the blaster around wildly.
"Now Ben, old man, no need to do anything rash."
Ben shook his head. "We could have destroyed him." He swayed again, but managed to keep his feet, "It could have ended." He rubbed his forehead to clear off the sweat now running off him in sheets it seemed.
Dex and Boba looked at each other for a moment and then moved ever so slightly closer to their erratic friend.
"We still may, that second engine is going to go any second. Let's at least get the boy out of here," said Dex as Boba made sure he moved into Ben's line of sight.
"I have to stop him leaving this ship." He didn't seem to be able to listen to Dex any more, the thought of destroying Maul consuming his senses, making him deaf to Dex's words. Ben looked up at his two friends, eye full of sorrow. "I'm sorry," he sighed out the apology and held Boba's gaze for just a moment before raising the blaster to fire on the fuel cell.
"No!" screamed Boba and both he and Dex leapt at Ben, Dex using his bulk to knock the fallen Jedi back into the pile of droids, while Boba pushed up on his firing arm, the blaster shot shooting up into the hangar ceiling sending a shower of sparks down over them. Ben writhed beneath the combined weight of Dex and Boba and was in real danger of shaking them off completely when an idea struck Boba. He leapt off Ben and turned to the nearest clone who had been poised to shoot Ben. He held out his hand and shouted "Blaster, trooper," to the man, who out of pure reflex tossed his weapon to Boba. He caught it and switched the setting to stun just as Dex was finally pushed off Ben and the man started to rise. Without hesitation, Boba shot his dear friend in the chest with the stunning blast and Ben slumped back into the droids as the impact of the blast swept over him. Boba immediately tossed the weapon back to his brother and rushed to Ben's side. He was out cold and breathing shallowly but steadily.
"I…I'm so sorry, I.." he tried to think of the words for his friend, but none came as Dex got to his feet and hoisted Ben up into his arms.
"Come on, Boba, that engine could blow at any moment, we need to get off this ship."
Boba nodded his agreement, and seeing that the clones had already moved Nawe to their ship, he quickly followed. "Let's get out of here!" he yelled to his brothers just as the hangar began filling with droids again. The fire fight back the ship was fierce, and many troopers were cut down by the onslaught, but they did their duty, dying with the knowledge that they had used their freedom to save the one who had freed them.
The republic cruiser began to disengage when the full, final blast from the exploding transport ripped through the hangar, starting a chain reaction that saw the separatist ship breaking up and continuing to explode as the republic cruiser pulled away. Great chunks of debris began to rain down on the Coruscant skyline, crashing into nearby buildings. The republic cruiser could be seen lurching to the side as a great gash was blown into it from the force of the separatist ship's destruction, and it turned sharply to get away from the death throes of the separatist ship. A keen eye watching the scene unfold would have seen a small black craft leave the remnants of the separatist ship and shoot off into the sky headed for the upper atmosphere.