After several days' journey, Anakin arrived on Kalevala, the home planet of Duchess Satine. He came to the meeting place secretly in the night. Satine was already waiting for him there. She was a elegant and beautiful woman, around thirty years old. Due to the current critical situation, she wore a black robe to avoid attention.
"I'm sorry my master Obi Wan couldn't come here ..." Anakin apologized to the Duchess.
"No, I believe you can help me solve the problem," Satine interrupted Anakin. This passionate and courageous young man left her a good impression during the crisis of Death Watch. "There is no time for these. The New Mandalore was greatly infiltrated, let us ..."
At this time, six heavily armed Mandalore Commando suddenly appeared from the darkness and surrounded the two. It's only possible to recognize two or three of them in the night, Satine was sure these are all Spar's supporters, she knew the situation was not in her favor.
"It seems that your brethren have been concerned about our meeting." Though aware of their situation was not good, Anakin had not completely lost the sense of humor.
" Duchess Satine, I am sorry to meet you in this kind of situation. But we have received the message and evidence that showed you were secretly contacting the Jedi to help you seize power." Before Satine could say anything to explain, the leader of these commandos coldly spoke, "We do not believe these things, but you and your friend have to go with us for investigation until the truth is revealed."
Sounds very logical, but both Anakin and Satine knew clearly, once they go with these commandos, they wouldn't come out alive.
Anakin flashed out his blue lightsaber, quickly knocked down a few Mandalorian Commandos, The Duchess, too, took her blaster out to assist the Jedi, they quickly broke out from the commandos,ran to Saine's spaceship and escaped.
"They have fled, and we have recorded the meeting between her and the Jedi, along with the fight as you ordered, my lord., We also installed track and jamming devices on their ship." The leader of the commandos didn't order his troops to go after them, but took out his hologram and contacted Spar.
"You all did a wonderful job, now give the tracking information to the Sith Lord. Then we don't have to worry about that woman her Jedi friend anymore, our ally will take care of them. What I will to do next is to show our people these, then the New Mandalorian has completely become history, we will able to return to our traditional way completely."Spahr said, "and I lead our people to regain honor and glory throught this war, as the new Mandalore! "
Anakin was driving Satine's ship, traveling in Mandalore system, he found the ship's hyperspace jump device was jammed, so try to follow a secret route, find a planet that could repair the ship's devices, then use the hyperspace jump to leave the Mandalore system.
"They only sent a few commandos to arrest us, and there is no sign of pursuit. I think they deliberately let us go, there must be a trick in there." Satine still could not relax our vigilance, "is not difficult to predict that how they will destroy my public image, 'make secret ally with the Jedi to seize power, intent to sell my people outand subvert the Mandalorian tradition.' "Although she was able to escape with Anakin's help, but the Duchess knew clearly that her political career in Mandalore had come to an end, his political views of peace and neutrality probably will no longer get any support. Satine was a strong willed woman, but thinking of her goal of life and years of hard work completely shattered. The Duchess' mood is very low, her eyes even slightly moisted.
"I will escort you to Coruscant, you can stay there for a while and make the plan for the future." Anakin tried to comfort the Duchess. "No matter what, our current situation is much better than just get secretly executed by them. Republic and we Jedi will try to end the war as soon as we can, I believe they will understand the value of peace."
"Thank you," Satine squeezed out a smile after a sigh, "Actually, I understand that the way of peace is impossible to truly take root in the hearts of the Mandalorians, but I can not allow my people to continue suffer these endless conflicts. We cannot spill too much blood for this war ... "
"To protect your loved ones with all you have, is the most precious quality." Anakin said sincerely, "I became a Jedi Knight to better protect the people I love, no matter the cost. "
"That doesn't sound like an idea from a Jedi," the tone of the Satine became slightly relaxed. Although they once fought together against the Death Watch, but she didn't pay too much attention to this young JedI Knight to know him.
Anakin gave back a smile, then suddenly yell out with surprise.
"Oh no, they didn't just jammed the hyperspace jump device, soon we will lose most of the control of this ship. We must find a planet to land off, now."
"The only planet we can reach soon is the barren world Aakaan, we can not repair ... "Satine stopped because she realized there was no other choices.
Not long ago, after Darth Maul followed his master's order and went to assassinate Duchess Satine, his brother Savage Opress went to contact Mother Talzin and reported Darth Sidious' conversation with his brother.
The pale faced witch seemed was interested in the individuals he mentioned. After a moment of thinking, she broke the silence, "Thank you for reporting this to me, I already suspected there might be other people to contact your brother after his recovery. Unfortunately, Savage, because of the massacre on Dathomir, my power was constantly weakening. I am afraid I don't have the power to directly compete with that Sith Lord."
Looking at the disappointed face of Savage, Talzin changed her tone, "However, because of this, I have started to find a way restore my power for a while. Thanks to you, I got a plan now, if it goes successful, I will become stronger than ever. Of course, I also need your help, the fact that you will play a crucial role in my plan."
Savage was listening to the arrangements of the witch, his eyes widened gradually because of surprise. "Do not be afraid, Savage. There is nothing to worry about. Once my plan is successfully completed, you and your brother will be greatly rewarded, and thus become more powerful." the single minded Zabrak simply could not hide anything from Mother Talzin.
"Yes, mother." Although he still didn't feel good of the plan of the witch, but at least, in Savage's eyes, she is more trustworthy than that Darth Sidious.
And he had no chance to survive if he goes against her will. He had always been somebody's tool, he knew this quite well. But before he had enough power and knowledge, all he could do is find a nice user of this tool.
Akaan is a planet in the Mandalore sector. The planet's surface was mostly barrens. Anakin and Satine tried to figure out a plan after they landed here.
"Because of the unstable situation, and the Mandalorian's hatred toward the Jedi, we didn't send any other troops to sector"Anakin was looking at the communication system, "It's difficult to contact the Republic here, but I will try my best. "
"I believe you can do it, but I'm afraid those Mandalorian Protectors won't just stop here, more trouble may come to our away." Satine was still worried.
After further discussion, they decided to go off the ship to explore this planet for a little while, see what they could find.
Just after they walked for a short distance, a small repulsorlift speeder suddenly came to their way widely and stopped in front of them. The rider was dressed in a black robe, he jumped off from his mount after it stopped. Anakin could sense that the Dark Side of the Force was very strong in him, like Satine expected, they were not done yet.
The rider took off the hood, showing the red and black tattoos on his face. His yellow eyes were looking at is Anakin, but Satine was also a little bit horrified when seeing his face.
"Darth Maul!" Anakin blurted out, he always remembered this Sith Lord firstly appeared on Tatooine after them, then later in Naboo, it was him who killed his most respected Jedi Master - Qui Gon Jinn.
"We have met before?," Darth Maul asked, before Anakin replied, he continued, "Oh, I remember now, twelve years ago, in Naboo, you didn't have the courage to stay and watch me kill Qui Gon Jinn "The Sith Lord said with ironic tone.
"Master Qui Gon Jinn became one with the Force like a hero and you ..." Anakin looked at Moore's lower body, said, "to see if you like, I can imagine how did you survive, and how horrible your life was in all these years. If I experienced such failure, I would rather die than put so much metal on my body to live like a monster. "He mercilessly lifted Maul's old scar.
"Over these years, what I have experienced was a hundred times more terrible than Death." Darth Maul's voice became deeper, "and you will soon taste the power I've learned from it." Then he raise his long hilt, blade of scarlet light flashed out from both ends.
Anakin also took out his light saber and told Satine: "Get out of here. After I'm done, I will meet with you as soon as possible." Then he flashed out a blade of blue light from his hilt, started the duel.
As the Chosen one, Anakin's talent was unmatched. After the battle with Count Dooku a few years ago, he further improved his lightsaber skills, now he was one of the best Djem So users in the history, every strike was extremely fast as lightning and overwhelming as thunder.
However, Darth Maul was not weak either. He was trained by Sidious for more than 20 years and took down many powerful individuals. After a few clashes, the Zabrak Sith Lord realized his opponent was indeed very powerful. He found he was the weaker one when the blades met head on head and matching their strength, this never happened before in any battle Darth Maul had ever encountered. Luckily, his vicious Juyo form didn't let him have disadvantage on pace. Anakin was the most powerful Djemo So user he had ever see. Both the attack and defense moves were so incredible. Maul was excited, he began to understand why his master paid so much attention to this young man, thus take him would bring so much joy…
After the first few clashes, Darth Maul started to change tactic, he knew that under the disadvantage of strength, the reckless, almost defenseless Juyo form were not match for the more balanced Djemo So form, it got strong attack and "offensive defense", to counter attack right after defense, or bring the opponent's own blow against them. Maul unusually put away the vicious strikes of Juyo, but is choose to keep his body moving. Then use his new made double-bladed light saber's advantage on strike distance to attack from Anakin's side. Lack of mobility was Djem So form's biggest weakness.
At the same time, Duchess Satine didn't run away, but chose hide aside and try to find the opportunity to shoot the Sith Lord. She would never leave her friend to fight against such powerful enemy alone. But the Duchess mostly could only see two extremely fast figure, along with the afterimage of red and blue light sabers. Looks like she could not intervene the battle between such powerful Force users.
Anakin also admitted that Darth Maul really was one of the most formidable opponents he ever met. Unlike Count Dooku, who was weaker on strength and pace, but used skillful thrusts and experience to beat the two JedI. This Zabrak Sith Lord was fairly balanced, his lightsaber skills, speed and strength were all very good. Maul also figured out his lightsaber form's weakness after a few clashes and changed tactic. But since the Sith Lord abandoned Juyo's violent attackes, it's not hard to deal any damage to Anakin, as long as the JedI stay calm and defend carefully. Anakin was clear that Maul would not maintain this tactic, the Sith Lord wanted him to attack recklessly, then when exhaustion comes, Maul would change back to his old way, use Juyo's savage attacks to bring him down. So Skywalker also adjusted his own strategy, he slightly slowed down his pace, reduced some of the offensive moves to avoid spend too much energy. Skywalker was luring Darth Maul to return to the typical way of Juyo, then start the might blow of Djem So again.
Both sides had temporarily changed from their typical way. Satine also noticed that. She raised his blaster again, patiently looking for opportunities.
Seemed like Maul was the one who lost patience first, he stopped dodge and rushed toward Anakin and release a series of vicious attacks. Anakin then changed back to Djem So's old way, launched out powerful blows. The essence of Juyo forum was to use chaotic offense to crush the opponent. If the opponent had greater strength and pace, then the Juyo user won't be able to dominate the battle and its weakness, the lack of defense will completely expose. After Anakin blocked Maul's several attack and immediately launch out stronger counterattacks. Maul began to hold his lightsaber hilt with both hands and his body started to whirl. That's his special way of defense. His already horrific face was now painfully twisted and covered with sweat due to the Dark Side of the Force, made it more scary to look. Anakin's eyes were shining with confidence, he was close to defeat the Sith Lord.
When the tide began to tilt to the Skywalker, Maul suddenly stopped his special defense moves, and used his leg to kick Anakin's waist. The strength of his metal leg, along with the Force's enhancement, immediately caused Skywalker's body to lose his balance, left him in severe shock and pain. Maul's attack was not over, he immediately use lightsaber to stab the belly of Anakin.
Just like twelve years ago, he stabbed Qui Gon Jinn in the belly and killed the JedI Master.
"No!" Seeing Maul kicked Anakin, Satine subconsciously aimed the Sith Lord's head and fired her blaster, desperate to rescue her friend.
Seeing such as powerful opponent that his master paid so much attention on, now was defeated by himself with skill and experience. Maul was so joyful and caught off guard. However, as a powerful Sith Lord, he was still able to partly dodge Satine's ambush, only his shoulder was shot. His lightsaber's strength was also weakened and the direction was changed, but still pierced Anakin's abdomen.
When the Sith Lord's attention switched to Satine, Anakin tried to endure the severe pain and used his hand to release all his remaining power, fired out a blast of telekinetic energy. Such power in a close distance instantly sent the Sith Lord to the air and heavily fell to the ground, and the telekinetic power almost shattered his mind, made him temporarily lost consciousness.
The Duchess quickly stepped forward to drag up Skywalker, she randomly fired several shots at Maul when they were fleeing. She wanted to take a look, but Anakin's injury did not allow a moment's delay.
She could feel his body was not yet cold, but he was losing his consciousness.
"Hold on, you are such a powerful Jedi, we will soon return to the spaceship, where medical droids will be ready to treat your injury, and soon you will return as the brave and unstoppable hero." Satine said softly to Anakin's ear when she was dragging the JedI's body.
Lightsaber's extremely high temperature caused the wound to curb instantly so Anakin didn't lose much blood, but the stab wound was still very severe. Fortunately his powerful Force maintained his life enough to let Satine brought him back to the spaceship. Then the Ducheess immediately ordered the medical droids to do their job, she also helped them to save Anakin's life.
The medical droids and device on the ship were not enough to heal Anakin completely, only temporarily keep his life. And how were they going to contact the Republic now? More importantly, if that Sith Lord came here, what could she do? Anakin badly injured him and she shot him a few times, but from what she learned from that conversation between him and Anakin, he once was cut into half but still returned.
Satine was so tired, she could not think of a plan to solve all these problems. The Duchess started to gae at Anakin. She brought back memories of this young JedI knight, came here alone to protect her, helped her escape from Spar's supporters, and fight against that Sith Lord, almost lost his life. She came close to Anakin, her lips once were close to his forehead, but finally made a step back, just lay out her hand to hold Anakin's hand ...