From Darkness, I Rise

by Kurenaino

The Jedi are thrust into a war that threatens to tear the galaxy apart, and prospects are bleak when the fearsome Sith Negotiator begins to win key victories against the Republic. Sequel to From Grace, I Fall. Also, more Sith!Obi keeps the sadness away. Search your feelings. You know it to be true.

80. Mand'alor

AN: Just a quick note to say that the holidays get crazy for me, so expect updates every few days or so. I'll only have time to write a little at night, so it will be a bit slower going. That's it!

Chapter 80: Mand'alor

Sundari burned, and Maul sat on the throne of Mandalore, the deposed queen on her knees beside him, those ice blue eyes staring straight ahead, hateful and unmoving. Contrary to what he had been led to believe, the Mandalorians were not pacifists. They were warriors, strong and proud and cunning, and he had broken his own significantly larger army against them in his conquest of their home world. He had been given a rare opportunity when he and Savage were found by the Black Sun. The formidable criminal organization had almost been sent running when they learned that they were Sith, and in this, Maul had found an opportunity. Fear of the Sith meant they had previous contact with them before, and Maul had been quick to reassure the criminals that he was the passionate enemy of the current ruling Sith Lords. It had captured their attention enough to bring the brothers back to the Black Sun headquarters on Ord Mantell to meet with their leaders.

What Maul had learned from the Lords of the Black Sun was...illuminating. Shortly before the war, the Black Sun had their headquarters on the planet Mustafar, a menacing world of lava flows and violent atmospheric storms that kept them safe from most who would have otherwise attempted to go after them. Until one day, a man wielding a red lightsaber and a massive, feral beast of a rancor, horned and skin a rare white, landed on the planet, and without a word, began to violently kill everyone in the fortress. None had escaped the slaughter, not even the council of leaders stationed there, and though they had offered him money, weapons, drugs, women and slaves, the man had wanted none of it. He wasn't doing it for material wealth or luxury. He did it because he decided the planet was his, and he had simply come to chase out the rats. The leadership was executed, and the recording of the massacre sent to the rest of the syndicate on Ord Mantell as a warning to the rest of them.

They had quickly learned that revenge against this creature was impossible, and all attempts ended in the slaughter of all those that tried. All future attempts against the man were quickly dispelled when he ventured out of Mustafar with his savage beast and an army of clone soldiers to crush one of their major operations on the planet Drongar, and after that, Black Sun lived in fear of this man, one they soon learned identified as Sith. He had many names, but the criminal underworld came to know him as Darth Lumis, Sith Lord and Master of all he touched, and he was to be avoided at all costs.

Despite his urging, Maul could do nothing about motivating the Black Sun to move against Kenobi, though they had seemed glad to have powerful new allies on their side, ones that had the same powers as the famed Jedi, and the feared Sith, and both he and Savage had been fitted with new cybernetics, far lighter and less awkward than the legs he had before, and Savage's new arm functioned just as well as his organic one. That may have been the end of it, leaving the brothers as simply a new arm of the enforces of the most powerful crime syndicate in the galaxy, but then he heard about Mandalore. A vast empire of systems dedicated to neutrality in the war, all of them submitting to the rule of Duchess Satine Kryze, the pacifist empress of the collective, and in a galaxy torn apart at the seams, Maul had wondered what was keeping the crime families from simply taking control from a weak woman with a weak rule and creating a vast, sprawling crime empire. The work had been done for them. All they needed to do was walk in and take it.

The answer to that question was, at first, confused. Crime had run rampant on Mandalore once, corruption and greed spreading like wildfire among those who led, leaving the Duchess powerless to stop it while her people suffered because of a war that was not theirs. The Black Market thrived, and the crime syndicates moved in, but this was swiftly brought to an end when the Duchess had enough, and brought Mandalore into her militant hands. The Hutts had been targeted, and within days, the mighty cartel fled from Mandalore to hide in Hutt space for fear of what might come if they stayed. The other crime syndicates followed suit, and Maul thought it sounded far to similar to the tactics employed to cull the Black Sun. This change, they had said, was brought about by the Shadow King of Mandalore, a man that hid in darkness behind the Mand'alor and emerged to defend what was his when he was called upon. Peace reigned on Mandalore because those outside it feared too much to draw near, and Maul had found his revenge laid out neatly before him.

Kenobi had to be somehow linked to Satine and Mandalore. For peaceful systems ruled by a pacifist in a galaxy at war to thrive as they were, someone had to allow it. Someone, or something, protected the empire, and that something seemed to Maul to be a Sith Lord. At once, Maul not only found his army and his empire, but also his revenge against Kenobi, and if he was wrong, if Kenobi somehow wasn't involved with the Mandalorians, than Maul would be protected by the shield of a crime empire of his creation. Regardless of the outcome, he would win.

Convincing the Black Sun leaders of this, however, was another matter, and his plan to unite the various criminal syndicates under a united banner in order to not just take Mandalore, but destroy the man that kept them pinned under the weight of fear was not taken well. The Lords of the Black Sun so feared retribution that they simply refused to even consider this, and in their fear, Maul saw only weakness. With the leaders of the Black Sun his only obstacle between him and his revenge, Maul and Savage had executed the nine leaders of the organization and quickly established themselves as the Lords of the Black Sun, installing new officers loyal to them and their vision for them to rule behind. The rest had fallen in quickly. Covert meetings with the Hutt Cartel, the Pyke Syndicate, the Zann Consortium and all the other criminal enterprises that had suffered losses to the Sith Lord Lumis quickly joined the cause when they saw the vision and strength that Maul had laid bare before them, and as his strength grew, it became easier and easier to expand his criminal army.

The plan was simple. Conquer Mandalore, and they would have an empire, already neatly packaged for them to rule over, and with it, they would bring an end to the Sith's reign of fear. The syndicates would flourish, and there would be nothing anyone could do about it. With his army assembled, Maul had brought the force to fall like a wave upon Mandalore, starting with the conquest of their capital, Sundari, and the removal of the Duchess Satine from power.

It...had not been as easy as Maul had anticipated. To both his concern and relief, Kenobi wasn't there, and not only had the Sith not been seen, it didn't appear as if he would appear at all. What did appear, though, was the Mandalorian Death Watch, an army so fierce that, despite being outnumbered ten to one in the best of their circumstances, Maul had broken his army against them in an attempt to take the city. The Death Watch had been annihilated, but in the process, Maul's army was destroyed, left as broken tatters of its former strength, a pitiful visage of a once mighty union of the most dangerous criminals in the galaxy. It didn't matter. That army could be rebuilt, if it was needed. There was no shortage of criminals in the galaxy, and with the formation of his new criminal empire, it would attract them in swarms.

After the fall of the Death Watch, the rest of it had been easy, and the Duchess was torn from her throne, allowing Maul to take his place as the Master of Mandalore. He looked around the throne room, his sinister gaze falling on the leaders of the crime families that had dedicated themselves to his service that milled around, talking with each other, making plans and celebrating their victory with former Mandalorian leaders that the Duchess had imprisoned on grounds of treason. He would need them to rule the Mandalorians, and the corrupt officials were the best way to go about that. Not only that, they were criminals themselves, and such men and women were an easy thing to manipulate.

And then there was Satine.

Maul looked at the woman out of the corner of his eye and grinned. She was beautiful, regal and proud, and even when he had stormed into the throne room, she had shown no fear in the face of her defeat. Only a cold viciousness that made Maul shiver when the frozen gaze fell upon him for the first time, and he was left wondering if the woman wasn't Force sensitive herself. Around her flowed the Dark Side, and it was not insignificant in its presence, enough to make even Maul take pause for a moment before he discerned the actual cause of the powerful dark pulsing. It took a second glance, but the woman's thin frame had thickened around the waist, noticeable, but not yet cumbersome. She was pregnant, and it was the child, not her, that was the cause of the Dark Side wrath that lashed out against him. It was with great satisfaction that he threw the fierce woman to the ground before him as he took her throne, and this new interest in her saved her from not just death, but from the torture that the Mandalorians he had freed from the prisons had wanted to inflict upon the Sith Lord's slut.

There was no question about who had put the child within the beautiful woman. It was made of Kenobi and the Dark Side, a powerful, dangerous union that the Force itself tried to warn him away from. It was perfection, to have not just Kenobi's woman in his grasp, but also his child, his legacy. Soon, his revenge would be complete. Soon...

But still, Kenobi had not come. It had been hours since his conquest of Sundari, and he was beginning to believe that he had made a mistake. Perhaps the man didn't actually care for this woman. Perhaps the Duchess was simply a vessel to be used as a place to spill his passions within. Perhaps he considered this child an inconvenience, a promise of a future threat to his power. Maybe he didn't know. Maybe he did and simply didn't care. Unease settled over him. The cold indifference of the Sith would be far worse than if he was simply taking his time to gather his allies so that he could return to Mandalore with an army. This was about revenge, and Maul couldn't have it if the Sith Lord didn't care. He needed to suffer, and if Satine wasn't the weakness that he had assumed her to be, than the whole conquest was ultimately for nothing. He'd have to go back to planning his revenge, and he couldn't bear to start over knowing that he was so close to having it now.

He looked down at the Duchess, her cold blue eyes fixed in front of her, and with a smirk, he leaned over the arm of the throne and growled, "Nobody's coming to help you."

A sly, knowing smirk crossed her face, and she seemed to light up with quietly simmering malice. "We shall see."

"It has been hours," he said softly, leaning so close he could smell the floral scent of her hair, and still she did not move. "Face it, your lover will not come for you." He reached out and stroked her pale cheek, delighting as the woman shivered in disgust, and with a sharp, swift turn of her head, Maul's hand erupted in pain as Satine bit him, her teeth digging into the red flesh below his thumb, and Maul quickly drew his hand back, but the woman would not be dislodged. With a feral growl, he brought the hard knuckles of his other hand down across her cheek, striking her so hard that the pale skin split, and Maul gripped his hand as the woman released it. Blood pulsed from the deep teeth marks, dripping on to the arm of the throne, and Maul growled in rage as he looked at the woman, her eyes cold and defiant as she stared directly at him without the slightest hint of pain or fear, not flinching or even taking notice when Savage ignited his lightsaber and pointed it at her.

"You insolent bitch!" Maul snarled, leaping to his feet and taking his own lightsaber into his hand, becoming even more furious when even that didn't draw any emotion besides contempt from the woman. She looked at him like he was small, like he was nothing. "How would you like me to cut that vile spawn out of your body? How long do you think it will survive outside it's mother?"

She spit at him, and Maul's face was hit with a mixture of saliva and his own blood, and he growled, glaring at the woman as he wiped it away and found her smirking and amused, her shoulders shaking as she dared to laugh. "A good deal longer than you, I suspect."

"Death is too good for you!" Maul snarled, deactivating his lightsaber and reaching down to grab her chin in a crushing grip. "Being the slut of a Sith Lord has emboldened you. Tell me, do you spread your legs for anyone, or are you just a whore for the power that the Sith command?" Hatred flashed in her eyes, and Maul chuckled deeply and leaned down to bring his face close to hers. "I am Sith. Perhaps I should take you here on my throne." He drew back slightly when the anger faded from her face and was replaced with amusement.

"If that's what you want, fine. I can oblige a dead man his final request, but..." A coy smile crossed her face, her eyelids lowering seductively, her blue eyes alluring, and Maul could understand how Kenobi was captured. "I hear you lack the parts..." she drawled, and with a snarl of rage, Maul threw her to the ground at the bottom of the steps leading up to the throne.

"Shall I throw you to them, Duchess?" he growled, jumping down the stairs and gripping her hair, forcing her head up to look at the crime lords and the people she imprisoned. "What do you think they will do to you? How many times do you think they can rape you before your help arrives, if he arrives?!" He was met with laughter, rich and amused, and he released her quickly, as if touching her burned him, and she looked at him with eyes that blazed with cruelty.

"Do what you will. It doesn't matter, because you're going to die today." She looked out over the throne room at the people gathered there, all of them watching her. "You are all going to die today."

"Quiet..." Savage growled, grabbing her by the arm and dragging her up the stairs and threw her next to the throne. When Maul took his place on her seat, she sat back on her heels and looked out on the room again, her eyes fixed ahead, her small hands holding the swell of her stomach defensively. "Brother..." Savage whispered to Maul, looking around the room and turning over the long hilt of his lightsaber in his hands. "What are we doing? Why are we here?"

"We are here for revenge..." Maul sighed, rubbing his temple. They have had this discussion before. "Today, I will have it."

"But Lumis-"

"He will," Maul hissed. "Of course he will. He will come, and I will have my revenge."

"And then what?" he asked. "This isn't some Jedi who will sit back and do nothing, this is a Lord of the Sith. He won't hesitate to kill us."

"Perhaps not. But he will suffer, and his pain will feed our strength."

"He's Sith, brother," Savage said softly. "Pain will feed his strength as well."

"Not if it's the wrong kind of pain, Savage," Maul said, glancing down at Satine. "Not if it's the kind that cripples the will to take action." Both he and Savage suddenly looked up as tension grabbed their chest, and the room appeared to fall darker, though none of the lights had been extinguished. A faint breeze began to blow, though there were no windows open, no doors through which it could enter, light at first, and than with such force that the roaring flames in the brasiers along the long hall threatened to be put out. For a moment, it seemed like the ground was shaking, the walls seeming to quiver as a long, low roar reverberated in the air. Without warning, the large doors of the throne room were torn off their hinges and thrown into the room, the heavy wood striking and killing several of the room's occupants in an instant and injuring many others. The roar became deafening as they caught sight of an enormous white rancor, its long, mighty arms extended upwards as it howled, absorbing blaster fire as if it was nothing and swiping at the remainder of Maul's forces as they tried to fight the beast. More frightening than that was the man in Mandalorian armor swathed with black robes, a red lightsaber in his hand as he strode into the throne room with cold fury, his blond hair disheveled and his golden eyes glowing with violence.

Kenobi.

One fool in the room made the mistake of shooting at the man, the bolt effortlessly blocked, and a moment later, every single one of the criminals, Black Sun, Mandalorian, Hutt or otherwise, was raised into the air, the room running cold as the creatures writhed and choked. Maul quickly jumped to his feet, drawing his lightsaber as Savage did, and the brothers held the blade's to Satine's neck. Maul grinned wickedly when Kenobi's long stride toward them hesitated, the gold eyes registering concern for half a moment, but it was enough. It was over. Kenobi had lost.

"I have found your weakness," Maul hissed, grinning as he watched the Sith Lord, the man standing frozen to the spot as the Force crushed the life out of the criminals in the air. Maul could feel the rage in the man, could see the yellow eyes focus as murderous intent gripped him, but it didn't matter. None of it mattered. "Imagine...a Sith Lord willingly keeps a weakness!" Maul laughed harshly, could feel the sudden grip of the Dark Side close around him, but his own hatred held it off. Kenobi would not control him. Not here. Not today.

"Your army is destroyed," Kenobi began, his voice a low hiss strained with the promise of violence. "Those that remain will not come to you out of fear for me. Kneel now, and I'll make your death fairly painless." He needed time that he felt he did not have. Obi-Wan touched the Force to look for answers and recoiled from it swiftly as visions of fire flashed through his mind. He could feel the Force rushing through him, moving to do his bidding, and he felt his strength swell as each creature he held in the air died, their feeble presence in the Force fueling his own power. Fury rushed through him as he looked at the scene before him, the two brothers with their lightsabers dangerously close to Satine's neck, and Satine, his Satine...

She didn't look afraid, or sad, or resigned. There was a confident smile on her face, her eyes bright as she looked upon him, and Obi-Wan felt concern grip his being. One wrong move, one misstep, and he would lose her, but as he looked upon her, he knew he could save her, just as she believed he would. He centered himself in the Force and felt...nothing. Just the flames, burning and raging around him. He had always obeyed the will of the Force, but now, when he needed its guidance the most, it was silent.

Maul began laughing, cold and hard, and he stepped forward, raising his hand as he did so, and Satine rose into the air, eyes wide for just a moment before they narrowed in defiance, her hands clutching at the invisible grasp around her slender neck. "None of that matters," Maul snarled, his hand tightening as he felt Kenobi's grip on the Force waver, the bodies of the crime lords dropping to the ground as his focus was lost. "I languished for years, thinking of nothing but you. Nothing but this moment!" He pointed his lightsaber toward Kenobi, his red and black face contorted with rage, digging deep within himself at the memory of what the man before him had done, and he began burning with power. He felt Kenobi simmering with rage as well, but it wasn't the blazing inferno that Maul currently commanded. It was dampened by concern for another, his thoughts more preoccupied with saving his lover and his child than with killing the Zabrak brothers. Maul scoffed. It was love, a weakness shared by both the Duchess and the Sith Lord, and it was making his impending victory all the sweeter.

He couldn't pull her towards him, not while Maul held her. He couldn't attack Maul, not with his weapon drawn and so, so close to her. There was a great deal he couldn't do, which made the way forward clear. Disrupt Maul's concentration and pull Satine toward him. After that, the rest would be easy, his queen and his son would be safe, and Maul and Savage would be dead, two loose ends finally cut off. Obi-Wan could feel the Dark Side inside him laying in wait, tense and ready for the command from it's Master to be unleashed in its full fury. He was a nexus of Dark Side energy, an instrument of the Force's will, a friend and ally to the Dark Side. It would not abandon him now in his time of need. He dug deep and centered himself, brushing away the visions of flames that burned ever closer to him as he focused on Maul and Satine.

"Now," Maul growled, "the perfect tool for my vengeance is in front of us." He chuckled deeply, red and yellow eyes glowing with glee and premature victory, his hand tightening and Satine gasped, and Maul shivered as the Dark Side rushed through him when Kenobi's eyes narrowed on him. "I never planned on killing you," he hissed, his lightsaber raising, "but I will make you share my pain, Kenobi."

Now. Maul's focus in his triumph wavered as he turned to look at the Duchess, and Obi-Wan extended his hand, pale blue lightning shooting from his fingertips and arching toward the Zabrak, Maul turning as he felt the surge in the Force, and he lost his grip on Satine as the lightning struck his chest. Before she had dropped at all, Obi-Wan grabbed her and pulled her toward him, but she didn't get far. Maul barely registered the pain of the lightning, and as Kenobi pulled Satine toward him, the Zabrak spun around to face the Duchess, his red blade extended and his face lighting in sinister joy as the lightsaber impaled her, the blade pressing further into her as Kenobi tried futilely to pull her toward him.

He only registered what had happened when he saw his lover's eyes widen with shock and pain, and with a gasp, Obi-Wan swiftly let her go, the woman dropping from the air to be held up by Maul's blade, the burning red lightsaber extending out her back. With a satisfied chuckle, Maul deactivated his saber, and Kenobi swiftly pulled her toward him again, rushing forward to grab her from the air and he carefully lowered her to the ground. The Dark Side was screaming, thrashing against him and crying for revenge, but he felt none of it. All he could feel was the Force, alive with flames and quickly beginning to engulf him. He laid his hand on her stomach, the wide, burning hole gaping and bleeding through charred skin, and Obi-Wan could feel the life quickly drain out of her, the powerful pulse of the Dark Side within their son reduce to a faint murmur, and than nothing at all. He bit his lip and pushed past consuming rage to feel for the Force, begged it to come to his aid to heal her, but he had never learned the technique for healing others. That was a trick of the Jedi, and the Sith only cared for self-preservation. The Force answered him with flames that burned when he touched them, more agonizing than anything he had felt before.

But Satine was...calm. He could sense that the pain had left her, and she reached up with a shaking hand to cup his cheek, her thumb running over the fine hair of his beard, and a faint smile on her lips. Kenobi laid a hand over hers. "I'm sorry..." he whispered, his voice smooth and even despite the tightness in his chest and he could feel her tremble in his grasp.

"I will always love you, my Obi-Wan..." she said faintly, her voice no louder than her shaking breath, and Kenobi felt her body relax, exhaling slowly as the last of her life left her. And then there was nothing. She was gone, and Obi-Wan felt nothing at all as the darkness snaked its way through him and extinguished the last of the light within him, the faint sobs of a voice deep within him being silenced for the last time.

It was...disappointing. Maul had returned to his throne to watch the culmination of his revenge, the single thing that had consumed his thoughts for over ten years, and it wasn't at all what he imagined. Kenobi hadn't screamed or cried or cursed or raved, he simply...was. He could feel no pain from Kenobi, no anguish, no hopeless despair. It was just...nothing. He couldn't sense him at all. "Do we kill him now?" Savage asked, his deep voice tight and anxious, and Maul simply shook his head, not sure what to do. It was over. His singular focus, his only plan, accomplished not with a victorious shout, but a whimper. Perhaps Kenobi was better off dead. That was reason enough to make him live.

"No," he finally said. "I want him to drown in misery. He will, but not yet." He looked to Kenobi, his dead lover's hand in his as he gently kissed her fingertips. "He's in shock. I want him to realize that all of this was his doing."

"Won't that make him more dangerous?" Savage asked, warily eying the Sith Lord as he bowed his head, his shoulders shaking in what Savage thought might be sobs, but he heard nothing, felt nothing.

"Look at him, Savage. We could have killed him a hundred times over. He is finished." An icy chill suddenly blew through the room, and Maul shivered, his eyes darting to Kenobi, but the feeling hadn't come from him. He looked at Savage, but he was still eyeing the Sith Lord cautiously, and hadn't seemed to feel it. Maul closed his eyes and brought his fingers to his temple, pressing against it to ward off the headache he felt building deep in his mind. "I-I...sense a presence..." he stuttered, and Savage looked back at him, concern on his face.

"Is it Kenobi?" he asked, igniting his lightsaber, but Maul shook his head. "No, no, this is...familiar. A presence I haven't felt in a long time, I-" He gasped, eyes shooting open as his pupils dilated in fear as he looked to the open entrance of the throne room to see a hooded figure silhouetted against the light of Concordia, the man taking calm, easy steps to cross the long hall. "Master." Maul leapt from his seat and quickly strode past Kenobi to kneel before the Sith Master, head bowed reverently. "Master..." he said, his voice praising and adoring, and Sidious looked down upon him.

"I am most impressed to see you have survived your failure," Sidious growled, looking away from his former apprentice to look at Kenobi, Satine clutched tightly in his arms, and the Master frowned, calm settling over him as he felt a stab of anger at the death of what would be the future of his Empire, the future of the Sith. This failure had unwittingly unraveled a piece of his carefully laid plans. The war would have to continue a while longer yet.

"I used your training, Master," Maul said swiftly, chancing a glance up to see Sidious looking away from him, his eyes focused on his apprentice. He pointed at Kenobi, a malicious grin on his face. "I destroyed him! The fallen Jedi that bested me, I have corrected that mistake, all in hopes that I may be rejoined with you, my Master!"

Sidious scoffed. "How unfortunate that you are attempting to deceive me."

"Master?" Maul gasped, his tension mounting as he felt the Force pulling away from him, and as he tried to reach out to grab at it, he felt it flee from him faster.

"And you destroyed my apprentice, did you?" Sidious asked, a cruel smirk on his lips. "I believe that Darth Lumis has something to say about that."

Maul slowly looked behind him, and his eyes widened in fear as he saw Kenobi looking right at him, his golden eyes seeming to be alight with flames, and the Dark Side flared around him like an out of control blaze. The Force was blown open before him, and while Maul couldn't sense him in the Force at all before, now he was overwhelmed by the power of his presence, staggered by the furious beauty of him that he physically hurt, felt himself compelled to kneel before him and submit. Maul looked over to see Savage doing exactly that, bowing and whimpering before a greater power, and Maul only then realized the severity of his error. He had assumed Satine Kryze to be the Sith Lord's weakness, but it turns out that she was his restraint, the only thing keeping him from reaching for the deepest levels of darkness that lay within him.

And Maul had killed that restraint.

Sidious began laughing, a cold and harsh thing that sent chills up Maul's spine. "You," Sidious rasped, "have become a rival!"

"Savage, get up!" Maul yelled, leaping to his feet in a panic and rushing toward his brother, only to have the Force slam into the two Zabraks and send them high into the air to be slammed against the windows that lined the walls, the thick glass cracking under the impact. As Maul struggled against the grip that held him, he could hear the other windows rattling, the stones of the palace walls seeming to shake under the tremendous pressure of the Force around them. He looked down, teeth grit in effort to look at Kenobi, his hands raised and his face contorted in violent wrath as he stood over his lover, the Force whipping around him like a storm and sending the dislodged doors, the dead gangsters, and anything that wasn't securely bolted down crashing against the walls, the bodies striking with bloody splats. All except Sidious, who stood laughing, his robes swaying slightly as if he stood in a gentle breeze, and Satine, cold and still and protected by her Sith Lord even now when she no longer needed it.

Suddenly, the Force released its hold, and Maul and Savage fell to the ground, quickly scrambling to their feet and igniting their lightsabers, focused on the Master and the Apprentice before them, and Maul felt his heart stop when Sidious' twin lightsabers slid into his hands, the red blades igniting to the sound of his malicious cackle. They had to run. They needed to escape again, and this time, never resurface again. Kenobi stepped beside his Master and ignited his lightsabers, and Maul gave up any hope of making it to an exit. They would have to fight. They called themselves Sith, and now, the brothers had a chance to prove it.

Sidious began laughing, his blades dragging on the ground to leave burning gashes in the stone as he spun and intercepted Maul's blade as the former apprentice lashed out to strike him. Savage rushed to flank him, but Sidious blocked it effortlessly. Maul had forgotten how fast his Master was, how athletic, how graceful, switching between effortless blocking and terribly dangerous slashes as he ducked, flipped and evaded every strike, like he saw them all coming, which, Maul supposed, he did. It wasn't going well. Sidious dictated the flow of battle, and Maul diverted his full attention to the Sith Master just to keep up with him.

He didn't see when Kenobi came from behind him and slashed down, and he only barely managed to turn quick enough to block it, the power of the strike knocking him off balance, and he was forced to fall back to avoid the furious cutting of the darksaber, pressing off with his hands to flip above Sidious' blades as the Master swept at him from below. He was forced to retreat quickly, nearly running backwards as Kenobi furiously pursued him, the red and black blades moving so fast it looked as though Kenobi had encased himself in a force field. Sidious rushed alongside Maul, occasionally lashing out at him, forcing him off balance, guiding him away from his only hope for escape. Savage followed swinging his saber at the Sith when he had the opportunity, but he was easily blocked and driven back by swift and brutal slashes.

Maul grabbed Savage and pulled him out of the way when a wicked strike arched down toward the Nightbrother's head, and with his brother beside him, Maul stood his ground, saber extended out before him, cringing when he heard Sidious laugh, his confidence withering when he felt Kenobi's blazing gaze upon him. "Darth Lumis," Sidious drawled, and the golden eyes shot to the Master. "Maul took something from you. I find it fitting you take something from him." He pointed his lightsaber at Savage. "Kill his brother first."

Maul glanced at Savage out of the corner of his eye, his large hands tightening on his lightsaber, and when Maul looked back at Sidious, Kenobi was gone. He looked around frantically for the man, and found him only when Savage howled in pain as Kenobi's darksaber plunged into his shoulder. With a cry of outrage, Maul rushed to help his brother as Kenobi drove the off balance man back, but was stopped when Sidious reached through the Force and pulled him backwards, forcing his former apprentice to face him. Maul realized that Sidious was toying with him, simply keeping the pressure on while Kenobi dealt with Savage. He repeatedly tried to break away so he could rush in to help his brother, but every time he changed directions, Sidious flipped before him, his dual blades crashing down to meet his, and Maul was forced to watch helplessly as Kenobi continued to drive Savage back.

It didn't take long for Kenobi to bring both blades down upon Savage, the much bigger man blocking both strikes with the dual ends of his lightsaber. Bearing down on the man, Kenobi deactivated his red blade, causing the pressure of the darksaber to flip the weapon vertically as Obi-Wan powered on his red blade again extending in time to cut Savage's weapon in half across the hilt. Allowing the momentum from the slash to carry through, he spun, his back to Savage as he caught both blades in a backhanded grip and followed through, lashing out with the blazing blades as they bit through Savage' body, severing him in half as green mist poured from the fatal wound.

Maul screamed in anguish and rushed to his fallen brother as Sidious cackled with laughter. It was...cruel. Unspeakably so, not in that Kenobi had killed him, but in that Kenobi had killed him in nearly the exactly way that he had slain Maul so long ago. Savage was dead by the time he got there, killed nearly instantly, he imagined, and he looked at his brother's face, so unlike how he had remembered him. He was...smaller, his horns reduced, his features softer, his body less massive and hulking. He was...small. Young, far younger than Maul had imagined. He never knew. He had never asked how he came to be, just accepted that he did. His transformation must have been the work of the Nightsisters, though Maul didn't understand why their magic didn't fade with their deaths.

"I don't believe that beast has the power to survive as you did, Maul," Sidious cackled, and Maul felt himself bristle with rage. With a howl of fury, he threw himself at the Master and the Apprentice, digging deep of the Dark Side and letting his wrath guide him. He swung at Kenobi, but the Sith easily blocked it, effortlessly ducked and dodged the onslaught until he suddenly disappeared. Maul's swing hit nothing, sending him off balance, and he quickly swung his weapon behind him when he felt a ripple in the Force. It was Kenobi, his sabers arching powerfully for only a moment before he disappeared again, only to attack from behind him once again. Maul's eyes widened in fear as he realized what was happening. Kenobi was using the Dark Side and the darkness around them to cloak his presence and attack from the shadows. Maul centered himself as much as he could, but he suddenly found that the Force was no longer his ally, abandoning him in his time of greatest need. It fled to the true Sith, and he could feel the tides turning against him as the Force began to bite back, just as his Master had always said could happen if someone pressed too hard, demanded too much of the Dark Side.

His blade clashed with Sidious' and he managed to press away just as Kenobi emerged from the shadows to his left, only to disappear a moment later. He rushed at his former Master, blade raised to strike him, but Kenobi flashed before him, and Maul skidded to avoid ploughing into the man. His blade slashed across past Sidious to try and catch Kenobi, and both Master and Apprentice ducked under the red weapon, blades extended and slashing upwards, severing both of Maul's cybernetic legs. His lightsaber was pulled from his hand as he fell by Sidious, the Master already having deactivated and stored his own lightsabers. Kenobi flicked his hand in the air, and Maul was grabbed in the tight hold of the Force and slammed against the high, vaulted ceiling. He was torn from there as well, striking the walls, the floor, the pillars that lined the hall until his head was spinning and his eyes unfocused. He finally came to a stop at Sidious' feet, slammed so hard against the floor that the fine stone cracked and crumbled beneath him.

With a whimper, he pushed up onto shaky arms and looked up at the two Sith Lords with bleary eyes. "Mercy," he whimpered weakly, his voice cracking, and Kenobi snarled viciously, his red saber angled over his shoulder and poised to strike, but Sidious put out a hand to stop him. Fury flashed across the Sith Lord's face, but Sidious remained calm and unafraid.

"Peace, Darth Lumis," he said softly. "There is only mercy in death. He took something from me as well, and I would see him suffer." Lightning shot from the Master's fingers and Maul began to scream, writhing as pain coursed through him and the sharp stumps of his legs scraped against the stone, leaving deep, long gouges. "We have other uses for him, Darth Lumis," Sidious said softly when Maul stilled, the Zabrak groaning in agony. "The least of which being a way to satisfy your thirst for revenge. We have unfinished business with the Nightsisters."

Lumis didn't say anything. He just bowed his head in subservience to his Master and turned and walked away from him, slowly making his way toward the throne where Satine lay nearby. He dropped to his knees beside her, reached out a shaking hand and stroked her cheek, her skin already cold to the touch. Her other cheek was cut, the surrounding area stained purple, and he shivered for a moment when he thought about what Maul did to her before he got there, how she may have suffered before she was so cruelly stolen from him. And their son, the child that died before he was named, may have been afraid too. They had just talked the night before about how he could hear them, had felt with his own hands that the child responded to his presence, could sense the feelings of his mother, was so strong in the Force that even his Master had been impressed.

Gone, all of it.

He didn't want to leave her here. There was a chance that Bo-Katan may yet live. If Satine had done as she said, if she had sent her sister out to search for Maul, than she may have escaped the carnage. Anger rushed through him suddenly. If she had been here, it may not have come to this. If she had been here...most likely she would be dead as well.

He didn't feel sad, though he knew he was. He felt anger, cold and hard and sitting deep within him and just waiting for a reason to take him over once again. He supposed he'd allow it. There was no thought involved when the Dark Side overtook him, no opportunity for him to look at the world and see ghosts all around him, as he knew he would, no visions from the traitorous Force to plague him, no images of flames and fire burning away everything he loved...

He laughed softly, a cold, hollow thing as he touched the Force, opened himself to the visions he saw so often, and saw nothing. Only the blackened ruins of Sundari and his field of dead Jedi. Even the face in the flames was gone, and he felt deep inside him that the vision may have been metaphorical, not literal. It was he that was burning, the flames of the Force overtaking him as it lashed out against him, bit back for something that he did not understand. The Force was his ally and his friend, and in his moment of need, the Force had abandoned him, had led him to this, had kept him from the visions necessary to stop it. No. There was no way this was the will of the Force. It couldn't have been. He had seen visions of his son, visions of his future, all now stolen from him by a man that bent the Force to suit his own needs. The future was...shifting. He cleared the visions from his mind. They would only mislead him. Through the darkness, he could feel the tiniest thread of the Force, a warm, gentle pull of light that touched him, warm and comforting, and it burned. Hissing, he thrashed against the feeling, the raging Dark Side driving away the comforting embrace of the Force. He would have none of it. There was no place for sympathy among the Sith.

By now, Cody and Yoda and the 212th will have finished rooting out the city of the scum that conquered it. He'd send out a crew to look for Bo-Katan and get the rest of them to help bring Satine to the temple in the city where the past Mand'alors were entombed. And after that...it was irrelevant. He'd follow his Master to the conclusion of the Clone War and the rise of the Sith Empire, just as he had always intended to do. Just as he was always meant to do, but there would never be anyone else. No future queen, no children to follow in his wake. That part of him was dead and gone with the woman he loved. He learned his lesson well.

He looked at the pale face, committed it to his excellent memory, tuning out the sounds of Sidious torturing Maul behind him and the mournful wail of his rancor from across the city.

I will always love you, my Obi-Wan.

"And I you, my Satine. Ni su'cuyi, gar kyr'adyc, ni partayli, gar darasuum."

I'm alive, but you are dead. I remember you, so you are eternal.

AN: I am so, SO sorry you guys. But I did tell you this would get dark.