Maya-202!

A Star Wars-Inspired Story!

Episode I

The Two Prince War

Chapter XIX

Choices

AN: Thx for the comment on Ao3!

Prince Onasius' Mansion, Iryx

Aren waved Artex away with a slight hand gesture, as he could see the droid (who had been waiting in the background for the most part), starting to get anxious, slowly grabbing and clutching a grenade in his thin hands, in case the former Jedi required his help. Artex hadn't tried to stop Maya during the fight much because secretly, beneath his circuit boards, he thought his master wasn't thinking straight. I.E., he thought his master was wrong about this, and looking at it too one-sidedly. But he wasn't prepared to let anything bad happen to him, either – Aren had been the only human, the only organic being, to show Artex that he was more than his programming, who saw him that way. However, Aren silently instructed him to not get involved – at this moment, it seemed to be between him, Maya, and Prince Onasius.

"I think we'd be better off chatting in a more… secure environment," Maya suggested, implying what she thought was the best course of action to the others. They seemed to pick up on it, as two troopers then trundled over and lifted Aren up with their arms, presumably to take him away. He could've fought back, but he chose not to – in truth, he was too lethargic to muster up the effort to do so. Besides, he was beginning to think that maybe cooperating might have been the easier way to find out what was really going on. Either that, or he could have just handed himself straight into the enemy's hands. He was hoping it wasn't the latter, but even so, a short spell in a locked room with nothing to do might at least give him enough energy to attempt to break out – if Onasius really was evil.

"We'll take him to a concealed room, trooper 202. It's the closest we have to a prison cell," one of the soldiers picking him up informed her.

"Thank you, Mathew-878 and Jax-444," Maya said, gently patting both their shoulders. The soldiers dragged Aren along the path back to the mansion, and then all eyes turned to the elephant – or the droid – in the room; Artex. There was a spell of silence.

"Ummm…" Artex cowered in fear as they stared at him, praying to the force that the troopers weren't going to try to shut him down.

"You're one of those really, really old battle droids right?" one trooper questioned, slowly approaching Artex. The droid gave a very slight nod, unsure of whether to admit it, even though everybody could see he was a battle droid anyway; there was nothing to admit. "How'd you know that guy?" the trooper carried on, referencing Aren.

"He's my… he's my friend," the B1 decided with a little stumble in his voice as he settled on calling Aren a friend.

"Alright. Take him to be with his 'friend'," the trooper ordered. Artex started quivering – he didn't want to be in some sort of prison cell; being stuck in a glass cabinet at the Clone Wars Museum for years on end had felt like enough being locked away for him.

Thankfully, Onasius had a different idea. "Wait - the droid's not gonna be a huge danger to us all like the other guy. Even if he tries to fight, he doesn't have the force or anything; he isn't going to be able to escape us effortlessly," he'd interrupted. Artex was curious as to whether the grenade he had been holding earlier (which he had carefully placed back in his inventory now) had slipped the prince's field of view when he said this. On the flip side, the droid was visibly a nervous wreck - well, he was experiencing whatever the computer systems' equivalent was to anxiety – at the sight of all these soldiers that could cut him down in seconds. Ergo, he wouldn't be able to function efficiently under this kind of pressure. So, Artex supposed the prince was right, nonetheless. "If you're his friend, do you know what this is all about?" Onasius said. Artex realised that the troopers noticing him was a good thing, actually – he could tell the story how he'd seen it, and maybe he could finally get some more answers for Aren. The battle droid preceded to explain everything, or at least everything he knew, including finding Aren in the Deep Beyond unconscious, and what Scald had said to them. He could see the cogs ticking in Onasius' brain, like he was a droid as well. There was another spell of quiet while he thought.

"Master, are you OK?" Maya had wondered in the middle of the silence, although the prince didn't respond verbally, only mouthing a small 'yes'. As a result, the trooper felt it was best to let her master get on with it – she had seen him in the zone like this once before and had remembered that he had come up with a great idea afterwards. What the idea was for she couldn't actually recall, just that his thought process had been successful.

After a while of thinking, he finally spoke. "I think I see what's going on here…" was what he mused.

The room Aren had been trapped in really wasn't that bad. It was a bit plain, with grey walls, a black carpet and not a single piece of furniture other than a slim, rickety-looking bed in its centre, but it certainly wasn't the worst jail he'd ever seen. In fact, it was pretty luxurious. He was sat on the bed impatiently, hoping that someone would come visit so he could at least get the interrogation over with. 'Gah, what was I thinking?' he thought to himself in irritation, sighing at his own behaviour. He'd let rage – rage at something he didn't even know had really happened – completely control him. Full on body-over-brain decision-making. Being held up in this room was probably needed – it would, if anything, help him process things a bit more clearly. Settling down, he had a serious think about what came next. What if what Scald had said wasn't true? Most importantly, Aren pondered why he let himself become so consumed by his anger. However, there wasn't much time for that now, as suddenly, he heard a knock at the door along with it being unlocked at the other side. He perked his head up and watched as the door opened to see two troopers, both sporting combat shields in case the rogue force user attempted to fight his way out.

"You know, you really don't need those… I've calmed down a lot," Aren said to them.

The pair of soldiers exchanged a suspicious look with one another, choosing what to say back to him. "Sir, this is for our own safety. Now you're the prisoner here, we're in control. Don't forget that. And don't be trying any of those Jedi mind tricks on us, OK?" one of them commanded.

"OK, OK…" Aren complied, putting his hands up in a surrendering fashion. "You needn't worry," he continued, trying to settle their hostility. But he knew it was pointless. And after all, why shouldn't they be hostile? He reminded himself that he did just try to attack their leader.

Once the troopers saw that he wasn't likely to do anything, they shouted to someone outside. "Lady Maya-202, you can come in now," the one that hadn't spoken yet alerted. Maya? The one that had somehow bested Aren previously? Outside the doorway, she removed her helmet, revealing her neck-length, glossy, red-tinted hair. She seemed nervous, now – more so than when she had been battling the former Jedi earlier, strangely enough. Maybe it was simply because she had her helmet off and her expression could be seen now, though. A few minutes ago, Prince Onasius had said to everyone what he suspected was going on. He had asked Maya to step in and 'interview' Aren to see if it matched up, and she was supposed to feed back the information to him. Normally, Onasius himself would have paid him a visit, but he was busy getting his head wound patched up by a medical trooper now. She hadn't really been overly pleased about being sent to question Aren; she knew she had been very lucky that she won their last fight, and that she might not be as fortunate if he started up again. Nevertheless, she wanted to appease her prince, her friend, as he was right. Maya had been the one to stop him when Onasius couldn't.

The moment before she entered the room, she received a comm from Finn, who had ended up turning back to repair the ship with BB-8, promising he would catch up with her when they had finished.

"Oh my Force, Maya, sorry we took so long. I'm near the mansion now, but from what I can see, there's no one really outside. Are you alright?" he worried, feeling guilty that he had left her.

Maya chuckled slightly. "Master Finn don't worry – everything's under control right now. But I was correct – we came across a rogue Jedi, or at least a rogue force-user of some sort," she recounted. "We managed to stop him, though. Prince Onasius has come up with a theory as to what has happened, and I'm just about to ask the man some questions to help confirm it," she said.

Finn was taken aback by how easily the whole thing seemed to have cleared up. "Oh… alright then. Is Onasius alright?" he stuttered.

"For the most part; but the rogue, I think Aren was his name, gave him a bit of a nasty scrape on the head that he's getting patched up now," Maya answered.

Finn gasped. "Wait, did you say Aren?" he asked.

"Yeah, I think that was his name…" Maya replied.

"Does he have kinda short blonde hair and a yellow lightsaber?" the Jedi Master continued.

"Umm… yeah," the soldier informed.

Finn couldn't believe it. "I think I know him! He'd visited Master Rey at the temple recently, not too long before we were there! I didn't catch all the details of their conversation, but Rey did tell me he was confused as to why he'd left the Jedi Order out of the blue. I remember that day – it was such a strange occurrence, so unexpected," Finn recalled.

Maya took in what he was saying with high concentration. "Hmmm…" she sighed, pondering how it all fit together. But if her prince was right, then the reason for Aren's exit was much more obvious than everyone was making it out to be. "Thank you, Master Finn. Good job on the ship. I'd better go now, but I'm Prince Onasius would be overjoyed to hear from you," she advised.

"I'd be happy to see him, it feels like a while since we last spoke. Good luck, Maya. Be careful," Finn warned cautiously to her, and left the chat. Maya looked up from the device that was strapped to her arm, and strolled into the room, glaring at Aren. The other two troopers with shields weren't budging an inch; they remained as still as statues as Maya passed them. The blonde former Jedi watched her come in through the doorway cautiously, considering what the trooper's next move was gonna be.

"So, Aren is your name, right?" Maya began. He nodded, his face remaining completely neutral. "My Master has a.. supposition, is one way to describe it, as to what has gone on here. He can't be here right now to put it to you because you… you know, 'injured his head', so I'm gonna run through it on his behalf," she continued, slightly over-emphasising her prince's condition.

"It was barely a bump…" Aren mumbled grudgingly.

"But enough of one to require care from a medical trooper. Now, I'll run through it simply: we believe that you and Prince Thomanius were… together. Jedi Master Finn has just confirmed that you used to be a part of the Jedi Order, which only adds more evidence to support our suspicions. We think that you left the Jedi Order because attachment is forbidden, and you may have had feelings for Thomanius – stop me if I'm wrong by the way – so you chose him over instead of life as part of the Order. Only, when you found out what he was up to, you didn't like it. We're not entirely sure on what happened next, but we presume it must have ended up with you and him falling out, and, although I can't believe this would be true about Thomanius, him not having the heart to kill you. So, we suspect he dumped you in the Deep Beyond, somehow got rid of your memory, and vanished. His highness also thinks whatever Scald told you he did, Thomanius may actually have done it instead," Maya revealed.

Aren's head perked up. There was something so… familiar about that potential explanation – Aren suspected that familiarity was there because he had really experienced those events. "You… I think you're right… I don't know, maybe not… but… how do I know you're right? There's no proof that Prince Onasius didn't do it, either," he queried.

"You're correct. Unfortunately for now, it's just our word against his. I have trust in my Master that he wouldn't do the things that you accused him of, and so do all of us other dreamtroopers. But there is one other factor that will back up either ours' or Prince Thomanius' side of the argument - in your heart, who do you think is telling the truth?" the female soldier proposed. Aren sighed.

Iryx Space

General Grievous was getting impatient. "Where is that Jedi? Lord Thomanius said he would take much less time than this to incapacitate his brother," he snarled.

"Um, General. How do we know Prince Onasius hasn't killed Aren himself? He does also have a tonne of soldiers there to help him, don't forget," a nightmare trooper claimed.
"Prince Thomanius said that Aren's power grew stronger with rage, and that his brother wasn't good in unexpected attacks. If he somehow has, however, then I will make his highness very happy and kill the prince myself – after all, he still carries a lightsaber that I can add to my collection," Grievous plotted, chuckling to himself quietly.

"General, I have picked up an incoming transmission from Prince Thomanius!" alerted another trooper.

"Patch him through…" Grievous commanded, coughing and grunting slightly after he said that. Just then, a hologram of the prince appeared. "My lord," Grievous bowed.

"Is it done yet? You haven't contacted me, and he should be dead by now," his highness said.

"My lord, Aren hasn't come back up from the planet yet," Grievous confessed.
"What?! Definitely?" the prince barked.

"Yes, my lord. Our scans have found no ships leaving Iryx recently."

Thomanius put a hand on his chin, thinking about what might have happened. He'd seen Aren's potential, especially when the man was angry. He knew Aren didn't like to kill, but he could do it if the right buttons of his were pushed. Prince Thomanius thought his brother would've been toast by this point. "Something must have gone wrong…" he seethed under his breath. "Change of plans again - here's what you're going to do: send a probe droid down to the planet, and find out what's going on," Thomanius ordered.

"Yes, my lord," the General responded, eager to please.

"Good, General. Once that is done, contact me and tell me what the droid finds out. Do not let me down," he said again, and disappeared.

Prince Onasius' Mansion, Iryx

Aren didn't know what to think now. Admittedly, he could see himself having been with Onasius or Thomanius as he thought both of them were… attractive, and judging by the past experiences he'd had before, he knew how easy it could have been for him to have become drawn to either of them. But this wasn't the time to be thinking about looks – this was the time to be thinking about hard evidence and belief. However, he had a sneaking suspicion that caused him to be leaning more to Onasius' side of the debate.

"I… I don't know who is right if either of you are. But I feel that your prince may have a closer version of events in his head, or at least one that feels as if it matches what my senses are telling me…" Aren mumbled agreeably. He rose from the bed he'd been sat on and began approaching Maya and the door.

"Woah, woah, woah! Not so fast there," one of the guard troopers ordered, moving in front of Maya, and positioning their shields higher as if to stop Aren from doing whatever they thought he was about to.

"Hey, I wasn't planning to do anything.." Aren said defensively. "Actually, I just wanted to say... sorry. Sorry to you and your prince... Maya, is it right?" Aren admitted, recalling catching her name amongst all the earlier commotion.

"Yes, Maya-202," she confirmed bluntly.

"I'm so sorry, Maya-202. I know that it won't be easy for you to forgive me or anything, but I want it to be known that I really do regret my bad actions – and my rash choices today. I was totally absorbed by my emotions, and I let them get the better of me. If I hadn't left the Jedi Order I'd probably have gotten kicked out once they saw how much I let my feelings get the better of me," the blonde man said with the smallest, most half-hearted chuckle at the end of his sentence, looking down at the ground.

"It's... I can't say it's fine straight away - you'll have to tell all this to Prince Onasius before you can find out if it's all 'fine' – but I can certainly at least accept your apology. Besides, no offence, but you didn't really do anything that damaging to me..." Maya mused with a tiny, comforting smile.

Aren nodded silently, and then remembered to ask about one other unusual event that, whilst normally it would've been a major concern, had been totally pushed to the back of his mind due to focusing more on his troubling memory loss. "But wait, what about General Grievous? Where did he come from? Artex – the Battle Droid I arrived with – said Grievous had been killed. But when Artex and I were on Coruscant, he attacked us, behaving as if he'd been searching for me for a while. Do you or your prince have any ideas what's happening with him? Is Artex alright by the way?" the former Jedi questioned with an expression of confusion and a tone of alertness in his voice.

Maya shook her head – "Your friend is OK, don't worry. He obviously really wasn't gonna be a threat to us, even with those grenades and the grenade launcher he had in his inventory, so some troopers are hanging around with him in the Main Hall now." Aren breathed a sigh of relief, happy that his droid friend was alright. "He mentioned that guy's name – General Grievous, was it?" Maya asked.

"Yeah."

"We don't really know how that fits into everything, certainly not how he could have returned from the dead. Prince Onasius did say he was gonna find out if there was any information on him in the Jedi Archives, but aside from that, we don't know. We're guessing that maybe Prince Thomanius has sent him to kill you, but it might be someone else. Or he might've just felt like killing a Jedi and stumbled upon you – your droid says that he was a Jedi Hunter back in his day," Maya suggested as she folded her arms gently.

"Either way, he still wants me dead. I'd better watch out…" Aren mumbled. It was a good plan; however, now he should've been watching out for the black and purple probe droid that was hovering outside the locked window, recording every word they were saying.

Iryx Space

Grievous grumbled as he stared at the footage the probe droid was picking up. This was not going the way Master Thomanius had said it would.

"You! Fetch me my DCS now!" the General bellowed at a nightmare trooper, before breaking into yet another chain of coughs. It seemed yelling only made Grievous' unfortunate habit worse.

"Roger, roger, Sir!" the trooper obeyed, and scuttled off to get the communicator. Grievous didn't want to comm Thomanius with a full-blown transmission – he knew the prince might've been up to something important with the bomb, and he didn't want to interrupt his work. A quick DCS message would suffice instead. The droid trooper returned promptly and held out his hand with the DCS in it. Grievous snatched it away without a thank you – he didn't believe manners were necessary with his soldiers, especially when they were droids. He may have been gone for over a century, but his attitude to those serving under him certainly hadn't changed. Using his metallic fingers, he typed a text on the DCS to Thomanius. It read, 'My Lord. The Jedi filth is alive and appears to be in a secure room with some other troopers. What's the plan?' He tapped the send button, and not ten seconds later, he received an immediate response. 'Take a shuttle down to the planet, far away from my brother's mansion. Go alone and use this route to get into the back of the mansion to avoid being caught by Onasius' scanners. Kill him. For real this time. Do not disappoint me, General.' The prince replied. He then forwarded a miniature holoimage of a map, showing an entrance at the opposite side of the mansion gates, to Grievous. This was actually the same way Thomanius had sent his strike teams in that first battle to secretly collect the world-splitter bomb plans – it was a sort of 'secret entrance' to the manor. 'Thank you, Master. And what about your brother?' Grievous responded, partly hopeful he'd be able to obtain Onasius' lightsaber as well. But to his disheartenment, the prince said, 'No, leave him for me.' Oh well. Aren's one lightsaber would be better than none.

The droid leader sent back, 'Very well. It will be done, your highness.'