Chapter 9

Maul had felt anger throughout his entire life. When he was stolen from his mother's blossom to serve his Master, the Zabrak hadn't believed he could have felt anything worse in the presence of someone else aside from Sidious.

And now, there was.

He welcomed this challenge for equal power to come to him and waited eagerly, keeping his hand next to his lightsaber as he contemplated what to do.

The four-seater landspeeder accelerated to him, and, the figure extracted himself from the vehicle, looking ever more intimidating with the Twin Suns at his back. Ruthless and cold as ice, and for the first time in a long time, the Sith apprentice trembled, but it didn't last long.

Maul was a Sith. Sith only use fear to vent against those of their rivals. Like a prey hunting for a predator, the Zabrak snarled, grasping the hilt of his lightsaber before activating the crimson weapon, twirling his lightsaber across the ground.

The shadow did not make any movements, keeping his hands on his robes.

After a moment, he sighed. "You are just a tool for him. Sooner or later, your usefulness to Lord Sidious would come to an end."

The Zabrak angled his lightsaber at his side, masking his surprise about how he knew of Sidious's identity.

The dark shadow made no movement. "I could show you a new destiny, Maul."

The Zabrak lunged, utilizing his momentum. His place was aside Lord Sidious, and it would always be that way. To serve another... that would be going against his training! And every aching moment, Darth Maul fought to grew stronger!

The shadow spoke, "You have the potential to be more than a blunt weapon; Sidious limits you to prevent you from accomplishing your destiny."

The Zabrak swung around again, yet each of them had been evaded by the shadow, catching him in the spine with his right leg, sending him falling back.

The Zabrak paused, glaring at him, contemplating about how he could undo this rival.

The shadow sighed, reaching for his side and gripping his hilt, activating the lightsaber with a flourish.

The Zabrak frowned at the crimson lightsaber but didn't comment on it. He pressed forward, swinging with intensity.

And the clash began.

The Zabrak appeared to be pushing the dark figure away. But only at the beginning. With surprise and astonishment, he realized that the being was deflecting all of his strikes… with only the right hand! He felt his anger deepen and called upon the Dark Side even more. Continuing to press against him, Maul streaked quickly, twirling his lightsaber to also block the few strokes sent at him.

Unlike him, each of his blows was hindered with a casualness that surprised him. Without even much effort, the Zabrak found himself back on defense, parrying each assault with a noticeable strain in his muscles, gritting his teeth as the force of the shadow's blows descended down upon him. The shadow thrust his lightsaber around to stab him in the shoulder and managed to break through his assault, striking him in the torso with his fist, causing him to grunt and his lightsaber to fly several feet away.

The shadow frowned, positioning his lightsaber directly at his throat. "You could be an amazing warrior, Maul, yet Sidious would never allow you to accomplish what you crave. Don't you see? You'll forever be his slave-"

"I am no slave!" The Zabrak snarled, clenching his jaw as he continued to advance against the shadow.

The Zabrak used the Force in calling his double-bladed lightsaber horizontally into his grip and igniting it, breathing heavily as he glared at this adversary. This being was a mockery of everything he was taught, just as much as the Jedi. Working with ancient enemies of the Sith while daring to hold the red lightsaber!

The shadow continued to press down with heavy strokes, almost catching him multiple times as the Zabrak continued to move back, red lightsaber in front of him.

"At last, you show something beyond that brutality," the shadow said, eyes closed, and to his surprise he deactivated his lightsaber. "I'll not fight you, Maul, not when you could be more than Sidious. He lied to you, manipulated you... as he did me."

"As he, did you?" Maul repeated, golden eyes going wide. What did Sidious do to this man?

"Maul, you and I are alike. Lord Sidious disregarded me in more ways than one. I know his true identity. Sheev Palpatine. Together, we can defeat him." the shadow offered out his hand. "Join me."

Maul approached.

"You are unwise to lower your defensives!" Maul snapped, thrusting his lightsaber forward, only for the shadow to ignite the lightsaber in the last moment and block the strikes.

The shadow didn't even move back a step despite the Zabrak's efforts to push him back. The Zabrak aimed for a downer strike, attempting to catch him off-balance in the knee. His strike was promptly blocked without much effort.

"Sidious is an insane madman." The shadow said, bringing his lightsaber down on the Zabrak and inching it to his throat. The Zabrak grimaced at the heat of the lightsaber.

"Finish it."

"I'll not kill you, Maul," the man said, removing the lightsaber from his throat. "I don't want you to die."

The Zabrak glared at him, golden eyes flashing as he lunged at the shadow, hacking away endlessly. The shadow twirled his lightsaber in front of him, his attacks growing harsher and harsher than before, yet there was still the same reservation that there had been before.

The Zabrak got into a pouncing position before he felt it once again. Within his adversary, the Light and Dark synchronize. They amalgamated, the boundaries between them breaking down until it became impossible to tell which the shadow was drawing upon.

Regardless, Maul had been taught in the powers of the Dark Side, and the more this failure taunted him, the more he would just decrease his chances of winning this battle.

The Zabrak spun it in his hand for a moment in an attempt at intimidation, not able to resist the urge to speak for the first time. "What's the matter, traitor of the Sith? Exhausted."

"You and I both know that is far from the case," the shadow replied, even wiping fake dust off his shoulders. "Do you not understand who I am, Maul? Your Master sent you here to die... deliberately. You are nothing but a pawn for him to cast aside."

"Your lies will not sway me!" The Zabrak snapped, though deep down he could feel something that was telling him that the shadow was right. He advanced.

"I'm a Sith!" The Zabrak raged, golden eyes flashing, as he continued to hammer away at his defensives despite how the shadow didn't seem bothered with each of his strikes. "And you will kneel before me."

The shadow didn't respond, yet his eyes suggested something akin to disappointment. "I once was like you, Maul, defensive over my position... believing that serving him... kriff I even betrayed someone who was like a son to me for him and that led to his death. You have family left, Maul."

"I need not your sympathy!"

Wanting to cut this failure's head off, the Dark Side of the Force inside of him reached its climax. The Zabrak advanced again, and the shadow swung his lightsaber around again, catching his lightsaber before it could have landed. Another parry and Maul swung again, using this opportunity to move around the towering shadow.

"Do you believe that Sidious really taught you everything?" the shadow asked, keeping his lightsaber in his right hand, as he positioned it to the ground.

Lightning exited from his left hand and crashed into the Zabrak. It was a common torture method that his Master used on him, yet it didn't felt nearly as harsh. Still, the Zabrak collapsed in agony as the lightning coursed through his body, deactivating his lightsaber as he tried to break away from the might of the being.

"I could teach you how to recover and deflect that assault," the shadow continued, lightsaber lingering next to him. "Being a Sith is not the only pathway for power, nor do you have to be a Jedi."

The Zabrak's body spasmed.

"Reclaim your saber and defeat me. You know it and I know that he would cast you aside like an animal when your usefulness no longer aligns with his. Sidious doesn't care about you. He cares about power and control and that would be his downfall. But that doesn't have to be yours. There's no redemption for that monster."

Once the remnants of lightning were no longer a complication, the Zabrak raised his hands and brought the shadow down to his knees. He tightened them into fists and attempted to crush his windpipe, yet an invisible force prevented him from doing so.

The Zabrak showed no hesitation and launched himself into the air, his twin-bladed lightsaber rotating as it landed with a hiss against the shadow. Before the Zabrak could have cut him down, a shield formulated in front of him, protecting him from any permanent damage. The Zabrak attempted to bash against it, earning a chuckle from the shadow.

"You could continue doing that for hours and it would change nothing," the shadow said, rising to his feet, the lightsaber continuing to bounce harmlessly off his shield of protection. Only when he allowed the shield to drop, did the shadow raise his still ignited lightsaber up against his forehead, causing Maul to swung his lightsaber up to deflect it.

"You can't kill me!"

The shadow chuckled. "Don't you see? There's a difference between being a Sith and being a monster. And you are currently the latter more so than the former."

The Zabrak charged again. He was a monster and Sith in both! He whipped his 'saber around his head and body, hitting the shadow from both sides so quickly there seemed to be no delay in between. At least, that was what he believed at first.

The shadow moved without effort, the heat of the lightsaber continuing to come close to his exposed form, yet without striking true. Maul continued to fight back, his lightsaber moving with what he didn't know was many flaws that his opponent could have already taken advantage of. Still, the shadow did not cleave him into two or ran him through.

"Maul, you never had a choice... unlike me." Was that pity in his voice? Why, Maul wanted to cut his body into millions of different pieces. "I gave into the Dark Side willingly as did many others. You are different. You have never been given a chance to choose your own path."

At last, the shadow retaliated, deciding to give in to his full strength.

He lunged, his crimson lightsaber moving with a deadly precision; he parried all of the Zabrak's strikes, and when possible, would give his own, thrusting into the open space between the Zabrak's blades, only for his saber to be caught and pushed aside at the last second. Was it on purpose?

The Zabrak launched back, eager to engage again, but with a different strategy, he clearly could not defeat the shadow with speed and force alone.

Their lightsabers collided.

"If you are truthful in claiming you are not harnessing your full power against me, then do it!" the Zabrak bellows, beyond irritated as the shadow continued to move with simple swings of his lightsaber.

The shadow caught him in the gut with a punch. "So be it," he responded before attacking.

Master of the Form which the Zabrak would later recognize as Djem So, the shadow swung furiously at him, bringing his lightsaber down on the Zabrak from above, from the sides, and then from underneath, each strike bringing with it immense power and speed, the Zabrak's blocks were barely keeping the shadow's lightsaber away.

The Sith hissed and allowed a Force push with his right hand, but it was met with the shadow's absorbance; and the Force energy he let out, dissolved into nothingness. The shadow brought his lightsaber down once more, and when the Zabrak countered, and brought it back up with blazing speed, the shadow's continued entourage didn't stop. None of their clashes have been long, their sparks being only momentary, lightsabers cutting against one another with great intensity.

The Sith slowly realized that he was outmatched, outwitted. His time was going. He would die here.

Eventually, the shadow cut through the Zabrak's lightsaber, causing the pieces of the hilt to fall at his side, and the lightsaber pierced through his spine. The Zabrak's eyes went wide.

"Maul," the shadow - man - said sadly. "Look what you made me done."

"I will never bow to you!" The Zabrak snarled, looking up at him with frantic yellow eyes. "You'll have to kill me."

"I will never force you to become my puppet. You could be so much more." The man stated with pity. Sidious had been nothing if not brutal throughout his training, which helped him grow stronger through time. The lightsaber deactivated, and he fell.

He didn't cut his head off, nor deliver the finishing strike. A painful death?

The man simply flicked a finger in his direction, shattering his barriers as his Master always did in their fiercest days of Sith training. Despite this, somehow, Maul could feel the sensation had been gentle, in the adventures of roaming around the Zabrak's mind. It had been far from the pain that Maul was lose to, the way Sidious tinkered with his mind like a bloody dog and made sure every moment of his existence to be just as painful and agonizing.

"Is this what you truly want, Maul? To throw away your life before you had a chance to experience true meaning?"

Far from the indifference that the man showed throughout the conflict, the shadow was seething now and disgust. He felt it then. The anger this man had for his Master. He saw his Master as nothing but a barrier that would have to be cast aside and felt nothing but pity for him at once.

Still, Maul kept his head down, vowing not to answer any questions that would help him.

"Look at me!" The man barked, and his head moved robotically to face him, despite his body protesting against movement.

In a moment of clarity, Maul saw it. And at last, that answered the question of what he was doing.

He saw a future where his Master would betray him, where he would be disregarded as a tool with no further use. Beforehand, his Master would gut a Zabrak who shared a striking resemblance to him except of a different color. Another man bowed, taking his former place with Maul being nothing than a mere memory.

At last, he recognized it. He was giving him a choice, something that the Zabrak never had before.

"Tell me what do you want. Not what you were instructed to want. But what..." The man scowled, "what do YOU want? Do you wish to continue to be a test for that madman or do you want to be something more? You would never overthrow your Master, for he would always hold you back with chains."

At last, he felt him moving around his brain, cutting the crude mental obedience that had been enforced on Maul for so long. He sliced through dark tendrils that Maul had grown used to, and subtly began the process of removing them safely. When Maul's mind was no longer a fog, pain accompanied, to which he carefully extracted from his mind and looked at his eyes, which were already becoming a more natural crimson-unknown to the Sith Apprentice.

"I'm helping you make a decision, Maul. Now answer me. What do you want?"

What did Maul want? Without being in Sidious's grasp, without having to deal with the countless torture sessions his Master came up with, what did he want? Become the Sith Master? Perhaps, but could he ever rival Sidious?

How could he choose without Sidious or someone else making that decision for him?

At this point, his hours were numbered, especially since his spine was stabbed through. Was this man doing this out of torment... or peace in his last minutes?

"To survive." he muttered, having to endure a coughing fit to even muster up the words. "To become stronger."

He stood above him now, raising his lightsaber in the air before...

Before it stopped, and the man smirked.

"Very well, you will not perish this day."

The lightsaber deactivated, and the man placed the hilt on his belt.

He gathered the Force around him in a way Maul never seen. He bent the Dark Side to his will as Sidious had taught him, yet... forced it away. The Light Side fueled through him seconds afterwards. He placed his hand on the chest of the expiring Zabrak. The Force traveled through Maul's body unlike ever before, as his eyes widened.

"Never again will you be enslaved to another," the man spoke like a god.

The venomous flow of the Dark Side moved like snakes through the Zabrak's veins. Additionally, the soft peaceful flow - of which Maul soon recognized as the Light Side energy that angered him slightly but admittedly relieved him as well - moved through his body, directed to the injury.

Seconds later, the hole in Maul's spine was suddenly fixed up. His consciousness was stolen away from him, and his world threatened to turn black, but it was not with the threat of death any longer.

Now, the Zabrak looked up to see a horizon. A New Hope.

But Maul felt tired, yet he couldn't move...

The last thing he felt was him being lifted up and taken away before darkness consumed him.

Arthur's note: Honestly, I couldn't bring myself to kill Maul. He is the most tragic Star Wars character in my opinion. Anakin had happy moments in his life for at least a time, but Maul never had an hour to just be free without focusing on revenge for someone else. He never knew a life outside of darkness.

So, while I toyed with the idea of Vader killing Maul, I couldn't do it. The Zabrak deserves a second chance at life and have been fucked up one too many times. Vader had a peaceful ending. Maul's end was still focused on revenge. :(

May the Force be with you all always.