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Chapter 31
I'm a Ghost Already
"I apologize for my lack of updates," R2 beeped. "The planetary shield blocks communications."
Sidious grinned at his contrition. "I am aware that General Kenobi pursues Logan Brace. Tell me about the crew. What developments there?"
"I discovered the truth of what happened on Axxila. Solo's pressure suit had a recorder." R2 projected a first-person hologram from Landon's perspective.
"Landon! You're killing me! Open the door! Open the bloody door!"
"I'm sorry," choked Landon.
"Don't do this!" cried Miler.
"There's only one tank. We'll never make it together."
"We can make it! I promise! We'll bloody make it, mate!"
"I can't take the chance."
"You son of a bitch! I will haunt you forever! Every moment, ya bloody—"
Blood sprayed on the window, misted in smoke. Miler's body dropped and vanished.
Sidious cackled at his fortune. It was exactly what he needed. The thread he would pull to unravel everything. He knew Aayla and the pilot had been ensconced in an affair. "Has anyone seen this?"
"No. I destroyed the recorder after extraction."
"Load it on a data chip," Sidious said. As R2 began the process, the dark lord went on: "Your service is not over. I have further instructions..."
Logan's arm was exposed down to the subcutis. Maul cauterized the wound to prevent him bleeding out. Logan babbled defiantly: "D—do—what—ever—you—don—don't—c—care..."
Maul pressed a gloved thumb against Logan's ruined arm. Logan screamed and screamed until he blacked out.
Maul turned to Asaaj Ventress. "Get me the stimulants. I'll wake—" His feet went out from under him, and he slammed on his back.
Logan's hands were unbound and he was pulled from the chair. By what or whom was unknown. A cloak, Maul realized. He performed a kip-up, engaging his saber. But already Logan was thirty feet away.
Maul thrust out his palm, intending a Force-pull. But a steel beam exploded, throwing the six Sith down.
Maul touched his face. His glove came away bloody. Little pieces of steel were buried in his cheek.
Landon, Padme, and Coda fired blasters from cover. Before Maul could react, four Jedi leapt down from a scaffold.
Quinn swung his blade at a prone Trebor. The Sith rolled to avoid it, springing to his feet. Green met red, the beginning of a dance.
Darth Klasto attacked Quinn from behind. Palmer intercepted, driving him away.
Savage Oppress battled Aayla, shocked by her aggression. Rage made itself known on her grimacing face.
Outside, Brummel dumped Logan on the ground. Julian was there with his medical kit.
Brummel raced back to the fight, finding Obi-Wan cornered. He lured away Ventress and Sifo-Dyus. His left claws were deployed. His right hand drew a saber.
Dyus charged. Brummel's blood-orange blade cut into his skull. A flip of the wrist slashed through his spinal column.
Ventress leapt over top, attacking from behind. Brummel blocked with his claws. She pressed the attack, and he pedaled backward.
Now alone against Obi-Wan, Maul flashed a jagged smile. "Your head will be the perfect addition to my wall. I know just where I'll put it: next to Siri Tachi."
The Force eased away Obi-Wan's anger. "My back is not turned. Let's see how you do facing your enemy."
Maul raised his saber in a seething salute.
He spun into a slash. Obi-Wan deflected. Maul kicked the Jedi's arm and swiped at his legs. Obi-Wan jumped to avoid it. He blocked the next blow mid-air, booting Maul's face before landing.
Maul licked his bloody lip. Obi-Wan preempted vengeance with a stab at his chest. The Sith parried, pushed his own riposte. Obi-Wan spun to avoid it. They hit back-to-back before turning to face each other.
Their palms thrust out in a simultaneous Force-push. Pressure and energy gathered between them. Obi-Wan screwed up his face. Maul's hand trembled.
The energy exploded, throwing them on their backs. They slid ten feet in opposite directions. But in the blink of an eye, both men were back standing. They sprinted to meet—red against blue.
Brummel hacked, slashed at Ventress with his claws. Even wielding two blades, she barely withstood it, focusing on his strikes to the exclusion of everything.
Brummel reached through the Force to pick up a chair. It hurtled through the air, struck Ventress from behind.
The Sith fell forward—impaling herself on Brummel's blade. Her eyes widened.
"You look good in orange," Brummel sneered. He twisted the blade and Ventress died.
Coda knelt beside Logan. Tears poured down her face. "Why didn't you just tell them?" she whispered through her hand.
"Give me some room," Julian said.
Quinn lay recovering from a lightning attack. That left Palmer cornered.
Klasto jabbed at his spine. Palmer back-flipped, blocking Trebor as he landed. Ducking Trebor's next strike, he slashed upward at Klasto, searing his arm elbow to shoulder. The enraged Klasto threw a punch—catching Palmer in the jaw. It dropped him to a knee.
Klasto swung at his head. Palmer Force-pushed him so the Sith caught air.
Trebor charged at him. The last thing he saw was Palmer grinning.
Trebor silently screamed. He gargled blood. Splintered chair wood was jammed in his throat. His corpse swayed before neatly collapsing.
Up on a scaffold, Oppress battled Aayla. The Zabrak drove a thrust as he pivoted in the air. Aayla dodged and deflected. She slashed at his back. He blocked blindly behind him. She kicked his kneecap—but Oppress didn't fall. Their sabers stayed locked as he whirled to face her.
"I feel your hate," Oppress snarled. "Will you use it, little girl?"
Aayla's eyes burned. He laughed inside. She didn't even know she was Sith already.
Aayla dropped into an ankle-sweep. Oppress fell on his back. He turned his shoulder so her blade just missed. Sparks flew in his face from the metal grate. He was blinded temporarily. But Aayla's killing blow was stymied by a sudden Force-throw. She struck a steel beam and landed on her side.
Maul delivered a Force-infused punch. It launched Obi-Wan backward, blood spraying in the air. He used the Force to slow down, landing cat-footed.
Obi-Wan looked up. Maul stood directly beneath the arm of a crane. Obi-Wan thrust his hand down. The crane cable unspooled. The hook on its end came plunging at Maul.
The dark lord gasped. With no time to spare, he caught it with the Force and directed it at Obi-Wan. The Jedi leapt clear, slicing the cable while he hung in the air. The huge hunk of metal thudded on the ground.
Maul's patience expired. He needed higher ground. He sprinted to a ladder and leapt to a rung. But Obi-Wan cleaved it so the ladder fell like a drawbridge.
Maul rode it momentarily, before flipping to attack. Obi-Wan blocked, landed a forearm. He followed with a flying kick. Maul fell into a back-roll. Before he could stand, Obi-Wan's boot shattered his nose.
Standing above him, Obi-Wan threw down a hammer. Maul tried to block—but Obi-Wan's plasma cut through his hilt. Maul's saber was reduced to a single blade.
He hooked Obi-Wan's heel, tripping him down. There was a moment's opening. The dark lord seized it.
Obi-Wan screamed as blue chains of lightning enveloped his body. He felt, smelled his arms being cooked. Terrible pain. Unbearable pain. Worse than death, throughout his whole body.
"Obi-Wan!" Padme's heart hammered in her chest. She ran carelessly from cover, unloaded her blaster. Maul easily caught her bolts, throwing them back at her. Padme dove from their path, slamming on the ground.
Maul whirled in time to counter Obi-Wan's strike. He pedaled back against rapid blue streaks. The Sith vowed to gut Padme for wasting his opening.
Quinn and Palmer flanked Klasto. There was nowhere to go. Klasto kicked at Palmer while stabbing at Quinn. Palmer caught his foot; Quinn lopped off his head.
Up on the scaffold, Aayla's blade was a blur. It left no opening for Oppress' Force lightning. He pedaled back to the scaffold's edge. Ducking a swing, he reversed their positions. In the corner of his eye, he saw the battle below. Only Maul still lived, completely surrounded. His mission from Sidious hung by a thread.
Oppress blasted her chin with the hilt of his saber. He back-flipped from the scaffold to the ground down below. He rushed out of the building frame to find Logan being treated.
Julian gasped as a boot found purchase on his temple. Coda intervened—and was thrown to the ground. Oppress scooped up Logan and began climbing the building frame.
Maul faced down four Jedi enemies. The reality of the task outmatched his arrogance. He unleashed Force lightning. Everyone but Quinn was able to block it. The reptilian Jedi fell writhing to the ground.
The Sith retreated outside. Landon grabbed him from behind. Maul bashed him with an elbow. The scoundrel crumpled as Maul scaled the building.
Padme fired as he climbed, but he easily deflected.
Obi-Wan, Palmer, and Brummel appeared at her side. Aayla followed momentarily. Obi-Wan barked: "Aayla—Palmer—go get Logan. We'll handle Maul."
"Be careful," said Padme.
"The Force is with us," he assured her.
On the roof, Maul eagerly received Obi-Wan and Brummel. He skimmed his saber on the grate, throwing sparks in darkness. He grinned at Obi-Wan's badly burned arms.
"Perhaps your queen will play nurse," Maul taunted.
"She'll be your coroner, Sith." Obi-Wan looked about for advantages. There were none to speak of. The entire roof was open to the air. "We will take him together," he told Brummel.
"I was about to say that."
Maul tried a Force-pull; both men blocked. Then his torrent of lighting was caught by their sabers.
Brummel said, "You're not exactly Darth Sidious."
Maul's beastly scream echoed in the night. He leapt in the air, spinning like a cyclone, and launched himself at Brummel. The Sentinel barely deflected with saber and claws.
Maul half-turned to block Obi-Wan. Brummel stabbed with his claws, catching air. Maul's boot was on his hand, driving it down. Brummel's claws became lodged in the grate. The dark lord flipped away from Obi-Wan's swing.
"Fifty points. Nicely done," said Obi-Wan.
"This is not a game!"
"Isn't it? Four pawns have been taken. Their king is panicked."
Maul rushed at the Jedi. His eyes blazed yellow as he rained blow after blow on a backpedaling Obi-Wan. Every moment of pain from birth until now powered his frenzy. But every thrust and coulé was calmly countered.
Maul forced Obi-Wan to the roof edge. He reared back for a swing—but Obi-Wan dropped, sliding through his legs.
Maul whipped around to find Brummel. Blinding pain exploded through his middle. He looked down at a glowing line from one hip to the other.
His eyes widened in awe. The dark lord coughed. Maul used the Force to keep the feet he couldn't feel planted on the ground.
Brummel asked, "Any message for Sidious? I'll pass it along."
Maul's whispered rasp was barely heard: "I have nothing to say to you."
Brummel kicked him in the chest. Maul's torso detached and tumbled from the roof. His whispered scream died in the darkness.
"How 'bout 'goodbye?'" Brummel said.
"Let him go!" Aayla growled.
Oppress controlled Logan with an arm around his throat. His saber hilt, pressed to Logan's temple, implied death if she advanced.
Palmer said, "There's nowhere to go, except down."
Oppress acknowledged his feet flirting with the roof edge. "I would take your prize with me."
Aayla charged, "Only cowards need a hostage."
"Foolish girl. The Jedi Way on your tongue, Sith fury inside you. The schism will kill you."
Aayla did not deny it, for she was finally understanding the frothing cauldron in her chest, that had boiled the remnants of her patchwork heart. She said, "How could it kill me? I'm a ghost already."
Oppress said, "I only wish I was the author of your pain. Perhaps then you'd take action, you cowed little girl."
The boiled wrath in the cauldron could not be repressed; it melted its container, poured through the Force.
A blue smear of a Twi'lek undid Oppress. The Sith's head was halved. Smoke spiraled from the skull, and from the bisected brain that hatched evil schemes. Oppress' knees buckled. His corpse fell from the roof, Logan still trapped in his now-lax arm.
Obi-Wan leapt from an unsafe height, rushing to meet his crew. He skidded to a halt at Logan's remains.
Blood-soaked gobbets of organ and flesh were splattered on the ground. Shattered bones pierced his crushed body like animal fossils fashioned into columns. Life's flame was extinguished from his bulging eyes.
"Good God," Landon mumbled.
Julian hadn't moved. There was nothing to be done. He searched Aayla's face for a flicker of something. "What happened up there?"
"I failed."
"Yes, magnificently," Quinn said.
Coda knelt in the mess of her fallen friend. Her knees, skirt were the color of his guts. Her hand hovered by his head, but she wouldn't touch him. It prevented the reality from hardening to a caste.
Obi-Wan remained where he was. Entering the worst of it would feel like defilement. "Coda..." he whispered, receiving silence.
Obi-Wan startled when Padme took his hands. He tracked her gaze to his arms. Her trembling fingers grazed the black skin. "Obi-Wan," she breathed.
"I'm all right."
Landon said, "Boss, you look like a fire pit. Let Doc take a look."
Julian was already treating Quinn. This left Obi-Wan in Padme's care. She led him to a workbench, where he perched on the edge. For now, she could only wrap his wounds. He'd need Julian's infirmary for tissue repair.
From her field kit, she retrieved gauze and disinfectant. Padme held him by the wrists and sprayed along his arms.
"The Force was with you?" she grumbled.
"I didn't need it. You were there." She reached for the gauze, but he caught her hand. It slid up her arm, before correcting some hair'd fallen in her face. "I would have stopped him eventually. But at the cost of my roguish looks."
Padme chortled despite herself. She began rolling gauze over one of his arms. "Malice hit me with lightning, back on Halm. But I was spared these burns."
Obi-Wan explained, "Intensity can be amplified, or calibrated down. Vader gave orders you weren't to be harmed."
She didn't like the reminder of Vader's obsession. Padme addressed their greater concern: "Without Logan, we have nothing."
"We have—"
"—The Force," she rolled her eyes.
"I was going to say 'hope.' But please, continue to skewer me." The halfhearted joke didn't match his face. He was looking at Coda, covered in her friend.
Padme said, "You'll find a way. You always do."
Aayla watched them in the corner of her eye. On her delicate face was the shadow of resentment, detected only by Palmer.
Their undeserved preciousness, blithely enjoyed without thought of her anguish, pulled her with her pain toward a terrible horizon.
"I wonder what you'll do," Palmer told her, "with what little of you remains."