Maya-202!

A Star Wars-Inspired Story

Episode I

The Two Prince War

Chapter XXI

The Monster He Was

AN: Hi all! Sorry, this a very long chapter aha, and a lot of it is fighting, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless. I had a lot of fun writing it as well. I hope that it is all understandable, as sometimes it is hard to describe the fight scenes, specifically the sort of positions and manoeuvres that the combatants are in, but I hope you can get the jist/what I'm trying to say aha. Sorry if not, but I hope you enjoy anyway! WARNING: There are, of course, depictions of violence in this chapter, although they aren't as graphic as those in the last chapter. There's also a little cursing. Reader discretion is advised. Thank you for reading!

Infirmary Room, Prince Onasius' Mansion, Iryx

The question of whether he was in love with his best friend, Maya-202, was a… tough one to answer, one that Leo-78 knew he needed to properly think through. But not right now - *Knock knock* the soldier heard as he felt someone enter the area from behind him. He shifted around to see Jedi Master Finn, alongside BB-8, who made an adorable chirping noise as he rolled in.

"Jedi Master Finn! It is so good to see you, my friend," Prince Onasius exclaimed.

"Master Finn!" Leo also greeted excitedly. The elderly Jedi nodded his grey-haired, grey-bearded head with a warm grin.

"Master Onasius, Sir Leo. It is good to see you too. I take it Maya has updated you on what happened at Coruscant?"

"We haven't had time to have a full-blown conversation due to a certain rogue Jedi attacking me, but I think I've gotten the main points from her and Leo here," the prince gestured to the brown-haired soldier.

"Yes… this business with Aren is… not-well timed, not to mention very confusing, and that's an understatement," Finn said. "Are you alright?" he added, motioning to the hospital bed Onasius was seated on.

"Ah, yes, Master. This-" the prince pointed to the back of his head where the cut had been inflicted "- is really not that bad in the grand scheme of things."

"That is good to hear. Yes, it's been a messy couple of days, and I'm sorry to say that it isn't over yet. Your broth- Prince Thomanius' whereabouts as of now are unknown by the Jedi Council," Finn informed. Onasius noticed how the Jedi Master changed his words partway through his sentence, as if he was trying to protect him from the personal aspect of the conflict between them. "I have, however, received information from Grand Mistress Rey that she and a few other Jedi are trying to contact the remaining forces at the Deep Beyond to see if they have been able to reveal his location," he continued.

"Good. Hopefully, they will be able to find him, and put a stop to this nonsense once and for all…" Onasius murmured – Leo wasn't entirely sure, but he thought he heard a tinge of sadness in the prince's voice. He couldn't blame Onasius for being upset about his brother, even if he'd killed many of his soldiers; Leo knew he'd feel the same way if it turned out one of the other dreamtroopers he was friends with was secretly evil and hoping to destroy the galaxy. Then, another question appeared in his mind.

"Pardon me for asking, your highness-" he interrupted, "-but, I am genuinely interested, what does Thomanius want to do with the world-splitter bomb? Like, specifically? Is he gonna come back here and try to blow us up?"

Onasius swallowed the frog that had been forming in his throat, whilst thinking of how far his brother had fallen to become the monster he was and put on a contemplative face. It was a good question, one that had been mostly ignored due to the adrenaline rush brought about by the present crisis. Not to mention, Leo's suggestion of how Thomanius intended to use it would make sense, given how much the man hated his brother; it would be the cruellest revenge, blowing up their home planet, which was now populated by thousands of dedicated troopers, destroying their childhood house and ultimately kill Onasius and the aforementioned soldiers, the ones he treated like his closest friends, all just to spite him. He wouldn't put it past his brother to do that, though, even if he was reluctant to believe he would.

"I hate to say it… but, you might be right about that," he said, sighing. "I… I thought I used to know about my father, about those plans for the bomb…" he claimed.

"It is a… strange possession for a Jedi to have, although we aren't really supposed to own things, anyway," Finn said.

"Indeed. I sense there is something more to how my father came about those plans than what I was told…" the prince theorised.

"The Jedi Archives on Coruscant may have some information that will shed light on that," Finn suggested.

"Who knows? That might be worth a shot," Leo butted in.

"Yes. I will head there at some point, after the current situation has blown over," Onasius planned. A few seconds later, Leo's comm started to buzz. The transmission was coming from another trooper, Zendra-997, and so he answered it.

"Zendra, what's-"

"Sorry, Leo, no time to talk! I've gotten word from Lawrence-556 that Maya-202 has asked for backup in the room where the prisoner is situated. Apparently, from what I've heard, there's some sort of… huge droid thing with lightsabers attacking!" Zendra said, panicking. Leo's heart began to race, and his head began to spin, praying that Maya was OK. Onasius sit up promptly at this news, the worry also splayed across his face.

"What? Is she alright?!" Leo yelped.

"From what I've heard, she's fine," Zendra comforted, although heavily emphasising the 'heard' part, as she wasn't 100% certain.

"It's General Grievous!" another voice cried on the comm. It sounded like that Battle Droid that had arrived with the ex-Jedi. "I'm coming with you!" he said. Leo then heard a bit of squabbling between Zendra and the droid that went something like:

"No, you're not!"

"Yes I am, roger roger! I know the General better than anyone here, I served with him back in the day. You'll need me."

"Yes, but we don't need the strain of having to look out for you whilst trying to simultaneously fight a lightsaber-wielding maniac!"

"Hey! Who's saying that I need looking out for? I can handle myself, roger roger!"

Finn chuckled. "Wow. I never thought the day would come where I'd find myself seeing similarities between Master Rey and a battle droid," he remarked.

"I'm coming to help Maya now!" Leo said with a determined expression.

"So am I!" Finn stated.

"And me," Onasius said.

"I'm sorry, your highness, but I recommend that you do not go in your condition," Dr. Chris-921, who'd been loitering in the background for the majority of the discussion, butted in. "There are still more tests I'd like to do before you are free to leave."

"But-" Onasius objected.

"No, it's OK – you rest. I'm sure we can take care of it," Finn said.

"Yes, anyway we need to get going! Maya could be in trouble!" Leo ushered, running out of the room, and Finn followed.

"May the force be with you!" the prince called down the hall after the trooper and the Jedi exited. He heard Finn and Leo reciprocate his wish in the distance back to him.

The droid leader, General Grievous, chortled with immense pleasure as his lightsaber sawed through Aren's arm, knocking the former Jedi unconscious. A river of blood had come pouring out of Aren's newly created wound, staining the room's carpet a shade of maroon which only added to the General's exhilaration that he'd finally caught the pesky Jedi. But he'd become too absorbed in causing poor Aren pain that he failed to notice Maya, along with two other troopers that had been available, return with Aren's lightsaber.

"Aren!" she cried out when she saw the state the blonde man was in. Grievous swivelled his head away from the body momentarily to face Maya. He laughed coldly again.

"It's no use! Your friend here will be dead – very, very soon," he spat.

"You're wrong!" Maya yelled. "Troopers, take aim!" she commanded, and the two that were beside her lifted their A280 Blasters at the General.

"Please, you think two teeny-weeny blasters are enough to stop me? You must be stupider than I realised," the droid taunted, but Maya took no notice of his words.

"Fire!" she said.

"Yes, Ma'am," the two soldiers by her side obeyed, and started to pull their triggers, causing several bursts of three-bolt blasts to come hurtling towards Grievous. The droid commander, little more than irritated by the soldiers' attempts at putting him down, swiftly moved away from Aren's bleeding body, his lightsabers still in hand. He deflected the troopers' bolts with the vibrant blades he carried, all the while charging in their direction – he didn't need to panic about Aren moving whilst his back was turned, now that he was unconscious and had just recently lost his arm. He could finish what he'd started later, once he'd dealt with these bothersome troopers getting in his way. He launched himself at the man to Maya's left, crashing into him and knocking his blaster out of his hand. The trooper smashed against the floor when he toppled over, and Grievous whipped round to Maya and the remaining soldier. That trooper began pulling his trigger even more rapidly now, trying to get more shots in at the General. Maya did what she thought most helpful and activated Aren's saber; she thought it wasn't as if he was going to need it, as inappropriately casual as that sounded. The yellow blade shimmered to life in front of Grievous' photoreceptors.

"That's mine!" he sneered whilst thrusting his own lightsaber through the other trooper who let out a chilling scream.

"No!" Maya howled as the droid removed his saber and the body fell down with a *thump*. An extraordinary amount of guilt filled her conscience – she'd been the one that told the unfortunate soldier to blast the monstrous droid; she felt that blood was on her hands. But now was not the perfect time to let remorse affect her, although she was failing to do so.

"Yes," General Grievous teased. Maya tried to give him a determined glare, however, her eyes were starting to fill with tears, so it came off more as a begging stare. "Oh, are you going to cry? You're no soldier…" Grievous said. She tightened her grip on the lightsaber, hoping that it was visible to him as a warning. It was, but it was a warning Grievous found insincere and downright laughable. "What? Do you think you can defeat me with that lightsaber?" he mocked.

"Maybe not… but I bet I can give you a run for your money, at least…" Maya stuttered.

"You fool! I was trained in the Jedi Arts by Count Dooku. You are merely a soldier, with the same important as a dust mite to me," the General claimed, cackling arrogantly. Before Maya could even think of a witty retort, the droid dashed towards her, striving to sever her neck with his two lightsabers in a single, clean slicing motion. Luckily just before he was about to do so, she arched her back in the nick of time like she was doing a limbo, narrowly missing the pair of blades. This caused her to partly lose her balance, and she tripped backwards a little, but thankfully then managed to regain control of her body again as she pulled herself forwards to stand up straight. The General, a little frustrated by the trooper's luck, had another attempt at landing a blow. This time, he tried to vertically slash the two sabers into Maya; but he was stopped from doing so, albeit very briefly, as Maya swung Aren's blade up with just about enough accuracy so that it smacked into Grievous' and held him off from plunging his blazing brands into her body. He snarled at her, narrowing his photoreceptors in aggravation. The droid jumped back, pulling his blades away from the one that blocked him. He was going to take another shot at Maya when, suddenly, four more troopers came sprinting into the room – three with blasters, and one with a rather large, heavy-looking sentry gun that appeared too weighty even for the soldier as he was clearly struggling to hold it.

"Grr…" the General growled. The soldier charged up the sentry gun, and fired at the droid, who held his sabers up to block the shots – this time, however, he struggled to hold the sentry bolts back for long, as they were much more powerful than that of regular blasters. The three others also started shooting at him, and Maya looked around, considering her next move. She didn't want to go at him with the lightsaber, as she could've gotten caught in the crossfire, which wouldn't have been good. So instead, she holstered her own TH-7 blaster and added to the firepower, albeit minorly due to the blaster's poor range.

The General knew he couldn't block the soldiers' firing much more – his arms were getting tired, thanks to the heavy sentry bolts. He needed to think on his feet, but luckily for him, he'd been in similar situations with clones many times before. He jumped behind the bed where Aren was supposed to have slept as prisoner and sat, crouched quietly for a moment.

He heard the footsteps of the troopers cautiously creeping up to his position, along with one of them muttering, "He's gonna pop out from there, isn't he?" They weren't wrong. As soon as Grievous felt the troopers get close enough to him, he sprung out, lightsabers at the ready.

"Watch out!" Maya shouted. Grievous stabbed two of the troopers with blasters right through the chest simultaneously, plunging one saber into each. The man with the sentry gun started charging it up again, but Grievous easily took care of him, as well. The droid flung himself to the ground, making to sure to land on his four arms and two legs, and rushed into the legs of the sentry soldier, knocking him over and causing him to hit the floor with a smack and a scream, the large gun landing on top of him. The General, still on all-sixes, was moving towards Maya and the last other remaining trooper now.

"I'm coming for you!" he taunted menacingly. The two troopers fired at him as fast as they possibly could, although it made little impact, as he crashed into both their legs, and they fell over too. He unfurled himself, standing up again, and cackled. As a full droid now, he didn't even have to worry about catching his breath after an attack, even if that damned cough had remained as a psychologically caused habit. Maya found herself questioning why she didn't turn Aren's lightsaber on again, even if she knew it wouldn't have made a lot of difference as Grievous was so fast when he was crawling. Although she was very tired and panting like a dog, Maya made the effort to push herself up from the floor. "Argh. You are very, very annoying, you know that? You just don't stay down…" Grievous said, then breaking into a small coughing fit. Maya was planning to reply with 'Neither do you', but before she could, she saw someone – or rather somedroid – arrive at the door. It was… Artex, Aren's droid acquaintance! Not only was he there, but there were two more supporting troopers behind him.

"General!" he barked confidently. It was quite out of character for the droid from what Maya had seen earlier. Grievous turned from Maya with a throaty grunt.

"You traitor! Pathetic B1 droids like you were always supposed to obey me, and now you are helping a Jedi!" he snapped.

"Yeah, I suppose I am…" Artex said. Then, he pulled out an E-11 blaster, and roared, "Blast him! Roger roger."

"You're not the leader of this unit, you know," Zendra said, although she followed his orders anyway.

"Aw…" Artex sighed.

"I think we have more important issues at hand right now!" dictated a welcome voice.

"Leo!" Maya gasped as she saw him arrive too, alongside Jedi Master Finn.

"Hello, Maya!" he replied, blasting at Grievous. The droid commander had pulled out yet another two hidden lightsabers which he held in his previously unoccupied hands, and started to spin all four around, deflecting the soldiers' blaster shots.

"Maya, get out of the way!" Finn instructed as he came charging at Grievous with his glowing blue blade. She did so, running back to the door to join the other troopers, as Finn swiped his lightsaber at the General. The Jedi hunter effortlessly parried Finn's manoeuvre, however, and hopped backwards. He took a rational look at things; as much fun as it would've been to battle a Jedi Master, he knew he realistically couldn't hold him and all the others blasting at him off. He felt he'd fulfilled his objective well enough, at least. Aren was losing blood at such a rapid rate, due to the nearby fight that prevented anyone from getting him out of the room to the infirmary, that he'd need a long, long time to make a recovery, if he even could. Grievous had had some fun, but there was one last thing he wanted before he left – and he had a cunningly clever plan of how to get it.

"Can you do simple maths?" the General said, out of the blue, as Finn attempted to strike him again.

"What?" Finn said flatly between breaths.

"I have four lightsabers, you have one," Grievous pointed out loudly, ensuring everyone in the room heard him.

"Finn! Take this!" Maya yelped and threw Aren's saber in his direction. Excellent – she'd played right into Grievous' claws. Finn extended his hand out to try and catch the blade, but he didn't. Instead, just as he was about to catch it, Grievous' metal figure barged him out of the way, and reached his middle-right claw out. The lightsaber landed straight into it.

"…Oops…" Maya uttered, embarrassed and incredibly frustrated with herself for doing that. "Sorry!" she called to Finn. But to her surprise, Grievous didn't try or even intend to use it just then.

He opted rather to say, "Thank you!" with a wicked snigger, and then, as the rest of the troopers kept firing at him, he bolted to the far end of the room and lunged out of the window, shattering the glass on impact. Thankfully for him, it didn't even hurt in the slightest as no part of his body was organic now. Finn, Maya, and Leo all raced to the broken window, the two soldiers hoping to be able to shoot him from there. However, when they got there, he was already too far away from them to get a decent shot, or even hope to catch up if they tried to chase after him. Leo tried to snipe him, but it was pointless, as he was darting away at unimaginable speeds.

"Damnit…" Leo mumbled.

"Don't worry, Sir Leo. It isn't your fault," Finn assured, putting a delicate hand on his shoulder.

"I know. It's just annoying that he got away. Thanks, Master Finn," he smiled under his helmet. The three turned away from the window to see Artex, who was crouching over Aren. Zendra was with him – the two were lifting the ex-Jedi up, with visible struggle, and take him to the Infirmary Wing .

"Oh my Jedi…" Maya murmured, feeling guilty for all the carnage, even though she knew it wasn't really her fault.

"C'mon, Aren! Wake up!" Artex insisted as he held his friend's head in his hand, hoping desperately that he was still alive. Maya and Leo both shuffled over to them and were about to help carry the wounded man to the Infirmary Room, when suddenly, the man started levitating. Everybody looked at Finn – his right hand was raised partway in the air; his eyes were shut, and he was whispering something.

He then audibly said, "I can't hold it for forever."

"I'll go get a gurney!" Maya alerted.

"I'll come with you," Leo said, and the two ran out of the room once more, dashing as fast as they could to Infirmary Wing. About three minutes later, they returned with said gurney, that was hovering. Finn, using the remainder of his effort, placed Aren down softly on it. Finally, he released Aren from his force grip, gradually getting his strength back after doing so. The others all began pushing the injured man out the room and down the halls, headed for the Infirmary. Finn stayed whilst he was regaining his power, checking to see if any of the fallen troops were still alive and alright – fortunately, some were, including the unlucky trooper who'd had his sentry weapon fall on top of him. Although they all claimed they didn't need to go to the Infirmary Wing, he suspected it would be best if they did, and so he took them there for a check-up.

One hour later…

"What's up?" Leo said as he and his best friend sat outside the room that Aren had been taken in for emergency surgery.

"What do you mean?" Maya asked.

"You're not fooling me. I can tell something's up, Maya," he said. He knew her so well that he could practically see her face under that old stormtrooper helmet.

"I can't help but feel bad about all this…" she said.

"I know, it's… horrible. Even if the guy did attack our highness, what happened to him is awful," Leo responded.

Maya sighed. "No… I mean, it is, but I don't just mean that. I mean, it's my fault that it all happened. I asked for backup to handle Grievous. I got those soldiers, our friends, killed. I left the room, I left Aren alone to get mutilated like that, I-"

"Didn't you say he asked you to leave?" Leo interrupted.

"…Yes, to go get his lightsaber."

"So that's not on you. He seemed like a pretty experienced Jedi, so you probably both thought he could handle himself while you were gone. Also, you'd planned to come back and help him; it wasn't as if you were gonna leave him to fight it out with that guy and not return," Leo explained.

"Yeah… OK," Maya acknowledged his points. "But what about all those other troopers I mentioned?"

"There's nothing wrong with calling for backup, Maya. You did what any soldier would do – in fact, if you ask anyone here what they would've done in your situation, they'll tell you exactly what you did," Leo guaranteed. "There are always casualties in war. That's the brutal truth. It didn't matter if it was you or any other trooper in that room with Aren whilst he fought that thing – the outcome would've been the same, no matter what," he reassured. Maya sat stationary for a full five seconds. She then threw her arms around Leo in a warming hug.

"Thank you, Leo," she purred. He could hear her holding her tears in.

"You're welcome, my friend," he said comfortingly, and patted her on the back.

"Hi… oh, sorry…" someone said. It was Onasius!

"Your highness!" Maya said happily, pulling herself out of the hug with Leo. "Are you alright?"

"I've been better, but I'm alright thanks. Anyway, from the recent horror show that I've heard about, I should be the least of everyone's worries right now. Also, you need to stop calling me that," he insisted.

"We never will," Maya promised. She got up and hugged him too.

"Glad to see you out of that room," Leo chimed in.

"Thanks, Leo. So am I," the prince agreed. The three started to chat, as if it was a completely normal day, until they saw Finn strolling up to them.

"Master Finn," the three of them said, almost in unison.

"Hello, my friends," he replied. "I am sorry to bring this up, but Grand Mistress Rey has just been sent intel about Prince Thomanius. I think – if you'd agree, of course – it would be best if we had a group meeting somewhere to discuss our next steps…" he disclosed.

Onasius looked at the troopers and nodded slightly, as if telepathically asking, 'Are you two OK with that? Yeah?' Maya did a slow thumbs up signal, and Leo nodded too.

"Excellent," Finn chirped. "I'll meet you all in the mansion's boardroom then, at 20:00 tonight if that's fine by you, your highness?"

"Absolutely, Master Finn," the prince smiled.

"See you there," the elderly Jedi bowed and left without another word.

"Pardon me for saying this, your highness, but I hope they've found your brother, and we get to fight him," Leo declared. "Because I wanna kick his ass."