Savage-Time Chapter 39 (Patreon)

[Mandalore, Sundari]

Darth Maul

Maul was anxious, not because Maul believed he would fail in his task or because he was afraid, Maul was anxious because he wanted to see Kenobi. A long time ago when he was the apprentice of Darth Sidious Maul had heard many pilots speak of what it was to be in love, he hadn’t paid any attention to it then but he had heard something he found funny.

Love and hate were not as distant as people would like to believe.

Maul had laughed when he heard that, it was a bright spot in an otherwise dark period for him, he had thought it ridiculous and was planning to kill the smuggler for talking nonsense but the more he heard the more Maul realized that perhaps the man wasn’t far off from the truth, love and hate both required a unique kind of devotion, a special kind of attention and care that could make you drop everything for that person. The way the pilot had described those feelings was closer to an obsession than any kind of affection.

It wasn’t until Maul’s mind was healed that he understood what he meant, not that Maul had any kind of sexual desire for Kenobi but in the sense that all that usually dominated his thoughts was that cursed Jedi. Maul could recognize that he was obsessed and the demerits of such a thing but there were also benefits, it was his obsession with revenge that had saved Maul’s life after all, and it was also his obsession that drove Maul to consume the liquid darkness that formed on Dxun and it was his obsession that which made him strong enough not to succumb to the corruption of his actions.

It also left maul with many questions.

On his trip to Mandalore Maul had pondered what would happen to him if Kenobi died, would Maul’s rage disappear? Would he feel empty after his objective was completed or would Maul simply continue living just as he had until now?

Those questions would give any normal person pause but Maul was not a normal man and he would see this to the end whatever that end may be. He would leave the existential stuff until after he was done with his hunt and if Maul died then he wouldn’t have to worry about it. Simplistic, perhaps, but it was certainly a good way to think.

The whispers of powers of the Dark Side made themselves present and Maul frowned as he looked to the side where he saw the girl communing with the Dark Side. Despite Maul’s distaste for the girl’s more laid-back approach to combat (it reminded him of Sidious in a way) Maul could admit that she was growing wonderfully, he had expected the boy to do better because of his more martial approach and the well of hatred that he could draw from, but it looked like fear was the more potent emotion.

Savage and Maul had talked about it before, and Maul had scoffed at his brother’s words then.

“Fear is the most powerful impulse of the spirit, you only need to observe those without the Force to realize it, how can they run faster than possible, strike harder than ever or endure more than they could before? It’s because they’re afraid of death brother, both Sith and Jedi claim that fearing death is a weakness, but it’s not.”

Now he was starting to realize what he meant, the boy wasn’t afraid of death so he charged recklessly against an enemy that could easily defeat him, the girl was afraid of death and she planned how to strike. It was funny that Jinx had gotten what he wanted as he was free from all constraints and was weaker for it than the girl that desired bravery but used her own fear to be brave.

In her never-ending conflict of contradiction, she had strengthened herself and Maul was proud of her, he would never say it out loud though. Maul decided then, that to survive he would need to rediscover his fear of death.

“Warmaster, five minutes have passed,” one of the droids said as he entered the room “Lord Jinx has also finished the last training module”

“Then we are ready,” Maul said solemnly. “Kalifa it’s time to start the plan, go to Vizsla’s building so he can give you an armor in the Mandalorian style, I will see that Jinx follows the plan”

Kalifa rose from her spot as she did shadows danced at her feet “I’m ready master”

Maul watched the girl go and moved to the back of his ship followed by a squad of droids, the halls of the ship were filled with infiltrator units and some magna guards. Maul was saving them for what he felt was coming but for the first part of his plan he would need stealth, if everything went to hell then he would order the droids to attack.

Maul entered the training room and found the boy flat on the ground, his new leg stood prominently apart from the rest of his body the silver color of the prosthetic clashing against the skin tone of the acolyte. Maul didn’t need to try to feel what Jinx felt as a wall of pure hate and anger reached his senses, but beyond that Maul felt something far more insidious and more dangerous.

Self-loathing.

“Stand up! You can lay down when you’re dead“ Maul spat at his acolyte. In less than a second Jinx stood up and met Maul’s gaze “It’s time for the plan to start, Kalifa is already on the move, I hope that you can follow the simple orders I gave you previously and show me that giving you that new limb wasn’t a waste”

Jinx growled at the comment but bowed his head after doing so “I Will do as you ask master, Duchess Satine will be captured and brought to you.”

“Good! I expect you to find me when the time comes and I don’t need to remind you what will happen to you should you fail me” Maul used the Force to apply pressure at the base of Jinx’s neck.

“I won’t fail you master!”

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Maul moved silently across the streets of Sundari, he was wearing an ancient Mandalorian armor that his brother had found in Dxun, Maul hadn’t used it before because he preferred the freedom of movement that robes offered but Savage had been insistent on Maul keeping it as it was a reference of some kind. Maul didn’t know what in the nine Corelian hells was a Horus but his brother sure was happy that Maul kept the armor.

He was planning on giving it to the Death Watch after a while to curry some favor within the group but right now it was the best disguise he could have asked for as not even his allies could recognize Maul now.

“Have you heard there is a Jedi in the palace!” gossiping bystanders were such a good place to get intel even if sometimes things were exaggerated beyond belief.

“Forget that, I heard that the Death Watch is planning a major offensive against the criminal scum that have been raiding Mandalore! We should join in with them, we could be heroes!” it was sad and funny that the men talking so readily about helping their fellow Mandalorians would never know that the Death Watch was the one behind every problem but such is the way of life and of the government.

“I don’t even know why the Duchess is still in charge her pacifist ideas were goon in principle only and they have brought us nothing but trouble, there are people starving in some parts of Mandalore all because she doesn’t have the strength to do protect the planet”

Discontent was raising among the population just like Savage had predicted, once they controlled the trade routes leading here and to the rest of the system the CIS could just starve Mandalore into submission and if they didn’t like that then they would be made an example of what happened when you were too stupid to live.

Maul continued moving along, collecting snippets of conversation between several people as he made his way towards the palace, then he heard something very interesting.

“Did you hear?! They say that there is a twi’lek running around the place destroying stuff and killing people and they say he has a lightsaber!” Jinx was doing his best to draw attention to himself and Maul was sure that Kenobi would waste no time in following after him along with the Duchess who wouldn’t be able to resist confronting the one killing her people.

Maul’s comm started beeping and he dived into an ally to answer it.

“Master” Kalifa greeted him with a bow as she now sported a copy of the Death Watch’s armor “they are ready to follow your instructions but I believe that their betrayal is imminent, malice and pride drip off the leader in great waves”

Maul snorted at that description of Pre Vizsla thankfully it looked like his acolyte hadn’t heard him “Continue with your task we need to make sure that the Death Watch remains neutral your mission is essential if we are to accomplish our goal here.”

“Yes master”

Everything was going out as planned, Maul had taken a page of his old master’s book of tricks and made a plan along the lines that Sidious liked to use. There was a probability that the Death Watch was listening to Maul’s communications and thanks to Kalifa’s call Pre Vizsla would waste resources tracking down the girl or even killing her and if the Mandalorian ignored the girl then she could get to the information that Maul needed to keep the Death Watch away from him when the time came.

No matter what his opponents did Maul would be the victor!

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[Coruscant, Senate District]

Padme Amidala

Padme was making her way to the Senate by foot, something that wasn’t too irregular, before she did it as a way to remain close to the people of Coruscant and to remind herself of what she was fighting for, now she was walking there because it was a better way to enter the Senate as there were many people waiting at the steps wanting to ask anyone they came across what they thought about the Jedi’s actions.

Padme wanted to defend the Jedi they had done something horrible no doubt but it wasn’t because they wanted to a madman had detonated a nuclear device on Coruscant and somehow it was the Jedi’s fault that they had to redirect the radiation to the lower levels when everybody knew that if they allowed it to remain on the atmosphere then everyone would die, sure they wouldn’t die immediately but strong radiation always mess up the electronics of ships and Padme didn’t want to imagine what Coruscant would turn to if the food that arrived here from all over the galaxy suddenly disappeared.

It was all very suspicious as if someone purposefully wanted the Jedi to take the blame…Padme had heard from Obi-Wan that Dooku himself had said the Sith controlled the Republic and had enlisted her help in vetting out which people could potentially be spies or saboteurs and while she had helped remove some of the more corrupt senators there was no sign of the Sith anywhere and yet there was clear evidence that someone was working against the Jedi inside the Republic.

Padme wasn’t going to be able to confront this alone and while she would like Anakin’s help she knew that he had poor impulse control and while she loved that about her husband it made him a poor spy, maybe Bail could have some clues her old friend had been moving erratically through the Senate these past few days and Padme’s instincts told her that it was related to this or maybe she was just crazy and her friend was juts being erratic because Mon had died.

Padme quickly removed a pair of tears that escaped her eyes as she thought of her lost friend and soon she was moving faster towards the building much to the protests of her bodyguards.