The man once known, and feared, as Darth Maul waited impatiently in the shadows of a delipidated hanger on the outskirts of Crullov City. His prize, the culmination of months of careful scheming, was badly overdue. It should have been here, and he gone, weeks ago. But the wretched smugglers he had arranged to have hired proved both greedy and stupid, clumsily attempting to fleece him for an even more obscene amount of money. Then their contact, the idiot Yorrick, had alerted the Imperials with his incompetence and failure to detect an obvious tail. After ensuring the man wouldn’t be taken alive, he’d had to negotiate via tenuous encrypted holotransmitions far more vulnerable to interception.
Their terms had been nothing short of extortionate. He’d accepted only because it was a given that none of them were ever going to survive the night no matter what happened.
But at long last the moment was here. Maul could feel the smothering aura of darkness that surrounded the ancient Sith treasures. It was overhead, even now, and coming this way, though still far too slowly for his liking. He needed to be away from this place, and fade back into the distant darkness of Wild Space for time. He needed to study, to meditate and plan. He needed a way to hit Sidious where it hurt. He needed his revenge. The one-time Sith apprentice stared up into the skies, eagerness and hatred alike writ large across his masked face.
Minutes ticked by, Maul’s frustration wearing away at his already-damaged mind as they did and still he had nothing. He reached out through the dark side, impatience driving him to tune out all else as he did. They were there, so close, so tantalizingly, excruciatingly… close. A gloved hand reached up, grasping at empty air.
When at last the moment came, and a sleek but battered freighter finally began to set down, it seemed to him almost like an angel of primitive mythology. He rose from amidst the shadows without delay, casting off the net of Force energy he’d worn to conceal his presence. Striding boldly from behind one of the many cast off and empty cargo containers, he didn’t even wait for the landing ramp to descend before he started talking.
“You’re late!” he snarled at the as-yet invisible smugglers. “With the kind of payment that I’ve provided for you I expect-”
Maul cut himself off, as the boarding ramp descending. Standing atop it was a deep blue equine creature of species he’d never seen before or even heard of. But those yellow eyes it had… those he knew all too well.
Luna was out the bottom of the ramp in moment, staring at the masked man now standing there in silence, hands hanging low at his sides. He didn’t look like much, face concealed behind a flat grey mask with slits for eyes, body wrapped tightly in a dark cloak and tunic, and matching pants exposing cybernetic legs from the knees down. But when she looked at him though the Force…
The alicorn was dimly aware of Imperial Security Bureau troopers filing down behind her, strange rifles clasped in their hands and contemptuous looks on their faces. Her own Stormtroopers marched alongside them, blasters at the ready. Fools. Last of all was the Major, standing atop the ramp with arms folded behind his back. The Sith before them was quiet, unmoving. Even as the men around her raised their rifles and began fanning out, he didn’t even seem to pay them the slightest mind.
“Maul,” Celebraine once again decided to break the silence. “In the name of the Galactic Empire and his majesty the Emperor, you are hereby placed under arrest. Come quietly and it will go better for you.”
That got a reaction. The man before Luna snorted, then burst out laughing. A harsh barking sound echoed through the docking port, tinged with the ravages of time and madness.
“This is it?!” Maul laughed. “This is the only dog Vader could send after his precious cargo?! A single wretched neophyte and a handful of lackeys!” He burst into another round of mildly-hysteric chuckling. “I spent weeks skulking in this refuse heap… for fear of this?!”
Luna bared her teeth. Celebraine drew his pistol. The men’s fingers were on their triggers.
“This…” Maul hissed, “should be fun.”
Then the world exploded.
One moment, Maul was standing there with his hands at his side. The next, it seemed to Luna, a red blur was swinging impossibly fast for her head. Her own lightsaber, guided by instinct as much as will, surged forth from underneath her wing in a burst of crimson. Two blades collided not inches from the alicorn’s face, red on red flaring brilliantly in the dim lighting.
A cybernetic leg shot underneath the locked sword, catching the princess in the throat. She went flying, hitting the hard metal floor several yards away, her lightsaber clattering to the ground as her concentration was disrupted. Maul leapt into the air even as strange energy blasts filled the space where he had just been, so fast that for a moment he barely seemed visible. He came tumbling down with a single red blade above his head. Luna’s pain fed her anger, and her own lightsaber soared across the bay. He landed roughly with one foot atop her, blade swinging smoothly into a death blow at her neck. Instead, the crimson plasma intercepted a second time. This time the Zabrak pressed down with all his considerable strength, forcing the matched swords towards her tantalizing flesh. She hissed in naked hatred as she telekinetically pushed back up. For a moment the two stared at one another, deadlocked.
Their contest of strength was broken by a green bolt of energy aimed at Maul’s back. The Sith whirled, dodging Luna’s swing as he brought up his lightsaber to deflect it. Instead, the moment green struck red there was a deafening boom as the containment field around the condensed sonic energy was ruptured. The omnidirectional blast flattened Luna against the floor and sent Maul staggering back as the lightsaber was torn roughly from his hand.
The princess surged to her hooves, lightsaber swinging for her opponent’s unprotected chest. Maul dodged with a nimble backwards summersault, landing smoothly and calling his weapon back to his hand with a wave. Luna all but threw herself at him with a lethal jab of her lightsaber, which he sidestepped. She followed up with a precise slash at his lower knee, which the taller man leapt over, coming down with a powerful blow aimed at her head. When he was all but on top of her she unleashed a wave of raw Force energy, tearing the mask from his face and hurling the expert close-quarters fighter back. He landed smoothly, his yellow eyes meeting Luna’s own. There was a half smirk on his face.
“Gun him down!” Luna roared, rather unnecessarily, at her men.
The bay was already filled with energy blasts, green sonics from the ISB men mingling with the red blaster bolts from the princess’ own contingent. The latter, Maul deflected off his lightsaber, but the others were a problem. He darted forwards, rolling suddenly to get underneath several sonic spheres. The moment he was on his feet he thrust his left hand out, and three of the nearest Imperial troopers were bowled over by a powerful Force push, Maul pounced on the nearest of them, mercilessly beheading the luckless man even as he tried to scrabble away. The carcass surged upwards as more energy blasts tracked him, interposing itself before its killer. The Sith laughed as the Imperials’ own weapons all but disintegrated their comrade’s corpse.
Luna held back a moment, content to rest herself while taking the measure of the man’s style. He was fast and aggressive, relying more on speed and a good offense to avoid harm than skill with deflection. As she watched him viciously impale another soldier, she identified the form as Juyo. The seventh and most aggressive of all lightsaber forms it emphasized a berserker ferocity at the expense of defensive viability. A third man died as she made the observation, carved into multiple pieces by a savage flurry, but no matter.
It was as Maul was closing to eviscerate the fourth of the ISB “Jedi-killers” that Luna made her move. With a cry and a flash of Force-assisted speed, she all but crashed into him from the side. Her lightsaber came straight from his chest, and his own swung up to meet it. Even as he caught it, the alicorn’s wing flared and Cia’s former lightsaber burst into life. Maul was forced to duck underneath the wild swing, disengaging from the blade lock and backing up a step. Luna followed through with a wild frenzy of her own, not a coherent style so much as a randomized outlet for raw aggression. Two blades hacking madly at him, their owner comfortably outside his immediate reach, Maul was forced into a more defensive position.
The Sith was far from inept at defense, of course, parrying the comparatively amateurish blows from the alicorn with quick and efficient moves, but judging from the way the smirk had faded from his tattooed face it was clearly not the place he wanted to be. Luna didn’t let up for a second, pressing him back as Grievous had once pressed her. A red haze threatened to envelope her, calling on the would-be hero to abandon her reason and lose herself in the fury of the moment, cut down the this pretend, cut down these humans, cut down everyone…
With a hiss and a twirl, she disengaged, her lightsabers abruptly yanked back towards her. Taking their cue with commendable swiftness, the surviving Imperials opened up again the moment she was out of the way. Well-aimed sonics and blaster bolts poured down on Maul’s position, and he tumbled aside with a curse. Before he was even back on his feet again Luna was on him, twin lightsabers lashing out with wild abandon. Maul’s own crimson blade raced to meet them as fast as they came, but Luna’s strategy was already decided.
It wasn’t a push and pull, it was a push and push and push some more. Luna came at Maul with both lightsabers flashing, using telekinesis to control them from outside the reach of his arms, random attacks from two directions at once keeping him from concentrating on one saber and picking it off. The moment she felt her stamina begin to wane, succumbing to the high energy demands of such a flamboyant style, she broke off the attack and right away the Imperials resumed firing. Now as spread out and far away as they could get without leaving the starship open, they unloaded from enough different angles to force Maul to keep dodging, denying him any chance to recover. If he tried to rush the gunline the alicorn could attack from the side, and if he tried to rush her she could disengage and leave him to be shot at.
Luna didn’t know if she could beat him in a fair lightsaber duel. But she did know that she didn’t have to.
The pattern continued for what felt like forever, but in reality couldn’t have been more than a few minutes at most. The Imperials couldn’t land any real hits on the Zabrak, but neither did he have any breathing room to resume an offensive flurry and overwhelm them. Maul’s face was slowly devolving from arrogance it had started with to a naked snarl, which Luna gladly returned. Both duelists were slick with sweat, but to the alicorn’s eye he seemed to be running out of stamina more quickly than she was, and that was all that mattered.
As she pressed her latest flurry against him, Maul suddenly switched to a one-handed grip. Thrusting his hand out before she had a chance to react, Luna was bowled over by a sudden Force wave and hurled across the room. She hit the wall with a painful thunk, then fell to the floor with a dull thud. Ducking easily under the now-disoriented swings of the twin lightsabers, Maul rushed princess in a reckless blitz, determined to kill her before his energies were drained. Luna scrambled madly, narrowly rolling out of the way as his lightsaber carved a long furrow in the floor where her abdomen had just been. Desperately she called her lightsabers to her, but they were far away now, and Maul was all but on top of her. His follow up stab missed impaling her by a hair’s breadth. Grabbing blindly for a few seconds more, she hurled the first thing that came within reach – the corpse of one of the ISB men. Contemptuously, Maul swept his lightsaber through it. The crimson blade parted weapons, armor, cloth, and flesh with equal ease, right up until it seared through the knife sheathe on his belt and nicked the polished blade.
At which point it promptly sputtered and died.
For just a fraction of a second, Maul stood there, staring at the lifeless hilt with dawning look of horrified comprehension. Then he looked at Luna. Then he was the one flying across the room, as the princess hit him with a wave of her own. He hit the ground hard, the useless hilt of his lightsaber rolling away. The princess’ own lightsabers reached her just at that moment.
“Cortosis,” Luna realized as she resumed her hooves. “The ISB is issuing these units cortosis blades.”
The rare, exotic, and highly-expensive material had the power to temporarily short out a lightsaber that came into contact with it – an unpleasant surprise for any Jedi.
Maul rose quickly to his feet, and just as quickly was being forced to summersault as another wave of gunfire swept his position, Luna’s own lightsabers illuminated her broad grin as the Sith was made to dodge this way and that, his attempt to take cover behind an old cargo container only getting him a side-full of sharp metal shards when concentrated sonic bolts blew it to pieces.
“You were right!” she called out to him. “This is fun!”
His yellow eyes turned to her one more time, a look of pure hatred on his face. Then, without a word, he turned and bolted for the hanger’s nearest exit. The Force amped his speed to superhuman levels, even as sonics and blasterfire dogged his heels.
“After him!” Luna shouted, calling the forgotten hilt of Maul’s lightsaber to herself. “Do not let him escape!”
Even as she began to run herself, the alicorn smirked.
“I have you now.”