//------------------------------// // 43: Dark Deal // Story: Empire and Rebellion // by Snake Staff //------------------------------// “Major!” Luna shouted even as she bolted, “Take the Stormtroopers and lock down this hanger! Jedi hunters, with me!” Not bothering to check to see whether or not she was being obeyed, the princess called on the Force and ran like a mare possessed after the fleeing shadow. Maul himself ran with the speed of a phantom, hurling himself out one of the disused hanger bay’s delapidated entrances and vanishing from sight. Luna locked on to something a little more reliable, and follow, plunging freely into the dark corridors beyond. Long considered obsolete, for many years this particular starport had been nothing more than a credit-sink for any fool luckless enough to own it, until at last it had been virtually abandoned and left to the elements. The wide hallways, built for hundreds of beings and their cargo, were empty and lifeless. Lowly vermin scattered before the pounding of Luna’s hooves and the boots of her men. Her senses took her quickly from the hanger, and through a winding maze of dilapidated corridors weaving this way and that. Lumen strips long dead, the only light came from the cracks and holes where the ceiling had given way, exposing the stars high overhead. Debris was everywhere, from rusty chunks of durasteel to broken shipping containers to dusty old wrappers long picked clean. The princess ignored it all, her every sense given over to her pursuit. Her quarry was an experienced Sith assassin and infiltrator, and she had no intention of letting him give her the slip, though she was forced to slow down on occasion to let the humans behind her keep her in sight. The path narrowed as Maul took to the back ways – old maintenance corridors, restricted areas, and employee lounges. In the even more confined space, noise echoed easily this way and that, creating a disorienting difficulty in determining its origin points. Perhaps the roof was more solid here, for the holes providing the faint moonlight vanished altogether. Luna could hear footsteps in the pitch black, but her though her ears tracked it one way after another she couldn’t discern the original direction. No matter, she didn’t need that sense right now. After a minutes of darting around through the dark, Luna crossed a threshold, then came to a sudden and inexplicable halt. Behind her, she sensed the seven surviving ISB troopers coming to a halt, breathing heavily but still clutching their sonic rifles close. It did their training credit that they had been able to keep up at all, even if the alicorn had had to make allowances for them. “Maaauul…” Luna called out into the darkness, her voice echoing in all directions. “Come out come out wherever you are.” She grinned, lightsaber hilt hovering close to her head. “You can run but you can’t hide, because I can smell your fear!” The red blade flared to life and a shadow descended. From the perch he had taken in a ceiling alcove in the small corner office, Maul flung himself into his pursuers’ midst. He passed over the alicorn’s head, crashing down like a ton of bricks onto one luckless ISB man, driving him hard into the ground. Another, acting on well-honed reflexes, swung his heavy rifle at the Sith. Maul seized the improved club in one hand, grabbed the man’s shoulder in the other, and viciously drove his metal knee into the gap in his armor near the abdomen. Luna smelled blood. With a smirk of her own, she charged the horned man. Maul reacted quickly, swinging the wounded soldier between them, but not fast enough. Luna drove her red blade through the Imperial’s back without hesitation. It burst out through his chest, and only the Zabrak’s quick reflexes prevented him from getting impaled through the face. Instead the crimson lightsaber seared away one of the many horns that crowned the left side of his head, leaving a short stripe of burnt flesh. Hissing with pain and fury, Maul lashed out wildly with the dark side. A Force wave blasted in all directions. Luna, able to shield herself, was only forced back a few feet, but the Imperial soldiers were flung about like a child’s playthings in a hurricane. They slammed roughly into walls, ceiling, and furniture, at least one killed outright by the sheer force of impact. The princess couldn’t help but smirk as Maul threw himself atop the nearest one, shoving him roughly against the wall even as he tried to regain his feet. The Zabrak seized the human by the neck and, with one swift and efficient twist, broke it. He didn’t even bother to let go before he grabbed the dead man’s cortosis knife from its sheath. Maul, his face a mask of incandescent fury, looked in the lightsaber’s glow like nothing so much as murderous demonic nightmare. With a roar he hurled himself at the alicorn, bringing the knife down even as the lightsaber rose to meet him. Luna’s own blade sputtered and died just as his had done at the slightest touch, but it bought her the time she needed to dodge aside, letting the short blade cut empty air. He whirled about to face her, but was forced to roll aside himself as a sonic bolt whizzed for his chest. Coming up on one knee, he thrust his hand out at the trooper who’d fired, hurling him back against the wall with bone-shattering force. With only three men left in any shape to fight and only a backup lightsaber remaining, Luna decided it was time to play her trump card. Before Maul had had even a nanosecond to turn back to her, the alicorn’s broken horn erupted into an electrical storm. Force Lightning surged like water from a broken dam, flooding the small office and washing over the defenseless Zabrak. It was his turn to be thrown about like a toy, hurled hard into a shelf as thousands of volts coursed through his flesh. It collapsed on top of him, heavy frame adding insult to injury. Even that wasn’t enough to keep the Sith apprentice down. A moment later, his one free arm hurled the furniture off of him, pain only empowering his Force abilities. It flew several yards and incidentally crushed an ISB man still struggling to extricate himself from debris he’d been tossed into earlier. Yellow eyes boring into Luna, mouth twisted into a bestial snarl, Darth Maul rose up yet again. Or tried to. Luna’s face split into a malevolent grin as Maul’s legs shook violently, the odd bolt of blue electricity crackling across the length of them. Unable for now to bear his weight and systems going haywire, the failure of his grafts forced the Sith to his knees. It was just as Dooku had told her – cybernetics were especially vulnerable to Force Lightning, its wild discharges overwhelming and unbalancing the precise and delicate electrical systems necessary for their operation when it did not burn them out altogether. Maul’s violent expression faded as his mind processed what had just happened, realized that there was no possible way his weakened legs could propel him across the room to cut her heart out before she could unleash another torrent of electricity. Without a lightsaber, he could not defend against it. Another burst would finish off the circuitry inside his legs and leave him utterly helpless. Hate faded, an expression of grim stoicism taking its place. “Congratulations,” he hissed, flipping the knife around in his hands. “You surprise me.” He pressed the blade up next to his own throat. “But I won’t be taken alive. Tell your master I won’t be some trophy in-” “I’ve been after you for weeks,” Luna cut him off. “Since I first pried your name out of that trash pit on Coruscant. I’ve killed and tortured and done things I’d never thought I’d do just to get to this moment.” The two remaining ISB men now stood behind the princess, rifles leveled at the injured Sith. “Now that I have you right where I want you…” Cia’s lightsaber burst into light and movement. A moment later, twin headless corpses slumped to the floor behind her. “I want to talk.” Maul blinked, but the knife did not move. “You and I share more than you realize,” she went on. This earned a bitter chuckle from Maul. “What could a… slave like you possibly share with the likes of me?” “Hate.” Luna bared her teeth, yellow eyes flaring in the dark. “Hate for the Empire. Hate for Darth Vader. Hate… for Darth Sidious.” Maul’s eyes widened, then narrowed again. “Of course,” he hissed in a low voice. “I should have realized… that is Sith lightning, my old master would never bequeath such a thing to an expendable lackey. So where might you have learned such a power?” “Korriban,” Luna answered, truthfully. “Ah… now the pieces begin to fall into place.” Maul smiled wrily. “It makes sense that Sidious’ slaves would have established a training facility there, seeking to exploit the world’s strength in the dark side. So perhaps you stumbled onto an old scroll or holocron… or even won the favor of shade of a dark lord long passed?” She said nothing. “Now you think yourself a Sith, and like all Sith must do, you seek to overthrow your master?” Maul chuckled again. “Am I close?” “I am not a Sith, though their powers are mine to command,” Luna declared. “I do not seek petty power over others, only vengeance for crimes done to my people and their freedom from the Empire’s tyranny.” “Through victory, my chains are broken.” Maul quoted with a knowing smirk. “The Force shall free me.” “Exactly,” Luna nodded. “Just because I share in pieces of their wisdom does not mean I share in their insanity – what fool would ever deliberately seek an apprentice capable of killing him, knowing what would come to pass?” “Funny,” said the Zabrak. “I suspect Sidious would agree with you on that point.” Luna growled, sparks dancing across the ruin of her horn. “So,” Maul continued quickly. “What is it that you want with me?” “Your help,” the alicorn answered. “You hate Sidious every bit as much as I do. He wreaked slaughter on your people as he did on mine, made you into a slave as he seeks to do to me. Your undying wish is to take his head for all that he has done. I share that wish. We should combine our strength.” “Even together I doubt we would match him. Believe me, I’ve tried… that is why I am now an only child.” “My condolences. Regardless, I was not thinking of going after Sidious just yet. My sights were set on a more… visible target.” “Vader?” Maul’s brow furrowed. “Yes,” she nodded. “Vader. Kill the apprentice, and what is the master like to do?” “Seek a replacement,” he answered bitterly. “And who would be the natural first choice for such a lofty position?” “I would hardly call it ‘lofty’, but for someone schooled in Sith doctrine you surely know the answer. An acolyte who slays their superior earns the right to claim that position. Such has ever been the Sith way.” “Exactly. And what better position to await the opportunity to strike at his heart?” “You underestimate him badly if you think Sidious will fall easily.” “Not yet,” Luna grinned. “But my species is… long-lived beyond the comprehension of humans. In five years, ten, maybe twenty, his body will rot under the twin strains of age and the ravages of the dark side. While I will remain healthy and whole, his strength will wither away until he can barely hold a lightsaber any longer. And in the meantime I can learn more from him, more of him, until the day comes when he is weak and together we can cut him down.” “You seem to have thought this out. But if all is as you say, what do you need me for?” “To face Vader. He will treat me as a faceless peon, doling out knowledge in paltry quantities if at all, while he greedily consumes knowledge like what resides in that ship. I will never be anything but an errand girl to him, and so my potential would stagnate. It might take me decades to get to the point of challenging him on my own.” “Ah… my assistance is a shortcut to the power that you crave.” “The vengeance I crave!” Luna snapped. “Of course,” Maul smiled slightly. “Of course.” “Together we can beat Vader! After what I’ve seen tonight, I’m sure of it! And I once I take his place I can arrange for you to receive whatever you need from the Empire’s vaults and weaponsmiths. Think about it, no more skulking and scrounging on the fringes of the galaxy. An ally at the very top of the Imperial hierarchy, able to provide you with the best of everything until we’re ready to make our move.” “You make it sound rather attractive, but I cannot help but notice that this relies a great deal on me trusting you.” “Is cutting down my own men not proof enough of my intentions?” Luna gestured at the ISB corpses. “But I’m sure you’ll be happy to know I’m fully prepared to offer further proof of my good faith. As I said, I am no Sith, constantly compelled to backstab my allies out of greed or madness or pique. What I propose, should you accept, is a pact you should find most gratifying and more than fair.” “…Go on.” “Should you accept my offer, the first thing we will do is seal our pact in the blood of Sidious’ pawns. We will return to the hanger where the treasure ship still lies and slaughter the Stormtroopers and the irritating Major.” Luna smiled as she pictured Celebraine’s face when he realized his imminent and painful doom. She’d save him for last, she decided. “Then we split the treasure between the two of us. Some of it must be returned to Vader, alongside your lightsaber for proof of why I could not bring it all. Then-” “Assuming he doesn’t strangle you.” “Assuming he doesn’t strangle me, which I will worry about, we will remain in clandestine contact. You can use the time to recover, or to boost your knowledge and power with your share of our spoils, I care not. Eventually, when the time is right, I will call upon you, and together we will slay Vader.” “So I get half of the Sith artifacts, and a better chance for revenge,” Maul mused. “You make it sound quite compelling.” “Considering our respective positions, I am being more than fair.” “And should I refuse?” “Then I shall electrocute you to death here and now,” Luna answered flatly. “And take your head to Lord Vader as proof of my prowess while I await another opportunity.” “Well…” Maul smiled grimly. “With terms like that, how could I refuse?” “I am pleased that you are seeing sense… partner.” Luna returned the grin. “To vengeance long overdue.” “To vengeance long overdue.” Under her wing, Luna’s commlink chose that exact moment to begin chiming.