Chapter Text
"He did not raise you to be vengeful enough. He saw great potential in you. He had decided to go against the greatest Sith teaching and take you up as an apprentice, putting his title as the great Darth Sidious under scrutiny. He would fight tooth and nail for you to become what you are destined to be.”The Zabrak male circled you as his saberstaff whooshed in the air, zapping away as Maul spun it behind him and then brought it to his front, standing two feet away from you.
“Yet you are weak, worthless, and not good enough to become a sith. Disgraceful! ” With the last word spit from the Dathomirian’s mouth, he jumped right in front of you, dangling his saber in your face as your double blades moved in pure muscle memory, having gone through with his fighting style many times to know what came next after his signature spin and blow move.
“ You are jealous; you should cultivate it so you might defeat me in another duel.” you snickered, gritting your teeth as the two red blades danced in front of your separate ones. When you noticed the familiar red hue return to his eyes, you knew your words had ensnared him, his lightsaber rolling in his hand above him, using his knee to try and jab you in yours. The saber staff came in contact with you: left blade, right blade. You ducked down the very familiar of his assaults, hand instinctively reaching out to push him with force.
Being on the same level, Forcewise, was not an easy thing to deal with while fighting him; Maul knew his powers and knew yours and knew in no time one of you would become powerful enough to overpower the other, but till then, the force in you both was strong, the hatred imbued in him from the very young ages fueled his desire to be victorious. He could not possibly lose to an eight-year-old now. Sometimes, his ego overpowered his senses and abilities, which you always managed to use to your advantage. As you crouched under another of his swings, you spun around to meet his saber with your left blade, bringing the right one next to his neck; his movements were quick before he whirled away again, pushing your left blow away from him and trying to gain all the power in his stride before he stopped, holding his saber horizontally and extending his hand across his torso.
“I think it is enough for today.” You nodded as you felt the beads of sweat running down your back, uncomfortably making your skin crawl. His saber staff made a zapping sound as it enclosed again, the hilt now comfortably snug to Maul’s belt. You pushed your two blades in their respective places, the hilts warm from your hands and overuse.
“You are holding back. Master won’t like that when he sees us next month.” Maul had already exited the sparring premises, heading towards his chambers through the long metal corridors, the cold air from the walls fanning your cheeks as the sweat on your back turned cold, making you shiver.
“ Master won’t like you not letting me read.” You whispered to yourself as the weight of your hilts dangled atop your thighs, giving you goosebumps in an already cold corridor.
“You’ve read these books a thousand times while staying on this forsaken planet. You will thank me for my teachings when you will need them in the future.” Maul took a sharp turn to the left of the massive building, currently a part of the old Sith Academy that was hidden and forgotten by the Republic on the planet of Dromund Kaas. A murky, jungly planet filled with lurking predators, but in the midst of it, a forgotten dark Sith city, with vast practice halls and an enormous library filled with ancient Sith books to Jedi teachings. The wonders of the worlds, beyond the rims and the unmapped territories.
The academy enclosed a large territory, overlooking the big swamp created due to the change of the planet’s climate, brought on by the ancient Sith lords who had claimed the planet as their home thousands of years ago. Your Master managed to re-engineer some of the medical droids and remodel the practice grounds before stationing you both on Dromund Kaas, waiting for your next mission.
“I need to meditate. I will be in the meditation chambers. Master told me to do it at least once a day.” Maul rolled his eyes but nodded before the path of you two split, your boots dragging you towards the meditation chambers stationed in the east wing of the academy. The walk hadn’t been long, but it had been long enough to let you notice your sweat had all but completely dried on your skin. The chambers were empty, and only thick, dark curtains draped over the windows that had spanned from the ceiling to the floor covered the light peaking through, occasionally blinding you.
Your hand had touched the cold, hard surface of the floor; ancient dust that had deposited itself on the floor, all but swept away, specks of it still coating the smooth wooden floors, dried your hand. As your body finally sat in a crisscrossed position, gathering your thoughts and emotions, you tried your hardest to become one with the force, listening to the whisper that carried itself around you, just like Darth Sidious had told you some years ago when he began cultivating your seeking talents. He knew you could sense more than just what went in the Force, what it carried, when he looked you in the eyes on that Force-forsaken planet some two years ago when his welcoming hands took you up to give you the life you had now: that of a sith.
Everyone in the galaxy had decided to forget the Outer Rim planets altogether, the Republic had been bustling with life and political expansion, the Senate had more pressing matters than freeing the slaves on Jakku or Tatooine, and when you thought freedom would have been a faraway dream just like Coruscant had been once, you were corrected when the cloaked figure had descended from his deck, reaching out his hands towards you, promising you the worlds. Which he did give you, at a price. He made you into a weapon throughout his training, polishing your seeker talents and your clairvoyant abilities while putting Maul through abuse and despair, pushing him to become the great warrior that he was now. Both of you fulfilled the best properties of a warrior, and together, while teaching each other your talents, you both managed to become almost equals. Maul was much older than you, though; you were a prodigy of Sidious and already boasted a strong Force ability. They were nothing compared to Maul, who polished them throughout the years before you.
You did not know about true despair until the realization of your new life hit you some months after training with Sidious: his teachings had become more brutal, his words more twisted, and in the mind of an 8-year-old, you truly felt confused, lost, and in search of something new to hold on to, which he had become, yet again at a price. Throughout the years of suffering from loneliness, abuse, and mental despair from his teachings, and watching Maul go through his absolute worst, pressured you into the emotionless piece of weapon you were. Long had the memories of your mother and father gone. Long were the missing feelings of your home burned in your heart, destroyed and trampled on by your dearest Master who had used it to his advantage, turning you successfully to the dark side.
Maul was never the brightest of them all: he was the darkest of them all, as dark as they came, but through it all, through the 22-year-old young Zabrak male who got abused to no limits, you saw that broken kid who wished it had been the Jedi Council finding him instead of Palpatine on his home planet. And you sympathized with him, in fact relating to him. The Jedi Council wasn’t any different from the Sith. At least the Sith openly admitted to wanting to have power over the galaxy, while the Jedi promoted themselves the peace-makers, peace-protectors, and some old Bantha shit. Though the Jedi served the light side of the force, you weren’t sure just how light it was to do the same things the Sith did. This ancient fight between the two sides proved your theory to be true. Jedi took and removed children from their homes just as much as the Sith, filled them with their propaganda, and made them their machines, but even considering that you thought maybe being a Jedi wouldn’t have been a bad thing necessarily for you, perhaps you would have been a happy force wielder, not some depressed and abused pre-teen, broken to shambles in her loneliness. It was hard being an almost 10-year-old Sith Apprentice: no one your age around you, too smart and wise for your age, it all heaved on your little shoulders. You understood too much.
The Force encircled you now, whispering the old Sith language in the academy. The light of the second moon now shifted across your skin and your leather pants, the lights dangling from one hand to the other. The silence felt eerie, as it always did in any Sith space. You did not fully feel accustomed to the dark, the uncertainty, and the dilemma evident in your force signature. Sidious hated seeing that speck of hope inside you, something he had worked hard throughout the years to kill. The dark now felt the most familiar, almost comforting, as it engulfed you in a cocoon. You reached outside the academy, through the jungled forests and swamps towards the galaxy, through the stars, when a strong force signature pushed you away, almost kicking you through your lungs and knocking the air out of them. You were scared for a second, tears threatening to spill through, but you swallowed hard. The dark meditation chamber had now darkened even more, the thick dark force now scaring you deep within, and it took everything in you not to run back to Maul and hide behind his back.
It was a weird relationship, or rather siblingship, that you shared with Maul. He had felt neglected these last years by his master, taking you up and training you was never on his agenda of things and not certainly of a kid prodigy who threatened to become stronger than him any minute. You didn’t want this power, though; you just wanted to go home and enjoy some childlike happiness. Maul never showed you any softness or warmth, but through his actions, he gave away more than necessary. The way he would force you to have breakfast or the way he would check up on you before you fell asleep, be it in a ship or an actual bed. It was his way of making sure you were all right. You always thought it had been your Master who had forced this whole protective role on him, but you were proven wrong many times; he simply felt pity for you. He was not always this dark entity, he used to have feelings, and he used to be a child, too.
The message hadn’t been unexpected. It was clear: you two were to travel to Naboo, a planet where the Trade Federation, along with Maul’s help, would be confronting the Republic forces, trying to occupy the Palace and overtake the planet. Maul had pulled you through the cold corridors again, barely giving you any time to change or get ready, only having Maul’s other cloak used as a blanket in the Scimitar as your fellow apprentice took off and jumped in hyper speed, the white specks of stars and planets passing by in mere seconds as the ship finally approached the Mid Rim borders, nearing Naboo. Maul maneuvered along the many federation ships and the main flagship that had stationed itself above the planet. The Republic forces were present as the Trade Federation deployed their army on the land where the Gungans fought against them.
Scimitar had been a smooth, thinner model of a ship, with Maul’s experienced flying skills he was able to quickly enter the atmosphere of Naboo, immediately taking his course to Theed where the two Jedi Knights had been fighting against the Federation, trying to reclaim the Royal Palace of Naboo.
“You will stay on board and do not move. I will finish with the mission and fetch you once more. Do not follow me! Datura! Understood?” Maul had almost screamed at the top of his lungs, pronouncing every word with more and more command in his voice, as the Sith finally halted the ship, turning off the engine and fixing his robe over his head.
“But I could help you.” You retorted back, not wanting to part from him just yet, but before you could stop protesting, Maul crouched to where you sat and squeezed your shoulders.
“Promise, I will come to fetch you once I am done. You will remain here.” You nodded, tears threatening to spill again, but this time you let them flow when the door to the hangar opened and Maul disappeared into the city landscape of Theed. The whole operation did take a long time for you; by the time Maul had disappeared, shields were enacted around the Scimitar. After several sleepless nights and many trainings, your fellow brother’s cloak snuggly around the shoulders created a warm embrace that slowly lulled you to sleep.
—---
Maybe it was this damned dream that woke you up, or the feeling of true despair and suffering, cold sweat glistening over your forehead, and feeling overheated you threw the robe away from your body. As you stood up you noticed the many discarded army droids, scattered either slain in half or bits and pieces visible from the window of the ship, the shields had been turned off but you had no way of knowing before the hangar opened and a man, dressed in light Jedi robes entered the premises of the Scimithar, his blue lightsaber drawn and on alert.
Before you could react and unsheath your blades, the man took off the hood, letting it drape over his shoulders, with the lightsaber now in his respective hold on his hip, he took his hand in a defensive motion, putting his palm up to calm you down.
“Hello there, little one.” You felt uncertainty and amusement roll off the man’s force signature, you were wary, not backing down and your hands not leaving the hilts of your blades, but you didn’t feel any imminent danger from him either.
“What is your name?” You were not about to be the one with the answers, Maul had still not returned and it seemed he would not be if a Jedi could freely waltz inside his favorite ship like that.
“Where is my brother?” You whined out, the young Jedi winced before he could even begin explaining anything, you used the force to creep up on him from behind, inspecting his memories and force signature, following the uncertainty in him, letting it guide you towards your answers. You immediately pulled away, scared by the sight you were going to be shown, already feeling the pain and tragedy behind the man’s shields as he tried to push you out of his mind but failed miserably. You didn’t want to believe the image now etched inside your head, the torn body of Maul, his bloodshot eyes, and a bewildered look on him as his saber staff fell into the shaft followed by his now severed body down the shaft of the palace’s power source. You almost collapsed, shaking your head in denial and anger as the darkness inside you enveloped your heart in an all too familiar embrace, and before you could even land anything on the man in front of you, sudden fatigue came over your brain, immediately letting you fall on the cold metallic ground of the Scimithar, succumbing to the darkness.
Follow him, we will meet once you are in the Capital, my young one! He hasn’t perished.
You woke up very briefly in a cold compartment of what seemed to be a Republic transporter. The room was dark except for the many machinery and smaller lightbulbs that shone within the commands illuminating the small place your body took up. The cloak Maul had given you was now doing a terrible job warming you.
The feeling of helplessness, loss, and loneliness took over you once more, but before you could cry about it, your body had decided to fall asleep yet again.
The ride towards the capital city of the known Galaxy had been smooth, at least to your sleeping consciousness and body, but once you had awoken, the brightly shining Coruscant Prime shone in your face. The man from before, whose presence you refused to acknowledge mainly due to what he had done to Maul, and second, because he had now hold of your sabers, was guiding you towards what seemed like a rectangular structure, with almost separate rectangular buildings creating one main system. On the top five pillars emerged, the middle one adorned with what looked like an oval office, at least that’s what you could have seen from your position as you descended the hangar and made your way inside the structure.
The entrance led to the main entrance hall, which seemed to be a more ritualistic or symbolistic throne room, without a throne. The cold stone floor was covered with old carpets that had been worn out but still cleaned, and the multiple pillars and ancient structures that seemed to depict Jedi fighters led its way towards more gates that opened up other formats of the Temple. Several Jedi had joined the man now leading you towards the left side of the temple, the corridor covered in windows, the light shone through the tinted windows, casting a golden yet magical hue to the hall as you passed the many rest chairs, multiple doors that led to unknown rooms, bustling workers and Jedi alike that entered and exited the work premises. The many, presumably criminals, who were handcuffed, were led away and into the structure on this side, the Sentinel Jedi as they used to call them, the ones that took up public service work and fought the crime in the great city of Coruscant. The two other Jedi entered the elevator with you, one presumably a Togruta and the other a human that had simple grey Jedi robes on them, as if standing guard to you or to the Jedi that had been accompanying you, whose name you still didn’t know, but wasn’t planning on finding out.
“The council will be taking place in several minutes.” The Togruta male spoke up.
“I assume Anakin has made it safely in his chambers?” the white Jedi asked as the human nodded, noting that it had been her who led this unknown person through the main halls down to the Jedi chambers. White Jedi nodded above you, and as the elevator ascended the higher levels of the temple, you looked over the shinning silver city of Coruscant, the many lanes with quick riding ships and speeders that made it across one end of the city to another, you looked over the many tall skyscrapers and the colorful buildings down below, if Maul ever could see this city with his own eyes, be wondered by it as much as you were now, never having seen any type of societal structure so dense and massive in size. Yet at the mention of Maul, your head spun to the elevator, tears trickling down your cheeks; you failed to pinpoint his Force signature, yet you knew somewhere, perhaps at Naboo for now, he was alive, barely alive.
The two Jedi excused themselves as they joined in on the guards stationed right next to a large wooden door, the door’s length towering over an average human by at least several feet, yet behind it, you felt the many Force signatures, perched up on their couches in uncertainty, in questions, and sorrow. The white Jedi had stopped you in your tracks, looking around to check if anyone had been eavesdropping before he crouched to your level and tried wiping your tears away, to which you flinched, almost slapping his hand away, screaming at him to not touch you.
“Look, I know you are mad at me and I know I did not show mercy to your friend.”
“He was my brother, and you murdered him.” You sobbed out, interrupting him as more hot tears trickled underneath your chin, little droplets leaving marks on the greyish-red carpet.
“Look here, young lady, he killed my master, my true companion in this world. The feeling is mutual. Through him, I lost someone. But-”
“My Master told me about the Jedi scum you are. He told me you take away the joy of freedom from the galaxy. You’re a murderer.” You screamed again, to which the Jedi almost covered your mouth before stopping himself, instead bringing his finger to his lips in a silencing motion.
“I am sorry. Look now. You will go inside there with me, inside this room. The other Jedi have decided to give you freedom, to become a part of our alliance, to become the good knight you are supposed to be. Your lightsabers are red. Who gave them to you?” The Jedi now held up the two lightsabers in front of you. Petite sabers which your Master and Maul had constructed for you.
“He gave them to me.” At the memory, you sobbed again, remembering how Maul had sat you down once in front of the swamps right next to the Sith temple on Kaas, showing you how the sabers worked, followed by over a year of training in the art of wielding them, countless days you had spent with him, with little burn marks on your arms and legs were you had hurt yourself multiple times fighting the much taller Zabrak male. Now, it's all gone, thanks to the man in front of you.
“Right, he could have.” The young Jedi brought his thumb towards his chin, thinking of something before snapping out of it as you screamed another word at him, swearing you wouldn’t join the other monsters who killed your beloved brother.
“Now behave there, young lady.” With fresh tears brimming your waterline, the two guards opened the door to the council, the scenery indescribable. That time, at such a young age, you thought this room had the best view of the city, something you would learn to be a lie, seeing many other bewildering constructions of this world that proved you wrong. Several metallic pillars emerged and blended perfectly right through the Mozaic floors of the council room, with the space between the pillars nothing but thick clear glass that showed the setting Prime, the lights in the city slowly but surely starting to gleam.
The twelve Jedi had seated themselves in their respective seats, some of the Jedi replaced by Holotransmissions.
The Jedi stood respectively in front of the other Jedi, greeting them all as he bowed his head and presented the council with you.
"It seems she had been raised and trained by a Sith lord of an unknown origin. It could have been the one we encountered on Naboo, who unfortunately managed to overpower my master. Yet, the youngling is barely ten years old. I brought her to the council in hopes you will be able to lead her to the right path."
"Lead her, we will. The decision she must make." A small Jedi seated right in the center addressed the younger man standing right in the front. He was almost swamp green, with wrinkly skin and some barely there white hair that lay sprawled between his elongated ears. The petite hands with only three fingers lay atop the handles of his chair, the dark brownish robe of his covering almost everything except the toes that peaked through them.
"She is all too old to be led. I am afraid she might not follow the training. Say Kenobi, what is with you and your master picking up younglings too old to be trained?" The Kel Dor male rasped through the mask, and the others murmured to their neighbors. Kenobi now somehow fell back emotionally. At the mention of his master, he did not think how much it would have hurt him, too. But if he were to be knighted as a Jedi knight, losing his Padawan titular, he would have to show he held no attachments. Unlike the way, he had shown you just some minutes ago outside the council room.
When the murmurs were not dying down, the council fell silent again as the small, green Jedi raised his hand once more.
"Strong with the force the youngling is, reading her, I cannot." At this, the tension in the room became thicker than what a saber could penetrate. With that, the other master sitting next to the small one spoke up; he was a much more scary-looking fellow in your eyes: dark skin and a strict look on his face, his force signature nothing but pure authority.
"This could only mean one thing."
"Another Sith is her master." another Jedi voiced out from your left side, though you did not need to look at them. The room all of a sudden got covered in fog, the space darkening and the voices muffled out by what seemed to be the familiar whisper of the dark side.
Accept their offer to train you, my young apprentice. Train with them. Your worth will be valuable to me very soon.
I'll find you once the time is right. Till then, I will protect you with my shields... Hone your abilities, my little one, and do not miss even the smallest of lessons...
And with that, the room went back to its usual murmur of the Jedis discussing how they could proceed with you next before you took a cautious step in front of Kenobi and addressed the council.
"I cannot go back. My master abused me and my brother for many months before I was brought to you. I will accept the Jedi training. I will accept the light side. Don't make me go back to him." The crocodile tears spilled from your eyes as the small Jedi took a calculated look at your face, trying to search for any deceit or lie through your memory, but everything he had seen was the dark feelings that came with the Sith path: despair, agony, and pain that you had endured through many nights, alone in your chambers haunted by nightmares. The darker human Jedi next to him had doubts: he had already let the council take up a boy a little too old to be trained in the ways of the Jedi, perhaps you could make it. Already in the training of the force, stripped from your family and undergoing the process of detachment, if the Council could work on eradicating the dark from you, maybe you could become a strong Jedi, not to mention the exceptional force abilities you had emitted through your force signature, the seeker abilities growing with every usage.
"Hm, seeker the youngling is, useful her skills will be. A new Padawan Master Mace Windu, perhaps, will take up." the green Jedi now turned to Mace Windu, smiling up at him as Windu gave a long calculated thought before he nodded his head once, all the tears in your eyes dried up, a faint smile creeping its way to your lips as the council got dismissed. The Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi was to go through his trials to become a knight. Until then, the council had a funeral to organize, to let their beloved benevolent Jedi Knight Qui-Gon Jinn become one with the Force on the pyke.