Darth Vader: Hero of Naboo

Chapter 5

Echoing throughout the force, there was...a sound. The sound was not a roaring fire. It was not thunder or lighting. It was not roaring tides or rushing wind.

No, this sound could only be described as crackling; the groaning of ice cracking beneath the feet...the growling of cracks in a mountain before an avalanche...the shaking of glass before it gave way. So light yet so sharp and so ominous. It was the sound foreshadowing doom and death in a dark place.

Across the galaxy, the force sensitives fell into a strange quiet, looking up or into the distance. What they were looking and waiting for, even some of the learned didn't know.

But even if they did sense the galactic audience they currently had, the two Dark Siders paid them no mind.

Maul clutched his dual lightsaber with an iron grip, his entire body tense as he watched the Titan of Darkness staring down at him. The assassin looked for any movement, any tell, any sense of where the attack would come from.

But there was none. His foe did not move a muscle, his own lightsaber still on his belt.

*Kuuuuuuh Kerrr*

And all the while, that breathing grated at his nerves...mocking him, taunting him, showing him that this durasteel statue was indeed alive and just didn't deign to speak to him now.

*Kuuuuuuh Kerrr*

And even in this desert, each breath felt like it took a bit more of the heat with it.

*Kuuuuuuh Kerrr*

Maul grit his teeth just short of snarling as Vader finally stepped forward. The black fist lowered, but remained clenched as he began to stride at a deceivingly leisurely pace.

Igniting his lightsaber on one end and forcing himself to focus, Maul realized that while keeping up this opening in the storm was impressive, it had to require a great deal of focus. Meaning that a measure of his enemy's abilities was held back by the need to keep this storm at bay. And if he released it, it would turn into a game of being able to find and out maneuver each other in this sandstorm. Maul wasn't sure if that was a much better prospect but this Dark Sider didn't seem built for speed, relative to Sith and Jedi at least.

For now, he just had to keep his senses about him and wait for the blow to com-

*WOOSH!*

Maul hit the ground, rolling to his feet with a frantic, wild look in his eye. He had no idea what just happened. He had been blindsided on his left by a sudden force pelting his skin with biting grains of sand and carrying enough power to knock him off his feet.

*Kuuuuuuh Kerrr*

And still Vader marched over the sand to him, the gap more than half closed now.

Maul realized he had clearly underestimated this being, to assume that he would be able to sense the force attacks coming with any degree of ease.

With that in mind, he dashed forward, his weapon twirling expertly in his hand. He had to stay moving, stay on the offensive and not let himself be-

*WOOSH!*

-attacked so easily.

He growled as he summoned the force to spin himself in midair and land on his feet. He had been just out of striking range! And what technique was that? There wasn't even any additional force-exertion Maul could detect coming from his opponent to form those attacks!

"Sand has an unfortunate habit of getting everywhere, as you're discovering," Darth Vader commented casually as he came to a stop several sword-lengths away from his foe...his saber still on his belt.