The Warrior's Path

Chapter 10 - Duel of the Fates

Author's Note: I have no regrets. :):):)

~ Amina Gila

Custos feels Maul approaching them long before the Zabrak steps into view at the end of the hall. For a long moment, the three of them stand there staring at one another, before Maul smirks. Cruelly. "Kenobi," he drawls, drawing and igniting his double-bladed red lightsaber with a flourish, spinning it. "How nice of you to show up."

"I hope your master doesn't want you back in less than two pieces like last time," Custos taunts as he and Obi-Wan ignite their own lightsabers in response. Obi-Wan spins it, holding it parallel to the floor, left arm extended in the traditional opening stance for Soresu. Custos, on the other hand, sticks with the Ataru he's used to. He is not like the Jedi; he does not fight defensively. He is untamed aggression and fury, and he lets the Dark Side flood through him, humming through his veins and lighting him up from the inside.

The Sith hurt Vader. Sidious hurt Vader. They touched his child. And they will die for it. He will make them pay, make them suffer for it. The failure is his, because he should have protected Vader from them. But since he couldn't protect him this time, anymore than he could have in the past, he will avenge him.

Maul growls, lunging towards them, and Custos blocks him, reaching to Obi-Wan through their Force, their bond singing with harmony and rightness, and they work in sync together. It took them so long to achieve this unity, but they worked for it, trained for it, and now... it's paying off. While they can't label their relationship with one another, Custos can say with certainty that they are, at the very least, friends. Their soul is the same, and the bond between them is as powerful as any weapon could be. Like this, minds linked, they are two halves of the same person, two bodies, but one mind.

As long as we keep him occupied, the stormtroopers won't risk shooting at us. Custos doesn't know which of them thought it first, but it's something that they mutually agree upon. They need to keep Maul busy. They need to kill him as fast as possible, so they can move on. Maul, they can handle. Sidious...

Well, Custos isn't so certain about that. The Sith Master is clever, crafty, and if not for how everything changed, Custos has no doubt that Sidious would have succeeded in winning Anakin over to his side.

Their lightsabers clash together, a blur of blue and red. Custos pushes on the offensive, while Obi-Wan stays on the defensive. And Maul is overmatched. He is not close to being strong enough to stand up to both of them at once, not when they're fighting together like this. Obi-Wan Force shoves Maul backwards, and Custos doesn't give the Zabrak a chance to recover, lunging towards him. Maul twists out of the way in time to avoid being impaled, stumbling back a step as Custos' red blade crashes down with incredible force.

He pushes them back a few steps with a Force push, but they're on him again in moments, lightsabers swinging as they hammer at his defenses, steadily forcing him onto the defensive. It's so unlike the first duel Custos had with Maul when Qui-Gon was killed, because he and Obi-Wan are, naturally, working together with an ease and familiarity that he and Qui-Gon never achieved. They're the same person at the core, so it makes sense, but there's still a small part of him that wishes Qui-Gon hadn't died like that. Maybe a part of him will never truly be over it, not when Qui-Gon's death had meant that he and Vader fell into the Sith's hands.

Realistically, there's nothing his once master could have done. When Plagueis showed up, it was all over for everyone. Still, he... struggles sometimes with the imprisonment and torture that he endured at the Siths' hands, even if it was nothing even half as severe as what his child endured.

Maul missteps, and Obi-Wan takes advantage of it, slicing through one end of Maul's lightsaber, leaving him with only one working blade. A few strikes later, Custos gets a hit in on Maul's side, and when he stumbles from the sudden pain, Obi-Wan stabs him in the chest. Without missing a beat, Custos cuts off the Zabrak's head.