What if?: One Death

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Talzin struggled to keep Maul restrained. She was terrorized by the state of her son. He was first sitting down with her explaining his concerns about meeting up with Savage alone and then in the middle of a sentence his eyes had become completely bloodshot with a huge shift in the Force. She was able to contain him with her magiks but somehow he was wearing her out quickly. Much quicker than anyone else she had ever encountered ever could. Before Talzin knew it, a wave of the Force broke through her magik barrier then another powerful wave hit her. She was thrown to the other side of the room hitting her head hard and knocking her out cold. 

It was futile for the Nightsisters to attack him. Every Sister that approached him with even the look to attack him he sent out a wave through the Force that knocked her and the other Sisters behind her back and to the ground. Maul ran out of Nightsister village using only his senses that he was born with to track down Obi-wan. 

As Maul arrived at the scene of the battle, he stood in the shadows and used his power in the Force to thicken the air around the entire battle. Using the slow moments, Maul used his other hand to summon Obi-wan's lightsaber to him. He threw himself into the fight, lifting the thickened air away. He dodged every attack from the Jedi and pushing them one by one away from Obi-wan, not yet igniting the lightsaber. Once he nearly cleared everyone from the middle, there were only two people left. Yoda and Obi-wan. Using both of his hands, he Force pushed them away from each other.

Plagueis stood there and watched as Maul walked between the two fighting opponents. Maul faced Obi-wan silently as Maul watched his corrupted love stand with a scowl on his face. 

"Good. Now I can see who will succeed in becoming my apprentice!" Plagueis mused and all the Jedi didn't know what to do next. Stop the Sith Lord or stop Maul and Obi-wan from fighting and take them back to the Temple. Windu and Yoda looked at each other.

Maul stood there watching Obi-wan just stand there and watch him back. His mind was spinning and falling and full of chaos. In his mind parts of him were crying and breaking down. They didn't know what to do as their mind was a mess with cage parts everywhere. Other parts of him hated Obi-wan just for being part of the Dark Side. Other parts of him were in a desperate state of trying to just gain control of their body. Overall all of them but one were afraid and scared and wanted it all to stop. The one that did not care about anything. The one that lived off of hatred, anger, and fear. The one that would kill anyone and anything in its way was in control of the body. The one that everyone in Maul's mind fought to contain was now free. 

Pieces of Maul cried terrified of Obi-wan's eyes as they burned their new yellow color. They begged for all not to be real.  The part of Maul that stored his memories held Maul's child-like persona as the child cried denying that everything that they saw was just false, that it was some kind of bad dream. That part of Maul that usually has control over the body was crying as he and the dark part of Maul and the protecting persona of Maul all tried to claw and run their way through the dark area that grew ever more inside of Maul's mind and locked the evilest of them in control of their body. Other personas of Maul just stood there watching and waiting to see what would happen next. They stood there curious to find out who will win if the others would make it and re-cage the monster that was free in their mind before it was too late for them. They stood there with their feelings binding them in place.

As Maul watched Obi-wan, most of his personas felt rejected by the yellow eyes that showed no return of the endless blue sea that Maul felt like he could drown himself in, or where we always felt welcomed and cared for, or where he always saw peace and nothing was able to sway it from it own utopia.  He wondered why hadn't Obi-wan made a single move yet. The yellow-eyed Obi-wan just stood there, he hadn't ignited his lightsaber yet or said a single word just like Maul. No one inside or outside of Maul's head could tell what Obi-wan or the persona of Maul were thinking. 

Yoda, the other Jedi, and Plagueis looked at the two as they stood there like statues as if they were trying to predict each other's powers and moves. Plagueis' patience was wearing out and not only that, but Yoda had spotted him sway back and forth. Plagueis' tiredness was getting to him again. He couldn't fight all the Jedi at once and he couldn't flee from them. Maybe with Obi-wan's and Maul's help, he could succeed in getting away, neither one of them could defeat the Jedi on their own. No Sith could, Plagueis could buy himself time, but his body screaming at him for more sleep, he was at a stand still. He needed Maul and Obi-wan to fight and distract the Jedi or at least most of them, he could handle 3 chasing him to his ship but most certainly not the entire Council. Plagueis had planned to corrupt Obi-wan and for the Jedi to be too concerned with taking Maul that he could get away with Obi-wan and train him. But this version of Maul was even unknown to him. Could this be what Sidious had been training all these years, Plagueis thought to himself.

As everyone watched, Obi-wan ignited the red lightsaber of Mace Windu and a split second later Maul ignited the still blue lightsaber of Obi-wan. Plagueis and the Jedi watched as the two charged at each other and started their battle. As they fought, they all watched at how Obi-wan's lightsaber dimmed then became bright again. Then the lightsaber looked like it was losing it's color or changing red before becoming a bright shining blue again. At points in the battle, the blue lightsaber faltered and deactivate itself in the middle of an attack or a block. In the moments where the blue lightsaber stopped working, Obi-wan and Maul threw each other around using the Force.

Obi-wan cackled after he threw Maul against a large tree. A loud noise could be heard when Maul's head hit the tree. Obi-wan walked up to Maul as Maul's body just laid there on the ground motionless. Obi-wan stood there above Maul's body.

Obi-wan's calm and cold expression fell the longer he stood there. Fear and shock dawned on Obi-wan's face the longer Maul just laid there. Qui-gon took a step towards Obi-wan sensing the light cracking through and exposing itself through the darkness. A soft lightness seemed to fill the air around them. The mist seemed to also dissipate the longer Maul laid there and Obi-wan stood in front of him. Yoda used his cane to block Qui-gon's path as the Council stood there giving their full attention to the two runaways.

"Maul?" Obi-wan's voice broke the silence as his knees started to shake and he fell to the ground next to Maul. 

It hurt Qui-gon to see Obi-wan like this. Controlled by a Sith Lord then seeing him scared like this. As he watched his old padawan shake his friend desperately, he noticed something. Plagueis was gone and there was a larger group of people closing in on them. The Nightsister's were coming and it had hit the Jedi Council members like a ton of bricks.

"We need to gather the two of them quickly." Mace Windu declared and as he took a step a purple arrow hit the edge of his boot just missing his toes. There was nothing the Jedi could do against the Nightsister's since the Jedi were on Dathomir.

Obi-wan, in a full out panic attack, didn't check the bond between them to notice that it was open once again. Obi-wan cried as he held and shook Maul begging for him to wake up. Obi-wan held Maul with his eyes closed as Maul opened his eyes. Maul couldn't help but smile at Obi-wan's tears that fell onto his shoulder. Obi-wan jumped as he felt Maul's arms encase him in a hug. 

"I knew you were still in there," Maul whispered in Obi-wan's ear causing Obi-wan to cry even more as he held onto Maul tightly. 

The Jedi and Nightsisters stood around the two watching them yet watching the other group to see who would make the first move.