Maul: Legacy of Shadows

Chapter 1: Echoes From the Past

***Year 4 BBY***

A gust of wind blew in Maul's direction, as the Sith temple stood motionless before him, its secrets kept hidden from the eyes of the galaxy for millennia under the surface of the planet Malachor. All around Maul stood the petrified corpses of thousands of Jedi, and Maul couldn't help but smile at their faces of agony. His cane dragged across the ground, and every so often, he would purposefully tap on a body, just to watch it crumble into a pile on the ground.

Maul looked back at his damaged ship and felt almost glad that he had been stranded on Malachor, the planet of his greatest training in the ways of the Dark Side. The visions his former master Sidious had shown him all those years ago drove him to truly become a Sith apprentice and become the next stage in Darth Bane's Rule of Two. His entire life since that day, he felt the pain from that vision and how it fed his rage, fueling his power in the Dark Side. But now, his purpose was gone, taken from him by a lowly Jedi padawan. He had tried to regain his power, his purpose, his prestige, but no matter what he did, eventually he would always fail.

Maul's eyes flared in a rage and from his body erupted a wave of force energy fueled by his hatred, and bodies all around him crumbled into the ground. The temple didn't react, almost as if it taunted Maul and knew he was weak and a shell of the Sith he once was.

Maul sighed and slowly let his rage subside, there was no use in fighting his inevitable demise at the hands of eventual starvation and thirst. Maul leaned back against the temple's walls, and stared off into the distance, an endless cavern of pillars and rock formations. It seemed the entire planet's surface was just a shell to hide the mysteries of the Sith inside. Only a faint glow of a distant sun made the cavernous planet barely illuminated, just enough to appreciate the depths of shadow. Yet the temple seemed to shun even the faintest amount of light, as if it was made to reject it completely.

One of the bodies in the distance crumbled, a normal occurrence Maul assumed, but deep down he knew something wasn't right. Every instinct told him to ready himself for battle, and he detached his double-bladed lightsaber from its hiding place as the top of his wooden cane. Maul listened as the sound of heavy footsteps echoed throughout the cavernous landscape, but still Maul couldn't see their origin. Finally, a large reptilian hand gripped an enormous pillar in the distance, upon which a large bipedal creature walked into view standing nearly 10 feet in height and bright green in color. Maul stood motionless, his fingers hovering ever so slightly over the activation switches on his lightsaber. The creature seemed to be smelling the air, possibly attracted to Maul's crash landing and hoping for an easy meal.

Maul smiled at the irony, as he knew food was scarce and this beast would provide him with the means for momentary sustenance. Almost as if on cue, the beast noticed Maul standing against the temple's walls and it lowered itself into an aggressive position.  It was a position Maul was well versed in, that of the hunter.  Maul was ready, he had once been a Sith apprentice and surely this beast would pose no problems for him. The monster charged at him with an animalistic fury.  With each stomp a petrified body would crumble into the ground, their ashes filling the air into a makeshift smokescreen. Maul held his breath, fully aware that having a vision as he did before with his former master would surely make him an easy opponent for the beast. Rage filled his body, as he held out a hand to shove the beast back with the Force, only nothing happened.  Maul stood surprised and lost in thought, as the beast backhanded him with its oversized arm, throwing Maul nearly twenty feet to the side.

Gasping for air, Maul barely had time to react before the beast was upon him again. He ignited his lightsaber as he rolled back up on his feet, the flow of the Force coursing through his veins. His anger increased as Maul slashed the beast's hand as it swiped at him, cutting a gaping wound between its middle and index fingers with the crimson blade. The beast howled in pain as it immediately recoiled backwards, but Maul wasn't finished. He wouldn't let the beast regain its composure, and using the Force, leapt into the air, spinning his double-bladed lightsaber over his head. The killing stroke mere moments away, when Maul noticed something in the corner of his eye, far into the distance. It looked like a young blue skinned Twi'lek female watching from behind a pillar, and Maul's concentration lapsed for just a microsecond.