Maul: Legacy of Shadows

Chapter 26: Ignorance

***Year 4 BBY***

The three Inquisitors landed next to the Fifth and Seventh's TIE Fighters, exhausted from the brief but intense fight with the former Sith Lord and his Jedi allies.

"You pathetic worm!" the Seventh Sister yelled towards the Eighth Brother.

The Fifth Brother stood next to the Seventh Sister; a scowl written across his face as the Eighth Brother sat down silently on a small rock.  The Seventh Sister's rib ached as she paced back and forth, frustrated by their combined failure.

"This was a secret mission to track down the Shadow known as Maul, the others being here were unexpected," the Eighth Brother replied as his thoughts were replaying what had just transpired.

"Regardless, we must inform Lord Vader of these interlopers immediately," the Fifth Brother said calmly.

"He'll view it as a failure from us all.  Do you dare risk that?" the Seventh Sister shot back.

"No.  Leaving the planet empty-handed is the true failure.  At the very least Vader would enjoy the sport of hunting these wayward rebels," the Fifth Brother answered back confidently.

"So be it.  I'll inform Lord Vader, but we must activate the assassin droids and stall our foes long enough for him to arrive," the Eighth Brother said without hesitation.

As the trio set about preparing for Lord Vader's imminent arrival, in the distance the pyramid's exterior began to change, with flashes of red shining through.  Pillars rose, facets began to shift, and the interior of the planet began to glow with a crimson haze.  The three Inquisitors knew that time was of the essence, and so set about returning to delay the rebels with a few assassin droids in tow.

The Eighth Brother pressed the transmitter, sending the Inquisitors' message to Vader himself, and his hopes for promotion died with his action.  At this point, his top priority was simply surviving his master's wrath.  Before he faced his Lord however, he would make the rebels pay dearly for his embarrassment.  As the Fifth Brother and Seventh Sister activated their lightsabers' lifts, the Eighth Brother hesitated for only a moment before activating his as well and flying back into the fray.

***

Vader sat quietly in his meditation chamber on his personal Venator-class Star Destroyer.  His face's flesh sat exposed as the chamber's life support functions allowed him some personal freedom from his mechanical handicaps.  Meditating on the Force, flashes of his past during the Clone Wars washed over him.  His former Padawan Ahsoka had recently begun to weigh heavily on his conscious, and Vader's hatred for himself and his failure to those he cared for empowered him as a Sith Lord.  Concentrating on the images, the Force whispered to Vader that his Padawan still believed in him.

"Snips," Vader whispered within his chamber, inaudible to the all within the galaxy but himself.

As he activated his chamber to place his helmet back onto his half-mechanical form, an incoming transmission began to come through on his chamber's monitor.  The image and voice of the Eighth Brother clawed its way through the cosmos, explaining to the Sith apprentice what was currently transpiring.  Vader tensed as the Inquisitor talked of a Togruta Jedi among those present on the ancient Sith world, and the fact that the secrets of the temple were being plundered by the interlopers.  Making his way quickly to his personal TIE Fighter Advanced Class ship, the Sith Lord decided he would personally succeed where his pathetic Inquisitors had failed, and they would be severely punished for their incompetence.