Think Twice

Chapter 15

            “I don’t understand!” she huffed. “Even if he’s not on good terms with you or the Jedi, he has every reason to want to stop Sidious. Why won’t he help us? I thought Sith thrived on revenge.” They were headed back towards their ship and she was trying her best to ignore the violence around her. She wanted to run to all of them and help. She wanted to fix this for them. But even if they helped Death Watch take out Maul, these people needed more than that. Despite her best efforts to resist the surge of frustration, it kept bubbling to the surface anyways. 

            It was irrational to blame Master Kenobi for this, but in a way, she did. It wasn’t that he was responsible for Maul’s behavior, but it bothered her that he did nothing to try and stop it. Even with the war raging out there, it didn’t make sense to leave someone so dangerous, loose and free to cause all of this. Maybe it wasn’t the Jedi way to seek revenge, but how could they knowingly let Maul continue even after he killed the Duchess? Was it really revenge to stop a monster from hurting more people?

            “It’s not that simple, Ahsoka,” Anakin murmured finally, interrupting her thoughts. “Yes, revenge is one of the motivators for the dark side; it creates a lot of intense emotions to feed on and fuel your power. But Sith seek power through control, through domination. And one of the ways they achieve that is through fear.”

            “I know that, but…”

            He raised a hand to cut her off and stopped walking. “No, you don’t understand,” he said in agitation and she raised a brow at him. “They don’t just use fear to control the common people and retain power. They use it on everyone that works for them; officers, apprentices, lackeys. In order to keep control over those that work for them, the methods they use to incite it are more terrible than you can imagine. They need powerful people, but not more powerful than them.”

            “So they torture you?” she whispered, remembering his confession from before. “Or the people you love.”

            She saw him tighten his hand into a fist. “Or worse,” he breathed. It took him a few minutes to calm down and she waited until he did, hoping she hadn’t pushed him too far. She was trying to understand, she really was, but it was hard to imagine the things he talked about. “The point being, to keep control over someone means to break them to the point that they believe the only way they can live is to serve. Do you remember what I said about slavery?”

            “It’s a state of mind,” she repeated.

            “In order for slavery to exist, someone has to hold power over others, or at the very least, appear to do so. Very rarely is the slaver more powerful, but through fear, they train the slave to believe that they are powerless to escape the situation. Any that try, are made examples of until the slaves feel utterly helpless,” he sighed. “A properly broken-down slave is the only being a Sith truly trusts. Because if you live in fear of your slaver, your obedience is never questioned.”

            “That’s awful,” she whispered, knowing that her words didn’t help. She couldn’t hold them in though.

            “So yes, Maul wants revenge on Sidious, but he feels powerless to do so. Sidious’ show of power recently, and also by murdering his brother, he reminded Maul that though he no longer works for him, he still holds the power.” He rubbed his hands together and stared at the ground. She wanted to comfort him, but she wasn’t sure how he’d take it at the moment.