Clash of the Apprentices

More than a decade after Order 66, Darth Vader remains completely disassociated from Anakin Skywalker, yet he is suddenly plagued with Anakin's memories of an old combatant: former-Darth Maul. Upon learning that Darth Sidious has allowed Maul to stay alive despite having had multiple opportunities to kill him, Vader suspects that the manipulative Sith Master might intend to replace him with his former apprentice. On Coruscant, he concocts a plan to take preventative action.

Meanwhile, on Dathomir, Qi'ra trains for combat. After killing her former master, deceiving Han Solo, and becoming both an apprentice to the fearsome Maul and the public figurehead of the Crimson Dawn crime syndicate, she struggles to accept the choices she's made and the motivations behind them.

While Maul is pleased with Qi'ra's training progress and with the thriving of Crimson Dawn, he grows impatient with the lack of progress of his ultimate revenge plot. He's no closer to locating Obi-Wan Kenobi, and he knows he'll never be able to take down the Sith without another force-wielder, for Qi'ra, despite her many talents, cannot manipulate the force and has little hope of besting Sidious, Vader, or any of their inquisitors.

When Qi'ra discovers an untrained force-wielder, a female human trapped on a the tourist-destination planet Niamos, she decides to deliver the woman right into Maul's hands. With another force-wielder by his side, along with Qi'ra, Maul concocts a plan to finally take down the Sith. First order of business: eliminating Darth Sidious's pet, the much-feared Lord Vader...

**This book intends to bridge the events of Maul's story in Solo: A Star Wars Story with those of Star Wars Rebels, using mostly Canon content but also some Legends content that could still feasibly fit into the Canon timeline.