agony. |darth maul

twenty.

"You are quite the poor example of a Jedi."

Kin knew this was Mauls attempted at teasing, but she still cringed at the statement as she delicately twirled her blue saber in her left hand. She also bit back a comment on Maul being only half of a sith with restraint even grand master yoda would admire.

They clashed again and this time Kin was on quite the role of offensive strikes. Maul hadn't lost any of his skill for dueling while in exile, if anything he was now more aggressive and reckless. Kin had her fair share of practice but she would still never see herself at the level Maul was.

"Okay," she shouts over the noisy clashing and humming of the blue and red plasma blades, "I yield! I yield."

Maul was the type to usually ignore Kins first few attempts at ending a spar, but he immediately relents this time and Kin is nearly proud of him.

Afterwards they sit silently on a balcony overlooking Mauls stolen empire of Mandalore. The two force users sit in an oddly comfortable silence, simply basking in each other's beat opposite presence.

Kin was sitting close enough to the Zabrak to brush her shoulder against his. She didn't- they didn't touch at all. Just date in a weary silence.

"These next few weeks-"

"God, let's not even talk about it," Kin groans dismissively. She knew he wasn't lying now, the dark side of the force was running rampant and there was nothing to do to stop it, "The galaxy is fucked and we just happen to be near the center of it. Whatever happens, happens."

Maul makes a soft, deep noise at that but leaves it. Instead, he softly bumps Kin with his shoulder, causing a warm giddy feeling to fill her.

She lets out a sigh, the universe was ripping at the seams and she didn't feel bad for spending her evening leaning on the man who was partly responsible for it.

Kin felt herself growing more tired and less aware as she let more of her weight lean onto Maul.

She exhales slowly, that was enough.

***

The agricultural corps was not filled with Jedi rejects, rather it was filled those who abided most by the Jedi way.

Celeste knew that and tried to remember that as she frantically searched the holonet for someone under the name of Madraykin Finnall.

Her search was futile, every lead ended up being cut short. She had no contact and was convinced the woman was dead, killed or disappeared without a trace. That was until she discovered a slightly homemade looking site offering the deeds of a bounty hunter.

Oh well, everything was worth a try.

The Pantoran jammed the code from the site into her communicator, hoping it would at least give her a lead to where the woman was.

The device buzzed for a second before it clicked and Celeste gasped. Someone answered quick.

Then, she appeared. A pale, frazzled looking woman with choppy long brown hair and shadowed gray eyes with an annoyed expression. From the waist up, she wore rough and practical black clothes. She was middle aged, mid thirties maybe?

All of that didn't matter, because Celeste's nearly soul nearly jumped out of her body. She had found her girl.

So if you can't tell with things starting to go full circle, we are nearing the end of this story. Two more chapters and an epilogue to be exact :) as for Madraykin and co, I kinda warmed up to her and like the way she's developed so there's gonna be somewhat of a sequel??? I'm still in my very rough stage of planning but here's what I know- romance is going to hardly be there and maul will most likely just be a side character. I'll tell you more when I get my act together. Thanks!