Dawn of The Sith

Adrift

Maul and Jango were in the cockpit of the Slave 1 ship, awaiting contact from Darth Sidious. Maul flexed his muscles and thought back on the recent events that he had been apart of. True, a couple of Jedi did manage to escape but the secrecy of the Sith was in no danger of being revealed to the Jedi Council. Maul wondered how his master would deal with his failure. He hoped that he would gain another chance to prove himself to Sidious but he knew that whatever task would come next, would not be easy. All of a sudden, Darth Sidious appeared on a hologram.

"Apprentice, you have failed me but I am willing to give you a second chance. Plagueis is dead so if you succeed, you will take your rightful place as a Sith," said Sidious.

"Yes my master," Maul replied. "What is thy bidding?"

"You are to go to the ocean planet of Ahch-To. There you will accompany a deployment of Battle Droids who are searching the First Jedi Temple for lost Jedi Archives," Sidious explained. "Do not fail me again or you will be slaughtered like a Jawa."

"Of course, Master," Maul said as the hologram slowly disappeared. He turned to face the boy.

"I will need someone who is capable of defending themselves for this mission," said Maul.

"I can do it. The Rodian's Mandalore armour has a built in Jetpack. I will be able to scout the area for you," Jango said enthusiastically.

"Very well," said Maul. "See to it that you do not fail me."

One hour later, soon-to-be Darth Maul and the young Jango were accompanying a group of Battle Droids, in search of the lost Jedi Archives. The Droids managed to find an island which was littered with rocks and stones, but there was no sign of any archives. Maul overturned stone after stone, thinking that it was a big set-up. Twice he nearly stabbed one of the Droids, but he knew that it would make his work even harder. Eventually, just as he was about to return to the ship, he heard the noise of a lightsaber being wielded. Maul turned around to see a man of about 30 years old holding Jango with the lightsaber next to his neck. The man had the distinctive smell of someone who as spent a lot of time in the Outer Rim territories, most likely Tatooine. He wore a dark black robe and had a beige, mechanical hand.

"My leader, Rahziid,  wants to duel with you. Do you accept or do I have to kill the boy?" asked the man.

"You can by all means kill the boy," said Maul. "He was of no use to me anyway."

"I must warn you, Rahziid will strike at a time when you are at your weakest," the man said. Maul considered the situation. He had felt a presence during Tatooine but had dismissed it. The presence he felt must have been Rahziid watching him. Maul looked up at the man and then smiled. He held out his hand and then force choked the man until he died. He then flung his body into the ocean and laughed. Jango staggered towards Maul, looking shocked.

"You told him to kill me," shouted Jango. "I thought we were allies!"

"A true Sith will have no remorse. A true Sith has no allies," Maul shouted back.

"And so is the case for a Bounty Hunter," replied Jango as he took out his gun. "You will regret winning me this armour." Maul laughed and then unsheathed is lightsaber. Jango fired his gun twice but the bullets were deflected by Maul's lightsaber. Jango narrowly dodged a torrent of Force Lightning as he flew into the air. The Battle Droids did not know what to do; many of them were shooting randomly at both Jango and Maul. Jango threw a Thermal Detonator at Maul which blew up two Battle Droids a second later. Maul could feel a burning sensation on his left arm but he forced himself not to show any signs of pain. He force pushed Jango which made him lose control of his Jetpack. Maul laughed as Jango fell into the ocean. Moments later, Jango reappeared and shot Maul in the leg. Maul retaliated by slashing Jango's arm and disarming him. With no weapon, Jango flew back in the direction his ship was in. Maul cursed to himself. Why did he not kill him then and there? He would have to fly in the Droid's ship now. All this for nothing!

Back at Slave 1, a group of people were awaiting their messenger to return. Among them was Rahziid who was holding what looked like a mysterious, transparent, blue item.

"Master, what if Diego does not return?" asked one of the group members. Rahziid did not reply. He was too busy looking into the distance at what looked like a person flying towards him. The others must have seen it too because soon one of the men shouted.

"Look, over there," they said. As the figure approached, the men drew their weapons. It was not Diego after all but a boy of about 18 wearing blue Mandalore armour.

"Where is Diego?" shouted a man with a metallic mask covering his face.

"I think he is dead, I saw Maul kill a man. Please, it wasn't me," said the boy.

"Why are you here?" asked Rahziid.

"Maul spoke of some Jedi Archives. That is all I know," replied Jango who was cowering.

"Ahh yes," Rahziid smiled. "The transparent object which you see here is the last of the Jedi Archives. To the right person, it could reveal many prophecies and predictions. I can see why Sidious would want this... yes... he is dwelling on Plagueis' final words. I am sure that Sidious would be willing to replace me with Maul if I were to give this to him, since Maul had failed twice now." Rahziid turned towards his ship and laughed. Jango watched as one by one each of the group members stepped into their ship. After a minute, it flew up into the air and out of sight, leaving Jango alone and bewildered with Slave 1.