Rebuilding (COMPLETE)

Episode 21 (6)

Staggering to her feet, Jadis heard a low rumble from the temple. Forcing her eyes open, she stared up, seeing the ancient weapon beginning to collapse. I can't, I can't let that happen! Not when I was so close! Pulling her weapons back to her from the ground, she ignited them and made to rise back up to the temple entrance. If it shut before she got there-

"Barriss?"

Her eyes widened, and her breath came in sharp, jagged inhales. Turning towards the oh-so-familiar voice, she saw a friendly face, one she thought she wouldn't see again. Red and black skin, cybernetic legs, yellow eyes, and a double-bladed red lightsaber at his side. Her ears had not deceived her. It was him.

"Barriss..."

"Maul?" she asked tentatively, her own weapons deactivating. Emotion churned inside her, and it wasn't anger or hatred or fear. It was something like fondness, like...desperation. Hope.

The crackling of the temple distracted her. Glancing quickly up, she spoke rapidly. "I have to get back up there. I need that weapon."

"For what?" Maul asked, approaching her with an arm out. "For Tyrannus? Did he send you here?"

The look on her face told him he was right. More so, the look in her eyes confirmed his worst fears, the truth he had dreaded to find the day he finally reunited with his long-lost apprentice.

"No...no, no, what did he do to you?" he whispered, so she could barely hear it. She shook her head, about to deny it, about to claim that Tyrannus hadn't hurt her, but she never got the chance. Maul said something first. "What torture did you endure because of me?"

His words were what made her hesitate. She looked back at Maul into his bloodshot eyes, and it was then that the ghosts of her own screams filled her ears. "Because of you?"

Maul curled his hand into a fist, clenching up in anger but not at her. "I could only imagine how he punished you for what I did. I never stopped searching for you, never forgave myself for losing you that day. I never let myself forget that I failed my good and faithful apprentice."

"No," she objected, breathing hard. "No, you didn't lose me, I-"

She stopped, falling short. 'Good and faithful apprentice,' that's what Maul still believed she was. He didn't know what had happened after he had been trapped under the rubble that last day. He didn't know that she left him willingly, that she chose to go with Tyrannus. He didn't know that she had marked him for termination during Order 66. He didn't know.

Guilt swept over her. Even after all this time, after she had given the order for Maul to be killed, after she had abandoned him, he still thought so highly of her. She closed her eyes, unable to meet those of the man she had once called 'master.' She was unworthy of his loyalty, she didn't deserve his trust. She couldn't admit it. She couldn't bear to see the look on his face when he realized what she had done. There was no forgiveness for betrayal.

"Walk away with me," Maul pleaded, drawing closer. "We will go where Tyrannus cannot make you suffer anymore. We can heal the pain he has inflicted upon you!"

"I can't," she cried, sinking to her knees, her lightsabers falling to the dirt. "I can't escape him, I can't escape what I've done!"

Maul kneeled down beside her, grasping her shoulders and staring at her despite the chaos flowering from the temple above them. "I know, I know, my faithful one, but this is not the end! I am proof that abuse can be escaped, that we can rise above suffering! There is life beyond his cage, beyond his chains!"

She shook her head, the tears falling more freely now. "He'll find me. I can't escape him."

"Then I will protect you with my life, as I have always done!" he promised her, trying to speak over the impending doom. "Have I ever abandoned you? Have I ever not given everything I have to protect you?"