Chapter Fifty Six

Though separated by nearly a quarter mile of palace, Obi-Wan still felt his master's death through the Force as did Windu. But unlike Obi-Wan, Mace also felt the individual who had killed Qui-Gon Jinn. A Dark Side user, here, why? This is bizarre, the first Dark Side user seen in more than two hundred years, and no warning about it unlike that time when it was a Jedi who had fallen into the Dark Side. Suddenly I have to question the real reasons behind the Trade Federation's actions here.

But for now, which target would the Dark Side user go for? The queen, who is no doubt closer, or the Jedi apprentice freeing the starfighter pilots? Reaching out subtly to the ForceMace tried to get some inspiration on which decision to go for, only to not sense anything.

Sighing Windu covered himself in the best mixed Force Cloak and Stealth he could manage and disappeared into the background of the palace, thinking hard. Deciding the Zabrak would go for the queen, that making more sense than a Dark Side user randomly appearing here to attack three Jedi, Mace raced in that direction. He ran into several more droidekas, slowing him somewhat, but he was nearly there when the Dark Side user once again struck. But not at the queen as Mace had thought was the most logical, but at Obi-Wan, forcing Mace to turn around, moving even faster now as he cursed his blindness.

OOOOOOO

Obi-Wan skidded to a halt pushing Anakin towards one of the fighters, small starfighters built here on Naboo built along the same sort of sleek design type as Padme's yacht only smaller and better armed. Turning he stared at the Dark Side user who had just walked into the hanger bay. "Go Anakin!"

Next to him Anakin stared in the Zabrak's direction for a brief moment, and Obi-Wan wondered if he too had felt Qui-Gon Jinn's death through the Force. Regardless, the boy swiftly obeyed as Obi-Wan turned his lightsaber on, racing towards the Zabrak, who in turn ignited a strange double-bladed lightsaber and charged to meet him.

The two met in the center of the bay as around them the last few starfighters rocketed up into space heading to attack one of the two Lucre-Hulk class mother ships, the one controlling the droid army on the ground at present. Not that either combatant cared, their lightsabers sizzling and slashing at one another as their Force Precognition too reached out.

At first Obi-Wan leaped around, trying to come at his opponent from as many directions at once, much like his master would have. Jinn had taught him a lot of Ataru over the years they had been together, not because he felt Obi-Wan was suited for it, but because that was Jinn's own style, and he didn't have enough understanding of the other forms to teach them beyond a rudimentary level.

This proved to be a mistake. The opponent's double-bladed lightsaber gave him an amazing level of flexibility, able to attack and defend far faster than any opponent Obi Wan had ever faced before in training or in real life. Three barely dodged assaults later, Obi-Wan gambled for a brief moment. He conjured up a Force Shield to block an attack before ducking under the other blow and kicking out hard, sending the Zabrak backwards. His enemy rolled with it, coming up several meters away and rushing forward once more.

But instead of pressing his fleeting advantage, Obi-Wan swiftly centered himself in the Force, holding his lightsaber down at an angle towards the floor. When the Zabrak attacked Obi-Wan flowed into Form 3, Soresu. It was a defensive style, which used the opponent's moves to power that defense. It never attacked outright, concentrating the user's physical style and Force Precognition on blocking or deflecting the opponent's attacks in an effort to outlast him until your opponent made a mistake then riposting. It was a style made solely to defend, a stance anathema to most Dark Side users.

Here the style quickly went to work, nearly infuriating Maul to distraction as he leaped and slashed in from every direction, trying to overcome Obi-Wan's defense. Even his better skill at Force Precognition failed at this change, Obi-Wan's own skill in that ability acting like a fulcrum in a lever, forcing Maul's power away. However riding high on Qui-Gon's death Maul retained control, using his anger to further fuel his Force powers, pressing Obi-Wan hard. A kick got through Obi-Wan's defenses flinging him backwards, but the Zabrak couldn't follow up Obi-Wan's Force Shield snapping into place, his attack bouncing off. The two were even for a moment, but Obi-Wan's style would allow him to outlast his opponent.

Using the momentum of that Darth Maul flipped backwards landing lightly before deciding to change his attack style, reaching out with the Force. Feeling this Obi-Wan tensed, but he wasn't the initial target. Instead the Zabrak pulled all the debris, loose tools, bits of equipment, clothing, everything that wasn't nailed down smaller than a starfighter, up into the air. It hovered there for an instant surrounding the two combatants before Maul flung it all at the Jedi padawan from every direction.

Obi-Wan twirled in place, lightsaber slicing and cutting as he tried to use his own Force Push to protect himself, shunting aside the largest bits. His Force Precognition and Soresu was up to the task of this assault for a few minutes but then the Zabrak joined in once more, cutting and thrusting from the front while the attacks form the sides and back kept going. Obi-Wan was thus forced to erect a Force Shield to either side of him wincing at the exertion as the solid objects smashed into them. Still the assault slowly faded.

Now having to worry about attacks from every direction Obi-Wan didn't notice that his back was now to the open doorway of the hanger bay. There, several dozen combat droids, responding belatedly to the illegal starfighter launch, had just arrived. "Unknown lightsaber users, take no chances, gun them both down!"

"Roger, roger!" chorused the other droids to this command.

Even as they did however, Mace Windu arrived at last, cutting three droids in half then using a Force Crush on an entire line of the others, destroying them before they knew what was happening. But most of them had already fired. "Watch out Obi-Wan!"

Obi-Wan hearing that shout and feeling the threat coming pulled his Force Shield around his back to protect himself, which blocked the bolts. But he didn't sense the Zabrak reaching down to several metal pieces of flotsam, bits and pieces of tools Obi Wan had already cut into pieces during his earlier attack. With a Force heave unaccompanied by any gesture those piece flew up as fast as shrapnel, piercing Obi Wan while his lightsaber was locked with one of the Zabrak's. He fell, his legs and stomach perforated. "GAHH!"

"NO!" Mace snarled, and grabbing up several of droids via the Force hurled them towards the Dark Side user, forcing him backwards. Before he could finish cutting or redirecting them, Mace had crossed the intervening distance far faster than any non-Force user could ever have. Leaping to the attack, his purple-bladed lightsaber wove a net of energy around him as he deflected his enemy's attack and struck in turn.

Almost immediately Maul knew he had been right to avoid Mace Windu. Windu's style of Vaapad was designed to use his opponent's hate and anger against him, a sort of mental aikido that no Dark Side user could quite stop. Hate and anger after all was the basis for much of their abilities and their own lightsaber styles. Maul was in general a blunt object, his hate and rage flowed off him in an unending torrent, a black hole in the Force when he allowed his Force Cloak to fall.

It made him extremely susceptible to Vaapad, and Mace bore in hard. Maul backpedaled, leaping away, bouncing around, trying to disengage. But Mace was always there, his purple lightsaber slashing in and out at insane speeds. Maul's weapon and unusual mix of styles gave him a bit of an edge against normal lightsaber users. Here it barely was enough to keep him from dying within the first few moments.

The few times he could get in an attack on Mace, he found one of those damnable Force Shields he had been warned about blocking him. Worse the openings were a trap which nearly cost him his life each time. Only his Force Precognition saved him at those points, and Maul's sides and legs were blistered occasionally by near misses. He used the pain of them to help fuel his strength and speed, but it still wasn't enough.

He tried to disengage, but Mace didn't let him, circling quickly. Every time Maul tried to use the Force to push Mace away or pull loose items toward Mace like he had Obi-Wan, Mace would match them. Even when he tried to pull a down starfighter into his way, Mace followed the leap and was on Maul before he could get away. In reply it was all the Zabrak could to stop the other man's Force Crush from getting through his own defenses.

The one time he misjudged the other's target his Force riposte missed just enough to let it through at half power, and he felt a few of his ribs break. His anger, hate, and yes fear skyrocketing, fueled Maul's Force powers further, but Mace's Vaapad simply absorbed it all and used it to power Mace's own attacks.

"You are good, but you are no Jedi!" Mace said, leaping up over his opponent's attack, his lightsaber cutting downwards rather than towards the Zabrak's body, bisecting the Zabrak's arms right behind the wrists, searing through them in an instant. The double bladed lightsaber fell away, and Mace's next strike took the Zabrak through the chest, going through it like a torch through butter.

Even though he was dead on his feet Maul still tried to use the Force to grab his lightsaber, and it even lifted into the air, racing towards Mace's back. Mace sliced his blade up out of the Zabrak's chest then around, decapitating him, and the double bladed lightsaber fell behind him to clatter on the ground, the blades still humming gently. He stared down at the body for a moment then sighed, before moving over to Obi-Wan swiftly.

OOOOOOO

"…I will watch your future with interest," Chancellor Palpatine said, before turning away with a final pat to Anakin's head. Staring at the man somberly, then out to the ongoing revelry Mace gestured to Anakin indicating he was free for a moment and stood, watching the boy race off towards where the queen and the Gungan Boss Nass were talking. He rejoined Yoda and the other council members staring into the pyre of Qui-Gon Jinn. set up in one of the castle's towers.

Obi-Wan Kenobi's stomach, thighs and intestines had been pierced in multiple places. Mace had done what he could to stop the bleeding, and the young man was even now immersed in a bacta tank. He would live, but it would be a few days before he was allowed out. Bacta worked slower than normal on such delicate items such as the human intestinal system. After that, the young man would probably be given his test for Knighthood, as Jinn had recommended after bringing in Anakin.

Evan Piell looked over the crowd for a moment, his eyes taking in everything, including Anakin's small frame where he stood next to the queen's surviving handmaidens. "Is it true the youth was the one to destroy the control ship?"

"Yes. He was able to both pierce the Vutuun Palaa's shielding then get inside, and instinctively knew where to use target his proton torpedoes. I would estimate that the boy is already as good at using the Force to guide him in flight as many of our knights, though not up to Tiin's level of course. The Force knew what it was doing when it convinced Qui-Gon to bring him along." Mace replied, making no mention that it had been Anakin's idea not Qui-Gon's to bring him along, and that he had snuck aboard their ship to do it.

Judging by Yoda's eloquent grunt however Mace doubted the aged Grandmaster was fooled. But it was Piell who spoke up again. "And do we have plans for the youth? The way you speak of him, and his response to our tests, make it evident he would not fit in well with the youngling clans his formal training would put him in, and I doubt he would fit in any better with his own age group."

"He might not have formal training, but it is true that Anakin's sheer skill and power would set him apart. Best to begin that way and work any arrogance such might bring on from the start. I will take him on as padawan and see to it personally." Mace replied.

This would be part of his penance for the mistakes he had been making of late went unsaid. Mace blamed himself for what had nearly happened to Aayla, just as he did with the two Jedi sent to deal with the Yinchorri when that crisis began. Further, it had been his suggestion which had split the Jedi on this mission. He knew it had been the correct decision given what they knew and what the Force was able to tell them, but that didn't make it any more wrong.

But yet again Yoda's grunt and an equally telling glance up at the human Master of the Order told Mace that Yoda was aware of more than he had said. He however did not rebuke Mace, simply turning to stare once more into the funeral pyre.

A few moments of silence passed before, Yaddle, who had come along with Yoda, Piell and Yoda's new padawan Wulo, spoke. "This Dark Side user, more to him there is. Connected to the rising power of the Dark Side, you think?"

"I do." Mace replied simply. "He was here for us, for Jedi, not the queen, else he would have attacked her after murdering Qui-Gon. We might still have been targets of opportunity but the TF will need to be investigated for their part in this, and a trail of this Zabrak found and followed."

He shook his head. "Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon fought bravely, but this Dark Side user was trained solely for combat, even with the new techniques he was able to overcome them one at a time. If we had a hint of his presence I would never have allowed us to split up as we did. That was my mistake."

"Hrhrhrm, recrimination enough for now, plans we must make. Alone the Dark Side user might not have been." Yaddle said.

"He was certainly no true master, that is certain, he was a… a knife in the Dark, an assassin, not someone who could be the true source behind the growing power of the Dark Side." Mace replied, shaking his head. "The Order must be further prepared for the coming conflict, though I confess to having no idea how to best seek out the master that is still out there worries me. As does the fact he is still free to act, and we have no idea from where that next assault will come from."

"Much thought that will take, tip our hand we cannot afford to." Yoda spoke up for the first time, his eyes still closed. "Dark the future is, but give into its pressure we cannot. Lights there still are in this universe. Shine brighter we all must, to push away the dark."