V.3-C.11│Sith I│

"Answer me! Who are you?!" The voice said again and as visibility came back to him, Dooku was finally able to make out the person.

'A Zabrak from the looks of it...' Dooku thought to himself as he studied the man.

[]

Dooku, now up off of the ground that was absolutely covered by mechanical bits and pieces, was now able to identify himself. "My name is Count Dooku!" He called out to the mysterious person, his reason for being here unknown, and Dooku not knowing where they were was certainly a downside.

"Count Dooku? Never mind that... How did you get here? Do you have a ship?" The crazed looking Zabrak was clearly Force-sensitive, or at least he was Force-sensitive according to Dooku's senses.

"I am afraid that I do not have a ship..." Dooku answered weary, as the Force was telling him to be careful around this Zabrak. By this point, the Zabrak had gotten ever closer to Dooku.

"Nothing?" The Zabrak looked around and started muttering to himself about things. "Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power. Through power, I gain victory. Through victory, my chains are broken. The Force shall free me."

The Zabrak would repeat this over and over, whilst sometimes getting the order wrong and messing up what this code was.

The Sith Code, and because of this, Dooku was starting to get an idea of who this person was. "If I may?"

"W-What do you want!?" The Zabrak pushed Dooku back a bit, fearful it would seem of Dooku. Just as Dooku was told to be cautious of the Zabrak, the Zabrak was also told to be cautious of Dooku.

"Calm yourself." Dooku commanded, and it seemed like the Zabrak did calm down for a bit, however his manic eyes told Dooku otherwise. "Your name... Do you perhaps remember your name?"

"Name?" The Zabrak stared into the metal wastes of the planet they were on and seemed to think to himself.

"Yes. Are you not Maul?" Dooku had heard of and knew of Darth Maul, Sidious' previous apprentice and now Dooku is left in a similar state to what Maul is in right now.

"Maul... Yes... That sounds... correct." The Zabrak accepted the name Maul as his own. It would seem that Maul had lost his memory by coming here or by whatever had happened to make him be in this state of being.

"Yes... You used to be known as Darth Maul. The last that was heard of you was your 'death,' but it would seem that your death was not in fact a thing." Dooku said to the amnesiac Maul.

"Darth Maul... Darth... Maul..." Maul was having a hard time trying to wrap his mind around just what was going on, as it had been a very, very long time since the disappearance of Maul from the galaxy.

Incredibly, Maul managed to survive his defeat at the hands of Kenobi. Through seething hate, augmented by his indomitable will to live, Maul reached out with the Force and grabbed hold of an air vent to break his plunge into the shaft's darkness.

He continued his fall down the reactor shaft, landing in water. Eventually his still-conscious, though cauterized upper body was dumped into a container and taken to Lotho Minor. As he lay submerged, Maul fell at last into unconsciousness, cursing Kenobi.

That is correct, Lotho Minor was the planet Dooku and Maul was currently on.

"Can you tell me where we are?" Dooku wanted to know, but he already had an idea of just where exactly this place was and he also had a vague idea about how he would go about leaving this place. The device he was given only had energy for one attempt at teleportation, and he could use it again if he had it charged.

There was such a feature in-built into it because Anakin knew of the randomness and the limited use, he decided that it at least should have a way to build up energy again.

"If you do not know, I am guessing we are on the planet of Lotho Minor." Dooku at this point still had his guard up, however he was a little more relaxed as it didn't seem like Maul would be going off into a spree of madness. At least not any time soon that is. "I can help you remember." Dooku had a thing or two about Force healing, but of course he was no expert.

However, he would be able to restore some memory for Maul.

"Remember?" Maul moved forward, approaching Dooku this time, still with crazed filled eyes. "Help me remember, and I dont kill you."

"Why, of course..." Dooku wasn't exactly going to argue with a madman. Dooku started the process, using the Force to help restore some of Maul's sanity, for he was long gone at this point.

He could only initially help the man.

'I am...' Maul started to get visions, flashbacks of memories in regards to what was happening or what happened to him.

Arriving finally at his destination on Lotho Minor, Maul awoke. He activated his lightsaber and carved his way out of the container, screaming with rage.

He struggled to move on through the junkyard world. Soon, he encountered insects the size of his arm and managed to crush one with his own left hand before using his teeth to rip its leg off. But as he began eating, the Sith Lord heard a scream coming from his right.

A sly and mysterious Anacondan named Morley was slithering away in fright from one of Lotho Minor's gigantic machines, the Fire-breather.

Maul threw his lightsaber with the Force directly at the Fire-breather's head, piercing it through. The machine instantly fell to the ground, the fire from its mouth extinguished. His weapon returned to him, Maul once again blacked out. Morley wrapped the Zabrak in his coils and brought him into the caves of the planet, which would eventually become his sanctuary.

Maul reawakened and, with all of his anger, was able to use the Force to fix up his lower half of his body. Specifically, Maul used the Force to heal heal the damage done and start to integrate some form of cybernetics attached to his lower half, reattaching his lower half through them.

In doing so, he was able to move once again but he was no medic or even someone with great mechanical skills, so of course there were problems with the fix. Specifically, he felt pain all of the time, and that is the cost of the reformation of his body, even though it was imperfect, it was hidden.

It was not visible outside of his body and instead was within.

For ten to eleven years, Maul's memories were lost and he was in a state of near-madness, eating only the small animals that came to the cave, aided in obtaining shelter and sustenance only by Morley, but the only thing he remembered was Obi-Wan Kenobi and how he nearly took his legs.

'... I am Darth Maul. And I want revenge...' Maul was now much more aware or cognizant of himself now, and was fully prepared to do anything to get his revenge on Obi-Wan.

Not only had Obi-Wan nearly taken his legs, he had also nearly taken his life and while this may be because Obi-Wan was only doing his duty, Maul would not accept such a thing. He would not accept that he had some level of fault or responsibility within this act.

Instead, Maul put all the blame on Obi-Wan and the Jedi for everything that had lead upto the events taking place right now. The events that caused him to linger here on this junkyard with nothing much to go on.

"That is the best that I can do. Now... if you would so kindly help me out." Dooku removed his hand and awaited Maul to say something.

"I... You... Never mind. I will escape here and get my revenge on Obi-Wan Kenobi, and the Jedi." Maul said this with a large degree of subdued hate.

"I am not sure that is possible..."

"Why!?" Maul bite back with some venom.

"From what I understand, the Jedi by now should be no more..." Dooku replied calmly.

"What!?" This got Maul's attention, especially since he still wasn't fully healed and only instead his memories were restored. Well... Most of his memories anyway. "Tell me what has happened and how long I was gone for..."

"Ok..." Dooku would tell Maul about the many things that had happened, but while doing so they would also go and start to look for ways off of the planet. Specifically, Dooku wanted a source of energy, and Maul having taken up residence here knew exactly where to find some.

In exchange, Dooku told Maul about the massive, sweeping changes to everything.

[]

The Sith Code.

It certainly was interesting. Some have speculated that the Code of the Sith was created in direct contrast with the Jedi Code, to illustrate the fundamental philosophical differences between the orders.

This could certainly account for the first line of the Sith Code discounting the Jedi's proclamation of peace, as well as the similar structure of the two Codes, although the Jedi claimed the Code spoke only of the Sith's individual wants and desires.

Peace is a lie, there is only passion 'Conflict forces one to better oneself. It forces change, growth, adaption, evolution… or death.'

The 'peace' of the Jedi, meaning the lack of conflict, was an agent of stagnation. Conflict, however, was seen as the source of progress for both the single beings and the civilizations. The necessity of conflict was a law of the universe and not just a Sith thinking.

Fundamentally, the Code of the Sith expressed their rejection of selflessness and their full embrace of passion and lust. Although some individuals turned to the dark side out of a philosophical ideal or even wished to wield its violent powers for altruistic purposes, all Sith ended up prisoners of their own crave for power. The deeper nature of the Sith Order was a predatory one.

Through passion, I gain strength. 'It is our goal to be stronger, to achieve our potential and not rest upon our laurels. We are the seekers, not the shepherds.'

The Sith saw themselves as seekers, challengers of old and stagnant ways, in touch with the laws of nature and the universe. They saw the Jedi as denying their natures and afraid of the truth around them. Some examples are of the tuk'ata hunting prey, feeding on weaker creatures.

Passions were what kept all creatures, from the most rudimentary to the most evolved sentient, alive. 'To think us creatures beyond the need of simple passions is a delusion.' They believed that mastery of their passions gave them strength the Jedi lacked.

Through strength, I gain power. 'Without strife, the victory has no meaning. Without strife, one does not advance. Without strife, there is only stagnation.'

Through power, I gain victory. 'Unless the victory is achieved by demonstrating that your power is superior, it is only an illusion. Temporary at best. We seek more.'

The Sith did not believe that victory by any means was desirable, but believed that unless victory proved your superiority, it was an illusion and temporary. Though there might be different types of victories, peaceful victory, victory by sacrifice, even a truce, Sith dogma taught that unless the victory was achieved by demonstrating that one's power was superior, it was not true victory.

The stronger a Sith became in the Force, the more power he could achieve, but he always had to fight for that power.

Through victory, my chains are broken. 'One who has freed themselves from all restrictions has reached perfection… their potential fulfilled. Perfect strength, perfect power, perfect destiny.'

The true meaning of the line '…my chains are broken' was a subject of argument among many Sith. The chains represented a being's restrictions; not just a Sith but any being in the universe. The restrictions could be those placed upon a being by someone else, or restrictions that one placed upon oneself.

The ultimate goal of any Sith was to free himself from such restrictions, but not in the simplistic meaning of just being able to do whatever he wanted. The Sith desired to free themselves in order to reach perfection and fulfill their potential.

They wanted perfect strength, perfect power, and perfect destiny, which, in turn, allowed one to do whatever they wanted for the most part. The person who had these abilities was known as the Sith'ari.

The Sith'ari was supposed to destroy the Sith and then make them stronger than ever. This caused many Sith to treat perfection as a goal to work towards rather than a strict state of being, and in that way they were very like the Jedi.

General historical consensus has considered Darth Bane to be the Sith'ari. Indeed, Bane destroyed the Sith using the thought bomb at the Seventh Battle of Ruusan 100 years prior to current events and rebuilt it under the Rule of Two, which would ultimately lead to Sith domination of the galaxy in the form of Palpatine's Galactic Empire.

The Force shall free me. 'The Force is our servant and our master. Our teacher and our companion. A weapon and a tool. Know it and you know the universe. Master it and you master the universe. Strive for perfection and the Force shall reward you.'

The Sith believed that those who strove for perfection through knowledge and mastery of the Force would be rewarded.

The Sith also believed that those who followed their code were free of the mundane restrictions of others, that they strove for a greater purpose and thus threw off the restrictions normally placed upon individuals by society and other organizations.

Sith Lords tried to put the Force itself, in all its aspects, to their service.