Inside the medical ward, Maul was hooked up to an assortment of life monitoring machines. The medical droid, TO-1, fussed over him, repairing this, mending that. Maul was sedated and completely unaware of what was happening to him. Teeoh-One carefully lifted his tunic to inspect the fresh scar around Maul’s midsection. It was the only evidence of his revival. Satisfied, Teeoh-One replaced the tunic and busied itself with other things.
The doors of the ward swished open to reveal Dirae. She’d changed from her field clothes to a simple robe tied at the waist. She nodded to the droid and approached the bed. She glanced at the monitors above his head then back at him. Carefully, she brushed a hand over his horns, her palm grazing them gently. His eyelids twitched then opened. He stared at her sleepily. She offered him a smile and withdrew her hand.
“How’re you feeling, my lord?” she asked quietly. Maul blinked back sleep.
“Drugged. How long have I been out?” he asked groggily.
“Two days. I’ve kept you sedated so you can heal properly. I’m taking us somewhere away from Sidious. In a few days we’ll arrive and you can finish your recovery there,” she explained, gently stroking his hand.
“Where’re we going?” he asked after a moment.
“Home,” was all Dirae would say at this time. Maul groaned softly and closed his eyes again, the sedatives clouding his judgement and perception once more. Dirae placed a soft kiss to the back of his hand and stroked his forehead gently.
“Sleep, my lord, and recover. You’ll need your strength for the days ahead,” she whispered softly. He mumbled something in his sleep then was silent. Dirae stood watching him for a few moments, pondering how he’d take the idea of them returning to their home planet of Iridonia. It had been the only place she could think of at the time. If anything, they’d be in familiar territory as opposed to unfamiliar. They could easily hide out there and not be detected by Sidious. She bent over and kissed his forehead then left the ward, nodding again at Teeoh-One before exiting. The droid mimicked the gesture then turned to Maul.
* * * *
Coruscant, nightfall:
“He looked very different yet familiar to me, Master Yoda. Like I’d seen his race before somewhere,” Obi-Wan Kenobi explained to the wizened yet wise green figure seated before him. “He never spoke, only moved with the grace of a predator. I’m ashamed to say it was my anger that enabled me to defeat him.”
Yoda eyed the youth before him. “Your anger, justified it was. Consume you it did not. Sith you faced, familiar he was. How?”
“To be honest, he reminded me of Master Eeth,” Obi-Wan confessed. Yoda hmm’d thoughtfully then turned his green gaze to rest on the Zabrakian Jedi Master, Eeth Koth. Eeth returned the look calmly.
“Know of this Sith do you, Master Eeth?” Yoda asked the patient Jedi Master. Eeth shook his head.
“I’m afraid not, Master Yoda. He must have been after I left Iridonia to become a Jedi Knight,” he replied in his serene voice. Yoda looked back to Obi-Wan.
“Done well you have, Master Kenobi. Go now you will, to train young Skywalker,” he said. Obi-Wan bowed his head in respect to the masters and left the chambers.
“It is possible the Sith was Zabrakian,” Eeth remarked after Obi-Wan had left. “If he was, his mind powers had to have been very great. It was very fortunate for young Obi-Wan to have defeated him. He would’ve surely been lost otherwise.”
“He can’t bring himself back, can he?” Mace Windu asked Eeth. Eeth thought for a moment, his brown eyes closed in concentration.
“No. Only another could do that and I don’t think there was another to do this,” Eeth said after a moment. “His master, also being Sith, would not have cared to bring him back. He could always find another to train.”
“Let’s just hope he doesn’t do this any time soon. I sense a very troubled furture ahead of us,” Mace said, looking at the masters in turn. They all exchanged looks and whispered words.
“Worry this we will not,” Yoda said when the whispers had quieted down some. “The Force is with us. Show us the way it will.”
Each of the masters nodded and mumured agreement with Yoda’s wisdom. The Sith Lord was dead and it would take the master time to find and train another.
* * * *
“So, she’s gone against my wishes, has she?” Sidious muttered to himself as he stood before his chamber windows. “I will have her head for this. Insolence will not be tolerated.” The Sith Master cackled slightly. He would have his own form of revenge soon. He simply had to find her.