A/N: last chapter was changed to an actual chapter instead of a note, so you might wanna check that.

 

Somewhere in orbit around lothor minor

"This is our target." Count Dooku holds up a hologram showing an image of Darth Maul holding his double bladed lightsabre.

"A Zabrak male? He can't be much of a challenge can he Master? I heard they serve as nothing more than breeding stock back on my home world." Asajj Ventress questions. 

"Never underestimate your opponent apprentice, especially one that can survive getting cut in half." Holding out his hand towards the planet below Dooku continues, "Now help me find him."

Following her Masters example Ventress extends her arm as well, "how will we know we've found him?"

"The last scouting party we sent disappeared somewhere in this sector of the planet, for now just see if you can sense anything off." Dooku replies. 

The two conduct their search in silence for a few minutes before Ventress hunches over retching, "wha- what is that?" Fear written on her face she continues, “Master, what kind of monster are we hunting." 

"A fallen sith apprentice." Dooku replies.

The all black sith infiltrator lands kicking up a cloud of dust that quickly gets swept away by the gale force winds present on the planet. Wearing hooded cloaks that cover most of their bodies’ Dooku and Ventress make their way out of the ship and take in their surroundings. 

About 50 metres ahead of them is a small hut made of scraps found in the numerous mountains of trash surrounding it, as the two make their way towards the hut Dooku stops in his tracks and his head snaps to the right. "hm?" reaching out his hand he makes a grasping motion and a yellow snake bursts out of the trash heap it was hiding in and lands in his hand, "let's see what you know about this place." 

Using his free hand Dooku places it over the snakes head and closes his eyes in concentration, the snakes eyes roll back as it starts convulsing, white foam starts leaking from its mouth and a wretched scream fills the air as the snake tries to free itself, "AAAAAAAAHHHRRGG." 

Opening his eyes Dooku raises an eyebrow towards the hut, "a trap? Easy enough to get around." Tossing the snake to the floor he turns to Ventress, "our target is beneath us, get ready." 

"That’s a shame.” Squatting next to the snake Ventress gives it an inquisitive poke only to get no reaction. "I found it kind of cute." standing up and stretching her arms, Ventress takes in a deep breath and replies to Dooku, "I'm ready master." 

"Follow my lead." holding out his hand Dooku continues, "extend your senses beneath the ground. That fear and hatred you feel? Follow it, find its source," seeing the pained expression on his apprentices face he continues, "don't resist, feel it all, accept it and let it flow through you." seeing her expression ease Dooku nods in satisfaction. 

"I found him master," Ventress speaks through gritted teeth. 

"Good, now pull." Dooku and Ventress both make a grasping motion with their extended hands, a deep rumble comes from the ground under the hut causing it to shake and a few of the loose panels fall to the floor with a loud crash before silence takes over.

“Master wha-” BOOOOOOM!!!! The hut explodes in a shower of shrapnel and debris, A metal hatch crashes into Ventress’s stomach sending her flying backwards, landing on the ground her head smacks against the floor and her body does a backflip before skidding to a stop where she lay motionless.

With a flick of his wrist the large piece of scrap metal flying toward Dooku curves around him and misses, glancing at his unconscious apprentice he scoffs, ”Sloppy.”

The thick cloud of dust that obscured the half destroyed hut was gone in almost no time as the wind kicks up revealing Maul, unlike the hologram Dooku had shown Ventress, Maul had 6 unstable legs stuck to an elongated torso that looked more like a spiders thorax than anything human fashioned out of mangled scrap metal, his horns where long and jagged, and his eyes where wide open staring at count Dooku in shock.

“NO!” Maul screams in fear as he raises both of his hands sending whatever he could toward Dooku. Dooku walked forward slowly with his hand extended, occasionally flicking his wrist to deflect whatever projectiles maul sent his way.

“Nothing but a mindless beast.” Raising his extended hand Dooku grasps the air and maul starts floating above the ground, his legs twitching as his hands grasp his neck while he chokes. “Pathetic.” Dooku slams maul into the ground before raising him in the air again and blasting him with lightning.

“AAAAAAHHHHHRRRRGGG!!” Maul lets out a bloodcurdling scream as his entire body convulses in the air, small scraps of metal clank as they fall off his torso and legs. The instant the lightning stops he drops to the ground and scurries back inside the half destroyed hut.

“What happened to turn a sith lord into such a creature?” Dooku inquired as he approached.

“You don’t understand……YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND ANYTHING! Hhahahahahahaha.” Maul screams back at Dooku and starts cackling as he attempts to curl himself into a ball the closer Dooku gets.

“Do you remember who you are? What you are?” Dooku asks and stands at the ready a few meters behind the cowering maul.

“Always remember I am fear… always remember I am a hunter.” Maul grunts menacingly before whimpering, “Always remember I am filth…always remember I am nothing.”

“Either way I need you alive, you’re coming with me. Even if I have to drag you back to the ship myself.” Dooku responds and moves closer to maul, the wind blows and lifts his robe revealing his lightsabre.

“Jedi? JEDI!!!!!!!” Maul screams as he sees Dooku’s lightsabre and tries getting away from him despite being in an already small enclosed area. Clawing at the walls he continues muttering, “Mercy master? MERCY IS A LIE! A delusion of the weak to think themselves strong.” As Dooku gets closer mauls cowardly whimpering gives way to a deep menacing voice, “undo the filth, undo the grief, revenge……..i must have revenge.”

A wave of force energy hits Dooku, raising both of his arms in an attempt to resists proves useless as he quickly gets overwhelmed and sent flying backwards. Dooku’s body crashes into a mountain of trash and maul sends a large chunk of scrap metal speeding through the air after him only to have it come to a stop a few meters before crashing into the hole made by Dooku’s body.

Dooku, now wearing a tattered filth covered robe and bleeding from his forehead steps out of the hole with his arm raised holding the chunk of metal in place. The chunk of metal gets smaller and smaller as it gets compressed by the two sith fighting for dominance, a second passes before it starts inching forward, closer and closer to maul.

“AAAAGH,” a guttural scream escapes Dooku’s mouth as the chunk of metal blasts forward and buries itself in mauls thorax, flipping him onto his back. Looking at the state he was in and remembering his own savage scream Dooku berated himself, “Disgraceful.”

As he started making his way toward maul he couldn’t help but and think about why he was here on this filthy planet, his face slowly twisted from disgust into anger as he remembered the punishment his master gave him after failing to capture this filthy creature the first time.

Dooku limps forward, one hand across his stomach, holding his aching ribs as maul twists and contorts his body in an attempt to get upright, Raising his hand a torrent of blue lightning leaves Dooku’s fingers and hits maul,  “AAAAAAAHHHHHH!” he screams as the lightning makes its way through his body setting his nerves on fire. The moment the lightning stops maul manages to fling another chunk of metal toward Dooku, only to have it sliced out of the air by a red lightsabre.

“Insolence!” Dooku raises both hands and starts blasting maul with lightning, blast after blast filling the air with screams and the crackle of electricity until an eerie silence took its place.

The first thing Ventress noticed when she woke up was the warm moist sensation on her lower legs, sitting up and looking toward her feet she saw a very surprised yellow snake with two round eyes poking out of the sides of its head looking back at her. The two stared at each other in silence for a second before dull cracking sounds filled the air as the snakes jaw opened wider and it started moving backwards revealing the bare skin of her feet. While inside the snake her shoes and the lower part of her trousers had completely dissolved, the leftover acid causing her skin to visibly redden sent a wave of anger through her and she reached out, using the force to pull the escaping snake into her grasp. “Quite bold of you to try and make a meal out of me.”

Squeezing her hand the snakes eyes bulge as he screams, “Mercy! Mercy! I didn’t know you were still alive.”

“And why exactly should I spare your life?” Ventress squints her eyes as she questions the snake in her hand.

“I, I can be useful to you. Ive served my master for many yearsss, kept him alive all this time, yesss, I, I can serve you now.” The snake replies.

“And what’s stopping you from trying to eat me in my sleep?” Ventress questions, squeezing slightly harder.

“I would never hurt my masster, what purpose would that serve?” The snake answers, a slightly confused look on his face.

“He could prove useful to you apprentice.” Dooku’s voice sounds behind Ventress.

“Master I-” Ventress jumps up and tries explaining before noticing the pitiful state her master was in.

“We shall discuss your poor performance later.” Dooku responds to Ventress and looks at the snake in her hand, “Creature. Your former master, does he have a weapon like this?” Dooku continues while igniting his sabre.

“Yesss, yesss, ive seen the one he keeps in his lair. My name is Morley sir, a pleasure to be of assistance.” Morley replies while nodding, “I can fetch it for the mastersss if you want.”

“Hmph!, only a fool would trust you with such a task.” Dooku replies then looks at Ventress, “Take him and go retrieve the sabre, kill him if he tries anything funny.”

“Yes master,” Ventress replies and walks toward the hut with Morley still gripped in her hand.

Watching his apprentice jump down the hole in the ground Dooku turns his attention to the unconscious maul. “He defiantly won’t fit.” Raising his hand maul floats off the floor, scraps of metal fall off mauls lower body as he lifts off the ground, a few slashes of Dooku’s lightsabre later and the only thing left on mauls body is a tangle of tubes, wires and scrap metal that he guessed where vital for mauls survival. As Dooku makes his way back to the ship with maul floating behind him, the cargo doors open revealing a large rectangular box with a Mandalorian helmet engraved onto the front, slightly above the carved helmet was a small window that showed a glowing red interior.

Making their way through the underground tunnels Ventress spoke to Morley, “If you had started with my head back then I would have likely suffocated before I woke up, why didn’t you?”

“You always save the best for last right? When you pop the eyeballs last it leaves a delicioussss aftertaste for quite a while after the meal,” Morley answers gleefully while thinking about it.

The tunnel opens into a large room with a fire in the centre, the first thing that hits Ventress is the smell of rot assaulting her nose, skulls and bones of various sentient species litter the floor and crunch under her bare feet as she makes her way into the room, “Disgusting. Tell me where the sabre is worm, I don’t want to be in here for any longer than necessary.”

“Toward the back Massster.” Morley answers, gesturing toward the back of the room with his head.

At the back of the cave enshrined by an elaborate sculpture of pelvis and femur bones is a lightsabre, one end was scorched, clearly the result of its encounter with Obi Wan and the silver of its hilt was barely poking through the layer of filth encasing it. The sabre flies toward Ventress’s hand and she flicks the switch igniting it, “wasn’t this supposed to be a double bladed Sabrestaff? Looks like it was cut in half, just like its owner.” She lets out a small chuckle and puts it on her waist. “Is the other half here?”

“Not that I know of Massster, that’s the only one I’ve ssseen.” Morley answers.

“Then your usefulness has expired.” Ventress replies and starts squeezing the hand holding Morley.

Eyes widening in surprise Morley begs, “Please master! I can still serve you, I can be useful! I can, I can lure others into traps, I, I, I, I can infiltrate secure places, I can do so much more if you let me live mast-gak.”

“Hmmmm, perhaps you’re right, and my master did say you could prove useful.” Narrowing her eyes Ventress lifts the snake to her face and continues, “You even think of betraying me and I’ll make you wish I squeezed harder today.” Dropping the petrified Morley to the ground Ventress starts walking toward the exit, “Well? Coming or not?”

 

A few days later

 

“With me inquisitor.” A hooded Palpatine gestured to the pale yellow Zabrak and starts walking down the hall way. “Did you know I once studied under the night sisters of Dathomir?”

“No master, I was not aware.” The inquisitor had a confused look on his face, normally his master would have minimum contact with him and the other inquisitors, only ever meeting them once or in some cases never but he had been personally summoned, pulled out of a long term undercover mission to meet with Darth Sidious in person and now he was casually telling him about his past? He couldn’t help but feel a tinge of excitement as the prospect of being an apprentice flashed through his mind.

“Yes, myself and Mother Talzin of the night sisters exchanged knowledge of the force. The secrets of the Sith served as the perfect bargaining chip to get my hands on the witchcraft I knew her people where capable of.” At the end of the hallway a set of double doors opened into a decontamination chamber, letting out a chuckle Sidious continued, “in the end I got everything I wanted, and Mother Talzin got nothing.” Removing his hood and revealing the face of a gentle old mad he gives the inquisitor a smile and continues, “She also lost a son.”

The decontamination chamber opens revealing a dark room, lit only by the blue flames sitting in a large bowl at the centre. The bowl sat in the centre of a large circular stone table, in front of it lay the unconscious maul, all his cybernetics had been removed and now only raw flesh and the tubes connecting him to life support remained. “He used to be the most powerful assassin under my command, that is until the Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi cut him down.” An unnoticed groan escapes mauls lips at the mention of Obi Wan’s name as Sidious continues with an exited smile creeping onto his face. “Look at him now, a broken body and a broken mind to match.”

Seeing the smile on Sidious’s face sent a nervous chill down the inquisitors spine as he forced himself to speak up, “why is that a good thing master?”

Raising an eyebrow at the inquisitor Sidious replies, “Simple, a broken mind is easier to bend to my will. It’s the reason I threw him on that planet in the first place, just in case I had need of him in the future.” Giving the inquisitor a measuring look, his eyes linger on the inquisitors waist as he continues, “imagine how grateful he’ll be once he learns I rescued him and gave his legs back, that kind of loyalty is hard to come by.”

Noticing this, the inquisitor tried to take a step back but found his body frozen. “Ma- Master what am I here for?”

The inquisitor watched as the exited smile slowly turned into a sadistic one, his nervousness changed to fear as Sidious spoke his next words, “Spare parts.” It was too fast to react to, all the inquisitor saw was a red flash before the top half of his body hit the floor and the light left his eyes. Glancing at the lifeless torso on the ground Sidious lets out a sigh, “pathetic, to die without hatred in your eyes only proves you where unfit to be a Sith.” Raising his hand the still standing legs float off the floor and land on the table lining up with mauls body, with a wave of his hand the flames arc towards the legs engulfing them, the smokeless blue flames consume the flesh in seconds leaving nothing but bones that clank onto the stone table.

The doors to the decontamination chamber open and 3 hooded figures enter, two of them carrying an ornate chest and the third holding a large book wrapped in red cloth. The one holding the book speaks, “These are the items you asked for master.”

Making his way to the chest Sidious opens it and pulls out two dusty clay pots, handing them to the two that came in holding the chest he continues, “Empty the contents into IV bags.” Taking the book and letting the cloth fall to the floor he speaks to himself, “That fool Talzin didn’t know the full potential of her own spells.” While flipping through the pages the acolytes start preparing, Emptying the pitch black liquid from the pots into IV bags, attaching them to stands and wheeling them to maul they bow and stand to the side awaiting orders. “You can leave now. Not you,” he points at the hooded figure that came in holding the book, “you stay.”

As soon as the doors close Sidious holds both hands over the flames, closes his eyes and starts muttering something under his breath, in response the flames start pouring out of the bowl and creep toward maul covering the bones and his lower body. The needle tipped ends of the tubes extending from the IV bags float up and stab themselves into mauls gut and the temples of his head, the black liquid from the IV bags move slowly through the tubes into his body, “AAAAAAAAARRRRGGGGG!” A bloodcurdling scream echoes in the dimly lit room as the bones start floating a few centimetres off the ground and veins, tendons, muscle and skin regrow within the flames, slowly snaking their way down from his waist to the tips of his toes. Now half awake, Mauls eyes move to his legs and widen in surprise as he sees what’s going on, gritting his teeth he casts his gaze around only to see the face of his former master dimly lit by the blue flame in front of him, brows furrowed in concentration before passing out again.

What’s left when the flames disappear are a red pair of legs, so emaciated anyone looking at them would swear they had no muscle to speak of, so frail that too much pressure might cause them to snap like twigs. Not Sidious, he had a smile on his face, “throw him in the pit with my failed experiments, I’ll leave it up to you whether or not to give him a weapon. If he can’t survive that then this was a waist of resources.”

The decontamination doors slide shut as Sidious leaves, leaving only the hooded figure and Darth maul in the dimly lit chamber. The hooded figure removes the hood revealing a Twi'lek woman with dark red skin, tribal tattoos cover her face and lekku, extending down her neck beneath her cloak, there was a look of undisguised hunger on her face as she gently caresses mauls face, “Beautiful.”

A few minutes later Sidious is seated in front of a hollow projector, “and? How goes the investigation?”

“Sir, as per your search specifications, I’ve become aware of two new possible candidates. Suspects include a blue skinned humanoid with red eyes who claims to be an exile from a planet in the unknown regions. The second is the son of duchess Satine, it has recently been revealed that he is in fact force sensitive.” The man in the hologram answers.

“The Kryze boy? If I recall correctly my spies told me he was simple, where they wrong?” Sidious mutters to himself before speaking to the hologram again, “deal with this so called exile, either bring him to heel or snuff him out, the Kryze boy is a different issue, Mandalore is not so easily dealt with. For now keep investigating, if it comes to it I’ll see to him personally, we’re too close to achieving our goals and allowing any possible outside factor to interfere is unacceptable.”

 

A/N: So crazy spider Maul vs Count Dooku, obviously Dooku’s gonna win. And in my mind it makes sense for palps to get this paranoid when his goals are so close and there’s an unknown force somewhere in the galaxy that proves a threat to his plans. As for Maul getting a new set of legs and the Sith fangirl at his bedside…………. Homeboy needs a serious powerup for what I have planned and im working on star wars rules here so I have very few choices when it comes to giving him one. ANYWAY up next is everyone’s favourite thing about the prequels, Politics, (yaaaay!) so yeah the next chapter is probably gonna take a while but I have a few ideas on how to bullshit my way through most of it so hopefully not too long. If im honest ill probably release something else before that but whatever, this and that are just practice in the first place so meh.