#Daia Veeral

[danipixel]

Wherever the Force May Go pt3

Tags: Tags: @maulieber @botherbother-blog @spookiifi @zabrak-show @alicedoestheinternet @rogue-wonderful​ 

Summary:  The new business opportunity on Mandalore isn’t exactly panning out as planned.  Daia’s new employer doesn’t trust her at all.  Tempers flare and she makes a decision that will decide if she remains welcome, or faces the wrath of Maul and Death Watch.

Part 1  Part 2

The bright Mandalorian sunrise filtered through the windows of Daia’s room slowly beckoning her back to consciousness.  Blinking the sleep from her eyes as she sat up, she surveyed her surroundings to get recenter herself.  She was still in Sundari palace and the room still looked like a thermal detonator went off in it.  Standing up from the bed she let out a groan as all of her muscles protested the movement.  “Ah shit.  Okay so yesterday really did happen.”  She quickly dressed herself and worked on making herself look presentable.  

A loud pounding on the door interrupted her morning routine.  The door then slid open revealing Savage surrounded by an air of impatience.  “Get up.  You’re expected at the morning briefings.”

“Just a moment, I’m almost done.”  She set about fetching her boots from the pile she’d left them in the previous night.  “You could have waited more than 5 seconds before opening the door, you know.  I could have been indecent.”  Savage snorted and rolled his eyes.  She finished pulling on her boots and placing her weapons in their usual homes, with her blaster prominently displayed.  There had been no indication as to what would be expected of her today besides to learn, so she might as well look like she belonged among the Mando’ade.  If Death Watch was anything like they used to be, they held more respect for those that armed themselves.  “Okay, ready.”

Savage led her down the long hallways of the palace at a quick pace.  His long strides forced Daia to slightly jog in order to keep up with him.  They walked the halls in silence for a few minutes before Daia finally broke the quiet. “It’s Savage, right?”

He momentarily flicked his eyes in her direction before answering.  “Yes.”  An answer is better than being ignored, I guess.

She took a deep breath before speaking again.  “Does Death Watch know about me?  I mean, they obviously know I exist but, do they know I used to be a Jedi?” Savage still would not look in her direction while speaking.  “They know what you told them.  Why does it matter?”  There’s the million credit question.

Her hands ran over her face a few times before she had a semblance of an answer for him.  “Things get...complicated when people find out.  Especially when they’re Mandalorian.”  Exactly one member of Death Watch had found out about her past before, and had immediately tried to kill Daia for it.  That woman was now a corpse in Concordia’s forests.  Mandalorian distrust of Force users runs deep.

Savage finally glanced at her but never broke his stride.  He didn’t seem to understand her dislike of revealing her past to most people.  “Death Watch remains unaware.  Hide what you are if you wish, Jedi.”

“Not a Jedi.”  Daia whispered to herself.  The two continued down the halls of the palace.  Her mind unfocused, Daia kept trying to find anything to keep her mind busy.  Patience and quiet were never her strong suits.  She settled on studying the man she was walking with.  He was huge, that much was obvious.  He carried himself with less grace than his brother but with the same confidence in his own power.  Wait, how did I not notice this yesterday? Her eyes focused on his left arm as she realized the entire thing was synthetic.  That was a detail she had failed to notice the previous day.  Whatever life the two Zabrak had led before coming to Mandalore, it had obviously been a violent one.  A sudden thought crossed her mind about the previous night’s…  What even was that? An attack?  A test?

She held her hand up to get his attention.  “Hey, Savage.  I want to apologize for last night.”

He fully looked at her after hearing her words.  “What?  Apologize for what?”  He didn’t understand what there was to apologize for.

“For the table.”  She gestured at her face and then at his.  “I know we were fighting but still.  Sorry about that.”

“Last night”  Savage’s voice took a slightly threatening edge,  “was not a fight.”

“You’re right.  Had it been a real fight,”  Daia stretched out her painfully sore arms.  “one of us wouldn’t be here this morning.”

Savage stopped walking to turn and study her for a moment.  Confusion and mild surprise painted his yellow and black features.  “I accept your apology.”  That’s it?  He’s just fine?  

The two rounded the corner into the familiar hallway that led to the throne room.  The door slid open to the brightly lit throne room and it was already filled with people.  Savage entered first nodding to his brother as he guided Daia to stand far to the side of the throne.  Maul was at his rightful place in Mandalore’s throne, one leg thrown over the arm of his seat while he leaned on the other.  Daia made momentary eye contact with him as she walked past and smiled.  “Good morning.  Sleep well?”

Maul studied her face a moment but didn’t respond to her.  Instead he addressed the rest of the room while they took their seats.  “Many of you met Daia after her...entrance yesterday morning.  She will be joining us for these meetings for the time being.”  He turned to pin her in place with his gaze.  “Pay her presence no mind.”

Savage whispered to her before taking his place at Maul’s right hand. “Stay here and stay quiet.”  She was beginning to feel more and more like a captive than an employee.

The meeting began with a wave of Maul’s hand.  The first priorities of the day being domestic matters.  Almec droned on and on for what felt like hours.  While he kept talking, Daia took stock of who was in the room with her.  Several members of Death Watch lined the room, acting as a palace guard force.  Saxon and Kast stood near Maul with their helmets removed.  Kast had changed her hairstyle since the last time Daia had seen her but that was no surprise.  Saxon still looked like he had just eaten something sour.  Can he make any other expressions?  In the seats near Almec were two holographic figures.  A Falleen and a Pyke.  That was never a good combination to see.  He’s got Black Sun and the Pykes working for him?  Shit.  Daia was unaware of just how much power Maul wielded from this world but it was obviously substantial.  She took a quick glance over to the two brothers.  They seemed just as bored as she was but Maul seemed to mask it better than both her and Savage.

After about a week of speaking, Almec finally surrendered the floor to someone else.  Thank the Force, he’s done.  It was Rook Kast’s turn to speak.  “There are some new weapons we’ve been trying to get a hold of for weeks on Agamar.  The Separatist fleet is still an obstacle.”  Savage visibly perked up at the mention of weaponry but Maul only reacted with the slightest of expression change.  Had she not been a Force user, Daia most certainly would have missed it.  Maul had a greater amount of control over himself than his brother.

Maul shifted to lean forward in his seat.  “Are these weapons something we truly need?”  Mandalorians need weapons like they need air.  Of course she’s gonna say yes.

Saxon stepped forward to answer for Kast.  “My Lord Mand’alor, these weapons are more powerful than the ones we are currently equipped with and as our ranks increase, so too do our needs to arm them appropriately.”

Maul considered his soldier’s words for a moment before turning to the holograms before him.  “What about Black Sun or the Pykes?  Can your ships make it to the surface?”  Daia snorted softly and rolled her eyes.  The Pykes were drug lords.  They didn’t care if they got caught.  They’d just send more spice on a different ship.  Black Sun was no better.  They were brutes.  Sure, they could provide capable soldiers and bounty hunters but they lacked the finesse needed to sneak past military vessels.  He’s lucky he hired me.

The transparent Pyke spoke first.  “There’s no guarantee of success but we will send the ships, my Lord.”  They’ll just get caught.  The Falleen also responded.  “Our pilots will succeed when the Pykes fail.”  Like hell they will.

Daia couldn’t keep quiet any longer.  Maul was making a mistake by letting these two idiots try to get his shipments.  She stepped forward from her place by the wall and addressed Maul specifically.  “I can get those weapons for you.  I’ve slipped past Separatists plenty of times before.”

Maul fixed her with a glare that could burn a hole through a star.  “You will do no such thing.”  He was clearly angry at the sudden interruption.  Daia felt the Force flare out with his outburst.  To his side, Savage narrowed his eyes with a similar look of displeasure. 

She knew she was right and continued to press the matter “But you…”  Maul quickly stood and threw her back to the wall and held her in place with the Force.  “No.  That is final.”  He continued holding her in place as he stalked in her direction to snarl directly in her face.  “Is that understood?”  She felt her temper flare but let it go before she could do something else stupid.  “Of course, Lord Mand’alor.”  Maul released his hold on Daia and turned to return to his throne.  

The rest of the meeting continued without incident.  Daia stayed focused on Maul the entire time.  The information being shared didn’t matter to her anymore.  She was pissed and he knew it.  There was no way he couldn’t feel it.

Once the meeting ended and those in attendance started to filter out of the throne room,  Daia left her spot on the wall to leave as well.  Maul quickly barked her name to stop her.  I guess he’s not done.  Fine.  Quickly she made her way back to the throne and started talking before he could berate her.  “You said I would start work today.  Smuggling weapons past a Separatist fleet sounds an awful lot like what you hired me to do.”

Maul rose and immediately entered her personal space, never once letting go of her gaze.  “I also told you that you are to remain in this city until I decide you may leave it.”

Daia’s eyes may have lacked the flaming appearance of Maul’s but the fire was certainly present regardless.  “Very well Lord Mand’alor.”  She dipped into an exaggerated bow.  “Shall I inform you when I eat, bathe, and sleep as well?  If there are no more restrictions on my movements, I’d like to go to my ship and let my job contacts know I’ll be unavailable for longer than I expected.”

A soft growl left Maul’s throat before he stepped back.  “I expect you back here in the morning.” “Of course.  Whatever my lord wishes, right?”  She turned on her heels and strode back out of the throne room.  

The long walk to her ship was thankfully uneventful, the only people she was forced to interact with being the same dock guards she’d seen the other day.  Lowering the ramp of the Fever Dream, she trudged her way up and into the small freighter.  Thoughts about how the last two days could have gone so wrong so fast had slowed her usual confident gait.  Lost in thought she was suddenly in the cockpit in front of the long range communication console.  The console was lit up to alert her to waiting messages.  Pressing a couple buttons revealed a small holoprojection of a Rodian missing his left antennae.  “Daia I asked around and I finally got a couple jobs for you.  These are gonna get snatched up quick so get back to me asap.”  Well shit.  Aside from Death Watch, Skax always found the best paying work.  It wasn’t always necessarily safe or completely legal but it kept plenty of credits in her hands and fuel in the ship.

With a sigh she sent a signal out to Corellia hoping the Rodian would answer.  After a minute a similar holoprojection to before shimmered before her eyes.  “Well if it isn’t my favorite pilot!  You get my message?”  If his joyful demeanor was anymore painted on, it would flake off his face.

“Yeah Skax.  I got your message.  Look, I’m gonna be unavailable for a while.  I may have done something stupid.”  May have was an understatement.  The more she thought about it, the more certain she was that this whole trip had been a mistake.  The Force had tried to warn her something was off but she didn’t listen.

Skax muttered in Rodese for a moment before switching back to Basic.  “What do you mean unavailable?  Is your ship damaged?  That thing never breaks.”  That’s because I don’t tell you how often I fix it.

Daia shook her head with a small insincere smile.  “No, she’s not broken.  I’m just gonna be grounded on Mandalore for a while.  I’ll contact you when I can leave again.”  With no indication as to how long she’d be stuck in Sundari, a while was the best answer she had.  

The Rodian’s sickly pleasant demeanor finally dropped as he threw his arms in the air.  “What the fuck are you even doing on Mandalore?  I thought you stopped going back there months ago.”  

“So did I.  Look, I’m fine.  I just can’t take any work right now.  Let someone else have them.  I’ll get in touch with you later.  Try not to miss me too much.”  She ended the transmission before he could argue with her.  She knew he’d get over being cut off.  He always did.

The second day of her extended stay at the palace began the same as the previous, with a pounding on her door, but this time Savage waited outside instead of forcing his way in.  After a final check of her clothing and weapons she stuffed a large yellow fruit between her teeth and walked out the door after her chaperone.  Walking down the hallway she finally took a bite of her breakfast.  The fruit flooded her mouth with a bright sweet flavor that made her momentarily forget she was under house arrest.  Savage’s words broke her silent reverie.  “What is that?”

“This?”  She held up the fruit in her hand.  “A meiloorun.  You can get them in every market from here to Coruscant.  I love them.”  

He just shrugged and shook his head at the unfamiliar fruit.  He’s never had one?  That won’t do at all.  Carnivore or not, every sapient being had to try one at least once.  “Hang on a second.”  She pulled a small knife out of her pocket and Savage instinctively grabbed her wrist to stop her movements.  “It’s for the fruit, not you.  Knife’s not big enough anyway.”    Once he let go of the vice grip on her wrist she cut the fruit in half and offered one to Savage.  “Here.  It’s illegal to be a grown man and have never tried it once.”

Savage looked between Daia and the fruit with extreme suspicion but made no move to take the offered fruit.  She huffed and slapped it into his hand.  “If I was going to kill you, I wouldn’t use a fruit.  Just eat it.”

He sniffed at it and tentatively took a small bite while Daia rolled her eyes at him.  The juice and sweetness caused his eyes to widen in surprise before he greedily finished the rest.  A small smile crept onto his face before he was able to hide the unbidden expression.  After a few seconds of wrestling with his thoughts, Savage muttered “Thank you.”

“No problem.”  She couldn’t help the smile on her face as they finished walking to the throne room for what was sure to be another mind numbing meeting.

The throne room was the same as the previous morning, the only difference being Almec’s clothing and Maul’s ever changing seating position on the throne.  Maul’s gaze followed her as she and Savage walked across the room to her place on the wall.  She nodded and smiled at him as she passed but said nothing.

The meeting began with a wave of Maul’s hand as it had the day before.  Almec droned on again, Saxon and Kast gave their reports on Death Watch’s work.  Daia half watched Maul’s reactions and half pretended she was somewhere else until she heard the Pyke representative mention the weapons waiting on Agamar.  “My lord Maul, we have not heard word from our ship sent to Agamar.  We have sent a second to ensure their success.  We...we hope to hear from them by day’s end.”  You won’t.  

Maul’s irritation whipped dark waves around him in the Force.  Everyone in the chamber fell silent,  It didn’t take Force sensitivity to sense his feelings about failure.  He completely ignored the holographic Pyke as he addressed the Falleen. “Have your ships ready to go to Agamar by morning.”  He snapped his head back to the Pyke  “For your own sake, you had best bring news of your success tomorrow.”  The Pyke took a step back despite being on another planet. “Ye-yes lord Maul.”

Daia sent out a small message through the Force to Maul before the next person spoke.  A simple sensation more than words.  A push to say that she could perform whatever task was laid before her.  He responded to her intrusion by shoving her back into the wall without so much as looking in her direction.  All heads turned in her direction at the sound of her back smacking into the wall.  “It’s nothing, please continue.”

The daily briefing finished as it had before and Daia walked out the door with the rest of those who had attended.  She spent the rest of her day walking through the city or fighting with P4R-E in the palace training room.

The next day started with another pound on the door from Savage.  This time when Daia left the room she tossed him his own meiloorun with a grin.  “Since you liked the last one so much.”

Savage responded with a smile of his own before enjoying his gift.  The two walked in comfortable silence to the throne room for Daia’s third day of being Maul’s wall decoration.  

Once again Almec droned, then Kast and Saxon delivered reports.  Again, Daia kept her eyes on Maul monitoring his responses, both visible and only present in the Force.  This time, a different Pyke representative was present.  I guess they failed.  Big surprise.  Maul spoke to the Falleen hologram “Send your ships.  Do not fail me.”  The Falleen bowed, “Yes lord Maul.”

Daia stepped away from the wall and cleared her throat.  “Lord Mand’alor, I believe that you would have more success if I was permitted to accompany the Black Sun ships in my own ship.  I swear to you, I can make it to the surface of that planet.”  Maul stared at her for a moment, his expression completely unreadable to her.  “No.”  Why am I even here if he won’t listen?

She left the room as soon as everyone had finished.  The Death Watch target range called to her.  She needed to shoot something, or several things many times.  Death Watch had taken over a section of the gardens to convert into their own personal target range.  Armored warriors joked and showed off their marksmanship for one another.  A few kept to themselves and stayed focused on their targets while others still crowded around benches to clean and maintain their weapons after their firing exercises.

Daia pulled her blaster out of its holster and gave it a quick once over as she made her way to join the others.  It could use a good cleaning.  She’d have to disassemble it and scrub it clean after her practice today.  She’d been too lost in thought to keep an eye on what was in front of her until she collided with an armored chest.  Looking up she found herself face to face with Gar Saxon, wearing a particularly intense look of disapproval.  “What are you doing here smuggler?”

“The same thing as the rest of you.”  She looked around as if he could have been speaking to anybody else.  “Perfecting my aim and taking care of my blaster.” Saxon crossed his arms and stayed planted directly in her path.  “You aren’t welcome here.” Daia rolled her eyes and scoffed at him.  Shit, did he find out?  “I was welcome amongst you all the last time you saw me.  In fact, I recall sharing drinks with most of you.” “Last time we saw you, you were bringing much needed supplies to Concordia.”  Saxon leaned down close to her face.  She should have felt threatened but with the way her week had been going, she was just irritated.  “Then you stopped without notice.  Some of our soldiers starved without those rations.  What makes you think you’d be welcome among us after that?” “I’m sorry but last I checked, you stopped contacting me.”  After her last visit, Almec had been thrown in prison and Viszla had tried killing a Jedi in his attempt to take Mandalore for the Duchess.  It was best that Daia remain scarce until somebody from Mandalore or Concordia contacted her.  Nobody ever did.  “It’s a little hard to set up cargo drop off when your contacts are either in prison, exiled, or dead.”

“Let her through, Saxon.”  Kast came up from behind him and gave him a shove to the side.  “Mand’alor told her to make herself at home in the palace.  Like it or not, she can be here too.”

Saxon snorted and shoved his way past Daia, bumping her shoulder with his armored one on the way out.  Feeling petty, she lightly flicked her fingers as she slightly tripped him up with the Force.  His quiet curse brought a satisfied smirk to her face.  “Vor’e, Kast.  Would you care to join me?  There’s no shortage of targets.”

“Ba’gedet’ye.” Kast waved away Daia’s thanks.  “I guess I’ll have to stay and teach you how to shoot properly.”

“Is that so?”  Daia barked out a laugh and made her way to the nearest shooting lane.  She pulled out her blaster again and took aim at the humanoid shape downrange.  “I look forward to making you eat those words.”

She stayed at the range for a few hours, trading shots with Kast and mocking each other whenever a blaster bolt went wide.  It felt good to have a friend on Mandalore again.  When they’d had their fill the two cleaned their weapons and went their separate ways, but not before making plans to meet up for target practice again.  After Kast left, Daia found herself a meal and took off to the training room for P4R-E's company for the rest of the evening.  Perhaps fighting with her droid would erase her frustration with her employer.

Another morning, another pounding on her door.  Five days since she had come to Mandalore and four of them spent as Maul's silent pet.  This time she walked past Savage without stopping as she deposited a meiloorun in his waiting hand.  "Come on.  Your brother's waiting for me to hold up the throne room wall again."  The path to the throne room was beyond familiar and allowed her mind to wander until she once again found herself leaning in the same spot she'd occupied for most of the week.  Her mind slipped into the Force, feeling the failure of the Black Sun before anyone could address it.  Maul must have felt it too.  His presence in the Force had become an inky rolling boil, a significant change from its usual flowing shadows.  Somewhere in the room Daia distantly heard someone mention contacting the Hutts for a ship to make the pickup.  The boil around Maul managed to become even more intense as she felt her own temper flare simultaneously.  The Hutts?  Only if you want them to steal a quarter of your cargo and claim they lost it.  Her patience had finally met its end.  The moment others began to leave, she flew out of the room without a word and back to her own.

Daia's mind was a flurry of thoughts as she gathered the necessary things for a fast trip off of Mandalore.  I'll get those fucking weapons.  She shouldered her bag and paused a moment to leave a bowl of meilooruns on the table with a note, “Savage, these are all yours.”  She stormed out the door and made a beeline for the Fever Dream.  The same guards she’d seen every time nodded as she passed.  “Just dropping some things I don’t need at the ship.  I’ll be right back,” She lied.

Once out of sight she dropped her bag and ran for the cockpit.  “Who does he think he is?  Sending Hutts to do my fucking job.  Bastard.”  Daia’s hands flew over the controls of her ship, skipping through her usual preflight checks and firing up the engines.  The ship rose from the platform and began to turn in place to head out of the city.  Over the roar of the engines, Daia could just make out the guards shouting at her, probably to land the ship before they shoot.  She waved at them out the window before closing the loading ramp and flying up into the atmosphere.

Before she could rise high enough to watch the sky turn from blue to black her comm crackled and Saxon’s furious voice filled the cockpit.  “What do you think you are doing?!”

She checked her proximity sensors.  No one was following her.  Not yet anyway.  She hit the comm to open the channel so she could answer the man.  “I’m doing my damn job.”

Saxon wasn’t hearing it.  She didn’t think he would anyway.  “You have exactly 15 seconds to turn around before I blast that piece of garbage out of the sky.” Daia let out a sharp laugh at his threat.  “Now now Saxon, why would you shoot someone else’s ship down when it’s me you’re mad at?”  Every moment she kept him arguing with her was another moment for her to fly out of his range.

The supercommando ignored her and began counting down.  “15...14...13...12...11…10...9...” She cut off his countdown.  “I’m sorry, I’m having difficulty hearing you.  Did you say ‘nine’ or ‘good flying’?”  A few more seconds was all she needed before being able to jump to hyperspace.

Maul’s voice rolled out of her comm’s speaker.  “Let her go.”  He must have been standing there listening the entire time. “I’m sorry Lord Maul, what?” came Saxon’s confused reply.

“I said, let her go.”  Daia could hear the irritation in his voice at being questioned.  There was also a hint of curiosity behind it.  He wants to see if I can do it, doesn’t he?  “Either she returns with the weapons or she dies and is no longer our concern.  I trust you heard that Daia.  Either you return with those weapons, or don’t bother coming back at all.”

Again she let out a short laugh.  “Oh that won’t be a problem at all, handsome.  Hopefully the palace doesn’t collapse without me holding up the walls.  Try not to miss me too much.”  Her ship had cleared the atmosphere completely.  She was free.  With one last glance back to the planet behind her, she hit the hyperdrive and was thrown away from Mandalore and towards Agamar and her prize.

[a-dorin]

Cause I'm an idiot and couldn't tell the difference between messages and asks while barely awake.

You want OCs? Here's the OC that occupies 80% of my brain.

Her name is Daia Veeral. She's a former Jedi Knight who moved to Mandalore to become a pilot and eventually wound up as a smuggler with a ship called the Fever Dream. She hides her past as a Jedi from most people but still carries her twin sabers with her everywhere. She smuggled for the Mandalorian government as well as Death Watch until Almec got thrown in prison.

Then Maul took over the planet and she started working for him instead until the two eventually start a relationship. I could ramble about random details of her life for hours. I love this made up woman.

OKAY FIRST THINGS FIRST. I LOVE HER.

what colors are her sabers? where does she hide them typically? do people ask where she got them from? 😯

AND WHAT DOES MAUL DO WHEN HE FINDS OUT? can he read her like a book or does she hold up her front for a while?? i love them already omg

[danipixel]

Dathomirian Promise

This is a short fluff story between my OC, Daia Veeral, and Maul. Daia is a former Jedi Knight who became a pilot and occasional smuggler. She and Maul met when she offered her services as a pilot/smuggler to him on Mandalore.

Lovefest is a made up Star Wars equivalent to Valentine's day.

Word count: 1,038

Red tinged morning light poured in through the window of Daia and Maul's bedroom when her eyes finally fluttered open.  She let out a quiet groan and buried her face in the pillow.  Waking up to sunlight in her eyes was not how she wanted to start her day.  She mumbled into the pillow, "Maul, I thought you closed the curtains last night."  Silence.  Her hands groped blindly behind her in hopes of finding her lover's sleeping body, if only to wake him up and make him suffer through the morning with her.  Nothing.  She forced herself into an upright position to search the room for any sign of Maul.  The refresher door was open with no light on.  No sounds of tea being brewed or the tapping of Maul's feet on the ground during his morning exercises reached her ears.  "Great.  He's working, isn't he?  Happy Lovefest to me."  She fell back onto the bed but her hand impacted on something hard lying on Maul's pillow.  "I told you, you'd turn into a datapad if you worked so much."  She brought the datapad into her field of view.  The screen lit up not with Syndicate data, but a simple message for her.  

'Good morning, my Star.  Meet me at the Nightsister Temple when you wake.'  

She supposed that was better than the alternative that he went back to work in the middle of the night.  Daia quickly went through her morning rituals and found some simple clothes before heading out to the temple.

The large temple was empty, as usual, but she could smell the incense Maul had lit as soon as she stepped inside.  "Maul?"  Silence greeted her as she made her way further inside.  The sconces built into the wall were all lit, so he must have still been inside somewhere.  She spoke a little louder this time.  "Shadow?"

"Here, by the altar."  He stood next to his mother's old altar lighting a pair of candles with green tinted flames.  He blended in to the red mists that managed to find their way in from the outside.  Maul may have been powerful on Mandalore, but here, he was truly at home.  One with the mysterious red world and comfortable with the customs and religion Daia was still learning to understand.  The sight of him relaxed and at a sort of peace warmed her heart every time.

"So,"  She crossed her arms once he turned to look at her. "what's so important that you had to meet me here first thing in the morning?"

Maul held his hand out in invitation to Daia.  "I have a gift for you."

She grinned and took his hand.  "Is it a baby rancor?"

"No."  He chuckled and pulled Daia in close before he placed a soft kiss on her forehead. "Not a baby rancor.  Something much smaller, and...larger as well."

She leaned into his warmth.  He was always warm.  "You're not making any sense."

Maul released his hold on Daia and took a step back from her.  He held her cheek with one hand and locked her gaze with his own.  "Just listen to me first.  Since we met on Mandalore, you have been the one constant in my life.  You stayed by my side when everything fell to shambles around us.  My soul is now inextricably bound to yours, as I hope yours is to mine."

"Of course it is.  What are you getting at?"  She noticed him quickly grab something from the altar.  Whatever the object was, it fit into his palm.

"I wanted to give you a token of that bond.  Something to keep with you when we must be apart."  Maul opened his hand and showed her what he had picked up off the altar.  A pair of rings, with one larger than the other.  Both appeared to be made of the same shining material but embellished with different metals and stones.  The larger ring was covered in a series of silver braids with an amethyst at the center of each braid.  The smaller ring was covered in the same pattern but with a black metal and brilliant red rubies in place of the violet amethyst.  They were truly works of art. "There is an inscription on the inside.  Both rings contain the same words."

Daia picked up the small red and black ring and inspected the interior side.  The inscription inside was written in a delicate flowing script.  'Light and Shadow.  Bound by the Force.'  "Maul, these are beautiful.  I...I don't know what to say."

He took hold of her hands and removed the ring from her palm.  "Say that you will remain bound to me.  Mind, body, and soul.  As I am to you."  He slid the ring onto the third finger of her left hand.  It fit her perfectly.  Of course it fit perfectly.

"Bound by the Force?"

Maul brought his forehead down to hers.  "What else could have brought you into my life?"

Daia slid the larger matching ring on the same finger on Maul's hand.  Again, a perfect fit.  "I love you."  She stood up on her toes and pulled him into a kiss for all the ghosts of Dathomir to bear witness.

Maul returned her kiss with equal fervor, wrapping arm around her body and tangling the other into her hair.  They stayed like that a few moments, sliding their lips together, with gentle brushes of their tongues against each other.   Eventually they pulled apart just enough to breathe in each other's breath.  "I love you."  He placed a few more light kisses against her lips and smiled into each one.

Daia pressed closely into his chest and tucked her head under his chin.  She had one more important question for him.  "Are you sure there's no baby rancor?"

Maul groaned and threw his head back to stare at the ceiling.  "You are maddening, do you know that?"  He dug his fingers into her sides just enough to make Daia yelp.

"Would you have me any other way?"  She placed a quick kiss on the tip of his nose.

Maul scrunched up his face slightly and laid his cheek on her head.  "No.  No I would not."

[danipixel]

Doorways

Maul and Daia somehow finds themselves in a world they weren’t sure existed.  They find more than just visions of their past.  Can he change his past?  Their future?  Maybe if they find the right doorway, they can avert disaster.  If they find it, should they?  Perhaps another voice, or two, in the darkness can help them find answers to their questions about this new world.

A/N: Daia Veeral is my own OC.  A former Jedi turned smuggler who found herself working for Maul before befriending him and eventually the two fell for each other.

Word count: 6.1K?!  How did I make a one shot that long?

Darkness filled the sacred space.  It was silent, untouched and pristine, as no being had stepped foot in this realm for centuries.  Everything was still, save for the darkened portals scattered across the entirety of the pocket reality.  Suddenly the stillness shattered as a portal split open and threw two beings into nothingness.  Maul and Daia stumbled together as they tried to find footing on the nonexistent ground.  All around them, dark portals burst to life as glowing pathways spread out in every direction from where the two stood.

The human woman spoke first, “What just happened?  Last I checked, there wasn���t a hole in the universe in my cargo hold.”  The two turned to see the way they had entered still glowed behind them.  Through the shimmering hole in space they could see the interior of the Fever Dream, as if it were nothing more than a simple doorway.  She reached out to touch the image and her hand passed through into the space of her ship.  The air on the other side of the portal was warmer than the cool space around them.  She pulled her hand back to rejoin the rest of her body and circled around the entrance.  It was a perfect circle, floating in the air that could be entered from either side.  The two dimensional doorway nearly disappeared from the side, save for the glowing haze around it.  “I’m dreaming.  We’re dreaming.  We passed out and we’re sharing a dream.”

“This is no dream.  Something, the Force perhaps, brought us here.”  Maul walked along one of the paths before them, taking in the empty expanse before him.  Small lights that could almost be stars shone in every direction around them.  “The question is, where are we and why?”

Daia followed after him, nearly tripping over herself as her curiosity took over.  Hours upon hours digging through holopads and hardcopy books in the Jedi Archives flooded through her memories.  Something about this place was familiar, she just had to place it.  “I think I know this place.  I read about it as a Padawan in something called the ‘Chain Worlds Theorem’.  It’s a place where every point in time and space connects.  I thought it was just a story or a metaphor for enlightenment.”  Her feet took her to the first portal before she realized what she was doing.  It held an image from her own childhood, her Gathering.  Her robes were torn and her curly hair had snarled itself into a matted mess from tumbling through the ice caves of Ilum.  “I found my saber crystals that day.  I couldn’t believe that I’d found two.”

Maul peered into the image of Daia’s past.  A small smile crept onto his face at the image of her past self completely disheveled and beaming with pride at the crystals in her hand.  “You were adorable.”  She flicked his arm lightly once she’d peeled herself away from watching her own childhood.  Maul followed another path a few steps before stopping dead in his tracks.  “The World Between Worlds!  I found this in my studies.  My master was obsessed with finding it.”  His eyes darted around from gateway to gateway as all the pieces fell into place.  “The ancient Sith believed that one could know the future and change the past from this place.”  He took off for the next gateway at a sprint, ideas rushing through his mind.  As if reading his thoughts, the next portal showed him exactly what he was looking for.  Inside the glowing ring he saw himself, over a dozen years younger and pacing before a red laser gate.  His most hated enemy stood on the other side of the gate.  “I can change it.”  His hand hovered before the portal nearly touching its surface.

“Maul wait!”  Daia appeared at his side.  “Don’t do it.  You don’t know what the consequences are.”

“Consequences?  I should have walked away victorious, not fallen into madness.”  His eyes flashed in anger as the memory played out before the two.

She placed her hand over his and pulled his arm down to his side.  “Okay, say you win that fight.  What happens then?  You go back to Sidious, you stay his apprentice, his slave.  Then what?  What makes you think that would be any better?”

Maul snarled as he pondered her words.  He knew she was right.  Changing his past did not guarantee that he would be pleased with the outcome.  On the other hand, he was right there.  All he had to do was reach out and his fate would be changed.  He was resourceful, intelligent, he could change his destiny to whatever he chose.  Yet, something stopped him.  He couldn’t say what but something stayed his hand.  He pulled away and looked back to her.  “What if we change a different day?”

“What day are you talking about?”

“You’re right.  I would have been Sidious’s slave the rest of my life had I walked away from that fight.”  He clenched his fist at his side before he turned away from the memory.  “What if we find a different day?  One that we can both agree was unnecessarily cruel to both of us.”

She watched the emotions play over his face as she considered his idea.  There was no doubt in her mind to what day he was referencing.  “This is a dangerous path, Maul.  I want him back too but we don’t know what will happen.”

Maul clasped both of her hands in his.  “What damage can it possibly do?  Savage is through one of these portals.  All we need to do is step through and bring him with us.”  His voice turned from his usual strong tone to pleading with his next words, “Let me have this.  Let me save my brother.”

“If we do this-”

The world lit up behind her and another figure stepped into the darkness.  A voice echoed out of the shadows.  “The past is the past.  It is not to be rewritten.”

Violet, silver, and crimson lit the world around the pair as they drew their lightsabers and spun to face the intruder.  The two stepped apart from each other in unison to flank the third figure.  Maul growled into the shadows.  “Show yourself!”

The voice came again, sounding not unlike Maul’s own.  This one was rougher, more world weary.  “Lower your weapons.  I mean you no harm.”  The figure walked into the light with his hands held out at his sides.  Before them stood a red skinned Dathomirian, with the same fiery eyes, the same crown of horns, the same tattoos, the same droid like legs as Maul.  The only real difference between the two men was the second one appeared older.  The older man walked closer to the pair and studied Maul with the same intensity that Maul was studying him.

Maul, the first one, lowered his saber and stared closely at the older man.  “How is this possible?”

“I know as much as you.  Something brought me here and then I saw you try to change our past.”  The two circled each other like two nydaks mirroring one another before they fought for the same territory.  “You want proof that we are the same.  Very well.  Tell me, what will satisfy you?”

The younger man snarled slightly and stepped away from his older counterpart.  “When I, we, were taken from Dathomir as a child, my mother said something to me that I have never forgotten.  If you and I are the same, then you have the same memory.”

The two men spoke the same words in perfect unison, “Walk tall, safe in the knowledge that your mother shall always walk by your side.”

The crimson blades that illuminated the space around the two finally retracted once Maul accepted the answer.  “No other being has ever heard those words.  We are the same.”  He took a final look at his older self, taking in every new scar, every wrinkle.  The man was thinner, as if he’d been unable to eat properly for some time, but still a powerful adversary should the wrong person cross him.  He still held himself with the strength and pride he always had, but this one also held a sadness that Maul didn’t recognize.  “How old are you?  What happened to you?”

The older man chuckled slightly.  “I believe I am 51.  I may be 52.  Time stopped meaning much of anything to me quite some time ago.  By the looks of you, you must be around 35.”  Maul nodded in response.  “As for your other question, I cannot tell you.  As I said, the past should not be rewritten.”  He turned to the side at the sound of Daia’s sabers still thrumming in the air.  “Daia?  Is that you?”  He took a few steps in her direction.  “It is.  You look as beautiful as ever.”

She eyed the man with suspicion, still remaining unconvinced of his identity.  “How do I know you didn’t hear what you just told him in one of these portals?  For all we know you’re a changeling assassin Sidious sent after us.”

“True, I might be one of his tricks.  I see his cruelty is still fresh in your mind.  The two of you must have been on Stygeon recently.”  He flinched at the memory.  “If you won't trust me, then trust your own feelings.”  He came as close as she allowed and locked her gaze with his.  “Do you remember that night in the desert on Mandalore?  I told you that you shone like the stars.  You told me that you loved me.  I was terrified at what that meant, but you soothed any fears I had.”

She stared back into his eyes as the man told her the story she held close to her heart.  His eyes the same fire she always found in Maul’s, his passion, his mind that never stopped flying at lightspeed, the love he held for her and her alone.  With a quick glance back at the Maul she had arrived with, she saw him nod to her and mouth the words, ‘He is me’ and she placed her weapons back under her jacket.  “It is you."  She reached out to place her hand on the side of his face.  He was thinner than her own Maul, and while the years had hardly aged him, she could still see some of the marks time had left on him.  The furrow between his brows was deeper as was the crow's feet at the corners of his eyes.  The hint of laugh lines brought a smile to her face.  She'd kept him smiling through the years.  "You’re...you’re…”

He leaned slightly into her touch.  “An old man, I know.”

She laughed lightly, “I was going to say you’re still handsome.”  That brought a small smile to his face.  “Last I checked, early fifties wasn’t old.”  She looked back where he came from and saw the familiar interior of a Mandalorian fighter with no one on the other side.  “Why are you here alone?”

He glanced at where the ground should be beneath their feet.  Something the others could only describe as regret passed across his face.  “I was on a personal mission.  I had left the syndicate in your hands in my absence.”

She was stunned at the idea of running Maul’s crime syndicate herself.  She’d never seen herself as one that others would look up to and follow.  Maybe some of his skills as a natural leader will rub off on her.  “Am I good at it?”

“Amazing.”  He breathed out the reply.

Before the conversation between the three could continue, a bright flash of light filled the darkness again as a fourth figure tumbled through into the empty world.  Behind him they saw the interior of a ship wholly unfamiliar to Daia but very well known to the men beside her.  The man was on his feet in a flash, red double bladed saber snapping to life in an instant.  “Where am I?!”  Anger rolled off of the man in massive waves.  If this were Maul, he had yet to master his own rage.

The eldest zabrak held out his hand in an attempt to calm the young man.  "Calm yourself.  No one here will harm you."

This new man was unlike the other two.  He was wild and full of a barely contained rage that simmered just beneath the surface.  Exactly what a Sith apprentice would be.  His eyes darted between the people before him as he stood ready to pounce at the first sign of aggression.  "What is this?  Some sort of test?"  A quick growl escaped the young Sith.  "A trick of the Jedi?"

"No test.  No trick.  No Jedi."  The older man still had his hands out and gestured to the two standing beside him.  "The three of us all managed to stumble into this place from different times."

"Who is she?"  The youngest quickly tipped his head in Daia's direction.

Maul stepped forward defensively, answering the young man's challenge.  "One of the few good things in your life.  Now put your weapon away before I take it from you."  He lacked the depth of patience his older counterpart had cultivated over the years.

No longer content to stay in the same place, the young Maul began pacing back and forth as he spat his accusations at the three.  "You tell me this is no Jedi trick, then why can I feel the Force around that one?  She’s clearly been well trained.  It screams Jedi."  His pacing stopped abruptly and he lunged forward, blade aimed for Daia's neck.

In a brilliant flash of violet and silver she caught his blade before he could remove her head from her shoulders.  He pulled back for a second attack before two more crimson blades joined the fray and knocked his attacks off course.  The space was aglow with red light, the blades hissing and crackling against each other.  Somewhere amidst the sea of red, one of the older zabraks had twisted the saber from the youngest's grip and threw him backwards several meters.  He was back on his feet in an instant.

"Enough!"  Maul bellowed at the young man as he took possession of his saber.  Now that his short lived attack was over, every blade was deactivated as quickly as they had snapped to life.

Daia took her opportunity to examine her youthful attacker.  She circled around him taking in what made him different from the other two.  She first realized that he was smaller than the others.  Where before she reached just under Maul's chin, this man's eyes marked the top of her head instead.  Besides his age, he was more on edge, his eyes constantly sought for any sign of attack all around him.  Whereas she'd known Maul to be more still and patient than herself, this man never seemed to stop moving.  This was Maul, the Sith.  He wasn’t Maul, the crime lord or Mand'alor.  He was not the man she knew.  Not yet.  "So this is Maul, the great Sith Lord.  You're shorter than I expected."

He stood tall and proud.  His chin lifted slightly.  "Darth Maul."  He emphasized the title more than his name.  He really was a Sith, the Sith she had heard so much about when she was still a Jedi.  The first anyone had seen in a millennia.

"Cute title."  She smiled at him.  "You'll have a better one some day."

It was his turn to begin circling her.  "Do not mock me, Jedi.  You may find yourself as my next target."

"Oh, he's a cocky little shit."  She shouted to her companion.  "Just to let you know, I've fought you before.  You're very good, but not as good as you think you are little Sith."  She flashed a challenging grin at the young Sith as she matched his pace step for step.

He never took his eyes off of her.  Her lack of fear in the face of the man that should bring certain death for her kind kept the man intrigued.  Without looking away he addressed his fellow zabraks, "Tell me, is this Jedi always this difficult?"

Maul shook his head as he chuckled fondly.  "Yes."

"You have no idea." answered the eldest with a smile on his face.

"Oh the ex-Jedi argument."  Daia took a step closer to young Maul.  A threatening growl rose in his throat at her defiance.  "We haven't had that one in a long time.  This'll be fun."

Maul let out a long sigh of frustration at his mate's behavior.  "Daia, stop antagonizing me...him."  She winked at her adversary and backed away, giving the young man space to breathe and think again.  "We still have no idea why we have been brought to this place.  Was this all just chance or has the Force brought us here for a purpose?"

"This place,"  the future Maul walked about the empty space, taking in the immensity of the darkened world around them.  "the World Between Worlds, can give a person the power to change the past and the future.  It was hidden for a reason.  It needs to remain that way."  As if reacting to his words, several gateways around the group flared to life, showing various moments of Maul and Daia's lives.  As quickly as they opened, the gateways snapped shut again.

No longer on the offensive,  the apprentice's eyes widened in wonder at the possibilities before him.  "The World Between Worlds?  My master has been searching for this place."  Daia could see the same ideas flicker across his face that she had seen pass across Maul's a few minutes before.

"We know.  Every memory in your head is in ours."  The elder pointed to the junior man's head and then to his own.

The apprentice snorted incredulously,  "I have no reason to believe that."

Maul snapped at his past self.  His patience with himself was wearing thin.  "Have your eyes failed you, boy?  Or do you just refuse to believe them?"

Daia stifled a laugh, "Have you always been that stubborn and suspicious?  I thought that was a recent development."

Maul scowled at the apprentice, "It appears that I have."

Their elder spoke up to prevent another outburst between the two.  "It appears he needs to be convinced just as you did.  Shall we?"  Maul rolled his eyes but nodded in agreement.  "On the day you left home, your mother whispered something to you.  What was it?"

All three men spoke the same words in near perfect unison.  Their faces all lost in a shared memory.  "Walk tall, safe in the knowledge that your mother shall always walk by your side."

The young Sith took a step back from the other two.  He'd never told another soul about what she had told him.  "How did you know that?"

"As we said, we are you.”  The oldest answered.  “Your future."

"If you are me," the Sith moved closer and eyed the two men up and down, "then explain why I appear to have gotten taller."

Maul looked down and was silent a moment as he searched for the words to answer.  "There was...an incident during a battle."  Both men held out a synthetic leg.  Maul tapped his shin with the end of his lightsaber.  The metallic clang drove his point home.  "Our legs were replaced afterwards.  We are taller as a result."

"You are saying I lose in combat?  Impossible."  Young Maul shook his head in disbelief.  "I would be dead if I had lost."

"Fine."  Maul waved a dismissive hand.  "Don’t believe me.  Instead believe that you had a growth spurt in your 30s."

The Sith's eyes focused on the saber hills on each man's belt.  They were both the same double bladed design as his own, but not the exact same weapon.  "Those lightsabers you carry.  They are not mine."

"They are now."  Maul tossed the young Sith's lightsaber back to him.

"I have a question."  Daia held up her hand like a patient student.  "What do we call each of you right now?  You're all Maul but that's going to get confusing fast."  The three looked at each other.  She had a valid point.  They couldn't keep calling each other 'you'.

The youngest man spoke up first, his head held high and proud as he named himself.  "Sith."

Maul stood looming over the younger man.  "You are an apprentice, Apprentice."  The apprentice sneered up at him but gave no argument.  "I suppose we can address me as Lord for now."

The eldest man looked to Daia while he chose his new name.  "Shadow."

"That's what I call him."  She glanced over to Lord.

"I know."  Shadow gave her a soft smile.  "You never stopped."

Apprentice interrupted Shadow's reminiscing.  They still had more pressing matters than old pet names to discuss.  "Again, what are we doing here?  If I could bring knowledge of this place back with me, perhaps my master-"

"No!"  Shadow shouted.  "He must never know of this place."  He knew his old master's mind too well to let the thought take root in his younger self's mind.

"Why?"

"Your master has been feeding you lies since you were a boy.  Giving him this power would be one of the worst mistakes you could make."  Lord chose to press on what he knew to be Apprentice's greatest fear.  "Do you wish to remain his slave forever?"  The thought sent a shiver down Lord's spine.

Apprentice thought about what Lord had said to him.  It was true, he didn't wish to remain under Sidious's control for the rest of his life.  He walked amongst the gateways, catching glimpses of his past beyond each one.  One gate showed him walking the halls of a palace he had never seen before.  Beside him walked two nervously fidgeting Neimoidians.  They appeared to be conversing with a holoprojection of his master.  "Then we use it to peer into the future.  With that knowledge we could mold it to suit our needs.  Take whatever power we seek and control our own lives."

Daia reached out to stop him before he saw too far into his own future.  "That won't work, Apprentice.  The future isn't static, it changes with every choice we make."

"Precisely."  Lord paced while he spoke, one hand on his chin as his mind raced.  "The only changes one could make that would hold any amount of certainty are those in the past, like the one we were about to make before we were interrupted."  Lord fixed his gaze upon Shadow before searching amongst the points of time playing out before him.  He'd glimpsed Savage in one of them for just a moment out of the corner of his eye but lost him just as quickly.

Shadow snapped him out of his contemplation.  "Lord, for the final time, you cannot do that!"  His fingers came up to pinch the bridge of his nose.  He needed a moment to recollect himself before he could continue.  "Rewriting the past, no matter how tempting will have consequences you cannot forsee."

Lord was in Shadow's face in an instant.  "So I should just leave him to die?!"

"Who are you talking about?" Apprentice's confused voice broke through the tension between the other two.  

Lord dismissed Apprentice's question with a wave of his hand.  "It is none of your concern."

Daia put herself between the two men and addressed Lord.  "Maybe this conversation should be a little more private.”  Apprentice didn’t need to be made aware of what his future held any more than he already had.  She turned to face the young Sith.  “Apprentice, do you speak Mando'a?"

"No."

Her plan for privacy may work.  "Shadow, how is yours?"

An answer in perfect Mando’a was all Shadow needed.  "I still speak it just fine."  He had maintained his fluency over the years.  That brought a spark of pride about Daia’s skills as a teacher.

Daia quickly glanced over to Apprentice who only offered her a shrug.  He had no idea what was being said.  "If you don't want to change anything, then maybe he shouldn't know about Savage yet."  The mention of his long lost brother’s name drew Apprentice’s attention but he quickly dismissed it as a mistranslation on his part.

"Very well.”  Shadow fixed his attention back to Lord.  “I understand wanting to bring him back, but it can not happen."

Lord snarled directly into his aged face.  "And who are you to tell me what I can and can not do?  We would still be eating insects while babbling to ourselves in a cave on Lotho Minor if not for Savage!  I failed my brother and you are telling me that there is nothing I can do to avert that failure when the very thing I need in order to do that is staring me in the face!"  The Force snapped and crackled around the two men as their tempers flared.

"I am you!”  Shadow flung Lord back a few steps.  “That is who I am.  I lived with that failure for 15 years and have lived with more failures than I care to think about.”  The anger on his face was quickly replaced with a look of regret.  “I tried everything in my power to restore what I have lost.  Every single one comes at a price.  This price is something none of us can know until it is too late."

Some of the tension between the two Mauls dissipated as Daia spoke up.  "You keep bringing that up.  What sort of price are you talking about?"

A deep sigh escaped Shadow while he sought for the words to answer her.  His metal feet clicked on nothingness as he paced while he thought.  "In all my years of research, I have found evidence of exactly two people to successfully reach this plane and change their own past.  The results were disastrous for both.  In their personal logs they had each documented how the galaxy changed around them, at first for the better.  As time continued on, more misfortune fell upon them.  They found themselves compelled to alter their past more and more until they ultimately destroyed themselves.  Even the slightest change can have unforeseen effects on the future." Shadow stared wistfully into one of the portals for some time before he shook his head and continued.  "There is so much I desperately desire to change from this place, but the cost is too high."

Lord opened his mouth to argue but the empty space had its own ideas.  Every portal as far as any of the four could see shook and flickered in and out of existence.  The pathways that connected them all disappeared beneath their feet.  The solid nothingness momentarily lost form, throwing the group off balance.  Human and zabraks collided with each other before they could find their feet again.  "What was that?”  Apprentice asked.  “The entire world shook."

"We are running out of time here.”  Shadow answered urgently.  “Soon our respective doorways will close and we shall all be trapped if we don't leave."

"So….what?”  Daia yelled into the darkness.  “We were all pulled here for nothing?"

"I believe what happened was that by chance the two of you found an entrance into this place.  Once he entered,”  Shadow pointed to Lord, “it pulled the two of us here as well."

"So we all just what?  Go home and forget this,”  Daia held her hand out to the other three and the expanse around them, “ever happened?"

"Perhaps,”  Lord said  “Shadow is right.  The best course of action is to keep this place hidden from Sidious.  It holds a power he should never have access to."

"What do I say when I go back?”  Apprentice muttered to the others.  “You both know what happens when I fail."  Anxiety and fear rolled off of him at the idea of returning to his master a failure.

"Say nothing, Apprentice.”  Lord placed his hands on the younger man’s shoulders in an effort to calm him.  He understood the fear Apprentice was feeling all too well.  “Tell him you succeeded at whatever mission you've been sent on and nothing more.  This isn't the only secret you have kept from him."

He quickly nodded in agreement.  "Very well.  I hope to never see this place or you three again."  A small smirk came to the man’s face for the first time.

Lord gestured to himself and Shadow.  "Clearly you will."

"Remember, not to let your hubris blind you.  You are skilled, but not invincible."  Shadow’s parting wisdom left the man with a look of mild confusion but he listened to the older man’s words carefully.

Daia placed a hand on the young Sith’s cheek.  He flinched and stiffened at the contact but accepted the small act of affection. He couldn’t remember the last time he had received any "Be kind to yourself, Apprentice.”  She rose to her toes and placed a kiss just below his horns.  “The galaxy has been cruel enough to you."

Apprentice turned and ran for the portal to his ship.  Small waves lapped across its surface once he stepped through back into his own time.  He nodded a farewell to his counterparts and the portal snapped shut.  The space where it had been moments before was dark and pristine once again.  It was as if he had never been there at all.  As if reacting to the sudden change, surrounding portals snapped in and out of existence once again.  The ground shifted from solid nothingness to a consistency closer to soft sand.  The three were thrown to the ground with a greater force than the previous quake.  Every light flickered for several moments before everything came to a standstill.

Lord rose first and held out a hand to assist Daia in rising to her feet. "These quakes are getting worse.  We need to leave."

Shadow found his way back to his feet.  He straightened his clothing as he stood straight again.  "I agree.  We need to get back to our respective times.”  The three followed the glowing path back to the portal that led to Shadow’s time.  The empty interior of the Nightbrother still waited for him on the other side.  “I do have one request before we all leave."

"I won't change anything.”  Lord couldn’t stop himself from rolling his eyes.

"Not from you.”  Shadow looked down to his mate’s past self standing before him and gave her a warm smile.  “Daia, would you give an old man one last kiss goodbye?"

She returned his grin.  "Of course I will."  She again brought her hand to Shadow’s face like before.  His eyes fell shut as he allowed her to guide his face down to hers when she brushed her lips against his.

He held his hand over her own as he returned the soft kiss she granted him.  His eyes remained closed and he brushed his nose against hers as he pulled away.  "I miss you, my love.”  He whispered as he opened his eyes to look into hers.  “I will find you again in the Force."

Before she could question him, Shadow let go of his hold on her hand and turned to return back to his own time.  Daia reached out and shouted after him, "Wait, what?  Maul!”  He stepped through to his own time as she attempted to stop him.  “What do you mean?!   What happened?!"  He left the two with a smile and the portal snapped shut.  Again the world shook and fell between existence and non existence.

Maul took hold of Daia’s hand and pulled her back from the empty space where the portal had been.  "We need to go.  Now!"  The two took off running for their home.  The quakes around them grew in intensity.  Pathways and gateways rapidly flashed in and out of existence.  Their own portal opened and closed before them as they drew closer and closer to their own time.  The two dropped into a sprint towards home.  The view of the Fever Dream’s cargo hold snapped open and closed with every step.  Lights went out behind them and the ground began to gave way to nothingness as they leapt through the portal into the cargo hold.  The gateway snapped shut with a hiss.

The pair laid on the cold floor of Daia’s ship, safe and back in their own time.  They stayed there in silence for a few moments.  The only sounds to be heard besides the ship’s life support system cycling clean air was the heavy breathing as they processed what just happened to them.

Daia was the first to stand.  “We made it.”  She offered a hand to Maul as he pushed himself off the floor.  

He took her hand and pulled himself upright.  “So we did.”

She squeezed his hand, refusing to let go of him.  “Do you....remember that happening to you?”

Maul’s face was one lost in thought as he searched his memories.  “Yes?  The memory is hazy but it’s there.  I thought it was all a dream.  How could I not have?”  He looked down and brushed a thumb across Daia’s cheek.  She leaned into the affectionate gesture.  “I do remember what you said.  I never listened but thank you for trying.”

“What do you think he meant?  He said he misses me.”  A tear escaped her eye.  The older man had been so sad.  So full of regret.  “What happened to him?”

Maul wiped away the tear.  He lowered his head to place his forehead on hers.  He never dropped her gaze while he spoke.  “I don’t know but I do know that whatever befell that man will not happen to us.  I will not allow it.”

She shook her head despite his assurances.  “You don’t even know what happened to him.”

“I don’t need to know what happened to him.”  Determination filled Maul’s entire being.  “I will not be him.”  He pulled her into a kiss and for a few minutes the two stayed like that, holding on to each other in the cargo hold of a smuggler’s ship.  Finally the two broke apart and headed towards the cockpit.  Daia took her usual seat in the pilot’s chair and Maul in the copilot seat.  They punched in the hyperspace coordinates for home.  She activated the hyperdrive and the ship was thrown into hyperspace, towards Mandalore and whatever future awaited them.

____________________________________________________________

A young Darth Maul stepped back through a glowing portal into the sleeping quarters of the Scimitar.  He took a quick look around and everything was exactly the same as he had last seen it.  The only sign that he had been disturbed at all was that his bunk had been rendered a complete mess.  The young man resigned himself to the reality that whatever had just befallen him had been nothing more than a vision from the Force.  Perhaps he had simply been dreaming and tumbled from his bunk.  Whatever it was, there was nothing he could do about it now except return to his master.  Darth Maul cleaned up the mess that was his sleeping quarters and made his way to the cockpit of his Sith Infiltrator.  His master waited for him on Coruscant, so Coruscant was where he needed to be.  He would not speak of this vision.  He would serve his master well and one day face his destiny as the next Dark Lord of the Sith.

____________________________________________________________

Maul, the Old Master, entered the portal to the Nightbrother, ignoring Daia’s shouts behind him.  He took one last look at himself with her by his side and the portal snapped shut, leaving him once again alone in his ship.  He took his place in the pilot’s seat and began methodically entering hyperspace coordinates.  His mind focused on where he was what headed and the task he had sought out to complete.  Atollon was the world he sought out.  From there he could find the young man that would be his apprentice and sort out the jumble of information the two had gathered from their joined holocrons.  With the boy’s help, his mission would be complete.  Maul hesitated before activating the hyperdrive, his mind returning to the detour he had just found himself.  To his mate whom he missed dearly.  “Just a little longer, my love.  I will find him and do what I need to do.  Perhaps then I can find you in the afterlife.  Wait for me just a little longer.”  The viewport before him filled with streaks of light as his ship was thrown into hyperspace and towards his fate.

[danipixel]

Wherever the Force May Go pt2

Tags: @maulieber​ @botherbother-blog​ @mother-0f-monsters​ @zabrak-show​ @alicedoestheinternet​ @laoness​

Summary:  Daia found a new opportunity on Mandalore.  Did she make a mistake in coming?  She hasn’t decided yet.  Her new employer may decide for her.

Part 1

It was late afternoon when Daia finished unloading the last of her things from the Fever Dream into the room she had been granted by the new lord of Mandalore.  The guest room was enormous with large windows that gave a beautiful view of the city below.  The sun was just starting to dip below the horizon beyond the bio-dome’s edges.  She’d have to thank her new employer for the accommodations.  

Still in a bit of shock from the events of the morning, she continued her small tour of her quarters.  The bed was by no means small and covered with lush blankets and pillows.  The sitting area sported a large table with intricately carved lilies on the legs and edges as well as equally lavish cream chairs.  The walls  were covered in beautiful paintings depicting the history of Mandalore.  Satine's taste in decor was still all over the room. Taking a seat in the unfairly comfortable chair, Daia now had time to think about everything that just happened this morning.  Her overconfidence and her mouth may have just gotten her into more trouble than she first realized.  The new Mand’alor was clearly well versed in use of the Force, and the dark side at that.  The dark side never frightened her before but she knew just how dangerous those that regularly surrender themselves to its power can be.  Shit.  This may have been a mistake.  Daia didn’t get much time to think about her new position on the planet before she sensed Maul and the other Force wielder outside her door.  

The door slid open and there stood Maul, an intense look of anger painted across his crimson face.  He let out a low growl as he spoke, "I don’t appreciate being lied to."  His eyes burned into hers as his presence filled the room. His partner stood just behind him sporting a similar look.

"I'm sorry but, what are you talking about?"  Daia felt anger rolling off of the two in waves leaving sparks and crackles as it flowed around her. She couldn't help the sudden urge to run or maybe fight.  Anything but just stand there.

The two men stepped fully into the room, which despite its size, now felt much too small.  "What are you doing here, Jedi?"  The sound of lightsabers igniting echoed through the room.

"Is this because I can use the Force?  I’m not a Jedi."  Not anymore.  Continuing to back away, Daia's hands stayed low and near the edge of her jacket where her sabers were tucked away.

"Liar!  The stink of the Order is all over you.”  Maul spit the accusation at her as he leapt towards her, black blade aimed at her neck.  In a flash she brought up her twin sabers to block the blow as she barely dodged out of the way.  A flurry of blows and flashes of black light filled her vision.  Each strike caught by her sabers with a loud hiss as she backpedaled further into the room.  He was fast.  Terrifyingly fast.  Had the Force not guided her movements, she'd be dead.  Adrenaline surged through her body feeding her fight or flight response.  A dark tendril from the Force followed the reflex and reached out to her mind.  Daia grabbed hold of it and roughly pulled it into herself, fuelling her body, sharpening her senses, and adding speed to her reflexes.  Off to the side, she felt more than saw the red blade come down on her and quickly ducked out of the way and past the two men.

Holding her blades in a defensive position, she shouted at the two, "I didn’t lie to you!"  The two men split and came at her from the sides simultaneously, striking hard at Daia.  She almost buckled under the force of their combined attack.  Her arms screamed in protest as she caught the attacks.  Her violet blade clashed with black as her silver caught red before she twisted back out of the way.  The black blade again came at her to hold her in place.  She twisted again but this time flowed under Maul’s arm and brought her elbow into his ribs hard to allow her an opening to back away.  He let out a hiss and kicked at her legs as she danced away.

Anger filled the room as Maul pointed with his blade and the larger man circled around her.  Daia's blades remained up and directed at each warrior, ready to catch any attack that came for her.  "I'll ask you one more time Jedi, why did they send you here?"

This time the attack came from behind but she was ready and used the Force to fling the heavy ornate table directly into the larger Zabrak, knocking him into the wall.  "No one sent me.  I’m not a fucking Jedi!  I haven’t been one for 7 years!"  Maul stayed where he was, black saber still pointed in her direction as a snarl painted his face.

The larger one rose from the wall and rushed her, blade swinging in a wide arc.  She managed to deflect the blow but the force of the strike immediately caused her arms to burn once again.  My arms are gonna break if he keeps this up.  He finally growled in her face, "Dooku’s orders then."

"Count Dooku?" She spat back as she jumped backwards. "No.  Fuck him!  I want nothing to do with him!"  The Force then seized her and threw her back into the opposite wall, knocking the air from her lungs.  Not knowing which man had done that she immediately prepared for their next attack.

Maul held up his hand to stop the other from attacking.  Was he planning on killing her himself?  "If you’re not with the Jedi, or Dooku, then why come to Mandalore?"  He lowered his blade but did not deactivate it.  The other man did the same.  The rage from the two slowly started to recede but the anger in the room still simmered from all three occupants.

Daia followed suit and lowered her sabers, leaving them humming at her sides. "It’s like I said.  I used to smuggle for Death Watch and the Prime Minister.  I came back because I saw a business opportunity."

"And you no longer receive orders from the Jedi?"  Maul stared at her as if he was trying to read her thoughts.  Her mental defenses instinctively strengthened to prevent any intrusion.  He wasn't getting into her mind without a fight.

She let out a sigh, "I still have some friends in the Order but that's as far as the connection goes.  I have no plans to go back."

The taller man moved closer to Maul and continued to growl at Daia.  "More Jedi lies."

"Look, if you just wanted to kill me, why not do it this morning?"  She snapped at both of them, anger rising back to the surface.  This game of theirs was getting tiring.  Either kill me or let me leave.

Maul finally deactivated his saber and stood with his hands clasped behind his back.  His partner did the same.  "I was curious and truthfully, a Jedi offering to smuggle for me was unexpected."

"Not a Jedi."  She took the hint that the fight was over and put her sabers away, this time she left them on her belt instead of tucked in her jacket.  The instinct to fight was slowly receding from her body.  Now it was replaced with confusion and irritation.  Was this whole thing a fucking test?!

"So you keep saying."  Maul took a few steps closer but made no move to retrieve his weapon and finish the ex-Jedi.

Taking a few steps toward the man and crossing her arms, Daia asked, "So what do you want from me?"

Maul paced back and forth, prowling in front of her as he answered.  "I'm always in need of people with talent.  Besides your claim of being an accomplished smuggler, you managed to sneak your way past the entirety of Death Watch and into my throne room.  You've just proven you can hold your own in combat, and you have connections to Coruscant that could prove useful one day."

"So, you still want me to work with you."  This day just keeps getting more and more interesting.

From behind Maul, his counterpart still seemed to have opinions.  "Are you sure about her, Brother?  She could still be a Jedi spy or assassin."  He continued to growl in her direction as he stared.

Are you kidding me?  Did he really still think she was here to kill them?  She was done being friendly today.  "Are you here for a reason big guy, or are you just here to insult me and look intimidating?"  Wait.  Did he say Brother?

Maul held up his hand and answered before his brother could say another word.  "Savage is my apprentice as well as my brother.  Where I go, he goes."

"Well for your information, Savage, Jedi don't use spies and assassins.  You have them confused with senators."  Daia stepped closer to the much larger man and glared up at him.  Her patience was wearing atom thin.

Maul placed himself between the two and stared down his brother.  "If you two are quite finished."  Savage backed down and stepped aside.  Maul's attention focused back to Daia. "You will remain in the city until I can be sure of your loyalties."

Stay in the city?  How is she supposed to do her job?  "When do I start my work then?"

Maul stepped closer and into her personal space.  She held firm and held his gaze as he spoke.  "Tomorrow.  You will join us for our morning briefings.  If you plan on being our private smuggler, I expect you to learn how things are done here now.  You’ll be retrieved in the morning."  There it was.  She was a pet for now.  Better a pet than dead.  She and Maul studied one another for a moment before he pulled away from her proximity.  The lord of Mandalore turned to make his way to the door, Savage falling in behind him.

Before they could leave she couldn't help but say, "Whatever you say, handsome."  For whatever reason, maybe adrenaline, she was feeling brave this evening.  Brave or stupid.  If he wanted to test her, it was only fair that she do the same.

Maul let out a growl and was back in her space in an instant, flaming golden eyes burning into hers.  "I'll let you know now that attempts at flattery will not gain you any favor."  There was no anger, no threat behind his words.

Still feeling brave she leaned forward into his space now and couldn't help but smile. "Stating facts is not flattery."

"Hmm, is that so?"  Maul narrowed his eyes at Daia as he studied her face once more before turning again and leaving her alone in her now destroyed room.  

There was carnage left all throughout the guest quarters.  The table was salvageable but one of the chairs was shattered and there were scorch marks in the floor and on the walls.  One of the paintings was completely cut in two.  At least the bed was still in one piece.  Once again left alone to her thoughts and the Force, she sat on the bed and let out long slow breaths trying to center herself.  Slowly but surely the anger and fear from the last few minutes receded and with it, the touch of darkness she had grasped.  Her whole body shivered as she let go of what she had tapped into.  It was a powerful partner in a fight but left a terrible taste in her mouth and made her skin feel too tight if held onto for too long.  How the other two could bear it, she had no idea.

She went about cleaning up the room so that she could maybe get some sleep.  Did I really say that?  I did.  I called him handsome after he tried to decapitate me.  Exhaustion had finally set in and Daia needed to rest and hopefully clear her mind.  As she pulled off her boots and went about her night time rituals she made a mental note to run through many more training programs with P4R-E.  If something like that fight happens again, she had to be better prepared.  Her whole body ached from the force of the earlier attack.  Maul was skilled.  More skilled than most Jedi she'd known.  And Savage's size gave him a terrifying amount of power behind his blows.  She was convinced that he could have shattered her arms with ease had Maul not stopped him.  They really were testing me.

She settled into bed, expecting an early morning the next day.  Before sleep took her she whispered out to the Force, “Please no visions tonight.”  She settled into a mostly dreamless sleep.  The only dreams that came to her consisted of the same flaming eyes and crown she had seen in the Force before.  This time a face filled in the space between the features.  The same red and black face of the man that just made her life much more complicated.

[danipixel]

Wherever the Force May Go

I haven’t written fanfiction in something like 10 years.  Now here I am with an OC and ideas.  I blame my favorite discord chat for this.  Specifically @maulieber.  All her fault.  And Maul’s.  He’s one hell of a muse.  If this isn’t awful, there will be more coming.

3k words?!  How did that happen?

Summary:  Daia Veeral is an ex-Jedi smuggler with a fondness for Mandalore.  When she finds her favorite world is under new leadership, she makes a special trip in hopes of new opportunities.  What she finds is a bigger challenge than she expected.  Only the Force knows where her life goes now.

The Tarisian cantina Daia found herself in was filthy.  The drinks were alright but the droids never cleaned.  Despite the dirt, this was the best place on the planet to look for work.  At least, it was most days.  Today there was nothing.  Every shipping and smuggling job was either taken or paid garbage for credits.  She was in no mood to take a mercenary job, no matter how well it paid.  “I’m not broke yet.” she thought.  

She walked up to the bar making sure her lightsabers stayed hidden in her jacket.  It was time for a drink.  She shouted and waved to the bartender, “Hey Jek!  I need something strong and cheap.  Whatcha got?”  The Togruta behind the counter poured her a small glass of dark brown liquid. “You’re not going to like it.”  

Daia took the glass and downed the presumably nontoxic drink in one move.  It burned down her throat and seared her sinuses.  “How do you drink that engine grease?” She choked out between coughs.  “I don’t.  You said strong and cheap.”  

“I guess I did.” she said with a hand wave.  “Anyway, please tell me you have news for me.  I don’t care if the job is legal or not.  I just need to keep the Fever Dream in the air.”  

Jek finished cleaning up the counter before answering.  “Sorry Daia.  No work, but I did hear some news from Mandalore you might be interested in.”  

That had her attention.  The jobs from Mandalore were the best paying contracts she had ever had.  With the Prime Minister in prison and Death Watch less active than usual she hadn’t heard from her contacts in months.  She just assumed they were dead or hiding. “What did the Duchess do now?  Piss off Death Watch again?  Trip down the stairs of Sundari Palace cause her dress was too extravagant?”  

Jek let out a small chuckle at that last thought. “No.  I mean, she’s always pissing off Death Watch.  Or at least, she was.  Word is that they took over Mandalore and put Almec back as Prime Minister.  Almec says Satine herself killed Viszla in a fit of rage after they took over.”

“Bullshit!”

“Yeah, I know, but I also heard Death Watch was taken over by someone else and that’s how he died.  A couple of monsters by the sound of it.”  

Daia rolled her eyes. “There’s no such thing as monsters, Jek.  But, I think I may need to pay a visit to Mandalore.”  She tossed Jek some credits for the “drink” and started towards the door.

Before she made it out the door Jek shouted, "Hey Daia, try to stay out of trouble!"  She turned around and flashed a smile before leaving the cantina.  "Never!"

On the way to the Fever Dream, Daia reached out to the Force.  The war raging across the galaxy made it more difficult to pinpoint specific occurrences within the Force, but something had definitely happened on Mandalore.  She felt something that almost felt like a storm when she focused her mind on the warrior world.  If Almec was Prime Minister again, there was no way he was actually the one in charge.  That man had no backbone.  He may have had Daia on his payroll before but that doesn’t mean she had to like the man.  Maybe she really should go to Sundari and find out who the new leader really was.  After all, it would only be polite to introduce herself and maybe reestablish a partnership.  Hopefully this one would be more reasonable than Viszla.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Daia turned the corner into the docking hangar she had left her ship and saw one of her most loved sights in the galaxy, the Fever Dream waiting to take her into the stars.  She picked up her pace and jogged up the loading ramp into the small freighter.  She ran her finger along a small patch of rust near the airlock.  The poor girl needs some maintenance again.  That’ll have to wait until Daia comes into some credits again.  Daia saved every credit she could spare for a year in order to buy the ship.  It was in rough shape but having her own ship was like a dream come true.  Something to belong to her and not the Jedi Order.  She quickly checked on engines to make sure they would still run as smooth and silent as ever.  Those were the first things she replaced after her first simple cargo transport jobs.  The original engines were constantly running too hot and nearly cooked her inside the hull.  Her dream ship had a fever and a name.  

Satisfied with the state of the engines and pulling herself out of memories, she made her way to the cockpit and started her takeoff procedures from the well worn pilot’s seat.  With every button press and flip of a switch, the Fever Dream came to life and lifted from the hangar floor.  Daia guided the quiet ship through the Tarisian atmosphere and into the calming open expanse of space.  That view always brought a smile to her face.  The galaxy and endless options in front of her.  Nothing but herself, her ship, and the Force as her copilot.  She entered her destination into the navicomputer and waited for hyperspace jump calculations.  After a minute, the computer alerted her that the ship was ready to jump and she activated the hyperdrive.  “Let’s go home, love.”  Stars stretched and streaked past the viewport and were replaced by a tunnel of light as the ship was thrown into hyperspace.

She sat back in her chair for a moment, enjoying the swirling lights in front of her.  Starting to feel a bit restless, she got up and tossed her jacket and sabers into the copilot seat then meandered her way through the ship, eventually finding herself in the empty cargo hold in front of her training droid, P4R-E.  She activated the droid and picked up a couple of training blades.  No sense in cutting holes through the hull with her lightsabers.  “Wake up Parry!  Time for some exercise.”  The droid stood to attention and held out a staff. “Yes, Mistress.  Shall we begin a combat scenario?”

Daia held her twin blades in a defensive stance and circled her droid.  “Begin combat, Parry.”  The droid rushed at her.  He aimed high and she easily deflected the blow to the side.  She felt the Force begin to flow through her body and guide every strike.  P4R-E then aimed for her legs with a low sweep.  She leapt over the blow and brought one training blade towards his side, which he caught with his staff.  He quickly thrust a flurry of blows at her torso, forcing her to rapidly back up several steps while she repeatedly knocked the staff to her side.  She rapidly circled around and took aim at P4R-E’s back.  The droid managed to twist around and just barely catch her blade before it could connect.  She brought up the second blade and slammed it under his arm.  The droid straightened and faced the ex-Jedi.  “Well done, Mistress.  Shall we begin again?”

She rolled her shoulders while backing up to the other side of the cargo hold.  “Sure Parry.  Let’s try a more difficult combat program this time.  Begin combat.”  They began the dance again and continued for some time, both striking blows on the other, before Daia’s restlessness had been taken care of.  Breathing heavily and covered in a fine sheen of sweat, she stopped the training droid.  “That’s enough for today Parry.  I need to go shower.  Go ahead and power down for now.”  P4R-E took his place in the corner of the cargo hold again.  “As you wish Mistress.”

Daia walked to her room and the refresher to get cleaned up.  No sense in meeting her new employer covered in sweat.  After a quick run through the sonic shower, she put on a clean black and grey outfit and put her boots back on.  She examined herself in the mirror and quickly fixed her short cropped dark curls and applied fresh makeup.  Satisfied with her appearance she took a seat on the cushion in the corner of the small room and began to meditate.  Some Jedi practices never would go away.

She let out a slow breath and let the Force flow into and through her mind.  “Alright old friend, what do you have for me?  What am I walking into?”  Her old master always gently teased her when she’d speak with the Force like it was a living person.  If it was alive, why not treat it as such?  After several minutes, Daia felt her mind slip through the Force towards Mandalore.  She saw the world she had adopted as a second home in her mind’s eye, all desert sands dotted with shining domed cities.  She saw Sundari among them and focused on the capital city.  The Force showed her the familiar sights of Mandalorian markets and parks, filled with the passion driven people she adored.  In her vision she looked toward the palace but something was different.  It was covered in shadows that her sight couldn’t penetrate.  She pushed towards the palace but felt her projection pushed back.  “I’m not afraid of the dark.  Let me through.”  The Force relented and her vision passed into the shadow.  The familiar chill of the dark side surrounded her but still, she pressed on through the storm of shadows.  “Come on, something has to be there.”  She focused all her mind through the darkness until she finally saw something.  She saw eyes.  Golden eyes wreathed in flame.  Above the eyes she saw what appeared to be a sharp pointed crown.  The vision quickly faded from her and forced her back to her own senses.  “No, no, no.  That can’t be all.  There’s more, right?”  She tried again to dive into the shadows in Sundari palace and once more saw the same eyes and the same crown.  She finally gave up and stood up from her meditation.  “Fine.  Be cryptic.”

The ship’s alarm went off and alerted her that it would soon reach her destination and she would need to take control again.  Not knowing exactly what she’d run into today, Daia grabbed her blaster and strapped it to her hip.  She ran back to the cockpit, put her sabers and jacket back on and took a seat in the pilot seat.  When she reached her destination, she dropped the ship out of hyperspace.

The familiar sight of Mandalore filled the viewport of the Fever Dream as Daia pulled out of hyperspace.  Home sweet home.  Almost.  She flew a course through the atmosphere towards the dome of Sundari and the usual port she would always dock with.  Once she had put the ship down guards ran out towards the unexpected ship wearing armor painted red and black.  That was new.  She secured her sabers firmly under her jacket as she walked off the ship, making sure they stayed hidden but that her blaster was in easy reach.  No sense walking into this unprepared.

“Stop!  You’re not supposed to be here.”  One of the Mandalorians shouted, raising his blaster.  “We’re not expecting any ships this morning.  What are you doing here?”

Daia kept her hands in the air but focused her mind on the Force.  Reaching out to the guards’ minds and giving just that little push needed to have her will be theirs.  Finding that point in their minds, she pushed her will into their thoughts hard.  “You’re going to step aside and let me go to Sundari Palace.  I have business with the Prime Minister.”

Daia calmly held her open hands in the air.  “Su’cuy Mando!  I’m here on business.  I need to have a conversation with the man in charge.”

“That’s not happening.”  The second guard took aim at her head.  Clearly, normal conversation wasn’t going to work on these two.  

After a moment, the two warriors lowered their blasters and stepped aside.  “You have business with the Prime Minister.  Welcome to Sundari.”

“Thank you.”  Daia quickly walked past the two and took up a rapid pace towards the palace.  Slipping in and out of the morning Sundari crowds, she found her usual path to the back of the palace.  There was an old servant entrance that was rarely used in recent years.  Duchess Satine preferred to have her people enter through the main entrances.  Servant pathways were now reserved for those working maintenance and the smugglers Almec had employed.  Daia rounded the last corner for the entrance and immediately dropped back behind the wall with a whisper, “Shit.”  There was a Death Watch guard watching the door.  There was no way she was talking her way in there.

She thought about her options.  Mind trick?  No, palace guards are smarter than dock guards.  Flirt?  No, that’s just too obvious.  Bribery?  No, Death Watch doesn’t take bribes.  That Mandalorian honor can really get annoying.  Knock him out?  No, he’ll know someone went in.  She had an idea and started to head away from the guard.  This is so stupid, it can’t fail.  She snuck through the small space and found a corner to hide in.  Pulling out her blaster she screamed, “Help!  Gaa’tayl!  Gedet’ye!  Oh gods he’s going to kill him!”  Daia fired two shots straight into the ground and took off back the way she came.

Running back to the door, she heard the guard shouting and running into the corner she came from.  Let’s see if the codes are still the same.  She punched in the old door code Almec used for his smugglers to come and go as needed.  The door quietly slid open.  Almec, you idiot.  Change your codes once in a while.  Daia slipped into the open doorway and quickly shut the door behind her.  

Once she was in the servant passages she wrapped the Force around her like a cloak to help her sneak through the palace.  Almec and Death Watch would be in the throne room this time of day, which meant a lot of walking.  Climbing the many stairs and walking the winding pathways, Daia hoped she wasn’t making a huge mistake.  There was a presence in the Force that she’d never felt here before.  Something or someone powerful.  Before she knew it, the small door that led to the corner of the throne room was in front of her.  She pressed her ear to the door and could hear voices beyond.  Almec was in there, that was for sure.  She heard several other voices but didn’t recognize them.  The presence was still in there and it was powerful.  Powerful and dark.  Am I still doing this?  Yes, yes I am.  It’s now or never.  

Daia opened the door and strode confidently into the throne room with a grin.  “Good morning Almec!  It’s good to see you alive and well!  Congratulations on your release from prison.”

A dozen Mandalorians in red and black armor turned and aimed their blasters straight at Daia’s head. She took the hint and held her hands in the air.  Across the room Almec started with a curse.  “Oh sweet maker, what do you want?”

A quick glance around the throne room was all she needed to know she was right about Mandalore's new leader.  An unfamiliar man with crimson and black skin and a crown of horns sat on the throne.  That explains the new armor.  To his side was another Zabrak.  This one was larger with longer horns and gold and black skin. The Force swirled around the two men like a storm.  These men were no simple warriors.  They were Force users.  Strong ones at that.

The warrior with horns welded to his helmet brought her attention back to the blasters in her face.  "Who are you and what are you doing here?  Spying?  An assassin?"  

Is that Saxon under the bucket?  "I used to smuggle for Almec and Death Watch.  Are you saying you forgot about me?  I came here to talk business and maybe reestablish our relationship since you seem to be under new leadership."  Viszla's dead but Kryze was nowhere to be found.  It seems things had changed more than she thought.

The Mandalorian gestured towards her blaster on her hip, "If you’re here to discuss business, then why are you armed?"  Definitely Saxon under there.

Daia let out a dramatic gasp.  "Someone armed among the Mando’ade?  Who would do such a thing?"  She looked back at Almec who was pretending and failing to act like he didn't recognize her.  "Are all these warriors such di’kutla?"  That earned her a deep chuckle from the man on the throne.  Good, he has a sense of humor.  That’s an improvement.

Daia lowered her hands slightly and addressed the Prime Minister again.  "It looks like you’ve made some new friends since the last time I was here, burc'ya."  She reached out with the Force to make a small connection to the Zabrak on the throne.  A greeting, almost like a knock on the door.  I see you.  His eyes immediately snapped to hers in response.  Golden eyes wreathed in flame and not a crown, but horns.  Now the vision made sense.

The Force wielder gestured to Death Watch to lower their blasters as he finally spoke, "Answer them.  Who are you and why are you here?"

She finally dropped her hands entirely and put on her most charming smile.  "My name is Daia Veeral.  I’ve been smuggling for Almec for about two and half years now.  I'd heard he was Prime Minister again but this time publicly backed by Death Watch.  I’d also heard rumors Death Watch was taken over by monsters.  I came to see for myself.”

The Zabrak narrowed his eyes at her monster comment.  "So, Daia Veeral, do you see the monsters you came for?"  He gestured to himself and the now glowering man beside him.

Daia shook her head, "I don’t believe in monsters.  What I see is a very capable man on the throne of Mandalore."  She moved to take a step towards the throne.  This time a blaster muzzle met the side of her skull and a woman spoke.  "Don't take another step."

Letting out a snort and a laugh Daia teased, "What are you, his bodyguards?"

The red Zabrak smirked at her joke and again signaled for the blaster to be lowered.  This man wielded power like he was born to do it.   "Do you have a problem with my personal guard?"

She shot a glare at the Mandalorian that had just threatened her.  I think I know her. Kast, I think it was.  "None at all." Daia then gestured to the two Force users.  "I’ve just never seen two men less in need of bodyguards in my life.  I take it, you’re the one that killed Pre Viszla then."  The larger one smiled at her compliment.

The crimson man sat a little straighter and lifted his chin before answering.  Oh, he's a proud one.  "Is that a problem?"

Daia smiled again. "No, I’d like to thank you.  Working with that man was hell.  If it wasn’t for the fact that he paid so well, I would have stopped a long time ago."

Saxon reacted angrily to her comments.  "All of us served under Viszla, he was a strong leader and he led us for years.  Careful what you say."

She turned and glared at the man. "Not strong enough obviously.  Viszla was a complete shabuir.  Did you ever try talking to him?  He thought he was the god of Mandalore.  His ego would have gotten you all killed eventually."  If Saxon wanted a fight, he'd get one.  He loomed over Daia.  "Watch it." He spit out at her.

Daia snarled back.  "Not a single one of you had the gett’se to do what this man did."  She walked away from Saxon and turned back to the throne where she saw a smirk on the Zabrak's face.  "So, Mand’alor.  I would like to offer you my services as a very capable smuggler and fighter if you'll have me."  She held out her hand and walked closer to him.

Mand'alor rose from his throne and stalked towards Daia, a metallic click sounding with every foot step.  The Force draped itself around him like a swirling shadow leaving darkened ripples in his wake.  "Very well."  He firmly grasped her outstretched hand. "You may stay in the palace as long as you are on Mandalore."

Shocked at the offer but refusing to let go of his hand, "That’s very kind but not necessary."  "I insist," He growled.  He made his point known with a tighter squeeze on her hand and a push into her with the Force.

Daia finally let go of his hand with a small push back of her own.  "Very well then.  Thank you for your hospitality.  I’m sorry, I never got your name."

"Maul."  The name rumbled out of his chest.  It was more a growl than a word.  Does he always introduce himself like that?

"I’ll go get my things from my ship then, Maul.  I look forward to our new partnership."  Oh this is going to be fun.  With that Daia gave a small bow and walked out of the throne room and back towards her ship.  Life just got much more interesting.

Maul watched Daia intently as she left the room.  Why had a Jedi come into his throne room and offered to work for him?  Something must not be right.  He'll keep watching her until he finds out what it is.  

His counterpart finally came up from behind him to speak.  "Brother, she's lying to us.  No smuggler would be wrapped in the Force like that.  Why keep her here?"

Maul regarded his brother’s words for a moment before speaking. "Sometimes it is best to keep your enemies close, Savage.”

“Is she an enemy, then?”

“I haven’t decided.”  Maul would be patient for now and see what comes of the woman who just lied to him.  He would deal with her later.