Vader's second chance

Chapter 6

Once Maul was cut in half, the smell of burnt Zabrak flesh impossibly strong (Vader will forever be grateful for his respirator in that moment), Vader quickly grabbed the more important half and ran with his Jedi companions as the hangar crumbles around them, barely making it out the exit before a final explosion marks the official end of the building. As the force users gather their wits, they hear marching footsteps approach them.
Obi-wan takes note of the shadows advancing towards them from a nearby street. "It would appear our cover is blown."
"Thank you for that input padawan." Vader sarcastically remarks. He sets Maul down using the force and draws his saber, his companions following suit. Soon they were completely surrounded by droid forces. 'I am not going to be defeated by these disgraces to engineering.' Vader thinks to himself and shifts into a fighting stance when the mechanical army suddenly shuts down.

Hesitating for a moment, the force users put their weapons away and inspect the droids closest to them. Qui-Gon strides over to Vader. "It would appear your plan succeeded Lord Vader, and you have my thanks." He turns to Maul's prone form. "I did not think you would risk yourself for an enemy."
Sometimes an enemy is simply a misguided friend." Vader wisely states.
Qui-Gon walks with Vader as they move to exit the city. "Wise words."

To celebrate the victory over the Trade Federation and the newfound peace between the Gungans and the Naboolians, there was a parade. "I never liked parades. Too gaudy."
Padme chuckles from her place next to Vader. "That may be so, but it was necessary. The people wanted to celebrate. They love you."
Love. That was not traditionally a word used in the same sentence as Vader. Respect, maybe. Fear, absolutely. But love was reserved for people with families, loved ones and friends. Vader had nothing. "Excuse me." Vader leaves the revelries behind and heads for his room in the palace. On the way he sees Anakin playing with some children he had befriended while Shmi watched over him.

In his room, Vader finds himself slaving away over designs for Maul's prosthetic legs, wondering about how time works. 'Are certain events fixed, or was this purely coincidental?' He remembers the horrible things he has done during his years under Palpatine. 'No. This will not happen again.'
Vader was broken from his depressing line of thought by a protocol droid entering his chamber. "Our guest wishes to see you in the infirmary, Lord Vader."
Vader rises from his chair and follows the droid to the infirmary where Maul sits up on a bed glaring down at his missing appendages. He turns his glare to Vader when he enters. "You took my legs." Vader crosses his arms and looks down at the enraged Zabrak. "There are more pressing matters than your legs."
Maul growls before composing himself enough to ask the question that has been on his tongue since Tatooine. "You told me that I didn't know everything about my master, so tell me, what don't I know?"
Vader was searching for the words to explain when his gaze lands on his own saber. Unclipping it, he asks Maul his own question. "Did he ever teach you psychometry?" When Maul slowly nods, Vader tosses him the saber. With it in his hands, Maul focuses on the history the saber holds, and he sees terrible things. The death of Kirak Infil'a, soon followed by the other countless lives taken by this blade. The inquisitors. The rebels. Maul finally saw himself, older than he was, and frail, before reality came back into existence.

Looking up at Vader, Maul can't even be angry. The only emotion crossing his face was shock. "You are from the future." Vader nods. "Sidious would do away with me." Another nod.
Here, no work to be done, nothing to distract him and in the presence of another who suffered as he did, Vader lets it truly settle in his mind what Sidious had planned. 'He promised me power, revenge, everything. And what do I have to show for it? A dead wife, dead children, and nothing, but pain and death to my name!' Vader and Maul's rage accumulated within the force itself, invoking fear into the building's inhabitants. In that moment, Vader and Maul understood each other better than anyone else ever could.
Maul shifts himself to be sitting at the edge of his bed and extends Vader's saber to him. "What will you have me do, Master?"

Elsewhere

Darth Sidious is contacting the Viceroy. "Is it done?"
"The explosives we're placed in the hangar bay, as you suggested my lord." He nervously responds. "But your former apprentice was saved by the Jedi."
Sidious scowls. "That was no Jedi."
The Viceroy curiously steps forward. "Then what was he?"
"A nuisance that will be dealt with." He hangs up.