The Unchronicled Adventures Of Ahsoka Tano, Book Ten

Chapter One Hundred And Three: Looking Back

Kanan couldn't either, and that seemed to make him even more irritable than he already was. "Now what?"

Maul's eyes narrowed fractionally, and he reached out to place his hand on the charcoal rock. It glowed a soft red beneath his fingers, and before long, the top of a slanted column set into the edge of the Temple began to retreat into the ground below them and subsequently slide down to meet them.

Ezra gasped in wonderment and drew closer as the column finally came to a stop at ground level, revealing a small platform. Maul joined him a moment later, but as Kanan made a move to do the same, the former Sith Lord stopped him.

"Only two," he chided him gently, holding up his index and middle fingers to further illustrate his point. "No more, no less."

"Yeah? Well these two come as a set," Kanan said, shoving him away. As he took Maul's place, he glanced back at Ahsoka. "You okay riding with Grandpa?"

Ahsoka nodded. "I'll be fine."

More than fine, she thought. This arrangement suited her for two very big reasons. Firstly, the less contact between Ezra and Maul, the better, and hopefully Kanan would be able to talk some sense into his apprentice while they were alone. Secondly, Ahsoka had some matters of her own to resolve with the former Sith Lord that were best discussed away from prying ears.

Maul pressed his hand to the stone surface again, and Ezra and Kanan began to rise up. Ahsoka could hear them bickering from a distance, but once they were too far away to make out individual words, she began to speak.

"Funny how it's always two – the Master and apprentice."

Maul remained indifferent on the outside, but she could sense that the casual yet oddly precise statement had piqued his curiosity. "That is the way of things."

"And even more funny how we find ourselves here fulfilling those roles to operate the Temple so many years after you tried to make me serve you in your grand scheme for revenge. And about that: tell me, Maul," Ahsoka said, her voice just a shade above an angry hiss, "how in the Force's name are you here? I killed you."

"One cannot simply banish a soul into the Netherworld," Maul told her, his voice level and unnervingly patient. "That takes old magic, which has regrettably been... lost to history."

Ahsoka bit her lip, suddenly overcome by recollections of Kaylira and Zannah and just how steep the cost had been to separate one from the other. Even now, the curse Kaylira had cast over Ahsoka for destroying her last chance at a full life held fast, hanging along with all the guilt over her conscience like a dark cloud.

"It is all a matter of balance. If not done according to the proper Sith rituals, when one returns," Maul continued, "another must take its place in the realm of the living. The boundaries between the Netherworld and the physical plane weaken until this finally comes to pass, often with the use of living beings as conduits."

Ahsoka's eyes widened as realization dawned on her. Kaylira... That's what she was: a specialized conduit for a spirit from one plane of existence to the next. And by sending Maul back...

"It just so happens that, thanks to that whole affair with Lord Bane and my earlier involvement, I was first in line. But I can tell you for a fact that a certain Lady Zannah is... rather angry about what happened with you and her so-called 'Heiress' – I would even say out for your blood."

A few sparks of lightning crackled along the edges of her fingertips; Ahsoka couldn't even remember summoning them. "I can kill you again. Easily. You have no mystic bond to the Netherworld of the Force to protect you now."

"But you won't. You need me." Maul's voice bore no trace of desperation or even the churning anger deep below the surface she had come to think of as one of his main traits – his words were a cool, self-certain statement of fact. "But what about you, Ahsoka Tano, who hides so much from sight?"

Maul's golden-red eyes stared into hers with piercing intensity, but she let nothing on. "What I hide I hide for good reason," she said finally.

She hadn't allowed herself to back down an inch, but she still knew deep down that he had won. And on top of that, try as she did to deny it, in some twisted way, it was because of him that Lux was still alive.

But that was when a flash of red high above them caught Ahsoka's attention, and that entire line of thought was buried behind more pressing concerns.

One of the Inquisitors was back. And he was after the holocron.

*

WOOHOO FINALLY A MOSTLY ORIGINAL CHAPTER... that was like 60% prewritten, thank you past self.

Let's start off with a bit of background information, shall we? According to Wookieepedia, the Varic system is in the same sector as the Malachor system. But due to a usually annoying lack of a map of the sector that works in my favor this time because nobody can prove me wrong, I decided to put them within a twenty-minute jump through hyperspace of each other. 

So yeah, Vader can get there quickly. *scrambles away from angry readers* IM SORRY BUT THE CONFRONTATION IS GONNA HAPPEN I CANT STOP IT NOW

Anyways, it was interesting to be able to get into Vader's head again. He hasn't had such a large role this book (well he has, just not in person. It's his aura hanging over everything Ahsoka does that we can blame for that) so therefore I haven't had to use his perspective much, despite really missing it. There's something so fun about writing the antagonists, I find, especially if they have a very prominent link to the protagonists as Maul and Anakin do to Ahsoka.

So yeah, we are now officially into the hundreds for chapters for this book! Hope you guys liked tonight's (or this morning's... huh, I'm actually unusually sane right now compared to the usual 2AM Sharron) quadruple update, and I'll do my best to post another triple tomorrow. But until then...

Do your best to shelter your apprentice from the influence of the Dark Side and may the Force be with you,

Sharron