So sorry for not updating in weeks. I have my GCSE exams in a few weeks and I've been busy revising.
So far, everything was playing into Maul's hand just as he predicted. He not only had the clones distracted but now had both the Jedi advancing on him.
To the enemy it would seemed they had him pinned but in truth, Maul had no intentions of pressing forward down the dockyard to the ships. Maul was going to stay at dock 9 as long as need be, keeping the Jedi distracted.
Luke and Leia knew Maul would be a challenge, even for the two of them combined so they decided to strike at the same time, hoping to gain the element of surprise. They couldn't allow Maul to advance and take the war ships.
Their blue and green sabers crackled as they came into contact with Maul's double-bladed red saber. Blaster bolts still streaking past them, they focused all their energy into the coming fight.
Leia pulled her saber away first in order to swing at the Sith while she had the chance, but Maul, ever the more experience, saw what she planned to do and he manuvered his saver to block her blow, whilst the other side of the lightsaber was still locked with Luke's.
Following this, Luke pulled his own green saber away and threw his arm back before swinging it down with such a force, hoping to unbalance Maul's grip on his saber. This worked but not to the extent Luke would have liked. Maul braced for the impact of the lightsaber and adjusted his stance to accommodate for the blow.
Having trained together as a team since they were small, Luke and Leia knew a few tactics which worked in their favour. Leia quickly ducked down and went to swing at Maul's mechanical legs whilst Luke jumped up, swinging his saber at Maul's head. The idea was to catch the Sith between the two, he couldn't jump to avoid Leia's saber without being sliced by Luke's saber.
Unfortunately, Maul saw through this easily. Instead of jumping up and being caught between the two sabers, Maul dived forward through the gap the twins had left.
Now flanking the twins, Maul had the advantage as he whirled around, his roaring red saber bore down on the two from behind. Leia reacted just in time to turn around and raise her lightsaber to block it from slicing right through her like she was butter.
Luke, however, was less than a second behind and the edge of the red blade just nicked his arm, searing through his sleeve and burning a small streak across his arm. Recoiling as he hissed in pain, Luke backed away slightly to give his wound a once over to inspect how bad it was.
With Luke incapacitated momentarily, Leia had to hold her own against the Sith Lord, who acted fast now that one of the Jedi was out of the picture for a time. Leia blocked as many blows as she could but it was mostly blind luck that she wasn't cut down already. After a few near misses, Leia backed away enough to gain herself a few seconds to think of her next move.
By this time, Luke had inspected his wound and once he had determined that it was nothing too serious, he shrugged off the pain and jumped back into the fray. Maul growled viciously as he knew he had lost his advantage.
Manuvering the two Jedi away from the crossfire between the criminals and clones, Maul ducked into an adjacent hall, a docking corridor which lead into an incompleted ship.
Following the Sith Lord, their lightsabers raised and ready, Luke and Leia advanced after him, determined not to loose him or let him get away. With a snarling laugh, Maul sprinted to the door and ran into the incompleted ship. By the time the twins got there, Maul was nowhere to be seen, evidently having ran off into one of the many corridors of the ship.
The whole ship was on half power so the corridors were lit dimly, a few panels flickering now and then.
It seemed odd to them as they had always been told Maul was fearsome and never cowardly. He could have easily have stood his ground and fought against them in the corridor. So why then did was he leading them into some kind of wild bantha chase?
Their questions were cut short when the twins heard a haunting laugh echo down the left corridor. Though his motives were beyond the twins understanding, they didn't hesitate to follow after Maul's laughter.
They knew he had the advantage here with all these twists and turns. They could round a corner only to be sliced in half by the Sith Lord in an ambush. They just had to take the risk, if they let Maul gain any ground, he could escape them.
Both alert and awaiting attack, the twins followed Maul's cackle deep into the ship, passing entire sections of the ship that were non existent due to it having not been built yet.
After chasing Maul through the twisting corridors for what seemed like hours, the questions continued to surface. Luke wondered why Maul hadn't turned and faced them yet. He knew the Sith Lord liked to play cruel games but this just didn't make sense. As much as Luke didn't want to admit it, but Maul was an equal match for him and his sister, so why was he fleeing?
If he was going after the three completed ships, why was he leading them further into an incompleted ship, leading them away from the docking bay?
Luke stopped abruptly in the middle of a corridor, forcing Leia to skid to a halt, her lightsaber poised thinking Luke had seen something. She shot her brother a puzzled look, asking why he had stopped without warning.
"Why is he doing this?" Luke questioned quietly, hoping his voice wouldn't echo in the halls.
"Does it matter? He's getting away!" Leia hissed harshly, making to continue her persuit but Luke grabbed her wrist to stop her.
"If he needs the three cruisers, why is he leading us in the opposite direction? Why isn't he standing and fighting against us, he certainly has the advantage here?" Luke continued to try and piece together what was going on, "Unless he doesn't want us near the three cruisers... Whilst he is making us run around this ship, we are not protecting the three completed ships."
When Leia finally clicked and saw the truth in her brother's words, her face was struck with worry. Whilst they had been chasing Maul, his pirates and criminals could be taking the three Jedi Cruisers without any Jedi opposition.
"You keep running after Maul, keep him believing we are still chasing him. I'll get to cruisers as fast as I can. Hopefully there's still time before they're gone for good." Luke quickly formulated the plan, his sister nodding in agreement.
The twins embraced in a quick hug before they parted. It wasn't long or particularly comfortable considering they still had their lightsabers in hand. It was more of a please-don't-get-yourself-killed kind of hug. When the brother and sister broke away, they parted in the corridor, Leia running towards Maul's laughter and Luke running towards the docking bay.
***
Finding himself in the same corridor he and Leia had originally fought Maul in, Luke looked in horror at all the clones which were scattered on the floor, dead. A whole half battalion it seemed were down.
Thankfully, there was no sign of Commander Rex. Luke had known him since he was young and knowing Rex, he had likely taken the other half of the battalion and lead them into a retreat to safer ground. Rex may have always been down for a fight but he knew when the odds were against him and he wouldn't keep his men so exposed in a losing fight. Hopefully, he and the survivors had bunkered down somewhere.
The whole docking station seemed to have fallen silent which was never a good sign.
Knowing he could come across pirates at any corner, Luke held his lightsaber at arms but didn't ignite it as that would lightly alert the enemy to his presence.
With no one in sight, Luke dared to break out into a run down to the last few docking bays where the three ships were being held.
To his dismay, two of the three docking bays were empty, having already been hijacked and stolen by Maul's lackies.
But as Luke approached the last docking tunnel which lead into the ship, he heard voices. He went still, backing himself against the wall to listen for a moment and to formulate his plan of attack.
"Secure the cargo bay! Anyone damages that expensive coaxium, their head will be payment!" A woman's voice rung through the air.
"Yes mistress, right away," one of the minions replied rather sheepishly which was odd for a formidable bunch of mercenaries.
"And hurry it up droid!" The same woman snapped, followed by the distressed beeps of said droid, "The faster you hack this door and get it closed, the faster we can leave and I hate leaving everything up to chance!"
Then the woman fell eerily silent. Luke stopped still, hoping she had not heard him. Could she hear him? He had the stealth of a Jedi and she was the other side of a long corridor, surely she couldn't hear him. Then again, she could be from a race of people with sensitive hearing.
"Come out, Jedi, I know you're there."
"How did you know I was a Jedi?" Luke questioned as he walked coyly round the corner into the docking corridor.
In front of him, a few paces away was a woman, perhaps a few years younger than him, with firery red hair. Dressed in a snug black suit, she had one hand draped over a blaster which hung in a holster on her hip, the other hand was behind her back, as if she was hiding something.
Luke could sense something different about her. She wasn't a common criminal like most of Maul's lackies. She obviously had authority amongst them and held herself up high with power. Strangest of all was the pull of the force around her. He could sense she was strong with the force, especially the dark side.
"Only a Jedi would be foolish enough to think they could sneak up on me without being caught. None of my men would dare." She answered with a wicked smile.
"Who are you?" Luke pressed, advancing on the woman, ligniting his green lightsaber and poising in a defence position.
"The last face you will ever see." Was her only response as she took her hand from behind her back to reveal the hilt of a lightsaber.
Igniting it, it roared a vibrant purple which sparkled in her furious eyes as she advanced towards Luke.
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Also, like I said, I have exams pretty soon so I'm really sorry for my lack of updates. Thanks for putting up with me :3