- 24 BBY -
- Lothal, Outer Rim -
Maul looks at the Loth-wolves knowingly. He narrows his eyes, understanding that these wolves, who are connected to the World Between Worlds and can travel through them, are doing the Force's will. He has come to understand the Force and how it works better than anyone before. It is all thanks to his Essence, and while the Force doesn't know that, it does understand that he has started to grow. Now, he is here, ready to access an extra-dimensional plane within the Force that serves as a collection of doors and pathways, existing between time and space, and linking all moments in time together. Within it, he would be invincible and nigh-omnipresent.
"I know why you're here. Your fears are warranted. I will access the WBW, and there is nothing you can do about it. I was deprived of my chance, and you made sure that my potential was halved. I have abstained from delving into the midi-chlorians research and studying how to create life. But should you interfere here, you had better kill me, because if you don't... I will ruin everything you've tried so hard to build."
Maul talks to the wolves, but he is addressing the Force itself.
"I know what you want, and despite what you may fear, I have no interest in Anakin Skywalker... yet. But that may change. Your prized pawn is not as invincible and protected as you would like it to be. So, how about we don't find out where this would lead and agree to a ceasefire?"
Unlike Darth Plagueis, for example, who delved so deeply into the creation of life and the manipulation of midi-chlorians that the Force stopped responding to his call, Maul is not dependent on that. Even if the Force stopped reacting to his pulls, he has limitless ways of either manipulating the Force through technology or harming what the Force wants, thereby preventing its plans from coming to fruition. And the Force is well aware.
The Loth-wolves growl, but don't attack. They run off, not bothering Maul and his endeavour. Maul looks surprised. He was only talking to stall for time as he was preparing the devices he had prepared beforehand. It seems he talked the Force out of challenging him. That had to be a statement of his newfound coolness.
He turns towards the painting and touches the Daughter's hand, using the Force to activate it. The painting lights up and rotates slightly, bringing the lines together. The Daughter's head turns to her father, and her voice is heard.
~We are the ones who guard the power. We are the middle, the beginning, and the end.~
The Father, whose hand was pointing upwards, moves and points at the hand of the Son. Then the loth-wolves come alive and look at Maul, starting to walk across the wall, to the right. They walk further and then begin forming a circle on the wall. Maul smiles, seeing this, and takes a step forward, finally reaching the World Between Worlds.
.
Maul stands on the path inside the void and suddenly experiences something he has never had: A loss of control and an almost uncanny flush of information into his mind that almost takes all of the capacity he holds. All that he sees, everything around him, is observed by him and understood by Maul thanks to his Essence. And there are several things that help him with this.
Perfect memory with infinite storage
Beyond genius-level intellect
Infinite potential to learn, discover and invent new things
The intuitive ability to break down and understand complicated subjects, principles and objects through observation.
Observation... that's it.
Maul stands there with his eyes widened and his feet rooted to the ground. He doesn't move, he doesn't say anything, and he doesn't even breathe. If he didn't have infinite storage inside his mind, he would be overwhelmed by this experience. However, he is not. He instinctively enters his fugue-like state, where all of his abilities are enhanced 10 times, which is enough to finish the process.
"Haaaaa... haaaaa... haaaaa..."
Maul suddenly takes deep breaths as he exits his state of hyperawareness.
"Ha... Hahaha... HAHAHAHAHAHAHA... Oh, my. What a rush that was. Who would have thought that my Essence was not only just powerful, but outrageously broken?"
Maul was not here because he wanted to have intercourse or to quench his lust. Getting his legs back was imperative as his potential in the Force had been literally cut in half by Obi-Wan 'have your extremities removed' Kenobi. And he was here now, to change that again. But not only that. He could regenerate his legs quite easily enough. But it wasn't just about that. If there were a tool like this to access the World Between Worlds, anyone could change anything. So who is to say that someone won't be sent here to deal with Maul? Naturally, Maul can't allow that, so he has arrived early.
Voices of different people in his past, present and future can be heard throughout the dimension. The experience one has inside here is different for each individual. He walks around the paths and looks at the first portal, which shows him a moment from his history. He sees his young self and Darth Sidious looking at him, smiling as he feels his Force-sensitivity and potential. His mother, Mother Talzin, was a short ally of Sidious. They exchanged knowledge of the Dark Side and magick. Maul remembers the fear he had at the increasing bond his mother had with Sidious and how it turned out to be correct.
Maul moves on.
He sees a moment of his training, when Darth Sidious and his Master, Darth Plagueis, put him through. He sees the torture that he experienced and how he used his ever-growing anger to survive. Just like he survived this time, in the junk of Lotho Minor.
In another portal, Maul sees for the first time when he hunted a Jedi. His bloodlust had been running rampant with him, and Sidious set him on the path to satiate it. It was only a Padawan, but it was a Jedi nonetheless. A Twi'lek named Eldra Kaitis was the Padawan in question and one who had been quite close to the Dark Side herself. She was cunning, fast and strong with the Force, but she wasn't Maul's equal. He observes the moment when he impaled his lightsaber through her and killed his first Jedi.
Maul, in the present, thinks fast and uses the Force to pull the lightsaber from the dead Eldra Kaitis into the World Between Worlds. It never hurts to have more kyber crystals. He moves on to more moments of his life until he finally reaches the fateful encounter on Naboo.
He sees himself engaging in a lightsaber duel with both Qui-Gon Jinn and his Padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi. He sees himself taking advantage of their separation and engaging Jinn in a one-on-one battle. Maul watches as his past self punches the Jedi in the face and then stabs him through the torso, mortally wounding him.
'NOOOOOOOOO!!'
Maul hears the voice of Kenobi. When Kenobi finally caught up, the two engaged in a fierce fight, with Kenobi driven by anger and grief over the death of his master and friend. Although Kenobi slices Maul's double-bladed lightsaber in half, leaving him with only one blade, Maul disarms Kenobi and Force-pushes him over the edge of a vast reactor shaft. When Maul's past self kicks Kenobi's lightsaber into the shaft below, the present Maul pulls it into the World Between Worlds as well, adding another one to the pile.
Maul then concentrates and prepares for the next moment. He watches as Kenobi uses the Force to jump back up, pull Jinn's lightsaber into his hand and slice the blade through past Maul's waist, cutting him in half. In the same instance, the current Maul reaches out using the Force and connects to the cells of his lower half, using the Force to keep the midi-chlorians alive. He doesn't pull his past body back in yet and allows his past self to fall into the shaft.
As soon as Kenobi runs to his dying Master, the present Maul acts. He uses the Force and pulls both his legs into the World Between Worlds, still feeding the cells enough energy to sustain them and prevent the midi-chlorians from dying. Then he gets to work.
He sets up the instant lab, which is a very small set of tools and a table, and he can function on his own. He has his lower half floating in the air and starts the process. Mechanical arms start to remove the bindings from his mechanical legs and cut off the skin. His tendons and muscles, as well as all the nerves and blood vessels, are cut open again. He acts slowly and precisely, lowering his biological legs below and having the droids do their thing.
Unlike what he did on Lotho Minor, he can't knock himself out, as he needs to keep the cells alive. He pushes through the pain and only feeds on it, making himself stronger until a different set of meds and anaesthetics are injected that lower the pain somewhat.
...
After a few hours, the process is finished, and Maul can feel that the last stage has arrived. He allows the Force to flow through his entire body, using what he learned about Force Healing. He places his hands on his waist and uses healing. It appears as though he is using Force lightning, as he pumps the Force through the shatterpoints on his body, to heal it. XoXaan was a skilled dark side healer, but not perfect. From her and the other Sith Lords' teachings, Maul developed the Dark Side ability Dark Transfer on his own. He figured it out himself.
The missing skin and tissue are slowly regenerated, and everything connects back together, finally making Maul whole again.
Slowly, Maul takes the first true step in years. It has been so long since he had. A wave of power flows through him, as he feels his previous potential return to him. His midi-chlorians have been doubled, and with the knowledge he now possesses, his future is limitless. He can do so much now. The truth is, he could have done that before as well, but having more midi-chlorians is like having more talent and a stronger connection to the Force. But Maul's understanding of the Force allowed him to tap into it more than someone with his number of midi-chlorians usually would. The speed of his progress, after he woke up with the Essence, was not slower than Anakin Skywalker's. It all depends on what you know, at least for him.
However, the most crucial part is about to come now.
.
Maul looks into the portal again, watching as his body lies on the bottom of the shaft, semi-awake. He takes both ends of his previous lightsabers, adding two more to his arsenal. Then he takes out the Holocron 'Mind Reader', which he has used to decode, store and collect the spirits of Sith and Jedi alike. But he's not finished yet. He grabs his upper body from the past and attaches several cables to his past upper body, as well as to his current head. Then he activates the new feature of the Holocron.
With a low growl, the 'Mind Reader' starts to activate, and the spirit of the past Maul begins to be absorbed. That's right, Maul is doing what he shouldn't and eliminates his own past from the equation. And yet, that is precisely what he wants. The question is, will he still exist? Or will he suddenly face out into nothingness?
...
A second later, his prediction comes to pass as he begins to face out into nothingness. Maul smiles. Indeed, he smiles, unlike what one would expect from someone who eliminated himself from existence. However, the truth of the matter is that, no matter the outcome, he was ready for it. The 'Mind Reader' works overtime, and a moment later, Maul dissolves as if he had never been present at all. But that's not true.
The body of the 'past Maul' is still present. And while the Mind Reader was something the now, past-present Maul created after he awoke with his Essence, the last order is still going on, as it slowly fades as well. The upper body of Maul shines as almost endless amounts of information are pumped into his mind and body. The collected spirits of both Jedi Masters and Sith Lords are used as pure energy to fuel the vitality and ignite the healing of Maul's half-body.
Like watching nanomachines work and assemble themselves, the legs of Maul are regenerated. But it doesn't stop there. The body, which is currently an empty husk, is filled as the spirit of Maul, the now past-present Maul, which was absorbed by the Mind Reader, is placed inside the body. And with it, his memories, the additional power of the Jedi and Sith spirits and his Essence of the Spark.
All the technology Maul brought with him and all that he created disappeared. Maul has reversed all of his own actions. And yet, he smiles ecstatically. Like a madman, high on spice, he grins and lets out a bellowing and dark laugh.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA..."
Because Maul has just checked on himself, he has achieved the unachievable. He has removed himself from the continuity of all time and space. Meaning he is now a living and walking paradox, who will no longer be affected by the World Between Worlds. His path is now truly his own. But that's not the end of it. He has not only regained his full body and his previous potential in the Force, but exceeded it by recreating his body with the spirits of past Jedi and Sith Lords. He doesn't know his precise midi-chlorian count, but it hardly matters now.
The only problem now is that he has to start over again. Years of building his base and technology were lost. But in Maul's mind, it was all worth it. Just how worth it is, only time will tell.
___________________________________
Some explanation: Yes, Maul retconned himself. But he basically jumped bodies between one and the other, taking all of his knowledge and the Essence with him to the 'past'. Just in case some want to call this my way of revising what I already wrote, I had planned to use the World Between Worlds long before I started writing the rest.
Maul is now a walking paradox and not included in the 'prophecies' or predictions of anyone, and that includes the Force. I know this shouldn't 'logically' be possible. But it's my story, take it or leave it. I wanted to solve the butterfly effect and the constant interference the Force would have had to stop Maul, as I saw it. So the tragedy of Plagueis won't happen. The spirits of the Jedi and Sith he stored in the 'Mind Reader' acted as a jump-start and fuel to regenerate himself and strengthen his own spirit by absorbing them.
I hope you can look past the logic behind it all and enjoy it.