- 30 BBY -
- Lotho Minor -
*Zzzzz*
The welder loses power and shuts off. It doesn't matter, though, as Maul has finished creating his modified medical droid. He used parts and droid brains from both the EV-series droid and a 2-1B surgical droid. He took out the droid brain from another droid and then wiped it clean. Afterwards, he uploaded the knowledge that the other two had to give his medical droid a solid foundation for surgery.
Maul attaches the cables from his small encoder, which he constructed, to the droid brain of his MMD-1 droid. His fingers shoot across the keyboard, continuing the programming he has envisioned for his droid. Something he will make sure of is not to be betrayed, not again. To do that, he will surround himself with people who look for weaknesses and will most definitely want to take advantage of him, as he will expect them to betray him and will therefore be predictable and those few who won't betray him. Since there are only one or two people who won't betray him, he has to use droids. And to do that, he needs to program it to his liking.
*Click*
*boop... boop... boop boop*
The medical droid powers up, utilising the last power cell Maul had acquired. He calculated that it should be more than enough to perform the surgery, and after that, he would have to find a new energy source. Energy was a good point he has to address after he can finally walk again.
{Greetings, Master. Would you like to give me a name?}
"You shall be known as Maul Medical Droid-1, designated MMD-1," Maul answers.
{Understood. I was programmed to assist you in any way you require, but I specialise in many forms of medical procedures. How may I be of service?}
"You are going to perform surgery and attach the prosthetics I created to my lower half. I am sure you know how to do that, as I have uploaded the information to your brain directly."
{Indeed. Would you like me to start right away?}
"Yes. The sooner, the better. Make sure there is no mistake, or I'll turn you to scrap again."
{I am programmed not to fail, Master. I shall follow through.}
Maul did indeed program MMD-1 not to fail and set failing as not doing Maul's will. It was his way of coding 'loyalty' into the droid. Maul lies on the table. The necessary tools are ready, and most of them are already attached to the MMD-1, so no additional ones are required. Maul raises a metal bar he has prepared beforehand and uses the Force to smash it against his head.
*BANG*
He knocks himself out. Seeing Maul unconscious, MMD-1 gets to work. With experienced movements, the droid grabs the prosthetics and starts the procedure. He unsheathes the various scalpels Maul created and heats them up. He moves towards the cauterised wound where Kenobi's lightsaber cut Maul into two pieces and cuts off the lowest bit of skin and scarred tissue. MMD-1 needs to access Maul's nerves and vertebrae. The heated scalpel cuts through Maul's skin and tissue and makes the former Sith bleed profusely. He has to act fast and attach the prosthetics.
MMD-1 operates without stopping and without making a single mistake. He attaches the nerves after arranging them perfectly and connects them to the cables from the prosthetic. He fuses them, connecting them and allowing electricity to pass from one to the other. The vertebrae are also fixed in place, securing it and stabilising it, granting Maul the same flexibility and balance he would have had if he were still intact. Nothing could replace the real biological body, but this would come quite close.
After more than three hours, the surgery is complete, and MMD-1 is attaching the girdle framework of durasteel and fibre mesh to close everything off. Now, Maul would either survive and finally walk again or die due to blood loss. However, the Dathomirian survived two years in his severed state and the radiation-filled Lotho Minor without dying. He would survive this as well.
.
Maul opens his eyes after a few more hours. He feels tremendous pain from his wound, but pushes through it. He is accustomed to pain, so this will not hinder him. He sits up, for the first time in two years and looks at his metallic legs. A big smile makes its way on his face, showing his happiness at having come this far.
He crosses his legs and enters a meditative state. He might be a scientist now, but he is also a relatively powerful Force user, and he would never allow himself to lose something or fail to utilise his power if he had access to it. He doesn't hover; he uses the Dark Side only. He finds the notion of 'choosing sides' to be ridiculous and pointless. He opens a connection to the Force and allows it to flow through his body, then through his prosthetics, accelerating his natural healing process and eliminating any potential infections.
His anger has mellowed considerably. He has grown weaker than before in terms of pure power, but he can tell that there is potential in his new state of being. No longer limited to one side, no longer a slave to his anger and obsession with killing Kenobi.
A sudden pull takes Maul out of meditation. Something is calling out to him, something that tries to whisper in his ear and wants to be used. Not the Dark Side per se, something... smaller. Maul opens his eyes and stands up, making sure to move slowly and not fall. He checks the technology he created and takes slow steps, moving out of the forward cargo hold of the large freighter. Maul nods his head, content with what he created out of junk he found on Lotho Minor. This may not seem like much, but it's very impressive, to say the least.
He increases his speed gradually and leaves the freighter. He has already consumed his 'meal' and will have to find more food soon. But right now, he is following the small ping that's calling him. The connection pulls him across the acidic ways, through piles of trash and wreckage and along the pools of sludge. He feels that whatever is calling out to him comes from beneath the toxic water. Maul takes a deep breath and jumps in, diving deeper into the pool of toxic waste and continues to follow the feeling he has. He can't see his hand in front of his face, so he is swimming blindly.
Visions assault his mind. Visions of the past, when he was on Dathormir, when he was with his mother. He sees her face, hears her words and sees the first time he met Darth Sidious. The torture he went through and the lightsaber he trained with... his hand reaches out and he grabs the black handle in his vision.
"HAAAAA"
Maul takes a deep breath as he finds himself suddenly above the water, back in reality. In his hand, he sees half of his lightsaber, which he fell down the shaft with. His lightsaber... It followed him here to this forsaken planet and made its way to his hand once more. Maul swims back to shore and shakes the water off of him and out of his eyes, stopping the burning he feels. He stares at the lightsaber and feels the red bleeding crystal inside it. With a thought, he ignites it.
*TSSCHHHH*
The red blade appears, bleeding and oozing his former rage. Maul looks at it and lets his thoughts wander. He was worried about energy a moment ago, and now he has a lightsaber crystal. But there might be a problem with that. If a kyber crystal is subjected to forceful attempts to study it or harness its power, it would "flee" such attempts, hindering those that seek to use it against its will. They are, in a way, alive. Furthermore, those who work in proximity to them would experience headaches and a loss of sleep, becoming incessantly fanatic and fixated over the crystal in the process. Maul, however, has no interest in letting that happen and has plans in mind to prevent that. And yet, there is more still.
He feels as if the lightsaber is no longer suitable for him. As if something is missing. It might be because he only has half of his original one, but Maul feels that's not the case. There is something fundamentally wrong with the bleeding now—something he wishes to rectify. So he will. He makes his way back to the bulk freighter, which acts as his current base of operations. He makes his way to an open area, where he can use it, and then, without further ado, sits down on the ground and places his lightsaber on the floor in front of him.
He reenters meditation and opens a connection to the Force. He will not allow the Force to dictate to him what it wants, and is not interested in philosophical debates of any kind. He only wants to use it for his purposes. So he allows the Force to fill his entire being and flow through the lightsaber and the kyber crystal. He tries to find out what is wrong with it, and quite early on, he realises what the problem is. The problem lies in the process of 'bleeding'.
Maul recites what he knows about bleeding and what his former Master once told him: 'Since kyber crystals are naturally attuned to the Light Side of the Force, those who serve the Dark Side must follow a different path. First, they must seize a pure crystal from the lightsaber of a Jedi they have vanquished in combat—for the saber of a Sith is not given. It is taken. Then, they must infuse that crystal with their pain, anger, and hatred, bending it to their will. This corrupts the crystal, aligning it with the Dark Side and making it bleed with unbridled crimson power. The bleeding process can yield unpredictable results. Some crystals shatter, making their energies unstable and unpredictable. Others resist their realignment, refusing to be bent toward the darkness. Once a crystal has been properly bled, the primal power it releases becomes not only a deadly instrument in the hands of a Sith Lord, but a symbol of their true strength in the Dark Side.'
That's what's bothering Maul at the moment. His kyber crystal is corrupted and bleeding, aligning it with the Dark Side. But he is no longer the same as before; he is no longer Darth Maul, Apprentice of the Sith. He is now just Maul, and that doesn't work very well. So he has to change that. Besides, why would Maul, with his current mindset, with the Essence of the Spark and his memories, want to work with a damaged and corrupted crystal? Nevertheless, there is something his brilliant mind has just come up with and wishes to try.
Maul immerses himself deeper into the Force. The Jedi meditate to quiet their minds and connect with the Force; Sith Lords meditate to concentrate their anger, fear, and hatred into a pure point of ruthless power within themselves. As meditation is intended to foster a stronger and more direct connection with the Force, it can sometimes affect one's surroundings without the practitioner's conscious control, as is happening with Maul right now. The Dathomirian allows himself to dive deep and connect with the Cosmic Force, focusing on what he wants to achieve. It shouldn't be possible, according to the current knowledge of the Jedi or Sith, but since when has something not been considered impossible before someone did it?
Maul's connection to the Dark Side of the Force has diminished significantly, and with it, his power; however, his understanding has never been greater, allowing him to use this moment as an opportunity for learning. His deep meditative state causes the surrounding wreckage and junk, as well as Maul himself, to levitate. He pulls the Cosmic Force into him, flushes his system with it, thereby aligning it to his personal 'signature' and then guides it towards his lightsaber. He floods the kyber crystal with the Force and uses his new 'alignment' in the Force to change it. Maul is using an application of 'purification' that he knows, thanks to memories from his past life.
Gretta was a human individual born on Jedha to a family of Fallanassi. At one point, she found the kyber crystal specialist Cuata and learned from him. She was the one who helped Luke find a kyber crystal. She told Luke the following: 'To heal it, you do the opposite. Use the lightside and your joy and hope to create resonance that offsets the pain caused by the bleeding. It's not a battle. It's soothing. A calming. A healing.'
Maul is doing this, but not the same way as the Jedi would. Because Gretta says another thing: 'To heal the crystal, you must connect deeply with the Dark Side user whose suffering created it.'
Maul's own suffering created his bleeding kyber crystal, and now he is using his new state, his new presence, to heal the damage done, without fully restoring the crystal to the Light Side. Why would he? Maul is not a good guy suddenly; he hasn't been turned into a Jedi. No, there is now simply more to him than just his rage. But he still possesses his anger and the potential for great violence. He is not someone else, but new. A new man, like Agent Smith, would say. Unplugged from the slavery that is the pure Dark Side and free to make his own decisions based on reason and logic, and not anger and fear.
The process was unprecedented in the galaxy's history. The deep red state of Maul's kyber crystal was starting to change. The lightsaber falls into its different components, and from all around the area, more and more small pieces of metal and isolators, as well as pieces that make up a miniature containment device, fly through the air and towards Maul.
Galen Erso, a human male scientist and leading galactic authority on crystallography and energy enrichment, who would soon become important, theorised that increased energy yield from kyber crystals could be further attained by forcing what the Jedi called the "day and night" lattices of the Force to realign. By realigning the crystals' lattices along the dark or nighttime axis of the Force, Galen postulated that it could allow for greater control over the crystals' tendency to diffract. Thus, technology could be used to force the crystals to obey their masters. The abundant yield could then be siphoned off, contained, and used as enriched energy.
And Maul is doing precisely that, but from the other direction.
Maul is learning as the process goes on, and suddenly has it figured out. He pushes on and doesn't stop right at the perfect moment. Unconsciously, Maul selects the best parts that have flown through the area, coming from distant parts of Lotho Minor, and begins recreating his lightsaber. The new Maul deserves a new lightsaber.
...
Finally, he is done. The finished product is complete, and Maul opens his eyes.
He grabs the lightsaber and feels a deep connection to it. He also instinctively knows what he will call it: the Claw. He ignites his lightsaber for the first time.
[Picture]
The blade can only be described as molten orange. It burns with a fierce, smouldering glow, humming with power; not as corrupted and aggressive as Sith red, nor as passive and calm as Jedi yellow. The colour suggests Maul walks the edge between light and dark, someone driven by intense emotions, which include anger, but is not consumed by them. Maul compares it to a dying star: volatile, powerful, and about to unleash what it has stored inside.