And who is going to kill him? [Maul asked softly, the contempt clear in his voice.] You?

[Enraging as it was to think about, Maul knew for a fact he was not strong enough to take revenge on his master in such a manner. Not anymore. Maybe once when he had been young and full of fire, prepared to kill his master to become one himself. But a single stroke of Kenobi's blade had taken part of that from him forever.

Now he had only enough to keep himself alive and not much more. He doubted Vader, trapped within the shell he saw, had enough within him to kill Sidious either.]

[Maul shook his head emphatically no.]

I would if I thought I had any chance of coming out of such an encounter alive instead of ending up deader than an icicle on Mustafar.

[He gave Vader a once-over look and whatever he was looking for he didn't find. There was something....lacking in his master's latest apprentice.]

I doubt you will either.

That arrogance will be your undoing. Others have tried to kill him. Smarter and stronger than both of us. Where are all of them?

[He made a sharp cutting motion with his hand in the air.]

No more. And that's exactly what will happen to you when you go up against him.

[The mention of Obi-Wan suddenly made Maul's head jerk up. Though he tried to keep his voice even, he failed miserably, and it was easy to tell how the name had grabbed his attention.]

Obi-Wan? I thought he died during the Purge.

[It wasn't possible his old foe was still alive now, was it?]

I thought as you did once. But everyone is replaceable to him. Eventually, he will discard you, and you will have failed to kill him before that point.

He lives? [Maul at first sounded astonished.] He lives!

[Then he began to laugh and there was years of insanity in that sound which had built up after being left on Lotho Minor for years on end. Just because his mother had healed his mind didn't mean there hadn't been trauma leftover from years of deteriorating. When he was done giggling like a loon, he looked over to Vader.]

For someone who is supposedly a Jedi, he certainly is good at mutilating people while leaving them alive to suffer. Whoever gets to him first shall get their revenge. And I am supremely good at getting what I want.

Inquisitors? Hah! They shall fall against him like wheat to the scythe.

[He snorted contemptuously.]

They might as well still be Jedi for such poor disciples as they are for the Dark Side. Their Force signatures bleed thin and grey around the edges as if always encouraging them back to the light. The last one who thought me to be an easy target soon learned otherwise.

[He smiled at the memory.]

They were more useful in death than in life, for I was able to take the kyber crystals of their ridiculous weapon and form a new lightsaber for myself.

What shall you do with them all when that usefulness is done?

[He already knew. He just wanted to hear Vader say it. They'd all be destroyed. The Sith did not keep anyone around who might usurp them or prove to be a threat, even if it was a small one.]

I have never heard of such a ritual before.

[He felt intrigued. The Sith generally believed there was nothing after death waiting for them, so to prolong the spirit? That was something he'd never heard of before.]

If any of them come after me again, I shall thin their numbers further. [There was a beat.] You can thank me later.

He never taught me that.

[Then again, what Sidious hadn't taught Maul could fill a small library. Which was of course one of the reasons Maul had taken the opportunity to read forbidden Sith Lore whenever he had the chance in Sidious's personal library. If his master wouldn't teach him, he'd learn about it on his own.]

Of course, his obsession with immortality made him keep much knowledge to himself.

[Maul gave a longer look at Vader, studying his profile carefully. He'd thought him just his master's little lapdog but perhaps there was more initiative beneath that armored surface than he'd initially thought.]

I am not certain. If he was, he must have killed him when I was still very young. I do recall meet a very old Muun that scared me even more than he did. The Dark Side swirled thickly around him. That might have been him.

It's easy to tell when he's lying. Just check to see if his mouth is moving.

[The sardonic look on Maul's face soon became a bit more serious.]

That wasn't quite how he told me the story of why he killed his master. Would you like to hear the version he told me?

[With his usual flair for dramatics, Maul told what he'd heard from Sidious in the form of a story. After all, they had plenty of time right now.]

Once upon a time, there was a young man who had darkness in his heart. He coveted power amongst all else and to that end he committed many monstrous acts to gain it. When he saw that his family stood in his way, he killed them all without thought. Over the years, he gained power but it was never enough. Always, he wanted more. Eventually, he realized that no matter how much power he possessed, he would lose it all when he died. And so he sought to gain immortality.

He eventually found a Sith Lord, very old and wise, who told him he had discovered the secret to living forever. "Become my apprentice, do everything that I command, and I will teach you my secret," he told the man. And so he did. Day after day, year after year, he obeyed the Sith Lord, committing many more atrocities in his quest to gain immortality.

He would often ask the Sith Lord, "Am I ready?"

The response was always the same. "Not yet."

After many years the man, no longer as young as he once was, began to grow impatient. He went to his master. "I have done all that you asked. Teach me what you promised."

The Sith Lord merely laughed in his face. "You will never be ready to learn."

The man felt rage rise up within him. "Why not?"

"Because only a Sith who has no fear can conquer death. But you? You will always fear dying no matter what you do and so you will never master the secret of immortality," the Sith Lord told him with contempt.

The Sith apprentice was furious. He felt he had been lied to and so he waited. His master never slept, for he had seen the future and knew he would die in his sleep, but his apprentice was cunning. Eventually, he got his master drunk, and the Sith Lord finally fell asleep. So the apprentice took up his lightsabers, stabbing his master in his hearts, and killing him. Only then did his anger abate and he realized he still did not know the secret to living forever.

He would spend the rest of his life seeking it out and never finding it, always shackled by his fear instead of facing it head on and conquering it instead. He used the power he'd acquired to create a vast empire that stretched throughout the entire galaxy but still it was not enough. Always he was afraid of what was to come at the end of his life. The End.

[He paused there.]

So how did that measure up to what he told you?