I'll do MaulAni later, so for now enjoy! This one's a little spicy and possibly triggering so I'm putting it under a cut. Don't like don't read, all that jazz:
Obi-wan squirms as he wakes, bound to the floor and slightly stuck from having been pressed to it for so long. He manages to shift up onto his knees, and catches sight of his captor. "You," He growls, lurching toward the young sith and being caught short by the chain, "you killed my Master!"
After a pause filled only with the sounds of Obi-wan's angry panting, Maul softly murmurs, "You're quite beautiful, you know. My Master never lets me keep beautiful things, I don't want to break you by being too rough the way he expects me to."
Warnings: Mentions of blood and bones breaking, Maul being Maul, not proofread
Summery: Nyletaks past comes to haunt her in a dream and Maul wants to know how her research is going.
A/n: I've been so lazy about writing this because I genuinely don't know how to continue it and I had to bull crap a lot of this I don't know what I'm talking about. Also I almost edited died the other day which was an experience (I'm not gonna stop talking about that for a few weeks lol)
Pt.1 Pt.2
The sound of soft crying reaches Nyletaks ears, but as she opens her eyes she's met with nothing but darkness. She stands, her paw like feet touch the floor and it's.... wet? Why is is wet? She lifts a foot to examine the substance and it looks like blood, dripping from her in globs. The thick dark fluid slows her movements as she tries to find the source of the crying, worried about who ever it could be. The voice is familiar to her, though she doesn't know why. But, why would there be a child here? Concern fills her chest as the quiet sobs begin to grow louder with each passing second.
"Why didn't you save me?"
The child's voice is suddenly clear and directly behind her. Nyletak turns so quickly that she nearly slips in the liquid. And she freezes when she sees them. Their several eyes look up at her pleadingly, their tears turning to blood. The child steps closer to her, their tone turning more desperate.
"Why did you let him hurt me?"
Nyletak wants to speak but her throat closes and she's unable to get the words out. She feels like she's starting to drown as blood drips from her own mouth. A look of horror creeps onto her face as a hand, shrouded in darkness, wraps itself around the child's neck and begins to to squeeze. The child starts to scream out strained sobs and pleas as another hand joins the first before the sickening crunch of bones echos in the stale void, followed by the thud and quiet splash of a lifeless body hitting the blood soaked ground. Nyletak wants to call out, to catch the the childs body, but she's stuck in place, unable to move or speak. The hands become visible again, this time attached to limbs and eventually a man can be seen standing over the body. His features were obscured by the darkness surrounding them, but his crooked smiles was perfectly visible to her, and it made her want to puke.
"It's all your fault." The man said, his voice sounded like a room full of people, all giving their harsh judgment. "It's all your fault." He repeats, and repeats, and repeats like a cruel chant. Nyletak can feel hands begin to tear at her, pulling her down into the depths. And yet she is still unable to move, even as the blood pools around her chest, then neck, then mouth, before she is completely submerged.
Nyletak jolts awake, a strangled gasp leaving her as she tries to regain her breath, frantically looking around the sterile room. It takes her a moment to realize where she is, the memories of the prior day flooding back into her racing mind. Oh. That was just a dream. She's pulled from her thoughts when the door the her chambers hisses open to reveal the woman she met the day before, Rook Kast, she believes her names was. Nyletak looks up at her from where she's seated, head tilting in curiosity. "May I help you?" She askes, setting her datapad down beside her. The woman stands there watching her for a moment before speaking up.
"Lord Maul demands your presence." She says flatly, then walks away, leaving Nyletak staring at where she stood. She pauses briefly before slowly rising to her feet and walking in the direction Kast went, her long legs carrying her quickly to where she and Maul stand waiting for her. Nyletak looks between them curiosly.
"You research. What have you found?" Maul demands more than asks. His expression is unreadable as his intense eyes bore into her.
"The historical archives on your vessel are vast, Lord Maul," she began, her soft voice a striking contrast to his sharp command. "But they are structured for war, not antiquity. It took some time to isolate the specific linguistic root of the glyphs from your cave pocket."
She lifted her datapad up, her clawed fingers tapping rhythmicly as she scrolls through the glowing blue text before projecting a small, translucent holographic map between them.
"The runes you found are not a curse, nor are they a mere territorial marker," Nyletak explained, her top three eyes tracking the coordinates dancing across the hologram while her lower two remained fixed on Maul. "They are an itinerary. A set of ancient celestial coordinates mapping a forgotten hyper-lane. The text speaks of a repository—a vault left behind by an era that predates both the Republic and your modern sectors."
Rook Kast stepped closer to the holotable, her helmet tilting as she examined the projected coordinates, her visor relfecting the information being presented. "A vault? What kind of cargo?"
"The text is fragmented," Nyletak replied, her braids swaying slightly as she shook her head. "But it mentions a 'reservoir of unyielding force.' I believe whatever is hidden at the end of these coordinates is whatever you've been searching for,, Lord Maul."
Maul stepped into the blue light of the hologram, bathing his black and red skin a soft glow, his molten yellow eyes reflecting the light of the coordinates. He didn't look at the map, he looked directly at her. His perfectly repaired legs held his weight flawlessly as he leaned in, his voice dropping into a dangerous, low rumble.
"You translate dead languages with the ease of someone who speaks them daily, Nyletak," Maul murmured, his gaze sharpening with scrutiny. "And you speak of vaults and ancient eras as if they are your own history. Tell me... how does a simple 'traveler' possess the the ability to effortlessly decode information hidden from the rest of the galaxy for millennia?"
Nyletak blinks down at him, her face plates shifting slightly. "It is my passion." She replies as if it were something obvious. "I have been researching things like these for decades. Why that so odd to you?" Her bright orange eyes seem to glow as they fixate on him.Maul’s jaw tightened, his brow furrowing into a deep, irritated scowl. He stared at her, waiting for a twitch, a flicker of fear, or some sign of deceit in her five wide eyes. But she remained as steady and frim as an ancient tree.
"A passion?" he echoed, the word tasting utterly ridiculous on his tongue.To a man whose entire existence was forged in the fires of hatred, betrayal, and military conquest, the concept of doing something purely out of passion or academic curiosity was completely alien. He didn't believe her for a second, but he also couldn't find a single crack in her armor to prove she was lying.
Rook Kast let out a low, barely audible grunt through her helmet's vocoder—a sound that was a mix of disbelief and a strange, budding respect for the sheer nerve of the giant woman.
"I find it odd because, Nyletak," Maul hissed, stepping even closer until he was nearly in her space, his voice a lethal, warning growl, "in this galaxy, knowledge of this caliber is a weapon. And those who carry weapons always have a purpose. Do not insult my intelligence by pretending you are merely a traveling researcher."
Nyletak didn't step back. Her faceplates shifted softly, a subtle expression that might have been a tiny hint of amusement, though her voice remained perfectly gentle. "A weapon is only a weapon if you choose to swing it, Lord Maul. To me, it is is preserving history that would otherwisebe forgotten. And right now, my passion is the only thing capable of charting your course."
She lightly tapped the edge of the datapad, and the holographic map flickered, zooming in on a sharp, jagged coordinate point in the deep Outer Rim.
"The vault is located on an atmospheric anomaly moon," she continued, smoothly steering the conversation back to the mission before his temper could flare any hotter. "The landing will be treacherous, and the terrain around the structure is heavily guarded by natural barriers. If you wish to go, we should prepare immediately."
Maul tracked the movement of her long fingers across the glass, his yellow eyes burning. She was deflecting, masking her secrets behind her utility, and it was working perfectly. He needed her.
He broke his gaze from her face and looked down at the coordinate point glowing red in the blue lit room. "Kast. Prepare the gauntlet transport for immediate departure. We leave for these coordinates within the hour."
"At once, My Lord," Rook replied, snapping a sharp salute before turning on her heel and marching out of the room to rally the commandos.
Maul turned his back to Nyletak, his gaze searching for any cracks in her infuriatingly calm demeanor. "You will accompany the vanguard on the surface," he commanded coldly. "If your 'passion' has misread a single rune, I will leave you on that moon to become part of its history."
"I would expect nothing less," Nyletak murmured flatly with a small nod.
(This is almost certainly not what you had in mind 🙈)
Colored lights glitter in reflections from yellow eyes, and Dogma closes in on his quarry. Maul retreats further, backing into a corridor slightly away from the bustle of the club. "Don't tell them," he asks softly, his connection to the force- both dark and light- still fleeting at best after his encounter with his former Master; he reaches out to stop Dogma from activating his comm, "you know what they'll do to me if they find me."
Dogma narrows his eyes, the snarled instructions from his trainers echoing in his ears as he yanks his wrist away and calls it in, "He's here, Lieutenant!"
Maul shudders as the darkness closes in around him, the stress of having been on the run finally catching up with him, and the last thing he sees is more troopers joining Dogma to take him into custody.
