Work Text:
Shortly after escaping Ahsoka Tano, Commander Rex, and the rest of the clones on the crashing Venator, during Order 66, Maul's stolen Republic Attack Shuttle exited hyperspace as it approached the crimson planet of Dathomir.
The former Sith Lord straightened in his seat as he steered the commandeered ship to the planet, until he soon found himself back in the now-abandoned Nightbrother village, which had been ravaged by the now decommissioned Separatist droid army. Landing the ship outside one of the monasteries, the roar of the engines caused thick clouds of dirt to swirl around the ship as it set down on the ground. Descending the ramp of his stolen ship, Maul took a moment to breathe in the air of his home planet and could still smell the stench of death, decay, and defeat.
It was a scent that sickened him to his stomach.
Not long ago, this was the sight of his greatest defeat at the hands of his old master, when he was forced to flee, after his mother sacrificed herself so that he might survive. Recalling that day made Maul's blood boil, and his hands clenched into tight fists as he watched General Grievous drive two Jedi blades into his mother's chest, his maniacal laughter echoing in his mind as that mechanical monstrosity robbed him of his last true ally in the galaxy. And just like how he lost his brother, Savage on Mandalore, Maul was powerless to save the only two people in the galaxy he truly cared for.
Maul fell to his knees as he sank his head in defeat. His last hope of exacting revenge against his former master by orchestrating the Siege of Mandalore had failed. The Jedi he had sought, Obi-Wan Kenobi and his young foal, Anakin Skywalker, the so-called Chosen One of the Jedi, were who Maul wanted to lure to Mandalore so that he could not only exact revenge against the Jedi who cut him in half and robbed him of the destiny he had been promised as a child, but also against his former master, Sidious, but killing the one he had been grooming to become his next expendable apprentice.
Had his plan succeeded, he would've killed two birds with one stone.
But, of course, that never happened. Instead, they sent a child to deal with him, and with his plan in tatters and his Mandalorian Super Commandos all dead or imprisoned by the new regime, Maul was now alone in the galaxy.
He had lost everything.
The Sith Lord who had taken him from his mother, trained him like a savage animal, filled him full of hatred and rage, only to dispose of him when he had found a replacement in the form of the late Count Dooku, caused Maul to snarl. The Dark Lord who had undermined each of his victories over Death Watch, Mandalore, and the Shadow Collective...
...the Sith Lord who killed his brother, mother, his entire clan, and laid waste to his criminal empire, now happily rested upon the throne as emperor of the galaxy. That Sith was responsible for much of Maul's misfortune.
His place in the galaxy was now uncertain. However, Maul refused to admit defeat; he would exact his revenge against Sidious and Kenobi (if the Jedi still lived). With renewed strength, Maul rose to his feet and before he departing the momentary that held the echoes of his last encounter with his former master and where he witnessed his mother being slain, Maul recalled what he said on Mandalore when he had interrogated the clone trooper—Jesse.
"I can thrive in the chaos that is to come," he muttered to himself. Nodding to himself, Maul then assured himself further. "And thrive I shall." He would find and reunite with old, yet loyal allies from his shattered Shadow Collective and transform them into a new crime syndicate. A hidden empire, one that would one day rise to challenge Darth Sidious and the disgraced former Jedi, Skywalker.
Maul would see to it that all of his enemies would pay.
But if he were to live to see his vengeance exacted, there was much work that needed to be done. Swiftly turning on his cybernetic heels, Maul made his way back to the Republic Attack Shuttle and flew off to the darkened Nightsister stronghold. If he were to find his old allies, he would need the use of the Nightsisters' magicks. Fortunately for him, his mother had a vast trove of tomes and texts on how to perform foresight, which would allow him to pierce the veil of reality and find where his loyal allies were.
Maul knew that the journey ahead of him would be long and fraught with peril. Yet he swore that he would not die until he would exact his revenge, and perhaps gain some measure of peace in the effort.