Morru was sound asleep when the first jolt of pain came.

She screamed.

*

Maul jerked into consciousness from his meditation.

*

"Morru," said a quiet, smooth, playful voice once she had stopped screaming. "Oh, Morruuuuuu…"

Morru came to and sat up, gasping, on the floor. She had fallen off the bed and not even realized it.

"Maldad," she said, unable to keep despair from her voice.

"Morru, it's tiiiiiime…." Maldad sing-songed into her room.

Morru swallowed. "Time for what?" she said, stalling.

"You're stalling," said Maldad.

There was silence. Morru wondered where the hell Maul was and why he was never around when she really needed him. It did not even occur to her that she had begun to view Darth Maul as her protector.

"I believe you know where my quarters are, Morru," said Maldad, sounding as though he were inviting her to join in a tea party. "Hurry up. I've tired of playing with everybody else on the ship. I'd much rather play with you for a while."

Maldad was quiet for a moment as that statement sank in. When Morru did not move, he began sing-songing once more. "If you don't come, something very bad could happen to your friends..."

Morru sighed and stood, resigned to the inevitable. She was rather proud of herself - she wasn't even shaking. Much.

"Come, come, come, come, coooooooome...." Maldad vocally danced across the comm system.

"All right - don't nag." Morru looked around her room, as though memorizing the lay-out. Not that there was much to memorize. She glanced up at the "night sky" - star-filled and fragrant, and thought that she had never hated her life so much as at this very moment. Morru stood a little straighter, swallowed hard, set her lips in a tight, straight line, and walked out the door.

Apparently, Maldad labored under the delusion that he could "persuade" her to do...well, what he wanted. He would find out he was wrong. As shaky as her situation was, Morru knew one thing for sure: when she died, she would do it with her honor intact.

***

Amidala's fighters were very fast indeed. Perhaps the Naboo's natural abhorrance of weapons made them more inclined to develop their mobile rather than offensive capabilities, but whatever the reason, their ships got to Anomaly first. Fifteen cruisers slid neatly out of hyperspace in a rough banana-like formation and flanked Anomaly's starboard side.

Captain Panaka stared in awe at the massive sight before him. All fifteen Naboo fighters could have fit neatly inside Anomaly's hull.

"So that's the Anomaly," he said, blinking at the turnip-shaped vessel floating before him. "Send a communication - try to get a response from Maldad," he ordered, hoping - and knowing better - that Maldad would feel like talking and be willing to bargain for the Chancellor and the Jedi. With a ship like that, if the crazy kidnapper decided to run - or fight, for that matter - there wouldn't be a whole lot the Naboo fleet could do to stop them.

And where in blazes was the Coruscant fleet?

There was no reponse from the purple ship. Nothing, although by now its sensors must have picked up their presence even if it hadn't received their communication attempts. Shields were up, the engines were at full power...they might as well as have been trying to hail an asteroid.

And then, as is often the case with such fiascos, Panaka's dilemma promptly complicated itself even futher. On the other side of Anomaly, flanking its port, seven cruisers of unusual design and dubious affiliation came out of hyper space as well.

"What the hell?" one of the bridge crew muttered.

Panaka's computer quickly identified the new ships. They belonged to a nasty group of Corellian vigilantes who were often hired out by - surprise - the Federation. Apparently, those damned Neimodians wanted their pet scientist back.

"Shit," Panaka said mildly as he scanned the readout.

"Who are those guys?" asked the lieutenant next to him. "They don't look like the Coruscant search party."

"They're not the Coruscant search party," Panaka confirmed. "They're Corellian space pirates, possibly hired out by the Federation - only the gods know why."

The young lieutenant blinked, concern growing on his features. "So where is the Coruscant party?"

"Don't know." Panaka fell silent.

"Well," the young man mused, "at least we have them considerably outnumbered. There are only seven of them." Panaka snorted. "Do you think that matters? Those are Corellian cruisers, lieutenant. Three of them could take us out."

Silence reigned once more.

This had been, in Panaka's opinion, the most disorganized and pathetic display of the Republic's abilities to deal with an emergency situation he had yet seen. The dozens of planets involved in the emergency search had just been left to fend for themselves, getting information in a catch-as-can kind of style. Nobody's right hand knew what anybody else's left hand was doing. Whether it was a matter of lethargy brought on by too much peace or merely a simple lack of foresight, he did not know, but Panaka suspected that the cause was much more simple and infinitely more dangerous: the inner structure of the Republic was falling apart. He sighed again, reaching up with one hand to rub his aching forehead. The new Chancellor hadn't seemed to resolve any of the internal problems, either - in fact, his presence seemed to be only succeeding in exacerbating them.

"Red alert. All ships on red alert." Panaka stood and prepared himself to handle whatever was coming next. It really was anybody's guess as to what would happen next.

***

Darth Maul sat where he was in the hall and waited. The moment Morru had regained control of herself, or at any rate, her fear, he had lost contact with her. That damned strong will of hers was going to be her downfall. Not to worry - once the pain started again, he would find her. He just hoped that she wouldn't be permanently damaged before he could do so.

***

Yoda was deep in his meditation when the voice came.

"Excuse me gentlemen," Maldad said politely. "It is time for our acquaintance to come to an end. There are some friends of yours outside - I believe you are all acquainted with the Naboo forces? Well, they're here to rescue you. Rather convenient, since I've tired of you all. Now you can go with them instead of just floating out in space like so much debris. Please go to the main hanger - you know where it is. There is an open lifepod waiting there for you. Board it, and leave."

Windu came walked over to Yoda. "Yoda? Should we trust him?"

Yoda sighed. "What choice have we? Grow weaker every day, we do, without the Force. Even sleep well, we cannot." Wearily he rose.

Mundi walked up, looking all of his 586 years. "What about Morru?"

The others looked at him in silence.

***

Morru did her best to keep her breathing normal, but it was not easy. As much as she had known this was coming, as much as she had feared it, taking the action of walking to her death in actuality had had a totally different effect on her than she had anticipated. Her mind, for example, seemed to be working quite well indeed, and several conundrums she had been turning over in her mind came clear at last.

Why, take the Chancellor, for instance.

She had thought it odd how Maul seemed to actually regard Palpatine with something approaching respect. That, in itself, meant nothing, but there were other factors of concern: how, in spite of Jedi secrecy, the Sith had seemed to be able to "anticipate" their every move for the last several months. How Palpatine, who was supposed to be this wise and compassionate wonder, could possibly have such a sadistic, evil soul. Evil? Did she just think that about the Chancellor? About Palpatine? Yes. She had known those things about him ever since he had visited her room in the Jedi Temple.

And she had chosen to take his offer, go with him, and leave the Jedi. Wasn't that interesting?

And how, she continued silently, picking up her train of thought, there were supposed to be two Sith at all times, but the Jedi had only located one - although, if the truth were to be told, it was the Sith who had done the locating.

Hm. Not a very convincing case. Wouldn't stand up in any kind of court. Wouldn't even qualify for an arrest, come to think of it.

And yet, as Morru continued to walk down the hall, beginning to shake and grow pale with her revelation, she knew.

Hot damn, the Sith was the Chancellor of the Republic.

Morru suddenly stopped where she was and laughed. She began laughing as she had never laughed before - with total, mad abandon, reveling and rolling in the lunacy of the world. The Sith - head of the Jedi council and all the great Republic - oh, could it ever get any better than this?

Probably not, considering that she was going to die.

Sobering as much as she could, Morru rose and continued her long walk to Maldad. She wondered, briefly, if anybody else would ever figure out what she knew, before he did whatever it was he was planning to do and it was too late.

Hm again - funny thing. She actually hoped the Jedi wouldn't catch him.

Morru sighed and leaned against the wall, considering for a moment whether she could try to find some one, anyone, to help her. She hadn't thought that, of course, Maldad had been tracking her progress.

She screamed and fell to the floor as bolts of energy, visible in their intensity, drove her once more to her knees.

And Anomaly, who really and truly did love Morru, felt her pain - and he responded to it.

***

Chancellor Palpatine heard the "announcement" from his bedroom. He knew where the bay was. He also knew that Morru was not included in the release. He was peeved - slightly - at the loss of such a highly valuable servant, but there was not much that could be done about it. Ah, well. One couldn't have everything.

Palpatine sighed and stood, straightening his robes. He would be glad to get out of here and go back to mischief-making in the Republic; this sitting around doing nothing was really not his style at all, at all.

And of course, many things would be changing.

He rather hoped, in a way, that Maul would not be included in the "invitation" to hop in the life-pod and escape; it would make things so much easier. Of course, Sidious was reasonably sure that his servant had at least an inkling of the desire to replace him - he would have had to be daft not to. However, Sidious was also reasonably sure that Maul did not know that, upon returning to Coruscant, he would indeed find himself replaced. Permanently.

Anakin Skywalker was simply too good a deal to pass up.

Smiling at his own genius, Palpatine walked toward out of his room and right into Maul, who had been sitting in a lotus position in the hallway.

"Lord Maul," Palpatine said with some surprise, directly addressing his ex-apprentice for the first time since they had arrived on the ship.

"Lord Sidious," said Maul, slowly scissoring up to his feet.

Before more could be exchanged, a strange thing happened: the light in the hallway suddenly flickered, went out for a moment. And then they came back on again, but with a brief, powerful, shocking difference: the Force-hold was gone.

"What..." wondered Palpatine, and then everything went mad. A surge of awareness, of blinding sounds and deafening thoughts flooded and enveloped both men completely, making them stagger and grasp their heads in clenched hands. The lights continued to flicker on and off, and with them the Force came and went, as if on a tide connected with the ship's power. And in the midst of this stood Maul, open-mouthed, eyes wide, staring at his master with a new and hated understanding.

"You bastard," he said. "You mean to replace me."

Palpatine glared back at him, not denying, and raised his hands, fingers already coursing with electricity, with every intention of destroying his apprentice.

***

"Finally," said captain Panaka. "Put the call through."

An ensign hit the appropriate buttons, and a roguish-looking young man appeared on the screen before Panaka.

"Ah," he said. "So you are the representative of the lovely fighting ships from Naboo? It's good to see you face to face. And now that we have seen you face to face, let me heartily encourage you to turn around and go home."

Panaka kept his poker face. "We cannot do that. We have orders to rescue the people Maldad has kidnapped."

The Corellian raised an eyebrow. "Rescue?" he spat with a short, bitter laugh. "You'll be lucky if there's anything left of them. Maldad is not known for his generosity to hostages."

Panaka stared boldly into the screen. "We will not leave."

The Corellian captain shrugged, an offhanded commentary on the situation. "Have it your way. Just don't say you weren't warned - it's not a good idea to go up against a Solo." The young man signed off.

Panaka sighed, loosening his posture just a bit. "Analysis," he demanded. "Who was that?"

"Captain Brin Solo, Corellian by species. He's a hotshot pilot turned pirate captain. Not a lot in the way of morals, but generally known as the best person to get the job done - if you don't mind it messy, that is."

Panaka swallowed and was about to say something when three very strange things happened in quick succession. The ship - the Anomaly - suddenly...wavered. Panaka knew that wasn't quite the right word, but no other came to mind to describe what the huge vessel did. Its protective shields suddenly fluxed, the power and life support systems sent electrical signals that went off the chart, and the entire ship seemed to - impossible as it was - sink in space, listing to the port side. And then, with no discernable cause or cure, it righted itself and all was as it had been before.

"What the hell just happened?" demanded Panaka. "Did something from Solo's ship do that?"

No one had an answer.

***

Maul stood proud and straight, his teeth bared, accepting his fate at his master's hands because there was nothing else he could do, when everything stopped. The lights came on and stayed on, the sounds and blinding awareness faded into nothing, and the Force hold was once again safely re-established.

For a moment, the two men simply stood where they were and stared at one another, grasping the turned tables. And then slowly, seductively, menacingly, Maul smiled.

"Sidious," he growled. And then he backhanded Lord Sidious into the hallway.

"You dare to try to replace me," said Maul, approaching the sprawled senator. "Old fool. Here, in this place, I have the mastery, and I shall keep it. You are no longer Lord of the Sith - I replace you, and I will leave your broken body here for the Jedi alone to mourn." He took another step toward the fallen Chancellor, whose eyes were not quite widened in fear. And then he stopped.

Behind the Chancellor stood the all the Jedi.

"Oh, I don't think so," said Obi Wan, and stepped over to the Chancellor to help him up.

Maul glanced from Chancellor to Jedi and back again, his face revealing nothing. And then he realized that they had not been there for the first part of the conversation. Not a one of them knew who the Chancellor really was, and they were bent and determined on bringing the bruised Palpatine back to power. He watched as Palpatine, breathing hard and looking warily at Maul, backed up, putting one hand on the strong, supporting shoulder of young Anakin Skywalker. The boy smiled up at him.

Maul smiled. And then he did the improbable: he threw back his head and laughed. He laughed heartily, enjoying what he could foresee without the Force - the demise and destruction of the Jedi and the Republic.

Calming, he looked again toward the Jedi.

"And you are welcome to him," he said, and then strode forward, still chuckling. The protective ring of Jedi tensed as one, but Maul simply walked through them and away. His laughter could be heard bouncing off the hallway walls as he retreated.

"What was that all about, Chancellor?" asked Windu.

"Ah - he wanted to kill me," panted Palpatine, still looking after the departing Sith. "Determined to - to cause confusion in the Republic. Chaos."

Obi-Wan nodded and took the Chancellor by the arm. "Come, sir," he said. "The hanger is this way." The group continued down the hallway.

"Strange," said Mundi quietly, "that the Sith should seem so not determined to kill you, after all." He paused for emphasis. "Lucky, I suppose."

"Yes, very lucky," agreed the Chancellor, not wishing to discuss the subject and worrying over what Maul was going to do about him - and what he was going to do about Maul. Hopefully, there was no way for Maul to get off the Anomaly. He obviously would not be getting in the life pod with the Jedi.

They entered the hanger together, and, following Maldad's cue, entered the open life pod sitting in the bay.

"I truly hope that whatever caused that power surge has not affected the control mechanism in the hanger," said Mundi.

Anakin sniffed. "Morru," he said quietly. "We can't just leave Morru." Obi-Wan turned his face away and declined to answer.

"There, there," said Palpatine, leaning down to Anakin's level and taking advantage of Obi-Wan's neglect. "We all must make sacrifices. There is nothing else we can do." He caught and held Anakin's eye. "All will be well, you'll see. Miss S'mec is more resourceful than you think." And he smiled. After a moment, Anakin smiled back.

And a bond was formed that would change the face of the galaxy forever.

***

Maldad sighed and sat back, wiping a bit of sweat from his brow. That had been very close - shocking Morru without putting Anomaly in complete and total sleep mode had been a stupid mistake, no way around it. Anomaly did love her so much - stupid ship. And when she had screamed, that last time, Anomaly had been so upset he had almost accidentally self-destructed. Fortunately, he had been able to get to the control panel in time and shut Anomaly down. Power was restored, and all was back to normal. And ah, look at that. There was Morru, right on schedule, a bit harried but otherwise unharmed, about to enter his quarters

. Time to welcome his visitor.

***

Everybody in Panaka's ship was still trying to analyze the data given off during the strange lag in the Anomaly's power when the second strange thing happened. The back of Anomaly suddenly swung open like a giant mouth and a small life pod - about the size to comfortably seat, say, three or four people - came out. Before anybody could react, a message came from the small space-worthy life boat:

"Good day, my friends. If, perhaps, some of you would be kind enough to lend us a hand, we could see to it that you would be well rewarded. We need to be returned to Coruscant immediately."

"That was the Chancellor!" exclaimed Panaka. "Lock your tracking beams onto it, immediately!" The small ship wavered and changed direction, responding to the pull of the beam.

And that's when Solo's ships attacked.

***

Morru stood still as the doors of Anomaly closed behind her. There was warm, thick silence, backed by the thrum of interstellar life support.

Maldad sat in a chair, facing a huge, realistic viewscreen that covered the entire wall, giving the impression of a large picture-window. "Beautiful, isn't it?" he said. "I do so love the stars. You may not realize it, my dear, but I do have a keen sense of beauty. And of its destruction." He swung around in the chair to face her, turning his back on the stars behind him. He looked at her sharply for a moment, then smiled. "You don't know what I mean by that, do you? Well, I intend to show you."

He began to rise from his seat but paused when he saw Morru, in spite of her self control, jump back as though afraid he would hit her.

Maldad laughed. "No, no, Morru, you misunderstand. I won't hurt you right now. I just want you to look. Come and look."

Morru swallowed, ignored her pounding heart, and walked over to Maldad; he stood a good head taller than she. It's a shame, she thought to herself as she looked up at him. He's not a bad looking fellow. I wish I could smash him like a bug. Maldad smiled, his face far too young and his frame too slender to be as old as he was. He almost looked naive.

"Come and look out, Morru. This," he said, including with his sweeping hand all of space. "Is beauty. But true beauty, in its purest form, cannot be understood unless it contains destruction. It is contrast: black velvet under a diamond, the priceless blue-green scales of a Haprian water snake- only through chaos and pain and even death can true beauty even be seen and comprehended. Look here," he said, gesturing again to the wall. Morru gave him a puzzled look; she had been looking; there was nothing to see... wait.

Flashes. There were flashes of light, explosions, small, quick blurs of things sweeping past the view window. And then a Naboo vessel, obviously a battle ship, flew right past and momentarily filled her vision.

"What..." she said.

"Yes," said Maldad. "I've started a war. The Naboo and the Corellians are fighting it out. They were looking for me, originally, but now I've given them all something else to think about. Look here," he said, and pressed a few buttons on the control panel before him. Dizzyingly, the view swung around and magnified until it focused on a small life-pod, shaking with the force of being pulled in opposite directions by differing tractor beams.

Morru's eyes widened. "What have you done?" she hissed. "What have you done? They're going to die out there!"

Maldad just continued to smile, no big reaction. "Yes, I know," he said. "At least that will leave us alone. Now." And he pressed two more buttons. "Go," he said.

***

Panaka's ship had barely moved out of the way when the Anomaly, with no prior warning, shot off into space. Within two seconds it was out of sight. Two second after that, it had gone into hyper space.

"Shit," broadcasted Captain Solo, and the fighting continued.

***

Darth Maul lurched slightly as he felt the change in pressure; Maldad had gone into hyperspace. He would only have done that if he thought the ship was empty of visitors. Maul narrowed his eyes in thought. He could feel again - he knew there were only two other people on the ship. For some reason, the Force-hold was gone. Anomaly must be on some sort of total automatic shut down. It really was a shame, he thought now, that Kenobi was already gone. Anomaly would not have been able to prevent any damage this time.

But that was for another time.

He had to get a lightsaber.

He knew that Anomaly had them, that Anomaly was asleep, but there had to be a way. There was no question in his mind now that he would have to fight for Morru's life. He thought desperately for a moment, trying to out-think Maldad.

He had seen the lightsabers sucked into the wall at the beginning. He had seen Windu holding one which, he found out later through evesdropping, had fallen from the ceiling at Maldad's command.

Maul paused for one moment. What if...

Turning on his heel, he raced toward the lounge.

***

Morru looked at the viewscreen, watching her last chance for rescue recede too quickly for her eye to follow.

Maldad stood and watched her in silence for a moment, his tawny, tousled hair spilling over his forehead. One could almost say he looked at her with fondness. He reached into his pocket and removed a small, black box, about the size of a garage door opener, completely without detail except for a single, silver, concave button. He placed his hand gently on her arm; she jumped.

"It is time," he said.

Morru backed away from him. "I don't want to," she said.

"That's nice," said Maldad, and slightly depressed the silver button.

Morru screamed.

***

Darth Maul, crawling on the floor on his hands and knees and looking less than dignified, glanced up. Too soon - Maldad was hurting her too soon. He had not found the lightsaber yet, but something in his gut told him he could find it in the lounge. The Jedi had not found it - but then again, maybe they had not looked. Maul sat back on his knees and closed his eyes, trying to concentrate. Following a hunch, Maul sidled over to where he recalled tousling with Windu earlier and began running his hands over the ground where Windu had fallen. There was nothing there - nothing obvious there. But Anomaly had been half "asleep" at the point of their conflict; if there was any chance at all that Anomaly had not....

Maul paused. Under his hands, his sensitive fingers, was a slight rise in the floor. He pressed against it, and felt something definitely hard and cylindrical rolled slightly under the pressure.

Smiling, Maul began to tear through the biological material of the floor.

***

Morru had stopped screaming, but there was still so much pain, so much pain...

Panting, she looked up. Maldad was standing above her, the same calm smile on his face as when he had looked at the stars, as when he had watched the various ships blow one another up for his sake. His quiet, more than anything else, frightened her. He spoke softly.

"Are you going to come into my quarters nice and quietly, or do I have to render you unconscious and sling you over my shoulder and take you in there myself?" and he caressed his little box.

Morru whimpered once, very quietly.

***

Panaka leaned over his console, nearly losing his balance as his ship took yet another hit. "I know you're not supposed to be able to track them! I want their last known trajectory - you should be able to calculate it until they went into hyperspace." Panaka started to shout another order, but the next hit knocked him back and off his feet.

"Sir, we've just lost the rear shields," said an admirably calm ensign.

The comm system began beeping. Panaka sighed. "Answer it."

Solo's cocky features appeared on the screen. "Well, you do have some guts," he said. "You've earned my respect, for all the good it will do you. Of course, now that you no longer have shields - not to mention the fact that all of your ships, without exception, have been severely handicapped and or put out of commission, you will of course surrender." And he grinned in all of his macho glory.

Panaka took the briefest of moments to answer. He could still see the small life pod, shaken but whole, in the corner of his view screen. To let the Corellians and the Federation have them...

"Lieutenant," Panaka said under his breath to one of his officers. "Send a surrender signal and prepare for boarding."

The young lieutenant, gray-faced, nodded. "Yes, sir." And then came the third strange occurrence of the evening.

Fifty ships came out of hyperspace, filling the gap formerly occupied by the Anomaly and effectively surrounding the Corellian fleet. Captain Brin Solo glanced at his screen, said something quietly unintelligible to his officers, and looked back at Panaka. "Well," he said, only a bit less cocky but no less sure. "Seems you've got us, Panaka. I think we probably should be going now."

Panaka smiled; this was the first good thing that had happened to him all day. "Captain Solo, allow me to speak on behalf of the Republic and say that you are under arrest on charges of piracy and subversive behavior."

Solo's grin grew wider. "Oh, no, captain. That's not even touching what I'd be wanted for, if you knew your stuff right. But, I think - things being as they are - we will continue this another day, another time. It really is a shame we couldn't have met elsewhere. Sorry I can't hang around for the arrest; have an appointment elsewhere that I simply must keep. Give my best regards to the Chancellor, though." And he nodded, just once. The screen went blank. And without any further warning, all seven Corellian ships shot into hyperspace in seven different directions - no small feat considering the placement of the Republic ships around them.

Panaka stared at the screen for one moment longer, and then he started laughing. "Quite a fellow, that Solo," he said to the blank screen. "It is a shame that we couldn't have met elsewhere. Perhaps we will, another time."

There was a beep from the comm, signalling a call from the republic vessel.

"Put the Coruscant captain on," Panaka said. "We have a lot to talk about."

***

Morru stumbled into Maldad's quarters, angry with herself and disappointed. The pain was so great - she knew that withstanding it would be much harder than she had ever anticipated.

Not that that meant she was going to give in.

Following Maldad's pointed directions, walked into the room and stood in the middle. It struck her as odd for personal quarters; white, sterile, windowless. A single chair in the middle of the floor. She looked back at him, puzzled.

"I think here," was all he said, and closed the door behind him. That was another thing - unlike any other part of the ship, this place had actual doors on hinges. Morru shook her head in puzzlement. Mad. He was totally mad.

Maldad smiled again, quiet and reserved. He stood and looked at her for a moment before speaking. "You really are beautiful," he said in almost wistful tones. "It really is a shame I have to kill you. You know, I don't have to," he said, stepping closer to her. "I know my psychology. This is simply a control situation; I must be in control. If you let me be in control," he said, his voice now dropping to quiet drone. "If you let me have you, take you home - then you won't have to die. I won't have to make you suffer. As much."

It was probably that "as much" that saved her. Fear of pain, she had long known, was always worse than the pain itself. The terror of being slowly and terribly roasted alive by her ex-master was almost making her dizzy, and his offer - loss of dignity but not loss of life - was almost - almost - sounding good.

And then he had to add "as much." Of course he would hurt her anyway. Could she forget what he had done to her mother? What he had done to her? Even what he said in the other room - that bullshit about true beauty only through pain. She narrowed her eyes, no longer afraid, not knowing nor caring where the fear went.

"No."

Maldad raised one eyebrow. "I knew you would say that." And he pressed the button.

***

Maul ran down the hallway. He was close enough now that he could actually hear her screaming. Where... where...

Ah, just there. He burst into Maldad's control room.

***

Maldad stood where he was, still unmoved, watching Morru writhe and twist and scream on the floor. He was slightly surprised at her durability; he had never known any human to live so long under such intensity. He had continued to depress the button for a while now, and each time he had stopped, she had defied him. So now, he no longer stopped.

He held the button half-way down for what seemed an interminably long time, and neither Morru nor her mother had ever looked so beautiful to him. Her face was flushed, her eyes closed, her hair was absolutely everywhere - and for the first time in many, many years, Maldad actually experience a physical sensation of sexual excitement. That was not good; such things tended to get in the way of lucid, linear, scientific thought.

Slightly surprised by this, he released the button and watched the beautiful, deadly streams of power race over her skin, destroying her nervous system, destroying her. He waited until she had finished jerking before he spoke.

"I am going to kill you now, Morru. I supposed you'll go to join your mother, or something. I am sorry for your loss," he said, his voice still only slightly emotionally piqued. And without further comment, he did something he had never had to do to bring about the demise of anyone, either for disciplinarian or scientific reasons: he depressed the little, innocent-looking, silver button all the way.

***

Morru only knew pain. It was her mother, her father, her very being, and nothing had ever existed but the pain. She could actually feel it eating away at her smaller nerves, her capillaries, super-heating her brain. She was beyond screaming, unable to breath, unable to even move or feel her hands any longer.

And then it stopped.

Simply stopped, completely ceased to persist, although it took her more than a moment to realize it as the power surges still raced over and through her body. Now, panting, grateful to be able to breathe, she tried to look up. She was still unable to use her hands, so she had to prop herself up on her elbows. She meant to glare at Maldad, dare him to finish, perhaps rasp out a challenge, but that challenge she never gave.

It was obvious even to her fading eyesight that Maldad was beyond receiving threats.

He still stood, eyes blank, mouth slack, not even looking at the lightsaber which now penetrated from behind and protruded from his stomach.

And then he fell to the ground.

Behind him, behind his crumpled, cooling corpse, stood Darth Maul. Smoothly he bent and took from Maldad's unresisting fingers the small black box.

Morru glared at him, eyes wide. If he thought for one moment...

"It won't work," she managed through parched lips. "I won't break."

"I know that," Maul said, and held the black box up before her eyes.

And without another word, he crushed it.

Broke it into a hundred, a thousand pieces, crumbling the bits onto the floor and stepping on the remains for good measure.

Morru jumped slightly when she saw his hand exert pressure, and at first was not capable of response. She looked at the crumbled pieces, looked back at Maul, back at the remains of the control box without comprehension. And then she felt a slight - change - not quite a pressure - at her wrist.

She looked down just in time to see the bracelet come apart of its own volition at a seam forthwith undetected and fall to the floor.

Morru held her still-dead wrist up to her face and looked at it, her expression softening. Eyes wide, she looked back at Maul, who was still standing unmoved behind Maldad's corpse, and started to say something.

And then she passed out.

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