Chapter Text
Maul groaned. Not only had the force been whistling in his ears recently and telling him where to go in an irritating manner, his ship was running low on fuel and he really didn’t want to stop at any of the rundown planets near. Ever since the events with his brother, the son of Dathomir can recall being more angry than usual, and he was already pretty angry at every waking second before those events. He never planned to team up with anyone again, he could feel the force say otherwise though, as he always felt a piece of himself was missing, and for the hardened ex-sith, it made him growl in annoyance as to him it was a stupid and weak feeling to have.
The zabrak’s ship beeped at him that it was nearing empty, and he reared his hand down, punching the top of the alarm. “Shut up already! I KNOW!” Checking his map, he saw that there was one decent planet not too far with fuel and a few marketplaces. Maul figured it would be best to head to the planet and fill up, maybe stock up on some food, not that he ate often enough anyway but his rations were starting to get old anyway.
Lothal wasn’t far, took him only 10 minutes to get there and land, but now the fun part was getting his cloak and finding fuel that wasn’t going to be a scam as the planet looked pretty bad. He couldn’t ask for luxury though he supposed, as he was trying to stay far away from the inner circles of the galaxy. The empire had barely made strong holds out here it seemed.
As Maul walked the grimy streets of Lothal, vendors of all types of species spoke of their products, and the crowd of people talking were loud, making the zabrak almost clutch his head in pain. Glancing around he saw a human woman selling the fuel he needed, and what seemed to be a surplus at a good price. ‘ Perfect. ’ Maul thought as he strolled over, dodging people in the crowd and at other vendors.
“Hello traveler, interested in some fuel?” The woman was peppy, way too excited but he supposed it wasn’t a bad thing. “I just need a canister. How much.” She was shocked at the gravel in the cloaked figure’s voice but ignored it and pulled out a stock list. “Well for a full tank canister I run two hundred thirty-five credits, and half I run a hundred twenty credits, for a fourth of a tank I run fifty. So what do you need?” Maul rummaged through the credits he had. While it was a tad more pricey than he was used to, he did need a full tank and he had just a thousand credits on him. “Full tank.” The woman nodded and pressed a button on a lift holding a canister filled to the brim. Handing over the 235, he took the lift and pushed away, not saying another word even though the vendor had waved and said goodbye to him.
Now next, food. Zabraks were mostly carnivores, at least Dathomirians were, so the vast amounts of fruits and vegetables made Maul scrunch his face in frustration. Did no one hear of meat in this system? He would most likely have to wait until he could refuel his ship and go to a cantina located in the middle of the galaxy, as in his experience, was where the best meat based meals were served.
“Hey you rat you need to pay for that!” The whistle that had been annoying him the entire day returned loudly. Maul could feel the force nearby surrounded with panic. Was there someone force sensitive here? That got his attention. The pull and panic in the force was coming from the source of the yell. Curiosity got the better of him as he continued to hear the yells, yet the crowd remained still.
“Let go of me!!” The voice was high pitched, maybe a child? “Where's the credits to pay for all the fruit you stole huh?!” Sounded like a bug. “I don’t have any!” “Well whose fault is that you runt!?” When Maul had finally arrived at the scene, a very small child, looked no older than 5 or 6, was being tossed around by a Verpine vendor in Lothal clothing. Before Maul could move anywhere away from what seemed to be a common scene, the boy screamed.
“LET GO OF ME!” The Verpine was sent flying back into his stand of starfruit. The crowd stood still. The zabrak could now feel the force be flooded with fear, more panic, all seeping from the boy that just sent the alien flying. Maul knew leaving him here to the empire would lead to another sith, or execution of a child, and at the force the man was thrown the child had what felt like a surplus of energy pooled.
He heard the stomps of soldiers and people talking way too loudly for his liking about the force sensitive child. His mind had flashed to when Sidious picked him as a child for having the force as well, and he couldn’t help but see the boy as himself for a quick second. Leave this potential, or save it? Was this why the force whistled to him, was this where the whistling came from? It had to be, why else would the same whistle surround the same boy panicking, the same boy who used his fear to shove someone off without trying. Maul made his decision.
Before the stormtroopers could ask anything, they saw a cloaked figure rush over to the boy people had led them to retrieve, and grabbed the child, rushing away with a fuel canister in tow. “He just took a force user! Capture them!” The captain of the squad yelled and they ran at the man hauling the boy away.
Maul would have slapped himself if his hands weren’t occupied. Did he seriously just sacrifice this trip for some stupid kid? He growled as he heard the feet of the troopers following them, and for once he thanked the galaxy he had metal legs that ran faster than the average human. The boy in one of his arms was dead silent, the zabrak took notice of that, the force surrounding the boy had replaced just panic and fear with complete shock. Well when young, Maul thought, the mind wouldn’t know how to comprehend super powers or the fact that you were now on the run from an active Empire because of said super powers.
Pushing the cart forward and kicking it into a straight path, Maul had a hand to use now, as he glanced behind him the troopers were still on him, and looking around he saw a load of crates on top of the roofs that surrounded him in the alley. With a flick of his wrist and minimal effort, the crates tumbled behind him and onto the path ahead of the troopers, which was just what he needed to slow them down and successfully escape with the child in one of his arms, along with his much needed fuel.
It didn’t take long to steal a speeder and load the fuel canister onto it, since he now had to take the long way to get back to his ship. Maul wanted to interrogate the child who sat behind him on the speeder, still as silent as a cat from earlier, however, the man supposed he could wait until he fueled his ship to ask the street rat who he was and if he knew he could do what he did.