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(On Tatooine)
They were racing for the ship, determined to escape this planet before Qui-gon’s bad feeling came to pass. He turned, pausing to wipe the sand from his eyes, before spotting an incoming vehicle of unknown origin.
“Anakin, drop!” Qui-gon shouted, drawing his lightsaber but already knowing he was too late. The crunch as the speeder hit the poor kid, slamming him into the ground and bouncing him into the air only to tumble back down to the ground; dead before he even knew what was happening.
The pilot didn’t even pay the dead child any attention, leaping into the air, igniting a lightsaber and beginning to fight the grief stricken Jedi Master. Barely managing to escape his assailant, Qui-gon retreated into the ship and it took off, leaving Maul stood on the ground, nothing but a dead kid to show for his efforts.
“Well, the kid seemed important to the Jedi, might as well take him back to my master…” he muttered to himself, slinging the body over the back of his speeder and heading for his ship.
********
(On Coruscant)
“Ah, Darth Maul, how did your mission go?” Darth Sidious inquired upon his return. He could sense a death around his apprentice, but had also received news the Jedi were on their way to the capital, with the queen in tow.
“The Jedi escaped me, my master, but I did accidentally claim a prize from them.” Maul reported, dropping to one knee before the Sith Lord.
“Oh? What prize is this?”
“Well I ran over a child while trying to kill the Jedi Master. He seemed important to them, taking anything of importance to them seems like a small victory at least.”
“Ah, very good, I have taught… wait, what child?”
“Oh well I brought the body back, just in case, he’s just over here.” Maul rose, leading Sidious to the case with Anakin’s body in it. When Sidious saw who’s body it was, he went silent, before continuing in a dead tone.
“Maul, when you say you ran him over by accident…?”
“He was just running in the open, was too busy trying to kill the Jedi, that I had already hit him by the time I spotted him. I mean, who wears desert coloured robes in the desert?”
“People trying to avoid being spotted, which doesn’t help here!” Sidious exploded, making Maul step back in surprise.
“Was I not meant to kill him?” Maul hazarded, trying to edge back from the furious Sith he was still too close to for his own comfort.
“He was part of my great plan! Decades of research, years of manipulating the force, finding the right host to impregnate, the first healthy child born entirely from the force! And you ran him over by accident!
“Well you never said anything about not killing any kid…”
“Because you weren’t supposed to encounter him! What kind of Jedi can’t even protect a force powered present that just drops in their laps!”
“They were letting him lag behind…”
"So you ran over the miracle wunderkind of Darth Plagueis, the wise? Because he was lagging behind?"
"Not intentionally, but yeah, sorry boss."
"Maul you dumbass, this is why you are just an assassin and not a proper Sith Apprentice."
“I thought I was your Apprentice?”
“Only until that kid came of age, he was going to be strong enough to bring fear to the entire galaxy! All those years of planning wasted, because you didn’t pay attention to where you were driving!”
“Erm, can’t you create another one boss?” Maul froze at the look in his master's eyes.
“Create another one? That would take years! The galaxy is ready for the great civil war now! It took a lot of effort to get everything ready and you manage to fuck it up without even trying! If I was to create another one, I’d somehow either have to keep things on the brink of chaos for at least a decade, or let everything return to normal and start over in a few years time.”
“So about that revenge on the Jedi?”
“Oh you’ve made a right mess of that, just go and bother the Jedi or something, I need some time to think…”
“Erm, Master, how is that going to help you think?” Maul asked, edging for the door, but pausing when Sidious pulled out a bottle of what looked like some very potent booze.
“I have spent fifty years working towards this and you ruin it in a second. I am going to get very, very drunk and then see how I feel on the other side.” Sidious replied, waving Maul away, uncorking the bottle and taking a gulp.
Maul took that as his que to leave and maybe not come back for a few days.
********
“Senator Palpatine, we feared for your health after you were found passed out in your quarters?” Qui-gon enquired, when they finally made it to Coruscant and arranged a meeting with him.
“The grief of the loss of my homeworld and the queen I serve, it drove me to a dark place Master Jefi, but fear not, I am well again. As you have saved my queen, this gives us new hope to liberate the planet.”
“It was our pleasure and our duty, it is just a shame we were unable to save Anakin…”
“Who is Anakin? His name doesn’t fit with any of the queens escorts I’m aware of?” Palpatine inquired politely, doing his best to avoid screaming and throwing force lightning at the pair of Jedi before him.
“Ah, he was a child we encountered on Tatooine, remarkably strong in the force, but cruelly slain by what we believe was a Sith assassin. He could have grown up to be a great Jedi.”
‘Not if I had any say in the matter’ Palpatine thought to himself, making a note to hunt Maul down from whatever hole he had crawled into. “A great loss to the order and such a shame to have lost him so young.”
The meeting tailed off after that, breaking up with the participants heading off to take care of their assorted tasks.
********
On a planet, far away from the core, a red and black Zabrak was holed up in a run down apartment. Just in case he was found, he was also wearing a false beard and glasses. The residents of Coruscant didn’t know what had caused the random power fluctuations when his Master had started drinking, but he had taken it as a que to get as far away as possible.
His worst fears were confirmed eventually, when he heard a bottle smash against his window.
“Maul you dumbass, get down here and face me!” Sidious drunkenly screamed in the street, swaying heavily and cursing him.
“Ah hell..” Maul muttered to himself, “guess he’s got a lot of free time on his hands now I derailed his entire plan…”