Chapter Text
Feeling Maul's pain through your Force bond is nothing new to you. Every day since Maul was taken away by Darth Sidious brought new pains across the divide of space. Over the years, you have learned to control it, to calm your body and adjust your connection through The Force, until the pain is only a message.
Despite this, the fear that suddenly shoots down your spine and the agony gripping your middle catch you completely off-guard. It feels like dying.
"Land, now!" You bark at the onboard computer. You scream with the continuing pain as the ship begins to descend to the planet below. Luckily you had pre-programmed a landing site. You slide to the floor and work to tune down the sympathetic pain cutting through your Force bond.
By the time the ship reaches the surface, you have the bond mostly quiet again. You grab an extra bacta infusion and turn on your personal cloaking device before sprinting down the ramp and forward through the halls of the Naboo palace. There are droids everywhere and fighting still going on all around you. It takes all of your patience to navigate through the halls and down into the lower levels without smashing through anything to get to your target.
As you get closer, you have to allow the bond back in to narrow in on his location, using the Force to guide you forward without a map. The closer you get, the more the pain intensifies, until you are hunched and clutching one arm firmly around your middle, willing yourself to move forward one step at a time. You've prepared for this moment for years; to fail now would be unthinkable.
Finally you make it to an access door, click the lock open, and push hard.
You freeze in a moment of shock when you see the Zabrak on the ground, unconscious. Your brain can't catch up to the sight before you; your own scream of outrage and pain echoes in your mind before it leaves your lips in a loud, "No!"
Because the man in front of you should already be dead.
You rush forward anyway, body moving on autopilot to assess the catastrophic injury. You reach out with the Force more deliberately now, feeling for his life signs as you examine the wound. Horror creeps in, and rage at the thought of potential failure. Surely you cannot fix this; he's cut in half! But against all odds, he is still alive, mind cocooned by the Dark Side. He's not even bleeding much, and it hasn't been that long since he was injured… Can you manage this extreme of a healing?
Even as the doubtful thought forms in your mind, you push it away. You have to try, or all of your work has been for nothing. You empty your pack, pulling together all the bits of knowledge that spring forth as you consider each piece of healing to be done. You grit your teeth as you drag the severed halves of Maul's body together.
While your hands are busy, you push your mind to that state of extreme stillness, reaching for the Light Side. The connection is shaky at first, like a scared animal approaching an offering of food. But you soothe your own thoughts and breathe a sigh of relief as the pulse of life fills your body. It's always intense, almost feeling like too much to contain, but you're grateful for it this time.
You center your hands over Maul and let forth a burst of energy. Almost without your direction, The Force takes hold of the wounded flesh and begins to re-forge severed bonds. It pulls all of your concentration to keep the energy flowing steadily and in the right area. You're beginning to sense some progress, feeling the blood begin to flow into his legs little by little. When you sense the life returning, a confirmation that you are on the correct path, you spare a moment to push one of the bacta infusions into his bloodstream through his arm. Your attention returns to directing The Force, sensing how his organs and nerves are knitting back together.
Then you feel the sharp pain of his spine repairing itself, bone on bone pain…
His eyes fly open with a scream of agony.
You manage to ride out your sympathetic response on a loud groan, unwilling to stop the healing even for a moment.
"Maul," you grit out his name and place one hand on his chest. "Breathe, Maul."
He is breathing, and screaming, and you don't have any concentration to spare to hush him. If someone comes to investigate…
You push the thought aside and continue channeling Light Side energy into him. Maul instinctively recoils from it, grasping mentally at the Dark Side for its twisted sense of comfort; he closes his eyes tightly as he tries to ride out the pain. Through the bond, you sense the moment he recognizes that you are helping him. As your hand drifts down to his, he links his fingers with yours and squeezes gratefully, weakly yanking your arm towards him, willing you to stay. He surrounds you with the Dark Side, desperate to control the situation. It pulses and pushes against you, but he manages to hold back from doing anything more than threaten you. The sounds pouring from his mouth are a stream of half-yells and pleas.
Above him, you feel your body tiring. You sway a little, pushing yourself to stay upright and provide a little more healing, just a little more, little more…
At the last second, you shift your weight backwards to fall on the floor instead of on his not-fully-healed torso. The pain of impact echoes dully in your consciousness before you slip under.
**
Some time later, a stab of Dark Side energy against your mind wakes you with a start. Your eyes fly open to see Maul still on the floor beside you. The rest of the bacta infusion packs lie empty beside him, and his hand rests on your shoulder, perhaps as close to your head as he could get without moving himself. His yellow eyes are open just enough to watch you.
You shift your body slowly as you put your mental walls back up. "Don't do that," your voice croaks out, throwing him a thought through the bond to stay out of your mind.
Maul recoils as if you slapped his cheek. You can sense his confusion, but you can't spare the energy to explain, not while you're still in danger.
You slide over to kneel above his wound. It's not completely closed, but it should do for now. "Can you move your legs?"
Maul hesitantly tries, grimacing at the pain shooting through his nerves.
You sigh loudly. "That's better than I anticipated, with how I found you. If you can walk even a little, we need to get out of here." You pull a second cloaking device out of your bag. "This will be difficult," you say as you attach it to his arm. "No one can see you or suspect that you may have survived, understand?"
He nods, regarding you with his piercing gaze.
You gently unhook his wrist links, which are no doubt tied to his ship's command modules. "We can't take these with us. Is there anything else that might be used to track you?"
"No," he breathes, eyes lingering on the cuffs. He looks at your face again. "Toss them."
You nod and throw them further into the pile of rubble. You gather the rest of your supplies in your bag, unwilling to leave even the empty containers to be linked back to you. When that's done, you hold out a hand to him. "Ready?"
He takes your hand and nods. "Yes."
Getting him upright from the floor with barely functioning legs and an open wound is a struggle. He tries to muffle his screams, going quiet as you wrap an arm around his back, under his arm.
"Step forward, slowly," you tell him.
He obeys, one shaky step that nearly makes him tumble forward before you catch him with the Force.
"It's alright; try again," you tell him. You try not to let your frustration show; if you hadn't used so much energy healing him, you could have dragged him out of here yourself. Although, that would probably not be good for his barely-held-together body…
He takes another step, still hardly able to support himself. He's breathing heavily and leaning against you.
"Good, just keep going," you encourage.
Each of you reaches out to the Force for support. You move slowly with him and turn on the cloaking shields. You don't know how long it takes, but eventually you make your way to one of the main hallways. It's so tempting to set him on one of the repulsorlifts being used for clean up and push him to the ship, but you know it will be too suspicious for others to see a seemingly-empty skiff driving itself to the landing pad, where your cloaked ship waits. So you silently keep him moving forward, one agonizing step at a time.
You're within sight of your ship when his eyes roll back and he loses consciousness, pulling you to the ground with a heavy thud that makes you wince. You carefully turn him to his back on the ground and push him against the wall. He's still breathing, just passed out from exhaustion. A final check shows you the cloaking devices have just enough time left to get to the ship. You leave him on the floor and sprint quietly forward. Sneaking inside, you drop your pack and grab a large cloak. You rush back to his side, relieved to see the hangar is still empty. You lay the cloak on the ground and roll him onto it, then wrap it around his body under his arms. A test tug proves it will support his head off the ground and allow you to pull him without lifting his whole weight. The shield wraps around this new addition, ensuring no one can see as you drag him slowly towards the waiting escape. You smile at your resourcefulness, until you get to the ramp and realize the angle is too sharp to get him through with your own exhausted energy. A curse falls from your lips.
You lean down and grip his head carefully. "Maul. Wake up. I need you to walk." You push Force energy into your words. "Get up and walk, then you can rest. Save yourself."
He groans slightly and shifts. You feel through the bond how difficult your request is; he's fighting just to keep the small scrap of consciousness you've coaxed forth.
"Up, Maul, before your Master realizes you're missing!" you hiss.
Fear snaps through him, and he grabs at the Dark Side like a crutch. He manages to roll to his side, then push onto his hands and knees.
"Yes! Just like that," you encourage.
He barely swallows a scream as he lurches to his feet and rushes headlong up the ramp. His balance doesn't hold at the top of the ramp, sending him sprawling across the floor with a pained shriek.
You anxiously look behind you as you follow him, but the hangar is still clear. The ramp closes with a hiss. You order the computer to take off on a preset course. As the ship hums to life, you help him to his feet. "We're going to the medbay now. You're going to live, Maul," you murmur.
He can only groan in response.
You limp into the room and ease him down onto the small bed. A pass of your hand over the controls brings the system to life. It begins to scan and assess him, reaching out robotic arms to attach sensors and tubes for bacta infusions.
You sit slowly in a nearby chair. The sudden drop in adrenaline brings your own exhaustion to the front of your concerns. With a destination active and Maul secure, you allow yourself to fall asleep in the chair.