deercountry | better to burn out than to fade away ☼ may catch-all

Maul shrugs and turns away. He's content to let Anakin the Lesser go about his business and go back to feeling the energy surrounding the avocado tree he'd given Ariadne as a present. But Cranky apparently has other plans.

With surprising agility, he suddenly jumps up into the nearest tree and blocks the path in front of Anakin, growling at him with a glare in his red eyes that makes him bear a shocking resemblance to his owner. That makes Maul take notice again. Oh, dank farrik, this is about to go bad very quickly unless he does something right away. "Don't move," Maul hisses out and there's a clear, present warning in his voice. Look, just because he's not fond of the kid doesn't mean he wants him to end up with a broken bone. "Somehow you made him mad." Possibly just by breathing the same air as the Mankey. He had a hair-trigger temper that way much like his owner. "I've seen him smash through boulders before without flinching, you don't want to end up having to fight him." Pokémon when put into a real world setting were absolutely terrifying creatures.

Anakin stops, annoyed but not particularly scared. He's had worse than broken bones, after all, and he's pretty adept at dodging attacks. His own Omen stands defensively next to Anakin, ready to pounce the moment the Mankey so much as takes a step. Anakin, for his part, places an hand on his Omen's head. He speaks quietly and comfortingly to his Omen.

"Relax. If he wanted to hurt me, he'd have done it without warning."

Over his shoulder, to Maul. "So call him off."

"Well, that is the thing. He doesn't listen to me very well yet." Better than before, which had involved Cranky beating Maul up in a fight because he disliked his new owner so much, but not so well that he thought his Pokémon would listen to him right now when it counted. Right now, he's nearly hopping up and down with tiny, fuzzy fury.

"Perhaps I can bribe him," he thinks, pulling a chestnut out of his pocket. He keeps a steady supply around whenever he takes Cranky out. He holds it out. "Come on. Come over here," he says in a coaxing manner.

Anakin sighs. Of course Maul doesn't have control. That would be too easy. Anakin's own Omen is not taking kindly to Cranky's threatening posturing. Anakin keeps one hand on Sylva's back, trying to reassure.

He considers mind-tricking the Mankey, but dismisses the idea immediately. He doesn't know that it will work and, if he fails, this definitely won't end well. Plus, he's not sure how closely an Omen and their person are tied. Despite his less-than-friendly attitude toward Maul, he doesn't actually want to hurt him.

Cranky is immediately intrigued by the idea of a chestnut, one of his two favorite foods. A bit torn, he glances from Maul to Anakin and back again before making his decision. He hops back towards Maul, though not before disdainfully looking back at Anakin and scuffing up a cloud of dirt in his direction with his little back paws.

He screeches at Maul in Pokéspeak, pointing at Anakin with one paw and making a huffy, indignant sound before he settles into the process of trying to crack the nut open. Maul listens to his Pokémon, though it's not entirely clear if he understands the Mankey or is just ascribing his own thoughts to what the creature is saying. "I know, I know, he's terrible, but you can't simply go around beating everyone up when they offend you."

Cranky is struggling with the nut but Maul just lets him. He glances back towards Anakin. "That should keep him occupied for the next fifteen minutes or so. Mankeys love chestnuts but they lack the dexterity to pry them open very quickly."

Terrible? He's terrible? Anakin feels irritation building up again, and the traces of anger he felt before curls in him. Silva looks agitated too and that's when Anakin realizes that he's letting anger control him. The exact thing he's been working to avoid. Both Obi-Wan and Master Ikrit warned him about its dangers, and he's taken their wisdom to heart.

So Anakin closes his eyes and lets the feeling of the Living Force swirl around him. He asks it for strength and balance.

When he opens his eyes, he's completely in the present, and he sees Maul as Maul, not as a source of his anger.

Still, he has to get to the root of it before it overtakes him again. And he knows exactly what's angering him.

"Why did you force a soul-bond on my grandfather?"

His question is calm, not accusatory. The action is in the past, but knowing why might help him in the present.

Maul remains silent for some time. He doesn't know Anakin well enough to predict whether he's just going to judge Maul and then write him completely off after he tells him why he did it. That's happened quite a number of times in Trench and it's made Maul wary to tell people his true motives on anything, for fear of being branded as just a monster to be killed or a dumb animal that should have been locked up instead of roaming around free.

"You mean besides trying to see if I could?" Then he immediately reins in his snark. Anakin asked a civil question and Maul needs to give him more than attitude. His words come slowly. So often he says the wrong thing and he's trying to make it clear what happened. "I'm attracted to power. I was taught in my youth to always seek out and take more and more." You know, the usual Sith mantras of channeling the Dark Side to gain as much power as possible until nothing could harm the person. "When I learned one could share the power of another here, even if the other was unwilling, I immediately saw an opportunity to do so with Skywalker. He is very strong with the Force. So I did."

He makes no excuses for himself. It had been a short-sighted decision with far-reaching consequences and has been one of several reasons why Maul has been doing better the last few months.

Anakin waits patiently for Maul to answer, keeping himself steady in the moment and tried to refrain from immediate judgement. It's not easy, but he doesn't betray any effort. When Maul finishes, Anakin takes a moment to let it settle in his mind. He replies evenly.

"What were you going to do with that power?"

The Sith Lord thinks for a long moment before he just shrugs. "I'm not sure. Take over the city and rule it, perhaps?"

Honestly, Maul hadn't though that far ahead in advance of what he would have done with the amount of power he received through his bond with Anakin. Mainly he'd done it because the idea of having more power appealed to Maul. Like many Sith, he is driven by fear, and he's still got the delusion that if he gains enough power it can prevent him or anyone he cares about from getting hurt.

Anakin's eyebrows raise. For one thing, who'd want to conquer the Trench of all places? And stealing power for a vague, nebulous plan seems ridiculous. Especially given the pain and anguish it caused.

He supposes it would make sense to someone who's lived in the Dark as long as Maul has. The drive for power twists one's perceptions, he imagines.

Still evenly: "Did you know what it would do to him? The pain it would cause?"

"I didn't and wouldn't have cared if I did. The man is determined to be unhappy no matter what goes on to him here, I just happened to be the cause that month. Besides, he's caused more than his share of miseries for me."

Maul sounds dismissive of the entire matter. He honestly didn't care all that much what had happened to Anakin. It was only when Ezra had compared him to Sidious that he finally got an inkling of what he'd done. He's been more concerned about how the fallout had affected Obi-Wan and has finally realized doing things to Anakin affects the man he loves quite deeply.

Anakin's jaw tightens. What Maul says is bad enough, but the dismissive attitude makes it worse. The anger he's kept at bay presses against the back of his mind again.

"It's okay that you tortured him because you don't like him? Did I understand that right?"

"No. It's not alright," Maul says flatly. "Why do you think I didn't fight harder to prevent that little meddler Ezra from breaking it? I was made aware what I did was wrong and so I let the bond be broken to help fix things." That in itself was a breakthrough for Maul. But being compared to Sidious was always a good splash of cold water in his face when he needed to see what he'd done was wrong.

"I simply don't feel bad about what I did because it was done to him. It's hard to feel guilt when you do something to someone you hate even if it is wrong to do so." Maul's not emotionally developed enough yet to feel bad about doing things to the people he actually cares about most of the time, let alone someone he despises as much as the elder Anakin.

Anakin's anger retreats. Maul is halfway there, he supposes. And the point of this exercise is to let go of his anger.

"It gave you power and allowed you to hurt someone you hate. How did you come to the conclusion that it was wrong?"

His voice has returned to its calm, even, non-judgmental tone.

For the first time, Maul looks uncomfortable with answering one of Anakin's questions. This actually means talking about himself in a personal manner, and as usual, there's that voice in the back of his head that tells him not to do it, that it's a weakness and anything revealed about himself will be used against him later on by the person who hears it.

He tries to silence that voice but it's not easy. "Ezra made it clear to me I was acting like my old master with what I had done. I know you don't think much of me but while he may have raised me, I never want to be like him." Maul picked up a lot of bad habits from Palpatine over the years and he'll spend the rest of his life undoing them, so comparing him to Darth Sidious is a very good way to emphasize when he needs to do better.

Anakin waits patiently while Maul thinks it over. The fact that he answers does show some amount of maturity that he didn't entirely expect.

"I agree with Ezra." He pauses. "But regretting your actions shows that you aren't like him."

He understands that Maul doesn't feel bad about what he did to Anakin Skywalker. But regretting acting like his master is enough to help Anakin let go of his anger.

"You know I don't actually hate you, right?"

Maul tilts his head slightly to the side, regarding the young Jedi with a look that's a little quizzical in nature. His voice is gruff as if trying to hide other emotions. "I didn't but I don't really care. Most people tend to hate me soon after I make their acquaintance."

Maul has a very 'love him or hate him' personality and he's well-aware of that fact. First impressions tend to count for a lot when it comes to the Sith Lord and he's learned most people aren't able to stand his type of personality very well.

Maul's reaction is almost a little funny, though Anakin keeps his expression neutral. He says he doesn't care but his reaction suggests that he might, even a little. Maybe not about Anakin's opinion, but perhaps others'.

"Are you sure they hate you? Hate's a strong emotion."

"I tend to invoke strong emotions in most people I meet, especially given I was prone to being much worse before you ever arrived here."

There is good reason Maul has become a bit infamous among the Sleepers, especially those that are still present from Deerington. He'd done enough there to make even those with the most forgiving and kind natures take pause.

Anakin can't deny that. He remembers all of the times his anger nearly boiled over whenever he spoke about what Maul did. It had gotten messy. But he'd argue that his reaction to it all is his failing, not Maul's.

In any case, Maul's statement makes him curious.

"What changed?"

"I made friends."

This is said with Maul's usual serious nature which somehow makes the phrasing of the sentence all the more humorous. He doesn't elaborate about how those friends had basically patiently worked with him to become a better person, showing him a lot of kindness and love until the lessons they'd taught him had finally stuck.

As often happens with the theme of people from their galaxy, it had been the power of love that had made Maul become, if not good, than at least not as evil as he had been. His friends and the small family he's formed here have kept him on the right path.

Anakin just stares at him blankly for a moment. It makes sense, he supposes. Being a Sith doesn't lend itself to making friends. And he imagines Palpatine didn't exactly foster a fun, cooperative working environment. Anakin himself didn't have many friends growing up, but he'd had a loving and supportive family. Maybe if Maul had that, they wouldn't be having this conversation now.

"Oh. That must've been weird."

Going from looking out for yourself to trusting others, he means.

Maul shrugs, eyes going faraway and expression turning a little sad as he thinks of the ghosts that still haunt him from his past. "It was. The last time I had friends before here, I was fifteen years old and forced to kill them all." No prizes for guessing who made him do that.

"It is still....difficult sometimes." Maul expects the worst out of everyone, that anyone he dares to trust will use what they know against him in the future. It's taken him two years to realize his friends won't do that to him and that anyone who would do so to begin with was never his friend in the first place.

Anakin's jaw tightens again, though it's not because of Maul this time. He knows Palpatine had untold depths of cruelty; but, every time he learns more, he's glad the man is dead. It's not a very Jedi-like thing to think, he knows.

"If it helps, I know for a fact he's rotting in Hell."

Granted, he didn't remember it really, but he heard the story later. Jedi sacrificed themselves to make sure he couldn't escape again.

Maul notices the look on Anakin's face. There's something a little gratifying in knowing Darth Sidious is such an odious individual that he can even stir a Jedi to feel angry about what he did in the past.

Maul looks somewhere between pensive and a little sad. "It is a small comfort." But only a little bit given Maul knows he dies before Palpatine does. At least he now has the knowledge that he doesn't always win and gets what he wants. "Your uncle showed me the moment of his demise. It was very satisfying."

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