Maul charged.
His scream—feral, maddened, filled with hatred—shattered the stillness of the ruinous cavern. The scrape of his cybernetic legs was deafening, echoing like claws on stone. Sparks burst as his makeshift limbs skidded over metal debris, lunging at Anakin with wild fury.
But Anakin didn't move.
He breathed.
And as Maul's bladed hand came down, Anakin shifted to the side, cloak flicking, foot sliding on rusted steel. His movements weren't flashy—they were precise, deliberate. His lightsaber ignited not in anger—but in stillness.
Amethyst light clashed with metal claws.
Maul's strikes were powerful but sloppy. Driven by madness, he raged like a beast.
But Anakin…
Anakin was a storm contained in a man.
Anakin moved like water over flame—rolling, ducking, side-stepping. Each block flowed into a redirect. Every dodge placed him in the perfect position to counter.
He wasn't overpowered.
He wasn't scared.
"This isn't the man I feared," he thought. "This isn't the monster I trained to face. This is… a ghost."
Maul roared again, attacking with a spiraling series of wild strikes—one claw, then the other, and finally a spring from his legs, aiming to crush Anakin beneath his full weight.
Anakin leapt high, flipping backward up a pile of garbage and landing gracefully—his feet settling atop an ancient Gonk droid and shattered droid armor.
He raised his weapon.
And took the Ataru stance—his form flowing like a wave cresting on a blade of wind.
Maul snarled.
The stance triggered something primal in the broken Sith.
Maul seeing the image of Qui Gon Jin
The stance Jin used. The silhouette Maul saw just before he fell. It twisted in his mind—blending Anakin and Obi-Wan into one shadow he couldn't escape.
He charged again.
Anakin remembered Cain's voice:
"Speed is not power. Power is precision. Discipline turns emotion into victory."
And Seris:
"Measure your strikes. Don't waste a single movement. The Force flows best through a calm soul."
Maul's claws lashed out.
Anakin rotated, blade swinging in a tight spiral—parrying each blow with calculated grace. He moved around Maul like orbiting gravity, dodging inward and carving a thin diagonal line across Maul's cybernetic knee.
Sparks flew.
The leg stuttered.
Anakin pressed his advantage.
He narrowed his vision—not with rage, but with focus.
"Shatterpoints…" Cain's voice echoed in his mind. "They're not just flaws. They're keys. Touch them… and the whole moment opens."
And there—he saw them.
The weakness in Maul's right servo.
The imbalance in his left hip piston.
The faulty power cell in his lower spine.
He moved.
An amethyst blur.
In three strikes, Anakin carved through Maul's mechanical half—disabling him with precision, not destruction. The strikes were almost elegant—ending with a sweep across Maul's chest that sent him crashing to the ground, growling, gasping, his claws twitching.
Anakin stood above him, his saber humming inches from Maul's face.
Maul didn't flinch.
But for the first time… he didn't scream.
He just stared at the purple blade.
Breathing. Silent.
Anakin stood still for a moment, his breath steady. The cave was quiet now.
He deactivated his saber.
Turned.
And walked away.
Up on the ledge, Derran exhaled and collapsed to a seated position, sweat on his brow from maintaining Battle Meditation for so long. But he was smiling.
Cain, standing behind the collapsed droid wall, nodded slowly.
Proud. Calm. Moved.
Anakin reached them. Derran hopped down and immediately him and Cain raised a hand.
"High five?"
Anakin smirked and slapped them. "Damn right."
Cain chuckled, stepping forward and placing a hand on Anakin's shoulder. "You moved like a Master."
Anakin tilted his head. "I felt it. Like… the storm didn't control me. I guided it."
Cain nodded. "That's the Force you were always meant to touch."
They looked back at Maul, lying stunned, sparks flickering from his cracked cybernetic half.
"He'll live," Anakin said. "And when he's healed… when he's whole… I'll fight him again. Not to destroy him. But to defeat him."
He looked at Cain.
"Not because I want revenge. But because I want to prove—to him, to me—that I'm better than the boy who feared him."
Cain's smile deepened. "And that's exactly why you will win."
Codex Entry 022 – The Blade and the Ghost
He screamed "Kenobi" like it was the only word he remembered.
But Anakin didn't scream back. He listened. Moved. Deflected.
He's come far.
Not just in strength—but in self.
I saw him use Shatterpoint. Not like me—not perfectly. But with purpose.
And I saw him stop.
That's the greatest strength of all.
When Maul is whole again, he will not be the monster in the dark.
He will be a man. A man with a choice.
And Anakin will be there… not to finish him…
But to remind him what mercy looks like.