Dedicated to MoonBelle07

     Lord Maul staggered through the barren desert, the twin suns blazing overhead.

     "Lost. I am lost," the former Sith muttered to himself as he wandered over the sand dunes. "And yet, I can feel his presence. So close, so close. I can see him in my mind's eye. Kenobi. Kenobi!"

     The scream echoed from Jedi Knight Kyra Kryze-Kenobi's dreams into the waking world as she sat up in the bottom bunk of the room she occasionally shared with Captain Hera Syndulla, breathing hard. The Ghost was quiet, the rest of the crew having turned in for the night.

     As she rubbed her eyes, she heard, "This is Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. I regret, I regret to report that both—I regret—"Our Jedi Order and the Republic have fallen—"

     Kyra followed the sound of her father's voice to Kanan Jarrus's room, the Jedi Knight having kept the shattered remains of the Jedi and Sith holocrons. Kyra watched as Obi-Wan stuttered through his warning to the Jedi who had survived Order 66, telling them to stay away from Coruscant and persevere, despite being forced to remain hidden. As the Jedi holocron went dark, the Sith holocron began to glow as Kyra heard Maul screaming her father's name. Electricity surged and knocked Kyra off her feet, the light disappearing as Kanan walked into his room and helped Kryze to her feet.

     "Maul's back," she said quietly.

     Kanan Jarrus sighed as Kyra returned to her room and changed into a tan tunic and brown pants, an outfit suited for the inhospitable landscape of a desert planet. Hopping into her gold and white A-wing, Kyra left for Tatooine in search of Obi-Wan and Maul, hoping to conquer her greatest demon while she was there. She pulled the fragments of each holocron out of her belt and closed her eyes as she reached out to the Force. Despite the twin moons shining brightly above Tatooine, the sand dunes were shrouded in darkness, leaving Kyra to rely solely on the Force to take her where she needed to go. The Jedi holocron began to glow, the pieces of each holocron lining up to form an arrow, providing Kyra with a directional heading.

     When the light faded, Kyra set the starfighter down in a gully and hopped out, the blue light emanating from the Jedi holocron once more. As Kyra followed the Force-guided compass deeper into the gully, the blue light turned red, and she found another fragment of the Sith holocron sitting in the sand.

     When she picked up the small pyramid, she heard Maul's voice whisper, "Now you see..."

     She dropped the holocron as its light faded and ran back to her starfighter, realizing that Maul had used her father as bait for a trap. On the ridge overlooking the ravine, a tribe of Sand People opened fire, narrowly missing Kyra as another Tusken Raider broke through the glass dome of her cockpit. Reaching out to the Force, Kyra pushed the Raider away from her starfighter, causing him to tumble through the sand. When she took shelter beneath her A-wing to avoid the blasterfire, she found another Sand Person waiting for her. When the Raider tackled her, Kyra kicked him in the stomach and tried to run but was knocked off her feet and rendered unconscious when her starfighter exploded.

     When she came to and found that the Tusken Raiders were gone, she knew their disappearance was caused by a reason darker than being scared off by the explosion. She salvaged what supplies she could from the A-wing and set out through the canyon, the ravine opening to reveal a barren desert the next morning. She sighed and started to head back along the ridge, knowing she would not survive an extended period of time in the desert, but stopped dead in her tracks when she heard Maul's voice in her head. He called out her name, and when she turned towards the seemingly endless field of sand, she recognized the former Sith's silhouette off in the distance.

     She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, relieved to find that Maul had disappeared when she opened her eyes. A persistent humming emerged from her pocket, and Kyra pulled the fragments of the holocrons out of her pants, the red glow of the Sith holocron trying to persuade Kenobi into following her mother's murderer. Kyra sighed and stowed the holocrons as she set off through the desert, quickly finding herself in a blinding sandstorm.

     "Should've trusted your instincts, Kyra," she muttered to herself. "Should have followed the ridge, you probably would've found a settlement. Could've contacted home base, but no. You had to follow the fracking holocrons."

     She looked down at the tiny pyramid in her hand, which still glowed, despite having fallen still.

     "Draw him out," Maul whispered in her ear. "Your pain, your sorrow. It calls to him."

     Kyra fell to her knees and tried to ignore Maul as she began to meditate, the strength of the sandstorm weakening around her.

     Unfortunately, the former Sith did not seem to care that Kyra was not interested in what he had to say, "He is dead. He is dead. You led me to him."

     "No," Kyra whispered firmly as her eyes snapped open.

     "You failed your friends," he claimed.

     "No!" Kyra shouted, even though she knew Maul was trying to manipulate her.

     "You will die!" he yelled, and Kyra heard a lightsaber activate behind her.

     She ignited her own lightsaber and charged at Maul as his weapon came down in an arc, but he proved to be what she had suspected, a mirage. Another vision caused by heat exhaustion and dehydration. As she slipped out of consciousness, the last thing Kyra heard was Maul's menacing laugh. When she woke that evening, she found a campfire in front of her and a dewback sitting next to her.

     Kyra groaned and sat up, running a hand through her hair and rubbing the sand out of her eyes as Obi-Wan said, "You're in the wrong place, Kyra. Did you forget where I live?"

     Kyra shook her head, "Maul's looking for you. I didn't want to lead him to Luke."

     When her father only nodded, Kyra arched an eyebrow, and he replied with amusement, "One doesn't survive as long as I have by being foolish or unprepared."

     Obi-Wan and Kyra sat in silence for a moment, Kryze noticing how quickly her father had aged in the seven years they had been apart, his hair now fully gray and his age lines deeper than they once were.

     When Kyra suggested fighting Maul together, Obi-Wan shook his head, "I have no intention of fighting him, though that seems inevitable now."

     "After what he did to mum, you'd just let him go about his business? Let him ruin someone else's life?" Kyra asked frustratedly, taking a deep breath to calm herself when she saw the wounded look on her father's face. "The Rebellion could use your help to defeat the Empire. We need you."

     "What you need, you already have," Obi-Wan stated. "Unfortunately, you seem to be letting it all go, Kyra. If you continue to hold those you love at arm's length, you will lose them forever."

     "If I already have what I need, why would the holocrons send me to you?" Kyra asked.

     "They didn't. Maul did," her father explained. "Maul used your desire to do good to deceive you, and in doing so he has altered the course of many things. He knows your fears, your heart, and he manipulated the truth to lead you here."

     "But the holocrons...they tell the truth," Kyra replied.

     "Do they? The truth is often what we make of it," Obi-Wan countered. "You heard what you wanted to hear, believed what you wanted to believe. And now, the only one who has gained anything from this is—"

     "Me," Maul finished, the flickering light of the fire playing on his skin and illuminating his yellow eyes.

     Kyra started to stand, but Obi-Wan Kenobi placed a hand on her shoulder and said, "You must go now."

     "I led him to you. Let me make it right," Kyra urged, but her father shook his head.

     "That is not your responsibility," he stated. "I will mend this old wound. Ride north. That is your way out. Your way home."

     Kyra swallowed the lump in her throat and blinked rapidly, wishing her father would let her help, and – in doing so – help mend her own wounds. Instead, she nodded and mounted the dewback, pushing forward even when she heard a pair of lightsabers igniting behind her. As Kyra Kryze-Kenobi reached Maul's ship, the Nightbrother, she staggered and leaned against the dewback's scaled body. A disturbance in the Force. An old wound partially healed. Darth Maul was dead.