Staggering to her feet, Jadis heard a low rumble from the temple. Forcing her eyes open, she stared up, seeing the ancient weapon beginning to collapse. I can't, I can't let that happen! Not when I was so close! Pulling her weapons back to her from the ground, she ignited them and made to rise back up to the temple entrance. If it shut before she got there-

"Barriss?"

Her eyes widened, and her breath came in sharp, jagged inhales. Turning towards the oh-so-familiar voice, she saw a friendly face, one she thought she wouldn't see again. Red and black skin, cybernetic legs, yellow eyes, and a double-bladed red lightsaber at his side. Her ears had not deceived her. It was him.

"Barriss..."

"Maul?" she asked tentatively, her own weapons deactivating. Emotion churned inside her, and it wasn't anger or hatred or fear. It was something like fondness, like...desperation. Hope.

The crackling of the temple distracted her. Glancing quickly up, she spoke rapidly. "I have to get back up there. I need that weapon."

"For what?" Maul asked, approaching her with an arm out. "For Tyrannus? Did he send you here?"

The look on her face told him he was right. More so, the look in her eyes confirmed his worst fears, the truth he had dreaded to find the day he finally reunited with his long-lost apprentice.

"No...no, no, what did he do to you?" he whispered, so she could barely hear it. She shook her head, about to deny it, about to claim that Tyrannus hadn't hurt her, but she never got the chance. Maul said something first. "What torture did you endure because of me?"

His words were what made her hesitate. She looked back at Maul into his bloodshot eyes, and it was then that the ghosts of her own screams filled her ears. "Because of you?"

Maul curled his hand into a fist, clenching up in anger but not at her. "I could only imagine how he punished you for what I did. I never stopped searching for you, never forgave myself for losing you that day. I never let myself forget that I failed my good and faithful apprentice."

"No," she objected, breathing hard. "No, you didn't lose me, I-"

She stopped, falling short. 'Good and faithful apprentice,' that's what Maul still believed she was. He didn't know what had happened after he had been trapped under the rubble that last day. He didn't know that she left him willingly, that she chose to go with Tyrannus. He didn't know that she had marked him for termination during Order 66. He didn't know.

Guilt swept over her. Even after all this time, after she had given the order for Maul to be killed, after she had abandoned him, he still thought so highly of her. She closed her eyes, unable to meet those of the man she had once called 'master.' She was unworthy of his loyalty, she didn't deserve his trust. She couldn't admit it. She couldn't bear to see the look on his face when he realized what she had done. There was no forgiveness for betrayal.

"Walk away with me," Maul pleaded, drawing closer. "We will go where Tyrannus cannot make you suffer anymore. We can heal the pain he has inflicted upon you!"

"I can't," she cried, sinking to her knees, her lightsabers falling to the dirt. "I can't escape him, I can't escape what I've done!"

Maul kneeled down beside her, grasping her shoulders and staring at her despite the chaos flowering from the temple above them. "I know, I know, my faithful one, but this is not the end! I am proof that abuse can be escaped, that we can rise above suffering! There is life beyond his cage, beyond his chains!"

She shook her head, the tears falling more freely now. "He'll find me. I can't escape him."

"Then I will protect you with my life, as I have always done!" he promised her, trying to speak over the impending doom. "Have I ever abandoned you? Have I ever not given everything I have to protect you?"

If any answer could have come to her, it was too late. The temple began to explode, a surge of energy pulsing from its core. Her eyes grew wide at what she was sure was her end, but Maul refused to give up so easily. He pulled her behind a piece of rubble and held her tightly, using his body to shield her from anything that might hurt her—yet another testimony to his loyalty. Maul couldn't throw her out of harm's way this time, but he could take as much of the hit as possible for her.

~

Hours later, Barriss finally shoved off the last of the rubble and pulled herself out of the debris, bringing Maul with her. He was still unconscious, but at least now, he wouldn't run out of air.

Exhausted from the effort, she collapsed on the ground, her muscles shaking and aching. Her body was screaming at her, begging for rest. She had cut herself a few times while she emerged from the rubble, and now that she wasn't in danger of suffocating, they seemed to sting all that much more. Reaching behind her, she pulled on her ripped cape and tore it from her shoulder pad. It was beyond repair, but it could work as a bandage until she got to a medical station.

Ripping small strips, Barriss tied up her arms and her shins, which had taken the most damage. She saved the majority of it for Maul, though, whose back was a bloody mess. Turning him over carefully, she covered the wounds and made sure the cloth wouldn't come loose.

How he had survived was beyond her. Maul was scathed and broken but very much alive. His chest was still heaving, and his breath was stabilizing with free air now in his lungs. He would probably wake up soon, and Barriss needed to be gone before that happened.

But why?

She froze, paralyzed by the seed of doubt that had crept into her. It wasn't long before she remembered why, though. Her mind reminded her:

"How can I be expected to trust your word?" Tyrannus sneered, still holding his lightsaber to her neck. Barriss made no move to rise from her knees, though, and let the Sith Master speak. "I have had most unpleasant encounters with young women like you. Ventress failed me as an apprentice, and the Inquisitor betrayed my master to his death. How do I know you will not do the same?"

"Because I will sacrifice anything," she promised him. "I will do what you ask. I will give up anything that might cause me to betray you. I will die before I fail you."

She saw his eyebrow raise, and she knew that Tyrannus was considering it. There would be some price to pay, something she had to do to prove herself, but she was willing. Barriss willed him to speak, to say something, anything.

It took far too long, but slowly, he asked, "That is quite a large commitment. Are you sure you are willing to stand by it?"

She nodded, and after another moment's consideration, Tyrannus deactivated his lightsaber. "If there were to be anyone who would try to make you betray me, who would it be?"

"Luminara Unduli," she answered without a doubt, "but she is dead. I killed her on Dromund Kaas."

"Who else?"

"Maul," Barriss admitted, but she stood by the lie she had told Tyrannus earlier. "Also dead. Shaak Ti destroyed part of the Sith temple, and the rubble fell on him. His last act was to push me out of the way."

She kept her stare even and her mind clear as she spoke. As long as she did so, Tyrannus would believe her. He contemplated her statement for a moment, but she kept her cool. She had to if she was going to protect Maul. Eventually, he mused, "Still, Maul has a tendency to come back to life. Even in his death, I cannot take chances. I must act as though he survived."

Nodding, she tried to hide the need to swallow that had risen in her. His belief wasn't enough. Maul's only hope to survive was to evade whatever Tyrannus was about to ask her to do.

"There is one more person, isn't there?" he went on, staring at her eyes. "Someone you haven't spoken of yet."

Barriss felt her heart rate pick up, but she had to tell the truth this time. She had to if Tyrannus was going to accept her. "Ahsoka Tano."

Tyrannus' head snapped in her direction. "That's impossible! She is dead, is she not?"

She was confused, but she shook her head. "She was alive when the Republic tried to execute me. She was the one who turned me in to the Jedi."

Fury and rage rose in the Sith Master, and Barriss became afraid for her life. She didn't know what, but something about Ahsoka angered Tyrannus. The fingers gripping his lightsaber turned white at the knuckles, and his eyes seemed to burn. Finally, he turned to Barriss, who was still kneeling, and spoke again.

"If you truly want to prove your loyalty, you must do two things. Go to Coruscant and sneak into the Chancellor's office. Implanted in every clone trooper is an inhibitor chip that they cannot fight. Those chips are programmed with orders that only the Chancellor or the Senate may activate. One of those orders will call for the immediate execution of all Jedi, Order 66. The first thing you must do is activate that order."

Barriss nodded solemnly. She had no qualms about this task. In fact, she looked forward to it. Now she could finally rid herself of the chains of the Jedi, once and for all.

"Then you must find Ahsoka Tano and Maul if they are indeed still alive. Kill them. If you return to me alive and I sense that you have succeeded, I will name you Darth Jadis, Countess of the Sith. Fail me, and you will die."

She had completed all of her tasks except for one. Barriss had activated Order 66, and she had even made the clones target Ahsoka, so she had killed two birds with one stone. Yet even when she had the opportunity to target Maul as well, she had hesitated. When she had realized that he had survived, she had hidden it from Tyrannus and let him escape.

To his credit, Maul had hidden very well. Though his syndicate continued to build itself throughout the galaxy, he had hidden in the shadows and control his puppets from a distance.

He was here now, though. Maul was lying on the ground, unconscious, weak, and helpless. She could kill him right now, and he would never know.

Do it, a voice inside her head told her. Finish the job. End it.

Jadis drew her lightsabers, ready to do to her second master what she had done to her first. It had been so quick, so effortless the first time, the second could hardly be any different. She ignited her sabers, spun them once...

...and hesitated.

His face was blank right now, but Barriss could still see the way his face had looked when he had begged her to go with him. For the briefest moment, she believed that maybe it was possible, that maybe she could escape Tyrannus and the Empire and hide with Maul. Barriss believed she could be safe again.

That faith was founded on a lie, her mind told her harshly, biting back at her hope. When he realizes how you betrayed him, he will abandon you, just like you did to him.

He is powerful, she retaliated, tears beginning to form again. He can protect me. He can help me! I won't run away this time!!!

Tyrannus has the might of the Empire behind him. Even with the syndicate, he can't hold them back. He will find me AND him, and kill us both!!! End this now while you still can!

No, no, I can't. I can't kill him.

DO IT!!! DO IT NOW!!!

But she couldn't. For the second time that day, Barriss fell to her knees crying, her lightsabers dropping beside her. It was easier to betray his loyalty when she gave orders to mindless clones and when she couldn't see his face, but even for Tyrannus, she couldn't force her hand to take his life like she had taken Luminara's. Not after he had cared so much for her, not after he had given her a chance to escape the life the Jedi had chosen for her. Not after he had loved her like a friend, like a partner, like an equal, in the way that Luminara never had.

Reaching out to her old master, she rested a hand carefully on his beaten body and concentrated. Recalling old lessons she thought she would never use again, she poured her spirit into his, focusing on his wounds. She didn't want to let the Light back in, but for Maul, she would do it. Slowly, they began to glow and seal, the skin scabbing over and healing. Bloodstains were still everywhere, but at least when he woke up, he wouldn't be in pain. She left the cape wrapped around him, though. For some reason, she couldn't take it off.

Yet even after it all, she didn't see a way she could stay with him. Tyrannus would find her, and the Empire was stronger than the syndicate. If she went with him, she condemned him to death. She couldn't stay with Maul.

At that moment, Barriss made a decision. Maul may have protected her with his life, but she would protect him with her freedom. She would go back to Tyrannus and take whatever punishment was coming her way, but she refused to endanger Maul again. If he was going to die, it would not be because of her. Not this time.

Standing up, she pulled her lightsabers to her and stepped away from Maul. He would begin stirring soon, and Barriss dare not be there when he woke up. If she did, she might not be able to find the courage to leave him again. In a quiet, shaky whisper, she got two last words out. "Goodbye, master."

Before she could hesitate again, she turned around and broke off in a desperate sprint, blinking away tears as she ran to her TIE Fighter, which she had landed outside the crater. She hoped that one day he would know what she had done, what she had truly done at that moment. She hoped Maul knew she was leaving him for a reason this time.

Her ship had been damaged in the blast from the Temple, but it was still intact, and it could still fly. She approached it and was about to climb in when she caught a glimpse of her reflection in the glass windshield.

She looked as bad as she expected to be, having survived a blast of that magnitude. Rips were scattered down her sleeves and abdomen, some of them covered by the knotted scraps of her cape. That wasn't what she focused on, though. That wasn't what scared her.

Her eyes were blue.