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"Have fun Master Windu." With that Qui-Gon leaped up, cutting into the ceiling as below him Padme and the others retreated slightly. The slab of flooring fell, as the human Jedi master rolled aside, before turning nimbly, leaping up into the space revealed.
Turning he gestured down to the others, and Padme found herself slowly being pulled up into the hole by an unseen hand. Padme squeaked once before clamping her lips closed, and Qui-Gon set her aside. Over the next few moments he pulled her remaining guards, two of her maids and three of Panaka's men, up with him, shaking his head at the effort.
Mace looked up at them, nodded once then leaped backwards over the slab of ceiling Qui-Gon had cut. Pulling it up with his own Force Pull he hurled it forward along the ground of the corridor. The droidekas rolled back desperately but were too slow and their shields couldn't withstand being crushed between the slab of stone flooring and the far wall. With that done Mace raced along the same corridor, his lightsaber still activated as he looked for more trouble to cause, running into and through several dozen more patrols, pulling all the attention of the palace's defenders on him.
Qui-Gon, Padme and their party found themselves in what looked like a menial's bedroom, and they remained there for a time as Qui-Gon recovered from his exertions and used his Force senses to see if there were any sentients nearby. Finding droids was an order of magnitude harder but they were also noisier generally speaking when they moved, so he could enhance his physical senses and find them that way.
After about five minutes he nodded, reactivating his lightsaber. "Straight up you said?"
"I would be rather irritated at this damage to my own palace Master Jinn, but I suppose given the alternative I won't complain," Padme quipped, watching as the Jedi went to work once more. Again, the Jedi cut out a slab of the upper story's floor, then caught it with the Force, pushing it upwards instead of letting it fall, since that would have made a noise. With that, the guards were able to lift the two maids and Padme up, then the maids in turn pulled each man up before Qui-Gon leaped through the hole to land neatly beside them.
In this manner they made their way through the palace. Several times they stopped as the noise of combat reached them echoing through the eerily empty palace as Mace did his work, pulling all the defenders attention down on him. Panaka had shut down and slagged the control grid for the palace's security cameras before they had escaped, and replacing that would take weeks. Now that move proved it's worth, allowing them, in conjunction with Mace's assault to pass unseen.
Panaka took the lead as they arrived on the same level as the queen's throne room, moving once again through the corridors. Because of this, the captain of the palace guard was the first to die.
As the man passed a small service alcove a lightsaber activated with a sizzle hiss searing through his body and sending his corpse to the ground in two halves even as Qui-Gon, warned through the Force shouted "Panaka watch out!"
The man's killer stepped over his body, throwing a cloak off his body to reveal a Zabrak, his face covered by red and black tattoos around yellow slits for eyes. The yellow eyes were the sign of someone who had given themselves entirely to the Dark Side, though given the fact the being ahead of Qui-Gon had allowed his Force Stealth to fall that was not actually necessary. In the Zabrak's hand was a black metal long-shafted lightsaber hilt. From the end of it glowed the red plasma blade he had just used to cut Panaka in half, then as he held it crossways in front of him with one hand, from the other end another beam of crimson power extended.
"Fall back!" Qui-Gon ordered Padme. "Find another way around to the Viceroy, this foe is beyond you."
"Wh-what is he?" Padme asked, shocked by the sudden death of her guard captain.
"I don't know, but I can't defend you and deal with him at the same time, move!"
Padme nodded, and the group pulled back down the corridor, eventually finding a window and making their way out onto the terraces, leaping from one to the next to their target. But Qui-Gon had no time to worry about such thing because a second after they had moved the Zabrak attacked, his assault battering Qui-Gon backwards slashing out with speed and power that was almost beyond the older mans' ability to block. Their lightsabers sparked and spanged against one another as they fought in the corridor of the palace.
Qui-Gon was a practitioner of form 4, Ataru, which emphasized movement, leaps and attacking from all angles. Here in the corridor however he was stymied. He could cut through the walls yes, and did so with every swing, but that didn't mean he could create more space. He was caught flatfooted, off-balance. Only his Force Precognition and the new Force Shield technique saved him. The shield popped into place twice, keeping his opponent from gutting him, yet he could feel the move's drain on his resources, already strained from the telekinesis he'd used that day.
But his opponent could also use Force Precognition. In layman's terms, when Jedi battled it was often part physical, part mental, the equivalent of dueling a fencer while also playing chess. Maul was a master at both, exceeding Jinn's abilities slightly. Moreover, he could feel it, his opponent's exhaustion, his consternation. I can beat this Jedi! I can send him to join the others I have killed!
Desperately Qui-Gon used the Force to wrench a few doors into his opponent's way, leaping up and over his head as the Zabrak cut them down bouncing off the ceiling and down the corridor in the direction the attacker had come from. As he had hoped it opened up into a wider area, a meeting place between four corridors and a wide stairway. The Zabrak followed him, but Qui-Gon turned and attacked ferociously, leaping this way and that, attacking from any angle he could at any target he could, limbs, hands, legs or back.
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