Showdown on Nar Shaddaa

The Showdown on Nar Shaddaa was a conflict during the Clone Wars. Its purpose was so that Darth Sidious was certain that Count Dooku was actually of use to him as a means of achieving his goals.

Prelude
Palpatine is seen in his office on Coruscant, verbally speculating how many failures Count Dooku has suffered since the commencement of the Clone Wars, beginning with the Battle of Geonosis. He accounts for the fact that Dooku was powerful and efficient enough to have killed both Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker during their duel on Geonosis, and to have done the same thing on Tatooine soon afterwards and many other occasions following. Sidious deduces that Dooku's conscience is obstructing him from doing what is, in his opinion, truly necessary.

As Darth Sidious, he contacts Count Dooku on Serenno, explaining that he has caught wind of a lone Jedi Master taking refuge on the Nar Shaddaa. He orders Dooku to go there, secretly, to investigate and neutralise the Jedi. When Dooku questioned why this had to be secret, Sidious cut him off and said that this was not an official mission, as it was only for him. Dooku, not wanting to incur the wrath of his master, obeyed and set course immediately to Nar Shaddaa. He lands his ship in a Docking Bay on the planet, and immediately remarks that he has sensed an intense disturbance in the Force - a very powerful being is taking refuge nearby on the planet. Flanked by four Magna Guards and ten Super Battle Droids, Dooku patrolled through the city, until he came to a bar where he suddenly felt the Force-user's presence vanish. A silhouetted figure is seen crouching in the corner of the bar, watching him. Suddenly, all of the lights go out and the occupants of the bar are startled. They start panicking, and Dooku calmly turns around sensing that his target is in the room with him.

The Duel
Suddenly, Dooku is impaled from behind by the electrostaff of one of the Magna Guards. Exclaiming, Dooku falls on his knees, turns and launches a burst of Sith Lightning on the Magna Guard, destroying it. The other three, influenced by the unseen attacker, attack Dooku, who ducks so that their electrostaffs strike one another, overloading their circuits and destroying them. The super battle droids turn and apparently see the attacker, opening fire. They miss several times, killing several civilians. The attacker, shadowed, forward-rolls out of their range and launches a Force Push that backs the droids against a wall. Dooku tries to locate the attacker, before the droids suddenly fire on him and he ignites his lightsaber.

The droids are repelled by his deflecting their attacks, and suddenly another lightsaber ignites behind him and he turns just before his attacker can decapitate him. His attacker is a hooded, athletic figure with mechanical legs. Dooku and his opponent briefly struggle in a bladelock, before Dooku breaks free and launches a strike for his opponent's head, which is blocked. The figure then ignites a second lightsaber and strikes for Dooku's chest, and Dooku redirects both their lightsabers so that they simultaneously block the second one. Dooku waves his free hand and a container from behind the bar flies at his opponent, catching him on the back of the head and igniting his cloak. Ripping the cloak off, the figure reveals himself as Darth Maul, to Dooku's shock.

Dooku is verbally incredulous at Maul's appearance, having believed he was killed on Naboo long before the Clone Wars. Maul replies by roaring and launching a brutal bombardment of Twin Strike attacks, forcing Dooku on the defensive. Dooku elegantly tries to repel the strikes, but finds that his opponent is physically too strong to be combated so basically. He leads the duel out of the bar and on to the nearby bridge, where he retaliates with a series of Makashi techniques that counteract the Jar'Kai Twin Strikes and force Maul to rethink his strategies. The two of them clashed violently for a minute in an intense whirlwind of red plasma, whilst people screamed and tried to escape from the duel. Dooku attempted to call for aid, but Maul kicked at his arm with his mechanical leg, destroying his comlink. Dooku snarled and launched a stream of lightning at Maul, who blocked it with both blades crossed and repelled it into an incoming speeder, which exploded and crashed into the bridge, forcing the two warriors to jump from it and freefall.

As they fell, Maul and Dooku both altered the strategy by force-flying upwards and on to another bridge. Dooku landed first and launched a Force Push which launched Maul off his feet just as he landed. Maul back-flipped and landed elegantly, his metal clawed feet skidding and drawing vicious lines in the floor, and charged. Dooku remarked at how Maul had improved with two lightsabers, expressing that he himself believed that one was the proper method of combat. Maul didn't answer and jumped high into the air, putting all of his strength behind a double downwards-strike that Dooku intercepted with his lightsaber and redirected to the ground. However, the Force power that had been compressed into the two lightsabers for the attack exploded and sent the two of them flying back. Maul recovered first and sprinted towards his opponent, kicking his lightsaber off the bridge and slicing for Dooku's neck. Dooku simultaneously narrowly avoided the very tip of the lightsaber and reached out, telekinetically summoning his lightsaber back to his hand. He turned and double-kicked Maul off of him. Getting to his feet, Dooku casually brushed the dirt off his shoulders and performed a Makashi salute, daring Maul to attack again.

Maul launched himself into an attack and Dooku met him with an unconventional Djem So disarming technique, which failed and Maul delivered an overwhelming series of Rising Whirlwind attacks which Dooku struggled to repel. Dooku finally found an opening and shot a string of lighting at Maul, short-circuiting one of his lightsabers and knocking it off of the bridge, out of sight and reach. Dooku then launched a Force Repulse that knocked Maul right off of the bridge. Maul fell, but Force-pulled Dooku along with him. Maul landed on a passing speeder, impaling the occupants and using the Force to guide it from crashing. Dooku saw the speeder he was going to land on, Force-choked the occupants to death in seconds and landed, doing as Maul did to guide it towards his opponent. The two of them faced each other amid the hornet-swarm of speeders and small ships, silently daring one another to make a move.

Maul moved first, using the Force to rupture the speeder Dooku was standing on. Dooku staggered and Maul flipped the speeder up, forcing Dooku off of it. Dooku responded by landing on another speeder and leaping towards Maul. He landed on Maul's speeder and the two of them struggled to stay standing, wary that the other would try and attack them while they had their guard down. Maul attacked first with a Jung ma strike, which Dooku intercepted and contorted so that both of their blades plunged into the exterior of the speeder. Dooku prepared to launch a Force Push but Maul outpaced him by launching a leaping cartwheel-kick into Dooku's chest, smashing him off the speeder. Dooku fell, but Force-pulled the speeder down with him. Dooku cushioned his fall with a Force push and landed cleanly on a hangar bay, where he turned only for Maul to appear above him, launching a Falling Leaf strike which he rolled to avoid.

Dooku levitated a series of speeders and launched them at Maul. Maul screamed furiously and charged, his lightsaber whirlwinding and splitting through every projectile that came his way and launching them back at Dooku. Dooku telekinetically shredded the projectiles and launched a burst of Sith lightning which struck Maul in the chest. Maul carried on going, roaring in pain but only using it to dramatically fuel his rage. Dooku became shocked at the Zabrak's resistance and prepared a Makashi stance just as Maul exploded into him with a violent combination of Ataru and Djem So. Dooku sensed that Maul was tiring, though, and adopted a far more aggressive variant of Makashi to overwhelm him, but the two remained evenly matched. Dooku, after thirty seconds of intense sparring, executed a vicious disarming technique. Maul's lightsaber spiralled in the air and Dooku caught it, crossing it against Maul's throat. Maul reflexively used the Force to invade Dooku's mind so that Dooku thought he was about to behead Qui-Gon Jinn, compelling him to hesitate.

Maul lunged, his hands vicing around Dooku's wrists and wrestling over the lightsabers. The two Sith Lords grappled furiously, the lightsabers positioning against one another's throats several times, before Dooku telepathically invaded Maul's mind and accessed the recent memory of Savage Opress's death. Maul flew into a psychopathic fury and threw his entire weight into Dooku, pushing the blades of the lightsabers towards Dooku's throat. Dooku frantically compressed his Force energy into his hands, giving them enhanced strength, and wrenched free of Maul's grip. Dooku twisted his leading lightsaber into a reverse grip and lunged, stabbing Maul in the chest. Maul fell to his knees and Dooku deactivated the lightsabers, waiting for the Zabrak to die. Maul calmly looked up at Dooku, stood up and bowed his head. Then he spoke, with a voice that Dooku was shocked to hear was exactly like Darth Sidious - 'You have passed the test, Lord Tyrannus '. Then he pitched over the edge of the hangar bay platform and plummeted out of sight.

Aftermath
Dooku returned to his ship, just before the security forces of Nar Shaddaa arrived to find the carnage of the duel. Whilst he flew from the planet, Dooku verbally contemplated what he had just experienced - he had thought Darth Maul to be long dead, and, though he knew the Zabrak was an animal by nature, he never expected him to be so powerful....or so relentless. And Maul's final words confused him - he realized that Darth Sidious had tested him, and it reminded him that he would always be in the Sith Lord's power for as long as he needed him. He goes into lightspeed, muttering 'Fascinating....so fascinating.... '.