#maulfox

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“So…”

Fox groans a little. He is knee-deep in the post-Tax Day audits, and he does not need more on his plate. The Prestor-Organa joint filing is already taking up most of his time. It’s not supposed to be his job, but the higher-ups are always looking for something to be off in these files, because there is just so much going on that they must be hiding something.

They’re not. Fox checked. So many times.

(They’re good people, he reminds himself, even if the complexity of their investments and charities and properties requires at least a full week to do an initial audit, every year.)

“Cody,” Fox greets. He swivels the chair to face his cousin, but doesn’t get up. “What do you want?”

“Rex would like a favor,” Cody says, “which is to say, he got a tip but doesn’t have any kind of warrant to actually investigate.”

Cody’s younger brother is very much in the business of investigating organized crime. Luckily, so is Fox.

“He thinks it’s a front?” Fox asks.

“Possible money laundering, but might be a base of operations,” Cody says.

“Okay,” Fox says, turning back to his screen. He waves a hand dismissively. “He knows the proper channels.”

“So I can tell him you’re fine with him requesting you?”

“Yeah, whatever.”

--

Fox had not grown up dreaming of becoming a ‘tax man.’ He doubted anyone did, unless they had a parent already in the business somehow. Fox had given it a passing thought during a sophomore-year history class, where the teacher had been sick, and the sub had rolled out a boxy TV on which to watch some documentary on Al Capone. The fact that tax evasion had done in such a big name had been funny.

Years had passed, and Fox got to college, started on a criminal justice degree, and got… disillusioned, kind of, with the apparent realities of prosecution. That, plus the costs of law school, had made him doubt.

And in the middle of that doubt, he’d caught a newscast about a local laundromat chain getting shut down by federal law enforcement for money laundering.

Fox had listened to the anchor gloss over the IRS’s involvement in identifying the issue, and decided to look into what was needed to join the IRS Criminal Investigation department.

It’s not the most glorious work. It’s a whole lot of sitting at a desk and running numbers.

But he’s good at it, and that’s really what matters.

"How far you have fallen, my old apprentice." Sidious is still laughing under his breath, lightning still dancing at his fingertips. "I was right to abandon you when I did."

Rage burns under Maul's skin, familiar and eager as a lover's touch. Not only has Sidious taken something from him, but now he dares to mock him with it. Maul spent the majority of his life trying to impress this man -to prove himself worthy in his Master's eyes- and all it has brought him is misery and loss.

He lost his childhood.

He lost Savage.

He lost his legs.

Well, he has had enough of losing. He will not lose Fox. He will not lose this fight. The gossamer thin bond he still has with Fox is frayed, fading with every moment that the man isn't breathing. Maul grits his teeth and imagines he can feel his control grind to ash between his molars. He looks inward, feels his own hearts beating in his chest and allows himself to reach for something other than hatred. Devon constantly brought up her principles, the desires of a dying order. Lawson spoke of hope with every breath, the thing at the heart of every rebellion, even their own broken little cabal. Fox talked about faith, in his brothers, and in Maul's strength.

Trust.

The Force has not been so clear to him as it is in this moment. There is no grand moment of realization, or turning point in his mind where he decides that he's been wrong. He's not wrong. But maybe his actions have been based on a fallacious belief from the start. Everything Sidious taught him is suspect. His old Master made him strong -there is no denying that- but Maul had clawed himself out of the gutter on his own, with his own power.

"You made yourself who you are. Don't let him have an ounce of credit for what you've turned yourself into."

Fox's words from what feels like so long ago ring true.

Maul snarls and bares his teeth. He shoves power down through the withering bond, forcing Fox's heart to beat and hoping it will be enough, putting his trust in something other than himself. Fox will have to do the rest on his own, to fight where Maul cannot. Maul has his own battle to return to, and he doesn't intend to lose.