Diego lay amongst the blood of the monstrous eel. It had been one month since he had slain the beast but there was still enough flesh left to supply him with food for another two months at least. Over the weeks, Diego had grown a beard and his mechanical hand had rusted from too much contact with the ocean. Diego was still angry at Rahziid for leaving him here, but he knew that he would never see him again.
"What was I thinking?" he muttered to himself. Diego was determined to find a way back to civilisation, he would just have to be patient. He sighed and then gulped down the last bottle of Weequay Rum. He would wait until morning, for now he would sleep.
Diego awoke early the next morning. He smelled the fresh air and then climbed up to the highest peak of the island to scout for any intelligent life-forms. In the distance was a strange object. Diego looked through his binoculars to see that it was a ship. Not only that but there were people amongst them, with guns and they were coming towards his island.
"Rahziid? It cannot be," muttered Diego. He would have no more part in Rahziid's quest for great power, none. Rahziid must have sensed that he still lived. Well if Rahziid wanted Diego's help, he would have to capture him at gunpoint first.
Diego charged down to his backpack which was resting on the dead eel. Next to it was a Cycler Rifle which he had stolen many years ago from an unsuspecting Tusken Raider. Diego loaded the gun and crouched down, using the mossy bank for cover. He saw Hugo, the Togruta, and fired once at his gun, causing Hugo to drop the gun into the sea, rendering it useless. All except for Rahziid ducked behind cover. However, Rahziid just laughed.
"Diego, Diego. We mean you no harm. In fact, we need you help tracking a certain Zabrak. The one who left you for dead on this isolated planet in the first place," said Rahziid. Diego considered for a moment but he would not let himself be exploited that easily.
"Twenty Thousand Credits!" shouted Diego. "No less or I will shoot you where I stand!" Rahziid laughed and then nodded his head in acceptance. Diego sighed and then began making his way towards Rahziid and his crew. He would regret this, he knew it.
Meanwhile, back in Jabba's palace, Darth Maul and Zephyr were recruiting warriors who would be willing to fight. So far they had managed to get a few Wookies, another Zabrak and a Twi'lek to join them but they still needed more. Zephyr had already agreed to try and recruit as many Gungans as possible for the battle, but ideally they needed the help of the Weequay Pirates and the Rodians.
"Could your master not enlist some of his Naboo Warriors to help," asked Zephyr.
"It is too risky," said Maul. "Once they see that I have a red lightsaber they will probably go blabbing about the return of the Sith. Luckily your Gungan friends don't seem to know much about the Jedi or the Sith."
"The Gungan race is too narrow minded," agreed Zephyr. Darth Maul was still afraid and, although he would never admit it to anyone, he thought that he may just fail again. He knew that Sidious would give him no more chances. Rahziid and his cronies most likely had thousands of battle droids at their disposal, and were probably being trained at that very minute. Things were getting tough and it looked as though Maul would have to scout the Galaxy for some rogue Jedi to help him, for a small bribe of course.